Lesson 15 Assignments

[Wayne Petitto]

ASSIGNMENT 1
Wayne’s Height of the Emotion.
What I learned doing this assignment is…
1. List 5 most emotional moments in your screenplay.
2. Go to the height of the emotion and brainstorm lines to deliver deeper meaning.
3. Explain the emotion and meaning of the scene, then the new.

ASSIGNMENT 2
Wayne Builds Meaning with Dialogue
1. Select three (3) lines you want to build deep meaning around.
2. Create an arc for each line — Beginning meaning to ending meaning.
3. Find opportunities to build the line into at least three scenes that work for the arc.
4. For each, tell the line, the arc, and different meaning you gave the line in the scenes it appeared.
ASSIGNMENT 1
Wayne’s Height of the Emotion.

What I learned doing this assignment is how to improve what I’d previously thought were profound statements and add new ones.

1. After Jeannie sees Peter hypnotized in the person of Bishop Cauchon lambasting her with such vile and hatred, it greatly upsets her to have seen it. In the resulting discussion, Peter mentions having seen Joan of Arc being burned at the stake, and how awful it was. His earnest heartfelt warning to Jeannie never to go through that experience in hypnotism strikes her to observe, “You are SO not him.”

2. Peter explains how he’d love to tell everyone about Jeannie’s past life story, but he’s afraid of the hatred, ridicule, and humiliation for him having so brutally executed Joan of Arc. Jeannie explains that she would never do that to him, and that even if it weren’t for his past life, she wouldn’t want her story to get out because she just wants to be a normal college kid. The scene ends with Peter’s reply, “Cause that’s what Saints do.”
(This line is also uttered by an audience member in the concluding scene.)

3. Peter argues with the Monsignor over his past life experience because the Church does not believe in mortal reincarnation. It escalates to the Monsignor threatening excommunication, and then further to the point that the Monsignor believes Peter is possessed and tries to exorcise the evil spirit, holding his crucifix out at arm’s length toward Peter. Peter simply leans in, kisses the crucifix and says, “Forgive him, for he knows not what he does,” and walks out, letting the door close behind him.

4. When national News meets the two team busses returning from away games, a reporter corners Peter, and frames her questions in the worst light. Finally, Peter tells her to “get out a’ my face.” When she approaches Jeannie similarly, it also concludes with Jeannie saying, “get out a’ my face.,” and leaves. The reporter turns to the camera with, “Never underestimate a woman scorned.”

5. The closing scene on TV ends with them setting a grand gesture example of forgiveness and grace to the world. The scene ends with Peter and Jeanie in a meaningful embrace. There is a V.O. of the Monsignor’s distinctive voice saying, “You may kiss the bride,” as the scene cross fades to [“4-Years Later”] the same embrace at their wedding. Zooming back, we see them at the alter with the Monsignor presiding at their wedding. i.e., All is forgiven between them and even the Church has been transformed.

ASSIGNMENT 2
Wayne Builds Meaning with Dialogue

What I learned doing this assignment is how to enhance my emotional dialogue and accentuate it with a profound statement at just the right moment, creating a change.

1. Line: At dinner in a fine restaurant, they order a carafe of wine and Peter begins a toast not thinking ahead of what he’ll say. Referencing their diametrically opposed past lives he gets so far, then realizes their new relationship is too new and gets stuck. It goes like this:
PETER
“To the future. May it be so different from the past that,.. that, I don’t know. What?”
JEANNIE
“That it saves the world?”
PETER
Yes, why not. Let’s save the world.
Arc: Without these same words, the concept of saving the world or solving all the world’s issues comes up on occasion.
The next time is after they have been sitting at Mandy’s Ice-Cream discussing what the world needs. When Peter drops her off at the college gate, they joke about having solved all the world’s problems, “if only we could get the world to listen.”
In the last scene (on TV), just before they set an example to the world, Peter says, “today I’m going to do what Bishop Cauchon could never do,” and asks Jeannie as Joan of Arc to forgive him as Bishop Cauchon, in a grand gesture of forgiveness and grace.
Thus, giving the world an example to follow to save itself.
It ends in a wonderful embrace that segues to the same embrace at their wedding 4-years later, where Peter kisses his bride, and Jeannie whispers in his ear, “tonight we can do something neither Bishop Cauchon nor Joan of Arc could ever do.” As the screen fades to blank, Peter asks, “Save the world?” and Jeannie replies, “No, just rock it.”
Meanings: What they stated as a flippant toast to the future, came to fruition as their destiny set in motion nearly 600 years earlier. Then the epilogue alludes to Joan of Arc’s vow of chastity (as well as presumably the bishops) and how having completed their profound mission, they may enjoy freedom to consummate their marriage.

