The Next Step - Planning

My group and I have begun planning out our project. After a long discussion with my group, we went over the various topics that we researched. Examples include costume design, the effects of drugs, character studies, color schemes, and the outline I had written yesterday. I got great feedback on it! My group specifically really liked the idea of using the montage after the opening scene to give context to the character's history and transformation. After discussing these topics, we came up with further details of the plot. The film will take place in the 1980's and takes place during the attempted return of the famous actor's career after being isolated for a long period of time. The interview from the opening scene is meant to promote his return to the big screen in an upcoming movie that he stars in. I'd say this plot-line takes influence from the movie Birdman (2014, dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu), which is about another washed up actor trying to revive his acting career through a theatre performance. We decided on having a manager character in the scene to boss the actor on what to say before the interview starts in order to tell the audience about this being the actor's last shot of being successful. We also want to arrange to see if we could get some extras (or in this case, some of our friends) on set when we film this interview scene to create a more busier feel to the situation.

The Screenplay

As pre-production starts in full as of this week, I will be focusing on writing the screenplay for the opening. I have never written a montage before while developing scripts, so before I begin the writing process, I decieded to search up online for an example of montage formatting. One of the first results was this handy website that had the information I needed. It turns out for a montage like the one I am writing, which takes place in multiple locations and different times of day, all I need to do is put the scene heading as  "MONTAGE - VARIOUS" instead of making multiple ones that scatter across the page. Under this slug line, I can list various parts of the montage in a much neater fashion. The sequences listed within a montage all include their own places, time, and description, meaning I am able to write it without making any technical compromises. Here is an example taken directly from the same online resource:

This was way simpler than I thought it would be, which thankfully will make my job easier. The content of the montage will still be difficult to develop as it is important for it to communicate across
pieces of exposition clearly to the audience in a cohesive manner. For this reason, I need to get started right away.

I will be using the online screenwriting service Celtx to create this script. Celtx is straightforward to use and I have had prior experience with it from earlier productions in class, making it my go to for the film opening. I'll make sure to get the first draft of the project finished within these upcoming days. Until next time!

Sources:

McDonnell, Megan, and Stuart Friedel. “How Do You Format a Montage in a Screenplay?” Screenwriting.Io, screenwriting.io/how-do-you-format-a-montage-in-a-screenplay/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2020.

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