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Lesson 2
Reply to post your assignment.
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33 Replies
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What I learned doing this assignment is to think about the subtext of my movie or its true meaning.
Vivien’s First Three Decisions
1. Profound Truth: love is about self-sacrifice.
2. Audience Change: inspired us to re-evaluate our relationships with our loved ones and consider how we may better love them.
3. Entertainment Vehicle: the embellished as-it-happened conflict.
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Ashley Sarikaya’s First Three Decisions
I had to reconsider the profound truth of this movie. I was a little off track, but this exercise gave me a lot of clarity.
What is the Profound Truth of this movie? Sometimes you need to destroy everything to create something new.
What is the change your movie will cause with an audience? The protagonist went from a villain to a heroine. We see death and destruction from a hopeful, higher perspective. It’s not the end of the world, but a new beginning.
What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through? It’s an Embellished True Story meets Time travel.
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Hope’s first three decisions
What I learned: Taking the time to consider these questions was a good way to ground myself in the big idea of this script. I don’t want to just tell a story that viewers can leave muttering, so what? This can help me get that answered before anyone ever asks.
What is your profound truth? Where we belong isn’t always where we planned to be.
What is the change your movie will cause with an audience? We can find wholeness and meaning in unexpected places.
What is your Entertainment Vehicle? Metaphor (business to barnyard)
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Bob Zaslow’s First Three Decisions
(I’m actually writing a stage play, not a screenplay, but I think the same ideas apply.)
What I learned– I need to focus on the change in my audience as much as the change in my main character. Until now, I took that change in the audience for granted. But now, focusing on it, I feel like I’m more grounded in the bigger picture of what can help make a script successful.
My profound truth- Seeking blind revenge will ultimately make you miserable.
The change in the audience- they’ll see the long-term folly of pursuing a grudge or resentment because of another’s ill will or nastiness. Revenge may give them temporary satisfaction, but will eventually lead to great unhappiness.
Entertainment Vehicle- the world of Shakespeare’s great comedy, “Twelfth Night”…but several days after the curtain drops. The main character is Malvolio, the arrogant steward of Lady Olivia. He swears “..revenge on the whole pack of you!” for a practical joke that went too far. But when his own revenge goes too far, he’s transformed and realizes he must make it right.
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Interesting world you have chosen and a play! Looking forward to see how this evolves.
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Chris Confer’s First Three Decisions
What I learned doing this assignment is…
“In a world…” where one symptom of societal decay is dangerous drivers who text and drive. My screenplay’s transformational character is a state district court judge who lost his wife to a car crash caused by a person texting and driving. The screenplay is called Rotary Phone because Judge Ken sentences offenders to many months of using a rotary cell phone. No screens to distract these offenders. They must turn in their smart phones for a rotary phone as punishment. He and a fellow judge, who also lost a child to someone driving recklessly while on their smart phone, team up to run their own star chamber and go out take care of business personally on some crazy drivers who need extra correction.
1. What is your profound truth?
Judge Ken and Judge Jason fight texting and driving(societal decay) both from the bench and personally.
2. What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
Judge Ken discovers that a group posing as the SVR(KGB) is doing subversive programming of these Mayhem Candidates and decides that he maybe has dealt too harshly with the victims of this bad driving programming. To be determined how much he evolves in this view without destroying the movie.
3. What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
That offenders have to use rotary cell phones as punishment and they kick a lot of ass. There is a scene near the climax when they raid the LilPutins SVR den in which there is a life size diorama of Uncle Sam pinned down like Gulliver with a hundred LilPutins launching tiny hypersonic missiles over Uncle Sam Gulliver that carry the little rope to the other side of the giant and stake the rope into the ground. I throw a couple of surveillance blimps howvering around this diorama for a good measure.
Btw, a couple weeks after I started writing this script in late August of 2022, I stumbled across a Youtube video in which a woman invented a rotary cell phone.
Here is the URL: https://youtu.be/uV1C-41tq64
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I wonder if there is something even more profound in your story about using the past to change the future??
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Hi Marilynne, oh, hadn’t thought about it in that way. Could be. Thanks for the insight.
