Everyone Told Me Not To Get An MFA In Screenwriting - Marty Lang

[@csseyhubbard123]

Professor Lang is the reason I decided to stay another 3 years at UCA to get my Master's in film making. So grateful that he is able to share a wealth of knowledge about screenwriting and film making with all of his students!

[@MartyLang]

You're very kind, Casey. :)

[@TheFeelButton]

A strong work ethic in a school setting can be powerful. Cheers Film Courage!

[@atlbike]

CSUN tuition isn`t expensive for Calif residents. It sounds like it was a good network move for him. Disclaimer: I`m a CSUN engr grad.

[@MartyLang]

Hey Chris, you're right - I was able to get through two years of school for $14,000. I did take out a little bit of student loans, but I did the best I could to keep them as low as possible.

[@wattpadusergeek342]

It’s a lie when they say education (or life) is a journey because that makes it seem like there’s a destination you’re supposed to be heading towards. (This isn’t an original idea, I heard it from Alan Watts, and I come back to it often.) Actively learning or perfecting craft is something we should do everyday till the day we can’t. Choosing to go back to school is part of choosing to actively learn something, even though it’s not the only way to go. I totally get it.

[@filmcourage]

What are your feelings on Marty returning to school to get an MFA at age 39?

[@equinox2459]

Pitiful to go to college for screenwriting.

[@MartyLang]

@@equinox2459 I wouldn't say it's pitiful, Equinox - you get two years to dedicate to writing, you get to work with other people who are just as dedicated to writing as you, you get to work with professors who have all different kinds of styles, and you get to try different things out. I understand a lot of schools teach "their way to write," and we did get some of that at CSUN, but we were encouraged to write in our own voice. If you're a writer, and you haven't gone to school yet, I'd consider it - everyone's having trouble finding work now, and there are worse ways to go through college to get a degree.

[@equinox2459]

@@MartyLang I appreciate your opinion. I have taken it upon myself to write and direct my own material. I literally locked myself in a dark room for SEVEN years, only leaving to eat. People complain about covid lol. Now, I have several scripts ready to go. And they are all things nobody has seen or thought about. Because it all came from my soul, in the fullest depths of introspective insanity. I should probably humble myself. College is a very smart move for some. Networking alone makes it worth it. I take back the pathetic comment. However, I still say they aren't willing to put it ALL on the line for their art. I don't want anyone else's style. Every voice should be different.

[@MartyLang]

@@equinox2459 Well I can't argue that every voice should be different, and that you should be willing to put it all on the line for your art. When I directed my first feature, I used the money I had earned at my former job right before they laid me off (which finally gave me time to shoot it!). I agree, college is not for everyone. I always liked that environment though - since there are a lot of people working toward careers they're hoping to get into, there tends to be a lot of optimism in a university setting. I like being in that kind of world. Regardless, congratulations on having your scripts ready to go! Have you directed any of them yet? Getting ready to?

[@danielobrien9502]

TV Spec for Black Mirror, 3 features with one under production now... sounds like taking time to work on the craft of writing paid off... plus the exposure to a different group of people both racial and generational diversity must have been priceless.

[@BigThunderMan]

To clarify, you got a second MFA, placed in Austin but didn’t win, sold no scripts, then produced your movie anyways and moved to Arkansas. Wouldn’t it have been easier if you just wrote and produced your own material (with all those challenges) from day one?

[@RawHeadRay]

I get why that helped him get his mind in the right place, I'm still trying to find the right mind space to write and i think he was getting his mind right by being in a situation that not only justified spending so much time on writing screenplays but literally got his head right in it. i may be wrong it's just my thoughts since i can relate to an extent in terms of trying to take the actual doing seriously with commitment.

[@LeninMcDonalds]

Writing requires focused learning for most people. Learning on the job is not practical if you are a producer who is constantly getting work and validation as a producer. You'd be oriented towards production problem solving as opposed to understanding story mechanics. For him dedicated time at a college with peers and mentors got him to a place a where he could hone his craft as a screenwriter. Enough for him to have multiple scripts ready to be shopped around. The shopping around process, the time in academia, all must have made him valuable contacts and partnerships which he pulled from later to shoot his film on his own. A lot goes into making a film materialise and it takes a village to do it. It's important to understand that this was right for his specific set of circumstances. I'm someone who attended a master's in film making a little later in my career as well. The re orientation power it offered was tremendous. Not something I could have arrived at on my own. Hope that helped in some way.

[@BigThunderMan]

Alok nr - I appreciate the time you took to respond and I wish you luck with your own career goals. Here’s the issue: his advice isn’t good for people who want to work in Hollywood or make movies. To spend years on one script that doesn’t win Austin or get sold, is not great film advice. Great for the people selling the programs, but not for the writers.

[@EdmundAlynJones]

I’m 40 and I’m considering the very thing. I feel his story has given me a boost to go for it. I feel like I really needed to hear this message. Thank you.

[@filmcourage]

Our best to you Eddy!

[@JasonVictorEverett]

Absolutely not. Go back to school to garner two years worth of massive debt for the privilege of competing for a part-time adjunct professor position and make $30K a year, if lucky? I'll pass. There's a reason why some adjunct professors are living in their cars.

[@Madbandit77]

Good point. Getting a master's degree in any profession is an investment, and it costs money. If you're already paying college debt while having a BA, it doesn't make sense to get a graduate degree.

[@georgebrooks7899]

I'm currently an undergraduate at Cal State Northridge. Resident tuition is only about three grand a semester. I can't imagine a Masters program being much more.

