Before attending, I did some reading on the seminar online. In Googling McKee, it quickly became apparent that he is a man held in high regard by more than one high-profile film industry personality, and that his seminar and accompanying book are considered something close to gospel by many. How much of this is a genuinely earned reputation and how much is self-generated hyperbole is unclear - McKee is obviously vocal and media savvy, and if he wants for anything it certainly isn't ego - but whatever the case, it seemed that this was man with something to say about the art of screenwriting.
The first thing that struck me about the man in person is the incredibly disciplined way in which he ran the seminar. There were no questions allowed during his lectures, although he welcomed them during the frequent breaks. Those who allowed mobile phones to ring were to be fined ten dollars, and it was made clear that a second offence would result in that person being ejected without refund. The same went for late arrivals, either at the commencement of any of the three days or upon returning from breaks (thankfully, nobody was fined or ejected). The man was there to teach, he knew that people had paid good money to learn, and he would allow nothing that may detract from that.
This was consistent with what I had expected. Everything I read of the seminar - as well as the infamous portrayal of McKee by Brian Cox in the excellent film Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman - had led me to believe that McKee was the quintessential Grumpy Old Man. That he was impatient, opinionated and passionate. What I had not expected was for him to be quite as funny as he was, nor did I expect the softer sides of his personality to shine through quite so brightly and frequently as they did. He speaks with great fondness of his wife and close friends, as he does of his former students. He's not shy about speaking of those students' achievements - more than once, he referenced "[blank], written by former student of mine [blank], won the [blank] award." While there was definitely an element of the aforementioned ego in these boasts, there was equally as much pride. McKee claims that he wants all of his students to go on to be successful screenwriters, and it's not at all difficult to believe him.
I won't spend too much time detailing the various topics and techniques covered in the seminar. These are readily available in the book (which, by the way, I highly recommend for those interested in writing). Of all the topics touched on, though - and there were many - the one he came back to more than any other, and that all the others related to in one way or another - was Structure. McKee continually and vigorously stressed the importance of structure in story, and decried the apparently all-too-common writing mistake of sitting down to write scenes and dialogue without having done the appropriate planning and outlining. This is, I'm ashamed to admit, a mistake of which I'm guilty, but is definitely something I intend to work on.
That is, in fact, what I took away from the weekend more than anything else. Many of the flaws that I find in my own work can, if I'm being completely honest with myself, be attributed to a lack of planning. But after hearing McKee speak about the structure of story with such knowledge and passion, there's no way I'm going to make that mistake again.
I don't regret for a moment the money and time that attending the seminar cost me. It has given me an enormous amount of fuel for thought, and I can say confidently that I will be a better writer having experienced it than I would have been had I not. If you ever get the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it.
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