Let's Make a Movie!
The Mission
The Story Farm Short Film Program + Retreat is an immersive, hands-on learning experience designed to give screenwriters the rare opportunity to step beyond the page and into the world of visual storytelling.
Monthly and weekly classes that teach you everything you need to know about making a short film...then...spend 6 nights in Lake Geneva, WI on a Production Retreat where you and your fellow writers will shoot your short film.
This program isn’t about producing a flawless, festival-ready short film - it’s about education, discovery, and practice. Over the course of several months, writers will learn how a story evolves once it leaves the written page: how images, sound, light, and performance all work together to communicate emotion and meaning. Through guided instruction, collaborative exercises, and an intensive live retreat where we will work together to shoot your short film, participants will gain a practical understanding of how to translate their writing into living, breathing cinema.
Our mission is to help writers become filmmakers in the truest sense, not by chasing perfection, but by embracing process. Every participant will have the chance to make mistakes, experiment freely, and learn the language of production in a safe, creative environment. The experience is designed to build confidence, sharpen storytelling instincts, and cultivate the visual imagination required to see one’s work as an audience will see it. By the end of the program, each writer will leave not only with a finished short film, but the clarity, competence, and creative courage to take the next step in their artistic journey.
More To Know
I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but keep reading. You will find answers to your questions below...but if you can't, you can email max@thestoryfarm.org
About The Story Farm Program + Retreat
Basics
- 7-month program, including 6-day live retreat in Wisconsin (early Summer)
- Maximum of 8 writers allowed in live retreat
- Full program cost: $6750 or payment plan of $1375 x 5 payments
- Auditing: Unlimited writers are allowed in the education-only portion of the program. No live retreat or live production participation ($595). All auditing writers may shoot their short film elsewhere on their own and present it to the class at the end of the program.
Parameters
- Maximum of 5 pages and 4 characters
- Must be contained - one location (can include multiple rooms or sites on location)
- No special effects, or need for extensive make-up or costuming
- No epic action sequences, car chases
- No actors/characters under 18
- Any genre, but must be grounded in reality
- All writers will use Cap Cut Pro for editing ($20/month) unless familiar with a different program
- AI will not be a focus of this program
Schedule
- Education (on Zoom) begins with 1 meeting per month in December 2025, then January, February, March
- December 10: Review short film purposes, themes, craft and structure
- January 14: Film study, critique, examples of short films
- February 11: Must have story concept chosen - pitch your short to the group
- March 18: full review of finished first draft of short film
- Weekly Class and Production Prep begins April 8
- All class meetings will meet at 7:00pm (Chicago time)
Program Schedule
Monthly Meetings (Dec thru March) and Instructors
We will begin the program with 1 meeting per month starting in December 2025. It is not a pre-requisite to attend all of the once-per-month meetings, but they are designed to give us all a running start into a process that can be time consuming. The monthly meetings are noted in the above section regarding the covered topics, reviews, and schedule.
The Program will be lead by 20-year screenwriting consultant, educator, executive, and writer, Max Timm, alongside two production instructors, Michael Graff and Scott Markus. Michael and Scott have a combined 40+ years of production experience, having worked on major film sets, directed commercials, and then some. Most recently Michael set up, sold, and saw his feature film, GREEN AND GOLD, hit the big screen. Scott is the Director of Content for the ISA, and has decades of editing and production experience under his belt.
April 8 - From Page to Picture: Translating the Script
Focus: Understanding the visual potential of a screenplay
Watch/Break down: Scene from Silence of the Lambs
Discussion & Activities:
-The difference between a story written to be read and a story written to be seen.
-How to find visual equivalents for dialogue or exposition.
-Watch and analyze one or two scenes / compare the screenplay to the finished piece.
-Introducing and discussing “the language of film” where the fundamental building
blocks of the language can be presented (wide shots, medium shots, close-ups, cuts, & dissolves, etc.)
April 15 – Lock the Script
Focus: Story tightening and production-readiness. Notes from Max, Scott, Michael
supplied before the meeting (for only Live Retreat attendees). All writers, including auditors, must read each other’s scripts prior to this meeting.
Discussion & Activities:
-Review and finalize each script - looking at themes, story, dialogue, visuals
-Practical considerations that affect writing: locations, props, wardrobe, time of day.
-Simplifying for clarity - what can be cut without losing emotional impact.
April 22 - Directing Basics: Things to Know Before Pre-Production
Focus: Visualizing and communicating your vision
Discussion & Activities:
-What is the role of the director?
-Identify the spine (theme) of the story
-Make only creative decisions that serve and protect the spine
-Director’s role in casting (working with actors), visual style (understanding basic
language of film), editorial & music.
-Learning to ride and tame the dragon
-What a director actually does - communicating story through actors and camera.
-Basic shot language: framing, composition, and camera movement.
April 29 - The Anatomy of a Shoot
Focus: Pre-production - how to prepare a screenplay for filming
Discussion & Activities:
-Script breakdown basics: identifying characters, props, wardrobe, and locations.
-Discover purpose of slug lines and scene directions
-Scheduling: how to estimate shoot days, plan by location and daylight, based on script
breakdown, efficiently moving man and material
-Shot listing and coverage: master shots vs. close-ups, why coverage matters.
-Storyboard & visual references: look books, mood boards, casting wish lists, using
stills or simple sketches to plan shots.
-Casting actors: do’s and don’ts
May 6 - On Set: How Movies Actually Get Made
Focus: Production process and crew workflow
Discussion & Activities:
-Who does what on set (crew roles and hierarchy simplified). Teach what every crew
member actually does and why it matters.
-Set etiquette: “set presence”, safety, call sheets, time management, and
communication. Learn all crew members’ names, bring 2 sets of shoes!
-How to direct actors, actionable direction, finding performance through verbs and
objectives.
-Importance of script notes and continuity
May 13 - Lights, Camera, Story
Focus: Visual storytelling and technical foundations
Discussion & Activities:
-Bring the story’s spine to life
-Basic lighting setups (key, fill, backlight)
-Basic camera technique: framing for emotion - how to use angles, height, and lens
equivalents to create feeling.
-Color and tone - warm vs. cool, bright vs. shadowed, and what each communicates.
May 20 - The Director’s Rehearsal
Focus: Casting, performance, and preparing for production, assigning groups who will work on whose script and the roles per production.
Discussion & Activities:
-Casting principles: choosing actors for tone and truth, not just looks.
-How to talk to actors - verbs, objectives, and the power of listening.
-Camera rehearsals - blocking and testing a short scene.
Final production planning for the retreat: confirm props, wardrobe, and shot lists.
May 25 - 31 LIVE RETREAT (Lake Geneva, WI)
Key Emphasis: Collaboration, experimentation, and visual storytelling, not
perfection. Every shoot is a hands-on classroom.
Structure:
-Day 1: Orientation, tech overview, review schedule and plan for the week
-Day 2: Hands-On education, pods of writers get together to practice with the camera, equipment intro’s, location reviews (possible immediate shoot needed)
-Days 3 - 6: Filming rotations (each participant directs their short, crews on others’).
Evening of Day 6: feedback, celebration dinner.
Sessions 8 thru 11: Post-Retreat (June 10 - July 1)
Weekly Zoom sessions:
1. Editing 101: Rhythm, emotion, and simplifying in the cut.
2. Sound and music: Why audio shapes emotion, and importance of silence and
reaction.
3. Color and tone: Basic correction in CapCut
4. Mini-festival prep: Title cards, credits, file delivery.
5. Screening and group Q&A (September 16).