Day 7 Assignments

[Bradford Hicks]

Brad’s Comedy Brainstorm Session

What I learned from this assignment is time spent throwing anything and everything against the wall can help not just deciding the best comedic option for a scene or line, but can even redirect an entire sequence of scenes.

COMEDY SITUATION:

Forced union of incompatibles

COMEDY CHARACTERS AND THEIR LOGLINES:

Swift Rushmore: A veteran astronaut who is one nerve away from a breakdown

Dan Donaldson: An anti-American agitator who actually hates himself, not his country

Dirk Donaldson: A simple, good-natured, pot-smoking guy with dyslexia who has a knack for asking simple questions that probe and expose the secret depths of people’s emotions.

POSSIBLE FUNNY MOMENTS:

Swift just found out he’s about to blast off to the moon with these two buffoons and not real astronauts.

Dan thinks he can sabotage the entire mission by turning the abort handle at the last moment before liftoff.

Dirk figures now, while they’re waiting to blast off, is a good time to roll a joint and get high.

OUTLINE:

The three of them are strapped into the command module. Swift doesn’t yet realize Dan and Dirk are not real astronauts. Dan rehearses turning the abort handle. Dirk clumsily starts rolling a joint with his astronaut gloves. Mission Control needs to Dirk and Dan to run pre-launch checks but they have no idea how to do that.

[Ira Drower]

Assignment 7 – Comedy Brainstorm Session

Ira Drower’s Comedy Situation.

What I learned from this lesson was how to organize a comedy scene by first brainstorming an idea for a comic situation and then producing characters and events that may add to the comedy. Having an outline helps solidify the scene and its potential for laughs.

The comedy situation: Wildly inappropriate response

A college student home for summer vacation runs out of gas on the highway at 2:00 AM. She wakes up her sleepy father to come and help her.

Comedy characters: Cheryl: Clueless daughter who can only drive by landmarks such as shopping centers, stores, or parks.

Dad: Sleepy father who if woken up too soon believes he is still in his dream.

Outline: After a night out with her girl friends Cheryl runs out of gas on the highway in her father’s car.

Calling her father, it takes time for him to fully awake and believes he is still in boot camp.

Father asks questions but she drove past highway signs and is not near an exit.

She must discover where she is by searching for a street sign off the highway.

Hopping a fence, she walks through a neighborhood but becomes frightened by the Halloween decorations.

She finds a main street but can not read the street signs, left her glasses in the car.

She must provide directions by what stores are on the street

Winds up providing sales information for the store but incredibly detailed.

A car slows down, and two guys ask her how much. She responds with sale prices for shoes.

A police officer stops but she says she is fine, just window shopping, forgets to ask what street she is on.

Calls father but he is relaying military information which daughter tries to follow

Finally, mother helps and directs father to pick up daughter.

Daughter forgets where she left car. Must decipher it using military intelligence methods.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by  Ira Drower.

[Denice Lewis]

Denice’s Comedy Brainstorm Session

What I learned doing this assignment is to let yourself write down any situation, place, or character that pops into your mind. Once the brain is in gear, the right ideas will come for each part of the assignment.

Comedy Situation: Forced Union of Incompatibles

Two people in a small cabin cruiser get grounded on a reef.

Comedy Characters and their loglines:

Daisy is a cop with a dog who pretends to be a model.

Jake is a thief who pretends to be a boat captain.

Possible funny moments:

There’s a feral cat onboard

Jake dislikes dogs

Dog gets loose, knocks Jake overboard

Daisy is allergic to cats

Dog spots cat, knocks the lever to start the boat

Slipping in animal poop

Sunny day turns into a storm

Cell phone drops in ocean during storm

Motor stalls out

Boat gets caught on reef

Neither know how to use ship-to-shore radio

Hunger – neither can cook

Confining space during storm with animals

Ego/male/female problems

Luggage goes overboard

Cat goes overboard

Dog goes overboard

Daisy goes overboard

OUTLINE:

Jake starts to steal the boat.

