Day 1: Belonging Together – SEABISCUIT

[Sandeep Gupta]

Minus nuances I may have missed in the documentary section of this screenplay (and in no way detracting from it’s 7 Oscar noms) there is a match between CHARLES and RED and between RED and SEABISCUIT. The latter is quite visible in the scene, the former is the attitude of the two gentlemen. Charles answers MARCELA with ~ “We don’t need anything, really (not just all this,)” and Red takes the first dollars he has made, to his father who needs it — and Red does it in a time when everything was falling apart, and a couple of dollars could go a long way for him. Clearly it was a big deal because POLLARD SR., nearly recoiled at the idea of taking it from his son. Last bit I got so far, all three are courageous with a fighting spirit. That would have us happy I guess that all three guys who just impressed us, are finally meeting after the *epic* storytelling.

[Based on reading the first however many pages of the screenplay until the scene arrives, and watching the scene. Can’t stop wondering, why is this screenplay so European? Both Laura and Gary are American…]

[Jim]

Sandeep, I may be out of line with my comment, but I feel it is worth asking. I notice you prefer to read pages in the screenplay preceding the posted video. While you share the added insights it gives you, does this possibly undercut what the intended purpose of that particular lesson is? It seems to me that the purpose of each lesson is to understand how much about a character and/or relationship we can glean from only watching a short snippet of video.

[Sandeep Gupta]

hi Jim, thank you, i do need to learn from students with more experience. see, most of the last two decades I have not seen any movies, and most of you have. so i was only trying to come up to the class level by reading the screenplay. sometimes, e.g., Sleepless in Seattle, a lot of beautiful lines by Nora herself got edited out. so i add the caveat, as my ignorance of the actual Vance movie annoyed someone recently. not justifying it, i was just attempting to preempt a distraction. i was already one by posting much, didn’t realize my typo corrections sent you all yet another message — which probably annoyed Chris, along with my not being familiar with Vance story and relying on the scene alone. : ) i appreciate your reminder.

[Karyn Laitis]

Character Mastery: Week 2, Day 1—Seabiscuit

Karyn Laitis

What causes you to believe they belong together? Both Seabiscuit and Red exhibit similar traits and behaviors. They have a mutual understanding that develops a respect for each other. Horses need to feel safe to trust a human. Red can provide that for Seabiscuit

Notice any similar emotions, words and actions? They are both spirited, scrappy, fighters, and headstrong.

What drama is the scene built around? There is a very spirited, agitated horse that can be ridden “eventually”. He is a temperamental horse and will rip a piece of you, or your shirt if provoked. “That horse is nuts!” Then there is a scrappy jockey fighting four guys, egging them on. Seems like a match. The question is the journey to greatness that they will take together.

What profile items (right character, traits, secret, wound, future) showed up in the character’s words and actions? Their journey explores when and how the two will connect and become a great team.

Breakthrough-what makes the characters great? Each of these characters express an honesty in their emotions and behaviors. They build a trusting relationship on their similarities to build a mutual dependency.

[Deb Johnson]

• They are both Angry/combative, can’t be “handled”, opposing three/ four other people

• Tom is very calm, cool, and collected – a great balance for both the Horse and Red.

• We know that Red has been abandoned and nobody wants to work with the Horse

• Secret revealed: This scene is set up in two ways – first – we only hear the pounding of the hooves against the stable wall as the Owners talk to Tom about his “spirit” and wonder if anyone could ride him. Tom assures that there is. In the next scene – he brings in a Jockey who is attacked by the horse (it rips his shirt) and claims the horse is “crazy” … but Tom sees (and we see) Red – in the background – fighting – swinging a bucket – to fend off 4 men. So it is an unfolding of these events – that give us a clear picture of how these two belong together.

• They are living into their future by being stubborn, obstinate characters who will have their own way – which will make them winners in the end. Tom thinks you’ve got to “have spirit” to win.

This is such a wonderful/memorable scene. Seen through the eyes of Tom – who acknowledges that the horse “has spirit” – he realizes how hard it will be to find a rider when the horse rips the first Jockeys’ shirt. He then notices the same “spirit” in Red – who’s fighting with four men (swinging a bucket!). The immediate juxtaposition – as with the scene in “Sleepless in Seattle” – is a perfect way to show that these characters belong together.

I think my big takeaway is – don’t be afraid to create a scene like this in order to show that the two characters belong together – thinking it’s “too obvious” for the audience. It’s not. It works.

[Leona Heraty]

Daily Focus – Searching for Breakthroughs:

1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights/breakthroughs into what makes this character great from a writing perspective.
This story is about the underdog, who must try harder to prove their worth and their fight to be understood and to win. Seabiscuit is the perfect horse for this scene because he’s smaller but faster and has more spirit than larger horses, and he’s not afraid to fight against people (the trainers) whom he doesn’t like.

Red is misunderstood and has had to fight for everything, even against other trainers who gang up on him, four to one! He’s perfect for this scene because he’s the human version of the star, Seabiscuit. They both have lots of spirit!

