Event Details
Monday
March 7, 2022 5:00 pm
via Zoom
RSVP
Formatting & Structure Essentials
Everything I wish I’d known when I started in this industry. Learn exactly what you can and can’t mess with when it comes to ultra-clear script formatting, structure for pilots & features, writing direct yet subtextual dialogue, and creating propulsively powerful scenes that’ll get you past the gatekeepers.
Some of the topics and techniques we’ll cover include:
- The 5 vital templates you need to outline every film or TV show
- Write an unforgettable initial introduction to your protagonist
- Top new formatting conventions & changes you need to know
- 7 screenwriting red flags to avoid at all costs
- Pitfalls and advantages of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and V.O.
- A simple naming trick to make any character stick in our minds
- Why the emotional journey is all-important—and how formatting can take us there
…and a whole lot more. Hope to see you there!
Timothy Michael Cooper is an award-winning filmmaker, comedy writer, and script consultant. He wrote and directed the Writers Guild Award-nominated Concierge: The Series, starring Kate McKinnon. His short comedy Lemon premiered at Tribeca, played at dozens of international festivals and on United Airlines, and is currently in development as a sitcom. Plus, he’s been part of the writers’ room for the Writers Guild Awards for the past six years, writing monologue jokes and sketches for numerous hosts/presenters.
Through his company, Blueprint Screenwriting Group, he’s taught hundreds of writers. His clients and students have sold their scripts to major studios; staffed on multiple network and cable TV shows; screened/won at SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, Cannes, etc.; and got their movies and shows made across the globe.
Timothy is a proud member of the WGAE, the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective Writers’ Workshop, the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, and the WGAE Softball Team.
About The Fundamentals of Screenwriting Series
The Fundamentals of Screenwriting with Timothy Michael Cooper is a WGA East seminar series that aims to live up to its name – to teach the fundamentals for screenwriters that need a refresher or journalists and other screenwriting novices looking to learn for the first time.
Watch the previous installments of the Fundamentals of Screenwriting series here.
