With BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Anthony MacMurray
Website: https://www.anthonymacmurraywriter.com

About the Screenwriting Workshop

In three 2-hour sessions the Screenwriting Workshop will introduce students to the art of storytelling in relation to film and television and help them create engaging and satisfying stories for their own original screenplays.

Students will explore what a story is in the simplest terms (beginning, middle and end) and how it relates to a classic 3-Act structure.

Students will be introduced to Dan Harmon’s 8-step Story Circle, based on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, and learn how it applies to countless stories, from the fairytale Cinderella to Hollywood movies, including The Matrix, Tootsie and The Hunger Games.

Students will have the opportunity to apply the Story Circle to their own favourite movies, giving them further understanding of the journey undertaken by a hero, what the hero gains, what they lose and how the process changes them.

Students will them have the opportunity to develop an original story in the room and examine the choices they have as a screenwriter.

Students will leave with an understanding of what makes a satisfying story and have a set of tools to help them navigate and unlock the story in their own original screenplays.

Who Should Take This Course

This course is ideal for both novice and experienced screenwriters.

This course will help first time writers with the daunting process of beginning their screenplay, helping them to avoid getting stuck and giving them tools to construct an engaging screenplay or TV script.

The workshop will give experienced screenwriters the tools to hone their work, give them a new perspective on the screenwriting process and a fresh way at looking at how they construct their stories.

What You’ll Learn

Session 1:

• Personal introduction / workshop introductionWho I am and what I’ve writtenImportance of William Goldman’s maxim ‘Nobody Knows Anything’
  
• Story in TV and FilmTV scripts vs film scriptsOne-off storiesStories in parts (mini-series)
  Episodic stories (ongoing drama series and sitcom)
  
• Story Foundations: What you need before you begin your story idea:
  How do you find the idea to start your story? (Sources of inspiration)
  How do you know if it's a good idea?
• Characters:
  How both relate to and help you create your story
  Character-led stories vs idea-led stories
  Sole protagonist hero vs ensemble
  
  Exercise 1 – What makes a good story?
  Students break off individually or in pairs and identify what they think are the key elements necessary for a good story
  Students feed back their ideas
  We note ideas and save for later
  

• Beginnings, Middles and Endings - The 3 – Act Structure
  Act 1. Uncomfortable status quo
  Act 2. Something disrupts it, journey for change begins
  Act 3. Everything comes to a head and there’s a new status quo
  

Session 2:

• Introduction to Dan Harmon’s Story Circle
  Who is Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty)
  Brief background to origins – The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell
  
  The 8 Steps of the Story Circle:
  YOU
  NEED
  GO
  SEARCH
  FIND
  TAKE
  RETURN
  CHANGED
  

• 8 Steps in practice
  Cinderella
  The Matrix
  Tootsie
  The Hunger Games
  A Rick and Morty episode
  
  We look at the stories for the above movies/TV episode and see how the main plot points fit into the Story Circle.
  

• Exercise 2 – Applying the Story Circle
  
  Students break off individually or in pairs, choose their favourite movie or TV episode and see if they can fit the story into Story Circle.
  
• Feedback and discussion
  
  Students feed back their findings and we discuss what fits into the story circle and what doesn’t.
  

Session 3:

• Creating an original story using The 8-Step Story Circle
  
  I demonstrate mapping out an original story using the story circle (man wants cat story)
  
• Exercise 3
  
  Students are given the first two steps of an original story (a main character with a need/desire) and they break off individually or in pairs to complete the next 6 steps.
  
• Sharing the original story circles
  
  Students feed back their stories and we discuss similarities, differences, and ways we could improve the stories.
  

• Revisiting initial thoughts on the elements of a good story from Day 1
  
  We discuss if these initial thoughts are supported by the Story Circle.
  
• Using the Story Circle in your screenplay
  No single path
  Making a choice
  Breaking the rules
  
• Student questions
  

Meet the Tutor

Anthony MacMurray

Anthony has been a professional writer for television for over twenty years.

He has been the lead writer on eight series of hit children’s comedy So Awkward, with his episode winning the BAFTA for Best Children’s Comedy in 2018 and the spin-off feature he wrote picking up an RTS Award nomination in 2023.

For adults, he has written for the likes of Al Murray, Karen Taylor, and Stephen Merchant, and has had authored projects commissioned by the BBC and Channel 4. He created and wrote the critically acclaimed comedy series The Last Chancers for Channel 4 and Give Out Girls for Big Talk/Comedy Central.