Them & Hidden Agenda, A Reflection

On the whole, the scriptwriting and editing process has been a great help for me. It has given me a great insight into how scripts are prepared, written and laid out. As for editing, It will give me a boost for when I come to major projects in the next 2 years.

First let me talk about the script writing process. Even though it was my first script writing it to industry standards, I felt the whole process throughly engaging whilst it also enabled me to delve deep into a massive mind bank that I didn’t think I had. As I would of said before, I had 4/5 ideas that I could of written a good script about but I decided to put all my efforts into one which I thought was quite mysterious yet thought provoking. My final piece, titled ‘Them’ may not be the best written script in the world but you can’t say it’s through the lack of trying. I personally think by putting a lot of effort into a piece, you will finally come out with something your happy with, and that’s is what has happened.

Throughout the process of writing the script, I was always looking for feedback from both my peer’s and others. This gave me valuable input into what I was writing and without it, I think what I would have produced could just be classed as ‘rubbish’.

One thing that I did find a problem with was when I was writing, I was already looking in advance into the production of the piece and I feel that by doing so hindered my actually creativity in writing. In some ways, I wish I didn’t know we were producing the scripts.

Now onto the editing side of the assignment. The script that I chose to edit was Sean Maitland’s. It was originally called ‘The Creepy Stalker’ but I thought it was a bit ridiculous for a film to be called that, so I renamed my version to ‘Hidden Agenda’.

I have had a go at editing before but nothing in comparison to what stage everyone else on the course has probably had. I said to myself at the start of the year that editing was the biggest challenge that I had to face head on if I wanted to do myself any justice. It was great to give my creative side a go in this task by choosing different angles for shots, using different cuts and mixing all the sound effects.

I never had any real problems in actually editing the footage, I spent a good 2/3 days initially getting my timeline sorted and then I came back to change bits around and make final adjustments to the sounds and to add titles and credits.

I’m really pleased with the final products. It shows that I am developing my skills in lots of different areas including the whole production aspect. I also want to further enhance my technical skills and I have booked myself on a course in the summer for Final Cut Pro which I hope to give me an advantage when we start next year.

Overall I have felt this module to be the most enjoyable as it has enabled me to be creative whilst getting a go at all the steps necessary in making a short film.

Final Script – ‘Them’

I’ve finally completed my short script for the 162MC module. I completely changed it from my original idea and although I would still like to do a horror film based on it, I thought for this assignment I would go with my new idea.

‘Them’ is the short story of a man named Jason who is being chased by an unknown. It follows his journey through one particular place, through 2 particular people. I would class it amongst the ‘Thriller/Drama’ category of genres. It’s the first time I’ve really written a script/narrative based on this genre and normally do comedy or war so this has been a challenge. I chose against doing a war script as it’s way too short of a film to base it upon and I also chose against comedy as I thought I would do something different.

The script is available to download as a PDF or as a Celtx file. I will be posting up my journey through the script and it’s stages through the pitch, it’s outline and the treatment.

I’ve left the story open to a sequel or prequel and If I get the chance, I may shoot it in the summer.

Analysing a Short Script

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Them – The Pitch to the Outline

So as you would have already read (You are looking at my blog, aren’t you?), I have completely changed my idea which was going to be way too long winded and have decided to go on another idea titled, Them.

This is my pitch:

• A man escapes from the clutches of an unknown gang whilst desperately seeking help for a crime that he didn’t commit.

I think what this does is give the story a sense of mystery. It will make people want to know who the male character is, what has he done and who this so-called ‘gang’ is.

This is my outline for the script.

• Jason is a 28 year old man living in rural suffolk. We first see him running away from a group of unknown individuals. It is apparent that he has done something to upset this group but what he has done, nobody but himself knows. He gets away only to find himself at a house of which the people inside won’t open. He eventually gets in only to be bombarded with questions. After calming himself down and stoping the people inside the house from phoning the police, he hears the group coming towards him and the house. He manage’s to get away but we are still none the wiser to why they are after him.

Again, this is still a massive work in progress and after receiving feedback from my peers, I’ve edited my script quite a bit as it was quite bare. It only really went up to 2 pages which wasn’t nearly enough for what I wanted and it was safe to say I had a fairly large amount of writers block. I’ve never had any problems writing storys or scripts before and I don’t know what has come over me here. Maybe it’s the bigger pressure being at University!!

