This three-week Summer School course aims to support aspiring writers in developing their creative writing skills in the area of screenwriting. In an enjoyable, supportive setting and through a combination of theory, practice and collaborative exercises, an international group of participants learns about all key aspects of this craft, ranging from premise, theme and topic to characters and character orchestration, from plot to scene structure, and from setting to subtext. Formal aspects like screenplay formatting, text forms and industry conventions are touched upon as well as tools and devices that help writers tell stories visually.

All of these aspects, however, are never seen as stand-alone entities, but viewed as means supporting writers in finding and conveying the stories they want to tell. Any theoretical input is immediately applied to writing exercises before the participants eventually enter into the story development of their own original short film script.

WEEK ONE

Topics
• Introduction
• Finding your voice and expressing yourself through stories
• Screenwriting essentials (part I)

Format
Lectures, workshops & exercises

WEEK TWO

Topics
• Screenwriting essentials (part II)
• Story development – short film script

Format
Lectures, workshops, writing & script consulting

WEEK THREE

Topics
• Story development – short film script
• Feedback and conclusion

Format
Writing, script consulting, table readings

This programme is open to aspiring writers from various backgrounds, e.g. high-school students, current undergraduate students, postgraduate students, or media professionals from other fields.

As the Summer School Screenwriting will be held in English, applicants need to have English language skills of B2-level or higher.