Lesson 5

[Jodie Randisi]

DAY 5 ASSIGNMENT
What I learned from doing this assignment: I can cobble together ideas from what AI comes up with. Get this…AI suggested a book written by a real estate broker whose sense of humor turned him into an author and a stand-up comedian, and I bought it. However, the beauty of this exercise is that fitting the funny stuff into a structure, that takes work.

Genre: Female-led buddy comedy
Title: Pamperus Island
Concept: Two rival real estate agents join forces despite being women of opposite personalities and backgrounds based on the advice of a scheming industrial psychologist.

Act 1: Normal world
Opening: Elizabeth and Lovie as children reveal their traits, Elizabeth the snob insults her nanny while playing Barbies (she’s Jr. League Barbie while Nanny is Biker and Goth Barbie); Tomboy Lovie looks for the perfect location to build a fort. Then we see the same traits emerge as adults when both women end up at the same restaurant to celebrate their birthdays. Elizabeth and her stuffy tri-delt sorority sisters (and their gifts) versus Lovie and her witty sisterhood.

What if while celebrating birthdays at a restaurant Lovie makes a complete fool of herself but falls into the arms of a handsome server who gives her a listing right in front of Elizabeth and her friends?

Inciting Incident: While at a real estate convention in Las Vegas, Elizabeth and Love win a coaching program with Dr. Kirk Deller, the keynote speaker and industrial psychologist on the lookout for subjects for his human behavior experiments.

Turning Point: Both women meet privately with Dr. Deller, each one seeking his approval; they agree to his suggestion of partnership at the real estate office
What if both agents try to bribe Deller to sabotage the other one’s career?
What if Deller’s background checks reveal Lovie’s criminal past and Elizabeth’s financial crisis?
What if Lovie is so attracted to Deller’s charismatic personality and good looks she can’t put words together when trying to answer his questions?

Act 2: Challenge the Old Ways
New plan: Dr, Deller incentivizes both women to stay partners despite their methods of attracting selling clients are vastly different. He educates Mrs. Murray as to how she will be his accomplice.

What if Deller uncovers dirt on Mrs. Murray and tells her to “cooperate or else” but Mrs. Murray hires a hitman to get rid of Deller?

Plan in action: Under the guise of office manager, Mrs. Murray sets up appointments that ensure both agents get wrong clients, wrong open houses, addresses, etc.

What if Elizabeth’s client insists on holding a séance to “connect with the home’s past energy,” summoning the ghost of a disgruntled former owner but Elizabeth brings her pastor along to confront witchcraft instead?

What if during a showing a client’s prosthetic leg gets stuck on a footbridge, falls into a creek and washes away?

What if while showing a home they find four ladies playing bridge in the living room but it’s the wrong house and no one says anything until after the showing is over?

Midpoint Turning Point: We find out Deller is behind the scenes working pitching a reality television show about Human Behavior in the Workplace but is not getting great feedback, so he ups the chaos. Mrs. Murray switches side and decides to work with Lovie and Elizabeth to sabotage Deller.

What if Deller sets up a psychology experiment to examine the effects of employee behavior in hierarchical environment, pitting Mrs. Murray (the bully) against both Elizabeth and Lovie?

What if Deller wants to watch how both agents react when Mrs. Murray is put in charge of interviewing new agents, all of whom are eccentric or out of touch with reality but hired anyway?

What if Deller suggests each agent use their own real estate drones, but during a live-streamed tour, the drones get into a mid-air battle that ends in a small electrical fire in Mrs. Murray’s cottage, which leads to Mrs. Murray switching sides.

Act 3: Re-Evaluation
Rethink everything: Deller finds out Mrs. Murray is a double agent and has to come up with a plan to disrupt her plans so he can close the deal on the TV and book deal he has in the works.

What if the new alliance (Team Kirk the Jerk, or Deller Not a Good Fella) intercepts Deller’s files on them and comes up with deep fakes videos to disrupt his literary and or tv relationships/aspirations

What if Mrs. Murray sets up a game where her agents are compelled to compete in a game called Bullshit Bingo where they have to use unrelated words in sentences while giving a presentation for a listing? This is when Mrs. Murray discovers she has human behavior skills, too.

