Five Saturdays, Aug.7, 21, 28, Sept. 11 & 25, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.  Berkeley
$185 members/$215 non-members

Attention: This class is now full. Sorry. But we do offer it every session, usually as a 9-week class.

[add_to_cart=46]

The basic premise behind almost every successful feature film can be stated in one simple sentence: Someone we care about wants something badly and is having a terrible time getting it. “Pretty simple, right?” says instructor Terrel Seltzer.  “But how do you make a character sympathetic? How do you establish a compelling desire?  How do you structure rising tension so that the Hollywood Reader keeps turning the page? That’s the art and the craft of screenwriting.”

In this class, every aspect of writing your screenplay will be explored in the following five stages:

Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday, Oct. 29th, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
$95 members/$110 non-members  San Francisco
Testimonials for Terrel

Attention: Sorry, this workshop is no longer available this session.

“I swear, if have to read another script that begins with a hero waking up in the morning after a pan of the junk in his room, I’ll gag.” – quote from Hollywood Reader One.

“Uh-oh, is that the opening you just wrote for your script?  What are the other “red flags” that cause a Reader to toss a script by page 10?  “If character introductions are not done artfully, the odds of anything else in the script being great are slim.” – quote from Hollywood Reader Two.

So, how DO you write a screenplay these very same Readers will recommend?  “Here’s the good news,” says Terrel, “it doesn’t have to be perfect.  But you want to write a page-turner that keeps the Reader reading, and there are tried and true ways to help make that happen.”

Read the rest of this entry »