[@MartyLang]

Hey Jason, believe me, I know exactly what you're talking about re: teachers not making anything. I was an adjunct myself for six years in Connecticut, and I didn't even make $30K a year teaching. (So I had two other jobs to go with it.) But one big reason of why I wanted to go to school was because I already had that teaching experience, and the Screenwriting MFA would give me TWO MFA degrees. I thought that would make me stand out in the job market. And it did - that was enough for a school outside of Los Angeles to hire me for a tenure-track position. This isn't something I recommend to everybody (very few people, in fact), but this process did work for me.

[@photonotavailable7936]

Jason Victor Everett My daughter was an adjunct English professor with a large graduate student loan teaching at community colleges in Washington State, New Jersey, and Illinois. She never lived in a car, but she did walk away from the teaching profession, moved back to California, and went to work as a trainer for state government. In terms of her salary, benefits, and retirement there's no comparison.

[@BigThunderMan]

This. He works in central Arkansas. Good for him directing a film - but he could have produced his film without it.

[@ajking913]

Why does everyone ignore Blade? Wasn't he the first black superhero? He was big enough to make 3 films and a tv series in addition to the comics... why is he ignored? (Honest question, I don't know.) Is it because T'Challa is more 'hero' than 'anti-hero'?

[@spooly]

It's just him in Blade. That's it. Black Panther was about the entire African community... from the young boy in the city, to the culture, it was deep.

[@ajking913]

Joel Beach fair point. Blade is pretty anglo-ized. But he’s not any less ‘black’, and he’s still a superhero. It just seems a bit disingenuous to ignore that completely. The Blade trilogy was one of the first comics to do well in theatres. All the benchmarks it hit in its day are seemingly getting swept under the rug for some false narrative for some reason.

[@spooly]

@@ajking913 Blade was a black Male actor leading a superhero franchise. That's it. Black Panther was the entire African culture centralized in a movie with mothers, sisters, fathers, sons, family, legacy, e.t.c. So you really cannot compare the two...

[@ajking913]

@@spooly Ok, so the hype is more about celebrating black culture and a full civilization rather than just having a black superhero lead a movie full of white cats. Yeah, I can see how that makes sense. Thanks for answering my questions.

[@DrZaius_3]

I just graduated with a Bachelors in Creative Writing and minor in Marketing at 25. I want to go back and get my MFA but not until I'm in my thirties. I'm hoping that I can one day lecture at a university while working my day job as a writer.

[@thefunk2058]

"I realized that I was out of touch with the youngins, but working with 15-20 rich kids really showed me what their generation is all about." I'm sorry, honestly I mean no offense, but you have no idea what you're talking about. A few young, wealthy, political zealots do not represent my generation, and at your age you should know better and be able to understand that. If there are any universal traits to define my generation I'd say they are irreverence, confusion, and hypocrisy.

[@rawo2187]

What’s even more crazy is those rich guys would probably never even make a successful film or sale anything because majority of the world cannot relate to their experiences

[@AJBell-dh6ry]

You don't have to apologize for being white, Mr. Lang. You're fine the way you are. Just like everybody else.

[@thereccher8746]

My physics degree made me age into a 50 year old 30 year old. No fucking way am I doing a second degree.

[@justinedse3314]

Yup. I have a degree related to engineering\computer science. Those types of degrees and yours age you.

[@amonifinau4048]

Thanks!

[@safabekr]

I’m an undergraduate getting B.A.s in Film and Video & Writing right now, but I’ve been assuming I’ll go straight to graduate school and get something specific like a screenwriting or television writing degree. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

[@standindarkness]

It is never a good idea to not follow your dreams.

[@raymondmorgan7589]

Yes!!! Don't go into debt!! The industry don't care about your degree.

[@BigThunderMan]

Switch to a major in literature, psychology, anthropology, history, or something else interesting to you. Screenwriting is a shit major because it’s taught by people who ARE NOT successful in the industry. If your college professors were having scripts optioned by Netflix, they wouldn’t be there. It’s mean, but it’s true. The screenwriting industry is about two things: being able about to produce great screenplays and who you know. Your adjunct professor has no connections, and the half a script a semester most schools assign is nowhere near the output or practice you need. Go study something worth college, and start reading amazing scripts daily. Challenge yourself to finish a rough draft of something every month (as if it’s an unmovable deadline). Then, by the end of two or three years, you’ll have a shit ton of material, a bunch of practice, knowledge, and hell of a lot of discipline to make it in the industry.

[@MicahNasir]

I work in Hollywood and I live in West Hollywood. When going to a film school anywhere in Los Angeles, you have opportunities at your fingertips, because most of the teachers are affiliated with the entertainment business. Of course, the better film school you go to the better instructors you’ll have. Also, don’t take advice from people who don’t live or work in the business. You will find most of them are spectators and have no real experience from Hollywood, but rather recite someone else’s experience (that they’ve read on Reddit or Google). The entertainment business is tough and most times brutal, but don’t take my word for it, come live and build your career on your terms.

[@equinox2459]

I lose all respect for "writers" who go to college to learn to write. They're fake artists. They're just learning how everyone else works. No voice of their own. They're all pitiful.

[@Madbandit77]

You have a point, but it's not a bad thing to refine your writing skills by going to college. I sure did.

[@SeanFinnegan]

That's one of the stupidest comments I've ever read. Let's be clear: the only thing that matters is if your writing is good - not how you learn to write. Side note - Isaac Asimov, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut all studied writing in college.

[@blackboyblues6727]

Lmfao 😂😂😂 what? You lose respect for someone going to school to perfect their craft ? Lmfao

[@davidfoster989]

Ha ha ha. What a load of nonsense. College helps structure our writing. It doesn't define the stories we tell.

[@andreseh87]

I mean, it’s not a bad thing to learn structure. The voice comes from living. But I’ve read a great deal of shit scripts from people who have no idea what they’re doing.