Hi, I’m Michael Jammin. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the course. I’ll give you this background as well. Why is it so ugly? Because this is how the course is, man. I run it like you’re in a writer’s room as if you were just on day one of a show that my partner and I are running and you’re going to learn everything that I teach the staff writers only. I’m nicer to you because I’m actually paying the staff writers. So, you know, get with the program, hurry up. But you, this is different. You’re in a class. So basically I talk about story structure. That’s that’s really the good stuff. Act one, act two, act three. If you walk into any writer’s room in Hollywood, you would see this, you would see this whiteboard like this. Sometimes they use cork boards with index cards. I’ve done that sometimes too. A lot of times, or at least half the time to use these whiteboards like this, and someone will pitch out an idea. And if it’s a good one if it gets a little traction, the showrunner will go to the board and go, okay, we got something here, draw those two lines, and then write act one, act two, act three. And so then knowing where those moments go, where you throw out an idea, knowing where it goes here or here or here, this is stuff that I teach in the course. This is the goal because it’s not enough to have a good idea. You have to know how to execute it well. I have videos that show how it works. I made a bunch of videos for hours and hours. And I go through all the story structure stuff.
I go through how to create characters and stuff that we use when we create pilots. I go through how to write dialogue, all this stuff that you need to know. But the goal really is how to break a story. And so many writers do not know how to do this. It took me years to figure this out. Then I have a bunch of case studies where I go through examples of a story and I break it down and I give you the downloads. I give you the scripts. I give you everything that I have to turn a kernel of an idea to flesh it out. So the case studies are another six or so hours that I do. Some of them are scripts that my partner and I have written, and those are super helpful because it’s the repetition of hearing how I do this, and applying it towards slightly different scenarios. You will finally feel empowered so that when you go off to write your own script, you’ll hear my annoying voice in your head, and go, oh my God, I know exactly where this beat goes, I can hear Jamin’s voice in my head telling me exactly where to go. That’s part of the case study stuff. I also go over some of my favorite screenplays, and they follow the same structure. It’s pretty simple. It’s not like they’re reinventing the structure. They’re doing something very simple, but the execution makes all the difference. And then every once every month, or every other month, I try to have a live Q and A so that people can send me questions and I can address them.
I post those as well. And of course that becomes more content. There are homework assignments for most lessons you watch. And I say, Hey, you don’t have to do it. Right? It’s on you. It’s meant to be helpful. It’s meant for you to take this lesson and then apply it to the work that you have already written, or are you currently working on to better yourself?
I run this like a writer’s room. This is not the film class that you may have taken. This is just real-world. This is how we operate. It’s funny because I don’t go too much into like Joseph Campbell’s hero structure, right? Even though you may have learned that and people teach that. It’s just not something you hear a lot in the writers’ room.
We don’t use those terms. To me, it’s a little intimidating. It’s not that helpful, even though it’s all accurate. I find it’s just not how I approach a story. I believe very strongly, that story is not easy, but it’s simple. So I try to lay it out to you as simply as possible because that’s how I think. You know, simple, keep it simple, stupid. Right? So that’s it. If you’re interested in the class, hit that link and I’ll see you there.
