John Hasnas lecturing at Towson University during a seminar

A seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is requested to actively participate. This is often accomplished through an ongoing Socratic dialogue^[1] with a seminar leader or instructor, or through a more formal presentation of research. Normally, participants must not be beginners in the field under discussion (at US and Canadian universities, seminar classes are generally reserved for upper-class students, although at UK and Australian universities seminars are often used for all years). The idea behind the seminar system is to familiarize students more extensively with the methodology of their chosen subject and also to allow them to interact with examples of the practical problems that always occur during research work. It is essentially a place where assigned readings are discussed, questions can be raised and debates can be conducted.^[2] It is relatively informal, at least compared to the lecture system of academic instruction.

Origins of the word[link]

The word seminar is derived from the Latin word seminarium, meaning "seed plot".^[3]

Universities[link]

In American universities, the term seminar refers to a course of intense study relating to the student's major. Seminars typically have significantly fewer students per professor than normal courses, and are generally more specific in topic of study. Seminars can revolve around term papers, exams, presentations, and several other assignments. Seminars are almost always required for university graduation.

In some European universities, a seminar may be a large lecture course, especially when conducted by a renowned thinker (regardless of the size of the audience or the scope of student participation in discussion). Some non-English speaking countries in Europe use the word seminar (e.g., German Seminar, Slovenian seminar, Polish seminarium, etc.) to refer to a university class that includes a term paper or project, as opposed to a lecture class (i.e., German Vorlesung, Slovenian predavanje, Polish wykład, etc.). This does not correspond to English use of the term. In some academic institutions, the term "preceptorial" is used interchangeably with seminar, although this is typically utilized in the scientific fields.^[4][5]

In business[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

Increasingly, the term "seminar" is used to describe a commercial event (though sometimes free to attend) where delegates are given information and instruction in a subject such as property investing, other types of investing, Internet marketing, self-improvement or a wide range of topics, by experts in that field.

Seminar presentations are also intended for the improvement of technical knowledge of people. The presentations may also be uploaded in the internet for further reference by people.

See also[link]

• French mathematical seminars
• Webinar (a seminar attended through the internet)
• Brown bag seminar

References[link]

Wikibooks has more on the topic of Seminar

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (September 2011)

Anthony "Tony" Robbins
Tony Robbins in 2009
Born	(1960-02-29) February 29, 1960 (age 52) North Hollywood, California, United States
Occupation	Author Actor Professional speaker Peak Performance Coach
Years active	1978–present
Height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[1][2]
Spouse	Becky Robbins (m. 1982–2001) «start: (1982)–end+1: (2002)»"Marriage: Becky Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins) Sage Robbins (m. 2001) «start: (2001)»"Marriage: Sage Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins)

Anthony "Tony" Robbins (born February 29, 1960) is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within. Robbins writes about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships. Robbins began his career learning from many different motivational speakers, and promoted seminars for his personal mentor, Jim Rohn. He is deeply influenced by neuro-linguistic programming and a variety of philosophies.

Robbins's work has been featured in major media including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Life, GQ, Vanity Fair, Business Week, Tycoon and Success magazines, the CBS Evening News, NBC News, ABC's Prime Time Live, Fox News, CNN and A&E as well as newspapers, radio programs, and Internet media worldwide.^[3][4] Robbins has been mentioned or featured in 15 major motion pictures, including a cameo role a romantic comedy film Shallow Hal, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, and Jason Alexander.^[5] In 2007, he was named to Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" list.^[6]

Robbins' programs have reached over 4 million people from 100 countries around the world.^[7][8]

Robbins was ranked among the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World” by Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change.^[9] Robbins has spoken at Harvard Business School^[10] and was ranked by the school among the “Top 200 Business Gurus” (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).^[11][12][13] It was estimated by Forbes Magazine that Robbins earned approximately USD$30 million from his various business activities in 2007.^[14]

Early life[link]

Robbins was born Jay Mahavorick in North Hollywood, California, on February 29, 1960. He later moved to Azusa, California, and attended Glendora High School. Robbins says that he lived in a small low-rent apartment in the Los Angeles area during his early twenties and had dreamed of living in a mansion for years. In 1984, as his career began to take off, he bought the Del Mar Castle, designed by Richard Requa, for $1.7M. He sold the property in 1988 for $3.25M.^[15]

