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Training
Genre Season: November 2008
Ending as all good rom-coms should with a Wedding Date
All sessions on Genre Season are currently close to capacity - call now to take one of the last places
We are delighted to announce the return of Genre Season, a series of six practical workshops, each one focused on a particular genre, designed to give you the knowledge and practical tools to develop both original and satisfying genre projects.
Many of the principles of drama can be applied to all story types, yet the techniques required to make an audience laugh at a comedy are clearly very different to those needed to scare them witless with a horror film. Far from simply applying a formula, writing a successful genre screenplay requires a subtle and sophisticated understanding of how and why audiences respond to certain story types.
This series of highly practical workshops is designed to help writers, producers and script developers grapple with the particular demands of their chosen genre. How do you generate an atmosphere of tension in a Thriller, make love believable in a Romantic Comedy or sustain fear in a Horror?
Taught by experienced writers and developers, each workshop is a combination of lecture and vibrant group discussions. Participants will be expertly-guided through the inner-workings of each genre and emerge equipped with practical and effective strategies for script development.
Our 2008 Genre Season has been supported by BFI Southbank, where all teaching sessions take place.
THE GENRE SEASON – November 2008
Monday 17 November - Thriller - [SOLD OUT]
Tuesday 18 November – Horror & Slasher
Monday 24 November – Love Story
Tuesday 25 November – Romantic Comedy
Wednesday 26 November – Comedy
Friday 28 November - Drama & Rites of Passage
For full details of each workshop and tutor see below.
Friendly Producers Scheme
The Genre Season is linked to our scheme which aims to provide promising new screenwriters with the opportunity to meet some of the UK's most influential and approachable producers. After attending one or more session in the November Genre Season, all participants will be invited to submit the first 10 pages of their current project, accompanied by a 2-page story outline. Three writers from across all our Autumn Screenwriting courses will be selected and each will benefit from a one-to-one development meeting with one of our 'Friendly Producers'. For full details about The Script Factory's Friendly Producers scheme, please .
Genre Season Booking Information
The cost of each one-day workshop is £120 + VAT (total £141). Script Factory Members are eligible for a 10% discount, making the Members’ fee £108 + VAT (total £126.90).
Each workshop runs from 10am–5pm at BFI Southbank and is limited to just 20 participants. Some preparatory reading or viewing may be required.
To book your place by credit or debit card, please contact The Script Factory on 020 7851 4890.
THE SEASON:
THRILLER: Monday 17 November
[SOLD OUT] Thriller writing is all about tension. Thriller scripts need to be as taut as a tightrope and the main character must inevitably fight for life itself. What is more, the story must take place in a believable, recognisable world, demanding the writer to create strong, convincing characters without always resorting to the action adventure toolbox of fast cars and explosions. The goal is to keep the audience in a state of
heightened tension where the hard and fast rule is to keep jacking up that tension! The session will focus on how to do just this: create a strong enough threat for the protagonist to be in severe danger; create a convincing world that is both recognisable and yet strange enough to contribute to the protagonist's fear and build the story satisfactorily to a conclusion where the world is once more returned to order.
This session is taught by Angeli Macfarlane, a freelance script developer who recently worked on Emmy award-winning Death of a President and is currently working with writer/director Gabriel Range on a feature thriller. For a detailed Thriller workshop outline, please click here.
HORROR & SLASHER: Tuesday 18 November
Slaughtering dim and promiscuous teenagers or unleashing the ghosts of murdered children have been big box-office attractions in recent years. Whether you’re conjuring up the supernatural or imagining the evils perpetrated by axe wielding maniacs, this session looks at current trends in horror movies and the art of terrifying an audience. Includes practical exercises that may trouble the squeamish.
This session is taught by Rob Ritchie, an experienced writer and tutor, who is currently also working as a script developer on a number of Horror films for Little Bird’s Ministry of Fear. For a detailed Horror workshop outline, please click here.
LOVE STORY: Monday 24 November
This day-long session will focus on the way love stories work: what story elements are inevitably found in a love story; how are the protagonists perceived by the audience and what are our expectations of their journey? Also, what do Love Stories say about the human condition, both in terms of social tolerance and emotional liberty and how has this affected the genre today?
This session is taught by Angeli Macfarlane, a freelance script developer who recently worked on Emmy award-winning Death of a President and is currently working with writer/director Gabriel Range on a feature thriller. For further details of the Love Story workshop click here.
ROMANTIC COMEDY: Tuesday 25 November
To those who have never tried writing one, Romantic Comedies can seem very straightforward – boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl (or some variation of the same!) But how do you get an audience to care that these two people find one another? And how do you credibly keep them apart for the majority of screen time? This session examines the main beats of the Romantic Comedy and considers how to hit those beats in a way that feels genuine, funny, contemporary and most of all romantic. The one unbreakable rule of Romantic Comedies has always been that the couple must end up together, but 2006 saw this rule flouted by both Prime and The Break-Up. We will therefore also consider whether the genre is shifting to offer something more ‘realistic’ than happily ever after?
This session is taught by Justine Hart, one of The Script Factory’s co-directors. For a detailed Romantic Comedy workshop outline, please click here.
COMEDY: Wednesday 26 November
How important is a ‘high concept’ when writing Comedy for the big screen? It might make the script easier to pitch and possibly sell, but will it help you write or develop the story? This session will take a close look at why we laugh and the importance of conflict in feature comedies. We will examine techniques of comedy including: escalation, deception, creating empathy and distance, set-up and pay-off and running gags. In particular we will look at what makes a comic protagonist and the importance in comedy features of giving them a character arc.
This session is taught by Jonny Brown, a writer and script consultant who has worked as script editor on a number of comedy projects for the UK Film Council and Irish Film Board. For further details of the Comedy workshop click here.
DRAMA & RITES OF PASSAGE: Friday 28 November
By far the most popular genre amongst screenwriters is Drama, possibly because it is perceived to be unencumbered by the storytelling constraints that seem to govern other genres. But, whilst filmmakers love them, audiences rarely share their enthusiasm. More than just character studies or truthful observations of human behaviour, Drama and Rites of Passage are deceptively simple, powerful genres with rich, complex demands to make of both their writers and those that watch them.
In this session we consider whether it is possible to clearly define the characteristics of these broad genres and we examine how to push them hard enough to ensure that they properly come alive. How do we organise the storytelling, build pace, develop conflict, raise the stakes and reveal character? How can we get these stories to reach their audiences without the pulling power of axe murderers or magic wands? In this day-long workshop the emphasis will stay on work: practical, discussion-led and energising, you’ll go back to your desks ready to raise hell. Dramatically speaking.
This session is taught by Kate Leys, an experienced script consultant and regular trainer for The Script Factory.
For a detailed Drama workshop outline, please click here.