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Day 7 Assignments.
Reply to post your assignments.
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25 Replies
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Andrew Boyd’s Emotional Moments
My Vision:
For Hitler’s Choirboys to be such a compelling screenplay that Steven Spielberg and Mel Gibson will battle it out to produce their best WW2 blockbuster since Hacksaw Ridge or Schindler’s List. That this screenplay will confront racism as everybody’s problem and show that everyone needs to receive mercy.
What I learned from this assignment:
The need to layer in contrasting levels of emotion into the screenplay – to take the audience on a roller-coaster ride.
Act 1
Henry’s wound. Henry Gerecke encouraged his boys to sign up to fight, putting his marriage at risk. Now both have been wounded in the war.
Surprise / self-sacrifice: Instead of going home, Henry stays on in Nuremberg, to serve justice and the Nazi leaders who almost killed his sons.
Horror and disgust 1: The horror of war in the wounds it inflicts on the soldiers in Henry’s care.
Horror and disgust 2: When Henry and his sidekick Sam Fuller visit Dachau concentration camp.
Courage: When Henry puts his life on the line to prevent Fuller committing a murder that would get him killed.
Rage: From Fuller over what the Nazis have done.
Hidden weakness 1: Racism is not just a Nazi problem.
Hidden weakness 2: Anger – Henry is shocked to realise he too wants to kill for revenge.
Fuller’s wound: Fuller’s distrust of father figures, including Henry, goes back to his own alcoholic father.
Act 2
Hatred: Fuller’s unstable fury and desire for revenge are expressed towards a German child.
Bonding: Henry forms bonds with the team of Gustave Gilbert and Sixtus O’Connor, even while his own friendship with Fuller falls apart.
Hidden weakness: Sixtus O’Connor, the catholic chaplain drinks too much. Why?
Outrage: After Nazis hurl racist abuse at Fuller, who walks out on Henry.
Failure: By Henry to get through to the Nazis after risking everything to take this assignment.
Failure: Back home, Henry’s marriage is at risk and his absence is making it worse.
Strain: Henry’s relationship with Gilbert is under pressure over their different approach to the Nazis (seeking mercy v seeking vengeance).
Anger / Hidden weakness: Henry’s anger erupts towards Goering and others, putting the work at risk
Goering’s wound: Goering was abandoned by his parents, humiliated for praising his Jewish ‘godfather’, betrayed by his own politicians.
Hidden weakness: Goering’s hidden weakness is the depths of his vanity.
Hidden weakness: Henry’s reluctance to get tough with the Nazis.
Henry’s wound: Humiliated by his father, afraid to humiliate or get angry with others.
Surprise: The revelation of Henry’s wound by Sixtus O’Connor, the catholic chaplain.
Bonding: Between Henry and Sixtus.
Hatred and foreboding: Of Fuller by his racist Sergeant.
Act 3
Tears: Of compassion for the Jewish witness in the café in Nuremberg.
Anger: As Gilbert falls out with Henry who accuses him of self-righteousness.
Surprise and success: As Henry learns how to confront the Nazis with tough love.
Fear and jeopardy: As Henry goes down with pneumonia through overwork and risks losing all.
Bonding and relief: As his sons visit and dispel Henry’s feelings of guilt.
Bonding: As Henry wins Gilbert back round by puncturing his indignation.
Foreboding: As Fuller enrages his racist sergeant who threatens to kill him.
Foreboding: As Goering makes contact with the Nazi resistance.
Double failure: As Henry’s last-ditch effort to get through to Goering falls on deaf ears and he has to deny him communion.
Foreboding and failure: As Fuller overreaches with his bet on how many Nazis will hang – and his sergeant stakes the house on it.
Act 4
Surprise and intrigue: Henry gets evidence that could turn Goering round at the very last minute.
Stunning failure: But Henry loses his temper. Goering commits suicide and it could be Henry’s fault.
Success: Other Nazis are now responding.
Horror and courage: Henry and Sixtus accompany the surviving Nazis to the scaffold, where the hangings are botched and they die slowly.
Self-sacrifice: Both chaplains are close to collapse.
Intrigue: Why are the hangings botched, when the hangman has plenty of experience?
Fear and jeopardy: Brannigan is coming for Fuller, who needs to repay him and takes even more risks selling black market goods to Russians.
Violence and disgust: Brannigan carries out a racist attack on Fuller. He means to use a knife on him.
Surprise: Fuller turns the tables, grabs a sidearm, just like he did in Dachau and confronts his sergeant, ready to kill him.
Surprise: He doesn’t kill him. He remembers Henry getting in his way at Dachau and only shoots him through the ear.
Surprise: The Nazi resistance have melted away.
Surprise: The SS youth who were supposed to spring Goering from jail are burning his effigy.
Resolution scenes:
Bonding: Henry returns to his wife and his boys. He is reconciled to Fuller.
Surprise: Fuller, now serving time, is Henry’s assistant at Menard.
Surprise: Fuller is reconciled with the memory of his father.
Surprise: Henry dies of a heart attack.
Sadness: at the loss.
Joy: At how many men line up to honour Henry’s memory.
Surprise: Fuller is accused of slipping Goering cyanide.
Surprise: Fuller had sweeter revenge in mind. He instigated the botched hangings to even the score with the Nazis for the murder of his brother.
Surprise: The Parole Board identify with Fuller over the shooting of his sergeant and the botched hangings.
Surprise: They give Fuller parole.
Surprise and joy: Fuller is invited to play the organ at Henry’s memorial – hot.
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Lynn Vincentnathan’s Emotional Moments
NOTE: I’m keeping all the beats, character journeys, action tracks, and setup/reveals as I add them in, but am doing an abbreviated version for posting on Forums, so as to keep it simple for other students.
VISION: I am determined to become a great screenwriter capable of getting my screenplays in various genres produced into movies that inspire vast audiences to mitigate climate change.
I LEARNED the importance of emotional moments and setting them up more powerfully, making them more intense, and raising the stakes (and I need to do more on that). I was glad to discover I already had enough of these (it’s a RomCom afterall), but am glad to identify and label them, and will now work on them even harder.
HIGH CONCEPT: WEATHERING IT (Rom-Com) is about two college students who try to overcome family fights about global warming and get married during the worst ever Texas freeze.
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ACT 1: Ellie and Jim meet and are attracted to each other, issues regarding their uncles arise.
DISTRESS/WOUND: Ellie receives a lot of flack in presenting about turtle trip to Jim’s class; she gets flustered and freezes, then alone with Jim she has a meltdown about her inability to reach denialists and anti-environmentalists (something must be disturbing her at a deeper level).
AFFECTION: Jim consoles Ellie, distracts her by showing interest in the off-grid farm trip.
AFFECTION: Ellie puts up with Ely and out of affection/concern expresses commitment to him and his project.
INCITING INCIDENT (Cute-Meet): Jim and Ellie kiss, awakening her passion.
LOVE: Jim kisses Ellie. They are attracted to each other and it’s more than just sexual.
BETRAYAL: Ellie feels Rev. Uncle Rudy and his church betrayed their values, saying they are hypocrites for not being into eco-activities to reduce harm to God’s creation, including us people. Rudy objects, saying we’ve changed, but you haven’t been here to see that, points to recycling bins, efficient lighting. He says I’m not your Gran-Tio Ely, but I love you like a father (referencing to her father abandonment wound/betrayal).
TURNING POINT 1 (Ellie’s Denial of Love): Ellie is obviously falling in love with Jim, but insists she is not.
ACT 2 (overwhelming attraction): They go from “situationship” to “dating” to planning to marry.
EMOTIONAL DILEMMA/MORAL ISSUE: Jim has a major obligation to Fred, and his mother reminded him to be a trooper and fulfill it, but this conflicts with his growing love for Ellie.
EMOTIONAL DILEMMA: Ellie’s commitment to Ely (expressed 8 beats ago) conflicts with her growing love for Jim, since Ely hates Jim’s uncle and maybe Jim.
BETRAYAL: Ellie overhears Mack and thinks Jim is only interested in her as a difficult sex conquest, and is surprised she’s hurt, since she thought their relationship was only a “situationship.”
BETRAYAL: Jim sees Ellie huddled with Gecko, know there is already something between them, and suspects it’s more than something.
LOVE: They clear up their misunderstandings and jealousies, which draws them into a deeper love, and they plan to get married.
END OF ACT 2 – MIDPOINT (Break up over differences): Planning the wedding, break up over guest list.
GREAT DISTRESS: They get into a heated argument over not inviting Ely to the wedding, letting it all out, their opposing plans and obligations, plus over-the-top nasty remarks about each other’s lives, and call the wedding off.
ACT 3: Knowing they are in love, they try to work it out.
ELLIE’S WOUND: Though Ellie refuses to admit it, she is heart-broken over the breakup, which is a sore layer on top of her father abandonment wound.
JIM’S WOUND: Jim is also heart-broken over the breakup and impossibility of reconciling their differences. He mentions how he needs a stable marriage like his mother and father had to weather his future working for his uncle, but he can’t even think of marrying anyone else.
ELLIE’S SACRIFICE: Ellie is giving up promoting eco causes and her commitment to Ely, and is planning to stand by her man Jim, but this has a negative impact on her persona, makes her listless, in more despair than at the start of the movie.
DISTRESS: Jim suffers emotionally over Ellie’s (and his) sacrifice.
TURNING POINT 3 (break up over differences 2):
JIM’S SACRIFICE: Jim breaks up with Ellie to set her free from HIS Faustian obligation to Fred.
DISTRESS: Jim accepts Ellie back, but doesn’t really think she’ll be happy. In a role reversal he is now that one in despair over the future, as Ellie was up until this point.
ACT 4 CLIMAX: A severe freeze and power cut throughout Texas makes it impossible for them to wed.
DISTRESS: Because of the freeze and power cut, and because Rudy’s Marriage Barn is solidly booked, they will have to postpone their wedding until Spring. Since they’ve already gone through so many ups and downs, they fear they may not make it (esp Jim).
