Styles of scripts

Scripts
Film/TV	Theatre	Radio
Typically more professional looking	Dialogue heavy	Mainly speak with the occasional direction
Contains more description and less dialogue	Contains staging directions	Similar to long monologues
Designed for cameras	Designed for an audience	Designed for a listening audience
Active/Passive audience	Active/Passive audience	Passive audience
More professional ordered layout	Basic layout	Blocked layout of text
Has emotion embedded into the speech (depressingly)	Contains lazy dialogue such as 'urgh'	Normally read in one take
Shorter scenes	Longer scenes	Varieing scenes
Linear or non-linear	Occasionally non-linear	Normally a linear structure
Normally one main protagonist/antagonist	Sometimes more than one protagonist/antagonist	Mainly one protagonist
Restricting character movement	More free with character movement	No character movement
Greater non-diagetic sounds	Mainly diagetic sounds	Normally completely diagetic sounds

National theatre visit

We were privileged to have a women from the national theatre script division to come and give us extra insight into writing a interesting drama script.

We were involved in numerous activities such as:

Picking a picture then creating a story and life around the person in there.

Creating 3 character profiles or made up people.

Writing a brief script introducing the stories situation and the protagonist.

I think the insight and help we received from the national theatre lady, Debra? was extremely useful and helped in many aspects of the creation of my script.

Future of script?

If my play was made into an actual production

Lighting:

Would be used to create rooms and distance between characters.

Set

Little set as I would want the audience to visual the scenery which would assist them into becoming more engaged with the plot/play.

Sound

Opening and ending music would be used then possibly the use of sound bridges between scenes to show a transition alongside the lighting changes, for example flashback and flash-forward noises to show a change in time/atmosphere.

First lesson notes

Where is ‘news’ normally heard/seen?

Types of media such as television news channels, radio, newspapers, magazines, social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Political views that have affected your life:

I think every political view has affected my life in one way or another little or big, one example at the moment is through education.

Social issues

Depression

Disabilities

Pregnancy

Alcohol

Drugs

Who has the power in England?

The government and the media

Initial Ideas and thoughts into the narrative

Introduction to the script unit

Different story plots I could look in to:

1. School kids and their lives
2. Story based around a girl waiting for someone in hospital
3. A teacher with alcoholic issues, child helps her through it

I thought carefully through these three initial ideas before coming to a conclusion on idea 2 as I thought it was the most suitable for a stage production as the others were too cliché or too film like.

Where is your story going to be set?

Modern day

How long will your script run for?

I plan on making it non-linear with flashbacks but the present day will take place over several hours.

What structure is the narrative going to be in?

I plan on including flashbacks into my script making the narrative structure linear with short scenes and in a format like ‘Present, past, present, past, present, past, present’.

Where is your play going to be set?

My play is going to be mainly set in a hospital waiting room.

What key plots are going to happen in your story?

The protagonist has three flashbacks into the worst pasts of her past:
Her dog getting hit by a car
Her auntie having alcoholic issues
Her best friend trying to kill her
Her issues with her Dad being ‘resolved’
What are going to be the main themes and issues in your story?

Family and relationship issues

Who is telling the story?

The viewpoint of the story is through the eyes of the protagonist ‘Fiona’.

Who is in your story?
Fiona (The protagonist)
Brain (Fiona’s father)
Auntie Gina (Fiona’s auntie)
Doctor Albert (The doctor looking after auntie Gina)
Young Fiona
George
Uncle Thomas

Why’re you writing this story?

I wanted to write a challenging script, although the experiences addressed in the play are not anything I have ever came close to experiencing through research and comments about the issues I wrote about I believe I gave a pretty good interruption of the situations.

First draft of the structure of the narrative

The first scene will introduce Fiona as a main character and also create enigma for the audience as to the type of relationship she has with her father and why that is. This will also address the overview situation the story is based around; that Auntie Gina is in hospital and Fiona is waiting for her.

Why're you basing it on this theme?

I feel this theme is very sensitive and will therefore impact the audience greater, also the experiences in my script would be quite the challenge to write confidently.

Review – First Draft

My script, Room 56 is based of extensive research. I wanted to make a huge impacted on the audience and ensuring they are left thinking about the messages and values, morals and concept of the play, so I did this by using a set of tools in the narrative structure such as time, creating strong enigma and relatable characters the audience could empathise with, these three points are what is going to make it powerful, detailed and engaging for the audience.

Development is something that can also be done to any aspect of a script, in my case being the first draft, development would be a massive improvement, and feedback would be the most effective way of understanding what type of development is needed. At the moment though there are a few development points which are clear and I will use to change the first draft of my script, an example of this is dialogue, although I want the speech to be short, meaningful and to the point, I also need to remember and consider that this is a performance and not a story, the audience needs to feel engaged and part of the play. Another example of an area of improvement is the narrative structure, which can be changed to implicate various other storyline for other characters; also I aim to improve areas of my text where a wide range of dramatic techniques and devices could be used if Room 56 was performed on a stage.

A clear example of how my development could take place in my first draft of the script is in the dialogue ‘Don’t you dare call me that.’ Which could be made into a longer more descriptive line with dramatic pauses and enigmatic anecdotes. I think this would make the audience engage more into the character of ‘Fiona’ as her traits will be seen through the things she says.

In my final piece I would like to achieve audience satisfaction, enabling the audience to feel a connection with the narrative and characters, and most importantly the themes addressed in the story. I would also aim to ensure the characters; sub slots and enigmatic pieces of the story are concluded in a thorough way.

Staging was considered mainly whilst writing my script as I pictured where each line could be performed, in what context and parallel with the lighting and possible music, an example of which is the narrative lines Fiona says at the beginning of the script, a spotlight could be used as she stands of high staging. Staging would be used alongside lighting to create different scenes, such as lighting half the stage for the hospital room and the other half as the flashbacks whilst the middle could be used for the narrative whilst the scenes are constructed either side in the dark of the stage.

In conclusion look forward to completing my script fulfilling the targets and challenges I have set for myself whilst also learning more about the issues in the story and working hard in character development.

First Draft of Dance

Stimulus:  The fear of having no escape and being in closed or small spaces or rooms (claustrophobia)

This first draft I thought went really well and with the feedback from the class managed to help me for the final filming, feedback on the lighting, mise en scene and clothing were all given to make the performance more effective the second filming.

Three main ways of improvement:

1)

Clothing, my dancers clothing was unprofessional and didn't fit well with the theme and structure of the song.

To improve this I could have him in more plain clothes and a colour which reflects the stimulus of the dance. Such as black.

2)

Mise en scene, the area he is dancing in has boxing and 'garage equipment' in, something which some would suggest takes the mood away from the original concept of the dance.

A way in which I could improve is to base the dance in a more plain, tight space (keeping with the stimulus), but a way around this was to use darkness and lights facing towards the dancer to make the scenery less of an object and ensure the dancer is the main attention point, also the lights would add to the claustophobic feel of the dance.

3)

The lighting could be changed as it's almost high contrast and draws too much attention to the less important areas such as the 'garage equipment'.

Improve to this issue could be the use of lights facing inward towards the actor which the garage main lights were off, this not only would hopefully look better and reflect the stimulus but would also be quite the challenge to work in the darkness.