So far, I have written two full length feature films, planned two television series and written their pilots, written scenes and monologues for a drama school, written my fair share of short films, and have worked in a simulated writers room.

None of this prepared me for writing a non-linear non-narrative experimental film.

Part of me was even skeptical that it needed a script, but it’s a basic foundation for any project to be filmed – especially if you’re going to have an external actor in the film (I was lucky in that regard… I knew what the script meant because I wrote it, which made it easier to manage… would be really interesting to see where another actor took it). It was also complicated because I had two streams of consciousness… and there’s no formal way to write that, but as long as it’s clear to the production crew, then it doesn’t matter too much.

I wanted there to be no dialogue in the script from the main character, and no reaction to the voice over/soundtrack comments, only progressing through the test and reacting to the mental strain of it. That was actually interesting to write, as only the action could actually feed the character’s reaction… not the dialogue in the script.

“Turns the page, and continues to write, becoming more and more mechanic as she does so.”

I also then had to write the dialogue, which I wanted to reflect the futility of school and certain aspects of education, the innosence of childhood and the unease and stress the education system can cause… which are three basic categories.

For the first, I wanted to look at the components/lessons that are never used again in later life, but are recognisable to the general population (so is part of the mainstream curriculum, not higher education)… This mostely related to science and maths…

  • Percentage error is calculated by the difference between the measured value, and the known value, divided by the known value, and multiplied by one hundred…
  • Something to do with anatomy… “… the right atrium pumps blood into the right ventricle…”
  • Physics… “Gravitational acceleration occurs at 9.8 metres per second…”
  • Periodic table… students chanting?
  • Geography – Latitude and longitude.
  • Maths – Pythagoras theorem is  taught at a young age… “a sqaured plus b squared equals c squared.”

Then I wanted something really demeaning… that is said to a child and unknowingly really degrading… I remember a teacher once saying this to me, speaking like I was an idiot… it’s a memory that stuck – “You should colour inside the lines!”

The second category was things that kids say… the only limitation I had on this was that I only really had access to one kid (as in real life actual kid), which meant I wanted to limit the child lines so it wouldn’t be too obvious she was repeating… I could have extra ones to add in, but only planned for the minimum ones.

I also liked the idea of having nursery rhymes, because they often have a much darker meaning. (as an example, Cotton Eyed Joe is about STDs). I also wanted the rhyme/tune to be public domain, because… safety…

Some of the rhymes that are public domain and could be likened to the school system/failure were London Bridge (“London bridge is falling down” relating to the falling hopes of the school children), Incy Wincy Spider (“Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out” relating to the school system washing out the kids) Humpty Dumpty (“All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put Humpty together again” talking about how it breaks you and cannot be undone) and Ring-a-ring-a-rosy (which is about the plague – liked the line “We all fall down”)

Finally, the last lines had to reflect how the school system breaks down kids emotionally…

This included the Invigilators line, which I just went into the VCAA’s guidelines for completing a test for and took the most restrictive and ridiculous ones.

  • You have one hour to complete the exam. You must write in blue or black pen. You must write your student number at the top of each page. All responces must be in English. You may not talk during this period. If you need to use the bathroom, please raise your hand. You may now commence.

And then the end of the test…

  • Pens down.

Then for the rest of them…

  • Please raise your hand before speaking.
  • That’s just wrong! Just wrong!
  • … just doesn’t apply herself…
  • Facts are facts. There’s no two ways about it.
  • How many hours do you study a day?

I was happy with the lines that I had, and then just had to patch them together… for some of them, I had a pretty strong idea on how I wanted them to be said, from that I put together the script.