The history of this script is extremely interesting as it is directly based off a video game plot that I am part of. My friends and I are the members of “Team Convoluted”, and we have been developing this game for around 5 years now. Unfortunately, the final game might never make it to light, which is why I thought to write a script about it. The characters here are all the same, the story is simply my depiction and version of the original source material. While I never had any intention to properly film it, I had the intention of publishing it as I thought I’d at least get to handle a bit of writing before anything else. I personally still love this script, as I had high hopes and visions for it. I never finished it since I had to pursue other scripts (which are also in here), but this was truly the first script I ever wrote which led to everything and eventually the short film I filmed and published. The metamorphosis in the story is Life and Death and how a relationship changes when a death occurs. The change unravels and eventually layers of a person start peeling away as you start to see a person more clearly and differently.

This is concept art for the three main characters--- Philip, Oscar, and Grace (hence the name P.O.G Hotel). I thought about them in an ascending order which can accurately depict their morals and how they are as people. Philip being the shortest shows how egotistical he is, Oscar being slightly taller shows his maturity, and Grace being the tallest shows her authority over everyone. Overall, The Convoluted Hotel story/script is interesting and it will forever be memorable to me. While I think it has potential, it just isn’t the story I needed to pursue then or any time soon.

I distinctly remember writing this after The Convoluted Hotel because I wanted to tackle a story I crafted on my own. The story/premise is loosely based around my life-- being pressured into different courses constantly. I thought I could express it into this story the frustration and the urge to be great and to do anything it takes to get there. The story is more gritty and a bit more edgier to sell the environment and overall miserable tone of the story. The metamorphosis in this is the effects of sudden change. The idea of changing and the eagerness which destroys the overall purpose and process of change. The metamorphosis is a depiction of dehumanization as we try to change too much for the sake of just changing.

Overall, the story/script was a fun way to express my feelings and problems in life. It helped me realize moral conflicts and I eventually arrived to a breakthrough with my issue. You might have noticed that it says “short story” despite being 36 pages. It wasn’t even finished. The script was practically a full length film, which is why I had to drop it. This was the first draft, and I couldn’t afford to be stuck rewriting and revisioning something this long when I barely have any experience. It was fun writing this, and I would most definitely rewrite it into something shorter, or maybe when I’m ready I’d pursue it fully.

This script was fun to make because I was able to poke fun of the stereotypical “heartbroken” sad boys who go to the gym and get rich as “revenge” to their ex-girlfriends. It all seemed like insecure culture to me. While yes, a heartbreak that leads you to doing better in life is fantastic in theory, but when sad men make it their whole personality, that’s when it get’s pretentious to me. This short film was kind of a way to poke fun of it, however it wasn’t the main focus. The script itself was very serious in tone, and it took the stereotypes I was poking fun off too seriously and meant it. The idea was that the boy would find something greater than himself, better than trying to win over a woman.

The metamorphosis in this is the pretentious and petty side of change. The change we do when we are empty. The change we pursue to show the world you’re better-- when no one really cares. I never properly finished it, but I wish I had changed the script overall. If I were to pursue this film, I’d make it a comedy. A full fledged comedy to show the true and comedic side of this culture of hitting the gym and becoming rich all because of a woman.

This marks the first time I had the intention of filming one of my scripts. I set it in Hull College, and even thought to shoot some scenes in my bedroom. Of course I had to drop the script because I couldn’t get a grip into the story and how it flows. Not only that, but it was too cliché. It felt like an amalgamation of different stories rolled into one which all had the same story/plot. The metamorphosis in this is the feeling of change. Being culture shock and not knowing how things work in a new environment and the fear of messing things up. The fear of not adapting to the change and the fear of not being like the rest to keep the day regularly cycling. The change that we can’t control is something we constantly try to change, which all leads to nothing at the end of the day.

The story was nice. I liked the themes and I liked a lot of scenes, but it was too basic. It felt like I didn’t reach my full creative vision, and so far I always looked at how I always wrote scripts set in the real world. While stories about regular people are interesting, I decided to tackle something much more supernatural in my next script.

