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Screenwriting Essentials (Fall 2023) (Online)

10/07/2023 - 12/02/2023

Category

Class

Admission

  • $325.00

Location

Online

Summary

Sessions: 7 Saturdays
Session Dates: Oct 07, 14, 21
Nov 04, 11, 18
Dec 02
Session Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time

Description

Screenwriting Essentials (Fall 2023) (Online)

Oct 07 - Dec 02

1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Mary Ruth Clarke

 
Have a story idea for a great movie? Or a script you’ve begun to write? Or a play you want to adapt into a motion picture? This seven-week class emphasizes visual storytelling, thematic development, and the ever-important logline. We will analyze and map out the classic story structure of a screenplay that went on to be made into an Oscar-winning movie. The class further delves into the realities of how Hollywood evaluates screenplays. It’s not a marketing class, but a deep dive into bringing ideas to life for the Hollywood mindset. It will help you unearth that great hook that will cause a producer to shout, “That’s a movie!” There will be ample time allotted to discuss participants’ ideas, stories, structures, and scenes. This class is applicable to any movie genre.

 

Mary Ruth Clarke co-wrote and starred in the original Meet the Parents and co-adapted it into the blockbuster version, starring Robert De Niro. Her dramedy teleplay Broadway, Ohio is a finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards, Page Turner Awards, and a semi-finalist at Sundance Labs. Her comedy screenplay Alice and Celia and Whatever It Takes is a finalist for the Lit Laughs Comedy Film Festival and the Chicago Comedy Film Festival, and a is a semi-finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards. 

Mary Ruth’s students are staffed on Queens, Woke, and Family Reunion. 

She consults for clients in LA and Chicago, and she has critiqued about a gazillion plays and screenplays.  She’s a regular guest lecturer at the Chicago Screenwriter’s Network and the Off-Campus Writer’s Group.  

She is a member of the Writer’s Guide of America East and the Dramatists Guild.

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to setup a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!

Sessions/Weekday 7 Saturdays
Session Dates

Oct 07, 14, 21

Nov 04, 11, 18

Dec 02

NO CLASS 10/28 & 11/25
Time

1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time
Notes This course is ideal for writers of every level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

 

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