When I took this course, the focus was on TV writing. Each week, there was a three-hour lecture, about one hour of which was usually dedicated to watching the pilot of a popular TV show, such as Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We discussed what makes a pilot successful and what is difficult about writing one. Assignments included adapting a written work to a concept for a TV show; a review of a TV pilot; and a pitch for an original TV show. The biggest downfall of this course was the fact that Mark loves class discussion, and that discussion more often than not often devolved into people just talking about what they liked or disliked about the TV show of the week. So class was often just long stretches of people enjoying hearing themselves talk, which is less t...read more

If the final assignment is some kind of pitch or partial script for an original TV show or film, start thinking about your concept early on in the course. It'll save you from scrambling too much near the deadline.