The document outlines the development process of a student film script from initial ideation to final draft. It began with brainstorming assets and deciding on an action/comedy genre about exam struggles. An initial plot involved a corrupt teacher selling exam answers. Over numerous revisions, characters were refined and the plot was adjusted to be less dramatic and include more comedy. The final script retained the core concept but featured a lighter tone, wrong exam results, and implied resolutions for the characters.

2. By now our script is basically finished, but I wanted to show you how it
developed and changed over time.
So before we started coming up with ideas we had a look at our assets, so we
could see what is possible and what not.
Assets:
Locations: school, Ivan's house, Jordan's house, school car park, a gym, saltaire,
library, Roberts park
Actors: teachers, friends, students from sixth form, acting students from Stage84
Equipment: Camera, tripod, dolly, jib, shotgun microphone, lighting equipment,
Adobe Master Collection, Computer
After we did a list of the assets we have, we found out what is possible and what
is out of reach.

3. We knew we wanted the film to be based on school, but we didn’t wanted to go
drama and do a film about racism, bullying etc. We wanted to make a film where
people get excited and laugh.
We finally decided on the genre: Action/Comedy
The most important thing to us was that the film was relatable, so we had a look at
the problems of students, because the majority of our audience is students.
The first thing that came to our mind was exams, the second thing was money. The
decision was made to base our film on exams and money.
After a lot of thinking and staring up the sealing, we had a solution how to
combine those things: a corrupt teacher.
With a corrupt teacher I mean a teacher who sells the results to an exam, before the
actual exam.

4. Every good movie has good and diverse characters. We already knew that we have a
corrupt teacher.
The audience needs a character that they can relate to, so it was obvious that we
needed a student who is struggling with his exams.
Then we came up with a lot of characters who would each turn the plot in a whole
different direction.
We had:
- Another teacher who could challenge the corrupt one
- Another student who could be a problem for our protagonist
- A wife for the corrupt teacher
- A violent father for our protagonist
- A police officer who deals with the corrupt teacher
The choice was made after we finished the plot.

5. So now that we had the genre and the idea we needed a plot. We used a technique
which I call thinking backwards and I know that a lot of writers use this technique.
Basically you make a timeline and write what happens in the beginning, the end, the
climax and insert also the scenes you already have in mind.
When you have done that you fill in the gaps. So here is what we started with:
A student
struggling
with
exams.
Teacher
sells him
the exams
Problem
Student passes
exam
Conclusion

6. I know the timeline isn't really telling the plot but it is the basic construction we
started off with. From there we made a whole lot of timelines and the picked the best
one. Here are some examples:
Student in classroom
Struggling with subject
Teacher sells exam
results to student
Another teacher
finds out and
blackmails him
Police gets
involved
The whole thing
escalates
Someone gets shot
Student in classroom
Struggling with subject
Teacher sells exam
results to student
Teachers wife isn't
happy with that
Wife cheats
on him with
another man
The whole thing
escalates
Someone gets shot

7. So you can see there is a lot of stuff left unexplained, but that’s not the point.
The point with these timelines is to show a basic structure and give the writer an
idea where the story is going and lets him make changes fast and dynamic.
So after a lot of thinking, discussing and writing we went with this timeline:
Student in classroom
Struggling with subject
Teacher sells exam
results to student
Another student
finds out
Teacher gets
blackmailed by
the student
Student wants the
money
Teacher gets shot
There is still some crazy stuff there and a lot is left unexplained, but from there we
went into more detail with the plot structure.

8. After we had our timeline we went a bit more into the characters personalities.
We have 3 Characters:
Eddie: he is the protagonist, he is an average student who is struggling with his
exams.
Steve: he is an aggressive student and doesn’t care about anything except himself,
has anger management issues
Mr Anderson: He is a business man, very confident almost arrogant, young.
These were the character profiles at the beginning.
After that we did a list of all important things that have to happen, to make the film
realistic, relatable and exciting.

