This semester in ‘The Plot Thickens’, we have developed stories from a small, simple idea jotted down from the brain, all the way to finishing with completed treatments of that idea. This has taken dedication and effort over the weeks, as we have strengthened and solidified our plots to leave us with the perfect finished product that we have worked so hard on. To get to this stage, this semester I have focused on one of the key ideas from the studio which is the idea that a story should follow a structure to be effective. I have attempted to follow a solid, three act structure, however if I were to continue or develop this media piece, this is something I think I would need to improve on, as there are some plot points that I could have made it more evident which act they fall in to. Overall, I think that my structure is well done and easy to navigate, without looking too much like a structure, and still having the natural flow of the story that resembles a realistic story. If I were to develop my story into a script, I think the main concern would be how I would go about portraying some scenes where my protagonist is by herself and thinking thoughts or ideas on her own. This was an initial issue, which I have attempted to solve in my treatment by having more social connections between my protagonist and other characters, allowing for there to be more scenes where my protagonist is talking to somebody rather than having internal monologue or internal thoughts that would be difficult to portray on screen.

One reason why I love having the studio website, apart from being able to share my voice on things, is getting to see other people’s insights on things from class that are new to me and teach me more about the structures of stories and the concepts that we have explored. From the Plot Thickens, I have read a few stories that sparked my interest from the descriptions. Ally’s was one that I read and had read drafts of previously and I can really see her development and improvement over the weeks. In her assignment 4 reflection, Ally spoke about a key concern of the studio which was Ryan’s Cheap Plot Tricks, Plot Holes, and Narrative Design, and how through group activities in class, we were able to identify them and hopefully prevent them in our own treatments. Ally has done well to avoid plot holes and coincidences which I imagine would have been tricky due to her complex world building of her story. I think that she has done a great job in creating a complex story that both still makes sense and is entertaining! Another example from our studio is Seyyid who also discusses how Ryan’s ‘cheap plot tricks, plot holes, and narrative design’ influenced the development of his treatment. Seyyid suggests a solution or “different way” something could have happened for the limited time in Kamila’s body to be explained. This is something that I wouldn’t have really understood prior to the class that explained what plot holes were, or something I could potentially have overlooked, but like Seyyid, I have learnt how to analyse my own and other people’s work to find these things that can be fixed to make our stories even better.

I was very interested in and engaged the most with The Scene in Cinema while researching all the other studios. I came across Kevin’s film called ‘Picture the Moment’ which was a studio Ghibli inspired film. What mesmerised me about this was not just how accurate some of the scenes looked to studio Ghibli scenes in movies, but how effective the film was even without dialogue or excessive action. This made me really appreciate and value how the style of filming and editing had such an impact on the finished product. It shows me that films are not just what is being filmed or what is happening, but how it is being filmed and how it is being shown in specific ways that tell certain stories. I think Kevin did a great job in demonstrating how a scene is so much more than the contents of the screen, and that different genres can be portrayed in the style of film making being used.