Production commitments will determine availability of staff members and guests. 
The Screenwriting Program is an intensive, week-long program which focuses on individual attention and work-in-progress, by award-winning writers and writer/directors. Film clips, lectures and writing exercises are incorporated into daily workshops, emphasizing the grammar of film, story development, narrative point of view, character analysis and scene structure. This unique program is designed for screenwriters and filmmakers, (of narrative features and, for the first time, documentaries). Additionally, fiction writers and playwrights who wish to translate their work into the film medium may apply. Our goal is to assist writers to improve their craft and thus move them closer to production.
Space is limited to 25 participants. Tuition is $750.00, which includes 6 evening meals; financial aid is available for particular circumstances. Admissions are based on submissions.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION EXTENDED:
Submissions must be received by May 10.
Morning workshops stress the language and grammar of film. Topics include finding the story, character analysis, script development, narrative point of view, plotting, subplots and dialogue. In-class exercises and group projects are assigned. The afternoons are devoted to individual conferences, which take precedence over all activities. Time permitting, participants will have the opportunity to have their scenes read by professional actors, taped and critiqued.
Special screenings and discussions in the late afternoons and evenings are often scheduled.
On arrival, each participant is assigned a mentor who will already be familiar with his/her material; preferably the project submitted is the one to be treated. Conferences take place during the afternoons. Rewrites and revisions will be assigned.
The Screenwriting Program will arrange your housing. When accepted please let us know your preferred accomodations; a private room is $500.00 for the week, a shared means with two people to a room and is $375.00 for the week. Our rented private houses are in walking distance of the main facilities but let us know if you have special needs or requirements.
Dinners are provided each evening of the conference. There are major supermarkets in nearby which should have everything you need. You may prepare your breakfasts and lunches in your house, or visit one of the cafes in the valley.
(Production commitments will determine the availability of staff members.)
EUGENE CORR is a writer/director of films and television whose credits include the Academy Award nomination, Desert Bloom; Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, (co-written/directed with Robert Hillmann); Prefontaine for Disney Pictures; and Mike Hammer: Too Legit for VHI; and The Joe Louis Story for Hallmark Entertainment. His television credits include Against the Law (Fox), Shannon’s Deal (NBC) and I’ll Fly Away (NBC). He is currently co-writing Butte, America, with Ed Dobb, for producer Pam Roberts, and completing post production on From Richmond to Regla, his documentary which compares teen life and sports in Regla, Cuba to that in Richmond, California.
JEFFREY FRIEDMAN is a writer/director, producer and editor. He has been nominated for 2 Emmys. His credits include Common Threads, as writer/director/editor; Stories from the Quilt; The Celluloid Closet, as writer/director/producer and editor; Underground Zero; Crime and Punishment AKA Law and Order: Crime and Punishment, as producer/director; Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Gold Rush, as director; and Howl, as writer/director, which is currently in pre-production.
PAMELA GRAY is a screenwriter whose credits include A Walk on the Moon, which received the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award and a Golden Satellite nomination for Best Original Screenplay; Music of the Heart; and Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. Variety named her one of the “Ten Screenwriters to Watch.” She will be making her directorial debut with an original project she’s developing for Fox Searchlight.
MICHAEL LEHMANN is a director/producer whose credits include Heathers, Hudson Hawk, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Flakes and Because I Said So, released in 2006. He has also directed episodes of Homicide, West Wing, and The Larry Sanders Show, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and recently an episode of Big Love for HBO. He is a long-time advisor of the Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker’s Lab.
TONEY MERRITT is a writer, editor and cinematographer. An independent filmmaker for 35 years, his films have been screened globally. Currently he is editing a documentary, The Life and Work of Art Carpenter, shooting Gustavo Vasquez’s documentary, Luche Libre de Tijuana, as well as Erotic Power Play for Dr. Gabriele Hoff, Psy.D. In process is a ten-part personal “film poem” on the Brazilian Amazon and a "personal film" on shamanism. He teaches Writing for Visual Media as part of San Francisco State’s Digital Video Intensive Program.
CHRISTOPHER MONGER is a writer/director whose credits include Voice Over, Crime Pays, Waiting for the Light, The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain for Miramax, and Girl From Rio. He received a Christopher Award for the television film, Seeing Red, for Granada and WGBH, and most recently directed the documentary, Special Thanks to Roy Landon, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2005 and was released in 2006.
JUDITH RASCOE’s screenwriting credits include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Havana, Endless Love, Who’ll Stop the Rain, the screen adaptation of Robert Stone’s novel, Dog Soldiers, and Patricia Highsmith’s novel, Ripley Underground, soon to be released. She was the story consultant on Roger Spottiswood's Shake Hands With the Devil, to be released next year and currently the story consultant for The Bang Bang Club, a feature about young conflict photographers in South Africa, produced by Michael Donovan.