Career[link]

Robbins began his career promoting seminars for Jim Rohn. According to Robbins, Rohn taught him that "happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. What we do with the things we have makes the biggest difference in the quality of life."^[16]

Later Robbins began his own work as a self-help coach. He taught neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and Ericksonian Hypnosis after training with NLP co-founder John Grinder. In 1983, Robbins learned to firewalk from Tolly Burkan^[17] and began to incorporate it into his seminars.^[18][19]

Robbins promoted his services as a "peak performance coach" through his books and TV infomercials, gaining strong public recognition and lucrative sales. He conducts a large range of seminars and live events around the world dedicated to achieving greatness in his participants by unleashing their personal power and helping them align their values with their individual life goals.^[20] In 1997, Robbins began the Leadership Academy seminar, in which participants learn to "[c]reate an identity for them self as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be."^[21] Robbins is a featured speaker on the seminar circuit sponsored by Learning Annex. Robbins appeared as a featured speaker at the 2007 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. His talk is among the top ten TED talks viewed online.^[22]

Robbins is involved with the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention, which focuses on personal, family and organizational psychology, and claims to help people "find breakthrough strategies and solutions for overcoming the problems that confront us all."^[23]

Seminars[link]

Tony Robbins giving a talk at a Twitter conference in 2009

Robbins also conducts seminars, including his four-day Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminar, Mastery University and Business Mastery.^{[24][25] [26]}

The UPW is also known as his firewalk seminar, during which the participants walk barefoot over hot coals at the end of the first evening. The aim of the seminar, demonstrated in the firewalk, is to illustrate that the main quality shared by those who achieve greatness is the ability to take action ("Personal Power").^[27]

Mastery University is promoted at the UPW seminar.^[24][25] Mastery University is composed of three seminars:

- Life Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a healthy lifestyle, and has in the past featured guest lecturers including Deepak Chopra and John Gray.

- Wealth Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a wealthy lifestyle.

- Date With Destiny, the only Mastery event at which Robbins is present for the entire event, is said to be designed to help participants align their values so that they are not in conflict, but rather are aligned with the participant's individual goals.^[28]

In 1997, Robbins initiated his Leadership Academy seminar,^[29] in which he invites participants to learn the skills he uses, with the stated goal of the program to enable the participant to "[c]reate an identity for yourself as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be".^[21]

In 2009 Robbins created his Business Mastery program,^[26] designed to provide business leaders with tools to manage and grow their businesses. The seminar is conducted live by Robbins and features entrepreneur guest speakers. Past speakers have included Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts,^[30] Peter Guber (Chairman & CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group)^[31] and Tony Hsieh (CEO and Founder of Zappos.com).^[32][33]

Books[link]

Robbins has published two best-selling books, Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within.

Unlimited Power, published in 1987, discusses the topics of health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships.^[34] One reviewer called the book "uplifting and idealistic" and referenced the "dynamic enthusiasm" of the book;"^[35] and another describes Robbins as “a persuasive communicator who spends more linage on step-by-step details of his recommendations than in self-boosterism."^[36] while another reviewer said it's "too wordy" and "reads like a transcript of a series of talks."^[37] Other reviewers dispute the book's originality, pointing to ideological similarities with Maxwell Maltz, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie, all of whom Robbins acknowledges in his book.^[38] Some have criticized the chapter called "Energy: The Fuel of Excellence" which includes information on food combining, lymphology, and deep breathing to promote health. Robbins makes reference to the book Fit for Life and its authors, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, whom he refers to as his "former partners".^[39] The National Council for Reliable Health Information wrote a critical review of the chapter and called his sources unreliable.^[40][41]

Awaken the Giant Within, published in 1992, was an expansion of his personal development techniques and strategies taught through a motivational self-help type approach. Robbins made the distinction between his techniques, coined as Neuro-Associative Conditioning as distinct from Neuro-Linguistic Programming because the trademarked difference is defined by the application of "conditioning" to a newly learned personal development technique and/or skill or strategy rather than "being programmed" and suggest-ably fixed once and for all by someone else who had more power than the individual to make a change.^[42]

