Professional Diploma in Screenwriting
Program Specification
Field and Subfield: Visual Arts and Media / Filmmaking and Screenwriting
1. Program Overview:
An integrated professional and applied program extending over 3 months (80 accredited study-load hours), aimed at preparing and qualifying screenwriters and dramatic-content creators with the artistic and technical tools required to transform ideas into professional visual and cinematic scripts. The program covers the language of cinema, generation of dramatic premises (Premise), dramatic and psychological character building and development, plot structuring according to the three-act structure and turning points, cinematic dialogue writing and underlying depth (Subtext), standard screenplay formatting using specialized software, editing and rewriting skills (Rewriting), in addition to strategies for marketing scripts and pitching projects to producers (Pitching).
2. Key Objectives:
- Understanding the language of visual and cinematic storytelling: Moving from literary narration to visual dramatic thinking and formulating the dramatic idea and the driving premise (Premise).
- Building characters and formulating conflict: Designing three-dimensional characters psychologically, physically, and socially, and building relationship networks and lines of dramatic conflict.
- Mastering dramatic structure and writing techniques: Applying the three-act structure (Three-Act Structure), controlling pacing, turning points, and climax moments, and writing visual scenes and dialogue with underlying depth (Subtext).
- Standard formatting and professional editing: Adhering to internationally recognized screenplay-formatting rules, using specialized software, and mastering methods of reviewing and developing the draft.
- Professional marketing and pitching of ideas (Pitching): Preparing sales packages and skillfully presenting dramatic treatments and scripts to production companies and filmmakers.
3. Target Audience:
- Beginner and aspiring screenwriters wishing to professionalize their writing for drama and cinema.
- Directors, producers, and independent filmmakers seeking to deepen their understanding of dramatic construction.
- Novelists and short-story writers wishing to adapt their works into visual and cinematic media.
- Students and graduates of media, fine and applied arts, and literature colleges, as well as visual-content creators.
4. Study Plan and Modules (12 Modules — 25 Interactive Lectures):
5. Organizational Structure and Assessment System:
- Duration and Schedule: 3 months (evening period), at a rate of two lectures per week, two hours per lecture = 25 lectures / 50 direct hours.
- Training Language and Delivery Method: Arabic language | Fully online interactive and applied training (Online).
- Distribution of Accredited Hours (80 total hours):
50 hours: Direct and interactive online lectures.
20 hours: Practical applications and free-writing workshops.
7 hours: Analysis and review of cinematic scripts.
3 hours: Discussion and review of the final graduation project.
- Assessment System and Attendance Requirements: Attendance of no less than 75% of lectures, with continuous assessment based on assignments and periodic exercises, applied workshops, and tests.
- Certificate and Graduation Project: The graduate is awarded a Professional Diploma in Screenwriting certificate after completing and discussing the graduation project, represented by writing a complete screenplay for a short film or preparing the complete dramatic treatment for a television series.
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