Screenwriting lessons for feature films, tv pilots, spec scripts, shorts etc. Any experience and any genre welcome!

Learn more about Levi

• 1) When did you start practicing? How did this passion find you?

  I've always been a massive fan of movies and television (storytelling in general), but I never knew that my love for it was abnormal until I was in college and a friend was telling me that he watches between 10-15 movies in any given year. This absolutely blew my mind… I watched a movie a DAY. I thought that everyone watched as much content as I did and was really surprised to learn otherwise. I was a competitive snowboarder and when I retired from that (at age 20), I decided to pursue the one thing I loved more than snowboarding - movies. So I went to undergrad for screenwriting and then immediately after I got an MFA in filmmaking from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. I still watch between 350-500 movies per year and the passion has only gotten stronger as I've come to understand what makes a movie great and the intricacies of great storytelling.

• 2) Which artists or works affect you the most?

  The movie that made me fall in love with movies is Good Will Hunting. I saw it as a kid and had no idea that stories could make me feel the way that movie made me feel. Since then there have been hundreds of movies that have affected me, but the connective tissue between each of them is strong storytelling with even stronger characters.

• 3) What are the qualities and skills required to succeed in this area?

  Storytelling can be learned as long as you're willing to watch everything you can, read everything you can and commit to understanding the "rules" of storytelling so that you can eventually use them or even break them in order to tell a great story.

• 4) What is the most valuable advice you can give to help someone stay focused on creative projects?

  Find the process that works for you. If you ask 10 writers what their processes are, you're going to get 10 completely different answers. It took me a long time to find what works for me, but now I'm able to hone in on a project and use my process to jump around and chip away at the parts that make the most sense for me at the time. My process allows for nonlinearity in my writing which, I've found, is essential to me being able to take a project from start to finish without getting burned out or unfocused.

• 5) How would you describe your passion; how does it make you feel?

  Watching movies hopefully makes me feel the way that the writer/filmmaker intended. Storytelling is all about eliciting emotion, so a story is successful if it makes me feel. A sad movie should make me feel sad, a comedy should make me laugh, a romance should make me feel hopeful or even yearning. There's a catharsis to good storytelling that makes you feel exactly what you need to feel in that moment.

• 6) What creative achievements are you particularly proud of?

  I won a Student Emmy in undergrad and that felt like the sign that I needed at the time that this was something that I might actually be able to successfully pursue.

• 7) Have you ever been surprised by a student; by their ability or quick progression?

  Totally. I had a high school student, not too long ago, who came to me with an entire script written already. It was sort of a mess, but what surprised me the most, was that she was willing to rip it apart and start over in order to make the best script possible. Her willingness to "kill her darlings" in pursuit of the best story was really impressive, especially for her age. She ended up with a story that was really special and I'm super excited to see what her writing looks like as she grows and learns even more.

• 8) Being a Superprof is an art! What is your secret?

  I really really love helping folks unlock the secrets and techniques of storytelling. Being able to explain to someone (and have them understand) that movies as different on the surface as Manchester by the Sea and Back to the Future are actually stories with character arcs structured the same way is really satisfying and super fun. Watching students start to recognize the ways in which all of their favorite movies follow the same structure and patterns but still end up feeling wildly unique and then applying those principles to their own ideas brings me a lot of joy.