My last final today was Writing for TV and Film, which happened to be my favorite class this semester. The final was extremely easy, see as we only had to do 6 things.
1) What is your life objective?
This question was particularly easy, the only tricky thing was how we had to word it. I simply stated: To create.
2) What are your obstacles?
For this question, I had to look deeper into myself to find what could hold me back from being able to accomplish my goal. I answered: Fear and Doubt.
3) How do obstacles help a character?
An odd question, but really quite simple when you think about it. If a character, being yourself, can overcome their obstacles (in my case fear and doubt), then they do in fact come out stronger and they are ready and able to fulfill their objectives.
4) In Egrian terms, write your moral premise.
Egri was the master of The Hero's Journey- the basic plot to every epic story ever told. Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, you name it, all movies follow this journey (which I'll talk about in another post). Along with the hero's journey, he explained how to write a moral premise. Basically, it's just cause and effect. To do this means this will be your outcome. My professor designed these questions so that 1, 2, and 4 would all flow together. For example, my answer was: To overcome fear and doubt is to achieve expressive freedom and limitless creations.
5) and 6)
Basically asked us to describe our rooms in static description and then describes ourselves as the character of the piece, with clear objectives, in active description. What is static description verses active, you ask? It's quite simple. You would use static description to describe something static, or unmoving.
The in the dark and dank, scents of mold and must linger deep within the walls. As seconds tick by, the room seems to close in on itself.
This is an example of static description, in the format of how you would write in in a screenplay. This just means you would use active verbs instead of passive (linger instead of are lingering), and in present tense in stead of past or future.
Active description is what you would use to describe something moving.
A girl darts through the room, her eyes swimming back and forth. Finally, they rest on a dust coated object. She smiles.
This is an example of active description. Full of verbs and direction. You can think of it kind of like stage direction in a stage play or musical.
So that was my final. Easy peasy if you ask me. I'm so excited for summer to start and for all the new experiences I'll have. Keep an eye out for more film facts and movie reviews!
