This past May I completed a Certificate in Screenwriting from Santa Barbara City College, and my diploma just came in the mail!
(Yes, I am a lifelong learner, and no, a screenwriting degree is not a requirement for pursuing screenwriting.)
In 2019 I was ready to expand my writing into a new area, for new audiences, and the three-series of screenwriting courses at SBCC got me going. After that, I found out that three more Film and Media Studies classes would earn me the certificate, and, academically-oriented as I am, I was all-in.
My course requirements were FS101: Introduction to Film Studies, FS116: Gender and Sexuality in Film (a course I think everyone who watches films should take), and FS118: Film Genres. I took them online, though FS118 was a hybrid class, the highlight of which was watching Singin' in the Rain on the big screen in the BC Forum auditorium. A classic on a big screen! Rare treat.
Another highlight was the paper I wrote about how Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023) intentionally references iconic musicals. And the paper I titled, "Look What You Made Me Do," about audience expectations of gender roles of men and the femme fatale in Film Noir.
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