Senior Project Blog 16

I was completely dry of ideas for Act III and what happened after defined why I love writing; the random moments of ideas. There was no use in sitting in front of a blank page on a computer screen so I got up and went on with my day as usual. I was completing mundane household tasks such as washing the dishes and doing the laundry, but it was while I was vacuuming that a sudden idea popped into my mind. So then I immediately got back on my computer and managed to write 12 decent pages, and the rest I will be finishing tonight. I look forward to writing 'THE END' on this script.

Senior Project Blog 15

Mentoring Hours - 1 hour (11 hours so far)

I'm working on the climax of my script and I had to keep on brainstorming on different ways my main character Marissa could finally get the documents on the cargo ship so they could expose the government. I kept trying to avoid deus ex machina which is a tip my mentor gave me and one that I fully agree with because deus ex machina is taking the lazy way out. The first 30 minutes with my mentor was going over the first half of what I had written for ACT III. We talked about my idea of cutting down the script which I'm hesitant about because I tend to get attached to what I write and all the hard work I had put on all those pages seems like a waste, but it's something he told me to think further about. The other 30 minutes he was telling me about the movie industry (what it takes to make it as a writer, what the industry is like, ect) and he was giving me career advice that he will later expand even more on.

Senior Project Blog 14

I tried to write the first page of Act III today (I have written several pages of the first page) because I suddenly lost inspiration so I watched some Twilight Zone episodes which have been my main source of inspiration for the plot of this script. It started to make me think about maybe cutting the script down to 45 minutes because when I read over all that I have worked on today it somehow started to give me the feeling that cutting down the script from one hour to 40-45 minutes would make it better. This is something that I will have to think deeply about further and discuss with my mentor.

Senior Project Blog 13

Date of Mentoring: January 13 and 14
Time spent - both days equaled to four hours
Total hours - 10 hours of mentoring

I finally finished writing Act II and throughout writing it I kept having to keep checking that I'm not going over the amount of pages we had planned for this Act because I was especially afraid of dragging the story. Me and my mentor had edited Act II and it took us a long time, we had cut some characters out, rewrote some scenes, ect ... There were times during the editing when It was a lot of work, but at the end of editing it, I have a pretty good idea about what goes on in Act III which I have to finish by next Sunday. I'm really proud of myself that I had kept up with my writing schedule and not have procrastinated (that much)

Senior Project Blog 12

I went back to Act I and deleted/added scenes. Everyday I look forward to writing my script because I enjoy it immensely. Lately I have had a lot of new ideas and new ways of doing a scene. While I was writing I was able to apply this technique my mentor suggested that would make it so I have a one time limit of changing a scene and for any other time I was to change the scene, I would have to wait until the whole script is written. I spend a lot of time figuring out ways I could develop the characters and it's been amazing to watch some of the characters grow right in front of you. I'm about 10 pages from finishing Act II. In the beginning I thought it would be difficult to write 30 - 40 pages in one week, but it's actually really doable.

Senior Project Blog 11

While I was writing Act II, I kept switching from scene to scene and I kept coming up with new ideas so I felt sort of disorganized in the middle. I wrote the first 10 pages of Act II and I feel like I'm not making the scenes flow from scene to scene. When I write short stories I usually lose interest midway, but I'm glad that with this script I'm still pretty interested in the story. There had been times when I would work on the script for such a long time that I burn myself out, but I remember to take breaks now and then and not to force creativity. My main character is developing quite well, but my supporting characters need work. I can already tell Act II is going to be very difficult since this one is 30-40 pages long.

Senior Project Mentoring Blog 10

Date of Mentoring: January 15 2011
Time Spent: 2 hours
Total Time: 33 hours (6 hours mentoring so far)

Action: - I was mentored

Next Action: write Act II of my script.

How am I doing?: While I was writing I decided that instead of making a feature length movie script, I would instead write an hour script. I finished 20 pages which is ACT I and my mentor read over it and we both edited it since there was a LOT of things that needed to be changed (ex. inconsistencies) Me and my mentor went over how to write the action portion of the script better since I wrote too much details. I discovered that I am pretty good at writing dialogue, although I still have a lot to improve on. I am happy that ACT I is over with for now and I can continue on.

Senior Project Blog 9

I have spent the past few days starting to write Act I of my script. I need to have about 30 pages done by tomorrow. I have to say I've been pretty good about not trying to perfect everything, but it was hard for me to keep writing even though I know I could have written the previous dialogue better, but if I keep doing that then I'll never get anywhere and I won't reach my 30 pages. Since I planned before hand the events in Act I, I'm not worrying about running out of ideas for now. I got really excited when I wrote the first page because I was satisfied with what I wrote and how I introduced my main character.

Senior Project Mentoring Blog 8

Date of Mentoring: January 11 2011
Time Spent: 2 hours
Total Time: 31 hours

Action: - I was mentored

Next Action: write my script

How am I doing?: We decided to work on the script today because I've been getting really excited to start it and I have sketched out the events I want happening throughout the script already. Edward then taught me about the three act structure of movie scripts which was the most used structure to write a script. It was fairly simple to understand and I'm confident that I'll be able to do it right. The first entire hour was working on creating an outline for the story. The second hour he taught me more about how to write whether the scene takes indoors, outdoors, where it is, what time of the day, ect. Then he briefly went over how I should cut out words that aren't necessary, how to make sure I don't add in characters that don't contribute to the flow of the story. I also learned about not including in camera shots because that's the director's job which previously I thought I had to do. After the mentoring he gave me links to movie scripts online to familiarize myself with how its written and the next time he mentors me I should have a rough draft of all that's taking place in Act I. The biggest challenge I think I'll face is trying not to perfect a rough draft which is another one of my many bad writing habits.

