Screenwriting: Crafting Your Sci-Fi Feature
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About this Live Online Course
"Fantastic, eye-opening, brain-expanding course. Syllabus was great. Lectures personal and passionate yet informed and all course advisors and staff were superb."
—Eileen W., Los Angeles, CA, USA
Sundance Collab offers a robust collection of online courses in the Sundance spirit of amplifying your independent voice as a storyteller. Join our global community to hone your craft, network with other creators, and develop career strategies to help you navigate the film and television industry.
Learn how to give shape and form to the outline of your science-fiction (sci-fi) screenplay with experienced screenwriters as your guides. In this live, eight-week online course, you move from idea to outline through a review of the foundations of screenwriting craft, and lessons on character, conflict, world-building, and the components of the various speculative fiction, futurist storytelling and sci-fi genres.
In class sessions, you will analyze clips from films, complete interactive exercises, and discuss concepts with course advisors. Designated homework designed to move your concept to a completed outline is reviewed by your advisor. The course concludes with a one-on-one mentoring session with your advisor focused on your project.
By the end of the course, you will:
- gain an overview of the genre (utopian, dystopian, fantasy) and the difference between “film genre” and “story genre.”
- understand the differences between science fact and science fiction.
- learn the difference between a beat sheet, an outline, and a treatment.
- understand the foundations of screenwriting, including three-act and alternative structures.
- sharpen your main and secondary characters.
- create mood and manage the tone of your story.
- build a complex science fiction world with clarity on time and space and imbued with humanity and imagination.
- identify your character arcs and set up character conflicts.
- learn how to process notes from your peers, collaborators, and production executives.
This course is ideal for:
- first-time writers who would like to understand the core concepts of sci-fi screenwriting and how to move their project forward.
- experienced writers who want a more formal setting and/or the guidance of an experienced sci-fi writer.
Course enrollment is approximately 50 participants, with a participant to advisor ratio of 12-to-1. To apply, you must have an idea for a sci-fi screenplay.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Accommodations and services are designed to meet the needs of each participant. Please email us at accessibility@sundance.org to arrange for services.
Live Online CourseOutline
Topics covered include:
- Introductions to Screenwriters
- The science fiction genre overview
- What makes a concept science fiction?
- What’s your core idea? Why is it science fiction? Why do we care?
Topics covered include:
- World-building in sci-fi
- Building an atmosphere
- Exposition do’s and don’ts
Topics covered include:
- Architecture of three-act structure
- Writing a beat sheet
Topics covered include:
- Review of three-act structure
- Developing your characters
- Understanding the elements of film plotting
Topics covered include:
- The universal issue of plot holes and paradoxes
- Types of time travel
- How time travel affects character
- How time travel affects plot
- Crafting your time travel plot
Topics covered include:
- The message in sci-fi
- Changing the narrative (more sub-genres)
- Getting your ideas on the page
- Troubleshooting your outline
Topics covered include:
- Finishing the outline and going to draft
- Building a career (indie, studio, television)
- Making your own film
- The sci-fi community
- Next steps
The course concludes with a one-on-one mentoring session with your advisor
Team
Julia Camara
Advisor
Julia Camara is a Brazilian writer/filmmaker. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, she freelanced for years as a Portuguese translator for film and television subtitling. She has written and directed several award-winning short films. Her feature directorial debut In Transit, an experimental drama shot mostly in one day and with improvised dialogue, won Best Experimental Film at four different festivals. Julia also wrote the sci-fi feature Area Q (starring Isaiah Washington), the road movie Open Road (starring Andy Garcia, Juliette Lewis and Camilla Belle), and the award winning sci-fi found footage feature Occupants aka Alterverse (starring Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo). Occupants aka Alterverse has screened at 150 festivals all over the world and has won over 100 awards including a Telly Award for writing. Julia teaches Screenwriting at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She developed two brand-new courses since she started teaching; Inclusive Screenwriting, a course designed for the development of stories around underrepresented communities, and Writing a Low Budget Feature Film. In the Fall of 2020, Julia self-published the eBook That’s What She Wrote, a collection of articles and interviews about screenwriting and filmmaking. Julia works as an advisor for Sundance Co//ab. Some of her courses include: Crafting Your Sci-Fi Feature, Revising Your Feature Screenplay and Writing Your First Act. Some of Julia’s writing can be seen on WeScreenplay blog, Luz Collective, Student Filmmaker Magazine, and Ms. In The Biz archives. Julia is a staff writer for season 2 of the narrative sci-fi podcast Crypto-Z. Her latest project, Stronghold, an indie thriller she wrote and directed, is in post-production.