New plan: Deller blackmails everyone in the office with the dirt he has found on them with flagrant disasters he sets up so he can continue to manipulate their behavior

What if a waterfront listing becomes overrun with aggressively territorial crabs and the agent has to finish the showing on the roof?

What if while showcasing a “charming coastal fixer-upper,” they fall through the porch and land in a hidden illegal gator wrestling ring?

What if a fully AI-powered luxury home gets jealous of the client’s affection for Alexa. The house locks the doors and plays Toxic by Britney Spears. The agents have to talk it down like it’s a heartbroken teen.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Elizabeth and Lovie employ local wildly eccentric characters who line up to play along so they can mess with Deller’s experiments, except Elizabeth has fallen in love with Deller (who was repulsive to her earlier) and plans to help him seal the deal so she can star and look amazing in the TV show.

What if Elizabeth becomes a confederate in Deller’s experiments so she can work against Mrs. Murray and Lovie in their attempts to thwart the book/tv deal from happening?

What if Elizabeth accidentally reveals her desire for Deller during a coaching session that ends in humiliation?

Act 4: Climax
Ultimate expression of the conflict: Lovie convinces Elizabeth they are better together than the scheming psychologist, so she proposes a radical solution to discredit Deller.

What if, with the help of the feisty Mrs. Murray, the two opposite personalities find common ground in sabotaging Deller?
Resolution: Elizabeth and Lovie end up writing the book and sealing the TV deal. Despite their differences, they end up enjoying each other’s disparities and learn that human connection defies categorization. Their breakthrough upsets stereotypes and proves they are more than the sum of their dysfunctions.

What if by working against Deller, Smith and Jones become stars and become the featured motivation speakers experts on human behavior at an Industrial Psychology conference where Deller is in attendance and has to listen to all his failures.

[Ian Patrick Williams]

What I learned from doing this assignment is to brainstorm possibilities.
Genre: comedy
Title: Unaccountable

Concept: A mild-mannered accountant must navigate a corrupt hip hop world when a gangsta rapper/ music mogul forcibly recruits him to cook the books of his criminal empire before an upcoming audit.
List of conflict and comedic ‘What If’s’

Conflict: MC Slaughter’s bodyguards dangle a DJ over his penthouse balcony to get him to sign an exclusive contract at Slaughter’s dance club
Conflict: CPA Jerry Wheeler writes poetry as a creative outlet. His writing instructor disses his poetry at his weekly meetings
Conflict: Slaughter’s club manager informs him of an upcoming audit.
Comedy: Jerry’s current client is a cat lady who wants to use a child deduction for her pet
Conflict: Slaughter visits the office looking for Jerry’s partner Ben Madden who has cooked his books in the past. Jerry informs him Madden’s on an extended vacation
Comedy: Jerry off-handedly recites a few poetic lines; Slaughter turns it into a violent rap and flatters Jerry to come to his nightclub.
Comedy: Jerry goes to the club dressed like it’s the 70’s
Comedy: Slaughter’s two bodyguards Pretty Boi and Busta Nutt: one is muscular but presents feminine; the other is a horndog
Conflict: They overhear Jerry leaving himself voice notes and presume he’s an undercover Federal agent speaking to others
Comedy: They strip off his shirt looking for a wire; they see a mole on his chest and tear it off
Conflict: Jerry’s girl Emily is visiting his office when Slaughter returns; when Jerry tries to demur doing his books, Slaughter tells his men to abduct Emily.
Conflict: Jerry tries to stop them and is dangled out a window to intimidate him.
Comedy: Unlike in the opening scene, it’s a one-story building
Conflict: Jerry agrees to do the books but has no idea or desire to falsify anything. He tracks down Madden’s secret condo where he believes he’s hiding out.
Comedy: It turns out to be a time-share that Madden only used once, Jerry bursts in on a cop and a hooker having sex.
Conflict: The cop shoots at him; Jerry escapes, inadvertently taking the man’s badge.
Comedy: At the club where she’s being held, Emily bonds with club manager Klamidia over their love of her hand-made jewelry.
Conflict: Jerry tracks down Madden in the Grand Cayman Islands.
Comedy: He flashes the cop’s badge at a bank to demand Madden’s whereabouts.
Conflict: Jerry confronts Madden over his past crimes.
Comedy: He’ll keep Madden’s whereabouts a secret if he fills out and signs Slaughter’s paperwork showing all the illegal things he’s been hiding.
Conflict: Jerry races to the club and returns with the finalized audit just in time.
Comedy: Slaughter releases Emily and happily signs the document. Waiting IRS and FBI agents enter and arrest him for admitting in writing everything he’s done.
Conflict: As he’s being led off, he orders his bodyguards to take care of Madden.
Comedy: Jerry gives them the address of the time share where the pissed off cop will be waiting
Comedy: The paperwork shows the club was Slaughter’s only legitimate deduction and can remain in business.
Comedy: Klamidia renames the club Claudia’s (her real name). She uses the venue to showcase up-and-coming performers. First up: Jerry rapping as the Notorious C.P.A.

