Over 800 filmmakers will be making their first feature this year, but for some very specific reasons, more than 750 of those films will fail and won't reach the public. Most of those failures spring from specific avoidable mistakes. Our Feature Development Program has been created to help you prevent the most common fatal mistakes of first-time feature filmmakers.

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Our program is designed for the experienced filmmaking team (writer, director and producer) that is ready to polish a script and to start putting together the financing, the marketing plan, and the pitch. The program is unique in a number of ways, notably for the quality and stature of its faculty, who are all Hollywood professionals who have spent years in the thick of the developing and fundraising process. Our Hollywood-based faculty conducts workshops that revolve entirely around the script and focus on strengthening BOTH the Director's mastery of the story and the Producer's sales package. Like the other 800 filmmakers making their first feature this year, you're going to make your feature; we just want you to avoid the pitfalls.

Upon sucessfull completion of the program you will have:

1. Final Elevator Pitch
2. Pitch
3. Poster
4. Print Press Kit
5. EPK
6. Marketing and Positioning Strategy
7. Final Script
8. Fundraising Strategy
9. Final Budget
10. Casting Strategy
11. Fully Finished (edited and sound-edited) scenes or short, ready for screening
12. Rights Package
13. Attachments
14. Major and Minor Goals

Special Visiting Guests to The Los Angeles Film School Feature Development Program from March 2002 Class:

Jonathan Sanger, Producer, Vanilla Sky, etc.
Barbara Boyle, Producer, Instinct, Phenomenon, etc.
Ricahard Wenk, Director, Just the Ticket, etc.
Saul Zaentz, Producer, The English Patient, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, etc.
Sharon Howard-Field, Casting, Dancing at the Blue Iguana
Zachary Feuer, VP Producton, Maverick Pictures
Tom Reed, Ex-VP of Imagine, Disney, Producer of Bark! Sundance 2002 selection starring Lisa Kudrow and Hank Azaria.
Kerry David, Producer, Endless Ent.
Derek Powers, Manager/Agent for actors (Ben Kingsley among others) and composers (Michael Nyman/The Piano, and others).

Press Release

Open schedule:

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Donn Cambern worked as a music editor for TV on shows that included Dick Van Dyke, I Spy, Gomer Pyle and Andy Griffith. In 1969, he edited his first two feature films, 2000 Years Later and Easy Rider for director Dennis Hopper. Since Easy Rider, Cambern has gone on to edit over 35 films including The Bodyguard, Ghostbusters II, Hooper, The Hindenberg, The Last Picture Show, Tempest, Twins and Smokey and the Bandit II. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Romancing the Stone. Cambern is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, the American Cinema editors Guild, the Directors Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cambern has served as the President of the Motion Picture Editors Guild since 1991.

Harry Clein received the Publicists Guild Career Achievement Award in recognition of his efforts in the publicity, promotion, and marketing campaign of The Blair Witch Project in 1999. In 1995, Clein shared with Paramount Pictures The Publicists Guild's Maxwell Weinberg Publicists Showmanship Award for the Forrest Gump campaign. In 1981, Clein launched his own public relations firm with Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice as his first project. Among the many films he has been closely involved with are: Dirty Dancing, Heathers, Places in the Heart, Steel Magnolias, The Trip to Bountiful, 28-Up, Forrest Gump, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Crow, Kiss of the Spider Woman, She's Gotta Have It, Mona Lisa, sex lies and videotape, Cinema Paradiso, Menace II Society, Bagdad Café, The Joy Luck Club, and The Blair Witch Project.

Linda J. Cowgill received her Masters in Screenwriting from UCLA, after winning several screenwriting awards and fellowships. She has taught screenwriting seminars at the Boston Film Institute, the American Film Institute, and the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Currently Cowgill teaches screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and is the author of Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters and Secrets of Screenplay Structure : How to Recognize and Emulate the Structural Frameworks of Great Films.

