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Subtext Mastery Lesson 2 Assignments
Post your Lesson 2 Assignment here.
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Sylvia Krawczyk’s Environment Subtext
L2 Lesson 2 – Applying Environment Subtext
What I learned doing this assignment is…
I hadn’t thought of the depth of the caves. Doing this exercise added more depth and will as a whole add more to the whole story.
Two main Subtext Environments for my story:
1-Caves:
Overview: The areas on Rosenstein where Frau Holle is met and magic is revealed, explained and trained to Elsie.
Ways the environment delivers the deeper meaning of your story: These are the places Elsie would play in as a child with Frau Holle. Elsie was too young to remember. But she senses this is a “happy place” for her.
2-Wirtschaft am Rosenstein:
Overview: The place and area around it where the story is revealed. It is the family owned, designed and run restaurant that has been in the family for generations.
Ways the environment delivers the deeper meaning of your story: It is the place where Elsie’s parents are met and the kidnapping aunt is exposed. It shows the family history, style, and it has the large wooden carved bear with the red bow to symbolize the long-lost daughter, Elsie. Elsie was kidnapped with her favorite teddy-bear with a red bow.
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What I learned doing this assignment is that layering your environments with subtext can add a deeper meaning to everything in your script. You can find the subtext in the environment by asking the following:
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning?
C. How can these subtext environments act as part of the deeper meaning?
For Parish Road –
A. Grief (combined with Guilt) can be a trap from which you, and only you, can pull yourself out. Lisa feels guilt because she had the chance to show mercy but her rage (due to her partner’s murder) caused her to lash out and kill a minor. She is grieving for the kid, her old life, and her partner.
B. The atrocity sites Lisa must visit in the town to escape can mirror/embody elements of the five stages of grief.
1. Maggie’s house is like Hansel & Gretel, warm and cozy and very child friendly. Maggie lured children and murdered them, so I think this dovetails nicely with DENIAL. When Lisa enter the house, on the run and scared, she denies the danger signals until it’s almost too late.
2. The old gas station drips with the ANGER of its crippled owner and his monstrous son. The violent acts of dismemberment the son committed are fueled by rage, and the owner’s bitterness poisons the building.
3. The hospital is a great environment to embody BARGAINING. In a seedy, trade-off kind of way…the “doctor” traded his soul for his experiments, and Anne is ready to give Lisa anything she wants to stay away from the terrifying locale. The ghost of the priest also bargains with Lisa, trading crucial information (that ends up saving her life) in return for “looking at him” and seeing him as no one did in life.
4. The schoolhouse, with all its haunted remnants of childhood, DEPRESSES Lisa. For the first time in the film, hopelessness overwhelms her and she contemplates giving up. It is a sad and bleak educational environment tinged with the atrocity the witch perpetrated on the innocent kids. An atrocity that Lisa feels is similar to what she did to the young gang-banger.
5. The Tar Pits is where Lisa faces “the Judge” that has been following/hounding her. A judge that turns out to be herself. She faces and bests herself, which is a form of ACCEPTANCE.
In my next rewrite, I can incorporate the atmosphere of these environments more fully to flesh out the subtext and add deeper meaning to not only these scenes, but the entire story. Now that I’m aware of it, it’ll inform every decision I make and every line I write as I retool the screenplay.
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What I learned doing this assignment is how my three, layered environments work with – and against each other in conflict – to create tension, suspense and drive the story forward. The audience hopefully will be on the edge of their seat as young Sarah and old Sarah search for answers they need to live as a well-adjusted, complete person who can enjoy a happy, satisfying life.
MY SCRIPT: SHARDS
Environment 1: Sarah’s current world where she is an amnesia victim and alcoholic who is afraid to confront her issues and delve into her memory to uncover the truth about her childhood. She feels she was responsible for the death of her father in the desert twenty-years-before.
Environment 2: The world of Sarah twenty years ago as a six-year-old girl. This is the world that 26-year-old Sarah cannot remember. She wants desperately to recall her childhood – while at the same time is afraid to learn the truth about her past. But…she knows that she needs to take the steps to recall her past so that she can be a complete person and live a satisfying life.
Environment 3: Sarah’s current world as she remembers each of the tragic events that she experienced as a six-year-old. She is “aided” by James March, the kind-hearted hypnotist who offered to help Sarah remember her childhood, but who in reality has the ulterior motive of manipulating Sarah’s memories in order to learn the location of a lost Spanish treasure in the Arizona desert that he himself cannot remember the location because he himself was critically injured shortly after trying to kill Sarah. James is the man who murdered Sarah’s father and then tried to kill young Sarah as a child because she witnessed the murder. James is driven to learn from Sarah the location of the lost treasure. He is obsessed and must find it. It is the only thing that he lives for. He will do anything and kill anyone who gets in his way of completing his mission – including trying to kill Sarah again after he learns from her where the treasure is located.
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Lesson 2: Subtext through Environment – Evelyn Petros
There are four main environments evoking subtext in my screenplay:
Environment 1: A charming château in Paris, France, the home of the expat French Creole Louisiana planter Louis Aubigny, his wife and their son Armand. It evokes the idyllic paradise of Armand’s early childhood before the loss of his mother and his uprooting to his father’s run-down Louisiana plantation. The Paris château has masculine, French Empire furniture (Louis, in my imagination, was an admirer of Napoleon), rich, colorful silk upholsteries, a spacious garden.