Movie appearances and TV show[link]

Robbins has cameo roles in the 2001 movie Shallow Hal, the 1994 movie Reality Bites, three episodes of The Roseanne Show and an episode of The Sopranos.^[43] In July 2010, NBC debuted Breakthrough with Tony Robbins, a reality show that followed Robbins as he helped the show's participants face their personal challenges.^[44][45] NBC canceled the show, after airing two of the planned six episodes, due to low viewership of 2.8 million.^[46] In March 2012 the OWN Network picked the show up for another season beginning with the original first season set to re-run and thereafter leading directly into the new 2012 season.^[47]

In April 2012, Robbins began co-hosting "Oprah's Lifeclass" on the OWN Network ^[48]

Anthony Robbins Foundation[link]

In 1991, Robbins launched a charity, the Anthony Robbins Foundation.^[49] It is dedicated to empowering students and prisoners through food drives and learning programs based on his teachings.^[50] According to the official website, the foundation has "products and programs in more than 2,000 schools, 700 prisons, and 100,000 health and human service organizations."^[51] These programs have been written about and featured in many dozens of articles, appearing on various websites, like Cherish Our Children International^[52] and Harmony With No Limits.^[53] The independent charity watchdog, Charity Navigator, gives the foundation a rating of two out of four stars.^[54] The official website states that "the Foundation is committed to make a difference in the quality of life for children, the homeless, the prison population, and the elderly through its various programs". The foundation has subsequently led to the forming of "Basket Brigades" across the world that occur each Thanksgiving. Individuals and groups have joined together to assemble and deliver dinner baskets to needy families.^[49]

Lawsuits[link]

Federal Trade Commission: In May 1995, Robbins Research International (RRI) responded to Federal Trade Commission charges of misrepresentation of potential earnings to franchise investors. RRI and the FTC entered into a stipulated settlement agreement, in which RRI agreed to pay $221,260 (USD) in consumer redress. RRI did not admit guilt under the settlement.^[55]

Wade Cook: Financial seminar guru Wade Cook also sued Robbins for copyright infringement and plagiarism, alleging that Robbins used proprietary terms in his seminars and in his book Wall Street Money Machine. In 1998, a Tacoma, Washington, jury ordered Robbins to pay Cook US$650,900 in damages. The order to pay damages was temporarily withdrawn^[56] until 2000, when the ninth circuit court ruled that the trial judge has misinterpreted the statutes.

The verdict and damages were reinstated with a statement that "The Court found that U.S. District Court Judge, Jack Tanner, erred in "finding a conclusion contrary to the jury award" and sent instructions to reinstate the award. "This is a landmark decision by the 9th Circuit Court because of the high profile players and issues at stake" said lead attorney and Wade Cook General Counsel, Troy Romero. "The Court is telling individuals that, no matter who you are, the protection of copyrightable material will be preserved." Robbins was forced to pay the entire amount.^[57]

In 2001, Robbins filed a lawsuit against the Vancouver Sun newspaper, alleging defamation and libel. The judge determined the Vancouver Sun defamed Robbins when it called him a hypocrite. Awarding Robbins $20,000 in damages, the judge wrote "While damages are presumed, the plaintiff's failure to take the witness stand and to testify about his feelings and the impact of the defamation upon his reputation leaves the court somewhat in the dark about these matters". The court awarded Robbins his attorneys' fees and costs in addition to damages.^[58][59]

Celebrity status[link]

In his book Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins recalls meetings with various celebrities, saying he was a student of their success. People he mentioned were Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Princess Diana.^[60] In Robbins' infomercials, celebrity appearances were made by Fran Tarkenton, Pamela Anderson, Quincy Jones, Erin Brockovich and Anthony Hopkins. Robbins stated that they came without any compensation.^[61]

In 1994, President Bill Clinton invited Robbins, Marianne Williamson and Steven R. Covey to a meeting at Camp David. All parties "refused to divulge the substance of their meeting with the Clintons".^[62]

Personal life[link]