Senior Project Mentoring Blog 7

Date of Mentoring: January 10 2011
Time Spent: 2 hours
Total Time: 29 hours

Action: - I started with the mentoring portion of senior project with my mentor Edward.

Next Action (what and when) - He will be mentoring me again on Friday January 14 and this time we will talk about outlining (structuring) the story.

I was really excited since this is the first time I had ever met someone who has experience in screenwriting. We sat down and immediately started talking about what my idea for the script is. Since my one on one time with him is fairly limited, we are putting a huge emphasis on the story itself and putting the worries about things he'll teach me later on like how INT. means indoors and EXT. means outdoors (format) I had an idea about what my script was going to be about so we spent almost the entire two hours brainstorming and developing the story further, with some breaks from time to time. At the end, I had a clearer view of my story, but we didn't try to figure out everything now. This is Edward's tip because he told me that if I try to figure out everything that happens to the characters now, I'll burn myself out and eventually lose interest in them and then the story, which has happened a lot whenever I write short stories.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 6

Date of Service: October 29th 2010
Time Spent: 5 hours
Total Time: 27 hours

Action: - Hamlet production in Alcatraz. -checked in the audience. - led audience throughout the play.

Next Action (what and when) - I'm done.

How am I doing? I have mixed feelings since today is the last time I'm volunteering. I'm both sad and excited since I had finished all my hours. This was definitely a great experience, it made me think about freedom and justice, meet new people, did something outside my comfort zone and I got to see Hamlet on ALCATRAZ. I did what I usually had done which was check in the audience and lead them throughout the play.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 5

Date of Service: November 4th 2010
Time Spent: 5 hours
Total Time: 22 hours

Action: -booked people on the upcoming shows.

Next action (what and when): I am going to volunteer for the last time on November 13th.

How am I doing? My supervisor didn't need any more volunteers, so I had helped her by booking people for the upcoming shows. I mostly had to rebook audience members because of the canceled October 24th show. I had to make sure it was the same amount for the next show then after that I had to go to a specific site and book them. It was definitely a very tedious process especially since I had worked on it for hours, but in the end it was successful. I have huge respect for my supervisor because she had to do that a lot.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 4

Date of Service: October 29th 2010
Time Spent: 5 hours
Total Time: 17 hours

Action: - Hamlet production in Alcatraz. -checked in the audience. - led audience throughout the play.

Next Action (what and when) - I am not exactly sure, but I had sent an email to the lead audience guide with the dates I can volunteer.

How am I doing? There were a lot of volunteers today and an even bigger audience, the biggest audience I had seen so far. I wasn't needed to count the audience in and out of designated areas, so I mostly led them throughout the island and answered questions that they had. I had also helped set up chairs during the part of the play where the Players were reenacting the murder of Hamlet's father. I was a little bit tired of seeing the play this many times, but it really did make me think about the prisoners, redemption and justice.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 3

Date of Service: October 24th 2010
Time Spent:2 hours
Total Time: 12 hours

Action: - Hamlet production in Alcatraz. -checked in the audience.

Next Action (what and when) - I will be volunteering again on the 29th.

How am I doing? The previous days have been raining pretty hard, but I still went to pier 33 since I didn't get a call that it was going to be canceled. It was drizzling a little bit, but I didn't expect that it was going to be raining as hard as it was going to rain later. I had gone to the shop next to pier 33 and met two other volunteers, a woman and a Berkeley student. I'm starting to see that this project is more than just helping the production, it's also meeting people you usually won't meet. Today I had discovered that I love socializing with new people. When we went to check in the audience it was raining even harder and the lead audience guides didn't know whether the show would still be continued, but we decided to wait it out. Half an hour later they had announced that today's show was canceled.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 2

Date of Service: October 3rd 2010
Time Spent: 5 hours
Total Time: 10 hours

Action: - Hamlet production in Alcatraz. -counted the audience when we entered designated areas to make sure regular park visitors don't get in.

Next Action (what and when) - I will be fulfilling the same duties on October 24th.

How am I doing? When I arrived at Pier 33, I helped checked in the audience by giving them their stash. I was also more aware about what I should tell the audience when they checked in like that food is not allowed on the island, to use the restroom before we get off the boat and where they should go when they in the boat. We got on the boat and headed for Alcatraz. As usual the play started on the second floor when we got to Alcatraz. I had to stay near the lead audience guides so I can easily go to the gates that leads to the designated areas, in advance, and for them to remind me where it is. I had already memorized some of the areas that I had to be at. Today I was more tired than yesterday, but the play was still amazing. Meeting the other volunteers was an interesting experience and introducing myself to others made me less shy.

Senior Project Volunteer Entry # 1

Date of Service: October 2nd 2010
Time Spent: 5 hours
Total Time: 5 hours

Action: - Hamlet production in Alcatraz. -assisted in leading the audience throughout Alcatraz. -counted the audience when we entered designated areas to make sure regular park visitors don't get in.

Next Action (what and when) - The next day I will fulfill the same duties as today.

How am I doing? I went to training last Saturday and today was the first day I volunteered. It was a bit of a challenge since it was the first show and the lead audience guides were still trying to figure out the best way to lead the audience throughout the areas in Alcatraz. It was slightly physically challenging because the we had to walk at a little over a mile, but it was worth it. I had to be ahead of the audience at the entrance gates to the designated areas to count them and to make sure that I can see their audience bracelets. Everyone was cooperative and it wasn't such a big audience group so today was a success for the first show.