10 Page Drama Script Mind Map and Initial Ideas

10 Page Drama Script Mind Map and Initial Ideas

When coming up with the idea for my 10-page drama screenplay, I wrote down the ideas that popped into my head. I struggled to come up with three ideas so I decided to watch various short films, use a story generator, and research drama screenplays. Through doing this, I was able to come up with more ideas whilst also developing/thinking about how I could develop the ideas that I already had. Out of the ideas that I had written down, I selected a few that I thought I could potentially develop. In order to understand how to write a pitch, I took part in a workshop with the screenwriter, Jane Marlow. In this workshop, we were tasked with coming up with two ideas for two screenplays, developing these ideas, and then forming them into two pitches. Through doing this, I was more confident in understanding how to pitch a screenplay/come up with a log line and how to develop my ideas further (e.g. defining each character, adding a twist, thinking about a character's response). I used what I had learnt from the workshop to come up with three pitches for the ideas that I thought that I could potentially develop further. I then pitched these ideas to my group who chose pitch number three as that was the one that most appealed to them. I felt as though I could develop pitch number one further than I could with any of the other pitches so asked for the input of the course leader, Mike. Mike advised that I could work on two screenplays at once if I wanted to and to do the idea that I felt I could develop further. Based upon this advice, I went with pitch number one. 

Pitch One: An elderly woman suffering from dementia and struggling with day-to-day life finds that her husband is late for dinner, discovering he's not where she thought he would be.

Pitch Two: A son and mother haven't spoken for years until he finds out that she has terminal cancer, forcing him to reconnect with his past.

Pitch Three: A middle aged man discovers a live skeleton in his closet. The skeleton will not leave his side until he reflects upon his past actions.

Mind Map of Initial Ideas

For research, I looked at films based around dementia, grief, loss and love. As well as short films, I also watched the film Iris (Iris, 2001). Iris is a biographical film based upon the life of the author, Iris Murdoch. It depicts her life living with alzheimers and, flicks back and forth between her past and present. Watching Iris enabled me to think and develop ideas for and about my screenplay further. For example, thinking about characterisation and behaviour of the main character.  

Mind Map of Ideas I Got from Watching the Film Iris

In order to get a better understanding of who my characters were as people, I wrote a small character profile on each, whether or not they appeared in the screenplay. 

Initial Character Profiles

In a later workshop with Jane Marlow, we checked in with her with regards to where we were at with our screenplay. Through this workshop, Jane helped me in shifting my main focus to be the main character  her struggle with dementia and trying to find her husband rather than focusing on her struggle getting up the stairs. She helped me to move away from the supernatural and keeping it realistic so that the audience can hold a greater sense of empathy. As a result, I ensured that the husband would not appear  as a ghost-like figure at the end of the film but rather keep him off screen. Jane's feedback also enabled me to bulk out my screenplay by thinking about other occurrences that could happen on her journey such as, where else in the house she could go and what could happen in those places and whether something or someone could trigger various memories.

Whilst writing the screenplay, I got somewhat stuck in thinking about how to add more in order to increase the volume of the screenplay. To combat this, my peer (Heather Wallbanks) and I reflected upon our screenplays and gave each other feedback. As a result of this feedback, I was able to add more to and develop my screenplay by doing things such as, inputting stage directions and transitions as well as referencing the main character's (Dorothy's) husband (Brian) more so that the audience are reminded she is looking for him.

Bibliography:

Iris (2001) Directed by Eyre, R. [DVD] London: BBC Films.