Whether you are an amateur or a pro, there are lots of places to improve your screenwriting skills. Most courses have a few things in common: they tell you Why your script doesn't work and they tell you What needs to be done to make it good enough for Hollywood. This knowledge is useful, but at the end of the week you still face the blank page and wonder: How do I develop my film story, in practice?

 

"STORY DIFFERENT" is a "one-of-a-kind" screenplay workshop. You will learn to control your story with practical tools, not theory. You will understand the value of resources that help you turn the what happens next? question from guesswork into a "step-by-step" process. You will develop a short film or craft scenes for a feature, with original ideas and personal choices. You will discover you can become an efficient and on-time writer, who keeps - rather than throws away - most pages and source material.

 

Daniel Alegi is an award-winning filmmaker, screenplay writer, and educator. He co-founded Cinemahead.com and is recently the author of "Docmob Manifesto" (principles for simple docs)

Day 1: INTRO TO STORY DIFFERENT

Outline of the basic Story Different principles. You will learn a toolbox of practical resources that will guide you thru the development phase of your film in an original, creative and rewarding way.

 

Day 2: STORY MAPPING

Making a Story Map is a tool to see the story as a physical space, rather than "pages". Learn how to visualize time, places, objectives, and the beginning and the end.

 

Day 3: DEVELOPMENT

begins with everyone working on relationships, scenes and layers. Developing does not need to be a painful process. We focus on "How-To", rather than on "Why"?

 

Day 4: STORY DESIGN

During the Story Design day we practice the re:Structure principle, how-to reorganize and control the scenes we created.

 

Days 5 & 6: READ

The final two days of the workshop are a series of individual reads of scenes and the addition of fresh dialogue.