Section 1A, Winter Quarter, 2010
I’ve been teaching at UCLA for a full year now. It’s a great gig if you can get it. I primarily teach Screenwriting Fundamentals for non-majors to undergraduates. I’ve taught one quarter, in the summer, online. Which was actually a lot of work (it was billed as being easier), but actually more satisfying for me than the classroom. I took online classes with UCLA before coming west to the M.F.A. program and I can attest from personal experience in both the classroom and with online, you just have to pay more attention online – isn’t that strange? It’s true. You’re kind of one on one (which is where all that work comes in for the Prof.) (Yes, my students call me Professor Pedrolie no matter how much I tell them to call me Doc. It’s a little weird.)
I came west to get my M.F.A. in large part to teach. With the M.F.A., I will be street legal to instruct at the collegiate level – which is what I would like most of all for my teaching career; though I once interviewed for a post at the Arts High School in Chicago, and if there was such a arts centric high school – that might be fun, too. Ideally, I would love to teach at UCLA in the Grad Screenwriting program one day or in a similar Film School.
Usually my students are South Campus kids – the life sciences – with a smattering of curious sociology students and other assorted majors, or film minors. Some have just a rudimentary grasp of English, which is just part of life at UCLA, and struggle greatly to write in English. We have many ESL international students directly from the Pacific Rim. I usually think those students are pretty brave for taking a creative class. They’re all looking for an easy A (It’s a pretty easy class.) Usually you get one or two that are really interested in screenwriting. I had one kid today, come up to me before class started. He and a friend are writing a screenplay together, and they have about thirteen pages so far. He wanted me to look at, which I said I would. It probably helped a little he was wearing a Cardinals hat.
I teach for about an hour once a week. I wish I had them for longer. Maybe one more hour. It’s tough to get everything in, in ten weeks. They have no concept of what goes into writing a script or how to do it (I’ve been there before. Yes, I’m talking to you John Burkey!). They’re required to write ten pages of their script. My job is to get them through that with at least the proper format. It can be a bit like herding cats, but fun. Everyone loves movies, so it’s not like learning Calculus.
Today, I showed a couple of clips, as I will do sometimes to illustrate a point. I’m flying sans syllabus this quarter, just using the main, big lecture syllabus and not really planning out lessons. Basically, I’m just going with it and what the class needs, instead of forcing them in any direction. For right now the jury is still out on whether that was a good approach. I’ll keep you posted.
The clips, though? We were looking at the opening of movies. So, I showed Matrix, which they’ve usually seen. Then I showed them Gone, Baby, Gone – which I’ve grown to love more and more. It has a fantastic first ten minutes – really brilliant, minor key opening. Then I showed Jaws. I asked everyone before hand if they had seen it. Only two of the twenty-eight had. I’m serious. I was flabbergasted and immediately realized that, yes, I’m old. At least to them.
Jaws, people!! It’s one of the most iconic motion pictures of all time! Sometimes I just don’t want to know these things. Just let me live in this fantasy world. Don’t show me the reality like that!
Maybe we’ll get some video (no promises) of me teaching and post it. It’s quite a hoot.
Thanks for sharing the Jaws story, I really appreciate it. And that really made me feel much better too! You’re really getting up there Doc, I mean it, seriously.
Absolutely love the new site by the by it totally rocks…
I had the exact same experience with my section with JAWS, and my mind was blown. But then I realized, Jaws was written in 1975. It’s now 35 years old. When I was in undergrad, it would have been like someone showing Vincent Price’s House on Haunted Hill… which would have seemed ancient to me.
One poor girl plugged her ears and averted her eyes. I felt pretty bad for showing it.
I’m always surprised by the gore these kids alternately absorb and react to with ashen faces. I made my kids read The Pillowman, The Goat AND we watched Fight Club, Welcome to the Dollhouse, and No Country for Old Men all in one quarter. They were like, what is WRONG WITH YOU?!
Come on Doc! We’re not old, they’re just young. Jaws scared the crap out of me! I still think about it when I enter the water… what could lie beneath… We watched The Lost Boys with our kids over Halloween, I remember I used to think it was so scary- but compared to what kids watch today Lost Boys is mild to say the least. There is so much meaningless and commericalized garbage on televison and in movies these days. Raising children with substance is a challenge, especially in the area of the country I live- everyone seems to follow the herd. There should be a list of 10 movies young people should see; movies that affect view and thought development. I guess it is generational- and what seems to be important to many young people these days makes me sad. I am sure that is what our parents were saying about us… so I guess now I sound like an old person!