FMP Year 2: Learning Journal

13th March

This year I kicked off my FMP by taking a trip with the college to Tenerife. Over the two weeks I was supposed to spend there, I would have worked with a charity called Whale Nation in their animal rescue projects all the while learning about the island’s cultures; specifically its witches and the mythology surrounding them. These activities would have acted as the basis of my primary research where I would create a short book detailing the island’s folklore. 

However, I was unfortunately unable to complete the trip and ended up coming back to the UK after just a few days. This meant I had to come up with a new idea for my FMP. Amidst this, I was also dealing with an injury I suffered on the trip, which threw another spanner in the works as I had to attend hospital appointments and work around my injury.

This also prevented me from attending college everyday, so I had to make sure to create a solid dialogue between my tutors through email.

20th March

I juggled a few concepts after coming back from my trip. I considered returning to last year’s project (a text-based video game) and thought about expanding on its story or creating an offshoot set within the same world. I also had a collection of short story plots and an idea for a fantasy cookbook that would tell a story with each of its recipes. But I ultimately felt that these concepts didn’t have enough substance to back them up. 

So, inspired by the recent release of Scream 6 and a handful of other horror films that have come out over the last decade, I finally decided on making a short film script in the spirit of 90s slashers.  I chose a cinema as the setting as its an environment I have always been interested in using in a script, due to my love of going to the movies and the themes you can play around with – i.e “the death of cinema.”

Moreover, in a lot of my write ups for my projects over this course I have cited various horror films as inspiration and major sources of research for my writing. With my work on monologues, film treatments and scriptwriting this year I felt that it was fitting to combine all of this into making a script for my own short film – complete with a set of storyboards roughly outlining the structure of each scene. 

Settling on a new concept, I began putting together a pitch for my FMP. I made an effort to make this pitch much more digestible than my previous ones as wordy slides and poor structure often led to me tripping up on myself.

27th March

With my plan for my FMP outlined, I pitched my idea to the class in a presentation that I was, overall, proud of. My idea and production schedule was clear, I answered questions confidently and besides a few hiccups, I spoke succinctly. I also tried to stylize the powerpoint I used for my pitch, creating a theme that resembled a cinema to match my concept. 

Part of this process also included watching other people’s presentations wherein I made an effort to ask questions that were specific to their project rather than ones that were more generalised. 

After this, I got to work on my first draft for my script – writing up an introduction to the first scene and laying out my title page. To layout this skeleton of my project, I refered back to interview I saw online with David Lynch wherein he talked about the process of writing a screenplay. He suggested the idea of creating cards with rough outlines for each of your scenes until you have enough for a feature length film. This was a greate exercise to break through my writers block and had helped me develop my script.

3rd April

I used the Easter holidays as an opportunity to expand upon my research for this project, reading the first few chapters of The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field, gaining some insight on the fundamentals of putting together a script and crafting a story. Alongside this I also read and finished the screenplay for Joker (2019). While the themes at play in this script don’t necessarily relate to my project, I still felt that reading through it was an invaluable experience as it was a source that I could directly refer to if I was struggling with formatting and structuring my script. It was also one of the only physical screenplays I could easily access. 

During this week I also watched a handful of horror films to help with my research. One film that I didn’t feel was substantial enough to go into my main research  but is worth mentioning was the remake of Suspiria (2018), a film that delves into obsession, femininity and guilt – a primary theme in my script. Watching this film gave me an idea as to how I could present my themes while also warning me of what to avoid, due to its slow pacing and convoluted messages. 

As well as film and books, I went to the YouTube channel, Lessons from the Screenplay, whom I have used many times in past projects for research. Their videos breaking down what exactly makes a script tick are always insightful and provide me with new knowledge on the techniques and termninology present in screenwriting.

10th April

During the second half of the holidays I took a trip to Paris to explore the city and take part in a film festival. The festival hosted a variety of short independent films, each with their own varying styles and subject matter. Naturally, watching short films like this was beneficial for the development of my own film. I had an opportunity to garner a better understanding of how short form content like this is effectively put together. 

One thing I also noticed was that these films usually only featured 1-3 characters, as anymore would leave the film feeling bloated or undeveloped. This has caused me to revise the cast of my script as I currently have seven, including my antagonist. I feel that I will either have to cut some of these characters or lengthen the script than I had originally planned to accommodate them all. The latter option feels like a tall order this far into the project as it will mean I need to come up with and storyboard brand new scenes and sequences. 

With my script being set in a cinema, exploring the festival’s theatres was also a helpful form of research in itself. It’s more references that I can use when it comes to mapping out my own fictional cinema in my storyboards.

17th April

Rather than slimming down my cast I ended up deciding to extend the length of the script so that I could give myself some breathing room. Now I was looking at a word count goal of 10,000 instead of 5,400, beefing up my writing quota for the remainder of the project. 

With this transition I broadened my research to include more media that was representative of this format, such as Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022). The show is an anthology series with each 50 minute episode telling a different, self-contained horror story. The structure and length of each episode was the perfect skeleton for this new version of this script. I returned to my favourite episode Autopsy for its tight script, pacing and gnarly ideas. 

It gave me a better understanding of how I should be managing my characters and moving my script along.  

This was not the only change that my project underwent. In my pitch I discussed my intentions of interviewing people who work at a cinema’s to gather some solid insight as to what the job is like. I wanted to do this so that my script felt more authentic in spite of the supernatural elements present.

While dissapointed with this, I was able to work around it by turning to websites like Reddit which features an endless amount of forums all started from different questions. Sure enough, I found a handful from users with the exact same questions as me and I was able to get a better understanding of working in the setting through the answers they received. I combined this with my own experience working in hospitality to write a realistic working environment.

24th April

This week was all about getting my head down and writing. I had a new vision for my script and solid idea of where it was going, so all that was left was to make it. In between my project work I also made an effort to visit the cinemas again to get more references as I needed some help mapping out the layout of my setting. 

During this week I also took some time to return to my project proposal and properly write it up using the notes I created for my pitch. I was a little annoyed at myself for not completing this sooner in the project as it distracted me from the more important aspects of my work. 

Nevertheless, I managed to get these notes onto my blog while still making steady progress with my script.

I also found some time this week to go and see Evil Dead Rise (2023). This film, surprisingly, has made a big impact on my writing; specifically influencing how I write and present the villain of my story within my script. While I was there, I thought it would be the perfect oppertunity to gather some reference photos of the cinema to help with the development of my setting.

1st May

At the start of this week I began having some worries about my production. I realised that with my script doubling in size that what I originally planned I wasn’t going to have time to put together a collection of well produced storyboards. 

I considered only focusing on a couple for some of the more important shots of my script, taking time to ink, shade and add notes to them. However, after speaking to my tutor, I came up with an alternative idea that I felt much more confident about: a poster. 

Posters, especially from the classics, are an integral part of a film’s identity. Whenever someone thinks of The Thing (1982) it is likely that the iconic image of a silhouette in a snowy tundra from the movie’s poster will come to mind. Not only did this idea better suit my project thematically, but I could produce it to a much better quality than my storyboards as it would be the only piece I have to focus on. 

8th May

Since I decided on making a poster last week, this week I have put aside some time to compile a handful of moodboards to represent the style and themes I want to evoke. 

I first turned to the grainy posters of horror films from the 70/80s, pushing on towards the universal monster era. The vintage aesthetic of these posters is an art style that I have always loved, for their popping colours, detail and just how well they capture the mood of their respective films. 

The style influenced one the first design I came up with for my poster: a gallery of posters featuring different characters from my script all in the style of those old horror posters. I did worry, however, that I wouldn’t be able to bring this idea to life due to the amount of time I had left in the project and because of my drawing ability. I shelved the idea but didn’t discard it entirely. 

Inspired by some images of screen rooms I found, I thought about using this style in a different piece. It would be a shot of my cast sitting down and watching a film screen (facing the viewer) with the flair of the projector lighting their faces. However, I had the same worries as the previous idea and one my peers pointed out that it just wouldn’t work logistically – for example, the position of the light would create silhouettes instead of lighting their faces.

During this week I also got some feedback on my research thus far. Based on the suggestions I received, I went back to my notes and expanded on my experience in Paris and broadened the media types included in my list of sources. I was surprised to realise that I hadn’t included any video games despite them being such a massive part of my FMP last year. Because of this I looked into a video game called The Quarry (2022), a story based game inspired by horror films, for the sense of mystery it establishes in its opening couple of hours. It teases the player by hiding its true nature, not making it clear what kind of horror show in you’re in for until the bodies finally stop dropping. I felt that this was beneficial to my research as I am hoping to creating a similar effect in my script.

15th May

This week was the final stretch. I finally reached the end of my script, something I had hoped to do in April, and it was time for me to start finalising all my notes. 

Before that, however, I needed to format my script in Celtx as – up until this point – I have been focusing on getting my story down rather than making sure everything laid out in a proper manner. Celtx was more convient than formating my script in google docs as the sight had in built tools specifically designed for screenwriting.

I took the notes I had been making in google docs for the last three months and compiled them into WordPress posts, accompanied with an array of photos to provide context on what I was talking about. I kept these as drafts on my blog to upload next week when everything was ready to be handed in, including this journal. 

I also decided on what design I was going to use for my poster. I started looking to a minimalist design philosophy that would save me time but still allow me to create something that was unique and specific to my screenplay. I still wanted to retain the graininess and imperfection of my other mood boards, however, and began searching for pieces that fitted that union. 

I turned to one of my favourite Twitter artists, PITCH CANKER. The intensity of their work in their lines and their simple and effective colour palette felt like perfect inspiration for the atmosphere I was trying to create. PITCH CANKER is also an artist whose work I looked at the beginning of the project when putting together my pitch. Their piece “Guilty” was one of the motivators behind why I chose to write with the central theme of guilt. 

22nd May

This week was all about getting everything on my blog. I read over my notes to make sure I had included everything I needed to talk about and that I had formatted my posts for WordPress. 

