What I learned during UCLA’s Professional Program in Producing

I'm the black one.

Two weeks ago, I finished an amazing program, the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s Professional Program in producing. My 50+ classmates and I were met with a fairly rigorous schedule: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., four nights a week, for 10 weeks. Personally, I didn’t go to film school, unlike quite a few of my classmates. This IS my film school. So I was pretty grateful to learn as much as possible, despite the fact that I was exhausted half the time.

At the end of 10 weeks, my UCLA two-subject notebook is now filled, cover to cover, with notes, lecture quotes, budgets, handouts, lists, diagrams, and reminders. I cannot fully encapsulate the things I learned — – it was a good amount of information — but here are the things that stick out to me, looking back.

UCLA, Here I Come — But on a More Regular Basis!

This afternoon, I received my acceptance letter to UCLA’s professional program in producing, run by the School of Theater, Film and Television — booyah!!!

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been beaming all day. First, my mom liked my spec script and now this?!

SGFS Quarter Two

Today I dropped off a packet for CBS’s Writers Mentor Program, which I am treating as a final exam. I was able to take today off, so I could put some more fixes on my Modern Family spec, salvage what I could of a short film script I wrote a while ago, and send my (notarized!) packet out. I have little confidence in that short film, but at least I had the two required pieces. And despite everything, that spec ended up pretty dern good!

So now I’m moving on to Quarter Two of Self Guided Film School. As you can see, I have most of my books ready:

And now we wait

Wednesday, I handed in the final draft of my Modern Family spec. I’m really happy with it — at least the first two acts. I know Act 3 can use some work, but I’m happy with the fact that it doesn’t need an entire bulldozing — just a sprucing, thanks to my husband, who is a JOKE MACHINE. So now, I’m waiting for my grade on that. I’d be happy with an B, but I’m really hoping for a A.

And then today, I gathered all of my materials for the UCLA summer producer’s program: my (redesigned) resume, an application form, the application fee, transcripts from Oswego and UCLA Extension, and my labor of love, the admissions essay.

How did I do it? Read more…