So you've been rejected from USC SCA (or USC altogether) - what have people done in the past to overcome this and either eventually land a spot as a Trojan, or carve a path toward a film career without it?

BREAKDOWN:

0:00 - Intro/Context

3:00 - Episode Outline

3:56 - A note about the appeal process!! (FAQ)

6:24 - For parents!!!

8:13 - My journey getting rejected from USC SCA: admission to USC but denied from SCA, adding a major in Annenberg, transferring into Cinema-Media Studies and eventually transferring into Film & Television Production

44:52 - Stories of successful people who were initially rejected from USC

Evan Iwata is a TV drama writer who recently sold his original high-concept crime procedural ON THE CLOCK to ABC with Lionsgate Television and Alexi Hawley’s Perfectman Pictures. He was previously a staff writer on the HBO Max sci-fi thriller SUBJECT TO CHANGE from J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot, and has also developed a YA action-adventure series for DreamWorks Animation. He began his career in the writers room, working in support staff roles on series including Starz's OUTLANDER, CBS's CSI:CYBER and PURE GENIUS, and ABC's THE FIX and EMERGENCE. An alum of the Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Today we are getting into how Evan went from being rejected from USC film school to a WGA writer selling his own show, what it was like working directly with JJ Abrams ona series for HBO and the three typical expectations most writers have that are completely incorrect.

BREAKDOWN:

13:46 – Evan’s work on a potential Dreamworks show
18:26 – Pitch vs. pilot vs. series bible
23:18 – How to get paid before you start writing the pilot
28:41 – From Oshkosh to USC / underGRAD
31:41 – Megan Niquette
33:21 – Namrata
34:11 – Evan McGahey, Monisha Dadlani, Ethan Welling
41:41 – Signing with reps
42:24 – Writers’ Assistant Program, Conrad Sun
46:41 – Knowing when to add an agent to the team
46:41 – Kat Reilly
50:41 – Warner Bros. TV Writer Workshop + Covid
51:26 – Jennifer Yale
52:01 – Getting in the writers room on JJ Abrams show
59:21 – Starting as support staff (CSI: Cyber, Outlander)
1:06:11 – Wrong expectations as writers
1:17:41 – Getting a WGA card
1:18:11 – Adapting a true story from an article
1:24:36 – TIME CAPSULE

KEEP UP WITH EVAN: @iwhata

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bio.site/NoSetPath