Screenwriting
At first, I found writing the script for this film difficult, since I wasn't sure what type of story I wanted to tell. Because of this, I didn't have a certain tone to write to, therefore, I was trying to force the story rather than having events happen in consequence of each other with the character earning things, and thus most of the dialogue was expositional.
However, going back over this and re-evaluating what story I wanted to tell helped me learn a lot about tone, and how this links to character, dialogue, setting and story.
Tone
The tone of a screenplay can be affected by a story's:
- "character,
- dialogue,
- atmosphere,
- and narrative structure"
(Dancyger & Rush, 2013:352).
However, I found that genre can also affect tone, since many superhero movies are comedy-dramas. Thus, I took inspiration from this, and aimed to emulate this tone, having the overall tone of the script to be drama, but with light-hearted moments, similar to when the characters in The Avengers films make jokes, despite battling to save the world.
Nonetheless, since character can affect the tone of a story, I found that Cathryn's personality had to accommodate this tone, but her personality had to also reflect how she sees the world of the story.
For this reason, since I decided to make the world of the story somewhere where crime occurs often, I decided to make Cathryn quite cynical as this allowed me to have her life revolve around her work, while also showing how she feels about the world around her - someone who watches a lot of news, but shuts out the crime outside because she finds work more important (and is actually afraid).
For this reason, since I decided to make the world of the story somewhere where crime occurs often, I decided to make Cathryn quite cynical as this allowed me to have her life revolve around her work, while also showing how she feels about the world around her - someone who watches a lot of news, but shuts out the crime outside because she finds work more important (and is actually afraid).
Therefore, this allowed me to create some irony, which could add comedy through making her colleague, Jade, her opposite to create conflict. For example, Jade is curious about what is going on outside, but it isn't what she expects, which causes her to panic, allowing Cathryn's cynicism to be shown by how she mocks her.
Dialogue
Thus, it can also be seen that dialogue affects tone, as well as helps show the character's personalities and make them "credible" to the audience (Dancyger & Rush, 2013:351). For example, I found that since different characters would react to the world differently, as they had different personalities, the way they talk would be different (Hunter-Johnson, 2015:99).
An example of this was when Cathryn was talking to her mother's best friend, Monica, who is a cop. Thus, since her and Cathryn are different ages, and have different professions, I tried to make them sound different by having Monica speak a little more colloquially than Cathryn, and also refer to Cathryn as 'kid':
By doing this, I found that Monica's personality allowed for some expositional dialogue, since she could use it as a "weapon", thus causing some conflict between her and Cathryn as it is seen that Monica doesn't agree with Cathryn never stopping work.
Overall, I learnt that if expositional dialogue has to be used it should be used as a weapon, with a character using it as a way to create conflict; however, not as much expositional dialogue was needed as I first thought since these things could be shown in other ways - through looks, actions etc. (Rogan, 2018:22).
For example, I never had Cathryn state that the crime in the city scared her, but by having her close her blind when sirens start wailing, trying to keep Jade from pulling the blind up, and staying away from the window when Jade is looking out at the street below, this could be seen through action.
Nonetheless, I think that I could improve in writing dialogue by creating a "dialogue swipe file" - making lists of dialogue I 1) like from books/films/TV shows, 2) hear from real people, and 3) think of myself, adding some dialogue to each list every day, since this could help me refine how to write dialogue by seeing how different people talk and react in various situations and in different places (Rogan, 2018:36).
I also would like to work more on creating "subtext" - defined as "what your characters don’t say" - since I think this could help make my writing and characters more interesting by giving them layers which would keep the audience guessing about the character's intentions (Hunter-Johnson, 2015:100).
Structure & setting
I also learnt that a story's structure affects tone since the character's "emotional flow" needs to be consistent so that it makes sense to the audience (Hunter-Johnson, 2015:53). For this reason, after the inciting incident of the crime, I found that the tone needed to be more serious to reflect Cathryn's shock.
This shows that tone can help with a story's "credibility" since it has to fit with the character's personality, which is shown through dialogue, but this was also affected by the setting of the story, since the events which help set the tone have to be able to credibly happen in the world of the story (Dancyger & Rush, 2013:352).
For example, I couldn't have a crime as the inciting incident if the world of the story seemed like the kind of city where crime never happens, since this wouldn't have been believable for the audience.
Although, the structure of the story created tone also since it shaped what the audience expected from the story - setting up the world of the story with sirens wailing and showing that the citizens didn't seem too bothered by it, as if they are used to it because it happens a lot, somewhat foreshadowed the crime as the inciting incident (Dancyger & Rush, 2013:352). For this reason, this affected the theme the story had.
