Associate of Fine Arts (AFA) Screenwriting

Overview of our AFA in Screenwriting

The Academy makes the accelerated two-year schedule possible by creating an extended academic year, allowing students to complete three full-length semesters in each calendar year.




The New York Film Academy recognizes the critical role writers play in the creation of every film and television show. Yet, writing talent alone is not enough to create successful work in these mediums. Screenwriting is a learned craft, and a writer must write every day to train for the demands of this field, and to truly understand the elements that make a screenplay or teleplay functional as well as engaging.

In addition to learning the conventions of the writing craft, students are given the support and structure to write and meet deadlines. Students write intensively throughout the course and complete several projects with the assistance of constructive critique from instructors, as well as peers.

WHAT MAKES OUR SCREENWRITING PROGRAMS UNIQUE?

Students in the New York Film Academy’s Screenwriting Programs generate a lot of written material, building a portfolio of writings that span several mediums. In the AFA degree program, the focus is on the two main fields available to writers in the industry today: feature films and television.

Upon completion of the program, students not only understand story structure, character, conflict, and dialogue, but also leave the Academy with finished products that they can pitch, produce, and try to sell.

In the AFA Screenwriting Program, students are taught the art of screenwriting through workshop courses that have them learn by writing, as well as through skill-building courses that focus on film history, film genres, and specific skills like adaptation and character building.

Students also study filmmaking, acting, and editing to get a complete sense of how cinematic stories are told. In addition to writing stories, treatments, and scripts, students will also create, direct, and edit their own short film.

Lastly, NYFA’s degree programs in Screenwriting feature business classes that teach students the reality of the current industry -- how to find work as a writer, how to work in the industry to support yourself, how to find an agent or manager, and how to pitch your stories and story ideas. These classes require students to get an internship in the industry.

SEMESTER ONE OBJECTIVES

During semester one, students will be introduced to the tools and skills necessary for writing successful screenplays for both film and television. Students are encouraged to be creative, but are also taught to think of the screenplay as the definitive industry tool for articulating ideas or concepts to a production team -- including producers, financiers, directors, and actors. Clarity can be as important as creativity. Standard formatting and industry expectations will be studied and analyzed during writing workshops and lectures. Students will study what makes for a good story and learn to seek stories in the world around them. Introduction to Film will also provide students with both theoretical and practical perspectives on the film industry.

CLASSES AND LEARNING GOALS
In semester one, students take:

• Elements of Screenwriting, where they learn the tools of writing from format, to pacing, to dialogue, to theme, and put that all together to write a script for a short film.
• Writing The Television Spec, where they write “spec” episodes of existing television series of both hour-long and half-hour formats.
• Story Generation, where they learn where to find inspiration for stories and how to develop a story idea into a detailed treatment for a feature film.
• Writing The Feature Film Screenplay I, where they loosely plot and write a screenplay for a feature-length film.
• Intro To Film, where they study the history and components of film as a medium.

PORTFOLIO OF WRITINGS FOR SEMESTER ONE
At the end of semester one, students will have produced:

• A feature-length film screenplay.
• A one-hour television drama spec script OR a half-hour television comedy spec script.
• Short treatments for two possible feature-length films.
• A script for a short film (3-5 minutes).

SEMESTER TWO OBJECTIVES

The second semester challenges students to develop their craft artistically and technically, and to progress beyond their first projects in both film and television. In an advanced workshop, students will do a detailed breakdown and then write a second original script. They will then learn the basics on how to compile notes and plan a rewrite. Students are expected to share revised or newly written material in workshops. In addition, students will broaden their understanding of the medium of television by developing material for an original TV series pilot script. Students will rewrite the short script they wrote in the first semester. They will then study acting techniques and direct and edit their own short film, in order to achieve a better understanding of how the written word translates to the screen. Students will also study the business of screenwriting, and how to navigate the entertainment industry. In Genre & Storytelling, students will explore the conventions and expectations of genre storytelling.