Environment 2: At L’Abri, Louis’ neglected Louisiana plantation, a dark, oak-lined allée draped in Spanish Moss leads to his two-storey French Creole house with peeling paint and a black roof that covers its verandas like a black cowl. House and grounds exude gloom and disrepair since the Aubignys have been living in France for 10 years. The heavy, dark, almost sinister ambience of the property, including the heavy interior decor foreshadows tragedies that will soon occur there.
Environment 3: As a contrast, Valmondé Plantation and its well-kept white mansion with classical Greek pillars, are neatly landscaped and welcoming. Désirée is raised there by her foster parents Michel and Emilie Valmondé. Two white piggeonaires flank the mansion on either side, housing Désirée’s beloved pigeons. Inside, the light furniture and cheerful pastel décor reflects the Valmondés more engaging, empathetic personalities.
Environment 4: The small, rough slave cabins at L’Abri heighten the contrast between the wealthy European lifestyle of the French Creole slave owners and their exploited slaves. The atmosphere of injustice and cruelty is most apparent here.
What I learned: This exercise was fun for me. My education in art, interior design and music helped in my effort to evoke subtexts through the environments in my script.
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Mastering Subtext class assignment #2 ENVIRONMENT SUBTEXT
What I learned from doing this assignment is…I love this aspect of subtext. I had never given this any thought before. The environment can truly set the visual stage for subtext.
Love Dance
Because both sisters (Daisy & PT) want the kind of loving partnership that their parents had, but neither feels deserving or capable of achieving it, environments that evoke childhood memories would show this.
The graveyard where Daisy’s mom is buried
* Daisy takes roses (her mom’s namesake & favorite flowers) to place on her gravesite. She talks to the photo image of her mom on the tombstone, revealing her feelings about finding true love & her issues around her self-worth.
Frank’s apt. at YACC
* Daisy looks longingly at photos of her dead mother & her parents dancing.
* Daisy brings Frank a photo of her parents as newlyweds she found when cleaning out a closet, which makes her melancholy reflecting on her own failed marriage.
* Frank shows her a photo of their childhood home with the family posing in front, again making Daisy long for a happier time and contemplating her lonely single life.
Also added opportunities that evoke memories of her mom for Daisy.
Kate and Daisy visit Gotta Love It Bakery during a stroll downtown Daisy reminisces about going there with her mom after dance practice.
A florist shop where Daisy buys herself flowers or her mom’s favorite flowers to adorn her gravesite.
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Assignment 2 – Environment Subtext for 28 Days & 7 minutes
Background
In 1914, Ted Ryko becomes the record holder for the 2000 mile bicycle ride from Adelaide to Darwin across the Australian outback. Ted is an adventurer and photographer.
There are several themes inherent in the script including story-telling (‘truth’), privilege, inequality, injustice and disenfranchisement.
Two environments used to express subtext.
1 A Garden Party at Government House, Darwin.
This ‘dressed’ event is for the well-to-do, privileged and entitled British residents. The main character, Ted Ryko (who wouldn’t normally attend such events), is invited because he is a hero, the latest ‘someone to know’. No Chinese merchants (who ‘run’ the day-to-day operations of the town), or Indigenous people are present as guests.
Subtext is built into a number of events that take place at the Garden Party. For example, drinks on silver trays are served by Indigenous men, including one of Ted’s friends, Charlie. Ted informs some of the attendees that Charlie had saved his life on his first day in Darwin – from crocodiles. Although polite, arrogance abounds in the responses (or lack thereof).
The environment is appropriate because it is an overt demonstration of privilege, especailly given that next door to Government House, Indigenous people are seen living in the ‘long grass’.
2 Crocodile Islands, Northern Territory
Ted accompanies Rev Watson, Protector of Aborigines, who is to investigate the murder of two foreign fishermen by some local Indigenous men from the very remote Crocodile Islands.
Ted and Watson are met by a large mob (tribe) of over 250 armed men, only 4 of whom have ever seen a white man before. The accused men explain that the killing took place because the mob was ‘under threat’. The audience knows that the Australians and the British are, at this time, at war with Germany because their society (their mob) was ‘under threat’ (elemental hypocrisy?). The mob appeal to Watson to be allowed to live by their own laws, like they have done ‘for ever and a day’. However, Watson, as a Government representative, tells the mob, and so the accused men, that they have to abide by British/Australian law.
The environment is appropriate because of its remoteness. Even though British law may be a long way away its ‘reach’ is vast and powerful, supplanting all that went before.
What I learned doing this assignment.
Given that such scenes exist within my script, do I need to make more of the opportunity they present?
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What I learned doing this assignment is that considering two opposite environments draws sharp contrast and deeper meaning.
AMERICAN MAID
To impress his new boss, a ruthless playboy coerces his maid and her kids into pretending to be his family by including them in his will but when he tries to kill her, he ends up dead and she inherits his entire fortune.
