So what’s the main reason behind this? Well, as you know from my previous posts I have finished my degree in Screenwriting with Creative Writing which I studied at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. I now eagerly await the results. 

I had a rough start at University, recently having broken up with. who at the time I believed to be. the love of my life (even though I’d only just turned 18) I then moved out of home and left my dad behind, feeling bad that he was living on his own for the first time in about 8 years.

I got here unsure of what I wanted to do in my future and hating my course and I panicked and thought “shit this is my life now”, but I realised it wasn’t and I had control and I managed to change my course, bringing me to rediscover an old passion of mine and that was writing. I originally swapped from Games Design to Creative Writing and English Literature but I hated English Lit and this got me so depressed but after seeking the academic help I managed to swap to Screenwriting towards the end of the year, which made me have to stay here for an extra year, bringing my time at Uni to four years (this will become relevant in a second).

This rough year was also the time my grandad died to and that hit me hard as this was the first time I had to deal with loss like that in my adult life but I got past it okay just at the time it was weird, but in my grief it turned me to blogging, and I originally started a blog on Tumblr, but then discovered WordPress!

The second and third year I won’t touch upon much, other than to say I kinda cut myself off from my friends what, in the end, became a really bad relationship, but I try not to live in regret of that.

At the end of that third year I should have graduated but, as I pointed out a second ago, I had to stay behind for this fourth year.

And now, here I am, at the end of this year writing a post about it, a post which doesn’t really have much have a goal in mind, I’m not sure what I’m trying to say. Actually, I am trying to say thank you, not only to you guys putting up with my moaning and whinging since like November but also for supporting my work and giving me just a little message from time to time in the comments reminding me to smile. One comment has made a lasting impression on me and unfortunately I can’t remember the exact comment but the main meaning behind it was this; Even in the dark times, light still shines through.

And I’ve tried to keep this mantra since then and I believe it has helped in someways, and when it hasn’t helped me I’ve made a point of telling it to others and trying to spread the word. It’s part of the whole theme behind the monologue I wrote called “Dear Amy” which some of you will have read.

This year has been rough, in someways not as bad as that first, and in some ways worse. I’ve had to deal with not only my own problems but those of others, many late night conversations talking to people who have needed my help and whilst I don’t mind, and I am more than happy to help others, and in someways it helps distracts from my own issues, but sometimes I’ve had to take the selfish approach and think “no, I have to look after myself now, I can not do anymore for you”.

But at the same time, above the deluge of crap that has come through my life this year I have had some of the most amazing friends I could have asked for. And if it wasn’t for the rubbish first year, I wouldn’t have stayed for this fourth year. Was the pain worth the happiness I have had? Most definitely.

I’ve grown a lot this year, I’ve learnt a lot about myself, a lot of which I didn’t like but I have since changed or I am in the process of changing. And without the UCLan Film Society people I don’t think I would have coped as well as I did.

And there’s a certain person who, even though in the end it didn’t go as I would have hoped, I do owe her a lot, and I do still think of her. I always will do and we may rekindle a friendship, soon or in the future who knows, but there was certainly something there and I am very grateful to have met her and had her in my life, we just came into each others lives at the wrong time I think.

So ultimately, I guess this following statement is the “point” of this mad rambling post that a lot of people may not have even read:

Even in the dark times, light still shines through.

I’ve had some of the best and worst times of my life this year and I wouldn’t change any of it.

Lit up into the biggest of smiles.

Every time we touched my,

Skin tingled, shivers down my spine.

Every time I think of you now,

All I feel is regret, it’s for the best but,

Loving you hurts, just as much now as it did back then.

Circles, I go round in them.

Stupid situations, I find myself in them.

Stranger’s beds, I wake up in them.

Feelings, I don’t have them.

“I love you”, is what I tell them.

Wanting out, need to get away from them.

A nice guy, that’s what I seem to them.

The façades…they don’t notice them.

The end of a long and eventful four year stint of University has finally happened. I submitted my last piece of University work on Monday 6th May. This assignment was my first ever feature film written from start to finish.

I’m not sure how “good” the script is, there is a lot that needs to be redone and I think that when I rewrite it whenever that is, I will be removing the virtual world stuff totally and just focusing on the characters and the theme of “lovers separated”. I will reuse the virtual world back drop for another project possibly, with a different plot because I do like this idea of a virtual world but I just believe it did not benefit the story I ultimately told in the end.

If anyone is interested in reading the full feature film script email me: contact@wordsformwindows.com if you want to give feedback after reading it then be my guest, I will add it to a document and keep it with the script until I redraft it but at this stage feedback is no longer necessary. I will no longer be posting full scripts to here, I will instead do it the way I am with this, where if you’re interested in reading I will happily email it you but I think if I’m looking to get work made I should stop putting it online in its entirety.

Any short films though that I decide to write and make I will happily publish the full things here, for example a short film I want to make called “Impressions” I have already written about but any drafts of that I do in the comings months I will post because that work and the filming will be entirely my own…if that makes sense?

