Aim: What is your theme in your screenplay and how do you communicate it?

Do Now: List in your notebooks the three things that are important when using conflict in your screenplays? These may be collected… (3 min.)

2.) Mini-lesson: Today, I want to talk about what the themes are of your scripts.
First of all, what is a theme? Turn and talk to your partner for 30 seconds I’ll pick someone at random in 30 seconds

Great, please click on the first link and read the first five paragraphs on the page, be prepared to discuss what the author says about theme in screenplays… You have two minutes.

http://sonofdoublefeature.blogspot.com/2008/03/screenwriting-101-theme-is-thing.html

Now Turn and talk to your partner and tell him or her what the author says about theme, be prepared to discuss it. I will pick on three random people in 1 minute.
(1 min.)

Share Out: So, who can tell the class what this author says is important about theme?

Click on the next link: Spend 1 minute reading the page…
http://www.screenwritingbasics.com/2010/02/screenwriting-tutorial-top-5-tips-when-writing-your-first-screenplay/
(1 min.)

Pairs:
Brainstorm 6 of your favorites, 3 from each partner, they can be from any genre of entertainment…
Work with your partner to see if you can write what the theme is for these popular shows, movies, etc. See if you can take a guess…
(3-5 min.)

Independent Practice: Remember, the theme is your main idea, and another thing you must be conscious of, along with good dialogue, and conflict.
Let’s practice this…

I’m going to give you a theme and I want you to create a dialogue that shows the theme clearly in the scene. I’m picking one that is pretty easy and pretty universal. I’m sure you’ve seen it before, but maybe didn’t realize it…

Create a dialogue between two characters, preferably two characters from your treatments. Create a scene with good dialogue, conflict, and the theme of “Love conquers all…” I want it in proper screenplay format and it should have at least 15 lines of dialogue…
Please write your scene on paper, so they’ll be usable for tomorrow, and you can finish them for homework if need be. You have 15 minutes…

Share out: Okay pens down, if you didn’t finish your scene, you can do so for homework, I’m going to call on three people at random to read theirs…

Summary: If you are finished I’ll collect it, if not finish it for homework. Tomorrow we will be having a quiz on what we’ve done this week…


I’m going to pick someone at random to tell me what this author says about theme…