Storytelling for Short Film Screenplays

The secret to writing an engaging screenplay is the ability to convey feelings and emotions by transforming words into images. Lud Mônaco is a writer, film director, and the winner of the Best Short Film Award at the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival. Her work has led her to collaborate with companies like Vice, Rede Globo, Stink, and Boiler Room. Lud uses storytelling to capture ordinary experiences and weave them into remarkable stories.

In this course, learn how to compile a creative folder to help you write your own screenplay. Discover basic storytelling techniques to tell stories that connect with your audience.

Start the course by meeting Lud Mônaco, who tells you about her career as a writer and film director. She shows you her biggest artistic and professional influences and gives you a summary of what's covered in the course.

First, discover what lies at the heart of a story, learn how to establish a work routine, and cover everything you need to know to build your creative folder. Lud teaches you how to find the premise for your story through brainstorming and shows you some fundamental concepts for creating your main characters.

Then it's time to get down to business and start working on your story. Learn about the characteristics and narratives styles of different story structures, including the anti-structure and minimalist structure. Then, see how to work with the most widely used format in storytelling: the classic narrative design. Create a timeline and nail down the main elements of your final project, including the idea that drives your narrative, a logline, a synopsis, and the step outline.

Lastly, Lud Mônaco helps you take a critical look at your work and discusses the main factors you need to focus on while reviewing your project so you can analyze and refine your story. Lud finishes the course with some parting advice to help you continue to develop your ideas using your creative folder.

Compile ideas and other useful resources in a creative folder to help you write a screenplay for a short film.

This course is for anyone interested in film, theater, TV, and advertising who wants to tell stories and transform words into images.

No prior knowledge is needed to take this course.

The course materials include pencils, colored markers, A3 size paper, and a computer with screenwriting software (e.g., Fade In) and a word processor (Word, Powerpoint, Pages, etc.).