COURAGE: Against Jim’s judgment that if Ely and Fred are both at the wedding, it will blow up, Ellie goes and asks Ely to host the wedding in his barn — the only place with heat and light. And this after Ely had not been told they were getting married and that he was not invited, and knowing he is against her marrying Jim and against marriage in general, and furthermore she will not be honoring her commitment to live on his farm and help with his projects. Of course, he flies off the handle and it’s like pulling teeth to finally get him to agree. However she lacks the final ounce of courage to tell him Fred will be coming.
SURPRISE: Ely and Gecko (a genius, studying to be a climate scientist) surprise Fred and all there by explaining how the unusual, severe freeze is actually caused (enhanced) by global warming. Fred doesn’t accept, but he softens.
BETRAYAL/ANGER/WOUND: It’s not just ideological differences over environmental issues; Fred betrayed Ely decades ago, stealing his love, and that’s behind the outburst of anger between Ely and Fred that nearly derails the wedding, until Fred explains that the woman also left him and they make peace for the sake of their beloved niece Ellie and nephew Jim.
SURPRISE/BETRAYAL: It turns out Fred cheated his brother, Jim’s father, out of his inheritance decades ago to expand his business, thinking he would repay him, and it is Fred who owes Jim. Jim is not obligated to Fred and is free to pursue his own dream — which includes working with Ely on his alt energy farm. However, since Fred and Ely are getting into an agreement about developing Ely’s invention, Jim can still work for/with Fred as a liaison on Ely’s farm and work to develop the project.
IMPATIENCE/DISTRESS: As Fred and Ely go on & on about developing and marketing Ely’s invention, at first Ellie, Jim, and others are pleased, but as the minutes, then an hour ticks by and the energy is running out, they get worried, distressed, impatient, until Ellie and Jim interrupt and draw attention back to the wedding and are able to make their vows.
EXCITEMENT: Cells throughout the barn go off right after the vows, but before the grand kiss; the Sea Turtle Center is texting everyone to come help rescue cold-stunned turtles. All the guests and Ellie and Jim rush to the rescue.
LOVE: Jim and Ellie take a brief break from rescuing turtles, knee-deep in near freezing water, to have their grand kiss.
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Joyce’s Emotional moments
Vision: to crate memorable movie scripts that actors want to perform.
WIL: This will be repeated before I write the entire outline since it is important for the audience to feel empathy and dread for different characters.
ACT One.
Emotional Dilemma: Colin, uncomfortable with sexy women in general, falls victim to Laurel’s attention. When she kisses him among the library stacks, she asks him to write her dissertation. He won’t cheat for her, so she turns to Champion and together they badger him before the class begins.
Betrayal: Delaney witnesses this encounter and sees the large volume which drops from the top shelf on Colin.
Surprise: The professor announces that he has written a book and the manuscript is ready for publication about the real authorship of Shakespearean plays and sonnets.
Champion laughs.
Courage: Colin takes on the whole class in a discussion about Champion’s research for his dissertation.
Surprise: Professor reads a tattered page from “Cardenio”, an old play script with notations in the margins, that he says is his proudest possession for the play, one of four Shakespeare’s late ones, was never published. He will not divulge how he has this page. he will be the next graduate assistant.
Excitement: Students linger after class. Champion attacks Colin whose elbow smacks Champion’s nose.
Hidden Weakness: To avoid more confrontation Colin fools Delaney, who follows him out of class and continues the arguments, by leaving an elevator just as the doors are closing.
Surprise: In Professor’s office he glances at the manuscript. He asks for time to think about the assistant position because he doesn’t agree with the professor’s ideas.
Distress: When Colin goes to the rare book floor, Delaney staggers out with Professor’s manuscript. Colin calls for help and goes inside the rooms to find Professor, who is unconscious.
Distress: Police question Colin and Delaney. The manuscript is filled with blank pages, so she is released. Since nothing is missing, Colin is set free and the case is ruled an accident caused by a faulty humidifier.
Act Two
Emotional Dilemma: At the hospital Colin can’t tell the professor that he doesn’t want the assistant position. Instead, he studies him and hopes he can find a way to communicate with the impaired man.
Excitement: No one in class accepts the police report. They argue about who should investigate further. Laurel brings straws. Colin pulls the shortest.
Emotional Dilemma: If Colin quits his studies now, it is impossible for him to continue with his PHD, but he is loyal to the professor.
Courage: During a visit to the professor there is a second attempt on the man’s life. Colin chases him, but he misses. He brings a device to help the professor communicate without speech.
Success: Reading the old relic, he gets a response from the professor’s gadget. Colin asks him more questions.
Sacrifice: Delaney insists she will go with Colin to Europe to search for clues revealed in Cardenio, so neither will take the graduate finals or any dissertations.
Distress: Their passports are revoked and confiscated at the airport immigration office. Delaney finds berths on a barge/steamer.
Distress: Police wait for them at their destination, so they jump overboard.
Bonding: A soaking wet Delaney without glasses and severe hair style, dries out and is very attractive. She has no dry clothes, but ever-organized Colin has dry shirts. She can borrow one. She seems to like him more.
Act Three
Emotional Dilemma: The clues are right before them, and yet they can’t decipher them. Then, Colin interviews people who had ancestors who acted in Cardenio centuries before this. They hand him another page of the play script.
Excitement: Colin and Delaney follow the clues to the lower Alps. She reveals that many of her ancestors have been related to kings, princes, and other royalty and men who may have authored the Shakespearean plays.
Betrayal: After Delaney meets Bragg, she steals the manuscripts Colin finds, and she hides them. Bragg kidnaps her. He reveals to her that he doesn’t care about Shakespeare’s legacy or about the new evidence about other authors, he wants to sell to the highest bidder.
Courage: Colin saves Delaney. They carry the manuscripts up the mountain to the gondolas. Bragg follows and attacks Colin.
Surprise: Brag offers Colin’s life for the manuscripts. Instead, Delaney unfastens them and throws them into the valley. Bragg climbs out to retrieve what he can that clings to the gondola. Delaney urges Colin to kill Bragg. Colin steps back. Bragg falls to his death. Colin and Delaney sneak back into the country.
Act 4
Wounds: Colin and Delaney’s failed mission hurts, but it draws them closer. They visit Professor. Laurel is there. She has found her calling is to care for the ailing man, who is gaining and may recall much of his manuscript. They uphold Colin’s stand that no life is worth losing to save the manuscripts. The men and women involved are long dead, anyway. Professor signals that he agrees. Still, there is much nobody knows about the lost plays. Clin and Delaney say goodbye to their classmates at the airport, as they fly to Europe to track down the lost plays.
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Subject: Monica’s Emotional Moments
Vision: I will continue to learn everything I can through all different media to apply what I learn to become the best screenwriter I can be. To be successful in getting my movies made and to win awards in the process.
What I learned from doing this assignment is to think about how to make the project emotional before you start writing.
2. Like the example above, give us a one or two sentence explanation of the emotional moments in each act of your project.
ACT 1
BONDING: Conall and Jay get to know each other.
BETRAYAL: Conall continues to have trust issues with Jay as Jay manipulates the mission.
ACT 2
EXCITEMENT: Harry is excited that he finally has the artefact and start using it for his master plan of world domination.
MORAL ISSUE: Conall loses sight of the big picture of stopping Harry because he wants his family back and believes the artefact can give him that.
ACT 3
SURPRISE: Conall is surprised to see Harry trying to change the timeline to bring his wife back.
WOUND: Seeing Harry trying to bring his wife back opens Conall’s wound that he couldn’t save his family.
ACT 4
BONDING: Conall and Jay’s bonding is complete. Jay gave Conall back what he lost and now makes his way back home hoping to find catastrophe averted.
DISTRESS: Conall worries for his children’s future and makes a vow to do whatever it takes to rid the world of not only the Elite’s but those scientists that think humanity is an experiment.
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Ron’s emotional moments!
VISION: I want the success and recognition of being an in demand, A-list screenwriter who writes successful films that are financially profitable, award winning and of enduring quality.
“What I learned from doing this assignment is to always do an exercise in which you scrutinize the emotional impact of your script”
Like the example above, give us a one or two sentence explanation of the emotional moments in each act of your project.
Act 1
Love: Set up At their 25<sup>th</sup> wedding anniversary, the godfather professes his love to wife of 25 years. Hard to live without her. Hopes they have 25 more.
Distress: In an attempted assassination, the godfather’s wife is killed. Godfather survives.
Moral issue: The son responsible for the godfather’s security is busy having sex with a woman
Lucia accidently kills boyfriend
Excitement: Discovers Lucia, who reminds him of his wife
Betrayal: Son plots revenge against his father
Act 2
Distress: Lucia faces rigid reception in Mob
Betrayal: Consigliere discovers Lucia is having affair, tries to warn Godfather
Betrayal Suggests to Lucia they kill the godfather by poisoning him
Love: Godfather is killing Lucia with kindness, softening her heart
Act 3
Emotional dilemma: Son meets with rival godfather and they plan to ambush the godfather and kill him
Surprise: Godfather has a stroke, making him highly vulnerable to getting killed
Distress: Son finds where Lucia is hiding and goes to kill her.
Act 4
Love: The godfather recovers under Lucia’s tender loving care
Bonding: Godfather appoints Lucia acting head of the mafia. She is the only person he trusts.
