Courier Font for Columbia Film Treatment????

[rainydays]

Hi everyone!

I'm working on an application to Columbia's Film MFA program, and I'm a bit confused about the font. At the top it says "All applicants must submit the following in 12-point Courier font." Does this mean even the one page, double-spaced treatment is in Courier? I just changed it to that from Times New Roman and the font is HUGE. If anyone knows the answer or has already asked Columbia, I'd love some advice. Thanks!

 

[lucychoi97]

yes i have my treatment in courier. I saw someone asking the same question and he msged the school and they told him everything except the resume should be in courier

 

[Chris W]

should be in courier

At least it's not Comic Sans

 

[rainydays]

yes i have my treatment in courier. I saw someone asking the same question and he msged the school and they told him everything except the resume should be in courier

Oh wow ok! Do you know anything about margins? Mine is currently 0.5 haha.

 

[lucychoi97]

Oh wow ok! Do you know anything about margins? Mine is currently 0.5 haha.

They didn't say anything about margins so hopefully they don't mind I guess? FYI I kept mine standard. If you want to make sure you'd better ask the school but I'm assuming it wouldn't affect your application since it's not mentioned in the requirements specifically.

 

[Chris W]

FYI I kept mine standard.

Yes it recommend keeping them standard. Edit down if you need to. It'll only make it better.

 

[rainydays]

They didn't say anything about margins so hopefully they don't mind I guess? FYI I kept mine standard. If you want to make sure you'd better ask the school but I'm assuming it wouldn't affect your application since it's not mentioned in the requirements specifically.

thanks! I might just try and make them standard then. Sorry for all the questions but how did you format your heading? Mine is eating up a lot of space currently lol.

 

[lucychoi97]

thanks! I might just try and make them standard then. Sorry for all the questions but how did you format your heading? Mine is eating up a lot of space currently lol.

no problem. I'm wrapping up my columbia application so it feels good to have someone to talk over with
If you mean the heading for my treatment, I formatted it in 12pt courier and in bold.

 

[rainydays]

no problem. I'm wrapping up my columbia application so it feels good to have someone to talk over with
If you mean the heading for my treatment, I formatted it in 12pt courier and in bold.

thanks so much! I did mine like this, do you think it's ok? I don't know much about formal structure haha, so I've been teaching it to myself these last few months.

Heading (centered in Courier New and all bolded):

Title (italicized)
Name/ Phone Number/ Email

 

[lucychoi97]

thanks so much! I did mine like this, do you think it's ok? I don't know much about formal structure haha, so I've been teaching it to myself these last few months.

Heading (centered in Courier New and all bolded):

Title (italicized)
Name/ Phone Number/ Email

Yeah I think yours is good to go! Looks formal to me
Actually I have a couple of questions for you too. About the film prompt, did you copy and paste the prompt word for word on your script or did you add details? FYI I added some more details about the location and characters and the content is the same but I'm not sure I'm allowed to do this.
Also, how did you format your treatment? Do I just divide my story into 3 acts? How did you format yours?

 

[rainydays]

Oh wow I didn't even think to keep it the same! I changed mine a bit, adding details and giving YOUNG GUY a name. I had no clue how to format my treatment at first, but I saw people writing treatments with a 3-act breakdown online so I just did that. No clue if it was the right thing to do though haha.

 

[lucychoi97]

Oh wow I didn't even think to keep it the same! I changed mine a bit, adding details and giving YOUNG GUY a name. I had no clue how to format my treatment at first, but I saw people writing treatments with a 3-act breakdown online so I just did that. No clue if it was the right thing to do though haha.

Yeah, changing the prompt is inevitable since we have to add more details to it to make the story flow.
Seems like you worked on the third one haha I chose that one too. Not really confident with what I came up with though.
And yeah that's what I saw too when I googled "film treatment format." This is my first time writing a treatment actually so I kinda struggled a bit at first. I formatted mine into three acts at first then slightly changed it and added brief character descriptions. According to the film treatment requirements it says to "include major characters and plot developments and a clear statement of the resolution" so as long as we have those info on it we should be fine I guess.
Thanks for your reply! Whenever you have question feel free to share it here. I will share mine too if I have one good luck!

