| Course Name | Advanced Creative Writing |
| Code | Semester | Theory (hour/week) | Application/Lab (hour/week) | Local Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDM 370 | Fall/Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Prerequisites |
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| Course Language | English | ||||||||
| Course Type | Elective | ||||||||
| Course Level | First Cycle | ||||||||
| Mode of Delivery | - | ||||||||
| Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course | |||||||||
| Course Coordinator | - | ||||||||
| Course Lecturer(s) | |||||||||
| Assistant(s) | - | ||||||||
| Course Objectives | This course introduces students who have succeeded Creative Writing to complex techniques of storytelling & creating multilevel, in-depth storylines for writing stories, scripts & games |
| Learning Outcomes | The students who succeeded in this course;
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| Course Description | This course introduces students to industry-grade storytelling & advanced creative writing methods & equips them with skills needed to adapt to real life authoring jobs in the field of their choice. |
| Related Sustainable Development Goals | |
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| Core Courses | |
| Major Area Courses | X | |
| Supportive Courses | ||
| Media and Managment Skills Courses | ||
| Transferable Skill Courses |
| Week | Subjects | Required Materials |
| 1 | Hop On the Stagecoach: “A man named John Ford.” Extreme long shot of storytelling & writing techniques – The mechanics of building meaning & emotion | SCREENING – Intro sequence – Intro “Stagecoach” John Ford, 1939, United Artists |
| 2 | Uncharted: “Entering an unknown territory that is you.” Choosing & writing from personal experience – The good, the bad & the ugly parts of it | READING – Chapter 1 “On Writing” Stephen King, 2000, Scribner |
| 3 | Hero with a Thousand Faces: “Writer as an element of production.” Knowing your role in your story & its life | HANDOUT – Hero’s Journey “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” Joseph Campbell, 1949, Pantheon |
| 4 | Fabric of Space-Time: “Knowing your boundaries & breaking them.” Writing for production based mediums AKA how to squeeze your imagination into real life | PRESENTATION – Anecdotes “The Name of the Rose” Umberto Eco, 1983, Harcourt |
| 5 | Being There: “Kosinski, Chance & Sellers” Engineering a complex character & being honest about it – A tradition from Oedipus to Delicious & Wrestler | SCREENING – Sequences from movies “Being There” Hal Ashby, 1979, United Artists “Sympathy for Delicious“ Mark Ruffalo, 2010, Independent “Wrestler” Darren Aronofsky, 2008, Wild Bunch |
| 6 | A Giant Dwarf: “Equipping goggles of Toulouse – Lautrec.” Choosing a medium & genre for your story – The nature of written motion | ARTWORK PRESENTATION |
| 7 | A Stolen Bicycle: “Powerful themes & their impact.” Creating a simle theme & developing it into a thematic story avoiding overcomplexity – Why do we keep crying at classics? | SCREENING – Sequences from movie "Bicycle Thieves” Vittorio de Sica, 1948, Produzioni de Sica |
| 8 | The Da Vinci Code: “Ambidextrous plotting.” Creating single & multiple plots & weaving them together | SCRIPT PRESENTATION “The Usual Suspects” Bryan Singer, 1995, Bad Hat Harry Productions |
| 9 | The Heming-way: “Letting your loved ones go.” Writing to the point – Editing & editing until you can edit no more & editing a bit more. | SCREENING – Intro sequence – Intro “Watchmen” Zack Synder, 2009, Legendary Pictures / DC Comics |
| 10 | Drama Toolbox: “Action, dialogue, description, metaphor, simile & other tools.” Choosing a style, creating atmosphere & mood and telling your story according to your choices. | READING – Part 2 – Elements of Story OKUMA “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting” Robert McKee, 1997, Harper Collins |
| 11 | Pharoah’s Curse: “Story blocks & moving them around.” Executing a story. Project Idea Presentations. | READING – Sequences & real life examples from “Tanrının Saati” Meriç Eryürek, 2014, Epsilon “Tarumarname” Meriç Eryürek, 2012, Epsilon |
