Building Your Own Major: Miller ’26 Finds a Bridge Between Creative Writing and Directing

Riley Miller ’26 is building toward a career adapting intellectual properties for film—so she designed her own path to get there. Through Emerson’s Interdisciplinary Studies program, Miller crafted a major focused on translating literature into screenplays.

She is currently developing her capstone project as she prepares to graduate in December 2026.

What is the title of your major?

Miller: The title of my major is The Process of Film Adaptation. I’m studying creative writing to write novels, novellas, and short stories, and I’m also studying screenwriting and directing. The bridge between them is adaptation, so the ultimate goal would be to be a writer and director for film adaptation.

Was IDS your original major, or did you change it?

Miller: I applied to Emerson as a Creative Writing major, and then I got accepted and decided I was interested in film, too. Emerson has such a good film program, and I wanted to take advantage of that, so I reached out to see if I could double major in Creative Writing and [Visual & Media Arts] and they told me I should look into IDS. I was advised that IDS would be a good fit for me and switched to it. 

How did you design your major? What was that process like?

Miller: I always wanted to write books and then adapt them to movies. The more I started thinking about it, the more I started to feel like film was where I should be directing my focus rather than the creative writing side of it. So over time it transitioned into film. When I had talked with IDS, I learned about the capstone project and I was asked if I had any ideas going into it. I said I’d probably want to write a short story, then turn it into a screenplay and direct it. So I came up with that before I even came to Emerson and it’s still going strong. 

I did it very backward from what most IDS majors do. Where most IDS majors plot out the major first and then come up with their capstone, I came up with my capstone first and then decided what classes I would need to be ready for that. In IDS, there’s a four-class minimum for each discipline you’re focusing on, so I had to have four of each and then one additional one. The four classes I took for creative writing were the beginner, intermediate, and advanced workshop classes plus an elective, and then I’m taking a class about adapting books into films as my fourth. I took way more film classes, because that’s more of my focus. I work on a lot of sets at Emerson, too. 

What is the purpose of your field of study, and how do you envision it shaping your path after graduation?

Miller: I definitely still want to focus a lot more on film as a whole. The ultimate goal is to be a writer and director and to purchase other people’s [Intellectual Properties] and direct them, but I think it’s good to have the knowledge of other aspects as well. Post-grad, I’m wanting to get internships in film. Right now I’m up for an internship working in casting, but I’d also like to work as a production assistant or in other roles. I think my first step into the adaptation field would be to do research on fans of novels and things that already exist, and then to see what would get the most traction as an adaptation. From there I would buy the IP and start writing scripts and bringing them to production houses.

How has Emerson provided support for you?

Miller: The Marlboro Institute is fantastic. The staff there are really great at helping you figure everything out. I had to plan out my curriculum and everything, but I had a professor who helped guide me a lot. Within the IDS community it’s really great too, because even though everyone’s studying their own thing, we have a really niche community within the major that’s really nice. All of us are going through the same process. I feel like I have a lot of community and people who help me feel secure. The staff is also great. I also have the benefit of being in film and having a lot of opportunities to be involved on campus. I work on a lot of sets, with friends and with [Emerson Independent Video], which has been really great. They really help you bring everything to life. 

All the professors are so willing and excited to talk about adapting books to film. Every time I’ve reached out to a professor wanting to chat, they’re always super supportive. At Emerson everyone just wants to see you succeed, and actually cares and wants to help you. 

Are there any classes or extracurriculars that you found particularly helpful?

Miller: EIV has been my best extracurricular. I do a lot on campus, but that’s definitely the most helpful because I have gotten to direct and produce two scripts that I’ve written, which is great, and I don’t think you really get that at other schools. Class-wise, the best class I’ve taken for my major is Writing the Adaptation, which I’m in right now. It’s about adapting other people’s novels, and [School of Film, Television, and Media Arts Assistant Professor] Gabrielle Demeestere is fantastic. She let everyone in the class pick different things to adapt, which is super fun. I’m adapting a novel. I’m also taking [School of Film, Television, and Media Arts Senior Distinguished Director-in-Residence] Theodore Life’s Directing Actors for the Screen class this semester, which is also a fantastic directing class. 

Can you share more about what the process of developing your capstone has been like?

Miller: My three components of my capstone are my 60-page thesis, a short story, and a short film. 

I’m writing my thesis about the Manic Pixie Dream Girl phenomenon, and the harm of that as a trope. My proposal in the thesis is that adaptation is a really good tool to rectify the wrongs that have occurred in writing that trope. There’s a lot of novels that have a manic pixie dream girl in them, so I compare books that exist to their film counterparts and discuss how we can give female characters actual depth through adapting. That process can be really beneficial to give women more agency in film. 

For the short story and film components, my story is about what happens to the manic pixie dream girl after she’s fulfilled her purpose to the man. It’s about an actress who’s married to a young nepo baby film director, and it takes place in the 1970s, which is when women started to have more agency onscreen and behind the camera. The story goes that when the director was dropping out of college he met the female character and had her star in all his films, which made him get super famous. 

The short film and the short story take place after that’s already happened, and now that the director has all this fame he starts to kind of forget about the main character. Throughout the story she slowly goes crazy and kills people, so it becomes a psychological thriller. The story and the film have the same idea as my thesis around making more space for women in film behind the camera and onscreen. I’ve started writing my thesis, which will be completed by the end of the semester. I’ve written the first draft of the short story, and I’m in a workshop class where I’m reworking it and coming up with a final draft. We’re shooting the film around the end of August and early September. It’ll be completed with post-production and everything by December.