Write a Short Film Screenplay at NYFA
In this intensive one-week hands on camp, students will bring a developed idea for a short film. This program is a combination of theory and practical experience, as students study the core elements of screenwriting while working in supervised writing labs. Students leave the workshop with a first draft of a short film screenplay.
The camp is held at the prestigious LUISS University in the Middle of the Villa Ada park, central Rome, and taught by internationally produced playwright, screenwriter and novelist Colette Freedman. All courses are taught in English.
Program Description
Camp Name: 1-Week Screenwriting Camp for Teens
The screenwriting camp classes will be a combination of a lecture, and film examples every morning and a writing lab every afternoon – with one on one time with your instructor.
Here is the structure of the week-long camp:
- Day One- Structure. The importance of a three-act structure and the various approaches to structure.
- Day Two- Characters. The basis for any strong story is a set of strong dynamic characters – how do you find them, and how do you breathe life into them.
- Day Three – Dialogue. Film is a visual medium. How to create subtext and authentic dialogue.
- Day Four – World-building. How to build the universe where your characters live from indie films to big blockbusters.
- Day Five – The business. How to make it in Hollywood. Where to find the stories for your voice. How to break into the industry. How to physically make the short film you just wrote.
Ideally before the class, students should watch the following seven films as they will be used as examples in the core elements of filmmaking.
Ratatouille (2007)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Tootsie (1982)
The Godfather (1972)
Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Encanto (2001)
The Hunger Games (2012)
The goals of the screenwriting camp are ambitious, and students are required to do a significant amount of writing in the evenings. We recommend that students bring a tablet or laptop computer and download screenwriting software.
Tuition is $1600 USD. The $1,600 fees includes supervised housing for 6 nights in a shared bedroom nearby the main campus, all 3 meals and airport pick-up/drop off from Fiumicino airport (upon request).
To learn more about NYFA’s teen camps, visit the NYFA Camp Brochure.
Colette Freedman is an internationally produced playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her play Sister Cities has been produced around the country and internationally, including Paris (Une Ville, Une Soeur), Rome (Le Quattro Sorelle), and Australia. She also wrote the novel and the film which stars Jacki Weaver, Michelle Trachtenberg, Stana Katic and Alfred Molina.
She has authored ten books and is currently working on her eleventh. In collaboration with New York Times best-selling author Michael Scott, she wrote the thriller The Thirteen Hallows (Tor/Macmillan) Her other novels include The Affair and The Consequences (Kensington), Anomalies with Sadie Turner (Select Books) and I Wrote That One, Too with Steve Dorff (Backbeat Books).
She also wrote the film And Then There Was Eve which won best feature at the LA Film Festival 2017 and co-produced the film Quality Problems, which won several film festivals. Her film Miles Underwater is currently in post-production. She has produced and co-written over a dozen Lifetime thrillers with Brooke Purdy. Colette has several scripts in development, including Joint Venture, Scattering Rachel, and The Last Bookstore, which won Grand Prize at the CWA awards, We Screenplay’s Diverse Voices, Best SciFi Feature Action on Film, and Richmond International Film Festival.
Currently, her musical Serial Killer Barbie (Heuer Publishing) is gearing up for a tour of New Zealand, and she recently was the dramaturg for Mozart the Musical, which she conceived of with Tegan Summer, and played at Carnegie Hall in March 2023. Her Amelia Earhart film 7,000 Miles starring Wendie Malick is premiering on the festival circuit in August 2023. Colette is one of Hollywood’s top script doctors and ghostwriters and has taught screenwriting and playwriting at NYFA for the last six years.
This camp is held at the prestigious LUISS University (partnership with NYFA.)
Please visit our 2024 Summer Camp and Youth Program Schedule to find program hours by campus.
Luiss University provides several University Residences near the campuses. The Residences allow students to fully experience university life by immersing themselves in an international and stimulating environment. In detail, Summer School students will have the opportunity to experience the residences in the same way as university students. The main residence hall that will host the students is the one in Via Lisbona 7, adjacent to the Luiss campus in Viale Romania. The facility offers students common areas where they can study together and relax.
An ever-present figure during the Summer School experience is the Tutor, daytime and night tutor. The Tutor for Students is an ever-present reference for educational advice, personal support, and assistance for any kind of need.
The daytime tutor is the figure who supervises students for activities carried out at the university campus; his or her job is to provide support to the teaching staff during classes and to help students during test preparation and orientation. Students, therefore, will always be supported and followed by the daytime tutor during their time at the university.
The night tutor, on the other hand, is the figure who supports students during evening activities at the campus and during all outside activities. For many students, the residential Summer School may be their first experience away from home, during which they will sleep away from their families.
In this circumstance, the figure of the night tutor is crucial, both as support for the students and as security for the parents. In fact, night tutors sleep in the same facilities as the students, who for any need can go to the tutor, who will always be contactable, providing his or her phone number to the students and showing them where to find their room.
The tutor, however, is not only a supportive figure but also a friend with whom to chat about various topics relevant and not to the university path, like the figure of the “buddy” at the university, which is closer to that of the interested student, but able to provide the necessary information to face the path. The day of the night tutor ends after accompanying all students to the canteen for breakfast and after the “changing of the guard” with the daytime tutor.
