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Back to Script Writing: Write a Pilot Episode for a TV or Web Series (Project-Centered Course)

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Script Writing: Write a Pilot Episode for a TV or Web Series (Project-Centered Course) by Michigan State University

4.5
stars
737 ratings

About the Course

What you’ll achieve: In this project-centered course*, you will design a series bible and write a complete pilot episode for your own unique television or web series, be it drama or comedy or something in between. You’ll learn to break down the creative process into components, and you’ll discover a structured process that allows you to produce a polished and pitch-ready script in just a few weeks. Completing this project will increase your confidence in your ideas and abilities, and you’ll feel prepared to pitch your first script and get started on your next. Here is a link to a trailer for the course. To view the trailer, please copy and paste the link into your browser. https://vimeo.com/423035246/6b3c18c4c5 This is a course designed to tap into your creativity and is based in "Active Learning". Most of the actual learning takes place within your own activities - that is, writing! You will learn by doing. "Thank you so much for your direct way of teaching this course. It was encouraging for us all to creatively flow and find our own voice in writing and developing our scripts. This aspect was very important to me." Ingrid The course curriculum is simple: you’ll write, revise your work, and share feedback with your peers. I am a proponent of Experiential Learning (active learning). My lectures are short (sometimes just two minutes long) and to the point, designed in a step-by-step process essential to your success as a script writer. I will guide you but I won’t "show" you how to write. I firmly believe that the only way to become a writer is to write, write, write. “David's lecture style for this course is inspired. The videos are succinct and engaging. When I watch the lectures I feel David’s sincere desire for me to create something truly amazing. He is teaching us how to write a script, and he is providing wisdom and tools that will help us do so in a compelling way - by writing; not by watching him talk at us.” - A R Adamson What you’ll need to get started: To begin with, any basic word processor will do. During week two, you can choose to download some free scriptwriting software such as Celtx or Trelby or you may choose to purchase Final Draft, or you can continue to use your word processor and do your own script formatting. Learner Review: "I am in love with this course. Having never written a script before, or any substantive fiction since college (15 years ago) I had a small idea in my head that has now exploded into something I really believe in. David's guidance is spot on, he's his own compelling story teller, he gives you enough, and then you have to figure it out, make it happen, WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! " If you have any concerns regarding the protection of your original work, Coursera's privacy policy protects the learner's IP and you are indeed the sole owners of your work. *About Project-Centered Courses: This is a ‘project-centered course’, which means it is designed specifically to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of learners with similar goals providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share. Time: 1-2 hours of study, 30+ hours of active project work...

Top reviews

AA

Jun 13, 2016

David Wheeler is awesome, and I love this course! I am so glad that Coursera and Michigan State University have partnered to offer this course to those of us who have a thirst for learning! Thank you!

MT

Jan 10, 2017

Amazing course. Without useless talking, we are immediately thrown into action, and start working immediately. This course helped me gain priceless empiric experience, and finally start writing.

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201 - 225 of 291 Reviews for Script Writing: Write a Pilot Episode for a TV or Web Series (Project-Centered Course)

By Bryan G

May 7, 2019

It was a great learning experience!!

By susana h

Sep 1, 2020

I learned so much from this course.

By Dylan M

Aug 21, 2017

Had a lot of fun and learned a lot!

By Francisco F G L

Feb 21, 2019

Great course, amazing experience!

By Manuel A R S

Sep 5, 2019

Very practical and demanding :)

By Chris J B

Oct 17, 2023

Good course. I learned a lot.

By Gabriel M M

Aug 4, 2020

So spectacular!!! really good

By HG

Mar 8, 2018

So helpful! Loved this class.

By Tanmay A

Sep 15, 2018

Very useful course!

By Vishal S

Jun 24, 2016

Fantastic course!

By Mojdeh E r

Oct 8, 2021

best course ever

By Jesus G

Dec 18, 2018

Great teaching

By Carolyn P

Dec 1, 2020

love tv shows

By Deleted A

Sep 1, 2017

Great course

By Vladimir M ( М

May 16, 2020

Wery well!

By Israel H

Oct 18, 2021

Loved it.

By JK S

Apr 26, 2019

excellent

By muhammad s m

Sep 18, 2023

good

By Stephen D

Apr 29, 2020

This course is intended to support writing a pilot script, which was achieved.

The reason why this course go 4 stars- My actual review would be 3.5. is because the Teacher David does not review your work personally, he does not give you any format for things, Such as a Cold open or a character structure in a few sentences. Ect.

Instead, we get a vague overview of a loose structure that doesn't let us know details and specifics. Such as: A cold open is scene that is before and after the script that is about 1 page long and can give a piece of the story that also has a beginning middle end. It must include the main characters and also have as much dialogue as possible. Also, when writing your character descriptions and your Web bible it is best to write something in 2 or 3 sentences, focus on the core of the characters ("good hearted, KInd") Something specific.

The reason why I write this is because I have spent numerous nights/ hours reading other people's and mine in the beginning on characters details and relationships and basically a lot of information that was not needed in the character description.

Also, I would spend many hours review people work about this characters past and what they thought and the characters actions as if the script was a novel- not a script. Which made many stories long with unnecessary sentences.

Lastly, to improve this class and mention to future takers of this class, THIS WHOLE CLASS IS BASED ON PEER REVIEW. The Class is based on a 0 or a 20 .. nothing in-between. So, if someone doesn't like your work- they won't give you a review that good.,, more or less a 0 which lowers your grade.