In 1984, Robbins and his ex-girlfriend, Liz Acosta, had a son, Jairek Robbins.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Robbins and his first wife Becky Robbins (née Jenkins) separated. Their divorce was finalized on June 21, 2001. Becky already had three children from two former marriages. Robbins considers them his own children.^[63]

In June 2001, Robbins married Bonnie Humphrey (now known as Sage Robbins)^[64]

Robbins alludes to his personal belief in God in Unlimited Power, giving the grand complexity of life as evidence of an intelligent designer.^[65]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Psychology portal

• Kaizen, the continuous improvement philosophy
• Self-help

References[link]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• Robins, Anthony (1986). Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 448 pages. ISBN 0-684-84577-6. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1992). Awaken the Giant Within. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 544 pages. ISBN 0-671-79154-0. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1994). Giant Steps. New York: Fireside. pp. 416 pages. ISBN 0-671-89104-9. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1995). Notes from a Friend: A Quick and Simple Guide to Taking Control of Your Life. New York: Fireside. pp. 112 pages. ISBN 0-684-80056-X. 

CD/DVDs[link]

• Robbins, Anthony (2006). The Edge: The Power to Change Your Life Now. Megaforce / Nightingale-Con. pp. DVD. ASIN B000I5XD1K. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2002). Live with Passion!: Strategies for Creating a Compelling Future. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7435-2521-3. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2001). Get The Edge (incl. Personal Power Classic Edition). Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000207IT4. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2000). Get The Edge. Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000BMASVS. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1998). Lessons in Mastery. Simon & Schuster Audio/Nightingale-Con. ISBN 0-7435-2515-9. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1996). Personal Power Classic Edition. Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000NE70MY. 

Other[link]

• Living Health
• The Time of Your Life
• Mastering Influence
• The Ultimate Relationship Program (Robbins-Madanes)
• Leadership In Times of Crisis (Robbins-Madanes)
• Reclaiming Your True Identity (Robbins-Madanes)
• Conquering Overwhelming Loss (Robbins-Madanes)
• Personal Training System
• Unleash The Power Within

External links[link]

Find more about Tony Robbins on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Official website
• Antony Robbins Foundation, website
• Anthony Robbins at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Robbins on Facebook

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Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk
Born	(1975-11-14) November 14, 1975 (age 36) Babruysk, U.S.S.R.
Known for	Wine education, wine criticism, social marketing
Notable work(s)	Wine Library TV
Website
garyvaynerchuk.com

Gary Vaynerchuk (born November 14, 1975, in Babruysk, U.S.S.R. [presently Belarus]) is a video blogger, co-owner and director of operations of a wine retail store, and an author and public speaker on the subjects of social media, brand building and e-commerce. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S. in 1978, and after graduating from Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, transformed his father's Springfield, NJ liquor store into a large scale retail wine store named Wine Library,^[1] and in 2006 started the video blog Wine Library TV, a daily internet webcast on the subject of wine, which launched his career of internet celebrity.

Reaction[link]

He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal,^[2] GQ, and Time,^[3] appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Ellen.^[4] Vaynerchuk has been described as "the first wine guru of the YouTube era",^[5][6] "the wine world's new superstar",^[7] and by Rob Newsom, a Washington State wine maker, "outside of Robert Parker, probably the most influential wine critic in the United States".^[8] In the July 2009 Decanter publication of "The Power List" ranking of the wine industry's individuals of influence, Vaynerchuk placed at number 40, citing that he "represents the power of blogging".^[9][10]

In August 2010 it was announced that Vaynerchuk will host a weekly, two hour call-in radio show titled Wine & Web with Gary Vaynerchuk on the digital radio station Sirius XM.^[11]

[edit] Wine Library TV

New Media Expo 2008

Left: with Justine Ezarik & Leo Laporte  Right: with Ezarik, et al.

Wine Library TV (WLTV or The Thunder Show) (2006–2011) was a video podcast hosted by Vaynerchuk, featuring wine reviews and advice on wine appreciation. Episodes consisted of wine tastings along with other wine related topics. The show debuted on February 21, 2006, and is produced on a daily basis, on weekdays, and is taped in the Wine Library store in Springfield, NJ. Episodes taped Monday through Thursday usually took place on a desk in Vaynerchuk's office, normally tasting three or four wines, and the Friday episode took place on Vaynerchuk's office couch, tasting usually only one wine and answering questions submitted via his Facebook application Ask Gary.^[12] The show may be watched by 90,000 viewers.^[13] Vaynerchuk appeared on the cover of the December 2008 issue of Mutineer Magazine, launching the "Mutineer Interview" series.

