Turn those great ideas into a big Hollywood screenplay or a lower budget feature film.

Do you have a brilliant idea for a movie but just don’t know how to start writing it for the big (or smaller) screen? Is there a book or story you’d love to adapt into a screenplay but don’t know where to start?

This two-day bootcamp will introduce beginning scriptwriters to the basic skills of writing for the screen with the three-act Hollywood feature film as our model. Using various film clips as models and examples, we’ll look at the industry standard format of film scripts, the basics of creating screen-characters, how to write interesting dialogue and how to understand and use film structure. We’ll also discuss aspects of the business of film and working as a professional in scriptwriting.

Learning outcomes

After the bootcamp, participants will have a deeper understanding of the elements listed below:

An understanding of what a screenplay should and should not do.
The various components of a screenplay.
How to use the screenplay format to tell an effective screen-based story.
How to plan, prepare, and create a screenplay.
How to further develop a screenplay after the first draft, and write for low budget filmmaking.
A fundamental comprehension of the professional practice of screenwriting in the film world.

Course dates

10:30am - 4:30pm, Saturday 29 March 2025
10:30am - 4:30pm, Saturday 5 April 2025

Format

This is a two-day course with a focus on craft; it will be held in-person at Queensland Writers Centre. This course is best suited to emerging screenwriters.

Flexible payment plans are available for this course. Please contact Queensland Writers Centre at admin@qldwriters.org.au or call (07) 3842 9922.

About Venero

As a screenwriter, Venero has worked with a number of production companies, including Tristram Miall Films (Strictly Ballroom, Children of the Revolution, Looking for Alibrandi) and Liberty Films (Fire, Medivac, The Day of the Roses, The Loves of Lionel's Life), on film adaptations of his novels. He teaches screenwriting at the University of Queensland.

Venero has published two collections of short stories and eleven novels, four of which have been published internationally. In 2002 his novel The Volcano won Best Australian Fiction Book in the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, and the same novel was shortlisted for the Courier Mail Book of the Year Award. Two years earlier his novel Firehead was shortlisted in the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. His latest novel, The Crying Forest, was published in 2022. His short stories have been anthologised internationally, including publications in Barcelona, Hungary, Canada and Serbia. As well as writing for adults, Venero has three illustrated books for younger readers.

For more information about Queensland Writers Centre’s Program of Events and answers to FAQs, please visit: www.queenslandwriters.org.au/program-info