PRIVATE CLASSES
SCREENWRITING CLASSES
“A class with Wendall is like four years of film school. Without the student loan debt.” Screenwriter MICHAEL CLARKE
“Her level of detail and insight are unmatched in the industry. After 15 years, she remains my first choice when it comes to professional script analysis and engaging and relevant lectures/courses.” Writer/Producer NAVID FILSOOF
“Of all the screenwriting classes I have taken, THE TAKE provided me with the best real-world skills that I still use to this day.” National Hispanic Media Coalition, CBS Diversity Showcase Winner, Upright Citizens Brigade member LISA TIMMONS.
THE TAKE clasS
What Students say about the TAKE CLASS: Finding, Adapting, and Pitching Source Material
“I wish I’d taken this class years ago. After writing fifty-plus novels, ideas have never been in short supply, but Wendall taught me a new way to find those ideas and turn them into story pitches. Sign up now!” MELISSA MCCLONE USA Today Bestselling author
“As a Mexican screenwriter, my dream is to work on projects all over the world, and less than one year after I took The Take class, I sold two movies and one TV series to important platforms and production companies. On a financial level, this is one of the best investments I have ever made. The Take is a 100% practical class that teaches you how to defeat your fears and enhance your abilities to conceptualize TV and movie stories. It helps you understand your story and identify why you are the right person to tell it, the essentials of storytelling.” CHRISTIAN CUEVA Screenwriter La Exorcista
DETAILS:
SUNDAY AFTERNOONS
January 5 through March 9, 2025 2-5pm Pacific Standard Time. (Super Bowl Sunday off)
Class is limited to 7 students and costs $900. Payment is required for registration and spaces are given in the order payments arrive.
Scroll down for FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION and more former student reactions. Contact Wendall at ewendallthomas@gmail.com with questions or to register.
THE “TAKE” CLASS:
Of all the classes I teach, this is my favorite. It will not only prepare you for the reality of industry meetings and improve your pitching skills, it will provide you with new ideas and sources for your own projects by concentrating on developing probably the most important skill a writer can have in the current market—the ability to create a "take" on existing material and to pitch that take in an intelligent and compelling way.
Most studio and independent films and television shows are based on existing source material—novels, comic books, plays, biographies, life or crime stories, newspaper articles, previous films or shows, etc. These titles include recent Emmy and Oscar nominees and winners and streaming sensations such as Shogun, Oppenheimer, Barbie, American Fiction, Slow Horses, The Crown, The Lincoln Lawyer, Will Trent, Elspeth, Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, The Night Agent, Daisy Jones and the Six, 1883, 1923, The Offer, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, CODA, Nightmare Alley, Nomadland, Bridgerton, BlacKkKlansman, Ratched, I, Tonya, Little Women, The Irishman, Enola Holmes, The Trial of the Chicago Seven, Harriet, Moonlight, Arrival, Fences, Hidden Figures, The Martian, Call Me By Your Name, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, Better Call Saul, The Good Fight, Mission: Impossible, and Westworld And of course, there are all the box office hits based on Marvel or DC Comics characters, including The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman, etc.
Right now, most of you are focused on finishing a spec script and getting an agent. These are crucial goals, but they are just the beginning. Most spec scripts do not sell. Their primary function is to provide a springboard for your introduction to the town—for getting meetings with producers and executives who are interested in new writers and have projects, ideas, books, etc. which they want to develop.
Often the round of meetings a writer gets after sending out their first spec is the best set of meetings they ever get—everyone in Hollywood is looking for the next new, hot thing. This is your prime opportunity to forge relationships with development executives and producers who can help you over the course of your career. But many writers, including myself, blow those early meetings because, when the producer or executive hands us a magazine article, a short story or a 30's film and says "come back with a take," we have no idea what to do.
I have created this class to teach you first, what a "take" is, and then to give you the practical skills involved in looking at a piece of source material, asking the right questions about it, turning it into something fresh and commercial, and pitching it properly, sometimes in a very short period of time.
