Criteria For UCLA's 434 Screenwriting Class by UCLA Professor Richard Walter Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

Richard every year we understand you
have what 400 plus screen writing
applicants well they're going up they
are rising and they have reached into
the four hundreds over the last several
years yeah we don't expect it to go down
so one week oh we're gonna be able to
consider all of those applications but
do go on well then we understand you
Whittle it down to what is it a hundred
and then from there another fifty mm
right we we get down to about a hundred
whom we will then interview and we will
admit about we admit about 25 to 30 each
year so if you get to the interview I
mean if that's an incredible thing just
to be interviewed it reflects real
upbeat view of your work by the
admissions committee which is to say the
faculty and and even then you only have
one in three a one in four chance of
really closer to one and four than one
in three chance of getting into the into
the program
happily we create it because there are
so many writers who are very capable for
whom we just don't have the room we
created some years ago a non-degree
program and the professional program in
screenwriting at UCLA and it's modeled
after this program it's same faculty for
the most part I don't I I lecture in the
program and I am the faculty director of
the program but mainly it's modeled on
the 4:34 structure with a lot a lot of
different instructors in it it's
configured in such a way as it connect
to be able to expand to accommodate as
many people as a qualify for it because
it's not controlled by the region since
it's not a degree program when I give in
credit so we're able it's a very good
way for us to be able to serve these
very very good writers whom we haven't
been able to admit simply because we're
not room for them we have because people
ask me why did I get in is my stuff
anyway you know my stuff's no good no
your stuff is great it's just that we
have a look
writers with great stuff that we have
slots in the in the in the program what
are some of the questions that you're
asking these applicants and what are you
looking for well let me let me just
answer you this way they were really
four criteria that we look at but and we
don't even we don't really care very
much about three of them we don't care
too terribly much about grade point
average lots of writers aren't great
students I never got great grades in
college I did okay and now I'm a big
shot super tenured super senior you know
college professor and I have had I wish
the worst student in our program should
have my career you know that would be a
good thing for them I did support a
family and you no matter have never had
to drive a cab or carry a tray well I
when I was a college student I was a
waiter and there's nothing scandalous or
shameful about driving a cab or carrying
a tray but it is nice to actually make a
living as a writer the so went up it's
very interested in grade point average
we're not very interested in test scores
GREs and whatever they got again writers
aren't really terribly good test takers
and then we're not terribly interested
in recommendations and references
believe it or not because most of them
are pretty much pro forma you know
smartest woman in my creative writing
class the a lot of them do seem to be
sort of I mean we got one from a very
very famous person in the business and
we respect his initials of Steven
Spielberg it's funny because our
students have written ten projects with
Steven Jurassic Park one Jurassic well
two Jurassic Park three Indiana Jones -
in the end of those three the terminal
more the worlds
Munich eagle-eye Steven Purdue's
eagle-eyed and directed an amazing
stories which was a whole TV series that
he created directed some of them and
Steven recommended a particular writer
but it was in one application some years
ago but it seemed pretty pro forma you
know it looked like it was doing a
family favor for a friend
it took about how bright and what fun
and sincere in this and that and the
hata and we did not admit this person
had he said had a very prestigious
person like Steven Spielberg said this
woman was an intern in our office during
the Amistad movie and she sat in on the
story conferences and made substance of
substantive contributions to the tissues
of dialogue and from suggested the scene
with the plop of another did it oh we
would have grabbed her in a second but
that's exceptional that we get something
really substantive like that from a
prestigious person so but if it is a
substance of comment from a prestigious
person somebody well known to us and
respected by us that's helpful but
that's the exception usually it's it's
pro forma and it's sometimes it's even
negative it's astonishing to me I refuse
to write a negative review for anybody
if I absolutely can't support somebody
and this happens every ninth year you
know it's only having a handful of times
somebody's asks me for a review and I I
can't provide it I'll say to them you
think I'm the right guy to do this you
know I won't let up
others will I read I can't imagine why
Madeleine would ask me to recommend her
you know she showed no imagination at
all and in the dramatic writing class
that we had here at Tulane wherever it
is and then if they damned with faint
praise you know considering her
Herbert's limited ability the B - he got
in my career writing class represents
substantial
you know effort on his part and it even
gets worse than that
Marvin appears to have successfully
challenged his substance abuse issues
he's been sober since two o'clock this
afternoon as near as we're able to
figure I mean you know I'm exaggerating
me just a little bit there's one thing
we care so so we don't care a lot about
grade point average we don't care about
test scores we don't care a whole lot
about recommendations unless they're
again they're perceived people
substantively commenting upon the writer
all we really care about is the writing
sample and and most everybody submits
screenplays but you don't have to we're
looking for two things good language
skills you know what about real solid
command in English language and then
evidence of a fertile imagination we've
admitted people on the basis of poetry
and novels even add and catalogue copy
it's just as simple as that
everybody has to make a they submit
writing samples they also have to write
a personal statement it's called a
statement of purpose I used to think my
purpose is to get into the stupid
program what do you mean but we've
learned over the years that that can be
read as a writing sample people can be
very official and bureaucratic about it
henceforth somewhere too for and stuff
like that
or they can really break your heart with
a personal statement about what it is
that brought them to to writing I still
remember one woman writing that she was
the child of a hippie woman who really
was very inept as a mother for the first
three or four years but then we seem to
get it together and got a job but the
job was travelling around
the country's showing a line like a
fashion line for a particular designer
and so she spent many a Christmas Eve in
motels you know and in little towns
scattered all around the the country
however she still remembers how her
mother would decorate if they were gonna
be together on Christmas Eve you know in
Akron Ohio or somewhere the mother would
go out to the local private nine the
Woolworths if there was such a fig and
get tinsel in a tiny little tree that
would sit on the you know the desk in
the motel and they would decorate the
room together they put ups you know I
mean I'm gonna start to cry just
describing it to you it's so touching
and here we are talking about all these
years later would we admit somebody like
that in a heartbeat and you know she
went on to distinguish herself as a
really really good writer so the writing
the so-called statement of purpose which
the university requires us to seek we
can't just make up the application
anyway we want we do have to you know
fulfill the strictures that are placed
upon us by the university California
properly so and we learned how to see
that as an aspect of the writing sample
but again long-winded answer to your
question the answer is all we really
care about is the writing that's all we
care about
you