Join us for an intensive seminar in the fundamentals of screenwriting, during which you'll learn to develop a marketable story idea, structure it into Hollywood format, flesh out characters and leave with an outline, completed scenes, and a pragmatic business plan! Taught by three working screenwriters (who have written for 20th Century Fox, Disney, New Line, and Sony), this course dispenses with the lofty philosophies of screenwriting books and offers practical hands-on advice from the trenches to help you create a commercial, successful script! Students at ALL levels of experience will find information to benefit their writing; those who have never written before will learn how to translate general ideas into a commercial screenplay, while those with prior experience can hone their work and benefit from personal feedback from the instructors. Limited seating for this special training - $40 per person.

This special price is made possible through a grant from the Hawaii County Film Commissioner’s Office
and Hawaii County Department of Research & Development.

The course curriculum includes:

Writing the script:

- Creating a marketable high-concept (drama, comedy and horror)
- Three act structure
- Fundamentals of Character
- Inciting Incidents, Plants and Payoffs and the Hero’s Journey
- Explanation of The Mythic Structure for Writers
- Plot twists
- Elements of a scene
- Developing non-cliché dialogue
- Creating compelling villains
- Writing visually
- Drawing on your own life for story ideas
- Step-by-step guide for going from the blank page to a completed script
- Setting deadlines
- Fighting fear and writer’s block

Marketing the script:

- Using a short film or trailer to sell you script
- Creating hype for your script
- Using your true-life story to sell a pitch
- Optioning articles and books to adapt
- Acquiring life story rights
- How to pitch your script to studios and networks
- Re-packaging an unsold feature film as television series
- What to avoid when doing a deal

Students will be provided with copies of book options, studio deals and marketing materials that were actually used to sell projects.

About the instructors:

Gregg Rossen & Brian Sawyer
Gregg Rossen and Brian Sawyer are a comedy writing team, currently developing “Model Family”, a TV pilot starring Jamie Kennedy, for Twentieth Century Fox Television. After selling their comedy screenplay “Nascar Girl” to New Line Cinema, in 2004 they sold their script “Guida” to Revolution Studios as a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez. Prior to this, they sold the dance-spoof pitch “Save the Last Dirty Flashdance for Footloose Billy Elliott” to Tapestry Entertainment. Gregg and Brian recently co-wrote “Pixar’s 20th Anniversary Special” for ABC, and their sitcom "Common Law" is currently in development at Broken Road.

David C. Garrett
In 2005, Garret co-wrote "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo"starring Rob Schneider and produced by Adam Sandler. In addition to co-writing "First Pet" and "Corky Romano" for Disney, Garrett co-wrote screenplays for directors Ivan Reitman at Dreamworks, Tom Shadyac at Universal and Peter Segal. Most recently, David Garrett sold the half hour reality show "I've Never" to MTV and the one-hour dramedy "Citizen's Arrest" to the USA Network. In 2006, Garrett co-wrote "Foreign Exchange" for MTV Films and the musical comedy "Do That To Me One More Time" for Touchstone Pictures, with Jack Black attached to star and produce.