Daisy and her dog need to be on the yacht out in the ocean

He reluctantly agrees. Starts the boat.

Feral cat appears.

Dog chases cat, Jake goes overboard.

Daisy saves him by throwing life preserver.

Wind blows, sea gets choppy. Boat snags on a reef.

Cell phone swept overboard.

Ship-to-shore damaged.

Confined in the cabin with the animals.

[Amanda Avalon]

Title: Amanda Avalon’s Comedy Brainstorm Session!

What I learned is that I have to plan the comedy situations carefully, this is a good recipe that I’ll be using from now on.

Comedy situation: Comedic surprise

Comedy Characters and their loglines:

Juniper is a hot shot executive who falls in love with her younger employee.

Noah is Junipers younger employee (as head of advertising) who’s into spiritual balance and a yogi. And he loves motorcycles.

Mark is as stiff as a stick, not a comedic character at all. He is also obsessively clean, always going around with his tablecloth (which trait has been used for comedy).

Possible funny moments:

1. What does he/his friend say when he’s off to the confrontation?

2. What is Juniper / Noah going to say to him?

3. What will Mark say?

4. What will actually happen in the situation?

Scene outline, comedy situation:

Juniper (40s) is having a romantic dinner with her love interest Noah (30s) who is her younger employee. Her ex, Mark enters the restaurant and notices the two. He and his friend are escorted to their table, but he decides to confront the two and storms over to their table, furious.

(This scene is from my screenplay, let’s rewrite it!)

backstory: She refused his proposal early in the script.

[A. Ward]

Anthony Ward’s comedy brainstorm session

What I learned today is how to brainstorm and outline. In the past I would just write what came to mind without giving it any thought.

Tony is going hunting with his future father and brother in law. He has to convince them that he is man enough and able to protect the woman he wants to marry.He has not ask her father for her hand in marriage yet. He hopes to leave a good impression during this trip.

The comic situation is forced union of incompatibilities.

Logline 1: Tony is a happy go lucky push over who has to man up in order to convince Mary’s father and brother he is the right guy for her to marry.

Logline 2: Rich is a retired army vet and father of Mary. Her ex boyfriend comes from a long line of military men. His daughter’s new boyfriend Tony has to prove himself worthy to Rich.

Possible funny moments:

Rich and his son Mick show up in camouflage hunting gear. Tony shows up in a bright red hat and a yellow bubble jacket.

Rich and Mick are prepared to sleep on the ground in their tent. Tony brought an air mattress and a foot air pump.

Rich and Mick pour deer urine on themselves to attract deer. Tony repels the deer by wearing his expensive cologne .

Rich and Mick bring hunting riffles. Tony brings a gold plated revolver he scored from a pawn shop.

Mick’s gun accidentally goes off and they think Tony is shot, turns out he just has a splinter.

Tony finds out that the gun he has been firing is loaded with blanks.

On the last night of the trip Tony and Rich come face to face with a bear. The bear is a little on the smaller side so Tony thinks it is Mick dressed in a bear costume. Tony decides to fight the bear to show Rich he is brave. During the fight Mick walks up and Tony realizes the bear is very much real. He somehow escapes the bear attack and the bear claws at a deer. The deer dies and the bear runs off. Tony returns to camp carrying the deer on his shoulders. He is now viewed as a tough guy.

[Janeen Johnson]

Janeen’s Comedy Brainstorm Session!

What I learned doing this assignment is the outline can contain many steps in the scene when humor can be injected/developed.

Comedy Situation:

Nick has rescued Holly and Rudy from kidnappers, believing Ivy was killed by the kidnappers. Holly and Rudy have had a sneaky visit from Ivy and are eager for fix her up with Nick. They tell Ivy where the safe house they are heading for is located and she arrives before Nick and the parents do and is lying in wait inside the cottage.

Nick and the parents come into the cottage in the dark, not wanting to call attention to their entrance and Nick mistakes Ivy for a threat to the parents’ safety.

