Heather Winters

They say, “Producing is like trying to build a house of cards in a wind tunnel when someone hands you a stick of crazy glue and turns the lights off.” In fact, the producer is the “visionary”—typically, the one to initiate, develop, nurture, and shepherd a project, step-by-step, from its inception to its completion. Bringing all of the project’s elements into existence while being the critical glue that holds everything together…the producer knows how to “turn the lights on.” Being a producer is a magical journey of discovery: learning what stories are important to you, discovering the best way to tell them, and defining why you must be the one to bring a story to life. These are the essential pillars of producing. This immersive course provides filmmakers, directors, screenwriters, actors, or any interested student a real-world look “under the hood” into the fundamentals of creative producing—providing a comprehensive understanding of the pivotal role that the creative producer plays in the dynamic and ever-changing world of film and television. Taught through the lens of what one (or a small army of producers) actually does, this course demystifies and explores the role of the producer on a feature or on a short film, documentary, television, animated, or digital project from the moment of creative inspiration through project delivery—defining what it means to “produce.” Working individually and in teams, students will “produce” semester group projects and engage in discussions, theoretical exploration, practical workshops, and exercises that simulate real-world producing scenarios, as they develop essential skills crucial for success in the producing field. Topics covered include development, preproduction, production, and postproduction; collaborating with writers, directors, actors, and crew; script breakdown, scheduling, budgeting, financing, distribution, script coverage; and best producing practices. This course offers students a chance to explore the role of the producer and learn invaluable creative perspectives and industry insights, as students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the multifaceted landscape of producing. Workshops and intimate conversations with working artists from both in front of and behind the camera allow students opportunities to engage with creatives active in the field. Course objectives include developing a holistic understanding and fundamental knowledge of the producing process; gaining a unique window into the importance of, and mechanics pertaining to, the producing discipline; and assembling an essential toolkit for creating and seeking opportunities in the filmmaking, television, and moving-image arts worlds.

The first step in getting any project made is having the goods—a screenplay, an original TV pilot, episodes of a Web series, a short film, a documentary treatment or proposal—and then developing a rock-solid pitch. There is, indeed, a right way to pitch your ideas and projects. This course teaches students how to develop a project into a pitch package and how to pitch that project—an essential skill for all writers, filmmakers, directors, and producers. With existing scripts and projects, this class guides students in how to understand studio and network needs, how to ensure that your script is ready to pitch, how to establish industry contacts, how to be a good communicator, how to understand and grapple with changing audience tastes, and, overall, how to sell your idea. Every development executive is looking for great stories and screenplays that will make successful films, TV shows, and digital content. This course coaches students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their scripts, treatments, and projects and explore what platform will best suit their project—and why? What kind of viewer will it appeal to? Is it practical? Has it been done before? Answering some of these questions will aid students in understanding the practicalities of development. Through a workshop process of analyzing scripts, creating pitch packages, and verbal pitching, students will learn what makes their particular project marketable, how to make their stories resonate, and how to engage with and pitch the gatekeepers of the myriad platforms where audiences seek stories on screen. Students should have a completed project for which they wish to develop a pitch.

This course explores the role of the creative producer and the process of producing a feature or short film, documentary, television, animation, or digital project from development through distribution. Taught through the lens of what one producer (or a small army of producers) actually does, this course explores the role of the producer from the moment of creative inspiration through development, preproduction, production, postproduction, and project delivery—defining and demystifying what it means to “produce.” Working in small groups, students develop and pitch project ideas to the class and work in groups throughout the semester to prepare fully-developed project presentations. Students will gain experience in breaking down scripts; crafting shooting schedules and budgets; writing loglines, synopses, and treatments; casting breakdowns; and identifying each project’s audience and platform. Course work consists of verbal and written assignments, film screenings, weekly readings, and industry guest workshops. Participation in software labs is required. This course provides real-world producing guidance, offering filmmakers, screenwriters, and directors a window into the importance of, and mechanics pertaining to, the producing discipline, as well as a practical skill set for creating and seeking opportunities in the filmmaking, television, and digital content worlds.

The first step in getting any project made is having the goods—a screenplay, an original TV pilot, episodes of a Web series, a short film, a documentary treatment or proposal—and then developing a rock-solid pitch. There is, indeed, a right way to pitch your ideas and projects. This course teaches students how to develop a project into a pitch package and how to pitch that project—an essential skill for all writers, filmmakers, directors and producers. With existing scripts and projects, this class guides students in how to understand studio and network needs, how to ensure that your script is ready to pitch, how to establish industry contacts, how to be a good communicator, how to understand and grapple with changing audience tastes, and, overall, how to sell your idea. Every development executive is looking for great stories and screenplays that will make successful films, TV shows, and digital content. This course coaches students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their scripts, treatments, and projects and explore what platform will best suit their project and why? What kind of viewer will it appeal to? Is it practical? Has it been done before? Answering some of these questions will aid students in understanding the practicalities of development. Through a workshop process of analyzing scripts, creating pitch packages, and verbal pitching, students will learn what makes their particular project marketable, how to make their stories resonate, and how to engage with and pitch the gatekeepers of the myriad platforms where audiences seek stories on screen. Students should have a completed project for which they wish to develop a pitch.