Settled on a design for it, I was able to complete my poster to be submitted alongside my script. I was surprised and happy with how the final product turned out. I feel that represented the inspirations I had discussed while also making something that was unique to me. I did struggle for a while when trying to create the effect on the skull but after some experimentation with the brushes Procreate (the software I used to draw it) I eventually landed on an effect I was happy with by using an oil brush. I decided to leave the rest of the poster relatively bare bones so that the design didn’t seem too noisy. 

Once the poster was complete, I could start writing my evalution. I made sure to explain the challenges I face and, like in this journal, how I overcame them. I also explained my thinking behind idea development behind my FMP, explaining why exactly I chose to do something like this for the project.

This week I also skimmed through my notes to make a list of everything I had referenced in order to put together an accurate bibliography. This was much less time consuming than last year as I could refer back to those notes and how each different piece of media should be properly cited.  

At end of my project I am, overall, satified with my work. Though I feel that I could have managed my time better to finish some work sooner, allowing to focus on expanding other parts of the project, I am still proud that I finished a complete screenplay alongside: a poster, extensive research and all the logs I have made in this journal.

In the future, I would happily and likely am to expand on the work I have done here to take it that extra step.

FMP Year 2: Project Proposal

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Dylan Whitehall 256487

Project Proposal: Final Major Project – Flicks

Area of Activity: Film – Screenwriting

Rationale

During the second year of my course I have had the opportunity to learn about screenwriting and write my own scripts. In October I collaborated with students from other courses to create a production in the style of Blue Peter. Naturally, my role on this project was to write a number of teleplays. Shortly after I began researching short films to create a treatment before moving onto monologues to inevitably write my own. This practical work, alongside the thousands of words of research I compiled behind them, motivated me and equipped me with the tools to write a screenplay for my final major project. 

Concept

Story Synopsis:

Tom is an attendant at a failing local cinema called, The Rialto Vista. He and his colleagues working the late shift suddenly find themselves terrorised by a mysterious figure, picking them off one by one in increasingly strange and brutal ways. Tom must navigate these dangers as well as the caustic interpersonal struggles he shares with other members of the team, in a short film that is bloody with thrills and kills.    

For my second final major project of this course, I am going to write a script for a short horror film that will delve into themes of guilt through the interpersonal relationship of my characters and its setting through exploring the state of modern work culture. My villain will act as a personification of the fears surrounding the movie industry and its decline into streaming services. The script will combine subgenres of horror (supernatural and slasher) to create a plot that feels unique while simultaneously celebrating what makes the genre as a whole so appealing. 

I will include elements of black comedy in my script and keep the tone from being too oppressive as to be welcoming to moviegoers who are on the fence about horror, easing them into the genre with a digestible script. 

Evaluation – Current Thoughts

Throughout this project I will be documenting my thoughts, accomplishments and challenges in a weekly journal – aiming to have a complete account of the development of the piece right up until the due date. Due to some difficulties I faced while collaborating on last year’s FMP, I have decided to exclusively work on my own. Rather than harming my project, I feel that this decision is going to keep my work focused and streamlined as I won’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts or run the risk of goals not being accomplished on time. 

Project Plan

Alternate Ideas

My original idea would have been a collection of folklore and myths based on Tenerife.  I would have interviewed the locals, spoken to the island’s “witches” and interacted with the wildlife to learn all that I could about the culture to provide an authentic representation of the island. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to carry out this idea for reasons I discuss in my journal:

The second idea I had would have been an extension of last year’s FMP, taking the setting and media format I used to create an offshoot of the story rather than a direct continuation. It would have followed the strange and supernatural journey of Armin as he sets sail on an unending sea – wracked by guilt and the ghosts of his past. Though I could have made use of my research and everything I learned from last year’s project, I ultimately decided against it in favour of something that felt more befitting of everything I have worked on over my second year at college. I also briefly mentioned this idea in my journal. 

Bibliography 

Primary:

Film(s)

Scream 6 (2023) [Film]. Tyler Gillet & Matt Bettinelli-Olphin.dir. California: Paramount Pictures

Scream (1996) [Film]. Wes Craven.dir. California: Dimension Films

Scream 2 (1998) [Film]. Wes Craven.dir. California: Dimension Films

Halloween (2018) [Film]. David Gordon Green.dir. California: Blumhouse

Evil Dead Rise (2023) [Film]. Lee Cronin.dir. California: New Line Cinema

Ferrarrie (2023) [Film]. Boris Biaou.dir. 

The Red Suitcase (2022) [Film]. Cyrus Neshvad.dir.Luxembourg:Cynefilms

Suspiria (2018) [Film]. Luca Guadagino.dir. California: Amazon Studios

Book(s)

Field, S (2005) Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. Revised edn. New York City: Random House Publishing Group

Philip, T (2022) Joker: The Official Script Book. 1st edn. London: Titan Books

Video Game(s)

Supermassive Games (2022) The Quarry (Standard edn) Playstation 5 [Game]. San Francisco: 2k

TV Show(s)

‘The Autopsy’ (2022) Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Series one, episode 8. Available at: Netflix (Accessed 17th April 2023)

Artist/image(s)

PITCH CANKER (2023) [Guilty]. Available at: https://twitter.com/pitchcanker/status/1619841610707251200 (Accessed: 15/05/23)

Secondary:

Website(s)

Reddit (2023) r/movies. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/ (Accessed: 24/04/2023)

Twitter (2023) Home. Available at: https://twitter.com/home?lang=en-gb (Accessed: 24/04/2023)

YouTube (2023) Home. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ (Accessed: 01/04/23)

Celtx (2023) My Studio. Available at: https://www.celtx.com/a/ux/index#documents (Accessed: 21/05/23)

PITCH CANKER (2023) Home. Available at: https://www.pitchcanker.com/ (Accessed: 15/05/23)

Software

Procreate. (2011). Australia: Savage Interactive

Online Videos

Lessons from the Screenplay (2016) Gone Girl — Don’t Underestimate the Screenwriter. [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF3lFPW4E1o (Accessed: 05/04/2023)

 FRAME INTO FOCUS (2021) David Lynch on Writing a Script. [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngWNmouhP0 (Accessed: 01/04/23)

MoodboardS:

Film(s)

Halloween (1978) [Film]. John Carpenter.dir. California: Falcon Films

The Thing (1982) [Film]. John Carpenter.dir. California: Universal Pictures

Army of Darkness (1992) [Film]. Sam Raimi.dir. California: Universal Pictures

Friday the 13th (1980) [Film]. Tom McLoughlin.dir. California: Paramount Pictures

Evil Dead (1981) [Film]. Sam Raimi.dir. California: New Line Cinema

Dracula (1931) [Film]. Tod Browning & Karl Freund.dir. California: Universal Pictures

Frankenstein (1931) [Film]. James Whale.dir. California: Universal Pictures

Dawn of the Dead (1978) [Film]. George A. Romero.dir. California: United Artists

Nosferatu (1922) [Film]. F.W.Murau.dir. New York City: Film Arts Guild

Cabin in the Woods (2011) [Film]. Drew Goddard.dir. Santa Monica: Lionsgate

Carrie (1976) [Film]. Brian De Palma.dir. California: United Artists

Se7en (1995) [Film]. David Fincher.dir. California: New Line Cinema

Artist/image(s)

PITCH CANKER (2023) [Guilty]. Available at: https://twitter.com/pitchcanker/status/1619841610707251200 (Accessed: 15/05/23)

PITCH CANKER (2023) [A HEAVING CURSE]. Available at: https://twitter.com/pitchcanker/status/1657549338032185346 (Accessed: 15/05/23)

PITCH CANKER (2023) [I WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN]. Available at: https://twitter.com/pitchcanker/status/1657549338032185346 (Accessed: 15/05/23)

PITCH CANKER (2023) [WRATH]. Available at: https://twitter.com/pitchcanker/status/1657549338032185346 (Accessed: 15/05/23)

FMP Year 2: Research and Inspiration

Primary Research

Books:

Two pieces of research that have been instrumental to the development of my project have been Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field and Joker: The Official Script Book – the published version of Todd Phillip and Scott Silver’s script for Joker (2019).  The former was a detailed introduction to the process of screenwriting, going in depth on how exactly a script is structured and how it tells its stories in comparison to other formats, like prose. 

Traditional prose is the style of writing I am most comfortable in. It is the format I used to create my first characters and worlds at the age of thirteen when the idea of writing first truly piqued my interest. It has only been these last two years at college that I finally stepped out of my comfort zone, experimenting with other types of media to write my stories. That is why this book was so important. Although I have spent my second year on this course researching films and scripts to write films treatments and monologues, I felt I still needed a bit of a helping hand. Field makes use of a number of examples in this, such as Pulp Fiction and Blade Runner, which better contextualised the advice on offer. 

One of the chapters I paid the most attention to was his discussion on acts. The differentiation between acts in any story is one I sometimes struggle with. Pacing my writing with a clear beginning, middle and end that all flow into each other naturally is a skill I need to practise and Fields writing on where these form in a script was a great place for me to start. 

The second book I read, Joker: The Official Script Book, was an excellent reference when it came to formatting my script. Joker may not be a film that relates to the content of my project thematically, but it was an easily accessible resource that not only gave me an opportunity to get better accustomed to terminology used in a script but also how to craft a tight, complex story over all. 

As mentioned previously, screenwriting is a fairly new process to me despite my forays into it over this course. From Joker  I learned when and how to include directions on shots, ways to transition between scenes and how to present more complex concepts (e.g. montages). It was a constant reference for me that I made use of right up until the end of my project. 

Paris:

My trip to Paris back in April with the college was another source of research that aided me during the development of my script. While the city was full of many beautiful sights which alone could have acted as inspiration for a story, it was the ECU 2023 Film Festival we were there to see that was the most influential on me. 

Naturally, when writing my own short film, watching and understanding other media in the same format quickly became a process I practised regularly throughout my FMP.  Which made the film festival that much more beneficial to me as it mostly featured other short films from independent creators from all across the world. These films weren’t just an example of how to pace a story in a short time frame, but also an example of the type of content that comes with culture I am not familiar with. 