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Module 4 Lesson 7 Depth – Emotional
MomentsMy vision: To write eight screenplays
that become Hollywood blockbusters and to have a speaking line in at
least one of them.What I learned from this assignment:
Creating 2-4 emotionally powerful scenes in each act.Act 1:
Love: Jim “Ace” McCarthy (25) steps off the troop train, a WW
II Medal of Honor winner finally home at war’s end. At the platform
he joins loving wife Jane (23), his high school sweetheart) and
10-year-old son, in a wheelchair stricken with Polio.Love: Jim breaks down as he and Jane kiss – similar to the
famous Life Magazine cover of a soldier kissing a nurse in Times
Square.Excitement: Jim accepts a job as a TV Crime Reporter in his Las
Vegas hometown. It’s a dream come true for him – someone who
idolized war correspondent Edward R. Murrow while growing up.Distress: Jim and Jane learn she has terminal cancer. He struggles
hard to keep his emotions in check. After all, Medal of Honor winners
don’t cry. He begins to drink heavily and rack up large losses at the
casino.Act 2:
Dilemma: Jim’s wartime flashbacks begin and they’re fuzzy – he
guns down four teens in a French church and saves two wounded buddies
but it isn’t clear to him if they were German soldiers or civilians
(he won his medal for this action).Distress: Jane dies. Jim is outwardly strong. But between her
death and the pressure of paying off his gambling debts to Sal (Sal
gave him ten days to pay or the murder victims Jim will encounter
while doing his TV crime reports will be his own family members),
he’s becoming a hallucinating wreck.Bonding: Jim falls for Carol Newhouse,
a woman posing as a local newspaper reporter. He wants her to help
him uncover the identity of “Sal” who is now calling Jim
relentlessly to collect Jim’s debt. Carol is really and FBI agent
working undercover to investigate Jim’s wartime incident.Hidden Weakness: Carol isn’t sure she
can handle this assignment – being a woman in the FBI (late 1940s)
and possibly bringing down a war hero. She overcompensates by being
tough.Act 3:
Courage: Jim, now a very well known Las
Vegas TV crime reporter gets a moonlighting job – working in a gas
station. Humiliating when people recognize him. But it has to be done
to make ends meet.Wounds: Losing his wife and his
gambling debts has Jim on the brink of suicide. His son is in a
wheelchair with his back to Jim watching a TV cartoon. Jim quietly
approaches his with a rope about to strangle him but stops just in
time.Love: Jim falls to his knees crying.
Jim. Jr. innocently wheels around and with total joys tells him,
“Daddy I love you so much. We’ll be okay.”Distress: Sal’s phone calls are
intolerable – jokes followed by threats at all hours.Distress: At a murder scene Jim
discovers a missing “tourist”, whose body was discovered after a
long search is his father. It looks like Sal’s threat has become
reality.Act 4:
Distress: Another murder scene. This
time the victim is Jim’s News Director boss!Surprise: Jim is arrested at the crime
scene charged with murdering his father and boss.Betrayal: At Jim’s hospital bedside
Carol reveals who she really is – an FBI agent investigating Jim’s
church shooting incident. He was setup.Surprise: Jim learns “Sal” was
really a ruthless mobster but died twenty years earlier.Surprise: Sal’s threatening phone calls
were a figment of Jim’s imagination.Surprise: Jim is the one who murdered
his father and his boss when he was on a news assignment. He realizes
he killed them thinking they were German officers.Surprise: Carol tells Jim that his
church shooting incident was indeed justified and the teens he shot
were in fact young German soldiers.Surprise: Jim was allowed to gamble at
the casino after receiving Sal’s threatening phone calls because he
imagined it. He actually never gambled again after Sal’s calls began. -
WIM2 – Dana’s Reveals
My Vision: I intend to perfect my skills to become a successful screenwriter, scripting acclaimed and profitable films, recognized by my peers, and living an adventurous life.
What I learned during this assignment:
This assignment helped me plot the emotional levels through the script, creating a betrayal that I hadn’t considered. I learn more about my characters with each assignment.
GENRE: Thriller
ACT 1
Distress: Ruth awakens in the bottom of a smelting pot from which there is no escape, captive to a serial kidnapper, The Custodian, and soon realizes she’s been kidnapped for ransom.
Surprise: Ruth hears two cars enter the mill and hopes for rescue.
Emotional Dilemma: When a drug gang arrives to murder one of their own, Ruth remains silent but is discovered by Camila, one of the members. Ruth begs not to be revealed fearing for her life.
Sacrifice: Ruth gives up her escape to save her life.
Courage: She screams at her kidnapper, venting her rage at him, defiant at his instructions to remain silent, eventually breaking down in tears.
ACT 2
Courage: Ruth kills a rattle snake that falls into the pot.
Courage: The sound of her snake fight attracts a derelict to the pot. When he climbs in to assault her, she fights him off until he’s roped, strangled, and hanged by the Custodian.
Bonding: Ruth thanks her kidnapper for saving her.
Courage: Then she screams at him for putting her life in jeopardy in the first place.
Surprise: The Custodian contacts Ruth’s congressman husband. He tries to renegotiate the ransom, revealing he’s conspired to kidnap and kill her.
Bonding: Camila returns to the steel mill curious about Ruth and decides to help her.
Distress: Camila is stabbed by the Custodian and dropped into the pot. Ruth tries to save Camila from dying but cannot.
Betrayal: Ruth learns that her husband conspired to have her kidnapped and killed.
Hidden Weakness: The Custodian drops Ruth her wedding ring, which she hadn’t missed. When the Custodian wags his finger at her, Ruth understands the reason her husband wants her killed: she was having an affair.
ACT 3
Morale Dilemma: To escape the smelting pot, Ruth must use Camila’s body as a step stool to help her reach the edge of the pot.
Success: Ruth reaches the lip of the pot and climbs onto the derelict’s hanging body to swing onto the platform.
Distress: The Custodian returns to the mill with the ransom money, forcing Ruth to hide.
Success: She makes her way to Camila’s car to escape.
Distress: Camila’s Rottweiler is guarding the car. It breaks from the car and chases Ruth into the mill.
ACT 4
Courage: Ruth is hunted through the mill by the Custodian until he traps her on the platform over the smelting pot. She fights for her life, but when she is knocked to the ground, the Rottweiler charges from no-where and launches into the Custodian, knocking him into the smelting pot, dead.
Bonding: In the back of the ambulance, waiting to be taken to hospital, Ruth waits for her husband to arrive with her new dog, the Rottweiler, at her side.
Success/Winning: Feigning distress, Ruth’s husband joins her in the ambulance. Ruth reveals she has the Custodian’s phone with the text messages between them. The doors are closed. Her husband is trapped. She’s now in control.
Surprise: When the police retrieve the Custodian’s body from the smelting pot, he’s gone. Vanished.
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I love causing my audience to feel emotional. Module 4: 7
My vision is to be a stronger writer.
What I learned: that emotional moments bond the audience to the characters. It makes them root for your antagonist and fully involves them in story.
PJ- Protag’s journey and AJ- Antagonist’s combines their journeys and makes them cohesive…Thanks.
Genre: Adventure, Drama/Animation
New opening:
EXT. JUNGLE – DAY
The film opens with a panning of African zebras browsing, unaware a lion and his mate are crouching in the underbrush ready to attack.
Grunting wildebeests hunker near a dwindling slough.
In the distance, a cackle of hyenas nervously pace back and forth, as hunger marks their trail toward their next kill. (surprise)
Antagonist: Mortimer, a huge African wolf, scarred and alone, has hunted for three days and three nights and has not taken any prey within that time. (distress)
A flock of startled birds flush from a tree in one sweeping moment, as a mortal battle takes place beneath their branches. (surprise)
AJ. –MORTIMER, an afflicted one-eared, half blind, African wolf, (the criminal) is attacked by a mad dog.
Even in his weakened state, Mortimer manages to kill the dog, but refuses to eat its smelly, disease-riddled carcass.(distress)
EXT. DEN – DAY
PJ- A day later, Mortimer scours the brush, famished, and half sick, hunting. He hears the mewling of young hyena cubs. He spies IVY, the mother, as she leaves to hunt; then, invades her den.
INT. DEN – DAY
PJ- The youngest hyena, SHADOW, (the underdog) is traumatized, when Mortimer invades, grappling him, pulling him half-way out of the den as he half digs within the den. He grabs Shadow, loses him grapples him again, as Shadow howls and screams and then grapples his sister, SURUS, (the victim.) (emotional wounds)
AJ- Outside the den, Shadow doesn’t know that SILLA, (the competitor), the clan’s matriarch, has attacked Mortimer and intercepted Surus, (the victim) during the fray. Silla has cub-napped Surus as her own cub. (surprise)
Ivy returns. She searches high and low, calling for Surus. (distress) In despair, she moves her remaining cubs to the communal den, where; as time goes on, Hilly, Silla’s offspring, bullies her (wounds) and her cubs almost constantly.
Inciting Incident – PJ-Shadow (underdog/victim-) is ousted out of the clan in retribution of him standing up to Silla’s offspring, HILLY, (saboteur) who at the time, is attacking Shadow’s mom dooming him to a sure death. (moral issue)
PJ- Turning Point: Shadow re-constructs the den of his birth outside the communal dens. He survives as a dejected, grub eater. (distress)
He howls to the heavens to declare his declaration to survive, to get even with Hilly, (the saboteur) and to kill Mortimer. (faltering courage.) He dreams about killing Mortimer in his dreams and wakes up so (excited) he cannot go back to sleep. (Emotional moment)
AJ- Silly demands that Surus, (whose name has been changed,) keeps the lower- class hyena’s, including Surus real mom in subjection. (ironic)
Surus goes after Ivy. Ivy recognizes her scent and notices the star shaped spot on her shoulder. She tries to tell Surus, she is her mom. (surprise)
Surus is insulted. She slices her mom’s nose and leaves her bruised and sad. Ivy grieves over the loss of her cub. (distress)
.ACT 2:
PJ- The clan howler announces the opening of the Olympic Hyena Howling contest where the winner wins the coveted acceptance into the largest clan, which ensures his or her survival. (excitement) Chance for survival.
PJ- Shadow takes part and gets beat up for practicing. (courage) (distress) He’s terrible. He attends the affair and loses. His brother, Brimsley, howls a Pavarotti Aria and wins. He shuns Shadow.
Twist–PJ-Shadow follows the clan as they go on a hunt. Silla leads the hunt with Hilly, but Shadow does a double take when he sees another dominant hyena who looks just like his mom. How can this be? (Surprise) She seems a stronger leader than Hilly. Who is she? (Surus) (ironic, Shadow does not know Surus is his sister.)
AJ- Time passes, Hilly, Silla’s offspring, becomes jealous of Surus. Hilly spills the beans about her being a cub (betrayal) that Silla has stolen. At first, Silly denies it. (subtext)
Hilly tells Surus who she really is, which backs up what Ivy has told her. Surus is not of hierarchy status. Surus faces Hilly and she admits it’s true. Hilly is not her mom. (Moral issue)
PJ- Turning Point: Surus connects with Ivy and they track down/ connect with Brimsley. They look for Shadow, to make a plan about leaving their given clans. (Bonding)
They find Shadow attending the competition. Some hyenas call him names and make fun of his appearance as most hyenas are groomed and preened for the event. (emotional upset)
When the competition takes place, Shadow is jeered and he loses. His brother, Brimsley, howls a Pavarotti Aria and wins. Surus and Ivy, fill in Brimsley who Surus is. They catch up with Shadow and make amends. ( distress)
Shadow works on improving himself to be more like Brimsley. -Bathes more, practices howling, polishes hunting skills, fails in another hunt, but also fails to be himself. (hidden weakness.)
