Feature Screenwriting - From Draft to Craft

Every screenplay goes through countless revisions and creative decisions before it reaches our screens. The difference between a screenplay that gets read and one that becomes a movie is all about execution. It’s knowing what to change, what to keep, and how to unleash the movie in your heart and mind onto the page—and the screen.

Designed for writers with a feature-film outline, a partial screenplay or a completed first draft, this practical workshop explores the professional development process for evaluating, strengthening and reshaping a screenplay. Through guided discussion, screenplay analysis, practical exercises and collaborative workshops, you’ll identify opportunities to strengthen your story structure, deepen your characters, refine your scenes, sharpen your premise and develop a revision strategy that brings your screenplay closer to the movie you imagine.

Build a stronger outline or consider how your opening sets up your world, genre and characters to deliver on the your promise; regain momentum for your second act, find ways to make your characters more compelling, or discover an ending that truly lands. Hone the skills to identify what’s holding your screenplay back and develop a strategy to move it forward—all the way to the screen.

This course is for writers who have begun developing a feature screenplay and are ready to strengthen, expand or rethink what they have on the page. Students should arrive with a feature film outline, partial screenplay or completed first draft.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Evaluate your screenplay through a professional development lens
• Identify where your screenplay fulfills, or falls short of, the promise it makes to its audience
• Strengthen story structure, pacing and dramatic escalation
• Build more compelling protagonists, supporting characters and antagonists
• Analyze and rewrite scenes to ensure they advance story while revealing character
• Identify opportunities to strengthen what already works while tackling the areas that need the greatest attention
• Develop a practical, prioritized strategy for revising and improving your screenplay with confidence

Course outline

This is a hands-on workshop built around discussion, screenplay analysis, practical writing exercises and collaborative feedback. As you strengthen your story through outlining, revision and rewriting, you'll develop new pages, reshape existing ones, and create a roadmap for continuing your screenplay beyond the course. Along the way, you'll learn a repeatable development process you can apply to every screenplay you write, helping you uncover stronger stories, deepen the emotional experience for your audience, and continue growing as a screenwriter.

Week 1: Every Premise Makes a Promise. Does Yours Deliver?

Week 2: Blueprints Create Great Buildings. Outlines Create Great Screenplays

Week 3: We Drive Cars. Characters Drive Story

Week 4: Scenes Cost Pages. Make Them Count

Week 5: First Drafts Discover. Rewrites Deliver

Week 6: The End Is Just the Beginning

Final Project Deliverables

• Revised logline and elevator pitch
• Story assessment
• Updated beat sheet or outline
• Character development package
• Rewrite strategy
• Selected revised pages

Instructor

Thommy Hutson, BA, MFA, is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, author, and creative development professional whose work has appeared on Netflix, Hallmark, Lifetime, Hulu, Shudder, Syfy, Starz, Bio Channel, and more. Over the course of his career, he’s written and developed screenplays across multiple genres including horror, thriller, holiday, animation, and documentary, helping shape stories from early concepts through production and release. As a teaching assistant at the UBC School of Creative Writing, he discovered a passion for helping students shape the strongest version of the story they’re trying to tell. A member of the Producers Guild of America, Writers Union of Canada, and the Horror Writers Association, his workshops blend practical industry experience with an encouraging, hands-on teaching style, leaving writers with a fresh perspective, greater confidence, and the tools to bring the movie only they could imagine to the page.

How am I assessed? 

This course is marked complete/incomplete, and the assessment is based on your attendance and participation. Your instructor provides you personalized feedback on the assignments you submit. 

Expected effort

Expect to spend three to four hours per week reviewing your ideas, editing your screenplay and participating in online forum discussions.

Technology requirements 

  To take this course, you’ll need access to:

• an email account 
• a computer, laptop or tablet under five years old and using Windows or macOS 
• the latest version of a web browser (or previous major version release) 
• a reliable internet connection
• a screen writing software
• a video camera and microphone for virtual real-time online class discussions

For virtual office hours, you’ll also need: 

• a video camera and microphone

 One day before the start of your course, we'll email you step-by-step instructions for accessing your course.   

Course format

  

This course is 100% online and instructor-supported with real-time classes through Zoom. Log into your class at scheduled times and participate.

A new module is released each week. Log in anytime to your course to access the lessons as they become available. Online materials will be available for three weeks after the course ends. After this time, you’ll no longer be able to access the course and materials.