Workshops and Seminars

Editing Realities
Saturday, September 30th, 10:30am - 4:00pm at The Funny Bone

While world philosophers have struggled for millennia to define and quantify “reality,” technology has democratized this discourse. Today, virtually anyone can create and exist within multiple realities.

In a free-ranging discussion and multimedia session, makers of the acclaimed documentary Edge Codes.com lead a participatory exploration of the construct of motion picture editing. The film proposes that editing has escaped the bounds of cinema—to become the essential factor in how we perceive ourselves and the world around us; what ideas we hold and why we believe in them; In short, how meaning and reality is created, altered or denied within our emerging global culture.

Previously unseen extended material from Edge Codes.com will be shared for the first time, and a survey of the ever-increasing role of editing in the continuing history of cinema will encompass topics such as user-directed entertainment, the fusion of video games with cinema, propaganda/politics in the visual mindspace, and a consideration of ongoing efforts within the entertainment, advertising, and military industries to access the human mind directly.

Joining the filmmakers as moderator for this interactive multimedia session, Lynn Gabriel from Boise State's Global Business Consortium and Canadian Studies Program will share ideas and perspectives offered by thinkers such as Marshal McLuhan, Jacques Derrida and other cultural theorists. The program will also present an exclusive look at elements from Alex Shuper’s work in progress, Mind Games: The Future of Video Games.

Presenting: Edge Codes.com director and editor Alex Shuper, co-writer and producer Phillip Daniels and associate editor, FX editor and music contributor Frank Guidoccio.

Following the Money Trail: Government Grants for Idaho Filmmakers
Saturday, September 30th, 2:00pm - 3:30pm at The Flicks

So you're ready to begin to make your dream project. The film script is polished, pre-production is underway, everyone in your crew is convinced to help you, and your lead actors are ready, willing, and able. All you need now is money.

Barbara Robinson, The Artist Services Director for the Idaho Commission on the Arts, will conduct a discussion/seminar during the Festival to talk about the grants and awards currently available for artists, filmmakers, and videographers in Idaho, as well as additional programs and services.

Screenplay In A Day
Sunday, October 1st, 10:30am - 4:00pm at The Funny Bone

Join us for an intensive all-day seminar in the fundamentals of screenwriting, during which you'll learn to develop a marketable story idea, flesh out its characters and then leave with an outline structure, a completed scene and a pragmatic business plan! Taught by three working writers, this course dispenses with the lofty nonsense of screenwriting books and instead offers practical hands-on advice from the trenches to help you create and sell a commercial, successful script!

The course curriculum includes:

Writing the script:
         • Creating a marketable high-concept (drama, comedy and horror)
         • Three act structure
         • Fundamentals of Character
         • Inciting Incidents, Plants and Payoffs and the Hero’s Journey
         • Explanation of The Mythic Structure for Writers
         • Plot twists
         • Elements of a scene
         • Developing non-cliché dialogue
         • Creating compelling villains
         • Writing visually
         • Drawing on your own life for story ideas
         • Step-by-step guide for going from the blank page to a completed script
         • Setting deadlines
         • Fighting fear and writer’s block

In addition to leading interactive group lectures and creative exercises, the three instructors will work one-on-one with students in a workshop type environment to develop their concepts, characters and storylines. Students will be provided copies of treatments, outlines and presentations that were actually sold to studios and networks.

Marketing the script:
         • Using a short film or trailer to sell you script
         • Creating hype for your script
         • Using your true-life story to sell a pitch
         • Optioning articles and books to adapt
         • Acquiring life story rights
         • How to pitch your script to studios and networks
         • Re-packaging an unsold feature film as television series
         • What to avoid when doing a deal

Students will be provided with copies of book options, studio deals and marketing materials that were actually used to sell projects.

Presenting: Screenwriters David Garrett and Brian Sawyer.

David Garrett
David Garrett (with writing partner Jason Ward) has sold feature film pitches to Dreamworks, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Revolution Studios. With Ward, he recently completed the feature screenplay ‘Foreign Exchange’ for MTV Films. In 2004, he co-wrote ‘Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo’ starring Rob Schneider and produced by Adam Sandler. In 2005, David wrote the musical comedy ‘Do That To Me One More Time’ for Touchstone Pictures, with Jack Black attached to star and produce. In addition to co-writing ‘First Pet’ and ‘Corky Romano’ for Disney, Garrett has authored screenplays for directors Ivan Reitman, Tom Shadyac and Peter Segal.

David has written and produced pilots/series/specials for ABC, NBC, CBS, WB, UPN, HBO, Showtime and Fox. In 2001 he co-wrote and produced ‘The Kronenberg Chronicles’ for FX with director John Landis. In 2002 he co-created ‘Missing Link’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ for ABC & Touchstone Television. In 2003, he co-wrote “The Hatfields & McCoys”, a dramatic mini-series for the USA Network. He also co-created the sit-com ‘Living with Fran’ starring Fran Drescher, which ran for two years on the WB Network. In 2005, Garrett produced the short film ‘Model Family’ starring Jamie Kennedy, which was recently acquired by Twentieth Century Fox Television. David recently completed the pilot ‘The Dysfunctionals’ for NBC & Touchstone Television and has a development deal with Joe Roth through Paramount Television.

David Garrett is an attorney, a member of the California State Bar and graduate of UCLA Law School. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of National Lampoon Magazine.

His complete credits can be found at Internet Movie Database.

Brian Sawyer
Brian grew up in Santa Barbara and attended U.C. Berkeley where he was the Editor of the University’s 97-yr-old humor magazine “The California Pelican” and he has also contributed to the “National Lampoon Magazine.” At USC, he received his MFA degree from the School of Cinema-TV and directed “Fuzzy Logic,” which won best short documentary in the Melbourne Film Festival. Brian’s most recent short “Tex, the Passive-Aggressive Gunslinger,” an offbeat comedy starring Bob Balaban, was sold to the Independent Film Channel where it has played for two years. “Tex” has been well-received at festivals such as Hamptons, Deauville, Mill Valley, and South-by-Southwest, as well as the Palm Springs Short Film Festival where it took the Special Jury Prize. In 2003 his script "The Hatfields and McCoys" (Co-authored with Dave Garrett and Jason Ward) was acquired by the USA Network as a forthcoming TV miniseries.

Brian Sawyer and his writing partner Gregg Rossen are both graduates of USC’s School of Cinema-TV. In the summer of 2002, they sold their comedy screenplay “Nascar Girl” to New Line Cinema. In 2003, their comedy script “Guida” was sold to Revolution Studios as a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez. Prior to this, they sold the dance-spoof pitch “Save the Last Dirty Flashdance for Footloose Billy Elliott” to Tapestry Entertainment. Gregg and Brian are currently developing “Model Family”, a TV pilot starring Jamie Kennedy, for Twentieth Century Fox Television based on the short film they wrote, directed and produced. They recently co-wrote “Pixar’s 20th Anniversary Special” for ABC.