Script Post Mortem 27th April - 3rd May

This week in class we have read each others scripts and pulled them apart - post mortem time!!!!! Rat Race is the name of my short film ( I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier post). It is about a young boy at a funeral, who is meant to read a poem at the service for the dearly departed but instead ends up chasing a rat all over the cemetery because it steals his poem. The feedback that I received was good overall. I received good comments about my big print and the story. Rat Race was intended as a live action film but because I ended up giving the rat a name, everybody felt as though this script was written for an animation and I fully agree with this as well. By giving the rat a name it kind of became the rat's story (at the point that the rat was introduced) instead of the boy's story. All in all, I was happy with my script but could also see what could be changed to make it better.

We also did a session on writing scripts for the Rialto Channel 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking competition. We discussed how best to come up with script ideas and how to write a script to make the film compelling to the audience and most of all, the judges of the competition.

Things to remember for 48 Hours script writing:

- Observe the conventions of your genre
- Pick your model film(s)
- Identify key genre tropes (the skeleton of the genre)
- Don't fully copy tropes, just be aware of them
- Gimmicks are fine as long as they are backed up with substance
- Stinger (surprise) at the end of the film

These are all things to remember for the story and genre and the next list of things to remember is in relation to character:

- Character needs an objecive
- There needs to be an obstacle for the character that throws the character's objective out the window
- Antagonist: Can be either an inanimate object or person
- Character arc: What does the character give up or compromise/give up to find a sense of resolution

- Extra obstacles and challenges are needed for the character to progress through the story

This is my third year competing in the 48 Hours competition and also my third year in an animation team for the competition. Fingers crossed that everything goes well for the weekend and bring on the sleeplessness!!!!!