October 8, 2015
I have begun to lay out the schedule by putting dates on the calendar. I’m spreading it out a lot because I’m assuming I won’t have time to do it because I will be busy. Even then, I’m not sure I will be able to get to working on the project. I’m a little afraid because when I plotted it on the calendar, we weren’t reaching the time frame I was hoping. I was thinking we would get to filming around November, but that wouldn’t leave us an adequate enough time to do pre- production. Based on the calendar, we will be shooting for some time to film in late December (during Christmas Break) or January. I wanted to be in post production in January.
I don’t think we will be able to finish in the original time frame: before the evidence checks.* I’m wondering when the physical project needs to be complete. April 21st is the showcase and I think we can hold to that. Then again, with my latest Convergence Media story (the one about cosplay), I’ve realized how hard it is to estimate the time it takes to do post production. I’m going to want a lot of time to be methodical especially if it’s going to be seven minutes long. If I start post in February, I maybe can finish in late March. I think I should try to put a deadline at about April 13th (or whenever the Student Media Festival is.)
October 11, 2015
I’m meeting with Jack today to discuss the story, the timeline, and maybe a bit about production and crew members. We are already behind our schedule because we were supposed to meet yesterday and I was supposed to start writing the screenplay today. I’ve already begun putting down a scene I’ve had in my head for a while. Here’s what I have so far:
INT. SHERMAN LABS - NIGHT
Monty yelps as a lightning bolt flings from his fingers as he touches the beaker. The chemical spills all over the floor.
Maddox leaps back in surprise.
MADDOX
What was that?
Monty shakes his hand furiously, waving away the pain and smoke.
MONTY
Side effects.
MADDOX
Side ef-. Was that lightning?!
MONTY
It was just a violent transfer of electrons. Don't worry so much. I'm fine.
MADDOX
Monty... I don't know about...
I’m a little worried because it’s not looking so good on paper. I’ve been having some serious doubts about the story line. I wonder if the main character’s goal, getting into a prestigious college, is enough to drive the story forward without forcing it. The current logline is:
“Driven by the anxiety to get into a highly competitive college, a young prodigy creates a potent serum enhancing his productivity by bestowing him with supernatural abilities.”
To reach his goal, we thought he should have lots of extracurricular activities he needs to go to. If he drops out of any of them, the college won’t accept him. I think the problem resides in why he wants to be a part of his extracurricular activities. I don’t think “the college won’t let him in if he drops out of them” is enough stakes. Maybe he needs a serious reason to get into the college? It might help if we make it a club instead. A science society?
In terms of more technical things, I’m in a bit of a conflict for what software to write in. It’s between Celtx and Adobe Story. I love writing in Adobe Story. It feels a lot more professional and it has more tools. Plus, I have the paid for version so I get all of the production tools too. I can work on it online and offline, so virtually on any computer. It’s easier to write in (I wrote Legend of Captain Hero with with) and it’s more project oriented. The downside is, Jack will have the free version, so he may be missing some features. We can have separate accounts and collaborate, but I’ve never tried it before. Jack would also have to learn another software
Celtx is good for collaborative purposes. I have the free version and Jack does too. We can collaborate seamlessly. Jack has the most experience with it. It has a mobile apps so we can work on it with our phones. I wrote the excerpt of the script with this software.
After talking it through, I think I’m going to go with Adobe Story and teach Jack how to use it. I’m going to be the main one writing the script anyway, it seems like the best option. I’ll tell him in the meeting tonight.
*to monitor the progress of sophomore projects, teachers would have “evidence checks”