THERE WILL BE NO WRITTEN WORK DUE IN THE CLASS.
Instead, I will give you specific source material and ask each person to come back and pitch your individual "take” on newspaper and magazine articles, remakes, short stories, comic books or novels, original producer "ideas, " actor deals and, ultimately, one of your own scripts.
The course should sharpen your basic story and pitching skills, increase your confidence and provide you with at least three original pitches you can take with you to meetings right away, as well as new sources for future spec ideas. Several former students have had sales and assignments come out of takes they developed for the course and it can provide a creative shot in the arm for those of you looking for new ideas.
WHAT STUDENTS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE TAKE:
“Of all the screenwriting classes I have taken, THE TAKE provided me with the best real-world skills that I still use to this day. Too many times, budding writers focus exclusively on their own stories but neglect to understand how much of the job is actually giving your unique "take" on someone else's concept. I had a great time in the class, not just because Wendall is a phenomenal teacher, but also because she attracts talented, generous students. Every writer, regardless of their experience level, will benefit from this class and the friendships that form in it.” LISA TIMMONS National Hispanic Media Coalition TV Writers Program 2019, Writer CBS Diversity Showcase 2017, Writer/Producer/Director Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Los Angeles
“Wendall's THE TAKE class is the single most helpful, necessary, relevant class on being a professional screenwriter I've encountered. When I signed up I was convinced I couldn't pitch. By the end of the 9 weeks I left with the confidence that I could ad-lib a pitch in meetings, and had an outline for one of the best story ideas I've ever had. Wendall creates a warm environment where you will grow beyond what you knew you were capable of. Her craft knowledge and ability to teach is the best it gets. Do not miss this career-advancing experience!” ELISABETH FIES Writer/Director The Commune(Blacklist’s 100 Horror Movies by Women You Should be Watching),1st Place Thriller Screenplay Creative Screenwriting Magazine
“This workshop has truly impacted my mindset about stories and their abundance. It has also provided a very concrete creative process I can use regardless of any project I’m working on. Everything really is a remix. Anyway, I am very very grateful I ended up in this workshop. For my path, writing and continuing to write has been a journey of practicing self-love. This class has been a huge confidence booster as I try to launch.” WISDOM AMOUZOU, Screenwriter, Educator, Philanthropist
“THE TAKE was a thrilling 9 week program that helped me not only to improve my pitching skills, but also trained me to capture what was most compelling about a story...I would compare it to a gym for screenwriters, where we could flex our creative muscles, play around with ideas, twist them to fit into different genres, and finally pitch them in a fresh way.” GWENOLA BALMELLE Winner 2019 UCLA Professional Program Screenwriting Competition
JUMPSTART YOUR REWRITE
SOLD OUT! Contact Wendall to join the waiting list for classes in 2025.
THE LIVING ROOM LECTURES:
The Living Room Lecture Series originally began in 2004 as a resource for my UCLA students, because we never seemed to have enough time in our writing workshops to really delve into the nuts and bolts of the whole craft of screenwriting. I wanted to take a full day on one specific topic and really break it down, with as many clip examples as possible. I expanded the lectures for film commisions in both the UK and Australia/New Zealand and now offer them on Zoom.
I try to keep that same focus and detail with the new Zoom format.
PREVIOUS LECTURES:
“THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP”: Creating Memorable Relationships on Screen
From Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca, Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and Lawrence and Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia, to Butch and Sundance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Erin Brokovich and Ed Masry in Erin Brokovich, Bertie and Lionel in The King’s Speech, and Ron and Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club, there are certain screen relationships that take on a life beyond their films, relationships that endure.
What sets these relationships apart from the rest and keeps us talking about them, ten, twenty, fifty years later? And which modern film relationships, from The Shape of Water to Moonlight, Whiplash, or Past Lives, will we be returning to and learning from twenty years from now?
This workshop will focus on the set-ups, conventions and arcs of notable screen relationships and all the other elements they share, so that you will have the tools to create memorable, lasting screen relationships of your own.
