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I won President’s Creative Writing award in the Screenplay category
So, I won York’s President’s Creative Writing award in the Screenplay category (honourable mention). President’s award “recognizes excellence in short fiction, poetry, screenplay and stage play.” Awards like this are always encouraging. But I wanted to see if that meant something more, so I searched previous winners from the screenplay and similar categories. Where are…
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In Screenwriting BFA, we filmed 2 movies during 1st year
One of the mandatory courses in 1st year of Screenwriting BFA at York is FA/FILM1020 Introduction to Filmmaking. It is exactly that – an introduction to filmmaking. The official course outline says that the course aims to introduce students to the principles of motion picture, cinematography, directing, editing and sound. Students gain experience in previsualization,…
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How to pitch a movie – a lesson from school
It is the mid of 2nd semester, my 2nd year of Screenwriting BFA at York, and I just had my first movie pitch. The screenplay is often a mix of emotions, experiences, and layers for the characters and writer. It is easy to pitch a logline – what happens in the movie – it takes…
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CMA 2200 Early Cinema – class with awesome assignments
For some of you who are considering Screenwriting at York or are just curious about what it looks like, I will write about some specific classes I took. CMA 2200 Early cinema to the Coming of Sound: 1895 – 1930 was a mandatory class. The professor was Emilly Barton (the course director), and the TA…
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The Way of Screenwriter by Amnon Buchbinder – a great book for all the screenwriters
If you want to be a screenwriter, I can’t recommend hardly enough this book. We read it in our class Screenwriting fundamentals with professor Veninger, and in every class, we share notes from the book. So I can hear different thoughts and perspectives from my classmates, which is excellent. My classmates are surely one of…
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How the “Rate my Professors” site shapes my education and professors’ careers
As a screenwriting student at York University, I have many mandatory classes and many classes that are not. In the space of non-mandatory courses, I have ones with some guidelines (E.G., it must be social science) and some without any – those are free electives. I choose between many subjects and topics in almost half…
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Getting into screenwriting BFA at York University was an emotional, movie-like experience
It takes around 9 months for students to find out if they were accepted to university. The amount of YouTube videos named “University/College acceptance reaction” will show you the drama maybe even better than many movies about the topic I watched (Like “Orange County”). I never dreamed that my process would be the same as…
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Best disaster movies: Earthquake, 1974
Lately, I love to watch disaster movies from the 70s; OK, it’s not just recently. I just love them. From today’s perspective, special effects in them are lousy, but stories are still great! There are several fantastic movies from this decade, and “Earthquake” is one them. I discovered it recently – most of the disaster…
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Best Outbreak movies: The Andromeda Strain (2008)
There are three The Andromeda Strains: the book (1969.), the movie (1971.), and the TV mini-series (2008.). Michael Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain in 1969., and critics praised it. The movie earned two Oscar nominations (best editing and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration), and the TV mini-series was nominated for six Emmy awards. –some spoilers ahead– I watched only…
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Best nuclear war movies from the 80s
When I was a kid in the eighties, nuclear war was imminent. The cold war was still raging; President Reagan proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, and movies about the possible war were realistic. Some more than others. The Day After was one of them. I still remember how scared I was after we saw it. Even Reagan felt the…