At first glance, a flock of Canadian geese, Lord Byron’s
daughter and a terrorist attack on a train carrying nuclear waste
don’t appear to have much in common.
However, these seemingly disparate things are all subjects of
screenplays written by UCLA graduate students. More specifically,
screenplays that have all been nominated for a major award.
These ideas came from the minds of three students (two current,
one former) in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television’s master’s degree program in screenwriting.
The aspiring scribes ““ Shanee Edwards, Chris Kyle and Laurel
Minter ““ were recently chosen as finalists for the
prestigious UCLA Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, to be handed out
Tuesday at the Writers’ Guild in Beverly Hills.
Fifty years ago, legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn
created the eponymous awards to recognize excellence in writing at
UCLA. Since the inception of the awards, its winners, including
Francis Ford Coppola and Jonathan Kellerman, have written more than
300 movies, television series and made-for-TV movies combined.
Now overseen by Goldwyn’s son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr. ““
also a well-established producer ““ the field for the awards
has been broadened to include students from all University of
California schools. The Goldwyn Writing Awards take the form of
cash prizes, with different amounts going to each of the five
finalists. This year, more money will be given away than ever
before: First place alone will net $25,000.
“The Goldwyn Award is really cool because every single one
of the finalists will make some money,” said Kyle, who
graduated from the screenwriting program in June. “As
writers, all we have is our time. What money does is it buys you
more time.”
For Kyle, the path to screenwriting has not been what one might
call direct. During his final semester of undergraduate study at
Duke, Kyle took a course on screenwriting taught by Erin Cressida
Wilson, who would go on to write the film “Secretary.”
Though he worked as a reporter on the East Coast for a few years,
Kyle never lost interest in screenwriting and eventually moved to
Los Angeles. He completed the professional program in screenwriting
at UCLA (which awards a graduate degree) in 2000, and liked the
school so much he decided to apply for the master’s
program.
While working toward his degree, Kyle completed “The
Ganders,” a screenplay for an animated film about a family of
Canadian geese flying south for the winter. Kyle says his
nomination for the award is especially crucial in his case, and not
just in a monetary sense.
“Writing an animated screenplay is not always the smartest
decision,” Kyle said. “Very few people make animated
movies ““ few people even want to read them. (Becoming a
finalist) is rewarding in the sense that I followed my heart and
the Goldwyn Foundation honored me for it.”
Kyle is not the only one of the nominees who sees the benefits
of the Goldwyn Awards as more than financial.
“Encouragement is a huge part of it,” third-year
screenwriting graduate student Laurel Minter said.
“(Being nominated for the award) says “˜Don’t
give up, just keep going. You’re doing good.’
It’s a reward for working hard.”
Minter’s road to her nomination has been similarly
circuitous. Though she worked in theater for years, most recently
in Seattle, Minter always had film on the brain. She wrote
successfully for the stage, but decided to apply to UCLA because
she wanted her stories to be able to travel in time and space.
Her nominated screenplay, “The Route,” features
events that would be perhaps impossible to present on stage. In the
story, a train carrying nuclear waste headed for a small American
town is hijacked, and the residents must decide whether to harbor
the dangerous waste or risk the lives of millions of people. The
nomination has helped Minter gain the exposure such an ambitious
work might not normally garner for a student writer.
“(The nomination) is an introduction to people in the
professional world,” she said. “We’ve all
received a lot of calls from studios as well as managers and
agents.”
Shanee Edwards agreed the Goldwyn Awards could offer assistance
in breaking into the entertainment industry.
“Being a finalist in the Goldwyn Writing Awards provides a
great opportunity to be recognized by the Hollywood
community,” said Edwards, who is in her third year in the
graduate screenwriting program. “It says, “˜These are
some up-and-coming writers you should take a look
at.'”
Unlike Kyle and Minter, Edwards attended UCLA as an
undergraduate. She studied theater and entered the acting world
after graduation. Upon realizing the difficulty of creating
opportunities for herself, Edwards decided she wanted to write
parts rather than play them. After taking extension classes at UCLA
in screenwriting, she looked into the master’s program. It
turned out to be the right choice.
“Now that I’m writing all the time, I love
it,” Edwards said.
Her screenplay, “Enchantress of Numbers,” concerns
the story of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and
one of the first people to foresee the viability of computer
programming.
But the Goldwyn Awards have not just been helpful in regard to
Edwards’ own work. The increased focus on screenwriting
brought about by the awards is not just a boon for the students
““ it aids the craft in general, she says.
“They say film is a director’s medium, and it seems
that the tables are beginning to turn,” Edwards said.
“The writers are seeming to get more recognition and control
over their work.”
For these three, the benefits of a Goldwyn Award nomination have
been manifold. Self-assurance, access to industry professionals and
monetary prizes are just a few of the rewards conferred upon the
finalists. But maybe most important of all is the feeling that
writers have found their true calling.
“Before the Goldwyn Awards, I was just a screenwriting
student, and now I’m a writer people want to read. And
that’s really exciting,” Edwards said.