Scriptwriting Lectures by Volodymyr Hromov 2019

Description of the course

An intensive theoretical course by one of the best script doctors in post-Soviet countries.

Volodymyr Hromov is a lecturer and creator of the program. He was educated at screenwritong faculty of VGIK. Taught at VGIK, Higher Courses of Screenwriters and Directors, Kyiv National Karpenko-Kary University of Theater, Film, and Television, Latvian Academy of Culture, among others. He worked as the editor-in-chief at FILM.UA. Has been living in Warsaw for the past few years.

From the very beginning of his studies, he was engaged in writing scripts for film and television. The TV movie Cityscape and the TV series Version were based on his script. Volodymyr is the co-author of the screenplay of Aleksandr Shein’s film VMayakovsky, which was released in 2018. Since 2015, he regularly writes about Polish cinema for the website culture.pl, dedicated to the life and culture of Poland.

Goal of the course

To provide the participants with all the tools they need to work on their own script. Tools that has been crafted over years of practice and teaching work.

Duration

7 lecture blocks lasting 4 hours each. All lecture participants will receive video recordings of lectures for personal and further use. Total duration of recordings: about 28 hours.

Program

What is a script?
Writing method. Trailer. American script writing.
The word in cinema. Dialogue. Types of dialogue.
Dialogue (continued). Off-screen language. Topic of dialogue.
Detail in the script. Types of details. Examples of its use.
Composition of the script. Types of composition. Structural composition. Frame and Scene.
Structural composition (continued). Episode and act.
Plot composition. Parts of the plot composition.
Exposition. Collision. Starting point.
Plot composition (continued). Vicissitudes
Culmination. Ending point. Their ratio. Aristotle’s Poetics.
American theory of plot composition.
Plot-linear composition.
Plot. Plot motives.
Plot and story.
Conflict. The conflict is external and internal. The essence of the concept.
Types of scripted conflict and types of plot.
Dramatic type of plot.
Epic and narrative type of plot.
Time and space in the cinema and in the script.
Lyrical type of plot.
Protagonist and character. The concept of character and personality in the script.
Four protagonists as the basis of a scripted conflict.
The number of protagonists in the script and how to place them.
Topic and genre.
Script idea.

Feedback

Volodymyr Hromov, lecturer and creator of the course

“We tend to think that dramaturgy is a way of telling stories. I think otherwise. For me, dramaturgy is a view of the world, a way of life, a language. Having studied it properly, you will see stories, plots, discover the drama in yourself. And truly interesting scripts begin where we talk about our own, about personal things, about what we learned, lived, and felt. Without an interesting script there will be no film. My course is a story about how a script develops, what components it has, it is an attempt to explain how a screenwriter should think and what mistakes he or she should avoid. After listening to my lectures, you will receive all the necessary tools to work on your own story.”

Mykhailo Masloboishchykov (director)

“Attentive, wise teacher who can provide support, be imbued with your story, and help distinguish your voice in the noise of other people’s voices.”

Kateryna Gribova (director)

“Volodymyr’s gaze is one of the most attentive and penetrating that I have come across on my way. Every detail of the text, you as an author and a person – he has it all in focus.”

Antonio Lukić (director)

“His lectures are the flow of the wittiest battle rapper, stories from his life are ready-made scripts, he himself is a character in the film. He teaches observation, thoughtfulness, wit: all the things that it would seem impossible to learn, and the climax is the place in the script where the protagonist and antagonist clash in a decisive battle.”