Day 4 – What I learned …

[Isti Madarasz]

This scene is a masterful introduction to a previously unknown world, as it was the opening few minutes of a brand new TV series. We don’t know the characters, we don’t know what they’re up to – and we’re given information about them without them saying a word. This is the elevated school of “show don’t tell”. Every detail reveals something about the story, while also leaving us with questions. It makes us not even think about turning off the channel and immediately draws us into the events. As we are caught in the middle of the action, it is up to us to make sense of it while everything is chaotic: the chase, the dead bodies, the gas mask, the chemicals… the underpants??? If you’re not curious to see how the story continues after that – it’s really not worth watching, so in that respect this was a perfect opening episode.

What I learned that it is worth giving visual cues instead of exhausting and lengthy verbal exposure.

[Deb Johnson]

What I learned rewriting my scene…

Many things have changed in my screenplay since I started this class.

One of the big changes is that I decided to change key aspects of the story to make it low-budget.

This was a major shift and I had to re-write the underlying narrative of the story.

I rewrote my opening scene based on the skills I learned from the opening scene of “Breaking Bad.” I used visual reveals to create tension, intrigue, and engagement.