Screenwriting Degree?

[kgasser2]

So I've been interested in filmmaking for the last few years, but never had any specific plans for a career. I was always hoping I could read enough, watch enough, write enough, and learn enough about film in order to make my own picture that could gain attention at a festival and find a career that way. Now I'm thinking about a more traditional route to becoming 'successful'.

I want to know what everyone thinks about getting a degree in screenwriting. I think it would be easier to learn within a course than to learn strictly on my own. I would probably learn more in a shorter amount of time by being a full time student. But then there is the pricetag on a degree, is it worth spending the money? Do they basically teach you how to write a Hollywood screenplay, or do they teach you how to be a thoughtful and creative writer? I'm sure some of these questions depend on what school you attend.

Has anyone here been in any screenwriting courses? Certificate programs, one year, bachelor, what are your experiences? What schools would you recommend, or warn me about? I would like to stay on the east side of the country, but if there was a school elsewhere that would really benefit me, I would consider it.

Thank you for any helpful information!

 

[Utopia]

lol I think we should all watch "Waiting for Superman" together.

 

[VPTurner]

Wow!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/

User Reviews

Just another easy answer to a complicated issue
26 September 2010 | by Charlie Dugan (Oklahoma) – See all my reviews

When I saw the trailer for thee first time, then read more and more reviews of the movie, I was once again frustrated by the people who have decided that the trouble with our education system lies with the teachers.

I am a long time teacher in the mid west (32 years). Over the years I have seen a deterioration of expectation for American students. Why? That lack of expectation does not come from the teachers, but results from the continual intimidation by a public that wants social promotion, no homework or anything that might interfere with extra-curricular activity.

We can come up with all the big "blame the inefficient teacher" shrill we want, but it still comes down to this.....until there is a consequence for the parents related to their child's misbehavior, lack of attendance, lack of fulfilling expectations of teachers and poor homework habits, it won't matter who is in the classroom.

The anti-public ed people who idolized Michelle Rhee and her "fire everyone" attitude made the same mistake. They put the blame on teachers and teacher's unions, when it truly rested in the laps of parents and administrators who got their jobs because they didn't want to teach anymore.

As a person involved in student exchanges with China, one of the countries ahead of us in math and science, I have witnessed Chinese teachers in front of 60 student classrooms. Their education process is rote and unimaginative, but yet, their children are ahead of us in these areas. Why? Simple. Their parents and society expect them to produce. They expect their children to work hard and do hours of homework. They treat their teachers as an esteemed part of society instead of using those underpaid dedicated people as a scapegoat whipping boy like we do for something much larger than the thwarted efforts we make every day in the classroom.

Do we pay our teachers like professionals? no.

I am also a coach, and find it disturbing that we have parents at both the high school and college levels willing to give millions to a football team while we can't get test tubes and beakers for our science teachers lab or get printer ink and paper for the history teacher to hand out primary sources.

The film is another feel good cheap shot.

Funny... if you wanted to reform medicine, you'd include doctors. If you wanted to change the auto industry, you'd ask mechanics. Somehow, teachers are like baseball coaches. people go to a baseball game and they all criticize the baseball coach because somewhere in their past, they played little league. Everyone has been to some kind of school, so I guess that makes them all experts and they can't trust the teachers who dedicate their life to doing this unappreciated job to have an idea of what should be done. If we are the problem, maybe some of you film makers and business leaders should spend a few years in the classroom to really see what education is like.

 

[Cracker Funk]

Wait, what?! How did he get all of that from the trailer and reviews?

I am a one-time high-school teacher. The odds are good that I will return to teaching high school. I don't see anything wrong with a film that takes on the teacher unions. I don't know how valid it's points are, but I sure as heck want to see it, and decide for myself. And I haven't heard one iota of anything saying that this film blames anything on teachers. Teachers, unions -- not the same thing.

 

[directorik]

so I guess if you look at it that way, you might as well just read a few books, read a bunch of screenplays, and start writing.

Which is what I did. And I've made a pretty
good career out of it.

I dropped out of high school so have never had
any formal education. But as I said, I agree that
an education is a valuable thing.

 

[Cracker Funk]

Which is what I did. And I've made a pretty
good career out of it.

I dropped out of high school so have never had
any formal education. But as I said, I agree that
an education is a valuable thing.

That's awesome. I love it when people prove there's more than one way to skin a cat. I personally know plenty of people with successful careers, in different fields, who have not much of a formal education. Then again, for every one of them, I know a great deal more people with low-paying, dead-end jobs, and this can be directly attibutable to their lack of education.

Needless to say, there's a reason I went into teaching (and will most likely go back), and it ain't the pay. It's because I believe in it. Sure, there are anecdotal stories like yours, that prove you don't need an education to have a successful career and live a fulfilling life. But then, there are mountains and mountains of statistics that indicate that as a general rule, a formal education is a good idea.

Besides, college is fun. I wouldn't have skipped it for the world.

 

[TruEsTaR]

kgasser, directorik is right.

school is a great thing, but you have to figure out what path you need to carve to the road of success. I get off on creating, and couldn't imagine myself taking a couple more years of courses I didn't want to take. Sure, I could, but what's the point? If I get a degree in exercise science like my parents want me to, what would I do with it after college? I'd try to get a job in filmmaking and start all over. I'd be right back where I was.

I like to think of screenwriting or filmmaking degrees just like degrees on becoming an artist or a painter. Can anyone teach you to become a famous artist or painter? The answer in no.....

True artists either have it or they don't. You can always learn the technical stuff, but even Andrei Tarkovsky's teacher at film school and mentor told him and his class, "I can't teach you how to be a filmmaker, that you either have yourself or you don't". Tarkovsky said that was the most important piece of advice anyone ever gave him.

dlevanchuk - Fellini didn't go to film school. he went to law school since his mother made him, then dropped out. He wrote constantly and got hired for a newspaper and later worked writing dialogue for radio in hiding, dodging the draft. Then he learned by collaborating with Rossellini on "Open City" and "Paisan".

If you need help with format of a screenplay, then copy down "Chinatown", "The Sting", "American Beauty", and a few other great screenplays on your version of final draft. Copying them will teach you the basic format.

As dov simens says, "Writers write, thinkers think, so get your fingers moving!

 

[kgasser2]

As dov simens says, "Writers write, thinkers think, so get your fingers moving!

then maybe i'm a thinker.