The power of cinema – WeDiscover with Alex

We’ve come to the end of this WeDiscover programme that started all the way back in February, our longest programme yet. Now it’s time to take a step back to evaluate, making sure WeDiscover is as good as can be for when our next cohort join us. Of course, we’re not simply going to forget about our Gappies, they are now part of WeBelong, our alumni programme. Transitioning from a busy schedule to a blank slate can be difficult so we’re delivering one session a day for the time-being. This keeps us mentors entertained too as, although the evaluation process is essential, it’s not as exciting as chatting to the Gappies. As well as this, mentoring will continue and we’re scheduling in even more in-person days.

My standout session of this week was our scriptwriting session as it’s a subject I could talk about for hours. This is one of the brilliant things about WeDiscover, from a mentor’s point of view, as we have the freedom to create sessions that suit our own interests. When MJ, one of our Gappies, requested a creative writing session, I jumped at the chance to put this session together.
To give an example of what a typical movie script looks like, I showed the group a clip of Inside Out, with the script used on show simultaneously. This is a movie that had me in tears when I saw it in the cinema, and the clip I took off YouTube just happened to be the moment that got me. I showed this heartbreaking, yet optimistic, moment to the group (which I won’t mention in case of spoilers) and we were left in silence. It seemed to hit everyone just the same. This was meant to be an quick clip to demonstrate what a film script looks like, but instead we were all brought to tears once again.

Once we’d recovered, I talked through the basics of scriptwriting; how it should look on the page and how a good scene should be structured. We then split off into groups to try our own. This exercise had a little twist though, it would be a form of ‘Scriptwriting Consequences’. Once we’d established our characters as a group, their name, gender, likes and dislikes, and appearance, we designated the beginning, middle, and end to each group. No group would know what the other group would be doing, only the names of the characters involved and the setting at the beginning. As of writing this, we are yet to find out the outcome. Perhaps I got a little carried away in my explanation so we’ve added another session to get them finished. All I know is it’s set in a Summer Camp, we have an allergy to cats and an allergy to bees. I can’t wait to see our finished product though.

This will be the last blog from me for a couple of weeks as I’m off to get muddy (hopefully not) in the fields of Glastonbury. Until next time, goodbye.