Hopefully useful for some. I just signed up to this today, a free online course through the University Of East Anglia starting this Sunday. Here's the blurb from the BBC writers room:
Screenplays form the starting point for most dramatic films, the essential work from which all other filmmaking flows. All of the tender romance, terrifying action and memorable lines begin at the screenwriter’s desk.
Get the skills and resources to tell these stories with the Introduction to Screenwriting free online course from the University of East Anglia.
This course, funded by Creative Skillset is for writers new to scriptwriting and for more experienced writers who wish to raise their scriptwriting to a professional level. It will establish a common vocabulary for approaching the screenplay and form the basis for upcoming courses in dramatic adaptation, the crime screenplay, and other genres and skills.
Top comments
mandy miller to kittykat69
23 Feb 168#6
I have tried one of these online courses before, and it can be useful. I think you just have to be realistic about what you are getting.This, after all, is a completely free course being run by the most prestigious writing school of any University in the UK. Students who are registered there will be paying £9k per year for the priviledge - and of course you are not going to get anywhere near the same supervision or feedback that a fee paying student would! You DO get feedback - but, because the courses are free, that feedback is provided by your peers on the course - which can produce some very mixed blessings! Anyone can sign up, which means that free courses in a creative subject like this will - like it or not - be stuffed full of selfish ME-merchants, with egos the size of the Sun, who just want to monopolize attention and comment. They soak up ALL the praise they can from diligent students providing full and constructive feedback to peers (and then gush and gush about it on the discussion Forum, to attract even more attention) - but refuse to give fair or even nice feedback to others, in their turn. I had the misfortune to get feedback from one of these creatures; and it was surprisingly hurtful, even when recognising them for what they are, attention ****. It wouldn't stop me from doing a course again - but forewarned is fore-armed! You will need to be quite prepared for very hit-and-miss (and sometimes cruel) critique of your work! The certificate on the course I did was £15; which I don't think is unreasonable. Each to their own, and I hope others appreciate an alternative view.
Stripedew
2 Mar 163#51
This course if by one of my tutors and I was actually one of the crew filming the little clips you see. Fun fact, the shoot took about 6 hours of them just talking and talking. We had to cut down on a lot of the footage coz they would go off into too much detail that wasn't required for an entry level course. It was all unscripted too.
Michael, who runs the course, knows so much about scriptwriting it's ridiculous. He's worked for Disney and Showtime in the US before.
mandy miller
29 Feb 163#46
Really enjoying this course :-)
Very instructive, very thought provoking - lots of intelligent conversation with people on a similar intellectual level.
So refreshing! Thank you, OP, for posting the deal. ;-)
All comments (55)
householdhorror
22 Feb 161#1
Excellent, thank you.
Also worth looking around the course website as they offer a huge range of free courses. It all looks fascinating.
SANDYKAUR
22 Feb 16#2
Brilliant, thank you :smiley:
splender
22 Feb 16#3
Wonderful
mysmugcat
23 Feb 16#4
awesome ty
kittykat69
23 Feb 16#5
Tried some courses with them, content is mostly obvious and useless at best of times and they charge a fortune for a certificate which renders the course useless if you can't afford it. You can't put it in your CV. Cold.
mandy miller to kittykat69
23 Feb 168#6
I have tried one of these online courses before, and it can be useful. I think you just have to be realistic about what you are getting.This, after all, is a completely free course being run by the most prestigious writing school of any University in the UK. Students who are registered there will be paying £9k per year for the priviledge - and of course you are not going to get anywhere near the same supervision or feedback that a fee paying student would! You DO get feedback - but, because the courses are free, that feedback is provided by your peers on the course - which can produce some very mixed blessings! Anyone can sign up, which means that free courses in a creative subject like this will - like it or not - be stuffed full of selfish ME-merchants, with egos the size of the Sun, who just want to monopolize attention and comment. They soak up ALL the praise they can from diligent students providing full and constructive feedback to peers (and then gush and gush about it on the discussion Forum, to attract even more attention) - but refuse to give fair or even nice feedback to others, in their turn. I had the misfortune to get feedback from one of these creatures; and it was surprisingly hurtful, even when recognising them for what they are, attention ****. It wouldn't stop me from doing a course again - but forewarned is fore-armed! You will need to be quite prepared for very hit-and-miss (and sometimes cruel) critique of your work! The certificate on the course I did was £15; which I don't think is unreasonable. Each to their own, and I hope others appreciate an alternative view.
splender
23 Feb 16#7
Yep, I can imagine that some of them could be as nasty as the destructive forces here on HOTUKDEALS, like you offer a great deal and then some people **** it off like brown stuff. E.g. one bad slight remark in the beginning and then a potentially hot deal turns cold with the lemmings.
HankHandsome
23 Feb 16#8
aha, nice one. been writing scripts as a hobby for many years so this might be a nice way to polish that up. had a couple of shorts produced so far, so next stop feature film :smiley: cheers op
kittykat69 to HankHandsome
25 Feb 16#35
You can't say you've taken the course without certificate. Certificate is not free. Geddit now? No? Nevermind. And most of their courses are ****. But then you wouldn't know.
kittykat69
23 Feb 16#9
If the certificate is not free, then the course is not free. Simple. And the contents are shocking, I've tried!
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
Screenplays form the starting point for most dramatic films, the essential work from which all other filmmaking flows. All of the tender romance, terrifying action and memorable lines begin at the screenwriter’s desk.
Get the skills and resources to tell these stories with the Introduction to Screenwriting free online course from the University of East Anglia.
This course, funded by Creative Skillset is for writers new to scriptwriting and for more experienced writers who wish to raise their scriptwriting to a professional level. It will establish a common vocabulary for approaching the screenplay and form the basis for upcoming courses in dramatic adaptation, the crime screenplay, and other genres and skills.
Top comments
Michael, who runs the course, knows so much about scriptwriting it's ridiculous. He's worked for Disney and Showtime in the US before.
Very instructive, very thought provoking - lots of intelligent conversation with people on a similar intellectual level.
So refreshing! Thank you, OP, for posting the deal. ;-)
All comments (55)
Also worth looking around the course website as they offer a huge range of free courses. It all looks fascinating.