Theme
Theme is what the audience are able to discover about life due to the film (Winfield-Sublett, 2014:230). Since I aimed for our film to be part of the superhero genre, I decided to have its theme be that anyone can be a hero, despite horrible things, like crime, which can occur.
I found that this theme was able to reflect current events, since superhero movies are currently popular, but I could also relate to it, since I like superhero films, and how they can be empowering.
Nonetheless, trying to combine this with a character who was an investment banker helped me realise that it is sometimes better to write about what you know, since I didn't know anything about investment banking, and thus could only learn about it through research online.
I think this is why I at first struggled to come up with a story, since I couldn't relate, however, by continuing to draft and rethink the story, I was able to relate to it more, and focus on pacing the conflict Cathryn faces, making events happen in consequence of each other by defining what her intention and obstacle was.
Overall, I think that the screenplay could still be improved by some more drafting, such as further refining the tone.
However, concentrating on the point of each scene, the story's tone, the character's personalities and voices, as well as the theme and using outlines to focus on how to show things through action, I was able to learn a lot about screenwriting which I can carry forward.
However, concentrating on the point of each scene, the story's tone, the character's personalities and voices, as well as the theme and using outlines to focus on how to show things through action, I was able to learn a lot about screenwriting which I can carry forward.
Directing
The main thing I learnt through directing this film was how to use shot composition, framing, colour grading and camera movement to show a character's thoughts and feelings. I think this went well since it was planned and thought about in advance, which helped me to define my intentions.
Thus, I think this project helped me to improve on my visualisation skills since I learnt how to create a shooting script which could be used with the storyboards, so that we could see how all of the shots could join together in the edit before filming.
Visualising the film before production also helped us plan the effects in advance, so that we could consider them when framing the shots. For example, the text we planned to add needed some room in the frame, thus we framed the shot wide intentionally with this in mind.
Through using these effects I was able to learn about pastiche - which occurs when a film "imitates the style of previous work" (Merriam-Webster, 2019) - and how it can help a film identify with a certain genre, in our case the superhero genre.
However, despite all of the planning and using other films as inspiration, we found it hard to combine the drawing with the real life shots, although, I think this may have been because I wasn't sure what type of story I wanted to tell when writing the montage, thus this could have been further improved by reviewing my intentions for the story at the writing stage.
Although, I think the effects did work well to show the character's transition, mainly due to the work of our editor. Thus, I found that the film worked better if I collaborated on ideas with the rest of the team, rather than trying to work on my own.
For example, working with our DOP on set, we were able to discuss the speed and movement of shots, and getting her opinion on this helped me figure out what my aims were, in the same way as discussing the design of the graphics with our editor helped me define what we intended them to show in the film.
In general, this further reinforced that collaboration is vital to making all the elements of a film work, since many different skill are needed (Rooney & Belli, 2013:46).
However, this did help us learn how to use another camera and discover its limitations, as well as see how it could fit into smaller places than the larger cameras we have used before, and thus be more flexible by being on a handheld rig, which helped with this project since the home office we filmed in was quite small.
I also think the choice of shot size and composition helped to reflect this, again helped by planning in advance.
Because we were making an overtonal montage, our editor and I also concentrated on the pacing of the cuts during the edit. Thus, we were able to learn how to cut to music more accurately, using the movement of the shots, as well as some effects - such as whip pans and comic book pages flicking - to maintain the pace and help with transitioning between locations.
Overall, I think the film could have been improved by knowing what kind of story I wanted to tell at the writing stage, but even though it didn't turn out exactly as we thought it was going to, the film still was able to allow me to explore my intention of showing a character's thoughts and feelings.
In general, I think the project could have been improved by knowing what kind of story I wanted to tell, and thinking more about tone, since I discovered this affects many elements of the project. However, I did get to use different directing techniques to explore my original aim, as well as learn a lot about screenwriting.
References
Dancyger, K. & Rush, J. (2013) Alternative Scriptwriting: Beyond The Hollywood Formula. Oxon: Focal Press.
Hunter-Johnson, C. (2015) Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect. (4th ed.) Oxon: Focal Press.
Merriam-Webster (2019) 'Pastiche' definition 1 [online] At: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche (Accessed on 15 May 2019).
Merriam-Webster (2019) 'Pastiche' definition 1 [online] At: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche (Accessed on 15 May 2019).
Rogan, M. (2018) How to Write a Script With Dialogue That Doesn't Suck. USA: Script Bully Press.
Rooney, B. & Belli, M. (2013) Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing. Oxon: Focal Press.
Winfield-Sublett, S. (2014) Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner's Guide to Writing a Feature-Length Screenplay from Start to Finish. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.
Rooney, B. & Belli, M. (2013) Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing. Oxon: Focal Press.
Winfield-Sublett, S. (2014) Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner's Guide to Writing a Feature-Length Screenplay from Start to Finish. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.
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