Being born and raised in Britain, my exposure when it comes to film has been from more mainstream sources in the west, like Hollywood. Besides a few popular standouts in recent years, such as Parasite (2020) and Incantation (2022),  it is not often that I interact with films outside of this bubble let alone ones created by indie filmmakers. The ECU was a chance for me to experience these films that I don’t often seek out and has encouraged me to do so more in the future. 

Ferrarrie from dir. Boris Biaou was a standout among the films. Opening with the story of two ordinary people falling in love, Ferrarie takes a dark turn that is both sickening and powerful, smartly subverting the audience’s expectations without it feeling unjustified. During this project I have made reference to the Scream franchise for its subversion of the horror genre which is why Biaou’s film has stuck with me for as long as it has. These pieces of media, while wildly different tonally, make use of storytelling techniques that I am interested in and have taken the effort to include in my own script. 

Cyrus Neshvad’s The Red Suitcase (2022) was another highlight during the festival for its tense, edge your seat sequence absent of the action seen in traditional thrillers. It tells the story of a girl sent to Britain against her wishes for an arranged marriage. In order to escape this fate she has to abandon her passion and her faith and step out into unfamiliar territory all on her own. It was a moving piece and another example of a director making the most of the short form structure of these films. Since I am creating a horror script featuring a number of intense scenes, I looked to the film for inspiration for how to create sequences without an over reliance on the supernatural or fantastical ideas. 

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities:

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) is a horror anthology series that tells eight separate stories contained within the run time of the typical episode from say, Game of Thrones (2011-2019). In my FMP logs I mentioned that I had to extend the originally planned length of my script to accommodate my characters and my plot as I felt that 20-30 minutes worth of script wasn’t enough. I, however, still didn’t want to transition the script into a feature length piece as I felt that I didn’t have the time to properly do so. 

So, as a result, I looked to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Eight 45-60 minute stories that all explored various aspects of the horror genre. It was the perfect reference to look to when it came to extending my script, the bridge between a typical short film and a fully fledged feature. It gave me a better understanding as to how to pace my story, balancing intense sequencers with the moments of respite that followed. 

The Autopsy, my personal favourite out of the anthology, is an episode I focused on in particular. Featuring a skeleton crew cast, mostly set in one location and a blending of horror themes, this was an episode I felt that I could attribute my own work to despite it firmly being a sci-fi horror rather than a slasher. The characterisation of both its protagonist and antagonist within its limited run time was impressive, managing to maintain intrigue until the credits rolled.  

Feature Length Films: 

Scream

Scream 6 (2023) was the inception of my final idea for my FMP. Back in March when my original plans had fallen through, I was lost as to where to take the project. I couldn’t salvage my original idea as it was so closely tied to my trip to Tenerife and I couldn’t return to my project last year, as I felt I didn’t have the time to create an extension of it that was large enough to stand on its own. 

But amidst this, when I had the opportunity to sit down and watch Scream 6, I was reminded of how much I loved the slasher genre and of what can be achieved within it. The film felt tight with creative sequences and an earnest story and, unlike its predecessor, celebrated what came before without feeling like it was pandering to the audience. Watching this film dredged up old and scrapped script ideas that I had come up with earlier in the course and gave me a chance to breathe new life into them. 

I suddenly wanted to create my own slasher set within a movie theatre (a setting I will discuss later) with a flair of the supernatural that is prevalent within my writing. And just like that, the next two months of my production was laid out before me. 

I returned to two other films in the franchise, the original – Scream (1997) – and its sequel – Scream 2 (1998).  Through these films the franchise established a reputation for subverting expectations and picking apart the horror tropes prevalent at the time of its release, doing so through its black comedy and clever 4th wall breaking nods to the audience. These tropes in question were those spawned from other classic slasher franchises that started to feel bloated and repetitive thanks to their lack of innovation. It poked fun at Friday the Thirteenth’s sex hating villains,  mocked the clueless characters that often took the spotlight in horror movies and cut down “final girl” material. All the while layering it’s dialogue with self-aware comments about the nature of horror films itself and celebrating them. While these days,  the rules broken in Scream have become a trope in itself thanks to its multiple instalments and overall longevity, it is still the slasher genre at its best. 

Besides from a few hints and nods, when writing my script it was not my intention to pick apart the current climate of the horror genre. Instead, my focus was on the current work culture of today and interpersonal struggles relating to guilt. Despite this, Scream was still an excellent resource for me, not just for ideas on the baser concepts of a slasher, but also how I might similarly use comedy and horror to pick apart the themes of my story and subvert expectations. 

Ghostface, the series infamous antagonist, was also a massive inspiration behind my villain: The Director. Ghostface, despite still being very human, possesses such an imposing physical presence in each film for their extreme lethality and voicework by Roger L. Jackson. Scenes where they are on screen became a persistent reference for me when it came to writing more action heavy scenes, even if my villain eventually adopted a more monstrous nature during the development of my script. 

Halloween

Halloween (2018) is a film I made constant reference to – for good reason – while writing a film treatment for a different project last year and, once again, it has acted as another source of inspiration for me during this one. 

Asides from a couple of iffy character motivations, Halloween (2018), is a film with no fat on its bones. Its script is concise and full of sequences that, like Scream, emphasises the physical threat of its main antagonist: Michael Myers. Through its infamous villain, Halloween has always been a franchise that blurs the line with fiction and reality, bringing into question the nature of Michael. This was originally the approach I was going to take with my antagonist but I eventually leaned towards a more direct approach. 

Still, this film felt like a pillar of my inspiration. It managed to achieve one of my favourite things about the horror genre. It told an earnest, familial and down to earth story wrapped up in its more elevated and reality defying ideas. I love when horror is used as a vessel to tell real world stories that become accentuated and expanded upon by its gruesome tropes. It’s what horror does best: creating a bloody reflection of the truths of our world rather than only trying to scare the pants off you. 

Evil Dead Rise

The final feature length film worth mentioning in my research is Evil Dead Rise (2023). Like Scream 6 I watched this film for the first time during my FMP and after I did there was a noticeable shift in my writing. 

I had always planned for my villain to be a mixture of the traditional slasher villain and the supernatural. But after watching Evil Dead Rise I found myself, somewhat subconsciously, altering my antagonist to be closer to the latter. The original concept was there but the scales had shifted, treading into creature-feature territory. 

I believe this was thanks to Alyssa Sutherland’s performance as Ellie and the star deadite (the creatures that act as the series’ antagonists). The character’s monstrous brutality was enthralling, darkly funny and urgent. She was a villain that was there to get the job done – no filler. In a series five movies deep, each with the same monsters, Sutherland’s portrayal was dangerous and easily stood above the rest. 

And within all of this was still a human presence, warped and twisted. Making it feel all the more unsettling. I fell in love with the idea and began to wonder how I could incorporate it into my script in a way that felt unique. I revised the supernatural elements tied to my villain and tried to expand upon them. Suddenly, I felt that I was giving this character more character through its movements alone. I fleshed out its abilities but still found a way to leave their nature up in the air, creating – I hope – a greater sense of mystery. 

As this change in my script occurred I did begin to worry that I was losing sight of my original idea and that I was purely working off of a recency bias. Gradually, I managed to put these fears to rest after realising. . .Just how much fun I had writing this new version of my villain. I became more excited to write big confrontations with my villain and delighted in every new way I could think to use it. It was a positive feeling that I couldn’t help but think meant positive things for my script, so I continued to chase it. 

Evil Dead Rise is also another film a part of the legacy sequel trend – sequels that come out years or even decades after their predecessor – that is currently widespread in the industry. Scream and Halloween are two other franchises that have undergone the same transition. Like some sequels, however, Evil Dead Rise didn’t feel unnecessary. It finally moved the series from the woods and into the city. There are various sequences in the film that make the most of this resident setting, like the claustrophobia of the apartment the film primarily takes place in or the simple reality of a deadite reaching civilization. But what I want to focus on is how this setting is reflected and utilised in the plot. Ellie (pre-deadite) is a mother of three who has recently separated from her partner. Her family are clearly feeling the aftershocks of this and when the protagonist, Beth, arrives those ripples only get stronger. Beth herself has recently discovered that she’s pregnant too which acts as another of the film’s emotional cruxes. Like Halloween, these plot points come together to tell a relatable and familial story that feels perfectly suited to its environment. Evil Dead Rise transports us to a familiar location to tell us a familiar story. 

Though not particularly profound, the way all these elements bounce off each other created an airtight script. This is an effect I hope to achieve in my writing, by making the most of my setting to reflect the idea of guilt which sits at the centre of my character’s arcs and also hint at larger themes such as “the death of cinema.” 

The Quarry:

In my script I wanted to subvert expectations by creating the impression of a slasher movie when  going in blind before unravelling more and more into the supernatural. The most recent piece of media that plays around with genres and the audience’s expectations like this that I can think of is The Quarry (2022) ,  from Supermassive Games. This developer is well known for their story driven horror games inspired by their cousins in the movie industry. Players take control of a cast of characters where they decide their dialogue and actions which can have rippling effects on the outcome of the story.

I mention The Quarry specifically as the game takes a while before revealing what it actually is. For the first few hours you don’t know if you’re in for a slasher, a ghost story or a creature feature. Eventually it reveals itself to be a spin on werewolves but getting there takes time, leaving the player in suspense as they try to unravel the mystery themselves. 

While gathering my research and inspiration for this project, I replayed the first couple of hours of The Quarry to experience this descent once again. I realised that even when the monsters show up and  start snacking on your characters, it still isn’t clear that they are werewolves due to the game mostly keeping them obscured in shadows for the first few chapters. Their design is quite misleading too. Hairless, skinny and humanoid faces make these creatures closer in design to the Wendigos from one of Supermassive’s previous games, Until Dawn (2015), rather than their source material. 

This wasn’t a frustrating choice made by the developers, however, and – again – only heightened the mystery of the game. It made me consider how I might approach my own villain. 