The three humans are Wesley, Fred, and Riley (yes, names are based off Buffyverse) and they are told about their impending doom. Each person has a distinct take on what to do. Riley is reckless, Fred is anxious and overthinks it, and Wesley continues living on as normal. Each person represents the logical thought process to being given this information. The story was based off the death of Michelle Trachtenberg. I was really looking forward to seeing her reprise Dawn Summers in the Buffy revival series-- and I was devastated to hear about her sudden passing. On one night, I thought about how it felt. How what her thoughts during? How would she have reacted if she knew hours before that she’d suddenly die? It all lead to this story being formed. The idea of death, and how we leave this world and how others are affected by it. This might be a bit jarring or offensive, but I decided to take a comical approach to death by implementing the demons as metaphors for it. Many people watch real death videos for entertainment, and it really diminishes the takeaway we have for death. It isn’t mindless entertainment, it’s the primary reason we choose to live.

Unfortunately, during the Easter break I had to depart from producing this short film. I had a lot of people review it, and a friend of mine stated that this is too large scale for me to ever pursue. It felt too much to do for my first short film, and I agreed. I will most likely go back to this and produce it one day, because I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

The story is based directly off two of my friends and an argument they had in the cafeteria. It was a regular day and conversation that only escalated and it evolved to a harsh exchange of words. I don’t recall much, but I specifically remember one of them storming out and the table next to us had comforted my friend.

I had to halt developing this script because I never felt confident in it. I also never had a strong structure for the story. I spent too much on rewriting it and revising despite not having any idea on what else to do. The only logical step was to make a new story, which I finished throughout the Easter break.

In here, the message is more about eating disorders and body image. While that can be said about the Leslie edition, I always intended for that to tackle more about body dysphoria and the slight themes of toxic masculinity.

The metamorphosis is exactly the same, but this story leans more on the body dysphoria aspect which is what I primarily have experience on. The themes of eating disorder are still present, but they are written directly off my experience.

The basis for this is still the exact same, but I wanted to add the jealousy that comes with it. Comparison is the thief of joy, which is exactly what I experienced numerous times during the start of my fitness journey-- seeing my friends with better physiques hurt me more than it should've, since you shouldn't compare your day 1 to someone's day 100.

Lesley wears a purple/pink robe, which is comfortable, elegant, whilst being able to vaguely show her frame and her proportions.

Evil Lesley wears red baggy clothing, which is lazy, carefree, which reflects her glutinous thoughts and temptation.

Smart Lesley wears a blue gym outfit, which shows her inner discipline and urge to make a change.

While removing the dialogue certainly improved the storytelling, as it relies more on my actions and less on the dialogue to paint the picture. Since this is a pre-vis, the editing is very rushed (the amount of blinking could you a seizure if you watched it long enough).

The short story follows Edward, a simple guy who is on a gruelling diet. Roughly 30 minutes before midnight, his eyes were wide open as they were glued to the scrumptious food right in front of him. He makes a collective decision to fuel his hunger with a simple glass of water. As he makes it down to the kitchen, he realizes he can't resist the temptation of food being around him, as he scurries any nook and cranny to find a piece of something-- ANYTHING. He fails to do so, and as all hope seems lost his phone suddenly pings loud. A notification, for Deliveroo. A deal that is too good to pass on. Edward's resolve immediately melts as his finger instinctively hovers over the notification, ready to relapse. However, his willpower was strong enough to break through his impulsiveness, as he ultimately decides not to go through with it after realizing he has barely enough calories to eat a loaf of bread. As he leaves, the phone suddenly gains a voice. That deep, imposing growl stops Edward in his tracks as he assumes he's getting robbed. The television screen opens on it's own, presenting a deal too good to be true. Edward's discipline was stronger however, as he crawls his way down to the kitchen. A tablet seemingly teleports itself in front of him, was it really true? or was he going insane? Another deal pops up within the tablet screen. Edward powers through it all, as he flings the phone out the window, which sets everything back to "normal", as if that exists now. He goes back up to his room, deciding to sleep his hunger off. As the dark night lingers on, a notification pops up again. The phone had somehow made it back into his room, that voice faintly calling out his name once again, a never ending cycle of temptation and discipline.