Researching Short Scripts

Before attempting to even possibly put pen to paper it is vitally important to do some research into short scripts.

The first point of call was the BBC’s ‘Writers Room‘. This website shows and highlights many tips for writers on what to include in the script and how to go about actually writing it.

The main points that I found from this site were:

• A short film can last anything from 30 seconds, to thirty minutes as long as it has purpose and meaning.
• It’s still a form of cinematic and really has no difference to a feature other then possibly you won’t make much money from them.
• There is no limits to what can be included in a short.
• Keep it simple, intriguing and visually entertaining (More for filming rather then writing).

I wish I had stumbled upon this site a lot quicker then I did as it would of also helped in making my radio documentary for a previous task!

With these thought’s in mind, I broadened my search to another site called ‘Simply Scripts‘. This site holds many scripts that you can look through and get ideas from and these cover a massive range of genres. This site is perfect for looking at how a script is physically written and it even has some scripts for feature films that have been made. This site has gave me some great ideas that I may wish to include in my script. Before looking at this site, I was kind of worried how to lay out breaks in conversation between 2 people but now looking at some of the scripts listed, I now feel a lot more confident in producing a script, at least in it’s layout, worthy of a look by people in the business.

And the final thing that I have looked at is the BBC ‘Film Network‘. This highlights ways on how to make the films, from writing, to production, to marketing and then distribution. It also showcases selected shorts that you can actually submit to the BBC for them to publish on the site and then you can receive feedback from both the BBC and people who watch the films.

I have watched about 30 of these films over the past week or so, ranging from Comedy, to drama and thrillers. They have all given me ideas on what to write in my script in the way of setting the scene and how the characters respond to each other. It has also given me other ideas in the way of editing the short films when we come to that aspect of the assignment in the new year.

I now feel a lot more confident in producing a strong and plausible script after looking at these various resources, without them, I would literally be lost!

Developing ‘Them’

So after long consideration, I’ve decided to ditch my original idea for my script and move onto another. The main reason for this is that my original idea is more set for a feature rather then a short script and it get’s rather complicated!

I have 4 different ideas that I would like to develop and put into scripts. What I tend to do is that when I think of a new idea, I either jot them down on my notepad or I put it on my iPhone as a note. I always find myself in different situations, I then daydream and come out with new ideas. It is quite weird. The hardest thing that I find though is actually getting the idea down into plausible means, i.e – a script. I would go into each idea in more detail, but as the blog is public I don’t feel comfortable with people maybe stealing ideas.

So one of the ideas for the short film/script was having a male character who is running away from a group of people, or shall we say ‘the unknown’. He then comes to a room of which the people inside don’t wish to help (the knocking on the door), he then has to convince them to help him before ‘the unknown’ get to him. The people who won’t help him do not know who ‘the unknown’ is nor does the audience or why they are after the male character. I thought that this will give great suspense to the script and leave people wondering when they either read or watch it.

Now I need to get it down onto paper (or celtx if you wish) which I tend to find the hardest part. Hopefully over the Christmas period I will get a good amount of time to get a draft copy up, pass it onto various people to get some feedback and have a finalised version for after the new year.

My scripts outline

This is my scripts outline. I went a bit deep into the story and I know it needs some work. Any ideas would be gladly appreciated!

Outline

SOPHIE is a widow living in Manhattan, New York. Her deceased husband, BRAD died almost a year ago fighting in Afghanistan for the American military.

On the eve of Brad ‘s death’s 1st anniversary, Sophie is preparing the final preparations for the “celebration” of his life. This is until she receives a knock at the door. As she opens the door, she cannot believe her eyes. It’s Brad. So many questions are running through her head and before she could speak, Brad injects something into her neck. She falls back and faints.

My Pitches

This week we were asked to come up with several pitches for an idea of a script we would like to write for our assignment. I have come up with the following:

• On the anniversary of a war veteren’s death, his widow opens the banging door to reveal his image in the doorway. But how could have he returned?
• As the backdoor bangs in the storm, a women opens the door to a distinguished figure. As he turns, the women is startled, the face is familiar, but it cant be, surely?
• The door knocks past midnight, the women opens the door to reveal a figure walking down the street, she calls out and as he turns, reveals a unbelievable sight.