Celia C. Peters
Advisor
Celia C. Peters is a filmmaker creating daring futurist stories about intriguing, authentic characters. Peters is currently developing her afrofuturist feature film GODSPEED with producers Gabrielle Glore, Erika Alexander and Ben Arnon. She is a 2024 Artist-in-Residence with the Betti Ono Foundation and was curator of the 2024 Black History Month film program at the SFO (Airport) Museum. She directed and co-produced SHUTDOWN (2023), a historical documentary presented by The Ohio State University and in 2022, she launched her science fiction audio drama DOMESTICATED. In 2022, Peters was named a Cultural Strategist in Government for the City of Oakland at the African American Museum and Library of Oakland. In this role, she is creating digital and immersive media from Oakland's Black history and producing a short documentary on Huey P. Newton, which is forthcoming in 2025.
In 2021, Peters curated Blackness Revisualized, WNET/AllArts.org's inaugural afrofuturist film festival. She is also an ongoing Advisor to Sundance Co//ab courses, including "Beyond the First Act"; "Writing Your First Act!" and "Screenwriting: Crafting Your Sci-Fi Feature." In 2019-2020, Peters was a lecturer at Ohio State University. She created the B.A.M.N. (By Any Means Necessary) filmmaking course and Screenwriting Basics course that she's taught to youth and adults. In 2018, she delivered a keynote speech at the NAACP National Convention and attended the Talent Lab at the Reykjavik International Film Festival with feature project Godspeed. In 2017, Peters was awarded a Residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts for her experimental sci-fi short film MISSION. Her screenplays have been prize-winning and recognized in competition. Her work has screened in Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Berlin, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Cleveland and London; also on public and cable television. She has produced content for Afropunk, New York Comic Con and California African American Museum (L.A.). Peters is an honors graduate of University Michigan with a B.A. in French and Political Science, and holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. She also did graduate studies in clinical psychology at NYU.
FAQ
In Sundance Collab’s Live Online courses, participants attend live, virtual class sessions on the same day and time for a specified period. These sessions are led by an instructor and in some cases, supported by a team of advisors. In some courses, you are given assignments with submission deadlines to help you take the next step with your work.
- Each week you will be able to attend live lectures via Zoom video and ask questions of your instructor.
- In some courses, you will receive individualized feedback from your course advisor on elements of your work.
- In some courses, you will have the opportunity to have a 1-on-1 session with your advisor. Depending on the course, this session may be included or may be purchased separately for an additional cost. Check the course description for specifics.
All members of the Sundance Collab community are welcome to register for Sundance Collab courses. Please review the course description and any eligibility requirements to ensure the course is a good fit. If you have any questions about a course, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
Note that space is limited. If the registration window is open, you will see a “Register” button on the course page. If there is an application, applications are considered as they are received and applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the course is full or the deadline has passed, whichever comes first.
We do not allow creative partners to do our live online courses as a team. However, both creators can individually register for the course.
Part of Sundance Collab's unique educational approach is to create a teaching team for every course. Each class is led by an instructor who may be accompanied by additional course advisors. This allows us to keep an intimate ratio of participants to advisors and to provide a diversity of voices and approaches to the course content.
We often offer a limited number of need-based, full or partial scholarships. Check the course description to see if that course currently has scholarships available. Scholarships are prioritized for one per person per year (from the date of issue). Scholarship applications are available up to one week before the registration deadline. To apply for a scholarship,complete the registration form by clicking the REGISTER button and selecting the option to apply for a scholarship, if available.
Applicants will be notified about their scholarship decision prior to the first day of the course. Due to the volume of applicants, we are not always able to provide a scholarship, but we may still offer a spot in the course. In this case, depending on the course, payment plans may be available and can be selected at checkout.
Yes, we offer two or three-part payment plans for Live Online courses, depending on the length of the course. In all cases, the first payment is due at the point of registration. The remaining payment(s) are spread out throughout the course term. For specific payment plan dates for a course, please reach out to our team at: collab_courses@sundance.org.
Yes, you are welcome to take a live, online course even if you can’t make the live sessions. Recordings of each class session are available online by the following day so you can keep up with the course lectures. For courses that include a 1-on-1 session with an advisor or instructor, the meeting is scheduled according to your (and their) availability.
All sessions are recorded and usually made available within one business day. The videos will also contain the chat and transcript from the class session, viewable in the video playbar.
Participants will have access to the recordings for one year following the last class session.
All participants will receive a Certificate of Completion. The certificate will include the name associated with your Sundance Collab account.
You can find any courses that you are enrolled in or have already completed in the profile section of your Sundance Collab account under “Courses.”
You can join a course via a computer or mobile device. All of our live, online courses are conducted via Zoom.
Download and set up the Zoom software (https://zoom.us/download) and make sure you have the latest update. Here are some great resources from Zoom’s Knowledge Base to take a deeper dive into using Zoom:
- Watch Zoom's Video Tutorials or review training materials on the Getting Started page
- Join a Live Training from Zoom
If you have any further questions, please email collab_courses@sundance.org.
Sundance Collab provides accommodations and support services to participants with disabilities. Please contact us at (435) 776-7790 or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to ask any questions or to discuss your specific needs after you have been accepted into the course.
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