Workshops
Receive guidance and direction on your script from an accomplished screenwriter.
Dates:
Sep 16, 2024 - Sep 20, 2024
Levels:
Intermediate,
Advanced,
Workshop Fee: $1350
Workshop Duration: 1-week (Monday-Friday)
Workshop Location: On-campus
Class Size: 10
Filmmaking must begin with a solid screenplay. This retreat is for writers who have a screenplay in progress and are seeking guidance, direction and focus from an accomplished screenwriter. It is equally relevant for those writing a feature-length screenplay or an episodic television script. A project may be at any stage of evolution (concept, outline, first draft, or rewrite).
Class time is divided between lectures on the dynamics of screenwriting and discussion of student scripts. Participants will have part of each day to work on their scripts. The instructor will also be available for one-on-one consultations during the retreat.
The retreat delves deeply into examining concept, story structure, character development, plot and subplots, theme, dialogue, visual storytelling, and the process of revising a screenplay. Students discuss suggestions for rewrites and alternative approaches, exploring solutions to the problems posed by each script. Participants learn to look critically at their writing. Among other things, we will consider the importance of economy in screenwriting, and how to sharpen what’s at stake for your characters.
Throughout the sessions, participants will get a real-world view of how the industry works and the practical realities of getting material read and sold. By the end of the retreat, each script has been reviewed and reconstructed with a “battle plan” on how to take the script to the next level.
Course requirements
Participants must have a screenplay in progress. It can be at any stage of development, anything from an outline to a full draft.
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Instructor: Laura Marks (Teaching July 8-12, 2024 workshop - Register here)
Laura Marks is a New York-based writer/producer, a PEN award-winning playwright, and comic book writer. She was a Co-Executive Producer and writer on both LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Showtime) and SERVANT (Apple TV+, for which she wrote the series finale). Other writing credits include THE GOOD FIGHT for Paramount+, THE EXPANSE for Amazon, RAY DONOVAN for Showtime, THE EXORCIST on Fox and BRAINDEAD on CBS, in addition to various original pilots and projects in development. Her play BETHANY (Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Play) starred America Ferrera in its off-Broadway run. BETHANY and her other published play, MINE, have garnered acclaim from critics and been produced across the US and overseas. Her graphic novel, DAPHNE BYRNE (with art by Kelley Jones), was published by DC Comics under Joe Hill’s horror imprint, Hill House Comics. She’s a graduate of Juilliard’s playwriting program, an alumna of New Dramatists and the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, and a native of Kentucky.
Instructor: Jule Selbo (Teaching Sep 16-20, 2024 workshop - Register here)
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. She recently completed (summer 2019) a production rewrite on a feature film focused on the work of Nikolai Tesla.
