To put our screenwriting into practice, we were given the first three pages of Emma Donoghue's novel called Room and our challenge was to create a short screenplay based on the extract we were given.

MEANING I WANTED TO CREATE

Additionally, I did not want to immediately reveal the characters, so by opening with Jack's back facing the audience - and him walking into the Wardrobe - it would leave the audience enticed as they would be eager to find out why the character did this. In the opening, I also decided to use a voice-over of Jack, after he walks into the Wardrobe, as it adds another layer to his character, and it increases the excitement and intrigue of the story. By doing this, it gives the viewer an insight into the inner monologue of Jack's thoughts. Furthermore, I noticed that the objects had a capital letter in the beginning of it (e.g. Wardrobe, Watch, Duvet etc), which indicates that they are also a character. By having shots from the point of view of the inanimate objects, it reinforces the idea that they are also apart of Ma and Jack's "world", and because the camera - and thus the viewer - is seeing the scene as if looking through their eyes. I also wanted to deviate from simple camera shots, because I wanted to enhance the illusion that the two characters are in a small room by using varying shots, such as a POV from the inanimate objects. This is the screenplay I created:

CHANGES I MADE
Aside from taking away some of the dialogue from the extract, I decided that my screenplay would have a different title. I came up with: Giftbox. This was my idea because 'gift' represents Jack - he was Ma's gift. I also thought of this because the opening shows that it is Jack's birthday because he says "I was four last night. Today I'm five.", hence why I thought this was suitable. 'Box' is included to represent the location they are in - it is a small space and it emphasises the idea that they are "boxed" or secluded from the world.

COMPARING MY SCREENPLAY TO THE ORIGINAL
After reading the screenplay each of us created, we were given the opening of original screenplay for the Oscar nominated movie with the same name: Room (Abrahamson, 2016). Once I compared my screenplay to Emma Donoghue's screenplay, I thought it very interesting as there were a few similarities between the two. Firstly, I noticed that it utilises a voice-over. However, in my screenplay, the voice-over is what he actually says to his mother as they are conversing, whereas in the original, it is Jack's inner monologue, while shots of the room are being shown. I think this is really effective because the condensed dialogue allows the opening to focus solely on the mise-en-scene, and thus enables the audience to become aware that they are trapped in the room. In the opening of Emma Donoghue's screenplay, she goes into detail about the objects in the room, which in turn helps set the scene and let the audience visualise the location. However, in my screenplay, I focus on the camera shots and the character's actions.


CONCLUSION
Although I exceeded the two-minute limit, I found this task very useful because I was able to practice my script-writing, and it has also helped me learn how to condense text and choose the important information. I think this is an important skill because by choosing the essential information, the audience is able to get glimpses of the plot, without being given too much. As well as this, it has helped me with my pre-production, because my film is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story called The Yellow Wallpaper, and I have to pick out the crucial details from the story so I do not reveal too much about the story. Furthermore, this task enabled me to make improvements to my screenplay, because I am now aware that I can make changes from a text to fit my interpretations and style, and not drifting away from the original story.