Proposed syllabus for Qalam

Proposed syllabus for Qalam

Qalam

Module 1

1. Concept/story idea: - what makes a good concept/idea for television? What are the elements necessary for an idea/concept to become a winning story? What is a concept/idea? How is it different from a full-fledged story? High-end concepts. Examples of recent television successes of good concepts/ideas.
2. Concept to story (The process): - how is a concept/idea developed into a full-fledged story? What elements are required in creating a good story? Define story in two lines. Create characters for your story; create obstacles, dramatic points in the story. The plot: - Its importance, twists in plots. Eg's of plots twists from current and old successful soaps. Television stories end? If they do then how to end a story?
Different kinds of story: - The daily soap story, the series story, the comedy, the thriller story, Tv mini series stories and stories for TV films. How are they different?
3. Story Elements: - Characters: - How to create interesting characters? What
Makes characters tick? Different kinds of characters, the protagonist (hero/heroine) the antagonist, subsidiary characters, relief characters. Character stories/biographies. Polarisation of characters in a story, changing equation among characters.

Module - 2

1. Teleplay: - elements of teleplay: - How to weave story into an interesting teleplay? What is teleplay? How is it different from story? What elements constitute interesting teleplay? Eg's of recent episodes from hit serials? Examining the reason for their success. What is a sub plot? How is it important to the story and teleplay? How to weave subplots into main story and teleplay.
2. Graphing of story for teleplay: - Creation of mile stones/Plot points in the story. Running parallel tracks of subplots along with main story. Interweaving of subplots with milestones of main story and plot points.
3. Difference in teleplay of various kinds of stories: - how to write teleplay for comedy, daily soap, weekly soap, mini series, one hour episode, Tv film.
4. Teleplay of an episode: - what constitutes episodic teleplay? Creating of parallel tracks and its importance in weaving teleplay of episodes.
5. Cliffhanger end/The hook: - how to create cliff hangar ends to episodes? Its importance.

Module - 3

1. The importance of scene: - what is a scene? How to create scenes for teleplay? Breaking of individual tracks into scenes. How do scenes lead to story forward? The opening scene, the end scene, the filler scene. The Dana dalna scene. Its importance. The recurring theme scene, its importance. Character exposition scene. What is character exposition? Its importance! Plot exposition scene, its importance. Examples of all the above concepts.
2. The dialogue: - what is dialogue? Importance of dialogues. What elements constitute good dialogue? Dialogues in character exposition. Dialogues for different genres like comedy, soap, thriller and Tv film.

Module - 4

1. Assignments: - create a story from an idea/concept, create characters, develop its plot points and overall graph. Write an episodic teleplay. Write dialogues for an episode.

The entire course should be of 12 weeks with twice a week to thrice a week lectures. Each module will take up 3 weeks and 6 to 9 sessions.