Film Planning: Script (First Draft)

 Now that I have an official cast my next step is making a draft of the script. I already have a brief overview of how I want the first scene to go. I'm sticking to to the traditional scenes of a coming of age film so the first scene starts with Alejandra being awoken by her alarm. By creating a draft of the soon to be official script I'll be able to analyze my thoughts and visualize the film better. 

Research

This is my first time making a movie film let alone writing a script so I definetly searched the internet for resources to help me. While I am no master, youtube videos were a big help on how to format certain cuts and dialogue in the script. 

Source: How to write a script

Sure, I knew a script was a major part of a movie, but I wasn't aware of how much planning went into it. Because, yeah, you could have a rough idea of how you want your film to go, but when you put it on paper, the ideas seem so scattered and need adjustments. For example, something new I learned was that 'O.S' stands for 'Off Screen', which calls for a voiceover as the character is not present in the scene but still has dialogue. 

First draft of my script

   While this is only my first script, as I said, the only issue I faced was writing my ideas down while making a conscious effort to use my time effectively and not go overboard. The coming-of-age genre, with the films I researched, often has dialogue within the first 30 seconds, so I had to develop the plot while also including it.

 While this is only the opening, I want to establish the characters and their connection right off the bat. For example, by having Arianna call Alejadra 'Ale', viewers can easily pick up on the fact that they're close friends. Viewers also have some sense of how the girls share different personalities as well.

   I have a good idea of where I want the plot to develop from here and how to end my 2-minutes however, I know I can't develop the plot too rapidly. This is only my first draft, so the story could be tweaked further.

  My next step is to find props for my film as they make a big part of a film. I'm going to be focusing my search on Alejandra's morning routine. This includes makeup, the alarm clock, a backpack, and other things I think would fit best within the first 30 seconds.

Conclusion

I have a lot more research to do in terms of how other coming-of-age films start. I'm going to do a personal survey to see other people's personal favorite coming-of-age films. With this research, I'll look further into the opening 2 minutes of those films and try to think of recurring themes.