Lesson 7

[Jeremy Cooke]

Jerry’s Show Empathy/Distress

What I learned doing this assignment is that mapping out the world and relationships for and between major characters is a rich source of inspiration.

ASSIGNMENT 1:

A. Undeserved misfortune.
Bran – falls from tower
Ned – called to court
Catlyn – her family is scattered
Tyrion – he is hated by his Joffery

B. External Character conflicts.
Ned – with small council
Tyrion with his father, sister, Joffery

C. Plot intruding on life.
Tyrion is associated with Bran’s injury

D. Moral dilemmas.
Ned learns that Joffrey is not the true heir

E. Forced decisions they’d never make.
Ned has to stay in King’s Landing rather than return to the North
Catlyn has to leave Winterfell and Bran to resuce her daughters

ASSIGNMENT 2:

A. Undeserved misfortune.
Emma – losing her husband
Emma – falling pregnant
Emma – quarreling with Miss Delacherios
Cook – being cast aside by Doctor
Doctor – being expelled from University
Lighthouse keeper – losing his wife & child

B. External Character conflicts.
Lighthouse keeper – he discovers his wife is having an affair with the Captain

Cook to Doctor
The boy is a threat – he knows about those abominations in your study
Her position in the house is under threat from either Emma or Miss Delacherios

Doctor to Emma
If you insist on having this child then Charlie and you will have to leave this house immediately
You are expected to sleep with me as part of your duties

Cook to Doctor
If that woman has your child then Miss Delacherois will immediately break off your engagement and you will be shunned by polite society
Don’t you threaten me – I know everything

Doctor to Cook
You helped me. If I go down so do you.

C. Plot intruding on life.
Emma – the Doctor announces his engagement to Miss Delacherois

D. Moral dilemmas.
Emma – to allow her unborn child to be aborted
Cook – to abort Emma’s child

E. Forced decisions they’d never make.
Emma – abort the baby
Doctor – kill Charlie
Cook – revenge on the Doctor?

[hilton Garrett]

Lesson 7 Empathy/Distress

Hilton Garrett, Show Empathy/Distress

What I learned – to see the complexity of relationships among the characters and to tease out what lies below the surface, in
particular how plot affects character

Assignment 2

A. Undeserved misfortune – At the age of 12 Will loses his mother and father in a car wreck

B. External Character Conflicts – Will struggles with Becca over their marriage; Will struggles with his F.B.I. handler who puts him in position where he must lie to his wife and his employer; Will fights with Vinnie over Vinnie’s ham-handed people management skills

C. Plot intruding on life – Will learns that his parents’ death was not an accident which upends his world view; his handler requires actions that Will doesn’t want

D. Moral Dilemmas – Having learned that his parents were murdered Will wants revenge that might involve killing someone, not what he was raised to do but ultimately necessary in the increasingly complex world Will has been drawn into by the F.B.I.

E. Forced Decisions they’d never make – Killing one of Santorro’s men who is stalking Will

[Lloyd Shellenberger]

WBWTV Module 1 Lesson 7 Empathy/Distress : The Binge Worthy Drug!

Lloyd Shellenberger

Working Hard Everyday to become the best writer I can be and as a result I do become the best writer in Hollywood.

ASSIGNMENT 2:

A: Undeserved Misfortune:

1. The death of his wife and being dragged back into the Puzzle Works. The very same people he left for his wife. His fear is this could cost him and his son everything is overwhelming, distressing, and very real.

2. Both Col. Greene and Lt. Greene and their men know they are dealing with a 3 headed monster that will eventually bite them, not to mention the FBI agent who is never far behind. Because of the missions given to them, they are now under constant surveillance and investigation by the FBI and Black suits.

3. The audience feels for them as Col. Greene sinks further into drinking and his son, who is a good man by nature, sinks into character traits that are not him. The audience also feels for Col Greene as a father. He never wanted this for his son.

4. The opening episode runs into multiple roadblocks from trying to get wheels up for Afghanistan to almost dying in Afghanistan when his convoy is bombed.

B. External Character Conflicts/Show Empathy/Distress:

1. The FBI’s attempts to hunt him down and stop the missions are the most obvious. Agent Stockton has made it his personal goal in life to end Col Greene. More often than not, he is one step away from putting Col Greene away for life.

2. Black suits from other agencies make demands that put Col. Greene and his crew at risk. Col. Greene must navigate those risks and complete the missions.

3. The Affair between Lt. Greene and Jones is a serious case of fraternization that could end both of their careers and a compromising secret Agent Stockton tries to leverage to bring his father down.

