UPCOMING SEMINARS: Click Seminars for Details

Hyderabad, India Story , Feb 9-12, 2012
Bogotá, Colombia Genre , Mar 8-11, 2012
Los Angeles Story , Mar 22-25, 2012
London Story , Apr 19-22, 2012
New York Story , Apr 26-29, 2012
Montreal, Story, Aug 23-26, 2012
Seoul, Korea Story, Oct 29-Nov 1, 2012


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)



Story Seminar Film List

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

  • A Beautiful Mind
  • About Schmidt
  • Accidental Tourist, The
  • Adaptation
  • After Hours
  • Alien
  • Amadeus
  • American Beauty
  • And Justice For All
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Avatar
  • Babel
  • Big Chill, The
  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Carnal Knowledge
  • Casablanca
  • Chinatown
  • Crying Game, The
  • Damages
  • Deer Hunter, The
  • Departed, The
  • Diabolique
  • Die Hard
  • Empire Strikes Back, The
  • English Patient, The
  • Farewell My Concubine
  • Fighter The
  • Fight Club
  • Fish Called Wanda, A
  • Godfather I & II
  • In The Realm Of The Senses
  • Jaws
  • Kiss Of The Spider Woman
  • Kramer V. Kramer
  • Last King of Scotland, The
  • Law & Order
  • Leaving Las Vegas
  • Life Is Beautiful
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Million Dollar Baby
  • Mystic River
  • Mrs. Soffel
  • Ordinary People
  • Parenthood
  • Piano, The
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Queen, The
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • River, The
  • Sex and the City
  • Sideways
  • Star Wars
  • Streetcar Named Desire, A
  • Talented Mr. Ripley, The
  • Tender Mercies
  • Terminator, The
  • Terms Of Endearment
  • Toy Story 3
  • Trading Places
  • Unmarried Woman, An
  • Up
  • Up in the Air
  • Verdict, The
  • Wall Street


Dozens more are mentioned briefly.

Robert McKee’s Story Seminar Graduate Credits Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers