Storytelling Unit - Critical Evaluation

This unit has taught me a lot about many different aspects of storytelling through the process of workshops, lectures, practical work and independent research. The main outcome by the end of the project was to be able to produce a 10-page screenplay, film the first 2 minutes of the screenplay and have evidence of a continuous blog showing posts throughout the unit of how we got to the completed product.

With the story being about 2 people meeting, I decided to base mine on 2 characters having an affair. After developing my characters further and coming up with a rough storyline I presented a 25-word pitch to the class and explained what I was aiming to do which created intrigue and showed that I had something worth working on. I then attended lectures on how to write a screenplay including what makes one compelling and how they are laid out and formatted. In between these, I was also attending editing workshops to learn about the program Adobe Premiere Pro and how to make a film look professional when editing it together. After going out and filming, redrafting my script to its 3rd state and researching throughout the project, I had a final piece of work to hand in.

The main thing I loved about the project was the editing side of things. I believe after getting to grips with the software and spending time compiling clips together, It was very rewarding when I got to see the final piece of work and what I had achieved. I also loved going out on shoot and filming as it went very smoothly due to my preparation of visiting locations beforehand, creating schedules and compiling a shot list.

With the film, there were a few things that I wish could have gone better. Once I had shot the film and started editing I realized that some of the clips were blurry and out of focus. Although this is usually down to the person on camera I should have checked the footage before moving on. One shot was also speckled where the lens had got dirty so I will make sure on future projects that I wipe the lens clean and to check footage as I go along.


In regards to the script I struggled a few times to come up with idea's and lost where the story was going but when I sat and focused I managed to get a rough first draft done in a few days. Once this was completed I submitted it to Steve and he gave me some constructive notes. The characters didn't work as their personalities changed half way through. This was done on purpose as I was trying to reveal hidden and complex layers but since it was a short story the change was too quick and didn't work so I had to keep the characters the same and more simplistic. After 2 more drafts I believe the characters made more sense and I added more details from Steve's notes. Although I found this to be the least enjoyable about the unit I still tried my best to my ability to create a finalised screenplay.

In regards to research, I believe I did this well in order to make sure I was well prepared to understand the aim of the unit but I would like to have expanded it more and pushed myself into further research if I had more time to do so.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of this unit and I am happy with the blog and the final pieces of work I have submitted. Most importantly I have learnt a lot and have gained an insight on how to improve for future units and will surely put this into practice.