ACT THREE:
PJ-Shadow follows the scent trail of his old clan to a Maasai village where hyena’s serve as undertakers to the Maasai tribe. (courage)
AJ- Mortimer shows up and goes on a killing spree. Mortimer kills a young Maasai mother with her new infant outside the village. Shadow is too traumatized to move.(emotional dilemma)
PJ-Shadow recognizes the face of his sister’s killer—the missing ear, the phlegm- colored eye, the scar. He flashes back to being a cub again. He freezes. Shadow hides. (Wounds)
Shadow weeps over his ineptness/ (Emotional moment.) He mourns their loss. He’s a failure. Their deaths prove it. (Moral issue)
He follows the Maasai warriors as they hunt Mortimer. He is waiting for them. Mortimer kills two warriors as he escapes into the night. Shadow does cannot even think of attacking. (distress)
PJ-Shadow recognizes the face of his sister’s killer—the missing ear, the phlegm- colored eye, the scar. He flashes back to being a cub again. He freezes. Shadow hides. He weeps over his own ineptness/ (distress.)
He kills them. Shadow watches from a distance and mourns their loss. He follows the Maasai warriors as they hunt Mortimer. He is waiting for them, and Mortimer kills two warriors, as he limps/bleeds into the night. (distress)
PJ- Shadow staggers. Yips and howls, shaken to the core, but he follows his old clan back to their den, disappointed in his actions. When he views Mortimer carnage, he is convinced he can never survive if he tries to attack Mortimer. (emotional dilemma)
ACT FOUR:
PJ–Shadow trots over a path, heavy with hyena scent where ahead on the trail, Silla drags a zebra into the brush. (surprise)
AJ–A feeding frenzy, loud with cackles and growls, result in dinner ending in minutes. Silla and Hilly exit the corpse.(survival)
PJ- He recognizes his mom’s howls for help. Shadow searches for her. (distress)
PJ-–He hears her howling and recognizes her frenzied pleas for help.(distress)
AJ-–Mortimer, (the criminal) has Ivy by her hindquarters. She is alone fighting the rabid wolf.(betrayal)
PJ—Shadow, forgets his fear and attacks. Mortimer drops Ivy as Shadow goes for the wolf’s throat. They struggle, and Mortimer appears as if he’s given up the ghost (courage)
Shadow is too afraid to let go of Mortimer’s throat. When he does, he turns to see about his mom, when Mortimer attacks him from behind. (distress)
Shadow’s struggles to kill Mortimer goes on for an eternity. The battle startles a young lion in the early morning dusk. Zebras rise to their feet and stare warily in the direction and vortex of the battle.(courage)
PJ- –Shadow kills Mortimer. Surus, and Brimsley show up after the battle. Mortimer has killed Ivy. The news spreads, near and far, about the great predator, Shadow—the so -called coward, who has killed the savage beast, Mortimer.(courage) (success, winning)
PJ- The cubs mourn the death of their mother. Together, with his siblings. Shadow hobbles back to their early den. (bonding)
Shadow is ecstatic over finding his sister. They bond and become family.
PJ— A few days later, Shadow’s family wait for him in the perimeters, while Shadow taunts Silla. She backs off, hesitant over the rumors of Shadow’s prowess. Silla’s guards attack Shadow.(courage)
PJ- Shadow counter attacks and leaves them in the dust. He calls Silla a coward. No one contests him from his old clan ever again. (Success winning)
AJ- All three cubs turn to leave, howling and giggling as they leave. (excitement) From a distance, Silla mourns, as Surus joins her new clan. Silla knows she has lost Surus forever.
– Brimsley and Surus, leave with Shadow. They form a new clan.(success and winning)
RESOLUTION:
Surus, the new matriarch, takes the lead as they trot away from the only home they have ever known. ((success winning)
Deeper reveal: Not one family member looks back, not even Surus. Shadow finally has roots. He belongs, and no one ever doubts his courage or ability to survive alone, or with family, ever again…(success winning)
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My genre is: Adventure, drama, animation.
CONVENTIONS OF DRAMA PURPOSE:
To explore stories with emotional and interpersonal high stakes for their characters.
CHARACTER-DRIVEN JOURNEY: We always need to care about the characters in a Drama, and their internal journey drives the film’s events and progression.
HIGH STAKES COME FROM WITHIN: Whether the story’s events are relatively mundane or intense, the struggles, obstacles, and stakes come from within the characters more than external pressures.
EMOTIONALLY RESONATES: Drama audiences want to feel and be moved by the characters’ emotions and how they experience the events.
CHALLENGING, EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED SITUATIONS: Characters get challenged to their core by the emotional situations and struggles that they run into. REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS: Drama stories are grounded in reality.
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Amy’s Emotional Moments
Vision: I want to become known as an expert in the family-friendly genre and make a full-time living as a screenwriter.
What I learned from doing this assignment is I will need to make sure I do a good job of setting up the emotional moments in my story.
Title: Unroyally in Love
Act 1
Bonding-Stephanie’s mom calms her down and gives her a pep talk when she explodes due to a glitch in her schedule.
Surprise-Stephanie learns that she’s not really a princess.
Courage/Love/Wound-Stephanie visits her father’s grave to talk to him about what’s happened and vows to do just what he would do, never give up.
Act 2
Bonding-Jack makes Stephanie laugh despite her best efforts to resist his charms.
Love-Jack accidentally lets it slip out that he has feelings for Stephanie.
Hidden weakness-Stephanie’s foray into the world of commoners fails and causes the press to peg her as a selfish and self-centered person.
Wound-Jack goes up against his father who he could never be good enough for.
Moral issue-Stephanie witnesses real suffering in her kingdom.
Surprise-Stephanie happens upon the real princess, a homeless woman.
Act 3
Bonding-Jack and Stephanie become closer when he surprises her with a fancy dinner and a private symphony concert.
Hidden weakness/Moral issue-Stephanie realizes she was helping the orphanage for selfish reasons.
Moral issue-Jack rejects Stephanie when he realizes she was helping the orphanage just for the favorable publicity.
Act 4
Sacrifice-Stephanie seeks out the homeless woman who is the real princess and helps her.
Courage/Success/Winning/Love-Stephanie presents the homeless woman to the country as the real princess in a passionate speech in which she also indirectly professes her love for Jack.
Success/Winning-The new princess makes Stephanie an ambassador for the country.
Success/Winning-Jack’s father steps down and makes him king.
Bonding-Jack repairs his relationship with his father.
Love-Jack proposed to Stephanie. She accepts.
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George Petersen EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
My Vision is to direct one of my screenplays as a low-budget indie feature.
What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of feelings in a script.
The Summer of Haight
Act 1:
Bonding: Longfellow tells Jonathan that nothing can ever break their friendship.
Surprise: Jonathan instructs Longfellow to draw up a will leaving all his wealth to a no good hippie.
Emotional Dilemma: should Longfellow risk his friendship with Jonathan in order to save him from Youngblood?
Betrayal: Jonathan feels betrayed when Longfellow tells him that he has investigated Youngblood.
Wound: seeing Maggie again opens an old wound.
Act 2:
Surprise: Jonathan disappears without a trace.
Distress: it distresses Longfellow to no end to see Youngblood take possession of Jonathan’s mansion and estate.
Hidden Weakness: Longfellow is unable to do anything about Youngblood’s provocations.
Act 3:
Courage: Longfellow finally takes action.
Moral issue: Longfellow sets a trap for Youngblood
Excitement: the trap falls apart.
Bonding: Longfellow and Maggie grow close.
Act 4:
Sacrifice: Longfellow sacrifices his career to save Jonathan from Youngblood.
Success/Winning: Longfellow succeeds in killing Youngblood.
Love: Longfellow expresses his feelings honestly to Maggie.
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David’s Emotional Moments
My vision is to increase my skills to become an A list writer
What I learned from this assignment is the incredible value of creating deep, empathetic moments, both positive and negative.
ACT 1:
Distress: Chas is living in dinky, messy boat getting threatening calls from a collector
Bonding: Chas and Trey, his Little Brother, bond while talking about what profession Chas should pursue.
Wounds: Brought up during job interviews- 8 years to graduate, not sure of his profession, bad credit
Success/Winning: Chas finally lands a job
ACT 2:
Love: Cute meet with Christie. Instant attraction
Moral issue: Lies and says he’s a doctor, feels guilty about it.
Surprise: Janeane gives Chas Christie’s number
Distress: Chas caught in lie- Christie finds magazine with RJ”s name on it- has to cover it.
Distress: Sees Keith the collector in trhe hallway of the cryobank- pretends he’s a German/Nazi
Bonding: Christie and Chas share an amazing day together
Love: They both say ‘I love you;’ Chas knows he’s in too deep.
ACT 3
Distress: Christie takes Chas to a sick kid’s hospital- Chas feels horrible and bails after talking to a kid
Emotional dilemma: Should Chas keep up ruse or end the relationship?
Surprise: Chas enjoys reading the medical books he took out at the library
Distress: he’s locked out of his boat
Love: Realizes it’s okay as long as he’s with Christie
ACT 4
Bonding: Chas and Trey before Chas walks onto the yacht
Love: Chas and Christie talk and laugh, almost kiss before interrupted. They’re back as a couple
Surprise/Distress: Keith climbs aboard and yacht and hog ties Chas
Wound: Keith makes Chas call dad and tell him the truth
Distress: Christie wants nothing to do with him- it’s over
Surprise/Love: Chas throws a party for Christie to close out the story. They rekindle the romance.
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Module 4, Lesson 7 – Depth – Emotional Moments
Subject: Rob Ingalls’ Emotional Moments
MY VISION:
To be a Talented writer that delivers quality fast, with the film industry seeking me out.
WIL: Many ways to enhance each Act and each Scene.
