Writers Boot Camp

Below is an email exchange I had with Writer’s Boot Camp back in 2011. As you will see, I never joined the program, but I think the exchange illustrates the sort of high-​pressure, make-​you-​feel-​bad-​about-​yourself tactics that Writers Boot Camp uses to manipulate potential students into forking over their money.
From:
To:
Subject: RE: Free Class Tuesday, June 28^th — RSVP
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:32:24 –0400
Please remove me from your mailing list.
You guys are like a cult.
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From:
To:
Subject: Free Class Tuesday, June 28^th — RSVP
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:08:46 –0700
If you’ve already RSVP’d to this — I apologize. But this is something rarely do: open up a Tools Review for our Membership to a few, select, bright inspired people like yourself. It’s something we call a Mini-​Camp.
Read the invitation below and hit the RSVP link if you plan to attend. Afterwards, we’ll touch base to see what you’ve been up to lately and answer any questions. Or feel free to contact me beforehand.
Looking forward,
Robert
Robert XXXXXX
Writers Boot Camp
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From:
To:
Subject: RE: Professional Membership paperwork
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 13:25:14 –0400
And I’ll be interested to hear what new things you’ve accomplished in those 6 months with the help of your program.
;)
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From:
To:
Subject: RE: Professional Membership paperwork
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 09:47:44 –0700
Okay. Let’s check in on you in 6 months and see what you’ve accomplished on your own.
All the best,
Robert
Robert XXXXX
Writers Boot Camp
Membership Coordinator
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From: XXXXX [mailto:XXXXX@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:39 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Professional Membership paperwork
Hi Robert:
Thanks for your response. I am going to pass on Writers Boot Camp for now.
Yours sincerely,
XXXXX
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From:
To:
Subject: RE: Professional Membership paperwork
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 09:24:12 –0700
Hi Mark,
Certainly. There’s a link on our site, but you can click HERE and it’ll take you to the bios of several of our instructors.
All our instructors have been with us many years, they are experts in teaching the Tools of Full Development and have a lot of experience working with writers in all formats. They are facilitators that deliver the process to you and guide you as you apply it.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Looking forward,
Robert
Robert XXXXX
Writers Boot Camp
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From: XXXXX [mailto:XXXXX@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 6:26 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Professional Membership paperwork
Hi Robert:
Do you have a list of current instructors which I could review before making my decision?
Thanks, XXXX
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From:
To:
Subject: Professional Membership paperwork
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 16:30:34 –0700
Hi XXXX,
Great talking with you. You have a healthy sense of skepticism — which I respect. Hopefully you’ll be open to getting the support you need. As you can see from our Alumni Successes below, there are a lot of credited TV writers among our alums. If you decided this isn’t for you, that’s fine — but we’ll check back in a year and see how you’re doing.
Re: paperwork, etc. As you’ve probably figured out, this is not a high-​pressure enrollment process, but we do have deadlines for writers to make a decision as that is one sure way to gauge the quality of one’s professional commitment. So let’s say your personal deadline is Monday, okay? If you need time beyond that just communicate the details to me, but please include within that your timetable for getting started.
(SNIP — details of program)
You may be «considering other options too,» and that’s fine. But you should visit these two links to understand why, regardless of WBC, if you don’t make certain changes to your process, you’re not going to achieve your stated goals. Make sure those other options add up to a Full Development approach as outlined in The 29 Distinctions of Writers Boot Camp (they won’t — but it’s always good to compare ;-) and also study the common misconceptions that many people, including professionals in the industry, often have about the screenwriting business. Fill out and fax in the attached paperwork so we can get you started in coursework and/​or pre-​class creative support without delay. Your material is going to improve radically as soon as we start working together.

Jeff Gordon and WBC have been a consistent and positive force in my development as a writer. The promise that you will learn a time-​told and thoroughly thought out method of screenwriting is absolutely fulfilled… to the extent that each writer brings their dedication and level of talent. I left the program with confidence in my writing, a much better knowledge of the industry, and excellent connections to potential opportunities.
This business can be a killer, and you have to have the stamina and skill to navigate it. Jeff and his instructors make the process real and attainable. At the end of the day it’s up to the writer to make it or break it!

