Stony Brook University / Killer Film's MFA program- A screenwriter's perspective

[briolson]

Alternate title: Will I drop out of film school?


I’m nine weeks into my first year at Stony Brook’s MFA in Film program.

I’m taking 5 classes (2 writing, one directing, one “film tools”, one masterclass with Christine Vachon) as well as an internship doing coverage for Flynn Picture Co.

On top of the course load, I’m TA-ing one of the writing classes and I have an extra long commute that adds up to about 24 hours a week.


It’s a lot.

Around week 5, after a particularly disappointing directing assignment, I felt like I entered the wrong program. I’m not sure how much I like being on set… maybe I just want to lounge around in my pajamas and write. At SBU, even if you’re a screenwriting major like me, you have to take directing and production classes.

Alternatively, I feel like the greatest chance of seeing my stories get made is if I can direct and produce as well as write. So I’ve decided to stick with this program for now. It feels a bit like eating my production vegetables. Plus, what if I become an incredible director along the way?

 

[Chris W]

I thought I wanted to be a director and then in film school I realized I didn't want to be on set lol. So I'm an editor. I'm glad I got the production experience though.

 

[briolson]

I thought I wanted to be a director and then in film school I realized I didn't want to be on set lol. So I'm an editor. I'm glad I got the production experience though.

Lol. I'm still figuring it out. I feel like there is so much freedom that comes with being "just" a writer.

 

[kingofsweaters]

Hello friend! A fellow writer here. As horrible as it can be production is really really important for writers to have familiarity with especially depending on your personal goals. Which I suppose begs the question what are your goals?

So much of the writing work in the industry is in TV and having some working production knowledge is a benefit to the TV ecosystem. Plus if you’re at all interested in showrunning you need full breadth knowledge. Not to mention production activities let you practice your people skills which will serve you well as a writer pitching to get your projects sold, optioned, or produced.

I totally relate to wanting to just shut in and write, but the part of my brain that wants to make money and to have a career is happy for the last 10+ years of production I’ve had and the very stressful AFI cycle production process I’m currently experiencing.

Be kind to yourself. This is temporary but what you’re learning from it is not! You got this.

 

[briolson]

Hello friend! A fellow writer here. As horrible as it can be production is really really important for writers to have familiarity with especially depending on your personal goals. Which I suppose begs the question what are your goals?

So much of the writing work in the industry is in TV and having some working production knowledge is a benefit to the TV ecosystem. Plus if you’re at all interested in showrunning you need full breadth knowledge. Not to mention production activities let you practice your people skills which will serve you well as a writer pitching to get your projects sold, optioned, or produced.

I totally relate to wanting to just shut in and write, but the part of my brain that wants to make money and to have a career is happy for the last 10+ years of production I’ve had and the very stressful AFI cycle production process I’m currently experiencing.

Be kind to yourself. This is temporary but what you’re learning from it is not! You got this.

Hello fellow writer. Right now, my goal is to have three features of mine produced. I'm not clear whether I want to direct them but I'm moving forward as if I do (i.e. I'm writing/directing the proof of concept shorts). Today, I'm working on a shot list and shooting schedule for a short I'm directing next week and it's a drag. I keep thinking "someone else should be doing this". Perhaps that's imposter syndrome or maybe I'm just lazy (?). Either way, I know I'm not going to drop out of the program but it's clear it won't be as easy as sitting in a cafe working on a script then workshopping it with a writing group.

Cool that you are at AFI! A writer-acquaintance of mine is a year ahead of you (Yun Suh).

 

[kingofsweaters]

Hello fellow writer. Right now, my goal is to have three features of mine produced. I'm not clear whether I want to direct them but I'm moving forward as if I do (i.e. I'm writing/directing the proof of concept shorts). Today, I'm working on a shot list and shooting schedule for a short I'm directing next week and it's a drag. I keep thinking "someone else should be doing this". Perhaps that's imposter syndrome or maybe I'm just lazy (?). Either way, I know I'm not going to drop out of the program but it's clear it won't be as easy as sitting in a cafe working on a script then workshopping it with a writing group.

Cool that you are at AFI! A writer-acquaintance of mine is a year ahead of you (Yun Suh).

Well, you are right that’s not your job. So, you’re also right to think someone else should be doing this. As the director yes you should be involved, but there should definitely be other collaborators. I’m sure you know but filmmaking isn’t the kind of thing that one person can do alone.

So, yes, if that’s your experience then the way you feel is completely understandable. It won’t anlways be this way. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself. If you’re not there’s no reason to do what you’re doing. I know how easy that is to forget.

