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Day 15 Assignment
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6 Replies
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Lori’s Height of Emotion
What I learned from this assignment is that thinking about meaningful dialogue before I write a scene can help build profound moments in my script.
Assignment 1 – Five emotional moments:
1. When Thomas identifies the body from an accident as someone from his congregation, he says, “Death has won again.”
2. When Thomas and Miriam are having a conversation about moving on, Miriam says, “Sometimes our joy needs a little nudge.” This is a quote from a book, so I will need permission to use it or rephrase it, but it seems perfect for this character.
3. Thomas upsets a little girl at play practice, and the girl asks him, “Why do you hate Christmas?”
4. Miriam and Thomas fight about pie, which represents friendship and tradition. Miriam, in exasperation, yells, “Just take the darn pie!”
5. Thomas’ arc is complete from denial to acceptance when he gives his Christmas day sermon about hope. “In this world, we are all searching for the light. We are drawn to it because it is the only thing that can illuminate the dark places that scare us the most. We celebrate Christmas to remember that Jesus came to be our light, our hope. Isaiah 60:20 says, For the Lord will be our everlasting light, and the days of our sorrow will be over.”
Lori Builds Meaning with Dialogue
What I learned from this assignment is that dialogue, even if it’s just one word, can have great meaning when reflecting the character’s arc.
Assignment 2:
Thomas exhausts himself when putting away all the Christmas decorations and cramming a decorated tree into a closet. He stumbles to his chair and sits, then sees his late wife’s picture on the table next to him. He looks at it with reluctance and says, “Joan.”
This scene is the beginning of his arc. His arc continues through anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and he speaks her name each time in a tone that reflects his deepest feelings and reflects where he is in his character arc.
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What I learned doing this assignment is to think about the deep meaning that needs conveying in a pivotal scene.
It is 1956 in a small town. Ros has had pregnancy confirmed -the conception was non consensual, having accepted a lift home from a social evening at an Air Force base outside of the town.
‘Who I am is forever changed.’
Thirteen years later and in another city some distance away, Ros’s husband of ten years learns of her pregnancy. They’re childless and his first loud and violent reaction includes accusing her of deliberately avoiding having a ‘substitute’ child with him.
‘Every day of our marriage has been a lie.’
Matt at 18 and his girlfriend Lou, 16 and in her final year at school, discover there is a baby on the way. His parents refuse to accept an invitation from Lou’s parents to meet as the prospective grandparents.
‘We’re honorable people and won’t be meeting with any family whose schoolgirl daughter rolls in the hay.’
With a law change in 1985 Matt at 29 is able to search for his birth mother. He drives 8 hours on a Saturday to her current address, and Ros opens the door.
‘I’ve been wanting you all my life.’
Also with the law change Dave receives a letter from an older full sister born when his parents were 17 and 20 year olds and forced to adopt their baby out. He is wailing when he reads this, explaining to his (second) wife:
‘I called Ros the most vile names when I was telling my Mother why I was ending my marriage.’
What I learned doing this assignment is that a feeling can be reinforced through repetition.
Line 1. ‘You ask me why I say I’m lucky?’
Talking to a friend about having given birth -Ros has no stretch marks.
Talking to her father about her husband on her wedding day.
Talking to Lou’s mother when she meets Matt’s family.
Line 2. ‘Girls like you….’
Huey after raping Ros and dropping her home. ‘…expect to flirt all night and be dropped at the door with a handshake.’
The doctor at the time of Matt’s birth. ‘…expect to have your babies whisked away in some nebulous kind of environment and then get back to your lives.’
Dave to Ros when ending their marriage ‘…are a scourge on everything that’s decent in womanhood.’
Line 3. ‘You can’t defend other women for fear of giving yourself away.’
Engagement party with talk of difficulty of getting the Pill before marriage(1956). Fiancé Dave is saying that boys sow their wild oats before marriage but he’d never marry any girl who’d got pregnant, describing them all as tramps, while another young man at the table says that can’t be so. Ros, v/o, tells herself to stay silent, as above.
Linda, a teacher on Ros’s staff needs a day off to meet a 31 year old child she had lost to adoption.
Ros speaks of her own baby, now 29, but tells Linda they must keep each other’s secret as telling people can cause untold problems. As above.
Dave’s mother tells him about the baby she and his father had lost to adoption before they married -explaining that even when Dave was ridiculing Ros at the time of him ending the marriage, she couldn’t tell him, as above.