You might be thinking that I'm surely going into Media for Level 3. I'm not. I'm going straight to Health and Social Care! My reasons are simple: I tried to pursue my passion, but felt that I was much more fulfilled if I had a much more practical and valuable career. That's not to say that art isn't any of those, but art for me is an escape out from the real world. If art is suddenly the real world, where do I escape to?

If I could change or add a few things, I'd probably add 7 more minutes. The concept was already insane to think about-- a phone gaining a consciousness and it's sole goal is to make you break. I would have probably made the climax much more entertaining-- maybe the phone gains a humanoid body and it's shoving food down your throat? Or would that have been too crazy? The ending is my attempt at making a "cliff-hanger" or "open" ending, it's up to your imagination on what you'll do in that situation.

A friend had also pointed out that maybe Edward is hallucinating because of his starvation, which was really interesting, and I didn’t mean for that to be portrayed at all.

Overall, "A Midnight Snack" serves as a personal present to myself, a reminder that I can do ANYTHING as long as I TRY. There will be more short films to come, as this passion of mine will never dust away.

The story here is about the random thoughts you get in a boring afternoon. The character tries to do anything to pass the time-- exercising, playing an instrument, and just gazing out into the sun, but it all fails miserably. Eventually, it all boils down to eating the boring afternoon out.

As to how we got to this point, I first approached Ian about the equipment-- he gladly gave me a camera, microphone, and some lights. Before this however, I was already on edge on how this film was going to come to light, because I had NO actors available. This already put me to a spiral, since the script and previous storyboard was catered around the possible actors I'd have for this project (in both Leslie and Lesley edition). Fortunately, thanks to Sophie's ingenuity, she suggested that I shoot in a P.O.V (point of view) shot. This idea was so amazing, I was in disbelief that I didn't think of it sooner. It fit the overall story too, which was great. With this in mind, Ian gave me a GoPro to play around with. I took it home and then shot the first pre-visualisation.

After I shot that, I filmed a bunch of footage in the Living and Thriving building, which I intended to be the final product. However, I encountered numerous problems after filming it. In the script, there was a brother character who was meant to be vaguely seen, which I thought I'd just play and have another person (Matt from careers) have the camera on their head. After viewing the footage, it was hard to incorporate that part into the actual film. At some bits, I had thought to just make the brother into a voice to be heard nearby, but to me it felt too lazy. Imagine having a conversation with someone, and you don't look them in the eye or in their vicinity.

With this dilemma, I went back to the first pre-visualisation and I really liked the ending of that-- it all ends and I go back to sleep. As previously mentioned, I had experimented the "no dialogue" with it which wasn't working for me. So, I filmed The Afternoon Thoughts and enjoyed it very much. It had a much more comedic and lighter tone, which is something I wanted to use.

Now, back to this storyboard-- I had essentially stripped away everything interesting about the original draft. The inner voices played by the same actor? It's a P.O.V shot now, so they're reduced to actual inner voices. After playing around with it, I realized I couldn't voice two different characters inside one guy-- as my friend described it: "it feels like two idiots who are mind controlling a guy and they can't decide what to eat". After making the script and inner voices into one singular character/voice, the brother character was all I had and it had failed too. So the script and story was all reduced down to a guy who was deciding to eat or not.

I had an epiphany one morning as this idea clicked in my mind: "What if the phone was alive?" It sounded insane. But after thinking about it, I always functioned better and wrote better stories when there was a supernatural element to it (i.e. Midnight). The phone being alive and a physical manifestation of another source of temptation worked well for me. The phone is essentially a metaphor for how consumers are easily manipulated with products that are blatantly bad for them. It reminded me of Lunchly (product by Logan Paul, KSI, and Mr Beast) as it was advertised as "a healthier alternative to Lunchables"-- but an easy ounce of research would immediately defeat that claim. I won't get deeper into it, as there was a huge trend surrounding it's nutritional value back when it had released.