Also, I would caution you that proof of concepts can launch films, but they’re not a sure thing. Try to get it into Proof or a similar program to get the right people attached. Be proactive but also know that this isn’t a sprint it’s a marathon so don’t burn yourself up. There are plenty of programs that will help you make features with just quality writing. If writing is what you love you absolutely can craft a path just writing and getting feedback.

 

[briolson]

Well, you are right that’s not your job. So, you’re also right to think someone else should be doing this. As the director yes you should be involved, but there should definitely be other collaborators. I’m sure you know but filmmaking isn’t the kind of thing that one person can do alone.

So, yes, if that’s your experience then the way you feel is completely understandable. It won’t anlways be this way. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself. If you’re not there’s no reason to do what you’re doing. I know how easy that is to forget.

Also, I would caution you that proof of concepts can launch films, but they’re not a sure thing. Try to get it into Proof or a similar program to get the right people attached. Be proactive but also know that this isn’t a sprint it’s a marathon so don’t burn yourself up. There are plenty of programs that will help you make features with just quality writing. If writing is what you love you absolutely can craft a path just writing and getting feedback.

I'm googling "Proof" right now -- do you mean the film festival in LA? I had never heard of it! Thanks for the tip and I'd love to know of similar programs if you know them off the top of your head.

Obviously, I'm counting on my sprint to a sure thing!! hahaha... but seriously, I've been pretty good about watching my mental health this semester and resting when I'm overwhelmed.

Stony Brook has a micro budget track in the 3rd year where you write/direct/produce a feature --- that's what I'm planning on doing. I don't have the network or finances to do it without the support of my grad program.

p.s. i finished my shot list and have enlisted the help of an experienced AD to create the shooting schedule. next on my list is reviewing actors self-tape auditions and choosing my two actors.

 

[briolson]

I've been posting weekly updates about my Stony Brook MFA journey on Facebook (yes, I'm still on Facebook) and it was suggested to me by the Exec Director that they might be useful for anyone considering the program so I'm going to post them in this thread.


WEEK ONE

I survived my first week of grad school.

Also survived the first week at my internship with Flynn Picture Co where I'm doing script coverage on some pretty impressive scripts and getting to participate in the inner workings of a Hollywood production company.


WEEK TWO

Week 2 of grad school

I’m considering winning the lottery so that I can get an apartment that is a short walk to class. At least the commute is beautiful.

WEEK THREE

Week 3 of grad school has been traversed. My program includes directing and production classes despite the fact that I'm on the screenwriting track. I figured this is good since some great screenwriters (Diablo Cody, Aaron Sorkin) have turned to directing in addition to writing. And Michael Arndt, who wrote Little Miss Sunshine (one of my favorite films), claimed that he wanted to direct it but he had no reel to prove he could do it.
All that said, production is really such a big to-do. It's tons of prep, long days, early call times. Really such a hassle.
I don't know what my point is... I don't want to phone-in my directing homework, but right now it's the writing that brings me the most joy (also despair).


WEEK FOUR

And just like that... there goes Week 4 in my MFA program. I was presented with two different thought experiments from my directing professor: 1. If you had unlimited resources to make a movie but only one year to live, what film would you make? 2. If someone you love was dying in the hospital and you could only communicate to them with a movie, what would you make?
Naturally, I had two different answers - the answer to #1 was a bit more egotistical and ever-so-tragic and the answer to #2 was more uplifting and life-affirming.
As I wrote in my application letter, my goal is to really nail down my voice and POV by the end of the program and these two questions really got me thinking about what I want to say and who I want to say it to.

WEEK SIX

My almost-post-week-six-of-grad-school thought:
I’m a fan of on-screen romance. Whether its a rom-com series like the brilliant NOBODY WANTS THIS, a romantic drama feature like SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, or even the coming-of-age series THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY.
My love of romance might be the most normie thing about me. Or at least it feels like the most normie girlie-coded thing about me.
Two weeks ago, I shot a “first kiss” scene and again this weekend I’m leaning into a kissing scene with the same actors (who are so generous to volunteer their time).
As a viewer, I clap for kissing scenes and as a filmmaker I want to be part of that magic.
Not saying I’m going to be developing romance ideas exclusively from here forward only that I’m going to let my normie flag fly on set tomorrow.

WEEK SEVEN

I’m halfway through my first semester in Killer Films’ MFA program and it was a real roller coaster of a week. I felt doubt, I felt regret, I felt exhaustion and by Thursday I felt something just shy of triumph.

