Any aspiring screenwriters out there now have the opportunity to digitally study under the tutelage of one of the masters of complex dialogue:Aaron Sorkin. The MasterClass program, established byDavid RogierandAaron Rasmussenas a series of online classes featuring world-renowned instructors, announced today that the writer ofSteve JobsandThe Newsroomhas joined the faculty.
Sorkin’s online MasterClass will commence this summer, and pre-enrollment (including a $90 fee) is open onthe program’s website. The course will include 25 video lessons, a workbook, and interactive assignments. According to the description:
The class will cover topics including dialogue, character development, story pacing, plot, and Sorkin’s process. To demonstrate his process, in a portion of the class, Sorkin will lead a writers’ room to work on a new episode of “THE WEST WING.” He will also share practical advice he’s learned, using examples from his own work in films including A FEW GOOD MEN, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, MONEYBALL, and STEVE JOBS and television shows “THE WEST WING” and “THE NEWSROOM.”
Sorkin is not everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s no denying he has a distinct voice, something thatAmy Schumerperfectly mocked inher “The Foodroom” sketch. “One day I was stuffing couscous into a calzone and I realized a woman’s life is worth nothing unless she’s making a great man greater,” she says before joiningJosh Charlesin a classic Sorkin-esque walking-and-talking sequence. Perhaps I’m still a bit sore fromThe Newsroom, in which his holier-than-thou characters consistently bashed the digital age of journalism. The future is now!
Kate Winslettold usduring theSteve Jobspress junket about her experience maneuvering through chunks of dialogue, describing one particular scene that lasted for nine-and-a-half minutes: “Okay, there’ll be no nights of heavy drinking for us on this film,” she recalled.
Watch Sorkin talk about screenwriting (and himself) in the trailer for his MasterClass:
