Screenwriting for Lawyers is designed to give aspiring attorney-authors what they have never had before: hands-on and practical training on the specific techniques needed to write a saleable screenplay. This course is also beneficial for students not specifically interested in writing screenplays as much of the materials apply to all genres. This preconference was very well received when first presented in 2004 as the above quotes indicate. Don’t miss it.

Richard Krevolin is an author, playwright, screenwriter, and professor. A graduate of Yale University, Richard went on to earn a masters degree in screenwriting at UCLA’s School of Cinema-Television, and a master’s degree in playwriting and fiction from USC. For 15 years Richard has taught both undergraduate and graduate screenwriting classes at USC Cinema/TV School as well as UCLA Film School, Ithaca and Pepperdine. Under his guidance, his students have sold film scripts and TV shows to Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks SKG and numerous other studios and production companies.

Krevolin has been a panelist and keynote speaker at a variety of popular writers’ conferences, including the Maui Writer’s Conference, The Santa Fe Screenwriters Conference, the Hollywood Film Festival, The Surrey Writer’s Conference, and The Learning Annex.

Schedule

9:30 - 11:00 Screenwriting 101: Everything You Learned In Film School in 90 Minutes or Less!
The Golden Rules of Screenwriting: The basics of storytelling, conflict, establishing a sympathetic character who wants something badly, three-act structure (beginning, middle, end), inciting incident, active pursuit, legitimate manipulation of audience response, overcoming obstacles, THE SILVER RULE - show don’t tell, tension, exposition, genres, books vs. films, characterization, character arc, raising stakes, planting (foreshadowing) and pay-off, and involvement. (All illustrated with filmic examples. Time permitting.)

11:00 - 12:00 Final Draft: Creating a unified format
There is a standard format used by all of the Hollywood studios for screenplays. This format is called the master scene format and it is the clearest, cleanest way to tell a visual story. It prioritizes only two things - what the characters do and what they say! Feelings, thoughts, and backstory are the verboten. Show us the story and we must glean everything from what the characters say and do, with the emphasis on the visual over the verbal.

2:00 - 3:00 You Don’t Say or The Essence of Good Dialogue!
The basics of good dialogue. This will be illustrated with excerpts from famous Hollywood films:

• Why it should be used sparingly

• What makes it credible

• Why it should add texture to the action not just underline or repeat it

• The essence of subtle, artful dialogue that adds to the image system instead of taking the place of the visual

3:00 - 5:00 Friday Afternoon at the Movies or Structure, Structure, Structure!
The key to writing is structure. So, we all will watch excerpts from a classically structured Hollywood film and analyze the heck out of it, including identifying the Act 1, 2, and 3, turning points, unifying filmic devices, climax, etc. Then we will look at the scene-o-gram and how it applies. Further, we will look at causal relationships in stories and the intricate dynamic of sequences, scenes, and beats - taking us to the essence of non-dialogical storytelling.

Here's what last years' attendees had to say:
"Extremely informative & very valuable"
"Terrific"
"Fantastic - great learning and great entertainment"
"Rich was excellent"
"Fantastic. Can’t believe how much info he shared." "The professor made the material come alive."
"An excellent, flawless presentation."
"Nice Job - funny and entertaining."
"Consistently high level & entertaining"
"Would [even] be helpful to people at the seminar who are not interested in screenwriting"
"Good info on just writing (some of the best writing
education I’ve ever had)"
"Materials apply to all genres."
"While learning about screenplays, we learned a lot about writing overall."