One point that really stood out for me in Jasmine’s lecture about screenwriting was the need to externalize everything. This may seem very obvious now, but I had taken for granted the fact that as an audience, we can’t really see what a character is feeling. As a writer, you need to show how they are feeling through action, instead of having to tell it with words. This point struck me mostly because it is something so simple and fundamental, yet was the reason a lot of my early and naive attempts at writing for the screen did not yield the results I wanted. I assumed that if my character was sad, I could simply convey that to the audience through having the character have a sorrowful face and say some melancholic things. Now I know that I should’ve made that character’s emotions more explicit and clear to be more effective. For example, the character can go on a drunken bender, or deviate from his usual morning routine. Cliched examples, I know, but I’m still learning.

I aim to build on the collaborative and creative skills that I had been developing last year in Broadcast media. That is, my goal is to learn how to and practice working well in a team of people to create a product with which we’re happy. Of course, I also want to learn how to write short films well and create interesting and genuine characters.