Assignment #1: Lies and the Personal Truth

1. Write down FOUR interesting, unique FACTS about yourself. ONE of them must be a complete and total lie, but a good lie, one that would be hard to detect from the truths.
2. Then write a short one-page story about a fictional character that incorporates both that lie and one of your true facts. Think about the differences between facts and lies, and how both can be used in service of the truth.

Assignment #2: Premise

Write TEN Loglines. Five from movies you’ve seen. Five from ideas you make up yourself. The trick is to be specific without too much detail. Give a sense of a dramatic question; of a beginning, middle, and end; and of whose story it is, what they want, and what’s keeping them from getting it.

Assignment #3: A Change in Fortune

For each of the Loglines from the previous assignment, identify:

1. the hero’s dramatizable objective
2. the hero’s primary flaw
3. how the hero changed (or what they learned) as a result of the pursuit of their dramatizable objective

Assignment #4: Anchor Points

• 1. Take two of your loglines from produced movies from the last assignment and write the six Anchor Points that determine the big picture of the story, its beginning, middle, and end.

  • EQUILIBRIUM
  • INCITING INCIDENT
  • POINT OF NO RETURN
  • BIG GLOOM
  • CLIMAX
  • NEW EQUILIBRIUM

Now—

• 2. Do the same with your OWN STORY.

Assignment #5: Character Traits and Backstory

1. Fill in the following 5 Ps Character Worksheet for your hero.
2. Write a one-page Backstory for your hero, paying particular attention to any traumas, successes, regrets, and relationships that account for your hero’s MORAL DISPOSITION at the start of your screenplay. Specifically, what events in their early life account for their flaw and their objective, their need and their want?

Assignment #6: Two-Page Synopsis

Write out your story in prose, in just two pages, double-spaced, tracking your hero’s journey, the pursuit of their objective, and their transformation.

Think of it as a short story in three parts, the Set-up, Complications, and Resolution, in which you incorporate all the elements we’ve discussed so far—character, plot, and structure—particularly with regard to how those elements are shaped by your hero’s primary flaw and dramatizable objective.

Make sure you’re answering the questions:

How does it begin? What are the important facts of the world at equilibrium? Who is the main character? What happens to disrupt that equilibrium and start the story into motion? How does the hero respond? When can’t the hero go back to the beginning? What does he now want and set out to achieve? What are some of the big complications, reversals, and recognitions along his journey to accomplishing it? What happens to leave him farthest from it, with all hope lost? What re-inspires his goal? What is he finally able to do that he couldn’t before? How does it end? How has he changed?

Note: You can describe a lot in two pages, double-spaced. But if you can relate everything that happens, you don’t have enough story for a feature-length film. So you must make choices about what to leave out. By doing so, you are deciding what is absolutely essential to leave in, the important events required to describe the big picture of your story. And it’s that big picture, told with an economy of language that makes an effective synopsis.

Assignment #7: First Act Beats

Watch the first acts of two of the movies in the Recommended Movie List (see Appendix), noting the various events that make up the Set-Up. Can you identify the major Stepping Stone beats? Do the same patterns emerge?

Assignment #8: Second Act Beats

Watch the second acts of the two movies from the previous assignment, noting the various events that make up the Complications. Can you identify the major Stepping Stone beats? Do the same patterns emerge?

Assignment #9: Third Act Beats

You guessed it, watch the third acts of the two movies from the previous assignments, noting the various events that make up the Resolution. Can you identify the major Stepping Stone beats? Do the same patterns emerge?

Assignment #10: Stepping Stones

Now that you’ve identified these moments in movies that you’ve watched, it’s time to further refine your OWN story by making these critical choices for your own screenplay. So use the following guide (and the provided samples) to identify the major Stepping Stone beats of your original story.

Assignment #11: Beat Sheets

• 1. The best way to get a handle on Beat Sheets is to see them in action. So watch a movie from the Recommended Movie List (see Appendix) and write a Beat Sheet from it, according to the following format:

• Number each beat.
• Give each beat a TITLE (this can sum up the principle function of the beat, as in ELLIOT MEETS E.T., or it can be a slugline that describes its primary location, as in EXT. BACKYARD—NIGHT).
• Follow the title with two or three sentences that describe the events of the beat in more detail.
• Identify each structural beat (inciting incident, act breaks, climax, etc.).
• Put each new character’s name in ALL CAPS when first mentioned. Follow the examples as guides.

• 2. Now write the Beat Sheet for YOUR STORY.

Assignment #12: Opening Hook

Write the first scene of YOUR screenplay, utilizing proper screenplay format and our discussion of dialogue and description. Remember, the goal of your first page is to get the reader to TURN the page. The goal of the second, is to get them to turn that one, and on and on.

Your Opening Hook should give us insight into the character or their world, and whether a question mark or an exclamation point, hook us into the story.

Assignment #13: Your Rough Draft

Write the rest of your screenplay, all the way to FADE OUT.

Assignment #14: Rewriting And Beyond

• 1. Rewrite your screenplay until it’s “done.” Sell it and/or get it made. Then follow all these steps again with another idea. Repeat as often as desired.

  All the while, write every day. Don’t be discouraged and don’t give up. Remember, only a mediocre writer is ever satisfied. Don’t be mediocre.

• 2. When you accept any award or kudos, thank Aristotle.