Screenwriting 101 is a video series on the subject of scriptwriting in Film Studies. Presented by Angus Fletcher, a Professor of English and Film at the Ohio State University, this course goes over many of the fundamentals when trying to develop your own screenplay—one such being reverse engineering.
As a beginner in writing a narrative, Screenwriting 101 was very useful in providing examples and practices needed to help kickstart my development in writing.
Professor Fletcher goes over many different scripts, such as Casablanca, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones, showing how to reverse engineer them to learn how the scriptwriters used the story to bring out different emotions in the audience.
Starting from the ending of each script, Fletcher shows how we should know where we want the story to go and figure out from there how it all fits into place. It doesn’t always work the same, but there’s a clear structure to how he advises the audience to reverse engineer the stories they enjoy to create their own stories without plagiarizing the work of others.
Overall, this was a very good course to watch, I would very much recommend Screenwriting 101. It’s available on Kanopy for those interested in developing their skills as a writer or those who want to gain a deeper appreciation for the art of screenwriting.
Watch it on Kanopy in The Great Courses.