I hadn't posted any research I had done on Coming Out stories which I did when doing the prewriting for my script. This was a big part of my research and I tried to find varied experiences. On YouTube there is a lot of Coming Out videos that people post rather than tell people face to face and also, due to the 'it gets better' campaign, people have posted their stories of what happened when they came out and how their life is now. This is to give people hope and also to share their experience as their is no typical response or good way to come out.
Below are some of the videos I found.
The last video is part of a series so if you wanna catch the other videos check it out on her channel (yourharto).
I contemplated the idea of having Sophie 'come out' on YouTube and have Leah find out by accident after watching the video. The short film begins with the reaction when they meet after this event. However one of my friends told me his experience of coming out over the phone after a long process of trying to work up the courage to tell his friend and accidentally blurting it out. I liked this idea and after speaking to him about it, he agreed to let me use this as the starting point for my idea.
It has been a really useful experience to research this aspect of my story as i really want to get it right and take a realistic approach.
As I have decided to film the first 2 minutes of my script rather than a trailer I am now off to research the opening 2 minutes of short films I like and are in a similar style to mine, and also to look at the opening sequence of my script and how other day dream sequences go about filming.
Yesterday I spent the day at the Old Cinema at Westminster University, Regent street for my Introduction to Screenwriting course with Raindance film festival.
I found the day incredibly useful and was given plenty of information about the world of Screenwriting.
The day started with the compere for the event, a comedian called Dan March, welcoming all 160 of us and explaining that if anyone had a project they wanted to network then to speak to him and he would do a shout out during the intervals.
Then Elliot Grove, Founder of Raindance, explained his background and went on to talk about Characters and inciting incidents. He said that first and foremost you need good characters. Story and plot can come after. He then told us about a group of people in America that meet every weekend and make a short film. They start by having each person write down 2 characters and their job and a couple of traits. Then they all write down an inciting incident. Elliot explained this can be something as big as a car crash (macroscopic) or something as small as dropping a coin on the floor (microscopic). Then the group put each category in hats and have someone pull out 2 character and 1 incident and then they come up with a story and make it into a short film. When it's all finished and edited they watch it back - if it's good they put it up on YouTube or send it to festivals, if not they delete it.
Here is one of their films featuring Naomi Watts called 'Never date an Actress'
I thought it was really funny and a really good low budget short and it just shows what you can do when you put your mind to it. This year almost half of the entries for short films to Raindance film festival were shot on mobile devices and some were good enough to be shown during the festival itself. It goes to show it doesn't matter what you shoot with, as long as you have good characters and story it can be successful.
Here are 2 other short films that we watched on the day that i enjoyed. The first is called 'Blonde in a Library' which takes 2 stereotypes and puts them together.
The second is a film which was commissioned by Robbie Williams when he wanted to promote his new album. It is called 'Goodbye to the Normals'.
We were then given the opportunity to come up with our own characters and inciting incident and put them on 3 small pieces of paper. Then we had to pass one character to the person on our left and our inciting incident to the person on our right. We then had to think of a news story that might be on TV or in a newspaper that came from the 3 pieces of paper we now held. Some people were selected to read their idea out loud to the group and asked if they found it a useful experience. I found it a great idea and will be using it when I am struggling for ideas. Elliot said it is good to keep your writing skills on top form so this is an idea that we can all do every day if we want.
After a break, we then went onto learn about different structures. variations of them and the social stages. Obviously I already knew about the 2 and 3 act structures from Uni but it was interesting to hear about other structure ideas because there is no set style for writers to follow and how your story unfolds is down to you and how you want to tell it. I had never heard about the social stages before and how each stage has a different hero.
The Wilderness - Super hero: always male, receives divine inspiration and new set of rules for people to follow. E.g Moses and the 10 commandments
The Village - Classic hero: usually male, expert in martial arts, not from village, usually summoned as village needs helps or arrives and is mistaken for a barbarian, the villagers change not the hero, hero rides into sunset.
The City - Average hero: Male or female, does ordinary things, sees injustice so seeks justice.
Oppressive city - Anti-hero or Bumbling hero: the city is controlled by the powerful and the rules have been changed to serve them, male or female, just wants to live life and stay out of everyone's way, Witnesses an injustice by the powerful, they know anti-hero has seen, powerful try and exterminate the anti-hero.
Elliot talked about 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and how in that film they move from one stage to another. When this happens they have to change to fit in with the stage or perish. As they refuse to change when confronted with a different type of enemy they indeed perish.
Below are some relevant pictures from the handout I received.
After lunch, we learnt about low budget film making and directing. The handout we had for low budgets was really good as it gave us links and contacts for people who are always looking to collaborate and how to make things yourself such as fake blood and other make up effects.