SEPTEMBER 21 and 22 from 10am to 1pm PDT (Q&A will be from 1:15 to 1:45 both days)
YOU CAN SIGN UP TWO WAYS:
Webinar only, with lecture and clips but no discussion: $75
Webinar with additional hour of Q&A $100 (limited space available)
Contact Wendall at ewendallthomas@gmail.com for information or to register.
THE CATALYST, THE CORPSE, THE CATCH, and THE CANDY: Getting The Most From Your Secondary Characters
It’s impossible to imagine Barbie without Ryan Goslings’s Ken, The Holdovers without Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s heartbreaking Mary, Minari without Yuh-Jung Youn’s hopeful grandmother, Get Out without Lil Rei Howery’s loyal TSA agent, I, Tonya without Allison Janney’s psychotic “ice” mother, or Dallas Buyers Club without Jared Leto’s haunting Rayon. These performances join a pantheon that spans from Claude Rains in Casablanca and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot to Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now, Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, and Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine.
This six-hour workshop offers a new paradigm with which to create and deepen your secondary characters and ways to use them to incite, complicate, and structure your plots and support and illuminate your protagonist.
FOUR WEDDINGS, A HEIST, AND AN ALIEN INVASION: The Importance of Sequences in Film and Television
Imagine The Great Escape without the escape or Muriel’s Wedding without the wedding. From E.T’s bicycle chase to Little Miss Sunshine’s “pageant sequence” to Six Feet Under’s funerals, Succession's corporate weekends, and Breaking Bad’s Winnebago disasters, sequences form the backbone of TV series and films and stick in audiences’ memories.
Sequences provide focus and pace and are vital tools for any writer. This workshop will examine a variety of famous and memorable sequences, break down how they work, and offer tips on how the techniques used to create them can strengthen your own scripts.
CREATING UNFORGETTABLE RELATIONSHIPS on the SMALL SCREEN: I Love Lucy to Breaking Bad
First up is the result of my watching over 100 hours of tv relationships to decipher what the great ones have in common.
Television writing has always been about relationships: from the best friends of I Love Lucy to Scully and Mulder's partners on The X-Files, the mismatched drug dealers of Breaking Bad, the competitive lawyers of Lockhardt Gardner in The Good Wife, and everything in between. It's the interplay and evolution of the characters' reactions to each other, and the tensions in the ensemble, that keep us coming back week after week or binging for thirteen hours in one day.
Although feature film and television characters have much in common, a television relationship, be it central or secondary, is more complex. It may have to last for seven seasons or more, so the pace of the arcs and the necessity for creating a host of flaws and inherent, recurring conflicts in the character relationships is much more crucial. This workshop will break down a series of enduring comic and dramatic television relationships and offer practical advice on creating and managing these kinds of relationships on the page.
MASTERING THE DREADED SECOND ACT:
Whether your script is a comedy, horror, drama, or thriller, the second act of any screenplay is a challenge. So how do you navigate this “desert” of the middle with the the kind of elegance and skill of films like The Verdict, Chinatown, or Little Miss Sunshine, particularly in the current market, which favors genre-benders like Get Out, Thor, The Big Sick, or Deadpool, and complex, unconventional structures like Lion, Boyhood, Spotlight, Gone Girl, Dunkirk, or I, Tonya?
This lecture examines the specific pitfalls and possibilities of the second act, through in-depth, scene -by-scene look at this “desert” in three recent, successful, soundly-structured screenplays.
THE FORBIDDEN: Voice Over in Film and Television
Voice over, when it works, can be magic. It defines so many classics on the big screen— Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Good Fellas, Adaptation, High Fidelity, Bad Santa, Whale Rider, Mudbound, Birdman— and the small—Sex and the City, Dexter, House of Cards, Black-Ish, Bloodline.
This workshop breaks-down specific approaches to narrative voice over — first person, third person, multiple voices, framing, fourth wall, etc.— and offers suggestions on the kinds of stories where each technique can be the most effective.