SHORT FILM AND VIDEO SCRIPTWRITING – LECT 1

Narrative Cinema

What is a story?
•    An interpretation of an aspect of world
•    Culturally grounded and shaped by human experience

Difference between cinema & literature
•    Literature
o    Text, words, long explanation
•    Cinema
o    Visual medium, image, immediate reaction, mostly accessible

Logline
•    The logline is a one sentence summary of your script
•    It’s the blurb that describes what your script is about

Guess what?

It is about a guy who discovered that he has his own superpowers where he thought that he’s a special one because he could go anywhere that he likes. But he’s wrong because there’s already a group of people who have sworn to kill all this people who have this particular power since eons ago.

ans: Jumper.

Importance of logline
•    Helps writers to determine/identify core of story
•    Allows listeners/readers to relate to story
•    Sales tool to entice studio executives/buyers

Dos and Don’ts of loglines
•    Keep it simple yet memorable
•    Present it in present tense
•    Think in terms of ‘Who’, ‘What’ and ‘Why’
•    OR ‘set up’, ‘conflict’, ‘resolution’
•    NEVER reveal ending

Theme/premise
Situations, events
Characters (not necessary human)
Setting: place, time
Dialogue
Action
•    The ‘moral’ of the story
•    A view of life, how people behave
•    Writer’s perspective bout the world and the people who exist in it
•    Reveals itself gradually as story unfolds

WRITE STORY → FIND THEME

Importance of theme
•    helps writer to make choices in various elements
•    helps determine other creative decisions eg. Final look and feel of the story on screen

LOGLINE VS. THEME
I’ll wait for the next one
•    Logline
o    A man who acts like he is searching for love but in the end, a lady is ‘cheated’ even before she is loved.
o    A single woman gets on a train and finds the man of her dreams. Or does she?
•    Theme
o    Don’t trust strangers
o    Never rush love

Inside out
•    Logline
o    A man who tries very hard in capturing the passerby’s heart where without him knowing, he already captures the girl’s heart with all his gimmicks. But in the end, they are at lose end since they don’t confess what’s in there.
•    Theme
o    Don’t wait too long if you know that’s right for you.
o    Opportunity comes once. Grab it while you can.

How they got there
•    Logline
o    A man randomly follows all the comical acts of a girl across the street where little does he know that he’s up to a great trouble.
o    A man and a woman flirts with each other across the street only for it to end in a mishap
•    Theme
o    Be yourself, be original, that’s where you know you are right.
o    Love is blind

the Singaporean voice
•    What is its unique, cultural voice?
•    List some of the characteristics, representation?
•    Does Singapore have one?

And finally…

This will be the last, and I repeat, LAST post and which therefore equals to the page, being the LAST one that will be posted. And which I think, that this will be the LAST post of our storytelling module. Happy? No? Hmm.. Up to the individual. For me, I’ll miss blogging here. Yes, I can continue on here but, the other blog… Hmm.. Close it down? It will be some kind of troublesome. So, yeah. Will think about it (:

Anyway, I was already in holiday mood during the weekends. And I think, this is bad news. Simply because I will start to procrastinate when there’s loads of things to be done. Oh oh. I need to change my attitude.

Another reason why I said that I was already on holiday mood because I went for one during the weekends. It was actually unplanned and it was actually my sister’s company staff retreat where they are allowed to bring along their family members. For singles, they are allowed to bring a maximum of 2 people. So, my sister decided to bring her siblings (:

So we went during the weekends. Of course, I encountered mix emotions. When we were about to leave Singapore, I felt sad because we had to leave our parents behind. There, I felt worried too. How are we going to survive in Genting without our parents? What will happen if something happened to us? All these questions were playing in my head. Despite all the sadness and worries, I felt excited because this will be the very first time that the sisters will be going away for a vacation after so many years of not going for a holiday with the family and so, we are supposed to be independent.

Overall, it was a safe, enjoyable and fun trip. From experiencing a totally different temperature up there to mixing around with people of a different age group (my sister’s colleagues who are mostly in their late 20s, 30s or even in the 40s). Unfortunately, due to the heavy mists and rain, we didn’t get a chance to play at the outdoor theme park. Whatever it is, I wish there would be another trip with the same group of people again since I felt that 3 days is too short of a time for us to bond and mingle (:

the cute and adorable kids who brought live to the trip (:

 

the sisters outside the outdoor theme park

 

in the cable car

Well of course, this trip had thought me how to be an independent child and not only be dependent on my parents or my sisters. Furthermore, being the last child, it is important for me not to be pampered or showered with too much love. Not that I hate it, but sometimes I think that I should learn and be an independent kid.

***

As for now, I have to complete my assignments while others are having their common tests. My aim: to complete every assignment before the weekends and not procrastinate since I’m going off for another vacation! Yay! :) A family chalet, that is. Oh wow, I’m enjoying early holiday, aren’t I?

Till then. Another post next time? We’ll see.