Jame Napoli highlights the importance of perfection in relation to scriptwriting in The Palgrave Handbook of Script Development when he states ” Never send out a script before it’s ready. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever! You get one chance to create a perception in Hollywood”. (Napoli, J 2022) Well, when I found this line I almost laughed out loud because my Treatment has got top be the most unpolished treatment ever made! And thats after a lot of tweaking and fixing up. I definitely have so much more appreciation for script writers in the industry after attempting my own treatment.
Another reading that stood out to me was Kathie Fong Yoneda’s statement in The Script Selling Game- 2nd Edition : A Hollywood Insider’s Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced Second Edition. Kathie states ” An idea is only a thought unless you build a viable story around it populating it with characters who are caught up in a physical and/or emotional dilemma” (Fong Yoneda, K 2011) This struck me as an interesting and yet very practical thought. Anyone can come up with a good idea for a movie, but it is much harder to create characters that viewers can relate to, lore that is interesting and scenes and dialogue that are emotional. This made me consider how I could take my treatment from a good idea to a proper movie viewers can be invested in.
In thinking about the progression of my Treatment in future, I can see it as a really fun and action packed movie to watch. Before even thinking about adapting this my treatment would need a lot of work to even out the bumps. I think when writing it I got passionate about cvertain scenes and red;ationships but was unable to tie some loose ends together. It would be important for me to flesh out the story more before taking it any further.
Collaboration.
Over this semester of The Plot Thickens I actually have learnt a lot about how I best collaborate with others and what I love so much about collaboration. During my first year of uni I found classes where I had to work with others incredibly nerve racking and found that due to my anxiety of social situations I would tend to avoid those classes and work from home and online. So much has changed this year! The first couple weeks of The Plot Thickens I was very nervous but the environment that was creatied was so inclusive, respectful and friendly that I found it hard to hide from such a fun class.
Each lesson was very open for discussion and willing to look at ideas from different views. Before long I started to realise how important this is, learning what other people think about movies and getting to chat to my classmates about why they did or didn’t like the directions stories took. Class quizzes provided fun ways to work as a team and added some friendly competition.
When it came to writing my script and getting to work through my ideas with my table, I was able to get some helpful and practical advice on ways I could improve my work.
Overall, this was by far my favourite subject all year!
Taylor, S, Batty, C (2022) The palgrave handbook of Script Development, Springer International Publishing AG
Fong Yodena, K (2011) The Script Selling Game- 2nd Edition : A Hollywood Insider’s Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced Second Edition Studio City, CA : Michael Wiese Productions. 2011