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ACT-1
Positive Emotions
Love: Simon does magic tricks for kids at cancer ward/hospital. He cares about them.
Bonding: Simon gives pep talk to graduating students.
Negative Emotions
Wound: Simon does magic tricks for kids at cancer ward/hospital. He cares about them. His brother died of cancer when young.
Wound – Harris feels pain whenever he walks past trophy case, spies trophy with Simon’s name on it.
Make moment more Intense: Harris dreams of smashing glass case and replacing his name on trophy.
Simon teases Harris about losing.
Courage: After hesitation, Simon agrees to do one last heist challenge given him by students.
ACT-2
Positive Emotions
Bonding: Harris teaches students the basics. He then has class watch Simon do challenge. They critique.
Negative Emotions
Betrayal: Harris changes the ratings on team experts so that Simon choses the WRONG experts in each field.
Hidden Weakness: Simon sucks at heist jobs. Faked his way thru life.
ACT-3
Positive Emotions
Surprise: Simon designs new plan – tunnel underneath statue and hollow it out.
Negative Emotions
Distress: Simon’s tunnel collapses. He gets jailed.
ACT-4
Positive Emotions
Success: Simon accomplishes challenge. He’s still top thief.
Negative Emotions
Moral Issue: Harris wonders if he should continue making life miserable for Simon.
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Dave Holloway’s emotional moments
My vision: I would like to be a successful writer in Hollywood, with a number of successful movies to my credit that put forward a core belief about environmental, political, or personal values.
What I learned doing this assignment is that strong emotional moments, well developed, add a great deal of life, meaning and interest to a script.
Act 1
Excitement: Nigel passionately argues in court for a woman seeking to retain physical custody of her children.
Distress: Nigel tells his co-workers at a pub that his wife has been incommunicado for several days in a military state, and he is deeply worried by it.
Distress: During a SKYPE call with Livia, Nigel’s wife, she is taken prisoner by the state’s police, which terrifies Nigel.
Distress: Nigel gives Shiloh a SKYPE call, and when the representative he talks to tries to stonewall him, he erupts in rage, saying he’s trying to get “you Nazi bastards” to release her.
Act 2
Excitement/Love: Nigel watches his friend, Roger, play in a rugby game. He cheers for him when he makes a good play, supports him when he’s tackled.
Bonding/Love: Nigel goes to a pub with Roger after the game and tells him about Cynthia having been imprisoned in Shiloh. He confesses his worry about her. Nigel expresses his negative feelings about the military. Nigel confesses he’s going to Shiloh to try to win her release, and Roger volunteers to go along. Nigel is deeply touched by his friend’s support. Nigel relates the time when, at 14, three working-class kids surrounded him and taunted him and one punched him in the face, and he ran away. He admits he still thinks about it often.
Distress: On their flight to Shiloh, the pilot announces the states along the Eastern Coast of North America have declared their air space closed to foreign carriers and must land in New York. Nigel is faced with having to cross the 3,000-mile continent overland.
Distress: Livia is interrogated by the Shiloh warden, Luther Trask, who tries to get her to reveal names of people she talked to who told her Shiloh executes political prisoners. She refuses, and he threatens her life.
Distress: Nigel is shot in a gun battle between Native Americans and hunters.
Distress: Roger sees one of the Native-American men they had become friends with his been killed in the battle.
Unexpected occurrence: Nigel had not felt it when he was shot and keeps his nerve after discovering it. He is cheered to know he could get shot and remain stoic. He refuses to get medical attention because they can’t waste time getting to Shiloh.
Bonding: Roger cleans and dresses Nigel’s gunshot wound with some consideration for his friend’s pain.
Distress: Nigel gets a communication from Livia, telling him she might have many days left because Shiloh plans to execute her.
Excitement: Nigel and Roger meet Amelia, a young pilot who flies them across the Native American state and then partway across El Dorado, the next state.
Distress: Flying across El Dorado, the plane develops mechanical problems, and they must land in a cornfield. They are captured by policemen of the state and taken to their headquarters.
Surprise: at the headquarters, they are informed that Nigel has a tracking device on his shoe, and that it is from Shiloh.
Courage/success/bonding: The two attack a police guard taking them to the showers and render him unconscious, then free Amelia from her cell.
Courage/success: They climb into a helicopter and Amelia, who’s never flown a helicopter, learns how to do it by trying, and they escape from El Dorado.
Distress: Livia talks to another prisoner, who tells her nearly all their fellow prisoners will be executed, as her husband has been.
Act 3
Distress: They begin to fly across the next state, Independence, but have to land to refuel. They land near a city, and see part of it is on fire, and Amelia tells them about rampant crime and poverty in the city, as in other, formerly American cities.
Courage/Bonding: Outlaws approach them, and Roger and Nigel fire on them to keep them at bay and continue firing at them as the helicopter takes off.
Bonding: Livia begins talking to a female security guard, June, during her exercise hour at the prison. June is intrigued by Livia’s stories of her life in England, and of life in a much freer country than Shiloh.
Distress/Courage: Trask interrogates Livia and promises she’ll be released if she tells him one name of a person who told her Shiloh executes political prisoners. She refuses.
Bonding/Excitement: June tells Livia she was raped several times when a young guard by older, male guards. Livia tells June of her desire to escape, and June promises to help her. Livia tells her she can come with them if she wants.
Distress: Aware that Nigel is drawing near to Livia, he orders her execution to take place in three days. She tells Nigel in a communication of this.
Act 4
Excitement: Shiloh is surrounded by a wall except on its western coasts, and they fly over that area into the state, staying low to avoid radar. They land in a rural area about 20 miles from the capital where Livia is held.
Excitement/Courage: Nigel stops a car on the road and uses his rifle to make the driver get out and leave them the car, which they drive to the capital and abandon.
Distress: In the capital, they see the police shoot a fleeing man with a device that emits an electircal current that goes through him, a grisly sight.
Distress: They see their faces and names broadcast on billboards along the streets of the capital.
Courage/Success: Nigel purposely gets himself arrested, hoping he’ll be brought before Trask. His plan succeeds.
Excitement/Success: Roger and Amelia receive a message from Livia, carried by June, who tells them of a man in the Rebellion who flies people out of the state when they’re sought for execution. They contact the man, and he agrees to fly them, Nigel, Livia and June out of the state.
Courage/Success: Nigel goads the warden into walking on an elevated walkway between wuildings with him, then goads him into a fight. When the warden punches Nigel in the face, he is enraged, lifts the warden up and throws him over the side to his death.
Excitement/Success: Nigel and June free Livia from her cell, and June handcuffs her to take her out of the prison. Nigel dons a maintenance worker’s uniform June lent him and walks out of the prison.
Excitement/Success: Roger threatens a cab driver, then bribes him with money if he won’t report his missing cab for two hours. He meets Amelia, Nigel, Livia and June at their pre-arranged address.
BondingExcitement/Success: Roger drives them to the place where the Rebellion man’s plane is, and they fly safely out of Shiloh.
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WIM Vic Valleau Module 4, LESSON 7 DEPTH EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
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WHAT I LEARNED DOING THIS ASSIGNMENT: Emotional moments come from Empathy IN AUDIENCE WHEN CHARACTERS HONESTLY FACE THEIR CONFLICTS.
EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
Act 1:
SURPRISE Act 1
Lying to friends, BOB does odd jobs at the clinic, just to keep his friends thinking he’s a donor, goes to clinic 2-3 times a week. Changes into janitor clothes. Dresses in a tie after work, to go visit his work friends.
EXCITEMENT: Act 1
Bob is under Threat of discovery with Mom and friends he’s lying about his job,
COURAGE/HUMILITY: Bob bites the bullet, accepts janitor job after fired as over donating,
SUCCESS/WINNING: Bob sees being a donor as an honor, tells everyone lies, he’s prime stud.
LOVE: Bob’S X made a joke when they split us “That’s all you’re good for.” He took it seriously, proving he’s great at something.
FAITHFULNESS: BOB GREW UP AN ABANDONED ORPHAN, RAISED BY AUNT, LIES SHE’S HIS MOTHER, SHE NEEDS HIS MONEY, LIVES WITH HER. .
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
HATE: BOB SAYS HE MISSES HAVING A FATHER HE COULD HATE, LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE SEEMS TO HATE.
WOUND: Bob tells Stephanie, Clinic manager, he will never give up, UNTIL HE GETS his old job back.
EMOTIONAL DILEMMA
Bob needs job to pretends he’s still a donor, does odd jobs just to stick around.
Embarrassed he got fired for over donating.
BETRAYAL
To keep Samantha’s secret and his job, Bob agrees not to rat out Samantha to Wyle, not his baby.
MORAL ISSUE: BOB attacks Wyle with info when discovered that SAMANTHA SAYS Wyle’s sterile.
HIDDEN WEAKNESS
Bob is a glutton for what people think of him, tries to impress, loses his self respect.and disrespects himself, claims he is Brad Pitt’s brother is laughable.
DISTRESS: Seeing Mia again opens up Bob’s old wound..
SACRIFICE: Bob misses a real life with love. We see cute clinic nurse flirt but he’s busy listening TO HIS OWN THOUGHTS OF his loser mentality, cleaning floors, avoiding Samantha.
ACT 2
BONDING
Bob gets off it, bonds with Mia, saying always friends.
EXCITEMENT: BOB SETS A TRAP FOR WYLE.
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS:
WEAKNESS: UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT WYLE’S ATTACKS.
EXCITEMENT: TRAP FALLS APART.
MORAL ISSUE FOR MIA:
MIA GOES ON A DATE WITH BOB TO QUESTION HIM, ALSO ENLIST HIS HELP then tells HIM SHE IS MARRIED BUT SEPARATING.
GENEROUS/KIND: BOB IS TOO HELPFUL, UNTIL HE GETS SLAMMED BY SAMANTHA FOR DATING MIA.
TRAITOR: BOB HIDES HIS CONFLICTING AGENDAS, SERVING SAMANTHA FROM Mila and HIDING HIS AFFECTION FOR MIA FROM WYLE.
ACT 3
BONDING: BOB TELLS WYLE MIA LEFT HIM ALSO IN COLLEGE STANDING AT THE CHURCH ALTER.
