Screenwriting Courses – Sydney – Melbourne – Australia

Learn how to write movies or advance your screenwriting craft with Cracking Yarns founder, Allen Palmer, at AFTRS, the national film school.

  • Introduction to Screenwriting
  • Graduate Certificate of Screenwriting
  • Graduate Diploma of Screenwriting


    • AFTRS – Introduction to Screenwriting
    An AFTRS Open Program run in Sydney and Melbourne, this 2-day course covers Concept, Character, Scene Development, Dialogue and Structure – including the life-changing Hero’s Journey. Learn more about this Introduction to Screenwriting course.

    AFTRS Graduate Certificate of Screenwriting
    An AFTRS Award Program, this 6 month course offers a far more detailed exploration of the fundamental screenwriting skills and you emerge with a well developed story outline for your movie project. In 2011, I will run this program in Sydney. Learn more about the AFTRS Graduate Certificate of Screenwriting course.

    AFTRS Graduate Diploma of Screenwriting
    Australia’s elite screenwriting program, this 2-year AFTRS Award Program teaches more advanced screenwriting skills and gets you to develop both a film and TV project. It is led by AFTRS Head of Screenwriting and Fight Club producer, Ross Grayson Bell.
    Learn more about the AFTRS Graduate Diploma of Screenwriting Course.

    Here are the next dates for Cracking Yarn’s screenwriting courses

    Can screenwriting be taught?

    It is the lucky individual indeed who can produce a taut, compelling, moving story in 120 pages without some sort of instruction. Screenwriting, more than other form of creative writing, is a craft.

    Script readers, producers and agents – not to mention the audience – have a whole raft of expectations and it takes not just tuition but years of application to achieve the balance of creative fire and cool analysis that screenwriting demands.

    Fortunately, having been a screenwriter, script reader and screenwriting teacher over nearly 25 years, I can help you quickly learn the tools of your trade. Mastering your craft – I’m not going to lie to you – will take considerably longer.

    What is my philosophy on screenwriting?

    Elsewhere, I outline my philosophy on filmmaking but fundamentally I believe in writing screenplays that have emotional power – that move people – because that’s what I want and it’s what most cinema-goers want, even if they mightn’t tell you that in a vox pop outside Hoyts on a Friday night.

    What do I teach?

    To generate emotion, to tell a story that is more engaging in its final reel than it is in its first act, you need to master structure and the only story paradigm that truly resonates for me is the Joseph Campbell-inspired Hero’s Journey outlined in Chris Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey.

    I outline why I love this approach to story in more detail here, but basically there are 3 reasons:

    • It organically delivers the emotional journey audiences are seeking
    • It naturally provides the escalation in conflict that audiences demand
    • It works

    It not only works. It’s been working for thousands of years. Which is another reason why I love it. No-one in Hollywood invented it. It was just identified by Campbell and refined by Vogler. It works now. And it will always work because it embodies an emotional journey to which anyone anywhere can relate.

    Am I any good?

    The feedback on my screenwriting courses to this point has been fairly positive but can I help guide you to screenwriting glory? Only time will tell. Certainly, I am working my tail off to find better ways to communicate what I know about screenwriting. And, in an environment like AFTRS, I am surrounded by a bunch of people who are constantly adding to what I know about screenwriting. You could do worse.

    AFTRS – a fresh take on screenwriting

    The new Head of Screenwriting at AFTRS is Ross Grayson Bell, an Australian producer and screenwriter who worked in Hollywood for 20 years and whose most famous credit is the much-heralded, Fight Club.

    Under Ross, the Screenwriting programs have a strong international perspective with the focus on concept and fundamentally sound storytelling structure. By taking a more international approach, AFTRS is likely to produce screenwriters who are not only able to get their films seen by a broader audience overseas but also reach more people here at home in Australia.

    Here are the next dates for Cracking Yarns’ screenwriting courses

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