Mean Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Breakfast Clubs, Rebels Without A Cause—high school movies and television series never get old. The intensity of adolescent emotion and desire are a boon to the necessary high stakes of filmic storytelling. But here’s the challenge: how do you enter the high school world in an original and compelling way with characters and a story that only YOU can tell?

In this course we will watch high school films and TV series from 1955 to 2015, examining how writers like Cameron Crowe, Nicholas Ray, John Hughes, Tina Fey, and John Singleton brought their own unique voices and takes to the high school story. No sub-genre is off limits: horror, comedy, fantasy, drama, sci-fi, classic adaptation. The only pre-req is a willingness to dig deep into your own point of view of the teen world and create a story that springs from your own voice and experience. Special guests may include writers, directors, actors, editors, and producers of some of the most iconic film and television high school stories of all time.

Films/TV Shows to be screened: Mean Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Breakfast Club, and more!

Visit http://classes.usc.edu/term-20161/classes/ctwr for a full list of Spring 2016 classes.