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Wendall Thomas
Faculty
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Biography
For the last twenty-two years, Wendall Thomas has worked in Los Angeles as a casting director, director's assistant, script reader, story editor, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant and screenwriter, writing and developing projects for companies including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Showtime, PBS, RKO, A&E, NBC, T&C Film, ACC Entertainment, Gabriel Films and Scottish Screen.
In addition to writing and consulting, she has lectured throughout Europe for the Arista Screenwriting Workshops and in the U.K. for the Welsh and Northern Irish Film Commissions, Northern Film and Media, the Folkstone Literary Festival and Screen South. She recently returned from a lecture tour for the New Zealand Film Commission.
She has consulted for the Atelier du Cinema European Producing Program in Paris, served as Writer's Mentor for Screen South's Good Foundations Plus program 2005-2007 and is directing the LA FEATURES program for the UK Film Council's Northern Film and Media for 2007-2009.
She is also a Star Speaker for the annual Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo and runs the Living Room Lecture series in Los Angeles. She is in her thirteenth year as Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate School of Film and Television at UCLA.
Screenwriting Symposium Events
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Seminar
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DIALOGUE AND GENRE CASE STUDY: Romantic Comedy
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Seminar Description:
The importance of genre can't be over-emphasized in screenwriting - knowing genre conventions is key to making your project work. And dialogue conventions -- the "kiss off" line in an action film, the "villain rationalization speech" in a thriller -- are as important as any other element in meeting or subverting audience expectations and in setting the tone.
In this 90-minute seminar, we'll look at the dialogue conventions of the Romantic Comedy, discussing specific ways to create the perfect misunderstanding of the "cute meet," hilarious fights and the kind of memorable, unique "I love you," that stops an audience's heart.
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Mentor Lab
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THE WENDALL THOMAS WRITING GREAT DIALOGUE LAB
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Seminar Description:
There are few things in life more satisfying and magical than great movie dialogue. A great line quickens your pulse, breaks your heart, makes you cheer, resonates in your very bones. Movie dialogue is not just a vital part of screenwriting, it's a vital part of our whole culture.
And, creating unique and memorable character voices is one of the best ways to get noticed in Hollywood. With this lab, you'll get the chance to focus solely on your dialogue for three days and raise it to another level.
With a combination of examples and hands-on work, we will start with the idea of DIALOGUE AND GENRE. We all know how important it is to understand genre plot and structural conventions, but each genre has its own dialogue conventions as well, many linked to these plot points, which are a large part of the fun of watching genre films. We'll look at a series of dialogue "set pieces" in several genres and practice writing them in class.
We'll move on then to the idea of creating UNIQUE VOICES - drawing examples both from existing films and from your own scripts and work specifically on honing the voices you're writing now. Finally, keeping in mind genre and the voices you've created, we'll work on writing several dialogue set pieces of your own, from SPEECHES to SUBTEXT to VOICE OVER.
NOTE: This Lab is limited to 20 writers.
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Panel Description:
Our Mentors convene for a lively discussion on the pros and cons, ins and outs, and ups and downs of showbiz as it relates to screenwriters. SCSFe Staff and Faculty member Darren Foster will moderate. The panel will discuss their POV about the art and craft of screenwriting and will take questions from the audience.
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