This course introduces the student to the adventurous and intriguing world of directing documentaries, from exploring the earliest recorded masterpieces to today’s box-office breakout hits and everything in between. In addition to immersion in the passionate and rewarding dominion of documentaries through screenings, readings, and practical filmmaking exercises—and with a deep understanding of documentary styles, including experimental, poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, and performative and how these styles often overlap in documentary film—students will learn the craft of documentary filmmaking and directing for documentary. Through hands-on exercises and workshops, students will explore camera work, shooting styles, lighting, interview techniques, and editorial, graphic, and post-production skills. Students will complete the course having written, conceived, filmed, directed, produced, and edited a short, three-to-five minute documentary.

It is every writer’s dream that their script is the next breakout hit—or every filmmaker’s dream of getting into a prestigious film festival. The script just needs to land in the right hands, get to the right reader, or grab the attention of the right executive, and it will sell. The film just needs to get in front of the right programmer, and it will be smooth sailing. But the truth is, most screenplays and TV pilots remain unproduced because they are not marketable enough for production companies, studios, and networks to feel confident in buying or financing them. And more films than ever before are competing for those few coveted festival screening slots. For the student hoping to “make it out there,” this rigorous journey offers a critical lens into how best to prepare your screenplay, TV pilot, or completed film to be ready to take to market, identifying clear goals and marketing strategies for your completed material and projects so that they will sell. Through workshops and evaluating and re-working your script/TV pilot or finished short, this course guides students in how to understand the process to make their work “ready for battle,” to stand out from the herd and have the most successful shot at a launch in a world where there is no set formula for what is marketable. Students with finished films will prepare pitch packages, prep their projects for film festival submission, and navigate the marketplace. Writers with screenplays and TV pilots will prepare the elements for formal pitches. By finding their niche and genre, researching companies producing similar work, and understanding the entertainment business through the eyes of an executive, students learn how to market, promote, and network to provide the best opportunities to get their work sold and seen in today’s changing-by-the-second, fast-paced content world. This course will give you the skills needed to hook interest and make people take notice. To interview for this course, students must have a completed screenplay, TV pilot or finished film.

Being a producer is a magical journey of discovery. Learning what stories are important to you, the best way to tell them, and why you must be the one to bring a story to life...these are the essential pillars of producing. A producer is the “visionary”—typically the one to initiate, develop, nurture, and shepherd a project, step-by-step, to its completion. The producer brings all of a project’s elements into existence and is the glue that holds them together. Taught through the lens of understanding what one or a small army of producers actually does, this course demystifies and explores the role of the producer on a feature or short film, documentary, television, animated, or digital project from the moment of creative inspiration through development, production, postproduction, and project delivery—defining what it means to “produce.” Led by an industry professional, this course takes a real-world look under the hood into the fundamentals of producing. In the first seven weeks, topics broadly covered include development; preproduction elements; collaborating with writers, directors, and crew; script breakdown; script coverage; scheduling, budgeting, financing, and distribution; and best producing practices. The second seven weeks will focus on pitching; the role of agents, managers, and executives; industry representation; and how to navigate a career from the classroom to the screening room. The course features industry guests from both behind and in front of the camera and is designed around reading, screening, and podcast assignments, as well as hands-on, in-class group work. Students will complete this course with a foundational knowledge of producing and pitching, gain a unique window into the importance of and mechanics pertaining to the producing discipline, and leave with an introductory toolkit for creating and seeking opportunities in the filmmaking and television worlds.

What is a producer? Producers are credited on every film, television show, and media project that is made. Producers are crucial—even seminal—to each and every production, no matter how big or small. Yet, even as a pivotal position in the creative and practical process of making a film, TV show, documentary, animated, or digital project, the title “producer” is perhaps the least understood of all of the collaborators involved. This course demystifies and answers that mystery, examining what a producer actually does in the creation of screen-based media and the many hats that one or a small army of producers may wear at any given time. Students will explore the role of the producer in the filmmaking, television, documentary, animation, and digital content-creation process from the moment of creative inspiration through development, production, postproduction, and project delivery. Students will gain production management skills through learning nuts-and-bolts production software exercises, breaking down projects into production elements, creating script breakdowns, schedules and budgets, writing loglines, synopses and treatments, exploring script coverage, and delivering final class-project presentations. The course provides step-by-step, real-world producing guidance and offers filmmakers, screenwriters, directors, and creators a window into the importance of—and mechanics pertaining to—the producing discipline, as well as a practical skill set for creating and seeking work in the filmmaking, TV, documentary, animation, and digital content world. Software labs are required. This course will be delivered via a combination of instructional methods, including synchronous live interactive weekly online classes, assigned weekly readings, asynchronous film viewing, prerecorded presentations, self-tape video assignments, small breakout groups, seminar-style conversations with guests, written assignments, and one-on-one and group project conferences in real time.

