Be bold. Some of the best advice I’ve gotten from a fellow screenwriter.

As I enter the Television Writing Intensive next Monday and stay immersed for six weeks I’ll keep these words in mind. I’ll be concentrating on a one-hour drama pilot that by the end of the course will be a fully realized outline. Does it matter that I don’t know what I’m going to do with a one-hour pilot when I’m done with it? No. This one’s about the getting there. The journey. A boost to the system.

So yes, be bold. Write those scenes. Bring something new to the table. Take a chance.

Desperate times, ya dig?

No one can deny that television has come a long way. The writing is savvier, wittier and more ambitious. In a lot of ways it has surpassed current popular film. Storylines can be expanded. Character depths can be explored over multiple seasons. I never had a desire to write for television but that was before The Sopranos came along. It single handedly leveled the television landscape by utilizing jumpy story throughlines and dark, dark humor to unravel its current interpretation of the American Family (I have to add that Twin Peaks is the modern blueprint for this current wave of television, David Chase admired it greatly.) It was followed by other groundbreaking shows like The Wire, Deadwood and my current on-hiatus favorite, Mad Men. Television is…respectable.

The course is six weeks of two six hour days and one three hour day for guest lecturers. The instructor, Frank Pugliese, is one of the main reasons I took the course. Playwright, screenwriter, director, WGA East member and award winner, he will steer the boat. It’s not an intensive for nothin’. Here’s the course info.

It starts May 23rd and at some point when I come up for air I’ll share.

It’s true, I am. I’ve dumped this blog once again but I would like to make amends by giving a status update entry if you’re still listening.

The Boy

The tapering off naturally started after the birth of my son in 2008. Makes sense. I was pretty overwhelmed at the time and in the grand scheme of things commenting on a new HDSLR hitting the street every three months or trying to make sense of the latest film industry distribution model seemed kind of insignificant. A life has entered my life and that is truly a beautiful event. At the time I was going through some sort of existential crisis but there is no doubt in my mind that I’m more than in love with my son. He has given me the understanding of what it takes to be real man and has shown me how far I can go if I push for what is important. That goes a long way.

The Producer

In March 2009 I met a producer at the IFP Script To Screen Conference. Knowing his credits we seemed like a perfect match. Let’s just say he’s currently on a roll. Last year he produced a film that had 2 Oscar nominations and this year he has another film in the running with 5 nominations. After making contact we e-mailed back and forth, he gave me his agents contact info at CAA, it was real. I felt like I was getting closer, finally. A rewrite of Dyre Avenue and a few e-mails later I got lost in the shuffle. He didn’t e-mail back. Neither did his agent. Not his cup of tea? My writing? I didn’t stalk him enough? Who knows? I’m not even sure if it got to him but that’s the biz right?

MFA

Towards the end of 2009 I applied to NYU and Columbia for their MFA/Film programs. I was 42 at the time. I know now and I think I knew then that it was just a desperate attempt to stay connected when I wasn’t feeling so connected. Needless to say, it doesn’t matter either way, I didn’t get in and I’m okay with that but the application process crystalized a few things for me. In retrospect the enrollment would have put a tremendous strain on my family and put me anywhere between one hundred to a quarter of a million in debt. I just can’t do that now. Sure, I would have met some real working industry people. I might have even been taught by some of them which would have been the case at Columbia. Both curriculums are excellent but extremely costly and they are definitely in no way a golden ticket into the industry. Ask the thousands of grads who are still working at The Gap for their third year since graduating. I did ask those questions and got some very interesting answers. A lot of very talented people are desperately trying to dig out of debt in this shitty economy. I know it’s all relative but in the end, Columbia and NYU made the decision for me. What I always felt still stands true though. You will learn more about filmmaking by making films. You will write better screenplays by writing your way to the truth.

The Internet As Classroom

There is no shortage of wisdom on the internet, professional or otherwise, when it comes to filmmaking advice. People who have been there and done that want to share the wealth. Some opinions are valid, some are not. Truth is, sometimes you need to filter the signal to noise ratio and find it out on your own. That’s where I’m at. As one brother of the page put it, it becomes a law of diminished returns. Another, just know when to get off the treadmill.

