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ENDORSEMENTS
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"I am more convinced than ever that [screenplays are] only about
story. [McKee] is a tireless speaker, knowledgeable and passionate - it's three
full days over a single weekend and no one feels cheated when he's done...
After listening to him, I wish he'd been around when I started writing CUT TO
for a living." |
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-- William Goldman, Two-time
Academy Award winning screenwriter. Screenwriting
credits include
Misery, All the
President's Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, etc.
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"[Pixar
founder John] Lasseter and [Pixar director
Pete] Docter attended a three-day seminar in
Los Angeles given by screenwriting guru Robert
McKee. They came back…as true believers in
McKee’s principles. A McKee seminar resounded
with the master’s observations about story
and…McKee’s teachings became the law of the
land at Pixar." |
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-- David
A. Price’s bestselling book
The Pixar Touch (Knopf, May 2008)
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“[At] the heart of McKee's writing philosophy --
what I gathered -- is humanity. That's refreshing in a world of video-game
movies and paint-by-numbers spectacle. McKee's lectures combined dramaturgy,
philosophy, emphasis on classical roots and writing nuts and bolts…He offered
step-by-step advice about constructing a script from the inside out and the
outside in, advice that's rigorous and helpful… Plan your story and characters
in detail. Write dialogue last. Rewrite and rewrite again.
But what made it fresh -- what made it inspiring --
was the way it was woven together, a Robert McKee Theory of Story.” |
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-- Todd
Leopold, CNN. Review of the
“Story Seminar.”
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"I took the Robert McKee course...it was insightful...concise...I'm
a huge believer..." |
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-- Akiva Goldsman, Oscar-winning
screenwriter of
A Beautiful Mind, The Da
Vinci Code and more
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"Mr. McKee's course is almost universally acclaimed - not only as a
good place to start, but also for some to return again and again...About the
only Hollywood notable not to have taken STORY is Steven Spielberg..." |
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-- The New York Times
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“McKee’s Story Seminar is incredibly helpful. I won the Pulitzer Prize
for Feature Writing and found that what I learned in McKee’s course was a huge
help in structuring the story. The course shaped the way I approached writing,
and played a huge part in my career.” |
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-- Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
Tom Hallman
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"I couldn't
recommend McKee’s classes more - it's like, if
not exactly being given keys to the kingdom,
at least showing us that there is a door to
the castle - you just need to work damn hard
to make that [script] move…What he said about
blending subplots into the second act is a
lifeboat to a drowning screenwriter, and how
to use turning points -- surprise the audience
with a rush of insight as they make decisions
in a crisis moment -- will help turn a
[flawed] script into something that may
actually work." |
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-- Ben
Kaplan, National Post.
In a 3-part review of the Toronto Story Seminar (May 2008)
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"…Story analyst Robert McKee visited New Zealand at the invitation
of the Film Commission to and deliver his renowned seminar on screenplay story
structure…This visit from a famous Hollywood script guru caused a sensation and
his lectures in Auckland and Wellington were packed to the rafters. Among those
taking in McKee's words of wisdom were Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. The
clarity of McKee's words and the simple truth of his approach to storytelling
was a revelation for Jackson. He realized that the key to breaking out…and
reaching a wider audience would lie in his ability to tell a well constructed
story. Inspired, he and Walsh dusted down [a] now long abandoned...project and
re-crafted it based on the principles learned from McKee's lectures." |
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-- The New Zealand Edge, "Made in New Zealand - The Cinema of Peter
Jackson,”
a biographical piece on Lord
of the Rings Writer/Director Peter
Jackson
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"Knowledge of story design is just as vital for the novelist as it
is for the screenwriter. No one imparts this wisdom like Robert McKee. He
is not only the best teacher of writing I've ever had, but the best teacher of
anything." |
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-- Steve Pressfield, Author,
The Legend
of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire
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"Refreshing, practical...stimulating, an innovative approach to the
age-old challenge." |
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-- Lawrence Kasdan, Three Time
Academy Award nominee,
The Big Chill,
Grand, The Accidental Tourist
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”McKee’s day-to-day influence is on Hollywood screenwriting…[and] he
knows his teaching has a powerful subtext.” |
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-- The New Yorker “The Real McKee,” a profile of Robert
McKee
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“Robert McKee…[is] the world's best-known and most
respected screenwriting lecturer…McKee believes that executives can engage
listeners on a whole new level if they toss their PowerPoint slides and learn
to tell good stories instead. In his best-selling book Story: Substance,
Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting…McKee argues that
stories ‘fulfill a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living—not
merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional
experience.’ |
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-- Harvard
Business Review’s “The CEO as
Storyteller,”
featuring an interview with Robert McKee
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"McKee's Story Structure is a phenomenal tool. Hollywood studios
don't buy great ideas. They buy great stories that can capture an audience's
imagination. McKee teaches you how to turn an idea into a story, and a story
into a screenplay." |
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-- Toby Emmerich, Exec. Prod.
of Wedding Crashers, Hairspray – The Movie and more.
Toby's first
script, Frequency, was optioned for
$500,000 against $1 million by New Line Cinema.
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"I have never received such enormous input or knowledge from one
person. Robert McKee gave me a deeper understanding of the story process, of
the script, of characterization, and the psychology of the screen. Nobody in
the movie business can afford to miss this man's mind." |
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-- Quincy Jones, Oscar, Emmy and Grammy nominated
and
award-winning producer, musician and writer.
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"Near legendary" |
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-- The Washington Post
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"McKee is not only one of Hollywood's greatest teachers, he is the
conscience of the industry, crusading for story over spectacle. McKee's seminar
is the course to take." |
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-- Lance Khazei, Screenwriter
of Romantic Comedy, Son of the Mask
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"[McKee is] Hollywood's most wanted guru...fanatically
empowering....he storms the stage like George C. Scott in Patton, haranguing,
inspiring and enthralling students with messianic zeal as he drills the
assembled in his principles of story...McKee's brand of tough-love screenplay
pedagogy must be addictive. He nearly always sees an impressive showing of
hands when he asks how many students are repeaters." |
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-- Movieline Magazine
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"Robert McKee's STORY Seminar represents the quest for
uncompromising excellence." |
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-- Attractions
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"McKee has shown me a way to put more profound and more meaningful
emotions on the screen." |
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-- Quinn Redeker, Academy
Award-nominated writer The Deer Hunter
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"My advice is...take Robert McKee's class. It was essential to my
success as a screen writer." |
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-- Zak Penn, Screenwriter of
Behind Enemy Lines, X-Men 2 and 3, The
Avengers (2007), The Incredible Hulk (2007)
and more.
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"Robert McKee should be a job prerequisite to work in the film
industry...he gives great reverence to the writer, the most maligned
professional in Hollywood today." |
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-- Women in Film Reel News
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"It was absolutely useful...I came back to take it again." |
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-- Suzanne de Passe, Pres
& CEO, DePasse Entertainment, Academy Award-nominated co-writer
Lady Sings The Blues, and Exec. Prod. of
the Emmy-winning Lonesome Dove
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"Robert McKee was the closest thing I've had to a mentor." |
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-- Jim Thomas, co-writer of
Behind Enemy Lines, Mission to Mars, Executive
Decision, Alien vs. Predator 2 (AVP 2)
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"No question, McKee's Story Structure is the gran courso di tutti
coursi in town." |
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-- Los Angeles Times Magazine
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"McKee's showcase is first and foremost an educational experience;
a high octane...graduate course in story telling as user friendly for the first
time writer as it is invaluable for the seasoned, six-figure
professional." |
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-- The New York Screenwriter
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