SCREENWRITING

The Screenwriting certificate of achievement provides students with the skills for writing a feature film, television series, or short film project.  Students will be guided from the initial stage of ‘spitballing’ their ideas, to ‘breaking’ their stories, to outlining them, and from there to writing their scripts, beginning with “FADE IN,” and ending with “FADE OUT.”   

Once their rewrites are completed, students will be able not only to seek representation by agents and managers, but also submit their scripts to screen- and teleplay competitions designed to introduce new writers to content producers in the film and television industries.  This is a highly competitive field in which employment is mostly freelance. Jobs include: Staff Writer, Freelance Screenwriter, Story Analyst, Freelance Television Writer, Animation Writer, Copywriter, Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations. 

Program Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Design strategies for developing and creating written projects for sale to film and/or television, and tailoring projects for the distinct and diverse audiences of the various studios, networks, and platforms. 
   
2. Evaluate their own and their fellow students’ scripts in a writing-workshop setting that replicates the development process in feature filmmaking and in scripted television production.  
   
3. Demonstrate awareness of screen- and teleplay competitions that are followed by content buyers, agents, and managers, along with an understanding of the various diversity writing workshops available at the major studios and broadcast networks.  
   
4. Differentiate the historical, cultural, and economic influences on the media. Evaluate film and genre history to become conversant with the industry’s most-produced and -popular film and television genres. 
   

DEPT & COURSE NUMBER	TITLE	2018-19 SECTIONS	2018-19 ENROLLMENT TOTAL	2019-20 SECTIONS	2019-20 ENROLLMENT TOTAL
CINEMA 001	INTRODUCTION TO MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION	9	353	8	327
CINEMA 002	BEGINNING MOTION PICTURE WORKSHOP	8	245	8	206
CINEMA 003	HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES	18	752	17	797
T V 025-1	TELEVISION AND FILM DRAMATIC WRITING I	2	37	2	31
CINEMA 018	INTRODUCTION TO FILM GENRES	3	63	3	89
ENGLISH 101	COLLEGE READING AND COMPOSITION I	94	2800	119	3242
CINEMA 005	INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING	4	99	4	83
ENGLISH 127	CREATIVE WRITING	1	22	0	N/A
ENGLISH 240	LITERATURE AND THE MOTION PICTURE I	1	32	1	35

We anticipate 10 projected students or “annual completers” each year (based on enrollment data). 

The Screenwriting certificate of achievement is designed to provide students with advanced skills in: writing scripts in either medium, evaluating their own and others’ projects, knowledge of content buyers in either medium, and finding representation. Jobs include Staff Writer, Freelance Screenwriter, Story Analyst, Freelance Television Writer, Animation Writer, Copywriter, Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations. 

LACC has offered specific screen- and television writing courses since 1995. Other forms of writing for broadcasting go back to at least 1978. Cinema 005, Introduction to Screenwriting, has long been a requirement for students seeking to write those two short films that they will produce later in our portfolio courses, Cinema 033 and Television 055.  LACC’s other screen-/TV writing classes—T V 025-1, Dramatic Writing for Film and Television, Beginning section, and T V 025-2, Dramatic Writing for Film and Television, Advanced section—have been offered since 2013.  In these two classes, students have the option of writing a feature film, or an original television pilot, or an episode of an existing series on ‘speculation.’   

This certificate of achievement is a transcriptable, robust career credential that could also be applied toward an AA Cinema or Television Production degree, if students fulfill general education requirements.  This is important for our students, since many have jobs and families, and may have to ease their way into a degree. We already offer AA degrees in Cinema Production and in Television Production. Given our student demographics—older students, returning students, and students looking for Career Technical Education—a Certificate of Achievement in Screen- and Television Writing makes sense by allowing students to complete a higher level of credentialing in order to enter the highly competitive job market in Los Angeles, center of the entertainment industry.  At Los Angeles City College, departments are increasingly encouraged to develop Certificates of Achievement, primarily in CTE and career technical fields. Besides preparing students for the job market efficiently, it helps structure, align, and speed up the time spent in school. 

In the past several years, two LACC screenwriting students advanced to the semi-finals of the country’s single most prestigious screenwriting program, the Motion Picture Academy’s Nicholl Fellowships Program (https://www.oscars.org/nicholl), and six made the quarter-finals.  Three students advanced to the second round of the annual Austin Film Festival, another highly prestigious competition.  As of this writing, nine of our graduates have completed MFA programs in screen- and television writing, at NYU, San Francisco State, UC Riverside, Cal State Northridge, among other universities.  And, three of our graduates have just begun MFA programs in Film and Television at USC and Loyola Marymount.  This type of student success offers ample testimony to the worth of our current curriculum. 

The LACC Cinema/TV Department was awarded an unprecedented $2 million donation from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/hfpa-gives-endowment-los-angeles-city-college). The support of the HFPA continues with annual LACC student-awarded fellowships, Golden Globe™ internships, and other interactions special events. 

In view of the geographical proximity of the LACC campus to the Hollywood community, we are uniquely positioned to provide excellent entertainment industry training, affiliations, and interactions. 

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
CINEMA 001	INTRODUCTION TO MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION	3	S1
CINEMA 002	BEGINNING MOTION PICTURE WORKSHOP	3	S1
CINEMA 003	HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES	3	S1
T V 025-1	TELEVISION AND FILM DRAMATIC WRITING I	3	S1
CINEMA 018	INTRODUCTION TO FILM GENRES	3	S2
T V 025-2	TELEVISION AND FILM DRAMATIC WRITING II	3	S2
ENGLISH 101	COLLEGE READING AND COMPOSITION I	3	S2
CINEMA 005	INTRODUCTION TO SCREENWRITING	3	S3
ENGLISH 127, OR ENGLISH 240	CREATIVE WRITING LITERATURE AND THE MOTION PICTURE I	3	S3

No inventory records will need to be made inactive. No similar programs are offered by the college.

LA Valley College is the only other two-year school in the LA/OC area that offers a specific certificate of achievement in screenwriting. They offer a 24-unit certificate of achievement in Media Arts Screenwriting. Many other LA/OC schools offer single classes in screenwriting; and many offer certificates in journalism and public relations that have a writing component. Outside of the LACCD we see only generalized cinema production certificates, with none in screenwriting. Our campus is directly under the Hollywood sign and our students would greatly benefit from this specialized certificate. LAVC Media Arts Department was notified of this certificate via NOI on 05/23/17: Dan Watanabe (LA Region Deputy Sector Navigator and LAVC Media Arts Dept.)

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