Robert McKee

For the Maryland politician, see Robert A. McKee.

and the Story Seminar. The notable writers and actors

such as Georey Rush, Paul Haggis, Akiva Goldsman,
William Goldman, Joan Rivers, Rob Row, David Bowie,
Robert McKee (born 1941), is a creative writing instrucPresseld,
tor who is widely known for his popular Story Semi- Kirk Douglas, John Cleese, Tony Kaye, Steven
among many others have taken his seminar.[1]
nar, which he developed when he was a professor at the
University of Southern California. McKee is the author In 1990, Robert McKee was brought to New Zealand by
of a screenwriters bible called Story: Substance, Struc- the NZ Film Commission, and delivered a three-day semture, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Online, inar on screenplay and story structure in Auckland and
McKee has a blog and a writers resource website called Wellington. In the audience were Peter Jackson & Jane
Campion. The seminar had a major inuence on Jack"Storylogue".
McKees Story Seminar runs twice yearly in New York, son, who went on to write and direct Heavenly Creatures,
Los Angeles, and London, and about once yearly in other The Lord of the Rings, and King Kong.
major cities worldwide including Amsterdam, Beijing,
Mumbai, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The seminar covers
how story ts the human mind, from the philosophical to
the structural. McKees one-day Genre Seminars, often held 5 days in a row, delve into the conventions of the
Thriller, the Comedy, the Love Story, the Action Story,
and Television.

In 2000 McKee was a project consultant to major lm

and television production companies such as 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, MTV, as well as to major software rms (Microsoft, etc.), NASA, and television news departments. In addition, several companies
such as ABC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon and
Paramount regularly send their entire creative and writing
stas to his lectures.[1]

Rather than simply handling mechanical aspects of ction technique such as plot or dialogue taken individually,
McKee examines the narrative structure of a work and
what makes a story compelling or not. This could work
equally as well as an analysis of any other genre or form
of narrative, whether in screenplay or any other form, and
could also encompass nonction works as long as they attempt to tell a story.

In 2000, McKee won the 1999 International Moving Image Book Award for his book Story (Regan
Books/HyperCollins). The book, currently in its 19th
printing in the United States and its 14th printing in the
United Kingdom, has become required reading for lm
and cinema schools at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, USC and
Tulane universities.[2][3] The book was on the Los AngeAfter consulting on story-in-business for various multi- les Times best-seller list for 20 weeks. It is translated into
national companies including Microsoft, Nike, Hewlett- over 20 languages.
Packard, Time Warner, and Siemens, in the fall of 2013 McKees other credits include writing and presenting the
McKee launched a seminar for the business community in BBC series Filmworks, the Channel Four series Reel SeLos Angeles, New York, Beijing, and Malta. The True crets, the BAFTA Award-winning J'accuse Citizen Kane
Talk: Story-in-Business Seminar instructs leaders and television program which he wrote and presented, and the
managers on how to use story in strategic management, writing of Abraham, the four-hour mini-series on Turner
brand management, and business communications.
Network Television (TNT) that starred Richard Harris,
Barbara Hershey and Maximilian Schell.
McKees current lecture series includes the 4-day Story
Seminar, a 3-day Genre Seminar (covering the Love
Story, Thriller, and Comedy), and a one-day True Talk:
Story-in-Business Seminar. McKee and his team also
Robert McKee is among the most widely known screenrun an interactive paid website with daily video lessons
writing lecturers. McKees former students include 63
and Q&As called Storylogue.
Academy Award winners, 164 Emmy Award winners, 30
WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award winners and
26 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award winners
(all participated in McKees course before or after win- 2 Early life in the theater
ning their award; not all were awarded for writing). He
was proled by Bob Simon of 60 Minutes for CBS News, Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, began his theater caand CNN recently did a prole and review of McKee reer at the age of 9, playing the title role in a commu-

Life and awards

2
nity theater production of 'Martin the Shoemaker'. He
continued acting as a teenager in theater productions in
his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the
Evans scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelors degree in English Literature.
While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over
thirty productions. McKees creative writing professor
was the noted Kenneth Thorpe Rowe.
After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree, McKee
toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists)
Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway alongside
Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Will Geer. He
then received the Professional Theater Fellowship and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to earn his Masters degree in Theater Arts.
Upon graduating, McKee directed the Toledo Repertory
Company, acted with the American Drama Festival, and
became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theater.
From there he traveled to London to accept the position
of Artist-in-residence at the National Theatre where he
studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic theatre.
He then returned to New York City and spent the next
seven years as an actor/director in Broadway.

