Okay here are the top 10 reasons why I am different from other Singaporeans my age.
Call me geek, dork , whatever after you read this . But honestly we are a rare and  funny breed of young Singaporeans and I am not being cocky here, soon we will take the nation by STORM. KABOOM!!!
1.    I do not listen to mainstream music
2.    My Chinese sucks pretty badly, even though I like to think that I am superb at it.
3.    I wasn’t one of the first few eager people to rush the newly open IKEA or vivo city for that matter.
4.    I DO NOT have a blog
5.    I love my eyes to the extent that I abstain from local drama or shows for that matter
6.    I like scrabble and unicorns and I used to think that my parents were secret agents.
7.    I am always one of the last few to complete every assignment in time, given our competitive nature as Singaporeans.
8.    I often shop online , an addict to be exact.
9.    I don’t appear online often, because I am cyberly dead.
10.    I live hanging out at little chill out areas around club street
11.    I am different because I dint write a paragraph, even though I might get busted for this.
i can go on forever.

Dialogue.
What is the difference between a memory and experiences?
Experience is what actually happened
A memory is a biased point of view of what really happened.
Functions of Dialogue
- To express character’s personality.
- How they communicate their emotions.
- Tells the audience of what has or ad happened.
- Reveals new information to the audience
- It expresses the culture by the way people interact with each other
- Expresses time and place (Shakespearean time)

Elements of Dialogue
Dialogue reveals character
- A character talks about him or her
- Other people talk about the character

Is an established relationship between characters?
Character expresses attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another.

Elements of a good dialogue

• - Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience
• - It conveys essential exposition
• - Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the story line.
• - Dialogue reveals plot based information of why and what is going to happen (the audience needs to understand)
• - It can lead from one scene to the next.
• - Dialogue ties the script together. Connects all the details in the movie
• It doesn’t have to be a voice over to do that; it can just be a mere dialogue.

Negative side of Dialogue
- They tell too much
- They are telling the story instead of showing
- When the dialogue is corny
- The dialogues used are too unrealistic.

Common mistakes

• - Dialogue should be used sparingly never telling the audience what they can see for itself.
• - Dialogue is no substitute for action.
• - Dialogue should not match the conventional spoken dialogue “real talking.

Dialogue Exercise
Sarah: look at your watch! Tell me what is the time now! Just look at it! Today is not the only day that you are back late! First it was some problems with your boss, and now you are giving excuses saying that you went out to have drinks with your friends? What is the meaning of this?

Daniel: sorry Hun, it must have slipped my mind. I am sorry! Let me make it to you.

Sarah: excuses! Excuses! Excuses! How long are you going to lie to me Daniel, we have been married for a year already.

Daniel: I am really sorry, you see it is a Friday and my friends and I wanted to chill and take the stress off our back.

Sarah: which cfriends? Is it Rachel?

Daniel: Rachel and a few others.

Sarah: WHAT?? You stood me up for drinks with that conniving devil and her entourage?

Daniel: its not like that Hun, I honestly forgot about out little dinner, I’ll still eat the food if you want to.

Sarah: HOW DARE YOU!!!

Daniel: yes, I’ll eat the food of you want me to, since it was made for me, so technically I have a state in it, I’ll eat it if it makes you happier.

Sarah: you don’t understand me do you??? YOU RETARD!!

Daniel: wait up lady; you said that you stayed home all evening just to cook for me. And now that I am back shouldn’t you be happy that I still have the stomach to eat your delicious pasta?

Sarah: it is not the food damn it!!! God! Daniel, you spend 5 days a week at work climbing your cooperate ladder, and just when we finally have some time to ourselves, you happily forget about having dinner with me. Your wife. That does it Dan, I’m leaving!

Daniel” BABY, wait up!! LISTEN TO ME!!

geez!!! married couples behave like kids. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

AND this is what usually happens at home.

Mom: Edwards Lee. Look at the time now! Sometimes I wonder whether you even remember that you have a family? Get your fat ass here now!

Dad: I’m tired. Leave me alone.

Mom: leave me alone? What is the meaning of that? Do you know how long I have been waiting? 3 whole hours! Clearly you have forgotten about dinner today. Sometimes I even wonder why I bother to try. It’s a two-way road Edwards, I am trying and if you are not responding. Maybe I should just give up. You went to have drinks with Rachel is it?
Dad: no!!

Mom: then why did you come back so late? How could you have forgotten about our dinner?

Dad: I just had some drinks with my colleges, and I was summoned a ticket for illegal parking, not today lynx. I need a break!

Mom: have you ever thought about this family? All this years it has been you, you and you. It is always about your own agenda, where do you put the family?

Dad: why are you always making this an issue?

Mom: this is the issue! Our marriage, I have a job too, I have responsibilities at work too, am I always the one that is missing? Where have you been all this while, you never talk to your children, you make empty promises. And when you are back you are always complaining and making a fuss. This is it Edwards, this is the END. DO YOU GET IT???

Dad: you always have your way.

Mom: I’m leaving.
Yeah , this is usually what happens in an argument between my parents. And I have to add ; in a situation like this my mom would probably go HYSTERICAL. I am not kidding , its drama in a whole new level, maybe even greek tragedy for that matter.

Well week 7 we watched a short film titled autograph book.

Blast from the past. I mean seriously.

Yes those were the days where our only worries are “oh my! That stupid girl has the same bag as me” or “oh my she spoiled my autograph book because she tore some pages out! ” or even “that girl is horrible! She stole my colour pencils” (my colour pencils were my most valued possession at that time, kinda like how golum held the ring closely to him). We were young and clueless of the vast complex world. And in our own ‘girl world’ we had rules and decorum. The senseless rules that we followed, and how if you were to break the rules it means social suicide. Thank god I survived all of that.

‘Autograph book ‘ depicts the different personalities we see in our school. We, the audience can see the personalities of these people through their dialogue with the protagonist thought the autograph book. Yes I lived 10 years of my childhood and possibly mid teenage hood without the male species. In another words, like the girls in the show, I was from a single sex school. Imagine 10 whole years without boys thank god I survived it without being gay. Anyhow the short film does show the true essence of the different characters we see in school. We have the politically right teachers, where they would bombard us to believing that lee kuan yew is our best friend, and taught us how to strive for success and be that Frodo in our middle earth. We have the cheerleaders the queen bees that rule the middle bench in the cafeteria, most of the time they would survive on a carrot stick. We have the ‘I don’t give no shit about anything’ girls too; in modern context they are simply the emo girls, where they have the whole Goth and ’screw life!’ mentality. And yes, we do have the honor students, the girls who will fervently submit their homework on time, and the students whom I duplicate my homework from. And ahh not to mention the butches.how can a single sex school be complete without them?

I had a mix of friends, being a prefect in primary school ,you had to be everyone’s friend. I mixed with the butches, the sports girls, the queen bees, the teachers of course and a whole slew of other individuals. Life as a 12 year old at that time? Simply thrilling and entertaining.

I too had an autograph book it was green with feathers around the border and my name tastefully decorated in the middle. Honestly, until now, I am sure as hell that it is the best autograph book a 12 year old can ever have. Yes, blast from the past. I don’t think I asked the genitor to write in my autograph book. That’s just weird, but nevertheless it would be amusing though, she would have wrote “oh my you are the girl who have greenish orange poop!” I guess. Hmmm, Maybe by the end of my third year in this course,I shall keep an autograph book. HOW RETRO!!

ORANGE POOP ROCKS

lecture notes

How do we impact the audience in a personal way ?

• Phrases like “i am sad” or “i am lonely” can be emotionles, as the audience does not know how exactly you feel
• Describe the process and situation
• Try to connect with the audience in a personal way , by explaining the scenario
• The setting also plays a important role by stating what you did and what led you to feel this way (angry, sad , anguish)
• Relate to what you say

Screen writer = storyteller
We have to figure out what the audience wants and connect that and tell it to them .
The cinematic experience is not just made up of words you might put on paper, but the audiences emotional reaction to that information.
The writer’s job is only to connect: take something and connect it to the audience.
- Story
- Emotions
- Themselves
- Their unique vision
- The material
- The drama
- Others

Audience want to be transported by a screenplay.
What we are aiming to connect to the audience in an emotional way
Inside yourself:
- Everything you learn about other people is already in you.
- Now you need to figure out how you are going to connect with your audience.

What do you look for in a story?

• something that you as the audience can identify .
• good stories are born in the heart and not in the head .

EXPERIENCE

• All people have fragments of stories
• These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more
• We need to respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard
• Good stories are born in the heart, no to the head
• Put yourself in the role of the audience and provide what you like in the movies to the audience you are relating you.

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hide and seek- imogen heap

If you do not like Imogen Heap , you dont deserve to have ears

Week 5 Lecture notes

Character

Heart, soul and nervous system of your screen
It is though your characters that viewers experience emotions
Emotional impact on your film it must connect with your audience

THE CHARACTERLESS CHAIN EFFECT

Without character, you have no action
When there is no action, there are no conflicts
Without conflict, you have no story
Without story, you have no screenplay.

When developing a character ask yourself
- Who is my character?
- What does he want?
- What is her quest?
- What drives him to the resolution of the story?

Memory
(Things that happen to you in the past and the things that are happening to you now can be a good tool to s story telling)

• Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you have experienced or been told
• These memories are points of references to your past experiences.o Write what you don’t know
• Memory play an influence to the film
• write about what you dont know

• Use certain elements of your memory to expand on

CHARACTERS SHOULD HAVE A THREE DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE:
1. PHYSIOLOGY
2. SOCIOLOGY
3. PSYCHOLOGY

1. PHYSIOLOGY (how they exterior appearence)

• gender
• age
• appearence
• skin colour

2. SOCIOLOGY (how they interacts with the social surroundings)

• Class : lower, middle, upper
• Occupation: type of work, hours of work, income, condition of work, attitude towards organization, suitability for work
• Education: amount, kind of schools, marks, favourite subjects, poorest subjects, aptitudes
• Home Life: parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated / divorced, parents’ habits, parents’ mental development, parents’ vices, neglect, character’s marital status
• Religion
• Race, Nationality
3. PSYCHOLOGY (how the character thinks)

• Personality: extrovert, introvert
• Abilities: languages, talents
• Qualities: imagination, judgement, taste, poise
• I.Q

Interior and Exterior

Interior

whatever happens before the film starts. the elements that make the character who he is.

• How old is he when the story begins?
• Where does he live?
• Does he have siblings?
• What kind of childhood did he have?
• What was his relationship to his parents?
• What kind of child was he?
• Is he married, single, widowed, separated or divorced?

Exterior

It is a process that reveals character from the beinin of the film to the end.

The main plot of the story.

• Who are they and what do they do?
• Are they sad or happy with their life?
• Do they wish their life was different, with another job, another wife?
Taxi driver (Robert Deniro)

SOCIOLOGY (How characters interact with their enviornment)

• Class : lower
• Occupation: Taxi drver, 12 hour a week ,6-7 days earning less than 400 a week suffers from insomia. and take sleeping pills to get res, visits the cinema sometimes to watch porn , and writes about his poesonal life most of the time.

• Education: very litle, hardly even
• Home life: single, spends most of his time working , driving his cab around.
• Religion : none
• Race, Nationality : American, was onec a soilder
• Place in the Communit: taxi driver who does not have much friens, or even hardly.
• Political Affiliations:none
• Amusements: reading magazines and writing about his personal life in his diary /journal

Week 4 was a mix of physical education and intro to film. I am serious, we spent an hour waiting, running around, getting settled just to watch a movie less than 2 hours. Honestly, it was pretty fun!:D

Election.

