4/23-25/14: Outlining second screenplay

Wednesday, 4/24/14

Aim: Outlining our second screenplays:

Daily Spark: Describe the first moment of your day, or an activity from your vacation.

Ex: I peered through the dirty glass of the dim sum restaurant. There was one family sitting inside. All the other tables, though there were only 4 or five, were empty. The restaurant had a refrigerated glass display along the front left with a smiling hostess of about 70 standing behind. She was short and had her greying hair twisted into a sloppy bun on top of her head. She wore an apron that at one point may have been crisp and white, but was a few hundred wash cycles past its prime. The yellow stained linoleum floor times were sticky and the glass topped, plastic tablecloth topped tables could use some updating. I looked back at my guidebook and back to the restaurant sign to make sure I had the right place.

 

Today, we will begin the second packet : http://2012.ywp.scriptfrenzy.org/files/scriptfrenzy-ywp/sf_ywp_11_hs_workbook.pdf

 

You will use your first packet to help answer the questions:

1. Log line
2. Describe your opening image. Close your eyes and think about what the first image your audience sees and why this is the first image they see. Describe it. (Think about openings of other films – why does that become important?)
   1. The opening scene is an opportunity for you to give the audience the starting
      point of the protagonist’s journey. It can be an image of your protagonist, an
      important setting, a revealing conversation between characters, an object that
      is essential to the plot, etc. This should give your audience a “snapshot” of
      what the rest of your film might look like, or what your film is all about. The
      opening scene in The Wizard of Oz depicts Dorothy and Toto running down
      a dirt road with storm clouds approaching in the background. Once you
      watch the whole film, you realize how important that first scene really is. And
      remember, just as the first page of a script needs to draw the reader in, the
      opening image of a script needs to draw the audience in.
3. When you are finished, move on to the outline of the first three pages of your film, up to your inciting incident:
   1. All the important characters (your protagonist, antagonist, and supporting
      characters) in your main plot will be introduced during the first ten pages, or
      at least hinted at. You want your audience to know all your characters’ strange
      tics and behaviors—basically, what makes your characters unique. You will also
      want to set up your internal and external conflicts. By page 10, your audience
      needs to feel for and identify with your characters enough to care about their
      stories
   2. So, you will write down your conflict and a few distinguishing features that make each of your characters unique. In the first 3 pages of your script, make sure you set up this conflict and portray your characters’ unique personalities.
4. If you finish this, move on to outlining your inciting incident.
   1. In the set-up, you have told us all about the world of your script. The inciting
      incident will turn that world upside down. Protagonists get fired, find out they
      have a long-lost brother, get news that they have three days to live, meet the
      girl or boy of their dreams, get transported somewhere over the rainbow by a
      powerful tornado, etc. This is what forces your protagonist out of a daily routine
      and into the adventure of a lifetime.

 

Friday, 4/25/14

Aim: Understanding setting up a film/the inciting incident

 

Daily Spark: What is one decision you had to make over the vacation. What were the pros and cons of each, what decision did you make, why did you make it and what impact did that have?

Example: In San Francisco, I had to decide whether to have dinner with my cousin who I never see  and don’t really know (and am not sure I like or not) or with my friend who I also rarely see, who I was visiting and had spent all week with.

Pros of dinner with my cousin: Get to know her and her husband better, get to do something new, sit on the ocean with a nice view, my parents will be happy, I’ll feel good

Cons: Have to travel into San Fran from Oakland (40 minutes on the train), less time with my friend, I’m not sure I have a lot in common with my cousin so what would we talk about?

Knowing me, what decision do you think I made?

 

 

 

Decision/why: Dinner with cousin. She’s my cousin, I’d like to know them better, it’s the right thing to do…

Impact: I realized I like my cousin and we had a great time. I know her and her husband much better now and will have a better relationship with her in the future

Today we will watch the set up of the film Million Dollar Baby. 

You will write the answers to the questions you answered for yourself on Wednesday for the film today.