U-C-L-A, write, write, write

Jenae Cohn (Contact)
Published: Monday, October 29, 2007

To those who bemoan the bevy of action blockbusters, superhero sequels, and crude teen comedies that churn in and out of multiplexes, the finalists for the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award may offer hope for the future of film.

The 52nd annual Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, held tonight at the Writer’s Guild of America Theater, will honor five original full-length screenplays written by students in the University of California system, awarding one winner with a $15,000 prize.

This year, four of the five finalists, Mark Humphrey, Andrea McCloud, Michael Vukadinovich and Jennifer O’Kieffe, are from UCLA.

“The people who have won this award have ended up having careers in television and writing ... because you see a sort of personality coming through, and that’s what the judges look for,” said Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., head of the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation and son of film producer and writer Samuel Goldwyn, Sr. “Good scripts always are personal because they have a voice.”

The five finalists’ screenplays were chosen from over 120 screenplay submissions and will be judged by Variety magazine editor Peter Bart, producer Cathy Schulman and director Joel Schumacher.

This competitiveness makes UCLA’s strong standing in the competition even more of a feat.

“It speaks very well of the film school and specifically the screenwriting program. I think I’ve learned a lot (from UCLA) not only about screenwriting but also about what kind of storyteller I want to be,” said McCloud, whose screenplay “Room for Error” centers on the quirky reunion of an uptight accountant and her carefree, estranged mother.

Samuel Goldwyn, Sr. and former UCLA screenwriting professor Kenneth MacGowan first began the annual writing contest in 1955 as a way to encourage UCLA students to write creatively.

Originally, poetry, short story and dramatic writing submissions were eligible for the contest, but because Goldwyn was a film producer, the dramatic writing submissions became the contest’s focus.

Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. opened the contest to the entire University of California system 25 years ago, and the competition’s elite status has only grown.

Past winners include Francis Ford Coppola, Eric Roth and Jonathan Kellerman.

“Something like 80 percent of (winners) are making a living out of their work in either television or movies, some of them are writing books and that’s what I’m proud of,” said Goldwyn. “We want to see the results of this award for their careers. ... We’ve just had a very good record. I can’t think of any process like this that has had this kind of success.”

But beyond attempting to find success in the business, the screenwriting competition allows writers to create compelling, personal narratives.

Humphrey, a former Daily Bruin editor and graduate of the School of Theater, Film and Television and the only undergraduate ever to be nominated as a finalist, though, recognizes the need to balance personal writing with business and competition.

“I certainly believe in making my art ... but at the same time, you’ve got to play the game,” Humphrey said. “You have to understand what you need to do in order to get yourself seen, get yourself heard. That’s not to say that you should be cynical, but you should be realistic.”

The finalists see this competition as an important stepping stone in breaking into the industry; they have begun to receive phone calls and offers from producers and agents.

Humphrey’s screenplay “Coup” revolves around a struggling TV network’s new reality series in which contestants must take part in the coup d’état of a small country, an unconventional story line that paid off.

“The last thing I expected was to use it to potentially launch a career, but then, all of a sudden, all of these people were calling me about it,” said Humphrey. “It was really shocking, but it was really encouraging, especially when you’re an undergrad. ... Even if they don’t want to buy the script, the fact that they read you and liked you, it’s so encouraging because then you know that you’re doing something right.”

The finalists remain committed to professionally pursuing dramatic writing despite the notorious difficulty of getting original films produced in Hollywood.

As a playwriting student, Vukadinovich noted the flexibility and joys in screenwriting make the fight to write worthwhile.

“When you’re writing a screenplay, anything’s possible, and you can do all kinds of things. ... It opens you up in that way,” Vukadinovich said.

But in the end, it is an interest in the craft that has taken the finalists this far.

“Ultimately, if you write something that you want to write, that you’re passionate about, something that touches you, it’s going to be seen in your writing. You’re going to feel that enthusiasm, you’re going to feel that excitement about the characters, and that’s going to be a good story,” said McCloud.

Keeping a personal perspective is a key to success not only in the competition but in the industry as a whole.

“Write for yourself. You’re going to spend enough time in your career writing for other people, but you can’t do that starting out,” Goldwyn said. “You have something original to say or a story to tell. The important thing is to write and write about what’s close to you.”