Education/training
Career Moves - graduate success storiesA success story worth a movie scriptGeorge Brown College's Continuing Education department is widely known as a leading learning destination for polishing professional skills, honing a hobby or pursuing a new passion. SHARON ASCHAIEK |
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 [ 2007-05-09 ] |
Brigitte Talevski and David Axelrad met while they were studying screenwriting at George Brown. They are now married.
But the story of Brigitte Talevski and David Axelrad, two screenwriting students who found both highly useful training and each other at the college, shows George Brown is also something of a matchmaker.
In 2002, Talevski, a full-time social worker at a Toronto hospital and screenwriting hobbyist who'd taken a few evening courses on the craft at George Brown College, signed up for Dialogue Writing.
The 10-week, 30-hour course covers how to write fictional dialogue for different media, insert subtext and fix common dialogue mistakes.
"Our instructor was terrific -- she was very thorough and detailed. I was always in awe of her skills," recalls Talevski, 48.
Instructor Nika Rylski, an award-winning screenwriter and story editor who's written extensively for stage, radio, TV and film, was also a key reason Axelrad signed up for that same course.
"The course was very structured and you got a good sense of how a script develops, and how to apply what you've learned to your own projects," says Axelrad, 44, who'd also taken some of her other courses.
When the two met in class, their passion for their common interest led them to form a fast friendship. Over the next few months, as they attended evening classes and studied together, their friendship evolved into something more.
"It was a real value-added course for both of us," Talevski quips.
Axelrad and Talevski motivated each other to continue developing their screenwriting skills, and regularly reviewed and critiqued each other's scripts. They drew on the considerable knowledge and skills they'd gained in their previous George Brown screenwriting courses, and ones they took afterwards, including Write Your Own Screenplay, Screenwriters' Workshop - Advanced, and Writing and Producing the Short Film. They're among the 10 courses that comprise the college's screenwriting certificate, which also offers training in playwriting, poetry writing, storytelling and more.
During the Dialogue Writing course, Talevski was working on her first script, a romantic comedy set in a small town, which she asked a classmate to review. She never imagined that classmate would send her script to accomplished Canadian director and cinematographer Vic Sarin, and that he'd want to produce it.
"There's a tremendous sense of personal accomplishment in having your first film produced," says Talevski, who, in November 2003, flew with Axelrad to the film shoot in Squamish, B.C., to watch actors Jennifer Tilley, Marla Sokoloff, Monika Schnarre and Barry Watson bring her script to life. "I couldn't believe these actors I knew were saying my lines. It was very surreal to think I could be part of that world."
Released in 2004 as Deluxe Combo Platter in Canada at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and as Love on the Side in the U.S. at the Scottsdale Film Festival, the movie disappointed critics but won over audiences. It's now available on DVD at some independent movie rental shops.
Axelrad, meanwhile, began freelance story editing films, including Talevski's film, and is focusing more heavily on screenwriting. One of his scripts was recently well received by a Paramount Pictures executive.
In December 2003, Axelrad proposed to Talevski atop -- you guessed it -- Hollywood Hills, overlooking 20th Century Fox studios. At their wedding the following year, which featured tables named after classic movie stars, their teacher was a guest. Sometime in the next few years, the Toronto couple plans to move to the land of the big screen to pursue screenwriting full time.
"I got my first screenplay made in my 40s, I got married for the first time in my 40s -- I'm waiting to win the lottery," Talevski says.
"We were always challenged and motivated in our classes, and Nika was always available during or even after class to critique our work," Axelrad says. "We fantasize about moving to L.A., and I think it's going to happen for us."
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