I feel that I might be taking baby steps in this initiative work as compared to my peers but recently (since the start of this year, actually), I have been using my Instagram page as a platform for my creative ideas. When I take a good picture, I would edit them in the way I feel that would set the mood and then I would write a short prose for the picture (along with useless hashtags that should be ignored). Plus, I love framing it in 16 by 9 (anamorphic format, I think…).
EXAMPLE ONE
This shot was taken when I was at a resort in Langkawi. I stood by the balcony of the cafe and I felt like I finally escaped the hustle and bustle of the the busy city life and felt relaxed. I used that to reflect and created a small character based on what I felt at that moment and wrote that prose. In a way, I had subconsciously followed the “create a character profile then write a story” style as practiced for Task 4A. I find this method more effective in trying to write a story. It helps you put yourself in the character’s shoe and find out how the protagonist / antagonist would react or feel towards the situation.
EXAMPLE TWO
In this, I went for a more comedic punch. I felt I had to dramatically set up the mood and end it with a punch line. My friends and I have this problem where we can’t decide where to eat most of the time and so I thought it would be more relatable to end it with that (very pun-ny).
I have always been lacking in the creativity side so I thought that reading more stories as well as trying to conjure up short heartfelt proses might help cultivate and store a bank of ideas in my head or if I forget them, I can always go back to my Instagram for ideas. The pictures are to practice my cinematography and composition for camera angles and the short proses for my story ideas. I found my weakness even before the studios started. As I mentioned before, I chose this studio to challenge myself to get creative and understand the aspect of scriptwriting in more details. When the first class exercise came, reality hit me like a brick swung in full force for my head. I had trouble even coming up with a simple idea for the scriptwriting exercise. I literally went towards the most cliche story. It was embarrassing…
As I said, I may be taking baby steps but my tactic in improving is with photo essays or with short proses to compliment my pictures. Everyone has to start somewhere, so hopefully my next initiative post would have more impact to reflect on.