Cinemas:

In my town there is an abandoned cinema called: The Galaxy Cinema. It has been closed and bordered off since 2012 with two of the last films it ever featured being: The Hunger Games (2012) and The Woman In Black (2012). I often hoped that it would one day get its grand reopening. Going to the movies was always an exciting experience for me. It’s where I watched the first film to ever make me cry (embarrassingly it was the second Michael Bay Transformers movie – I was six and I had just watched Optimus Prime kick the bucket, okay?). It’s where, later on in my life, I developed the yearly tradition of watching Star Wars with my family, making me feel closer to them than I had in a while. It’s where I learned to love movies. 

My hopes of the cinema opening again eventually turned into dreams of owning it. I thought, when I was older and had – obviously – become a millionaire, that I would come back to Long Eaton and reopen the cinema myself, turning the town into a hotspot. 

But as I got older and started to write, everytime I walked past that cinema I instead thought of telling a story about it. One about spelunking an old relic and escaping for a while. This was a seed of an idea that sprouted earlier this year at college. I returned to this tomb-raider-esque story and even attempted to arrange filming in the galaxy cinema itself. 

Those plans would unfortunately fall through, however, it was around this time that I had just seen Halloween Ends (2022). Walking out of the theatre I noticed just how empty the place felt. Hardly anyone had come to see the film. Maybe that was because it was a late screening or because the film just wasn’t very good. Still, the emptiness felt eerie. Like walking through a deserted supermarket in the early hours of the morning. I noticed this happened more and more when I went to the movies and thought back to other instances in the past where I might not have paid it any mind. 

All of sudden I became obsessed with the idea of writing something set in a cinema all over again. A film that would play on this exact feeling. And that’s where Flicks came from. No longer about an abandoned cinema, but rather one on the cusp of becoming one. 

Naturally, when it came to working on this project I immediately visited places like Arc cinema in beeston, Cineworld in Nottingham and – of course – the Galaxy Cinema in my hometown. I needed to take photos and figure out what rooms are actually in a cinema to create a floor pan for my own that felt authentic. 

I had also hoped to interview a staff member at one of these cinemas to gain a better insight on what it was like working there. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to secure any interviews so I turned to online forums instead. 

Secondary Research

Reddit:

Not being able to interview anyone from a cinema, I decided that I was going to open a forum on Reddit and hopefully get my answers there. Fortunately, every question you could think of has already been asked on the site by someone else and before I even made my own post I had already found a handful with the same questions as me. I skimmed through these posts and found that the information satisfied what I was looking for, so, needing another source for my secondary research, I settled on these forums instead. 

Specifically I looked at a post from user directorof1 on the r/movies page who asked as follows: 

“I’m 16 and looking to make some extra money. I’m aware of what I’d have to give up due to having less free time, but I think it would be worth it to get some experience before university. Working at a cinema feels like an obvious choice to me because I love films and filmmaking. Although I have no idea what it’d be like to work there. So if anyone here has had experience working in a cinema, please let me know what it was like. How long were the shifts? Was it ever too much to handle? What were the benefits? How were the co-workers? What position did you have? Any little details or stories would be great thanks!”

Though this user asked these questions with different intentions than I, I still found them useful all the same. Some of the answers to their questions provided me with the exact insight I was looking for, like this response from user thebugman10: 

“My first job was at a movie theater in 2006. Pretty much did everything except projectionist (wanted to be a projectionist, but wound up not staying there long enough), depending on what I was assigned that day. Ticket counter, concession, usher, ticket taker, you will do it all. Working concessions was definitely the worst. I didn’t mind working in the ticket counter, but it could get boring. Usher wasn’t bad, but ticket taker was the easiest.

As with most retail like jobs, newer people get worse hours which usually meant closing. When closing, especially on Friday or Saturday, it would sometimes be 1 am before I left. The pay sucked, at that time I made $5.50/hour and minimum wage was $5.25. But I was 16 so I didn’t really care that much.

I got tired of movie theater popcorn and couldn’t eat it for probably 10 years after. Overall I really like the job. I like the atmosphere of movie theaters. I liked popping into a theater to watch a good scene of a movie. I liked getting to see all the movies I wanted for free.

On Thursday nights, we got to preview movies before they came out on Fridays (back then the only movies I remember having midnight shows were Spider Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 2, so most movies debuted on Friday). But before the movie premiered, the projectionist had to make sure the actual film was good, so all new movies would be shown on Thursday nights, and the employees got to watch too. This was my favorite part of working there, getting to see all the new movies before anyone else.

Overall it was an awesome experience for a first job.”

I combined this new found insight with my own experience working as a bartender to write a work environment that felt realistic and believable. Though working as a bartender has quite a few differences with a cinema host, I identified enough correlations and universal situations to establish a sense of authenticity. 

David Lynch:

Another area of my research came from a feature with David Lynch on the YouTube channel, Frame Into Focus. Specifically, a two minute segment wherein Lynch shares his process on writing and planning a script.  He answers the question “How did you learn to write screenplays and what was your first script?” by stating that screenwriting is mostly based on “common sense.” I found this to be a surprisingly comforting statement when it came to starting the development of a script, allowing myself to trust my own abilities a little bit more.

The highlight of this video, however, is when Lynch goes on to talk about a writing technique he learned from Frank Danielle where you write an outline of each of your scenes on a piece of card and “when you have seventy, you have a feature film.” After hearing about this method myself I decided to test it myself, creating a rough plan of my script on separate pieces of paper. The process worked, I suddenly found the idea of writing a script far less daunting and that I was coming up with brand new scenes I hadn’t originally planned for. 

It was a breezy process where I could get the ideas bouncing about in my head onto paper, without fretting about detail or presentation. It was messy and looking back the plans I made while creating those panels have undergone a plethora of changes, but ultimately it still acted as a sturdy foundation which I built upon right up until the end of my project.

Lessons From the Screenplay:

Lessons From the Screenplay is a YouTube channel that, would you believe it,  is about screenplays; featuring a plethora of videos that break down some of the greatest scripts from recent years, explaining what exactly makes them so great. This channel has been a useful resource for me throughout the entirety of my course, from my first year of College when I was learning about the differences between scripts from different media to now where I have once again used the channel to help improve my writing for my FMP. 

One of my favourite videos I love to refer back to is their piece on Gone Girl – Don’t Underestimate the Screenwriter. They highlight the brilliant simplicity of short and sweet directions in a script that give actors all they need to accurately portray the intended emotion. Trimming the fat off a script and killing your darlings is a process I still need to practise in and this video is a reminder of how to do that. 

This same video also introduced me to “The Upside Down Triangle,” an idea that suggests each scene should funnel down to a single and important point – naturally convey the intention and context of the scene. 

I tried to make use of this technique throughout my script while referring back to my previous notes on this videos and the techniques discussed: https://witchersandwitches.wordpress.com/2021/12/13/comic-book-scripts-versus-film-scripts/

Moodboards

For the production side of my project I wanted to create a movie poster  for my screenplay as I,  unfortunately, did not have time to film any test footage or create a set  of illustrated storyboards. I originally planned to create a piece that harkened back to classics of the 70/80s pushing on towards the Universal monster era. I adore the grainy and pulpy aesthetic of these posters and felt that it matched my script tonally. Rather than creating a one for one recreation of these designs, I would have tried to illustrate a poster that utilised my setting. Taking a still image of a gallery of posters from a real cinema, I would create a handful of fake posters to replace the frames – each one featuring a character or narrative device from my script. 

I also had another idea based on the poster for The Thing (1982) and a number of images of theatres I gathered while looking for references. In these images is a sort of lens flare effect that I became interested in. I would have used a combination of photography and graphic design to  recreate one of these scenes and then draw in characters in each ray of  light. 

However, during this brainstorming process, I took a step back and reassessed my ideas. While I do think I could have seen these ideas to fruition, I do not have the skill to complete them in time for the project due date. I needed to take a different, more minimal approach. 

When I talk about a minimalist design I do not mean the style that has become prevalent in the marketing in a lot of modern companies. Instead I wanted to look for posters that adopted this design philosophy while also maintaining their own distinctive style with few but interesting details. 

The works (top row) I collected for this moodboard all feel minimalist but unique in their own right. The poster for Nosferatu (1930) recreates the vampire’s iconic silhouette with words over a grainy background, saving it from feeling blocky. Carrie (1976) references the film’s most popular scene through its text and imagery; The Cabin in the Woods (2011) uses a mirrored effect to make the most of its simplistic design; Scream (1997) combines the iconic visage of franchise’s villain with his preferred weapon; Seven (1996), like Carrie, references its most iconic scene as well as reflecting the films title. 

In collecting images for these moodboards, I was reminded of an artist who perfectly encapsulates everything I was looking for: PITCH CANKER. Aesthetically, their work has been a massive inspiration for me. I am fascinated with how they make the most of their limited colour  palette and how their sketch-like line work manages to convey intense emotions with each piece rather than the impression of something messy or unfinished. I also have a strong emotional connection to a few of their pieces. 

For my last FMP I, like this one, had planned on telling a story about guilt  – though in a much different context. It is a theme that endlessly interests me from a storytelling point of view due to all the different avenues you might be able to take such an emotion. I can also attribute it to a number of past personal events in my life. 

Ultimately I decided on a different theme for my FMP last year but that desire to tell this kind of story stayed with me. It was PITCH CANKER’s piece, “Guilty,” that dredged that desire out of me once again earlier this year. Despite being one of their less visually complex pieces, I immediately felt a connection to it beyond its aesthetic and style.

FMP Year 2: Evaluation

Production

For my second final major project of this course I decided to write a screenplay for my own  short horror film called, FLICKS. Throughout this past year I have worked on a number of  projects that involved screenwriting, the production of films and an abundance of research  behind the medium in general. I felt it best to cap off the year by taking everything I had created and learnt and funnelling that into a complete written piece. 

Another reason I felt that a screenplay was fitting for this project was because horror films are a massive passion of mine and a large part of who I am as a creative. In most of the projects I have completed during my two years at college I have referenced a plethora of horror films as inspiration behind my writing but the closest I came to making one was with my film treatment that I wrote in November. Like last year’s FMP with video games, I finally wanted to fully embrace the medium and create a piece to be proud of. 

