And thus, classes have finally started. During the screenwriting workshop, when each person is supposed to develop a screenplay that he or she will be working on throughout the entire semester, I started pondering about the numerous stories and ideas I had in mind that I could try developing so that I can attempt to shoot it during the second half of the year. (I'm currently doing Postgrad Diploma in Media Production, just finished my Degree in Marketing and Literature last year, a weird combination indeed).
According to the class tutor, to have this work as a story that can impact its viewers, it has to have a protagonist viewers can sympathize with, a conflict to add to drama and an antagonist to prevent viewers from reaching its goals. My two previous short films (A Boring Story and Forced Labour) didn't really follow this formula that much as they are mostly more like mood pieces, but I do agree that to have a short film work more effectively, I have to stick with something as conventional as this.
It was difficult for me to just simply adapt something written by Justin (since the ones he had written are definitely not what my lecturer/course supervisor is asking for), hence I sifted through my memory banks to find the one great idea that can work for this situation. Something that can separate me from the others. I needed to draw ideas from others, thus I started my surroundings.
Looking on my right, a Peru girl who now lives in Australia, I saw that she has written some tale of angst and gloom about some girl who was perpetually angsty and gloomy and was always plagued by nightmares. It was going to be a tale about how she would BEAT this angst.
Doesn't really help me much.
Looking on my left, I see a tale about the difficulties of cultural barriers in a foreign land, the isolation, the separation, a poor angsty girl coping with all these. It was a tale about a girl trying to overcome these difficulties!
Hence, I nodded to myself, and launched into another story about an angsty girl, alas, it ended up being a story about a girl, but not exactly an angsty one. And yes, I was drawing ideas from my Blogosphere tale which SOME people just didn't realize was a SATIRE, which reinforces my feelings that many people just don't read between the lines, and stories are just stories, just like movies are just movies, never deeper, never any meaning behind anything. Right, here's the synopsis I came up with:
It looks promising. If I can pull this off.
According to the class tutor, to have this work as a story that can impact its viewers, it has to have a protagonist viewers can sympathize with, a conflict to add to drama and an antagonist to prevent viewers from reaching its goals. My two previous short films (A Boring Story and Forced Labour) didn't really follow this formula that much as they are mostly more like mood pieces, but I do agree that to have a short film work more effectively, I have to stick with something as conventional as this.
It was difficult for me to just simply adapt something written by Justin (since the ones he had written are definitely not what my lecturer/course supervisor is asking for), hence I sifted through my memory banks to find the one great idea that can work for this situation. Something that can separate me from the others. I needed to draw ideas from others, thus I started my surroundings.
Looking on my right, a Peru girl who now lives in Australia, I saw that she has written some tale of angst and gloom about some girl who was perpetually angsty and gloomy and was always plagued by nightmares. It was going to be a tale about how she would BEAT this angst.
Doesn't really help me much.
Looking on my left, I see a tale about the difficulties of cultural barriers in a foreign land, the isolation, the separation, a poor angsty girl coping with all these. It was a tale about a girl trying to overcome these difficulties!
Hence, I nodded to myself, and launched into another story about an angsty girl, alas, it ended up being a story about a girl, but not exactly an angsty one. And yes, I was drawing ideas from my Blogosphere tale which SOME people just didn't realize was a SATIRE, which reinforces my feelings that many people just don't read between the lines, and stories are just stories, just like movies are just movies, never deeper, never any meaning behind anything. Right, here's the synopsis I came up with:
This is a story that takes place in a post-apocalyptical world, in the near (but unspecified) future when the internet has collapsed entirely. Miyuki, a normal young girl, who is unable to communicate with her boyfriend due to the lack of internet goes on a heroic quest to return internet to the world. But standing in her path are the shadowy figures of the mega corporation which have controlled the entire world by taking control of the internet by themselves and allowing only those with massive amount of money to use it.
With only her younger brother, Dexter, who would have been the greatest internet hacker in existence if the internet was still around, and her neighbour, Ed, who is an aspiring filmmaker desperate to shoot a documentary (and happens to be secretly in love with Miyuki), by her side, she and her two faithful companions have to brave evil assassins, massive robots and large armies to reach the headquarters of the megacorporation to confront the evildoers. Will this serve as an inspiration for the people of the world, who were almost driven insane by the loss of the internet? Will this begin an uprising against the megacorporation?
The entire story will be told like a fable, with voiceover narration. Dialogue between characters will be kept to a minimum. Stock footages and sound effects will be used for the supposedly epic sequences. It will be shot in black and white to generate a noir-ish atmosphere. So that I can get aw
The style of this film is influenced by Godard's Alphaville and numerous other low-budget B-movies, although the budget is going to be lower.
It looks promising. If I can pull this off.
