Well, actually, two years and a week… on December 1st,
2012, I hit the two-year mark with the No MFA Project (which, in theory, means it's completed, since a typical MFA program is two years long.)
I’m willing to argue that in the past two years and one
week, I’ve made as much progress as I would have if I’d been in an MFA program
– if not more.
I want to look waaay back at the four key goals I set for
myself in December 2010 to see how I’ve stacked up.
- LEARN FILMMAKING SKILLS.
Done! Nowadays, if you’re aspiring to be a screenwriter,
this is essential - you need a calling card. Top dramatic writing MFA programs agree, which is why they
give screenwriting students the option to take filmmaking courses and require
short films (often by partnering them with film students) to be completed before
graduation.
I learned about filmmaking in a course at the Digital Film
Academy that cost $3,000. An added bonus was being able to use their film
equipment for free for the next year. I used it for paid film gigs and
personal projects alike.
I had hoped to finish a short film in the first year of the
No MFA Project, which didn’t happen, because I did need at least minimal
training first. Once I took this inexpensive and fabulous class, I completed
two shorts within the second year of my self-made program.
- CONNECTIONS WITH ALUMNI AND OTHER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS.
Even people who think school is stupid will often cave and
apply when they decide they need an alumni network to get ahead in life.
What I found is that, just by attending networking events
and taking several one-off courses, I’ve amassed a network that’s as helpful if
not more so than what I would have expected of an MFA program. I hold an MA in
publishing – and after $50k left that school without any real community to
speak of. I now have passionate people wanting to collaborate on projects and
move our careers forward. Earlier today, I attended a table reading of a sizzle
reel for a TV series. (I wrote the sizzle reel script.) A producer I met
through the DFA created the series and is working to get it picked up by a
network. He brought me onto the project as lead writer.
- PITCHING SCRIPTS.
This was something the Tisch MFA career center claimed to do
for students.
Granted, the school has connections, but isn’t the best
person to present your idea you? I tried to get practice doing this by
attending the Screenwriter’s World Conference last January and pitching to
different production and management companies. Four out of four went ahead and
requested my screenplays, so I’m confident in my pitching skills. (I’ve been
planning to do a post on how to pitch for a long while, and promise it’s coming
soon!)
- SHEER TIME TO WRITE/COMPLETE PROJECTS.
A huge plus of going back to school is that your time will
be devoted to writing and not sucked away by a crappy job. In my first year
doing No MFA, I completed one screenplay while also working full-time. Things
sped up in the second year when I left that job. I’ve now completed a second
screenplay, a novella, a bunch of articles and short scripts, and a major
revision of a screenplay I’d written years earlier. (Also, the two short
films.) Yes, I had to quit my job to get all that done… but I would have had to
quit to do an MFA anyway, and then I would have been buying time - literally.
This past week, I was offered a job at a cool film, art, and
fashion publishing house. I’m grappling with whether or not to take it since,
now that I’m doing so much writing, I don’t want to screw it up by having to
re-adjust to a fifty-hour work week and, essentially, be too exhausted to
write. (Of course, it would be nice to have the extra income for buying film
equipment, since my DFA membership will expire in two and a half months!)
More on this crossroads to come, but if I do wind up taking
the job, that ‘sheer time’ element will be out of my equation, and I’ll be
blogging on how to strike a balance between pursuing a creative career and
having a day job.
Check back soon for Part Two of this post, where I’ll talk
about the No MFA Project’s greatest successes and failures, what I would have
done differently, and what’s yet to be accomplished!
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