After applying to several of the best film schools on the West Coast, Bye enrolled in Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. In 2021, he graduated with an a MFA in Screenwriting. He currently lives in Granada Hills, a small suburb in California's San Fernando valley.
In the third installment of our Life After Film School series, Alexa Pellegrini for FilmSchool.org spoke with Bye about the professors at Dodge College who shaped him as a filmmaker and how his Screenwriting MFA helped him write for animated children's television shows.
Why did you decide to study film at Chapman?
Alan Bye: Chapman was actually the first film MFA program I got accepted to, and that was one major reason. They gave me a two-week window to respond. I didn’t know if I was going to get into the other film schools but I didn’t want to miss the two-week window to enroll at Chapman.
I didn’t hear from LMU and CSUN for about a month afterward. I got into both. But it was really more of a competition between LMU and Chapman. I think that even if LMU had gotten back to me sooner, I would have still chosen Chapman — it was a lot closer to where I lived in Orange County. It was only a fifteen minute drive, while LMU would have been a very difficult drive with all the traffic.
I also liked that Chapman had a two-year [film] MFA program — that was more convenient than studying for three years at LMU. At that point, I wanted to get in and out [of school] as quickly as possible.
Did Chapman require an interview?
AB: No. At that time, Chapman didn’t require Screenwriting MFA applicants to interview. I think the University started interviewing prospective [Screenwriting MFA] students in the last two years.
How many students were in your cohort?
AB: My cohort had 20 students to start, but we ended up having around 18 students after a few people dropped out.
Is it tough to commute from Chapman to internships and film events?
AB: If you’re studying at Chapman, one of the cons is that you’re farther from downtown LA. It’s a longer drive than some of the other film schools in the [LA] area; you’ll have a longer commute due to the traffic. But there is a pretty good [...] train that goes through most of LA, and you can utilize it.
How did COVID-19 affect your film MFA program?
AB: My program started in fall 2019, and I graduated in the summer of 2021. I had a semester and a half of in-person [classes]; they were a lot of fun. About half way through the second semester, COVID happened and the rest was history.
Luckily, I’m a Screenwriting [alumnus]. It’s probably the easiest film major to take online. But I felt for all the directing and production students who couldn’t do a whole lot through their computers; they weren’t out in the field making films. For the Screenwriting students, they definitely did their best; we still had writers’ workshops and discussed our work online. It would have been nice to help on students’ film shoots and meet more in-person, but overall, my program was the best it could have been.
Do Screenwriting MFA students collaborate with other concentrations?
AB: Yes. In the first year, Chapman requires screenwriters to work with their production and directing peers to turn their scripts into short films. I’m glad that I was able to get two short films made from my screenwriting.
I’m a screenwriter first, but I also love production. We put all our scripts into Chapman’s online database so that the directing students could look at them. I had one directing student reach out to me and we met up to talk about my script. We worked through some rewrites — good writing is rewriting. The filmmaking process is definitely about negotiating. It’s possible that you’ll get some suggestions that aren’t your favorite, but you learn to roll with the punches. But it doesn’t hurt to explain why something [the director] wants to cut is integral to your vision and what you’re trying to say with your [film]. If you’re able to win a certain argument, take that to heart.
After the final draft of my script was good to go, the director reserved the film set. I got to actually go on set for the first short film that we did — mostly as an observer. But I also helped a bit where I could, and it was a great experience. I loved being on set and talking to the actors and seeing the magic of my film getting made into a movie.
How would you describe the atmosphere at Chapman and Dodge College?
AB: I wouldn’t describe Dodge College as competitive as other film schools. It generally had a friendly atmosphere. But I also noticed my cohort could get a little too judgmental for my tastes, like, Oh, you’re writing about that? But overall, I found the other students were friendly — I still have a few good friends I still talk to and hang out with to this day.
What were some of your favorite film courses?
AB: I liked Fundamentals of Screenwriting with Paul Wolansky. It’s basically a class where you write a bunch of short scripts. Every week, we would get a prompt we had to respond to in three to five pages. The prompts were pretty broad, so we had good material to work with; I had not been challenged like that in a long time. I constantly had to come up with new story ideas for most of the semester. But it was a lot of fun having my brain tested as a writer.
Film Script Analysis with Josh Malkin is a lot of fun. Malkin is a cool guy. We watched a lot of good movies and discussed how they were structured — what worked, what didn’t work.
How did Dodge College's screenwriting workshops help you grow as a screenwriter?
AB: Workshopping is always a little scary, of course. But when I write something, I often think, Wow, this is so good — this is my best writing ever. I would workshop it and get a lot of notes that were valid, and then I realized, Oh, there are a lot of flaws in the story or the characters that I originally didn’t see, and I was able to go back and fix a lot. That’s writing for you.
The workshops were also a good learning experience about analyzing scripts and taking notes. I got better at receiving feedback and figuring out which notes to use in my rewrites.
