Last session of the Another World studio…

…is tomorrow! (Thursday 25 May 11.30)

A REMINDER (and for those who weren’t there) – if you want your work to be part of tomorrow’s great table read bonanza, please email me up to 5 pages by no later than 11am.

Also – today we watched the opening minutes of Withnail and I (1987) and Nightcrawler (2014), as well as reading from the Withnail and I screenplay. PDFs for both are in the Drive – we will briefly continue the discussion tomorrow so familiarise yourselves with those idiosyncratic and, arguably, innovative approaches to screenwriting.

See you tomorrow!

Prototypes, Scriptments and Proofs-of-Narrative

The course guide quotes filmmaker and scholar Kathryn Millard, who suggests in her book Screenwriting in a Digital Era: “Write for place. Decide on a setting for your script and write for it” (2014, p. 184).

This is actually Number 4 in her ‘Manifesto for sustainable screenwriting”. In consideration of Project Brief 4, I thought I’d draw your attention to Number 10:

“Develop prototypes.  Work quick and dirty.  Your script can be a map, sketches, photo-texts, a wiki, a list scenes that form part of a jigsaw, a graphic novel, a video trailer, a short film – whatever works” (Millard 2014, p. 184-5).

As discussed in the studio today, also relevant to the ‘proof-of-narrative’ deliverable of Project Brief 4, are the pages on The Scriptment in the Screen Australia document in our shared drive (p. 11-12).

According to Screen Australia, the term ‘scriptment’ “refers to a document that is part script, part treatment, and may include visual materials. It is likely to be a more expanded and detailed document than a treatment or scene breakdown, and incorporate some scene writing and possibly images as well as prose” (2016, p. 10).

Also:

“Scriptments may also be used to showcase important visual aspects of the story, and include illustrations, concept art, photographs etc. They may be more suited to some filmmakers as a way to express their style of storytelling and what will make their project special” (Screen Australia 2016, p. 11).

This description of a ‘scriptment’, as well as Millard’s of a ‘prototype’ might inspire you in assembling your ‘proofs of narrative”.

PS:

If you have plans to quote the Screen Australia document in your final post, how I’ve cited it above is correct for Harvard style. This is how to cite it in your reference list: Screen Australia 2016, Info Guide: Story Documents, 2016, viewed 17 May, <https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/7b189b10-2ce4-47d1-b206-bee3de29a419/Story-documents-drama-final-January-2016.pdf>

Workshop 9B (tomorrow, Thursday 4 May)

Hi everyone,

Here are tomorrow’s workshop groups as assembled in part with those who were there at the end of the session today (I have Vera’s apologies and Ella is overseas).

As also advised, we are doing a script editing exercise tomorrow – the scripts for analysis are in the Drive in a folder called ‘Week 9 activities’.

Ideally, before class:

Group 1 read and take notes on Script 1.

Group 2 read and take notes on Script 2.

Group 3 read and take notes on Script 3.

Groups 4 & 5 read and take notes on Script 4.

Before workshops continue, you will compare notes with the other members of your group and discuss the screenwriting techniques and conventions therein.

GROUP 1:

Alexandra

Farina

Dana

Liam

Jamie

GROUP 2:

Jen

Riah

Brydan

Luke

Alex

GROUP 3:

Justin

Dan

Ed

Margot

Isobell

GROUP 4:

Michael

Matts

Meg

Marco

GROUP 5:

Amy

Sam

Alaine

Andrew

Olivia

 

See you all tomorrow!

Next Wednesday 12 April…

…is our last class before the mid-semester break, and your pitch presentations.

We will continue operation WWW (workshopping your wonderful worlds), and also go through what’s required of you in the pitch presentation and for Project Brief 3 more broadly.

Great workshops (and breakthroughs!) so far. The more you can bring to the workshop table, obviously, the more your collaborators have to work with.

If you’re thinking about your world between now and then, you might look back on our previous resources, brainstorms and activities, or this new reading from Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ (1999).

Look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 🙂

Texts for Week 2

Hi everyone, and thanks for a great first week!

Your ‘texts’ for this week are these three trailers for films (links below). Watch them (and, if you feel really inspired, any or all of the full works if you can source them and have the time), and be ready to talk about the worlds, the rules of those worlds and the way they’re realised.

Don’t forget to sign up for a studio task on the Google doc.

Sing Street

Sex and the City

Tangerine

See you next week!