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Day 11 Assignments
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Megan’s Creating Irony! – Parts 1-2
What I learned doing this assignment is…that irony adds valuable depth to a script. It’s the sticking power that intrigues an audience at a deeper level. I also noticed in analyzing my model show that irony is subtle. Finally, I realized that the irony for my show was already in place from previous brainstorming sessions; I just had to identify it.
TITLE: Riverdale
Examples of Irony:
Veronica, the girl seeking to know the truth about the murderer, may be partially responsible for the murder via her family.
Mr. Blossom, the father of the dead Jason Blossom, is the one who killed his son.
The Blossoms, Riverdale’s most esteemed family, is responsible for not only the murder, but also incest and drug smuggling.
Mr. Jones, the seedy Serpent who confessed to the murder, is actually innocent.
In order to keep his son safe, Mr. Jones confesses to a murder he didn’t commit.
TITLE: Dear Future Self
Examples of Irony:
Lexie wants to stand out amongst her siblings, but in being an enabler to her father, she’s going along with whatever he wants.
Lexie wants to be bolder and more independent, but as she begins heeding Alexis’s advice, she becomes more dependent on Alexis.
Alexis wants to be able to kindle real relationships but as an undercover operative, her job is to create fake ones.
Brett is Alexis’s partner but he’s the one who betrays her and steals her login.
Stering is Alexis’s competition but she’s the one who saves Alexis with a tip from Lexie.
Betsy, the rough-and-tumble, tactless athlete, grows up to become a successful model.
Cerise wants more freedom but in lying to her father, he only clamps down on her harder.
Cerise wants to make friends, but in hiding the truth from them she inhibits her ability to form lasting bonds.
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Tom’s Creating Irony!
What I learned… identifying 20 ideas for irony is challenging, but rewarding. In the process I came up with an idea for a plot twist that gives character irony to the three quarters of the cast and really solidifies the audience experience I am shooting for, AND offers the potential for some excellent comedic moments. This exercise also got me thinking about specific scenes and where/how that irony could show up.
ASSIGNMENT 1: The Good Place
Eleanor and Jason are not good people who find themselves in the Good Place
Chidi, and ethics professor, spends the entire first season making unethical choices to try to help Eleanor become a better person
Tahani who is obsessed with outshining her sister, dies when a golden statue of her sister falls on top of her
Eleanor, who has little moral fiber is matched as the soul mate of Chidi, a man with an overbearing sense of morality
Tahani, who is a socialite and never stops talking is matched as the soul mate of Jason who pretends to be a Buddhist monk who has taken a vow of silence to avoid being discovered
Michael compelled a town full of demons to pretend to be happy in order to have a new way of torturing four humans
Michael is a demon pretending to be an architect in heaven
The group believes they are in the good place, but have actually been in the bad place the entire time
Assignment 2: My Story
1 Character – Florida Man appears to be a regular person, but believes that the entire system is a conspiracy—he tries to look normal to avoid being discovered for knowing too much.
2 Character – Angela who is suicidal and joins the group to help convince her that there is nothing worth living for finds purpose.
3 Situational – Jenny who is actually the most innocent, unassuming, and alive member of the group is actually the keystone of the entire experiment and the one who will die in the attack.
4 Character – Claire and Eddie who are competing to be on the Janitor’s staff and facilitate the experiment, come to question the ethics and morality of the abduction and experiment.
5 Character – The Janitor, who is seemingly the least important person in the room, is actually the architect and overseer of this entire experiment.
6 Situational – The members of the group all appear not to be associated with each other in any way, but learn that they actually all share a very powerful connection.
7 Situational – The group believes they are there voluntarily but are actually abductees on a alien ship.
8 Situational – Each week (episode) the group believes they have experienced a week full of memories, but those memories have all been fabricated through mind control.
9 Character – REVEAL: Their identities have been switched, as part of the experiment to see how to empathize with one another their roles in the real world. Their actual memories are later returned to them allowing them to see both perspectives. This could create an irony in all the characters. The most humble become the most aggressive, and vice versa.
10 Situational – Claire and Eddie go from being the group’s greatest allies to their greatest enemies when the curtain in pulled back.