After 1,000 episodes of Wine Library TV, the show was retired in March 2011 ^[14], replaced by a very similar video podcast called The Daily Grape, with a slightly shorter format of only two wine reviews, and fewer guests.

Vaynerchuk gives his impressions and finally rates wines using the 100 point scale. As an outspoken critic of numerical scores, he has acknowledged his hypocrisy in using them.^[5][15]

While typically a one man show, on occasion guests have been featured in the program. To date celebrity guests include Jancis Robinson,^[13] Heidi Barrett, George M. Taber, Kevin Rose, Maynard James Keenan, Michael Steinberger, Ingrid Hoffmann, Timothy Ferriss, Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money, Kermit Lynch, Wayne Gretzky, and Dick Vermeil.^[16]

Vaynerchuk has also announced a partnership with Eatdrinkordie.com, where he has released videos about wine, sometimes working with celebrities like Anna Faris.

In March 2009, Wine Library TV was nominated in the Streamy Awards.

August 23rd, 2011 he announced on Daily Grape that he is retiring from wine video blogging. ^[17]

[edit] Crush It

In March 2009, Vaynerchuk signed a 10-book deal with HarperStudio for over $1,000,000 and released the first book, Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion, in October 2009. The deal is groundbreaking in the publishing world as one of the first attempts to successfully use a low-advance/high royalty business model.^[18] In the first weeks of its release Crush It climbed to #1 on the Amazon Best Seller list for Web Marketing books. It also opened at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #7 on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List.^[19]

The book encourages people to determine what truly makes them happy and pursue monetizing around it on the internet. It argues that because of recent social and technological trends the cost of producing content has been driven low enough that passion, knowledge, and effort, which the book calls "sweat equity", are now all one needs to build a brand and business.

Crush It was also among the first books released on the Vook platform.^[20]

Vaynerchuk appeared in an episode of the CollegeHumor web series Jake and Amir in 2009, and parodied the slightly nonsensical aspect of Crush It.

Awards and honors[link]

• 2003: Market Watch magazine Business Award: "Market Watch Leader" (youngest recipient ever)
• 2006: People's Choice Vloggie in the categories of "Cooking" and "Instructional/Educational"^[21]
• 2007: American Wine Blog Awards, Best Wine Podcast or Videoblog^[22]
• 2007: The Morning News's "Favorite Web Phenomenon, Soon-to-Be Culinary Celebrity, Web Bucket-Spitter"^[23]
• 2008: Bravo A-List Awards, 2008 Nominee for A-List Celebrity
• 2011: The Wall Street Journal Twitter's Small Business Big Shots ^[24]

Bibliography[link]

• Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World (2008)
• Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (2009)
• The Thank You Economy (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gary Vaynerchuk official site
• "Daily Grape". http://dailygrape.com/. 
• Wine Library TV
• Vaynermedia.com
• Gary Vaynerchuk talks Food & Wine at Epcot in Walt Disney World with Lou Mongello from WDWRadio
• Gary Vaynerchuk at the Internet Movie Database
• Crush It song official music video

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011)

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2011)

Robert McKee, born 1941, is a creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Many of Hollywood's active screenwriters claim him as an inspiration.^{[citation needed]}

Rather than simply handling "mechanical" aspects of fiction technique such as plot or dialogue taken individually, McKee examines the narrative structure of a work and what makes the story compelling or not. This could work equally as well as an analysis of any other genre or form of narrative, whether in screenplay or any other form, and could also encompass nonfiction works as long as they attempt to "tell a story".

