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David Freeman's Beyond Structure has attained its enormous popularity because of his radical approach. Tired of theory? You won't get any here. Instead, David teaches 200 powerful screenwriting techniques you won't find anywhere else, and which you can use immediately to enhance the artistry of your scripts. (They work for novelists too!)
Here's just one of the 200 PLOT DEEPENING TECHNIQUES you'll learn in Beyond Structure illustrated by American Beauty. This technique adds a feeling of emotional depth to plots. This technique is Parallel Plotlines: |
What They Are Saying
"David Freeman has broken down the craft and art of screenwriting into its building blocks -- a periodic table of highly effective techniques that the masters have been using and which now anyone can learn. He can even take a difficult subject like how to add emotional layers and depth to a scene or script and show exactly how it's done. I don't think this information is available anywhere else."
Gary Goldman
Executive Producer and uncredited Co-Writer: MINORITY REPORT; Co-writer: TOTAL RECALL; currently writing THE END OF ETERNITY for Columbia Pictures and director Ridley Scott.
| "David Freeman's strategy is excellent: If you want to write like the masters of film and television, use their techniques. You can spend ten years of your life studying, compiling, and inventing those techniques, like David did -- or you could attend his weekend "BEYOND STRUCTURE" Workshop. I've tried both, but I recommend the latter."
Joe Reinkemeyer
Writer: LAW & ORDER; BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER; L.A. LAW. | To reserve your place
Call Raindance
+44 (0) 207 287 3833 |
What They Are Saying
"Using something akin to the Vulcan mind meld, David has probed into the minds of Hollywood's master writers and identified all of their techniques. But the even greater feat is how David manages to articulate thee techniques better than the masters themselves. This seminar is a must."
Evan Somers
Former staff writer: STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE; writer of episodes: STAR TREK: VOYAGER
| "When I took David's class, I had just finished a first pass at a very challenging feature adaptation I had been hired to write. In David's workshop. I found powerful techniques, clearly presented, that I could immediately use to make my characters' emotional arcs more defined and which allowed the script to operate on more profound levels. These techniques are just as applicable to my television writing. David's techniques for increasing a writer's artistry are fresh, exciting, and immensely practical."
Jan Oxenburg
Writer: COLD CASE, ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION, Supervising Producer: THE EDUCATION OF MAX BICKFORD; Producer: ONCE AND AGAIN; Former Coproducer: CHICAGO HOPE; Recently finished writing a feature for Robert Greenwald Productions based on James Ellroy's memoir: MY DARK PLACES; Theatrical Feature: THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT; Former Executive Story Editor: NOTHING SACRED; Former Story Editor: RELATIVITY.
| "Although I took David Freeman's class with the intention of expanding my skills for feature film writing, I found the Story Brainstorming Techniques and the Dialogue Techniques highly applicable to the half-hour comedy writing that I do everyday. Part of my work involves creating and writing pilots, and in this regard I especially liked his "Character Diamond" Technique. It is simple to use and creates strong, identifiable characters., and I will be using it for all my pilot development from now on."
Ellen Sandler
Credits include: Co-executive Producer/Writer: EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND; Producer/Writer: COACH; Creator/Co-Executive Producer: CASS (pilot starring Kathy Baker); Creator/Executive Producer: KATEY (CBS pilot starring Katey Sagal)
| "The exciting tools David offers have vast application for any director. His many specific techniques, from adding depth to a scene to ways of making characters more layered and dimen-sional, translate straight into the art of directing. Directors are in for a big creative boost when they take David's class."
William Dear
Director: ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS, WILD AMERICA
| "What David does is unique, lucid and generous. He shows you how to sculpt, deepen, and enliven a script, and even how to have fun in writing it. He has conceptualized writing systems and tools that will empower both the veteran and novice to achieve deeper depths and higher heights in their writing. He is funny and charismatic; he's also a successful working writer. I will be using the tools he has passed on for years. "
JEFFREY D. BROWN
Emmy-award winning director: THE WONDER YEARS. Co-writer, co- producer, DREAM WITH THE FISHES (Sony Classics). Executive Producer, MOON (Paramount).
| | Greetings!
Raindance is pleased to present David Freeman's Beyond Structure in London this September 23rd and 24th.
Beyond Structure is the single most popular screenwriting workshop in Los Angeles and New York. It's been taken by the writers, directors, producers, stars, and key creative executives behind: Good Will Hunting, the Austin Powers films, E.R., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, The Wedding Singer, Total Recall, 12 Monkeys, Meet the Fockers, and many more.
And we have a special offer until August 7th: Both the weekend class, save 20% AND benefit from 2 FREE evening classes.
Read on.
| | Parrallel Plotlines in American Beauty
Wes Bentley plays Ricky Fits, the young man with the video camera. His life is paralleled by Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey):
1. Ricky begins the movie in apathy (because, we'll learn, he was put in a mental institution and drugged). When we first meet Lester, he's in apathy as well, mechanically performing his humiliating job from his little office cubicle.
3. Ricky smokes dope. Lester smokes dope.
4. Ricky quits his job. Lester quits his job.
5. Ricky is in love with a teenage girl. Lester is in love (or lust anyway) with a teenage girl.
6. Ricky is a teen. Lester acts like a teen - buying the hotrod of his teenage dreams, taking a job at a fast food restaurant, and declaring that he hates responsibility (i.e. being an adult).
7. Ricky possesses some profound spiritual insights, exemplified in his speech about seeing life and its beauty in and through all things. It's a realization he had when witnessing a plastic bag dancing in the wind. Lester repeats this exact same speech at the end of the film.
8. Both Ricky and Lester overcome their apathy. Ricky rises up from apathy to anger (and finally leaves his father). Lester rises all the way up to true spiritual serenity (which takes place right before he dies, and continues to expand afterward.)
Parallel Plotlines is only one of over 50 ways to give emotional depth to a plot. By the way, it's worth noting that Ricky, when he gives his "beauty" speech (about the plastic bag), has not attained true spiritual serenity at that point, although he (and at first, we) believe he has. His Zen-like serenity if fake, covering his apathy. After all, Zen masters don't sell drugs, they don't allow themselves to be beaten to a pulp by their fathers, they don't insist on staying detached from the world (viewing everything though a camera), and they don't get fascinated by death and speak about it frequently.
Having a false emotion (here, serenity) covering a real emotion (in this case, apathy), gives depth to a character. It's what David calls a Character Deepening Technique. In Beyond Structure, you'll learn dozens of others to enrich your characters.
Imagine two days jam-packed with techniques like the above, and not just for adding depth and uniqueness to characters and plots, but to scenes and dialogue as well. Stir in lots of film clips, add some some chances to master the techniques by practising them in class, and then season the mix with David's warmth and humour, and you've got the magic which is Beyond Structure.
If you find it useful to learn techniques like the above, you might enjoy poking around David's home website - and reading the many illuminating articles there. They're packed with valuable techniques.
David only comes to teach in London once a year. Don't miss this rare opportunity to vastly enhance your artistic palette and inspiration as you learn from the best of the best. Your writing will never be the same.
Read an article on THEME IN PAN'S LABYRINTH | | Day 1 Course Outline
Saturday Sept 23 9:30am - 7:45pm
100 Techniques For Making Characters and Dialogue Stand Out
Learn and practice techniques to:
Create Riveting, 3-Dimensional Characters
- 10 techniques for crafting unique, psychologically complex characters.
- 38 kinds of character growth for heroes.
- 36 ways to make leading characters likable without making them bland.
- How to create characters who aren't limited to real people you've met.
- 25 types of character quirks and eccentricities.
- 37 techniques for giving characters depth.
- 11 ways to show character development in stages.
- Techniques to create interesting villains.
Write Luminous Dialogue
- How to give each character a distinctive voice.
- 5 ways to express a character's dimensionality in dialogue.
- 14 techniques to capture the rhythm and sound of conversation.
- 4 ways to inject depth or subtext into dialogue.
- Advanced Dialogue Techniques.
- The ultimate dialogue challenge.
- 6 techniques for revealing ambivalence in dialogue.
| Day 2 Course Outline
Sunday Sept 24 9:30am - 6pm
100 Techniques For Creating Compelling Plots and Scenes And How to Write or Develop What Sells.
Learn and practice techniques to:
Invent Great Premises
- 8 techniques for generating fresh story ideas.
- 11 ways of modifying ideas to develop radically alternative story-lines.
Develop These Premises Into Imaginative Plots
- 70 types of plot twists.
- 35 possible objectives for your hero.
Using plot to shape characters emotional growth,
- 5 additional ways to relate character growth to the plot.
Learn the most efficient way to brainstorm a story from beginning to end.
- Create Memorable Scenes
Scene Sculpting
- Ways to make scenes interesting and emotionally layered.
The Marketplace Guidelines for Hollywood vs. independent films.
Learn to use the brainstorming computer to improve your pitches. | Ultimate Pitching Skills Workshop
FREE CLASS
On the evening of Thursday, Septemder 21st from 6:30 - 9pm, David Freeman is hosting a pitching skills workshop at Raindance. In it he will demonstrate, using students' pitches, how to rearrange the story and pitch it in order to close a deal. It's only £9.99 and is not advertised anywhere else.
To book, you need to call Raindance on 0207 287 3833.
This class is FREE to members of Raindance, and to anyone attending the weekend Beyond Structure.
| | Writing Unforgettable Characters and Scenes
Tuesday September 18, 7pm - 9pm
Central London
£10 (free to Raindance members or if you book Dave's Beyond Structure masterclass)
Yet another free evening class if you book onto the Beyond Structure masterclass. Attend this intensive, high-impact class for a dozen specific techniques to markedly improve your characters and scenes.
| | | Filmmaking needn't be expensive, or cluttered with mystique. Let David Freeman give you the information you need to launch your career.
Happy Filmmaking,
Will Pearce
Raindance Festivals Limited
email: info@raindance.co.uk
phone: +44 (0) 207 287 3833
web: http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org
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