I work with a guy who has the same last name as you but he puts an accent on the first e eventhough I think he has lived here in the US for generations.
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Hebert is a French name (pronounced Ay-bear) but I can never figure out how to add the accent! My husband’s family came over to Old Montreal in the 1600’s.
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Chris– You had me at LilPutins.
Brilliant twist!
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Thanks Bob. Yeah, was thinking like a hundred LilPutins, all look the same, maybe dressed slightly different but yeah like Gulliver’s Travels satirizing many contemporary issues like war (do humans ever learn this does not really solve anything unless you’re attacked and he feels attacked) and ridiculously blaming the Russians for everything in order to provoke them and do a slight of hand away from what the west has done in its own countries and towards them.
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“What I learned doing this assignment is that there may be other ways to present my truth.”
1. What is your profound truth?
Transition houses need counselors trained in deprogramming.
2. What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
a) One reason women stay with their abusers is brainwashing and many women do not leave their abusers because the women are brainwashed into thinking they love their abusers.
3. What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
A counselor and her brainwashed client work through their own problems during counseling. I’m not sure how or if this will work. Stay tuned.
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Just wondering… is your profound truth related to ethics or choice connected to deprogramming?
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Hi Marilynne,
Thanks for your interest. Pardon me as I climb on to my very high horse and please stop reading if it’s too much. I hope the following answers your question.
My truth is more closely related to ethics in that brainwashing is one of the main reasons abused women find safety then return to their abuser, on average, 7 times before they are able to leave permanently. I believe, deprogramming can reduce that number, if not eliminate it completely and I think it’s unethical for transition houses not to offer this on-site.
Not only would it reduce the risk of further abuse to these women, it would also free up transition house beds that are now taken by women who return to transition houses again and again. If a woman flees then returns 7 times, over time, she takes up 7 beds. (I tried to count that on my fingers so please forgive me if I’m wrong.) If she only took up 1 bed, there would be room for 6 more women. Can you imagine what a difference that would make, not only to the women, but to how the funding could be spent?
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Thanks Joan – please get up on that soapbox anytime. I agree with you!!
I was not trying to take anything away from your idea but more trying to think about the issue you are describing from the opposite perspective of people who advocate for “choice.” For example, when someone joins a cult outsiders (family and friends) assume they should be rescued and deprogrammed, removing choice from the individual. Your antagonist might be someone who takes the perspective that free-will is more important than safety and you need to fight against him or her in getting your funding.
Just a thought – take it or leave it.
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Now I see where you are coming from. No wonder you are asking about free will. The deprogramming that happens in the story takes place in a transition house where a woman can always leave anytime she wants and she can choose whether or not to receive counseling.
The script begins with this quote from the North Carolina Medical Journal
“To assert control, the abuser uses brainwashing tactics similar to those used on prisoners of war, hostages, or members of a cult.”
The deprogramming itself is a very simple concept. A woman can eat and sleep as much as she wants while the counselor takes her through a step by step process. First the woman is reminded who she was before she met her abuser, then the woman is presented with the negative characteristics of the abuser himself, and finally the woman is shown all the different ways he has used his power against her.
Thanks for being so interested. If you have more questions, please ask me.
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Marilynne’s First Three Decisions
What I learned doing this assignment is… thinking about my story more broadly helps to identify a profound truth. I like the idea of having the cause become background rather than the central story.
Assignment
Profound truth: You are not limited to one possible destiny. Find and follow the best one for you.
Change my movie will cause with an audience: Feeling empowered to believe in themselves and their success wherever they find their destiny.
Entertainment Vehicle to tell this story through: embellished true story
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Now that’s a film I’d like to see. 🙂
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Brenda Boddy, First three decisions
ASSIGNMENT:
“What I learned doing this assignment is TO CREATE A PROTAGONIST WITH A BELIEVABLE JOURNEY THAT MAKES A SIGNIFICANT TRANSFORMATIO IN THEIR EMOTIONAL/PHYSICAL/SPIRITUAL BEING.
My script is about a woman, who doesn’t believe in herself, becoming a goddess.
