Inquiry:

We were all asked to find an example of a good screenplay and I originally found an example from the film Brick. I thought it is good example of a screenplay because it is a compelling mystery that is able to reveal parts of information whilst still making the end reveal impactful and surprising. The protagonist also changes throughout the film as he becomes more and more desperate to find out who killed his ex-girlfriend, so is willing to do worse things. The other person in my group originally chose a film that we could not find an example of the script for as it had only recently been released. We then both decided to do the opening of the Breakfast Club as a good example of a screenplay because it effectively introduces the audience to the characters, their personalities and the situation they are in, in a short time so they can start the film without having to explain the background of everything that is going on. It also tells the audience the general message of the film that you can’t judge a person’s character by assumptions and stereotypes. We thought it would be good to do rather the other options we had as the setting is in a school so we would be able to film it in the correct setting so it would make more sense to anyone who was watching it. We thought about changing the names of the locations mentioned in the monologue to match our location, however, we felt it would be better to keep it as it was as it would not make a big difference. Also, it only has a voice over rather than visual acting on a screen which was good for our group as neither of us wanted to act.  

BLANK SCREEN:
Against Black, TITLE CARD:
 "...and these children that you spit on,
 as they try to change their worlds are
 immune to your consultations.  They're
 quite aware of what they're going through...
 - David Bowie"

The Blank Screen and Title Card SHATTER to reveal...

1. EXT. SHERMER HIGH SCHOOL - DAY

During Brian's monologue, we see various views of
things
inside the school including Bender's locker.

 BRIAN (VO)
 Saturday...March 24, 1984.  Shermer
 High School, Shermer, Illinois.
 60062.  Dear Mr. Vernon...we accept
 the fact that we had to sacrifice a
 whole Saturday in detention for
 whatever it was that we did wrong,
 what we did was wrong.  But we think
 you're crazy to make us write this
 essay telling you who we think we
 are, what do you care?  You see us
 as you want to see us...in the
 simplest terms and the most
 convenient definitions.  You see us
 as a brain, an athlete, a basket
 case, a princess and a criminal.
 Correct?  That's the way we saw each
 other at seven o'clock this morning.
 We were brainwashed

Action:

M:\Students\Year 12\Ebony Parker

Reflection:

We remade the opening of the breakfast club. I do not think that it was very good or effective. We struggled to keep the camera steady as we were using our hands to hold the camera, so many of the shots were moving around a lot when we did not need it to. If we would do it again, we would put the camera on a secure surface. We also felt that we moved the camera too quickly which made it go out of focus and the effect of boredom and emptiness created in the film was not created in our scene due to the fast. movement. If we were to do it again, we would make sure all of the shots are stationary or have less movement. Also, a lot of our shots were very similar (lockers or a corridor) so we should have got more different shots of the school, so there is some variety, so it is more interesting. In addition, the script said to have an exterior shot of the school, but it was raining on the day that we filmed it, so we could not. Our sound was also recorded on a phone, so the quality wasn’t very good. It would have been better if we had recorded it using a microphone in the studio as in ours you can hear background noise of classrooms and people, which does not work as in the scene the school is meant to be empty. Also, the script said to do a shatter effect after the quote, but I did not know how to do a shatter effect, so I chose another one, but it looks worse. However, I do feel like having to edit the shots over the audio has improved my editing skills. I do feel like we worked well as a team to film it as both of us took it in turns to use the camera, however, we both did not know how long the audio was, so we were guessing how long our shots needed to be, meaning they were too short so I could not cut some of the shaky or out of focus parts out of it.  

I chose this script as it is a famous scene from a popular movie and contains interesting lines that were acted very well. It is at a vital part of the story and is quite important to the plot. We looked at a monologue from the film ‘Bronson’ and an action scene from ‘taxi driver’ as a group however we decided to use the Full Metal Jacket scene as it was more interesting and plausible. We had access to very good actors who were keen to create the short scene which helped greatly. Personally, I am glad we went with this script as I believe it is the best of the three and allowed us to show our full skill sets. This scene is at the end of the 1st half of this movie and leads to a traumatic and sad ending with murder and suicide. This scene being such an important part of the plot and the beginning of the climax of the first half was another reason why we chose this script. We thought it would be easier to show our skills with short lines and basic shots also.

Final edit

M:\Students\Year 12\Lawrence Bouchard\Film\full metal jacket

We used a different setting for this scene which ended up working well but was less effective than the original scene. We could have explored with different shots and maybe adapted the script dialogue but we kept with a similar sequence to the original script. We also used a toy gun in place of the M-14 rifle for obvious reasons. This added a humorous style to an otherwise tense and dramatic scene. Completely ignoring the fact that the ‘gun’ is harmless allowed us to stick to the original scene whilst maintaining the humorous idea. We stuck with the simple shot reverse shot style of this scene whilst adding an extreme close up to show reactions and adding dramatic effect. I liked the location we shot in as it was different to the original and allowed for some different shots with shadows and reflection in the mirror. I could have used some over the shoulder shots to make the scene flow better and give the audience a better sense of place of context as both characters are never actually shown in the same shot. When editing I dropped the temperature and placed a filter on each shot to make it appear similar to the original scene and used a similar eerie water droplet sound effect to add to the tension in this scene. I also used a mix of L and J cuts to further help the flow of this scene although the audio its self is awful and creates a bit of a stiff scene.

Similar shots from original scene and my piece, similar blue lighting, acting and camera shot/angle. Contrast with location, props (nurf gun), costume and shadows.

The Wolf Of Wall Street- Although it is adapted from the book, the witty dialogue and the struggle of Jordan going from the bottom to top.

https://www.whatisib.com/inquiry-based-learning.html

By the end of this week :

INQUIRY

Have chosen a section of an existing screenplay to adapt, located it on the IMSDB or other website and put it on the blog.

Made a post of 3-4 sentences to explain why you have chosen this screenplay i.e. what makes it an outstanding piece of screen writing in your opinion (use terms from narrative theory).

Have chosen other members of the class to work with and work out which screenplay choice would be best to film – make sure that if its different to your original choice that you put your new screenplay selection up on your blog.

ACTION:

Have filmed a section of an existing screenplay (remember that you can adapt dialogue, character, location and costume but you should try to retain the “essence” or point of the scene in terms of its function within the narrative)

Have edited this section using Premiere on a school desk top machine – remember to save your project to the V drive and check that your project settings match your scratch disk settings.

REFLECTION:

Have made a post where you reflect on the end product and its effectiveness and identify at least one thing that you’d do differently next time if you have to undertake an activity like this in future.