Introduction to Professional Screenwriting: Creating and Selling your Movie Script

Led by screenwriter and ARU lecturer Toby Venables, co-creator and co-writer of the BAFTA-winning Netflix film "His House" (2020), this three-day course of workshops aims to develop your storytelling skills as a screenwriter and provide professional, real-world insights to help you break into the industry, with personal, one-to-one feedback on your own script project within six months of the completion of the course.

Many resources can tell you the basics of writing a feature screenplay. But then what?

This three-day series of practical workshops, led by an industry professional with four produced feature films to his credit, seeks to unravel some of the mystery and connect the practices of writing to the processes of the industry.

Each day tackles a different topic and a different part of the process, from conception, through pitching and development, to final script. There is also personal, one-to-one feedback available on your own script project within six months of the completion of the course.

Day One: Theme and Logline
Day Two: Character and Treatment
Day Three: Structure and Script

You will learn:

• The key to compelling characters
• The role of the ‘treatment’
• How pitching works
• Why structure comes last
• What really drives your story
• Where you need to focus in your next project
• What film execs want (and what they need)
• The strengths and weaknesses of your own script and possible improvements that you can make

Each workshop will also include a Q&A session in which participants have the opportunity to put any screenwriting or industry-related question to the workshop leader.

After the course, participants are invited to send their completed scripts or work in progress for one round of feedback from the session leader (final deadline for feedback: 14 December 2026).