Details
This is a unique opportunity to spend 5 Monday evenings with one of the most seasoned and experienced screenwriters living in Europe, the American Jurgen Wolff.
You can choose to attend any one or more of these sessions, but if you attend all of them you will have an incredibly powerful and cohesive combination of practical strategies for coming up with great ideas, transforming them into stand-out screenplays,
and getting the attention of agents and producers.
Week 1: Generate An Endless Flow of Ideas
Week 2: Create Screenplay Characters that Come Alive
Week 3: Go Beyond the Templates to Write a Breakthrough Screenplay
Week 4: Find the Time and the Confidence to Write a Great Screenplay
Week 5: Guerrilla Warfare For The Writer
Outline
Stephen King says, "“I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things." If you struggle sometimes to make stories and characters, in this session you'll discover how to find them instead. You’ll discover innovative right-brain methods to:
- Overcome blocks
- Generate concepts
- Solve story problems
Characters are at the heart of every story and remembered long after people have forgotten the details of the plot. In this session you will discover how to apply the methods of the great writers like Dickens, Twin, and Chekhov to screenplay writing in order to:
- Create vivid characters
- Develop dynamic character relationships,
- Go beyond stereotypes,
- Find the comedy, drama and trauma in your characters.
Don’t cram your story into a pre-determined shape. Make the story the hero and let it take you on its journey. This session shows you practical ways to
- Let a story shape evolve
- Craft powerful openings
- Overcome the second-act slump
- Write a selling script (not a shooting script)
Do you struggle sometimes to find the time to write and even when you do you worry it's not good enough or nobody will want it? Success in this field requires the right mindset, the ability to generate outstanding characters and plots, the time to write, and the confidence to see it through. In this session Jurgen will reveal how to:
- Tame your inner critic
- Use advanced productivity techniques for creative people.
- Overcome procrastination
- Finish what you start
This session includes a copy of Jurgen’s book, “Focus: How To Use Targeted Thinking To Get More Done.”
Week 5: Guerrilla Warfare For The Writer
It's a crowded and competitive marketplace for scriptwriters. Do what everybody else is doing and you'll get what everybody else is getting: ignored, mostly. Tonight we look at how you can stand out (without getting arrested). You will find out
how to :
- Write a powerful query letter to agents and producers
- Use new media to get attention
- Find an agent (when and where to look)
- Network effectively (you’re probably going to the wrong events)
- Stand out even if you’re an introvert
Speaker/s
Jurgen Wolff is a writer, teacher, and creativity consultant. In the United States, he wrote for sitcoms including “Benson” and “Family Ties.” He wrote the feature film, “The Real Howard Spitz,” starring Kelsey Grammer and directed by Vadim Jean. He was a script doctor on the hit film, “Mannequin” and others starring Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, and Eddie Murphy. He wrote two TV movies for the Olsen twins, and several the German TV movies including, “On Top of the Volcano,” starring Maria Schrader and Sebastian Koch (2007). His play, “Killing Mother,” was produced at the Gorky Theatre in Berlin, and he’s also had plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
As a writing and creativity teacher, he has presented his courses at the University of Southern California, the University of Barcelona, the Skyros Institute, many films schools, and groups and organisations including The Academy for Chief Executives, Egmont, Grundy-UFA, and Columbia-Tri-Star. For eight years he was a visiting lecturer for the Pilots Program in Sitges.
Special Offer
Students and those in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance can get a 10% discount.
Listed by Variety as one of the world’s top 50 "unmissable film festivals", Raindance Film Festival showcases features and shorts by filmmakers from around the world to an audience of film executives and buyers, journalists, film fans and filmmakers.
Throughout the year, Raindance runs evening and weekend film training courses covering everything from producing, directing, screenwriting, technical crafts (e.g. lighting, sound, editing), and hosts international guest tutors such as Academy Award nominee Guiellermo Arriaga and screenwriting coach to the studios John Truby.
Raindance also offers an M.A/M.SC Film prograduate programme, both London-based and online.
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