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?
What goes around comes around. Bad karma will boomerang. Your actions dictate your future. Ill-gotten gains are fleeting. You lose that which you stole. The last shall be first.
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning?
An ostentatious, seedy mansion, gaudy and overdone, perched on a mountain top with lots of security cameras, all of which are easily hacked if you work there. A front gate with oversized lions perched on either side.
A mountain top estate, with steep drop-offs where the fall is fatal.
A house in a crime-ridden neighborhood, a definite step down, where her kids attend…
a poorly run public grade school with behavioral issues and horrible teachers.
A private school where the teachers are genuinely interested in helping each student, her goal.
A border crossing in a desert as a child, terrifying but with hope for a brighter future.
An erotic, Eurocentric Avant-gard but expensive office vs a mahogany traditional office.
C. How can these subtext environments act as part of the deeper meaning?
A gaudy mansion stands in stark contrast to the maid who cleans it. A struggling mother of two whose husband was murdered (unsolved). She’s left destitute because somebody drained their account and she must now take any job available.
A greedy tycoon who constantly looks for ways to manipulate and dominate at any cost. Financially rich, spiritually poor.
She has nothing – he has everything but it’s all so easily switched.
DISCOVERY ISLAND
A domineering boyfriend drags his introverted girlfriend to an island resort where guests encounter their cyborg twins in an effort to self-discover but when a storm knocks out the main computer, the cyborgs self-repair with deadly consequences.
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?
Know thyself, the first step in a full life.
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning?
An island, as in no man is one.
An island vulnerable to the whims of mother nature.
An island paradise where nothing is too expensive, no amenity too great.
A five-star resort that features a computerized process of self-introspection with cyborg clones, impressive technology but doomed to fail – lacking in humanity.
A woman who sleeps on a couch in her ex-boyfriend’s apartment. She’s dependent as long as she hides inside her shell, afraid to explore the world around her.
A birdcage with a wounded bird.
An office cubicle, sterile and closed off just like she is.
A weirdly decorated shrink’s office, the site of many long sessions that aren’t working.
C. How can these subtext environments act as part of the deeper meaning?
She has made her own island, insulated from the outside so nothing can penetrate. She goes to the island reluctantly with no intention of changing but fate has other plans.
A dependent living arrangement that she prefers rather than being on her own.
She a bird in a cage, unable to move on because she doesn’t know herself.
She’s surrounded herself with anonymity leading a bland but safe environment, unaware that she is about to be challenged in every way possible, from inner secrets to basic survival, trapped on an island with nowhere to go.
AN OLD SCORE
After an aging Russian oligarch activates a dormant killer squad in America, his Seal team nemesis rigs his Leningrad basement with explosives not knowing the oligarch has his wife upstairs.
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?
Revenge can work both ways.
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning?
A heavily guarded dacha in the Russian countryside, seemingly impervious to attack.
An American neighborhood in suburbia, just like another other, about to become a killing field.
A Russian gulag where an old man is held prisoner, in stark contrast to what his daughter was promised.
A nicely groomed golf course, where nobody is safe.
A private funeral at a cemetery, suddenly under attack.
C. How can these subtext environments act as part of the deeper meaning?
Our hero must save America, everything important to him, everything he cherishes is at stake. And he must turn the tables on his old nemesis and use his own weapons against him. They both have a score to settle.
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Denise Bryant, Lesson 2, Applying Subtext Environment
Simply ask these questions and see what answers come up.
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?
Main character dislikes children and wants nothing to do with them.
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning?
An environment that does not include any aspect of children.
C. How can these subtext environments act as part of
the deeper meaning?They can communicate a life absent of children or its avoidance.
Two subtext environments.
1. Main Character’s apartment. Void of any photos of young family members. No photos of their own childhood. Expensive delicate glassworks. Pristine.
2. Main Character avoidance of environments with children but when face with them quickly leaves.
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What I learned doing this assignment is that environmental subtext is an essential tool for adding greater depth to my story. Not only does it add deeper meaning, it adds opportunity for more story. The environment subtext inspires more opportunities for character subtext, plot subtext, and allows the story to live more fully and clearly.
“THE 88”
A. What is the deeper meaning of my story?<div>
Alice discovers her mother and her Catholic faith have been dictating the course of her young life – as a gifted pianist. They tell her it is a God given gift, so she feels she doesn’t have ownership of her talent. She is just a vehicle or vessel to do His work through music.
When Alice is exposed to the underground world of Jazz, she discovers she has an incredible talent for playing Jazz. She comes to believe, through the help of her new friends that this is her gift to the world, not God’s.
Her mother and faith have been keeping her and her artistry in shackles. It makes her question everything she’s known to be true in her young life.
B. What environment can deliver that deeper meaning? <div>
1. The surface world where Alice must attend church, help her family, play hymnal’s – is dark, cold, shadowy, gloomy – which also echo’s the era of the period the story takes place in – The Great Depression. Her house is rundown, peeling wallpaper, the ever present hole in the wall from her abusive, now dead father, symbolized the holes in their lives. We see soup kitchens in town. The daily newspapers account for the latest tragedies as poverty reigns.
