Program Overview

Master of Fine Arts in Scriptwriting & Story Design

The MFA in Scriptwriting & Story Design is a two-year interdisciplinary master's program offered by the Schools of Image Arts, Performance, and RTA Media in The Creative School.

Program Overview

In the first year, students take foundational courses in writing and story development, and they begin developing their final thesis project. In year two, each student participates in extensive workshopping to develop their individual writing projects. They engage with peers and upper-year undergraduate students who can act, direct, and record performances to further develop their work.

Curriculum

Year One

• Elements of Storytelling: This course investigates the intrinsic nature of storytelling and how it is animated and driven by emotional connection and specificity of description through character, theme, and story structure.
• Script Analysis: Students examine scripts from the standpoint of the text to explore how decisions are made from the writer's point of view, focusing on key elements of dramaturgical analysis.
• Research Methods for Scriptwriting: This course introduces students to foundational research methods and practices to foster socially responsive writing that engages "real world" issues.
• Writing for Visual Media: Students explore commonalities and differences in the forms of a screenplay, teleplay, stage-play, and emerging digital media, including shifting POV, fractured narrative, episodic, and layered content.
• Acting and Directing for Writers: Students acquire a hands-on, working knowledge of acting and directing techniques to develop a better understanding of how scripts are interpreted and "staged."

Year Two

• Graduate Writing Seminar – Thesis Project 1: Students develop their scripted thesis project with feedback from the supervisor, course instructor, and other students.
• Contemporary Practices in Scriptwriting and Story Design: Students examine contemporary practices by viewing and analyzing current film, theatre, television, and emerging media productions.
• Graduate Writing Seminar – Thesis Project 2: With the support of the thesis supervisor and feedback from the course instructor and other students, writers present ongoing drafts of their thesis, focusing on rewriting and revision.
• Business of Scriptwriting and Story Design: Students explore the challenges and opportunities of bringing their scripted works to audiences from a business vantage point.

Elective Courses

Permission for 2-4 MFA in Scriptwriting & Story Design students in each graduate course has been granted by The Creative School Graduate Program Directors. Students may select a single course from the following list during their first and second years of the program.

• The Culture of the Avant-Garde: Modernity's Discontents: This course explores the discontent that members of vanguard artistic movements of the 20th century harboured relative to the culture of modernity.
• Topics in Cross-Cultural Communication: The purpose of this course is to foster cross-cultural competence through a wide-ranging examination of the major social issues that affect communication across national and cultural boundaries.
• Media Languages: Forms and Approaches: This shared, interdisciplinary course investigates both common elements and specific attributes of contemporary media forms.
• Audiences and the Public: This course examines the development of the idea of "the public" or "the audience" in the context of the varying disciplines offered across the faculty.

Thesis Project

For the final thesis project, each student will complete a full script for a feature film, a stage play, a television script, or other script-based media composition. Throughout the program, students receive guidance and mentorship from their supervisor and are immersed in The Creative School's creative ecosystem.