Today is the first day of Screenwriting Summer School. Admission is free and attendance is optional. The text I’ll be using mostly isn’t a text at all, but videos from The Dialogue Series: Learning from the Masters. The series (81 of the top screenwriters working today) was produced several years ago and until earlier this month you had to pay for them. Now a chunk of the complete interviews are available for free on The Dialogue Series You Tube channel.
Not many people know about this yet as some of these videos only have 11 views as I type this—most have under 100 views. I’m not a big fan of just tossing videos on this blog, so I’ll try to find one quote or one insight that jumps out at me that I hope you find helpful.
Since I touched on the movie Erin Brockovich this week it seems fitting to have screenwriter Susannah Grant lead off our first summer school class. One take away from this video is when Grant starts a script she has a certain amount of “confusion” and “uncertainty”—something she heard was how Oscar-winning screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People, Julia) was as he started writing a new screenplay. (And just to show how writers have different processes, check out post Dustin Lance Black Screenwriting Tutorial to see how he works through the confusion and uncertainty for months before he actually starts typing the script.)
The road Grant took to success had stops at Amherst College (undergraduate) and AFI (grad school). Amhert’s website lists its comprehensive fee (room, board, tuition) for 2014-2015 at $60,400 making a total cost of their four year degree just over $240,000. AFI’s website lists total costs for a first year fellow at $73,594, and the second year adds a thesis credit of $9,218 making the cost of the two year program just over $150,000. So in today’s dollars Grant’s education is in ballpark of $400,000.
I don’t know what Grant’s education costs were back when she went to school in the ’80s— or what scholarships, grants, and/or loans she had—but she sure got a nice return on her investment. But it would be an interesting to hear how Grant would answer if she’d recommend the same route today to a young female writer who had a desire to write screenplays. (Especially in light of the recent WGAW report.) Extra credit to anyone who can find that answer.
Screenwriting from Iowa 
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