4. Col. Greene and his First Sergeant work well together often giving out false gaffes that each understands implicitly. This will come in handy when faced up against the Black Suits, FBI, and the focus of their missions. Many times it appears they are at odds but they really are working together to give that appearance.

C: Plot Intruding On Life:

1. Col. Greene is running toward retirement and his exit plan. It always seems to be a fingertip away then it is snatched from him. He knows time is running out for him and his son.

2. Col. Greene’s desperate need to protect his son and his crew are his greatest vulnerability. The Puzzle Works, FBI, and Black Suits exploit this masterfully. This spills over into their personal lives if each had one!

3. Conversely, Lt. Greene’s loyalty to his dad is often challenged and exploited. Lt. Greene also seems to be right on the cusp of escaping as well but it never materializes. You often wonder will Lt. Greene give in.

D: Moral Dilemmas:

1. Col. Green and his crew are often asked to kill or silence others who were purposely sent to their demise by the very same government that recruited them.

2. No one faces a greater moral dilemma than Lt. Greene who watches his fathers humanity and character sink deeper into the abyss, mission after mission. Lt. Greene knows a reckoning is coming, he also knows he is danger of losing his moral compass too.

3. Lt. Greene is being coerced to turn on Col. Greene, the First Sergeant, and Jones. He knows they are in mortal danger even when the other characters don’t.

4. Eventually Lt. Greene is either forced to kill his father or protect him and give him an out, at the end of the shows run. It appears as though he chooses to kill him in order to save him from prison. It appears!!! I am toying with that. It may be a dead Col Greene who kills Agent Stockton and the Puzzle Works informant.

Forced Decisions They’d Never Make:

1. Eventually Lt. Greene is either forced to kill his father or protect him and give him an out at the end of the show’s run. It appears as though he chooses to kill him in order to save him from prison. It appears!!!

2. Col. Greene sees Jones as a liability he expects his son to jettison. The problem is Lt. Greene loves her and cannot harm her.

3. Col. Greene’s orders are very clear, leave nothing behind and no one alive. He is often faced with impossible choices during each mission that test his and his son’s moral code. These decisions involve life and death and the killing those who don’t deserve it.

4. In the end Lt. Greene must choose between his freedom, the people he cares about and killing Agent Stockton. At the end of season 5 or 6 these decisions force him to implement his exit strategy or face death or prison. Killing is not Lt. Greene’s favorite pastime and he dislikes his fathers aptitude for it. He does not find out until a few seasons later what Col. Greene did for the CIA. He must often stand up against his father and the First Sergeant to save lives.

[CJ Lyons]

ASSIGNMENT 1: Mr. Robot’s Empathy/Distress

Big Picture/season:

*Elliot addict, self medicating obvious mental disorder while also in court-mandated therapy

*Elliot all alone, keeps himself separate from everyone, but cares enough to help others in his life

*Evil Corp killed his father and never faced consequences

*Psychotic drug dealer has Elliot in his sights, forcing him to hack for him or Elliot’s friends will be killed

*Mr Robot almost as bad, coercing Elliot to participate in high-risk hacks, risking his life and his friends

Detailed for this episode:

*Elliot almost caught by Evil Corp CTO while performing Mr. Robot’s hack

*Elliot does what drug dealer wants but a girl he befriended and helped is still killed—he now has blood on his hands

*Another friend is endangered by Mr. Robot’s hack and Elliot can’t do anything to help her

*Evil Corp CTO murders a woman to get a promotion, personifying Evil Corp’s, well, evil

*He ends therapy but returns to tell therapist REAL truth of who he is, what he’s done, what’s really going on inside his head—all of which she missed… is he bullying/punishing her for not helping him OR actually for the first time ever being totally honest and asking for help?

[CJ Lyons]

Lesson 7 ASSIGNMENT 2:

CJ’s Empathy/Distress Patient X:

What I learned doing this assignment… it’s not what happens to a character that creates empathy, it’s how they choose to respond to misfortune/crisis, and the more empathy the audience develops the more distress they feel when things go wrong or the character makes “wrong” choices

1. Make a list of BIG PICTURE difficult situations and decisions your characters could make because of the main conflict of this series:

A. Undeserved misfortune: Rossi is a gifted doctor but now facing an incurable illness that will destroy her mind and eventually kill her

B. External Character conflicts: driven to save girl from serial killer, angering the detective by continuing to investigate which impacts their budding romance

C. Plot intruding on life: her illness leaves her vulnerable as it causes both her mind and body to deteriorate, makes her catatonic at times, she’s not sure how much time she has left, hiding disease from colleagues and loved ones

D. Moral dilemmas: uses new psychic powers to “read” mind of past victim who is in coma—basically stealing the girl’s memories to find the killer, torturing her by forcing her to relive attack; when is it okay for a doctor to use violence? or use medical skills against person’s wishes?

