1.2 Assignment

My learning experience thus far in my story development course has been interesting and informative. Before entering in this course, I set out to have three main objectives; strengthen my story plots, learn how to develop my stories, and to learn how to effectively pitch. I believe that I’m gaining some insight to each of these goals as I continue in this course.In this course, we have discussed numerous topics to implement in our upcoming thesis project. These topics range from and include, story building, dialogue, genre, and world building. All of these elements I plan to incorporate in my upcoming thesis project.  So far, what I’ve been learning is the base of a film, and that’s all the aspects of the story. Everything that I’ve learned has helped me to shape my thesis project, starting from scratch.Before I could go any further it’s important to have a story and not just a concept. What makes that story compelling is its structure. In our course, my class and I watched the film “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, a sci-fi esque film. This film was a perfect example of the importance of crafting a story properly. If the story is lacking, immediately the audience will tune out of the film, as this is something that I want to avoid in my project. As I watched the movie, I had many questions and they all pertained to the story. So, I though of my own personal project and I evaluated where my story seemed a bit off. I noticed in comparison to “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, that I had a concept but it seemed to lack structure. I went back to the drawing board because there were some grey areas within my stories plot. My story is about a teenager named David, who’s passionate about artificial intelligence. His goal is to be win the Dawson’s Robofest. Days leading up the competition, David has a derealization moment that triggers his soul to step out of his body. He an his twin brother Joseph must work together to return his soul back at one piece. I’ve been in the process of re-working my script and it took this film to really open my eyes to the “5 W’s”, who, what, when, where, and why. I was able to remove any characters that didn’t help move my story further, and I had to really examine the purpose/ goal for each character within the script. In every scene it was imperative to establish a goal for each character, rather it was a big goal or minor goal. I also tried to make sure that each character worked cohesively with each other. In my story, my main character David, has a three friends, and one of them happens to be his twin brother Joseph. I re-evaluated one particular scene where all the friends engage in a conversation with each other, and I noticed that the dialogue for one specific character lacked motivation. It was almost as if the character was not needed, so I ended up cutting them. I combined that character with another character, and I gave them a purpose in serving as an enquirer. This characters asked all the questions needed for the scene. Some questions I believe that the audience may ask themselves, but I didn’t want to reveal too much. I found myself reshaping the dialogue in my project. Dialogue is just as important to the story as the characters actions. One thing that I came across in my project is that the dialogue is very natural. This happens to be my strong suit, but it also happens to be one of the flaws in my script. It didn’t move the story further, it was just natural conversations that lacked depth. I had to go back and really examine my characters and their purpose to the story, and the scenes that they are in. I actually started to cut characters and that actually added some depth to my main character. The world for my story really sets the tone and the genre for the film. For my project I have two characters that are twins. I wanted to create contrast with the characters. At the beginning of the film, the audience will see the characters in their bedrooms. Both are working on separate projects that gives the audience insight to who they are. David is working on a robot, and Joseph is working on a comic book sketch. I started off creating their worlds in their bedroom. Davids room looks a cyberpunk lab with blue and purple neon lights. Joseph’s room looks like a comic book. There are comic sketches all on the walls, and he also has a comic book stand.It’s important to show these two different worlds because even though they are twins, they still have separate interest and different passions. Based on what was discussed in this course, I’m learning more and more that the worlds of the characters don’t necessarily have to be the actual outside world. It’s actually the space that they are in. This paints a picture for the audience, so that they’re able to get an understanding of these characters, and even enter in their worlds and live in it. When my class watched the show “Dogs of Berlin”, it did an exceptional job in displaying what the world may look like for a detective, and the people they associate themselves with. Though I’m am still working on my script and constantly re-writing, I’m finding myself adding everything that I am learning in this course to my project. I know that these aspects will help me to gear up for my up and coming thesis project. I am looking forward to gaining more insight and hearing from my co-horts.