Screenwriting

It is great to be back at the RSAMD after the Christmas holidays, I was surprised how much I missed being at the academy over the couple of weeks I was away. I actually felt envious of other class members who were able to attend lessons in the last few weeks of the previous term whilst I was at home sick. Surely this is a good marker to reflect how much I am enjoying the course. It is really great to wake up every morning and not dread going into lessons; in fact I actually look forward to it. I have never really felt like this before. During school and sixth form I did look forward to some lessons, however there were also some lessons that bored me This is in direct contrast to life at the academy now. There are no classes that bore me; in fact I think that in general they are all very stimulating and engaging.

Obviously there are classes that I enjoy more than others, one of these being script writing with Richard. I find this class very interesting and feel as though writing is one of my strengths. We have accomplished quite a lot within the class, although some of the idea’s and theories such as character functions and an equilibrium followed by a disruption and then a resolution equilibrium are familiar idea’s to me, I also feel as though I have learnt a lot of new things. I like the fact that we have had lots of practice at writing premises, I had never written one before coming to the academy and I feel as though they are not only helping focus and edit my ideas and help me to communicate them more eloquently, but also to develop ideas quickly and think more creatively. It has been quite a challenge to come up with ideas that could be used to make three to five minute short films, as all my ideas seem to gel better in a larder time frame. However I think that this clearly just takes practice and I feel that being set the task to write a five minute short film over the Christmas holidays has made me realize just how small the idea and how clearly and concisely it has to be communicated to the audience.

Writing the script has been a really enjoyable experience, at first I found it difficult to simply get started and put my ideas onto paper. I think that this was because I was not sure just how much of a story I could fit into only five minutes. However when I wrote out a plot from start to finish and a rough idea of the important dialogue within each scene, it then became much easier to get started and from then on the dialogue simply seemed to flow more naturally. I still feel slightly apprehensive about my script because even though I enjoyed writing it I have never written a script before and therefore am slightly unsure of the quality of my work. I am looking forward to getting feedback on my writing and improving it in the future.

However I will say that writing the second script has defiantly not been as challenging as writing the first. We were asked to write a two-minute comedy script. This time around I think it was an easier task because I had a better idea of the standard format of a script and new how to replicate this in my own work. The fact that I had a better idea of the timing within a script also helped as I did not set myself too large an idea and I feel as though I was able to remain more focused.

I think that one of the factors that I enjoy most about our script writing class is that it is one of the most diverse lessons we have at the academy. From one week to the next I am never sure exactly what we will be in store for us within the class. One week we are pitching premises and learning about the three act structure of films and the next week we are debating our views torture. However by far the most memorable script writing lesson for me has been the one where we shared two of our secrets anonymously on postcards similarly to the community art project Postsecret. This task automatically appealed to me as I have three of the Postsecret books and avidly check their website each week to see the new Sunday Secrets that have been published. However when it came to actually producing my own secrets it became a much more daunting task. I was unsure what secrets I actually wanted to share with my classmates and ended up making about six secrets. It was interesting to present these secrets visually in a creative and artistic way and I actually found it enjoyable producing them. Despite of this I was still very nervous when it came to actually sharing the secrets with everyone else. Judging by the behavior of the rest of the class before we shared our secrets I was not the only one who was nervous or at least apprehensive about the task. However Richard was very accommodating and in order to help keep the secrets truly anonymous we ended up coming up with the procedure where we all shut our eyes, then one by one would put our secrets into a black bag, we then opened our eyes and picked two different secrets out of the bag and read them to the rest of the class. I found this to be a very emotional experience and I think that the group as a whole felt closer together even though we didn’t know whom each secret belonged to. I think that this task also helped me in terms of thinking creatively of ideas for films as it showed that everyone has a secret to tell, and more often than not, another person can identify with that secret even though it does not belong directly to them. This thought indicated to me that this could be applied to films. Sometimes the best films share an intimate secret belonging to the protagonist, and such films are often the most influential if the audience can identify with the main character. I think that these are the films that are the most real and inspirational. It also made me think about how everyone has a story to tell and how interesting peoples secrets can be. After we shared our secrets we the proceeded to share three things we believe in. This was also a very interesting task as before now I didn’t realize how everyone in our class has such different beliefs about the world around us and it was a positive experience to discuss these views. Doing so made me think about how important it is to reflect your beliefs within your films and make it clear to the audience what your morals are.

Overall I am really enjoying the scriptwriting module and think it is my favorite out of all the lessons. I am slightly disappointed that we don’t get to have regular lessons every week but I cant wait until Richard to come back so we can advance even further on the course. I also think that its really good we are given the opportunity to write regularly and I am enjoying the experience.