History Story - The Pogy

            This project was centered on the creation of a historical narrative. Since the project involved writing my first screenplay, I knew that it was going to be an interesting experience from the start. This assignment ended up being very challenging from a technical aspect. I had never used Final Draft before, and I was completely unfamiliar with the interface of the program. Hannah and I struggled to even format our assignment, let alone write anything. Additionally, we decided to loosely base our screenplay on some experiences that my dad had when he was in the Navy on the USS Pogy submarine. Choosing to focus on a situation from my family history was also an interesting choice, as it made me very partial to the character that was portraying my dad.  I wanted to make him the hero of our story from the beginning. From the readings and viewings that were completed in preparation for this assignment, I really liked the emphasis on how our family members have played small, but very significant roles in the creation of our history. In the process of interviewing my dad for this assignment, I found out that he was on the same submarine that the movie The Hunt for Red October is based on. He was on that ship only a few years after the movie came out, and the USS Pogy was still responsible for many of the most secret and dangerous missions of the Gulf War. This was something that I had never discussed with him before, but it really hit me how much this was like the story about the lady who ironed the king’s shirts. Both of our family members have played small parts in the grander scheme of history. I think that this was an interesting realization to have, as I had never before considered the role that my dad played in the navy, and the long-term implications of that. Throughout this project Hannah and I took stereotypes and things that we had seen from other movies that we had seen about submarines, and the armed forces in general. We also made several references to Tom Clancy and Sean Connery, as an inside joke to the fact that this is the same time period as The Hunt for Red October. However, we did make an effort to make sure that we were not directly working from the plot of The Hunt for Red October, as we wanted to make this screenplay our own. We also wanted to end the tension of the script with a kind of silly moment, as the characters realize that the submarines are really whales, and by Lieutenant Clark winning the beard growing contest. Overall, this was a challenging, but rewarding assignment, as we learned to write our first screenplay.