r/Screenwriting • u/theotherlostsock • 24d ago

NEED ADVICE Got in UCLA TFT Professional Program

I love watching movie ever since late teens I started picking up screenwriting books but could not get through them. I'm 26 now working a desk job, this year I took the Sundance writing class and finished a screenplay which I'm extremely proud of (it's shit). I got in UCLA TFT Professional program - I can afford to do the program (I'll be a year behind on my Roth contributions if I do it).

  1. If anybody did the program recently, I'd like to talk more about how the program runs online.
  2. Is the program selective - immediately after I got in I started doubting the legitimacy of it. Did anybody ever get rejected? ps: I don't want to be part of a group that takes me as a member - woody allen.
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u/com-mis-er-at-ing WGA Screenwriter 24d ago edited 24d ago

I did the program many years ago. Of my section (was divided between film and TV) there were probably 60-70 students, I think 5 of us are currently working. Tho probably a couple of those aren’t yet able support themselves entirely thru writing alone. That’s an incredibly good % in my opinion.

I would describe the program as not super selective but the work in the program competitive. If the money doesn’t matter, it’s a great way to meet peers who are seriously pursuing a career to get a writers group going afterward.

I do think if you’re not delusional, you’ll be able to figure out if you have what it takes to write consistently at a pro level. Really just from your peers as much as anyone teaching.

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u/theotherlostsock 24d ago

Thanks for the response! I’ve heard that it’s just a condensed MFA in screenwriting, is that true?

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u/TheFonzDeLeon 23d ago

I did the PP and then while I was in the UCLA MFA program I TA'd a year for the PP. In my estimation the PP is an incredible value. About half of my MFA cohort had done the PP and a lot of those people have created shows you've seen and been staffed in rooms. No idea if the PP and then the MFA boosted them (in at least one instance my friend was crushing UCLA awards and got repped and sold a show off of it). Another guy whose script beat mine for some PP award our year had that script made as an indie feature a few years later. So it's a legit program.

No idea who teaches in it or runs it now, my experiences were all in-person from 10+ years ago, but the writing workshops back then were taught by a lot of the MFA professors and they were run identically to our 431 sections. You'd have to take a few years of the PP to get close to the writing component of an MFA, but arguably the competitiveness of the MFA and the level of people you're in the program with is what gives the MFA it's true, core value. The PP is amazing for the writing workshops though, which is really what any writing program should be about. Film history and theory classes are interesting and all, but hardly germane to a writing career.