In class, we were asked to craft a story from a succession of images provided by the groups during the photo exercise, in which we were asked to capture RMIT’s world in five to nine still photographs. I chose the story “Study Buddy” and crafted a story from the below nine images.
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- Jeremy sits alone and practices conversing with people. “Hi, Hello, I’m Jeremy, What are you studying?” and “That’s a nice t-shirt”.
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- He reads the book “How to have conversations so everyone will love you” with broken confidence.
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- Melissa rushes off to her next class, nervous about presenting in front of a crowd.
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- She attempts virtual reality to calm her nerves and practice her speech.
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- Melissa then isolates herself, deflated and certain that she will fail this class.
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- Jeremy sits next to her and plucks up the courage to start a conversation. One word after the next and he gets more confident, until he makes a fool of himself and runs off.
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- Melissa follows him down the corridor, telling him that she too has anxiety.
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- They walk together and bond over their mutual disregard for group assignments and public speaking.
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- Together they converse, forgetting about their troubles.
Screenplay
We were then asked to choose one photograph and develop that story into a screenplay. The first draft of the script is below.
Reflection
When writing the story I did not concern myself with creating a world around the characters and was focusing on finding a story that would suit the characters in the photographs. I thought that the characters that I created suited the photographs. However, if I were to develop it further I would make every task that Jeremy performs onerous and contribute to his paranoia and anxiety. These elements would create a world in which anxiety prohibits even the simplest task. Therefore the ending of the story, when he interacts with another person would have much more weight, and would contain more risk as he could go back to isolating himself.
I would also develop the screenplay with increased tension by including a time pressure, extra level of embarrassment or a negative consequence for Jeremy. This would raise the stakes of the situation and provide Melissa with more motivation to chase after him at the end of the scene. Due to these faults, and the limitations of the exercise I will not continue to develop this story. This process however has provided an insight into the type of world that I wish to develop for the final project. I want to build a world that I can live in, explore and spend time with the characters. Characters I want to know more about.
