• Lectures and personal tutoring by acclaimed Hollywood teachers

• In-depth studies of concept and character development

• Tools and techniques that enhance the narrative and boost your efficiency

• Building your platform as a professional screenwriter

• Promote and pitch your script and ideas using professional sales argumentation

• Three multi-day meetings – where course management, students and teachers convene for workshops and seminars

Story MasterClass is held entirely in English. The course utilizes digital communication platforms such as Zoom, Dropbox, Slack and Skype.

Concept Development

•  Build powerful stories using Hollywood dramas.

Narration

•  Build a powerful story with writing techniques developed by Hollywood's top dramatists and taught at world leading film schools USC and UCLA.

• Create themes, living characters and dramaturgical structures that can affect a universal audience.

Screenwriting

•  Create memorable, visually strong and dramatic scenes.

•  Write to reach the one to judge your script.

• Practical techniques for building the various parts of your story.

Promotion and Pitch

•  Presentation and argumentation techniques developed by professionals.

•  Feedback from fellow course participants and active professional film producers

•  How to build your platform as a professional screenwriter

•  Practice and perfect your professional pitch

Subtext

Learn to communicate subtly through subtitles — what isn’t said or visible.

Midpoint

Learn the importance of a strong midpoint in the story

Point of view

Get unique knowledge in how you can work with the so called POV (point of view) both in telling and in the actual script and how you change POV without losing the interest of the viewer or the reader who is judging your script.

Scene Writing

Learn how you can construct the structure for powerful scenes and good transitions between them.

Dialogue

Learn theories how to create unique voice for your character, that also communicate the theme effectively.

Characters

Learn how to create unforgettable characters and how you get them to convey themes from different perspectives.

Structure

Learn several theories to structure an organic plot, in which the character/characters act out of the plot and their own role as well as personality in it.

Theme

Learn different ways to make the theme or underlying issue of the story become visible.

Action vs event

Gain tools to create active characters and the motives that they base their actions on.

Format & Style

A badly written script won’t be read by professional producers. Learn to write like a professional—and give the producer reading your script a fantastic experience so that your script can be realised!

Act 2

Most stories fail in the key part known as ‘act 2’ and which the course will teach you everything about.

The World

Get an understanding of the importance of creating a unique world for the story so that the themes of the film may be conveyed. 

3-year upper secondary school, senior high school or equivalent Work sample, personal letter & interview.

About admissions and study assessments

Read more

Tuition at the folk high school is free. The costs for literature, travel, consumables, digital platforms and technology are paid by you as a student. At Story MasterClass, the cost is SEK 5,000 / academic year.

Under COSTS you can read more about different costs paid by students at the folk high school.

You are eligible to apply if you meet the following requirements:

• You have professional experience in screenwriting and dramaturgy.

• Have written scripts for short, feature films and/or drama series.

These documents should be submitted to the application

Birth certificate
(no more than 3 months old)

Grades
Grades from previous educations.
Attach as a PDF.

Emplyer’s certificate
Attach as a PDF.

Letter(s) of recommendation.
Attach as a PDF.

Personal letter

A letter in which you describe yourself. You are free to express yourself in what way you want but the letter has to contain:

Who you are and why you make an application to the education.

Your experiences when it comes to writing screenplays

A preview on where you see your self career wise in 5 years from now.

The personal letter should be no more than one page long.

Work samples

All work samples are to be written in English.

• 2 feature film concepts, each not more than one page. Both concepts should have one scene, correctly formatted, attached that is not more than 2 pages,

• 2 drama-series concepts, each not more than one page. Both concepts should have one scene, correctly formatted, attached that is not more than 2 pages,

Compile all work samples in one single PDF document with numbered pages.

Please write your full name on the front page of the document.

We apply a continuous admission and you can be called for an interview in person or by phone even before the application period ends.

Notification of admission is ongoing but must have reached everyone by the end of June, with the exception of residual places that can be offered until the start of the course.

Arvid Unsgaard
Tel. 070-438 09 26Den här e-postadressen skyddas mot spambots. Du måste tillåta JavaScript för att se den.

