The University of Texas Film Institute (UTFI) is expanding its two-semester Feature Film Lab into a two-year program that will produce a feature-length film every year, the first of which will be shot in summer 2008. The films will be fully crewed and staffed by UT students, and will be based on scripts written by UT students as well.
In conjunction with the expanded Feature Film Lab, UTFI encourages students with completed screenplays to submit their work to be considered for a spot in the Fall 2007 advanced screenwriting workshop. Submitted scripts should be a fully completed draft, with a story geared to a low-budget, Austin-based production.
The Feature Film Lab’s program for each feature film will span two academic years, with the first two semesters devoted to script development and pre-production. The “principal photography” on each film will be completed during the summer, and is expected to involve 40 to 80 students, depending on the nature and requirements of the production. The following two semesters will focus on post-production and on the marketing (sales and distribution) of the finished film.
Combining the faculty and resources of multiple UT programs – the Department of Radio-Television-Film, the Michener Center for Writers, the Department of Theater & Dance, the School of Music, and the School of Architecture – the UTFI Feature Film Lab is designed to train graduate and undergraduate students in all phases of feature filmmaking. As such, it provides an utterly unique, hands-on learning experience for those UT students interested in a career in the motion-picture industry.
A committee of faculty and professionals will select 6-8 of the submitted scripts for the fall semester screenwriting workshop. The course will involve extensive revisions based on input from industry professionals (producers and other filmmakers as well as screenwriters) and will culminate in a fully cast staged reading. At the end of the fall term, 3-4 of the scripts will be selected for inclusion in the spring semester production lab, where a core group of filmmaking talent (student directors, actors, editors, cinematographers, designers, composers, et al.) will collaborate to "pre-produce" the projects. One script from the spring semester will be chosen to be shot in Summer 2008.
The fall screenwriting workshop and spring production lab will be conducted as for-credit courses taught by UTFI Creative Director Alex Smith, an RTF faculty member and Michener Center graduate with professional experience as a writer-director. Both are modeled after the Sundance Institute Writer’s Workshop and Filmmaking Lab (in which Alex Smith has experience as well).
Course sequence:
Each film will be produced in a five-term sequence spanning two academic years:
- 1st fall term: initial project development
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Screenwriting workshop
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Design lab; acting workshops; staged readings
- 1st spring term: production lab/pre-production
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Semester-long Sundance-style lab to workshop select fall projects
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Identify summer film by April 1; begin pre-production
- Summer: principal photography (production)
- 2nd fall term: post-production (sound and picture)
- 2nd spring term: marketing and distribution
Information about Fall 2007
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