Screenwriter Level III: Master Certification

1. The Entertainment Business

In this master course, students will learn the business of Movies, Film and T.V. from a-z in this comprehensive and detailed structured course.

2. Entertainment Finance

This advance master course covers the actual financial aspects of the Hollywood industry. It is a comprehensive and up to date guide on film and television financing today. It lays out each step of the motion picture and television project value chain, from development through profit participation, and illustrates the implications and risks of financial choices. Filmmakers and investors alike gain a thorough understanding of how to maneuver safely through a complex industry in a way that reduces risk and optimizes profits.

3. Finance for Non-Finance Professionals

This short course surveys all the major topics covered in a full semester MBA level finance course, but with a more intuitive approach on a very high conceptual level.  The goal here is give you a roadmap and framework for how financial professional make decisions.

This course requires no prior familiarity with finance.  Rather, it is intended to be a first step for anyone who is curious about understanding stock markets, valuation, or corporate finance.  We will walk through all of the tools and quantitative analysis together and develop a guide for understanding the seemingly complex decisions that finance professionals make.

4. Legal Business for The Entertainment Business

This unique course explores key legal principles and contractual relationships within the film and television industry through a dynamic assortment of lectures and hands-on workshops. You develop a core understanding of subjects including idea protection, copyright, defamation, privacy, and the right of publicity. In addition, you are exposed to key issues in manager agreements and in standard film and television agreements, including literary option/purchase agreements, life rights agreements, collaboration agreements, and talent employment agreements. The course concludes with exploring independent film finance and distribution deals. Through learning some essential “countermeasures” to use when reviewing such contracts, you are empowered in a way usually only reserved for elite talent lawyers.

5. Patent & Trademark Law

This course begins with an examination of the fundamental justifications for and creation of U.S. patent rights as well as the relationship between patent law and other “intellectual property” concepts.

We will also explore the purpose of trademark law, identify the different types of trademarks, including names, designs, logos, and trade dress, and explore strategies for choosing and protecting strong, potentially valuable trademarks.

6. The Guilds & Unions

Students will learn in this advance master course the benefits, guidelines, structure, responsibilities and much more of the major industry guilds and unions.

7. Intro to Business

This specialization is intended for novice business professionals seeking to develop management, leadership, finance, and digital marketing skills with the ultimate goal of preparing learners to operate or participate in the operation of a business. Throughout the three courses, learners will cover people management, the key features of leadership, strategic planning, search engine strategies, reputation management, content creation, common financial statements, cash flow, and expense management.

8. Production Accounting

In this advanced master course, students will learn the responsibilities for maintaining financial controls and financial reporting of all production funds, the production accountant must provide timely and accurate reporting of the financial information that will enable the producers to maximize production values. This comprehensive course covers duties, including set up and oversight of all accounting functions (i.e., budgeting, cost reporting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, petty cash, purchase orders, BTL payroll, ATL payroll, per diem, and banking) and knowledge of signatory guilds and unions. Other topics include related software; insurance; labor laws; and production tax credits, rebates, and refunds.

9. Introduction to Finance and Accounting

This specialization provides an introduction to corporate finance and accounting, emphasizing their application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, financial intermediation, and how accounting standards and managerial incentives affect the financial reporting process.

10. Start Up Entrepreneurship Specialization (sub certification) Foreign Requirement

The Startup Entrepreneurship specialization focuses on issues of Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship. It leads the students through the entire process of creating a start-up from an idea.

11. Marketing and Distributing Independent Films for The Global Marketplace

Today, marketing entertainment is a global enterprise, and motion pictures, television shows, streaming content, and video games are the assets that drive expanding ancillary markets. How these properties are marketed determines their financial success and future.

12. Digital Marketing Strategy and Planning (sub certification)

This Specialization explores the foundational areas of Digital Marketing Strategy required to become a skilled digital strategist in any industry and sector. By taking this Specialization, you will understand the forces driving and transforming businesses today and how an effective digital strategy can help a business grow and thrive in this dynamic environment.

13. Digital Advertisement Strategy Specialization (sub certification)

This specialization takes a critical look at digital advertising tactics for small business. Students will learn how to generate and launch ad campaigns on small budgets with limited-to-no design skills. These courses include: 1) search (Google Ads), 2) social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and 3) native advertising (Taboola). Students who complete our search course will also gain a résumé credential through the official Google Ads Search Certification and a certification through programmatic advertising leader, The Trade Desk.

14. Web Design For Everybody: Basic of Web Development & Coding Specialization

This Specialization covers how to write syntactically correct HTML5 and CSS3, and how to create interactive web experiences with JavaScript. Mastering this range of technologies will allow you to develop high quality web sites that, work seamlessly on mobile, tablet, and large screen browsers accessible. During the capstone you will develop a professional-quality web portfolio demonstrating your growth as a web developer and your knowledge of accessible web design. This will include your ability to design and implement a responsive site that utilizes tools to create a site that is accessible to a wide audience, including those with visual, audial, physical, and cognitive impairments.

15. Journey of The Universe

Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times is a course series created by senior research scholars at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim. The courses weave the discoveries of the evolutionary sciences together with the humanities such as history, philosophy, art, and religion. The courses in this Specialization draw on the Emmy-award winning film, Journey of the Universe, the book from Yale University Press, and a series of 20 interviews with scientists and environmentalists, titled Journey Conversations.

16. Modern and Contemporary Poetry

This is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly “difficult.” We encounter and discuss the poems one at a time.

17. Trans Media Storytelling (Foreign Requirement)

Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing, sharing, and participating in a cohesive story experience across multiple traditional and digital delivery platforms – for entertainment, advertising and marketing, or social change.

Have you ever read a book, seen a movie, watched a television show, or played a game that centered around different aspects of a larger story or universe? You may be familiar with popular examples of such universes like Star Wars, Marvel, and The Walking Dead (to name a few).

18. Writing a Low Feature Budget Feature Film

In this detailed exploration of low-budget filmmaking, learn techniques and theories examining all phases of the process, from development to production to post-production. The focus is on translating a minimum budget into maximum quality on screen. Topics include the script, financing the production, evaluating the marketplace, analyzing and breaking down the screenplay, learning to apply creativity to a budgetary plan to maximize on-screen value, casting, selecting key production personnel, production design, music, editing, sound design, marketing, and distribution. Throughout the class, you are able to apply concepts learned to your own projects.

19. Pre-Production & Production for Film & T.V.

In this detailed master course, students will learn aspects of pre-production to full production and more. Where Hollywood production come from to where it’s today and the future of Film & T.V. production.

20. Post Production for Film & T.V.

In this master course, students will learn aspects of post-production.  The history of post-production to present post-production tools & techniques to the future outlook of post-production.

21. Capstone Final Project with Master Collaboration

The Capstone final project recaps all that was learned in in this master certification by concluding with a capsulation of all that was learned in all three screen writing certification programs ending with a major collaboration team project creating a feature film and having your project pitch ready for funding, production, and or marketing & distribution.