While the phone being alive and being able to put people into a state of hypnosis is extremely silly, I think it works well to add a certain flavour and craziness to my story. The metamorphosis is still in tact for the most part, as it still tackles the eagerness to change and the struggle of discipline that comes with it. The metaphor of the phone simply adds layers to that message.

You might be wondering, where is the script? If you had to know, there isn't one. I could definitely write one, but I don't feel the need to.

A). I'm running out of time.

B). It would be a waste of time since I am the only one in this entire project, and I know how the story goes from the top of my head.

(P.S. Flip the actual PDF file to view it horizontally, I wasn't able to convert it that way.)

I had also taped up all the windows with fabric and clothes to make it seem like it was night time.

(P.S. I couldn't find some of the other videos, so I put in a few that I used in a first draft.)

Since the phone is corrupted and has a consciousness of it's own, it uses the ads to try and entice you to buying food that is terrible for your health with "too good to be true" deals.

A key detail is within the description-- A burger that's 90% OFF with 2400 calories per serving. Fried Chicken with it's payment being your soul. Little details like that purposefully show how little attention we pay to the things we are shown to eat. While Wendy's or Dominoes here and there wouldn't hurt, it's important to note that they fast food. And some products are cheap and indeed "too good to be true", and they have a reason for that.

I was really glad I had injected that supernatural element into this project, because this is definitely much more entertaining than my previous version-- which would've gone the exact same way, up until Edward starts to contemplate on actually ordering the stuff he put on his Deliveroo order, and there was a huge back and forth and an "imagination" scene of him eating a lot of food, only to cut to reality and go back to sleep-- which then his phone lights up another notification from Deliveroo. That wouldn't have been too boring, but his phone being this supernatural moustache-twirling villain certainly added a layer of stupidity to it which I leaned on. Another thing is that Edward likes to speak in weird puns or quick corny quipping such as "Mic check?" when opening the microwave-- I decided to give him that kind of dialogue to kind of "hype up" the silliness of the phone being alive. By the time Edward starts spewing his corny nonsense, you wouldn't even think about it due to how distracted you would be by The Phone.

1. What was your chosen theme for the final major project Metamorphosis and did this change from your original starting point? 

Originally, the theme was Life and Death but it exponentially changed to Dieting/ Inside and Outside.

2. What primary sources have you used in this project? Drawing from real objects, museum visits and objects drawn from home.

The primary sources I used for this project (except for the Inside/Outside theme) were pictures of flowers in our house, various buildings, food, and objects in my house.

3. What secondary sources have you used in this project? Drawing from photographic images, books, websites and magazines.

The secondary sources I used for this project (except for the Inside/Outside theme) were pictures of people, objects, events, and TV shows.

4. How did you develop your ideas for a final outcome? What processes did you experiment with? CAD, mix media, collage, printmaking.

I developed my ideas through numerous script writing, storyboard, rewriting, filming pre-visualisations and a lot of experimentation with the equipment and trial and error in the editing studio.

5. What artists did you research and how did they influence your ideas? Your use of materials, technique, colour or ideas related to the project theme.

I primarily researched directors of my favourite TV shows Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel as they influenced my short film with its supernatural elements. I also used Nerf Battle War GoPro videos to inspire my short films visual direction with it’s fast camera movement.

6. Describe the effectiveness of your final outcome. Including the materials, processes and techniques you have used?

I personally enjoyed the development and final outcome of the film. It isn’t perfect as there are continuity issues, but I think I did the best with what I had with the time I had left. As the project underwent through numerous development stages, the final outcome had shifted and morphed into different states that made me unsure as to what the final thing would even look like– but Im glad to say that this version is one I am extremely satisfied with.

7. Explain how you could have improved your final outcome including how you would develop your idea further if you had longer on this project?

If I had much more time, I would have definitely stretched the supernatural element of the story further by making a full fledge script, and possibly making the story longer.