Spring 2025  |  ENGW 3110 Section 001: Topics in Creative Writing -- Developing the TV Pilot (65191)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3-4 Credits
Repeat Credit Limit:
12 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option No Audit
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person
Class Attributes:
Topics Course
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/21/2025 - 05/05/2025
Tue, Thu 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Enrollment Status:
Open (0 of 20 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Topics specified in Class Schedule.prereq: 1101 or 1102 or 1103 or 1104 or dept consent
Class Notes:
In this class, we will explore the enormous storytelling potential that television - one of the most readily accessed and popular modes of storytelling in the world - offers writers. Over the course of this class, we will investigate how television showrunners develop an idea for a story and realize that vision to tell a meaningful story while navigating the parameters of budget, schedule, and the needs of networks/production stakeholders. We will dissect a number of series episodes in order to examine the ways in which audiences now watch television (on demand, on their phones) and how that impacts the kind of stories writers might want to develop. We'll ask how do shows like CSI and Law and Order work? How is that different from The Walking Dead or Downtown Abbey, True Detective or Chernobyl? Learning to "read" a variety of shows in this way will allow us to examine how writers use craft techniques to create a particular effect and to consider how story arcs are developed over the long-term in order to sustain an audience's interest season after season. While breaking down episodes to understand the five-act structure of the television episode and how writers move from one strand to another, where hooks are built in for commercial breaks, how structure builds to create cliffhangers and seasonal arcs, we'll also engage in intensive and regular writing practice that will explore other aspects of craft: character, dialogue, world-building, plot development, visual language, scene writing, and the role of genre. These challenging writing exercises will help us establish a regular writing discipline, allow us to experiment, and build our sense of identity as writing professionals. But most importantly of all, they will prepare us for the writing of a TV treatment/Bible for each writer's original show. Finally, we'll workshop extensively as we produce outlines, treatments, and scene breakdowns on the way to developing a pilot script. Evaluating scripts and learning to
Class Description:
Student may contact the instructor or department for information.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/65191/1253

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