Lesson 15

[Margaret]

Margaret’s Height of Emotion

What I learned: A.I. is an effective partner for discovering emotional moments

5 Most emotional moments:
1. Margot’s Moral Transformation Scene Emotion: Existential Courage Meaning: Overcoming personal fear to protect innocent lives Powerful Line: “Every stitch I sew is a prayer, every doll a promise that hope survives even when darkness threatens to consume us.”
This scene captures Margot’s internal journey from passive hesitation to active resistance, representing how ordinary individuals can find extraordinary courage when confronted with moral imperative.
2. Helene’s Confrontation with Klaus Emotion: Defiant Integrity Meaning: Choosing principle over personal safety Powerful Line: “My son, I would rather be bound by truth than freed by your lies. Some chains are chosen, some freedoms earned through sacrifice.”
This moment epitomizes the profound conflict between familial love and moral conviction, showing how personal relationships can be challenged by larger systemic evils.
3. Marie-Claude’s Dementia Performance Emotion: Subversive Resilience Meaning: Transforming perceived weakness into strategic strength Powerful Line: “Intelligence is not just what you know, but how creatively you can protect what you love. My seeming fragility is my most cunning weapon.”
This scene illustrates how marginalized individuals can use societal underestimation as a form of resistance.
4. Lise’s Moment of Potential Betrayal Emotion: Complex Survival Meaning: Navigating moral ambiguity under extreme pressure Powerful Line: “Survival is not about being perfect. It’s about being strategic. Every word I speak is a thread in a larger tapestry of resistance.”
This moment reveals the nuanced choices people make when confronted with impossible circumstances, showing that survival often requires moral complexity.
5. The Final Rag Doll Shop Scene Emotion: Persistent Hope Meaning: Continued resistance through creativity and community Powerful Line: “They tried to silence us with fear, but we answer with beauty. Each stitch is a revolution, each thread a testament that love outlasts hatred.”
This concluding scene symbolizes how resistance is a continuous, creative act of hope – transforming trauma into resilience.

[Margaret]

Margaret Builds Meaning with Dialogue

What I learned: I had already planned to use three Bible verses in my screenplay, but didn’t realize the importance of building an arc for each line.

Three lines are all Biblical references: “For such a time as this”, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.”, and “Obey God rather than man.”

Arc, Use, and Meaning for each line:

I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me:

Arc= Women deemed powerless by the Nazi regime become a practical act of defiance.
Use/Meaning=
1. During a moment of frustration with Margot’s coding difficulties (human capacity to transcend apparent limitations)
2. When feeling overwhelmed by the resistance’s challenges – Nazi’s wanting doll (Margot’s courage to rip button off of doll before handing it over)
3. As a quiet, personal mantra during moments of extreme danger during Nazi raid(declaration that inner resolve can overcome external challenges)

For such a time as this:

Arc:Women who feel they are too old to resist step up and become unlikely heroes
Uses/Meaning:
• First scene – Margot joins resistance (Margot’s hesitation into commitment)
• Scene where Lise saves Suzanne with her chatter (Lise’s chattiness into a weapon)
• Marie-Claude’s develops coding (academic brilliance into a resistance strategy)

Obey God rather than man:
Arc:It transforms their resistance from a mere political act to a profound moral and spiritual calling.
Uses/Meaning:
• Margot: Deciding to break the law to join the resistance (Overcoming her fear of active resistance to obey God)
• Helene: Spying on her son for Resistance intelligence (Risking her relationship with her son for the greater good)
• Marie-Claude: Devising a code for sending spy messages (Using her intellect as a form of spiritual rebellion – from benign math teacher to active resistance worker.

[Jennifer Quintenz-Berry]

Jenn’s Height of the Emotion

What I learned doing this assignment is: Going through each moment like this is awesome. I workshopped multiple ways things could go and feel really good about what I landed on (knowing, of course, things always change when you get to pages). But I feel like the emotional resonance is there when I need it to be. Very excited to see this project go to script!

