My Experience in CTWR 431, and Why Everyone Should Take an SCA Class
By: Antonia Le ‘22
I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think about USC’s School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) while trying to decide which college to go to. While I am currently an Applied Math major, I’ve always loved movies and TV, and I’ve always dreamed of taking a class from one of the best film schools in the nation. I’ve made a point to take at least one SCA class a year, and I think that you should too!
In a world that is dominated by pop culture and big movies, we need to be able to understand what’s on our screens and why we watch it when we could be doing literally anything else. It’s fun to grasp why you liked a certain joke in a movie other than “It was just funny”. It’s necessary to recognize who you are and the world you live in. Only by understanding the media we consume can we properly engage with the world around us.
Luckily for USC students, SCA understands this, and even has a whole page on its website dedicated to courses it thinks it will be good for non-majors. Be sure to click through the drop-down list to see all of the options available to you! Some interesting courses include:
CTIN 499: Survey of Board Games (2 units): Do you consider yourself a board game fan? Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite games so addicting? This might be the course for you!
IML 295: Race, Class and Gender in Digital Culture (4 units): Are you the kind of person who loves discussing the way people are represented in modern media? If the answer is yes, IML 295 will open your eyes to things you’ve never considered before!
CTIN 191 Survey of Themed Entertainment (4 units) : If you’re the kind of person who has an annual pass to Disneyland, maybe you should check out this class, all about your favorite places and events.
CTWR 411 Television Script Analysis (2 units): You basically get to watch and think TV for homework. What’s there not to love?
CTIN 411 Interactive Media Seminar (1 unit): Interested in the business of entertainment and digital media? This class will help you learn so much!
This semester, I’m taking CTWR 431: Screenwriters and Their Work. One of the interesting things that SCA does with their CTWR 431 classes is that the broad topics change with every semester. The only thing that remains the same from semester to semester is the fundamental purpose of the class: to help people see how movies are written and become better writers themselves. When my friend took this class during her Spring 2019 semester, the class was all about writing the LGBTQ story. Meanwhile, the class I am currently taking has the subtitle: “Flux Capacitors, Groundhogs, and Hot Tub Time Machines: The Mechanics of Writing the Time Travel Film”.
Going into my time-travel movie class, I didn’t know what to expect. Sure, the class’s title alluded to iconic movies such as Groundhog Day and Back to the Future, but what else were we going to watch? I’ve heard horror stories from my friends who thought they were taking a fun film class but ended up watching what were (in their eyes) boring and artsy indie films. I also wondered how deeply we were going to analyze the movies. Was this class going to ruin my love of movies by making me overthink them?
However, all of my fears were for nothing. On the first day of class, when the syllabus was handed out, I saw movies like Happy Death Day, Edge of Tomorrow, and Time After Time on the list—all films that someone my age would have at least heard of. Moreover, the class’s instructor, Professor Irving Belateche, made sure to emphasize to us multiple times that this was not a critical theory class. We were not expected to go deep into the films and analyze every shot or every tiny hint in the script. Instead, we were supposed to watch the films like normal people do.
As the weeks passed, when Professor Belateche asked the students questions, it was generally about what we felt when certain things happen. Were we bored in scenes where characters were trying to explain the mechanics behind time travel? Were we happy when Marty’s dad finally found success at the end of Back to the Future? In my class, you didn’t need to be a film expert to understand what was going on. You just needed to sit back, relax, and watch a good movie.
Of course, that is not to say that we didn’t learn anything. In fact, simply listening to Professor Belateche speak for a few hours every Tuesday night taught me than I ever learned in all of my nineteen years of watching movies.
On the more technical side, he taught us about the seven-step structure that the majority of time travel movies follow. He told us about how writers create suspense in movies using time-locks (when a character has a deadline to finish a task) and statements of intent (when a character says something they plan to do). He showed us the difference between suspense and mystery—how you can make an audience wonder what’s going on without confusing them. One thing I loved hearing about was plants and payoffs, how writers can create connectivity in stories by displaying an object/character/phrase used one way at the beginning of the film and then used in a completely opposite way by the end of the film.
With every lecture, I learned more about why I instinctively liked some movies or some moments more than others. Taking the class and learning some of the mechanics behind writing time travel movies helped me explain why I liked something other than saying, “Oh, it’s cool.”
Though the lessons in writing techniques were great, what really made me love the class was Professor Belateche’s focus on how each movie made people feel. We think we watch action movies because we like seeing big fights or sci-fi movies because we love science. However, when you really think about it, that’s not true. According to Professor Belateche, we watch movies because we care about what happens to the characters, and if you really sit down and think about it, he’s right. Even in the best, most iconic time travel films, students were bored when the science was explained and happy when a character finally got together with their love interest.
Whether we’re watching a standard rom-com, a heart-pounding thriller, or a cool time-travel movie, what matters to us is whether our heroes get what they need, whether they change for the better. What carries us through a film is our love for the characters and how they bond with one another. Sure, a good plot can’t hurt, but at the end of the day, people don’t care about being taught a moral lesson or a cool set piece. People care about people.
If you strip away all the high budgets and flashy special effects, you’ll find that movies and TV are just stories not all that different than the ones our parents used to read as kids. And what is a story, if not something that teaches us how to be human? If we understand how stories are written and why we like them, we end up understanding a little more about why we tick.
I believe that the mark of a good class is one that not only teaches you more about the subject, but also teaches you something about how to navigate the world. Without a doubt, I can say that CTWR 431 is a really good class. It’s the third SCA class that I’ve taken since arriving at USC (the first two were CTWR 211: “The TV Writer - An Agent of Change” and CTWR 412: “Introduction to Screenwriting”), and I can confidently say that the other ones I’ve taken are really interesting too.
Though my specific CTWR 431 class won’t be offered next semester, it’s really difficult to go wrong when taking a class from SCA. If you want a fun GE-A to take, I definitely recommend CTWR 211g: The Television Writer as an Agent of Change. If you’re as interested in stories as I am, I would recommend some other classes from the 430 series. The great thing about these classes is that they’re generally only 2 units each, which makes them easy to squeeze into a busy schedule.
If you’re into comedies, CTWR 430: Comedy Writers and their Work will focus on “The Stoner Comedy: The Baked, Bothered, and Bewildered Hero’s Journey” this Spring. Or, if you’re the kind of person who is still bitter about the Sense8 cancellation, might I suggest CTWR 432: Television Writers and their Work? In Spring 2020, the class’s topic will be “Cancelled Too Soon: The Modern Era of TV Reboots, Cancellations, and Fandoms.” One great thing about the 430 series is that their topics change every semester. If there’s nothing for you right now, maybe there will be in the future. I know I will be definitely trying to get into CTWR 432 when my registration appointment comes around!
USC is such a great school (with such an expensive tuition), that it would really be a waste not to take at least one SCA class during your tenure here. I don’t think you’ll regret it!
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