2. When Alice secretly applies for a job as a pianist for an underground lesbian band, she discovers a whole new world of speakeasies and gay bands, bootlegging, The Mob. This world is exciting, bright, colorful, rich in spirit and passion, alive, even though it is shunned and illegal in the surface world. (And has some very disturbing elements.) The colors of the clothes, textiles, the tempo of the music, the energy, and laughter are all environmental elements that seduce Alice into a life she never new existed. She learns to thrive in it.
3. The Music Shop is the one inspiring and bright environment in Alice’s otherwise dark surface world. This is where she meets her mentor, Bud, a black musician and shop owner. His music shop becomes her portal to musical freedom, beyond the confines of her church and home piano. The shop is filled with great opportunity and musical inspiration. There are instruments hanging from the walls, records, posters of famous musicians.
4. Alice’s dead father’s tool shed becomes a place for Alice to confess her sins, because she is too guilty to actually confess to a priest at church for her sins in the underground world. The tool shed is the ghost of her father’s ruined life. It’s where he used to bring her mother – to abuse and rape. It is symbolic of the families torn apart and ruined by The Great Depression.
Other environmental nods to subtext…
Overtime, Alice’s presence warms and matches more fully the color and tone of her underground world. When she is in her cool surface world, we begin to see subtle changes in Alice’s skin color, there is a slight aura about her, her clothes fit her better, but nothing too obvious – until the end of the series.
I changed the name of the underground lesbian club from “The Nine O’Clock Club” to “The Wonderland”… having fun with “Alice in Wonderland” without getting into IP trouble.
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ENVIRONMENTAL SUBTEXT
Environment 1: Nariah’s portable shrine that displays her dual religions. It consists of a Catholic crucifix and a small Buddha, along side of her yoga mat. Here she connects with and receives guidance from the deities of Buddhism and Catholicism and her Grandmother’s spirit.
Environment 2: The Night. Because Nariah has Nyctophobia, the darkness is her biggest challenge.
Environment 3: The Lab – This is where Nariah gets her energy and transmissions. This is her home base.
By doing this assignment, I learned to intentionally think about locations in terms of subtext.
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#2 Environment #1 – the cabin where Frances is killed – subtext that she is isolated from her friends and family.
#2 – Claire Allen’s home – her relationship with her sister who ends of up helping Stan and then crosses back to help Claire at the last minute. Their rooms are totally different.
#3 Fenton police station – subtext the relationship of the two men comes out and see that Stan is in control and Martin wants to please and evaluating Stan’s remarks.
Frances/Victoria’s home – evidence of abuse – relationship to Father, relationship of mom and dad, and where Claire experiences her mom’s ghost, and where the killer tries to attack her again.
#4 Martin’s house – subtext that Martin was a dear friend and really loved Frances and wished he could have been Claire’s father.
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Deanne’s Subtext Environments
What I learned = budget considerations aside, locations can be chosen for their ability to reinforce the plot’s inner workings.
2A. Protagonist’s house:
The protagonist recently purchased the house from her great-uncle.
Included in the deal was the promise to help him sort and distribute the accumulated belongings of a lifetime.
The house is also where a major cover-up occurred years ago.> Where past and present co-exist.
> Where the protagonist is trying to make room for her new life, but can’t succeed until the past is cleared out.
> Where the baggage of the past is being sorted and identified.
> Where the protagonist is working to take control of her present.
> Where the cover-up is literally uncovered.2B. Regional park:
This setting is used during a public event.
> The public commons, a place of civility and community, is the scene of a long-ago crime.
> When the antagonist takes an unsanctioned route through the park, she’s shown to be a cheater.
> For the powere dynamic between the protagonist and antagonist, this is neutral territory where the wider community can chose sides and influence the outcome. -
Mastering subtext – Lesson #2
What I learned is… I’ve never considered an “environment focus” before. This exercise provided me with a deeper awareness, and gave a more profound connection to my character’s backgrounds and locations.
1. The TV Studio where Crista created her Top Chef show.
Crista’s TV chef show is in year five. The studio has become more like home than her own home. It has also become a place to hide from the real world, a safety net.
2. The Bronx Hospital.
The kids recovering in Bronx Hospital have Crista’s promise to get them out of there, the chance to lead a better life and a somewhat normal future existence. This validates her reasons for leaving a prime time TV show, adds purpose to her being there.
3. The Bronx School District.
Crista goes back to her roots, a childhood she denied from the day she was adopted and rescued from a derelict flat in the Bronx. The first day back in the School District Crista pitches school administrator Jeb her food truck proposal to feed their hungry kids, completely unaware that Jeb was her elementary school boy crush.
The Bronx School District is familiar, provides a base for Crista to network, to expand the childhood hunger project, create hopes and dreams for the Bronx school children.
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What I learned: The environment can provide a lot of subtext to the story, set the mood, challenge or support the character(s).
1. An abandoned old castle, full of old weapons from past wars covered with dust and cobwebs. My character has only a few candles; the corners are dark; good places for devils to hide. The days are short and the nights are long. He’s there alone; hunted by the Inquisition. The castle was once grand and a seat of power, high on a hill, surrounded by forest.
