By: NATHANIEL ROBINSON
Staff Writer
A huge part of what makes up a movie or any form of hosted video media is scriptwriting, but I feel like it’s also one of the most underappreciated parts. There’s so much that has to go into creating a scripted idea that is 1.) doable and cohesive and 2.) entertaining. In my years in the CTVA academy, I’ve come to enjoy writing quite a lot; however, it’s still so complicated.
The limitations of being a student filmmaker are awful when you have ideas too big. Unless you’re shooting your senior project, there’s no funding that goes into your projects. This means that aside from cameras and some studio equipment, you’re on your own. This isn’t to even mention the horrors of writing dialogue. Dialogue in your script can really make or break it. If you do it right, your film is believable. If you do it wrong, your film is unrealistic or silly. That’s not to say that bad dialogue ruins a film, but for more analytical viewers it definitely takes them out of the immersion.
Being inexperienced in film writing, it’s difficult to find your footing. It can be very stressful because the rest of your crew is waiting on YOUR story to be complete before you can even film it. I had to write a script for a film competition this year, and while I wrote the gist of the script in about 2 days (with it being a short film) it was still stressful. Even after I had the script completed, there was the worry of it being unshootable, or there being plot holes on continuity errors throughout it.
Despite all of this, I think that scriptwriting is amazing. It allows for a lot of creative expression and lets you draw from all different kinds of sources. It can be your own life, someone else’s, or some random idea you’ve had. When you start to understand the rules, you’re able to really see your improvement because you know what you’re doing. Scriptwriting is one of those things where you can REALLY tell when you’re getting better at it too. I’m excited to see how much I improve senior year.