Comedy Characters:

Nick – Former Special Ops with PTSD and a teacup poodle for a service dog.
Ivy – Secret Service agent who doesn’t think things through, yet seems to always be lucky in protecting the President’s parents.
Holly – The President’s mother with acerbic wit and a penchant for matchmaking
Rudy – The President’s father whose banter with his wife is a sign of their love

Possible Funny Moments:

A fight between Nick and Ivy with kibitzing from the parents.

Holly and Rudy trying to stop the fight.

Nick not believing that Ivy is alive (after seeing her get shot and presumably, shot dead).

Nick realizing he’s actually meeting the woman he’s been fantasizing about for weeks.

Ivy realizing Nick talks to his dog and believes that his dog is telling him when he’s having a nightmare or other dream and when things are real.

[Joe Donato]

<div>
</div><div>

Joe’s ‘comedy brainstorm:

What I learned… revisiting already conceived ideas. most of my ‘brainstorms’ were plot moments that were already in my outline. But they were just plot-points. They had dramatic tension, but doesn’t mean they were “funny”. By going back over them, I was able to add more character personalities and make them much more potentially funny. For example, the Bear attack, was just a bear attack, and had the bear attack Bradley cause he was the “weakest” character, for shock value, but the idea of Bradley getting attacked because he was excited cause he though that bigfoot was eating food from his menu so he ran out to meet him, came totally out of this brainstorm.

</div>

Comedy Characters and their loglines:

– Bradley is an aspiriong chef/cook, and a devoted bigfoot believer. One of his fantasies is to prepare the ultimate meal that will lure bigfoot out of the woods.

– Pete has had a tough time dealing with his parent’s divorce and takes a vacation in the woods with a desire to try to find bigfoot, but it turns into an obsession.

– Tom, Pete’s brother is trying to look out for Pete, but he has very little tolerance for consipracy theorists and is prone to belittle bigfoot believers moreso than he is to try to understand them.

– Wilson just joined the bigfoot club and wants to make a good impression on the group. But he has azthsma and is not quite as athletic as the rest of the group, so he is very self-conscious that he might not “make the grade”.

Brainstorm a list of possible funny moments that are connected

with the heart of the comic situation.

Misinterpretation

– They think they are chasing a bigfoot, but its really a guy in a suit who’s part of a sophisticated Bigfoot impersonating racket: How long will it take before they realize it’s a guy in a suit?

Comedic Surprise

Wildly Inappropriate Response

– There is a large bird of prey in the tree and the group is fascinated and wants to get a closer look. Pete wants to impress Emily but Tom is making him look stupid with belittling sarcastic comments. Pete steals Tom’s tranquilizer gun and shoots the bird.

Forced union of incompatibles

– Emily, a smart attractive young single Environmental scientist is stuck on a bigfoot-finding mission with nerdy bigfoot geeks, a professional “mountain-man” tracker and a shifty Native American, and led by two arguing brothers who are prone to compete for her attention.

Embarrassment

– The guy dressed as bigfoot has been “caught”. he has to go back to his bigfoot impersonators club and explain to them why there are people outside trying to get in to the club.

Comedic tragedy

– Bradley the camp cook, thinking a bigfoot is raiding his camp food. Excited, he goes out to investigate and gets attacked by a grizzly bear.

4. Write an OUTLINE of the scene including the comedy moments

you’ve chosen. But don’t write the scene yet.

Outline: a group of amateur, but relentless bigfoot hunters chase a “bigfoot” through the woods. They chase it to a door hidden in a mountain. The ‘bigfoot’ enters the building, which turns out to be a sophisticated clubhouse. The bigfoot hunters pound on the door demanding to be let in. The bigfoot takes off his outfit, and realizes he “blew it”. He lets them in and offers to help them so long as they don’t reveal to the rest of the club members that he got “caught” or that they are even in the building. Then the guy has to go face the other members of the club.