Thursday 26 January 2012

1 INT. MY BEDROOM. DAY (15.33) 1

So, I've got a script to write, something three to five pages showing off an understanding of scriptwriting conventions and narrative structure, my own creative flair apparent within. I've decided to adapt from this piece I wrote, The Vote, precisely because as it stands it's terribly dull. 365tomorrows, the website it was written for, posts a new piece of flash fiction (a short short story no more than 600 words) every day, always about some potential future. It covers the whole range of sci-fi, from Star Wars style alien fantasy to the more believable Star Trekish hard sci-fi, to the more local social fiction of films like Moon and Gattaca, and TV shows like Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.

I mention Black Mirror because the problem I'll have is the same Mr Brooker had: In a piece where some new technology drives the story, how do you make it a story and not just an informercial for this technology? Episode Two, 15 Million Merits, was the best of the three perhaps because it didn't focus on the technology, more it just followed one rather likeable character who accepted everything we saw as science fiction as normal. Episode Three, The Entire History of You, which I considered the worst of the three, followed one slightly less likeable character who was himself obsessed with the Memory recording technology Brooker and co had invented. Best for me to learn from this and not draw attention to my sci-fi elements, instead just accept them as fact.

I'm looking at writing something that would be roughly four minutes long, while The Vote, the story I'm basing my script on, covers a period of time roughly thirty seconds in length, and most of it is spent describing to the audience how the PopularVote app works. Guys, it would be really boring to watch. So some serious changes are needed. To start with, I can't ever just explain how PopularVote works, it needs to be implied either through visuals or dialogue, and dialogue means a clearer idea of the characters. First thought is to have the main character, as yet unnamed but let's call him Tom, arguing with his friend Pete in the days leading up to the vote. It's mentioned in the story that the characters all decided to vote the same way no matter their personal opinion. Let's have that decision being made.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. Before I can write a script I need to know how scripts are written and to learn that, I need to read some. The BBC very kindly provide a nice selection of scripts on their Writer's Room website and the accompanying TV episodes on iPlayer. I like that Neil Gaimanesque mix of Urban Fantasy and Horror but I heard bad things about The Fades when it was first shown, so though I recorded it, I never got around to watching it. The script for the first episode is there so now I get to watch it and if it is bad, well.. doesn't matter, it's research. There's also the Sherlock season one episode The Blind Banker script up. One TV episode I watched first then read, one I read first then watched. Seems right. I'll be back in a few hours with some thoughts.

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