This studio has been really interesting for me in getting a sense of what it’s like working in the industry as a screenwriter, and looking beyond simply how to write a story. I think that I’ve learned more especially about audio-visual storytelling, and how to convey this in my writing so that other people can understand what I’m talking about.

In my own creative practice, I feel like I’ve been able to get more practice in understanding audio storytelling. I am a very visual creative, and I wouldn’t say that I’m very strong in my understanding of sound and audio.

I also think that I have a stronger understanding of how to construct a visual story without the need for obvious expositional tactics like monologuing, flashbacks or bad expositional dialogue to drive it. Something that I think I need to work on more is not being vague without purpose. Lack of exposition and backstory can be intriguing, but doing vagueness for the sake of it would be insulting to an audience.

Something that I have tried to exercise in my final screenplay has been my confidence in writing consistently. I have found that, as a result of this, I tackled my screenplay in a way that I am unfamiliar with y not writing the script chronologically. I read some advice from a writer that I can’t remember the name of that a good writing exercise is to sit yourself down and force yourself to write for 10-20 minutes a day. So I did this, except that I wrote each scene as I felt like writing it as opposed to writing in chronological order. One day, I wrote the scene with Max’s death, then later I wrote the opening scene, and even later, I wrote the scene with the Sting. Doing this made me more invested in making every specific scene work, before I worked out how they would fit together in the overall narrative.