The directing bit was really helpful and has given me a lot more confidence for when I start shooting for 'The Meeting'. I've loads of tips and tricks too so will be interesting to see if I can put them into practice.
The last speech was about copyriting your scripts, how to get influential people to read your scripts and pitching. He told us a very cunning tip on getting producers, directors and actors to see your script and hopefully want to be part of the project. The pitching tips were invaluable and when I get the opportunity to pitch to professionals about my projects in the future ill be way more prepared than I have been before.
Unfortunately there were only 18 spaces to pitch to the panel and I wasn't able to pitch but I did enjoy hearing the feedback other people got for their ideas.
After the course most people went for drinks at a nearby bar to network. It was a really good idea and I made lots of new contacts that I can hopefully utilize in the future. I even met a lady who's background was in dealing with young gang members and when I told her about my 'Bigger than Banksy' project she agreed to help me with my research and has given me a lot of other contacts and even an area of East London to visit (in daylight with a big group, not particularly a safe area) where gangs and graffiti art is a big part of the culture. The most exciting contact I made was with a producer called Darren who has just beaten Josh Whedon (Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to an award in America. He was working his way around the room when he approached my group and asked us about ourselves and our projects. I told him about my work for uni on 'The Meeting' and my basic idea for 'Bigger than Banksy'. He was really interested in both ideas and has asked me to copyright my scripts when I get a chance and send him a copy for him to read through. He said if the script was right he may be interested in working with me in the future on both projects. I was so shocked but I'm really excited and hopefully he will be a great contact to have.
Overall it was a really great day and I would definitely do another course like this again.
Well thats the 2nd draft of the script for 'The Meeting' complete! I think i'll leave it for a few days now and take another look at it on Sunday before i hand it in on Monday. But here is the 1st draft with some of the edits i made on it to work on for when i did the 2nd draft.
Not bad for a 1st draft but i think with the improvements i've made its much better. Hopefully after i get feedback on it from Simon i can really take it onboard and create something really good.
So I'm very excited because this Saturday I will be off to Westminster to attend Raindance's Introduction to Screenwriting course. Thanks to the wonder that is Groupon the course only cost £39 compared to its usual price of £119 so I managed to convince my lovely sister that it would be a worthwhile Christmas present - only slightly early.
Basically the course has 5 parts to it:
Writing the screenplay
Writing for low budgets
Story structure and marketing your screenplay
Live!Ammunition! - Pitch your Idea to a panel of industry professionals with instant feedback, a chance to win £100 and potential interest in your project.
Networking drinks
The course sounds perfect for some further development and information about screenwriting, especially as it's something I would like to pursue a career in. I'll be posting an update with how it all went so keep an eye out for it.
I should probably go work on my pitching skills then. Not my most confident area so want to do myself justice Atleast.
So I've just thought of an idea that I think could possibly be worth working on, on the side. It came to me when I was looking back through old pictures on my phone of places I had been this year since coming to Kent. One of those pictures was this - taken on Southbank, London.
Now I loved this place at the time but looking back at the picture all I could think was this would be a perfect location for something. It just screams potential at me. So I got thinking and I had a brain wave. What if a young lad who was absolutely shocking at drawing decided he wanted to be the next big grafitti artist. And that was the starting point of what I would now like to introduce to you all as "Bigger than Banksy".
The next few paragraphs are basically all I've wrote about it at the moment and the tiny bit of research I did just because I got slightly overenthusiatic when I was writing and kept getting annoyed that i didn't know the proper grafitti slang words for things.
Bigger than Banksy:
The original idea - A hapless young guy's dream is to be the next big graffiti artist - the only problem is - he's possibly the worst 'writer' in the world. But that's not going to stop him.
Plot: George and his friends aren't what you would normally associate with the word gang. Well that's just what they attempt to become when they hatch a plan to survive 6th form. The misfits team up and take it to the streets to earn some stripes and win the heart of the school hottie. But when they inadvertently tag and claim a graffiti artwork that belongs to big time gang member and graffiti artist "Rix", the lads find that school is the least of their worries.
George - Earns the nickname Toy after inadvertently passing off someone else's grafitti as his own. A chubby, 16 year old virgin who comes up with the plan. Cannot draw to save his life. Massive fan of Banksy's work and one of his dreams is to meet him (possibly could be a side plot) and another is to be bigger than him - hence the title.
Kyle - Often referred to as Kylie by the school bullies and later the graffiti artists. He is a geeky 16 year old. A whizz on computers. A complete wimp. Has a lot of allergies.
Lad 3 (As of yet unnamed)- likes to consider himself the "looks" of the group, average boy, comes from a rough upbringing - doesn't know his mum, his brothers are all carpenters, electricians etc, average in every sense of the word - doesn't like to be forgotten about but often is - people at school don't really remember his name - he hates this and always reminds them which never ends well, his dad is a bit of a nutcase.
