"Syd Field's course is a
must for all screenwriters"
-Linda Obst
(Producers of Sleepless in
Seattle and Fisher King)




[When I wrote Mean Girls ]
“I did a million drafts.
And I did the thing everybody in Hollywood does: I study Syd Field
and I used my index cards.”
-Tina Faye
Emmy Award Winner, 30 Rock

Syd Field will guide the two-day tour of storytelling techniques, focusing on the best of modern cinema, by pinpointing the structural and stylistic elements essential to every successful screenplay.

Using lectures and film clips from Academy Award winning screenplays to illustrate the craft of screenwriting, the Masterclass explores: The nature of dramatic structure; creating character; setting up character and story; the nature of conflict; the tools of character; specific building blocks that create good character; the relationship between structure and time, the linear narrative, reading and analyzing the screenplay and the basic tools of rewriting and problem solving.

Focusing on the art and craft of visual storytelling and updating classic storytelling conventions with tools and techniques for the contemporary screenplay, this course is designed for writers, directors, producers, actors, aspiring screenwriters, development executives, journalists, novelists and others interested in the art and craft of screenwriting.

The Curriculum:

Day 1: The Foundations of Screenwriting
    
- The screenwriting revolution/evolution
- Distinctions: novel, play, screenplay
- The nature of dramatic structure
- Foundations: the paradigm
- Building blocks of the screenplay
- What is character?
- What makes good character?
- Character and the nature of conflict
- The tools of character
- The circle of being

Day 2: Writing and Rewriting the Screenplay

- Setting-up character and story
- Two incidents
- Approaching the scene
- Structure and time
- The art of transition
- Writing effective dialogue
- The rewriting process
- Endings and beginnings
- Tools and techniques for reading and analyzing the screenplay