March 4 – Special Pre-Oscars Meeting (FREE)

StoryBoard Development Group Presents

A Special Exclusive StoryBoardDG.com Pre-Oscars Event!

Meet online from 7:00-10:00 PM Pacific Time on March 4th (the Monday before the 96th Academy Awards) to discuss this year’s ten Oscar-nominated screenplays!

It’s Awards Season again, which means it’s time for our 2nd Annual FREE pre-Oscars session of StoryBoard! Join us for a casual conversation about each of the ten nominated screenplays and discuss their chances of winning the industry’s top prize.

***HOW TO REGISTER*** If you wish to participate in this free pre-Oscars event, please send an email to StoryBoardDG@gmail.com prior to March 4 and you will receive an email with login instructions on the day of the event.

Don’t worry about reading the scripts. Just try to see as many of the films as you can before the meeting.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Fiction
Cord Jefferson

Barbie
Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach

Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan

Poor Things
Tony McNamara

The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet

The Holdovers
David Hemingson

Maestro
Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer

May December
Samy Burch

Past Lives
Celine Strong

DANNY HERCULES will lead the not-so-in-depth discussion. Danny is the creator, publisher, and one of the authors of ScripTipps, a line of inexpensive ebooks on screenwriting conceived in part by his participation in StoryBoard. An award-winning filmmaker, Danny was co-founder and president of San Diego Filmmakers and sat on the board of directors of Scriptwriters Network where he ran their writers groups and staged readings programs. In 2012 he published the popular young adult Christmas novel North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus and later adapted it into a musical through the Academy of New Musical Theatre, where he also wrote the book for Chaturbate: The Musical, which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2017. A member of StoryBoard’s Screenplay Discussion Group since November 2009, Danny has never missed a meeting.

Note: StoryBoard will also hold our regular Screenplay Development Group meeting on Monday, March 11, when comedy writer Steve Kaplan will lead an in-depth analysis and discussion of Poor Things.

September 11 – The Holdovers

Meet ONLINE from 7:00-10:00 PM Pacific Time on September 11th for an in-depth analysis and discussion of the comedy screenplay THE HOLDOVERS.

LOGLINE: An unpopular teacher, a rebellious student, and a school cafeteria cook are the only ones left at a boarding school over Christmas break in 1970.

ABOUT THE WRITER: According to Deadline, director Alexander Payne came up with the story idea but had no experience with boarding schools, so he hired DAVID HEMINGSON to write the screenplay after reading his writing sample for a TV pilot set in a prep school. Hemingson cut his teeth in children’s TV writing for Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete & Pete and Disney’s 101 Dalmatians: The Series and Hercules: The Animated Series. He went on to write and produce for such sitcoms as Just Shoot Me, How I Met Your Mother, and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and created Kitchen Confidential, based on Anthony Bourdain’s book of the same name and starring Bradley Cooper as a fictional version of Bourdain, for which Hemingson was nominated for a WGA Award. Moving into drama, Hemingson created the sexy spy thriller series Whiskey Cavalier, which premiered after the Oscars in 2019. The Holdovers is his first theatrical feature film writing credit.

(registration deadline: Friday, September 8)

Registration in advance is required to attend the discussion, and includes a copy of the script sent to you in advance.

Single Meeting Fee: $45
SPECIAL OFFER – ONLY $150 FOR A 6-MONTH MEMBERSHIP OR RENEWAL!

Click the Register Now button for instructions.
(Email StoryBoardDG@gmail.com if you have any questions.)

The Holdovers stars Paul Giamati (Sideways), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Only Murders in the Building), Carrie Preston (True Blood), Tate Donovan (The O.C.), and newcomer Dominic Sessa. The film is scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in October. Focus Features is planning a limited theatrical release on October 27, followed by a wide theatrical release on November 10.

Rated R. 117 pages. 133 minutes. Comedy.

STEVE KAPLAN will provide in-depth analysis and lead our discussion. The industry’s most sought-after expert on comedy, Steve has taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale, and other top universities, and created the HBO Workspace and the HBO New Writers Program. As co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre he developed writers such as Peter Tolan (Analyze This), David Crane (Friends), Tracy Poust (Ugly Betty), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), and Mark O’Donnel (Hairspray). Steve teaches a number of different workshops all over the globe, including The Comedy Intensive, a 2-day workshop that covers the fundamental principles of comedy. Look for his books The Hidden Tools of Comedy and The Comic Hero’s Journey, learn more about Steve and his workshops at kaplancomedy.com, and follow him on Twitter at @skcomedy where you can tweet quick comedy questions at him with the #AskKaplan hashtag.