Adapting
your novel to the big screen or interested in scriptwriting for the movies?
Learn the business of film making for writers with five intensive weeks on-site
in the heart of the movie industry.
Spring 2008: March 3-
April 4
The
Adaptation-Screenwriting program is available to Fiction Writing students for
Fiction Writing credit. The Semester in L.A.
is a five-week immersion program in which the student maintains full-time
status (12-16 hours for undergrad, 9 hours for grad) through an intensive
educational experience. Financial aid will apply to this program. The program
facilities are located in Bungalow 25 in the CBS Lot in Studio City,
the only institution of higher learning permanently located on a studio lot.
Contact Elizabeth Yokas in the Fiction Writing Department office for more
information.
Screenwriting Workshops: Coverage of Adapted Screenplays in L.A.
55-4325-01 (undergrad) 3 Credits
55-5325-01 (grad) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the L.A. program
Students will read and analyze a variety of novels that have been
adapted into films. They will also read the scripts based on these works of
prose and learn how to do coverage, a standard practice used throughout the studio system. They will
also view the films based on these published works. The students will then
participate in weekly Q & A sessions with the screenwriters who originally
adapted the above material, gaining first-hand knowledge and insight into the
adaptation process. Prose and script coverage will be used to analyze different
adaptation approaches and will serve as practice for entry-level positions in
story editing or development offices in LA.
Topics in Fiction Writing: Techniques and Business of Adaptation
in L.A.
55-4326-01 (undergrad) 3 Credits
55-5326-01 (grad) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the L.A. program
Students in the program will take part in a lecture series, which
will include authors, screenwriters, and producers who have either sold their
published works to Hollywood or who have adapted
published works for Hollywood.
Other guest speakers will include entertainment attorneys and agents who will
discuss the legalities of optioning and adapting pre-existing material. There
will be almost 40 guest speakers in all.
Adaptation in L.A.
55-4326-01 (undergrad) 3 Credits
55-5326-01 (grad) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the L.A. program
Students develop a completed work of prose (novel, short story,
magazine article, etc.) into an expanded outline, then into a detailed
treatment for the screen. The outlining process will involve breaking down the prose, streamlining it into
visual and essential pieces of dialogue, then registering the outline at the
WGA (which will be a stop on one of our tours). A professional story
editor/development executive will then collect an outline from each student, do
coverage, then have individual meetings with each student to discuss vital
story points. Based on feedback from the story editor, each student will revise
his/her outline, then develop it into a full-length treatment (10-20 pages).
Each student will pitch their treatments to development executives/producers at
the end of the 5-week program.
Acquiring Intellectual Properties for Adaptation in L.A.
55-4328-01 (undergrad) 3 Credits
55-5328-01 (grad) 3 credits
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the L.A. program
This section of the program is designed to help students better
understand the process of optioning copyrighted work by published authors.
