Screenwriting & Amazing Stories: The Art of Filmmaking Vol 3

Trace the origin of the screenplay and how cinema built the three act structure from the human attentional process, Greek tragedy, and dramatic arc in modern film.

Explore the three-act structure and dramatic arc, from inciting events and first plot points to shockpoints that activate audience attention and drive internal and external change.

Explore the general rules of screenplay writing as a visual, present-tense tool for production, focusing on audiovisual language, scene headings, units of action, and clear formatting.

Master the fundamentals of the story by tying space and time to the plot, creating conflict, and aligning with the audience.

Explore how semiotics shapes filmmaking by encoding meaning in every frame—from figure-ground perception and color to sound and dramatic irony—to engage audiences and deepen storytelling.

Explore how scenes are built as action, reaction, or descriptive moments, with movement, lighting, color, sound, and point of view to convey goals and create sequels in the story.

The first act sets up the story by establishing the environment and main character, delivering an irreversible change at the first plot point, as shown in Braveheart and Titanic.

Explore the second act as the story's center, with two halves—fun and games and a negative half—driven by the character's skills, the midpoint, and pivotal turning points toward resolution.

Explore how the third act centers on a character's final, emotionally charged decision that drives the climax, with open or anticlimactic endings illustrated by Terminator 2 and Braveheart.

Learn to craft a high concept, synopsis, tagline, logline, and storyline for a film, outlining three acts, midpoint challenges, and the producer's guiding role.

Explore how to write narrative scenes by distinguishing action, reaction, and descriptive types, emphasize characters' goals, time, and visual actions, and organize scenes with a 90-minute structure using frame tables.

Learn to read and write professional screenplay scenes, balancing dialogue and action, with proper notation (v.o., o.s.), lighting, sound, and character movement for production teams.

Explore the causal plot: a clearly defined objective pursued through escalating external obstacles toward a climactic moment, with inner wounds and the hero’s journey adding depth.

Explore how the intimacy process plot centers on two characters negotiating contradictions and intimate dilemmas within shared circumstances, often alongside a broader causal goal.

Explore the meandering plot, where characters pursue internal goals through varied journeys and intimate processes, as shown in Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button, and the Lord of the Rings.

Discover how the 20 master plots, including adventure, pursuit, rescue, and riddle, shape action narratives and pair with master structures to drive screen storytelling.

Explore twenty character plots, from the quest and discovery arcs to metamorphosis and love, showing how transformation drives the protagonist and reveals core themes in film.

Explore how horror plots hinge on open doors and surprise to fuel sequels, while distinguishing terror from horror through dream-like imagery and oneiric ambiguity.

Discover verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony as narrative tools that deepen emotion and meaning in dialogue and scenes, with examples from The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, and Titanic.

Explore anticipating signs as clear hints about future events in a story. Differentiate long-emotion signs from short-emotion signs, with examples from The Sixth Sense and Shawshank Redemption.

Conclude by exploring how childhood stories ignite screenwriting and film ideas, and invite ideas or questions via Udemy Messenger to shape future lessons.

Explore Karouwa through screenwriting and filmmaking, weaving suspense with a key, book, and empress across Los Angeles to Helena, Montana.