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Articles Product Review Special Report: NYFA and Lesley University
Articles Product Review Special Report: NYFA and Lesley University | Special Report: NYFA and Lesley University |
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In the September/October issue of Script, Ray Morton examines the changing landscape of the industry, and asks how film and writing-for-film programs are tackling this new frontier. We take a closer look at these programs, as they explain how they will prepare students for jobs in a brave new industry. Today we hear from NYFA and Lesley University. Continue reading ...
New York and Los Angeles How long has your school had a screenwriting program? We have had a 1-year screenwriting program for over seven (7) years. What grounding/training in dramatic writing do you give your students? We train students in basic screenwriting techniques, revision techniques for screenwriting, spec TV writing skills, and strategies for putting together a bible for a TV pilot. What courses are they required to take? Screenwriting Workshops, TV Writing Workshop (creating spec scripts), TV Writing Workshop (creating the tv pilot), Elements of Dramatic Writing (theories behind origins of story, developing the dramatic premise), Tools of the Trade (pitching, treatment writing, and writing coverage reports), Acting for Writers, Directing for Writers, Camera and Lighting Writers, Editing for Writers (an intro to Final Cut Pro), The Business of Screenwriting, a Collaboration class with NYFA producers, and a webisode writing class. What practical work are they required to do? 2 rough drafts of feature-length screenplays 1 revised draft of a feature-length screenplay 1 TV spec script 1 short script Some of the elements for a TV bible (character bios, description of the world, 6 episode blurbs, full-length pilot script) Who are your instructors? What background do they have interms of dramatic/screen/television writing? Most of instructors have MFA degrees in film directing or screenwriting from either AFI, Columbia University, or USC. Our instructors have professional experience with companies like ABC, HBO, Showtime, Lifetime, and Children’s Television Workshop. Some of our instructors have received an Emmy, Peabody, a Student Academy Award, or some combination of all of the above awards. What training have you traditionally given your students regarding the skills they will use in the professional world? Our Tools of the Trade class (pitching, treatment writing, and writing coverage reports), our Business of Screenwriting class (query writing, new media exploration, advanced pitching). Do you provide any kind of practical internships or assist your students in applying for apprenticeship programs or do you provide professional networking opportunities? While our 1-year program doesn’t allow time for internships we do allow for professional networking opportunities through NYFA’s guest speaker series where industry professionals frequently come and share their knowledge with students. Also NYFA has fostered a relationship with the IFP and screenwriting students have been offered free passes to their industry panel discussions and networking events. Do you have any events or programs that help bring your student’s work to the attention of agents/producers/the industry? At the end of the 1-year screenwriting program we do a reading of the students' work. We have plans to create more of an industry presence at this event. The professional landscape for screenwriters has been changing rather drastically in recent years. Traditional methods of professional entry -- selling spec scripts, getting a job as a staff writer on a TV show -- have been drying up. At the same time, some different forms of opportunities are opening up, including writing videogames, writing short films or homemade series for YouTube and the Internet, working as “story editors” on reality shows, wherein a writer’s job (although they are not called writers so as to avoid having to deal with the union) is to review real-life footage and construct narratives out of it. What are you doing, if anything, to prepare your students for this new world? Are you making your students aware that the traditional forms of entry may not be as available to them as they once were? Our approach to entry into the professional world is threefold: 1) We encourage our writers to collaborate with NYFA producers through a collaboration class to create low-budget features which can be independently produced; 2) We offer a webisode class where our writers create webisode episodes that feature the NYFA second-year actors. These webisodes appear on the NYFA website; and 3) We offer a Business of Screenwriting class that delves into how to break into the new media fields (Web content, cell phone content, reality shows, etc.).  Lesley University (low-residency MFA) Cambridge, MA How long has your school had a screenwriting program? We are entering our third year. We admitted our first Writing for Stage and Screen students in spring 2008, and will be graduating our first Stage and Screen students in June 2010. What grounding/training in dramatic writing do you give your students? Since Lesley’s program is Stage and Screen, all our students are trained in playwriting as well as screenplays. While the thesis requirement for the screenwriting concentration is three screenplays and one full evening of theatre, students who choose to focus on screenwriting also spend one semester writing plays. We feel it’s extremely important for screenwriters to be well-versed dramatists, not just screenwriters. What courses are they required to take? Lesley’s Stage and Screen curriculum follows the low-residency model -- intensive workshops and seminars during two residencies (one in the winter and one in the summer), followed by one-on-one distance learning during the semester, based on individualized study plans. Residency craft seminars in Writing for Stage and Screen include: Reading and Writing for Stage and Screen, The Mythical Structure of Screenwriting, The “Black List” Script, Rewriting Sea of Love, The 36 Dramatic Situations, Hooking Your Reader With the First 10 Pages. A representative individualized study plan includes a combination of required film viewings, craft books, and assignments on techniques such as structure and pace, dialogue and dramatic action, both internal and external. What practical work are they required to do? Our students write a total of four full-length scripts. If they are focused in screenwriting, they will have three full-length screenplays and one play. One of those screenplays will be revised extensively. All students are also required to write short plays and if they choose they can write short screenplays, TV specs, and webisodes. With Lesley’s interdisciplinary component, students can also do independent studies in film editing, word and image, fiction writing, adaptation, film production, etc. Do you provide any kind of practical internships or assist your students in applying for apprenticeship programs or do you provide professional networking opportunities? Through Lesley’s interdisciplinary component, one Writing for Stage and Screen student has become a reader for a major production company in Hollywood, two other students produced an award-winning short film, and another student produced the first episode of his webisode. At the residencies, Writing for Stage and Screen students have the opportunity to pitch their scripts to professionals in the field. The program’s affiliation with the Kennedy Center -- which awarded three of our students finalist status in the American College Theater Festival -- is applicable for screenwriting, as many playwrights have made the transition to writing screenplays and TV, and manage to live in both worlds successfully. More important, if the playwright wins an award, gets a production, and is nationally recognized, that playwright will be taken seriously in Hollywood. The professional landscape for screenwriters has been changing rather drastically in recent years. Traditional methods of professional entry -- selling spec scripts, getting a job as a staff writer on a TV show -- have been drying up. At the same time, some different forms of opportunities are opening up, including writing videogames, writing short films or homemade series for YouTube and the Internet, working as “story editors” on reality shows, wherein a writer’s job (although they are not called writers so as to avoid having to deal with the union) is to review real-life footage and construct narratives out of it. What are you doing, if anything, to prepare your students for this new world? Are you making your students aware that the traditional forms of entry may not be as available to them as they once were? The interdisciplinary feature of our MFA program allows Writing for Stage and Screen students to supplement their creative writing with other genres in the form. In the past, Stage and Screen students have used this feature of our MFA to create webisodes, read and review scripts, produce films, work on 10-minute plays or other brief forms, and edit films. The possibilities are literally endless. And with both screenwriting and playwriting experience, our graduates have a dexterity of genre that will serve them well as the field continues to develop. See Ray Morton's Training for the New Frontier in the September/October issue of Script.
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