Alongside this script I also created a movie poster. People always say never to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a movie by its poster, but the iconography of posters – especially among classic horror films – have become so connected with the identity of their source material that I would be remiss not to make my own. 

Production Process:

To put together my script I began by drawing a collection of rudimentary storyboards for each  scene of my story, alongside some notes that detailed what would happen in each one. This method of working was inspired a technique from David Lynch, wherein you create a post it note of each of your screenplays scenes until you have a feature length film. I spoke about this technique more in my research: https://witchersandwitches.wordpress.com/2023/05/25/fmp-year-2-research-and-inspiration/ 

This was not a strict method of working for me, however. About halfway into the process I felt that I was prepared enough to start writing my first draft. As a result the technique became a solid foundation for me to expand off of rather than a guide throughout. There were instances where I needed to return to this style of notes towards the end of the project. I would become stuck when trying to figure out what was going to happen in a specific scene or how a character was going to resolve an issue. Jotting down a rough, messy idea of what was going to happen on some paper was a cathartic and helpful exercise  that got me through these roadblocks. 

Actually writing my script was as simple as booting up google documents and getting to work. Though the first drafts of my script featured the correct terminology of screenwriting – courtesy of the books I read in my research – they weren’t properly formatted as I wanted to primarily focus on getting  my story on paper rather than making it look neat. It wasn’t until I got to the end of my screenplay I started taking the time to organise my script. 

To do this, I went to a website called Celtx. While I could have formatted my script in  google documents, doing so would have been a finicky process as the site doesn’t feature dedicated tools for scriptwriting. Celtx, however, does let me easily input line/scene numbers, correct dialogue spacing and direction parentheses.

The development of my poster involved a mixture of physical and digital media. Like the plans I made for my script, I drafted sketches with extensive notes when it came to brainstorming the concept for my poster. I outlined the pros and cons of each idea for myself – in relation to the difficulty of producing them and how long it would take – and pinpointed how they would reflect my story. 

To aid in the development of my ideas I created three different moodboards, all which encompassed the core elements of what I wanted in my poster. From grainy posters of classic slashers to more modern, minimalistic pieces – I tried to draw upon a number of places while maintaining an overall theme. Again, I go into more detail about the process on my blog. 

When it came to deciding on a final design and making my poster I used a piece of software called: Procreate. It is a drawing app on  iOS devices that I have made use of on numerous occasions during this course. I used it in my last FMP to create illustrations for my project and more recently have used it for a video production on one of my other modules. 

I chose this software because it was easily accessible to me and it equipped with a number of beneficial features:  the work I create on there is easily exportable in various formats, there is a collection of  inbuilt painting tools and effects, I can create layers to produce cleaner images and I can important reference photos and my other art onto a canvas should I need to. 

Research and Inspiration

Primary:

Research and inspiration quickly became synonymous with one another during this stage of my project. The feature length films I sought out for my research weren’t just there because the general consensus is that they are good films, it was because I genuinely love them. 

The Scream franchise, while teaching me a lot about balancing comedy and horror in a script, was part of my motivation to write a screenplay in the first place because I am a massive fan of those films. Halloween (2018) is a film that I constantly reference in my project write-ups as it is another of my favourites and I immediately followed Evil Dead Rise (2023) this year for the innovation it brought  to a classic franchise. Technically, there was a lot to be gained from these films and other pieces of media that I chose in my research and I made the effort to properly analyse them. But the main reason they were there was because I’ll still be watching them years after I am finished with this project. 

In a similar vein, another large part of my research was visiting and taking photos of cinemas. This was a natural step for me as my screenplay is set in a cinema but the story behind why I chose that particular setting is one much more personal to me. Going to the movies was an  exciting part of my childhood and ever since I have been obsessed with telling a story in that environment, something I finally got to do with this project.

I even had the chance to visit a theatre from a different country. Paris, a trip that acted as a big chunk of my primary research, was an oppertunity for me to explore a different culture and attend the ECU film festival. I had never attended an event like this was excited to experience all the independant films I otherwise would have never come across. This trip was also heavily in my favour as these films were also short films, the format I was using for my own screenplay – providing me with yet another collection sources to analyse and learn from.

More straightforward parts of my primary research included reading Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (2005) by Syd Field and Joker: The Official Script Book (2022). Though I have done extensive work relating to screenwriting this year, I still felt that I needed the extra leg up when starting my FMP. Both of these books gave me an insight behind what makes up a screenplay and the specifics of its language. They were valuable tools that I used right up until the end of the project. 

When compiling images for my moodboards, I also rediscovered one of my favourite artists who I have been following on Twitter for a while: PITCH CANKER. They produce pieces with a simple for effective colour palette that often evoke intense emotions through their chaotic line work. The unique visual style of their work has always stuck with me, but their piece “Guilty” has always been one I often think about due to the strong emotional connection I had upon seeing it. Similarly to Scream, it was a big catalyst behind the inspiration of my FMP. 

Secondary:

My secondary research was much more straightforward and was what I turned to the most when I was looking for help with the technical side of my screenplay. As mentioned previously, part of this research was a feature with David Lynch wherein he spoke about the techniques of putting together a script. This was on the YouTube channel Frame into Focus but they weren’t the only channel I turned to while collecting my research. 

Lessons from the Screenplay is a channel that I have discussed in the write ups for a number of my projects for their well of videos analysing and breaking down what exactly makes a good piece of writing. It was, once again, a resource for me to look at during my FMP by watching their videos and returning to my own notes I made about them last year. 

I had planned for my primary research to include interviews with people who work at cinemas so that I could get an insight as to what it’s like working there. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do this, for reasons I will discuss later in my evaluation, but I did find an alternative through Reddit. It turned out that a lot of people had the same question as me and there were a handful of forums for me to look through to get what I was looking for. I combined these answers with my own experience working in hospitality as a bartender to create an environment that felt authentic for my screenplay. 

Themes

The central theme of my screenplay is: guilt. It is an emotion that has always interested me from a storytelling point of view because of the potential it possesses for character development. I have always enjoyed using this theme to write, not just within this project but many other personal pieces I have made in my own time. It is an emotion I can easily connect due to my own personal experiences and thus also acts as a form of catharsis for me. In the context of my script I did not have a situation that was one to one to my protagonist Tom’s that I could draw upon, so instead I used various instances from the past few years of my life that bore some similarities – allowing me to lay the foundation for that character’s story. 

With a cinema being a setting that I was so excited to finally use, I felt that it would be a waste not to make the most of it within my narrative. Since it was a work environment, I attempted to reflect the theme of guilt in my character arcs by delving into the work culture of the modern day and how guilt is sometimes used to push people beyond reasonable limits. 

Even being only nineteen I have worked multiple jobs that unfortunately had poor working environments. Spending months at a time in these roles, these experiences have stuck with me since and I saw this screenplay as a chance to finally talk about some of them. 

Another way I wanted to utilise my setting thematically was by touching upon the idea of the “death of cinema.” In recent years a number of directors, such as Martin Scorsese, have been vocal about the decline of cinema because of the emphasis on CGI filled blockbusters and the abundance of streaming services that seem to pop up every month. In general, I have also noticed – in my area at least – that less and less people are going to the movies lately. While I do not agree with the sentiment of the “death of cinema” I still wanted to find a way to include it within my script.

This idea manifested in making my cinema a locally owned business on the cusp of financial collapse. This condition was an adaptation of an older version of my screenplay that I changed so I could explore the issues and trials of family business and what happens in this moment of desperation when the owners realise they’re on their last legs. I felt that a slightly more dilapidated setting would add to the atmosphere to reflect the ideas I was trying to present.  I also decided to personify these themes through my villain.

Characters

The villain of my piece is The Director, a mysterious creature whose origins are unknown, it becomes obsessed with making the perfect film and embarks on a bloody trek through my cast to do so. Death follows this character and it acts as the tipping point for the Rialto Vista – my setting – pushing it over the brink and into ruin. 

Facing off against The Director was a cast of six characters:

• Protagonist: we meet Tom in a downtrodden and tired state at the beginning of my script. He is weighed down by baggage and wracked with guilt because of an affair he had with Syl, something that I intentionally never clearly outline in the script only hinting at it.  We learn of his cowardly tendencies as the story progresses, running away from every problem in front of him – both emotional and physical. His arc involves facing up to the skeletons in the closet and learning to move on with his life. 
• Secondary protagonist: Syl is our final girl. Headstrong, capable but somewhat impulsive and selfish. She pulls people around her forward for better or for worse. Like Tom, she is dealing with their affair by pushing it down and continuing with her life as if nothing happened – but nothing can satiate that gnawing. Syl did not take the lead of my script, during the first two acts at least, because I wanted to experiment and write from the perspective of a character around the final girl. 
• Tabitha is the nightmare boss. The culmination of my own and friend’s experiences with bosses. She is overbearing, rude and demanding. To her credit, she has the ability to command attention and hold onto it with a vice grip. She will often put her business before the well being of her own employees but, of course, is mindful to give herself some breathing room. 
• Navi represents students and young people entering the working world for the first time in their lives. She hasn’t learned how to set her boundaries and likely doesn’t even know of their existence. She is eager to please  and works tirelessly. This would take a greater toll if she wasn’t a people person, taking pleasure in chatting, joking about and spending time with anyone other than herself. 
• Harv is Syl’s boyfriend, an affable jock archetype who is a hit with the customers. He’s easy to get along with and is agreeable to most people. However, like Syl and Tom he fails to address their situation. Having his suspicions but never acting on them has manifested as thick, impenetrable tension that is only ever broken when he is no longer himself – becoming a puppet to the director. 

Linus, similarly to Tabitha, is a combination of the type of people I would meet during my job as a bartender. Customers, with nothing better to do, overstaying their welcome and sadly looking for engagement in a place where the people have to talk to you. Originally, Linus was just going to act a way of showing another aspect to a customer service job and inevitably fodder for my villain. But the more I wrote the more he started to take shape. Suddenly Linus was my comic relief. A carefree drunk who rather than being an inconvenience to the plot, is inconvenienced by it.

