Writing

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With a conservatory approach, our screenwriting program is unique in design, practice, and philosophy. Throughout the program, our writers experiment across genres, explore their voices, and build a body of work. With small classes of up to ten writers, we offer individualized attention, encouraging our writers to take risks on the page, strengthen idea generation, broaden their aesthetic ambitions, and balance incubation and collaboration to create their most vital works.

 

1st Fall Semester
During their foundational semester, our screenwriters dive in alongside production students. They will: write short films to be shot, designed, produced, and edited by fellow student specialists; shadow roles on set; and work as the writer on set for their own short film.

 

1st Spring Semester
After a fully immersive first semester, they move into their specialization, where they: ideate, develop, and write a full-length feature; study the craft of screenwriting with a focus on story; and study the art of adaptation across genres.

1st Summer Semester
The curriculum opens up to include writing for television. This semester they will: develop their own pilot; take an open-genre workshop focusing on TV or feature writing.

During the first summer, partnerships develop around the FSU Feature Program. FSU is the only film school in the country with an opportunity for a third year in which a select group of students shoot a full-length feature film. All students are invited to team up, develop ideas, and pitch in the fall of Year Two. A few teams are selected to develop their concept further, and one concept is chosen to be produced. Writers collaborate with their teams and stay on for the Fall semester of a third year during the film’s shooting. The College fully covers tuition for this third Fall semester.

 

2^nd Fall Semester
Writers continue to develop skills, both creatively and critically. They take a TV Writers Room Simulation Course, rotating through roles and writing episodes another open-genre workshop focusing on TV or feature writing; and a coverage course aimed at clear industry-specific communication.

 

2^nd Spring Semester
Writers focus on drama, revision, and pitching. Coursework includes an Hour-Long Drama course; a course solely devoted to revising their most substantial script; and a course in the art of pitching, culminating in the LA Intensive.

The LA Intensive: With airfare, hotel, travel, and a stipend covered by the College, our writers spend ten days in LA, pitching to industry professionals, getting valuable feedback in workshops with prestigious alumni, and connecting with our strong alumni network.

 

Second Summer Semester
Writers have a class with a Los Angeles-based manager while spending the summer engaged in one creative endeavor: writing their thesis.

 

Upon graduation, each student is assigned a mentor and offered connections to internships in the industry. Students are awarded a stipend to enter work into a curated list of prestigious screenwriting contests and fellowships. Our screenwriters have won prizes and fellowships from Humanitas, the Nicholls Fellowship, the Museum of the Moving Image, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among others.

 

All of our writers graduate having written one short film that has been produced; a full-length feature; a first act of an original pilot with complete treatment; an hour-long drama; and, collaboratively, two episodes of a TV show. If their focus has been writing for television, they will have written two additional television pilots, one of which has been thoroughly revised, and a full pitch for an original television show. If their focus has been writing features, they will have written two additional features, one of which has been fully revised, and at least one full pitch developed for an original feature film.

 

Our writers also have opportunities to potentially co-write a five-minute film and/or thesis with a directing specialist and collaborate on a fully-funded feature-length film for the Third Year Feature.