Cracking Story 2: Script Analysis

Allen Palmer, the Story Maven from Cracking Yarns

Deepen your understanding of screen storytelling by joining the Story Maven, over 5 weeks in a Virtual Classroom as he explores the strengths and weaknesses of screenplays both produced and unproduced.

Duration: 5 weeks
Time: 3 hrs/wk plus 3hrs/wk reading time outside class

Where will the course be held?
The Course will be run in a Virtual Classroom using WizIQ, the world’s most advanced online learning platform. What’s more, it will be held in three different time slots.

  1. AUS/NZ/Asia*Dates, times and prices
  2. Americas*Dates, times and prices
  3. Europe*Dates, times and prices

(* You’re free to join from outside these regions but it might mean an early start or a late finish.)

Why do the course?
Throughout history, the great artists blossomed after first mastering the fundamentals. Screenwriting, in particular, is a demanding craft and creating within these tight constraints challenges even the most talented writers. In this course, by looking at the work of other screenwriters, you’ll become more in tune with the rhythms of screen storytelling and develop skills that will help you write and rewrite your own work  – or help others realise the potential of their projects.

What does the course involve?
Each week, guided by our “Thirty Questions to Ask a Screenplay”, we’ll review two screenplays  that you’ll have read before you come to class (and watched ideally).

One of these screenplays will be a classic – often an Academy award-winner – while the other one will not quite hit the mark. You’ll see that many of the best screenplays all seem to get certain things right but typically you’ll learn more from the one that didn’t quite work than the one that did.

We’ll then move on to consider unproduced screenplays – probably from the Black List – to help sharpen your ability to judge a script without the benefit of having seen the finished film.

We’ll also do an exercise where you look to try fix some of the problems in a screenplay – great practice for what you’ll do out there as a professional screenwriter or creative producer/executive.

What will you get out of the course?
We’re not trying to tell you what you should like and what you shouldn’t like. We’re simply trying to help you get better at articulating what you instinctively feel about a script – what is it that you’re responding to and what is it that isn’t quite working. You’ll leave with a better sense of what makes a story work on screen – and how to fix it when it doesn’t.

Is the course just for screenwriters?
Most of the people doing the course will be screenwriters. But we fervently believe that film and TV is fundamentally about story and that everyone in the business should share a common vocabulary. So we absolutely encourage directors, actors, editors, composers, production designers and especially producers to take the course. When the level of story literacy rises again, the quality of films we’re seeing will too.

What are the prerequisites?
Ideally you’ll have done the 2-day Cracking Story course but that is not a prerequisite for this course.

It would help if you’ve done a screenwriting course or read some of the screenwriting manuals but this course will help everyone from the complete novice to the industry veteran.

When is it running and how much does it cost?

  1. AUS/NZ/Asia*Dates, times and prices
  2. Americas*Dates, times and prices
  3. Europe*Dates, times and prices

(* You’re free to join from outside these regions but it might mean an early start or a late finish.)