distillation

a short screenplay lab

Find what is essential. Make every moment count.

Short films require writers to distill an idea, emotion, or experience to its most essential cinematic form.

DISTILLATION is for writers with a completed short screenplay under 30 pages who want to dig deeper into what makes their film personal, intentional, and distinctly cinematic.

This isn't about applying a formula or simply “fixing” a script. It's about discovering what is most alive within the work and making sure every element serves the film you actually want to make.

Writers enter the lab with a completed draft and participate in three one-on-one development sessions, with dedicated rewriting time between meetings.

Each writer’s process will be different because each screenplay is different. Rather than applying a predetermined set of rules, the sessions respond to the individual work and the writer’s own creative intentions.

the process

VOICE
What feels particular to you? Where does the screenplay feel most personal, specific, surprising, or alive?

INTENTION
What is the film really trying to explore? What do you want the audience to experience, question, notice, or carry with them?

DISTILLATION
What is essential to the film? What can be stripped away, compressed, sharpened, or allowed to remain unresolved?

CINEMATIC EXPRESSION
Where can image, sound, performance, rhythm, space, silence, or juxtaposition do work that dialogue or exposition is currently doing?

FORM
Does the screenplay's structure and cinematic language grow naturally from the film itself rather than from expectations of what a short film is supposed to be?

together, we may explore:

The goal is not simply a cleaner draft.

It is a screenplay that feels more intentional, more cinematic, and more unmistakably yours.

THREE SESSIONS. THREE STAGES.

01 — DISCOVER
Identify the film's central intention, personal voice, and what is most alive in the existing screenplay.

02 — DISTILL
Return after rewriting to examine what can be deepened, sharpened, removed, or expressed more cinematically.

03 — REFINE
Bring the elements together into a screenplay that feels focused, intentional, and ready for its next stage.

ONE-ON-ONE DEVELOPMENT + COHORT COMMUNITY

Writing may happen alone. Cinema doesn't.

Alongside individual development, participants gather as a cohort for conversations centered on creative practice, community, collaboration, and navigating life as a filmmaker.

These are not group critique sessions. Your screenplay development remains one-on-one.

The cohort is about something different: finding fellow filmmakers, exchanging ideas and experiences, and building relationships that can continue long after the lab ends.

who should apply

Writers and writer-directors with a completed short screenplay under 30 pages who are open to questioning their work, taking creative risks, and discovering how their personal voice can be expressed through the language of cinema.

Come with a screenplay.
Leave with a film that feels more unmistakably yours.

Your Questions, Answered

  • The lab is for writers with a completed draft of a short or feature screenplay who are ready to dig deeper into their work. Writers at different stages of their careers are welcome. What matters most is curiosity, openness to revision, and a desire to develop a more personal and cinematic approach to storytelling.

  • Our focus isn't on pushing scripts toward formula, convention, or perceived market expectations. We work with writers to uncover what is specific to their voice, clarify what they are trying to express, and explore how the tools of cinema can communicate those ideas through image, sound, behavior, rhythm, silence, perspective, and more.

  • Not exactly.

    We aren't teaching a single method for how screenplays should be written. The lab is an individualized development process centered around your screenplay, your intentions, and your voice.

  • Absolutely. Those elements are part of the process, but we examine them in relationship to the film you're trying to make rather than applying a predetermined formula.

  • Writers enter with a completed screenplay and participate in a series of one-on-one development sessions, with time for rewriting between meetings.

    Short screenplay participants receive three individual sessions; feature screenplay participants receive six.

  • Sessions are conversations about your screenplay, your intentions, and the possibilities within the work. We may examine character, structure, individual scenes, dialogue, visual storytelling, sound, point of view, rhythm, or larger questions about what the film is trying to express. Each session will respond to the needs of the individual screenplay rather than following a rigid notes template.

  • No. Script development takes place privately in one-on-one sessions. Cohort gatherings are designed for community-building, conversation, and professional relationship-building rather than group script notes.

  • Yes. While development is individual, community is an important part of the program. Our goal is for writers to leave knowing not only more about their own work, but also a group of fellow cinematic artists.

  • Yes. Because the lab is centered around developing an existing screenplay, applicants should have a complete draft when they apply.

    It doesn't need to be polished. In fact, a screenplay with room to explore and evolve may be particularly well suited to the lab.

    • Application

    • Screenplay

    • Link to previous work

  • Applications are considered based on the screenplay, the writer's connection to the material, the potential for meaningful development through the lab, and alignment with the spirit of I Am Cinema. We're not looking for scripts that already feel "finished." We're looking for writers ready to explore.

  • Absolutely, but both writers must attend lab sessions together.

    The same goes for writer and director teams.

  • No. Your screenplay and all rights to your work remain entirely yours. Participation in the I Am Cinema Writers Lab does not give I Am Cinema any ownership interest in your project.

  • Sessions will take place online or in person, if able.

  • Short Screenplay Lab Fees:

    $495 (special 1st year cohort pricing $395), which includes:

    • (3) two hour individual development sessions

    • (3) cohort mixers

    • Final Artistic Compass

    • I Am Cinema Writers Lab alumni community

    Feature Screenplay Lab Fees:

    $995 (special 1st cohort pricing $795), which includes:

    • (6) two hour individual development sessions

    • Full initial screenplay read

    • Targeted reading of revisions between sessions

    • Creative exercises/prompts as appropriate

    • (6) Cohort networking gatherings

    • Final Artistic Compass

    • I Am Cinema Writers Lab alumni community

  • We're looking for writers who are curious about their own work. Writers willing to question easy choices, move beyond convention, take artistic risks, and look more closely at why they're telling this particular story. You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what your voice is. Discovering more of it is part of the work.

  • We don’t want financial hardship to be a barrier for anyone.

    As available, for each session we will offer one or two supported and/or fellowship spots per cohort, funded by donors specifically interested in artist development.

    Standard Tuition: $995
    Supported Tuition: $695
    Full Fellowship: $0