Most emotional moments in the script:
• The moment Riaz comes to Taylor and says he can’t be her doctor because he’s falling in love with her.
• The moment Taylor comes out of the lapse that almost kills her and Riaz is panicking—he doesn’t want to be without her.
• The moment Taylor shatters the vial of medicine, refusing treatment.
• The moment Carrie dies.
• The moment Taylor kisses Riaz then enters her final lapse.
• The moment Taylor sees that Sydney is alive (and Sydney and Aaron are together).

Riaz says he can’t be Taylor’s doctor because he’s falling in love with her.
Emotion: Heartbreak, vulnerability, and forbidden love. Riaz is torn between his professional duty and personal feelings.
Meaning: Love that must be sacrificed for a higher purpose.
New Line: Riaz: “I never should have let it get this far. But every time I look at you, instead of seeing the patient I’m failing, I see the woman I’m falling in love with.”
Taylor: So you’re giving up?
Riaz: It’s my job to stay clinical—logical, professional, focused on solving the problem. But I can’t do my job when the only thing I can think about is you. Not your case, not the neurological disruptions wreaking havoc in your head, but you. Taylor. The firey, brilliant artist, who makes me laugh out loud, who inspires me, who delights in pushing me outside my comfort zone. You.

Taylor comes out of the lapse that almost kills her, and Riaz is panicking.
Emotion: Relief, fear of losing her, and realization of how deeply he cares for her.
Meaning: Life is fragile, and love gives it urgency.
Riaz makes some display of romantic emotion, holding her hand or something, and Taylor says, what about the line, isn’t this crossing…?
New Line: “I know what I said but… that was when I thought I had time to figure this out. I was fooling myself, thinking I could keep you at a distance. When I almost lost you… I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”

Taylor shatters the vial of medicine, refusing treatment.
Emotion: Defiance, anger, and self-determination.
Meaning: Living authentically is more important than merely surviving.
Taylor: "No! I won’t give up love and grief and passion just to keep breathing a little while longer. I’d rather die alive than live half-dead."

Carrie is dying.
Emotion: Loss, guilt, and gratitude.
Meaning: Love makes us better, even when it leaves us broken.
New Line: After Carrie apologizes for causing her more pain,
Taylor says: "Don’t you dare apologize. Even knowing how little time we’d have, or how much losing you would hurt, there’s no world, no life, where I wouldn’t want you as my friend."

Taylor kisses Riaz, then enters her final lapse.
Emotion: Love, hope, and finality.
Meaning: Love gives courage, even in the face of impossible odds.
New Line:
Taylor: I wasn’t looking for love, especially not in this place, but finding you…
Riaz kisses her. They part, slightly breathless.
Taylor: I’ll never forget you. I want you to know that.
Riaz: (concerned) Are you planning on going somewhere?
Taylor: (smiling beatifically) “I am. But that means we’ll never have met.
Riaz studies her, confused. Then realization hits him. He turns to the door, alarmed—
Riaz: Nurse! Nurse!
Taylor falls back onto the bed as the lapse overtakes her. Riaz drops beside her.
Riaz: Stay with me, Taylor! Stay with me!
Taylor: I didn’t think I had anything left to lose.
She touches his face, then her hand falls—

Taylor sees that Sydney is alive (and Sydney and Aaron are together).
Emotion: Overwhelming joy, relief, and a sense of closure.
Meaning: The impossible is possible, and love can rewrite the past.
New Line: Taylor sees Sydney and they sisters embrace.
Taylor & Sydney: I thought I’d lost you!
They burst into laughter, a mixture of relief and pure joy. Sydney studies Taylor, seeing tears in her eyes.
Sydney: Oh Tay… That must have been so scary.
Taylor: You have no idea.
Taylor pulls Sydney in for another hug, crying into her shoulder now. Sydney looks surprised.
Sydney: It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.
Taylor pulls back, smiling through her tears.
Taylor: I know I am.

~ end

[Paul Penley]

Paul P's Height of the emotion.

What I learned doing this assignment – Great film and good stories leave the viewer with something to remember, something that changes their lives and gives them something to talk about. This may not be the case with my profound dialoge, but who knows.

Eight Most Emotional Moments in my screenplay:

1. Billy just watched his father die trying to protect him and his bother Johnny. Lord Balin has no pitty and nods to John Sr. "The sons of man shall suffer for the iniquity of their fathers." – This line sets up the final scene of the film.

