Lesson 8 Assignments

[Erin Ziccarelli]

Erin Ziccarelli’s Profound Ending

What I learned from doing this assignment is: the three ways to leave the audience with a profound parting or line. I think Casablanca delivers best on all three, especially when we see Rick “stick his neck out” for somebody.

What is your Profound Truth and how
will it be delivered powerfully in your ending?

The profound truth is that we determine the course of our own lives. That is delivered powerfully in my ending by Alex rejecting Richard, the family feud, and their black-market activities. He’s no longer going to be subject to their rules. It’s delivered in the final poker game between the two sides. Alex walks up the middle, unarmed, with everyone in the room wanting to kill him. He gets to the door, turns, and tells Richard that it’s his life to live and his choice to leave. I don’t have the exact dialogue worked out yet! The final scene is Alex’s monologue to Scarlett in the hospital. She comes out of her coma a few days later and he is the only one there for her, further showing his commitment to her despite her being from the rival family.

How do your lead characters (Change
Agent and Transformable Characters) come to an end in a way that
represents the completed change?

· Transformable characters:

o Alex: no longer going to sacrifice himself for the Donovans, he has learned the true meaning of family, he has avenged Kitty, and admitted to the whole room that Scarlett is his daughter (something that he spent most of the movie keeping secret)

o Scarlett: angry at Richard for trying to kill Alex, rejects Richard and Joseph, tells Richard that Alex was right, refuses to help deliver the counterfeit money

· Change agent (Roger): Roger faces his past by returning to the North End where he saves Scarlett and reveals to Alex why he went to prison. He and Alex have come a long way since their first meeting in Act I. They now have complete transparency and trust in each other, despite being from rival families.

What are the setup/payoffs that
complete in the end of this movie, giving it deep meaning?

· Setup: will Alex rejoin the family business, payoff: Alex rejects both sides

· Setup: Scarlett’s mistrust of Alex, payoff: Scarlett trusting Alex, they will leave Boston together

· Setup: Roger’s refusal to face his past, payoff: Roger revisiting the North End

· Setup: beginning poker game (both sides separated and hating on each other), payoff (both sides together, starting to see that their family feud is pointless)

How are you designing it to have us
see an inevitable ending and then making it surprising when it happens?

The inevitable ending is that Alex will reject his old life for good. Alex goes to the South End to confront his old friends. From this, we think Alex will tell them he’s finished with it all. We think it will not happen when we discover that the North End families have gotten their first. They’re ready to kill Alex. They all sit down to a poker game. Alex is losing. The South End is losing. Then, Alex gets the dealer chip. Things start to turn around in the game. He stands up and walks out, unscathed, telling them that he’s done with the black market. We hold our breath as Alex leaves the room – every gun is on him and the gun he’s holding isn’t loaded.

What is the Parting Image/Line that
leaves us with the Profound Truth in our minds?

Alex’s final line is to Scarlett (while she’s in a coma) – he tells her that he wants a better future for her. The last image is her waking up and reaching for him. They’re finally a family and will learn to trust each other. They’ve both rejected their old ways and have chosen a new path.

[Wayne Petitto]

Wayne’s Profound Ending

What I learned from this assignment is a reliable process to ensure delivery of a profound ending, enabling the audience to experience a profound change to their own lives.

1. The Profound truth is, “Forgiveness, humility, and grace are necessary to enable true healing.” Peter and Jeannie must internally realize this and build the courage to face the world on a popular TV Psychologist show, and set an example for all humanity to see and chose for themselves.

2. Peter musters the courage to face the world, despite his guilt complex, having been the soul who burned Joan of Arc at the stake. He must forgive himself and have grace under extreme criticism.

Jeannie finally experiences Joan of Arc’s horrific death the evening before the TV appearance, discovering her own profound truth that is disclosed in the end.

