Stories reflect humanity’s attempt to understand our lives and ourselves. As such, all stories revolve, to greater and lesser degrees, around character.

In Deep Character, we will investigate the nuances of character through a variety of lenses. We will dig into characters as Function, analyzing their various purposes in a story. We will delve into characters as Thematic Anchors, defining the “debate” the story will prosecute. And we will unpack character as Journey, delineating the grand arc of character change as a primary story motive.

Deep Character will look at characters from a multitude of angles, defining their traits, backstories, opposites (antagonists) – even their “ghosts.” This in-depth study will give writers, directors and actors the tools to craft intense, moving, shocking, and even transgressive characters that will escape the bounds of conventional storytelling and become indelible archetypes that will live in an audience’s mind long after they’ve turned away from the screen.

About the instructor

Thomas Dean Donnelly has been a professional screenwriter for over 25 years. In that time, he has written on projects that have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. He has worked on franchises from Voltron and Uncharted, to Marvel’s Doctor Strange and The Walking Dead. His feature credits include Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey, and Conan the Barbarian.

He has worked in video game writing and taught at Stephens College and Long Island University, and the University of Southern California, where he earned his Masters in Cinema Production at the start of his career.

Thomas has also battled writer’s block for many of those 25 years – a battle that led him to develop Superdraft.
 
Please note: This event is non-refundable – no credit or exchanges.

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