ScreenwritingConcepts & synopsising

Today

In todays workshop you will be;

applying your knowledge of concepting to create and develop 3 ideas for screenplays

Conducting initial research for each of these ideas.

By the end of today, you

MUST use idea generation strategies to create 3 story concepts

SHOULD be able to pitch your 3 ideas effectively, getting feedback from an audience.

COULD develop your ideas through

Syd FieldFamous American screenwriter Syd Field came up with a way to describe a films

concept in its simplest form.

Describe each

Story ConceptsA person

A geeky high school loser

Story ConceptsIn a place

New York City

Story ConceptsDoing his or her thing

Fighting crime as a masked vigilante

Syd Fields rule of story concepting

A person, in a place, doing his

or her thing

For exampleA recently widowed OAP

In America

Flying his house off on the adventure of a

lifetime

Up

A wealthy industrialist

In America

Using his super armour to fight terrorism

A young farm hand

On Tattoine

Trying to rescue a princess from an evil empire

An orphaned billionaire

In Gotham City

Becoming a vigilante crime fighter

Task 1Working alone develop 3 story concepts.

You have 30 minutes to come up with 3 concepts for films.

If you are stuck for ideas what can you do?

If you finish your 3 concepts you can begin to research them and add more depth to your

ideas

Watch!

FeedbackPitch your best idea to the group: be

prepared for questions

Task 2 Think about the feedback you’ve

received; how could you improve your idea based on what people have said?

Task 3We now need to develop our ideas.

Working alone think about your film idea and ‘the moral’ of your story.