Here are some of my understanding of ps, hope they are helpful.
For a only 500 words PS for film production major, it need to focus on one thing and go deep inside. USC keeps reducing the word count of PS (from 2000 to 500) probably because they want applicants to talk about only one thing and see if they can clearly show who they are and what their values and outlook on life are through one thing. (this is also what you have to do in the second semester of the first year: make a 5-minute short film that talks about one thing or a moment.)
There are many things in your PS, including bipolar disorder, your family's support for you, and your experience as a teacher. You have to choose one of them. It can be your experience after you got sick, how your family selflessly supported you physically and mentally daily, or your experience as a teacher. Just one thing is enough.
After deciding which thing you want to write about, you have to decide on a theme; you have to carry out this theme throughout the article. What exactly do you want to explore, and through which thing? Here are some extensions that may help you explore your theme (you don't have to agree with me or choose my examples):
- Did bipolar disorder make you think about what people rely on to overcome the disease? Is it medicine? People's subjective initiative? Or love?
- When your family members are taking care of you during your illness, they must be worried about you, sad for you, or have other kinds of complicated emotions. But I believe they will hide their negative emotions in front of you; how do they deal with these negative emotions behind your back? Are there times when they can't hide and accidentally reveal them in front of you?
- As the eldest sister in the family, has your relationship with your younger siblings changed before and after your illness? Have you changed from a role of taking care of others to a role of being taken care of? How does that feel? Do you have a new perspective on your younger siblings?
- As a teacher, have you ever had those moments when you wanted to do something passionately for your students but found that there was very little you could do and felt helpless?
Choose an event, or even a moment, that moved you, made you want to cry, or gave you a new understanding of life. Then, describe it in detail, just like you are writing a script. Usually, a script does not write out the feelings and inner thoughts of the characters. The script only tells the audience what the person wants to do, how they feel, and what they think through the characters' actions. For example, If you want to express that you can't sleep all night when you are sick, it may be that you keep pacing in the room and the floor makes a creaking sound whole night, or you open the window late at night and hear the chirping of insects and birds that you can't hear during the day. These can all show that you used to don't sleep all night.
Finally, let me summarize. Choose a small thing, describe it like writing a script, and then write down the relatively macro-level life insights you have gained from this small thing. Then, at the end, you can just mention that you want to make a movie on a related subject, and that's it.