2. Weather plays an important part in my story. Lightning and thunder, downpours. Then sunny pretty days with bees buzzing. Weather, sunrises, and sunsets contribute to or contrast characters’ moods. Weather adds to budget and scheduling difficulties, however.
3. In another script I’m working on, the character’s car tells a lot about him and what he values. Wardrobe and set dressing also tell a lot about character.
4. At the Fugger Palace the extraordinary wealth of the Fugger’s bank and the intersection of Tetzel, Leo, and Fugger is revealed.
5. In some scenes the environment is in contract to the subtext of the characters and, I think, that serves to augment the characters.
Environment / location definitely impacts the message of the movie. I’m thinking, though, that locations can be hard to find and secure and they can fall thru at the last minute. Should we be prepared to re-write with a different location on the fly? So, I’m going thru my scripts for the truly important locations / environments and trying to envision the scene happening just as powerfully in a very different location.
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What I learned from this lesson is that building subtext into the various environments in the story creates layers that can enrich the story and can give the movie a deeper meaning.
SUMMERFJORD KINGDOM: Flicker’s medieval home, but it is not a happy place for him. He is shunned and ridiculed for his handicap: the inability to breathe fire.
–The
forest, where Flicker goes for adventure, becomes dark and dangerous, a
reflection of his fears and his feelings of inadequacy. <div>–The
dragon school, a daily reminder of Flicker’s pain brought on by his handicap.–Flicker’s
rejection by the Council of Elders is an outward manifestation of his inner turmoil and embarrassment.<div>
–Flicker
seeks out the local Wizard, his uncle, for help, but the spells don’t work, further deepening Flicker’s self-consciousness.–Flicker’s
eventual victory over the evil Flint shows his inner transformation is complete.SAN FRANCISCO: Flicker suddenly finds himself a stranger in a strange land; a new and exciting place filled with music, lights, and weird-looking creatures.
–Soon
the excitement of his new surroundings wears off and Flicker finds himself
lost and alone. He longs for home. </div>–Flicker
meets a young Chinese girl who befriends him and promises she’ll help
him find a way back home.–Betrayal
and deception lurk around every turn, making Flicker doubt himself. How can he know who to trust?–Flicker
meets an old Mystic in Chinatown, who teaches him that disabilities don’t need to be a setback.–Flicker
learns that he can gain confidence and self-assurance by taking action in spite of his handicap. He can rise above.–Flicker
learns that Flint has followed him to San Francisco in order to destroy him, but Flicker turns the tables on Flint and fights him, even though he can’t breathe fire.</div>
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SUBTEXT – ENVIRONMENT
TROUBLE (FANTASY) – Norene Smiley
Deeper meaning: You have the power to control your own fate
Environment #1 – The Keep
• closed, secretive, steeped in superstitions, magic, cautions and restrictions – run according to the ‘old ways’; full of the ‘lost, discarded things’ that Bardo scavenges from the Outside world <div>
• this environment shows Scrap’s skills in organizing, deciphering, problem-solving
Ruby and Bardo appear paranoid and anxious pointing to subtext about Scrap’s real story and that she may not be what she seems• even though Scrap normally loves life in the Keep and her tasks organizing the disordered collections of ephemera, the restrictions start to chafe and she revolts – the pressure and resentment is shown, not only in Scrap’s actions but in how collected items, The Keep itself are reacting. Nothing seems to be in control of itself. Scrap is coming of age – hatching. The Curse is taking over.
Environment #2 – The Outside
• this is a work of rigid order, pristine surfaces, machines, vast workforces where oddities and those considered to be superfluous are eradicated or forced to live in the shadows – the natural world is considered inferior and distasteful. </div><div>
• The Outside throws Scrap into high relief. She is the ultimate fish-out-of-water in this environment. Everything is foreign and there is real danger here for her, as the order is disrupted everywhere she goes. It forces her to use her skills in being unnoticed, agility, evasiveness. It requires that she acquire new skills, to trust herself and others, enlisting new friends to survive. It requires her to overcome her fears.
• The subtext that she is the actual cause of the chaos that is unleashed is revealed and not only puts the world in obvious jeopardy but Scrap herself. Everyone wants to stop her. She has to face who she really is, that she is ‘bad’. She may have to sacrifice those she cares for or herself.
What I learned doing this assignment: World-building is aided tremendously by developing subtext. I might need to rethink and massage the deeper meaning of the story to make all the components work. I have to be willing to make changes, even to the biggest components, to heighten the subtext, as the story is further developed.
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1. Brainstorm environments that could possibly express the deeper meaning of your story.
Up in the clouds
Hell
Long, narrow room
Space
College campus
Dark spac e with nothing visible in any direction
2. Decide on two main Subtext Environments for your story. Give us an overview of each and a list of ways that each environment delivers the deeper meaning of your story.