Give us your three decisions.
What is your profound truth?
THAT YOU CAN ONLY ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN.
What is the change your movie
will cause with an audience?FROM SYMPHATHIZING WITH THE PROTAGONIST, TO CHEERING HER TRIUMPH.
What is your Entertainment
Vehicle that you will tell this story through?THIS IS A GREEK EPIC SET IN MODERN NEW YORK CITY
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I really like your profound truth!
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Liz Janzen’s answers to the 3 questions:
What I learned doing this assignment is that I want to refocus my script, which is currently at the mid-point, so that it changes from a story that is merely entertaining into something profound (without losing the entertaining aspects) by re-thinking the main character’s journey so that it leaves the audience with something to take away.
Answers to the 3 questions….
1) The profound truth: As we grow into adulthood we must begin to take responsibility for our own lives.
2) The change the movie will cause with the audience: the realization that in spite of others’ influences, ideas and wishes for us we must step into our own future – the one that is right for us.
3) The Entertainment Vehicle: A combination of Media (film) and Business? – it’s set in Hollywood in the 1930s but is not based on true events.
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(Laurie Brown’s) First Three Decisions
What I learned from doing this assignment is that it is hard not to make this more complicated than it needs to be.
1. Profound truth? Setting impossible goals and unattainable ideals in order to feel loved will lead to losing the love you hoped to gain.
2. Audience CHANGE this movie is about? Time to let go of unrealistic goals because real success lies in loving those in my life.
3. Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through? This is a “as it happened true story of how a daughter emulates her father’s colossal business success as a way to earn the love he withheld until she finally sees herself in him.”
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Steve McChesney’s First Three Decision.
1. The Profound Truth: No Man Is An Island and needs to love and be loved to heal from the past and attain his destiny as a creative being into the future.
2. Change Caused With The Audience. They become aware of how much they are strangling their spirits by holding onto the past and learn to embrace and unleash their loving potential.
3. Entertainment Vehicle. A day in the life/a life in a day on a summer day. Like Vivaldi’s “Summer” concerto. Following a broken hapless fellow through the misadventures of a single summer morning, then healing through music, storytellng, some drink, a bit of drugs, more music, parties in the midday sun, till a tumultuous latee afternoon summer storm unleashes the lifeforce of the character; and resolving in the misty moonlight of new romance and a new dawn.
4. What I Learned. That my vague ideas will begin to take concrete shape and are easier to write the more I ask, answer, revise, and re-ask these questions. This first round had me brainstorming every which way, and I know the answers I gave are open to many evolutions.
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I relate very much to what you learned! Well said.
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Connie Diletti – First Three Decisions
What I learned doing this assignment is…the more I am learning about the profound story model, the more open I am at re-discovering the core foundation of the story I am architecting for my next screenplay.
What is your profound truth?
Fate is real and that love transcends space and time.
What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
The realization that what and who is meant for you will not pass you by and that love is eternal and everlasting.
What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
Time-traveling romantic comedy.
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THE PURPOSE OF “THE PIT OF TRUTH” By Patrick Murphy
By thinking about these details I have learned more about what should work in the execution of this production and I have more ideas about how to work with the different elements of the story and how to balance and enhance them.
PROFOUND TRUTH
Who is so pure that they are qualified to judge, torture and imprison in the name of improving fellow humans. It is very un-American and yet cloaked in patriotic fervor. It doesn’t work and it has no lasting effect, beyond humiliating the individual and causing PTSD. The ends don’t justify the means and don’t even exist in reality.THE BIG CHANGE FOR THE AUDIENCE
The audience should question the efficacy of torturing individuals in order to “help” them find their truth, in order to force them to become better humans. Does forcing them even work? Hopefully they also come to a better realization about cult like organizations such as this and how they work, possibly finding themselves enabled to avoid getting caught up in this type of entity.ENTERTAINMENT VALUE
There are several things working here.SUSPENSE over how each individual anticipates and makes it through their crucible.
ABSURDITY including the weird, bizarre ideas the instructors espouse as they conduct this seminar, as if these ideas are somehow true and absolute.
