Dialogue Assignment

Apologies for the late submission. 

oh and one thing, I had to change the scenario a little bit, cause my dad’s a pastor and he would never go and drink and stuff, so I changed it to going home late from work. sorry about it. =/

and for some reason, I can’t post it here, so please refer to the link that I’ve made to listen to it. Hopefully it works.

 

It goes like this.

Husband: I am back..

Wife: Where did you go?why so late?

Husband: Had ministry counseling, a couple had some urgent issues

Wife: How come you didn’t call back like what you always do. I’ve cooked dinner for you.

Husband: I’m sorry, cause it was last minute and there were many things on my mind; but anyway thank you for cooking.

 

 

Huang Yixi Vicson

S10059493B

T1B2

alright. sorry for the ultra late post. didn’t check my mail till this morning and have been busy for the past few days. oh wells, guess sometimes, we are too reliant on technology.

okay, Vicson, no more excuses. hah!

plenty of things to settle. first things first. the true and false story.  You know, I was laughing to myself when the comments came in and how I managed to make a true story sound so unreal and how just a couple of details could make a true story into a false story.

Story 1. It is almost true, okay, the part where I went to the States after 9-11 is true, everything is true until I came to the part of me staying in the cockpit during the flight from San Jose to Portland. As a matter of fact, I only stayed inside for less the 5 minutes, enough time for a couple of photos to be taken. Also the part of me holding a M16, its false, but yes, I did hold the revolver before. So the conclusion. 95% of story 1 is true.

 

 

Story 2. Every single bit of the story is true. I really did climb it. I guess, its really up to you to believe me or not.

thats how high it is.

and you see that window on the right, yup. that’s the window, and if you wondering the dog in the house. that’s my dog.

I haven really thought of a certain topic to blog about, so I guess I will just blog about whatever that comes to my mind.

 

Well, 8 weeks since school started, and it has just been so fast. new classmates and friends made. people who teach us no longer called teachers but lecturers. students being treated as young adults instead of secondary school kids. no more so called homework. now its assignments and projects. yes, know I know how true it is when people say Secondary school life is way different as compared to poly life. why? simple answer, cause I am experiencing it now.

From constant blogging in secondary school, to only blogging when I need to in poly life, on my personal blog. many people who are still in secondary schools might be thinking to themselves ‘Isn’t there anything interesting to blog about in poly life?’ . Well, does that seem to be the case? From where I see it, nope, its not the case. I mean there are so many things to blog about in poly. from about how exciting or boring your lectures can be, to how your lecturer dresses, talks, and stuff(obviously I won’t be doing that, I wouldn’t want to get myself into trouble), to the many new things that you learn during your lecturers and tutorials or perhaps the eye candy that you have been looking at for the past 8 weeks. So, it seems like it isn’t the case of nothing to blog about, I guess it’s just a matter of not having the time to blog or maybe it goes back to having nothing to blog about when you run out of things to blog about on what happened in school. Well, it does seem ironic, doesn’t it?

Okay, apart from that. Like what I have said, 8 weeks have passed and plenty of things have happened ever since I came into Ngee Ann. Events that have put me on cloud nine, events that have put me in despair, events that have thrown me into confusion, the dropping of the camera(if you guys do not know, its me and I mean, no I am not proud of it, but neither do I want to hide the fact that it was me who did it), having a photo that was in the first group for Photography, whatever events that have happened but now as I come to think of all the events that have happened, I am sure all these things have happened for a reason and I know that through all these, I have become stronger as a person, emotionally and mentality, and I guess I am more then prepared for anything that comes my way in the next term of school. Some how, some part of me dread for school to reopen, but on the other hand, another part of me can’t wait for school to start. I guess, its because of the assignments and projects, but the fun that the class might have in lectures and tutorial makes me want to go back. oh wells.

Now that I come to think of it, this is like the first post that I haven really focused and narrowed on one topic. But its like the last of the weekly posts, so I guess its alright?