Space lit with sunlight and starlight–
The afterlife in between area where individuals leave the spirit worlds to return to earth for another lifetime
The ethereal view of individuals without bodies
Space above earth for the literal fall of the main character who has done bad things that must now be rectified
A large, open area that can accommodate many individuals and the non-worldly experiences they need to have
Dark area with nothing visible in any direction
A timeless arena
Space, that has been destroyed
The feeling of helplessness all there feel
The realm of the bad individuals who have destroyed much of the realm the others inhabit
3. What I learned doing this assignment is that one environment can work on multiple levels to deepen all the characterizations, making it easier for several characters to both express themselves and to take the steps they need to complete their character journeys. Because without those environments, we wouldn’t easily see how they respond to severe and life-threatening situations. So these other environments also help us see what some characters are made of.
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Subtext Environments
Environment One: small town East Texas, contemporary, uptown wealthy (mostly) white citizens. Environment Two: small town East Texas, contemporary, poor African American citizens (mostly) out in the country/rural part of the townE1: the white citizens, though it’s still a small town, have all the necessities and attitudes borne of decades, if not centuries, of privilege and power that is a fabric of their interactions with others less fortunate. This would include banks, retail operations, schooling, politics and the utter denial of outside influences that might seek to alter the fabric of power in the town. E2: African American citizens out in the country lack the power, privilege and benefit afforded to their uptown white brethren, their culture rooted in a less-advantaged legacy of barely getting by and deep-seated barriers put before them so intrinsic, they’re not actively aware of the initial source. Much less, the ability to overcome that legacy.What I learned is that the two environments I’ve listed can conjure any number of shorthand frameworks for characters, plot lines and dialogue. That shorthand extends to white characters and black characters and their interactions be it comedy or drama. In my story, I count on this built-in subtext to provide a foundation but it also enables me to subvert expectations when and if the time is right to provide a richer experience for the audience.
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Big tree outside Chloë’s window
-It’s under this tree where Chloë, as a little girl, caught her Dad kissing another woman.
This tree grows outside her bedroom window and it is now taller that the house. She uses it to climb down when she sneaks out of the house to spy on her boyfriend and plan her next scare tactic on him.
Dad’s (sports) car
-Chloë believes she’s supposed to inherit it because she’s the oldest and presumably Dad’s favorite. But he wills it to her brother. Accidents happen in this car, one that eventually kills the Dad. She also sees this car in conspicuous places because he’s the only one, in their community of friends and family, that can afford this custom made sports car.
What I learned doing this assignment was various ways to broaden my imagination to have my characters actually go outside their box in the world I created for them.
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Subtext environments
Protagonist is haunted by the death of his older brother idol, who fell from a moving car. He’s guilt ridden over being the one to go on living, given that he’s considered the black sheep of the family. He now believes that life is only chaos, and that he will make, and live by, his own rules, while rubbing his control in the face of the in-effectual establishment.
Environment 1- Every time the Protagonist gets behind the wheel of a vehicle, he is bent on self-destruction:
Uses his after-school job dump truck to destroy a client’s farm.
Bangs up the military base with his expensive Cadillac, frightening his girlfriend with his recklessness.
Uses a wrecker truck to smash up his double-crossing partner’s expensive car.
Drives on the wrong side of the road, when drunk.
Environment 2- Protagonist needs to show everyone that he makes his own rules, and that he won’t succumb to theirs, like his brother did.
Protagonist derides a commanding officer and his authority, when only a lowly private, as he knows he happens to have the upper hand because of his special talent.
Protagonist makes multiple court appearances for traffic and weapons violations, taunting judges to try their best to punish him where it hurts.
What I like is: Love this thought process, which uses an environment to display a character’s, or a story’s, deeper meaning. This will constantly remind the audience of the struggles/challenges underlying the surface elements.
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Hello. Re: Warrior I don’t see how the fights in the cages are an example of Environmental Subtext. That’s what the cage is for. One cannot escape the fight.
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I learned that I am still unclear about the subtext of this story because as I completed this first attempt, I realized how much more I can add. …which is a good thing.
Diesel Detective – Subtext Environment
The truck plaza is one subtext environment. On the surface it is where truckers congregate to talk and shop and pay for fuel. It is also where families traveling pay for their gas and shop. The subtext is, it is a microcosm of the US – a mirror of race relations in America. Truckers are relegated to entering and exiting out of one entrance and on the other side of the plaza, families enter and exit. The two rarely connect with each other and if so it is a simple nod or hello. Neither take the initiative to get have a conversation or show any inkling of concern for the other entity. They each have their pre-conceived ideas about who the people are based on the title family in a four-wheeler or trucker. <div>
2. The cabs of each of the drivers is a second subtext environment. On the surface this is where they are seen most of the time, driving. They look out of the window and see what is ahead. From a subtext point of view, the cab is confining. It serves as a metaphor for how they each think…in a limiting way. They only can see what they see, not that which is beyond the horizon and therefore their behaviors reflect that. This is much like how we as a society behave when managing interactions with others who are not of the same race or background. Our behaviors are based on pre-conceived ideas, they are often limiting because we can’t see the potential results if we behaved and believed based on possibility.
3. The third environment is the highways of America. These are the arteries that enable America’s economy to thrive. There are many ways to get to a destination, however, trucking companies usually have a pre-determined route for loads. Subtext-wise, we behave in much the same way when trying to advance as a culture in dealing systemic racism and stereotypes. The road less traveled is often the one that should be taken.