Life and Awards[link]

Robert McKee is among the most widely known screenwriting lecturers. McKee's former students include 36 Academy Award winners, 164 Emmy Award winners, 19 WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award winners and 16 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award winners (all participated in McKee's course before or after winning their award; not all were awarded for writing). He was profiled by Bob Simon of 60 Minutes for CBS News, and CNN recently did a profile and review of McKee and the Story Seminar. The notable writers and actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Paul Haggis, Akiva Goldsman, William Goldman, Joan Rivers, Rob Row, David Bowie, Kirk Douglas, John Cleese, Steve Pressfield, among many others have taken his seminar.^[1]

In 1990, Robert McKee was brought to New Zealand by the NZ Film Commission, and delivered a three-day seminar on screenplay and story structure in Auckland and Wellington. In the audience were Peter Jackson & Jane Campion. The seminar had a major influence on Jackson^{[citation needed]}, who went on to write and direct Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings, and King Kong.

In 2000 McKee was a project consultant to major film and television production companies such as 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, MTV, as well as to major software firms (Microsoft, NASA, and television news departments.^[2] In addition, several companies such as ABC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures.^[1]

In 2000, McKee won the 1999 International Moving Image Book Award for his book Story (Regan Books/HyperCollins). The book, currently in its 19th printing in the United States and its 14th printing in the United Kingdom, has become required reading for film and cinema schools at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, USC and Tulane universities.^[2][3] The book was on the Los Angeles Times best-seller list for 20 weeks. It is translated into over 20 languages.

McKee’s other credits include writing and presenting the BBC series Filmworks, the Channel Four series Reel Secrets, the BAFTA Award-winning J'accuse Citizen Kane television program which he wrote and presented, and the writing of Abraham, the four-hour mini-series on Turner Network Television (TNT) that starred Richard Harris, Barbara Hershey and Maximilian Schell.

Early life in the theater[link]

Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, began his theater career at the age of 9, playing the title role in a community theater production of ‘Martin the Shoemaker’. He continued acting as a teenager in theater productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee’s creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Thorpe Rowe.

After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree, McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway alongside Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Will Geer. He then received the Professional Theater Fellowship and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to earn his Master’s degree in Theater Arts.

Upon graduating, McKee directed the Toledo Repertory Company, acted with the American Drama Festival, and became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theater. From there he traveled to London to accept the position of Artist-in-Residence at the National Theatre where he studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic theatre. He then returned to New York and spent the next seven years as an actor/director in Broadway.

Mid-life in the film industry[link]

After deciding to move his career to film, McKee attended Cinema School at the University of Michigan. While there, he directed two short films: A Day Off, which he also wrote, and Talk To Me Like The Rain, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. These two films won the Cine Eagle Award, awards at the Brussels and Grenoble Film Festivals, and various prizes at the Delta, Rochester, Chicago and Baltimore Film Festivals.

In 1979, McKee moved to Los Angeles, where he began to write screenplays and work as a story analyst for United Artists and NBC. He sold his first screenplay Dead Files to AVCO/Embassy Films, after which he joined the WGA (Writers Guild of America). His next screenplay, Hard Knocks, won the National Screenwriting Contest, and since then McKee has had eight feature film screenplays purchased or optioned, including the feature film script Trophy for Warner Bros. (the film, however, was not produced). In addition to his screenplays, McKee has had a number of scripts produced for television series such as Quincy, M.E. (starring Jack Klugman), Columbo (starring Peter Falk), Spenser: for Hire and Kojak (starring Telly Savalas).

Starting the STORY seminar[link]

In 1983, as Fulbright Scholar, McKee joined the faculty of the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California (USC), where he began offering his famous STORY Seminar class. A year later, McKee opened the course to the public, giving a 3-day, 30-hour intensive class to sold-out audiences around the world.

Since 1984, more than 50,000 students have taken McKee's course, at various cities around the world: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, Auckland, Singapore, Barcelona, Stockholm, São Paulo and more. In March 2011, he taught his seminar four days in a row in Bogotá, Colombia. In February 2012 he taught at his seminar four days in the Ramoji film city of Hyderabad in India.

