Start Date
Thursday 17 July & Friday 18 July 2025, 11am - 4pm
Overview
How do words on a page become powerful images on screen? Adapting Screenwriting into Visual Film is a two-day course designed to bridge the gap between script and screen. Taught by a professional screenwriter and an experienced writer & filmmaker, this course explores the vital transition from written screenplay to visual storytelling. Participants will gain insight into the craft of writing screenplays—learning about story shape, subtext, dialogue, character arcs, and textual economy—while also delving into how those scripts are interpreted, shaped, and reimagined through directing, cinematography, and editing. By drawing on real-world examples from film and TV, and using scripts, storyboards, and film clips, we’ll examine how a scene evolves from page to picture. This is an opportunity to see both sides of the creative process and discover how writers and directors collaborate to bring stories to life.
This course aims to provide participants with an understanding of how a screenplay is translated into a visual film. It enables students to develop core screenwriting skills while also learning how directors and editors interpret and transform scripts into compelling visual narratives. It seeks to foster cross-disciplinary understanding between writers and filmmakers and support more effective storytelling.
This course is ideal for aspiring screenwriters, filmmakers, creative writers, and visual storytellers of all levels—whether you're just starting out or looking to deepen your understanding of how story and image work together. No prior experience in filmmaking or screenwriting is required, just curiosity and a desire to learn. Expect a dynamic mix of script analysis, story development, visual breakdowns, and hands-on exercises designed to unlock the mechanics of both writing for the screen and realising those words on film.
Syllabus
Day 1 – The Screenwriter as Visual Storyteller
11am–12pm – Session 1: Writing in Pictures
An introduction to screenwriting as a visual craft. We’ll explore how to ‘think in images’ and translate story beats into visual moments. Includes analysis of clips and their originating script pages, and a breakdown of how visual information is conveyed through action lines rather than dialogue.
12pm–1pm – Session 2: Show, Don’t Tell
We dive into the lexis and grammar of screenwriting to understand how to show character, conflict and emotion without stating it outright. Participants will examine examples where subtext, gesture, space, and movement carry meaning—and try writing a scene with no dialogue.
1pm–2pm – Lunch Break
2pm–3pm – Session 3: Visual Structure and the Shape of Story
A look at the key visual turning points of a screenplay—inciting incident, midpoint, climax—and how these moments can be designed for maximum cinematic impact. Includes the use of the ‘Fourteen Card’ and ‘Goal Sequence’ methods to build a story visually from the ground up.
3pm–4pm – Session 4: Cinematic Character and the Visual Arc
We’ll examine how characters change through action and visual decision-making, not exposition. This session includes character introduction techniques (what we see vs. what we’re told), and how costume, movement, props and space can be used to convey inner change.
Day 2 – From Visual Storyteller to Filmmaker: Adapting, Filming, and Editing the Script
11am–12pm – Session 1: Translating Script to Screen
This session bridges the gap between page and production. We’ll explore how directors and cinematographers interpret the visual cues embedded in a script, breaking down how scenes evolve from written action lines to storyboards and shot lists. Includes side-by-side comparisons of script excerpts and footage we can experiment with shooting during the course (tech provided but please feel free to bring a camera or smartphone with recording ability).
12pm–1pm – Session 2: Directing the Invisible
How do you preserve subtext, tone, and internal character arcs in performance and camera work? We’ll examine directing choices—blocking, lens selection, and actor movement —that keep the “show, don’t tell” ethos alive during filming. Includes an exercise in staging a short scene from a Day 1 script.
1pm–2pm – Lunch Break
2pm–3pm – Session 3: Editing as Visual Rewriting
Post-production is where visual storytelling is refined. This session covers how editing shapes rhythm, tone, and narrative clarity. We’ll analyse how different cuts of the same footage change the story and experiment with reordering Day 1 material to explore pacing, juxtaposition, and emotional flow. We'll look at how to use professional film editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro.
3pm–4pm – Session 4: The Cohesive Visual Language
We’ll conclude by looking at how filmmakers create a unified visual identity—through colour, framing, movement, and motif—so that every stage of the process (script, shoot, edit) speaks the same cinematic language. Participants will draft a short director’s vision statement and visual brief for a scene from their Day 1 script.
Please note that the ‘last date available to book’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure enrol as soon as possible. Registrations will not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm.
Course Lecturer: Adam Simpson & Dr Bernadette McBride
Represented by Alexandra Cory and Julia Wyatt at Berlin Associates, Adam is a playwright and Royal Television Society Award-winning screenwriter. His TV drama, One More Unfortunate, was short-listed for the Red Planet Prize. The subsequent stage adaption was performed nationwide. His next play, Saved by the Bell Jar, was shortlisted for the Bruntwood International Prize for Playwriting and is in development with BBC Radio Drama North and the Liverpool Everyman. He has penned episodes for continuing dramas across multiple platforms and has written for Jimmy McGovern’s MOVING ON for BBC1. Adam’s first episode, BEATEN, was Sunday Times Critic’s Choice. He’s written extensively for the Guardian and worked with both the Guardian and Faber on The Secret Teacher Book. Adam is currently writing for Waterloo Road (BBC1) and Hollyoaks (C4, E4) as well as working on original projects and a new, Liverpool-based Netflix drama.
Dr Bernadette McBride is an English writer, director, and creative practitioner of Irish heritage who lives and works in Liverpool. Her short film Ollphéist Mhara (Sea Monster) was officially selected for The Riviera Laurence Olivier Vivien Leigh film Award in the International Best Short Film category, and selected to be screened at FACT Liverpool as part of the forthcoming Remember Nature nationwide event in November 2025. She won an award for the 'Biggest Impact on the City of Liverpool' in 2019, she was shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize in 2020, and in 2022 she was shortlisted for 'The best UK nature-based social prescribing project' for her creative practitioner and social advocacy work.
Courses fees: Full fee £140
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