Audience

With my screenplay being a short horror film my target audience was, naturally, always going to be horror fans. Specifically horror fans who enjoy slashers and the recent revitalisation of the subgenre. 

I also intended for my screenplay to appeal to those who might be on the fence about the genre. While a number of intense and gruesome scenes are featured in my script, I did my best to sprinkle the dialogue with moments of humour and irony while also telling – what I feel – is a relatable story through the arcs of my characters. To gauge how I could balance this fine line, I spoke to friends whose first choice wasn’t always horror and had only made short forays into the genre. 

I feel that one of the intentions of every horror writer is to scare their audience and, of course, that is something I attempted to do with my screenplay. I took the time to inject tensions into my scenes and describe more disturbing imagery. But I still wanted my audience to have genuine connection with the story by relating to the character through their struggles and realistic dialogue.

Challenges I Faced

The first challenge I faced was right at the beginning of my project. In my journal I mentioned a trip to Tenerife that I would have used as the basis of this year’s FMP and inspirational research. Unfortunately, those plans didn’t come to fruition and I had to come up with an entirely new plan. Naturally this was a source of stress early on in the project as I had been so set on this original idea and for a week or so I was lost as to what to do.

On top of this I was also dealing with an injury I suffered while on the trip. I had to attend a number of hopsital appointments, couldn’t be present for all of my college classes and was always working around my injury. I had to make sure I had a solid dialogue with my tutors to account for my abscence and create a routine at home that made sure I was focused and on top of my work.

Eventually, after many brainstorming sessions and taking some time to look for inspiration I eventually landed on the concept for my screenplay. 

Ultimately, this was somewhat of a blessing in disguise as I am very pleased with what I have produced and believe that I am happier with it than I would have been with what I should have created in Tenerife; a magazine detailing the islands folklore and culture alongside a handful of interviews with their resident “witches.” 

In my weekly journal for this project I mentioned a point in the development of my project where I met a crossroads. I realised that my original plan to write a script 5400 words long with 25 pages wouldn’t be enough to accommodate the cast of characters that I had created. At this point I was already 10 or 15 pages into the script and my plot was still warming. I had to decide whether or not I was going to revise my script and reign in my plans or lengthen the script entirely. 

I did the latter. I couldn’t part with my characters and there were an abundance of scenes that I was too excited to write about. My production plan had gone from 5400 words to around 10,000 (the final word count was 12,331). Naturally, this meant big changes for my schedule. With so much more writing on my plate I couldn’t fulfil my original plans to make a collection of detailed storyboards (different from the sketches I made during idea development) and had to come up with an alternative for my production.

That’s where the idea for a movie poster came from. A single, fully produced piece felt far more achievable than storyboarding 55 worth of pages and it felt much more fitting for my overall project. As I mentioned at the beginning of my evaluation, posters have become so integral to the identity of horror films particularly that it simply felt wrong not to create my own. 

As mentioned previously in this evaluation, I wasn’t able to conduct interviews with people who work at a cinema like I had originally pitched in my project proposal. Some of the people I spoke to, unfortunately, didn’t have schedules that lined up with mine or just weren’t interested in taking part. I considered reaching out to people through sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to arrange interviews, either online or in person, but I felt that this would be too time consuming and there was no gurantee I would find anyone. That is where my solution with Reddit came in, using online forums to find my answers instead. While I am sad that I couldn’t arrange any interviews as I feel it would have greatly elevated my research and provided me with a worthwhile experience, I still managed to get the information I needed to write my script at the end of the day.

I did also face a handful of issues when it came to formatting and printing parts of my work. Celtx is a paid service and by the time it came to formatting my script my trial had ended. Getting around this, by creating another account and porting my work to it, was almost as finicky as it would have been to format the script in google documents. 

I also wanted to print my poster on quality material to make it feel higher quality and more authentic. But unfortunately I did not have access to the facilities to do so I had to settle for A3 paper. In doing this, I had to ensure that I exported the file correctly so that the resolution wouldn’t be blown up to a fuzzy mess.

Afterthoughts on my Project

All in all, despite this not being my original idea and being challenged with an unfamiliar format, I am very happy with the end product of my FMP. While I feel that I could definitely tighten up my script, I think that I conveyed my ideas well and achieved everything I set out to do with the screenplay. 

In the past I have also had to end a lot of my projects on a cliffhanger or set them up for continuations because I simply ran out of time to finish them. This was an issue I had with last year’s FMP. Despite completing a sizable chunk of writing, I never got to tell the full story that I wanted to. But here I have, which I feel is because I had a solid vision for my script throughout and have improved my writing skills overall this past year. 

Printing off the final draft of my script and slapping it on the table in front of me was a satisfying and proud moment for me that I’ll be chasing for a while. 

I am also very happy with the poster that I produced. I feel that it was the better choice to focus on making that than producing a collection of storyboards that would have looked messy in comparison. I feel that it encompassed everything I included and explained in my storyboards, staying true to my vision for the project. 

Monologues: Project Proposal

Topic

Rather than going with a fantastical or horror focused topic for my monologue, like the majority of my projects, I decided to create a more down to earth piece. My monologue is a conversation between two ordinary people about the difficulty of pursuing creative careers in the modern day. To accentuate the realist take on the project, this monologue takes place in a public bathroom while the two characters are cleaning it as a part of their jobs. 

Target Audience

The target audience for this piece are university students, specifically those working towards bachelors for creative topics while balancing part time jobs to support their studies. I want my monologue to resonate with this demographic by broaching subjects such as free time, financial struggles and – seemingly – fanciful dreams of the future. Belonging to this age range myself, it felt like honing in on this audience made the most sense. 

Inspiration

The inspiration for this monologue from a real-life conversation I had just a couple of months ago. I work a bartending job and one of the responsibilities that comes with it is cleaning up after customers when the pub closes. After a hectic shift on christmas eve, I helped one of my managers clean the men’s toilets where – despite unpleasant work – we ended up having a surprisingly heartfelt conversation about our hobbies. I have used this conversation as the basis of my message and the ‘plot’ for my monologue. 

After deciding on this topic, monologues from my research such as Pulp Fiction and Little Women were pieces that I found myself returning to more regularly for inspiration thanks to their realistic topics and more down to earth nature when compared to the rest of the examples I looked at. 

Plot Breakdown

Beginning – The start of my piece opens with a shot of my two characters (Ashe and Joel) talking while they clean.  I felt that starting with a more typical back and forth style of conversation was a more natural start to my piece that would eventually transition into the monologue.

Middle – The middle of my piece is the monologue itself. The camera pans into a close up of Joel as they pour out their conflicted feelings and worries related to the central topic. 

End – My monologue ends with a lengthy pause before Ashe asks Joel to help them with something not acknowledging Joel monologue; leaving it up to interpretation whether or not they said it out loud or just thought it. 

Production

The idea that my monologue would be framed around a conversation between two characters was an idea that came early on in my project development. Filming my monologue as a montage just wouldn’t fit this style, so it felt important to shoot it with actors in a real location. I plan on collaborating with other students and filming on the college campus to create my monologue. 

An Introduction to Monologues

What are Monologues?

A monologue is a long speech delivered by a single character that can either be directed at other characters or just the audience. It often comes after a conversation between multiple characters has stopped and acts as a device to tell the audience something about the plot or that particular character’s traits. 

A soliloquy is a variation of a monologue often seen in Shakespearian plays. It acts as a vocal representation of a character’s inner thoughts and it is delivered directly to the audience, with other characters freezing or fading out of the scene. 

Film Research

Trainspotting (1996)

The iconic monologue from Trainspotting  (by Ewan Mcgregor’s character, Mark) acts as an opening for the film. It plays over a montage of the cast as they flee from the police, play football and indulge in drugs. It sets up the tone of the film and attitude of Ewan’s character towards life. 

Romeo and Juliet (1996)

This monologue from Romeo and Juliet (1996) is an adaptation of the same monologue from the original play by Shakespeare. It makes use of the archaic language featured in the original and combines it with a modern setting/visual style, conveying the same themes of star crossed lovers. Its tone differs, however, towards the end with a comedic ‘climax’ as Romeo – who had been hiding – startles Juliet and they both fall in a nearby pool. 

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Christopher Walken expertly juggles tones in this monologue from Pulp Fiction, wherein his character (Captain Koons) delivers a watch to Butch which belonged to the boy’s late father. It starts off as a rather grave scene as the Captain explains to the boy his family’s tragic history of war and the journey the watch has taken over the generations. The seriousness of the scene is accentuated by the camera with the shot being framed from a low angle to replicate Butch’s perspective.  The tone, however, suddenly shifts as the Captain shares where Butches father hid the watch ending the monologue on a strange comedic high note. 

The Lighthouse (2019)

This monologue from Robert Eggers’, The Lighthouse, features some stellar acting from Willem Dafoe as his character, Thomas Wake, launches into an intense rant after Winslow – played by Robert Patterson – insults his cooking. Uninterrupted and literally unblinking, Wake’s monologue sounds like a sinister curse spewed by the very sea spirits he mentions earlier in the film. All to which Winslow hilariously replies: “. . .Alright, I like your cooking.” It’s a scene that sees these two characters bickering like a crazed couple, encapsulating the film’s themes of homosexuality, insanity and the paranormal. 

Blade Runner (1982)

This monologue comes at the end of Blade Runner during Deckard’s and Roy’s final confrontation. Roy saves Deckard from certain death despite their violent scuffle and delivers a strangely beautiful speech about all that he has seen in his life as a replicant. It’s a monologue that not leaves both Deckard and the audience questioning the events of the film, ambiguously rounding off a story about humanity and artificial life. 

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Inglorious Basterds introduces one of its main villains in a infamously sinister scene that shows off the character’s twisted nature and serves as a reminder of the brutality of the Nazi forces. Christopher Waltz delivers a deceivingly disarming performance as Hans Landa, making every shot he’s on screen that much more tense and unpredictable. This monologue also serves as an example of how they can be used to introduce characters, immediately allowing the audience to understand them and what they’re about. 

