Writing the Short Film in a Weekend. Kat O'Brien, Instructor
Apr 4, 2025 - Apr 6, 2025
Spots remaining: 7
Full course description
Registration opens on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.
IOWA SUMMER WRITING FESTIVAL
Spring 2025
Writing the Short Film in a Weekend (Weekend Workshop)
Kat O’Brien, Instructor
Friday, April 4–Sunday, April 6, 2025
Introductory Meeting and Overview, Friday on Zoom:
- 7:00–8:00 pm Iowa/Central Time
- 8:00–9:00 pm Eastern Time
- 5:00–6:00 pm Pacific Time
- 6:00–7:00 pm Mountain Time
Workshop Meetings, Saturday & Sunday on Zoom:
- 11:00 am–4:00 pm Iowa/Central Time
- 12:00–5:00 pm Eastern Time
- 9:00 am–2:00 pm Pacific Time
- 10:00 am–3:00 am Mountain Time
Saturday and Sunday meetings include a one-hour break. Class meets for four hours each day.
Fee: $350
Course Description
Got a fun idea for a short film? Curious about screenwriting and want to finish a screenplay in a weekend? Join award-winning screenwriter, producer, and story consultant Kat O’Brien in this intensive weekend workshop to draft a compelling screenplay for a 5- to 7-minute film.
We’ll brainstorm and refine viable short film ideas, explore cinematic storytelling tools and techniques, learn the guidelines of industry-standard screenplay format, and then draft and table read our screenplays. Each session will combine lecture, discussion, time to write, and workshop. Writers will leave the class with a completed screenplay as well as feedback designed to support them in producing their project and/or developing their idea further as a feature film or TV show on their own schedule.
Whether you’re new to screenwriting or looking to refine your technique, this weekend intensive will offer a dynamic, supportive, structured environment to realize your ideas from script to screen.
Takeaways:
- Brainstorm ideas for a viable 5- to 7-minute short film.
- Complete a draft of a 5- to 7-minute short screenplay.
- Collaborate on a table reading of your screenplay with feedback on how to develop it further.
Instructor
For over 20 years, Kat O’Brien has developed film and television for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony, Anonymous Content, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures, Alcon Entertainment Morgan Creek Productions, Blue Star Entertainment, and numerous internationally renowned and critically acclaimed independent filmmakers and television producers. During the pandemic, Kat executive produced We Still Teach TV, for which she was awarded the Chicago Teachers’ Union LEAD award as a champion for education justice. As a world-renowned expert in story development, Kat has consulted for the Doha Film Institute and Film AlUla, and teaches at the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and The Second City Film School. She holds a BFA in Writing for Film and Television from the University of Southern California. You can read more and contact her at kobwriting.com.
The fee for this course is $350. Payment in full is required to register.
Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Class size is limited to 12.
Note: Your credit card payment will be processed by an external provider and will appear on your credit card statement as “UI Writing—Magid Center.”
Refund & Cancellation Policy
If you need to cancel your enrollment, please let us know as soon as possible. We can only offer full refunds if you cancel one week prior to the start of class. After that, before the start-date of class, we can offer a 50% refund. We cannot refund day-of cancellations, and we cannot refund or partially refund registration fees once the class has begun.
Terms & Community Policy
1. The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a program for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to enroll in Festival workshops.
2. The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a community built on an assumption of shared enterprise, in the spirit of mutual respect. We reserve the right to a) revoke the registration of or b) dismiss from the program any person who disrupts the learning/working environment of others. Participants in the Festival are subject to all University of Iowa policies governing conduct in our community, whether online or in person.
Questions?
Contact the Iowa Summer Writing Festival: iswfestival@uiowa.edu. Phone: (319) 335-4160.
Our small staff is out and about. If you phone and we miss you, please leave a detailed message!