Do you want to turn an idea into a TV series or a film? Learn to recognize a strong story and bring it to life.
The journey to the heart of a story begins with the Characters Generate Worlds lab
Who is behind Characters Generate Worlds and what it is
Voltaggio Development is a development company that finds, develops, and sells stories for film and television to streaming platforms and national and international broadcasters.
The courses originate from an idea by Stefano Voltaggio — screenwriter, creative producer, and producer with over twenty years of experience. Over the years, Stefano has experienced firsthand the transition from traditional television to the new forms of serialized storytelling, working on projects like Elisa di Rivombrosa, rooted in classic generalist TV, to writing and producing series such as Gangs of Milano, which represent the current state of the industry.
After graduating from the University of Westminster in London in Film, Video & Photographic Arts, Stefano built his career in the world of television series and film projects.
He has worked as:
- screenwriter and producer on projects such as Blocco 181 and Gangs of Milano for Sky;
- co-author and creative producer of series such as Zero for Netflix;
- screenwriter and story editor for around twenty productions for RAI, Mediaset, and other international platforms and broadcasters.
Alongside his work in development and production, Stefano has long combined his professional activity with academic teaching. He has taught and continues to teach screenwriting and creative production at institutions in Milan such as the Civica Scuola di Cinema “Luchino Visconti” and Accademia 09, and in Rome at LUISS “Guido Carli”, RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts, American University in Rome, and NABA.
This teaching experience, combined with continuous work in the industry, allows him to merge an industrial perspective with the ability to transmit a clear method.
From 2019 to 2022, he was a member of the jury of the Premio Solinas, the leading competition for original film scripts.
His main activity today is editorial development: working on ideas, shaping them into solid projects, and guiding them until they become concrete proposals for the market.
This dual perspective — both creative and industrial — is at the core of the Characters Generate Worlds lab, where training is not separate from real production. It is part of the same ecosystem.
“Over time, I’ve realized that what truly makes the difference is not the structure, but the character. Today, when I encounter a character with real strength, I don’t leave it in the classroom — I develop it and bring it into the market.”
Does your story hold up?
Love cinema and TV series. You wonder whether the idea you have in mind is the right one. You wonder whether it will meet the market.
But there is a question that comes before all the others: does my idea evoke emotion?
Stories are not about things: they are about people. Their feelings, their ambitions, their desires, their regrets, their failures, their successes, their obstacles. No structural model — always replicable by AI — will ever save your story if the starting point is not emotionally strong enough.
Almost all screenwriting courses teach how to structure a story.
Few focus on what comes before structure: the initial narrative core.
And the initial narrative core lies within the main character: the Character Generates the Narrative Universe.
In the Characters Generate Worlds Lab we work on:
– what gives meaning and emotional weight to a story;
– why and how the audience connects with characters;
– which elements make them unique.
We do this through two tools: Character Anatomy and Creative Production:
Character Anatomy is the inner life of the character.
Creative Production is the process through which that inner life becomes visible on screen.
Character Anatomy
A character is not defined by their backstory or by a list of traits, but by four essential elements:
- a burning desire
- a deep fear
- an irreconcilable contradiction
- a way of being in the world
This is what I call Character Anatomy.
It is not descriptive. It is generative.
It is the invisible force that shapes everything that follows.
Creative Production
If Character Anatomy generates the internal structure of a story, Creative Production is what comes next. And it does not begin on set: it begins in writing.
It is the moment when something internal takes on a visible form.
Images appear. Gestures emerge. Situations are built.
Not because we invent them arbitrarily, but because they are the natural expression of the character’s psychological and emotional structure.
It is Walter White in his underwear in the desert in Breaking Bad. Vito Corleone stroking a cat in The Godfather. Travis Bickle smiling at himself in a mirror in Taxi Driver.
It is the character that generates the world of your story.
Here, we put you in the position to understand:
– whether there is something truly strong in your intuition;
– whether your character truly has depth;
– what is needed to develop the story from the character;
– whether your words break through the wall of imagination and enter the world;
– whether your work has the potential to interest broadcasters and platforms.