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Jeff’s heights of emotion
1) dude looks like he’s going to jump off a bridge
2) jen is fired from her job
3) gamelgard is pushed to tell the truth
4) dude is reminded of his dad
5) dude doesn’t know how to dream
What I learned is it’s great to brainstorm and fun to come up with twenty ways to say something. One idea turns into another.
The line that I came up with that fits throughout the movie is”here we go again” very bad things are happening to each character at first and they all have a here we go again and seems hopeless. Then as we gain our footing here we go again takes on a whole new exciting meaning. We’ve all used this line before and it fits wonderfully in my story. I can see the audience saying this before the characters say it.
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Karen Tolliver Height of the Emotion
Assignment # 1
What I learned doing this assignment is how deep the dialogue can become when you think about the essence of the meaning and brainstorm a new idea.
5 most emotional moments:
1. Sharon’s gratitude for Steven being in her life: the one person who has always believed in me since day one. You saw greatness in me I didn’t know was there. You stuck by me reminding me everyday how gorgeous I am, how intelligent I am, and telling me I can do anything.
2. Andrea tells a teen age girl to get plastic surgery one day: Sharon plays an Interview Halle Berry says, “Plastic surgery is like crack that people are trying to push on you. Aging is natural, I want to always look like myself, even if it’s an older version of myself.”
3. Sharon is angry about being arrested for Embezzlement: I just got an award for best Accountant of the Year, do you honestly think I would steal from my clients?
4. Sharon is afraid after hearing Steven wants to kill her: after all we’ve been through together. He knows my mom and everything about me. He thinks I’m supposed to let that happen?
5. Sharon being brave and confronted by Steven: you can’t kill me because the old me is already dead. I gave you everything and all you did was take, take, take from me. Now it’s my turn to take back what belongs to me. My Life!
Assignment #2
Karen Tolliver Builds Meaning with Dialogue
What I learned doing this assignment is putting an arc to an insightful moment is genius. Its the best tool I have learned so far.
3 Lines from my script:
Line 1 : You are my rock and the reason I can do what I do so well.
Arc: Sharon tells Steven at her acceptance speech for Accountant of the Year Award.
Sharon tells her girlfriends after the fight Steven and his mistress and win.
Sharon tells Steven at a confrontation when he’s about to shoot her. “You were my rock and the reason I can do what I do so well” (when she set booby traps for him in the house).
Line 2: Steven would never do something like this to me.
Arc: Sharon tells her girlfriends after they bail her out of jail and suspect he’s the reason she was arrested.
After finding the evidence that Steven set Sharon up, Diane says it sarcastically to herself.
Sharon meets a great younger guy who wines and dines her and says, “Steven would never do something like this to me” to herself.
Line 3: I’m taking back what belongs to me.
Arc. Sharon decides to go after Steven and take back her life.
After finding Steven in Aruba and confronts him.
When Sharon is confronted by Steven who wants to kill her she tells him.
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Dale’s Height of Emotions
What I learned from this assignment: This was quite difficult for me. I don’t think, in the end, I actually did exactly what the assignment requested (the two parts), but it did help me zero in on some key emotional moments and accompanying lines of dialogue.
On receiving the Annie Jump Cannon award in 1943:
“Well, it is, of course, a great honor, although, it being now 1943, 45 years is quite the length of time between discovery and recognition, don’t you agree?”
“Thank god I have lived into my dotage, so that I might enjoy the honor while still of this world.”
“The irony has not been lost on me. It was Annie, after all, who revised a stellar classification system that was officially adopted in lieu of my own. It was she who received the accolades while all I received was decades long obscurity.”
“I came by my interests in science both naturally and by blood.”
“Maria Mitchell has proven: Why shouldn’t a woman discover a comet. And have it named after her? Are we any less capable? Any less intelligent? Any less diligent?”
In her speech on receiving the award: “The universe is unfathomably vast, but the human brain is greater yet, because it can comprehend it all.”
On Discovery of the second binary star, Beta Aurigae:
“Williamina, come quick! Look! Do you not see what I see? A doubling of the K lines – I believe it is another binary!”
“These twin stars are racing around each other at… oh my!… more than a 100 miles a second!”
“My dear Aunt Ann, everything is appearing in twos in my life these days: single and double tulips at the Boston Garden, my dual Vassar Alumnae memberships, and my lovely twin orbiting stars!”
“But of course, shh! Nothing must be said about these lovely binaries until all the calculations have been finished.”