This program is very expensive and the tools that they teach you can be found in books and in screenwriting courses at reputable film schools.
I’d recommend just studying story theory, reading a lot of screenplays and writing as much as you can.
The tools that they teach in the Think Tank program are gimmicky at best. They teach a style of writing based more on aesthetics and set pieces. They talk very little about story structure, plot and character.
The only benefit you might get from the program are the business breakfasts. They hold a breakfast every two weeks or so where they showcase a person of some repute in the film/​tv industry and hold a Q&A.

I’ve been with Writer’s Boot Camp for three amazing years. When I started, I had a lot of ambition, ideas, and random work that didn’t reflect MY GENIUS. Now I have complete and vetted work that I feel good about. I walk taller, can look more people in the eye in this town, and stopped calling myself a GENIUS except to myself.
Also, and maybe my experience is unique, but I have been connected to opportunities through the Boot Camp, directly and indirectly (through fellow students). Legit money opportunities. If my experience is unique, it’s because I have really worked hard and taken every note as a challenge to prove my worth as a human being. I regarded the WBC as a Hollywood internship.
If you can get some time with Jeff Gordon the founder, and don’t mind being put on the spot, you can really grow in terms of pitching your work, defining and defending your whole deal. He has this trademark way of giving very intense, individual feedback that might make you wonder if you’re an asshole and try to fix it, if you are open to it, and also make you feel like a special flower. He’s almost always right, in my opinion. But if you disagree and can defend yourself, then I do believe you can handle anyone. I have liked all the other teachers too. I vibe better with some than others, but everyone gives good notes.
Now… could I have bought a book on screenplays and worked alone in the dark for a few years and achieved the same thing? No, not me. Maybe you. I can’t say. I like their tools. To me, they’re very helpful, especially together with mentoring.
Cool, and they also have a lot of events with a variety of speakers, all year. Some of them are very accomplished showrunners, filmmakers, actors, who went to WBC.
And they”ve worked with me in terms of what I can afford. That’s just my experience.
Yeah, it’s been really good to me. Like a gift. No complaints.

WBC is by far the best writing school in Hollywood. I just completed the 2-​year Professional program, and completed four scripts. At WBC they focus not only on creative development but commercial viability, with a comprehensive set of tools and techniques for every stage of development that is unique and valuable. But it’s the long-​term membership in the WBC community that is equally valuable — the free script-​reading service and wonderful speaking programs with industry professionals. This expands significantly one’s understanding of the industry and how it works. I highly recommend this program to anybody serious about developing a Hollywood writing career.

I joined WBC after attending a short screenwriting seminar at their Santa Monica offices, back in October of last year. Their sales tactics were definitely not anything remotely strong armed, but it was implied that it would be a good move for a struggling artist, due to their industry connections. As a salesman myself, I was willing to be closed. I contacted Robert, via e-​mail, and then the process of joining WBC began, which took several weeks. I also came to LA without a clue of how to achieve my writerly goals, so I was definitely looking for a school type situation, which are one’s where I seem to do well.
I’ve read many a screenwriting book and have written many a lame screenplay, so I wanted ‘nuts and bolts’ guidance, and I was attracted to their initial philosophy, which is ‘write for ten hours a week and you can become a writer.’ Just makes sense, and I was certainly not doing that.
Their development tools are great and FORCE you to have developed your material to a place where it will be better and more original than other similar pieces in that genre. If you painstakingly use their tools, it will save you time in rewriting, and I was certainly the king of putting out bland material and then not touching again because I had no idea how to get rid of the inherent weaknesses.
Back in January, they gave me a free 5 week boot camp with the owner of the school, Jeff Gordon, totally free of charge, just to get me acquainted with their methodology and tool box. This was really great. I mean, tools are tools, every screenwriting course or book has their own, but WBC’s really make sense, and made me think outside the box.
My experience with their tactics for getting their money has been incredible! I was unemployed for several stretches, and as long as you were in communication with them, they always worked with me. I knew damn well that this course of action was about the cost of a nice used car, and I was willing to do the work. I know of a few people, myself included that suspended their membership while other things were going on, or kindly asked for reduced payments for a few months, they totally understand that stability for the writer is very important.
During the first six months, before live classes I was writing alone, under the tutelage of an instructor. This was my bleakest period, due to money concerns and I wasn’t able to produce much of anything. I wish the instructor would have been more on me, but ultimately I can’t play the ‘blame game’ here, I’m an adult, and this teacher has tons of students.
During the live classes part, I feel that I really started to get into a groove, my instructor, Jason, pushed me to develop my material, in their framework to the best of my ability, while my instinct was to start writing pages. I’m glad he pushed me, because I finally got to a place where I feel like I have a strong piece, now I can push this idea into multiple platforms, and its a great idea that I’ve had since the 90’s!
Now, I’ve moved back to NY and, again, they have helped me, by setting me up with NY Think tank classes, by offering support, and they gave me the best advice that I could have asked for: knowing that I was floundering financially in LA, they told me that until I have several really good projects to take meetings on, there was really no reason to physically be situated in LA. Its not like writers are actors or camera men, writers can live and work anywhere.
If you’re a ‘Joe Lunchbox/​paycheck to paycheck’ guy like me, you have to really think a school like this through! It is the price of a used car, but if you’re a person who has a pretty decent amount of disposable income, doing this program for the full two years is a heck of a lot better than writing alone in some room and hoping against hope that you are doing some good stuff.
They also understand the temperature of the industry right now, and told us in no uncertain terms, ‘the speculative market in features may not be the best way to go, its the golden age of television, so you should probably be working towards that, if you want to work in the industry…’ Hey, everyone may know that already, but I didn’t until I was told that. It made me see that I have to think of all my ideas as ones that can exist in multiple platforms, TV, novels, film, web series, comic book, etc. Whatever it takes!