And I am not talking about the victory of the democrats in the recent senate election, in which my dad isn’t too happy about. He’s a republican you know?

Election ,the movie. The not so indie film, staring the adorable, petite, Oscar winning Rees witherspoon and Matthew boderick and directed by the talented Alexander Payne. Having watched “sideways” and “about Schmidt” before, I knew that election was not going to be your usual chick flick, romance comedy. True enough, it is a modern day Greek tragedy.

Now then, what is a Greek tragedy? Greek tragedy refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero’s actions. Pretty sad huh? Hence the word tragedy. Drama with a catastrophic ending.
Well in this movie the hero happens to be Jim McAllister played by Matthew Broderick, is a high school teacher who seems to be living the typical American dream. However he seems to have many doubts about himself and is slightly intimidated by Tracy flick (Reese witherspoon’s character). Tracy flick is a driven student (I sure do remember those people back in secondary school) who he feels is callous and blames for his best friend being fired for falling in love with her. In search of revenge, Jim convinces the popular high school jock Chris Klein, to campaign for the election as well. In hopes that the vapid jock will win the election eventually and not Tracy.
Further away from the revenge whirlpool but still important to unfolding events is Paul’s adapted sister Tammy, a young, under-achieving woman confused about her sexual orientation. A close girlfriend who she loves but does not respond in kind, and in fact is very unkind severely emotionally hurts Tammy. Downright mean, actually. The girlfriend is not lesbian and in an effort to reaffirm her own sexuality and hurt Tammy, she begins to date Paul. Tammy, in an effort to hurt her and Paul, decides to run for student body president. All of this comes as a surprise to Tracy Flick, who expected to run unopposed.

The obsession of ruining Tracy flick’s life was the core of his downfall. Through the movie, viewers could tell that Jim had issues. The affair with his wife’s best friend got him into the mess he started. He then spun himself into a larger mess when he tampered with the votes of Tracy flick, forcing him to resign. And is left in a pathetic state.
Jim is the hero in this tragedy; he suffers the misfortune of his own downfall. Therefore this movie depicts a Greek tragedy somehow. Jim was the cause of his tragedy; he was obsessed with ruining Tracy’s life as a student body president, and had a twisted affair with his wife’s best friend, knowing that it would destroy his marriage.Jim was simply a messed up man, trying to find his true identity.

the movie was enjoyable,dark and reall hilarious. reese witherspoon did a good job! she is still very much like elle woods in legaly blonde to me.

Sorry for being all cranky here, special thanks to be friend who made me lose the bet. The punishment? A whole hour of Paris Hilton songs in your system. PURE TORTURE!
Anyhow, the most prominent thing I could remember from last weeks lesson was that we all stank up the entire classroom. Thanks to the sewage water that was sprinkled on us in the fire drill. Aristotle was also another unforgettable thing I took back after the knowledge.

WEEK3 REFLECTIONS

SOME OLD GUY CALLED ARISTOTLE
Born: 384 BC
Death: March 7, 322 BC
School/tradition: Gave rise to Aristotelianism and the Peripatetic school
Main interests: Politics, Metaphysics, Science, Logic
Notable ideas: The Golden mean, Reason, Passion
Influences: Plato
Influenced: Almost all of western philosophy and science afterward