2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of any insights/breakthroughs you like.
One student mentioned that Seabiscuit is fighting off three handlers, and then a jockey. Meanwhile, Red is fighting off four guys with only a bucket. Seabiscuit is creative and scrappy, he kicks his stalls, and kicks at the handlers and bites the shirt off the jockey who tries to ride him. He uses his tools of his legs and hooves and teeth to fight back.

Red is using the only thing he can find to fight off the four guys: a bucket! So Seabiscuit and Red’s traits of scrappiness and the fighting spirit literally complement each other and show us clearly in this scene that they belong together!

3. Rethink or create a scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite that scene/character.
Tara, when cornered, has to fight back against the Termo-Lytes and lead Davie and Meg in their fight to survive. Although she lacks courage and confidence in her abilities, she rallies Davie and Meg and says no, they can’t surrender to Big Betty and the Termo-Lyes, because they can’t be trusted.

Big Betty rallies her gang, the Termo-Lytes, to fight against “these silly human Round-Up heads, and she pours an old can of Round-Up into the cocktails she’s trying to trick Tara, Davie and Meg into drinking. She’s using her courage and confidence to strike back, even though she’s afraid the humans will repeat what they did to her grandparents, when they killed her grandparents with Round-Up at the Halloween festival corn maze, when Tara was eight years old. Big Betty doesn’t trust the humans and Tara doesn’t trust Big Betty.

[Lawrence Fraly]

Leona, I hadn’t thought of them as underdogs. Given this insight, I can now see a much broader arc for both. Very helpful.

[Leona Heraty]

Glad my insights helped, Larry. The book was excellent! It dives deeper into how Seabiscuit and Red were truly underdogs and how their wins inspired a nation during the Great Depression.

[Lawrence Fraly]

Week 2 Day 1 BELONGING TOGETHER

SEABISCUIT

First Watch

They belong together because the horse is a fighter against everyone. Red is a fighter taking on everyone, telling them to come at him. Red’s fearless, and knows what it’s like to be attacked.

Second Watch

Drama Situation where thoroughbred can’t be tamed. The trainer’s looking for someone to ride the horse. The person he finds can’t be tamed either. Perhaps intimidated is a better word than tamed.

Profile Red looks like he’s got the same untamed spirit as the horse. The trainer’s looks from the horse to Red. We can see in his look that he’s going to get Red to work the horse. Both horse and jockey are misfits with very hot tempers, especially when threatened. They don’t back down. What will their profile look like when they learn to trust each other and are no longer threatened?

What makes this character great from a writer’s perspective? Is Red up to the challenge? He’s a fighter, but does he have other qualities, wounds, subtext where he and the horse can meet on equal ground, testing each other, learning to trust. The writer starts with a raw, unrefined, brute (both horse and Red). But there has to be more. The writer leaves it open as to whether the horse and the man will be merely superhero/villain, one-dimensional fighters, or will their battle bring out the best in each.

In my horror screenplay (still in very rough first draft), an innocent young wife brings to life a prince by painting him from her imagination. On the surface, both are innocent of heart and pure of intent. Each, however, will evoke the worst in each other. Well matched by both of them living in a dreamworld, until they turn each other’s dreams into nightmares.

What I learned rewriting my scene/character: Give them the same traits and subtexts so that they belong together, at first as sweetness convention of rom/com, evolving into their inner demons creeping to the surface. Each connives against the other. They are driven to evil by forces beyond their control after each transgresses against their own ideals…those forces are my own twist(ed) lifting of the Eumenides from Greek mythology.

[Trish Carothers]

On the surface, it would be a miracle if Seabiscuit and anybody, including Red, could become friends. The horse is wild and barely controlable in general for anyone. RED’S VIOLENCE IS LIMITED TO A MOMENT IN TIME. ONCE IT’S OVER, IT’S OVER. Looking at the two for similarities is the anger, bravado, and violence expressed as an underlying base of fear and thus self-protection.

The drama of this scene occurs because of perceived attack and then defend in both characters, horse and boy.

The cofrontations reveal that a wound exists. For the boy, it may be a rough life built on abandonment and defense to survive. For the horse, we can’t tell but can guess at repeated mishandling of some sort…but the same fear, hurt, anger and subsequent violence and self-protection as the boy.

For the same traits as mentioned above, the horse and the boy are both the “right characters.”

[Trish Carothers]

Boyh characters are living into their future.

[Trish Carothers]

What I learned from this example is that my huge scen is of antagonists who never come to a moment like Horse and Red. I would like to have this as an ongoing problem that eventually becomes friendship or love…and have several places but not a continuous arc. Will need to re- examine scenes and/or characters for possible areas. I love the way that each movie and questions jogs and percolate new ideas and deeper meanings.

[J.R Riddle]

Great scene about how negative character traits can be seen as positive by someone who sees life holistically, and can add one and one and not get three. Both Red and Sea Biscuit are fighters, not joiners. Both have serious wounds around trust and being pushed into surrendering anything. Both are determined not to give up the fight. The trainer sees all this with a few glances, watching them, and realizes this is a match made in race-winning heaven.

What I learned – create more static when writing some of my ‘first meets’ – not everyone needs to be nice and friendly, but questionably defensive, and appearing at times – for no reason at all, except for their inner issues of fear and wounds. I rewrote one of my first meets in this fashion, making the characters at first, wary of each other and defensively protective.

I love this class!