Stan Speaking at Michigan Workshop - Oct. 5 (Sat)

On October 5 I'm speaking on The Moral Premise at 

The Path of Consciousness Spiritual and Writing Conference and Retreat.  

Talk Title: 

THE NATURAL LAWS OF SUCCESSFUL STORYTELLING: 

How the Hero Finds Healing on the Journey. 

(DESCRIPTION BELOW)

For more information, and to register, visit www.ThePathofConsciousness.com - See our VIDEO at https://youtu.be/NMsC4vHZnAY - Email: spiritualandwritingretreat@gmail.com and Phone: 586-231-6175

#Spiritual #SpiritualRetreat #SpiritualConference #WritingRetreat #WritingConference #Writing #WritingCommunity #Transformation #Ancient #Sacred #Creative #Storytelling #Screenwriting #GongCeremony #Meditation #Shamanic #TheHerosJourney #Journaling #Nature #SelfCare #Movement #Connecting #Creative #UniqueVoicesInFilms #ClarkstonMI #OaklandCounty #Michigan

DESCRIPTION: In his one-hour workshop, Dr. Stan Williams will share with us the fundamental traits of all successful story telling that connect with film audiences and novel readers. These traits have everything to do with your hero’s journey of healing from weakness and vice, to strength and virtue. To some these are miracle remedies that through our characters provide mental, spiritual, and physical healing, not just to the characters we create, but also for the writer and the story consumer. You’ll learn about the importance of irony, struggle and conflict, and how we, along with our characters, can only heal ourselves by confronting and over coming conflict. Stan will also reveal to us the six story fundamentals or medicines the writer needs to internalize before even beginning to write. We’ll discover the five critical ingredients of a Log Line that cut through the thicket of the jungle and reveal the path we need to take as a writer, and that our hero must master. And most important to any holistic solution to our lives and to our character’s quest are how values drive action, and how the four ingredients of the moral premise statement will totally eliminate writers block, that illness that we all want to avoid.

BIO: Dr. Stan Williams is a veteran filmmaker and storyteller, having worked with dozens of Hollywood writers and producers over the years. His best selling story structure book was published in 2006 by Michale Wiese Books—the Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success. The mainstream films he has consultant on have grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, for studios such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and Disney. Most notably he has worked directly with Will Smith on over a dozen projects. Find him at https://www.stanwilliams.com/ and http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/

THEPATHOFCONSCIOUSNESS.COM

The Path of Consciousness

Pray, Dream, Write Your New Story

Moral Premise Workshops Now On-Line

Moral Premise STORYCRAFT TRAINING is now up on it's own mobile adaptive blog.

http://www.storycrafttraining.blogspot.com

SOURCE MATERIAL: The episodes were originally developed for live workshops presented at conferences across the United States, most notably in Los Angeles and S.E. Michigan. 

The training offers extended and updated material based on my Hollywood story structure book: The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success and years of story, script, and manuscript consulting. 

The episodic presentations are divided into bit size video chunks for easy assimilation. 

TARGET AUDIENCE: Professional and amateur writers, directors, producers, and storytellers (as well as consumers) of all media and genres will find this Storycraft material helpful.

MEDIA FOCUS: The lessons focus particularly on major motion pictures and occasionally clips from the same for ease of illustration. The episodes predominately contain many colorful graphics that ease learning of sometimes hard to grasp concepts. 

Story Symposium Query

Are you interested in participating in a Story Symposium that I would lead once a month, for 9 months, on Saturdays for three hours? It would include all of my various workshop content plus interactive discussions, sharing, and story critique opportunities. This new version of the symposium would be available to distance participants via WebEx, or to live participants who would come to the meeting location in Novi, MI.

From May 2010 through May 2012 I taught and facilitated, along with Jan Swedorske, a Story Symposium class in story writing (screenplays and prose) at my home in Novi. Students would come at 2 PM, and we'd be done by 5 PM. Some months the times shifted due to my travel schedule. The sessions were a mix of lecture, interactive, discussion, story sharing and critique. I presented my workshop material on various story topics, and I coached participants (as a group and privately) in the development of their own stories. Although this started out as a on-going workshop for teens involved in a Catholic Home School organization, at times welcomed adults, parents, and non-Christians to the group. The original symposium ran for two years. Recently there have been requests to run it again.

I am considering rerunning the symposium, but in a version that would only run for only 9-10 sessions during the regular school year (Sept through May) AND be available for people outside the area to participate live or (if a session is missed) to access the session file for playback. The live session would meet once a month on a Saturday for 3 hours. The "live" location would be in Novi at my home where I have easy access to electronic media and Internet transmission. If there was wider interest for the in-person live sessions than I anticipate we would meet at a larger venue.

This time there would be a cost, but as of yet I have not figured out what it would be. Distance participants would need a good internet connection for the transmission of visuals and movie clips, that you would be required to watch ahead of time.

Participants would also be required to have a copy of The Moral Premise that we would use for reading assignments. There would be additional handouts, access to a password projected website for downloading additional material, writing assignments (nothing very long as I wont' have time to read everything), one or two field trips, and a guest speaker from time-to-time. As before my opening lectures would be richly illustrated with my workshop slides and clips.

If you are interested in this (feel free to forward this to others), please write me ASAP to stan@moralpremise.com and provide me with your contact information and level of interest. There is no age or faith restriction.

stan

Stan Williams to present at Rochester Writer's Conference

I was asked to present two, 75-minute workshops at the Rochester (Michigan) Writers' Conference, Oct 5, 2013, after their keynoter the year before. Here is a blurb about those talks and links to the related free workshop videos on-line.

Secrets of Successful Story Structure

Story Masters Class, Part 1 by Dr. Stan Williams
The 18 Secrets of Successful Story Structure: How successful stories of any genre connect can engage audiences while avoiding writer’s block for the author.

