Our Story
For six years, MOVIE IN A BOX reigned as Hollywood's only one-day, comprehensive filmmaking seminar. In 2007, we revamped to become an even more streamlined, half-day intensive, but our offering remains just as revolutionary!
Our indie all-star instructors have included Miguel Arteta ("The Good Girl"), Patricia Cardoso ("Real Women Have Curves") and Scott Rosenfelt ("Smoke Signals"). They've been joined by industry heavy-hitters such as finance and bonding guru Donna Smith and Steven Friedlander (formerly Fine Line's head of marketing and distribution). And our "Resource Room" regulars include Kodak, Panavision, Mole-Richardson and more.
In 1995, seminar founder Donna Michelle Anderson was a story analyst for a major Hollywood production company when she first developed her 1-3-5 System of story structure for screenplays. Within a year, she was teaching the popular system to students at the prestigious UCLA Extension Writing Program, then to private students across country and ultimately via her popular screenwriting book "The 1-3-5 Story Structure Made Simple System: The Nine Essential Elements of a Sellable Screenplay." In 2002, the 1-3-5 system helped revolutionize the fragmented world of filmmaking seminars—as the backbone of MOVIE IN A BOX.
Until MOVIE IN A BOX, filmmakers had to invest considerable time and money taking individual courses in screenwriting, directing and producing. Advanced guidance on funding, marketing and distribution was left up to you! MOVIE IN A BOX created an overview that took yet another leap—gathering filmmakers in the room with the hit indie stars who inspired them, to learn just how those hits were made.
The final touch? One quick question: how much did the Napoleon Dynamite team pay for to rent the cameras that shot their cult hit? You would if you met the vendor who rented it to them (hint: it was Panavision—and what a deal!). And you will, thanks to MOVIE IN A BOX's trademark "Resource Room"! That's our panel of industry reps and vendors whose cards and numbers you need to make ANY movie.
With all our courses, the limited enrollment of each MOVIE IN A BOX seminar offers students direct access to the working filmmakers who actually teach the course. And with different filmmakers teaching from different films every seminar, students can return for a new course experience each time.
MOVIE IN A BOX isn't competing with the existing seminars in the movie industry—we just invented a whole new category.