SANM-560: Week 1 Concluded

Written by Shane Reuter - 9/14/2025

Week One went exceptionally well for me, I was hoping for a role I was both confident I could deliver on while still giving me a challenge and was given exactly that (and two MORE.)

I love subtext, critical thinking, and interpretive meanings in film as it really helps feel like something bold and important without needing to standout with a relevant or even complex/unique ideology, however I've struggled a lot with achieving it in my own scripts. Restricting myself to 2 pages MAX really forced me to remove my common sense, and taught tactics of screenwriting that the amazing Professor Libby Hinson has given me, and amplify it all without dialogue and clear-cut story beats each narrative "needs" to contain.

As of today, September 14, 2025, I am extremely satisfied with my version of the script, with the working title of 'Restoration Station', as it maintains all the elements I loved from the original pitch as well as the beats we three writers agreed should be incorporated. The ending with the leads death, however, came from Connor Roe and I brainstorming how we can incorporate the full circle/loop concept into the current script, and he opened my eyes to how much more we can achieve with a time-lapse shot done entirely in Unreal Engine. From there we brainstormed further how to achieve this effect with a stop motion look, having to only render a specific amount of still frames rather than actually 3d-animating a bunch of moving elements, leading into the final shot which is just a dandelion blowing in the breeze which can easily be simulated or hand-animated.

Besides writing, I am overjoyed to be involved in the UE team as being part of the brain-bar last year, even for the limited time I was back there between takes, was an absolute blast. I was talking to someone I met just yesterday about how accustomed we can become to the new age technology we're the firsts to learn in a college environment and while showing it off to executives who didn't comprehend we could do this a mere decade ago it reminded her how amazing it is. It truly is exciting that we can simply click and drag a piece of the digital set in real time and it will update as fast, if not faster, than if it truly were on the physical set there with the actors.