This 4-month generative screenwriting class will focus on writing new material for those working toward a TV show, web series, adaptation, short film, or feature script. This class is open to both narrative and documentary filmmakers. 

The class starts on February 4, 2026, Wednesday, and will meet every other week until May 27, 2026, Wednesday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Have you been yearning for a place to write your own screenplay, to dive into TV and film? Drawing on experience in both Hollywood and Indie filmmaking, this class will approach screenwriting through analyzing structure, dialogue, and image in filmmaking. We will look at the unique form of screenwriting, and how we can draw on other genres to influence our unique filmmaking voice, as well as what it means to adapt existing literary IP (both our own and others). We will examine poetic filmmaking, looking critically at the ways that lyric is used to enhance film, as well as looking at more commercial approaches to storytelling. We will examine the difference between structures of TV vs. feature writing, as well as short films and web series. We will also look at documentary films and hybrid films, considering the ethics of what happens when we merge out of the fictional space. This class will be generative—if you have been sitting on an idea for a film, web series, short film, or TV show and need structure and discipline to anchor you, this class is perfect for you. We will be discussing the business of filmmaking, what it means to break into the film industry, and also be able to share the work that we are generating in class with each other in workshop settings. 

We’ll start the semester with our intentions, creating individual plans per student—what project are you working on, what are the filmmakers who map your artistic lineage, what is your natural writing process? Midway through the class we’ll assess again—what themes do you notice are coming up in your work? What is the well within you? What surprises you? What do you notice about the project that you’ve embarked on? At the end, we’ll do a final assessment of the project and work that has been generated over the course of the class. 

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a critique-based workshop, there’s more about the fall term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.

In addition to the spring 4-month generative screenwriting class, this includes the fall 4-month screenwriting workshop, during which we’ll focus on working together to shape and revise your writing.

The spring semester starts on February 5, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until May 28, 2026 from Thursday 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET. The fall semester starts on August 27, 2026, Thursday, and will meet every other week until December 17, 2026, Thursday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

If you sign up for the full year of classes by January 31, 2026, an automatic 10% discount is applied.

Please note: if you’re interested in the full year, wonderful! The fall semester, which includes the workshop portion of the class, is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the full year, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

You can read testimonials from previous students here.

This 4-month screenwriting workshop will focus on a particular film project that you are working on (TV show, feature film, web series, adaptation, short film, or documentary), to push it to a solid draft that you feel good about. This is similar to a thesis-level class at a MFA workshop. 

The class starts on August 6, 2026, Wednesday, and will meet every other week until December 16, 2026, Wednesday from 4-6:30pm PT / 7-9:30pm ET.

Please note: this class is application-based on a rolling basis. Before signing up for the fall term, please send a 10-page writing sample and a paragraph describing your project and what you hope to get out of the workshop to Trip Whitfield, trip dot whitfield at gmail dot com. We’ll get back to you soon with next steps.

In the fall workshop, we will focus on a careful analysis and discussion of screenplays that each participant is working on. We will get to know each other’s projects, each other’s goals, and dive deep in each project to really bring out the unique voice and truths that each project holds. We also will be reading and looking at films that exist in the world, in order to help us expand and examine ideas of craft, structure, form, and play. Using both participants' screenplays and existing work in the world, this class will push each participant towards getting closer to their unique voices, developing a filmmaking project that each participant can be proud of, pushing it to the next step. 

Our feedback sessions will be focused on discussing the truth that we see in the project, the voice that’s coming through in the script, and the idea of what this script is specifically offering that is unique. We will do table reads of parts of the script, to help benefit the writer by hearing the dialogue out loud. From there, our feedback will be based on how to get this script closer to the vision of itself that it is articulating and centering the writer—moving beyond ideas of what one “should” do, or our reactions or individual taste. I view workshop and feedback as a sacred container, a gift we bring each other by engaging thoroughly in each others’ work. And that will be upheld throughout the semester. 

Throughout the class, we also will discuss the industry of filmmaking, what it means to be a working writer, and pathways that are both traditional and non-traditional in a career as a filmmaker.

You can read testimonials from previous students here. If you’re interested in a generative class, there’s more about the spring term here; if you’re interested in both, you can learn more here.