E. Forced decisions they’d never make: forced to not just use violence in self-defense, but in end kills the killer, breaking every medical vow she took

[Brian Bull]

BRIAN BULL – Empathy/Distress, The Binge Worthy Drug!

“What I learned from doing this assignment is…
Having done this assignment I was able to focus on the Big Picture Empathy/Distress more than I had in the past. I think I can add a few more but I think I have a good start.

ASSIGNMENT 1

Watch the next episode of your Example Show and focus on the Empathy/Distress that shows up in this episode and throughout the season so far.

Notice the difference between Big Picture Empathy/Distress and detail oriented Empathy/Distress.

RIVERDALE

BIG PICTURE EMPATHY/DISTRESS
Undeserved Misfortune – Jughead is homeless because of a dysfunctional family.
External Character Conflicts – Jughead and his drunken dad
External Character Conflicts – Jughead and Archie and their relationship with Betty
External Character Conflicts – The Coopers vs. The Blossoms (parents)
External Character Conflicts – The Andrews vs. The Jones (fathers)
Plot Intruding on Life – Betty dealing with her sister, Polly’s pregnancy, mental condition.
External Character Conflict – Betty dealing with her controlling mother
<b class=””>External Character Conflict – Veronica dealing with her bad behavior mother<b class=””>
Plot Intruding on Life – Archie wants to be taken seriously as a musician, music career
Undeserved Misfortune – Veronica is the new girl in school, her dad is a convict
Undeserved Misfortune – Jason Blossom is murdered – Riverdale’s problem

DETAILED ORIENTED EMPATHY/DISTRESS
Moral Dilemmas – Archie dating Miss Grundy, the music teacher
Moral Dilemmas – Veronica’s mom foraging Veronica’s signature to get what she wants
Plot Intruding on Life – Betty and Veronica trying out for cheerleading
Plot Intruding on Life – Archie’s stage fright and other people’s disapproval
External Character Conflict – Veronica’s mom and Archie’s dad having an affair

ASSIGNMENT 2

FORESIGHT – An Optometrist (Jim Brown) creates a pair of glasses from a crystal ball and he witnesses an attempted murder, now he must figure out when and how to stop it from happening.

BIG PICTURE EMPATHY/DISTRESS SITUATIONS
Undeserved Misfortune – Jim’s dad mysteriously disappears/dies at work.

Undeserved Misfortune – Jim’s previous love/fiancee relationship ended badly.

External Character Conflict – Jim and Delores’s relationship – Delores believe in the psychic world, Jim does not.

External Character Conflict – Jim’s “sees” Gloria as the girl of his dreams but she has little interest in him, as a matter of fact, she is more interested in the crystal ball that she thinks Jim knows the whereabouts of.

Plot Intruding on Life – Jim trying to keep his mother safe – she’s all he has – Jim constantly “sees” his mother in “dangerous” situations which he tries to defuse only to have the “actual” situations benign.

Plot Intruding on Life – Jezebel thinks Jim knows where the crystal ball is and she is willing to kill him and anyone else to acquire it.

Plot Intruding on Life – Through the psychic glasses Jim “sees” Jezebel sticking Zelda with a Day-Glow needle at the hospital and he must stop it.

Moral Dilemmas – Jim is constantly using the psychic glasses in “see” into other people’s lives – an intrusion of privacy – sometimes he acts upon what he “sees” and and times he only makes mention of it to the individuals.

Forced Decisions They’d Never Make – Jim plots to kill Jezebel and make it look like she did it herself accidentally.

[Mary Guinane]

Mary’s Show My PS – Empathy/Distress

What I learned doing this assignment is that plotting out these situations now is leading to ideas for situations that can be brought out in stages instead of all at once.

1. Make a list of BIG PICTURE difficult situations and decisions your characters could make because of the main conflict of this series.

Just ask: “Knowing the concept, what are the big picture Empathy/Distress situations that could occur?”

A. Undeserved misfortune – Lizzy is forced into witness protection because of bad things others did; sent to city to start over that is completely misaligned with Lizzy’s values.

B. External Character conflicts – Lizzy fakes being gay thinking she’ll only be in PS a short time but attraction to Geoff challenges whether she lives the lie or tells the truth; conflict arises when she seeks relief from her lie with a one-night stand, but it turns out to be with Geoff’s son; Sean is exactly the stereotype of gay that Lizzy fears because she doesn’t understand it.

