After presenting my script proposal to the panel on Wednesday, I feel alot more confident in my ideas. I had no idea how confronting it would be to actually try and “sell” my original idea. It seems obvious, but I felt it within myself and everyone else in the room: how would our little ideas, that we had nurtured for a few weeks now, play to a panel of much more educated and experienced people. I found that the panellists all enjoyed seeing my test footage / inspiration. [For a little more context: i have a YouTube channel where I play around with experimental short film, and one of these was called “Witches Only Drink Orange Juice” and I have always said that I would like to expand on the ideas raised in this three minute concept piece into something more substantial, and this class was the perfect opportunity to do just that]

I find that I am just a VERY visual person, for example even when writing up my draft script, I find myself picturing camera angles, lighting effects, editing techniques before considering the characters and their movements. So including this in my presentation, whilst both helping to establish the tone I am aiming towards, also exhibits how I seem to work as a media creator. This assignment, placing emphasis on a script which is audio-visual definitely therefore plays to my strengths. I thrive off of visual motifs and metaphors so found it quite easy to hold back on dialogue thus far, however refraining from saying “cut to a wide shot” or “we pan around the church” was extremely difficult, as these are usually the notes that as a director, I scrawl onto scripts and pass on to the DA. I found myself writing in ‘camera language’ then having to go back and re-phrase everything, which is very time consuming and doesn’t exercise the discipline of writing as action as we have been taught..The synopsis for the script (which is still a work in progress) was also received well, which is honestly quite a weight off my back. I can imagine that it is exceedingly normal for any writer to doubt the potential of any idea they have, or that it is simply “stupid” or “boring”. So having unbiased feedback was a wonderful experience.

Thinking about it now, and how this assignment ‘simulation’ of a pitch to a major studio, there are definitely things I would HAVE to do differently if I wanted the funding [fake it till you make it]. I would have to have more unbridled confidence in myself and my idea, I would have to know EXACTLY where the story was going (right now I am still playing with a few plot ideas) and I would have to assure all the important men in suits that this idea will SELL and make them MONEY. Doesn’t matter if thats unimportant to me (which it is, I’d make this film on my own funds honestly) but in order to get an investor onboard, they need to know that if it’s marketable, sellable, that it will target multiple demographics, how does the genre play to Australian and international audiences? All this stuff is gross studio hierarchy stuff but thats what a real-world panel will want to hear. That’s the main thing I learned from this experience I think, also that I need to be less indecisive and get my head together and pick a plot and run with it.

Overall, I know exactly where I need to go from this point onwards with my script. I NEED to sort out the plot points of conflict/resolution, I need not to sway back and forth between possible troubles for my protagonist to encounter because it will never end. In order for this script to keep moving in this writing process I need more decision, then seek feedback from others if I need.