A summer bootcamp for screenwriting — Division of Humanities and Fine Arts

By Noe Padilla

As summer courses begin at UC Santa Barbara, the Department of Film and Media Studies has launched a new Storytelling for the Screen Summer Institute, which kicked off this week with its first offering: Advanced Television Writing.

The new course is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center and the Brad Silberling Storytelling for the Screen Fund. Silberling graduated from UCSB in 1984. He is an accomplished writer, producer, and director, who produced the 1995 family classic Casper and directed box office hits such as City of Angels and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Conceived of as a six-week capstone course classes for senior and graduating students, the intensive seminar is divided into two different courses. It’s also gated behind an application process which requires students to have completed a screenwriting course and to submit a TV series idea and a five-page writing sample from a screenplay or television script.

The first course, Storytelling for the Screen, is taught by UCSB lecturer James McNamara and focuses on teaching students how to develop and write a television pitch bible for an original scripted show. The second course, Workshop for the Screen, is taught by UCSB instructor Wendy Jackson who will teach students how to write a pilot script using their pitch bible. The summer capstone is being taught remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Patrice Petro, director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, said the Summer Institute screenwriting workshop has been a long time coming, carefully developed by faculty members.

Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center Patrice Petro. Photo courtesy of Petro.

“For at least a decade or more there have been talks about how to do this and how they didn’t want it to be in the regular curriculum,” Petro said. “They wanted it to be something that was very special that would feature a major screenwriter or bring in a series of screenwriters who would come in and talk to students.”

This year, the program focuses on writing for television out of a desire to honor the namesakes of the Carsey-Wolf Center: Marcy Carsey and Dick Wolf two titans of the television industry.

“We thought ‘let’s start by focusing on writing for television’ since it’s about the collaborative process so students will learn how to actually get a job in writing for television and learn how to work in a writers room,” Petro said.

For this year’s inaugural capstone course, the department is bringing in three veteran screenwriters from the world of television as guest lecturers: Jane Espenson, Cheri Steinkellner, and John Strauss. Petro said there are future plans for guest speakers to stay in residence for sections of the courses.

Espenson has worked as a television writer and producer, and is best known for her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The O.C, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time, and other series.

Steinkellner is an award-winning writer and producer best known for her work on Cheers and for creating Disney’s Teacher’s Pet. She has earned four Emmy awards, two Golden Globes, a Writers Guild, People’s Choice, World Animation, British Academy Award, and the 2017 Inspiration Award.

Strauss is a writer and producer and is best known for writing the screenplay to Santa Clause II, Santa Clause III, and producing Mozart in the Jungle.

The department plans to offer this course every summer, although Petro says the focus of the capstone may change each year. She said that it all depended on which writers and producers are chosen for each year’s class.

Although this year’s program filled up incredibly fast, the department does not plan to expand its size. The goal is to provide an environment in which students are able to get personalized attention, for a “richer experience and understanding.”

In addition to the Summer Institute, the department is looking into new courses, such as revamping the Blue Horizons project for documentary filmmaking about the environment. In recent years, the several new professors who focus in environmental film have joined the department, whose expertise will be incorporated into the program. The Blue Horizons program has taught students the intricate balance of producing and understanding environmental filmmaking. Its new version will be under a new name which has yet to be decided, but the core philosophy continues.

Noe Padilla has just graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in philosophy and a certificate in journalism. He worked as the news editor for The Bottom Line student newspaper and as a web and social media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts