Comedy Feature Film Writing Class

I teach a few popular filmmaking classes and always reserve up to 2 spots for Bunz trades when there is interest. Below is the course description for my class on the Art of Comedy Feature Filmmaking for screenwriters and directors called MAKE 'EM LAUGH FOR 90 MINUTES.

It's a series of 5 lectures of four hours each, plus access to our private Facebook group where there is a few hours of additional content. The lectures were recorded on Zoom in October and people in three countries are still purchasing recordings of the course because I'm here to support any questions or give feedback on character work and premise and basic structural beats until December 31st.

On the writing side, this course covers: what makes an idea best suited to the comedy feature format, understanding high-concept versus low-concept, comedy subgenres, tone, what makes a character comedic, structuring your story and incorporating set pieces that organically reflect your movie's central idea, writing for a low budget reality, incorporating comedy writing tools in your scene work, finding the game of the scene, improving your dialogue and punching up your jokes in a multi-rewrite process.

On the directing side, we will go over: casting and workshopping the script, the writer-director relationship at the production stage, examples of pro comedy director processes on set, directing comedy performances, incorporating on-camera improvisation, comedic visual storytelling and working with your editor.

There is a bonus lecture on PRO SCRIPT FORMATTING TECHNIQUES and an interview with comedy feature filmmaker, writer/director SEAN GARRITY, plus several live Q&As including in the private Facebook Group.

All participants will have access to a collection of multiple feature film scripts in a range of comedy genres for study purposes via DropBox.

The regular course fee is $297US and I am open to Bunz trade items of lesser value.

Here is a link to the course sales page: https://comedywriting.samcart.com/products/make-em-laugh/

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

DANIELA SAIONI is a comedy writer and performer whose stand-up developed at her long-running West End Girls monthly live show at Comedy Bar and was featured on CBC Radio's Laugh Out Loud to over 1 million listeners. Her raucous female ensemble comedy screenplay The WBI, co-written with Annie Bradley, received the 2014 Best Reserve Screenplay Award at the Female Eye Film Festival and was named CFF Harold Greenberg Fund's Top Ten in 2016. Her self-penned directorial debut short mockumentary, FIRST PERSON PLURAL: COPY CAT, aired on The Comedy Network and premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. She also co-created the pilot and series proof of concept IR-REVEREND with Annie Bradley, starring Nikki Payne, and her latest magic realism dramedy feature script JIYAN, based on a story by filmmaker Mazdak Taebi, is now in development. It has won five awards to date internationally.

In her other life on the front lines of film sets as a world-class script supervisor, Daniela has been lucky enough to crawl around inside the comedy brains of directors like Rodman Flender, Greg Daniels and Paul Feig. Her script supervision achievements include the notorious comedy features MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, THREE TO TANGO, SHAZAM! and the upcoming Netflix teen dance movie, WORK IT. She has been training comics and improvisers in the art of original sitcom writing since 2012 through her From Schtick to Script intensive program, where multiple alumni went on to get staffed in Canada's TV writing rooms. She also trains directors in the art of visual storytelling through her Am I Covered? program and has been the script supervision mentor for the CFC Director and Producer residents since 2010. She is a proud member of the WGC, ACTRA and IATSE 873.