HIDDEN WOUND: BOB’S ANNULED MARRIAGE
DISLOYALTY: MIA- NEVER TOLD WYLE ABOUT HER ABORTION FROM ECTOPIC PREGNANCY. HE’S THE FATHER.
LOVE: WYLE HE FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER AGAIN ALTHOUGH THEIR BABY BORN DEAD. SHE HATES HIS PITY AND FORCED AFFECTION.
MORAL ISSUE/ WEAKNESS: BOB REALIZES HE’S DONATING FOR SELFISH REASONS.
ACT 4
SURPRISE/SHOCK/ STRENGTH/ HONESTY/COURAGE:
BOB’S CONFESSION/ LAYING BLAME SPEECH BUSTS EVERYBODY INCLUDING HIMSELF.
WEAKNESS BOB’S LIE, CATCHING SAM AND WYLE, LYING TO MIA,
SUCCESS/WINNING: LAURA THE LAWYER: BOB NEVER FELT GOOD ENOUGH TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND WHO IS A LAWYER. (MUST BE SETUP IN ACT 2, BEGINNING.
LOVE: Bob expresses his feelings honestly to her, BUT IN HIS SILLY WAY.
Resolution scenes:
Bonding: Bob respects Wyle, vice versa. r.
Surprise: Bob offers to work for Wyle.
Surprise: Wyle professes his love for Mia.
JOY: Mia is JOYFUL for Bob.
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Renee’s Emotional Moments
My Vision: I will work hard to become a well-respected writer who gets my movies produced and has enough work to keep me busy and keep the lights on.
What I learned from doing this assignment is how to think in terms of emotional moments rather than just scenes. Writing a horror/thriller, I already have a lot of emotional scenes throughout the story, but it helped to think of more positive emotions that I could add, especially in the first half of the script.
ACT 1:
Surprise/Wound: she finds her sister at the search and rescue base camp.
Distress: she finds out her niece/daughter is the missing girl.
Bonding: she is reunited with her former best friend and starts the process of healing their broken relationship.
Hidden Weakness: She cannot go even for a few hours without a drink.
ACT 2:
Distress: one of the volunteers has gone missing.
Bonding: Claire starts opening up to Adam about some of her past mistakes.
Betrayal: Claire finds out that Adam intends to sacrifice her niece/daughter to bring the creature back alive.
ACT 3:
Courage: Claire goes after her niece/daughter by herself.
Excitement: when she reaches the cave.
Love/Wound: when she sees her daughter in the creature’s cave.
Surprise: when Mark shows up and threatens to kill her and her daughter.
ACT 4:
Emotional Dilemma: save her daughter or save herself
Distress: the creature shows up, and Claire must lead it away from her daughter and Adam.
Success/Winning: she defeats both Marc and the creature
Wound/Sacrifice: she lets her daughter return to her sister because she knows she has a lot of work to do before they can trust her again.
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MODULE FOUR LESSON SEVEN
FRAN’S EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
WHAT I LEARNED: These are all facets of your character to make them human, approachable, the audience wanting to know more about them.
MY VISION: I want to write great movies. Movies that are magical, movies that move people and tell the truth. I want to write movies that stars will want to be in.
ACT I
WOUND
Meredith’s husband, Jerome, treats her poorly. Not like an equal or partner in their marriage or their partnership.
DISTRESS
Joes woes. Meredith’s on the brink of losing her job, her partnership, her marriage.
STRENGTH/COURAGE
Meredith takes the step away from her husband, the partnership to find a new job, a new partner to work with. She finds help in her agent/manager who finds her new work, a new partner.
ACT II
DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED/WIN AT WHAT SHE DOES
No matter her being put down, being called mediocre by Jerome, Meredith perseveres. She pursues a new path where she is able to work and to thrive in her chosen career.
SACRIFICE
Meredith believes she must stay in a loveless marriage for her daughter. She accepts being fired for the sake of working on something new, something exciting for her own sake.
EXCITEMENT
A new job, a new script, Meredith’s idea is loved by someone. She can’t wait to get started on the new work.
SURPRISE/MORAL ISSUE
Jerome’s affairs continue. Alex sides with her mother. She tells her it’s okay to get a divorce.
LOVE
Olga’s falls in love with Dmitri number one. And again with Dmitri number two.
BONDING
Meredith and her daughter, Alex, share moments together as mother and daughterl
HIDDEN WEAKNESS
Jerome’s weakness is his plaguing financial problems, he can’t handle them. And his affairs with very young women, his starlets.
DISTRESS
Meredith’s divorce becomes bitter. It puts her under a lot of stress.
BETRAYAL
Dmitri number two betrays Olga’s love by sharing her love letters with his regiment and making fun of her feelings with them.
FIGHTING/LITIGATION
The divorce is bitter.
ACT IV
SUCCESS/WINNING
Meredith wins praises for her screenplay. Kudos, recognition for her work. She wins an Oscar.
LOVE
Meredith finds friendship, bonding with her old flame and perhaps a new love with an actor from the movie.
COURAGE
She finds strength to leave her past behind with Jerome and find a new friendship and a new love.
BONDING
Bonding with her old flame as a partnership and friend.
EXCITEMENT
Meredith accepts a date with a new man. She has a new career path which excites her very much.
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Module 4 – Lesson 7 Depth Emotional Moments
Lisa Long’s Emotional Moments
My Vision: I will do whatever it takes to be comfortable saying that I am a writer by creating impactful stories with amazing characters in order to sell my scripts.
What I learned from this assignment is to work the emotion into the scenes even before you write them.
Title: Chesapeake Girl
Genre: Drama
ACT 1 – Emotional Moments
Positive
Courage – After breaking down due to being abandoned by her mom, Molly finds the courage to access her new situation.
Love – After Molly breaks down, Ed picks her up even though he’s totally out of his element.
Negative
Distress – Both characters are in a new situation and trying to figure each other out. How should they act toward each other?
Wound – Molly and Ed have each been wounded by the same person.
Emotional Dilemma – Molly contemplates running away, but ultimately decides to tough it out…leaving the option on the table.
ACT 2 – Emotional Moments
Positive
Bonding – Mars and Molly create a deep bond over dance
Excitement – Molly is excited about the opportunity to dance in the Nutcracker Ballet and fulfill a lifelong dream
Negative
Moral Issue – Molly decides to lie to Mars and not tell Ed her plans even though she knows each will probably be mad at her for it. She feels it’s worth it to reach her dream.
Betrayal – Ed is betrayed by Molly in that she just ran off and didn’t give him the respect he’s due as her father. Respect that he asked her for when she first arrived.
ACT 3 – Emotional Moments
Positive
Surprise – Ed is surprised to run into April, the love of his life, in NYC. April is also surprised that Ed left the Bay for the big city.
Love – Ed and April have a chemistry that cannot be denied and had never really dwindled.
Negative
Wound – Ed was deeply wounded by April leaving him. April left because she didn’t think she could live the “quiet’ life after all.
Emotional Dilemma – April asks Ed to return to the Bay. Ed is still hurt and says he’ll have to think about it…not sure what he’ll do in the end.
ACT 4 – Emotional Moments
Positive
Success/Winning – Molly realized her dream of dancing in the Nutcracker Ballet
Bonding/Courage – Ed and Molly bond over their mutual heartbreak caused by April, but they decide to forgive April for her wrongs to them.
Surprise – Ed and Molly express their newfound love for each other, which surprises them.
Love – Mars is leaving, and Molly has to say goodbye to him. They have formed a special bond and say they love each other.
Negative
Hidden Weakness – Ed reveals that he is ill and dying. He has known this for some time but wanted the chance to get to know his daughter before passing.
Distress/Sacrifice – April and Molly have to take care of Ed and tend to the restaurant.
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Bice-Stephens’ Emotional Moments
2022 is my year to break through!
What I learned: this is a very enjoyable and thought provoking exercise.
Act 1:
Surprise: Brandy has covered her wall with pictures of couples.
Success: Brandy and Alex meet accidentally.
Bonding: Brandy and Alex go on a date.
Act 2
Distress: Brandy reads about her father killing her mother, whom she found dead.
Betrayal: Brandy gets dumped by Alex.
Surprise: Brandy’s an expert stalker.
Act 3
Surprise: Brandy’s faking a pregnancy.
Distress: Brandy kidnaps a baby.
Courage: Alex steps up to his role of fatherhood, though Brandy drugs him.
Act 4
Betrayal: Brandy would rather see Alex dead than with anyone but her.
Betrayal: Brandy dumps Alex at the ER with the kidnapped baby.
Surprise: Brandy takes her lost children to see her dead mother.
Love: Alex ‘s biological mother shows up when he’s alone and needs someone.
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Marcus’ Emotional Moments
My Vision: I have well-founded confidence that what I write is excellent and will be acknowledged as excellent by everyone who reads it.
This assignment taught me to pay particular attention to emotional moments and to elevate them where possible. Emotional moments are something I’ve always included in my work, but I’ve never really looked at it as something to pay particular attention to and to specifically work on.
Movie Title: “Beyond the Faded Trail”
ACT 1:
Love – Protagonist Jake shows love to Charlotte and she to him, at first.
Distress, possibly Betrayal – It is revealed that Charlotte is a prostitute pretending to love Jake as long as he pays. Jake actually thinks he loves Charlotte.
Distress – A fire of unknown cause destroys Jake’s lumber. He has no chance of getting more for at least a month. His customer is livid.
Hidden Weakness – Triangle character Isaac overreacts to the Sheriff hanging wanted posters all over town to the point where he hits the Sheriff and lands in jail.
Moral Issue – Jake can’t figure out how to continue construction and decides to just skip town, cheating his customer. (Isaac must dissuade him.)
Wound – Antagonist Lucien, whose goal is to revive an abandoned town, is disabused of this notion by his girlfriend, Adelaide, who gives him realistic arguments on its impossibility.
Moral Issue – Lucien, formerly a law-and-order Sheriff, acts as a criminal, but justifies what he’s is doing as part of a greater good. When Adelaide convinces him that reviving the town is impossible, he realizes that he’s nothing but a common criminal.
ACT 2:
Hidden Weakness – On the trip to the abandoned town, Isaac is forced to reveal that he’s a terrible shot. He loses respect from his carpenters, who are all gunmen.
