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Running the Show

The training

A Jeff Melvoin Programme presented by John Yorke Story in association with MediaXchange.

Location:Online

Duration:8 Weeks

Skill Level:Advanced

Gain key insight into the creative and management best practices that make the US showrunner model so successful and learn practical ways to use those processes and apply it to your own work.

This advanced CPD training distils the knowledge of Jeff Melvoin, one of the US’s most experienced showrunners and educators, and John Yorke, the UK’s leading story expert. The course also features exclusive input from industry guests including Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Frank Spotnitz, Alexander Carey, and Sumerah Srivastav.

It’s perfect for writers, producers and those in related roles who aspire to take the next step into the lead creative role, and who are looking for a greater understanding of the producorial process for scripted TV drama series.

You’ll work in a small group of dedicated creatives with your teaching team on-hand throughout. By the end you’ll have a clear understanding of the skills you need to develop to advance your career as a showrunner or writer-producer. 

Entry criteria: To get the most out of this training, we ask that you please have at least two years of experience working in film/TV production as a writer, producer or in a similar creative role.

In association with MediaXchange

We deliver this course with TV drama accelerator and international media consultancy MediaXchange.

Find out more

Our team

Meet the experts

Jeff Melvoin - credit: Martha Melvoin

Jeff Melvoin

Course Director

Jeff Melvoin is an Emmy-winning showrunner, writer-producer and educator. His extensive career includes Designated Survivor, Army Wives and Northern Exposure and as executive producer on Killing Eve (Season 3). Melvoin is also founder and chair of the Writers Guild of America West’s celebrated Showrunner Training Program and has taught at USC, UCLA, Harvard and the Sundance Institute.

More about Jeff

John Yorke

Course Consultant

John is widely acknowledged as the UK’s foremost expert on story and Into the Woods is the bestselling book on the subject in the UK. John’s worked on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama, from EastEnders to Shameless, Life on Mars and Wolf Hall.

More about John

Maria Carranza

Course Moderator

Maria Carranza is a Mexican writer, script consultant, development executive, historian, and translator with 12+ years of international experience in film and TV. She’s worked as a script and book reader for Original Film Netflix UK, Austin Film Festival, and the Athens Film Office, amongst many others, as well as a script consultant for dozens of projects in the UK, USA and Mexico.

More about Maria

Bursaries & Funding

See our full list of UK-based funding opportunities with application guidance. As this counts as CPD training, you may also be able to get funding from your employer to do it.

Running the Show Bursary

For each iteration of the course, we will fully fund one applicant’s place who’s in need of financial support. To apply for the bursary, fill out this form and tell us why you meet this criteria. The bursary will be awarded 8 weeks before the course start date, so please submit your application before then to be considered for the funding.

ScreenSkills

This course has been made possible by the support of ScreenSkills, and has been approved as part of an informal or formal continuing professional development (CPD) programme. You may be eligible for a training bursary for this course. Apply direct to ScreenSkills here, at least four weeks before the course start date.

Things to know

Running the Show is an advanced training course for head writers, producers, established writers, or those in similar creative roles who have experience working in TV production.

It’s suitable if you’re:

  • Looking to accelerate your career and take the next step into the lead creative role
  • Interested in the US showrunner model and want to know how to apply it to your work as a writer or producer from wherever you are in the world
  • Seeking a greater understanding of the producorial process for scripted TV drama

This professional training allows you to:

  • Understand the multiple roles and functions of a successful showrunner within the constraints and specific opportunities of the studio system
  • Become familiar with the development process and the vocabulary, business models, production set-up and team structure of this system
  • Identify and suggest good story solutions, in outlines and scripts and when giving and receiving notes
  • Practise the range of creative, practical, management and critical-thinking skills required to run a show
  • Understand how to apply the theory to practical tasks within your own professional context
  • Develop a plan to accelerate your career

Our training is taught 100% online in small groups with a designated tutor and moderator on-hand throughout. Each course is divided into sessions. These sessions are released one by one on a weekly basis.

There’s no need to log on at a set time. You can work through the learning materials whenever suits you, day or night, wherever you are in the world. Just allow 5-7 hours per session to complete the assignments and join forum discussions by the deadline.

Our teaching method is based on the science of active learning, where you’ll read, watch and practise exercises in your own time before submitting assignments for peer and tutor feedback. You’ll then review, share, reflect, and refine your work.

It’s both flexible and structured. Social and yet gives you space. You’ll emerge with an industry-standard toolset you can apply to real world projects and a new network of professionals you can trust. Find out more about how we teach.

Session 1: From Writer to Manager

Gain an overview of the role of showrunner, explore the business models and psychological, personal and cultural transition required to step up from writer to writer-producer.