I studied at WBC (2-​year program), taught at WBC, and worked as a Program Coordinator at WBC. After having read the reviews here, I felt I needed to add my own.
Like most businesses, there are positives and negatives about Writers Boot Camp. I’ll start with the positives:
– I was skeptical about Writers Boot Camp at first because I believed most writing programs were a waste of time (that had certainly been my experience) and I never would have attended if a successful writer friend hadn’t convinced me it was worth it. As time went by, however, I realized that something very different was going on. «Olin H.» states in his review that WBC’s method is «based on timeless principles of storytelling.» He is correct, but he leaves out something essential to understanding why WBC is different than any other writing program I’ve encountered — simply put, WBC goes beyond simply expressing certain «principles» and saying whether a piece of writing is «good» or «bad» to actually providing writers with a PROCESS that they can use to develop and evaluate their work, a process that is definable and repeatable without being a «formula,» as well as with an effective vocabulary that writers can use to critique the work of other writers.
When Stanislavski developed what later became known in the U.S. as «The Method,» he, too, was relying on «timeless principles,» in this case those of acting. What made Stanislavski’s work so revolutionary that it still permeates most acting technique and theory today is that he was able to come up with a technique that actors could use to consistently harness a process that, up until that point, had seemed utterly ineffable. While I’m not making any judgements about the efficacy of WBC’s techniques versus Stanislavski’s, WBC has done essentially the same thing for writing that Stanislavski did for acting.
Now for the negatives:
– Writers Boot Camp is a business. As such, they work hard to make money. Yes, they hard sell; yes, they make you sign a contract; yes, they expect you to pay them the money you promised to pay them and will use any legal means at their disposal to get that money from you, if need be.
But if you read that last paragraph again and replace «Writers Boot Camp» with the name of ANY other business, it’ll still be a true statement.
– Beyond this, yes, from time to time teachers and students just don’t gel, so you might get stuck with a teacher whose style doesn’t work best for you personally. But, again, this is going to be true anywhere. When I taught at WBC, I had students who loved me and a few who got relatively little out of my style of teaching. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Wow, I had to respond when I read the reviews of the pissed off people because I personally had a completely different experience with Writers Bootcamp. I originally signed up for the online course because I live in Sacramento. There is nothing I would consider that comes close to Writers Bootcamp as far as there teaching, mentoring, and camaraderie. Not even in San Francisco. After a few months I decided that I would do better by actually being in the Think Tank classroom. I knew not only would this be a time sacrifice but also a financial sacrifice since the 2 Year program is not cheap, but I wasn’t looking for cheap I was looking for the top mentoring that would give me the technique and formula that I lacked in my screenwriting.
I liked the interaction and the live feedback that you get in the classroom but I also loved the relationships and friendships I made. It’s all about the people and network you build in any new business. I happen to be a wedding photographer who depends on long term relationships in my industry to help grow my business. In any case I ended up having the most traumatic life changes 6 months after I joined like taking care of my terminally Ill dad and divorce. Life sucked and I reached out to Mike Brennan who was amazing. I still had to pay but I did sign a contract. He worked with my financial situation and it all worked out. As a matter of fact I just googled Writers Bootcamp because I thought I might give the online class another try and somehow ended up here on Unilocal.They are awesome and my only regret is that they don’t have one up here in Sacramento.