Definition of tragedy: it is an imitation of an action that is serious complete and a certain magnitude in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, in the form of action not narrative; just with incidents arousing pity and fear, where with to accomplish its kartharsis of such emotions
Greek Tragedy: hero dies in a tragic and unfortunately way.
6 parts of the tragedy: plot
Actions is the most important and not the character, without action there cannot be a tragedy
-Character
- thought
- songs
- spectical(costumes, sets and props)
chain : an event that will happen, one leads to another
tragedy- creates cause and effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen
-arouse not only pity but also fear, because members of the sudience can imahine themseves within the cause and effect chain
unity of action - time
-place
- action
action - tiny hints an clues to keep the story’s continunity
- they are unified and combined as a whole
PLOT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE OF TRAGEDY.
PLOT - “soul of the tragedy”
- the arrangement of incident in the story
- Plot is not the storlyline
- it is the structure of the play, the communication of how the audience gets enganged
- 3 act structure( begining. middle. end)
- begining: introduction of the characters
- Middle: climax, it must be caused by the earlier incidents
- End: resolution , must be caused by the preceding events but nit lead to other incidents
the end should resolve all the problems created during the incitive moment
Eposidic: plot that expands over a period of time
no unity no logical like that confuses the audience
a episodic ploy never connects a single cause and effect chain(characters are kinda like an extra)
2 different type if stories
- simple
- complex

simple plot
- one and contineous
- sudden change in fortune occurs vice vasa

Complex plot
-reversal of intention
- the sudden realisation that dawns on the main character
- ultimately te main character has caused the problem himself , and accept the punishment.

Play Structure:

1. Exposition

2. Rising Action

3. Climax

4. Falling Action

5. Denouement/Resolution

Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama

1. Plot (the incidents or story line)

2. Character (physical, social, psychological, moral–people represented in the play)

3. Thought/Theme (insights into humanity and life

4. Music (all sound)

5. Spectacle (scenery and other visual elements)

6. Diction/language (the dialogue and poetry)

Credibility: terms of events must be believable
a character cannot appear out of the blue and all the problems are solved! BAD STORY!!

hmm my reflecions on lesson 2 that did not happen. yes last tuesday was a public holiday. simply awesome, no school, no lessons. much to my surprise , reality gave me aa huge slap on my face. there comes the terrible thing called assignments.the research on aristotle was pretty interesting, learning greek words and stuff, quite cool actuallly. anyhow there comes the 6, 50 word stories . well so much for a so called holiday huh?
yes rebecca ,you better get her act together and start on her homework!!it would be certainly scary if i were to fail this module, all my future dreams of sipping tea with a good book in my hand and all the little kids around me listening to my very animated and kick ass story telling skills. okay, i am kidding . i know story telling isnt just about telling little kids fairy tales. but nevertheless i seriously have to start cracking on my stories.
best selling novel anyone?

guess i better get my lazy ass together and start doing my homework. UGH.

Yesh. my reflections on lesson 1.
here is what i have learnt: - active and passive voice
- first person: i, me , myself
- second person: you
- third person: name
eg, Josh walks into the shop. unaware of his fate

Passive vs. Active Voice

Passive:
• Uses weak verbs
• Tells rather than shows what’s going on
• Distances the reader from the story.

Active voice:
• Uses action verbs
• establish the action
• Uses an immediate sentence structure
• Conveys the story in a lively manner.

TIPS FOR WRITING

If you have a work in progress, never stop for the night if you’re stuck.

Always solve the problem and keep going until you are in safer water. A good night’s sleep is important. Sleeping on the problem is a myth

writing in third person and present tense , makes the story more intense and alive to the readers

my reflections:

Right, we have storytelling lessons on Tuesdays. YAY!! Mister Ryan can now give me my extra credits of being the most excited student around. Okay to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting to find myself enjoying the first lesson of story telling, although I do like the idea of reading bedtime stories to my grandchildren in the future. Plus the posting of your weekly reflections on a journal website certainly did mot make me like this module any better. knowing well that I am a technological klutz.
However life seems to have a funny way of turning things around. Mister Ryan kicked off the lesson by playing a funny little game, in which I would like to call it “the introductory help me remember your name game”. it was rather hilarious. got to know a few skeletons in some of my classmates colset, yes all that kinkiness and greasiness, funny.
overall the first lesson kinda changed my initially skeptical impression oh the module. i sure am looking forward to the next lesson.

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