CLASSES AND LEARNING GOALS
In semester two, students take:

• Genre & Storytelling, where they learn the tropes and expectations that come with writing a feature film in several classic Hollywood genres.
• Writing The Feature Film Screenplay II, where they plot a feature film story in great detail before writing the screenplay and discuss strategies for rewriting the scripts they’ve developed.
• Writing The Television Pilot, where they create an idea for an original TV series, create a proposal for it and write the script for the pilot episode.
• Script To Screen, where they study acting, directing, and editing; act in a scene shot on the Universal backlot; and direct and edit their own short film, based off the short script they wrote in semester one.
• The Business Of Screenwriting I, where students learn about the entertainment industry and research possible internships for future semesters.

PORTFOLIO OF WRITINGS AND PRODUCED WORK FOR SEMESTER TWO
At the end of semester two, students will have produced:

• A second original screenplay.
• A digital short film.
• A pilot script and a series proposal/bible for an original television series.
• A short proposal for an additional television series.

SEMESTER THREE OBJECTIVES

At the beginning of semester three, students will choose a Screenwriting faculty advisor. This advisor will work with the AFA candidate’s instructor and the Chair of the Screenwriting Department, and help the student develop the story for their final project (which they will write in semester four). Semester three classes are infused with an emphasis on perfecting craft and exposing students to the realities of the entertainment industry. Students will work more in-depth with character and story development, focusing on how to plan a story. They will also learn the art and craft of adaptation.

CLASSES AND LEARNING GOALS
In semester three, students take:

• Story & Character Development, where students study techniques for building characters, arcs, and relationships, and put them to use in developing their final project for the program.
• Screenwriting Discipline & Methodology, where students develop skills in setting goals and managing their time and career.
• The Great Playwrights, where students study the history of theater and some of the great writers of stage plays.
• Art, Culture & Society, where students look at the role of art and artists in society.

PORTFOLIO OF WRITINGS AND WORK FOR SEMESTER THREE
At the end of semester three, students will have produced:

• An outline for a feature screenplay OR a proposal for an original TV series and a beat sheet for the pilot episode.
• A career plan.

SEMESTER FOUR OBJECTIVES

In semester four, students write the script they developed last semester. The script’s development was shaped by notes from the development committee and that process will continue in their final semester. After completing the draft, students will develop a plan for a rewrite based on the notes they receive. This process will teach students how to work in development with producers and executives. Students will also be given an introduction to transmedia and new media, learning about web series, comic books, and game design. Finally, students will perfect short pitches for their thesis projects and other story ideas.

CLASSES AND LEARNING GOALS
In semester four, students take:

• Advanced Writing Workshop, where they write their final project for the program, delivering a first draft and a plan for rewriting based on development notes.
• The Art Of The Pitch, where they learn how to pitch their stories and story ideas.
• Adaptation, where they learn the skills needed to adapt non-cinematic source material (books, comics, life rights, magazine articles, and more) into stories for feature films.
• Playwriting, where they write a short play.
• The Great Screenplays, where they study award-winning or nominated screenplays from the last 100 years, and compare them to the finished films.

PORTFOLIO OF WRITINGS AND PRODUCED WORK FOR SEMESTER FOUR
At the end of semester four, students will have produced:

• A first draft and revision of their thesis feature or TV pilot.
• A one-act play or a short play.

Qualified students have the option of completing coursework at the New York Film Academy campus in New York City in a one-year non-degree program, and then applying their course work to be accepted for advanced standing in the AFA Screenwriting degree program.

The New York Film Academy Associate of Fine Art degree programs are stand-alone degree programs intended to prepare students to pursue a career in the industry. They are designed to give students the opportunity to focus almost exclusively on the subject in a studio-based curriculum without standard distribution requirements. Students may continue from the Screenwriting AFA program into the BFA program, and complete the remaining four semesters of the BFA focusing on the liberal arts and sciences as well as more advanced screenwriting coursework.


Until COVID restrictions on the Universal Studios backlot subside, not all cohorts or students will be able to attend production workshops on the backlot. The backlot is generally not used for production workshops for screenwriting, animation and game design departments.