Prior to this studio, the only contact i’ve ever had with a script is the ones i’ve scribbled camera angles and directors notes on. I’ve never been in a writers room, took a writing class in anyway shape or form. I had no idea how to structure a screenplay, how to write dialogue, I had a minimal grasp on the ‘three act structure’ (i’ve heard people talk about it so i’ll pretend that I know what it means)  and had no idea which font was the one that every screenplay seems to use.

early in the semester I was very tentative about sharing work, having no idea whether it was good or not because I had nothing to contrast it with. But now after week 12 I feel quite accomplished, walking away with a 10 page screenplay that of course needs tweaking and work but how it is now, I’m a bit proud (I especially felt very professional once I had formatted it all correctly).

I think the main points that stick in my mind from this semester, are the lesson on active and passive writing. (where you describe the actions to imply emotion, rather than writing emotion) which was initially very difficult, where every english lesson i’ve ever attended adores descriptive and emotive language. But funnily enough, it makes sense (obviously), like you are TELLING the actor how to portray an emotion, not what emotion to portray. It was a method of writing I’d never had to wrap my head around before but found it fun to experiment with in my own screenplay.

Another point in the semester which sticks out is the presentations, of course because speaking in front of any sort of group is awfully scary, but when you have to present a raw, unfiltered, imaginative idea to a bunch of adults you’ve never met, yeah it’s memorable. Being a very visual learner/creator/human I found the constraints of the final project to sway in my favour, I perhaps still have alot to learn in terms of tone and dialogue and plot structure but I loved being presented with an opportunity to tell a story (MY own story) using visual metaphors and visual contrasts and motifs, I found it fun to see where my script was going and I’d very much like to continue to improve my new skills in story and script writing, and perhaps even continue work on the draft that I’ve handed in for the end of this studio and see what I can make of it in the future.