Act Two: Watershed

Two posts in a day? 

For one of our modules, we have to complete a 10 page script which could potentially be made into a film - how amazing would that be? This is along with a treatment (story synopsis, tag/log line and character profiles) 

The other seminar, we had to produce a scene which involved dialogue and I chose to write a part of my screenplay where it would be the watershed - the end of act two and moving into act three. It's basically about a prosecuting lawyer, Andrew - who has been set the task to prosecute his ex-wife - Jennifer. He later realises that the defendant lawyer is his best friend, Paul so he aims to discover why Paul is working so hard to cover up Jennifer's case - and this is the scene that Andrew hears what actually happened. 

INT - COURTHOUSE SIDE ROOM - DAY

PAUL and JENNIFER rush quickly into the side room and slam the door to, but not fully shut. ANDREW follows quietly behind them and inches the door slightly ajar so he can hear their conversation. He pulls out his tape recorder from his jean back pocket and proceeds to press play.

PAUL

Jen, will ya fuckin' listen to me for once
in your pathetic life!?

JENNIFER

Don't talk to me like I'm a kid, Paul. You're

fine arent'cha? You're the big cheese lawyer

pretendin' to the court! Are you on trial,
Paul? No, I am. 

PAUL

I'm not losing my job over some stupid

and unsatisfactory one night stand. I'm

saving my own skin.

Silence fills the room and ANDREW inches the door more open so he could see both PAUL and JENNIFER. PAUL is pacing the room in a panic and JENNIFER is sat on an office chair with her head in her hands.

JENNIFER

You weren't saying that, Paul when we were 

sleeping together behind Andrew's back. You 

weren't saying that when I told you that I was

pregnant, and Paul, you weren't saying

that when you smashed my boyfriends

skull in, were you? So don't fuckin' tell

me it was a pointless one night stand. I'm having

your fucking child.

PAUL

That shit is not my child, and did you stop me, Jen?

Did you? You loved every second of watching

me kill that bastard. Did you intervene? Cry out 'Stop'?

No. So take a fucking look in the mirror, love. 

ANDREW watches as PAUL sits down on a chair and pulls out his mobile whilst JENNIFER is sat in tears, holding her baby bump. ANDREW's phone begins to ring and they both look to see where the noise came from - JENNIFER jumps out of the chair and rushes toward the door to close it, but ANDREW has already fled down the corridor - holding the evidence that will incriminate his best friend. 

Jobs, jobs, jobs

I feel like I'm going to blow away to Oz and join Dorothy and friends. I'm also surprised that my wheelie bins haven't been blown half way down the street (they've just fallen over)

I'm writing this after just completing a piece of coursework of, 'a graduate reflective report' - talking about two of your career options. Now, it's at this time of the year where all graduate positions are coming out and you really have to think about... what do you actually want to do?

Now within careers week - our adviser told us to just think about the next few years, the job you may get isn't necessarily the one that you'll stay in for the rest of your life - there's options, opportunities.

Being an upcoming graduate of English and Creative Writing - there's so many different job opportunities (obviously not the science/engineering based ones - unless you're a proofreader/marketing team etc) but positions usually want someone with excellent communication skills, creative energy and great team working skills with signs of leadership - all of this with no select degree!

You really do have to look. I'm looking into going for marketing or merchandising/buying - and all of these take any degree subjects - you just have to have the skills that they're looking for. I applied for merchandising and buying the other day and had to thoroughly research what the difference is between off-price merchandising/buying compared to full-price retailing. Now, obviously this isn't the subject I have taken, but as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort to research the company - you'll be fine.

It will all pay off in the end (hopefully)

Third Year of University (It's hell)

I have previously written about what I expected from third year at university and what other third years had said about it. Now as I'm finally mid-way through my first semester of final year, I can safely tell you that the rumors are true.

Dissertation preparation is a go-ahead with meetings with advisers, references are being written down in academic log-books and books are being attacked with sticky notes. It's the last, huge part of university so I have to take as much time to prepare for actually writing my 10,000 word dissertation. There's not only the main body of the dissertation, it's the literature review preparation and coursework - you have to compare your selected topic with other academics that have written about similar pieces of academia.

Stress.

Even further on top of this is existing coursework from different modules. My current modules for first semester are; Corpus Stylistics (stress), screenwriting, skills modules, and my dissertation help advantage. Now, the most stressful of these is corpus stylistics - the up and coming linguistic devices to examine large quantities of text and compare with others. It's scientific in a way, bringing English and some science in with one, to make language seem a bit more interesting.

What I can say for any second years that will be making the transition next September, is read. Make academic journals (write down all of the references you want to use and reference them ready to go straight into your essay/dissertation) Get ahead of the game, ahead of your coursework so then you can focus more of your time on writing a well-structured essay and you never know, higher marks! Everything you do now is going to that final degree classification, make everything count - don't be lazy!

When you come out of university - of course you want to have a job! This is where my university is excellent in helping you out. We have a select career two weeks where we focus on CV writing, cover letter writing and putting you in psychometric test centers (most graduate jobs ask for you to complete one - revise it! There's logistical test, numeracy and literacy testing - me and maths don't mix, hence why I do English, so revise!) Also, putting you in group interview situations and to give miniature presentations, which again - is what you'll have to do in a real graduate test center. Make sure you work on your communication techniques, your presentation techniques - you need to get over the fear of presenting in front of people.

I'm looking for graduate jobs/schemes at the moment, and it is extremely time consuming. Each job you apply for, you have to cater and change you CV/cover letter to their requirements and needs for the select position. It shows when you haven't put much time and effort into your application - research the company! Now, for my video interview that I had - I revised questions that would likely appear and research within that along with writing down the key points. When these questions came up, I was able to look at my already planned out answers which was a huge help.

All I can say is be organised. Be prepared for non-stop work for your final year, of course make time for a social life - it's not nice being a recluse all of the time! But get it done, get it done before the time limit so there's less stress, Yet, enjoy it! Enjoy your final year as much as possible.