2. Adam shoots a rattle snake about to strike Goldies horse. Goldie pulls Adam from his horse and threatens to kill him. Billy lightens the mood. "Maybe you should have smiled at it." – This becomes Billy's onging attempt to use his head instead of his guns.

3. John Sr. gives his two sons a life lesson. "Slow down, think before you move. You need to stay six steps ahead if you're two." – This lesson has kept both Billy and Johnny alive and plays multiple times in the story to emphisize their father's lesson to survive.

4. Billy shoots a man and readies the gang by telling them… "Time to pull your iron's boys, cause this shit hole is about to get hairy!" – This line is meant to lighten the moment and pump up the reader for what is to come.

5. Carlo realizes that they are out-gunned and out-manned. "We're going to need more bullets." – This is a play on Jaws. "We're going to need a bigger boat." Adding humor to action and suspense.

6. Right before Red pulls the trigger, he tells Billy… " I have proven my courage and am now worthy of my people. I hope to see you in the Sky World my brother. " – This line is to signify that Red knows they are in Hell/ Purgatory and he is now worthy of passing to the Sky World.

7. Lord Balin makes fun of Lupo's group. "An old wolf, a baby squirrel, eight boney Apache and two pitiful humans. You almost look like the fresco from the Last Supper. " – Another line to enhance the scene with humor and to add Religion to the scene.

8. Billy pulls a dying Johnny from the rubble. Johnny takes his last breaths. "It's okay little brother. Outlaws don’t die old. They burn white hot and die young." – Johnny is telling his brother that he is okay to die. He went out fighting. Just like his father.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by  Paul Penley.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by  Paul Penley.

[Jennifer Quintenz-Berry]

Jenn Builds Meaning with Dialogue

What I learned doing this assignment is: I think this will be powerful (and I think some of these could work in the script), but I think I’ll have a better sense of the key emotional moments once the script comes together. However – once I have identified the lines I really want to resonate, I will totally use this process to refine and set them up for maximum emotional impact.

Taylor: “I didn’t think I had anything left to lose.”
Scene 1: Carrie pushing Taylor out of her comfort zone for the first time.
Carrie: “What do you have to lose?”
Taylor: (realization) “Literally nothing.”
Meaning: Despair and emptiness.

Scene 2: Early therapy session with Riaz where he finally gets her to open up (reluctantly).
Taylor: Guess it’s not like I have anything to lose, right?
Riaz: Why would you say that? (off her look) You’ve got your whole life ahead of you. You’re funny and smart and talented…
Meaning: Taylor sees herself from another’s perspective and starts questioning what she in fact does have going for her.

Scene 3: As she’s dying (going into her final lapse), she kisses Riaz and says:
Taylor: I didn’t think I had anything to lose…
Meaning: A testament to love, sacrifice, and everything she’s gained.

Taylor: "I’d rather die alive than live half-dead."
Scene 1: Carrie, frustrated with Taylor for being so self-defeating, snaps at her, prompting Taylor to respond with:
Taylor: I’m basically half-dead as it is…
Meaning: Hopless belief her life is over.

Scene 2: Carrie sees Taylor is falling in love with Riaz. She warns her to be careful, and Taylor is conflicted.
Taylor: Being around him… It’s been so long since I’ve felt alive.
Meaning: Defensive response to being told to guard her heart.

Scene 3: Refusing to take the medication that could extend her life by killing her emotions.
Taylor: I’d rather die alive than live half-dead.
Meaning: Refusal to give up, intentional courage in her final moments.

Riaz: “So, what’s your story?”
Scene 1: Riaz is trying to connect with Taylor as a patient. She’s guarded, and he tries to break the ice.
Riaz: (lightly) “So, what’s your story?”
Taylor: (dryly) “You’re the doctor. Shouldn’t you already know?”
Meaning: A playful, almost clinical question—Riaz is curious about her as a person but is keeping it professional.