TOM RICKMAN is a screenwriter/director whose many credits include, Coal Miner's Daughter, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award; Everybody's All-American; and The River Rat (which he also directed). His television credits include Truman, nominated for an Emmy Award; Tuesdays With Morrie, for which he received both the Humanitas Award and the Writers Guild Award; and The Reagans, nominated for an Emmy. His latest project is Front of The Class, for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
LISA ROSENBERG is a screenwriter whose credits include independent features, The Riddle and Savage Dawn; the dramatic short, Friends; television credits include, The Oddest Couple, a documentary series for KCET; the PBS children’s series, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego; and the internet-based dramatic and documentary political series, Reinventing America. She was writer/producer on the Emmy award-winning non-fiction public television series, Psychology: The Study of Human Behavior. Currently she is working on a screen adaptation of Edie Meiday’s award-winning novel, Crawl Space.
THOMAS SCHLESINGER is a screenwriter and story consultant whose collaborations include, Nowhere in Africa, with Caroline Link, which won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and Beyond Silence, nominated for an Academy Award in 1998. He collaborated with the writer-director, Doris Doerrie on Nobody Loves Me, in 1996, which won the German Film Prize, and The Fisherman and His Wife, which will be released in the spring of 2007. Currently he is the story-consultant for Hearts on Fire, written and directed by Luigi Falorni and is co-creating The Stranger, a mythic adventure series for Moroccan television.
CAMILLE THOMASSON’s screenwriting credits include an original Spanish language screenplay, Ave Maria, produced in Mexico and honored at the Latin American Film Festival; and Luther, a 2003 German production. Her television work includes, The Brook Ellison Story for which she won a 2004 Christopher Award;The Magic of Ordinary Days; and The Valley of Light (2007). She has completed the adaptations of Regina Louise's memoir, Somebody's Someone, for Lifetime, as well as Patricia Reillys Giff’s Pictures of Hollis Woods, for Hallmark Hall of Fame, which screened in December 2007. Currently she is writing the Lois Wilson Story, (co-founder of Al-anon), also for Hallmark Hall of Fame.
MICHAEL URBAN is a screenwriter who has worked on feature film projects at 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures and MGM. His credits include Saved! written in collaboration with Director Brian Dannelly. Currently he is developing a dramatic television series called Willow Creek, with producing partners Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern and a new feature film, Runner Up, with Brian Dannelly. He is an instructor at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California.
SCREENWRITING GUESTS
GREG BEAL is the administrator of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.
JULIE PARKER BENELLO is the principal at Chicken and Egg Productions in San Francisco.
SARAH RYAN BLACK is a producer and principal of Grand Illusions in Los Angeles.
TOM KORANDA is producer/writer for Big Water Films in Los Angeles.
GRAHAM LEGGETT is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society.
SCOTT ROSENFELT is an independent producer who founded I.E. Productions, with producer and writing partner, Billie Grief.
GEORGE RUSH, is an entertainment lawyer living in San Francisco. He is on the Board of Film Arts Foundation.
GAIL SILVA is a production consultant in San Francisco.
RON YERXA is a producer and partner of Bona Fide Productions in Los Angeles.
DEBORAH WETTSTEIN is Executive Vice President of Finance for Collage Cinema Graphique in Los Angeles.
- Past Screenwriting participants: If you attended last year do not apply this year. Once you have taken a year off, you are welcome to apply again.
- Please include two copies of submission; complete screenplays, proposals with a synopsis, for documentaries, and 5000 words or less plus a synopsis, for fiction. No treatments will be considered.
- Material submitted must be typed, 12 pt., and clear enough for reproduction. All pages should be numbered on upper right-hand corner of each page.
- Submissions should be presented with a resume and cover letter describing expectations of the applicant. Include a home address, day and evening telephone number, and email address.
- Requests for financial aid should be made in the cover letter.
- Enclose a $30.00 reading fee, payable to SVCW-Screenwriting.
- If return of proposal is desired, enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope.
- Deadline for receipt of application/submission: May 10, 2008.
- Send submissions to:
Diana Fuller
S.V.C.W. - Screenwriting
2173 15th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
- Notification of Acceptance by June 15, 2008
Screenwriting Workshops Tuition: $750*
Submissions Deadline: Must be received by May 10, 2008
Acceptance Notification: June 15
*Fees may change without notice.
Diana Fuller, Screenwriting Director
dianabf "at sign" pacbell "dot" net
415.252.8970
These workshops are made possible with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, The Chris Holter-Ron Merk Family Fund administered by Metro Theater Center Foundation, and the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Updated April 21, 2008
WE THANK OUR SUPPORTERS:
The Chris Holter-Ron Merk Family Fund