 

[rainydays]

Yeah, changing the prompt is inevitable since we have to add more details to it to make the story flow.
Seems like you worked on the third one haha I chose that one too. Not really confident with what I came up with though.
And yeah that's what I saw too when I googled "film treatment format." This is my first time writing a treatment actually so I kinda struggled a bit at first. I formatted mine into three acts at first then slightly changed it and added brief character descriptions. According to the film treatment requirements it says to "include major characters and plot developments and a clear statement of the resolution" so as long as we have those info on it we should be fine I guess.
Thanks for your reply! Whenever you have question feel free to share it here. I will share mine too if I have one good luck!

Thanks so much and will do! I feel much better knowing I'm not the only one with questions now good luck to you too!

 

[pwoods96]

Hey everyone! Where in the application does it ask for a resume?

Based on what I read on the website, Columbia requires that applicants' "creative materials must clearly bear the applicant's name, date of birth, name of program to which he or she is applying, and title of the material (dramatic writing sample, autobiographical essay, etc)." That's directly from the website. Did anyone else catch this? I formatted my header for each creative material as follows in bold Courier font:

Autobiographical Essay / Dramatic Writing Sample / Film Prompt
First and Last Name
Date of Birth
Columbia Film MFA

Finally, for those writing their Dramatic Writing Samples and Film Prompts in Final Draft, or any screenwriting software, are you using a title page for the above header?

Hope everyone's applications are coming along.

 

[lucychoi97]

Hey everyone! Where in the application does it ask for a resume?

Based on what I read on the website, Columbia requires that applicants' "creative materials must clearly bear the applicant's name, date of birth, name of program to which he or she is applying, and title of the material (dramatic writing sample, autobiographical essay, etc)." That's directly from the website. Did anyone else catch this? I formatted my header for each creative material as follows in bold Courier font:

Autobiographical Essay / Dramatic Writing Sample / Film Prompt
First and Last Name
Date of Birth
Columbia Film MFA

Finally, for those writing their Dramatic Writing Samples and Film Prompts in Final Draft, or any screenwriting software, are you using a title page for the above header?

Hope everyone's applications are coming along.

I didn't catch that. Can you possibly provide your reference for it (the link maybe)?
I only used my title page for my scripts not for my autobiographical essay
Hope it helped

 

[pwoods96]

I didn't catch that. Can you possibly provide your reference for it (the link maybe)?
I only used my title page for my scripts not for my autobiographical essay
Hope it helped

Here's the link. See Section 4: Creative Materials Required for Application:

Film MFA Admissions & Creative Materials | School of the Arts

arts.columbia.edu

I am not using a title page for my Autobiographical Essay, my question was pertaining to the Dramatic Writing Sample and the Film Prompt.

 

[lucychoi97]

Here's the link. See Section 4: Creative Materials Required for Application:

Film MFA Admissions & Creative Materials | School of the Arts

arts.columbia.edu

I am not using a title page for my Autobiographical Essay, my question was pertaining to the Dramatic Writing Sample and the Film Prompt.

Thanks for the link. Yeah I guess we have to include those as well.
And about the title page, that's basically what I did so I think you're fine.

 

[pwoods96]

Thanks for the link. Yeah I guess we have to include those as well.
And about the title page, that's basically what I did so I think you're fine.

No problem! Good luck!

 

[lucychoi97]

Hi I have a question, if I'm applying to Screenwriting concentration, do I state that I'm applying to screenwriting mfa or screenwriting/directing mfa or film mfa? This is extremely confusing for me since my application says I'm applying to film mfa and I'm supposed to choose my division (which is screenwriting) in my application but I'm submitting my requirements for screenwriting/directing. WOW that sounds confusing too. Does anybody get what I mean?

 

[lucychoi97]

Hey a quick question. Does anyone know whether I can upload an excerpt of my feature script (not the first pages) for my dramatic writing sample? Does it have to be either a short or the first ten pages?