MDA Supports Seminar by Award-winning Trainer, Robert McKee

Dated: 21 January 2003

1. The Media Development Authority (MDA) is pleased to support the Robert McKee Story Seminar as part of its initiative to develop local talent in creative storytelling and scriptwriting. Mr Robert McKee is an Award-winning screenwriting trainer, and Singapore warmly welcomes him to conduct his world-renowned "Story Seminar" from 24 to 26 January 2003. This will be the scriptwriting guru's first visit to the Asia-Pacific region.

2. To be held at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Arts Theatrette from 9.30am to 8.30pm over three intense days, the Story Seminar will be touching on the principles of screenwriting and story design for the big screen, television, novels, stage and other creative works.

3. For over 15 years, the Robert McKee's Story Seminar has been the world's ultimate writing class for more than 40,000 screenwriters, filmmakers, TV writers, novelist, industry executives, actors, producers, directors and playwrights. Mr McKee's students have written or co-written award-winning films scripts, TV shows and books such as Beautiful Mind, The Lord Of The Rings, Monsters Inc and Shrek.

4. Said Mr Seto Lok Yin, Director of Industry Development, MDA, "MDA is extremely delighted that Mr Robert McKee, despite his busy schedule, could find time to conduct the Story Seminar in Singapore. This would certainly boost our effort to nurture creative talent for the media industry. A good script is key to supporting the value chain in film and TV production. This Seminar will also
be an excellent platform for the participants to gain an international perspective and hone their craft. We are excited by the response and see this as a positive step towards making Singapore into a competitive and vibrant media hub. In addition to seminars like this, MDA has more initiatives such as Masterclasses, Workshops and the MDA National Scriptwriting Competition to help the media industry. We hope the media industry will find these as good opportunities for networking, cooperation and exchanging news."