Criticism[link]

McKee has been criticized by Joe Eszterhas, for being someone who teaches screenwriting without ever having a script of his made into a film,^[4][5] though McKee is credited as writer of the 1994 TV movie Abraham.^[6] McKee has responded to such criticisms, saying, "The world is full of people who teach things they themselves cannot do", while admitting that even though he sold all of his written screenplays, he still lacks their screen credit since they were only optioned and not produced by the studios.^[1]

While McKee's work might appear to be a fresh approach to story structure, many of the ideas he discusses have been around since Aristotle and notably appear in the work of William Archer, John Howard Lawson and Alexander Mackendrick.^{[citation needed]} Nevertheless, McKee himself tells his students that Aristotle is the basis for much of what he teaches and he often distributes some of John Howard Lawson's writings at his seminar: he acknowledges his forbearers and never claims that he is inventing a brand new approach to story telling ^[7]. Furthermore he claims that much of what he teaches was common knowledge 50 or 60 years ago, but that screenwriters have lost touch with the fundamentals of storytelling. In a CBC interview he said that to give his lecture in the 1930s, -40s or 50s "would have been ludicrous" ^[8].

McKee also appears and is criticized in several works, for example, Missionnaire by French author Joann Sfar.

Popular culture[link]

In the Charlie Kaufman-penned film Adaptation., McKee's character was portrayed by the Emmy Award-winning actor Brian Cox. In the movie, the desperate screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage) reluctantly goes to McKee’s course, but then – after being “shaken” by McKee’s tough-style response to his claim that “nothing happens in the real world” – Kaufman asks McKee to meet in person to discuss his failure to write the film adaptation he is working on.

Though the story depicts McKee as little more than an amalgam of hack clichés on the subject of screen writing, Charlie's slacker brother Donald uses the knowledge obtained attending the famous seminar to write a spec script he then sells for a large amount of money through his brother's agent. The film then concludes rather cynically with the very hackneyed, bang-up ending McKee is ridiculed for recommending, as well as a voice-over epilogue in which—by means of voice-over narration—Cage's Kaufman character admonishes himself for disobeying a cardinal rule of McKee's to avoid voice-over narration.

Anecdotes[link]

• McKee is known to object to the French-originated "auteur theory", which states that the director is the de-facto author of a movie. McKee states otherwise, that the writer/screenwriter is in fact the most important creator of the movie.
• In a Haaretz story [3] (in Hebrew) on November 2, 2006 McKee was quoted as saying in front of a Tel Aviv audience that Israelis have a rough sense of humor, completely different from the known worldwide Jewish one, since Israelis are living in a harsh reality which leads them to lose their sense of humor.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Robert McKee's Story Seminar — Official Web site
• Robert McKee at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Robert McKee by The New Yorker
• CNN article — Advice for the aspiring
• CNN article — A writing guru's very own 'Story'
• McKee's visit to Israel — Video article by Ynet News — in this words association-style interview, McKee relates to the following terms in the following order (in the video, the words are composed in Hebrew letter cubes): 1) Blank page, 2) Art of storytelling, 3) Inspiration, 4) Disappointment, 5) Thrill, 6) Mind control, 7) America, 8) Time.
• Screenwriting Guru — by Brett Forest
• Alice Cinema — French article
• BBC World Service — How to Write (interactive guide)
• Robert McKee — Lessons from a screenwriting guru
• A short summary on the Screenwriters Federation Website
• What people are saying about the McKee course — an open forum
• http://www.magallanica.com Robert Mckee in Latin America 2009-2011 (Mario Velasco and Patricio Lynch).

Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in July 2011
Born	Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (1946-02-21) 21 February 1946 (age 66) Hammersmith, London, England
Occupation	Actor (stage, screen)
Years active	1978–present
Partner	Rima Horton (1965–present)

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor of stage and screen. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His breakout performance was as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman is known for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, Éamon de Valera in Michael Collins, and Metatron in Dogma.

Rickman has also had a number of other notable film roles such as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply, P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure and Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. More recently, he played Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Early life[link]

Rickman was born in South Hammersmith, London, to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker.^[1] Rickman's mother was from Wales and a Methodist, and his father was of Irish Catholic background.^[2] He has one elder brother, David (b. 1944), a graphic designer, a younger brother, Michael (b. 1947), a tennis coach, and a younger sister, Sheila (b. 1949).^[2][3] Rickman attended Derwentwater Primary School, in Acton, a school that followed the Montessori method of education.^[4]

When he was eight, his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said.^[2] Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and then the Royal College of Art. This education allowed him to work as a graphic designer for the radical newspaper the Notting Hill Herald,^[5] which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said.

After graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that if he were to ever explore acting professionally, it was now or never. This led him to write a letter to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) requesting an audition^[6] and was awarded a place in RADA which he attended from 1972–74. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself by working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson,^[7] and left after winning several prizes, including the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.

Rickman in December 2009

Career[link]

After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It.

In 1982, British television audiences came to know Alan Rickman as the Reverend Obadiah Slope in the BBC's adaptation of Barchester Towers known as The Barchester Chronicles. In 1985, Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies.^[8] When the show went to Broadway in 1987, Rickman earned both a Tony Award nomination^[9] and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance.^[10] In 1992, he was the "master of ceremonies" on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells II where he read off a list of instruments on the album.

Rickman's career has been filled with a wide variety of roles. He has played romantic leads like Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply, as well as numerous villains in Hollywood big budget films: German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988), the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and most recently Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series (2001–2011). In 1995, Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond film GoldenEye.

His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 years...100 Heroes & Villains as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.^[11][12] He has taken issue with being typecast as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991.

During his long career Rickman has also played a number of comedic roles, sending up classically trained British actors who take on "lesser roles" as the character Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in the science fiction spoof Galaxy Quest, portraying the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma, appearing as Emma Thompson's foolish husband Harry in Love Actually, providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in Nobel Son.

Rickman at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival

Rickman has also received acclaim for two biographical pieces he did for HBO. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy^[13] for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's Something the Lord Made. He also starred in the independent film Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.

In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. Rickman also appeared as Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's 2010 film Alice in Wonderland.

Rickman has performed on stage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.

His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's Tango at the End of Winter in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua.

Rickman had also directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 and the film version of the same play in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law. He also compiled (with Katharine Viner) and directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for Best Director. In May 2010, he finished directing Strindberg's play Creditors at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theatre after its previous run at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2008.

In 2009 Rickman was given the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society.^[14]

In October and November 2010, Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw.^[15] The Irish Independent called Rickman's performance breathtaking.^[16] This production subsequently travelled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for performances in January and February 2011.^[17]

In 2011, Rickman again appeared as Severus Snape in the final instalment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times said Rickman "as always, makes the most lasting impression,"^[18] while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Rickman "sublime at giving us a glimpse at last into the secret nurturing heart that [...] Snape masks with a sneer."^[19] Media coverage characterized Rickman's performance as worthy of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25]} He earned his first award nominations for his role as Snape at the 2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards, 2011 Saturn Awards, 2011 Scream Awards and 2011 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards in the Best Supporting Actor category.^{[26][27][28][29]}

On 21 November 2011, Rickman opened in Seminar, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway.^[30] Rickman, who left the production on April 1, won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Play^[31] and was nominated for a Drama League Award.^[32]

Rickman is to star with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in a remake of 1966's Gambit by the Coen brothers.^[33]

In the media[link]

Alan Rickman posing for a fan after a performance of John Gabriel Borkman in 2011

Rickman was chosen by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (No 34) in 1995 and ranked No 59 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. In 2009 and 2010 Rickman ranked once again as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars by Empire, both times Rickman was placed 8th out of the 50 actors chosen. Rickman became Vice-Chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2003. He was voted No 19 in Empire magazine's Greatest Living Movie Stars over the age of 50 and was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor (Play): in 1987 for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and in 2002 for a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives. The Guardian named Rickman as an "honourable mention" in a list of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.^[34]

Two researchers, a linguist and a sound engineer, found "the perfect [male] voice" to be a combination of Rickman's and Jeremy Irons's voices based on a sample of 50 voices.^[35] Coincidentally, the two actors played brothers in the Die Hard series of films.

Rickman has also been featured in several musical works – most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard entitled "Not Alan Rickman".^[36] Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell.^[37] Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002 album When Love Speaks,^[38] and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled "In Demand",^[39] which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.

Personal life[link]

In 1965, at the age of 19, Rickman met his partner Rima Horton, a Labour party councillor on Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council 1986-2006.^{[40][41][42][43]} They began living together in 1977.^[41]

Filmography[link]

References[link]