Taken (2008)

Though Taken has been parodied to the point that there are now parodies of the parodies, the original scene where Liam Neeson – playing Bryce Mills – threatens his daughters kidnappers is just as effective. It’s a straightforward way of establishing an action hero’s lethality without him having even done anything yet. 

Star Wars: Episode V (1980)

Similarly to Taken, the iconic scene from Empire Strikes Back  where Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father has been parodied all across pop culture; to the point where the original line is often mistaken in a internet-spanning game of chinese whispers. The monologue, delivered by the great James Earl Jones, is one of cinema’s best twists and an example of the perfect type of hook to include in a monologue. 

American Psycho (2000)

In American Psycho, this infamous monologue from Patrick Bateman serves as a narrative device to introduce the film’s tone and the warped psyche of its central character. It’s a chilling speech that, in tandem with Bateman’s clinical morning routine, immediately establishes a sense of unease throughout the rest of the film. 

Little Women (2019)

In Little Women this monologue from Saoirse Ronan’s Jo is a tragic exploration of the characters desire to be independent in a time when women are seen as lesser than men, while simultaneously not wanting to be alone like any other person. Its a brilliant display of acting that, while themselves complicated, clearly outlines the characters personal struggles.

Written Monologues

Oathbringer (2017)

When it came to looking at monologues from written media for my research I decided to turn to one of my favourite fantasy books of all time: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. This lengthy passage comes from Dalinar, one of the central characters of the story, at the end of the book when he decides to write a recollection of his life. This monologue perfectly surmises the entropy of human nature and everyone’s capacity and their right to change and better themselves. Through this message Dalinar’s characteristic bluntness shines, staying true to his writing thus far as well as the contextual references made to the book’s greater world. 

The most important words a man can say are, “I will do better.” These are not the most important words any man can say. I am a man, and they are what I needed to say. The ancient code of the Knights Radiant says “journey before destination.” Some may call it a simple platitude, but it is far more. A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us. But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fall, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination. To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one. I’m certain some will feel threatened by this record. Some few may feel liberated. Most will simply feel that it should not exist. I needed to write it anyway. I know that many women who read this will see it only as further proof that I am the godless heretic everyone claims. I can point to the moment when I decided for certain this record had to be written. I hung between realms, seeing into Shadesmar—the realm of the spren—and beyond. I thought that I was surely dead. Certainly, some who saw further than I did thought I had fallen. I did not die. I experienced something worse. That moment notwithstanding, I can honestly say this book has been brewing in me since my youth. The sum of my experiences has pointed at this moment. This decision. Perhaps my heresy stretches back to those days in my childhood, where these ideas began. I ask not that you forgive me. Nor that you even understand. I ask only that you read or listen to these words. In this record, I hold nothing back. I will try not to shy away from difficult topics, or paint myself in a dishonestly heroic light. I will express only direct, even brutal, truth. You must know what I have done, and what those actions cost me. For in this comes the lesson. It is not a lesson I claim to be able to teach. Experience herself is the great teacher, and you must seek her directly. You cannot have a spice described to you, but must taste it for yourself. However, with a dangerous spice, you can be warned to taste lightly. I would that your lesson may not be as painful as my own. I am no storyteller, to entertain you with whimsical yarns. I am no philosopher, to intrigue you with piercing questions. I am no poet, to delight you with clever allusions. I have no doubt that you are smarter than I am. I can only relate what happened, what I have done, and then let you draw conclusions. I will confess my murders before you. Most painfully, I have killed someone who loved me dearly. I will confess my heresy. I do not back down from the things I have said, regardless of what the ardents demand. Finally, I will confess my humanity. I have been named a monster, and do not deny those claims. I am the monster that I fear we all can become. So sit back. Read, or listen, to someone who has passed between realms. Listen to the words of a fool. If they cannot make you less foolish, at least let them give you hope. For I, of all people, have changed. —Preface to “Oathbringer”

The Shining (1977)

In a bittersweet ending, this much shorter monologue comes at the end of Stephen King’s, The Shining. Halloran speaks to Danny at their new lodge after escaping the horrors of the Overlook hotel and gives him a hard truth about the world. To be learning a lesson like that at such a young age encapsulates everything the boy has been through. And yet, the monologue still ends on a light note, ensuring Danny that despite the world’s horrors the people in it are what make getting through it easier. 

“Danny? You listen to me. I’m going to talk to you about it this once and never again the same way. There’s some things no six-year-old boy in the world should have to be told, but the way things should be and the way things are hardly get together. The world’s a hard place, Danny. It don’t care. It don’t hate you and me, but it don’t love us, either. Terrible things happen in the world, and they’re things no one can explain. Good people die in bad, painful ways and leave the folks that love them all alone. Sometimes it seems like it’s only the bad people who stay healthy and prosper. The world don’t love you, but your momma does and so do I.”

Primary Research

Spidergrams

Surveys

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Podcast: Evaluation

Structure and Narrative

My group and I decided to stray from a traditional podcast and instead create a story focused audiobook. Since there were three of us in the group, we decided to split the final pieces into three distinct segments to better represent each of our ideas. The first is a drama about a tragic love story while the second segment takes a more light hearted approach, being a mockumentary radio show that acts as a bridge between the first and final story. Speaking of, the last segment in our audiobook (the part I was responsible for writing) returns to traditional prose structure with an emphasis on horror. Between each of these segments we made use of music, SFX and a few seconds of silence to signify that a transition has been made. We felt that since we didn’t have a universal narrator for each segment, making use of these techniques felt more natural and pleasing to the listener.

There were times, however, where we considered going back to the traditional podcast format for our project. We had ideas to create shows that focused more on discussions and our specific interests, even featuring games and quizzes as some of our segments. We considered these options due to the difficulties we faced trying to coordinate with acting students, who we had hoped would narrate our audiobooks, and booking a place to record. In the end we were able to overcome these issues and come up with solutions that allowed us to stick to our original ideas. 

With the amount of time we had to write and produce the audiobook, we were only able to complete part of our lengthier portions of the piece; ending them on a sort of cliffhanger to be built upon in the future. Because of this, there may be some confusion in the structure of the audiobook as – besides a few hints here and there – is not yet explicitly clear how these segments are linked narratively. Despite this, we still feel that we have delivered a satisfactory product that can be enjoyed on its own. 

Presentation and Inspiration

One of the main reasons we decided to create an audiobook instead of a podcast is because they are more in line with the type of work we’re used to. Producing an audiobook allowed us to make scripts that featured traditional prose like that seen in books or similar mediums. This decision was also influenced by work I completed last year, wherein I created another audiobook that followed a similar style. It included SFX, narration and prose but had a greater emphasis on dialogue. 

A number of pre-existing media also acted as inspiration throughout our project. On my side of things, the dungeons and dragons YouTube show, Critical Role, and the audiobook versions of A Game of Thrones were my main sources of inspiration due to their narrative focus and use of other recording techniques, such as SFX and voice acting. Signalis, a survival horror video game that was released in October, also influenced my work. Though it is not an audiobook or podcast, the game’s central themes and sci-fi setting was helpful in developing the content of my portion of the project –  inspiring me to create my own dystopian and futuristic setting. 

Technical Apspects

To record our audiobook, we made use of the college’s recording studio, completing various sessions alone and together when required. After recording all of our audio, I was responsible for editing it in Audacity; cutting out any mistakes, adding processing effects and a number of SFX. To find our sound effects, I used websites like Freesound and Pixabay as their files are free and we didn’t have the right equipment to record our own.  The aforementioned music we used for transitions were also downloaded from these websites, which at times was a bit tedious as I had to sieve through a number of files to find something that fit our production thematically.

Links to the websites: 

(https://freesound.org/browse/tags/sound-effects/) 

(https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/)

As mentioned previously, at the beginning of this project we had intended on working with a number of acting students to create unique voices for our characters who had dialogue. This required contacting different departments in the college, creating a detailed schedule and holding auditions. Unfortunately, due to some scheduling conflicts and a few unreliable actors, we were not able to complete this original plan. Instead, we had to compromise by voicing the characters ourselves and getting help from writers in year one of the course. 

After editing our recording, I definitely feel that we may have benefited from doing more takes. In certain areas of the piece, our voices sound breathless and, despite my efforts during editing, leaves some lines sounding awkward and rushed. Recording in the studio, admittedly, was a bit intimidating for us but after this experience we feel that we are more prepared in future to take on similar projects. 

Audience

The target audience for our audiobook sits between young adult and adult age ranges, but pinning down specifically what interests they would have is a bit difficult. Though we came up with a shared idea, that being to create an anthology of stories set in the same location but in different times, the tone of each segment differs due to our own ideas and writing styles. Thriller works as an umbrella term but in future collaborative projects we may have to work harder to make things like this more consistent. 

Summary

My main takeaway from this project is that, in future, I need to take more time planning and scheduling our work so that we don’t run into any coordination issues – like those we had with the acting students. Overall, however, I am happy with the final product. I feel that we made the use of the tools available to us and worked to our strengths when we could, while also outlining a path for improvement if we tried this again. 

Podcast Analysis – Unit 10

Overview of Content

Dead Meat Podcast

The first podcast I chose for my research was one I also looked at last year: The Dead Meat Podcast. I chose this show once again because it aligns with my interests perfectly and I am often fascinated by the discussions featured throughout. The Dead Meat Podcast, a spin off of the YouTube Channel Dead Meat, is hosted by Chelsea Rebecca and her husband James A Janisse and revolves around all things horror. With films often being the main focus of an episode, Chelsea and James spend 1-2 hours breaking down its themes, highlights, shortcomings and their overall thoughts on it. The episode I specifically looked at for my research (Ep. 171), focuses on Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022), digging into its central themes of stardom and animal abuse as well as some of the misconceptions surrounding certain scenes in the film. 

