Script Frenzy Project Reflection Paper
Trevor Canham
Recently in Creative Writing class, my peers and I recently underwent the challenge of Script Frenzy. This is a 30 day challenge in which we were to plan out and write a script that was long enough to meet or exceed a page count that we set in the beginning of the year.
When we first discussed the project I thought it was going to be an interesting and exciting concept and I was looking forward to beginning the process. I was interested in the thought of writing out a script and it seemed as though the possibilities were endless, being allowed to write almost any type of script on almost any topic that we could possibly think of. It was exciting to think of how the final project was going to turn out. Now that the project is over, I still feel that it was an interesting project, I just wish it focused more on the content of the project rather than the page count. I often found myself putting the length of the script over the overall quality of it and would sometimes sacrifice that to add length to the piece.
In the beginning of the project we were given a planning workbook which outlined the elements of a script including dialogue, formatting and the workbook gave us a template in which to write our script by and required us to outline our script. The parts of the workbook that were the most helpful to me were the parts which showed us what to include in an outline of the script and how to outline characters. These parts really helped me with the script because they allowed me to plan out the script before writing it, which I am quite glad I did, rather than just bombing into the script with no sense of direction. The parts of the packet that I found the least helpful were the outlines that showed us where we should include each and every milestone in our script. I believe that these parts were a little too rigid for a project with such a wide variety of options and I did not find them to be particularly helpful.
When given projects of great magnitude, one usually finds out a thing or two about themselves as a worker, writer, or whatever depending on what the project entails. At least to me, an 80 page script is a fairly large task and I believe I learned a few things about myself while writing it. One of the biggest things that I learned about myself was that I need to learn how to plan things out more before I start doing them. In this project, I had a beginning plan, but all of the details of it seemed very hazy to me and it made it extremely hard to write out the middle parts of the script when I didn't really know where I was going with it exactly. Also, my partner and I didn't really stick to the plan that we had created and I believe that also added to the trouble that we had with our script.
Our final script ended up being about 25 pages, which was just over 25% of our final goal which was 80 pages. I believe that I handled time management in this project very badly. During the beginning of the project I don't think I really realized the amount of work that would have to be done everyday in order to complete the project, and it was during this beginning period that I most definitely did not handle the project very well. Although I started off pretty badly in the area of time management, I spent the last few weeks of doing the project trying to get as much done as I possibly could, which was probably a result of my slacking during the first part of the project.
Upon completing the script, I cannot say that I am really happy with it, being that it is unfinished and I never really thought there was a lot that was very strong about it in the first place. Nonetheless, there are still some things about my script that I do consider strong and that I am proud of. One of these things is in some parts of the script, I liked the way I was able to show how I wanted the characters to think or feel in my head through their dialogue or actions. That was one thing that I had no idea how I was going to be able to do in the beginning of the process and I was proud that I was somewhat able to accomplish. Another part of my script that I was proud of were some of scenes in which I was able to accomplish the goal of communicating a plot element that I wanted to include in my script.
With my strengths said, I believe that my script contained many weaknesses. One of the biggest weaknesses that I believe my script contained was interesting or realistic dialogue. In some of the scenes, I was not able to create dialogue that would be realistic or interesting or I just didn't feel like I had time to think about it. Another weakness that I think I had in my script was the ability to create an emotionally moving scene. During some of the more emotional scenes I thought they would be way more intense and sad than they really were, and upon re-reading them, I realized that they weren't very moving at all they were just really dramatic. Finally, I think our biggest problem in the script was not being able to realize exactly where we were going with each scene, which created the product of scenes that may be completely pointless and that did not go anywhere. For all of these reasons, I would need much more time for editing and improvement.
If I were to have more time to work on my script I would most definitely restart it completely. I would try to plan it out more adequately and I would possibly change the subject matter of the script to something that I could better relate too or picture in my head. I believe that when we first started the planning process of the script we just chose an idea that was really sort of complex and we would have needed to put a lot more thought and time into the project to complete it to our satisfaction.
Overall, I honestly found this project very rewarding and challenging. I just wish, now that I look back at it, that I took it a little bit more seriously and put a bit more time and effort into the project and I really could have created a piece that I was really proud of and that I enjoyed. I am honestly glad that we were given a chance to work on such a large project with the freedom that we were allowed and I really learned a lot about script writing from it. Although I didn't quite finish mine I can at least say I attempted to write a screenplay, and someday I hope that I will be able to complete one.
On a side note, I truly enjoyed taking part in a creative writing class and I really learned a lot from the class, and not just about writing but I have found that some of the concepts that we were taught were useful in other creative processes such as music composition. I am glad that I was able to take something from the class and I hope I can take a class as rewarding as this one in the future.
