WHAT IS A ZENITH PROJECT?
At Freestyle Academy, the Zenith project is one of the last projects you’ll complete. It is essentially a project of around 2 months where you chose to delve into something of your desire to show your skills acquired. While Zenith may not be the longest project a student does (as a Film student, the longest project I’ve had is Senior Narrative), it is still arguably one of the most prominent. At the end of the year we spend three class periods watching every Senior present their project and reflect on their time spent. It is always a wonderful celebration for each student.
MY ZENITH PROJECT
As a Films student, I wanted to expand on something I recently learned I loved. We learned screenwriting earlier this year, and if you know me, you know I loved reading. So, my Zenith project was a book to screen adaptation for the NYT Bestseller “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros. As you continue to scroll you’ll see the various steps I took in order to complete my 150 page screenplay in time for May 13th.
PRE-PRODUCTION
A first step in my process was rereading the book so I could begin thinking about the actual logistics. I went in and tabbed each scene so I could later plot it all on my wall and remove scenes that weren’t important & jot down what I needed to fix or add. It was a very tiring process, but I actually finished pretty quick. It helped me understand the book & characters a little bit more – which was great because I then had to begin thinking about motivations and arcs.
A lot of this project was trial and error. I decided to just write anything and everything. I learned a little bit about screenwriting in Film, but it wasn’t anything like this project. Book adaptions are one of my favorite mediums in Film, so I knew learning this outlet would be super cool for my future! Anyway, once I wrote everything (a total of 207 pages) I went in a split them into Acts. Below is an example of my work space in WriterDuet. It’s a great application FOR FREE! Although, I did end up paying for a subscription just so I had more documents so I could separate my acts.
A big struggle I had during this project was Killing Your Darlings, which is basically removing scenes or aspects of your story that you particularly enjoy. Fourth Wing is around 450-500 pages, which in my opinion, is a perfect length for a book. But…not for a movie. Each page is one minute, so that would make the film around 5 hours if I had stuck to everything. So, I cut out A LOT. In the end, I really liked my finished product, but if I could change anything, I think I would’ve chosen to do a T.V Show adaptation instead. Just so I could have more time to play with it!
FINISHED PRODUCTS
PDF of screenplay
Below I have linked three different mediums. First, It is my finished Screenplay. In total, it was around 150 pages, making it just over a two hour film. Next, I have a scene I chose to bring to screens. I wanted to incorporate my Film skills! Lastly, I will show my final Zenith presentation at Freestyle Academy! We have a huge three day celebration for each senior.
Archive scene
Below is the final scene I shot & edited to show during my Zenith Presentation.
Zenith presentation
Below is my Zenith Presentation.
FINAL REFLECTION
embed video here