screenplay lab

Our lab approach

Go deeper. Take risks. Find the film only you can make.

The I AM CINEMA Screenplay Lab is a development program for writers working on short and feature-length screenplays who want to go deeper into their work, strengthen their personal voice, and explore the possibilities of cinematic storytelling.

There are many ways to make a screenplay “work.” This lab is interested in something more difficult and more personal: What makes this screenplay yours?

Through a series of one-on-one development sessions, writers will work closely with an I Am Cinema mentor to examine not only story, character, and structure, but the deeper intentions behind their work. Together, we will uncover what the writer is truly trying to explore, identify where their individual perspective is strongest, and look for opportunities to bring more of that perspective onto the page.

Rather than pushing screenplays toward formula, convention, or perceived market expectations, the lab encourages writers to move in the opposite direction: toward specificity, curiosity, artistic risk, and a clearer understanding of their own voice.

The goal isn't to make your screenplay more conventional.

It's to make it more specific, personal, cinematic, and unmistakably yours.

A screenplay is not simply a story written in script format. It is the blueprint for an audiovisual experience.

A central focus of the lab is helping writers think beyond dialogue and plot and consider the full expressive language of cinema.

Throughout the process, we will continually return to one essential question:

What can cinema do here that another medium cannot?

WRITING FOR THE MEDIUM

Before we begin changing the screenplay, we begin with the writer.

Why this story? Why these characters? What draws you to this world? What questions are you wrestling with through the work? What experiences, fears, contradictions, memories, obsessions, images, and ideas are underneath it?

Sometimes the most compelling part of a film is something the writer understands deeply but has not yet allowed fully into the screenplay.

The lab creates space to find it.

The goal is not simply to leave with a stronger screenplay. It is to leave with a stronger understanding of who you are as a cinematic artist and what you want your work to say.

FINDING YOUR VOICE

Although screenplay development happens one-on-one, writers will move through the program as a cohort.

Throughout the lab, participants will come together for gatherings focused not on giving one another script notes, but on building meaningful creative relationships.

Sessions will explore how to talk about your work, develop authentic professional relationships, identify potential collaborators, build a creative ecosystem, make meaningful introductions, and approach networking as community-building rather than transaction.

Films ultimately emerge through collaboration. Part of becoming a cinematic artist is learning how to find the people with whom you can build something meaningful.

THE cohort

LEAVE WITH MORE THAN A SCREENPLAY

At the conclusion of the lab, writers will leave with a revised screenplay as well as a clearer understanding of their artistic voice, cinematic language, and intentions for the film.

They will also create an Artistic Compass identifying what the film is really about, why they are making it, what makes their perspective specific, how the film communicates cinematically, and what elements should be protected as the project moves toward collaboration and production.

Because development shouldn't erase what makes a film singular. It should help reveal it.

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

apply here