COM WEEK Post

Avery Semidey

Marc 27^th, 2017

COM WEEK Event

            This week I had the pleasure of the student showcase COM WEEK event which took place in Philips 120 on Tuesday evening. I won’t lie, I barely had time to attend. This past week was extremely busy for me. But, like my mother always tells me “When there’s a will, there’s a way.” So, I found the time. It wasn’t a very lengthy event, however, I was able to take a few things here and there from what was said. Two students presented scripts that they had spent countless hours preparing. I had trouble following the storyline of the first script. I believe it was more of an old western type of story, which took an unconventional approach to the relationship between protagonists and antagonists. I know that that’s not the most descriptive definition, but that’s what I took from the script. The second, however, I got a bit more from. Within this student’s script was a story that was set in a town overrun by zombies due to an outbreak of some made up disease. Despite, the fact that the town is being overrun by zombies, he focuses on the relationship of a mother and her son and the personal struggles they encounter.

            After the students presented their scripts, they discussed the important lessons they learned from their COM class. They also talked about the process they went through in writing their script. There is a 10 step process you must follow in order to properly devise a script. First you must come up with a story concept. Then, you must brainstorm your story concept and gather all your thoughts so that you may properly perform the next step: research. After researching, you then begin character development. Once you are through with developing your characters comes the toughest part about writing a script: coming up with a plot (according to these two students). Next on the agenda is outlining your story. After that, you should start your script diary. The script diary can be used for a variety of things. If you ever get lost in your thoughts, the script diary can help to keep you on track. Some people even use their script diary to talk to their characters, if they are ever feeling unsure about where the story should go. Yes, this definitely sounds crazy. However, I’m not an author. So, I wouldn’t understand the proper story making process. The final steps include creating your first draft, rewriting, and editing. It’s important that one gets their script reviewed by multiple people, so that they may detect and erase as many errors as possible.

            The last thing I recall from the event was a boy sharing a film he had created. It was a sci fi short film series about a boy traveling through time to save a doctor who can save the world. He also talked about what elements go into making a film and how expensive production can be.

I learned a lot about what it takes to create a script and a film. It truly is an expensive complicated, and time consuming process. You have to really have a love for the art to be successful in the field of media production.