Screenwriting 101
Ignite your creativity and craft captivating short film scripts with guidance from Hollywood mentors, turning your ideas into screen-ready stories.
Curriculum
The NGS Curriculum
The NGS Curriculum Provides Students With Freedom To Express Themselves
NGS connects Hollywood's top professionals with high schools across the United States, empowering communities through storytelling. Our curriculum inspires creativity, nurtures local talent, and strengthens the cultural fabric by developing the next generation of storytellers.
Storytelling Enhances Student Engagement
With a proven record of boosting student engagement and delivering hands-on industry experience, we stand as a leader in educational innovation. We ignite potential, fuel aspirations, and harness the power of storytelling to shape brighter futures for students and communities.
Core Disciplines
Our Curriculum Teaches
- Acting
- Screenwriting
- Directing
- Producing
- Lighting
- Set Design
- And much more!
In Screenwriting 101, students craft short film screenplays under the guidance of Hollywood mentors. Each week, a virtual mentor delivers a hands-on curriculum and discusses the week's topic. Completed screenplays are entered into a contest for a chance to be professionally produced by NGS. For selected scripts, NGS provides crew, equipment, and expertise to create films that meet Hollywood standards.
In Movie Production 101, students dive into the technical and creative aspects of filmmaking, learning roles like production assistant, cinematographer, and sound designer while collaborating to bring stories to life on set.
Modules
Curriculum Modules
Movie Production 101
Explore the art of filmmaking as you dive into every aspect of production, guided by Hollywood professionals, and bring stories to life on set.
Beyond The Classroom
Compete In The NGS Film Festival
We create a regional film festival in your area to showcase your films to the community, and you will also have the opportunity to compete in our National film festival in Hampton, VA.
Access Federal Grants
NGS would be happy to share the written curriculum with you once your district has expressed interest. We have helped every school district obtain access to federal grants for the curriculum and production of film.
Funding
Strategies For Writing Successful Grants
01
Alignment With Standards
Map the curriculum to state and national standards, including common core and any benchmarks your district already follows. Without that alignment, adoption stalls before it starts.
02
Proposal And Review
Build a detailed proposal covering objectives, standards alignment and student benefit. It goes to the district's curriculum review committee — usually teachers, administrators and parents.
03
Pilot Programs
Few districts commit at full scale on day one. A pilot proves the curriculum works, produces hard data, and lets you adjust on real feedback before the wider rollout.
04
Professional Development
Teachers carry this curriculum, so train them properly. The more confident an educator is with the material, the better it lands in the classroom.
05
Budget Considerations
Be upfront about costs: teacher training, materials, equipment. Then bring solutions — grants, donors and funding routes that take the weight off the district.
06
Partnership And Collaboration
Relationships decide outcomes. Engage administrators, teachers, parents and students early, understand what they need, and bring them into the process.
07
Evaluation And Assessment
Measurement is planned from the start. Districts want evidence the program is working, plus a clear process for ongoing review and improvement.
Programs
