UCLA, Screenwriting Degree Program 

Los Angeles, CA

How long has your school had a screenwriting program? 

Perhaps 40 years.

What grounding/training in dramatic writing do you give your students? 

They all study the classic dramatic narratives going back to the Greeks and through Shakespeare into the contemporary era.

What courses are they required to take? 

In their first quarter they take a lecture course in which the basic principles embraced at UCLA, which we believe explain the great success of our students in making the transition to the industry. Then they write a feature-length screenplay virtually every quarter thereafter. They come out of the program with at least four and perhaps as many as eight or even nine full scripts.

Who are your instructors? What background do they have in terms of dramatic/screen/television writing? 

We have three regulars and a host of adjuncts and visiting faculty. All are Writers Guild members. All have experience as professionals writing for the entertainment industry. Some are alumni of our program. Some are superstars. Others are working stiffs like me. But all are experienced professionals with produced credits.

Do you have any events or programs that help bring your students' work to the attention of agents/producers/the industry? 

We have a Screenwriters Showcase every June, highlighting the best student work, and honoring various honorees. Agents and managers and producers are all over our students all the time seeking their scripts. Hey, this is UCLA!

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? 

Yes. Reality TV is covered in our sister program: the producers program. We have been expanding our digital courses. We must be doing something right. One of our alumni won the Oscar this year (Dustin Lance Black, Milk); another was nominated (Eric Roth, Benjamin Button). Regarding the latter, it was his third nomination and would have been his second Oscar. The Oscar was won also only two years ago (Sideways) by a UCLA-trained screenwriter. Our alumni have written at least 11 projects for Steven Spielberg: all three Jurassic Park movies, two of the three Indiana Jones pictures, Munich, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Eagle Eye, and more.

The Los Angeles Film School 

Los Angeles, CA 

Why do screenwriters come to your filmmaking program? 

We often get screenwriters enrolling in our one-year program because they want to control their destiny by learning all aspects of filmmaking. Screenwriters know that there is so much more to being a writer than knowing how to write. We are well-situated to show them how a project can develop from pre production to market distribution. You can really better your self as a writer when you actually see the pitch materialize. In our program you can write it and see it, helping you connect better with producers and directors in your career. 

What else does LAFS offer screenwriters?


We often bring big-name writers to screen their films and speak at our school, giving students an opportunity to get advice from and network with professionals. Many of these engagements feature major motion pictures followed Q & As with screenwriters. We also have a career development department that assists students on pitching and submitting scripts. A number of our students have gone on to produce award-winning scripts. One of our most notable alum that had success as a writer is Brian Taylor, who wrote the feature films Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage.


LAFS launched a game production program this fall. How are writing a game and writing a film similar? 

Writing a story in film is as important as a story in a videogame. The cross-over is natural, because you use the same fundamentals.

How will the addition of a game production program enhance your film program? 

We have created a visual arts environment with multiple outlets; film and videogames. Each program will take elements from one another to allow more effective story telling. The synergy between the programs is a natural fit. 


Check back next Monday for the New York Film Academy and the Academy of Art University profiles.

See Ray Morton's Training for the New Frontier in the September/October issue of Script.   

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