Have been a pro member for 5 months now and am finally getting (some amazing!) movement on writing projects I haven’t touched in years. Cannot say enough good stuff about this co/​program. If you’re serious about your writing project (s) & career, this is the place to be.

This review is for the location and facilities for Writers Boot Camp.
My company rent this place for our company-​wide conferences /​training once every quarter. The location of this place is very convenient. There are 4 rooms available for training purposes and a big lecture hall for conferencing use.
The chairs unfortunately are very uncomfortable. It’s really difficult to sit in that place for a 3 hours conference. There are some random seats positioned on the side.
The entire layout is a bit awkward.

I took both the 6 week course and the 2 year Think Tank program. Some of the development tools are useful, and that’s about it. After taking classes at UCLA and with several other consultants, I now feel strongly that Writers Boot Camp is obscenely overpriced, and even worse, they make a myriad of false claims and promises. Script readings which never happen. In depth script reviews which are actually pretty superficial. I wouldn’t believe much of what the «hard sell» sales people tell you when they’re getting you to fork over 8 grand to sign up. The egomaniacal founder does NOT utilize his alleged industry contacts as promised (does he really have any?), in fact he seems to make an effort to BLOCK his alumni from having success in the industry. I’ve kept in touch with dozens of classmates, and the experiences are the same — overall: disappointment.

I signed up for the two-​year program. A massive waste of money. A great deal of hype but little substance. They claim their method is proprietary — yet is it based on timeless principles of storytelling. Very unhappy with the entire program. I learned more from a single weekend retreat than I did in this program. Worse of all: I signed a contract, got unhappy with the program within a month, they insisted that I pay, I refused then they came after me with a collection agency and legal threats.
Do you want to do business with a business that treats unhappy customers in this way?

Writers Boot Camp is another Hollywood educational system that is just another company that preys on the fears and aspirations of working and wanna be screenwriters. They try and sell you on their two year course regardless which costs $ 8000. The «writer» who signed me and the teacher who taught the course have combined imdb credits that would make Rin Tin Tin easily scoff and during the class my teacher asked us for ideas for his paid writing job which was writing fortunes for the fortune cookies at Panda Express. If you’re too busy or dont like the class, too bad, its your fault, you signed a contract and you owe them $ 8000 regardless. If you dont pay, they’ll send your account to a collection agency that has an F rating with the BBB of LA who calls and harrasses you for the rest of the money and threatens your credit rating. Try and work something out with administration, they send you back to try and work it out with the salesman who sold you on the course who doesnt return your phone calls. Red flag. Should be called Writers Concentration Camp. Once you’re in, they wont let you out. Of course you get what you put into it, but do you really need to spend that much money to do so? To eaches own and financial abilities. Also, on their website, they have alumni with show credits underneath. I worked on one show and they had put a person as a writer of that show and they did not write on that show, I think thats considered false advertising.

Was first involved with two different San Francisco groups of bootcamp writers back in the 90s when I was still debating on leaping into TV or film full time or staying in ad creative. Ended up working with some on the production and bit acting side of things as a result.
The powers that be recently kicked my tooshie back into Think Tank and will be starting the 2 year /​4 cycle track. Especially great for seasoned writers wanting to refocus or stay within the seasonal developmental cycles of writing. TV or Film focus. A mix of industry powerhouses and those of us that need to refocus post-​baby ;) Also a great alumni base for mentorship and contacts. Back from 30 second increments and branding other peoples’ films to my own expanded scripts in 2008.
Leaving one star window as motivation for writing development and review rewrite.

I’m in the two-​year Think Tank program at WBC, and I’ve loved it thus far. The instructors are available for feedback as you need it and the system of tools laid out in the coursework has been helpful for me as a veteran writer but a novice screenwriter. It is very expensive, but has been worth every penny thus far.