This seminar will present Evan Smith's acclaimed method for creating 'premise-driven comedy ' an organic approach that focuses on developing a story's humor from the ground up. Attendees will learn how to weave comedic elements into a story premise to automatically generate funny scenes and seamless jokes throughout a script.

Screenwriters should wield dialogue as merely another kind of action. Because it's poetic, punchy, peppy, funny and sad it should be worth listening to all by itself. But it can't be all by itself. It also has to advance story and expand character. Here is a baker's dozen prinicples designed to tighten, sweeten, and integrate dialogue so that it is a seamless aspect of screen narrative.

The ultimate challenge for writers today is creating compelling authentic fresh dialogue that individualizes characters and entertains the reader. Expanding on the key element of all successful scripts—the reader's emotional experience—author Karl Iglesias showcases dialogue techniques from highly successful screenwriters that turn flat on-the-nose dialogue into striking speech that snaps crackles and pops off the page. Topics include the most common dialogue problems with specific fixes for each polishing devices that reveal character and push all the right emotional buttons as well as subtext individual speech and how to weave in exposition.