Centennia! to host script workshop Layne Christensen News Reporter laync@nsnews.com THE biggest mistake aspiring screenwriters can make is to think they’re Quentin Tarantino, says Hollywood veteran Robert McKee. Tarantino worked for four years as a clerk in a Los Angcles‘video store before making his feature directorial and screenwriting debut with the 1992 cule classic Reservoir Dogs and winning the Oscar for best screenplay with his 1993 hit, Pulp Fiction. Penning award-winning scripts while sitting behind a cash desk obviously worked for Hollywood’s artistic rebel, but it’s not an approach that McKee wholly endorses. “The mistake we — almost all of us —- make is to plunge into writing, thinking that you can because you’ve seen the movies and the tele- _ vision shows,” says McKee, “BOW Storcwide « gy a rrr Coffee and Entertainment Two Days Only! oer Yetober 23rd & Sunda 24th — Galleria Ambleside 1545 Marine Drive West Vancouver 922-4694 ¢ 913-3H9 AYLORMOTIVE COLLISION SPECIALISTS for Foreign & Domesiic . NORTH SHORE’S HIGHEST VOLUME ALL MAKE 1.€.B.¢. VENBOR * Truste. arty Seve * LEB. Vendor | BCAA, ABp : YY The Home of the ” ifetinne —~ Guarantee~ : in town recently to promote Abkermative trascpertation arranged. his Oct. 15-17 screenwriting workshop at North Van’s LOS Angeles-based lecturer and story analyst Robert McKee will be at North ...Centennial Theatre. | - Vancouver's Centennial Theatre Oct. 15 to 17 to present a weekend workshop for “ . The $600 three-day semi- screenwriters. Former students include writers and co-writers of hit shows ER, nar is based on a class in Seinfeld, Frasier and Law & Order. Photo submitted Also Mechanic i Ie tg all mokes OF Cnet ond ruck (Foreign & Domest). TeMsg TALKING .»* ESTIMATES « Wy => CONSULTATION - 174 Pemberton Ave., Korth re ee. 985-7455 4 story structure McKee, 58, first taught to students at the University of Southern California’s School of ~ Cinema Television. Since *84, he’s offered it to the * general public,’ presenting it ., four times a year in Los “Angeles, twice a year in New York and, this fall, to audi- ‘ences in London, Helsinki, ’. London, Helsinki, Geneva’ and Hamburg.. : “"-. Anovice, can’t expect to . find success screenwriter without first ng a knowledge of the craft. And you can’t: ‘get that just by : going to the movies, says cKee, “Suppose you’ re trying to compose | music: Would you say to yourself: I’ve heard a a ict of symphonies in my day. ; cin also. play the piano. I bank ru | compose o he . aT s not as. if someone ‘couldn't hum up.a ditty once in awhile but:to achieve’ : something ' of real quality, of ‘cour c, you must ‘study.” The screenwriters who enrol in McKee’s workshop range from complete begin- ners, he says, to “people who have already won Oscars and everyone in between.” ’ 'McKee’s story seminar is primarily for screen and telé- vision writers but a large number of novelists and play- . Wrights as well as directors, -. producers, agents, actors and journalists rake the coursc because, says the lecturer, “story is at the heart of everything we're all doing.” Gloria Steinem has attended his seminar. So have Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton and Kirk Douglas, Some cel- ‘ebrated artists, like John Cleese, not only take the -- course, “they come back and take ‘it a second and third . .time when they have a work _ in progress.” In three days, workshop _ participants can expect to “learn the creative elements of . storytelling and the essentials Richard Kortje e 200-1343 Lonsdale ue Nort ih Vancouver . o21-7b2- "ON sicnarecieaitis. com | He of story structure. McKee’s three-day workshop wraps up with a six-hour scene-by- scene analysis of the movie classic Casablanca. There is very little origi- nal creative storytelling in the world today, says McKee. That, coupled with the explosion of cable television, means that though competi- tion to get your script from page to screen is fierce, there is room for new star writers. “God just did not give out enough talent io fill all those pages,” says McKee. “You can expect that the vast majority of what reaches the “ public in any medium is pret- ty mediocre.” McKee’s weekend seminar at Centennial Theatre is sented by the Actor’s Wor! ing Academy Productions. For more information, or to reserve a place, cail the toll-free num- ber 1-877-736-4333. Or view the Web site . PAID ADVERTISEMENT SACRIFICE LIQUIDATION! Over a Million Dollars of Toyota Trade-ins | To Be Sold at Cost! Buy a Car for As Low As $2901 VANCOUVER, B.C. - Downtown Toyota more. At Downtown Toyota Centre, every - car wil be on sale,