Journal #3: The Screenplay

This week, Amber and I started working on our screenplay. The first thing we decided on was how to divvy up the writing job. After discussing this with Amber, we decided that she would write dialogue, and I would write everything else. So far, this has been working extremely well. We have made sure to check each other's work, and we are open to suggestions from each other as per usual. I could not be happier with the way this project is going so far.

Although most of the screenplay lies ahead of us, we have finished Act I and the beginnings of Act II with only the most minor hitches. I feel we need to focus on what is necessary for our story. I do not want a script full of filler information, action, and dialogue that have no purpose. I want to shock people with the plot. I want the audience to have ohmygod did-that-just-happen moments when they watch anything I write or collaborate on. I have a feeling that with Amber and I working as a team, we can accomplish all of this and more.

Another reason I am so happy with how smoothly the screenplay is going is because my SkillsUSA project is proving more stressful than I had previously thought. However, I have faith in Alexa and myself, and I know we will get our project as great as we can before we go to state competition on the 4th of April. I am excited to leave for San Diego, so the stress the project brings is worth the benefit of being prepared for the competition!

I can't wait to finish the screenplay and the Skills project over break with Amber and Alexa, respectively. I have confidence that both projects will turn out amazing!

Journal #2: Writing is Revising

This week, Amber and I fixed our treatment and created our beat sheet. Before this assignment, I had never heard of a beat sheet before. It was refreshing to experience something new and explore a different aspect of writing. Although the beat sheet is simple, it provides a clear outline of what needs to be done in the screenplay and how many scenes will need to be done in production. I really like the organization of the beat sheet and the simplicity of it.

Amber and I are still working extremely well together. We continue to come up with solutions and fixes to our plotholes and are both open to eachother's suggestions. I feel that our story is very strong, and I am excited to finalize it in a screenplay.

I hope that everyone will enjoy the finalized story Amber and I come up with and that it will be produced. I am going to try my absolute hardest to finally get one of my screenplays produced at Kennedy. Hopefully my wish will come true!

Journal #1: Bouncing Ideas

These past two weeks, I have been working with my partner, Amber, to create a revolutionary teen noir that will be worthy of student awards. At first, we had to come up with individual treatments. I found this very challenging, not knowing where to begin. I thought back to when I watched the movie Brick during a Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie marathon my friends and I had a while back. I also went on YouTube and searched for Veronica Mars clips. After watching these, I still did not feel motivated. I began to write my story, pausing for long periods of time and procrastinating. By the end of my treatment, I was not satisfied, but I knew that I would have the chance to rewrite it, so I left it. I was extremely unhappy with my story and plot when I turned it in the day after Oscar night.

It came as a relief to me when it was announced that we were to work in pairs. I immediately chose Amber as a partner since we had never worked together before and because I knew she was as dedicated as I to create something much more incredible than what I had first written. The first thing we decided was to turn noir on its side and make our lead character a female instead of a male, in effect making our femme fatale a male. Intrigued by our new idea, we went home and mulled over a plot line that would captivate anyone watching our film. We brainstormed for about 2 hours on Google Drive, chatting and jotting down the skeleton of our plot. This plot focused on a girl who wanted to be with a boy, doing anything she could to get him. In the end, however, the girl would find she had been manipulated by this boy, who was the puppet of the girl's sister. Excited with our progress, we shut down our computers and slept on our ideas.

The next day, I wrote the first half of our treatment, letting Amber finish the second half. We used notes and comments to communicate with each other, always revising our treatment and improving it. Although there are still some minor problems we must solve and some things we must rewrite, writing is revising, and there will be no complaining on either of our parts. We want to make our treatment (and screenplay) as incredible and enthralling as possible. Our goal is to live up to the teen noir feel in our own, unique way.

Our pitch went as well as I thought it would. We decided to use a poster as a visual in order to better explain our convoluted love square to the class. It was very effective, and the pitch went more smoothly than I had expected. I am excited to fix the kinks in the treatment and improve the plot even more than we have done already. Writing is my absolute favorite part of film, and being able to do it with an extremely creative, dependable partner is half the fun. I cannot wait to work more on this project and perfect it as much as possible!