I’ve officially written my first ever short film script

It’s been an amazing week. Tomorrow marks Day Six of my scriptwriting course and I’m already dreading the day it ends. I’m expecting withdrawal symptoms. We’re only just settling down and becoming really comfortable with each other, forming friendships that go beyond, “Hello, how are you?”

I’m counting down the hours till tomorrow morning.

Today was sort of D-Day for the scriptwriters. Each of us had to present our short film scripts and out of 16, five were chosen for the directors and actors to shoot. Mine wasn’t one of them, but that’s okay. I was really just kind of hoping it wouldn’t be the worst – which I don’t think it was. It definitely wasn’t the best either, not by fifty miles, but we were reminded – several times – that the final scripts were chosen not just based on merit, but on the availability of actors from the acting class and from a logistical standpoint.

We were also told that there wasn’t a single dud script among our lot and that this year’s scripts were better than last year’s. For that, I’m proud of us. Yesterday morning, we were freaking out. We had nothing. And today, we had 16 stories to tell. It’s kind of amazing if you think about it.

Watching the reactions of my coursemates as the final five were announced was interesting. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t wish my script was chosen, but considering I came in simply hoping I don’t fall flat on my face, I wasn’t exactly devastated. Besides, I had my favourites of the lot and they didn’t include mine.

A few of the others probably felt the same way – I know at least one other person who did; but some of them seemed to take it really hard. They were visibly disappointed, they looked as if the air had been let out of them, they asked questions like, “What now?” and “Can we go home since ours didn’t get chosen?”

I don’t get it. It was as if they had joined the course solely to see if their script would get chosen and when it wasn’t, they were ready to throw in the towel and go home. What about tomorrow? And next week? We’ll be learning so much more stuff, didn’t they care anymore simply because what we do next week won’t be shot during the course?

I know people who’d really wanted to get in but weren’t selected. And today, when I saw some of my coursemates, I wanted to smack them because I could think of other people who would have been so thankful just to sit in that room.