Oh my god - my script is crap!
A Weekend with Robert McKee
Jonathan Crossfield

Anticipation was huge for this three day seminar series so it was no surprise the queue snaked around the block and competition for the best seats was strong.

For anyone who has seen Brian Cox's portrayal of Robert McKee in the film Adaptation, you could have been mistaken for expecting anger, bile and histrionics. In reality, McKee is hugely entertaining, as well as informative and inspiring. Who knew that watching a guy walk up and down the stage - only rarely resorting to scribblings on an overhead projector - could maintain attention, amuse and engage as McKee does. No word is wasted, no idea unexplored. For any serious writer and/or lover of film, it was incredibly easy to be completely engrossed for three long, cramped twelve hour days. (Sitting in a cinema seat for that long is not recommended, by the way. I think McKee needs to catch up with the times and start a Gold Class version with reclining armchairs and waiter service.)

McKee is certainly opinionated, offering those opinions strongly and without room for argument. He is witheringly honest about the current state of writing; whether novels, plays or films. He is even more devastating when describing the hallmarks of amateur writing. Never patronising or vague, McKee strokes no egos and provides no false hope to those 'writers' looking for the easy formula or justification for their amateurish beliefs. Instead, he shoots down those dreams with well-aimed candour. Some people will never succeed as a writer - better to be told now rather than waste years bugging Hollywood readers with abysmal scripts.

McKee characterises the major difference between professional and amateurs quite simply. Amateurs love everything they've written and find writing a joy. Professionals hate everything they've written and find the process painful and uncomfortable. But that is how it should be - excellence is hard. If writing were so easy to be a joy, there would be nothing remarkable in it. We'd all be turning in Oscar-worthy scripts by the truckload. No - a true writer has to force themselves to the desk to keep going, rejecting 90% of the pages they produce and still carrying a niggling unsatisfied hatred for the small 10% that forms the final manuscript.

If his intention was to scare off the feint-hearted, he may well have succeeded. After three days of intense analysis and detailed deconstruction, there could be no one left in the auditorium who still harboured beliefs that writing was a fun hobby. Each and every scene, every beat of dialogue, every nuance and plot twist and subtext was shown to be a specific and calculated choice out of hundreds of possible permutations examined and discarded by the writer. There were many in the audience grimmacing as they saw their lovingly-typed scripts mentally disappear in a smoke of realisation.

"Oh my god - my script is crap!" was a common reaction after each two hour session revealed ever more ways a budding writer's story may be, in reality, a mess. I'm certainly not alone here. My scripts were continually turning over in my mind with each new nugget of analysis from McKee. Scenes I once hung onto as my favourite moments suddenly were revealed as painfully inadequate and almost embarrassing.

Fantastically, the weekend was rounded off with a six hour screening of Casablanca - allowing us to stop after each scene and deconstruct the story in minute detail. Although not advisable on a first viewing, most of the audience were already huge fans of the film like myself, and therefore were ready to appreciate how this story is constructed from carefully woven threads of plot and character.

Certainly, the key to developing as a writer is to try, fail, learn and try again. For that reason, we all left on Sunday evening exhausted and cramped, yet better skilled and inspired to work even harder and longer to produce excellence in story.

Jonathan Crossfield
COPYWRITE: Ramblings From A Writer's Desk
jonathancrossfield.com

Image: HWT Photographic Collection

The world's most wanted scriptwriting teacher, ROBERT McKEE returns to Australia 19 - 28 June 2009

"Robert McKee is the genuine article. His 'Story' is a testimony of craft, compassion and depth." BRIAN COX, played Robert McKee in 'Adaptation'

Robert McKee, the godfather of screenwriting teaching, will return to Australia this June after a five year absence to present his universally acclaimed Story Seminars in Sydney and Melbourne. For over 20 years, Story Seminar has been the world's ultimate story and screenwriting class for over 50,000 screenwriters, filmmakers, TV writers, novelists, industry executives, directors, actors, producers and playwrights.

Graduates of Robert McKee's seminar have won 32 Academy Awards and 158 Emmy Awards and still counting. One of McKee's former students - Andrew Stanton - just won the Oscar for 'Best Animated Feature' for Wall*E. The extensive list of award winning professionals who have attended McKee's class is testimony to it being the most respected and rewarded screenwriting class in history. Former McKee students have written Iron Man, Desperate Housewives, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A Beautiful Mind, The Incredible Hulk, Spelling Bee, CSI, Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy, Ratatouille and Shrek.

Australian filmmakers who have taken his course include Ray Lawrence (Lantana), Rob Sitch (The Castle), Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall*E), Leigh Whannell (Saw 1, 2 & 3) and Adam Elliot (Harvey Krumpet, Mary and Max).

McKee's Story Seminar is not about teaching formulas, it is about creativity. McKee's intensive seminar teaches that the essence of good story is universal and timeless. Whether on the big screen, on television, in novels, on stage and in all creative work, everything works in the shadow of classic story design.

This is an unmissable opportunity for all screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, journalists, directors, actors and producers to experience first-hand the tutelage of the grand master of storytelling.

Related Links

Robert McKee's website - mckeestory.com

EIA Twitter - media updates

Time Out Interview with Nick Dent [PDF118kb]

Tickets $594.00
Repeaters $440.00 (A prior to 2009, Epiphany produced, Robert McKee Story Seminar in Australia or New Zealand. Please contact Epiphany on 02 9572 7222 or 03 9531 7333)
Presented by Epiphany International Artists
33 hours over 3 days...