Scene 2: After a near-death lapse or an emotionally charged moment, Riaz asks again, but now it carries a deeper layer of intimacy.
Riaz: (softly) “So… what’s your story?”
Taylor: (hesitates, then shrugs) “Still figuring that out.”
Meaning: The line now reflects Riaz’s genuine care and Taylor’s internal conflict as she starts to see herself as more than a victim of her circumstances.

Scene 3: Riaz realizes he cannot be her doctor—he’s too personally invested and it’s hurting her.
Taylor: “Don’t you want to know how the story ends?”
Riaz says he must leave now, or he’ll lose the strength to go.
Meaning: The line now signifies vulnerability and love. Taylor is offering her story now, but Riaz is afraid of what it means.

Scene 4: After nearly losing Taylor, Riaz returns to her and says he’d give up his medical license to be with her.
Taylor: “I thought you were leaving?”
Riaz: “I’m desperate to hear how the story ends.”
Meaning: The line becomes Riaz admitting he can’t walk away from her.

Scene 5: Context: After Taylor rewrites the past and saves Sydney, Riaz, now separated from her by time, repeats the line to himself in her absence.
Riaz: “So, what’s your story?”
Meaning: The line now reflects Riaz’s curiosity about this woman who he’s just met, but it echoes the beginning of their relationship from another timeline, and his life, even though they’re apart.

~ end

[Mark Roeder]

Mark Roeder’s Height of the Emotion

What I learned doing this assignment is to come up with possible dialogue that delivers the deeper meaning of emotional scenes. When I go through the process of writing the script, these lines can help bring out emotion and meaning I think, and some could still be changed as I develop the characters more.

1. Rosemary gives birth to a panda and she’s horrified, in denial.

“We both know that cannot possibly be my son even if you pulled it out of me.”

2. Lena tries to kill Rosemary’s panda, Kyo, and Rosemary kills Lena. There’s shock and a meaning that Rosemary loves Kyo enough to kill a human for him.

As she lies dying, Lena says “You can’t possibly love that alien thing.”

3. After Kyo triggers the alien panda invasion, Rosemary fights her son Kyo, but then stops fighting and lets him scratch her. She gives him the chance to show what’s special inside, to make a choice.

Meaning: Rosemary loves Kyo, and believes he’s the Promised Panda.

Rosemary: “Do your worst, Kyo. Because how bad can it be? You are the promised panda after all.”

4. Rosemary sacrifices her life to save Kyo’s.

An alien panda blasts Kyo with a wave gun that obliterates what’s in its path and Rosemary steps in the way. It kills her.

Deeper meaning: she loves Kyo with all her heart

“She loved you as much as any mother ever loved a son, Kyo.”

5. Kyo, the promised panda, nibbles Rosemary to regenerate her back to life.

A warrior who stopped believing in Kyo says “That’s not possible unless he’s the Promised Panda.”

[Mark Roeder]

Mark Roeder Builds Meaning with Dialogue

What I learned doing this assignment is a phrase like “Sounds like Chinese to me” can have a number of meanings from not understanding or caring to meaning the opposite when a Chinese woman warrior says it.

1. “You smell worse.”

The arc is from a zookeeper challenging Rosemary’s panda prejudice to Kyo saying it and her understanding Kyo for the first time.

When she says pandas smell and a panda poops on her from a tree, a zookeeper says “you smell worse.” This meaning challenges her prejudice against pandas.

Kyo accidentally bumps the jar with the dead hybrid in it. It falls and breaks on a sharp edge. Kyo covers his nose. Rosemary looks at Kyo, angry, and yells “you smell worse.” This meaning is meant to scold Kyo when she is angry at him.

When Rosemary makes Kyo bamboo soup, Kyo squeaks “soup stinks.” Rosemary says “You smell worse. Wait. I understood you.” Kyo then says “you smell worse.” Rosemary says it here playfully, but defensively, then when Kyo says it Rosemary realizes she’s understanding him for the first time. She’s able to decipher his chirps and groans and it sounds like English to her.

2. “Sounds like Chinese to me.”

The arc would be prejudice against Chinese to meaning she doesn’t understand what her panda son Kyo’s chirps and groans mean to a a Chinese warrior saying it to Rosemary after she speaks in Chinese, to one saying “sounds like Chinese to me” about Kyo, meaning they understand Kyo also, as he really speaks now.

