Category Archives: Questions

A fellow BFILMSTUDENT reader wrote me

“I am 24 and want to be a professional screenwriter. I have absolutely no idea how to get started. Ive taken all of the community college screenwriting and theory classes i can here in AZ, but I want a legit screenwriting degree. Not so much for the certificate, more for the experience of being around others like me and finding out how to properly go about writing and selling/producing a feature length film. Please help me.”

Well my friend, being a screenwriter isn’t going to be easy. I was once a writer myself, but I decided to go into directing because I just found that much more engaging.

Anyway, the best place to be when your starting out screenwriting is to go to California. Because unless you’ve made serious money with a film you had complete writing power over, you can’t live in Arizona and expect Hollywood to pay you for your scripts.

Since you want to go to school, I suggest you go and check out Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Its a wonderful school and just recently got a crap ton of money and now have high tech facilities and equipment, along with meeting people like yourself who also want to write for films. You can get a masters in screenwriting there, however I’m not sure on the details.

However, if your a great writer, then the people in Hollywood won’t care if you have a degree or not. They will just pay you to write regardless.

If your really up for it, I also recommend learning all aspects of the filmmaking process rather than just the focus on screenwriting. Its best to know as much as you can about films and filmmaking before you try and take the dive into the shark infested waters of Development Hell. Because as a writer, thats the most active part of production you’ll be in.

I hope this helps.

Feel free to ask me any more questions via the Requests/Questions page!

-MC