[Renee Miller]

What I learned doing this assignment is how to use What if Questions to bring more comedy into the script.
Genre: Teen Comedy / Horror
Title: Diary of a Teenage Zombie
Concept/Logline: When the school’s reigning queen bee wakes up undead, she’ll stop at nothing — from duct-taping her limbs to bribing the nurse — to hide her decaying body and hold onto her perfect life. As her instincts to devour her classmates grow harder to resist, she must decide if being loved for who she pretends to be is worth losing who she really is, or whatever’s left of her.
Conflict what if’s I’m considering
Hailey’s decomposition accelerates under stress. Every time she feels jealousy or fear of losing popularity, her body breaks down faster — a literal manifestation of her insecurities.
Her cravings evolve from raw meat to actual classmates. The first time she catches herself drooling over the valedictorian, it horrifies her.
Travis gets suspicious. His clueless support turns into terrified avoidance, sending rumors flying through the school that she’s got some “terminal STD,” which humiliates her further.
Her scholarship is threatened. The principal receives an anonymous tip (likely Madison) that Hailey’s “health issues” might pose a safety risk, putting her future on the line.
She starts to lose control of her mind. She zones out mid-conversation and wakes up with blood on her hands, unsure what she did. Now she’s afraid of herself.
She tries a sketchy online potion Pepper found, hoping to reverse zombification. Instead, it makes her violently sick and leaks embalming fluid through her pores, tipping off classmates.
Hailey blackmails the school nurse to keep quiet about her condition. The nurse panics, telling others instead to protect herself, which fuels rumors.
She bribes a videographer to edit her debate video to embarrass Madison, but it backfires — the editor leaks it to Madison, who then posts it with “bonus bloopers” of Hailey nearly biting someone.
She tries to seduce Travis to keep him close. In the heat of the moment, her jaw detaches, traumatizing him and causing him to ghost her completely.
She fakes a seizure to avoid gym class. This leads to a full-on medical intervention, with paramedics showing up — risking discovery by authorities who might lock her up.
Pepper designs a “zombie detox cleanse” that has Hailey vomiting black bile all over the cafeteria, forever cementing her as a freak on social media.
Nate helps her glue her limbs too tight. During a cheer routine, the glue holds — but her skin tears instead, revealing muscle and horrifying the crowd.
Hailey plants rumors about Madison being a shoplifter to shift the school’s attention. Madison’s lawyer dad sues the Harper family for defamation.
They sneak into the morgue to steal fresh body parts for “maintenance.” They trip an alarm, nearly get arrested, and lose all trust with Pepper’s parents who were funding Pepper’s “research.”
Hailey tries to confess her secret sweetly to Travis over a picnic, hoping for understanding. He flips, runs off screaming, and posts a tearful live video that half the town sees.
Madison hires a PI or plants a GPS tracker on Hailey’s car. She gathers undeniable evidence of Hailey dumpster-diving for raw meat at night.
Madison hacks Pepper’s phone and gets all the video logs of their experiments, then packages them into a humiliating exposé for the entire school assembly.
Madison spreads a rumor that Hailey is contagious. Suddenly no one wants to be near her — it destroys Hailey’s power base before she can even defend herself.
