LLA0004 - Introduction to Screenwriting
Course Description
Learn the basic steps to writing a screenplay utilizing industry-standard best practices and get started writing your first draft. Students should have basic computer skills. The instructor Virginia Bailey is an independent film/video writer, producer, and director, and author of children's literature, including softcover, eBooks, and audiobooks. She teaches Introduction to Screenwriting, and Screenwriting II.
Course Outline
• What is a screenplay?
• The 3-Act screenplay story structure
• Learn about intention & obstacles
• Learn how to create 3-dimensional characters
• Learn how to dream up ideas
• Learn how to write dialogue
• Learn how to show and not tell
•Learn how to research and conduct interviews
• Learn how to craft a logline
• Learn how to pitch your script
• Screenwriting Software
Virginia Bailey's favorite saying is, "Writers write because they have something to say." Raised in Gary Indiana, Virginia studied ballet from the age of four and was a principal dancer at the Edgerton Ballet School. She began her eclectic career as a dancer in musical productions, worked in film, video, and commercials, in front of and behind the camera. Virginia tutors and teaches screenwriting for the Upward Bound Trio Program. Her screen and playwriting specialties include feature-length screenplays, theatrical musicals, and soap operas. She is the radio coach of an award-winning high school radio team that is on the air weekly, on WEPS 88.9 FM. In 2019, her students took first place, in the interviewing category, at the Terri Hemmert High School Radio Competition. A self-published author of children's books, Virginia has written and narrated several audiobooks, eBooks, and a softcover book. Created to provide youth with magical stories that are a delight and inform, Virginia's passion is helping kids of all ages to envision, see and experience the possibilities. She wears many hats and is also a very active Illinois licensed real estate broker. Virginia earned a BA degree in Communications from Roosevelt University and an MA degree in Film and Video from Columbia College Chicago.