 

Well, it seems like nothing’s coming into my mind to provide me to blog about and honestly, I am so in the holiday mood that I am lazy to think of stuff to blog about, so I guess I’ll just end here.

 

 

Huang Yixi Vicson

S10059493B

T1B2 

Writing Dialogue

*door opens*

Wife: (sarcastic for the first part) Sooo, you are finally home. Where have you been?

Husband: i thought I gave you a ca….

Wife:(cuts her) NO! you didn’t even bother to call back. this isn’t the first time, asshole!!(whispers to herself) I’ve cooked dinner for you and all and..

Husband: OKAYOKAY! I am sorry! Alright!

Wife: So this is how you apologise!! do you even mean it?!

Husband: LOOK!! just be grateful that I even bothered to apologise!

Wife: So this is what I get after 11 years of marriage?!? Ungratefulness?!? Not even a word of ‘Thank You’ ?!??!

Husband: Look, I really didn’t mean to…

*door slams*

Commitment

I was talking to my friend yesterday, and we came upon this word. Commitment.

Just what is commitment? Is it just being committed to something or anything that you have chosen to commit to? Well, it seems like the case. But it is easier said then done. I am sure everyone knows it.

Commitment could refer to many things, or maybe as a matter of fact, be related everything that one does. If I mention the word commitment to anyone along the streets, and ask for the first thing that comes to their mind, I am sure all would provide different answers.

Committed to a relationship, of any kind. Be it with people, work, animals, and sports. Being committed to finish up your work before the deadline, being committed to shower your dog once a week, being committed in making a tackle in a game of soccer, being committed in a relationship with your loved one. I mean, I can continue listing out all the different things that we can stay committed to, but it would defeat the purpose of this rather short, yet, should I say ‘soul-searching post’. I mean wouldn’t it be meaningless if you promise to stay committed to a certain thing, and yet you are doing it half-heartedly?

 

Now, the question of the post, ask yourself,

Are you being committed in whatever you are doing?

 

 

Huang Yixi Vicson

S10059493B

T1B2

 

Notes – 28/05

 Purpose of the Exercise

-A true story is not necessarily a good story.

Good stories have to be worked and re-worked.

-True-life stories do not offer neat and relevant endings.

-Life is unpredictable

-In a story, we can and must control the events ad sequences so that it gives the appearance of being life-like.

-Every story starts with a character. > If there’s no character, can start with character, settings and events.

The character is the HEART, the SOUL and NERVOUS SYSTEM.

 

Characterization: Defining the Character

It is through your characters that the viewers experience emotions.

It is through your characters that they are touched.

<Without a Character, there is no Action>

<Without Action, you have no Conflict>

<Without Conflict, you have no Story>

<Without Story, you have no Screenplay>

 

Developing Characters

Who is your character?

What does he want?

What is his quest? What drives him to the resolution of the story?

 

- Establish your main character.

Characters should have a 3 Dimensional Structure.

a)    Physiology

-Sex

-Age

-Height, Weight

-Colour of hair, eyes, skin

-Posture

-Appearance

-Defects, abnormalities, deformities, birthmarks, diseases

-Heredity

b)   Sociology

-Class (lower, medium, 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 martial status.

-Religion

-Race, Nationality

-Place in the Community; leader among the friends, clubs, sports

-Political

c)    Psychology

-Sex life, moral standards

-Personal Premise, Ambition

-Frustrations, Chief disappointments

-Temperament: choleric, easy-going, pessimistic, optimistic

-Attitude towards life: resigned, militant, defeatist

Complexes: obsessions, inhibitions, superstitions, phobias

Personality: extrovert, introvert           

-Abilities: language, talents

-Qualities: Imagination, judgment, taste, poise

-IQ

-What is the deep and personal secret this character has which he is desperate to protect/hide?

 

Separating the components of his life into 2 basic categories

 

a)    Interior

Ø  The interior life takes place from birth until the moment your story begins.

