Screen Alliance Wales welcomed the brilliant Zina Wegrzynski, Development Executive and Writer in Residence at Bad Wolf, to host the online Script Writing for TV Drama course. Over the three-day course, Zina discussed everything from the structure of a story, all the way to the development of a TV show. The lucky participants were given a masterclass in the art of on-screen storytelling and got the chance to ask questions to an industry professional. With many credits to her name, Zina was an amazing host of the course and put on three, truly brilliant learning sessions.

Day one started with introductions and a brief explanation of what the participants will learn over the space of the 3-day course. The session looked at Character, and what it is that makes a character iconic. After this, Zina took the participants through the various genres that are often seen within film and TV, and the expectations and confinements of each one.

Day two - Zina went through the fundamentals of story arc and structure, looking at the 3 and 5-act structures and how film and TV shows fit into these types of formats. She went into great detail about how a character interacts within different formats, using popular films and TV shows as reference points. She also discussed the A, B and C plots of a story and how much of a script should be dedicated to each one.

Day three – after the bank holiday weekend, the final day was all about the development stage of a TV show. There are many additional documents needed when pitching your idea to agents and companies; primarily, a pitch, a treatment, and a bible. Zina summarised by taking us through the ‘Life of a TV Series’, discussing every stage of the scripting process from development to post-production. Finally, Zina then took time to answer any questions that the participants had.

It was a great course and Zina was fantastic! The participants came away from the course with a far greater understanding of the Scriptwriting process, and through collaborative work, got the chance to interact with other writers. Don’t just take our word for it, here are just some of the glowing reports from the participants themselves…

“The three days were absolutely brilliant - Zina managed to cover screenwriting theory and the nature of the industry whilst finding time to answer any questions we had. I will definitely keep an eye out for future courses!”

“I got so much out of the course with Zina this week. Zina was engaging, kind, encouraging, focussed and gave such a great guide and speed through screenwriting and the business of it all for us. I loved it!”

“Thank you all very much for the TV Drama Writing Course, it was great. The content was insightful, the information shared was useful and Zina's delivery was spot on”. 

“The structure and content of the course were excellent. Sam and Zina are friendly, highly professional, well organised and highly communicative. Zina’s knowledge and experience are excellent.  The conduct and tone of the online interactions were managed incredibly well. I got a lot of affirmation and encouragement from these three days and can pass this on to students with complete confidence.  Thank you SAW”.

A huge thank you to Zina for taking the time out to put on this amazing course. We hope to put on similar courses in the future, so make sure to follow us on social media and check our website for all the latest updates on what we have coming up!