At Homecoming, Madison has planted fake ballots that result in Hailey losing by a landslide. Then she takes a victory speech where she “kindly” thanks Hailey for withdrawing due to “health issues.”
Madison secretly contacts the local health department. Hazmat teams show up at school, treating Hailey like a biohazard, escalating the stakes from social ruin to possible capture and experimentation.
Comedy what if’s I’m considering
Putting on makeup:
Hailey tries contouring over rotting skin. The sponge rips her cheek open, then she tries to glue it back with eyelash adhesive—sticking her mouth half shut.
Eating lunch:
She attempts to look normal by eating a salad. The greens slip through a gap in her throat and plop onto her lap. Nate tries to discreetly scoop them up.
Taking a selfie:
Her phone filters keep trying to “correct” her face, glitching comically between bunny ears and demon overlays. Pepper insists it means the algorithm knows she’s undead.
Walking down stairs in heels:
Her knee joint gives out, she topples forward—then pops up, mortified, pretending she meant to “slip into a stunt roll.”
Signing her name:
Her finger detaches mid-autograph on a fan’s yearbook. She snatches it back, says, “Uh… that’s a stamp,” and flees.
A dog steals her severed hand:
She loses her hand in the grass. A happy golden retriever runs by, snatches it up, and the entire cheer team ends up chasing it across the field.
Pepper’s weird “test”:
Pepper tries to prove she’s really undead by dangling garlic, then holy water, then finally throws glitter—squealing, “For SCIENCE!” Hailey just sneezes sparkles.
Zombie support group:
She walks by a room labeled “Zombie Club” started by Pepper and it’s just 3 kids awkwardly wearing “Team Hailey” shirts, one gnawing on tofu brains.
Hailey tries aromatherapy:
Lavender oil to “calm her hunger” backfires—her stomach gurgles so loud it sounds like a dying walrus during class presentations.
A prank gone wrong:
Madison rigs a bucket of pig’s blood to fall on Hailey for prom revenge. It splashes—Hailey laps it up absentmindedly, murmurs “Vintage?” and Madison nearly faints.
First slow dance with Travis:
Her jaw pops loose on his shoulder. He spins her dramatically—her head stays resting on him, while her body completes the turn.
Tooth catastrophe:
During a photo op, she smiles wide for the yearbook. A molar flies out and hits the photographer.
Morning announcements:
Pepper tries to shout out Hailey on the PA: “Big cheer for our Homecoming Queen hopeful who is… so alive!” The entire school goes silent.
Losing a limb in class:
She raises her hand so hard her forearm launches across the room, smacking Madison’s laptop. Madison shrieks. Hailey squeaks, “Extra credit?”
Sneaky snack gone wrong:
Hailey tries to discretely sip a meat smoothie. The cap falls off, spraying the debate team with blood-red sludge.
Wrong locker:
Trying to stash her falling-off foot, Hailey opens what she thinks is her locker—actually Madison’s. Madison walks up as Hailey shoves a rotting foot inside.
Wrong speech:
Nate hands Hailey note cards for the debate. Turns out, they’re Pepper’s “Top 10 signs you might be undead.” She accidentally reads them aloud to the entire gym.
Wrong test subject:
Pepper spritzes holy water to test its effect—accidentally hits the principal, who reacts as if he’s been maced.
Wrong perfume:
Hailey borrows a friend’s vanilla body spray to mask corpse smell, only for it to mix badly and attract every stray dog in town. They chase her down Main Street.
Wrong locker again:
In a rush, Hailey stuffs leftover raw meat into Nate’s locker instead of hers. He opens it later to a horrifying stench — and a live rat.