Rebecca Barrett - TV Production blog

A lot of my inspirations and reference points writing the script came from other big Fantasy films and TV shows such as Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones and The Witcher. The world for each of these properties is rich and I really wanted to capture that with my writing. As I began writing for my initial concept/idea, I decided to make one clear rule for myself, no plot armor. In nearly all films that I can think of, main characters tend to make plot armor, a device used by writers to well, protect their characters in order to advance the plot. While this may make a believable moment where the character gets up from a fight, it does also create moments that aren't so believable. An example is from Game of Thrones from season 8, 'Battle of Winterfell when the Wights have broken into the castle and have Sam, Jamie, Brienne and Podrick pinned down and surrounded. If these were any other characters (not part of the main cast) they then would most likely be dead. So, I d

For this project, it was much more stressful to write as I was originally planning to write a six-episode series at about 30 pages (roughly 30 minutes each) per episode. But, I soon realized that I didn't have the writing power of the ability to stretch out this idea to six episodes when had only gotten to the second episode. So, because of this, I reached out to my university teacher to change to a feature-length script, something that I found much easier to write to as I only to write 60 pages rather than 180. Strengths: I feel that my strengths in my writing came from my descriptions of both the characters and the environment, I was able to create a world where the reader could step in and feel like they knew it. I knew from films like Lord of the Rings, that you want a world where the audience could feel as if they belonged in that environment, even if it was their first time watching the film, it's a great first impression on the viewer. My other strength as my character w

Writer's Statement Strapline: 'Only you can fight against your demons' Logline: The Chosen One of Andaras is thrown into a battle she didn't want, where she can choose to either fight and save her home, or fall victim to the dark forces against her. SYNOPSIS  A Fantasy feature film that follows a group of warriors, Kato Yua, Natalie, Ethlyn and Jang Ae-Yong following the destruction of their home, and the kidnapping of the Chosen One and the Protector of the Realm, Aria. Yua, Natalie, Ethlyn and Ae-Yong reunite months later to discover what caused the attack on their home, as well as the fate of the Chosen One and the Realm, as well as finding a way to defeat the Shadow Lord, a powerful being that as sealed away thousands of years ago, ith the singular goal of destroying Andaras and killing Aria. VISION  For me, this story, while it may look on the surface to be a typical good vs bad, it goes deeper than that. I decided to create this as a story of portraying mental he

A screenplay, which more often that not, is a blueprint and guide for the making of a film, which can an also "...be referred to as making the screenwriter a film’s most valuable—and often underappreciated—player" (Richards, 2010) As a writer, it isn't as simple as just sitting down and writing just once. You will constantly be revising your work, editing drafts and more. After all, if you want a producer or studio to take on your script, then it will need to look to the industry standard. In 'Writing Screenplays that Sell', the author, Michael Hauge explains that "The screenwriter must elicit emotion in the person who reads the screenplay..." (Hauge, 2011). The phrase of 'show not tell' comes to mind, as you want to convey the characters, not just in words, but also in their actions and tones, that you, as a writer, give them in order to bring them to life. That way, your audience may be more invested in your characters, and it may help you

I find a lot of pre-production difficult; having never written treatments for anything, I didn’t know the amount of detail that needed to go into the, nor the length that as needed for each episode. In the end, I mapped out the episodes in my mind and then rote as much as I could for each episode. I wanted to have these first series have a full storyline and then having a later season take a new storyline. I decided to make the series only five episodes as I wanted to make the story detailed, but not add any more episodes and just fill it in with nothing that would add to the plot. Another thing I really struggled w ith, was actually writing the actual script. I feel a lot of it was a combination of stress from everything going on, writer’s block, and finding it a lot harder to write 60 pages than I thought it would be. However, I am proud of the characters I am creating and developing throughout this script. One part of the unit that I did enjoy was choosing the ideal people to c

The Illusion of Truth Pitch

The Illusion of Truth proposal

Characters For my characters, I decided to have character whose personalities are similar, but also different, so, here as to character s could both be introverted, one could also be very prideful and determined, while another could be quite stubborn and stern if she needs to be. This makes sure that the characters aren’t all 2-D clones of each other and have dynamic in the personalities that make them relatable to the audience. After all, if your characters don’t feel relatable, then audiences may not stick with them as they have nothing to relate or hold onto.   Aoife: For Aoife, the ‘main’ protagonist, I wanted to give her quite a strong introduction luring the audience into believing that she is the main character, when in reality, she is taken from the picture very quickly and reintroduced to the audience as the main antagonist of the first season. My inspiration for Aoife, as Cynder from the Legend of Spyro and Daenerys  from Game of Thrones. I chose Cynder or her story

Pre-Writing For the first step of my pre-production, as deciding on my idea for a screenplay, and luckily for me, I had had the idea of a Fantasy drama in my head for a  while.  For me, Fantasy has always been an exciting genre as it can really show the creativity and imagination people have, being able to create your own world, monsters, and characters, it’s a genre here anything can happen and anything is accepted. For me, I wanted to create a story that went against the norm of nearly all genres, a twist on ‘Good vs Evil’. Victory is always written from the perspective on the winners, so I decided to go with that in mind, but make it so, who the audience see as the ‘good’ side are actually the evil ones. And also unlike every genre, I decided from even before I began writing to not include romance. Not only am I not a fan of romance in films, and to be truthful I don’t feel it is needed, I decided to do some audience research on Twitter and Reddit to gather opinions on it, and h