ClassInfo

DC 406 Writing the Half-Hour Series

Spring 2016-2017
Class number: 33495
Section number: 901
W 5:45PM - 9:00PM
14EAS 00209 Loop Campus

Summary

Welcome to DC 406-901, ?Writing The Sitcom,? Wednesdays 5:45-9:00pm, DePaul Loop Campus, 14 East Jackson, Room #211. This is an eleven-week course in how to create what I like to call a complete TV Pilot Presentation. In the next eleven weeks, we will be attempting to accomplish the impossible?to conceive, package and market your pilot idea, not to mention constructing a detailed outline of what will become your pilot script.



Texts

Every week, the night before class, the student will receive a handout relevant to that week's lecture.


WEEK ONE, Wednesday, March 29th, 2017
?Introduction and Treatments?

The student will concern his or herself with articulating his or her idea in a three-stage process. First, the student will write and rewrite, in twenty-five words or less the logline or pitch for their emerging idea. The student should be prepared to rewrite his or her logline a lot, until it?s the best it can be. Second, the student will expand that pitch into a paragraph of between three to five sentences, with a special emphasis on the characters. Third, the student will expand said paragraph into a page of between five to seven paragraphs, with a special emphasis on an emerging marketing strategy, answering the question, ?Why should we produce this?? The student will come up with two similar shows which have been done in the past, ?THIS MEETS THIS,? (example: ?Blackadder? meets ?Cheers?) that will help the reader further understand the emerging idea; also I, as your instructor, can begin to look for real shooting scripts which are vaguely in the neighborhood of what the student is attempting.

WEEK TWO, Wednesday, April 5th, 2017 ?Character Descriptions? The student will focus on describing the emerging characters involved with his or her pilot: the core ensemble and possibly the recurring characters. Typically this list should be small--although there are exceptions to everything, probably no more than six. Each character description is a separate pitch (containing information, humor and marketing umph). Adjust your treatments (logline, paragraph, page) to fit your emerging idea. WEEK THREE, Wednesday, April 12th, 2017 ?Episode Scenarios? With the basic premise conceived and a cast of characters in place, the student will move on to, creating no less than six episode scenarios that stress the longevity of the series? premise and the range of the characters involved. Each of these scenarios should be thought of as a pitch (containing information, humor and marketing umph). Along with displaying originality, the Episode Scenarios will also reassure the potential ?buyer? of the series uniqueness. WEEK FOUR, Wednesday, April 19th, 2017 ?One-On-One Meeting, Promos? Students will each arrange to meet with the instructor to discuss the Treatment(s), Character Descriptions, and Episode Scenarios?with a special emphasis being placed on better vs. best. Also, the student will assemble all elements into a package and begin to conceive a campaign for bringing the series idea to fruition. The student will then conceive and script two, two-minute promotional video scripts, the first as if he or she had unlimited resources in terms of a production budget; and the second, as if he or she had no budget. WEEK FIVE, Wednesday, April 26th, 2017 ?Page-by-Page Outline? With the student?s overall vision clarified, he or she can proceed with confidence to further clarify the absolute best episode scenario into what will become the pilot script. He or she will begin by doing a page-by-page outline of a similar show (see the ?This meets this? component from the WEEK ONE), by first breaking down each page of the existing, current show into sentence fragments. With a new, organic sense of how a television episode is constructed, the student begins to describe his or her pilot story in sentence fragments (broad strokes) denoting the pilot script?s emerging pages. WEEK SIX, Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017 ?Classic Sitcom Outline? By using the page-by-page sentence fragment description as a kind of template, the student moves on to a classic sitcom outline denoting location, cast and brief description of each scene. WEEK SEVEN, Wednesday, May 10th, 2017 ?First Half: First Draft? The student adheres doggedly to his or her outline and blows through the first half in an all out effort to just get the dialogue down on paper, and not spending too much time second guessing the script?s first draft. Just get it done! WEEK EIGHT, Wednesday, May 17th, 2017 ?Second Half: First Draft? Second verse, same as the first. The student continues to adhere doggedly to his or her outline and finishes the first draft of the script, with a special emphasis on structure, and not so much on character or jokes. WEEK NINE, Wednesday, May 24th, 2017 ?Rewrites? With an entire first draft completed, the student is now able to stare more affectively at the whole script, and get a sense of exactly can be improved. Stage directions are edited, TBA?s are determined (i.e. better jokes or ?alts? are conceived), and special attention is paid to the ending. WEEK TEN, Wednesday, May 31st, 2017 ?The Packet and The Pitch? The student will include those two promo video scripts, along with his or her entire TV Pilot Presentation (Treatments, Character Descriptions, Episode Scenarios, and Pilot Script), and turn them into the instructor. The student will then ?pitch? his or her pilot to the instructor.

School policies:

Changes to Syllabus

This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L and sent via email.

Online Course Evaluations

Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely separate from the student’s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation. Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

This course will be subject to the university's academic integrity policy. More information can be found at http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/ If you have any questions be sure to consult with your professor.

All students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of Academic Integrity.

Academic Policies

All students are required to manage their class schedules each term in accordance with the deadlines for enrolling and withdrawing as indicated in the University Academic Calendar. Information on enrollment, withdrawal, grading and incompletes can be found at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/PoliciesandProcedures.aspx.

Students with Disabilities

Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296