Sherri Sheridan DVD course on sw ?

[Randall_Oelerich]

I bought this complete course,

Microbudget Digital Filmmaking
Writing a Great Script Fast
hosted by Sherri Sheridan
20 Hour DVD Workshop
​

wondering if anybody here has it, has viewed it, if it gets any better than the first DVD because I just watched some of the first DVD, and I have to say I found it to be rather lame.

Does it get any better, more involved with content depth, are visuals used that actually enhance the audio in terms of instruction? If not I am thinking I should give it to my friend or sell it on ebay, etc. But if it truly gets better I will give another disc in the 3-ring binder a try.
randall

 

[Sherri Sheridan]

Hi Randall - How is the workshop going now? Are you passed the first DVD yet? I had no idea you thought it was "lame!" Everyone else I sold one to seems to love it since I have had no returns or complaints. I offer a full refund within the first month if you return it to me but would be happy to refund yours since I just found out about it. No one has asked for one yet and I have sold 100's all over the world. You would be the first refund! I'd rather you keep going and just try going through the steps and see what happens. You will be amazed at how your story magically falls into place as you discover a whole new world for writing structure.

The first DVD is a bit of an introduction that may seem a little repetitive if you have watched the online films. Keep in mind that this 20 hour workshop covers the top 20 screenwriting film and animation books for telling a visual story, so it does pick up the speed very fast after the intro. I hope I do rant too much since the workshop use to be over 28 hours in length and I had to edit it down to around 20 so lots of things were cut. Sometimes I repeat myself since all the techniques start to link up at key moments and are new to lots of people. The more you hear something the more you will remember it later. It is hard to listen to anyone talk for 20 hours so take lots of breaks. You will start to see all the techniques I am talking about in every story or film you see.

The "bad LSD graphics" (Edit - quotes referred to an earlier version of Randall's first post) in the background usually relate to the subject I am talking about in some way. These are created using Maya and After FX. Our main company Minds Eye Media is one of the top 3D VJ companies in the world. We do things like Elton John's birthday party at Madison Square Garden that was broadcast on TV and lots of music tour backgrounds for major recoding artists. People know us by our trippy 3D animated DVDs. We have 30 new ones coming out soon! So yes these ended up in the background in places. Most younger people like them but some prefer more static screens.

This is a screenwriting course so some parts are more visual than others. For instance, all the different plot point types need graphs to see what is happening. There are lots of sections on metaphors and symbols that work great visually. Screenwriting is visual storytelling so it makes more sense to have a visual class for most parts. I wanted to make it fun and not too boring. Most video classes feature a guy in front of a whiteboard talking.

Anyhow let me know how your script is going. I am using this same process right now to do my first 3D feature film and I would be lost without it - and I know what I am doing. Stay with it and keep going and you will reach a new level in your visual storytelling. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or concerns at any time.

Take comfort in the thought that the entire country of China is now using this same writing process in all their schools and animation companies as the new main story course after my recent teaching tour. Top screenwriters in LA (that would prefer not to be named) love it too and say it makes things much easier to organize and develop. Entire school systems are looking at ways to integrate this class. And a couple 100 other people from all over the world have found it to be like the Holy Grail for writing. So please give it a chance and let me know how it is going. It only works if you answer the questions at each step and write a great script fast while learning 1000's of ways to do it. Push through any blocks and you will come out a better writer.

Good luck with your story and keep in touch!

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Sherri, I would love to get a refund or even a partial refund. I have only watched the first DVD, but judging by some information I got from another screenwriter I would prefer to send it back to you, or if that is not possible to sell it on ebay. It is in mint condition, including the original 3-ring binder, the several inches of printed material (never used), all the discs (only the first disc was removed, once, played for a short time. I can drop you a private message, or drop me a private message (PM/IM).

Perhaps the course (DVD workshop) is great for some, it just seems way too basic for my needs, and the background visuals are very distracting for my personal choice.

EDIT: Update -- Sherri gave me a partial refund via PayPal after I shipped the DVD workshop back to her. Thank you Sherri!

