Preview
You wouldn’t be Sidney Ellen Wade by any chance, would you?
There’s always bit of concern about the two Bartlets.
You want answers.
I think I’m entitled to it.
You want answers?
I want the truth.
You can’t handle the truth.
This is the voice demo.
The voice demo is flaky.
I’ve been telling you that.
This thing is overbuilt.
It worked last night.
It worked the night before that.
It worked three hours ago.
It’s not working now, so just skip over the voice demo.
Fuck you!
Everything else is working.
In future, if you’re wondering, crime, boy, I don’t know is when I decided to kick your ass.
Match.com for hard luck guys.
May I continue with my deposition?
You know, you really don’t need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this?
If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.
Writing, like any other artform, there are chunks of it that can be taught, and there are chunks of it that can’t be taught.
So we’re here for the parts that can be taught.
The way you’re going to be taught these things is, there are teachers.
You can be a playwriting major or screenwriting major.
There are books of varying quality that you can read.
You can listen to schmucks like me talking.
Every writer is different, so it’s entirely possible that the way I work and the way I approach it, another person would not be able to relate to at all, and they’re going to do their thing.
But my hope is that I’m able to say something in here that will be meaningful to some writer, and will allow them to do what they want to do and get better.
Here’s what we’re going to talk about.
Unfortunately, and I apologize for this in advance, when I’m speaking out loud as opposed to writing, I swerve all over the road.
I can’t go in a straight line from the beginning of the sentence to the end of the sentence.
And I would much rather communicate with the world on paper, where I have an opportunity just to be alone in my room and get it right.
I communicate much better on paper than I do when I open my mouth.
So I apologize in advance.
But we’re going to talk about intention and obstacle, which is the most important thing in drama.
Without that, you’re screwed blue.
Without a strong, clear intention and a formidable obstacle, you don’t have drama.
We’re going to talk about success and failure and the importance of failure.
I’m going to try to give some examples from things that I’ve written that you might be familiar with.
There are mechanics.
And then there’s, as a golfer would say, there is the grip it and rip it part.
What golfers mean by that is, a golf swing has a zillion different components.
And if you’re learning how to play golf, you’re going to be told, well, your hips have to be here, and your left arm has to turn here, but this has to swivel through first.
This has to go to– it’s…
Your script starts here.
Aaron Sorkin wrote his first movie on cocktail napkins. Those napkins turned into A Few Good Men, starring Jack Nicholson. Now, the Academy Award-winning writer of The West Wing and The Social Network is teaching screenwriting. In this class, you’ll learn his rules of storytelling, dialogue, character development, and what makes a script actually sell. By the end, you’ll write screenplays that capture your audience’s attention.
LESSON PLAN
01. Introduction
Meet Aaron. He’s an Oscar winner, a TV hitmaker, and the writer of some of the smartest dramas ever to hit the screen. And now, he’s your instructor.
02. Intention & Obstacle
Every great story is born from intentions and obstacles. Learn how to build the “drive shaft” that will set your script in motion.
03. Story Ideas
How do you know if your idea is good enough to turn into a script? Aaron walks you through the steps every writer should take to test an idea—and decide whether it will work best in TV or film.
04. Developing Characters: Part 1
Aaron shares some of the decisions he made to develop some of his most unforgettable characters—like The Social Network’s Mark Zuckerberg and The West Wing’s Toby and Leo.
05. Developing Characters: Part 2
Your characters don’t have to be like you—or even likeable. Drawing on examples from A Few Good Men and Steve Jobs, Aaron explains why he always empathizes with his characters even if he disagrees with them.
06. Research
Good research is the key to a great script. Bad research is a waste of time. How can you tell the difference? Aaron shares lessons from Malice and The Social Network to help you gather the information you really need.
07. Incorporating Research
You have pages of research—now what? Avoid clunky exposition and learn how to seamlessly weave research into your story.
08. The Audience
Aaron knows that the audience isn’t just watching his work. They’re participating in it, too. Learn how to write stories that will keep them engaged and entertained.
09. Rules of Story
The rules of great drama aren’t new. Here, Aaron explains how most of them were laid out more than 2,000 years ago by Aristotle in his Poetics, and how to use those lessons to become a diagnostician for your own story ideas.
10. Writing Scenes: Part 1
A great story is more than just a collection of great scenes. Learn how to give your script momentum from one beat to the next.
11. Writing Scenes: Part 2
Your script only has one opening scene. Make it memorable by introducing your theme, grabbing the audience, and setting up your characters’ intentions and obstacles.
12. Writing Captivating Dialogue
If you want to write Aaron Sorkin-worthy dialogue, learn from the master himself on how to make music with your words and put them to the test by performing your own scenes out loud.
13. Closing Thoughts
In the final lesson, Aaron offers his parting wisdom and leaves you with one more assignment that will last the rest of your life.
Sales Page:_https://www.masterclass.com/classes/aaron-sorkin-teaches-screenwriting
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