How to Write a Screenplay with AI: From Idea to Finished Script
Learn how to write a screenplay with AI, from a blank page to a finished, formatted script, in this free course. No experience needed: we start from zero and write a short film together.
Chapters (8)
In this lesson you will learn
- What the writing room is: Part 1 of ScreenWeaver, completely free to use
- The course path, from screenplay format to logline, outline and story beats
- How to use AI as a writing partner to brainstorm, draft, rewrite and import scripts
- The three formats covered: a feature film, a series episode and a short vertical drama
- The course project, The Night Ferry: three pages, two characters and a twist
- How the course is organised: six sections, short lectures, exercises and quizzes
This free screenwriting course shows you how to write a screenplay with AI, from the first idea to a finished, formatted script. You work in the writing room, Part 1 of ScreenWeaver, which is free to use. First you learn screenplay format element by element: scene headings, action lines, characters and dialogue. Then you learn story structure with loglines, outlines and story beats, and finally you bring in AI the right way, as a writing partner that helps you brainstorm, draft, rewrite and import scripts you already have.
Along the way you watch one short film being written from logline to last line: The Night Ferry, a three-page story about an old ferryman who breaks his rule for a young woman in a yellow raincoat. No experience is needed, and by the end your own screenplay is ready for the storyboard.
Full transcript
0:04Every film you've ever loved started the same way. A few pages of text. Before the cameras, before the actors, before a single frame was generated, someone sat in front of a blank page and wrote a screenplay. In this course, that someone is you.
0:22My name's Frank, I'm a filmmaker, and I built Screenweaver to make films with AI. From the first line of the script to the final cut. Part one of Screenweaver is the writing room. It's where the story is born, and it's completely free to use. This course is a complete guide to that part.
0:42Here's what we'll do together. We'll learn the screenplay format, element by element. Scene headings, action lines, characters, dialogue. We'll learn the craft of structure, what a logline is, what an outline is, what story beats are, and how they turn an idea into a story that holds an audience.
1:04Then we'll bring in AI, the right way. Not to write the film for you, but as a writing partner. To brainstorm, to draft, to rewrite, and to import scripts you already have. And we'll adapt everything to three formats. A feature film, a series episode, and a short vertical drama.
1:26All along the course, we'll write one complete short film together. The Night Ferry. An old ferryman, who never takes passengers after midnight, breaks his rule for a young woman in a yellow raincoat. And halfway across the lake, she knows things no stranger could know. Three pages, two characters, a twist. You'll watch it being built, from the logline, to the last line.
1:53You don't need any experience. If you've never written a screenplay, that's perfect. We start from zero. If you have, you'll learn how to make ScreenWeaver work at your speed. In the resources, you'll find a format cheat sheet, the keyboard shortcuts, a beat sheet, a logline template, and the full script of the Night Ferry.
2:15Here's how the course works. Six sections, short lectures, and each one ends with a small exercise, so that by the last lecture, your own script is finished too. At the end of sections two to five, a short quiz checks the essentials. And you can watch the lectures in any order, but the first time, follow them in order. Each one builds on the one before.
2:40By the end of this course, you'll have a finished screenplay on the page, structured, formatted, and ready for the next step, the storyboard. Let's start with a quick tour of the writing room.