{"id":44,"date":"2018-10-03T20:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T20:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HudsonJ\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2019-05-20T21:06:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T21:06:37","slug":"zenith","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HudsonJ\/zenith\/","title":{"rendered":"Zenith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

The Zenith Project, as the name might suggest, is the pinnacle of our experience at Freestyle. \u00a0While it’s not necessarily the biggest project we’ll ever do, it is<\/em> the most polished, self-directed project. We plan out our project with a two-month timeline, design our own rubric, and hold ourselves to the deadlines we set. \u00a0In essence, we’re using all the skills we have learned over the past two years to create one final project that we can be proud of.<\/p>\n

My Zenith Project is going to be a 15-30 page TV pilot script, with one ‘teaser’ scene from the episode being filmed to go along with the script. \u00a0When I joined film class, my biggest interest was in writing for film and TV, as that is when I feel like I\u2019m able to best apply my creativity and skill set. \u00a0Once this project is over, I\u2019ll have a fully-written screenplay, as well as a filmed scene from the episode.<\/span><\/p>\n

This project is a new challenge for me because I\u2019m planning on tackling a different kind of genre than usual: dark comedy. \u00a0My hope is that I\u2019ll be able to strike a good balance to create the right tone. The biggest challenge about this project, though, is setting to be entirely self-directed. \u00a0I\u2019ve never done something on this scale completely on my own before, so the thing of most importance to me is keeping up with the work I\u2019ve given myself, and setting a proper schedule in order to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

For my Production Class, I will be incorporating all of the three parts of filmmaking: pre-production, production, and post-production. \u00a0I\u2019ll use my experience in writing and story structure to write out the episode. For production, I will use my new skills in blocking, lighting, and sound to set the tone of the scene, and make it look professional and polished. \u00a0Finally, in post-production, I can use the skills I\u2019ve learned in Premiere to stitch together the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

Process<\/h2>\n

Writing\/Pre-Production<\/h4>\n

Pre-production was the part I worked on the most, and the part I agonized over the most.\u00a0 It took a lot of time for me to settle on the right tone, thematic elements, character descriptions, etc.\u00a0 Originally, I was inspired by\u00a0Heathers<\/em>, as an incisive dark comedy that contained many themes about the way American society treats its youth.\u00a0 I quickly realized that trying to force myself to match the tone of a movie I enjoy is just not the way to approach a project that is my own creative work. It still took me a while to capture my unique “writer’s voice,” and it wasn’t until the end of the process that I was able to be satisfied with the story I had built.<\/p>\n

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The writing process: If you’re stuck, move on! Add the minor details later.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the biggest aspects of the early process for me was deciding what my deadlines would be, and scheduling out when they were due.\u00a0 However, this calendar become more of a “work in progress,” as I set my first draft deadline for just two weeks into the project, a deadline I had to push back as the project went on.<\/p>\n

While I did<\/em> fall behind, the calendar was still an important marker for me to check how much progress I’d made and how much work I had still to do.<\/p>\n\n\t\t