Post 7: Creating My Own Script.

Our task for the start of the lesson was to take it in turns to relate what happened in our evening the day before, in one minute. I found this task a bit silly at first, but it all made sense at the end. After we had all contributed to this, we all agreed that this was quite difficult to do, as we estimated the time to speak much less than it was, and ended up running out of things to say. This showed us that when we are creating our scripts, it may not be as long as we think. But this task also showed us that we all chose different pieces of information to tell, and what to keep back. For example, none of us in the class shared how we got home from school, just that we came home from school, also, none of us claimed what we had eaten, just that we had eaten. This opened our eyes as we leave out small pieces of information which we view as insignificant, as we already know it, but others do not. We have discussed that when writing our script, we could assume that people would know what we are talking about, and we need to be careful on this subject.This is also vital in our script, as we do not want to leave any piece of information that will help our script. Overall, this task helped me to understand a few lessons in script writing that I hadn't considered before.


Signs

'Signs' was a short film that we watched as a class, and discussed what made this a good film. Some of the points that we came up with about this short included:

* The narrative of the story wasn't too complicated; it was basic, but told effectively. As there was no dialogue included in the short film too, this made it especially more important to establish the character and the story, as it was not told in the typical way. This was done by character movement, and further on in the story, words. From this, I need to take care when telling the narrative, as if I do not portray the message that i want, this will confuse the audience. Also from this short film, I can also consider how much dialogue I really need, as it can be done without.

This was one of the ways this character communicated with another employee. This is a good way to tell the narrative, as there wasn't any dialogue, yet it was still giving information to the viewer.

* The character in the short film was easily recognisable by his characteristics, and we could all relate to this character. Even in the first forty seconds, we could establish that this character was lonely, lost, needy and scared. This was through the camera angles, and also a hand held camera, as these helped portray our view of this character, from the outside. This is important to think about, as we need to base our characters on stereotypes, as this helps the audience to understand the character easily and quickly in our short film.

From this high angle, you can clearly see he is on his own, and by his facial expressions of looking down, this signifies how he is feeling. The high angle also gives him a lower status than the viewer and others in the shot. Also, this is emphasised by everyone else around him showing contentment, and this makes his loneliness look larger than normal.

Here, this lower angle shot shows how small his character is, compared to everything around him, the big city, large bench, and this shows that he is alone in a large city. Here the scenery overpowers his character, which draws the attention not onto him, but the setting. This is a good example of how I can create a similar feel to the setting to create emotion.

* Reflecting on this short film, we could easily work out the character's want, need and obligation; his want was a job, his need was to be loved, and his obligation was to live up to his expectations from his parents. This however was only the class average of what we thought they could have been, and there was probably more ideas around each of those areas. I therefore need to establish what my character's want, need and obligation is before I start, as this will help me build up the character and also this will help me to put the messages across easier.

While watching this short film, we kept stopping at key parts in the narrative, and discussed what we thought would happen next.

This was one of the points where we stopped and had a discussion about what we thought would happen next. We shared many ideas, such as the main character becoming depressed or he would go ballistic. This little activity showed us that we need our short films to have twists that people wont see coming, as this will keep them interested in our short film. 

We also discussed what sources would help for a dramatic or documentary project. We came up with many examples such as:

*Watching that genre of film or short film

*Personal imagination, experiences or fantasies 

*Books or adaptations of them

*News stories

*Dreams or nightmares

*Television programmes

*Family or friends

*Urban legends, myths or stories

*Social networking sights

*The environment around us or places

*Social class

*Social issues

*Real life events

*Religion

*Magazine articles

*Memories

*Historical events

*A specific character

*An image

Although these are elements for documentaries or dramatic films, they can also help in other genres, as they can all be used as inspiration for each of them.

There are eight key points we need to think about before writing our scripts, and these will help us to perfect our scripts. These will also help us to narrow down our narrative and to make sure we understand our story in every detail.

The first thing you need to establish is the main charatcer. There should only be one main character, as there isn't enough time to have more than one main character. This could involve things like their age, what their personality is like, how they talk and what they look like.

The character's world is also important, as this can have an effect on their personality, and this can also be used in the narrative. This could involve how they perceive the world, or what is a big part in their life.

Within your narrative, the character has to face a problem, as this is what makes the story interesting. This can be either external like a person physically stopping them from carrying on, or an internal problem, like the character being too shy to talk to someone they like. This part is the main part of the narrative, as it's what makes the story interesting.

The character's want is what they drive to do and what they really want from life. This can be for example, to be loved or to have attention. This becomes obvious in the story.

The character's need is basically what they need to do. For example, an adult would need to go to work, and a teenager would need to go to school or a parent would need to look after their child; just like their role.

Obligation means to carry out one's duty or custom in certain aspects in life. This can also have an impact on the story, as this can get in the way of the character needing to do something etc.

Within the story, there has to be a turning point which is the building up towards the main plot. This is important as it starts wetting the appetite of the audience and keeps them interested and wanting to carry on watching the film.

This is the part in the story where the character overcomes a problem or the first turning point. This would usually come at the end of the story and creates a new equilibrium for the character, and the audience will feel relief for the character.

All these points will help to ensure that our story makes sense and has all the elements needed to create a successful short film.