Ø  It is a process that forms character. [When you start formulating your character from birth, you see your character build in body ad form]

>How old is he when the story begins?

>Where does he live?

>Does he have siblings?

>What kind of childhood did he have?

>What kind of child was he?

>Is he married, single, widowed, separated or divorced?

b)   Exterior

Ø  The exterior life takes place the moment your story begins to its conclusion.

Ø  It is a process that reveals the character.

>Who are they and what do they do?

>Are they sad or happy with their life?

>Do they wish their life were different? Another job? Another wife?

 

YOU MUST CREATE YOUR CHARACTERS IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE OR THINGS.

> They experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need [eg. Rob banks, rob a store, rob a person]

 

>They interact with other characters. [Either in an antagonistic, friendly or indifferent way]

 

>They interact with themselves.[he overcame his fear of being caught by pulling the robbery successfully]

 

How do you invent characters?

-Try turning them upside down.

>Don’t make them dull, boring.

 

Notes – 14/05

Experience

-       A storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience.

-       Everything about you; where you were born, what food you eat, the bump on your forehead, your experiences are unique and irreplaceable.

-       Many of your experiences are universal and translatable can be used in any location.

-       Tip: If you don’t know what to do with a character, make him yourself for a while.

-       See how he relates to the world he has been thrown into.

-       Plunder your own personal background: the things that happen to you as you grow up and the things that are currently happening to you make terrific story sources.

-       REFLECT your past and present.

-       RECALL how you feel/felt.

-       RELISH reliving the moment.

-       All people have fragments of stories.

-       These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more.

-       Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard.

-       Good stories are born in the heart, not the head.

-       Remember the role of an audience.

-       After all, you ARE the audience

-       Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you have experiences or been told.

-       These memories are points of reference to your own past existence.

-       Write what you do not know because you will find some part of you that does know.

-       THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.

What do audiences want?

-       Taken on a ride/journey

-       Discover something new

-       Connect to the characters

 

STORYTELLING TOOL 3 : CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

What is the difference between memory and experience?

Memories can be manufactured in a sense that it will become what you want it to be. Experience can be manufactured since it was what you went through

-HOW DO WE USE MEMORY TO BUILD CREATIVE MEMORY?

Use some of your memory to spark of your story.

 

Notes – 07/05

Group A

Aristotle lived in Greece. 384-322 BC

Aristotle stated that poetry could be dived into 3 genres, tragedy, comedy and epic. ‘Poetics focuses on tragedy

Tragedy is  ‘imitation of an action’ according to ‘the law of probability or necessity’.

 

Group B

Aristotle ‘s 6 parts of tragedy are

-Plot

-Characters

-Thought

-Diction = goes with tone.

-Melody

-Spectacle

 

According to Aristotle,

-Tragedy causes a cause-and-effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen.

-Arouses not only pity but also fear, because members of the audience can imagine themselves within the cause-and-effect chain.

-‘Unity of action’ is an arrangement of incidents, NOT the story itself, the way incidents are presented to the audience.

 

Group C

-An episode plot is one, which succeeds one another without probability or necessity.

-The only thing tying together the events in such as episodic plot is the fact that they happen to the same person.

Katharsis : purgation/purification/clarification

Mimesis: imitation/representation

Group D

Simple plot has only a ‘change of fortune’

Complex plot has a reversal of intention ‘peripeteia’ and recognition ‘anagnorisis’ connected with the catastrophe.

-There is a structure to any form of writing.

-Peripeteia = Reversal

 

Group E

3 Act structure – advantage of working in three act structures is it breaks down the story and makes it more manageable.

-Character supports the plot. Not the other way round.

-Personal motivations are connected to the cause-and-effect chain.

-The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned ad prosperous, so his change cab be from good to bad.