SOLD OUT Melbourne Story 19, 20, 21 June 2009 SOLD OUT
9:00am - 8:30pm on each of the three days at
Kino Cinema
Lower Collins Place, 45 Collins Street, Melbourne

SOLD OUT Sydney Story 26, 27, 28 June 2009 SOLD OUT
9:00am - 8:30pm on each of the three days at
The Chauvel Cinema
Corner Oxford & Oatley Streets, Paddington

 

Story Seminar Outline

Robert McKee's Story Seminar, over three intense days, teaches
you the principles involved in the art and craft of film writing and
story design, and proves the essence of good story is timeless.

DAY 1
The writer and the art of story;
The decline of story in contemporary film, television, theatre
and literature;
Story design: the meaning of story, the substance of story, the
limitations and inspirations of story structure and genre, the
debate between character versus story design;
Premise idea, counter idea, controlling idea;
Story structure: beat, scene, sequence, act, story;
Mapping the story universe: archplot, miniplot, antiplot; and
Shaping the source of story energy and creation.

DAY 2
Act design: the great sweep and body of story;
The first major story event (the inciting incident);
Scene design in story: turning points, emotional dynamics,
setup/payoff, the nature of choice;
Ordering and linking scenes;
Exposition: dramatising your character, the story setting,
creating back story;
The principles of antagonism; and
Crisis, climax and resolution.

DAY 3
Putting the elements of story together;
The principles of character dimension and design;
The text: description, dialogue and poetics;
The spectrum of story genres;
Story adaptations;
Scene analysis: text and sub-text; design through dialogue versus
design through action;
The writer's method: working from the inside out; the creative process
from inspiration to final draft; and
How it all works: the principles of the previous 2.5 days applied in a
6-hour, scene-by-scene screening and analysis of Casablanca.

For over 20 years, Story Seminar has been the world's ultimate story and screenwriting class for over 50,000 screenwriters, filmmakers, TV writers, novelists, industry executives, directors, actors, producers and playwrights, because it effectively demonstrates the relationship between story design and character.

The extensive list of award winning professionals who have attended McKee's class is testimony to it being the most respected and rewarded screenwriting class in history.

Quality story structure demands creativity; it cannot be reduced to simple formulas that impose a rigid number of mandatory story elements.

Using examples from over 100 films, Robert McKee demonstrates that structure and design are about form and principles, that structure is not plot, rigid rules, formulas or 'Hollywood' movies.

McKee's Story Seminar teaches you the principles involved in the art and craft of screenwriting and story design, and proves the essence of good story is unchanging and universal.

Whether on the big screen, on television, in novels, on stage and in all creative work, everything works in the shadow of classic story design.

Characters are what they do. Story events impact the characters, and the characters impact events. Actions and reactions create revelation and insight, opening the door to a meaningful emotional experience for the audience.

Story is what elevates a movie, transforming a good film into a great one. Movie-making is a collaborative endeavour - requiring great skill and talent by the entire cast, crew and creative team - but the screenwriter is the only original artist on a film.

Everyone else - the actors, directors, cameramen, production designers, editors, special effect team and so on - are interpretive artists, trying to bring alive the world, the events, and the characters that the screenwriter has invented and created.

Robert McKee's Story Seminar is a comprehensive, superbly organised exploration of all elements, from the basics to advanced concepts. It is a practical course, presenting new perspectives on the craft of storytelling, not just for the screenwriter but for the novelist, playwright, journalist, and non-fiction writers of all types.
 


"McKee is Hollywood's MOST WANTED screenwriting teacher... fanatically empowering... inspiring and enthralling" Movieline

"McKee is passionate... brilliant... he sermons on the need to reunite the great modern art form of cinema with the ancient craft of storytelling." Newsday

"Knowledge of story design is just as vital for the novelist as it is for the screenwriter. Nobody imparts this wisdom like Robert McKee. He is not only the best teacher of writing I’ve ever had, but the best teacher of anything." STEVE PRESSFIELD, author of 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' & 'Gates of Fire'

"McKee's showcase is a high octane graduate course in story telling as user friendly for the first time writer as it is invaluable for the seasoned, six figure professional" The New York Screenwriter

"It's an amazingly important course that I have gone back to do three times" JOHN CLEESE

"McKee's Story Seminar is incredibly helpful. The course shaped the way I approached writing and played a huge part in my career."
TOM HALLMAN, Pulitzer Prize winning author

 "'...stimulating, innovative, refreshingly practical" LAWRENCE KASDEN, Screenwriter/Director 'The Empire Strikes Back', 'The Big Chill'
'The Accidental Tourist'

"It's three full days over a single weekend, and no one feels cheated when he's done. I wish he had been around when I started writing for a living." WILLIAN GOLDMAN, author and two time Academy Award winning screenwriter 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'

"McKee's Story is phenomenal... studios don't buy great ideas they buy great stories... McKee teaches you to turn an idea into a story, and a story into a screenplay" TOBY EMMERICH, Producer 'Hairspray', 'Wedding Crashers'

"At the heart of McKee's writing philosophy - what I gathered - is humanity... McKee's lectures combined dramaturgy, philosophy, emphasis on classical roots and writing nuts and bolts... But what made it fresh - what made it inspiring - was the way it was woven together, a Robert McKee theory of story" TODD LEOPOLD CNN Review of Story Seminar

"My advice is... take McKee's class. It was essential to my success as a screenwriter." ZAKK PENN, Screenwriter 'X-Men', 'The Incredible Hulk'

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