TV Drama Weekend Intensive with Steve Molton

TV Drama Writing

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Back by popular demand!
Join writers from all over the world and your teacher, Pulitzer Prize nominated author, TV writer, screenwriter, professor, and former HBO executive, Stephen Molton, for this unique Television Drama Weekend Intensive Workshop. Get ready to dive deep into the structure of of the pilot and learn what makes a drama pilot sell. Collaborate live through our special online format or attend at our NYC studio. Limited space available.

Welcome To The Writer’s Room

More than just a writing class, our TV Drama workshop gives you the experience of a real writer’s room on a 1 hour TV Drama or Dramedy series. You’ll learn the foundations of creating a successful TV Drama series, and collaborate on building show ideas and structure with your fellow students.

A Teacher You Can Trust

Steve Molton is a Pulitzer Prize nominated author, TV Writer, Screenwriter, Professor, and former HBO and Showtime Executive who has worked with countless studios and networks. You’ll benefit from his lifetime of real world experience every step of the way!

What You’ll Learn

Learn how to develop a series pilot that shows off your talent as a writer, creates an “engine” for an entire season, and captures the attention of anyone who reads it.

Plus, learn how to succeed in the exciting environment of a real world TV writer’s room, among a community of writers all working together for a common goal.

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What About The Online Option?

You can be a part of our TV Writing Classes from anywhere in the world, through a live two way video stream! All you need is a computer, a headset, and a high speed internet connection. You’ll be able to see, hear and participate in everything, just like being in the room!

Includes 1-on-1 Consultation

This class includes a free consultation with one of our ProTrack mentors, offering you personalized 1-on-1 feedback on your writing to help you take the lessons of the class to the next level. Tell us about your project and we’ll match you with the right mentor.

Need A Payment Plan? Just Ask.

We like working with artists, and are happy to figure out a payment plan that fits your budget. Just select the standard plan below, or give us a call at 917-464-3594 to set up a custom plan.

This isn’t a course about how to write a TV Bible. It’s really a course about how you prepare yourself imaginatively to create a world and populate it, to create a television habitat and populate it, and to understand that the relationship between those two things determines what the Engine will be, determines its potential longevity.
How does the Engine fold out of that first portrait of the protagonist? As Aristotle and so many have said, plot comes out of character. The world we are creating is going to be manifested by these characters.
You want to establish pretty clearly in the pilot, who are the people out there in this world that are always going to mess with the protagonist. Who are they and why? Get a glimpse of why they are the antagonist.
Every single character has a different relationship to their shadows.
It's critical to always be thinking at the beginning of any story, “What’s broken in the character? Why now, why are we starting now, and what’s broken within them?” Because it’s that fissure that runs through the character that is the chasm between their best self and their changing self, their steady self, and their changing self.
You need to be able to make that world as vivid as you can, and to show what’s uniquely interesting about the moral arena that results from that show, and who the people are that are trying to negotiate that moral labyrinth within the show.
The fascinating DNA of a pilot for me is that, because it’s all about characters in the world, you want to be able to touch as quickly as possible on that dynamic between the holdfast and the nascent ego in the principal characters of the show.
A series is really about a world, it’s about a habitat. It isn’t really about a product or an outcome. It’s about a world in which characters wrestle with these moral quandaries.
As you know, we’re in yet another golden age. I guess we could probably describe it as a third golden age, because there was the initial one in the ’50s, and then in the ’70s and ’80s, cable transformed everything. And then, there were suddenly a thousand different platforms, and that has given rise to an immense number of shows at any given moment. It has also given rise to web series, to the short form, which we hadn’t seen before. And that opens up a vista for writers, of a kind that no other form of writing does at this point, partly because the appetite is amazingly large for all these companies.

Upcoming TV Drama Writing Classes

Reviews

Kerry M.
I worked with Steven privately after developing an original series in his TV Drama Intensive. Both the class and the session were remarkable. My goals were more than met. I came away with a pilot episode and a rough bible and a whole world of questions to sustain the project over multiple seasons. It was my first time diving into speculative/sci-fi as a genre and I could not have had a more brilliant mentor to witness the work as it grew. Steve is fiercely engaged with the world, morally, humanly, and artistically. He’s nurturing and expansive while having experience and savvy in the industry. His written notes on my pilot were incredibly valuable, focusing on micro choices line by line and meta structural concerns. My pilot has placed for the Sundance Episodic Lab, the Blacklist/Women in Film Episodic Lab, and I have my second meeting with a producer in LA this month who I pitched and has now read the pilot. I have taken many classes along the way and Steve’s was the best, by far. Not only did he get me and excite my writer like no other teacher, but the atmosphere of his “writer’s room” created really special chemistry amongst the participants. I came out of the class with two trusted writers who I trade reads with constantly. He’s incredible.
Brent L.
Steve was incredible to work with. I really appreciated his notes, his patience, his experience and his genuine passion for the story I was telling. I would absolutely recommend him as an instructor and would definitely consider taking another class with him if I could afford it.
Lisa B.
Steve was an incredible teacher. I learned so much from the class and the one on one session. He is an absolute natural when it comes to teaching. Steve was informative, extremely knowledgeable, warm, friendly and engaging. He paced each class efficiently and everyone received adequate time to share their work and to receive feedback. His written feedback was also extremely helpful and thorough. My writing grew tremendously from his class. He genuinely cares about his students and their success. In each session, there was such an enthusiastic vibe. All of those qualities you’d want in a teacher can’t really be taught. But again, Steve is a natural at being a naturally outstanding and gifted instructor. I would definitely take more of his classes. I’m grateful to have been a student at JKS, and for having Steve Molton as a teacher.
Jessica S.
Working with Steve has been invaluable to me as a writer. Whatever story you’re telling, Steve is wholly invested in it – the theme, the voice, the characters – but honestly, what has kept me working with him for so long is his investment in me as a writer and a person – and my work is all the better for it. He is the kind of mentor you need – someone who listens for the story you are trying to tell and challenges you to dig deep to tell it as best you can. He is always willing to field questions that delve into the business of screenwriting – thoughts on coverage (good or bad), agents and managers, bibles, developing a strong body of work – no matter how neurotic I get with those questions. I am incredibly grateful for the Jacob Krueger Studio and its ProTrack program which gives people like me, who don’t currently live in New York or L.A., an opportunity to work with someone of Steve’s caliber.

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TV Drama Workshop