Breaking Down the Process

So now that we have a script example for the Personal Experience assignment, let's break down the process of how I got there and why it works.

First and foremost, I started with a simple idea that interested me. What happened between 5:30 and 6 in room 521 in O-House. The incident is small, compact and most importantly, can be told in 2 pages. Time is told with the changing song lyrics on The Girl's I-Pod and the changing numbers on the alarm clock, allowing for large jumps between panels with little movement.


Next, I considered how I wanted to tell the story. The obvious answer would be to narrate the experience with caption boxes to give a blow by blow account of the incident. This would not have made for compelling storytelling however. Knowing that I was essentially telling a horror story, I thought about elements and storytelling generally associated therein. Hence, the audience experiences the story alongside the character rather than listening to her explain it.

Once this was decided upon, I started to write.

Generally, I work on scripts like I work on thumbnails. I make a series of broad ideas before going back and refining them. Here's what that translates to:

1. I start by laying out my major actions. Think of this as the cheat sheet for your script. It has everything you need to write on it and allows you to see before you start the script what isn't working.

1. Establishing shot of girl sleeping in dorm room. Everything normal.
2. Clock changes to 5:30
3. Girl opens eyes
4. Turns on Ipod
5. Girl tries to shut world out
6. Ghost opens eyes
7. Ghost hand on blanket
8. Ghost grabs headphone
9. Ghost whispers in girl's ear
10. Clock changes to 6am
11. Everything back to normal
12. Girl marks off another day on calendar

When starting out, it's common to "over panel" a page. Step one is an easy way to combat this as you can automatically see how much room each panel may need when they're crunched together like this. If you have too many BIG shots, things need to be moved around a bit...

1. Establishing shot of girl sleeping in dorm room. Everything normal. BIG
2. Clock changes to 5:30 SMALL
3. Girl opens eyes SMALL/MED
4. Turns on Ipod SMALL
5. Girl tries to shut world out MED
6. Ghost opens eyes MED

2. Assuming everything is sounding good, I break down the pages and panels:

Page One:
1. Establishing shot of girl sleeping in dorm room. Everything normal.
2. Clock changes to 5:30
3. Girl opens eyes
4. Turns on Ipod
5. Girl tries to shut world out
6. Ghost opens eyes
Page Two:
1. Ghost hand on blanket
2. Ghost grabs headphone
3. Ghost whispers in girl's ear
4. Clock changes to 6am
5. Everything back to normal
6. Girl marks off another day on calendar

3. Half the script is done. Now I start refining (aka the penciling stage of scripting). This involves replacing the short statements with panel descriptions and adding in dialogue/sfx.

4. I do one final pass through to make sure everything sounds right and for edits.

5. VIDEO GAMES!

All in all, the two page assignment took roughly 20 minutes or less because the idea was solidified long before it hit paper.

When writing your scripts, keep these things in mind:

1. Is it something I'm interested in? Would I want to read this story?
2. How can I tell this story? What makes the perspective it's told from unique?
3. Does it have a beginning, a middle and an end?
4. Does it meet the requirements for the assignment? Am I breaking the rules or bending them?

Good Luck tomorrow! See you Monday!