Welcome to my Minor in Writing Portfolio!
For a list of the requirements of the portfolio - with links to the selected documents - visit the "Portfolio Requirements" page.
Otherwise, browse through them in the menu at the top.
Otherwise, browse through them in the menu at the top.
I came to Michigan, like so many of my peers, with dreams of being a doctor, lawyer, or businessman (and for about a day, all three). But the adjustment to college life – and, more importantly, life away from my family – was too difficult for me to handle at first, and I struggled mightily in some of my pre-med classes early on.
I only realized this much later, but I was depressed my freshman year here. I had always been a “mama’s boy,” for better or worse, and was never very outgoing. To this day, I run into my neighbors from that first year in the dorms who have no recollection that I existed.
To top it all off, the third day of class my freshman year, I was called home to be with my grandfather at the time of his death. We were very close, having lived together for a couple of years, and his passing rocked my world. But, as said as I was to see him gone, the memories I have with him and the influence he had on my life inspired my first essay in my freshman writing class: a memoir of our last months together. That essay single-handedly turned my life around. It re-ignited my passion for writing – a passion I mistakenly dumped aside when started college – and pushed me down a road of creativity that would define my four years at Michigan.
The series of events that followed in my academic life very closely mirrored changes I was making in my personal life. I started taking film classes, and in my first production class I wrote and directed, with a friend, my first short film (an awful piece) and fell in love with the art of the motion picture. One of my friends in that class cast me in a short play, and the following semester I made my acting debut (again, it was awful).
Once declaring my major in Screen Arts and Cultures, I turned my focus to screenwriting. What a better way, I thought, to combine all my skills and passions together. The fall of my junior year, I took my first screenwriting classes, and applied for admission into the selective screenwriting sub-concentration. And was rejected.
It’s been said – and I believe this to be true – that one can be judged on how they respond to rejection. It was my response to being rejected by the screenwriting program that would come to define my college experience.
The first thing I did was submit a short play of my own for consideration in the same event I had acted in the year before, and it was chosen. I called it Casting Call, and with 13 characters and only 10 minutes of stage time, I was told it was too ambitious to be pulled off, especially when all 13 actors would have to nail impersonations of celebrities. But ambition is my middle name. Not only did we pull it off, it was the highlight of the evening (besting, in my humble opinion, the six other short plays performed) and the success of that convinced me to try again to get into the screenwriting program.
I started emailing several people within the film program, trying to find out what my options were. I suggested re-taking the intro class, doing it not-for-credit even, and was shot down. I kept sending emails and eventually was put in touch with the head of the screenwriting program, Jim Burnstein, who gave me the second chance I wanted. I had three months to write a new screenplay and submit it to him personally for consideration.
"I have done this a few times before,” he said. “Sometimes a student writes a new screenplay that earns its place in 410 (the upper-level class). Other times, the screenplays have fallen far short. I want to be clear. I am giving you a fair shot, not a guarantee, okay? The ball is in your court."
I decided that, with the ball in my court, I needed to put my best foot forward. I needed to write the script I promised myself I would not attempt until the time was right. One I had started years before but shelved until I thought I had the skills to pull it off: an adaptation of the essay about my grandpa.
After months of stress, exhaustion, and anxiety, I sent Jim Burnstein my screenplay. Two weeks passed before I received a phone call from him.
"Zach, your script has a lot of heart. It needs a lot of work and it's by no means a great script as-is, but it's got a lot of heart and potential. I have some specific ways I think it can be improved and I want to personally teach them to you in the winter semester."
I probably thanked him 10 times before hanging up. The next thing I remember quite vividly. I tweeted about it, closed my computer, went into the bathroom at the bookstore I was in, and cried in a stall for over 30 minutes. It was the most unreal emotion ever. Months of bottled up emotion, stress, and uncertainty literally pouring out me.
But I was in. Combined with the Minor in Writing, I have been able to accomplish everything I wanted to in college – and then some. As a screenwriter, the Minor in Writing has helped me immensely. I’ve learned to build better characters, focus on clearer storylines, form an argument (even in a non-argumentative mode of writing) and bring out the details. The culmination of that marriage leads us here, to my Minor in Writing portfolio. The jewel in the crown, as we say, is my final MIW project: a screenplay called “The Designated Driver” based loosely on my journey out of that freshman year depression. You will also find, by moving around the website, links to my various screenplays and the various stages of the writing process they are in.
It is my hope that you enjoy at least one piece of this portfolio, a diary of my trip down that aforementioned road of creativity.
I know I’ve certainly enjoyed the ride.