A zoo visitor or employee points at a panda and speaks to her in Chinese, and Rosemary says “sounds like Chinese to me.” The meaning is she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t speak Chinese and doesn’t care to.

Blaze tells her she’ll be able to understand her son more as she listens to his needs. He squeaks and groans and she says “sounds like Chinese to me.” Then a Chinese woman warrior on Blaze’s team says something in Chinese and Rosemary says “sounds like Chinese to me.” The meaning is she doesn’t understand Kyo and doesn’t care to.

When Lena comes to Rosemary and plays the doc of the hybrid that Blaze understood, and the hybrid growls, Lena says “does that sound like English to you?” And Rosemary says “sounds like Chinese to me.” This means she doesn’t understand the hybrid.

Training with Blaze and his women warriors, a Chinese warrior gives instructions in Chinese and she says “sounds like Chinese to me” or gives instructions she doesn’t like and Rosemary says “sounds like Chinese to me.” The meaning is Rosemary won’t listen to her, won’t do what she says and will do her own thing. She’s not a team player yet.

Rosemary learns Chinese to do a better job and starts speaking and a warrior who speaks Chinese and understands her says “Sounds like Chinese to me! Congratulations!” The meaning is Rosemary has made a lot of progress. She speaks Chinese now well enough to communicate with the Chinese warriors and it gives her a chance to join the team.

After Kyo, Rosemary, and Blaze’s warriors defeat Incisor and the invading pandas, Kyo gives a short speech, not with perfect English, broken, but saying pandas can live in peace with humans and a Chinese warrior says “sounds like Chinese to me”. The meaning is the Chinese warrior understood Kyo perfectly. Kyo now actually speaks in a way that all humans who listen can understand.

At the end, Rosemary gives a tour of a panda inhabited forest to visitors that are mostly Chinese and Rosemary speaks in Chinese, and an American says “sounds like Chinese to me” and Rosemary in English says “thank you. It’s a beautiful language. You should learn it.” The meaning is Rosemary’s gone from not understanding or caring about Chinese to speaking it and experiencing someone else not understanding or caring about Chinese.

3. “I won’t get bit again.”

The arc is Rosemary meaning she won’t get bitten by a panda again to meaning she misses Kyo but refuses to get him back because she doesn’t want her heart broken again.

Rosemary was bitten by a panda with rabies and went into a coma and almost died. Back at work at the zoo, her boss tells her to be more active with the pandas and she says “I won’t get bit again.”

A panda scratches her and she backs off and says “I won’t get bit again.”

During her depression stage, after she fails the final test to join Blaze’s team and can’t see her son Kyo, she misses him but refuses to go back and says “I won’t get bit again” meaning she won’t get bitten by loving him. She doesn’t want to get hurt again.

When telling Kyo not to go after Incisor, she could say. “Don’t worry. I won’t get bit again,” but then Incisor kills her. The meaning here could be ironic, but then Kyo nibbles her and regenerates her back to life. So in the end, getting bitten by your panda son is a good thing.

[margo meck]

Margo’s Height of the Emotion

“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” What the impact a good piece of dialog can have. In Seabiscuit the trainer is asked “How does he look?” I would have said something like “Slow” or “Lazy.” But what the trainer actually says is: “Asleep.” That single word just nails it. This lesson helps me see that I could come up with something that simple and yet captures the essence.

Emotional moment 1 – A friend has talked Brandi in to submitting DNA to ancestry dot com to find out who her unknown father is. The test comes back and she finds out her father is her uncle. She runs the gambit of shock, denial, and anger. This new information shakes Brandi’s world.

Dialog line – She asks herself: “What does that make me?”

Emotional moment 2 – Brandi’s big dream is marriage and a family. When her fiancé finds out she is an incest baby, he cancels the wedding. Brandi’s future just got pulled out from underneath her. She has lost everything she wanted out of life.

Dialog line – Brandi to her fiancé: “I wanted to grow old with you. This isn’t what love looks like.”

