USC vs AFI vs NYU Screenwriting Culture & Self Censorship

[Dean]

@Dean

First of all, thanks for sharing! It really benefits to see different perspectives. I've got to ask, though, why did you apply two years in a row? I mean, you do sound critical of a quite a few aspects of studying at Dramatic Writing.

By the way, it's my second attempt, too. I got virtually ignored in four schools the first time around. I know how crushing it feels, but hey — the protagonist must go through the ordeal and so on in order to ultimately prevail ;-)

Sorry I stayed away from this forum for a few days. I want to apologize for my little rant, did not want to offend anyone and obvious my view was biased. As I said, I think NYU has great teacher and they really have an eye for great ideas and scripts and they embody great working ethics (they always tell you: Write! Write! Write! I have nothing against their teaching but I was just a little tried of the bleak tales the students tend to make there. I mentioned this point to Anna Thomas and Michael Urban as well, that students in the East Coast tend to make more tales about family or social tradegies, and they agreed with me. The movies they make are not the type that I would take my girlfriend to watch on a date night. Maybe writing them was a cathartic experience for them and I respect that. I just wish people in the film schools make more entertaining films because this industry is called entertainment for a reason.

 

[Chris W]

Copied out this amazing discussion from the main AFI 2019 thread so it doesn't get lost for posterity. Some great stuff here.