Following the success of the two TED.Ed films ‘A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome’ and ‘Four Sisters in Ancient Rome’ (with over 3 million views recorded by YouTube), we wish to invite students in schools in a script-writing competition focussed on a day-in-the-life of an individual living in Rome.
Script-writing is an exciting way to use your knowledge about Rome and its people to develop your own stories. It also can help you with revision and when we piloted the activity – we found students engaged with the activity and produced original, carefully researched and very much their own take on ancient Rome.
1st Prize £200
2nd Prize £100
3rd Prize £50
Advice for entrants on Script-Writing
First off, we recommend that all entrants view the films ‘A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome’ and ‘Four Sisters in Ancient Rome’ – you may wish to put the subtitles on to see how the script intersects with the animated content. Then, you need to decide: when your ‘day-in-the-life’ takes place, who will be involved, what they will do, where will they go? Think about what issues you wish to raise and how these issues might engage a modern audience.
The comments on YouTube regarding the content of the ‘A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome’ and ‘Four Sisters in Ancient Rome’ may provide you with an idea of the market for animated films about Rome. The blog Lucius’ Romans may also be useful that will show you some of the research behind the two films made for TED.Ed. Your script will be judged with reference to three areas: Accuracy, Originality and Humour.
Rules
All rules must be complied with or the entry will be disqualified.
1) Length – no more than 1000 words.
2) Subject matter – day-in-the life of a person in ancient Rome.
3) The text of the script needs to be double-spaced and in a font larger than Arial 11.
4) The text of the script must be written in English.
5) Entrants need to be attending a school/college in the United Kingdom – Years 7 to 13. Students in Higher Education (e.g. Universities) may not enter the competition.
6) Submission must be made by email to classicscripts@kent.ac.uk on a completed entry form that has been signed by a member of staff at your school or college.
7) All parts of the entry form must be completed.
8) All scripts must be received by 9 pm on 30 April 2016.
Judging Process
University of Kent staff from the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies will draw up a shortlist of scripts to submit to our panel of judges. Shortlisted scripts will be judged in relation to their accuracy, originality and humour. We have yet to confirm the final panel, but have had offers from: Caroline Lawrence (author); Dan Simpson (poet); Ray Laurence (Professor of Roman History); Cognitive Media (Animation Studio); and Amanda Hart (Corinium Museum). We expect to announce the winner by 31 May 2016.
The Winning Entry
As well as the prize money, we will also approach (with permission of the entrant) animators and others with a view to having the script turned into a film for release on YouTube as free-on-line content.
Queries may be sent to classicscripts@kent.ac.uk.