Featured guest speaker: Jeppe Gjervig Gram, Screenwriter (Follow the Money, Borgen)

Session 2: Managing Writers and the Writing Process – Part One

Learn how to set up a productive writing room and writing process, with emphasis on how to apply the fundamentals of storytelling and analysis.

Featured guest speaker: Frank Spotnitz, Writer, Producer, Chief Executive of Big Light Productions

Session 3: Managing Writers and the Writing Process – Part Two

Take an in-depth look at outlines and the script-drafting process, giving effective notes, and handling writer-related problems. As an exercise you’ll create a writers room schedule based on projected production and air dates.

Featured guest speaker: Emma Frost, Writer, Showrunner (The Spanish Princess, The Man in the High Castle)

Session 4: Managing Production and Budgets

Gain an overview of the key players in your production team, how to manage them, and how to make shows on time and on budget.

Featured guest speaker: Craig Siebels, Director, Executive Producer (Good Sam, Burn Notice)

Session 5: Managing Executives and Crises

Develop effective strategies for building constructive relationships with executives, and to learn how to handle the unexpected.

Featured guest speaker: Alexander Carey, Writer, Producer (Homeland, A Spy Among Friends)

Session 6: Managing Directors and Actors

Gain a working understanding of directors and actors, and how to communicate effectively with both.

Session 7: Managing Postproduction

Understand the work flow in postproduction and how to take an episode from director’s cut through final mix.

Featured guest speaker: Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, Director (The Rookie, All American)

Session 8: Managing Yourself

You’ll apply all the learning to assess the skills you have and those you need to develop further as you compile a personal game plan to take your career forward. Jeff explains why there’s never been a better time to write for television and looks at work-life balance.

Featured guest speaker: Sumerah Srivastav, Writer (Lupin, Manifest)

Join our alumni – After your course, you can join our online alumni community where you’ll meet our growing network of past students. You’ll be able to.

  • Rejoin your classmates in a private forum
  • Continue to access an archived version of your course materials
  • Meet alumni from other courses and share work for feedback
  • Join discussions about screenwriting, script editing and the industry
  • Attend live chats with guest writers and industry folk

Mentoring and one-to-one feedback – Our team offer mentoring, script reads and consultancy. We are happy to quote by job or script, or to arrange a longer mentoring scheme as you work on a specific project. We’ll create a package to suit you, so please email [email protected].

Further learning – Explore other story training courses from John Yorke Story, or industry professional courses provided by our partners MediaXchange.

How it Works

Our training’s taught 100% online in small groups with a designated tutor and moderator on-hand throughout.

It’s an active learning experience where you’ll read, watch and practise exercises in your own time before submitting assignments for peer and tutor feedback. You’ll then review and refine your work as you get better and better.

Fit the course around your work and time zone – just allow 5-7 hours a week to work through each session.

It’s both flexible and structured. Social and yet gives you space. Find out more about how we teach.

Book now Ask us anything
Our Alumni

What people say

Tala Prystaietska

Screenwriter and Showrunner

Thank you for a fantastic experience. This course allowed me to rebuild myself step by step as a professional. The knowledge and experience I had before has finally been put into a system. Thanks to clear tasks that required thinking, even when I wanted to do everything in a hurry and not stress too much, the theory turned into a clear practical mechanism. Special thanks for the real cases. During these weeks, my brain was forced to work with an intensity that seemed unattainable for it. And for that, special thanks!

Iain MacLeod

Executive Producer for Continuing Drama, ITV Studios

The course is brilliant, because it causes you to step away from habitual behaviours, reflexes and just really think about whether you’re making the best version of the thing you’re setting out to make. Not only were the industry professionals and the exercises brilliant, but talking to all my peers on the course was fantastic as well. So many different backgrounds, so many different levels of experience. It’s already informing how I go about dealing with situations.

Ed Cripps

Writer

I especially appreciated the insights into the different ways to run a writers’ room, both as a creative exercise and as a constructive and respectful, interpersonal one. In the UK, opportunities to learn these skills feel hard to come by beyond piecing together approaches from staffing in different rooms or being thrown into the deep end to lead your own, perhaps before you are ready.

Bridget Deane

Writer - Emmerdale, EastEnders and more

This course has helped me demystify and understand the showrunner role, giving me renewed confidence in both my industry experience and developed my knowledge about the behaviours, expectations, and responsibilities of a good showrunner.

Susan Parker

Line Producer - Our Flag Means Death, Three Pines and more

I started this course so that I could learn about showrunning, and all that it entails, in order to become a better non-writing producer. I feel that the knowledge I gained, the insights of what it is to be a showrunner, will be incredibly valuable to me in becoming the best version I can possibly be. The two parts of the industry can, and should, work in tandem in a symbiotic relationship and this course showed me that I can, and will, be part of that from now on. This course is not just for people who want to become showrunners, it is also for people who want to become producers. I totally recommend it.

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