UPCOMING SEMINARS: Click Seminars for Details Los Angeles BUSINESS STORY Seminar , Sep 26-26, 2013
Los Angeles GENRE Seminar , Sep 27-29, 2013
New York City BUSINESS STORY Seminar , Oct 4-4, 2013
Beijing, China BUSINESS STORY Seminar , Oct 26-26, 2013
Beijing, China STORY Seminar , Oct 31-Nov 3, 2013
London, UK STORY Seminar , Nov 14-17, 2013
Valletta, Malta BUSINESS STORY Seminar , Nov 29-29, 2013
Los Angeles STORY Seminar , Mar 6-9, 2014
New York City STORY Seminar , Apr 3-6, 2014
 



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

Below is a list of films and television shows Robert McKee Refers to During the STORY Seminar:

HEAVILY REFERENCED MOVIES
(over five minutes of discussion)
  • CASABLANCA
  • And Justice For All
  • Chinatown
  • Deer Hunter
  • Diabolique (1955)
  • Godfather I & II
  • Jaws
  • Kiss of Spider Woman
  • Kramer vs. Kramer
  • Life is Beautiful
  • Mrs. Soffiel
  • Ordinary People
  • Star Wars: Episodes I, II, V
  • Tender Mercies
  • The Reader
MODERATELY REFERENCED MOVIES
(under five minutes of discussion)
  • A Fish Called Wanda
  • After Hours
  • Alien
  • American Beauty
  • Amadeus
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Bridesmaids
  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Carnal Knowledge
  • Death in Venice
  • Leaving Las Vegas
  • Rocky
  • Streetcar Named Desire
  • The Terminator
  • The English Patient

GENRE Days Agenda:

DAY 1
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 analysis of SEVEN
DAY 2
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 subgenres
  • Mixed genres
  • What is laughter?
  • Structure of a joke
  • The substance of jokes
  • Comic timing
  • Comic devices
  • Screening analysis of A FISH CALLED WANDA
DAY 3
Love Story
  • Introduction
  • The history of Love
  • The nature of Love
  • The six subgenres
  • The cast
  • Ten Love Story conventions
  • The celling
  • Screening analysis of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
DAY 4
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 – THE LOVED ONES