course requirements

Your requirements are few; take them seriously. Being a workshop, what you get out of this class will derive in great measure from what you put into it.
Attendance, preparedness, and participation. As our work here will revolve around discussion, your participation and preparedness are indispensable, and will be graded. You will be permitted one unexcused absence; each additional unexcused absence lowers your final grade one step. Moreover, chronic late arrivals will not be tolerated; for every three late arrivals, one unexcused absence will accrue. Finally, be aware that presence without preparedness does not count. Do the reading; do the writing; do it on time. (10%)
Workshop responses. Each of you will be required to respond in writing to the work of your peers at several stages of the semester. I’ll distribute more information about these responses soon, but I warn you in advance: take them seriously. I will. (20%)
Brief writing assignments. Throughout the semester, you will be given a number of brief writing assignments; some are listed on this syllabus, and others may be added as called for. Some will be directed toward the analysis of the films we watch and screenplays we read. Some will be preliminary stages in producing your own screenplay. None of these will be graded individually, but all are required, and they will receive a cumulative grade at the end of the semester. (20%)
Screenplay. This will comprise by far the bulk of the work you do this semester; no later than the last week of class, you will turn in a revised version of a workshopped full-length screenplay in flawless screenplay format. There are a few intermediate deadlines along the way, at which point you’ll turn in pieces of the script. A full-length screenplay is a huge undertaking; in order to get this done, you must immediately establish a writing schedule that allows you to produce 10 or so pages per week. (Seriously: start immediately.) Please note, too, that I’m serious about the flawless screenplay format thing: errors in format, spelling, grammar, etc., etc., etc., will lower your final grade. Scripts with egregious formatting or typographic errors will be returned unread, and will incur late penalties until resubmitted. (50%)