Stay at home rules and closing colleges has interrupted educational activities for many people. However, resources are available to enable you to learn how to write a movie without being on campus. I have completed a 30-minute video listing books, a writing program, and two college courses that are that you may order today. I have no financial connection with any of these writers or companies and these are the best resources that I have found while writing my own screenplay.
For the purpose of this discussion screenplay, movie script, and script are the same thing and screen writing is the process of how this is done.
The college courses are Screenwriting 101 by Prof. Angus Fletcher of UCLA which discusses the different types of movies, what their critical elements are, and how to craft a compelling screenplay. In the graduate-level Screenwriting 434, Lew Hunter actually takes you through the process of writing a movie script. After some introductory chapters Hunter and you actually write a full length three-act movie.
In my video discussion of these two courses is supplemented by other recommendations including Alan Watt's book The 90-Day Screenplay and Christopher Riley's The Hollywood Standard which explains how dialog, actions, sounds, camera angles, points of view, and other aspects of the movie are efficiently written so that a 350-page novel can be efficiently turned into a 100 page movie script.
I also introduce the Final Draft script-writing program that I will be using. This program is downloadable on-line at a cost of about $200. This is the industry standard that has been in continuous revision since its introduction. There are tutorials on this program, on-line support, and even script-writing contests sponsored by the company. If you cannot scratch up the $200 there are also some free programs that can get you started. Movie producers don't care what program you used to make your screenplay only that it is correctly formatted, tells a compelling story, has complex characters doing interesting things, advances the plot in a believable manner, is set in an interesting place, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.
You may view my video at: https://youtu.be/cnYEmWdvkVc. The previous video attached to the Kickstarter project explains the plot of my novel, Father of the Grooms, from which the screenplay was derived. A subsequent video will go through using the Final Draft program to write the script. Contributors of $50 to my Kickstarter project which concludes on May 16 will receive a signed, numbered softcover edition of the novel. This novel will only be sent to subscribers. The First Draft Edition of Father of the Grooms is also available from e-book sellers worldwide for $4.99.
Wm. Hovey Smith is the author of more than 20 books, producer of over 800 YouTube videos, a former radio host, and an outdoorsman. Father of the Grooms is his first novel and is the results of five years of thinking about it and a trip to Sicily. It is anticipated that the screenplay will be completed in 2021 and movie production started in 2024.