Sincerely,
Trevor Canham
Trevor Canham
Recently in Creative Writing class, my peers and I recently underwent the challenge of Script Frenzy. This is a 30 day challenge in which we were to plan out and write a script that was long enough to meet or exceed a page count that we set in the beginning of the year.
When we first discussed the project I thought it was going to be an interesting and exciting concept and I was looking forward to beginning the process. I was interested in the thought of writing out a script and it seemed as though the possibilities were endless, being allowed to write almost any type of script on almost any topic that we could possibly think of. It was exciting to think of how the final project was going to turn out. Now that the project is over, I still feel that it was an interesting project, I just wish it focused more on the content of the project rather than the page count. I often found myself putting the length of the script over the overall quality of it and would sometimes sacrifice that to add length to the piece.
In the beginning of the project we were given a planning workbook which outlined the elements of a script including dialogue, formatting and the workbook gave us a template in which to write our script by and required us to outline our script. The parts of the workbook that were the most helpful to me were the parts which showed us what to include in an outline of the script and how to outline characters. These parts really helped me with the script because they allowed me to plan out the script before writing it, which I am quite glad I did, rather than just bombing into the script with no sense of direction. The parts of the packet that I found the least helpful were the outlines that showed us where we should include each and every milestone in our script. I believe that these parts were a little too rigid for a project with such a wide variety of options and I did not find them to be particularly helpful.
When given projects of great magnitude, one usually finds out a thing or two about themselves as a worker, writer, or whatever depending on what the project entails. At least to me, an 80 page script is a fairly large task and I believe I learned a few things about myself while writing it. One of the biggest things that I learned about myself was that I need to learn how to plan things out more before I start doing them. In this project, I had a beginning plan, but all of the details of it seemed very hazy to me and it made it extremely hard to write out the middle parts of the script when I didn't really know where I was going with it exactly. Also, my partner and I didn't really stick to the plan that we had created and I believe that also added to the trouble that we had with our script.
Our final script ended up being about 25 pages, which was just over 25% of our final goal which was 80 pages. I believe that I handled time management in this project very badly. During the beginning of the project I don't think I really realized the amount of work that would have to be done everyday in order to complete the project, and it was during this beginning period that I most definitely did not handle the project very well. Although I started off pretty badly in the area of time management, I spent the last few weeks of doing the project trying to get as much done as I possibly could, which was probably a result of my slacking during the first part of the project.
Upon completing the script, I cannot say that I am really happy with it, being that it is unfinished and I never really thought there was a lot that was very strong about it in the first place. Nonetheless, there are still some things about my script that I do consider strong and that I am proud of. One of these things is in some parts of the script, I liked the way I was able to show how I wanted the characters to think or feel in my head through their dialogue or actions. That was one thing that I had no idea how I was going to be able to do in the beginning of the process and I was proud that I was somewhat able to accomplish. Another part of my script that I was proud of were some of scenes in which I was able to accomplish the goal of communicating a plot element that I wanted to include in my script.
With my strengths said, I believe that my script contained many weaknesses. One of the biggest weaknesses that I believe my script contained was interesting or realistic dialogue. In some of the scenes, I was not able to create dialogue that would be realistic or interesting or I just didn't feel like I had time to think about it. Another weakness that I think I had in my script was the ability to create an emotionally moving scene. During some of the more emotional scenes I thought they would be way more intense and sad than they really were, and upon re-reading them, I realized that they weren't very moving at all they were just really dramatic. Finally, I think our biggest problem in the script was not being able to realize exactly where we were going with each scene, which created the product of scenes that may be completely pointless and that did not go anywhere. For all of these reasons, I would need much more time for editing and improvement.
If I were to have more time to work on my script I would most definitely restart it completely. I would try to plan it out more adequately and I would possibly change the subject matter of the script to something that I could better relate too or picture in my head. I believe that when we first started the planning process of the script we just chose an idea that was really sort of complex and we would have needed to put a lot more thought and time into the project to complete it to our satisfaction.
Overall, I honestly found this project very rewarding and challenging. I just wish, now that I look back at it, that I took it a little bit more seriously and put a bit more time and effort into the project and I really could have created a piece that I was really proud of and that I enjoyed. I am honestly glad that we were given a chance to work on such a large project with the freedom that we were allowed and I really learned a lot about script writing from it. Although I didn't quite finish mine I can at least say I attempted to write a screenplay, and someday I hope that I will be able to complete one.
On a side note, I truly enjoyed taking part in a creative writing class and I really learned a lot from the class, and not just about writing but I have found that some of the concepts that we were taught were useful in other creative processes such as music composition. I am glad that I was able to take something from the class and I hope I can take a class as rewarding as this one in the future.
Sincerely,
Trevor Canham
