UPCOMING SEMINARS: Click Seminars for Details Montreal, Canada Story , Aug 23-26, 2012
Kiev, Ukraine Story , Sep 6-9, 2012
Beijing, China GENRE , Sep 20-23, 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia Story , Oct 11-14, 2012
Moscow, Russia GENRE , Oct 18-21, 2012
Seoul, Korea Story , Oct 29-Nov 1, 2012
London, England Story , Nov 22-25, 2012
Paris, France Story , Nov 28-Dec 1, 2012
Los Angeles, USA Story , Mar 7-10, 2013
New York, USA Story , Apr 4-7, 2013
 



Each 4-day Story event runs Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 9:00am and closing at 7:00pm each day.

Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Goldman wrote, in
his most recent book, “It’s four full days over a single weekend, and
no one feels cheated when he’s done. I wish he had been around when I
started writing CUT TO for a living.”

Bestselling novelist Steve Pressfield simply said, “McKee is not only
the best teacher of writing I’ve ever had, but the best teacher of
anything.”

Ideal for Screenwriters, TV Writers, Novelists, Playwrights, Filmmakers,
Directors, Producers, Documentary Makers, Actors and more!

 Robert McKee Story Seminar


Story Seminar Agenda

DAY 1

  • The writer and the art of story
  • The decline of story in contemporary film
  • Story design: the meaning of story, the substance of story, the
    limitations and inspirations of story structure & genre, the
    debate between character vs story design
  • Premise Idea, Counter Idea, Controlling Idea
  • Story Structure: beat, scene, sequence, act, story
  • Mapping the Story universe: Archplot, Miniplot, Antiplot
  • Shaping the source of story energy and creation
  
DAY 2
  • Putting the elements of story together
  • The principles of character dimension and design
  • The composition of scenes
  • Titles
  • Irony; Melodrama
  • False endings
  • The text: description, dialogue, and poetics
  • The spectrum of story genres


DAY 3
  • Act design: the great sweep and body of story
  • The first major story event (the inciting incident)
  • Scene design in Story: turning points, emotional dynamics,
  • setup/payoff, the nature of choice
  • Ordering and linking scenes
  • Exposition: dramatizing your characters, the story setting,
  • creating back story
  • The principles of antagonism
  • Crisis, climax and resolution
  
DAY 4
  • Story adaptations
  • Scene analysis: text and sub-text; design through dialogue
  • versus design through action
  • The writer’s method: working from the inside out; the creative
  • process from inspiration to final draft.
  • How it all works: the principles of the previous 3-1/2 days
  • applied in a 6-hour, scene-by-scene screening and analysis of
  • Casablanca
  • The spectrum of story genres


Genre Course Outlines:

Thriller
  • A Brief History of the Crime Genre
  • The 12 Subgenres of Crime
  • Seven-Step Creative Process.
  • Clueing
  • Interest Strategies
  • The Psychological Thriller.
  • Creating the Antagonist
  • Protagonist/Antagonist relationship
  • Story Structure and Sequence
  • Psychological content
  • Going to the End of the Line
  • Twelve Shades of Thriller Endings
  • Scene conventions of Crime/Thrillers
  • What thrills in the Thriller?
  • Screening of SEVEN.
   Horror

  • History of Horror
  • History of Horror Film
  • Demographics and Box Office
  • Definition of Horror
  • Horror vs. other genres
  • The Pleasures of Horror
  • The dual reality of Horror
  • What is seen – the Real and the Other
  • Perception
  • Women in Horror
  • The Ultimate key to Horror
  • Three basic Story patterns
  • The three subgenres
  • The Genre’s conventions
  • The twelve possible climaxes
  • Conclusion
  • Screening Analysis of horror film – TBA
Love Story
  • Introduction
  • History of Love
  • The Nature of Love
  • The 6 Sub-Genres
  • The Cast
  • Ten Love Story Conventions
  • The Telling
  • Screening and Analysis of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
  
Comedy
  • The Love of Comedy
  • The Comic Vision of life
  • Comic Structure Vs. Dramatic Structure
  • The Comic Character
  • Comic Turning Point
  • The Comedy Genre – three grand conventions
  • The Comedy Sub-genres
  • Mixed Genres
  • What is Laughter?
  • Structure of a Joke
  • The Substance of Jokes
  • Comic Timing
  • Comic Devices
  • Analysis of a Comedy film (A FISH CALLED WANDA)

Below please find a list of films and television shows that
Robert McKee refers to during the Story Seminar.

 

HEAVILY REFERENCED  MOVIES   MODERATELY REFERENCED  MOVIES  
(over 5 minutes discussion)   (below 5 minutes discussion)
     
Casablanca   After Hours
Chinatown   Alien
Deer Hunter   Amadeus
Diabolique   American Beauty
Godfather I, II   Artificial Intelligence
Jaws   Bride’s Maids
And Justice For All   Brokeback Mountain
Kiss of Spider Woman   Carnal Knowledge
Kramer vs. Kramer   City of Life and Death
Life is Beautiful   Death in Venice
Mrs. Soffel   English Patient
Ordinary People   Fish Called Wanda
Reader   Leaving Los Vegas
Star Wars 1, 2, (Empire Strikes Back) 33 Act Sequence (McKee  P. 38-41)   Reader
Tender Mercies   Rocky
Verdict   Streetcar Named Desire
    Terminator Witness

 

Dozens more are mentioned briefly.