THE 2008 COSBY FELLOWSHIP
So, folks have been asking me about my experience while participating the Cosby Writing Fellowship this year. So I figured no better way to let them know than to talk about it in my new blog, so heregoes...
I had SOO much FUN!! No really, I had the most wonderful experience and met some of the most wonderful people in this program. It's not often in Los Angeles that you meet soo many people with soo much talent and intellect
Mondays were filled with learning about and discussing our black history. From slavery to the new millenium...from the cradle to the grave...we watched clips, read passages, did presentations on nothing but BLACK PEOPLE! Now, I've taken black history courses in college and usually read whatever I can get my hands on, but nothing...and I mean NOTHING...has taught me the facts about our history like our Monday night Cosby Class did. Then to learn and debate about it with my peers who cared just as much as I do about black people and our daily struggles made it all the more better.
Tuesday Nights weren't much different. The feature writers were seperated from the television writers. We were divided into three seperate classes (2 for screenwriters, 1 for tv writers) with three teachers who were all "working" writers/filmmakers. We started out by pitching our ideas to our teacher and classmates in the first weeks and finished with a completed first draft of our script. I'm not going to say this was easy because it certainly wasn't. I worked on a historical drama spec that required lots and lots of research so my work was cut out for me.
Every Tuesday, we turned in pages to be critiqued by our teacher and classmates. This was especially a challenge for me because I usually like to write as much and as quickly as possible and then get feedback later. But this process made me step my writing game up. The 10 or 20 pages I was supposed to turn in every week had to go before six other writers, including my teacher, and these pages (as far as I'm concerned) HAD to be good. So needless to say, I had to pay very close attention to every sentence, slugline, and paragraph of dialogue in my script. My former "only being able to focus on writing at night" self was transformed into an "all day every day" kinda writer.
Overall, I feel like I was a good writer before this program but what I learned and took from this fellowship has made me into an even better writer who can write under the pressure of a deadline and under the scrutiny of my peers. Which I think is an excellent attribute to have if you're trying to be a professional writer in Hollywood.
So folks, that's my review of the program. I hope that some of my fellow classmates (Negroes Amuck...inside joke...lol) leave voiceovers/comments on their experiences below. I highly recommend that all of you fellow black screenwriters on the rise apply. Below is the website...
Deadline...September 15, 2008
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.
Shequeta
Posts