 

[Sherri Sheridan]

The reason I do not deal with refunds requests very often (this is the first one after selling several hundred) is because there are over 30+ free YouTube sample videos from my workshop posted on both MindsEyeMedia.com and MyFlik.com for people to check out before buying it. There is also a sample workbook you can download to try out the process. The free YouTube video samples total about 3 hours from the 20 hours workshop, so you get a pretty good chance to see what you are buying. There is also a detailed table of contents listing what is covered on each of the 19 DVD parts. Most people have a pretty good idea of what they are getting and if the workshop is going to work for them. Some people do not like my voice or teaching style or the visual style of the colors and graphics and can tell right away that watching 20 hours of the same would be challenging.

Randall and I talked about things and his main issue seems to be that he does not like the way my head floats over the graphics and finds the background graphics distracting. He said he loved my book "Developing Digital Short Films" and thinks it is one of the best digital preproduction books he has ever read and that many people on this forum feel the same way.

When I asked Randall what about the workshop seemed too basic for his needs, and what topics he wanted covered that were not, and if there was another class he thought did a better job, he said it was more of stylistic thing and that he did not like the floating head. So I agreed to give Randall a refund minus a restocking fee for the cost of making the workshop since I do not want to sell a used one. There is a group of old veterans in NY who meet every day at their hospital and go through the book Developing Digital Short Films and are making a movie who have been saving up to buy the workshop. I am going to send Randall's to them as a free gift since I love the idea of a bunch of old war buddies making a film together.

Thanks Randall for trying out the workshop!

As for future refunds there will need to be a really good reason since so much is presented for free online. Randall did say he would recommend the workshop to others but it was not for him. If you read the book Developing Digital Short Films and really got it, Writing A Great Script Fast may seem a little repetitive at first, but give it a chance it gets deep fast and does have a lot of new material. This new writing process was created by me to use on my own scripts as a fast development tool that worked so well it became a DVD class.

I will soon be posting about 20 new YouTube videos on my MyFlik1 channel from the workshop and MyFlik.com's free online film school is getting ready to go up soon with lots of new articles and parts from the book and new videos from the workshop. The same day I found out about this post, someone on YouTube posted on Step 2 "this is the greatest screenwriting class online that I have ever seen and I have tried all of them." Lots of people feel that way just look at the comments on the 30 YouTube videos. There is no other screenwriting class that I know of that covers as much as I do.

I think it is hard to listen to anyone talk about anything for 20 hours. But when I made this workshop I thought about some kid or adult who really wanted to make a great no budget film and could not afford to go to film school or went to film school and did not learn much about visual storytelling. I thought of what it would be like for me to watch and listen to this course as a 16 year old budding writer and filmmaker. And I saw that it would be like the Holy Grail for story structure and visual storytelling using digital filmmaking. It would crack open the mystery of writing that takes many people a lifetime to learn. And if the student could watch the 19 DVDs and answer the questions in their workbook, they would then know more about Writing A Great Script Fast than 99% of the other people doing it.

This 20 hour DVD workshop with a 350 page printed workbook in a 3 ring binder also only costs about $199 if you catch one of the many sales on my websites. To buy it in pieces on Amazon costs about $420. The graduate 3D story class I use to teach at the animation school costs $2500. Each of Michael Dugan's (USC graduate and co-author of part one in DDSF) four screenwriting classes costs about $400 each and are all covered in my workshop. To buy the 20 books I cover in the workshop costs about another $500. Film school can easily cost about $35,000 a year. So it is good deal cost wise and you will not find a better one for learning about screenwriting. If you cannot afford the $199 for my workshop, you can always get the DDSF book and the Writing a Great Script Fast Workbook on Amazon.com for about $50 - and still be way ahead of the rest of the writing crowd.

So I am going to get back to making my first 3D feature film now! Avatar was very inspiring and I am really thinking about visual storytelling using 3D in new ways after seeing that ground breaking film. I do not want to do anything else it is so fun. And I using the same workshop I am talking about here to create my story.

Good luck to all of you out there who are writing scripts and making films! And thanks again Randall for trying out the workshop.