The problem with universities teaching Screenwriting...

…is you cannot really teach it, but only impart personal advice and explain the rules of the writing game that should be adhered to in order to be successful.

If this blog were a script, then picture this as the halfway twist in the tale where you suddenly discover what is really going on. At the beginning of this superfluous waffle in complete and utter bullshit I failed to establish the reasons for what this story (or blog) was really attempting to do. So either this is the twist that changes your perception of events, or simply poor storytelling on my part. Or both.

The purpose of this blog is purely for the work effort side of university, so the extreme lack of assignments on the screenwriting course can be justified through throwing in rather tenuous links to general media theory and mandatory random side orders such as this little pain in the ass. So I must address the concerns of such work on this blog today.

The first assignment consisted of a six minute script to be partnered with an essay analysing the images within the screenplay. This is to be expected from a course that marries two contrasting elements of this particular educational experience; creative free thinking and automated, analytical academia. I understand the academic essay writing makes this a course that acts beyond being a simply extended Robert McKee lecture, but like these blogs, we are ordained by the course tutor powers-that-be to keep, I find the whole academic part of the experience incredibly repellent.

The problems I have with this started right from the off. Regardless of a convincing surplus of experienced and approachable lecturers (all whom are exceptionally good and engaging in what they do), the assignment brief for this essay was vague and simply no one on the job could flat out explain what needed to be considered when writing it. Not a single fellow scriptwriter on this course understood just what in the hell they were supposed to be writing about and continued to curse a fast approaching deadline with total frustration and complete fear o failure.

I even saw a smattering of people banging out their first drafts in the library the night before the essay was due in!! People were so unprepared, uninformed and universally bewildered by the details required they left it up to last minute pressures to force their hands (to write something). Now, I am happy with the course's actual content and the respective teaching styles, but the lack of hours and the disturbing lack of information regarding the academic side of our work is inducing schizoid embolisms in more than a few of us. We get told one thing by one lecturer only for that to be undermined later by another. Scriptwriting is a creatively fluid process that is an art form because there are soooo many elements needed to construct a script to a professional standard that you cannot simply put pen to paper, or fingertip to key, because an enormous amount of planning must go into creating and giving birth to an idea. This is what they teach, and that is what we are there to learn. But where are the essay breakdown lectures?

Another gripe is that the lack of collective agreement in marking someone's work on a purely subjective basis does not for a good grade make. For instance a friend of mine on the course was told by one lecturer his script was perfect and not to change a thing, but because another lecturer wound up marking his work, he received a frankly shit grade. He was needless to say very pissed off, and for a guy who is very dead-set on riding out the full three years, turned out to be disheartened so much by this final mark, he let slip that he is considering dropping out if his next script does not achieve an above-average-grade. The disjointed nature of our timetable has brought up many questions about whether or not significant changes need to be implemented in order to improve the quantity of seminars during a week. Yes, we understand this is independent learning, but for pity's sake, if we wanted to be entirely independent and educate ourselves on this medium then we would have saved our twenty grand debt and fucking did that!! The fact is, we want exposition just as if we were living inside one of our own scripts and like any good script the exposition needs to be clear and concise so that NO MEMEBERS OF THE AUDIENCE FAIL TO FOLLOW THE REST OF THE STORY!! Some characters are close to being written out of this story if you get my analogy.

Other than my fuming anger towards the baffling lack of time spent in actual lectures and seminars, the confusing subjective nature of the marking, and the ridiculous lack of CLEAR explanation on these (to be honest) redundant academic companion pieces to our scripts, I am enjoying the experience and the people. My essay came out at 57% and my six minute script hit the 68% mark, and I was happy to see that I had constructive criticism attached with them upon their return, plus a validation of the knowledge I already harboured that I have much to improve upon in the realm of character development, and that my research must be a helluva lot stronger in order to attain much more worthy grades. I am sure that my complaints are shared by many, if not all, of the students enrolled onto this course. We are enjoying it for the most part, and respect the advice and decisions of the lecturers the best we can, but I really would like to see something done about my above concerns, and the answer, “well, this is independent learning,” is not fucking good enough for apparently the best course in the country for screenwriting. Let’s get something done. Amen, and goodnight.