Workshops
Guided by a professional screenwriter, gain a solid foundation in the essentials of screenwriting: concept, character, story, plot, dialogue, and structure.
Dates:
Apr 24, 2023 - Apr 28, 2023
Sep 11, 2023 - Sep 15, 2023
Levels:
Beginner,
Intermediate,
Workshop Fee: $1195
Workshop Duration: 1-week (Monday-Friday)
Workshop Location: On-campus
Class Size: 10
This unit provides a solid foundation in the essentials of screenwriting: concept, character, story, plot, dialogue, and structure. Guided by a professional screenwriter, students will examine format, the importance of visual storytelling, developing an economical writing style, the process of shaping story, creating compelling character arcs, constructing scenes and sequences, writing effective dialogue, the fundamentals of suspense and tension, and how to outline. The realities of the marketplace will also be discussed. Through writing exercises, students will implement the dynamics discussed in class. Scenes will be workshopped.
While the unit’s primary focus is on developing scripts for film, television, and the web, many of the lessons will also resonate with novelists, playwrights, game designers, and filmmakers working in non-fiction. Producers and directors are also encouraged to attend. This class is also offered online.
Instructor: Wayne Beach (Teaching April 24-28, 2023 course)
Wayne Beach has written screenplays for Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Sony, TNT, Village Roadshow Pictures, Wolf Films, and other studios and networks. His students have gone on to create box-office hits and popular TV shows.
He recently created and wrote an original television pilot, American Dream, for Sony. His pitch for it inspired a bidding war between Showtime, FX, and WGN. He also recently finished an assignment adapting a novel for Identity Films, producers of The Old Man & the Gun.
Instructor: Jule Selbo (Teaching Sep 11-15, 2023 course)
Jule Selbo has transplanted from California to Portland, Maine. Her screenwriting credits (spanning over two decades) in film and television include George Lucas’ Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, HBO’s Women Behind Bars, George Romero’s Tales from the Darkside and Monsters, Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame Part Deux and Cinderella II, Aaron Spelling’s Melrose Place, Fox’s Space Above and Beyond, the television series Hercules produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Hard Promises starring Sissy Spacek and more. She has worked as a screenwriter, screenwriter/producer in live action and animation, feature length work and shorts.
Honors include a Daytime Writers Guild of America award, nominations for the GLAAD Award, winner of Best DVD Premiere Award for Hunchback of Notre Dame Part Deux and nominated for the Best DVD Premiere Award for Cinderella II. She is a Professor Emeritus of California State University, where she chaired the Cinema and TV Arts Department and was lead creator of its MFA in Screenwriting Program.