This workshop is based on Stan's work with novelists, producers and writers in Hollywood based on his book, The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success. This workshop is a summary of his all day workshop and in part will cover the 2 spines present in all good stories, the 2 realms of natural law that characters can never escape, the 8 steps of story development, the 5 ingredients of a great hook and log lines, the 4 parts of the moral premise statement, the 13 basic beats of all stories, the 1 moment of grace, and 9 contributors of story thrust. Motion picture clips are used for examples. WORKSHOP

Who should attend: Narrative writers, novelists, producers, and directors of all story genres and media will find these sessions beneficial, if not foundational. This session will give you an introduction to the critical story concept of the moral premise and how it will speed along and improve the quality of your story telling through proper structure. In many ways the moral premise is a powerful muse; when used correctly it will inspire and focus your efforts, and powerfully connect you with your audience. Say “Good-bye” to writer’s block.

Current link: Lessons 2–9 at https://storycraft.stanwilliams.com 

Irony, Goals and Plots

Story Masters Class, Part 2 by Dr. Stan Williams
Irony, Goals and Plots: How to create and structure well-rounded, engaging characters, plots and subplots around a single motivational premise.

Is this well illustrated story workshop, you’ll learn the secrets of how characters transform, how goals are defined, how plots and subplots are created and how every character’s arc (regardless of their outer journey) are all related to a single internal moral premise that ties the story together around one core idea. You’ll also learn the critical important of irony and how it dramatizes every character’s storyline. We will reveal 3 paths to audience-character identification, the 3 poles of the Nicomachean Character value scale, 3 story-breaking (or beating) tools, and the 3 relationships of plot arcs, character goals, and dramatic irony. Bring your story ideas; there will be opportunity to practice some of the techniques Dr. Williams explains and get valuable feedback from him and other participants. This is the same content Dr. Williams has presented to working writers and producers in Hollywood, at film conferences around the country, and what he uses to help his story-consulting clients. WORKSHOP

Who should attend: Knowledge of the story structure secrets in Part 1 will be helpful, but not entirely necessary. Writers who want to investigate Moral Premise story structure on a deeper and more practical level, or writers who are challenged or face writer’s block are encouraged to attend.

Current link: Lessons 10 at https://storycraft.stanwilliams.com

T.D. Jakes Film Festival Workshop Presentations and Treatment Contest

Mike Epps (L) talks to T.D. Jakes (R) on the set of the hit movie Sparkle.

For those of you in Texas, especially near Dallas, let me invite you to the International Faith & Family Film Festival (IFFFF) (Home Page: http://www.mega-fest.com/filmfestival/index.html)  run by T.D. Jakes Enterprises. T.D. Jakes is an internationally known pastor, writer, producer and actor of several films. Here's his IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415890/?ref_=sr_1.

The IFFFF is actually part of TDJE's Megafest held in Texas August 29-31, 2013. As part of the film track, I've been asked to run the Screenwriting program, which will consist of two master class workshops on August 30 and 31, plus facilitate the Short Treatment Contest, the winner of which will get a development deal with the film production arm of TDJE. Submission guidelines can be found here: http://www.mega-fest.com/filmfestival/contest/

The two workshops are titled: 

Workshop Day 1 (3 hours): "The 21 Secrets of Successful Motion Picture Stories: How to tell box office successful stories that connect and engage audiences about what is good, true, and beautiful."

Workshop Day 2 (3-hours): "Irony, Goals and Subplots: How to create diverse, well-rounded characters on a single moral theme that connects with audiences."

Biola Media Conference - May 4, 2013

Saturday, May 4, will find me at the CBS Television Lot in Studio City, CA in support of the Biola Media Conference.

BMC's Webpage and Registration Link

I was to interview Mark Burnett but changes in his schedule prevent his attending.

 Interview with Ryan Coogler & Daniel Cretton

Ryan Coogler (L), and Destin Daniel Cretton (R)

During the opening session on the main stage, I am scheduled to interview Ryan Coogler and Daniel Cretton. Ryan wrote and directed the Audience and Grand Jury award at this year's Sundance Film Festival with his story about the murder of Oscar Grant in a feature film that The Weinstein Company picked up called FRUITVALE STATION.

Meanwhile, at the South By Southwest Festival (SXSW) Destin Daniel Cretton was busy also capturing the Audience and Grand Jury Award with his feature SHORT TERM 12 about a 20-something supervising staff member of a foster care facility as she navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend. Cinedigm will distribute to theaters and video.

I'm looking forward to meeting and talking with both Ryan and Destin. If you have questions you'd like me to ask either of them, please send them ASAP to: stan@moralpremise.com.

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More Secrets of Award Winning Screenplays

Later in the day I will be presenting another of my "series" of workshops on the Secrets of Successful Screenplays and Stories. The presentation this time will slow down from last workshops and focus on just one area that repeatedly shows up as a problem in my consulting. The problem is this:  How does a writer take all the wonderful character and story ideas that come from imagination and research, and organize them into a story-flow that engages, accelerates action, and resolves to the satisfaction of the audience?

In other words: PLOTTING and CHARACTER ARCS. I'll give you a hint at the elegant and fun solution that I will share, and which I can virtually guarantee will eliminate writer's block and a well-structured story. The practical solution involves goals, subplots, The Moral Premise, and those handy index cards.

If we have time, I'll also briefly share some interesting similarities (and differences) between two recent Oscar Award Winning screenplays: D'JANGO and THE KING'S SPEECH.  The differences would quickly eliminate one from every screenplay contest ever held in Hollywood, and yet... it wins an Oscar. But the similarities are even more interesting.

Hope to see you there.

Stan