9. 1. Eddie sitting in lesson struggling with Subject
2. Mr Anderson sees that and asks him to stay behind
3. Mr Anderson offers him exam results for money
4. Eddie goes to Mr Andersons house to get the results
5. He gets them
6. Steve and Eddie run into each other in the Corridor
7. Eddies bag content falls on the floor
8. Steve finds the results and blackmails Eddie
9. Eddie tells Steve that he got the results from Mr Anderson for money
10. Steve Goes to Mr Andersons office and Blackmails him
11. Steve wants the money
12. Mr Anderson refuses
13. Steve threatens him with a gun
14. Mr Anderson tells him that his money is in his car
15. Steve and Mr Anderson go to the car
16. Eddie sees that and follows them
17. Mr Anderson gives Steve the money at the car
18. Steve takes it and walks away
19. Mr Anderson gets a gun from his car, turns around and gets shot
20. Eddie sees it and runs to Mr Anderson
21. Steve runs away after shooting Mr Anderson
22. Eddie calls Ambulance
23. END

10. Now that we had a more detailed structure, the task was to get the characters a bit
more relatable, because there were still many things unanswered:
Why does Steve want the money?
Where did Steve get the gun from?
Why does Mr Anderson do what he does?
How much money does Eddie give to Mr Anderson?
Why does Mr Anderson have a gun?
How come Eddie sees Mr Anderson and Steve together?
How much money does Mr Anderson have?

11. We added a lot of things, like Steve taking anti aggression pills, so we know that he
is violent.
Steve's father is in the army, that’s why he has a gun.
Before Eddie runs into Steve, Steve is reading a magazine and finds an add for a
motorbike for £5000.
Steve gives a monolog to Mr Anderson while he is in his office, where we find out
how much money Mr Anderson has made through selling exam results to students.
Eddie gives Mr Anderson £100 for the results.
Eddie is in the library and sees Steve and Mr Anderson through the window.
So even after that there are a few questions unanswered, but we still finished
the script with the whole dialog.
But when we were finished we realised that we were off track. This wasn’t
Action/Comedy any more, this was Thriller/Drama, something we wanted
to avoid.
So we did some changes again.

12. First of all we needed more comedy and less drama and less negative feeling. So we
changed the timeline:
Student in classroom
Struggling with subject
Teacher sells exam
results to student
Another student
finds out
Teacher gets
blackmailed by
the student
Teacher tells student
that he gives him the
money on exam day
after the exam
Student takes
results and agrees
Teacher gave wrong
results and left the
country
The core concept stays the same but we have a much lighter mood now and sort of a
happy ending. So we refined the whole thing again.

13. 1. Eddie sitting in lesson struggling with Subject
2. Mr Anderson sees that and asks him to stay behind
3. Mr Anderson offers him exam results for money
4. Eddie goes to Mr Andersons house to get the results
5. He gets them
6. Steve and Eddie run into each other in the Corridor
7. Eddies bag content falls on the floor
8. Steve finds the results and blackmails Eddie
9. Eddie tells Steve that he got the results from Mr Anderson for money
10. Steve Goes to Mr Andersons office and Blackmails him
11. Steve wants the money
12. Mr Anderson refuses
13. Steve threatens him with his father, who is a police officer
14. Mr Anderson tells him that he will give him the money after exam and that he
can have results for free
15. Steve agrees
16. On exam day they realise that the results are wrong
17. After the exam Eddie and Steve go to Mr Anderson’s office, but it's empty
18. They find out that Mr Anderson has left the country
19. Steve gets mad
20. They fight
21. Eddie knocks him out
22. We see Mr Anderson driving into the sunset
23. End

14. From there we changed a lot and added a bit more for example:
Mr Anderson talking to another teaches about how fed up and tired he is with
school and the students.
A cutaway of Eddie being lazy.
A narrative voice of Eddie in the End telling us what happened afterwards.
A scene in the End of Eddie getting good results in his A-level.
We also changed the character profiles:
Mr Anderson: professional, tired, smart, caring
Eddie: confused, lazy, good, polite
Steve: misunderstood, aggressive, dangerous, short tempered
As you see the characters now have a more complex and balanced personality

15. The script now is basically finished. I will be uploading that soon and do another
slide about the script.
As you can see, the Script changed quite a lot and we cut stuff out and added some
stuff till we had what we wanted.
Now we have a script with meaning, development, a relatable plot and a satisfying
end.
And it all started with a simple strategy.
Like they say in Hollywood:
Nothing is written, it is Re-written