Obviously all characters and plot are probably going to go through a massive development throughout the pre-writing stage, so I'll keep posting updates on this when it's worth doing so.
In my head at the moment, I see it 100% a comedy series (probably a 30 minute, 6 episode scenario) but definitely one with a heart. I wouldn't want to make something out and out funny and forget about the characters. I always want people to connect with them and feel their pain and triumphs. Possibly a cross between the Inbetweeners and Gavin and Stacey if I had to compare it, right at this moment, to programs that have gone before.
I've never had a moment of genius before but this idea.... I don't think I've ever been more excited about working on something. So in my spare time I'm going to do bits on this and really try and immerse myself in a world that, let's be honest here, I know pretty little about. A bit like my main character George really....
I wanted to post an update on my Synopsis as I have now finished my first draft for my script and have been working on the second draft. I feel I am now in a better place to describe the story with a clearer picture in mind and also discuss the possible themes. The picture at the side is a little logo i thought of the other day. It's pretty simple at the moment but thought i'd post it up on the blog anyway.
Synopsis
Sophie is a 20 year old girl with a Secret. A Secret about her sexuality that she's blurted out to her best friend Leah, who isn't prepared for it. All the while a mystery caller is eagerly trying to get hold of Sophie. Leah ultimately feels betrayed by Sophie for not telling her this information sooner and jealous that she has told others before her. As the girls try and work through their issues a neighbouring couple are seen dealing with their own. They are the victims of a hate crime. Slowly it becomes clear that something about this world is different. This is a world where gay is the "norm" while straight is a "sin". As they clean up their garden with a little bit of help from Sophie, it's the first glimps of Leah's realisation that her attitude needs to change. With Leah now slightly more inquisitive about Sophie's secret, she starts to open her mind and become more understanding. A News update about anti straight riots is the final straw for Leah, she never wants to see her friend have to go through anything like this for just being herself. She even vows to help her friend with speaking to Sam - the mystery caller who, himself worried about what the world will think of his sexuality, has ended his relationship with a text. The girls, with a newfound appreciation for each other, then leave to try and sort things out with Sam.
Themes
One of the themes of the story is to not judge a book by its cover. The audience will assume that Sophie is gay and as they discover more about the world they will slowly begin to realise that things are not what they originally perceived. I've really struggled to nail down other themes in my story. I know there are some but I've found it really difficult to pin point the exact words for them. It might take another set of eyes to help me out but at the moment I'm a bit stuck in this one.
I guess another theme would be ignorance is bliss. Plenty of people walk past, turn their heads or pretend they haven't seen bad things everyday. I'm almost 100% sure that at some point in everyone's life they have done this. Whether it's because your tired or have no time or because you don't want to get involved. People often will ignore something bad if it doesn't affect them. And in this story that's Leah. She knows all these things happen in the world everyday. She's seen these things before but now she's looking at them it's a lot more personal. What if that was your best friend who was the victim of a attack or caught up in a riot when they were just celebrating who they are? She is looking at the situation through different eyes now. And she doesn't like what she sees. She possibly didn't before but now she's more motivated to stop it. I want to make this film relatable to everyone. It doesn't have to be homophobia (or in this case hetrophobia) it could be about race, religion, bullying... the list goes on. There are plenty of things that people are persecuted for.
Now to finish the 2nd draft before I hand it in on Monday.
I've just finished the first draft of my script! It's 10 pages but there's still work to be done on it think. I'm going to re read through it again tomorrow and see what improvements I can make and give it to a couple of friends and see what they think it needs.
It has a fair few peaks and troughs in it so I'm pleased with that. All the research it did really helped when writing and as I'd never really done any pre-writing before I'd say it's all come together quite nicely for a first attempt. I won't post my first draft just yet because I want to get it checked over for the predictable problems that come with my dyslexia. But I imagine after it's been worked up on final draft tomorrow it'll be up.
I ransacked the library on a couple of occasions just to get a bit of reassurance and so I could have a good read of how different screenwriters go about preparation. I found a really useful chapter on character development in "Crafting Short Screenplays that Connect" and it used a character checklist. In "Developing Story Ideas" I found a similar but more detailed version of the checklist.
Now they are on the blog I can keep coming back and finding it when I get stuck with a character in the future.
Writing the script has really given me a vision for how I see the filming going. I could really picture how it might look when I read the script back. I decided as I was pre-writing that I would prefer to film the first 2 minutes of my script rather make a trailer. I think that if i was to make a trailer for this it wouldn't do the script justice. Showing little clips of what would happen would also potentially ruin the twists. I want to make a really good first 2 minutes and hopefully one day make the whole thing - if it's good enough that is.