What is a producer? Producers are credited on every film, television show, and media project made. They are crucial—even seminal—to each and every production, no matter how big or small. Yet, even as a pivotal position in the creative and practical process of making a film, TV show, or digital project, the title “producer” is perhaps the least understood of all of the collaborators involved. This course demystifies and answers this question, examining what a producer actually does in the creation of screen-based media and the many hats one or a small army of producers may wear at any given time. Students will explore the role of the producer in the filmmaking, television, and digital process from the moment of creative inspiration through project delivery. Students will gain hands-on producing experience through nuts-and-bolts production software exercises, breaking projects down into production elements, script breakdowns, schedules and budgets, logline, synopsis and treatment writing, script coverage, and final in-class project presentations. Course work includes written and verbal assignments, in-class presentations, readings, screenings, and assignments based on invited industry guests. Conference work may include producing a film or media project by a student in another Sarah Lawrence College filmmaking-production class, research-based papers, in-depth case studies, and other producer-related projects. The course provides real-world producing guidance and offers filmmakers, screenwriters, and directors a window into the importance of—and mechanics pertaining to—the producing discipline, as well as a practical skill set for creating and seeking work in the filmmaking, TV, and digital content world after Sarah Lawrence College. Software labs are required.

The first step to getting any project made is having the goods—a screenplay, an original TV pilot script, episodes of a digital series, a short film script, a documentary treatment or proposal—and then developing a rock-solid pitch. By asking important questions—What is your story? To what kind of viewer will it appeal? Is it practical? Has it been done before? What makes your project unique? Why am I the right person to tell this story?—this course introduces students to the fundamentals and practicalities of development and pitching. Through a collaborative workshop process and by using their existing scripts and projects, students will engage in table reads, script analysis, and verbal and written pitch exercises and spend the semester learning about and creating the elements that will make their particular projects and stories resonate and become marketable. Through this process, students will learn how to develop a project into a pitch package and how to pitch that project and engage with the gatekeepers of the myriad platforms where audiences seek stories on screen. Course work is designed to guide students in how to evaluate the strengths and weakness of their ideas, scripts, treatments, and projects and to explore what platform(s) will best suit their project and why. Guest workshops with industry professionals include writer pitches and understanding talent representation in the entertainment industry. The semester’s work culminates in a final pitch presentation—an essential skill for all writers, filmmakers, directors, and producers. Whether pitching a colleague to collaborate on your project or pitching a studio or network to finance your project, students will learn how to ensure that a script or project is ready to pitch, how to understand studio and network needs, how to establish industry contacts, how to be a skilled communicator, how to understand and grapple with changing audience tastes, and, overall, how to sell an idea. Students must have a completed script or treatment for which they wish to develop a pitch.

This course expands on students’ knowledge of filmmaking and digital media, focusing on the importance of, and involvement in, the creative and business roles of producing entertainment. Framed on real-world film and TV producer experience, this course will help students understand best producing practices; understand the roles that lawyers, agents, managers, and sales agents play in a project; learn about networking, representation, marketing, and the best ways to get their work “out there”; learn how to navigate the film festival and exhibition circuit; learn how to prepare their project materials, including press kits, trailers, and key art for presentation; as well as prepare themselves for a career in film, television, and/or digital media. This course examines the intersection of art and commerce and how to navigate both while creating any artistic work. Students will bring in projects and work in a collaborative and guided environment to create the materials needed to move their projects to the next level. Course work includes written and verbal assignments, class presentations, assignments based on invited industry guests, and final presentations. Students should come prepared with a completed script, film, or project on which they want to focus for the semester. Upon completing the course, students will have an extensive understanding of the integration of the business and creative aspects of film, television, and digital media, as well as a further understanding of the producer’s role from creative development to final delivery.

No script? No actors? No problem. Documentary storytelling is in its golden age, and the entertainment world has become ensorcelled with documentary film. Is it because of the universal human desire to tell true stories? Is it because the truth is sometimes more compelling and stranger than fiction? Is it because documentaries embody and deliver powerful dramatic narratives rivaled by the best of scripted media? This course introduces the student to the adventurous and intriguing world of documentaries from the earliest recorded masterpieces to today’s box-office breakout hits while exploring everything in between. In addition to immersion in the passionate and rewarding dominion of all genres of documentaries—ranging from experimental, poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, and performative to screenings, readings, and practical exercises—students will learn the craft of writing for documentary before, during, and after production, including how to identify, develop, and clarify themes and ideas and write loglines, synopses, artistic statements, impact statements, narrations, and subject interview questions.