A few weeks ago, I was given an assignment to create an autobiographical piece for my documentary class.
No big deal, I thought. I talk about myself on my blog all the time. Producing a 10 minute video over a subject I know intimately should be no struggle.
It is such a struggle.
I’ve amassed a pretty impressive collection of B-roll (a supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot), but I am completely blanking on what to write for my voice-over narration.
I decided that the scope of the video should be over my writing. However, writing has encompassed so much of my life, it seems nearly impossible to cover the things that have influenced my craft.
Because everything has impacted my writing: relationships, moves, friends, adventures, boredom, books, journals, good days, bad days, age, etc.
There are so many moments, too many to count, that have changed how I view the world. However, I can’t, nor should I try to, address every instance. For one thing it would be too long, for another it would be too boring.
Melodrama is also a factor I am trying to avoid.
Nothing is worse than watching a self-indulgent cheese-fest for 10 minutes while trapped in a classroom for over an hour.
Nobody cares about your dead parakeet, Judith! No one!
Well, time for screenwriting attempt number 300.
Anyone have a tragic background story they aren’t using?
The Crooked Pen 