The Communication Arts advanced production course “CA609: Advanced Screenwriting” engrosses students in the art of screenwriting for feature films. Over a semester, students are tasked with writing a 70-90-page screenplay while focusing on character and plot development and creating a cinematic experience through vivid writing. With the Spring semester well underway, students are focusing their work on genres ranging from “Coming of Age Dramas,” to “Psychological Thrillers,” to “Family Comedies” and are diving deep into the first step of writing an effective story: developing a character.
Each week, students gather in small groups based on the similarities of their chosen genres. Last week, students presented their initial brainstorms for a main character, which included details like “what did this character’s bedroom look like when they were five” or “what things have they collected over time?” Establishing detailed baselines for who characters are guides writers through the writing process so they can more easily craft dramatic moments and understand exactly how a character will react in different situations.
Communication Arts Teaching Faculty member Craig Erpelding leads the class each week. He says the course will have a deep “emphasis on visual storytelling, efficient action, and realistic dialogue.” Students will also hone their writing skills by critiquing existing screenplays for movies like Gravity and The Hurt Locker.
This is Erpelding’s second semester in Communication Arts, and he is thrilled to be working alongside top-notch faculty and grad students to provide numerous advanced production courses for eager film students in the department.
Erpelding received his bachelor’s degree from the Journalism program at Kansas State University and went on to UCLA’s graduate screenwriting certificate program. Following this, he moved back to Kansas City and began working at a publishing company that produced some filmmaking magazines. This allowed him to work on different trade publications, attend Sundance and South by Southwest film festivals, collaborate on podcasts, and be an editor for marketing publications on film stock like Fujifilm, Adobe, and Sony.
Erpelding eventually decided to get his MFA at DePaul University and teach filmmaking, advertising, and Adobe programs to undergraduate students. During this period, a company in Los Angeles reached out to gauge his interest in working on some TV shows for Fox. For the next few years, he continued to teach at DePaul during the day and then completed quality control and media management work for Fox at night. There, he led the post-production pipeline for the first three seasons of Empire.
Erpelding eventually decided to return to teaching full-time, and most recently was the Director of the BFA in Cinematic Arts at Indiana University before joining the Communication Arts department at UW-Madison. He was also a recipient of the University Film and Video Association’s National Teaching Award in 2023.
We are so grateful to have Erpelding join Communication Arts and offer his extensive expertise to students in our courses. Advanced Screenwriting students are thrilled to begin their writing processes, and we are eager to see the creative works they craft in the coming weeks.