Sundance Collab

Sundance Collab is the Sundance Institute's online platform for filmmakers and screenwriters. The home page calls it the institute's "year-round digital learning hub for emerging and established storytellers to learn, create, and connect within a global filmmaking community." It is a learner product: you take paid courses with working filmmakers, watch master classes and event recordings, and join a free community, all online. The FAQ says Collab "advances Sundance Institute's mission to discover, support, and inspire independent artists", and notes that a Collab account is separate from a Sundance Institute membership.

The scale is stated plainly. The catalog page offers "100+ expert-led courses and events", the home page promises "hundreds of classes and events, including free events", and the community counts "Over 100,000 creatives!"

Subjects, formats and levels

Courses are organized by topic: Screenwriting, TV Writing, Directing, Producing, Documentary, Career & Business and Creative Technology. They come in several formats: live online courses on a set schedule, self-paced courses, on-demand courses you watch at any time, intensives (some over a single weekend), master classes, live online events, event recordings and bundles. Each course is marked with a level, from Beginner through Beginner to Intermediate and Intermediate to Advanced, and the FAQ adds that "An application may be required for some courses and course fees apply."

Screenwriting and TV writing

Screenwriting is the deepest part of the catalog. Introduction to Screenwriting with Michael Urban runs over four weeks and covers shaping your story, developing characters, building a thematic core and the tools of the trade, from beat sheets and outlines to treatments and screenplay formatting, for $395. Screenwriting: Core Elements, a self-paced course with Trey Ellis and three other writers, helps you develop a new idea into an outline for your first draft, also $395. The follow-on, Screenwriting: From Outline to First Draft of Your Screenplay, takes you to a completed draft of 90 to 120 pages for $595, and the two are sold together as the Screenwriting: From Idea to Screenplay bundle for $795.

For short films, Crafting Your Short Film Screenplay is an eight-week self-paced course with Asher Jelinsky as instructor and advisor. Its "Designated homework assignments are reviewed by a Sundance Advisor" and move you toward a finished short screenplay of 5 to 15 pages, for $395. At the advanced end, Rewriting Your Screenplay and Crafting Your Pitch with Q Terah Jackson and Jen Harrington is a nine-week live course on revising a feature script and preparing to pitch it, for $750.

Shorter genre and craft courses fill in the gaps. How to Craft a Suspenseful Horror Screenplay with Dennis Widmyer and How to Develop Dynamic Characters are four-week beginner courses at $350, and Anatomy of a Nightmare: Writing Your Horror Feature is an eight-week live course at $595. On-demand courses such as Writing Comedy for Film & TV, Writing Horror for Film & TV and Adapting Intellectual Property for Film & TV cost $115. On the TV side, TV Writing: From Outline to First Draft of Your Pilot takes you to a pilot under 60 pages for $595, and Rewriting Your TV Pilot and Crafting Your Pitch with Phil Klemmer is an eight-week live course that adds a show bible and a series pitch, for $750.

Directing, producing and documentary

Directing: Core Elements, with Marie Jamora, Shuchi Talati and Joey Ally, is an eight-week self-paced course on the directing craft, assembling and working with a crew, working with actors and moving from script to screen. You film an assigned scripted scene and get feedback from a Sundance Collab Advisor, for $395. Directing Actors with Tessa Blake and Jorge G Camarena covers the work with actors from auditions to set, and Visual Storytelling: The Shot, The Image, and The Camera with Peter Markham and How to Effectively Collaborate with Your Cinematographer with Tal Lazar are four-week courses on the language of the camera, each $395.

For producers, How to Schedule, Budget, and Prepare Your Production for Financing with Summer Shelton is a four-week introduction to feature scheduling and budgeting, location scouting, hiring a casting director and making offers to talent. Documentary Filmmaking: Core Elements, with Patrick Shen, Erin Heidenreich and Sofian Khan, moves from concept through post-production and includes developing "a compelling proposal for potential funders", with advisor feedback. The online weekend intensive Solo Documentary Filmmaking brings in "Oscar nominee Bing Liu and Sundance Directing Award winner Luke Lorentzen". Career courses include The Essentials for a Successful Entertainment Career, a 6-week course with Jim Arnoff for $495, and Beyond Film School: Real World Strategies for Independent Producers, a weekend intensive with Thayer Juergens.

Bundles, master classes and events

Course bundles group a learning path at one price: Short Film: Script to Screen combines the short screenplay, directing and film producing core courses for $995, and Directing Essentials costs $650. Video bundles collect master classes and spotlights from the video library by theme, such as Business & Legal Literacy ($72, covering IP, distribution deals and running a creative business), Succeed as a Film Producer ($240), Writing for Animation ($40), Develop Your Craft as a Director ($168) and Meet the Masters: Directors on Directing ($120), with sessions featuring filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater and Chloé Zhao.

Live events are often free. Recent listings include a quarterly series with the Creators Coalition on AI, case studies of Sundance films such as COOKIE QUEENS, a talk on independent production in Colorado, which the listing calls "the new home of the Sundance Film Festival", and a session on editing the documentary NATCHEZ. Advisor Studio workshops, such as one on sustaining an entertainment career, cost $10.

Community, resources and scholarships

Joining the community is free. It includes the Film Club, Story Forum, Writers Café, Community Forum, Community Leaders, an Impact Residency and The Bridge, where members get feedback on work and make connections. The resources section adds a Filmmaker Toolkit and a listing of grants and opportunities, and the FAQ points new members to its growing video library.

On cost, the FAQ says "We offer a limited amount of need-based scholarships to our courses", and each course description states whether scholarships are available for it. Semagngeta Aychiluhem from Ethiopia, a scholarship recipient, writes that a TV series developed in a Collab course "has been commissioned by Canal+ and we made 42 episodes". Veronica Reyes-How in New York says an indie series she was hired to create and write had its world premiere announced at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Who it suits

Sundance Collab suits screenwriters, TV writers, directors, producers and documentary makers who want structured courses with feedback from people working in independent film, at prices from $115 for an on-demand course to $750 for an advanced live course. Beginners can start with a four-week introduction or the free community and events, while writers with a draft can go straight to the rewriting and pitching courses. Laura Chinn, a Sundance Lab and Festival alum, sums up the appeal: "Sundance is offering everyone a chance to expand their education with kind and brilliant teachers, online, with a flexible schedule, at a relaxed pace."

Live courses follow fixed schedules and registration deadlines, so a learner who needs complete flexibility will lean toward the self-paced and on-demand formats.