Want to learn about the unique craft of feature film and television screenwriting? In this session, Jim Picariello discusses what makes screenwriting so different from other types of narrative prose, and introduces general formatting standards of film and TV screenplays.
We will discuss common guidelines for developing a script's story, pacing, and best practices for writing scene descriptions, action, dialogue, and character descriptions and relationships. And we'll watch some fun movie clips while reading along to the scripts.
We will also delve into more advanced subjects, including screenwriting-specific outlining and the nature of the screenwriter's career in the screenwriting/filmmaking industry, which is vastly different from trying to make one's mark in the book-publishing world.
Brooksville resident Jim Picariello is an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker breaking into Hollywood from rural, coastal Maine. It's a surefire plan!
His feature scripts (The Cult of Us, Igor and Frankie) have been optioned and signed into shopping agreements, and have placed high in prestigious contests such as The Black List, The Nicholl Fellowship, Stowe Story Labs, and The Austin Film Festival. His award tally has landed him in the all-time top 1% and 2% on the screenplay ranking website Coverfly.
His short films (The Mushroom Huntress and Passive Aggressive Dads, among others) have been selected by dozens of wicked-fancy film festivals and have won, in total, fifteen top awards.
Jim even made a short for Sesame Street! (Anything you want to know about the Number Six, just ask.)