UNIVERSITY CLASSES
UCLA Extension Writer’s Program
Winter 2010
CRACKING THE CODE: HOW TO WRITE THE BOX OFFICE WINNER
January 13 – March 3, 2010
Eight Wednesday evenings from 7PM to 10PM
Cracking the Code
Have you written a number of specs, but can’t seem to find the right buyer? Consider that your focus needs to be on writing the right script at the right time to get the big sale. In this course, agent Victoria Wisdom defines the current studio and independent marketplace for movies in all genres, explores the specific key ingredients that make the next box office winners, offers in-depth analysis of current films to illustrate what to do-and not do-in your scripts, and pinpoints what producers are looking for next. At the end of the course, you have in-hand a beat sheet or outline for a saleable script.
For more information or to register contact Chae Ko CKO@unex.ucla.edu or call 310 206 1542
SCREENWRITING EXPO 2009
October 15th-18th 2009
Wilshire Grand Hotel, Los Angeles
HOW TO GET YOUR SCRIPT READ
Friday Oct. 16th 6:00-7:30
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BUYER FOR YOUR PROJECT
Saturday Oct. 17th 2:00- 3:30
HOW TO SELL A SPEC SCRIPT
Saturday Oct 17th 4:00-5:30
Get Your Script Read
How do you get an agent, manager, producer, director or studio exec to actually read your script? Find out, as a new writer, the crucial steps to breaking through the industry wall, as well as the most useful tools in preparing yourself professionally to give your script the best possible opportunity when it is read. Discover how to maneuver the marketplace, and its perception of your material, in your favor.
http://screenwritingexpo.com/program/session_detail.php?sessionID=9113
Right Buyer for Your Project
Whether Indie Mini-major or Major every buyer is looking to make a great film. What is it about your material that identifies it for a particular market? Who are the approachable buyers in each of the marketplaces? How does one get taken seriously by the right buyer for your script? Once you have identified the right buyer how do you go about getting it read? How do you target content for marketing your spec script? What are the industry tips for finding out who’s looking for your script right now?
http://screenwritingexpo.com/program/session_detail.php?sessionID=9078
Sell a Spec Script
So you wrote a screenplay. what’s next? Learn how to get an agent manager producer and a deal. Understand how to write scripts competitively for the studios target trends and choose commercial subjects. Learn how to collaborate and develop your material with development execs producers and financiers how to have a meeting with a studio executive that can hire you how to find and what to look for in your relationships with directors and actors. Most importantly how to create longevity in a career that begins with the first sale.
http://screenwritingexpo.com/program/session_detail.php?sessionID=9076
Victoria has been an Expo Star Speaker (receiving the highest ratings from attendees of the Expo) in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
VICTORIA WISDOM, partner, at literary agency Becsey Wisdom Kalajian for fifteen years. At BWK, Victoria represented the writers and directors of Oscar winning films as diverse as The Usual Suspects; The Red Violin; British Oscar winner Love And Death on Long Island;and Berlin Festival winner Italian for Beginners. BWK clients have included Oscar winners Crash; Million Dollar Baby; and nominee The Fugitive. Additionally, Victoria sold the hit CBS drama series Criminal Minds, now in its fifth season. Victoria also represented Oscar nominees Deepa Mehta (Fire, Water), Doug McGrath (Bullets Over Broadway), winners Ernest Thompson (On Golden Pond), Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), directors Bryan Singer (X-Men), Lone Scherfig (An Education) and Alan Moyle (Pump Up the Volume). Additionally Victoria represented the screenwriters of such mainstream hits as Hellboy, G.I. Jane and Aliens vs. Predators. Prior to BWK, Victoria was an agent at ICM/International Creative Management. Victoria currently also teaches Screenwriting at UCLA. Victoria recently became a producer/manager setting up the thriller Labyrinths at Summit with Hilary Swank starring, the comedy Amateurs with Paramount Pictures, and the romantic comedy Taravella with Amy Adams.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SCRIPTWRITER’S NETWORK
March 2010
Seminar: Defining a Commercial Spec Script
NAPA VALLEY WRITER’S CONFERENCE
March 27, 2010
STORYBOARD:
Analyzing a screenplay currently in production
CATALOGUE OF PAST AND FUTURE EVENTS
Screenwriting Expo 2004-2008
Los Angeles, California
HOW TO SELL YOUR SPEC SCRIPT
HOW TO PITCH YOUR SCREENPLAY FOR A SALE
WHAT MAKES A SCREENPLAY COMMERCIAL
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BUYER FOR YOUR PROJECT
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BUYER FOR YOUR SCREENPLAY AT A FILM FESTIVAL
How To Sell Your Spec Script
So you wrote a screenplay…what’s next? Learn how to get an agent, manager, producer and deal. Understand how to write scripts competitively for the studios, target trends and choose commercial subjects. Learn how to collaborate and develop your material with development execs, producers and financiers, how to have a meeting with a studio executive that can hire you, how to find and what to look for in your relationships with directors and actors. Most importantly, how to create longevity in a career that begins with the first sale.
How to Pitch Your Screenplay for a Sale
Learn how to master the most challenging skill of a screenwriter’s career: how to pitch a story that sells. Concise storytelling helps not only a completed script but is the key building block in weaving a compelling plot. Your career in the film industry depends on the presentation of your ideas in a short but entertaining way. Walking through plot points will not stimulate your buyer to believe you can capture the tone of an amusing, thrilling, or dramatic story. Learn how to be a storyteller.