Be prepared to pour yourself for hours over other people's work that I was not interested in. I am certain others have done that through my work, which may have been alright.

It would be helpful to have this on a 1-5 scale.. only for review. Not to be graded upon.

Again, I would give this class a 3.5 star. Good luck.

Stephen

By Mary B

Aug 14, 2020

Great presentation of structure of a TV pilot/episode. I thought David Wheeler's videos were really good. Thanks for providing transcripts! The instruction was simple and spot-on. I'd like it if constructive criticism/feedback were REQUIRED when evaluating others' work. One woman seemed very vindictive after I evaluated her episode, and graded me down after that, which I found really disheartening. Working in groups was mostly a lot of fun, but creating an actual group was a little iffy. We could only scrape together five people, and one finished the course early (or was finishing up a rescheduled course late) and never participated, though he asked that we review his coursework. Another never showed up for any meetings, didn't post, etc., and so was simply never present in the group. The remaining three of us did get a lot out of our meetings, however, and we still share info. What a great way to meet other writers in other countries! That was my favorite part. One of our group had one of her episode acts stolen--her .pdf was copied, the name changed, and it was submitted as the plagiarizer's own work within 24 hours. I don't know if this was resolved, but "EEEK." A writer's worst nightmare. How about providing a written .doc or .rtf template/sample of page/element formatting? And links to sites or software for formatting and for script submissions to production companies? I am fortunate enough to have FinalDraft 11, but the formatting was tricky and, I can only imagine, tedious and frustrating for those who don't have it. I also imagine that some students are like "What now?" "Where do I send my finished script?" after the class. A great class and I enjoyed having good instruction and the challenge of deadlines (call me weird) very much.

By Chew W Y

Oct 3, 2016

Positives:-

Good practice with the exciting world of script writing

Learnt how to use the scriptwriting software Celtx.com

Some aspects of the videos were helpful and instructive e.g. teaching us how to write a cold open

Areas of improvement:-

The beginner's course is entirely graded on peer reviews where one could get a range of divergent opinions on the same story, at times scathing and not constructive. Reviewers (who are purported to be beginners themselves) also at times give seemingly 'blind' grades without sharing constructive comments.

The questions that you are graded on e.g. Do you feel immersed in the story? Is the story unique? are highly subjective and solely dependent on the reviewer's fleeting preferences. It would help if the questions were more nuanced and focused on the structure and technical aspects of script writing e.g. format, grammar, three part structure

Lessons were too short and instructional (less than 10 mins of videos for each lesson) only for certain areas; it seemed like one of the major takeaways was to keep writing which is sensible but not helpful from a beginner's point of view.

Suggestions:-

To maintain some objectivity in grading: Mask the general comments section when a reviewer is giving his comments as negative comments from other peers could influence more negativity and vice versa.

Give some guidelines on reviewing to prevent the grading process from turning into trolling.

Would appreciate more helpful lessons with deeper content!

By Bence B

Sep 23, 2021

It was a great experience to learn the fundamentals of the course. But the platform, this website is quite difficult to navigate. There are weird steps to go back and forth between weeks and assignments, not clear channel of communication among fellow peers and most importantly with our mentor. There should be a message board or at least an email address we, students can write to. There is a forum but its very messy and hard to follow. I completed this course a year and a half ago and never got my certificate because I pressed a wrong button and accidentally extended my deadlines. This should be a reversible step not something that makes you wait weeks to complete your course. I am not alone with this issue. I now returned after a year and I still don't know when and if I can get my certificate because something was still missing from my submissions but when I went through them step by step I saw all my submissions having been rated. With that said I learned a lot and I am very grateful. I can highly recommend. Hopefully the website and communication channels will be improved! :)

By Leo H

Apr 30, 2020

I think the peer reviews system is flawed some people don't put the time and effort into reading each script and just give others bad reviews for no reason. I also think people should be able to reply to comments left on their work. This will allow people to get more in depth feedback especially if the initial feedback was unclear. I think people should be put into peer review groups at the start that way people will be looking at the same stories the whole way through so they really get a feel for the characters and can give better reviews. I would have also like some more feedback from a mentor at the end of the course. But I really liked the course and really enjoyed writing the script I really like all the feedback you get along the way this was a great thing to do whilst stuck inside especially as because my GCSE'S were cancelled I had no work to do. Thanks.

By Yomna F

Aug 11, 2020

I loved the course, it had me hooked since day one. This was my first time trying screenwriting, I accidentally enrolled in the course and I decided to go for it and I have absolutely no regrets.

The videos are extremely helpful, but they can still be a bit more detailed to give complete understanding of everything. The mentor was very helpful. The course is flexible and you can submit your work more than once, with enough room for improvement.

I had trouble finding a group to work with and review their work, so maybe at the start of the course groups should be assigned according to genre for example. That way, one can review same works each week and give a review based on complete understanding of the work.

By Elizabeth S K

Mar 20, 2018

Fantastic introduction to screenwriting and generally good, exhaustive feedback from mentor Jan Zurcher at the end (especially feedback regarding scriptwriting conventions/format).

At the same time, for unsolicited feedback this was a little discouraging; especially the bit where Jan said he didn’t feel engaged, as others had said they did feel engaged. I feel at this early stage, we need constructive feedback but also an incentive to go on, a degree of validation encouraging us to nurture our strengths. I feel the rest will come with practice. In this regard, I found Jan's feedback discouraging rather than constructive.