- published: 24 Apr 2012
- views: 68202
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. Online, McKee has a blog and a writers' resource website called "Storylogue".
McKee's "Story Seminar" runs twice yearly in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and about once yearly in other major cities worldwide including Amsterdam, Beijing, Mumbai, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The seminar covers how story fits the human mind, from the philosophical to the structural. McKee's one-day "Genre Seminars", often held 5 days in a row, delve into the conventions of the Thriller, the Comedy, the Love Story, the Action Story, and Television.
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 a 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".
Actors: Ron Livingston (actor), Peter Jason (actor), Gary Farmer (actor), Doug Jones (actor), Gregory Itzin (actor), Curtis Hanson (actor), Spike Jonze (actor), Chris Cooper (actor), Nicolas Cage (actor), Brian Cox (actor), Nicolas Cage (actor), John Cusack (actor), Curt Clendenin (actor), Jim Beaver (actor), John Malkovich (actor),
Plot: While his latest movie _Being John Malkovich (1999)_ (qv) is in production, screenwriter 'Charlie Kaufman' (qv) is hired by Valerie Thomas to adapt 'Susan Orlean' (qv)'s non-fiction book "The Orchid Thief" for the screen. Thomas bought the movie rights before Orlean wrote the book, when it was only an article in The New Yorker. The book details the story of rare orchid hunter John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made Orlean discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. Charlie wants to be faithful to the book in his adaptation, but despite Laroche himself being an interesting character in his own right, Charlie is having difficulty finding enough material in Laroche to fill a movie, while equally not having enough to say cinematically about the beauty of orchids. At the same time, Charlie is going through other issues in his life. His insecurity as a person doesn't allow him to act upon his feelings for Amelia Kavan, who is interested in him as a man. And Charlie's twin brother, pretentious 'Donald Kaufman (I)' (qv), has moved into his house with a goal of also becoming a screenwriter. Despite not admiring Donald as a screenwriter, Charlie asks for his advice. Together, they feel that there is some interesting subtext in the book on which Orlean herself can only elaborate, if only Charlie has the nerve to talk to her. If she can't or won't elaborate, they may have to find out the meaning of that subtext on their own.
Keywords: actor-playing-multiple-roles, alienation, alligator, alligator-attack, author, bad-back, bad-english, based-on-novel, bee, behind-the-scenesA conversation with the author and screenwriting guru.
The complete lesson can be find at www.storylogue.com
Robert McKee discussed why the setting of your film is so important
Robert McKee comes on Bulletproof Radio today to discuss how storytelling can get you a job, how big companies use storytelling, creating a meaningful brand, and how you can improve your story. Enjoy the show! Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, is an author, BAFTA winner and the most sought after screenwriting lecturer on the planet. Former students of his “STORY Seminar” include over 60 Academy Award Winners, 200 Emmy Award Winners, 100 WGA Award Winners and 50 DGA Award Winners. Robert has been profiled on 60 Minutes and his articles on STORY have been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair and many more. For more info & to follow Robert: Robert McKee - http://mckeestory.com/about/ Storynomics - http://storynomics.org/ Robert Mckee on Facebook - https...
http://www.jonathanfields.com - Story guru, Robert McKee, and author/blogger, Jonathan Fields, talk about McKee's extraordinary career, the structure of story and how to bring it to life in books, movies, TV, blogs and business.
If you ever had dreams of writing a Hollywood screenplay, you won't want to miss this interview with Robert McKee. McKee is Hollywood's go-to guy for scripts. He teaches a class for aspiring writers, he helps the studios with scripts in production, and occasionally he rescues scripts that have gone terribly wrong. He's also known for humiliating his students with his infamous outburts. For more information about Robert McKee, check his website. Also McKee will be in Vancouver on November 2, 3, 4 to offer a seminar.
Entrevista abierta realizada por el guionista y director argentino Eliseo Subiela, al profesor Robert McKee, autor del libro "El guión: sustancia, estructura, estilo y principio de la escritura de guiones" (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting), y profesor del seminario de guión más reconocido del mundo, "Story".
Robert McKee and Bass El Wakil engage in an animated discussion about the The Lego Movie. Their review ranges over a variety of subjects, including the Hero's Journey, the nature of Satire, how to create successful Set Ups and Pay Offs, and why it may no longer be possible to do a "Nolan-style" Batman. For more of this type of insight check out www.storylogue.com.
Part of Storylogue's content includes a new Q&A; video being posted everyday, Monday through Friday, five days a week. In a year, over 250 Q&As; like this one will posted on a variety of topics related to screenwriting, novel writing, TV writing, producing, directing and more, on subjects such as character, dialogue, multiple protagonists, novel structure, reality TV, bio-pics, writer's block, thrillers, comedies and more. Questions are either filmed at the seminars, submitted by Storylogue members or e-mailed to McKee through his website or Facebook page.
The biggest mistake that novice screenwriters make is trying to follow what's trendy.