Private, interactive lab on Zoom with Hollywood Story Editor Christopher Lockhart (WME, 60,000+ scripts read)

Get Two One-on-One Story Consultations Plus a Downloadable Sample Outline

Limited spots available so every writer gets personal attention!

Payment plans available at checkout or email edu@stage32.com for more info!

Every screenplay you'll ever write starts as an idea — and that idea determines everything that comes after it. Before you spend six months, a year, or longer writing pages, you need to know whether the idea underneath them can actually carry a feature film. Get this step right, and you save yourself from the frustration of chasing pages that were never going to work. Get it wrong, and you might not find out until you're 90 pages deep.

You already know the feeling: you've got an idea you're excited about, but something isn't quite clicking. Maybe it's interesting, but it isn't cinematic. Maybe there's a great scene in there, but no real character, conflict, or emotional engine to sustain a full script. You've probably sat with an idea that felt promising on the surface but thin underneath, and you've probably wondered whether the problem was the idea itself or just how you were writing it. This lab is built to help you answer that question early, before you're too far in to see it clearly.

You'll be working directly with Christopher Lockhart, widely regarded as Hollywood's foremost story professional, with 40 years of industry experience as an executive, filmmaker, and educator. As Story Editor at WME, the world's largest diversified talent agency, Chris curates film and TV projects for A-list actors such as Denzel Washington, and he's read over 60,000 screenplays over the course of his career. He got his start at ICM as script consultant to legendary agent Ed Limato, who represented stars like Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, and Robert Downey Jr., before moving on to William Morris and then WME. Chris has also produced films including the cult hit THE COLLECTOR and its sequel, and the Oprah-acquired documentary MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS, and he's taught screenwriting everywhere from National University's MFA program to writers' retreats in Switzerland, South Africa, and Scotland. Few people alive have evaluated more scripts, or understand more precisely why some ideas work and others don't.

Over six weeks, you'll bring several potential screenplay ideas to the table and learn to tell the difference between what's merely interesting and what's genuinely cinematic. You'll get two one-on-one sessions with Chris to stress-test your strongest idea, then build it out through character, conflict, structure, stakes, and emotion until it holds up as a real dramatic engine. By the end of the lab, you won't just have a concept — you'll walk away with a complete structural outline, ready to serve as the foundation for your next draft. Spots for the one-on-one sessions are limited, so if you're ready to stop guessing and start building, this is the room to do it in.

This interactive Stage 32 lab is held on Zoom and goes substantially more in depth than a Stage 32 webinar. Best of all? As soon as you sign up you will be linked on email with your Stage 32 Educator and given a questionnaire to fill out and send back to them. You will have access to your Educator for the duration of your class by email to ask them any questions you have about your craft or career - it’s like having a mentor on demand! And, if you can't make a live session, don't worry! All class recordings will be available 48 hours after each session and you will be able to view them in your Library on your Stage 32 profile. Finally, you can expand your network with like-minded creatives - you'll have a dedicated lounge for interactive support and discussions with your fellow classmates!

Praise for Christopher's previous Stage 32 Teaching:

"Very informative. Clarified a lot of questions I've always had regarding loglines. Well worth the money." -- Emmit R.

"It was very informative and insightful." -- Mays S.

"Chris was clear, concise, helpful, and focused. Loved his enthusiasm and humor."  -- Lori H.

WEEK #1 – What Makes an Idea a Movie?

• Why most scripts die at the idea stage

• The difference between an interesting idea and a dramatic ideas

• Testing ideas for character, conflict, stakes, structure, and emotion

• Identifying ideas that should be scrapped, reimagined, or saved for another form

• How to look at your own material with more objectivity

• Q and A with Chris

Assignment: Bring 3-5 potential screenplay ideas. Write a logline for each idea and why you think it could be a movie.

WEEK #2 – One-on-One Idea Consultations

• Individual story sessions with the instructor

• Review each writer’s strongest potential ideas

• Identify which ideas have the clearest dramatic and cinematic potential

• Discuss the story engine, what may be missing, what may be too thin, and what may need to be reimagined

• Choose the idea each writer will develop for the rest of the course

Assignment: Revise your chosen idea into a clear working premise. Be prepared to discuss the protagonist, central conflict, stakes, and emotional engine.

WEEK #3 – Building the Character Engine

• Defining the protagonist’s want, need, wound, flaw, and arc

• Building a story around character pressure, not just plot events

• Creating meaningful opposition

• Understanding why the story matters emotionally

• Making sure the main character can carry a feature screenplay

• Q and A with Chris

Assignment: Write a one-page character breakdown for your protagonist and a short paragraph describing the central emotional journey of the story.

WEEK #4 – Building the Story Structure

• Turning the idea into a dramatic spine

• Act I: setup, major dramatic question

• Act II: Rising action, midpoint, low point. 

• Act III: climax, resolution, and emotional payoff

• Avoiding a story that feels episodic, passive, or underbuilt

• Q and A with Chris

Assignment: Create a rough three-act story map. Identify the major turning points, the midpoint, the low point, the climax, and the resolution.

WEEK #5 – One-on-One Story Consultations

• Individual story sessions with the instructor

• Review each writer’s character work and three-act story map

• Identify structural weaknesses, missing stakes, thin conflict, or unclear emotional movement

• Refine the story’s major turns and dramatic progression

• Clarify what still needs to be solved before writing pages

Assignment: Revise your story map based on feedback. Expand it into a more detailed structural outline.

WEEK #6 – Story Workshop / Final Development Pass

• Each writer presents their developed screenplay idea to the class

• Group feedback on what is clear, compelling, confusing, or underdeveloped

• Identifying the biggest remaining story challenges before pages begin

• Sharpening the protagonist, conflict, stakes, structure, and emotional payoff

• Final advice on turning the developed idea into a practical outline for the screenplay

• Q and A with Chris

Assignment: Complete your structural outline and use the feedback from class to strengthen the story before beginning the first draft.

• Screenwriters of all levels who have an idea for a feature but aren't sure if it's strong enough to sustain a full script.
• Writers who have started (or abandoned) multiple drafts and want to understand where the story broke down before it happened.
• Writers who are sitting on several potential ideas and need help identifying which one has the most dramatic and cinematic potential.
• Screenwriters who want hands-on, one-on-one feedback to pressure-test their concept before committing months to the page.

Praise for Christopher's previous Stage 32 Teaching:

"Very informative. Clarified a lot of questions I've always had regarding loglines. Well worth the money." -- Emmit R.

"It was very informative and insightful." -- Mays S.

"Chris was clear, concise, helpful, and focused. Loved his enthusiasm and humor."  -- Lori H.