Freestyle Academy proudly presents
2016 Innovator Project by EricD

The purpose of the Senior Innovator Project is use your own passion to innovate, create, and develop your own project.

Project Proposal

My project is to write a screenplay for a full length film. This is a passion of mine because I aspire to become an excellent filmmaker, but my storytelling needs much improvement in order for me to entertain an audience.
This is a risk because I want to use conventional storytelling methods without having the story feel forced. It is also a risk because it is a large project.

Project Productions

Read my research paper

Project Reflection

For my innovator project, I wrote a feature length screenplay. I chose this project because I wanted to further my understanding of screenwriting. I was extremely interested in directing and a lot of directors write the films they direct so I wanted to get better at story in order to improve my directing. I ended up writing an 83 page romantic comedy and I especially wanted to take on the challenge of making a “quality rom-com” because so many rom-coms are hated by critics.

My research paper was about comedy which was extremely helpful when it came to writing my screenplay. I cannot stress enough how interesting and helpful the research paper was. In order to write a successful rom-com, I needed to know different styles of comedy. My research paper answered the question, “Can anybody be a comedian?”. Through my research process, I found a lot of theories about comedy and being able to differentiate the different techniques and styles really helped me find my own creative vision. That being said, I do think my creative vision changed throughout the project and that is something I would like to work on next time I write for film.

Regarding collaboration, I wish I did more throughout my project. Every week, I met with my tutor to read whatever I wrote over the past week. It was a nice experience and I got a lot out of my sessions with him but I wish I got some more from other freestyle students. That being said, I am extremely glad I did the project alone. I did this project for a specific reason that benefited me. It motivated me through the writer’s blocks I had but if I worked with somebody else, I feel like I would have just dragged them along with me. I need to be able to work with people who are willing to put in a strong effort every day, but it’s hard to find in high school. I look forward to finding people as passionate as me in college.
If I could do the project over again, I think I would have focused on another aspect of filmmaking. I worked hard this month and feel like I got a lot better but I still feel like I’m better at lighting than writing. I was hoping this project would make my writing better than my camera work. I think I went into the project with the expectation I would finish it as a writing virtuoso. Realistically, writing takes a long time to develop. I think it would have been more beneficial to write a ton of shorts then film them in the summer or something. I think my project was fun but not as beneficial to my career as it could have been.

I feel that I improved on my problem solving the most. I found a lot of plot holes as I worked on my story but I ended up having to fix them as I wrote the rest of my film. I did not have time to go back and start over, a problem that I struggle with. I was forced to fix my plot holes by adding things to earlier in the story. I think that the narrative unit also really helped me get good at problem solving. I also think I avoided a lot of problems by planning intensely. In film, pre-production takes a lot more time than production and post-production. I also think pre-production has three stages in it too. Pre-pre-production, if you would call it that, is going to take a lot more time than writers realize. I think my story was very well mapped out but early on in the project, concerns were brought up that my idea for a film was just not big enough to be a feature length movie. Those concerns were absolutely right. I felt stretched in my writing and throughout a lot of the screenplay, I feel like I lose the audience’s attention. If I had spent more time in revising, I think I would have wanted to start over. I’m glad I stopped after a second draft because I think the project is pretty much dead. However, I wouldn’t say I wasted my time. I spent it well and worked hard. Just sometimes ideas aren’t really good enough to make it to the big screen.

The learning experience I learned was how essential teamwork is. Typically, in high school, I found that a lot of other students are just not as hard-working as me. Because of this, I tend to take control of projects when I’m involved. That is NOT because I cannot help myself. Often times, it is because I doubt other people’s motivation to succeed and whether it is a strong as my motivation. A lot of the time, it isn’t. This project was nice to work with my tutor but I definitely missed out on a lot of potential opportunities because there weren’t enough people working on the project. The more people, the more likely it is you will come up with a funny idea. I would love to do a project like that and I would have instantly done that for my project but nobody is as motivated which is extremely frustrating. The way my family puts it is, I am not working to make it in the industry. I am working to become one of the best at what I do and I’m not going to stop until I get there. Because of my “intense” drive, I find it hard to work with others who are not as committed. I missed that sense of teamwork that I had in my narrative. If anything, that is what I learned. But, I also believe that not a lot of people could have worked with me on this project.

Overall, I think this project was an amazing experience. It taught me a lot about screenwriting. It also taught me that I should maybe become a cinematographer instead of a writer haha. I think that projects like this are amazing because they help you find your strengths and weaknesses in your abilities. I think that I couldn’t have done this project a lot better if I redid it but I’m glad that I struggled. There were some moments where I wanted to give up but I didn’t and I’m proud of myself. Also, every time I tell someone I wrote an 85 page screenplay, their jaw drops. That is definitely one of the best things to come out of the project haha.