We shot 8 projects last weekend and it had me thinking I made the wrong decision to chose a full-time in-person production-focused school over a low residency writing curriculum I could have attended online. On top of that the scripts I’m reading for my internship feel like a slog when I don’t really like them that much. I’d much rather be developing the stories I’ve been writing and want to see produced.
I felt sorry for myself for about 24 hours and considered cutting my losses. But now that my projects are edited and my coverage written, I’m feeling better and relieved to have a long weekend coming up (even though I’m feeling kinda achy and might have caught the bug that’s been going around my class).

Today I spent the afternoon shooting my penultimate Directing project (a video portrait of Michael Pope at his art installation). And soon I’ll be fully focusing on my final short which I hope to be an ultra low budget proof-of-concept for a feature I’m working on. Woo.
For those of you keeping track (me), that’s 7 weeks down and 77 to go.

WEEK EIGHT

I spent an afternoon with Michael Pope last weekend and made a 3 minute documentary portrait of him at his site-specific installation called "Page 15: The Catalyst" that is located on Jen Hicks property in Saugerties, NY.

It was filmed to fulfill a short "doc style" assignment in my directing class.

Then I had some days off and no productions this weekend which means I can exhale a bit and do what I really want to do: laze about and write.
Adios to week 8 of graduate film school.

WEEK NINE

Wrapping up Week #9 at Stony Brook Manhattan. Yesterday the Executive Director asked me to keep-up the writing about my journey and also to post to filmschool.org. I’m gonna do it so I can be a resource to anyone considering this specific MFA program or any film school at all. I want to put up a new website with a few of my music videos on it prior to writing more about my ever-evolving feelings on directing and production so that’s on my todo list now too. (My last site collapsed after a system-wide Wordpress update.)

This week was dominated by rewrites which means I got an experience closer to what a pure screenwriting program would feel like. I don’t think I took one of my rewrites as far as my instructor wanted me too. That’s not specific to my script- she wanted everyone to completely pull apart their first draft. But I was pretty happy with mine after incorporating the notes that resonated and it’s something we are going to shoot and I’m putting a bit of money into it so I don’t want to rewrite just for the sake of rewriting. I’m not as precious with my other script (the one I’m not shooting) so if my class consensus is that I should do a complete overhaul on that one- then I will.

In producer Christine Vachon’s masterclass she repeated filmmaker Alexander Payne’s warning to directors to never write for money. Because most likely your project is going to get stuck in development hell and it will never get made. I repeated this story to Michael and he confirmed that he knew Todd Phillips wouldn’t write for money when he was coming up in NYC. Another reason to lean into being a writer/director as opposed to be “just” a writer. But also money is nice.

In internship news, I read 2 scripts which I gave a coveted “Consider” score. I’m being exposed to a lot of horror and action- premises I wouldn’t read on purpose- and being completely impressed by their execution. These scripts are higher quality than the ones I judge for Austin Film Festival. It’s so important because if I want to be a pro writer I’m gonna have to compete with the pros. A couple weeks ago I was considering quitting the internship but now I’m thinking about applying to do it again next semester. What a rollercoaster ride.

I also applied for a paid gig doing script coverage but there were many, many who applied on LinkedIn before me so it’s a long shot.
And now for my favorite part of week… the part that doesn’t require pants… the weekend

WEEK TEN

Week 10 at SBU. My priority this week has been casting and location scouting for my semester’s final short. The casting process has been illuminating. I had 150+ responses on Backstage despite being a very low paying student film. Then I had several of those folks send in a self-tape with sides from my script. It was so cool to see all these different types of women bring my characters to life and say words that I wrote.
We shoot in a week and I’m trying to wear my producer’s hat as well- planning for everything that might go wrong. Might have convinced Michael Pope to come on board as Assistant Director just to keep the day running smoothly. Fingers crossed.

Now back on with my director’s hat so I can finalize my shotlist by the end of the day.

Then on Sunday I’ll be Sound Gal for my classmate’s final to be shot in New Jersey.

Living that filmmaking life, baby.

WEEK ELEVEN

Staying the night in a cheap Chinatown hotel because in the morning we are shooting my short film TASTE at a chic apartment on the Lower East Side. This version of the film is the ultrashort location-specific version of the one that advanced in several screenwriting contests.

Michael is here with me as my Assistant Director helping me get my shot list in order. Making a coherent shooting schedule is basically like trying to speak a foreign language... I don't have the knack for it and I'd rather someone do it for me.

I've been consumed with producing all week and tomorrow hopefully I can focus on just being a director. Wish me luck!!