By learning to respond to these requirements, you will learn to bring your ideas to life.
What happens inside the Characters Generate Worlds Lab
The lab approaches structural models such as the hero’s journey, the three- or four-act structure, the eight sequences, and other paradigms only after addressing ideas and intuitions.
Before structure, there are other fundamental questions to answer:
- Who are your characters?
- What makes them interesting? Why should we follow them?
- How does their personality generate the images of the story?
- Why does this story deserve to be told?
How it works
The process is simple.
It begins with the inner life of the character.
We identify their deepest core.
We ask: If this core were visible, what form would it take? What images would it suggest?
The answer is not an explanation.
It is an image. Because cinema and series live through images.
- A man feels invisible, humiliated by the world around him. He belongs nowhere. He cannot be seen. What form does this take?
In Joker, it becomes a dance.
Arthur Fleck dances alone. On suburban stairs. In a bathroom. In front of a mirror.
He is not expressing joy. He is giving form to something unstable within him. The world of the film begins to shift as he moves.
The dance is not decorative.
It is the moment when the character begins to generate a new reality.
- A family lives underground, in a basement. Another family lives above, in a bright, modern house. What form does this take?
In Parasite, it becomes vertical space.
Stairs. Levels. Ascents and descents. The entire film is structured around movement upward and downward. Between wealth and poverty. Between visibility and invisibility.
The psychology of the characters — desire, resentment, survival — becomes architecture.
The world is not just a setting. It is the visible form of a psychological and social tension.
Think about the films and series in your life: you will realize that what has stayed with you the most is the moment when an image perfectly captured the core of the main character.
In the lab, we work to understand whether an idea and a character generate the energy needed to sustain a story over time. Across 4 intensive sessions, we will focus on:
- what makes a protagonist necessary;
- how and when the audience connects with a story;
- how to identify the emotional core of an idea;
- how to understand whether a creative idea truly has narrative strength;
- how to give solidity to an intuition.
Who the lab is for
It’s for you if:
you love cinema and television not just as a viewer, but want to go behind the scenes of the creative and production process
you write or want to start writing, and feel there is something you still can’t fully grasp
you are already a screenwriting professional who wants to engage with a less structuralist approach
you want to understand what truly makes an idea powerful, even before applying a structure
What changes afterward
You don’t leave with more rules, you leave with a different perspective. You will be able to engage with a story in a more lucid, more aware, more authorial way.
A story does not emerge from structure, it emerges from the perspective you bring to it. It is perspective that ignites a narrative and transforms it into a believable world to care about.
How it works
Sessions: 4 intensive live online sessions
Duration of each session: 2.5 hours
Total: 10 hours of work
Limited capacity: maximum 15 participants
The program is led directly by Stefano Voltaggio.
Each session is a focused and in-depth working space, dedicated to the analysis of ideas and dialogue.
Participation fee:
610 €
When does the lab start?
WRITE TO FIND OUT THE NEXT START DATE
You will receive a reply with details on how to register for the next course.
A tutoring space
Voltaggio Development was founded with a clear objective: to work on the creative idea before structure.
The intensive group lab is the first level: here you learn the method and the perspective through which ideas are analyzed and developed.
It exists within a reality that works daily on editorial development for the market.
For this reason, over time, ideas that demonstrate strength and maturity can find further development within a dedicated path.
For those who want to work on a specific project, there is an individual path dedicated to editorial development.
Training and development coexist within the same ecosystem, but remain distinct moments.
Do you already have a series concept, a pilot script, or a film screenplay and want to develop it professionally?
Alongside the group lab, there is an individual development path.
A one-to-one process designed for writers who already have a project and want to put it to the test.
Here the focus is editorial: the work centers on the project, its solidity, and its potential for growth.
Are you a production company looking for a Script Doctor?
Is that film’s screenplay not quite working? Is that pilot not sharp enough? Is that protagonist not memorable?
NARRATIVE PROBLEMS ALWAYS HAVE THE SAME ROOT:
Do you want to keep exploring Characters Generate Worlds and discover how character psychology shapes the worlds of film and television?
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