What Makes a Screenplay Commercial?
Understand the key ingredients that make up the commercial spec script that sells. Includes how to select, develop and refine the high concept commercial idea that studios are looking for, how to understand why one idea sells over another and how to capitalize on current production trends and box office success. Learn how to save yourself valuable time in finding the inspiring story that producers and executives are looking to make by writing the script everyone wants to buy.
How to Find the Right Buyer for Your Project
Whether Indie, Mini-Major or Major, every buyer is looking to make a great film. What is it about your material that identifies it for a particular market? Who are the approachable buyers in each of the marketplaces? How does one get taken seriously by the right buyer for your script? Once you have identified the right buyer, how do you go about getting it read? How do you target content for marketing our spec script? What are the industry tips for finding out who’s looking for your script right now?
NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD CALL 1 800 727 6978 TO ORDER CODE # DVD041
How To Find The Right Buyer For Your Screenplay at a Film Festival
There’s a film festival in every major city and every major country in the world. How can they work for you? This seminar shows you how to turn a festival into a future job opportunity. Learn how to pre scout festivals through the web, make travel choices best for your material, interact with festival officials to become a part of writer’s programs and workshops, enter writing contests, attend screenings and meet filmmakers with mutual interests. Film festivals are not just about finished films. They are where many new projects first found their start. Learn how to turn a film festival into a sale.
CATALOGUE OF PAST AND FUTURE UNIVERSITY CLASSES:
UCLA EXTENSION: WRITER’S PROGRAM
Contact Chae Ko CKO@unex.ucla.edu
THE ART OF PITCHING: A STORY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP:
Two Saturday Afternoons from 1PM– 6PM
To succeed as a film or television writer, you need great ideas, but you also need to know how to pitch those ideas well. In this two-day workshop, taught by literary agent Victoria Wisdom, intermediate and advanced students explore preparation and confidence–the two elements which go hand-in-hand in building a winning pitch. Topics include getting the pitch meeting, perfecting the pitch, “working the room,” creating instant allies, defusing tension, controlling the meeting, and post-pitch strategies. Students review current films and practice pitching at the first session, then work on their own ideas and pitch them at the second meeting. The goal of this workshop is to demystify the pitch process, thereby converting the pitch meeting from a source of anxiety into an exciting and enjoyable target of opportunity.
FINDING, CREATING, WRITING, AND SELLING THE COMMERCIAL IDEA AND SCREENPLAY:
Four Evenings from 7PM to 10PM
Do you know how to tell if your feature idea or script truly is commercial? Can you tell the difference among material for studios, independents, networks, pay cable companies, and basic cable channels? The answers to these questions and many more influence the ways professional writers look for, create, and sell ideas, and they are of tremendous value to aspiring writers as well. In this course, you learn to ferret out various buyers’ appetites for ideas and scripts by understanding their target audiences, educate yourself about what’s working in the marketplace and why, and figure out how to predict the trends. In addition, you look at how to develop material through true stories, pubic domain classics, biographies, and newsworthy events. The bottom line of this course is to show you how to get started in finding and writing the story that the film or television industry wants.
MANAGING YOUR CAREER AS A SCREENWRITER
Writers may have a short burst of success but often lack staying power. How do you have a career that actually lasts? In short, beyond talent, you need to understand the system and how to beat the odds. In four weeks, agent Victoria Wisdom guides you to do just that. You learn everything you could do wrong–and make it right–starting with how to pick the ideas everyone is waiting for to avoid wasting time on something no one wants. You learn how to recognize winners and avoid wrong choices when looking for an agent, attorney, and/or manager. You learn how to capitalize on your first sale and stop waiting for someone else to get your career into the next gear. And you learn how to pitch your ideas to their maximum, help close the deal and get an assignment by writing the best possible treatment, and promoting the material that you’ve already written. Your real success in a competitive freelance industry depends on your ability to form a union between your artistic nature and your business know-how. No matter where you are in your career, this course shows you how to achieve that pivotal combination.
UCLA EXTENSION: ENTERTAINMENT STUDIES PROGRAM
NAVIGATING THE FILM FESTIVAL: A WRITER AND DIRECTOR’S OPPORTUNITY
Two Saturday Afternoons from 1PM– 6PM
Film festivals are not just about the screenings of finished pictures. They are where every filmmaker’s next project is also put together. Learn how to enter the universe of the festival and use its networking opportunities to your own best advantage. Learn which festivals are the best and most productive opportunities for you and your projects, how to register, prepare, research in advance and how to schedule, organize and make the best use of your festival time.
LEARNING ANNEX CLASSES: Los Angeles Classes:
Make your career soar by finding the right agent. Victoria Wisdom has represented multiple Academy Award-winning writers and directors in her 15-year career. And she’s coming to The Learning Annex. Victoria’s experience comes from her days at prestigious agencies like The Agency for the Performing Arts and International Creative Management to her own partnership – BWK. She’ll share what every writer, producer and director should know about getting the right agent for their work. You’ll learn about: How to get an agent to call you, Who to contact , What to do (and never do), Using screenwriting awards, film festivals and other tools to establish contacts, Doing research and asking the right questions, The basics of a deal, And more.
Screenplay Wisdom 