Hidden Weakness – Jake, on the other hand, reveals that not only is he a crack shot, but that he’s a master horseman. But in so doing, loses his temper, attacks one of his crew and has to be pulled off. His PTSD is now revealed.
Bonding – Jake and most of the men bond over shared stories of the horrors of war.
Betrayal, possibly Moral Dilemma – Lucien brings his gang to destroy a weir and they refuse because there’s no money in it. Lucien realizes that his men are criminals who have lost the hope that he has of reviving his town. He forces them to do this at gunpoint, losing their respect.
Bonding – Jake finds Isaac, who has gone missing, and they talk about how Isaac was once the Mayor of the abandoned town and why he never tried to become Mayor of the current town. Isaac breaks down and reveals his criminal past.
Betrayal – Jake puts together that it was Isaac who burned his lumber and has orchestrated the trip to the abandoned town from the start, for his own reasons.
Moral Dilemma – Isaac shows Jake Lucien’s secret money stash. Jake must decide whether to grab it and run, or to leave it a secret and help Isaac.
ACT3:
Betrayal – Lucien’s gang rolls into town and they demand to get their share of the gang’s accumulated loot. Lucien refuses them, indicating that the money was to rehabilitate the town, not to enrich them. The men don’t see it that way and threaten to mutiny.
ACT 4:
Sacrifice – Isaac confronts Lucien to save Adelaide, knowing that he won’t survive it.
Wound – When the gunfight erupts between Jake’s men and Lucien’s men, Jake’s PTSD kicks in and he freezes up, when he needs to show leadership.
Courage – Jake’s men start to get shot because of their disorganization. Jake overcomes his trauma and takes control.
Betrayal – Jake’s men feel as though Isaac has deceived them.
Success – Jake revives his
business with a group of dedicated carpenters and a loyal foreman. -
Alan’s Emotional Moments
My Vision:
I do whatever it takes for me to be a true wordsmith that spins wildly original and entertaining screenplays that are passionately sought out by top industry professionals who turn them into critically and publicly acclaimed major motion pictures distributed by the top studios in Hollywood, all while writing from wherever I may be leisurely traveling the world at the moment.
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What I learned: Another great way to make my outline and screenplay resonate with emotions.
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Title: Ninja Burgers
Genre: Action/Comedy
Concept: A down on his luck, nineteen-year-old fast food employee finds a high tech bracelet that turns him into the world’s deadliest super soldier.
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Act I
Distress: Tiberius is late for work but needs to take care of his sick father before he leaves the house. Has a nightmare bike ride to work.
Sacrifice/Wound: Promises his father that he will find a way to get money for his meds.
Distress: Tiberius is bullied at work, harassed by his boss. Forced to scrape the freezer floor.
Bonding/Kindness: Tiberius gets food for a homeless man behind the restaurant.
Excitement/Surprise: After attaching the bracelet he is able to do amazing things on his bike ride home.
Distress: Kidnapped and drugged by mysterious men.
Act II
Distress/Humiliation: Fish out of water at the training facility. Failure on almost every level.
Love/Terror/Hidden Weakness: Approached by a trainee for a romantic interlude…his first ever.
Surprise/Bonding/Success: The keeps trying which bonds him to the team and he finally shows a measure of skill after conquering a difficult training exercise and even helping one of the other trainees.
Distress/Tragedy: The entire team is killed. He is the only one to survive.
Act III
Distress/Sadness: Dealing with the loss of the team.
Courage: Decides to avenge the team and make those responsible pay.
Bonding: Enlists the help of his friend to take on the bad guys.
Courage: Attacks the bad guys.
Distress: Is captured and set for execution.
Act IV
Excitement: Major fight after his escaper.
Success: Defeats the bad guys. Opens his restaurant.
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Joe’s Emotional moments:
My vision is to persevere and stay the course of building steady daily routine, and disciplines that produce consistent writing of exceptional quality. Ultimately, the fruit of those habits and disciplines will be a track record of great marketable scripts that will make other successful talented pros seek me out.
What I learned: I see how I have to really choose which of these moments to amplify/focus/minimize, etc. as the story and the themes dictate. I see now how lots of movies (especially rom-coms) heighten and amplify moments for the emotional impact, regardless of whether they help me to believe the story or not (one of my biggest gripes about most rom-coms). I hope I don’t make myself out to be a hypocrite by doing the same thing! I hope I find a balance between delivering a story people can believe, while still delivering on the emotional roller-coaster.
Act 1:
Betrayal & Wound: Emily finds out her partner is bailing on her, which is a double whammy cause it triggers her own wound of not making the audition cut herself.
Excitement & Bonding: Emily can start her very own dance studio in a space with a super supportive landlord
Courage: Lorenzo shows no fear when dealing with the landlord and standing up for his rights.
Sacrifice: Lorenzo & Emily individually pouring everything into their small businesses.
Distress: Elevator breaks down with students in it!
Act 2:
Love: Emily nurtured by Lorenzo, and nourished by his amazing italian soup
Hidden Weakness: Emily can’t admit she’s falling in love with a percieved Nemesis
Moral Dilemma: who is the good guy, who is the bad guy? Lorenzo or Landlord???
Betrayal: Emily discovers the Landlord is the one who can’t be trusted!
Hidden Weakness: Emily has no pragmatic business sense, Lorenzo has no marketing sense (can make stronger by showing each of them have a ‘breakdown’ because of it. then…
Love: Lorenzo comforts Emily with a hug. Emily empowers Lorenzo with a great marketing idea.
***
Act 3:
Surprise, Excitement & bonding: Lorenzo scores big marketing-wise by catering Emily’s recital
Love/Courage: Lorenzo realizes he’s in love with Emily and is going to boldy confess his feelings for her.
Distress, then Emotional Dilemma, then Sacrifice: Lorenzo stuck in elevator, getting robbed, and then deciding he’s failed and is going to give up the shop.
Betrayal: Emily finding out that Landlord wants to evict Lorenzo
Emotional Dilemma: Lorenzo’s gonna leave. Emily still in denial about her feelings, says she supports him, but doesn’t really want him to leave.
***
Act 4:
Courage/Surprise: Emily pursues Lorenzo by showing up in Italy
Love/Surprise: they get married and live in Italy “Happily ever after”
Moral Dilemma/Distress: Emily has guilt about abandoning the studio and her students.
Emotional Dilemma: if Lorenzo goes back to America, he abandons his family’s wishes, but if he stays in Italy, Emily will not grow to her full potential.
Surprise: Uncle has left them money to move back to America and buy the building.
Courage: with the inherited money, they go back to America and renovate the building into Trattoria/artstudio/home.
***Big reveal about the mysterious 3rd floor: is it a positive or negative experience? All I know right now is that it is pivotal, and a game changer because it reveals that the Landlord is the “bad guy”. But is it a positive or negative emotion for Lorenzo & Emily. I think it’s negative at first because they both fear it will affect their business and may force the building to get shut down, but then in the end, they use it to their advantage to buy the building and it becomes a positive.
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Paul Dees’ Emotional Moments
My Vision: I am a writer/director/producer that writes and makes films of all kinds, and I am recognized by the industry as both a highly successful filmmaker and as a person that’s easy to work with.
What I learned about doing this assignment is how to add emotional weight to a screenplay by portraying situations characters go through to portray a wide variety of emotions for an audience to feel throughout the story.
Act 1:
Surprise: Rick negotiates with a kidnapper who is holding someone hostage. At first, it appears the kidnapper is going to agree to a peaceful surrender, but then turns around and kills the hostage and escapes.
Wound: Six months later, Rick does little more than hide in his room, as he is emotionally shattered from losing the hostage.
Excitement: Two different buildings are bombed by people wearing masks that control their actions until after the deed is done, after which they shimmer and fall of their faces, leaving the bombers completely unaware of what just happened.
Courage/Distress: Special Agent Rick O’Brien and his partner Sean Gray, investigate the bombings. Rick has to steel himself to go to the bomb sites, as they both are located at what’s left of the 25<sup>th</sup> floor of each building, and he has a paralyzing fear of heights.
Act 2:
Excitement: Sean discovers the masks they found at each bombing, is designed to control the mind of the individual who puts it on. He demonstrates this by putting on the mask, and it takes two agents to take it off.
Success/Winning: Rick and Sean follow the trail of the bomber and track him down.
Excitement/Surprise: Rick and Sean confront the bomber at his home. The bomber pulls out a gun and aims it at Sean.
Courage: Rick shoots the bomber just in time saving Sean’s life in the process.
Bonding: Sean expresses his thanks to Rick for saving his life.
Act 3:
Bonding: Rick invites Sean to dinner to meet his wife and their children.
Wound: While Sean gets to know Rick’s family, he reveals that his parents were killed in 9/11, which is why he became an FBI agent.
Surprise: Another building is town is bombed, in the same manner the other two were. At the field office, Rick and Sean open a package addressed to them. It contains a flash drive with a video from someone with a disguised voice who says they clearly caught the wrong guy, since Jonathan’s dead, and there’s been another bombing. The bomber then says he doctored the Post Office records and planted the explosive materials they found in Jonathan’s apartment, to set him up and to prove how inept the FBI really is. He then tells them they’ll have to do better than that to catch him, and that there will be a whole new wave of attacks coming.
Distress: Rick and Sean brief all of the heads of local law enforcement about the new threat, in hopes of finding the bomber before the next attacks. Five more building are bombed, each one involving an innocent perpetrator who is released from their task once their mask falls off their faces. The city is in chaos.
Moral Issue: Rick turns in his badge, despite the fact that the bomber is still at large, feeling like he’s done more harm than good, even though he’s the reigning expert on these types of scenarios.
Wound: Rick opens up to his wife about what happened on the night the hostage was killed, and why he hoped his being assigned to catch the bomber would give him a chance at redemption, but now he blew that too.
Love: Rick’s wife encourages him to reconsider resigning from the bureau, and that he’ll never feel at peace unless he sees the case through.
Courage: Rick asks his boss for his badge back.
Act 4:
Success/Winning: Rick starts to suspect that the bomber may be one of their own, and he starts running background and fingerprint checks on all of the agents in the office, unbeknownst to them. He makes progress, eliminating each agent as a suspect until…
Surprise: Rick discovers that Sean is the bomber.