 

3 Act structure

1^st Act: Set up

-Story behind with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis

-The character meets roadblocks produced by the plot and antagonist

 

2^nd Act: Confrontation

-Action intensifies

-An event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice

 

3^rd Act: Resolution

-Level of effort rises to new heights

-Both plot and character is resolved

-But the main character either achieves or does not achieve his goal

 

 

Tragedy – Bad things happen due ti character’s decision, goal. Etc

Misadventure – External factors that causes bad things to happen.

Life

 

Life is fragile and vulnerable. I am sure everyone knows that.

It may sound too exaggerating to say that someone is dying every second but it is a fact. It sounds too scary, too freaky, but it’s a fact. I am sure this is a fact that everyone knows. But here comes the main matter.

Despite knowing all these facts, are people, like you and me taking each day as a present, living each day to its fullest, not taking people for granted and everything.

No I am not saying that I do live each day to its fullest and I do not take people for granted, as a matter of fact, I do take people for granted, at times; people like my parents, my brother, friends and it is something that I am trying to change. Doesn’t it seem ironic that people would only say about the good things that one has done or contributed, when the person isn’t around anymore, or in other words passed away? While on the other hand, good things hardly come out of people’s mouth when they are still alive. Well, maybe we should start praising people when they do something good, instead of criticizing them or bad mouthing them when they have done something bad, or even extreme cases, when they have done good deeds. Helping people whenever you can provide it even simple deeds like holding the door for your classmates while in school, helping your friends or classmates help carry stuff when you see them struggling with their load, can make someone’s day and bring you further in doing something good. To me, its simple actions like these, that makes you live life to its fullest.

I have known of cases where the person you are talking to is alive and kicking and within the next couple of minutes or days, the person is in the coffin, dead, not so alive and kicking and I am talking about people who are in their best time of their life; teen hood and one case where the person was just on the verge of joining the workforce out there.

Some of the examples that I am going to mention, some of you might have read them in the newspaper, but these are examples that are, should I say coherent, to the matter.

 

Samuel Tan Si-Hao. 1990-2006.

One such example where death comes so unexpectedly; out of nowhere. Reported in the newspaper, people all around the nation have known about it, about the case of dengue fever claiming another innocent life. Well, I may not know him personally, but I knew that he existed, as we can be considered as schoolmates. He was one year my junior, a BB Boy. A person with a great personality, according to some of my friends who knew him. To me, he was accomplished in BB. The Chairman of the Council, and was nominated as for the Founders’ Man, the highest achievement that a Boy can receive while in school. He got the award, and it was a proud moment for him and the school, I am almost sure about that. But dengue fever struck him, while he was preparing for his prelim exams in school. A couple of days later, he passed away. Teachers, friends, classmates were all shocked by the loss, and his teachers had predicted that he would do well for his O levels, but that wasn’t the case. At the highest point of achievement, he passed on.

 

Jordon Tay.

My friend’s brother, and my brother’s schoolmate in secondary school.

Passed away in a motorbike accident. A skid, a crash and that was it, he died. Aged 25. Got a new job, got a new bike and all these happened. His whole family was devastated. Perhaps 25 was just too young.

No one knows why all these things happened, no one will ever know. Life’s just so short. Its over before you know it. So really, live life to its fullest. I know it would be almost impossible to treat each day as your last, but maybe, just maybe that should be the way we should live our lives.

I was talking to my friend online the other night, asking her about her opinion on one of the statement that I used earlier on ‘It may sound too exaggerating to say that someone is dying every second but it is a fact’ and she mentioned ‘ How about natural disasters, what will happen?’ the only answer I could provide was ‘tens of thousands dead within a couple of seconds’.

Its just way scary, just imagine when you are done reading this post, tens of thousands of people would have died, all around the world.

If you are willing, click on the link, cause I am almost sure it’s a fact, with the figures that they provide: http://www.biblehelp.org/mortality.htm

 

Treasure Life, simple as that. you only live it ONCE.

