Upcoming Screenwriting Courses – Sydney

Here you’ll find the dates and costs of Cracking Yarns’ upcoming screenwriting courses:

Introduction to Screenwriting

In this 2-day Open Program at AFTRS, the national Film and TV School, you’ll build the foundation of your film storytelling craft by covering Concept, Character, Scene Development, Dialogue and Structure (including the Hero’s Journey). Learn more about Introduction to Screenwriting

Sydney
There are no plans to run this course in 2013.

Graduate Certificate of Screenwriting Fundamentals

What they said about the Grad Cert 2011

Here’s what the students in the AFTRS Grad Cert Screenwriting Fundamentals 2011 said about the program:

“You should do the Grad Cert because …

“… it gives you a whole year of access to one of Australia’s greatest filmmaking resources: Allen Palmer. If your goal is to tell a great cinematic story, I’ve encountered no one in this country with a better and deeper understanding of story than Allen. He’ll challenge you, confront you, guide you. He won’t let you get away with superficiality, laziness or things that ‘sort-of’ work. He cares about story too much to let anyone out of his course without doing all he can to make you a world-class storyteller. If you fully commit yourself to this course, you’ll leave it more passionate about writing than you’ve ever been in your life. It will leave you with a great set of tools for breaking stories, testing them, refining them and pitching them. You’ll start off by realising how little you know and leave it amazed at much you’ve learned.”

“I wasted many years telling myself that writing of any sort (screen or otherwise) couldn’t be taught or learnt, that story was intuitive, that the tenets of filmmaking — as enunciated in texts and classrooms — were useful only to the most superficial extent. I finally accepted that I was making excuses, so I enrolled in the screenwriting Graduate Certificate. I count it amongst the best decisions of my life.

Allen is that very rare kind of teacher who can galvanise a classroom, who affects students far beyond the school walls or course calendar. He inspires, challenges, provokes students to be better. Always better. Most importantly for me, he taught me early on that the principles of storytelling for screen are not cliches. Rather, they are the very tools that can help you avoid them. I usually arrived at his classes tired and washed out after a day at work, but left invigorated and excited about stories I wanted to tell.”

“… it’s serious bang for your buck – 16 weeks of intense (ed: now 32 weeks) of dedicated and highly personalised mentoring by the most passionate and knowledgable teachers I have encountered in 12 years of professional artistic practice.”

” … you’ll be humbled, challenged and inspired by all that you learn.”

“… it is taught with the passion and conviction of teachers who know what they are talking about, teachers who have a level of integrity and will do whatever they can to help you elevate your writing craft and see you succeed.”

“The most valuable thing I learnt in the Grad Cert was …

“… Structure. It is without a doubt the hardest thing to come to grips with, however after the course, finding a structure for your script becomes an enjoyable process. Allen’s able to take an established form and present it in a new and flexible light that works and most importantly, encourages your story.”

“… that I can now say with confidence that I am the best judge of my own work (and I most definitely was not before). Intuition for story is not inborn- it’s learned through intensive practice and guided application. Now, I can go forward with the skills to identify the strengths and weaknesses of my projects and address them myself, instead of wasting years, I believe, pushing interest in underdeveloped work.”

“The art of the squeeze/release; clear external goals that demand an internal journey; ego vs essence; want vs need; making characters work really really hard; practical tools for generating dramatic CONFLICT; how to design story structure that delivers emotional catharsis for the audience right when they need it.”

“The best module in the Grad Cert was …

“… the Scene Writing module – exploring fundamental dramatic principles at a microcosmic level before applying them at macrocosmic level, hearings scenes read-out, being present for insightful feedback for every other student in the class.”

“The best class/exercise in the Grad Cert was …

“… The Hero’s Journey lectures and the consistent practical application of this story paradigm across all the modules reinforced its cinematic power.”

Go to the AFTRS site for details about the Graduate Certificate of Screenwriting Fundamentals.