Project Update

Finally finishing the script is a very tedious job.  I was really nervous to send it to my team members even though I had spent a good amount of time working on it.  I had to make it seem realistic and actually flow like a story, all while maintaining the integrity of the actual news story the script is based off of.  One thing that I think students and new script writers often have a difficult time writing, is using real voices that make their characters sound like humans.  For example people in real life don't talk with perfect English or have the correct grammar all of the time.   It was my job as a script writer to capture the elements of how I think these characters and how these people talked.  Watching a video of the two main characters was a good indicator of how they can actually talk.  I am proud of my script and my team members were very helpful with helping me edit, and obviously creating the story since we all did that together.  I hope the product is solid.

Final Project in Review

When we started our final projects over a month ago I really did not know what to expect. I latched onto an idea that I found interesting in class and went from there. I was assigned to write the script with two of my classmates Rob and Kofi. Admittedly, we would consider ourselves amateur script writers. After 2 weeks of writing we came up with a 35 page script called the Face Off. Was 35 pages too long for a fiction field final? In retrospect, yes, but I think the theme of this project was that I was learning on the fly. I am proud of the script that the three of us wrote and I think had we were allotted more time than we could of have followed it more closely. Production was also a huge learning experience for me. Finding locations, talent, costumes, and set pieces, was an exciting new venture me. Also, creating the set with proper lighting, audio, and continuity was a challenge. Some scenes went better than others. Most notably our debate scene which we held in the Park auditorium was looking fantastic. However, we ran out of time for our reservation for the room. Being only a handful of days before editing was to take place, we could not re-shoot the scene. Instead, we had to choose a new location, cut a big chunk of our script, and stay up much later than I think anyone in the group planned to finish the production. This served as another valuable lesson: always have a backup plan, and think quickly on your feet. The next part of this experience that I was able to learn from was editing. The editing process was an interesting one. By interesting I mean exhausting, staying up through all hours of the night and into the morning to get our film edited correctly. I tip my hat to Jarred and Breanne for their dedication throughout the editing process. That basically leaves us where we are now, audio mixing our project so it is ready to go for the screening on saturday. As we started the audio mixing process, I was actually terrified to see what all our clips looked like lined up with each other. As we mixed through our entire session on tuesday night, I grew more and more excited to see the final project. The bottom line is this: Our project is not perfect. The plot line didn't go as planned, our locations didn't go as planned, editing didn't go as planned, but the final product resembles countless hours of hard work from each group member. This is by far the hardest I have worked on a single project in my life. With that being said, I am so happy to present The Face Off at the screening on saturday in front of friends and peers. Over a month of work put into one project is finally over. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the Face Off.

An Idea

So a few months ago an idea came to me. It may not have been the best idea back then but after seeing all of these videos that Arturo has been showing us, I think that I may actually decide to put it to work. However, I know there are a lot of copy right stuff so that's why I was hoping I can get some input from all of you.

The idea that I came up with was to write the script to the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Now I know that this won't be easy what so ever, however, it's always been an idea of mine to write a script relating to another movie. Like, one idea I had happened to be to write the script of how the Joker became the Joker in the Dark Knight. But after thinking about that one, it would be too difficult only because of the fact that there would be different versions because of the comics that featured him as well as. After realizing that it would just be too hard, I scrapped the idea until now.

I have always loved the Joker since I saw him in The Dark Knight, but in order to do this script I want to make sure I am not doing anything wrong with the whole copyright stuff because if it's good enough maybe I would actually try to bring it to someone who would possibly want to do something with it. Now I know to some people this may sound ridiculous but I am willing to try and give it a shot because it's always been an idea of mine to do something like this.

So I either want to do the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen second movie or write a movie on how the Joker became the Joker. I know they are on total opposite ends of the spectrum but I want to try and I want some input from you guys to know what you think.

Writing from Experience: True Fiction

This past year I have been working on many scripts and screenplays and I have begun to notice that by far my best works have been those based off of true events or personal experiences.  When I look at my life as a whole I think to myself, what a bland and average story I have.  I have never been shipwrecked, I've never had any superpowers, I've never even been in a gun fight or in a Jackie Chan style brawl.  However, in my opinion, I have found that you can tell the best stories from the details only you have.  My life has had ups-and-downs, as everyone has had, but the ups-and-downs I've had are unique to me.  My experience is my own and no one else's…that is unless I share it with them.

I recently become a finalist for a film award after submitting a script about a man struggling with addiction.  The story of a man coping with a drug addiction and the effects it has on his family is not a "new" story or ground-breaking idea, however it is the first hand detail through my own perspective and my own re-telling that gives the story its strength.

I feel if I gave the outline of one of my films to anyone they would see nothing special about the idea, but if you give them a script and they see a real conversation that was had, they hear your character's voice, accent, and inflection as you heard it.  They can see the details of a room you stood in.  They can share your experience.  To write a "fiction film" is not always necessarily about making a work of fiction; through my experience to write the best "fiction" films is to take a nonfiction story (or the guise of nonfiction) and present it to the audience so they may share in a personal story they could have never experienced over wise.

Devotion

I want to share with everyone this video I came across in my Introduction to Field Production class. It's from a series of short films that Sony produced called "Dreams", and the writing really impressed me. I feel that a good script is not always lengthy dialogue with lots of complicated characters. Sometimes the story line does not need to rely on the dialogue. When a script accomplishes this it really draws the audience into the film. This gets you thinking and makes you an active audience member.

The first time watching this I knew something was off with the main character, played by Tony Hale, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I realize some people will catch the twist before I did, but it caught me off guard. I love it when a script can do that to me, just like in The Sixth Sense.

I really enjoyed all the Sony Dreams short films. I thought they all had a very high production value. The next video, Intolerable, does the opposite of the last video and does not really leave you with a clear idea about what is going on. Sometimes it's also best to leave the viewer guessing instead of the script providing the twist or ending.

Screenwriting

I know I may be a little late for this now that our Golden Doorknobs are finished, but I believe that if you want to make movies, you should always be writing and thinking of ideas. A friend of mine showed me a list (the link is in the title) of screenwriting tips that I thought were really helpful. Read it, love it, marry it, cheat on it, divorce it, shake your fist in apoplectic rage at it, me da igual, but they're some things to think about the next time you sit down to write a script.