About this Master Class
Join Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robin Swicord, whose credits include the adaptations of LITTLE WOMEN (1994), MATILDA, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, in our first live event dedicated to adapting a screenplay from source material. In this three-hour live Master Class, Robin will share her insights into the art of dramatic writing, the process of adapting material for the screen, and defining the cinematic elements that best reflect the essence and core of the story and characters.
Topics covered include:
- Identifying the story’s inherent dramatic elements
- Building theme and narrative
- Axioms and diagnostic tools for working with an adaptation
- Finding your beginning, middle, and end
- Creating a strong protagonist and antagonist
- Developing a story that lives in a different historical time and world
Resources:
Download the list of resources from Robin Swicord
All Sundance Co//ab Master Classes are recorded and will be available for all registrants after the live event. Please allow up to 24 hours after the live event for the recording to be posted.
If you have a disability and require accommodation in order to fully participate in this event, please complete this form, contact us at (435) 776-7900 or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to discuss your specific needs. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; requests made within 5 days of the event may not be guaranteed.
Master ClassTeam
Robin Swicord
Instructor
Robin Swicord is primarily known for her work as a screenwriter for Memoirs Of A Geisha (Satellite Award for best screenplay); Little Women, (co-producer, Writers Guild award nomination); Matilda (co-written and co-produced with Nicholas Kazan); the cult comedy Shag (shared); The Perez Family; and Practical Magic (shared, co-produced). She has written two plays that were produced off-Broadway (Last Days at the Dixie Girl Café, Criminal Minds, both published by Samuel French).
In 2009 Swicord received an Oscar nomination for her contribution to The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, a project Swicord originated and worked on for more than a decade.
Swicord made her feature directing debut with Sony Pictures Classics’ The Jane Austen Book Club, produced by Julie Lynn and John Calley, adaptation written by Swicord. She then wrote and directed the feature film Wakefield, an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s short story starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner which premiered at Telluride September 2016. Swicord co-Executive Produced and wrote episodes of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Emmy Award-nominated mini-series When They See Us, now streaming on Netflix. Currently, Swicord has written an independently-financed feature to direct Welcome To The Tempest Hotel, a romantic comedy set in Bermuda, during the impending crisis of climate change. For Warner Brothers, she is also at work on a six-part limited series about Mark Twain and his incomparable wife, the heiress Livy Langdon Clemens; based on Richard Zack’s non-fiction Chasing The Last Laugh; produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner, to star William Macy.
For seven years, Swicord was a Governor for the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and chaired the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship. She mentors for the Sundance Screenwriting lab and Tribeca Film Festival, and often co-leads Film Independent’s Writers Lab. In 2015 she helped create and launch the inaugural Hedgebrook Screenwriting Workshop for women writers. Swicord is married to screenwriter Nicholas Kazan; they have two daughters, actor-writer Zoe Kazan and actor-writer Maya Kazan.