C. Plot intruding on life – While she is faking being gay and living the lie that is keeping her hidden from her past, she is confronted with situations that force her to participate and be conflicted by the acceptance from gay community that she refused to give them.

D. Moral dilemmas – Lizzy’s lifetime of conservative opinions are challenged, also requiring her to examine her past actions towards others.

E. Forced decisions they’d never make – Not only is Lizzy challenged by the views she’s long held, she starts to examine her own sexuality. Sean develops friendship with Lizzy that – to go deeper – also requires him to forgive Lizzy and others like her that he’s been judging in return.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Mary Guinane.

[John Duvall]

John Duvall’s Show – Empathy/Distress

“What I learned doing this assignment is…” to look deeper into my characters’ external and internal conflicts, and to think about how my audience will react to and feel about them.

ASSIGNMENT 1:

1. Watch the next episode of your Example Show and focus on the Empathy/Distress that shows up in this episode and throughout the season so far.

2. Notice the difference between Big Picture Empathy/Distress and detail-oriented Empathy/Distress. Big Picture will have an impact across multiple episodes.

Flashback: June’s husband Luke is shot by police, but escapes when the ambulance van run off a road and crashes. He retraces the road to where his car was crashed, then – armed with a gun – he finds his way into a town. This life-threatening situation is very stressful, and evokes our empathy because we’re already on his side.

Flashback to flashback: June, Luke and their child are preparing the attempt escape to Canada. We know how this will turn out, so the suspense is about HOW it will happen. But there is still distress and empathy for the characters. .

Flash-forward: Luke wants to go back, but his rescuers won’t let him, and his wound prevents him from resisting. He’s forced not to do what he really wants to. When he persists, they show him some hanged people and tell him that if he tries to go back, he’ll die. He’s forced not to do what he desperately wants to do, and thus we feel empathy.

At the point of escape, they are attacked by Gilead police. It’s a life-or-death crisis, so we empathize with Luke and are relieved when he escapes.

Three years later, Luke gets the message from June and knows that she’s alive. We empathize with his relief because we know how much he loves her.

ASSIGNMENT 2:

1. Make a list of BIG PICTURE difficult situations and decisions your characters could make because of the main conflict of this series.

Just ask: “Knowing the concept, what are the big picture Empathy/Distress situations that could occur?”

A. Undeserved misfortune:
The coming of WWII affects our three main characters.

Carolyn’s husband leaves a good job at Ford and joins the military, leaving her to run the household. and cope with lower finances and rationing.

Melba loses her job as maid and has to push her disabled husband to find work and look for other work herself.

Rose’s husband also joins the military, forcing her to leave her hometown and her farm to move to Detroit to find work in a defense plant. She moves in with relatives but must move again when her uncle drops dead.

B. External
Character conflicts

Carolyn tries to persuade her husband Jacob not to enlist. She in jealous of her daughter Joanie’s attachment to Melba. She has a lot of conflicts of culture when she takes on Rose as a boarder.

Melba chafes under Carolyn’s subtle condescension. She has friction with husband Lou over his musical hobbies and his reluctance to return to work at Ford.

Rose resents her husband Orsa’s enlistment and the pressure he puts on her to move from Kentucky to Detroit. She resents being passed over for work at Ford by a Negro.

C. Plot
intruding on life

Carolyn is forced to lay off Melba and find a boarder (Rose). Ultimately, she has to go to work at Ford.

Melba struggles to establish a career as a blues singer, and gets a chance when a USO dance hall is opened for Black troops. She also rescues Carolyn’s daughter Joanie when a race riot breaks out in Detroit.

Rose struggles to find a place to live when her uncle dies, finally renting a room in Carolyn’s home. She finally gets a job at Ford, but has conflicts with her supervisor Frank and her Black trainer Lou (Melba’s husband).

D. Moral
dilemmas

Carolyn develops a drinking problem after her husband departs and struggles to find meaning in her life. She also has control issues with her daughter Joanie’s performance at school and her choice of boyfriends.

Melba is conflicted over pressuring her disabled husband to go to work, which has a disruptive impact on their marriage. Religious differences develop between her Christianity and his interest in Islam. She also feels guilty about seeking a career as a singer.

As an evangelical Christian, Rose feels uncomfortable living in a Jewish household with Carolyn and Joanie. She risks her job at Ford when she gets involved in supporting a union strike.

E. Forced
decisions they’d never make

Carolyn decides to go to work at Ford in order to quit drinking. She insists on working in the bomber plant instead of taking an office job.

Following her husband, Melba sacrifices her singing career to join him working at Ford.

Risking her own safety, Rose rescues Lou from being beaten by racist workers by threatening them with a blow torch.