Amedeo D'Adamo, program founder, is the former President and founding Dean of the Los Angeles Film School. Prior to coming to LA, he worked in the New York indie scene and coordinated the communication and film program at New School University in New York. He has worked with the Beijing Opera, with studios in mainland China, and on independent feature productions in New York City in roles ranging from Screenwriter, Lead Actor, First Assistant Director and Producer. He has taught screenwriting and script analysis at The New School and directing at the New York Film Academy. He holds an MFA from Columbia University's Graduate Film Division and has served as Judge and Panelist on numerous Film Festival's such as Slamdance, Milan International, and the Atlanta Film Festival. Recently he associate produced a feature film for Roger Corman and is currently helping to produce a short film for Vicky Jenson, Director of the Oscar-winning Shrek.

Danford Greene began his career as an editor on Boris Karloff's Thriller and then went on to work alongside such greats as Robert Altman as an editor on That Cold Day in the Park and M*A*S*H*. Green has been nominated for an Academy Award for both M*A*S*H* and Blazing Saddles. He has numerous other films to his credit, such as Rocky II, Myra Breckenridge and McHale's Navy.

Gabrielle Kelly, seasoned feature film, television, new media producer and production executive, is an expert in all aspects of script development, talent attachment and financing. A Hollywood-based analyst and trouble-shooter for international media companies and hands- on producer of media related databases, her Producer credits include the upcoming indie feature, All the Queen's Men, Paramount's family movie, D.A.R.Y.L., Cineplex Odeon and HBO's Stag, Sundance winner, Wonderland and others. As VP Development/Production for Robert Evans Company she oversaw acquisition and development of The Saint, Sliver, and Demolished Man. She conceived and developed the Brady Bunch Movie franchise for Paramount. While with Eddie Murphy Productions she developed comic book and novel properties for the acting star.

Ariel Levy has worked in Hollywood and in the British film industry for years as an assistant director, producer and production manager for such films as My Blue Heaven, The Spy Who Loved Me, and The Man in the Iron Mask.

Daniele J Suissa, program founder, trained at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Paris after which she started her career working for 10 years with major European directors, producers, and actors such as Marie Christine Barrault and Bibi Andersson. In Montreal from 1970 to 1992, she co-produced 29 TV features with France Hamster Productions. For the theatre, she has directed 32 plays, and her directing work on both the large and small screens has received many international nominations and awards. Suissa has served as president, chair, or board member of most Canadian Associations, including the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and the Banff International Festival. She is currently Executive Producer with the Cort/Madden Company and Paramount Pictures of the feature The Rehearsal.

Anna Thomas is a graduate of the UCLA film school, where she wrote, produced and directed her first feature, The Haunting of M, as her master's thesis project. She also worked with fellow student Gregory Nava, beginning a writing collaboration that has spanned more than two decades. In 1980, she co-founded the IFP/West. In 1983, Thomas produced and co-wrote El Norte, which became an instant critical and commercial success and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. She also co-wrote My Family, Mi Familia and the upcoming Frida, starring Salma Hayek, directed by Julie Taymor.

Program Advisors:

Barbara Boyle, program advisor, founded Boyle-Taylor Productions, a production company she formed with Michael Taylor in 1992. Together they went on to produce two films in 1999: Instinct, starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding, Jr. and The Hi-Line, a Sundance Film Festival selection. Boyle produced Phenomenon, starring John Travolta; Bottle Rocket, starring Luke and Owen Wilson, directed by Wes Anderson; and Mrs. Munck, for Showtime, starring Bruce Dern and Kelly Preston. Boyle is the former President of Sovereign Pictures, Inc. responsible for My Left Foot, Cinema Paradiso, Reversal of Fortune, The Commitments and Hamlet, garnering the company 14 Academy Award ® nominations and four wins. She executive produced Eight Men Out, starring John Cusack. Boyle served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Production at Orion Pictures, supervising such hits as The Terminator and RoboCop. She is a charter member of Women In Film and served as President from 1977-78. Boyle is currently the President of Independent Feature Project/West (IFP/West).

Jonathan Sanger, program advisor, has produced over 20 Hollywood feature films and telefilms, among them Vanilla Sky, Without Limits, and The Elephant Man and has directed episodes of such television shows as "LA Law," "Twin Peaks," and "Wiseguy."

