With the latest information on upcoming McKee Seminars:
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We've just wrapped a wonderful weekend in Los Angeles. Our
thanks to all the attendees whose participation helped to create these
successful STORY and ACTION DAY Seminars.
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We look forward to hearing about your favorite insights and
the impact they've made on your writing.
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The McKee Team
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New York STORY Seminar
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New York TV DAY Seminar
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Why Your Ending Comes First
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The climax of the last act is your great imaginative leap.
Without it, you have no story. Until you have it, your characters wait like
suffering patients praying for a cure.
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Your ending is just the beginning.
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Once a story climax is created, stories are in a significant
way rewritten backwards, not forward. The flow of life moves from cause to
effect, but the flow of creativity often pushes from effect to cause. Once
you have your ending, it's your job to supply the hows and whys. All scenes
must be thematically or structurally justified in light of creating your
climax.
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If a scene can be cut
without disturbing
the impact of the ending,
it must be cut.
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From the way you tell your story, you whisper to the
audience: "expect an up ending", "expect a down ending"
or "expect irony". Having pledged a certain emotion, it'd be
ruinous not to deliver. Anyone can deliver a happy ending, or a downer. An
artist gives us the emotion they've promised, but with a rush of unexpected
insight they've withheld.
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In other words, give the audience what
they want,
but not in the way
it expects.
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Learn the secret to creating impactful
endings in New York or London this Spring
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY April 11-13
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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What to Keep and What to Cut
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Robert McKee teaches how writing your climax leads to a
retroactive edit of your story.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-2323
The Story of a Writer: Part 3
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Human nature is conservative. We never do more than we have
to, expend any energy we don't have to, and most importantly we never take any risks we don't
have to. Why do anything the hard way if we can get
what we want the easy way?
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But the journey of a writer is never easy.
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No matter your chosen medium, remember this: it will take
you ten years
to master your art. Ten years of unforgiving,
relentless and thankless work, dawn until dusk.
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That's ten years of turning off your phone during work
hours. Ten years of ignoring social media. Neglecting friendships and
relationships. A decade of headaches as you sweat your heart and soul onto
the keyboard. Endless hours in the library, toiling as you research worlds
old and new in search of mastery of your craft.
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Ten years of rejection.
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Writing is more
than time and talent. This quest requires dedication of heart and a
singularity of purpose. But more than this, it requires sacrifice.
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What are you willing to sacrifice to
achieve your goals?
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Part 4 to follow: March 14
Missed Parts 1 +
2? Start here.
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Master the Art of Story
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
The only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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In the Face of Rejection and Failure, How
Can Writers Re-Inspire Themselves and Persevere with Their Craft?
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Robert McKee teaches the best way to deal with the negative
side of the profession.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-2323
Fact vs Truth: How to Satisfy Your
Audience
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The weakest possible excuse to include anything in a story
is: "But it actually happened." Everything happens, everything
imaginable happens. Indeed, the unimaginable also happens.
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But story is not life in actuality.
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Mere occurrence brings us nowhere near our ultimate goal as
a writer, the
truth. What happens, in other words, is fact and facts are
neutral.
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Truth is what we think about what happens.
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All writers must come to understand the relationship of
story to life: Story
is metaphor for life. You must transform day-to-day living
into a work of art. This is not achieved by recounting events verbatim.
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You must use your research
of fact to shape your story in a way that both expresses your
vision and satisfies the audience's desires. The desire for truth.
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Discover how to express your artistic vision
of truth
at McKee's Los Angeles STORY Seminar. 
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How Does a Writer Make Sense
Out of a Story
They Create?
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Robert McKee teaches how, in spite of the world making less
and less sense, writers can still create a meaningful story.
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Don't miss the only New York STORY Seminar this year!
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
Only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-
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Why Literary Talent Is Never Enough
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Just as glass is a medium for light, air a medium for sound,
language is only a medium for storytelling.
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Something far more profound beats at the
heart of a story.
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An artist intent on creating works of lasting quality comes
to realize that life isn't about hyper conflicts of master criminals with
stolen nuclear devices holding cities for ransom.
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Life is about the ultimate questions of finding love and self-worth,
of bringing serenity
to inner chaos, of the titanic social inequities
everywhere around us, of time
running out.
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Life is conflict.
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The material of literary talent is words; the material of
story talent is life
itself.
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You've mastered the medium of language,
now conquer the medium of story at
Robert McKee's
STORY Seminar this Spring.
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How Do You Use Story Talent to Express
Life?
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Robert McKee discusses story as a metaphor for life, with
reference to LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.
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Don't miss the only New York STORY Seminar this year!
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
Only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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McKee Alumni Success Stories
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Sam Marsden took Robert Mckee's STORY seminar in 2013 and
has read STORY three times. "I
adore McKee's work," Marsden says. "After I took his seminar I
said to myself 'this is the inciting incident for my writing'. It took a
few years to truly put his teachings into practice, but I'm so glad I put
the work in. I particularly value his insights into character vs characterization."