I’d just like to take a minute to thank you all as well. I know I have expressed my thanks numerous times over the recent months and the past years but without your constant help and feedback my writing and scripts wouldn’t be how they are today. WordPress has an amazing community with regards to helping each other out.

Here’s too whatever direction I decide to take now I have graduated! And again, thank you.

I’m so tired. I’d love to be able to sleep like they do, but, sleeping on public transport freaks me out yuo see. No-one to look after my luggae.

Could miss my stop. Well, not this time as this train terminates at my stop. But, you catch my drift. I write to keep myself awake. Keep my mind focused. The can of Kronenbourg I’ve purchased will be counter productive to my efforts of alertness more than likely, but it feels needed.

Had such a busy day today. Up at the crack of dawn, and by crack I mean 7am BST. That is to say that dawn had already, well, dawned.

Met up with some people in the midlands. As a northerner this required a two hour trip each way (hence the early awakening) and minus £25 from my bank account. Totally worth it.

These people of which I speak…I’d never met them before. Not a single one of them. I’d spoken to two of them prior to going but never physically met either of them.

I got to the midlands, Birmingham to be specific, at 11am. And by now I thought the nerves would have kicked in but, to my surprise, the hadn’t. I just wasn’t nervous. This is a great improvement for me all things considered. Meeting new people is always hard for me, I’m shy, unapproachable, just a little awkward. Or so I thought. But this time, I knew where everyone was meeting so I found them and over to them, confident as you like and introduced myself.

Instantly I felt welcome. I guess now’s the time I tell you who I was meeting. I was meeting people from the YouTube community.

The great thing about this community is you’ve seen a lot of them before, even though it is one sided, on-line. You know what they look like, you know how they sound, how they act. It’s all very familiar. And, even the ones you’ve never watched you can click instantly.

That’s what’s great about having a group of people together who all have at least one thing in common – YouTube.

On top of this ‘one thing’ there’s other stuff to, Guaranteed if you mention things like “Doctor Who” or video games, someone will come over, hug you and than start talking to you about your given subject.

If you ever get the chance to go to one of these of, or anything similar, be it a convention which you want to go to but don’t want to go on your own…just do it. Throw yourself in it at the deep end. You’ll never know till you try and you have no idea who you will meet.

Oh and by the way… I also made a video of my time there so you can have a look at what typically happens at a YouTube gathering.

I can’t wait for the next one I go to, which is looking likely to be June 1st back in Birmingham and I can see all the awesome friends I’ve made again. And I’ll be staying over this so no late night journey home!

Happy birthday my WordsFormWindows family! Today the site turned two and I would just like to say thank you to you all. Over the two years you have helped me improve my writing a hell of a lot, we’ve shared many discussions, arguments and much music. My scripts, poems and stories wouldn’t be the same without you as readers or critics. I am glad to have shared this with you and I look forward to many more years writing for this blog. It is one of my favourite past times and hobbies. Thanks a lot guys!

This is why I am a strong advocate of getting your work online no matter how crap you may think it is, with a great group of readers you can really get the help or the push you need to get going again, so here is the new opening!

DAWN OPENING

This section, the first 13 pages, is what I would say is the main opening in that it gets the exposition out of the way and establishes the main characters and the situation for the rest of the film to carry on with.

Unfortunately at the moment I’m just writing to completion, I’m aware there may be plot holes and I am trying my best to cover them but as long as I get a 2:1 I will be happy, we also have to produce a script report based on our own scripts, in which we can acknowledge the downfalls of the script so it is with this that I hope I can get the 2:1. All my scripts so far have been to 2:1 standards so I have faith that this can achieve that too, no matter how bad I feel the idea is. My plan with this film is to complete it and then forget about it for a year or so and focus on film making and other, shorter scripts, then come back to this for a good redraft.

Thanks again guys, you’re all amazing.

DAWN OPENING

Up to date? Okay let’s continue.

After my dissertation was handed in I took a two week break from University work thinking that this film script was due in at the end of May when in reality it was due in beginning (oops) so now the panic has set in and has blocked up my mind totally. I find myself procrastinating so much unfortunately. But tonight I had a break through with it.

I went out to Pizza Hut with my dad and talked my film idea through with him and he gave me some good ideas, because let’s be honest, the script in its current form sucks. It’s a first draft though it’s supposed to be shit. There was no side plot, no character development, no structure, no interesting story.

I’m not sure how much this will have changed with this current incarnation of the story but it feels more packed, there’s stuff happening plot-wise, there’s room for characters to grow. It has a clearly identified antagonist, and protagonist.

Which brings me to the next point. Roy, the main character up to this point, is no longer the main character. Alice is. And they’re now dating. And work together. And the Doctor is in love with Alice which makes him cause Roy to have a coma. Okay that sounds confusing so here is a handy bullet pointed list of the story as it is at the moment.