WEEK TWELVE

Working on an assembly edit of my short film TASTE this weekend. I was on set for three short films last weekend, including my own. The weekend prior to that I recorded sound for a short and I’m happy to report that I did a good job despite my lack of Sound Guy energy.

One cute thing: my directing group has taken to hugging each other which is so adorable. I stopped hugging friends once COVID hit and it was nice to do it again.

Also, I’ve officially decided to not intern next semester. I have some ambitious writing goals I want to focus on and I’m already psyched to have more time to write.

Ok that’s week 12 of 14 finished for the semester — back to editing…

WEEK THIRTEEN

Wrapping up another week at SBU.

Tuesday was a table read day. Everyone in my Advance Party class designed a character then each of us wrote different scripts including some or most of those characters. It was a fun exercise piloted by Lars Von Trier and his European dogme filmmaker friends. My character BIJOUX was played by Ksena Samborska from William Esper Studio. If I ever teach a screenwriting class, I’ll include an Advance Party assignment for sure.

In addition to that I have a rewrite and a first draft due tomorrow. And I had a rough cut due yesterday. I’m already on top of that, not stressed.

On Tuesday, I pitch a feature project to Christine Vachon and our masterclass. It’s a project I’ve been working on for a while so I really believe in it and I want it to be the first feature I direct. I’m not anxious about it yet but I will be by then end of the weekend (!)

 

[Chris W]

I've been posting weekly updates about my Stony Brook MFA journey on Facebook

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

We also have a user blog feature and that would be an AWESOME way to use it.

Blog Entries

Student Filmmaker Blogs

www.filmschool.org

Let me know if you have any questions on how to do it.

How to create your Blog on FilmSchool.org

Thanks to our wonderful Supporting Members we are now able to offer the Student Blog feature to all members on the site. All members can create a blog. This is the home for all your blog entries on the site. This blog's home page is here. Once you have a blog home page you can then create blog...

• Chris W
• Feb 27, 2022
• Category: Miscellaneous
• Blog: Example Blog - Your own Blog on FilmSchool.org

 

[Chris W]

I just remembered it's currently a feature for Supporting Members but if people would use it more I'd consider opening it up to all members.

 

[briolson]

I just remembered it's currently a feature for Supporting Members but if people would use it more I'd consider opening it up to all members.

I'd def use it. Let me know if you open it to all members.

 

[Chris W]

I'd def use it. Let me know if you open it to all members.

Done.

All FilmSchool.org members are now able to have their own blog on the site!

Thanks to our wonderful Supporting Members, we are now able to offer the Student Blog feature to all members of the site. You can use your blog to post entries about: Your experiences at film school Behind the scenes of films you are making Anything you want :) (about film or film school)...

www.filmschool.org

Let me know if you have any questions on how to create your blog and post blog entries.

 

[briolson]

Done.

All FilmSchool.org members are now able to have their own blog on the site!

Thanks to our wonderful Supporting Members, we are now able to offer the Student Blog feature to all members of the site. You can use your blog to post entries about: Your experiences at film school Behind the scenes of films you are making Anything you want :) (about film or film school)...

www.filmschool.org

Let me know if you have any questions on how to create your blog and post blog entries.

Awesome -- I'm sick right now but when I recover I'll start with my first post summarizing the semester.

 

[Chris W]

Awesome -- I'm sick right now but when I recover I'll start with my first post summarizing the semester.

Sorry to hear that you're sick! Hope you feel better soon.

I'm sure people will find those blog entries very helpful and maybe it'll inspire others to share their own experiences too on their own blog.

 

[briolson]

Here's a final update before I move over to this site's blog feature:

So close to ending my semester in Killer Films’ MFA program, only two more classes next week. We had a screening of our Directing class’ short films on Wednesday and afterwards a bunch of us went out and I sang karaoke for the first time in my life. A week prior to that I pitched my feature (a fantasy-drama called SLEEPING MOTHER) to Christine Vachon and got her notes on how to improve my pitch. She said the concept was very original and everyone was overall enthusiastic about it which is heartening. Next week I’ll pitch the same feature to Beau Flynn of Flynn Picture Company.

Killer Films’ had some wins this week so I’m attaching a screengrab of producer Ted Hope singing their praises. We started out the semester with a screening of A DIFFERENT MAN and then got to have a Q&A with the director so I feel quite lucky to be seeing the industry from an insider’s perspective. A year ago I was putting together my application and wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to go back to school but look at me now.

 

[briolson]

Ok, I think I successfully posted a blog-- I'll continue updating over there.

My first semester at Stony Brook / Killer Films' MFA program in NYC

My first semester at Stony Brook

www.filmschool.org