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ASSIGNMENT 4 – SUBTEXT SITUATIONS
NORENE SMILEY – TROUBLE
SITUATION 1:
Surface – Scrap is helping Ruby repair and strengthen wards and charms around the Keep.
Beneath the Surface – Deception – Ruby tells Scrap it is to maintain the safety and integrity of The Keep and prevent evil from entering. The charms are really to contain Scrap and protect the world from the chaos she is capable of causing.
Sabotage – Scrap who is normally proficient fumbles the job and is afraid to admit to her failure, leaving The Keep more unprotected
Unaware – Scrap is unaware of the trouble that she will cause if the protections are not in place
SITUATION 2:
Surface – Bardo enlists Scrap’s help in sorting and stowing some of his finds.
Beneath the Surface – Misinterpretation – Bardo misunderstands Scrap and leaves her to handle the process.
Sabotage – Scrap with building resentment, purposefully mis-sorts causing a domino effect of rumblings throughout the Keep
Unaware – Scrap doesn’t know her actions are contributing to the building tension. In fact she is acting out of character. Doesn’t seem to be in control of herself.
Can’t Say – Something or someone is preventing Scrap from telling Ruby and Bardo that she has something wrong with her.
SITUATION 3:
Surface – Agrippa Chafe saves Scrap from the street and takes her to the warm safety of the Institute for Child Protection
Beneath the Surface – Misinterpretation – Agrippa thinks Scrap is just another homeless orphan who she can manipulate
Superior Position – We know Scrap is not who she seems.
Deception – Agrippa deceives Scrap about the purpose of the Institute. Scrap misleads Agrippa about her reason for going with her.
Sabotage – Scrap tries to disrupt the working of the Institute to save her friend
Unaware – Scrap does not realize the impact of the power she is unleashing
What I learned from this assignment: Like in the earlier assignments, I am learning to build a more textured and layered world that will hopefully strengthen the story if I can keep all these balls in the air.
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Sandra’s Environmental Subtext
What I learned doing this assignment is how to use subtext environments to give characters and the story more depth.
Subtext Environment 1: University Research Lab. This is where Lucy, a Ph.D. student, has been spending most of her time the last few years. She spends more time here than at home, and as a result her marriage and family relationships are suffering.
Deeper Meaning:
· Lucy has been more focused on her education and career than her family.
· Lucy sees Professor Clark as a father figure (father she never had).
· The lab is where Lucy discovers her lab mice are being poisoned and her research sabotaged.
· The lab is where Lucy finds her unconscious research assistant. Attempted suicide or murder?
· The lab is where Lucy uncovers Professor Clark’s hidden identity and betrayal.
Subtext Environment 2: Lucy’s Car. Lucy’s car is a mess inside and out. The opposite of the pristine research lab. She ran over a sign, a tire was slashed, the car was sideswiped, and now in a blinding storm she was rear-ended and forced into a ditch filling with water. Trapped in her car, Lucy cannot run away or hide from her fears and has to face her family situation.
Deeper Meaning:
· The stormy weather reflects Lucy’s inner and outer emotional state.
· Lucy is forced to slow down, stop and reflect on what is important, what she values, and how her actions and behaviors have impacted others.
· In this contained setting, Lucy has time to think and look at things differently, to examine situations and not jump to conclusions.
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Lesson 2 Subtext Environments
Environment 1: Niagara-on-the-Lake: This is a quaint, picturesque town. But it is also one of the most haunted towns in the country. The old houses and forts hold the spirits of murdered victims, killers, and casualties of ancient battles.
This is what that attracts Jesse Wilson. By making a film about the hauntings he hopes to improve his finances, allow him afford to return to his girlfriend down South, and advance his filmmaking career.
Environment 2: Haunted house on Center Street: This is where the climax of the film takes place. Jesse, Milt, and Harper are fleeing from the Dixie Mafia hitmen and are forced to seek shelter in this most haunted house. Tough guy Milt is reluctant to enter, as he is terrified of ghosts and spirits. But he realizes he must enter. Jesse is more terrified of the hitmen than any evil spirits. He overcomes his fear of the gangsters and valiantly aids in defeating them. Milt faces his fear of the spirits and fights the hitmen.
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Lesson 2 Subtext Mastery 5/2/21
Dave’s Crime Thriller “Nightfall”
What I learned doing this lesson is… When I began the assignments for this course I chose an old script, one I freshened up last year, to evaluate using these new techniques.
“Nightfall” is basically a road picture. A pair of criminals/lovers (Kevin and Sherry) flee from the trouble they’ve created and get into deeper trouble along the way. Off the top of my head I listed almost 30 locations in the script. (I’m sure there are more.) Giving each scene environmental subtext would be as difficult as shooting in so many places. But if it’s all there the payoff would be worth the effort. I will quickly examine a few scenes.
Main Subtext Environments:
Pawn Shop – Kevin tries to retrieve something priceless he pawned earlier without knowing how valuable it is. This is Kevin’s life in a nutshell.
Train Car – Moving/Still – While the train crosses Pennsylvania suspense builds for the action we see at the end of the line.