6 IN POPULAR CULTURE
of Southern California (USC), where he began oering
his famous STORY Seminar class. A year later, McKee
opened the course to the public, giving a 3-day, 30-hour
intensive class to sold-out audiences around the world.
Since 1984, more than 50,000 students have taken McKees course, at various cities around the world: Los
Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto,
Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, Auckland, Singapore, Barcelona, Stockholm, So Paulo and more. In March 2011 and again in
2012, he taught a four day seminar in Bogot, Colombia.
In February 2012 he taught another four day seminar in
the Ramoji lm city of Hyderabad in India. He did the
same in Amsterdam, March 2014.

5 Criticism

McKee has been criticized by Joe Eszterhas, for being

someone who teaches screenwriting without ever having
a script of his made into a lm,[4][5] though McKee is
credited as writer of the 1994 TV movie Abraham.[6] McKee has responded to such criticisms, saying, The world
is full of people who teach things they themselves cannot do, while admitting that even though he sold all of
his written screenplays, he still lacks their screen credit
3 Mid-life in the lm industry
since they were only optioned and not produced by the
[1]
After deciding to move his career to lm, McKee at- studios.
tended Cinema School at the University of Michigan. While McKees work might appear to be a fresh approach
While there, he directed two short lms: A Day O, to story structure, many of the ideas he discusses have
which he also wrote, and Talk To Me Like The Rain, been around since Aristotle and notably appear in the
adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. work of William Archer,[7] John Howard Lawson and
These two lms won the Cine Eagle Award, awards at the Alexander Mackendrick. Nevertheless, McKee himself
Brussels and Grenoble Film Festivals, and various prizes tells his students that Aristotle is the basis for much of
at the Delta, Rochester, Chicago and Baltimore Film Fes- what he teaches and he often distributes some of John
tivals.
Howard Lawsons writings at his seminar: he acknowlhe is inventing
In 1979, McKee moved to Los Angeles, where he be- edges his forebears and never claims that
[8]
a
brand
new
approach
to
story
telling.
Furthermore
he
gan to write screenplays and work as a story analyst for
claims
that
much
of
what
he
teaches
was
common
knowlUnited Artists and NBC. He sold his rst screenplay Dead
Files to AVCO/Embassy Films, after which he joined the edge 50 or 60 years ago, but that screenwriters have lost
WGA (Writers Guild of America). His next screenplay, touch with the fundamentals of storytelling. In a CBC inin the 1930s, 40s
Hard Knocks, won the National Screenwriting Contest, terview he said that to give his lecture
[9]
or
50s
would
have
been
ludicrous.
and since then McKee has had eight feature lm screenplays purchased or optioned, including the feature lm McKee also appears and is criticized in several works, for
script Trophy for Warner Bros. (Only one of these lms, example, Missionnaire by French author Joann Sfar.
however, was produced). In addition to his screenplays,
McKee has had a number of scripts produced for television series such as Quincy, M.E. (starring Jack Klug- 6 In popular culture
man), Columbo (starring Peter Falk), Spenser: for Hire
and Kojak (starring Telly Savalas).
In the Charlie Kaufman-penned lm Adaptation., McKees character was portrayed by the Emmy Awardwinning actor Brian Cox. In the Oscar-winning movie,
4 Starting the STORY seminar
the desperate screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played by
Nicolas Cage) reluctantly goes to McKees course, but
In 1983, as Fulbright Scholar, McKee joined the fac- then after being shaken by McKees tough-style reulty of the School of Cinema-Television at the University sponse to his claim that nothing happens in the real

3
world Kaufman asks McKee to meet in person to discuss his failure to write the lm adaptation he is working
on.

[8] Ian Parker (January 27, 2004). Robert McKee Lessons

of a screenwriting guru. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
[9] Robert McKee on The Hour with George Stroum-

boulopoulos. July 11, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2013.

Though the story depicts McKee as little more than an
amalgam of hack clichs on the subject of screen writ- [10] Robert McKee (August 10, 2013). Q&A: What did you
ing, Charlies slacker brother Donald uses the knowledge
think of the voice-over in GOODFELLAS?". Retrieved
obtained attending the famous seminar to write a spec
September 5, 2013.
script he then sells for a large amount of money through
his brothers agent. The lm then concludes rather cyn- [11] Robert McKee (August 13, 2012). A Study in Voice
Over Narration from two recent lms, SAVAGES and
ically with the very hackneyed, bang-up ending McKee
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.. Retrieved
is ridiculed for recommending, as well as a voice-over
September 5, 2013.
epilogue in whichby means of voice-over narration
Cages Kaufman character admonishes himself for dis- [12] ( " in Hebrew, rough translation
Woody Allen did increase .")"November 2, 2006. Reobeying a cardinal rule of McKees to avoid voice-over
trieved March 31, 2013.
narration.