COMEDIC, sardonic voice over narration of the main character as he comments on the absurdity of the proceedings. Also watching the false bravado of the individuals as they anticipate their own crucible.
HORROR and AMAZEMENT at the way the attendees are treated by the instructors.
FACSINATION at how those past the crucible are recruited into the mistreatment of their fellow attendees. And also at the fact that the attendees put up with this horror, accept it and put up with it all happening without rising up and throwing off this oppression. They allow this to happen to themselves and to others and then join in the action as if they have become convinced that somehow “good” is coming out of this. Also we see in the end that very little has been learned by any of these individuals.
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Claudia Musikul’s First Three Decisions
What I learned during this assignment is not to get overly attached to initial ideas. It doesn’t need to be perfect or right from the get go. You have to start somewhere to get anywhere.
What is your profound truth?
Profound Truth #1:
Playing by the rules isn’t a guarantee of success but you can fail and find the strength to try again.
What is the change you want the audience to make?
Be true to yourself and don’t be afraid to create your own success.
What entertainment vehicle will you choose?
The Embellished As It Happened Conflict. Although I am wondering if it’s possible to combine two different vehicles such as the Embellished As It Happened and the Conflict As Background.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Claudia Musikul.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by
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Define The Change
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Define The ChangeRonald Barker
The Profound Screenwriter
Define The Change
What I learned doing this assignment?
I’ve learned how to move beyond just the idea of the screenplay I am trying write, but how to structure it, So I can end up with a compelling story. I was having trouble moving ahead developing my idea or as I know now was my profound truth.
1. What is your profound truth?
You can’t be too old to father a daughter, just not traditionally.
2. What is the change your movie will cause with the audience?
It’s OK to find happiness and joy in non-traditional places.
3. What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will use to tell your story.
Driving a convertible Porsche along a scenic highway as an overhead shot from a Drone. Finishing the drive through the city to place of work. Also dressed to attract attention.
4. “What I learned doing this assignment is …?
Pick a world.
Sports– Have the story take place at a Sports complex.
Politics– At a political convention where you are spotting by the interested parties.
Religion– The event happens at church.
Media– A media event and your spotted and pursed.
Business– The office setting is the place.
Military– At a military club social with women.
Historical events– A special day at a gathering.
Ceremony– somebody’s wedding.
Special event– An award gathering.
Road trip– A stop on trip where your spotted by interested parties.
Time travel-A space movie and you end up in world of women and very few men.
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JD Angle’s first three decisions
I learned that I do not need to conquer the world, or answer the meaning-of-life question, in order for my movie to be profound.
Profound truth: Letting go is one way of saying, I love you.
Audience change: Learn to be compassionate for others who might not look like you.
Entertainment vehicle: Metaphor – Treasure hunter falls in love with a mermaid.
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Strongly relate to what you learned!
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Chhimed Drolma’s First Three Decisions
What I learned doing this assignment was that even picking a Profound Truth can add richness to a story and help flesh it out. I had loose ideas, but this will help me enrich and reframe my entire story as well as aid my 2nd draft immensely.
<b role=”presentation”>What is your profound truth?
You can outshine your trauma.
<b role=”presentation”>What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
Life can be joyful if one opens up.
<b role=”presentation”>What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
Pick A World: Space Mercenaries.
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Tom’s First Three Decisions
I learned that I am just scratching the surface of what will drive this story. I feel like have a good handle on the entertainment vehicle, but the profound truth was tricky, and don’t feel like I really nailed. My answers are still brain answers, and I feel like I need to hear what my heart has to say about the matter.
What is your profound truth?
We are in control of our fate.
Grief is unavoidable, but how we handle it is within our control
The key to survival is community/family
What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
To reconsider our relationship to those in our lives (the value of community) and how those people help shape our destiny.
Kids need positive adult interaction
The value of real connection
What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
Alternate realities
Nostalgia
Fear metaphor – the infection of fear is akin to the internet—its available to everyone, but affects us differently; the weak are consumed by it; the strong utilize as a tool; and the masses fall victim to it ubiquitousness
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