Excitement: Sean escapes from the office and activates the masks and the bombs to the people he sent them to. He also stops by Rick’s house and gives her a package that unbeknownst to her contains a mask and a bomb.
Distress: Rick races to his house and finds his wife is not at home.
Excitement: A pair of agents spot Sean and call Rick. Meanwhile, Rick’s wife and the others Sean sent packages to, arrive at their assigned buildings, and go inside to plant their bombs. Rick and Sean fight, and Rick overpowers him, He grabs Seans phone, and deactivates the bombs using the app that was controlling them.
Success/Winning: Rick is awarded the Presidential Freedom Medal by the President and is promoted to field office supervisor.
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Module Lesson #7
My Vision: To create a polished portfolio and do whatever it takes to get a manager, and then sell multiple TV and or feature scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment is that identifying emotion in advance will make characters, as well as their actions more intriguing.
Act 1:
Wound: Freya looks across the glamor and wealth at the magazine christmas party. In her moment of standing by the door, several guests come in and hand her their coats. She’s insignificant.
Moral Issues: Freya smiles at her husband and follows her boss into the men’s room. Locks the door, seduces him. As he finishes, she regards herself in the mirror-preparing. When he exits the stall, she seduces him.
Distress/guilt: Freya’s confronted by her husband, how could he ever understand that she did what she did because she’s lost? Or that she doesn’t truly love him the way he should? She can only stand, speechless in her shame. She knows she’s hurting him but she can’t help it.
Wound/Emotional Dilemma: This triggers her wound of abandonment/rejection; she hits him, then kisses him, tries to undress him. This triggers pity from her husband – he pushes her away.
Courage: Freya stares at the boat that will ferry her to the island and she is frozen, can’t move. Boards, clings to side, struggles to film her first video with shaking hands.
Act 2:
Anger/frustration: ** Freya struggles with having spotty internet, living so close to water, no water pressure in the cottage, etc. She can’t do the work she’s meant to do. Freaks out.
Surprise: Noah confronts Freya at the abandoned estate, she thought she was alone.
<div>Shock: Freya discovers who she really is, Lisbeth in a past life
Act 3:
Bonding: Befriends Noah, uses him for info. There is an unexplainable soul connection between them.
Excitement: Freya convinces Noah that they should work together to find the missing money and infiltrate the media mogul and son as a means of justice.
Fear: Deadly storm is coming, they need to leave the island, she’s afraid for her life.
Act 4:
Fear: Deeply afraid of water, Freya makes her escape with Noah to the mainland – she’s deeply afraid they will not survive the storm.
Desperation/surprise: She fights to get her husband back. Discovers Noah was never alive in the first place. Montage of scenes where it is obvious Noah was a spirit all along.
Courage: Freya sacrifices her job/career to release the story a about her boss, the murders and even Noah.
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Subject line: (Patty Ruland’s) Beat Sheet – Draft 1
My Vision: To get better and better in order to gain representation and earn a good living in this field.
What I learned from doing this assignment is I’m getting better at plotting but I have many miles to go before I will improve enough to feel confident.
Genre: Action / Drama
ACT 1: Jessie’s family sets out on a high-profile expedition to document the elusive Amason river dolphin for a top prize.
Jessie PJ 1: Jessie is jealous of her older brother’s top spot in the eyes of her famous naturalist/explorer parents.
Jessie PJ 2: Jessie reveals she is going it alone in her own home-made vessel, a raft outfitted with a canoe and shelter.
Jag AJ 1: Jag, a poacher and former colleague of Jessie’s parents, arrives at the last minute to intimidate Jessie, her parents, and brother.
Deeper Layer: Jag intends to take her family hostage so they will hand over the map to the remote part of the river where natives say the river dolphins congregate.
Jag AJ 2: Jag corners the father and holds a knife to his throat demanding the map.
INCITING INCIDENT: A sudden, violent storm hits, sending all three vessels down the river, separately.
Jag AJ 3: When the family’s vessel runs aground, Jag overtakes it and takes the parents and brother hostage, telling them his business partner has taken Jessie hostage, which is a lie.
Deeper Layer: Jag offers the family what he calls a “sweet ultimatum”: Join forces for power and money or gamble with Jessie’s life. The father and brother do not turn him down.
Jessie PJ 3: Jessie’s friend, the child whose family lives in the forest, comes to her with the news: Her father and brother have joined forces (or so it seems) with Jag, and her mother’s unaccounted for.
Jag AJ 4: Jag demands a loyalty test: The father must shoot and kill an endangered animal (will specify later) (or tribesperson). The father complies, but takes note of where the weapons are stored.
TURNING POINT 1: The child’s tribe overtakes Jag’s vessel and peppers the family with poison darts. They take cover and shoot–Jag, to kill. One of the tribespeople recognizes the father.
ACT 2: The tribe takes the father and brother prisoner.
Jessie PJ 4: Completely shocked by the sight of her father and brother captured, Jessie makes her way to them in the camp.
Jag AJ 5: Jag frightens Jessie by telling her that her mother will be killed if she doesn’t join forces and help her father and brother escape.
DEEPER LAYER REVEAL: Jesse tells her father how she feels–he’s a two-faced manipulator, and it’s catching up with him. She stares her brother down.
Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: The head of the tribe arrives on scene but does not arrest Jessie.
Jessie PJ 6: Jessie tells her father and brother she’s been visiting this camp all along in order to learn the skills she needs to strike out on her own.
Jag AJ 7: Jag demands she implore the head of the tribe to let them go. She refuses and tells them she’s going to find her mother.
Act 3: Jessie boards her raft and sets out down the Amazon.
Jessie PJ 8: Jessie is joined by many in the tribe. They form a flotilla.
Jag AJ 9: Jag pulls out a knife and holds it to the brother’s neck. The father produces the map.
Turning Point 3: Jag, the father, and the brother escape from the camp. They set out down the river, too. They are joined by Jag’s men.
4th Act Climax: The mother has been the first to find the pink dolphin family. The others converge on the scene. The authorities, led by Jessie, arrive and father and son finger Jag, which was the plan all along. The authorities arrest the poacher and his men.
Resolution: The mother finishes her sketches of the dolphins in their habitat and joins Jesse on their way out of there. Newspapers around the world carry the story.
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Erin Ziccarelli Emotional Moments
Vision: I am going to create profound scripts that leave audiences remembering my movies and leave me excited to keep writing and moving up in the industry.
What I learned from doing this assignment is: the range of emotional moments is a lot more than I thought – it’s not limited to a character doing something like crying. Emotions can be positive or negative!
Act I:
· Excitement: the Dunbar operation of 1973. Both sides are eager to make their families proud.
· Love: Alex seeing a woman from the Caden family. Their love is genuine.
· Distress: Alex has lost hope and has given up on life. Twenty years ago, he had a bright future – now, he’s in jail, hooked on cocaine, alone, and bitter.
· Surprise: Alex was left money by Nathanial Caden. Scarlett Brennan is his daughter.
· Wound: Alex is forced to remember back to the days before Dunbar. His insecurities and bitterness over being abandoned by his family show. Reluctance to accept Scarlett.
· Moral issue: To accept the money or not – if he accepts, Alex is turning on his family. If he declines, he’s rejecting his love for Kitty.
· Hidden weakness: Alex in rehab. He’s struggling to talk and bring up his past. Failing to trust the doctors.
· Distress: Lots of things coming up for Alex. Having “out of body” experiences during rehab. Twisted flashbacks. Confusion. Identity crisis.
· Excitement: Alex is released for the first time in over twenty years.
Act II:
· Excitement: Alex meets Scarlett for the first time. She reminds him of himself.
· Distress: Scarlett’s life. She appears to be headed down the same path as Alex and Ted.
· Betrayal: Roger is still trying to earn Alex’s trust and even friendship. Alex isn’t having it – he doesn’t want to tell Roger anything about Nathanial Caden’s will.
· Wound: Alex struggling with what to do with Scarlett. Should he tell her the truth? Nathanial Caden’s money is at stake.
· Bonding: Alex, Jack, Sean, and Will overcome their storming phase. They’re trying to get to know each other and work well together.
· Hidden weakness: Alex sees his old friends. They didn’t know he was out. They invite him back. He rejects, but it’s difficult for him to do so.
· Courage: Roger’s investigation into Alex finally pays off. He knows the truth.
· Distress: Alex’s uncle has died, naming him heir. Alex can either go back to his old life, or stay with his new life and with Scarlett. He picks the latter.
Act III:
· Bonding: Alex’s card game with Scarlett. The two of them have a good time together. She thanks him for offering her a place at his business.
· Success/winning: Alex’s business is doing better – Jack and Sean are working overtime. Scarlett and Will are getting along. Alex is feeling successful for the first time in his life.
· Betrayal: Alex’s sister orders the fire – his business is burned to the ground. Jack and Sean run. Scarlett is distressed over Will’s death.
· Hidden weakness: Alex is alone once again. He has no support structure. Will is gone. Roger is skeptical and barely gives him enough money to rebuild.
· Bonding: Roger reveals that he knows the truth about Scarlett. Alex asks his advice for the first time. Their most genuine moment yet.
· Wound: Scarlett rejects Alex’s apology. Alex uses for the first time since rehab. He’s slipping back into everything he once was.
· Courage: Alex repairs his business.
· Emotional dilemma: Alex’s self-made future doesn’t look as attractive now – he can either return to his comfort zone (the family black marketeering business) or keep pushing forward. He chooses comfort.
· Sacrifice: Alex gives up his newly discovered sense of self to go back.
· Distress: Both sides are out to kill Alex. Scarlett has turned on him. His own people have turned on him.
Act IV:
· Success/winning: Alex successfully buys the cocaine from the dealer.
· Sacrifice: Roger returns to save Scarlett. Sees Alex. Reveals the truth to him – he was once a Walsh. He has to return to his old identity to be honest with Alex.
· Emotional dilemma: Alex has seen that there are other ways of life besides his own. He’s torn between the change agent (Roger) and the oppression (the Donovans and the Brennans). He chooses change.
· Love: Alex waits for Scarlett to wake up. The beginning of their relationship and them trusting each other.
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