 

 

Huang Yixi Vicson

S10059493B

T1B2

 

True or False Stories?

Story 1

Year 2001. September 11^th. The terrorists attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon sparked massive fear into people all around the world. Rumours that the attacks are being planned on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and on the Statue of Liberty in New York, just like how the Twin Towers were attacked. Tourists desperately cancel their holiday to the States, in fear of more terrorist attacks on the country, despite the huge losses that they are making.

Global economy collapsed and as a result, air tickets to the States were at half their usual price. Having completed my PSLE that year, my father decided to bring my whole family to America, before my bother and I started a new chapter in our educational life. Polytechnic and Secondary School respectively.

All my relatives thought my father was a little out of his mind, as part of our was to drop by San Francisco for a couple of days, and the rumours didn’t really help much. My family still went ahead with the trip though. I mean, it was like a childhood dream fulfilled. Almost everyone would have wanted to visit Disneyland when they were in their childhood, and I was no different, and my dreams were fulfilled. Visited five cities in a span of just over 3 weeks, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver (Canada). But it was more then Disneyland. I think I have experienced some other things more then what other kids could have never or would never have the chance to do.

I remember I was on board a plane, an inland flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, when the plane stopped over at San Jose, before continuing on the rest of the flight to Portland. During the transit time for the rest of the passengers who were flying from San Jose to Portland, I could say that I had another childhood dream fulfilled. Which kid would not want to attend a cockpit, sit in the pilot’s seat and wear his hat, and that was what I exactly got and seated right in the cockpit during the flight to Portland. I mean, its just amazing, my experience I there, would be once in a lifetime. Besides that, before I left Los Angeles, I got the chance to hold the official revolver and rifle for all Law Enforcements in US, the Sig P228, and M16 respectively and got photos taken for both occasions.

I was thinking to myself, ‘Vicson, are you dreaming? You have been into a cockpit before and you have held a real revolver before. Are you fortunate or what?’

Story 2

A game of street soccer was perfect to end of a day of school, where it been nothing else but worksheets, tests and books. It has been quite a while since I last felt the awesome feeling of the afternoon sun shining down on me, after all, my O levels were just round the corner and I didn’t want to waste another year in secondary school.

The sight of my house’s silver glittering gates and a brilliant shade of mesmerizing blue for my main door was just insight, a couple of more meters and I would be home. I was looking forward to having a nice warm shower, catch a quick nap and hit the books after that. But I realized that it wasn’t the case as I struggled to find my house keys. Calming myself down, I removed everything from my bag, only for my keys to be… missing!! Quick run down to back to school, only for my friends and canteen vendors to tell me, ‘ No, I haven’t seen your keys.’

Walked home reluctantly.

Was back outside my house’s main door. Just the stupid wooden door that was separating me from my house, from my dog. Hearing her whine, sniffing through the small gap between the door and floor, I felt for her. Just that very moment, I realized that the window beside the door was open, and for your information, I stay at a corner flat and at 16^th storey, and the window was slightly opened. I reached over and tried to push the window fully opened. It worked, the window was wide open and it was wide enough for me to climb in.

That was what I did. Slowly hoisting myself up the ledge, knowing that one false step could potentially cause me my life, but it just wasn’t in my dictionary at that very moment. The huge step over to cupboard that was behind the opened window was all that was needed for me to get into my house safely and it simply took forever. Giving myself unnecessary fear by looking down, not once but twice.

I made it, like obviously; otherwise I wouldn’t be typing this. The moment I felt solid ground beneath my feet again, I broke down.

I took a risk and gambled with my life and it paid off, but never was I going to do it again. Never again.

True or False? You decide.

Huang Yixi Vicson

S10059493B

T1B2

Password regarding ‘Letter to the Past’

well, if you want to know the password, just ask.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean I will give you the password, but at the same time, they will be a possibility that I will let you know.

So if you want, just give it a try. =)

 

Huang Yixi Vicson