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Suppose you were running a summer writers conference and you made the decision to offer a series of intensive workshops for aspiring screenwriters.
You’d certainly want to have instructors on hand who know the ropes in the film business, men and women who have written scripts for movies that have actually been made, that have gone the distance from pitch to option to green light to hiring a director to casting, shooting, editing, post-production and distribution.
And you’d definitely want someone savvy to put this crew together and come up with workshops tailored to writers’ needs and interests, whether they were just starting out or already had some experience, or maybe even a completed screenplay salted away on the hard drive of their laptop.
In other words, you’d probably hope you could get someone like Annette Handley Chandler, who launched the Southampton Screenwriting Conference at Stony Brook Southampton last summer and is now putting the final touches on the 2009 program, which starts on July 29 and runs through August 2.
Ms. Handley Chandler knows the business. She worked for 10 years as a motion picture literary agent before selling her company to the William Morris Agency, she spent a few years in the trenches as a programming executive for ABC Television, and she has worked as a film producer on a number of projects after cutting her teeth on the Sidney Lumet classic “Network” in 1976.
Gearing up for last year’s debut of the screenwriters’ component of the burgeoning Southampton Writers Conference, Ms. Handley Chandler said in an interview last week that she did a lot of research on screenwriting conferences, “and not a lot have intensive workshops like ours. I would say that we compete with the best that’s out there.”
The good news for those who want to sharpen their skills in writing for the screen is that by this time last year, the program was already almost full. This year, there are still a few slots left—a situation that is not likely to last for very long.
A glance at the faculty and topics for the program’s workshops and electives explains why it’s unlikely that there will be any openings left in another week or two. Among the instructors Ms. Handley Chandler has lined up for this summer are writers like Stephen Molton, author of “Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys, the Castros and the Politics of Murder,” who will lead a workshop on “adapting your novel, short story or idea into a screenplay,” Ms. Handley Chandler said.
Andrew Bienen, who wrote the screenplay for “Boys Don’t Cry,” will be leading a workshop devoted to techniques for creating stronger scenes. Malia Scotch Marmo wrote the scripts for such diverse films as “Once Around,” starring Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss, and “Hook” for Stephen Spielberg, and has been a mentor at Sundance, which is one of the premier writing labs in the country. She will be leading the intensive workshop for beginning screenwriters.
Mr. Molton, Mr. Bienen and Ms. Scotch Marmo all teach in the Columbia University post-graduate film department.
Carol Dysinger, a tenured professor at New York University and a writer and film editor, teaches undergrads at the Tisch School of the Arts. She will be helping writers learn how to rewrite their screenplays from the perspective of a film editor.
Commenting on the “intensive” label for the screenwriting workshops, Ms. Handley Chandler noted that the program involves “an intense nine hours of focusing on your work. There is a lot of one-on-one attention given, because the maximum for each workshop is 10 students.”
The personal attention begins with the application process, as Ms. Handley Chandler vets each one that comes in. Applicants fill in first, second and third choices for workshops, and then Ms. Handley Chandler discusses their choices with them to try to ensure the best fit, all based on the overarching idea that she wants everyone to leave having had a great experience.
“That’s what we had last year,” she said. “Many of the calls this year are based on word of mouth from last year’s participants.”
Peter Riegert is an actor, writer, director and producer; he played Boon in “Animal House,” was the writer/director of “King of the Corner” in 2004, and was nominated for an Oscar for “By Courier,” a short live-action film that he directed and for which he adapted the screenplay. Based on what he had heard about last year’s screenwriting conference, Mr. Riegert called Ms. Handley Chandler this year and asked if he could teach. The program coordinator was only too happy to say yes.
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