Anecdotes

9 External links

McKee claims in his Seminars that he does not say

not to use voice-over narration. There is some truth
to the scene in Adaptation however, as he vehemently teaches that using voice-over to substitute for
telling the story via action and dialogue is weak,[10]
whereas he teaches that voice-over used to counterpoint and enrich the story can be wonderful.[11]

Robert McKees Story Seminar Ocial Web site

McKee is known to object to the French-originated

"auteur theory", which states that the director is the
de facto author of a movie. McKee states otherwise,
that the writer/screenwriter is in fact the most important creator of the movie.

McKees visit to Israel Video article by Ynet News

in this words association-style interview, McKee
relates to the following terms in the following order
(in the video, the words are composed in Hebrew
letter cubes): 1) Blank page, 2) Art of storytelling,
3) Inspiration, 4) Disappointment, 5) Thrill, 6) Mind
control, 7) America, 8) Time.

In a Haaretz article,[12] McKee was quoted as saying in front of a Tel Aviv audience that Israelis have
a rough sense of humor, completely dierent from
the known worldwide Jewish one, since Israelis are
living in a harsh reality which leads them to lose their
sense of humor.

Notes

[1] Michigan Today June 1995 interview with Brett Forrest

[2] Arts Editor article. Arts Editor article. Retrieved December 27, 2013.

Robert McKee at the Internet Movie Database

Interview with Robert McKee by The New Yorker
CNN article Advice for the aspiring
CNN article A writing gurus very own 'Story'

Screenwriting Guru by Brett Forest

Alice Cinema French article
BBC World Service How to Write (interactive
guide)
Robert McKee Lessons from a screenwriting
guru
http://www.writersinstitute.eu/
business-story-seminar [TRUE TALK: STORYin-BUSINESS Seminar Malta]

[3]

A short summary on the Screenwriters Federation

Website

[4] 'Basic Instinct' New York Times article by Joe

Queenan, September 17, 2006

What people are saying about the McKee course

an open forum

[5] " Film programme interview, 9 February 2007'".

Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved December 27, 2013.

http://www.magallanica.com Robert Mckee in

Latin America 20092011 (Mario Velasco and
Patricio Lynch).

[6] Robert McKee at the Internet Movie Database

[7] William Archer (1912). Play-making: A Manual of
Craftsmanship. Small, Maynard. Retrieved March 31,
2013.

http://www.writersinstitute.eu [International Writers Institute under the patronage of Robert McKee]

10

10
10.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Robert McKee Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20McKee?oldid=643974070 Contributors: Dreamyshade, JonMoore, Sjorford, Popageorgio, Crculver, Phil5329, Wwoods, Geni, Gene Nygaard, Dismas, Woohookitty, Robert K S, Mandarax, VolatileChemical, ThunderPeel2001, Epolk, Emersoni, Tony1, Bill shannon, Carabinieri, Thomas Blomberg, SmackBot, Portillo, John Hyams, SkyWriter, Hu12, Wallstreethotrod, Amalas, Marina T., Bobblehead, Damno52, Hadrys, Cinematical, MartinDK, ***Ria777, Waacstats,
Vanished user ty12kl89jq10, Tangerinemilk, Johnpacklambert, Vandeburgt, 88888, Cop 663, Shawn in Montreal, Naniwako, Mariocarvallo, Karims2020, Donmike10, Varnent, Drjonathanwhite, Cchooper, Mostafazizi, Proscript, Roscoegino, Martarius, Dantesque1,
Alexbot, Gtstricky, Muhandes, Roby1 2k5, DumZiBoT, XLinkBot, Addbot, Palindromia, Mamifero8888, Claymorde, Zorrobot, Luckasbot, Yobot, WikiDan61, AnomieBOT, Rubinbot, Profangelo, Materialscientist, Omnipaedista, Shadowjams, FrescoBot, OgreBot, TRBP,
RossanoAJ, RjwilmsiBot, Freezeice04, John of Reading, WikitanvirBot, GoingBatty, Surajt88, JonathanGunson, ClueBot NG, Johnnytankusthy, BG19bot, Arundhati Sarcar, VIAFbot, Luismanu, Bluedudemi, DavidBellos, Iwi-europe, Folded melon and Anonymous: 71

10.2

Images

File:Ambox_important.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:Unbalanced_scales.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Unbalanced_scales.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

10.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0