In The Beginning…

Speaker: Corey Mandell
Date: Saturday, June 23
Time: 11:15am – 12:45pm
Venue: TIFF Cinema 1

The opening is the most important part of the script. It must fully grab the reader’s attention, compelling them to absolutely want to keep reading in order to have any chance of success. Come learn a powerful technique for successfully starting your scripts that was used in such projects as BREAKING BAD, ATLANTA, SEINFELD, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, GAME OF THRONES, COMMUNITY, WALKING DEAD, THE OFFICE, STRANGER THINGS, THE HANDMAID’S TALE, PULP FICTION, MOONLIGHT, AMERICAN BEAUTY, KING’S SPEECH, as well as countless others.

Corey Mandell

Corey Mandell is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who has written projects for Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Petersen, Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Family, Working Title, Paramount, Live Planet, Beacon Films, Touchstone, Trilogy, Radiant, Kopelson Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures. Corey is also a distinguished instructor at UCLA, where he earned his MFA. He is also a teacher and mentor for Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab. His students have gone on to sell or option scripts to Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Disney, Fox, Fox 2000, MGM, Universal, Showtime, FX, USA Network, AMC, MTV and HBO. Others have been staffed on such shows as COMMUNITY, JUSTIFIED, BONES,THE MENTALIST, THE FOSTERS, YOUNG AND HUNGRY, PLAYING HOUSE and TREME.