VFS – A Community For A Lonely Craft

A review of the Vancouver Film School (VFS) - Writing for Film & Television program.
By John H. who graduated in 2000. 764 views.

I know a lot has changed since I took the program in late 2000. One change for example is the length of the program. For me it was 8 hours a day 5 days a week, plus a *lot* of homework for 4 months. I got my diploma in December of 2000. From what I’ve heard and read though, the program is basically the same: an essential step in the right direction.

I’d just graduated from UBC with a Psychology degree and was in the mentality of “I just can’t stand school anymore!” My first days in VFS changed my mind completely. As soon as you walk in it doesn’t feel like you’re in a school. It feels more like a gathering of artists and professionals. For me it was nothing like any other school I’d been to.

The Program

The first lessons were generally just laying down the curriculum and the basics of what the course is. Standard stuff. Soon we got down to business.

Nothing was left out. From the very basics of how to put together your story, to the final polish, they cover everything. I mean it.

Nothing was left out. From the very basics of how to put together your story, to the final polish, they cover everything. I mean it. They go from the theory to the finish and everything in between – how to get into the mood of writing, the meaning of what it is to be a writer, an actors perspective, a directors perspective, your place in the process of a movie production etc. You read your classmates scripts page by page and give feedback, talking about the good and the bad and the same is done for you. This is of course all in addition to the technical side of the script, how to make sure your story is well rounded, full of detail and professionally put together. By the time you’ve completed the course, you’ll feel like a true writer that just hasn’t gotten credits yet.

The only negative things I can remember about the course were the occasional uncomfortable moments of friction between students. There was also a time where one of the instructors was offended at something that to this day I don’t know what it was about. She offered to let us take our scheduled time with her to ‘do our own thing’ and it was a little unprofessional of her (I thought) to rant at us for 30 minutes when half the class had no idea what had caused her to be upset in the first place. Also, after the course was over, one of the best mentors apparently had differences with one of the ‘higher ups’ and left the school. I don’t know any details but it was pretty disappointing, and I thought it was a bad move to let the guy go. He was more than half of the course in every respect, even though we had about 6 mentors. I can’t imagine how they would try to replace him.

In terms of having your script worked and produced through VFS, the experience for me was almost ironic. When I signed up with the program, I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I was still undecided and didn’t know if I wanted to spend 4 months intensive studying after having graduated from 4 years of university (I literally had my final UBC assignments in my backpack at the VFS orientation day!). The selling point that got me signed up was the promise which read something like ‘VFS is collaborating with Warden and White (an agent) and if your script is good enough we’ll hand it to them for consideration.”

Sold. I signed up. At least, even if the course was a complete bomb, I had a shot at meeting an agent, which was a light year jump forward compared to what I had at the time, which was nothing but ideas.

The irony turned out to be that the promise of the agent and possible representation faded into the background for me. It just didn’t seem important anymore. The course was so involving and absorbed so much of my time and energy, having my script represented *at that time* just didn’t seem as important as getting the script in top notch condition. In my opinion, this is exactly how it should be. If you have a great script, the agents will come later.

Before I put my foot in my mouth, that said, my luck with finding agents hasn’t been the greatest since I left the course! Without trying to make excuses for myself, I will confess that as soon as I graduated from the program I moved to Tokyo Japan, where selling screenplays in English isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do in the world. Hell, buying a carton of milk instead of whipping cream is hard enough!

In terms of support after you leave VFS, for me it has been somewhat luke-warm. I get emails as I’m on the alumni mailing list, but nearly all of the jobs are south in the US. The rare writing events that are in the Vancouver area tend to be ‘workshops’ where you go and pay money to write some more. I’ve been out to Praxis and talked my face off around town and it’s rather mystifying. Where are the writing jobs? Nobody is ever able to give a straight answer. I don’t blame VFS for not having more solid leads. In the rep at Praxis’ own words, the mystery behind finding a writing job or selling a script is probably not completely unintentional. It’s as though they make it hard to find work on purpose. Why? I have no clue, but it could have something to do with the sheer number of people trying to get into the industry. I guess they believe that the ones who are persistent are the best writers, which is in my opinion probably one of the biggest misconceptions there is.

That said, I wrote a childrens play which was produced in Japan for the Tokyo American Club, and made my first bit of money for writing. I kept working on feature scripts and finished off two, and I have two more rolling out soon and also have an idea for a new TV show for CBC. I’d love to tell you I’ve made some deals and ‘made it’ but it just hasn’t happened for me yet. That’s why I made the move back to Vancouver late last year.

If I were to try to catch up or learn the things through self-study, I would have had to have spent probably 10 years of reading and research.

The Verdict

Coming out from the program on the other side, I imagined what it would have been like had I not taken the course. If I were to try to catch up or learn the things I did through self-study, I would have had to have spent probably 10 years of reading and research. That’s how I felt leaving the school. I learned so much and so fast, it felt like I’d taken massive short cuts through all the garbage advice out there and gotten right to the core of what I needed to know. Forget ‘dissolve to’ and ‘pan left,’ head to VFS. You’ll not regret it. If I had the resources I’d enroll in their Production program without blinking. It was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about writing.