Arvid has built up and is the creator of Story Academy on Gotland. Arvid has worked with films for over 25 years and on a number of scripting projects, for example, for the Swedish film industry. Arvid Unsgaard's films have been acclaimed in the media, and had won a number of international awards. 

Lecturers and Instructors

Paolo Vacirca

Instructor in commercial screenwriting

Paolo Vacirca works as screenwriter. He has worked as development manager at AB Svensk Filmindustri. Paolo has written a lot of scripts on assignments. He has, for example, written the script The Hypnotist, who Lasse Hallström directed.

Karel Segers

Instructor in Storytelling techniques

Karel Segers is a story consultant, writer and producer. Karel is also a certified teacher whose lectures have inspired students all over the world. His clients include award-winning filmmakers, of which three Oscar-nominees. Karel ranks among the world's most influential people for screenwriting on social media.

Soni Jörgensen

Lecturer in storytelling

Soni Jörgensen is a Swedish screenwriter working for producers in the US, Europe and Sweden. She received her training at the USC Graduate Screenwriting Program. Soni has worked with producers like Karen & Howard Baldwin (Academy Award winners for "Ray") Andreas Bareiss (Academy Award winner for "Nowhere in Africa") and the director Danis Tanovic (Academy Award winner for "No Man's Land").

Michael Hauge

Lecturer/ instructor in storytelling

Michael Hauge has been one of Hollywood's premier Story consultant since 1985. He has worked with numerous screenwriters, writers and filmmakers. He has consulted projects with Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman. He is also the author of the best-selling "How to pitch in 60 seconds" and "How to write a screenplay that sells"

Steve Mazur

Instructor in writing feature

Mazur has taught screenwriting for the past 10 years, including four years at AFI and five years with the Professional Writing Program at USC. He's written or co-written scripts for Universal, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., MGM, Imagine, Paramount, Sony, CBS, A&E, Spike TV, and Disney, including  LIAR, LIAR and latest "The Philosophy of Phil"

Karl Iglesias

Instructor in "writing for emotional impact"

Karl Iglesias is a screenwriter and sought-after script doctor and consultant, specializing in the reader's emotional response to the written page. He is the best-selling author of Writing For Emotional Impact and The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters. He teaches at UCLA Extension’s Writers' Program, where he’s won the Outstanding Instructor Award for 2010.

Instructor in TV-Writing

Erik Bork is a screenwriter, producer, script consultant, and blogger best known for his work onthe HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (TV miniseries) and From the Earth to the Moon, for which he wrote multiple episodes, and won two Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards. Bork has sold series pitches (and written pilots) at NBC and FOX, worked on the writing staff for two primetime dramas, and written feature screenplays on assignment for companies including Universal Studios, HBO, TNT and Playtone.

Paul Gulino

Instructor in writing a feature 

Honing his own skills through writing for the theater and practicing the craft as taught by Frank Daniel and Milos Forman, Screenwriting, he says, isn't a craft you can learn from a book. "The best way is to learn from someone who knows the craft, so you can see how theories can be applied to your own work." 

William Rabkin

Instructor in TV-Writing

Veteran TV writer/showrunner, William Rabkin is the author of the best-selling Writing the Pilot and Writing the Pilot: Creating the Series. He is an associate professor of television writing. Twice nominated for the Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America, he is currently developing and writing a 12-episode thriller for Chinese television and consulting for a major Dutch production company.

Joel Thompson

Instructor in TV writing

MFA, television writer, and WGA member whose writing credits include House MD, Boomtown, Battlestar Galactica, and Falling Skies. Mr. Thompson was a former story analyst for Icon Pictures, Village Roadshow, and John Wells Productions. He has also sold pitches to various networks including CBS, HBO Films, and Stage 9 Productions (Disney), and is a contributing author to Inside the Room (Gotham Books/Penguin).

Iris Yamashita

Lecturer/ Instructor for features 

A few hours a week we have optional classes. Such as choir practice, ethics, book circle or a knitting café. It varies from year to year. There are plenty of opportunities for exercise and work out of various kinds, either at school or in the neighborhood. Examples are gym passes, ball games, swimming and gym. Sometimes the whole class or the whole school goes to joint concerts, exhibitions, theater performances and lectures.