Mansion/Library – After stealing back the priceless vase, Kevin and Sherry sell it to a rich art collector who was once a client of hers when she was a call girl. Kevin is out of place where Sherry seems at home.
On The Road – Kevin and Sherry “head south” geographically and figuratively.
Rest Stop – Here we see Sherry, ex-hooker and drug addict, show that she’s got a maternal side when she and Kevin meet a young mom with her 2 kids. The subtext is in the irony: father-to-be Kevin is a felon while the 2 kids’ dad is a state trooper.
Derelict Farmhouse – At the end of Act 2, Sherry has admitted to Kevin that she’s carrying his child. In an abandoned house that’s falling apart they become a family.
Country Church/Church Bus – Kevin steals the bus during a gospel service and uses it to elude police.
Trailer/Home – Kevin’s native environment contrasts with the rich guy’s mansion which we learn in the resolution is Sherry’s future.
I’ll bet if I looked closely at more scenes I would find subtext in the environments.
Thank you Hal & Cheryl.
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Harry’s Lesson 2 Work
What I learned doing this assignment is: Thinking about the environment in terms of subtext helps to give the script rock-solid foundations. Not just a setting but a reflection of the conflicts in the characters lives.
Environments:
Rockface. On the surface it is a challenge and one that they can master. However the subtext is that it is hard work and they must take care of each other to survive.
Home. Where different lifestyles conflict. Tidiness vs mess. Order vs chaos. Care vs neglect. The subtext being the primary motivations of our pair.
Workplace. Open plan but with concealable rooms. Subtext is that what is on the surface obscures what is being hidden underneath.
Beach. An open environment where all is equal. Subtext is that there is no place to hide.
Two main subtext Environments:
A: Rockface : One slip can be fatal. Competition does not win the day. When disaster is faced the only way to survive is to forget the past and work together. Environmental changes add weight to their individual predicaments. Physical challenges become metaphors for their issues.
B: Workplace : Where competition rules. Subverting the opposition is grist to the mill. On the surface civility and order rule, but the subtext is winning at all costs. Ostensibly a loving couple, these two are actually at war. Cases they work on create conflicts that underpin their differences – and their similarities, if they choose to see them.
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Lesson 2
What I learned doing this assignment is how to think about location in a specific way to discover the deeper meaning that was already there, but not known.
Maya’s home, mansion, everything in order, restricted yet entitled life
Father is kidnapped. When her house blown up, it reflects that her life will never be the same. Only her memories remain. Removed from everything she’s known.Grandma’s house
Represents Maya’s divided life between the reality and the dream realm, Finding her father’s secrets becomes a metaphor for finding herself and her place in the world.Dream Realm
Unpredictable and ever-changing, the dream realm will force her to come to terms with her anger, learn control of her emotions, and mature in order to survive. There are separate realms within the dream world that represent joy, fear, death, etc., for her to confront. -
Lesson 2: Assignment – Applying Environment Subtext
What I learned doing this assignment is that if you look for the deeper meaning in your chosen environments, they can lend more depth to your characters and their respective journeys.
1. January 1945, WWII Burma, Ramree Island, mangrove swamps that connect the island to mainland Burma.
2. A. Ramree Island is a lush tropical island, but the Imperial Japanese infantry are trapped on the island by the combined Allied forces of the British and Americans and Indian Punjab fighters.
Even though the island is beautiful, the Japanese are surrounded by death and eminent destruction.
The deeper meaning of the environment could signify that although the island is beautiful, it is also deadly.
2B. Instead of surrendering to the Allied forces, the Japanese officers adhere to their Bushido Samurai code of warfare, “death before surrender.”
They force one thousand soldiers to attempt to cross ten miles of deadly, crocodile infested mangrove swamps to reach mainland Burma.
The sweltering hot swamps are full of deadly snakes, scorpions and thousands of bloodthirsty crocodiles who hunt the soldiers relentlessly as they try to cross the swamps.
The deeper meaning of the environment could signify that war without the chance of victory is senseless and eventually leads to needless death and destruction.
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This reply was modified 5 months ago by David Wetzel.
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This reply was modified 5 months ago by David Wetzel.
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This reply was modified 5 months ago by David Wetzel.
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This reply was modified 5 months ago by
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Thinking about the environment of the 1970’s college campus, is there used to be girl only dorms and there were rules and regulations regarding times that men were allowed in the building and when they had to leave. If a man entered the floor, every woman would be screaming, “Man on the Floor” and you’d hear every door slam shut even when the man was a girl’s own father or brother. The colleges actively tried to keep women safe when they were on the campus.
I recently found out there are really no women only dorms on campuses nowadays, and security is very lax leaving the women as equals to men in the dorms. There isn’t such a comradery now between women as there was.So, I’ve included demonstrating the security steps women used at the time to help each other and add to the feel of the 70’s. I know I’ve been told that it feels like the 1870’s instead of the 1970’s, but that’s how much our society has changed in 50 years and this generation is unaware of the care that women received at the time and why men thought women couldn’t do athletics. So, the women who started varsity sports were up against the unknown abilities and society was so awestruck when they found out women could do sports and lift weights even if it isn’t at the same level as men’s sports.
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