Writing is a deeply personal craft, and constructive criticism can be challenging. How should Screenwriting MFA students approach receiving critical feedback?
AB: I’ll be honest: If you can’t take constructive criticism at all, I don’t think screenwriting is the best profession for you.
There is so much rejection. But try not to be too hurt by constructive criticism and don’t take the feedback personally. Writers often write from the heart, but you have to learn to separate yourself from your work a lot of the time.
Describe the thesis for Screenwriting MFA students?
AB: We had to write a feature length script. I constantly workshopped my script and eventually shared it at our pitch-a-thon. We didn’t have to pitch the thesis project, but that was preferred — and I pitched mine.
The pitch-a-thon involved a big meeting with agents and producers from Sony and smaller production companies. They were really nice people; some of them seemed really excited about my pitch, and a few of them even asked to read my script. Nothing came out of it but it was still a great experience that taught me more about how to pitch.
Who were your most helpful professors?
AB: Many of the [Screenwriting] professors at Dodge College are sharp and successful — they know what they’re talking about. A lot of them will try to help you. I already had a screenwriting [undergraduate] degree but I learned even more by working with my professors.
Paul Wolansky offered some great notes on my scripts. He read everything with a lot of care. He’s also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And I had Michael Schiffer in my first year; he’s no longer at Chapman, but he cared a lot about our scripts; once, he even cried in class. He was one of the better ones.
I also have to give a shout-out to my undergraduate professor, Morgan Land. He is a film and script analysis genius and so passionate that he can make any writer want to jump through a brick wall. He worked very closely with me on my early writing, and I think that helped me get into Chapman and LMU.
Did you do a film internship?
AB: Right around the time I was graduating, I got an online internship for TCL, a big tech company that makes smart TVs. I was part of the children’s animation division — I wrote for some shows and got to develop my own YouTube shows for them.
Where did you work immediately after film school?
AB: My internship at TCL turned into my current full-time job. I’ve been working as a Writer and Architect at TCL for the last two years. The term “Architect” is basically the same thing as being a showrunner.
For a little while, I was also a writing manager for their external team. We brought in a bunch of freelance writers to work on our shows for a while; at one point, I managed over a hundred writers with a few sub-managers.
How has what you learned at Dodge College helped you grow as a filmmaker?
AB: What I learned in film school is extremely applicable to my job — it’s literally what I went to film school for, which is screenwriting and workshopping. The harder part was something you don’t really learn in film school that they really should teach you, but don’t: working on someone else’s story.
Essentially, you have to read about the premise of their show and the pilot, and get to know their characters before writing a script for their show. It’s like writing a spec script, but for an original concept — you don’t have 200-plus episodes as a jumping off point. You need to give your own take on someone else’s characters and world.
I also learned how to showrun by creating my own shows and working with a few writers under me. I was in writers’ rooms for a lot of these shows where I met really talented people. It’s been a great time.
What classes should every Dodge College student take to prepare for working in the film industry?
AB: Writing the Adaptation — really pay attention to this one. In today’s film climate, this class is vital. In the last decade, the film industry has skewed toward adaptation of other works. Almost every huge project is based off of a comic book or a video game since big studios aren’t as willing to throw money at original projects like they used to. It’s important for every writer to know how to adapt a work in another medium into a script.
Because at the end of the day, 90% of the screenwriting jobs are going to ask you to adapt something. Production companies rarely buy original scripts. I feel like some other film schools don’t stress this as much as they should.
Writing for Evolving Platforms is another good one. It’s about writing for every platform outside of film and TV — like Snapchat, comic books, board games, and video game trailers. I think it’s important for screenwriters to realize that while yes, we all want to write for film and TV, we still need to keep our avenues open. We can get paid to write creatively in other mediums, especially now more than ever thanks to social media.
What’s next for you as a screenwriter?
AB: I constantly try to work on my writing. It’s not like my time at Chapman where all I write are my original ideas. But when I have the time and motivation, I’ll rewrite my old scripts and work on a few of my newer projects that I want to [sell] down the line. I often apply to [freelance] production jobs online and submit scripts to agents and festivals.
In the next few years, I want to sell my script to a production company or get a position at a production company. The most important thing in the film industry is to stay active, or else you can easily fall out of it. I hope to continue and build my career as a writer.
Do you have any other advice for future Dodge College graduate film students?
AB: Watch all the films that you’re passionate about. Keep studying them until you learn what it is about them that makes you excited — and then put that into your own work.
Interested in attending Dodge College? Learn about the application process and how to raise your odds of acceptance in FilmSchool.org's exclusive interview with the Chapman and Dodge College Admissions team:
How to get into Chapman's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts: Tips from the Department of Admissions (Part 1)
Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts offers top-notch filmmaking courses in a welcoming and close-knit environment. Notable alumni include the Duffer brothers (Writers-Directors-Producers, "Stranger Things"), Justin Simien (Writer-Director-Producer, "Dear White People"), and...
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