Online High School Screenwriters Workshop

Intensive screenwriting exercises will introduce students to the basic principles of writing for film and television. Students will develop story ideas and characters, and learn film language and script structure. There will be film story analysis sessions with screenings of important work. The workshop sessions with the instructor and students provide an opportunity for you to present your work, which opens dialogue for critiques and rewrites. The workshop culminates with submitted scenes, a short screenplay, and a synopsis of a feature film and television series. This is an asynchronous course with weekly assignments and video meetings.

Application and Program Dates:

Fall 2025

Monday, October 13, 2025 - Friday, November 21, 2025

Application Deadline: September 9, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET  

Students should be prepared to dedicate 6-10 hours per week for this course.

• The fall workshop is a six-week course with daily deliverables. 
• The summer workshop is a four-week course with daily deliverables.

This class will be delivered through an asynchronous model, which means you will not have to meet at a designated time each day. Instead, the program is offered through online lectures that are pre-recorded and released each week. You can view those modules at your own pace. However, there are daily deliverables and/or weekly assignments you will have to complete and upload onto the Smashcut platform by the deadline provided in your syllabus, and faculty/TA/classmates will be interacting/collaborating with your work on this timeline. The entirety of the class takes place on the Smashcut platform. Synchronous sessions will be scheduled during the term with your professor/TA/classmates. We understand you signed up for an online course to have the flexibility of online learning, so you will have the opportunity to choose the best meeting time for your schedule.

This is an online workshop for college credit. Participation is required and assignments and projects have deadlines and will be graded (students will receive letter grades). While the online format provides flexibility in that students may participate remotely from wherever they are, students should consider the time commitment for this workshop if simultaneously enrolled in other courses or extra curricular activities.

The program requires students to participate in group projects where students must collaborate with fellow crew members. Every crew member can be in a different time zone and often in different countries; it is each student’s responsibility to communicate with their crew members for how to collaborate on parts of the project asynchronously or to find a time to meet and collaborate on their project to meet assignment deadlines. Crew collaboration and active class participation positively impact a student's experience in the course.

Students are required to supply their own technology for this class. 

Students must use a desktop or laptop computer with a webcam, microphone, and audio capability. 

This online course works best with a fast, reliable internet connection, and requires Chrome web browser.