| 12 | A Novel vs. A Movie: “Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ on paper & on big screen.” Dynamics of writing a novel & a movie. | SCREENING & READING “Call me Ishmael – Intro” “Moby Dick” Herman Melville, 1851, Richard Bentley “Moby Dick” John Houston, 1956, United Artists |
| 13 | A Movie vs. A Game: “Chuck Palahniuk’s ‘Fight Club’ as a movie & a video game.” Dynamics of writing a novel, a movie & a game. | SCREENING & SHOWCASE (Sequences) “Fight Club” David Fincher, 1999, Fox 2000 Pictures “Fight Club” 2004, Genuine Games |
| 14 | A Movie vs. A TV Series: “Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho & Bates Motel series. Differences between writing for a movie & writing for TV. | SCREENING – Sequences “ Psycho” Alfred Hitchcock, 1960, Paramount Pictures “Bates Motel” 2015, NBC |
| 15 | Hop off The Stagecoach: Extreme close-up shot & review of the year. | |
| 16 | Review of the Semester |
| Course Notes/Textbooks | |
| Suggested Readings/Materials | BOOK “Tanrının Saati” Meriç Eryürek, 2014, Epsilon BOOK “Tarumarname” Meriç Eryürek, 2012, Epsilon |
| Semester Activities | Number | Weigthing |
| Participation | 1 | 20 |
| Laboratory / Application | 1 | 20 |
| Field Work | ||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | ||
| Portfolio | ||
| Homework / Assignments | 1 | 10 |
| Presentation / Jury | 3 | 20 |
| Project | 1 | 30 |
| Seminar / Workshop | ||
| Oral Exam | ||
| Midterm | ||
| Final Exam | ||
| Total |
| Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade | ||
| Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 7 | 100 |
| Total |
| Semester Activities | Number | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | 3 | 48 |
| Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | ||
| Study Hours Out of Class | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Field Work | |||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | |||
| Portfolio | |||
| Homework / Assignments | 1 | 15 | |
| Presentation / Jury | 3 | 10 | |
| Project | 1 | 25 | |
| Seminar / Workshop | |||
| Oral Exam | |||
| Midterms | |||
| Final Exams | |||
| Total | 128 |
| # | Program Competencies/Outcomes | * Contribution Level | ||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | To be able to define and discuss the history, underlying concepts and theories of cinema and digital media. | X | ||||
| 2 | To be able to develop a storytelling idea for cinema and digital media arts by using creativity and critical thinking. | X | ||||
| 3 | To be able to operate specialized technical equipment and competently use software in the fields of cinema and digital media arts. | X | ||||
| 4 | To be able to execute the main tasks in the pre-production, production and post-production of an audio-visual work at the basic level including screenwriting, production planning, operating the camera, sound recording, lighting and editing. | X | ||||
| 5 | To be able to perform a specialized task at an advanced level either for pre-production, production or post-production of an audio-visual work. | X | ||||
| 6 | To be able to discuss how meaning is made through works of cinema and digital media; in what ways economics, politics and culture affect visual representation; how the conditions of production, consumption, distribution and interpretation shape images. | X | ||||
| 7 | To be able to perform specialized tasks for creating digital media narratives with interactive elements. | X | ||||
| 8 | To be able to conduct a critical analysis of a film or a work of digital media arts from technical, intellectual and artistic points of view. | X | ||||
| 9 | To be able to take individual responsibility of a film or a digital media work from scratch to product in a problem-solving manner. | X | ||||
| 10 | To be able to work as a crewmember by following norms of ethical conduct and taking initiative to improve the ethical standards of his/her working environment. | X | ||||
| 11 | To be able to collect data in the areas of Cinema and Digital Media and communicate with colleagues in a foreign language ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1). | X | ||||
| 12 | To be able to speak a second foreign language at a medium level of fluency efficiently. | |||||
| 13 | To be able to relate the knowledge accumulated throughout the human history to their field of expertise. | |||||
*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest
