Hacking At The First Five Pages: A Screenwriting Workshop
A Hacker Screenwriting Workshop
Why The First Five Pages?
Lines like "hack the planet," "cattle mutilations are up," and "how about a nice game of chess" are burned into most of our brains, but to get in there they had to go through a lengthy process that all started with a script.
The first five pages of a script are critical for engaging the reader and setting up the rest of the story, and that is where this workshop will focus, in the part of the script where the foundational engineering work takes place, so everything else can work.
In this workshop, we will review samples submitted by attendees who have written screenplays (or at least started them) to get feedback on the first five pages of a screenplay in front of the group.
Even if you don't have a script to be workshopped, you can learn a lot by observing this refinement process.
When and Where
The time and location for this workshop is TBD.
The Workshop Will Include Time To Write
There will be an opportunity to free-write during the workshop (bring your own laptop), and then you can (optionally) volunteer to have your free-writing pages workshopped by the group.
You May Submit Existing Material For Critique
Submissions may be sent in advance to hope@screenwritingshit.com up to an hour before the workshop.
Submission Requirements:
- For security, submissions will be reviewed ONLY AS JPEG IMAGES (search "PDF to JPEG" to find a converter).
- Please name the image files in a <submitter_name>-<screenplay_title>-page_<page_number>.jpg format (like zero_cool-the_day_the_planet_got_hacked-page_1.jpg and so on).
- One submission per attendee
- DO NOT send the entire screenplay, only the first 5 pages(*)
(*) Not including a title page, the title page is Page 0, this is the first 5 pages of action and dialogue specifically, so technically you're sending 6 pages. If a scene goes a few lines over the 5th page, it's okay to include the remaining snippet as an extra page, but only if it's max 10-15 extra lines.
To avoid rehashing the same issues over and over, selections from the submission pool will be made based on the education value to the group, but we will try to get through as many of them as possible in the time allotted.
Cost
There is no additional cost to attend this workshop.
Screenwriting Resources
- Essential advice from Try Parker and Matt Stone
- Read some scripts
- Screenwriting tips
- Screenwriting books
