Summer Schedule
... and then there was Covid.
Of course there was Covid. After two and half years of masks, social distancing, vaccines and boosters, I finally won the Covid lottery. My prize was a two week, all expense paid trip for one in my own home. And now that my vacation has come to end, I can FINALLY turn my attention to cranesketch! Thanks to all who participated in the survey. It was extremely helpful and informative. The upcoming workshops are below, including two new ones! Bring a friend and get the "Bring-A-Buddy" discount! Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible this summer and I hope you're all losers... in the Covid lottery.
Cheers,
John
Congratulations David Barnett & Glenn Kimball
David and Glenn are both cranesketch workshop writers whose work was recently recognized by two film festivals. David's short film, #finddre.wndrs was developed in a Character In Place workshop last year and features several other writers from that workshop including Andrea Behm, Nikki D'Aprix, Katie Foran-McHale, Joel Sacayanan and Phoebe Sarason. The comedy short was selected by the Los Angeles Comedy Film Festival in June. You can view it here inside the Character In Place show on the cranesketch website!
Meanwhile Glenn has written, produced and directed The Studio Assistant which will premiere at the 2022 LA Shorts International Film Festival next month. Congratulations again to these two talented writer/producers!
Summer Workshops
Tuesdays @7pm PST starting July 19 • 6 Sessions $255
If you’ve ever been to a storytelling event, you know they consist of people telling true personal stories, based on a theme. Well, what if the storytellers were sketch characters? Imagine Kristin Whig’s Penelope, or Bill Hader’s Stefon at a story telling event. How about a character you’ve been working on? In the workshop, we develop characters, write stories, and perform them as characters at a story telling event with invited guests.
Thursdays @7pm PST starting July 21 • 6 Sessions $255
A character writing workshop for writer/performers, focusing solely on creating original character sketches. Developing characters begins with breaking down and examining human behavior and ultimately heightening it for comedic affect. This writing workshop helps writer/performers explore character ideas and produce sketches that get their characters up on their feet!
Saturdays @2pm PST starting July 30 • 6 Sessions $255
Last year, SNL had open submissions for writers requesting 3- 5 sketches: 1 commercial parody, 1 topical or political sketch, and the remainder being "whatever best represents your unique abilities." This workshop is for writers who are ready to assemble a collection of sketches for submission to sketch shows, talk shows, agents or managers as well as writers looking for help getting out first drafts. In this workshop we focus on writing the topical, political and pop culture material required by shows like SNL as well as material that best reflects your own sensibilities. We look at the submission requirements for actual shows to give writers an idea of what is expected during the submission process and writers receive feedback on their material.
By Appointment Looking for in depth feedback on your sketches? Need to polish up that submission for a talk show? Have a comedy pilot you'd like to share? Contact me for One-on-One coaching sessions. For sketches, we'll have an in-depth Note Session focusing on character, structure, punch-up and formatting. For all other writing, we'll have a pre-session to determine scale, scope, schedule and fee of your project. Happy 4th of July! Looking for things to do this summer? Stefon has some ideas.
SNL Weekend Update • Stefon • Bill Hader
Update Me/Suggestion Box Got an idea for a workshop? Got a new writing gig? Got news? Let me know! jcranesketch@gmail.com www.cranesketch.com