Day 3: Roadmap into the industry

I miss my friend

I miss my friend, Irvin Kershner. I remember the first time we met--it was 5:50 p.m. on a Wednesday night and the class he was teaching started at 6. At USC, classrooms often remained empty until the small hand on the clock reached 12; no one was early. So that night I was alone with the famous director. I was reading as many screenplays as I could, trying to unravel the structure and learn the artistry of screenwriting. I was holding a copy of Chocolat, and he noticed. "That's a good story," he said. "A good screenplay to study."

I had recently been accepted into the writing program, and didn't have a clue how the system worked. Students who would've won any reality show were assured a place in the most popular courses, and competition was intense. Shortly after I entered the program it was redesigned to have more structure, and as rumors of changes surfaced, a faculty member in the School of Cinematic Arts wondered why changes were needed. "That's what it's like in the industry," she said. "Take the hardest course first and succeed. Scramble! Learn, get in there and go for it!"

That semester, every screenwriting courses had been filled and there were waiting lists, and so Kersh had agreed to teach a new course. Students in the program shared information on an informal "rate your professor" system, but there was no information on how Irvin Kershner would be as a professor, or how hard the class would be. So that first semester he taught, competition to get into classes was elsewhere. The old system was working in my favor.

...to be continued...