Emotional moment 3 – Brandi’s first para-surfing lesson. It exhilarates her. She feels free for the first time in her life. (She is a bit of a goody-goody and doesn’t swear.) She returns to shore.

Dialog line – To her coach: “Hot damn.”

Emotional moment 4 – Brandi’s major competitor threatens to expose her past if she doesn’t withdraw from the competition. This is a dilemma moment for Brandi. This threat throws her back into shame and she regresses. She pulls herself up by the bootstraps.

Dialog line – To her competitor – “Bite me. Expose me. Humph. We’ll just see what gets exposed.”

Emotional moment 5 – Brandi is learning para-surfing. Her teacher sees potential in her and enters her in a local competition. She adamantly refuses. She is only a beginner.

Dialog line – Brandi to her coach: “You’re crazy. I won’t go.” Coach to Brandi: You gotta stretch your wings, kid.”

[margo meck]

Margo Builds Meaning with Dialogue

“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” There was one line I thought would be very effective if used only once. If I used it more, it would lose its punch. Without a written script to work with, coming up with these lines seemed forced. But the exercise did help me see how this could be a powerful tool in my toolbox. When Hal pushed the start date out a week, I also learned it’s hard to work on my writing during Christmas. :o(

Three lines from my script I made up for this exercise (the script isn’t written).

DIALOG LINE 1 FROM THE SONG “FAITHFULLY” BY JOURNEY

Early in Act 1 – The song “Faithfully” plays. Brandi is young and naïve. Brandi (talking about her fiancé): “Faithfully. And, forever."
Here the meaning is complete commitment.

Middle of Act 1 – Brandi’s fiancé cancels the wedding when he finds out Brandi is an incest baby. Brandi says: “Faithfully.”
This time it is said sarcastically meaning he broke his promise.

Somewhere in Act 2 – Brandi sees her former fiancé with another woman on his arm. Brandi says: “Faithfully.”
The meaning he’s a creep and she’s is lucky she escaped being stuck in a marriage with him.

Act 3 – Brandi is successful and a national celebrity in her sport. Her fiancé approaches her wanting to move forward with the marriage. Brandi says “Faithfully.”
The meaning here is that she is now faithful to herself and he can take a hike.

DIALOG LINE 2: “WHAT DOES THAT MAKE ME?”

In scene 4 of Act 1 Brandi finds out her uncle is her father and asks her friend “What does that make me?”
The meaning here is she thinks she is something dirty, icky, creepy.

At the end of Act 1 Brandi is still living with her mother. She asks her mother “What does that make me?”
The meaning here is if she stays with her mother does that imply she condones her mother’s action?

Somewhere in Act 2 Brandi goes to a doctor to ask questions about being an incest baby. She asks him “What does that make me?”
Here she means is she some sort of mutant? If she has children, they will also be freaks?

At the Crisis in Act 3, Brandi is threatened by a competitor to withdraw or he will tell the press about her being an incest baby. She talks it over with a friend. “If I compete and he spreads this about me, what does that make me?” Here she is aware that her mother’s name will also be drug through the mud. If she competes, is she being selfish?
The meaning here is to confirm by her friend who answers the question with: “A winner.”

DIALOG LINE 3: “IT’S GOOD.”

At the very beginning of the script (Act 1 scene 2) Brandi is working on her wedding decorations. Her friend tells her “It’s good.”
The meaning here is that everyone will love it.

In Act 2 after Brandi moves out of her mother’s home, has no place to live and can’t get a job, an old friend of the family offers her a job as a go-fer. He shows her a small utility room where he will let her stay. She looks over the room and says: “It’s good.”
The meaning here is that it is better than living on the street.

After her coach sees how quickly Brandi picks up para-surfing he says: “It’s good.”
The meaning here is that he sees potential in her and starts her on serious training to compete.

Brandi’s coach enters her in a competition against Brandi’s wishes. She says, “Yeah, it’s good.”
The meaning here is sarcastically the opposite: she is scared and doesn’t want to go through with it.

At the very end Brandi and her mother reconcile. Her mother congratulates her on winning a national competition and making something of herself. Brandi’s reply: “It’s good.”
The meaning here is she can face whatever life throws at her.