2. Line: In the first scene, the psychologist (hypnotist) explains why Peter shouldn’t feel guilty about what he’d done so many lifetimes ago. He uses the example of not feeling guilty about drawing with crayon on the wall when he was 2-years-old. However, Peter’s reaction is, “I told you about that?” He evidently still feels guilty about having done so when he was two.
Arc: When Peter tells Jeannie that he feels guilty about having been Bishop Cauchon, Jeannie tells him not to be silly, “That would be like, I don’t know, feeling guilty about scribbling on the wall when you were little.” Peter replies, “does everyone know about that?” I.e. he still has a guilty reaction.
When the national TV reporter asks him why he wouldn’t feel guilty about what he’d done to his college classmate so long ago, he replies, “Would you still feel guilty about scribbling on the wall when you were a kid?” She replies, “I never did,” but you did have Joan of Arc burned at the stake.”
Finally, when the issue of feeling guilty about Peter’s past life comes up, Dr. Phil (or equivalent) explains that he’s gone through several lifetimes since then. Peter adds, “I know, I know, it’s like feeling guilty cause you drew on the wall when you were two, right?”
Meanings: It shows how Peter has finally processed his past guilt and forgiven himself, but not until the last scene.

3. Line: The lines, “It isn’t me, but it was me,” come up several times during the movie.
Arc: At first Peter is very dismayed to learn he’d been such an evil person in history. Over time he learns that, yes, he has changed immensely over the many lives he may have lived between. Eventually he forgives himself, and finally on TV in front of the world, he speaks for his past life as Bishop Cauchon, asking Jeannie as her past life, Joan of Arc, to forgive him for the horrendous wrong he’d done to an innocent woman.
Meanings: Peter has made complete peace with himself and uses it to set an example to the world, because, “it was me.”

[Erin Ziccarelli]

Erin Ziccarelli’s Height of Emotion

What I learned from doing this assignment is: How dialogue is a tool to show height of emotion and display a character arc. I think this second pattern is super interesting and I’ve never looked at Casablanca’s “Play it Sam” line in this way! I’m very excited to add this to my script.

Make a list of the 5 most emotional
moments in your screenplay.

· Ted’s last words and Alex finding out about Scarlett

· Alex’s regret over his underappreciation of Kitty

· Alex in the ruins of his business, Scarlett’s surprising support of him

· Scarlett’s rejection of Alex’s help, he slips back into his old ways

· Roger and Alex connect and shake hands

· Alex and Scarlett’s reunion

With each of those scenes, go to the
height of the emotion and brainstorm lines that can deliver the deeper
meaning of the scene. Give us a quick explanation of the emotion and
meaning of the scene, then the new line that you are going to place there.

· Ted has just told Alex that he has a daughter on the Brennan and Caden side. He speaks his last words and then passes, leaving Alex shocked and in denial: Your daughter lives, your daughter is alive, your daughter is waiting for you (spoken by Ted and then later on, Alex)

· Alex is feeling triggered by his relationship with Kitty. He keeps remembering back to their time together and struggling to make sense of why he didn’t act or stand up for her. He ends up “apologizing” to her as he breaks down: I can’t go back, forgive me, help me (spoken by Alex in both dream scenes and then later on when Scarlett is asleep)

· Alex’s business has just been burned and he’s at an “all is lost moment.” Scarlett responds to him quite favorably, as she doesn’t know the truth yet and thinks he is just someone who has helped her without a reason. She encourages him: From the ashes (spoken by Scarlett as she tells him that he can rebuild – this doesn’t have to be the end for him, and by Alex later on when he burns the cocaine shipment and rejects his old ways for good.)

· Roger has just revealed he’s from the North End, leaving no more secrets between him and Alex. Roger has threatened to turn Alex in by “making the call,” but Alex assures him there’s no need. He has changed for the better: I’ve made the call (said by Roger when he first meets Alex and then repeated by Alex during their last meeting.)

· Scarlett is in critical condition. Alex speaks to her, hoping she can hear him. He answers some of her questions before about his choices and what the point of their lives is: I chose (spoken by Roger, Scarlett, and Alex at some point or another during the script – first Roger, then Scarlett, and finally Alex.)

Erin Ziccarelli Builds Meaning with Dialogue

Select three (3) lines (from your
script or lines you make up) that you want to build deep meaning around.

· Making the call

· The life I live v. the life I chose

· Ace in the hole

Create an arc for each line —
Beginning meaning to ending meaning. With each line, look through your
script to find opportunities to build the line into at least three scenes
that work for the arc. For each one, tell us the line, the arc, and the
different meaning you gave the line in the scenes it appeared.

· Making the call (Roger and Alex’s four one-on-one scenes where they each reveal something in each scene) – a call in poker refers to the amount that other players have staked in bets or raises.

o Beginning meaning: betting against each other

o Ending meaning: betting on each other (positively)

· The life I live v. the life I chose (having a choice is seen as negative and a betrayal of the system, and then becomes something the transformable characters strive for by the end)

o Beginning meaning: Alex’ choices make sense for him, and he’s content with following along. He feels satisfied with them.

o Ending meaning: Alex has regret over his choices. He knows they weren’t the right ones and he’s taken on new ways.

· Ace in the hole (slang for Alex at the top in the old system, proudly spoken by Shane, Patrick, and Alex meaning that is “one of them”)

o Beginning meaning: Shane is proud that Alex is his “ace in the hole,” Alex willingly gives himself up, telling Patrick and Collin that he is Shane’s “ace in the hole.”

o Ending meaning: Alex is no longer content to be that – in the climax scene, he tells Saoirse that the ace in the hole is dead.