FINAL REFLECTION

This semester, for the most part, has been an eye-opening experience.  I have spent many a night musing over the ‘what-ifs’ and various possibilities about this world I have created, wondering and dreaming about character traits, designs and gags.  Oh goodness, the gags.

The studio itself has helped in translating many of the skills I have adopted in the creation of my various media artefacts.  Collaboration was vital, as were the many discussions I had with my fellow classmates about differing narratives, feedback and creativity.  The feedback and suggestion period was extremely important in the final, clean-up stages of my project.

From the moment I conceptualised my world, I decided then and there I would do my best to realise it to the best of my ability.  This would, naturally, include written, visual and perhaps an audio-visual component, yet at the time, I was unsure as to what format I would ultimately present my work as.

The writing of the screenplay was a struggle.  I have come to understand that freedom does not necessarily allow for a more comfortable writing experience; rather, it is as much of an hindrance as it is a help.  Too often was I thrown off-course by details that had little or no relevance to the story at hand, and these would disrupt the rhythm I would get into.  Nonetheless, the episodic nature of my screenplay allowed a certain amount of leeway when crafting scenes – as they were spontaneous, sit-com-‘esque’ skits, it was relatively comfortable to dash from character to character every time I had a fantastic idea.  I have had little problems with dialogue in the past, but it certainly does help to read it out aloud in order to make sure it rolls off the tongue nicely.  Some words that sound great in your head often translate poorly into actual speech.

For the visual component, I worked very closely with an artist to draft up some designs I had thought out.  I provided supervision and reference material as she sketched according to my descriptions.  The process was lengthy and extremely collaborative, something I am well-accustomed to thanks to my exposure to various media projects in the past.

The greatest challenge for me was  my ability to remain focused on the task at hand. Working with an expansive, science-fiction filled world has taught me many a thing about staying on course.  Distractions or not, though, I loved every minute of it.

With that said, It’s been a blast studying in Another World!

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