Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Robert McKee Seminars

With notes on understanding the core meaning of your story, the latest Robert McKee newsletter has the answers:

2 Days, 30 Speakers, Free Online

The Script Lab is launching its first ever Screenwriting Virtual Summit – a FREE weekend of lectures and interviews with Oscar-winning filmmakers and Emmy-winning TV writers! And best of all, it’s FREE to register for two days of access to this amazing content.

Register Here

Speakers include...

Scott Neustadter is an acclaimed screenwriter and producer of (500) Days of Summer, The Fault In Our Stars, The Spectacular Now, Paper Towns, and X-Men: The New Mutants.

Literary manager and producer Jewerl Ross is the founder and owner of Silent R Management. He has worked at APA, ICM, Marathon Management and Paradigm. Some of his clients include Barry Jenkins, Matt Aldrich, David H. Steinberg, and Brad Buecker.

Cathryn Humphris is a producer and WGA Award-winning writer known for her work on Mad Men, Elementary, NCIS: New Orleans, Under The Dome, and Supernatural.

Writing team Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa have been responsible for some of the most successful reinvigorations of iconic franchises. Their credits include Jurassic World, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Disney's live action Mulan.

Check Out All 30 Speakers

Registration is FREE! Join us for this incredible event – all from the comfort of your living room. All you need is a computer and internet connection – and a curiosity to learn from some of Hollywood’s leading producers, executives, managers and award-winning screenwriters!

What Is Your Story's Meaning?

The core meaning of your story
is expressed through your Controlling Idea.

The Controlling Idea is the purest form of a story's meaning, the vision of life the audience members carry away into their lives. This idea must be dramatized in an emotionally expressive Story Climax. As your protagonist takes their final action in the pursuit of their object of desire, be it the killing of a shark terrorising a beach resort (JAWS) or the attainment of meaning in a repetitive existence (UP IN THE AIR), your story reaches its emotional climax.

Looking at your ending, ask: As a result of this climactic action, what value, positively or negatively charged, does it bring into the world of my protagonist? Now trace backwards from this climax, digging through the bedrock of your story, ask: What cause, force or means brings this value into the world? This sentence expresses how and why the life of your protagonist has changed and forms your Controlling Idea.

To whit, your story tells you its meaning, you do not dictate meaning to the story.

Lesson from the McKee Library

WATCH VIDEO	Why Does Your Story Need a Controlling Idea?
	Robert McKee explains why sooner or later you're going to need to grasp your story's controlling idea.

Robert McKee's award winning STORY Seminar journeys across the US and UK this Fall. Don't miss your only chance to attend one of these exclusive events in Boston, MA (Sept. 21-23), Austin, TX (Oct. 6-8) and London (Nov 9-11).

Seats are limited. Please register early!

Cartoon of the Week

Quote of the Week

"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."

—Stanley Kubrick

This Month's McKee Alumni Success Stories

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES	THE BIG SICK
Michael Williams Unit Production Manager	Ed Herbstman Actor - "Sam Highsmith"
Terry Notary Actor - "Rocket"	Adam Bernard Second Assitant Director
Mary McLaglen Executive Producer	WISH UPON
Michael Giacchino Music Composer	Sarah Campbell Second Assistant Director
William Hoy Film Editor	CHASING CORAL
Stan Salfas Film Editor	Jenny Lee Associate Producer
Rick Jaffa Producer / Created characters on which film is based