It started with a cheese medal and ended with a software start-up. Team 5 had an interesting first story. As the deadline neared and sources lacked, we needed a miracle. Luckily, Jared found us a start-up Screenwriting company that was located right here on campus: SoCreate.
Initially Team 5 was going to write our story on the Cal Poly Creamery, and that fact that it just won a medal for it’s “Grand Gouda” cheese in a national competition. However, we had to change our angle once Mustang News reported on the story. So, our team moved toward a feature of Cal Poly’s creamery based on the release of 30 new Ice Cream flavors. Unfortunately, the creamery advisor was out of the country and the students did not know enough about the flavors to ask our pressing questions.
As the deadline neared, we found SoCreate. Jared, Nick and I ran to the Startup Career Fair in the Chumash Auditorium on Monday, April 15th. There we met Amy Pruett who invited us to the office on Wednesday.
Jared and Nick were humbly welcomed into their office. The walls are soon to be covered in murals that represent old classic films and the staff were all very welcoming and excited to see us. The office is to reflect one of their bigger goal: fostering creativity.
“What our software is going to do is bring the creativity back to what is supposed be a creative process.With our program, we feel like we are going to open up a world of new screenwriting possibilities to people of all backgrounds.” -Courtney Meznarich
We went to the office to decide what exactly the software had to offer. We wanted to know what made So Create unique, and the inspiration to create such a software. Our angle was going to be a feature on this unique company in the Technology Park at Cal Poly.
“So when I first encountered this particular problem, my initial instinct was to figure out what I could do to fix this, because I was so frustrated with the whole screenplay design.” -Justin Couto
We interviewed Justin Couto, the CEO of SoCreate and Courtney Meznarich, director of community outreach and some of the employees working on the software. Hannah also was able to meet with Randi Barros of the Science, Technology and Society (STS) department at Cal Poly.
SoCreate will not be launching until Summer 2019, but they are moving at the right speed to meet the deadline. Although there are other screenwriting softwares on the market, SoCreate is unique. It greatly simplifies the process. And on top of their software, SoCreate has a blog with tips and tricks that have to do with screenwriting. They claim that SoCreate will change film making for the better.
This project forced us to think on feet, work hard and work fast. It definitely allowed us to come together as a group and create a story that was unique and interesting. This was a rocky start for Team 5, but it means that things can only go up from here.