• Alice walks in on Roy’s apparent suicide.
• Roy is rushed to hospital where he is deemed physically fine, but he is in a deep coma.
• Robert Lineback, the lead scientist on the DAWN Project (a virtual world designed for coma patients – a project for which both Alice and Roy work for), convinces Alice that Roy is a good choice for the first human subject.
• Roy wakes in DAWN, not knowing who he is or what is going on. He doesn’t remember Alice, whom he is engaged to.
• Roy is shown his apartment, where he’ll be staying.
• At a party, celebrating the success of Roy’s rebirth into the world of DAWN, Lineback is drunk. He makes a pass at Alice but she denies him and goes home. Lineback’s furious.
• Charlie, Roy’s guide in the world of DAWN takes Roy to a virtual reality bar (a bar in which the customers can “visit” anywhere they want in the world and fully immerse themselves in video games, much like an arcade). There Roy gets drunk and meets Lucy, one of the self-aware AI that inhabit the world of DAWN. [NOTE: I'm just using the name Lucy as a homage to the original version of the script. This has nothing to do with the Lucy from the original script, by which I mean it's not Alice in disguise.]
• Roy takes Lucy back to his apartment and sleeps with her.
• Back in the real world Lineback forces Alice to watch this as punishment for the rejection, but under the pretense that it seems Roy’s mind isn’t recovering.
• Alice really wants to quit but can’t because she won’t have access to Roy anymore.
• Alice starts to dig into DAWN’s history. She uncovers information on the Shēnghuó incident. [NOTE: Shēnghuó is Chinese for "Life" (according to Google translate)]. The Shēnghuó Project, to which the Shēnghuó incident concerns, was the virtual world of DAWN’s original incarnation. The Chinese developed it to help with the over population of China. All 1000 test users died as a result and the technology was auctioned off.
• Roy goes on another date with Lucy, they really seem to be hitting it off. Alice watches this from her desk and then when Lucy and Roy are asleep, Alice (who is a programmer for DAWN) deletes Lucy from the system, effectively murdering her.
• Not long after Alice watches Roy sleep and he is tossing back and forth. In the midst of this he calls out for Alice, but doesn’t wake. Alice is ecstatic with this development because it shows that he may end up remembering her again after all.
• Determined to find out what is actually going on at DAWN Laboratories, Alice digs some more and uncovers Lineback’s plan.
• Lineback plans to use DAWN to house the minds of politicians and people in power and “hack” their minds and implant his own ideas and suggestions into them so when they reawaken in the real world they will think that the ideas are their own. Finding out that this is possible Alice realises that Roy’s apparent Amnesia is caused by Lineback’s hacking. He decided to use Roy as a test subject, trying to get him out of the way so he could get Alice. He arranged Roy’s apparent suicide and has been administering a drug to him that’s keeping him in the coma, when in fact he could have woken almost instantly after he was resuscitated.
• Alice gets to work on her hacking of the world of DAWN. She plants code that will allow to her to enter DAWN and get to Roy, hoping that she get him to A) Remeber her and B) Wake up from this coma.
• Alice visits Roy’s body and plants a mobile phone in his pillow. She then takes one of the portable DAWN kits that allow conscious people to enter the world and makes off with it. She uses it to enter the world of DAWN.
• In the world she keeps a low profile and makes her way to Roy’s apartment. Roy is under 24/7 surveillance in the real world so when she gets there she will have to be as quick as possible before Lineback can stop her.
• Back in the real world, Lineback discovers that Alice is missing and realises what she has done. He sends a team to locate her.
• We cut between a team mobilising and going to her apartment and her making her way through DAWN, avoiding The Guardians (visual representation of a virus checker/firewall). The team get to her apartment and the audience is led to believe that she is about to be caught but she it’s revealed that she’s safe for now as she isn’t actually there.
• Alice reaches Roy’s apartment and makes it up, she believes she is still incognito so she is surprised to find that Roy is expecting her and is pointing a gun at her. Lineback has took control of Roy’s mind as is making Roy aim the gun at her. During this scene Roy realises what is happening to him, that he is being controlled and Alice’s appearance frightens him because although he doesn’t remember her, he does at the same time. He takes note that she is obviously someone important to him for her to risk all this and he manages to fight Lineback for control of his mind and instead turns the gun to himself.
• Before anything can happen Alice rushes Roy and kisses him. The kiss grounds Roy and brings all the memories back. Now he is fully aware and he knows the situation Lineback can no longer control him. He tucks the gun into his waist band and Alice gets him to leave. Alice has programmed in a specific way out, that will allow them both to return to their bodies. They make their way to the exit.
• In the real world Lineback orders the program shut down. This isn’t an instantaneous thing, it shuts down slowly. This is represented by a huge blackness sweeping across the city, deleting things as it goes. It’s a close race but Alice and Roy make it to the exit in time.
• Roy and Alice wake and she scrabbles for her phone and dials a number. The phone that she hid in his pillow rings and he answers it. They arrange to meet.
• Lineback’s men have tracked her actual location down now and are closing in. She makes it out in time to her car and meets Roy. She calls Lineback telling him she has all the information ready to send out to the police, the press, online blogs etc. He calls the men off, but she does it anyway.
• Lineback is sent to prison. Whilst in prison he is in an accident that leaves him in a coma.

If you’ve got this far then thanks for reading. Feel free to comment on whether you like this new version or not and suggests any improvements. I have to write this feature in two weeks and hopefully get at least a redraft done in that time too….challenge accepted.