Because we live in an age of communication and social networking more walls are coming down when it comes to education. The MFA wasn’t really an option for me but the motivation to stay on track and hone my skills was still there. I looked into other possibilities – consolidated, more short term possibilities. Let’s face it, I have a family now and building a portfolio of screenplays will need discipline, motivation, structure and community. It’s not getting any easier. Time is compressed. I feel like every minute of my day is accounted for and it takes more and more effort to stay focused. These programs might help:

UCLA Professional Program

UCLA Extension

Scott Myers

They’re all online and they’re flexible and when all is said and done I’ll probably have a couple more screenplays under my belt. They’re all based on the West Coast. Why the West Coast? Sadly, NYU and Columbia don’t offer programs like this or I’d be there. It’s a shame.

Move, Move, Move

I’m about to move for the third time in three years in the next coming months. There’s no other way to put it but it sucks. Moving a family is traumatic and disruptive. This was supposed to be our regrouping period so we could save some money and potentially look to buy a home and create a stable environment two to three years down the line but an unfortunate deal with a duplicitous landlord lead us to this.

We’ll move. We’ll survive. We always do.

The Future of This Savage Art

I always used this blog to stay tapped in and to communicate with people in the industry. Even if it was just for my own clarity I think it helped me to stay connected. As you can see the site has taken on a cleaner, less cluttered look. It symbolizes pretty much where I am at right now. There will be more slow and gradual change over time. Posting will probably be less often but when I do post hopefully it will be more dense with well thought out musings and information. Hopefully this time around the blog will be driven by more posts regarding process and the inner workings of the filmmaking experience. The Short Ends section on the sidebar is a good place to find links and things I generally find helpful, educational, amusing or what have you. This all leads to:

The Future of My Work

This is a big one. I’m cleaning the palette right now. Emptying the cache. Making plans for the year. Writing. Touching base with old alliances. Creating new ones. Getting my ass back out there. No predictions. No promises. Just putting up or shutting up. That’s the future of my work.

I’m hoping that this post marks a new beginning for me. A resurrection. A change in direction. A new, more focused way of looking at what I’m trying to convey and why I’m trying to convey it. It’s time for me to grow and dig a little deeper. Ask the tough questions. Time will tell.

Damn it feels good to press Publish.

I have been wrestling with the thought of going back to school and getting a Masters in Fine Arts. There are only two schools I’m applying to and I couldn’t have picked a better time. The deadline for both is December 1st. There’s the NYU Graduate Program — Tisch School of the Arts. World renowned. The film world elite have been students or have taught there — Spike, Marty, Jim and Oliver.  It’s a big program and the price tag is just as big. The other obvious New York City choice is Columbia, a school that has always been know for a solid screenwriting program and beyond. When I was taking some Continuing Education courses at NYU way back when, the general consensus was that if you wanted to direct you went to NYU and if you wanted to write you went to Columbia. Not sure how true that was then and how true it is now.

There are a few concerns here, money being one of them. There’s no way I could afford NYU on my own without any financial assistance and that doesn’t include making films, that’s out of pocket. Going through the bursars website I found out that a three year program, at about $20,000 a term, comes to approximately $150,000. That is including a modest budget for student films. Very modest.

The Columbia University MFA cost is slightly less. The first two years are all coursework, no film production at all, and it’s approximately $50,000 followed by thesis years which are about $3,000 a semester for a Screenwriting concentration. Big difference from the Tisch program but I know that NYU has invested a lot into their film department. I’m not sure how the Columbia Directing Program really stacks up.

I guess a big reason why I’m applying is maybe because I’m craving the need to be immersed in something I deeply care about and still want to improve at. I’ve spent the last year and a half caring for my son while Linda toils away in the coal mines. I feel out of loop and this could be a way to get back in. Besides, the film industry is in a complete state of panic and flux. Maybe now would be the time to do this.

I’m definitely applying to both. The decision of whether I go or not will be made when the time comes. The decision might be made for me for all I know. I would appreciate anyone who wants to leave a comment about their MFA/Film Program experience at either one of these two schools or any film school for that matter.