Westphal in LA

Now in its second year, the Drexel in Los Angeles program has 32 Westphal undergraduate students in the City of Angels for the summer of 2012. This time, the students are drawn from the Film & Video, Television, and Screenwriting & Playwriting programs. Being in Hollywood, the epicenter of the film and television industry, gives the students the opportunity to get to know the city and network in the industry where many of our alumni find work after graduation. Students are quartered in the brand-new Piero apartment complex just two blocks east of downtown. Students will work in internships as industry leading companies including The SyFy Channel, The Collective, QED, and other production and distribution companies.

Participants will take four classes, two of which are being taught by LA-based film professionals, Peter Egan and Joel Parker. Peter Egan holds a B.A. from Harvard and has written for prime-time one-hour dramas, children's programming and narrative dramas for ESPN. Egan will be teaching a course on Creating Television and is also the program’s Internship Coordinator. Joel Parker, a 30-year veteran of the industry, will teach “Show Business,” dealing with the business models underlying Hollywood entities such as studios, agencies, and network and cable TV outlets.

Screenwriting & Playwriting Program Director Ian Abrams, who lives on site as a faculty mentor, will teach a Film Studies Special Topic course entitled “Hollywood on Hollywood II,” presenting Hollywood history and mythology as seen through its presentations of itself on screen. Abrams will also oversee the fourth course, “Hollywood Business Writing,” an online course which instructs students on the writing of common non-narrative documents—script coverage, cover letters, actor solicitations, and so on. For more information please contact Karin Kelly at kpk23@drexel.edu or Ian Abrams at ina22@drexel.edu.