Friends Per Second

Skill Up, the YouTube channel that this podcast is home to, is already a place I visit frequently to receive updates on the video game industry through its ‘This Week in Video Games’ series and its many reviews. Which is why Friends Per Second, started by channel owner, Ralph, and a group of friends (Jake Baldino, Lucy James and Jirard – aka The Completionist) felt like another ideal pick for my research. Like the rest of the content on its parent channel, this podcast covers recent news in gaming but also opens up these topics for discussion among the hosts and the guests they frequently have on the show. The episode I watched (Ep.2) featured another content creator I follow called The Sphere Hunter (Suzi Hunter) who primarily makes YouTube videos on video games in the survival horror genre. Together they went over new things relating to the Resident Evil series (my favourite video game franchise) and an event called Steam’s Next Fest (another topic that I am often up to date on), where a plethora of demos for upcoming indie games are advertised and made available for people to play. 

Critical Role

Critical Role differs quite a bit from the previous two podcasts. This is a Dungeons and Dragons show where voice actors, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brian and Talisin Jaffe broadcast their game sessions to millions of fans. It stands apart from the average joes game of DnD in their living room due to, of course, the talent on the show as well as the production value behind it. Custom sets, lighting systems, high quality props. . . It all comes together to create a premium version of the tabletop game and one that can be enjoyed as a spectator. The reason it was included in this research is because it can be enjoyed in the podcast format, thanks to the narration from Matt and the dialogue from the rest of the cast, watching it isn’t necessary.  For the purposes of my research I looked at episode 14 from their third campaign, wherein guest star Robbie Daymond (who had appeared in the previous 13 episodes) and the character he plays (Dorian Storm) says goodbyes to the rest of the cast. 

Structure and Roles

Dead Meat Podcast

The podcast opens with a montage of shots (for the video version) from iconic horror movies with the YouTube channel’s signature theme (U Make Me Feel – by MK2) playing over it, before cutting to Chelsea and James. Though they are co-hosts, talking equal parts in most episodes, Chelsea always takes the lead during the introduction as the show is her ‘brain child.’ Besides that, the show hardly cuts away during the length of its run time, featuring only a few intermissions to advertise the sponsorships supporting them. 

The majority of episodes, including Ep.171, end with a brief outro where Chelsea and James share what other social media sites they can be found on, upcoming content on their YouTube channel and what merchandise is currently available for fans to purchase. 

Friends Per Second

Friends Per Second is a little more organised and structured than the Dead Meat Podcast, with each episode being broken into clear segments – headlined by the host and time stamps for the video versions – that, depending on the theme of the episode, aren’t always necessarily connected. This disconnect isn’t something that harms the flow of the podcast as the varied topics are chosen based on what is relevant at the time of the release, giving the opposite effect and keeping it engaging. 

Each episode’s host varies between the four main presenters. For the episode I watched, Jake Baldino was the host; leading discussions and moving the show on between all of its topics. This rotation is based on whether or not one presenter has more experience with one the episode’s topics (everyone on the podcast comes from differing sections of the gaming industry – Jake, for example, is writer/video producer from Gameranx) and the purpose of, once again, ensuring the show is engaging. 

Critical Role

With Critical Role being a story centric podcast, the show heavily relies upon the narration of Matthew Mercer. As the dungeon master/game master, it is his voice that brings the setting, side characters/NPCs (non-playable-characters) and villains to life. He will establish a scene and hand it over to his cast, all playing their own fictional characters, to decide what to do next – like one big improv show. This dialogue is often broken up by out of character chatter as the cast joke with each other, ask Matt questions about rules and figure out plans amongst themselves. 

At the beginning of every episode is also an introduction, wherein Matt and the rest of the cast make announcements and take a moment to talk about the show’s sponsors. There are more breaks throughout the rest of its runtime when the cast takes a break, often playing trailers in the meantime or showing off fan art. The length of a particular episode often determines how many of these breaks there are. 

With Critical Role being a much bigger production than the other two shows, there is also a whole crew behind the cameras helping run things in their studio. Producers, operators, artists and marketers. . .Critical Role’s team can be found here: https://critrole.com/team/. 

Style and Research

Dead Meat Podcast

Though they go in depth and have a lot of insight to provide on the topics present in any given episode, the Dead Meat Podcast is pretty informal and casual. Set up as a conversation, you are essentially listening to a couple geek out on their favourite horror media and discuss other topics that they are passionate about. 

As mentioned previously, both presenters contribute to the podcast more-or-less equally though it is Chelsea’s show.  She is the main host – leading the introduction and topics – editor and designer of the merchandise. 

Friends Per Second

With Friends Per Second’s subject material (relevant gaming news) it acts as a very informative show that can still be informal and even funny. Its host contributes to the discussions with thoughtful insight and opinions on the current topic and very clearly knows what they are talking about. Like the Dead Meat Podcast, is it set up a conversation; featuring interview-like segments when they have guests on, like the episode that I watched. 

Naturally, both the Dead Meat Podcast and Friends Pers Second involve research behind their conversations. The latter perhaps a little more so than the former as they are often covering recent articles and news stories, while the Dead Meat Podcast will be a mixture of informative content and lite reviews of the subject material. 

Critical Role

Critical Role is a show made for primarily entertainment purposes. A fictional story, set in a fictional world with fantastical characters. Its tone can vary wildly depending on what is happening in the plot. The cast will be cracking crude jokes during some of the more laid back segments and breaking down into tears during some of the heavier and more emotional parts of Matt’s story. 

That is, however, not to say that no research goes into the show. Like any other piece of fiction, a lot of the fantastical ideas in Critical Role are based off of or inspired by real life things. The cast and Matt specifically go the extra mile before certain episodes to make sure that their representations of certain things are accurate or not in any way maliciously/purposefully harmful.

Links:

Feature Length Film Research

Though I am working to create a film treatment for a short film, I still looked at a few feature length films during the research and development stages of this project. Even with the difference of a much longer structure, these films were beneficial in helping me put my plot together and get a better understanding of character arcs. 

Amelie

The first feature length film I looked at in preparation for writing my own film treatment was Amelie. The story follows Amelie, a socially awkward girl with a troubled upbringing, as she attempts to better the lives of those around her before learning to pursue her own happiness. There are multiple instances in this film where a character is introduced with a bout of narration, breaking down who they are and what their interests are for example. While this is not how I usually enjoy information to be delivered in story (I enjoy the show, don’t tell technique) it did help with my understanding of how to build up a character with backstory and personality traits for my profiles. 

The story, though once again not usually my preferred taste, is enjoyable thanks to its fun editing (providing me with ideas of how transitions could be implemented into my own future scripts) and Amelie’s clear progression throughout the film. Due to her past, she is a person who believes that she doesn’t deserve to pursue her own goals, so she goes out of her way to improve other people’s lives instead. It made her motivations clear and provided a clear beginning and end to her character arc once she finally got over this self sabotage. 

One thing I did appreciate about the film was its attempt to enforce consequences to Amelie’s actions. Her efforts to help certain characters almost seemed like meddling by the end of the film as it, overall, worsened their situation. While I understand that a more cynical outlook on her actions was not the point of the film, I like this aspect nonetheless and wished it was explored in greater depth. 

Strangers

Strangers was another feature length film I watched on my own time as it was the core inspiration for the plot of my treatment. In the film, James and Kristen, a couple looking to spend some quality time together in a remote house, are terrorised by a group of three masked psychopath’s. The film feels isolating and claustrophobic, not just because of its dark, secluded setting but also because of the sheer size of the limited cast – an aspect that influenced my decision to only include two characters in my treatment. There are no monsters or ghosts in the film, and instead it relies on the sheer terror of being watched and stalked while in the safety of your own home. It is a feeling that has stuck with me ever since I first watched the film. 

Halloween (2018)

The 2018 legacy sequel of the same name, Halloween is the last film I looked at for my research and is perhaps my favourite slasher film in the horror genre. Forty years after Michael Myers first bloody trek through Haddonfield, he escapes from the mental institution he is being kept in and embarks on another brutal rampage. Laurie Strodes, traumatised by her encounter with the Shape, has been spending that time preparing herself and her family for his eventual return – goading him into another confrontation. 

The film was relevant to my research due to the portrayal of Michael in this film. He is an unstoppable force, blurring the lines between man and monster to the point where the viewers begin to question his true nature. This was an aspect of the reboot, as well as other films in the series, that inspired me to include something similar in my own work. The Figure, the antagonist in my treatment, is an ambiguous force that is never really revealed to be human or not – an attempt to evoke the fear of the unknown. 

Laurie Strodes and Michael Myers’ iconic confrontations in this series is also another part of this film that played a hand in the idea development phase of my project. It helped me develop and structure a sequence that appears at the end of my treatment, where Anna – my protagonist – is forced into a physical confrontation with the creature stalking her. I decided to frame it as sinister dance, similarly to how the real life choreography training behind scenes like this is attributed. 

TikTok for Dummies

TikTok’s editing feature offers creators a whole host of options when it comes to touching up their content. With such a useful tool at their fingertips it would be a waste for TikTok journalists not to make use of it: 

At first glance the caption feature in this editor may seem underwhelming for journalists trying to make their content seem more appealing. However, though it’s nothing flashy, this feature may be one of the most important. Adding captions to your videos opens up a whole new audience. People who are deaf or hard of hearing are more likely to follow your content and share it due to its accessibility. 

Another extremely useful feature in the app’s editor is the ability to adjust your clips. TikTok allows users to: trim clips, add custom sounds, input text and overlay other videos. This is great for touching up choppy clips or filling in awkward pauses with music and graphics. It goes a long way in helping you make sure that your videos are tight and coherent.

TikTok’s filter system, as the name entails, allows you to add filters to your videos. While this is useful in making your content more visually appealing – and attractive to scrolling users – it also helps when you are trying to create a specific tone. Doing a piece on noir fiction? Put the black and white filter on. It’s a little touch that helps make your content seem more consistent. 

The effects option serves a similar function as the filters. It allows journalists to make their videos a little more flashy and match certain instances of their script. Transitioning to another topic, creating an intro, adding a cinematic spin to certain sections of your script. . . All things that are easier to achieve with this feature. 

Stickers are probably the least important feature on this list, but they still have their uses nonetheless. They can be used in certain shots to make them appear more aesthetic or match a journalist’s voice over. It’s another little touch that helps a creator’s content seem more attractive and likely to get a click.