One of the best things about Chapman students is their collaborative spirit.  Some schools breed a culture of intense competition – every person for himself.  When student work is discussed and workshopped at hyper-competitive schools like that, it turns into a giant bashing session  – each student trying to rip the others work, rather than trying to honestly assist in the creative process.  But at Chapman, it’s all about working together to help each other create the best possible scripts and films.  Prime example of this: today’s class session in my pilot writing class.

Each student develops a concept for a half-hour series, either drama or comedy, then develops a story for the pilot episode and writes a script.  Today’s task: going over 6 student story outlines.  Developing a story for a TV pilot is a daunting task.  You must not only introduce your characters and premise, but also tell a complete and satisfying story that promises a hundred other great episodes based on the same characters and premise.  Degree of difficulty: high.  But the tough task was made so much more enjoyable by virtue of each student’s willingness to genuinely try to help his classmates improve the quality and effectiveness of the story.

It was inspiring to see the incredible power of the group’s creativity, and how the more comfortable the students got with trusting that their work would be improved by the suggestions and contributions of their peers, rather than savaged, the more productive the session got.  Not only will this lead to better pilot scripts from the class, it will also help prepare the students for the professional world of television writing, where collaboration and writers working as a group is the name of the game.