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SCREENWRITING SAVANT

COST

$199 for the class

*Playhouse West Members get a discounted rate!

  • 30+ Hours of Video and Written Lectures on Fundamentals of Screenwriting

  • Writing Exercises to Learn Fundamentals and Cultivate Writing Skills

  • Receive Many Written Guides and Lessons

  • Learn a Step-by-Step Approach to Writing Any Screenplay

  • Other Resources include 65 Screenplays to Read, Recommended Reading, Screenwriting Tips and More!

ABOUT

After many requests – you can take Tony Savant's Craft of Screenwriting course on-line. There are dozens of how-to books on screenwriting, and many other courses and seminars available on how to write screenplays.  I have read many of these books, and believe some of them contain very useful information helpful to aspiring writers.  However, I believe that most of these do not focus on, or they completely leave out, some of the most essential, fundamental elements and principles of dramatic writing.  I’ve also never read a book or seen a course that offered a practical, doable, step-by-step approach to writing a screenplay.  Years ago I set out to design such a course, and I’ve been teaching it to hundreds of writers since then. 

Now it’s online and is available 24 hours a day/7 days a week.  You can take it any time, from any computer, at your own pace!   There are extensive writing exercises, plus 30 hours of video lectures.  This is the most affordable, and one of the top reviewed online screenwriting courses available. 

You will learn the essential fundamental elements contained in all well-constructed stories, screenplays and films.  Mr. Savant’s approach is largely based on the principles contained in Lajos Egri’s classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, adapted exclusively to screenplay structure.  But Savant also offers his experience of many years studying, deconstructing and analyzing the finest films and screenplays ever written and what they have in common, as well as studying the master directors and writers who made these pictures. Savant observes that screenplays are not a piece of literature, they are a piece of architecture.  The value of a screenplay is not measured by the words on the page, you measure it by its construction.

“The most memorable films are not usually treasure for their literary values.  A film script is more architecture than literature.”  Elia Kazan

The class aims at demystifying the screenwriting process and giving you a real, practical, step-by- step approach to writing a well-constructed script, from the conception of an idea to finished product.

This is also a course in script analysis. We will break down an Academy Award-winning film and the screenplay, scene-by-scene, so you can see how well-crafted scripts are designed. At the end of the course you will have done a lot of writing exercises, completed a 7-12 page screenplay for a short film, and also have the tools and feel empowered by a realistic approach to write other screenplays!

Whether you wish to be a screenwriter, director, producer or an actor, this is a great course, as you learn things that anyone in any area of filmmaking should understand about scripts.  It will also challenge you like few other courses do.

Using a balance of lectures on video (filmed during his class), written notes from those lectures, screenwriting handouts, writing exercises, script and film analysis, and feedback on work from the instructor.  This 10-Part online course gives students a firm grounding in all the basics of screenwriting.  Everything is presented in a clear, accessible manner.

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