11 Situational – In order to try to stop an act of violence, the aliens discover that their efforts fail in an unexpected way (others act out in their place) leading the aliens to see that the problem is for more systemic than their experiment was prepared to handle.
12 Character – Peter Cetera’s driving force is to stand out from the crowd, but his deepest desire is to fit in. He attacks FM for not being a real musician, but actually wants to know more about him.
13 Character – Stu is an older guy who is always talking about wishing he could go “back to a simpler time,” but comes to realize that there was nothing simple about those times, only the naivety he carried.
14 Character – Trish is an unaware racist who comes learn how white privilege and close-mindedness has shaped her entire reality.
15 Situational – In order to get off the ship and return to their lives, they must let go of their pride, and ultimately see that they are all reflections of one another.
16 Character – In the opening sequence, Florida Man goes to a rally to try open people’s minds, by telling them why they are wrong, further isolating himself.
17 Character – In the opening sequence, Trish is rallying her people, telling them that she wants peace, and the only way to get peace is through guns and Jesus, and anyone who disagrees can burn.
18 Situational – FM is a gifted rapper who has nothing to rap about, so he puts himself in harm’s way to gain life experience.
19 Character – Angela, who is suicidal, continues to look outside of herself for a reason to go on, when the strength she needs is in her and accessible.
20 Situational – The moment the group understands how to help themselves and one another it is time to return to earth, but they must have their minds wiped of the experience.
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Binge-Worthy TV – Lesson 11
What we learned during this assignment was that it’s a challenge to come up with 20 ideas of irony. We think the first several came easy, bit it was harder to dig deeper. We believe that more of these ideas will come with time.
Example Show: The Righteous Gemstones
ASSIGNMENT 1: Example Show
Tell us the irony you have already discovered in the Example Show.
Judy doesn’t get any significant work, but she helps them out of major jams
Eli is a celebrity Christian minister but doesn’t act very Christian outside of the church
Jesse is ready to take over the church but is immature and parties
<hr>ASSIGNMENT 2: Your Show
Look back through your previous assignments and find at least 20 different situations or character components that you could go opposite to create irony.
With each, brainstorm ideas for ways it could go opposite.
Select the ones that work well for the show and share the character and situational irony ideas with us.
Liz is completely secure in the swinger world but afraid to come out for fear of judgment
Michelle thinks swinging will save her marriage
Michelle knows everything about Liz except that she’s a swinger
Liz is completely open and honest with Eric about everything yet covers up that she outed herself to Michelle and is giving people in the community sex advice
Liz’s Mom is a strict Catholic and won’t divorce her husband but lives with him being a secret cross-dresser
Mary tries to be zen, but freaks out when anything doesn’t go as planned
Liz is insecure but acts tough to hide it
Michelle wants a fairy tale relationship but her marriage is falling apart
Teresa wants to appear as a perfect couple, but she’s not in a happy marriage
Liz says “to each their own” about different lifestyle situations and kinks but then judges them as being wrong
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Sharilyn’s Creating Irony!
What I learned from doing this assignment is…K.I.S.S: Keep Irony Simple Scribe
ASSIGNMENT #1 Irony already discovered in “Big Little Lies”
1. The smallest character in stature, Madeline, is the most revered and feared
2. The assumption from all “outside” parents is that Madeline is THEE rich-bitch-clique- Queen but she is the one who stands-by, defends and clings to underdog Jane
3. Boss mom Renata and Damaged mom Jane become friends
4. On the outside Perry and Perfect Mom Celeste have a perfect life but it is filled with violent outbursts and abusive sex
5. All the 6year olds know how to make-up, accept, support and affirm each other despite their parents’ bad behavior accusations, defamations, retaliations, and situations
6. Perry plays with his 6yearold twins as the “monster” and he really is a monster as a date-rapist-sadist-control freak
7. Zen-cool-calm & collected Bonnie delivers the final “over-the-edge” push to kill Perry
ASSIGNMENT #2 My show “8Bytes”
CHARACTER ⇐IRONIES⇒ SITUATIONAL
1. The weight Erin despises is loved by 1. Porn = progress/acceptance for Erin
Chubby Chasers
2. Erin appears innocent but is really freaky 2. Erin avoids leaving her house
but her videos go viral
3. Patty appears to support Erin but for her 3. Erin can’t continue in porn and
own gain teaching
4. Patty-translatina, makes a baby w/Erin 4. Erin discovers that her birth parents are thin
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Evelyn’s BWTV/M1/L11/A1&2 – Creating Irony
What I learned from this Lesson: In this lesson, Hal highlighted two types of irony a writer could use to make their series bingeworthy—1) character irony, and 2) situational irony. I have found it especially difficult and challenging to identify and/or create 20 instances of these in my own show (“Opera Aloha”). However, since I want to reach my goals of finishing writing the first complete draft of my novel “Opera Aloha” and writing a TV series based on it, no matter how long it takes me (as my progress continues at a snail’s pace), I vow to keep going with this course, even though I am not satisfied with my work in this lesson.
