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KS3 / KS4 English Language: Javid Rezai – Screenwriter

Video summary

Javid Rezai, a British-Iranian-Italian screenwriter, offers insight into his creative process and how a collaborative writer's room works.

He talks about how he always has music on in the background when writing, as it helps fuel his creativity.

Javid also talks about working in a 'writer's room', where everybody will throw ideas out until something works and then they'll piece it all together to create a story.

This short film is from the ý Teach series Inside the Writer's Mind, and is supported by a free classroom resource from First Story.

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Teacher Notes

Before viewing

Clarify possible unfamiliar terminology: Screenwriter, Treatment, Dialogue, Pilot.

Recap on plays read or studied in class and how these are laid out with stage directions embedded.

During viewing

Ensure students have knowledge of Little Red Riding Hood as either a fairy tale or moral/cautionary story.

After viewing

Use character images such as, historical, famous, fictional, legendary, etc. Students select two and write an interaction between them.

Show a short clip from a TV show with no sound. Students could try writing potential dialogue.

Give students a partial script to perform in pairs or groups. Students can write their own ending to the script.

Choose a novel/play they are studying; create a scripted dialogue between two characters that is beyond the plot. For example, Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff discussing their husbands or Miss Havisham and Magwitch having tea.

This short film will be relevant for teaching English language at KS3 and KS4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4 and 5 in Scotland.

Topics covered include character and plot development in narrative writing; making links to word meaning, effective punctuation and narrative structure; understanding characterisation, narrative planning, story structure, editing, proofreading and redrafting.

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