“Please forgive, my dear Carlota, my need to boast, but eminent astronomer John Herschel wrote to Pickering, asking him to convey to me: his congratulations on having connected my name with ‘one of the most notable advances in physical astronomy ever made.’” Why cannot Prof. Pickering give me similar acknowledgement?
On not being able to strictly follow Pickering’s admonitions:
“My compulsive curiosity and my hunger to understand the meanings beneath the data overwhelmed any portion of the compliant within me.”
“He was the sun around which our planets (tightly) orbited. God forbid one of us escape that orbit; one of us dare create a gravitational pull (force) of our own!”
Anna Draper comments to Pickering: “The girl is stubborn, and far too independent-minded. Although she is my piece, I support you in any decision you make about her.”
On leaving HCO due to discouragement:
“I have been struggling against a great weight of discouragement from the start.”
“Your criticisms had from the beginning shaken my faith in my own ability to work with accuracy”
Antonia’s father: “My daughter is a lady and the feelings and rights of one.”
“Why did I have to obsessively pursue such a painstaking endeavor when a much simpler system already existed to which I could simply comply? Perhaps my obdurate personality will be my downfall.”
On a demand that she get due recognition for her work:
“I am most reluctant to cede my projects to anyone. I have in mind the completion of my work myself.”
“I do not think it is fair that I should pass the work into other hands until it can stand as work done by me”
“I think I should have full credit for my theory of the relations of star spectra and also for my theories in regard to Beta Lyrae.”
“At last! My ‘Spectra of Bright Stars’ is to be published, with my name in the title!”
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ASSIGNMENT 1
Lauren’s Height of the Emotion
What I learned doing this assignment:
I need a lot more practice with this. This is a tough lesson. I do love the process of delving into the height of emotion within the scene and creating dialogue from there.
Give us a quick explanation of the emotion and meaning of the scene, then the new line that you are going to place there.
1) The woman is six years old. Her mother is murdered in front of her. She is kidnapped.
Emotion: The woman is confused, scared and horrified at being taken by strangers who have just shot her mother.
Meaning: Her safety net has been destroyed.
New line: You promised you’d never leave me!
2) The suffering young boy convinces the woman to suffocate him.
Emotion: Desperation. Both from the young boy and the woman.
Meaning: This is the woman’s chance to help someone who she’s had no concern or care for.
New line: This is the only way I can leave this place.
3) The woman meets her brother, Asher. She learns of her true past, her family who wanted her.
Emotion: Shock.
Meaning: Everything the organization has told her has been a lie.
New line: I haven’t seen that kind of light in anyone’s eyes in a long time.
4) The woman learns the children she’s been kidnapping are being sold into sex slavery.
Emotion: Sheer horror.
Meaning: She realizes she’s a part of the reason why so many children have met this fate.
New line: I’m one of them. I’m as evil as the organization.
5) The woman sacrifices herself to destroy the compound and organization.
Emotion: Bittersweet.
Meaning: She wants to be with Asher but the opportunity to end the organization is too great an opportunity to pass up even at the expense of her own life.
New line: Taking all these demons to hell with me is the best thing I’ve done in my life.
ASSIGNMENT 2
Lauren Builds Meaning with Dialogue
What I learned doing this assignment:
Developing dialogue by building in the meaning and finding the essence can create deeper words for characters to live and speak through.
For each one, tell us the line, the arc, and the different meaning you gave the line in the scenes it appeared.
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Line: Please help me.Arc:
Beginning meaning: She is helpless and afraid.
Ending meaning: She is fearless and brave.Different meaning:
Helpless: The woman asks one of the guards at the compound for help when she’s brought there at six year old.
More secure: She asks one of the children to help her when she’s trying to aid the other children.
Fearless: She asks Asher to help her when she’s planning to destroy to compound.2
Line: Please don’t leave me.Arc:
Beginning meaning: She can’t live without her mother.
Ending meaning: She is accepting of her brother and wants to be with him.Different meaning:
Insecure: She tells her mother not to leave her when she’s kidnapped.
Needs comfort: She asks a child to stay with her after she wakes from her surgery.
Acceptance and belief: She tells Asher to stay with her when she meets him on the street.3
Line: I didn’t know what I was doing.Arc:
Beginning meaning: She makes excuses for her actions and tries to stay in line.
Ending meaning: She defies the authority figures and is sarcastic.Different meaning:
Submits to authority: She tells a guard this after hitting a child for stealing another child’s food.
Disbelief: She tells herself this when she discovers she’s been aiding an organization in selling children into sex slavery.
Sarcasm and defiance: She tells a higher up within the organization this when they realize she’s going to destroy the entire compound.
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