3. (Setup) Early in their relationship, Peter begins to make a toast, “To the future. May it be so different from the past that…” He’s stuck for words, so Jeannie pipes in, “that it saves the world?” They laugh and Peter agrees, “Yes, why not save the world? Let’s save the world.” (Payoff) In the final scene on TV, Peter points out that if they can resolve their differences and trust each other, then everyone can. Then he makes a grand gesture, “So today I can do something Bishop Cauchon could never do.” He demonstrates humility and courage as he speaks for his past persona, the Bishop Pierre Cauchon, asking Jeannie as the soul of Joan of Arc to forgive him for the horrendous injustice he’d done to her nearly 600 years ago. She responds that the previous evening she’d gone through Joan of Arc’s death experience and discovered that the last moment before the pain disappeared, she’d already asked the Lord to forgive the Bishop. At this point, both in tears, they embrace in a magnificent kiss, as the TV psychologists says, “Let this be an example to the world.”

4. Their only goal in going on TV was to remove the mystery of their relationship and prove that they are just two ordinary college kids. However their profound circumstances dictated the only way this was going to resolve, was for them to set and example that the world so desperately needs to heal itself from the “polarization of taking sides” on every social divide.

Things seemed to be headed into their old pattern of arguing when the studio audience taunts and instigates them, etc. At this point they both stand to do the one thing they do best, defend one another.

After contrapuntally putting the ugliness of the world in its place, and supporting their position that society’s consternation was eroding freedom and prosperity, Peter turns to Jeannie as outlined in #2. above, for their mutual grand gestures.

5. The parting image is this: A setup early in the movie was Jeannie assuming Peter was trying to get in her pants, later the payoff is when she finds he too was a virgin by choice. In the ending, as they embrace and kiss in an example to the world, the scene cross fades to the same embrace at their wedding, with family members throwing rice. Jeannie says quietly to Peter, “and tonight I can do something that even Joan of Arc could never do.” Peter asks, “Save the world?” To which she replies, “No, just rock yours.”

[Lincoln Hoppe]

Lincoln’s Profound Ending

What I learned doing this assignment is to work both forward and backward to set up and payoff the profound ending. Working everything from that profound ending is key to making this a streamlined and entertaining delivery system for the profound truth!

Profound Truth:

You must choose how to use your gifts and lead from them

(yes, it keeps shifting a bit. But we’re getting there)

My lead characters end:

Angelo – by acting on his goal, Angelo embodies his choices by being brave, courageous, and pursuing what he wanted. He goes from being terrified to step out of line, to leading and breaking down his walls with his gifts

Juliet- she has guided Angelo as the change agent for him to choose for himself, but also getting what she wants in Angelo

Sets/ups and Payoffs

Angelo’s timid and caged in nature (scene with little girl at the begining, talking with his dad, being timid meeting Juliet, getting his legs and standing up) shows how far he’s come when he takes charge and breaks out

scene with little girl at the beginning – paid off with ending and reveal of who the girl is

Scene with his dad – from can’t even talk to him, to facing him head on

Meeting Juliet – knows what he likes, but is hiding, to winning her at the end

Angelo doesn’t fit in at first, and he wasn’t meant to. But when he chooses to lead with his gifts, he can create his own life and make things better for himself and others

Inevitable but surprising

Standing up to his father is inevitable – but how he does it is suprising

He doesn’t have a private meeting – but calls out his father in full view of everyone – a far cry from where he starts – using his voice

Angelo’s taking charge of his own life is inevitable, but comes as a surprise it was orchestrated or coached meticulously by Juliet

Surprising also as we realize Angelo’s dark power as pointed out by his father

Surprise that Angelo’s choices have been his own, and he has had to make them, but they were promoted by Juliet’s plan and agenda.

Parting Image/Parting line

One image is Angelo and Juliet facing each other in sihlouette, both as opening image and closing image… but not sure how that shows the profound truth

Maybe if we use the TEST metaphor, and the two of them standing together is helping each other through the test… which is exactly what happens.

Juliet’s ‘graduating test’ is to not directly interfere with choice. While Angelo’s test is to make the best choices of his own will

So maybe this test metaphor is about testing the true you, and you do that best with another person? It’s clunky, but I think there’s something there to be refined.

“A real test isn’t about the test. It’s is always about the person taking the test. Your real test is about you.”

There’s something in there to be refined as well