Assignment #1 – Irony in “Big Little Lies”
Bonnie – the New Age, laid back, meditating, peaceful Yoga teacher is the last person one would suspect to be a “killer,” but she’s the one that pushes Perry to his death to protect her girlfriends from his violence.
Celeste’s & Perry’s marriage – looks great from the outside, but is tragic and brutal.
Renata – the envy of her friends and neighbors for her business success, is financially sabotaged by her seemingly “loving and supportive” husband, Gordon.
Amabella – the child victim of bullying and physical injury is paralyzed by fear of what her tormentor will do if she divulges his identity, and so protects him and herself by staying silent.
There’s a lot more irony in this series than just the few examples above.
Assignment #2 – Irony in Evelyn’s show “Opera Aloha”
1) Stanley Farber, Mira Santiago’s “boyfriend” and “soul mate” of three months, shocks Mira by confessing his intention to transform, and uses it as an excuse to dump her.
2) Mira desperately wants the whole enchilada–love, marriage, and children—but after her “unforgettable dinner date” with Stan, she swears off men forever, blaming herself and her dysfunctional romance radar for her latest romantic fiasco.
3) Mira falls for Wynston Irving Trapnell, “Wyn,” the charismatic architect of Opera Aloha’s Samuel Yee Memorial Opera House, though she pegs him as a ridiculous clown on their first meeting. First impressions are not necessarily correct when judging a person, but nor are second impressions!
4) Daphne Dee Bliss entraps Wyn into marriage by getting pregnant (or pretending to) with his twins. Wyn, who has vowed never to remarry, is conned by her and relents, as he loves children and is desperate for more after his were taken away by his ex in divorce.
5) Daphne Dee Bliss is caught for her lucrative crimes, thanks to her “friend” Kris Van Kampen’s cooperation with the FBI.
6) Umberto Strillo, the elderly, volatile Italian conductor who tries to sexually harass Mira, has a heart attack when he catches his young wife Angelina in flagrante delicto with the lead tenor in the opera.
7) Raleigh Richardson, the wunderkind repetiteur, and assistant conductor for Opera Aloha’s “La Traviata,” triumphs as Maestro Strillo’s last-minute replacement on the podium after he informs the aging maestro of his young wife’s affair with the tenor, causing the old guy’s heart attack when he confronts her.
8) Mira misses the dress rehearsal of “Traviata” due to sabotage, but does not press charges against the culprit when the Executive Director’s young son Scottie, tells Mira whom he saw entering Mira’s dressing room with a small cellophane-wrapped basket of chocolates, and after confronting the culprit, Mira learns why they did it.
9) Jake Sutherland, an opera-hating Vietnam vet and successful cookbook writer, transforms into an opera junkie after falling in love with Mira when he sees her perform onstage on opening night of “Traviata.”
10) Situational irony: Jake, waiting at the opera house’s stage door exit hoping to catch Mira and talk with her as she exits after the opening night’s performance, quickly ducks behind some bushes when he sees Daphne Dee’s convertible pull up and Wyn run outside to meet her. Jake is outraged as he watches the two engage in a lusty display and hears them arrange to meet after the opening night party because he realizes that Wyn is two-timing Mira, having learned from his friend Kris Van Kampen that Mira and Wyn had been heavily dating. Jake decides to save Mira from Wyn, but how to do this without appearing to stalk the dating couple?
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