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The film and TV rights to Sam Marsden's debut novel Under
Glass have been optioned by former Warner Bros. President of Film Greg
Silverman's Stampede Ventures.
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J.P. Sarni, head of worldwide content acquisitions, oversaw
the deal for Stampede. Marsden is repped by Jordan Hamessley and Pouya
Shahbazian of New Leaf Literary & Media.
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A Message From Our Friends at InkTip
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Producers have made more than 375 movies
from scripts and writers found on InkTip.
Register
Now.
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Every week producers option or buy an average of 5 more
scripts from InkTip writers. Find scripts in every genre and every budget
fast.
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Check out some of the companies who are InkTip members: ABC, Anonymous Content, APA, CBS Films, HBO Films, ICM,
Paradigm, Paramount Pictures, Hallmark Channel, FX, Universal, WME, Echo
Lake, Zero Gravity, Bad Robot, 20th Century Fox, and many, many more.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-2323
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McKee Alumni at the 2019 Oscars
7 Winners | 29 Nominations
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The 2019 Oscars was another wonderful year for McKee's STORY
Seminar graduates, with 7
winners across 5 awards. Congratulations to all the winners
and nominees!
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Best Motion Picture of the Year:
GREEN BOOK
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Paul Sloan — "Copa Maître
D'Carmine"
John Sloss
— Executive Producer
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Best Achievement in Visual Effects:
FIRST MAN
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Paul Lambert — Visual Effects Supervisor
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Best Documentary Feature:
FREE SOLO
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Bob Eisenhardt — Film Editor
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Best Documentary Short Subject:
PERIOD. END OF
SENTENCE.
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Lisa Taback — Producer
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Best Animated Short Film:
BAO
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Pete Docter — Executive Producer
John Lasseter
— Executive Producer
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What Is Your Story?
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After witnessing the suicide of his father, Ernest Hemingway
became fascinated with the question of how to face death. It became the
central theme, not only of his writing, but of his life. He chased death in
war, in sport, on safari, until finally by his own hand, he found it.
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Great writers are not eclectic.
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Generally, each tightly focuses her or his oeuvre on one
idea, a single subject that ignites their passion, a subject they pursue
with beautiful variation through a lifetime of work.
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Dickens, whose father was imprisoned for debt, wrote of the lonely child
searching for his lost father. Molière turned a critical eye on the idiocy and depravity
of seventeenth-century France. Each of these authors found his subject,
sustaining him over the long journey of the writer.
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Do you, like Hemingway or Dickens, work directly from the
life you've lived? Or, like Molière, do you write about your ideas of
society and human nature?
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What is your story?
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Whatever your source of inspiration, learn
the skills to craft your story at a McKee Seminar this Spring.
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What Do You Do If Your Writing
Veers Away From
Your Inspiration?
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McKee teaches the importance of listening to your
subconscious when writing, and how for talented writers the real story is
already written; their job is to get out of its way.
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Don't miss the only New York STORY Seminar this year!
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
Only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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A Message from Our Friends at Scriptapalooza
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21st Annual Scriptapalooza
Screenplay &
Shorts Competition
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There are hundreds of other competitions that are popping up
all over the web, with no track record, no connections and giving the
illusion that they are connected to the industry.
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- Over $50,000 awarded in
prizes
- All the reading is done by
90 producers and managers
- Scriptapalooza promotes the
winners, runners-up, finalists and semifinalists for a full year
- Considered one of the best
screenplay competitions by agents, managers and producers
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Scriptapalooza's goal: to seek out that storyteller and honor their script with a
grand prize of $10,000. Each year dozens of production companies and
literary representatives sign on as participants to read our winners,
resulting in many scripts being optioned or outright bought.
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NEXT DEADLINE: March 4
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-2323
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The Story of a Writer: Part 1
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The story of any writer begins with the desire to put to
page, stage or screen a universal truth of the world, a unique
understanding that "life is like this."
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Why Do You Write?
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Perhaps you're outraged by an injustice in the world. Maybe
you see the disunity hidden within an outwardly idyllic family unit. It
could be you simply understand the lengths to which one must go to defeat
evil. Whatever the reason, a particular event has radically upset the balance in
your life, leaving you no other choice but to pour your
soul onto the page.
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This Is Your Inciting Incident.
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And as a writer, the explosion of this event has gifted you
the opportunity and drive to reach
the limits
of life
through story.
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Whether directly or with subtlety, you've been jolted from
the pattern of your existence. Chaos
has invaded your universe. Now it's time to make sense of
the turmoil.
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It's Time to Write the Truth.
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Learn from Robert McKee
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
The only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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What Is the Truth of Your Story?
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In this video response to a Storylogue member's question,
Robert McKee teaches the definition of "truth" in story.
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Robert McKee's "Works / Doesn't Work" Film Review
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MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (2018)
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McKee says: It Doesn't Work. (Spoiler Alert!)
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Banal Storytelling
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Screenplays that
split along two storylines put alternating plots and protagonists on a
collision course and maintain pace by crosscutting.
