Post 10: Script Writing

In class, we have watched many various short films each of which we have looked at in detail at how the storyline attracts the audience and how different storylines can be used rather than the typical equilibrium, disequiblirium, equilibrium restored process. The short films which we have watched are very different from the usual Hollywood type films that we were used to seeing. Many of the short films told a very short story and almost left the audience to think of an ending for themselves. For example in Jade, it was not clear to the audience who the two men were, whether one of them could be her baby's father and there were many engimas that the audience faced.

For our own short film we have discussed many ideas and we have changed them and edited them around to make the best possible short film we feel we could make. As a group we brainstormed lots of plot outlines for our short film and then discussed where we could go with each of them. For example we took each idea and then came up with ideas for locations, characters, costumes, endings and a brief outline of the story from beginning to end. We decided to use our final idea about a young boy who is feeling very alone and isolated. We chose this idea as we had more ideas of what we could put into the film and what locations we could use. We thought as it was a young boy we could use our school to film in to show his school life and as the surrounding area of our school is mainly houses, we thought we could encorporate this into our film showing our character living near to the school.


This is a picture of my brainstorm of ideas:

Synopsis of our Short Film:
Billy is trying to cope with his non-existent relationship with his mother and coping at school with the teachers and the uncomfortable life he is in. When it becomes too much Billy has only one area of comfort but when he hears news that changes everything will this area of comfort be enough for him to cope.


After creating the first draft of the initial idea and having created a synopsis, we presented it to some different possible audience members and asked them for some feedback and their thoughts.

First Daft of Script

After gaining feedback from our initial ideas we managed to create a first draft of our script. We took into consideration what the feedback said and tried to encorporate it when writing the script. 

BLACK SCREEN- TITLES

Loud background noise, children talking.

HARD CUT: EXT. OUTSIDE BILLY’S HOUSE IN THE ALLEY WAY

Billy steps out of his house, walks round the corner into the alley.

LONG SHOT: EXT. TOP OF THE ALLEY WAY

Billy is walking to school on the phone to his mum.

BILLY

Why, where you going to be?

BILLY

Ok, so what time will you be home?

Billy

Oh ok then, maybe see you tomorrow then.

MUM hangs up the phone.

MEDIUM LONG SHOT: EXT ALLEY WAY

Billy is continuing to walk to school.

HARD CUT: INT. CLASSROOM

Billy runs in late and the teacher tells him off.

TEACHER

Late again Billy?

Billy puts his head down and walks to his seat.

HARD CUT: EXT: OUTSIDE CANTEEN

Billy is trying to push through the crowds.

HARD CUT: INT: UNDER THE STAIRS

Billy is looking at people walking by, he rings his mum.

BILLY

Mum, I feel ill can you come pick me up?

BILLY

But mum please, it’s horrible here.

MUM hangs up the phone.

CLOSE UP: Billy starts scratching at his wrist.

HARD CUT: EXT: QUAD

Billy is walking through the quad alone.

FREEZE FRAME: CLOSE UP ON BILLY’S FACE.

CUT TO CREDITS ON BLACK SCREEN.