This feature appeared in the spring 2003 issue of Hilltopics. Bradley University's quarterly magazine for alumni, parents and friends of the University.

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Interstate Classmates

Hollywood directors, producers, and others involved in the film and television industry shared their expertise and advice with students in a screenwriting course offered to students at both Bradley and California State University, Los Angeles, last semester.

Thanks to the technology of Internet2, Bradley students saw their mentors, not standing in front of them, but rather on small television monitors as they learned the ropes of writing a screenplay from people who are successfully managing careers in Hollywood.

Internet2, a high-performance network generally used for faculty research and student-faculty collaborative projects, is more than 15,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. The screenwriting course was the first Internet2 course offered at Bradley. The advantage of the technology is it allows Bradley to expand its curriculum by drawing on the expertise of professionals nationwide who can go to an Internet2 university near them and lead a class much as they would if they were on campus in Peoria. Bradley is one of 200 universities participating in Internet2 and one of the few non-doctoral research institutions with access.

Dr. Jeffrey Huberman, dean of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, says, "Provost Stan Liberty introduced the idea of Internet2 and urged faculty to develop ideas for projects by looking at other Internet2 institutions to see if we had colleagues there so we could get together with them to come up with ideas. In our college, we have an incredible number of graduates who head to California, and we now have alums in major studios as agents, writers, and producers. We've always had students interested in film and television. We provide them with an excellent education in video production, music composition, multimedia authoring, and many aspects of the entertainment industry. But, one of the things we don't provide is a course in screenwriting. We thought Internet2 might be the vehicle."

Huberman coordinated with Steve Rothman, a colleague of his at CSLA, and efforts began to create the course. He discussed the idea with Nick Thurkettle '99, story editor for Davis Filmworks, located at 20th Century Fox, and Ryan Saul '93, senior agent at Jim Preminger Agency, which represents screenwriters for Frasier, Becker, and other television shows.

Huberman says, "They know screenwriting from every angle. I asked them if they'd be interested in offering a course in screenwriting."

Huberman also contacted people on campus to see about the logistics of the technology and also talked with Dr. Claire Etaugh, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, about the possibility of creating an interdisciplinary course that included creative writing. Dr. Thomas Palakeel, associate professor of English, agreed to teach the course, as well, and the course was cross-listed as English 407 and Communications 390 at Bradley and as TA 480 in the department of theatre and dance at CSLA.

Thurkettle wrote the syllabus, Saul lined up guest speakers for the class, and Palakeel added his experience as a college professor and as a writer. Representing the CSLA faculty were Dr. Pamela Barrager-Dunne and Steve Rothman, both from the university's theatre department. Also involved was Carl Selkin, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at CSLA. Among the guest speakers were Marshall Goldberg, screenwriter and winner of the Humanitas Award; Ron Friedman and Steve Bencich, who have written, directed, and produced numerous screenplays, standup routines, comedy sketches, plays, and situation comedies; Julie Sherman, a writer for Third Rock from the Sun who also has sold screenplays to Disney and Paramount; Marshall Todd, who wrote the recent movie Barbershop; and Blair Richwood, who has been active in development, writing, and production in creative and executive positions for top filmmakers.

Palakeel says, "I've been interested in movies all my life, but I never tried to write a script. Once I realized this class would be a reality, I quickly wrote a screenplay over a couple of weeks. Over the summer, I also learned as much about screenwriting as I could. I went to Los Angeles and met the other teachers and became a quasi-professional. As a creative writing professor, this is what I do. I teach students to take language and experience to create beautiful stories. This time, we're turning them into stories for movies. That's not a difficult transition."

He says, "I had no idea what the writer writes is a very rough draft. It's just Point A in a series of collaborations that involve the agent, producer, director, and each of the stars. The screenwriter is an initiator who has a vision, but that vision is reshaped by realities and by other creative people involved."

The students' assignments involved writing five to 10 pages telling everything that will happen in their complete script, as well as the first 30 pages of their script. Thurkettle says, "By having them focus on developing the story completely, students develop better habits. We may offer an independent study for students to continue to develop their script and put more time into it."

Eight Bradley students and eight CSLA students enrolled in the course. The course primarily drew a mixture of theatre and communications majors. Bradley senior Adam Cohen comments, "Overall, I have a newfound appreciation for script writing. I didn't realize all that went into it. I would like to get into producing sit-coms, but you never know where life takes you. It's a tough market out there, and I hope this class will help me get a good start. Having a connection with a school in Los Angeles was the best possible choice. People in the heart of Hollywood are speaking to us, and that's a priceless opportunity."

Junior Jake Huberman, a radio-TV major, adds, "This class forces a lot of us to complete a project that normally would just be ideas. It takes more than inspiration to write a screenplay. For a screenwriter, it's a deadline with a paycheck. For students, it's a teacher saying, 'I need 30 pages by Friday.'"

He adds, "Ever since I was eight years old, I've been making movies with friends for fun. I now realize there are rules. This changes the way I watch a movie and it changes the way I make my next movie."

Thurkettle concludes, "When it comes to the number of opportunities for Internet2, we are barely scratching the surface. It's mind-boggling to think what people will come up with. Every department on campus could use this."

Nancy Ridgeway

A highway to learning music

David Vroman, associate professor of music, figures everybody wants to be a drummer at some point in their lives. Music 310, Hand Drumming, the second Internet2 course offered at Bradley, offers this opportunity.

As in the screenwriting course, Internet2 allows an expert, this time in the field of hand drumming, to interact via the Internet with Bradley students. The instructor is Matt Savage, hand drum and marching percussion specialist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unlike the screenwriting course, no UNC students are enrolled.

The course is Vroman's idea. "I wanted something that was not just for music students. Hand drumming is something all music students should take, but it also is something anybody in the Bradley community, no matter what their music background is, could take as well."

"For example, we have two proficient percussion students and we have two students with no music background at all," says Vroman as he discusses the music abilities of the 10 students enrolled in the one-hour course.

Vroman credits the technical support staff for their involvement with the course. "It's not just the teacher and students. We need technical support people to make it happen."

Dr. Jeffrey Huberman, dean of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, says other Internet2 projects in development include a distributed performance project between Bradley's Department of Theatre Arts and the theatre department at the University of Central Florida and a course in digital animation between Bradley's multimedia program and California State University, Northridge.