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Examples:
- CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) Woody
Allen and Martin Landau
- SLIDING DOORS (1998) Gwyneth
Paltrow in a dual role
- HEAT (1995)
Al Pacino and
Robert De Niro
- BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005) Heath
Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
- THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006) Ulrich
Muhe and Sebastian Koch
- THE DEPARTED (2006) Matt
Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio
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In some cases, the
two stories relate thematically,
so the editing crosscuts an idea in a point/counterpoint rhythm. CRIMES AND
MISDEMEANORS plays the idea of crime as comedy versus drama; SLIDING DOORS
plays knowing the truth against not knowing the truth. [Read
More...]
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On-the-Nose Dialogue
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As you might expect,
this story strategy constipates the dialogue with lumps of on-the-nose
exposition. When two characters tell each other something they both already
know, or should already know, an alarm should clang in the screenwriters head
and keep clanging until the scene is reinvented. [Read
More...]
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Art Film Cliché
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Many films send
audiences to the parking lot thinking the thought, "Beautifully
photographed." So-called art
films have become as clichéd as Vin Diesel action flicks.
Their directors do not know the difference between decorative and expressive,
between pretty pictures and images. Like a bad actor sobbing with fake
emotion to call attention to himself as an actor, any shot that calls
attention to itself as "photography" is the visual equivalent of
histrionics. [Read
More...]
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Robert McKee's 2019 Spring Seminars
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Don't miss the only New York STORY Seminar this year!
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
|
LONDON
|
STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
Only NYC STORY in 2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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Can Banality Be Used to Postpone the
Inciting Incident?
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Robert McKee teaches
the dangers of banality, and how moments with no meaning risk undermining
your story.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-2323
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The Story of a Writer: Part 2
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How do you picture success as a writer? To many it's a
familiar destination; the publishing deal, the movie on the big screen, the
syndicated series, the number one bestseller...the red carpet appearance.
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The energy of your desire to achieve your
writing goal
shapes the path
you will travel.
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Story isn't a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries
us on our search for truth, our best effort to make sense out of the
anarchy of existence.
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Flawed and false storytelling substitute spectacle for substance, trickery for truth. Weak
stories desperate to hold audience attention, degenerate into multi-million
dollar razzle dazzle demo reels.
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What is the Spine of your story?
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'Good story' means something worth telling that the world
wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task. But the love of a good
story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage,
and creative gifts is still not enough.
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Your goal must be a good story well-told.
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Give Your Passion a Spine
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LOS ANGELES
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NEW YORK
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LONDON
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STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
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STORY April 11-13
The only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
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STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
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Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
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What's the Difference Between Unconscious
Desire,
Conscious Desire
and Need?
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Robert McKee teaches the difference between desire and need
in characters, with reference to the film CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-232
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Robert McKee's "Works / Doesn't Work" Film Review
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THE FAVOURITE (2018)
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McKee says: It Works. (Spoiler Alert!)
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THE FAVOURITE is my favorite for the Best Picture Oscar.
Here's four reasons I would love to see it win:
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Clichés Turned Chic
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Always remember, a
cliché is simply an excellent idea from the past—so
excellent, in fact, that writers used it over and over and over until it
died of exhaustion. Nonetheless, the idea wouldn't have lasted centuries if
it didn't have some power at its core. In this case, it's the power of character revelation
through dilemma.
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Definition: A dramatized dilemma is either a choice between
two positives
(the character wants both but circumstances force her to choose only one)
or between two negatives
(the character wants neither but circumstances force her to choose one). [Read
More...]
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Feminism Meets Naturalism
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Gut-churning depictions
of violence on the bodies of male characters is decades old.
Until now, filmmakers have shown some restraint with female characters. Not
here. Every slap, slam, batter, blister and skin ulcer is vivid and
visceral. Pain is constant and photographed unflinchingly.
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Period Dialogue
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The camera is an x-ray machine for all things false. Badly written dialogue instantly
kills credibility as the audience reacts with the thought,
"But people don't talk like that." [Read
More...]
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Subtext
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Because the three women rarely tell each other the truth
about anything, room opens up for a deep
and constant subtext. [Read
More...]
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The Oscar Question Is This:
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Given this film's brilliant dramatization of off-handed
cruelty and greed for power, its honest but unflattering portrait of a
lesbian triangle, its explicit treatment of sex as subservience, will the
academy give it its due? I doubt it. If you're betting in the office pool,
put your money on the sweet uplift of ROMA.
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Robert McKee's 2019 Spring Seminars
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LOS ANGELES
|
NEW YORK
|
LONDON
|
STORY March 28-30
ACTION DAY
March 31
|
STORY April 11-13
Only NYC STORY in
2019!
TV DAY
April 14
|
STORY May 23-25
TV DAY
May 26
|
Professional, Student and Repeater discounts available.
|
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When Should You Write the Subtext in a
Treatment?
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Robert McKee explains the difficulties of writing
treatments, how much freedom writers actually have and when you should
think about subtext.
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McKee Seminars | Two Arts, Inc.
PO Box 681
Sherman, Connecticut 06784
United States
(928) 204-232
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