SYD FIELD

Acclaimed as "the guru of all screenwriters" (CNN), Syd Field is regarded by many Hollywood professionals to be the leading authority in the art and craft of screenwriting in the world today. The Hollywood Reporter calls him "the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world."

Syd Field has sold over 1,000,000 copies of his books.  His internationally acclaimed best-selling books Screenplay, The Screenwriter's Workbook, and The Screenwriter's Problem Solver have established themselves as the "bibles" of the film industry. They are used in more than 395 colleges and universities and have been translated into 19 languages.

Field chaired the Academic Liaison Committee at The Writer's Guild of America West, is currently on faculty at the USC Master's of Professional Writing Program, has taught at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the AFI and many other noted institutions.

Field's former students include Anna Hamilton Phelan (Girl, Interrupted, Gorillas in the Mist), John Singleton (Four Brothers, Boyz N the Hood), Randi Mayem Singer (Mrs. Doubtfire), Laura Esquival (Like Water For Chocalate), Michael Kane (The Color of Money), and Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2 & 3), and he has been a special script consultant to 20th Century Fox, the Disney Studios, Universal and Tristar Pictures.

LINDA SEGER

Dr. Seger is an internationally known speaker in the area of screenwriting, having taught and lectured in over 30 countries on 6 continents. She has given seminars for studios, networks, production companies, television series, and film commissions, and, as the author of nine bestselling books on the art and craft of screewriting, Seger has appeared in more than 60 radio and television shows, including CNN, Good Morning LA, NPR (National Public Radio), Good Morning New York and more.

Some of Linda’s bestselling books include, Making a Good Script Great, Making a Good Writer Great, Creating Unforgettable Character, The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film From Script to Screen: The Collaborative Art of Filmmaking and many others.

Linda has consulted on over 2000 scripts, including over 40 produced feature films and about 35 produced television projects. Some of her clients include ABC, CBS, NBC, Disney Animation, Turner Network Television, Matinee Productions, Embassy Television, Denmark Radio (Channel 1 Television), Trebitsch Company (Hamburg Studio), ZDF Network (Frankfurt, Germany), Rai Television (Rome, Italy), Swedish Television and more.

MICHAEL HAUGE

Michael Hauge is a story consultant, author and lecturer who works with writers and filmmakers on their screenplays, novels, movies and television projects. He has coached writers or consulted on projects for Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Kirsten Dunst, Robert Downey, Jr. and Morgan Freeman, plus every major Hollywood studio.

Hauge’s book and his teaching both began as a desire to share what he had learned from years as a development executive in Hollywood. "Development is really the generic term for the process of getting a story or screenplay greenlit," says Hauge. "In my case, that meant working closely with writers, having ideas pitched to me, and reading thousands of screenplays."

Michael's book Writing Screenplays That Sell, now in its 32nd printing for HarperCollins, is the definitive reference book for the film and television industries, as is his The Hero's 2 Journeys, available on CD and DVD. His newest book, Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay Read, was released in 2007.

Hauge says one of the most powerful tools he’s developed while coaching writers is to ask them a series of questions about their scripts. He continues the exercise with more thought-provoking questions to get the writer really thinking about the work. “My job is to help them target what they’re trying to say with what they’ve done," he says. "I ask questions about how they see the story; how they see the characters. If all I do is provide criticism, I’m just expressing my vision of the story -- not theirs."

Michael continues to tour the world teaching screenwriting, and has presented seminars and lectures to more than 40,000 participants throughout the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.

JOHN TRUBY

Over the course of 3 decades, John Truby has taught more than 30,000 students the art of screenwriting. Providing the knowledge and expertise he has applied as a consultant on over 1,000 movie scripts, Truby offers an approach to storytelling that has earned acclaim for his instructional classes and screenwriting software from students and critics alike.

From the writers, directors and producers of Shrek to Sleepless in Seattle to The Negotiator to Star Wars, Truby’s screenwriting classes have trained some of the top players in Hollywood today. He teaches tried and true screenwriting techniques that will allow you to compete with the best. Key point: top professionals use fundamentally different tools than amateur writers. These techniques include everything from grand story strategy to scene sequencing to setting up and paying off scene patterns to blending dialogue.