Marti Blumenthal, program advisor, owner of Writers and Artists Agency.

Paramount Pictures

Regent Entertainment
(Gods & Monsters, One False Move, Tom and Viv)

Valhalla Motion Pictures
(Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, Armageddon)
Barbara Boyle, President, is also an advisor to the program

Writers and Artists Agency
Owner Marti Blumenthal is also an Advisor to the program

The Gersh Agency

Blue Rider Pictures
(Call of the Wild, Slow Burn, Orient Express)

Emmet/Furla Films
(In God We Trust, Held for Ransom, Narc)

Shapiro-Lichtman Talent Agency

Miracle Entertainment
(Speedway Junky, After Sex, Escape to Grizzly Mountain)

Broder-Kurland-Webb-Uffner Agency

Concorde-New Horizons
(The Little Shop of Horrors, Frankenstein Unbound)

Franchise Pictures
(Heist, Driven, The Whole Nine Yards)

William Morris Agency

Anonymous Content
(Being John Malkovich, The Game, Red Rock West)

The Bedford Falls Company
(Traffic, Shakespeare in Love, Legends of the Fall)

Q. Where can I get an application?
A. The application form is available via download from our website, www.lafilm.com.

Q. What should I say in my cover letter?
A. Introduce yourself and your project, tell us a little bit about yourself and your team. Let us know why you're applying and what you hope to accomplish with your script.

Q. What do you mean by "how do you envision the realization of the script"?
A. Tell us how you imagine the visual style and aesthetics of the film (mood, music/sound design for example), and if you can, address practical production questions - what type of budget you anticipate having, locations, do you see certain actors you see playing roles, etc. You don't have to answer all these questions, but let us know any details that you feel are important in considering your project for this program.

Q. Should I include additional supporting material?
A. We would like the director to send in his/her reel on VHS in NTSC format, including no more than 20 minutes of material. Any further materials (i.e. letters of recommendation, press materials, articles, etc.) are definitely helpful if they strongly reflect the general production experience of the team, whether it is film, television or theatrical work.

Q. Can I send more than one application?
A. No. You must choose the project you most passionately want to develop.

Q. What style or genre of screenplay are you looking for?
A. We're not looking for any particular genre or style - we consider that the budget is the aesthetic for the film. Some films are appropriate for the indie world, others for the studios. We are looking for diverse voices for both of these worlds.

Q. Are adaptations of pre-existing material accepted?
A. We accept these screenplays, providing you have the rights to the source material or the source material is in the public domain. Please provide proof that you have the rights in this case.

Q. Can I submit a script that is penned by more than one person?
A. Projects submitted by a team of writers will certainly be considered. Ideally, one of the writers will also fulfill one of the other roles for the script (director or producer).

Q. I don't have anybody attached to my project besides myself. Will this hurt my chances?
A. While you can apply as a "Lone Screenwriter," the project must have at least two people to start the program. If you apply as a "Lone Screenwriter" follow the guidelines of the application.

Q. What if I already have an agent. Is this program suitable for me?
A. Yes, but it's best to talk to your agent about your desire to enroll in this program. Remember that feature films are not the labor of an agent or one individual, but that of a collective team.

Q. What are the class hours like? Can I keep my full time job and enroll this program?
A. We estimate that students can work part-time outside of the program. We give a rough estimate as follows: if there are two members of the team, each might work five hours a week outside of the program. If there are three members of the team, each might work 10 hours a week outside of the program. Students cannot hold a full-time job and attend classes and do the creative work at the same time.

Q. How much for the program?
A. The cost for the program is $15,000 for domestic students and $15,900 for international students (we help you acquire your F1 student visa). The cost is designed to be shared between the writer, director and producer, but can also be shouldered by one individual. Financial aid is available.

Q. Can I get any part of my submission returned to me?
A. No. We cannot return your screenplay or any other supporting materials to you. Due to the volume of materials we receive, we cannot respond to individual requests.

Q. I missed the most recent deadline, what should I do?
A. Please contact the Admissions Department about further deadlines