Arc of the Writer's Arc
I've been following The Writer's Arc fellowship program for a little while now, and am a fan of what they're trying to do. So I had been looking forward to checking their webpage yesterday to get the new Locations, Characters, and Props for Round 1 of the competition for this Fall.
But I went there and found that the start date had been pushed back a month and a half to June 16th. The program for this Fall has also been shortened -- to 10 weeks and $3000. I was curious what had prompted the changes. Had I bothered to poke around the website myself, I would have found an explanation, but instead I sent an email over to Amy Kane, one of the founders of the Arc. She responded promptly (and patiently, considering that the same information was available for me to have found on my own).
Amy and Ami (Vitori, the other founder) are constantly trying to improve the program, and since it is still a relatively new fellowship, they are doing a lot of tweaking. One of the recurring themes in the feedback they received was from people who wanted to workshop and rewrite a completed screenplay, as opposed to those who wanted to start and write one from scratch within the program.
So they decided to try that format for the Fall session of the fellowship. The program will be geared towards taking the scripts from Round 2 submissions, and rework them during the program. Since it would not be an original screenplay written from scratch, they decided that 10 weeks would be more appropriate than 16, and the money was reduced similarly. If it works, they may do one 10-week (rewrite) and one 16-week (new script) program each year. Or maybe they'll return to doing both as 16-weekers. Or some other option.
Sounds good to me! I will likely enter for this format, presumably with Hell on Wheels (now that I'm settled into the new apartment, I hope to buckle down on the writing more), and hope that I can get in and use the program to take the script (and my career) to the next level. The plan of the shorter Fall program (according to the announcement on the website) is also to "assist each Fellow in outling their next idea" so he or she can take the next professional step more easily.
So check back at the Writer's Arc website on June 16th!
Tags: Writer's+Arc, screenwriting, fellowships
But I went there and found that the start date had been pushed back a month and a half to June 16th. The program for this Fall has also been shortened -- to 10 weeks and $3000. I was curious what had prompted the changes. Had I bothered to poke around the website myself, I would have found an explanation, but instead I sent an email over to Amy Kane, one of the founders of the Arc. She responded promptly (and patiently, considering that the same information was available for me to have found on my own).
Amy and Ami (Vitori, the other founder) are constantly trying to improve the program, and since it is still a relatively new fellowship, they are doing a lot of tweaking. One of the recurring themes in the feedback they received was from people who wanted to workshop and rewrite a completed screenplay, as opposed to those who wanted to start and write one from scratch within the program.
So they decided to try that format for the Fall session of the fellowship. The program will be geared towards taking the scripts from Round 2 submissions, and rework them during the program. Since it would not be an original screenplay written from scratch, they decided that 10 weeks would be more appropriate than 16, and the money was reduced similarly. If it works, they may do one 10-week (rewrite) and one 16-week (new script) program each year. Or maybe they'll return to doing both as 16-weekers. Or some other option.
Sounds good to me! I will likely enter for this format, presumably with Hell on Wheels (now that I'm settled into the new apartment, I hope to buckle down on the writing more), and hope that I can get in and use the program to take the script (and my career) to the next level. The plan of the shorter Fall program (according to the announcement on the website) is also to "assist each Fellow in outling their next idea" so he or she can take the next professional step more easily.
So check back at the Writer's Arc website on June 16th!
Tags: Writer's+Arc, screenwriting, fellowships
posted by Fun Joel | 7:06 AM
3 Comments:
Sounds interesting. And logical, in that the real value of the program (and the writing process itself) is likely to come in the rewriting, rather than initial drafting. And it gives me an extra month to work on a new script for the second round.
Seems they also now have a blog in addition to the site:
http://blog.writersarc.org/
Looks cool!
Best of luck to you and your screenwriting aspirations (and with the "Writer's Arc" Fellowship.
We need more good scripts out there... more good movies!
I'll have to check out the link you provided for it later on.
Best Regards,
~Devin
The interesting thing is that you are being judged on your Round 2 script.... but it's the Round 2 script that is also to be workshopped and rewritten.
So it seems like the best submission might be one that has some good writing and some real potential but isn't quite there yet. Because if the script is perfect, why would they want you in the program?
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