[Katie Andrews]

Katie’s Rom Com Project

What I learned doing this assignment is how much I love getting into the characters and imagining their lives and worlds.

WHO IS SHE?

Lara is excellent at business, and is highly valued at her company but she struggles with the interpersonal parts of her job and communicating with her colleagues. Her goal is to make her family business even more successful than it was when her dad was alive. This includes living out her dad’s biggest dream: to own a canal tour boat business in Copenhagen.

WHO IS HE?

Lars is amazing with people and the customers at his family’s canal boat business in Copenhagen give him excellent reviews, but he struggles with bookkeeping and budgeting. This is a sore spot between him and his mom, who owns the business. But he’s been giving tours since he was 7 years old and can’t imagine doing anything else.

WHAT MAKES THEM LOVABLE?

Lara works hard at everything she does. She runs the numbers and sweats the small stuff in the very best way. She always over delivers and does it under budget. Ironically she’s a huge people pleaser even though she’s not a big people person. Family is the only thing that she’s more passionate about than business. And she feels that when she takes over this Copenhagen business, she will finally have made her dad proud of her.

Lars is magnetic and can talk to anyone. He loves his job. At least when he’s in the boat giving tours of his hometown Copenhagen. When he’s back at the office crunching numbers and making budgets, he’s miserable. His mother tries to help, but it rubs him the wrong way and they have a challenging relationship. He wants to make her proud and be the perfect son who can grow the business, but he knows he’s falling short.

WHAT ATTRACTS THEM TO EACH OTHER?

Lars’s charm and ease with people puts Lara at ease immediately. She lets down her guard and can be her true self around him. She admires how he can speak in public off-script and have everyone on his tours laughing and hanging on his every word.

Lara’s matter of factness impresses Lars. She seems to be able to size up any situation quickly and brainstorm solutions to problems he’s had for years in mere minutes. He admires her mind for business, her dedication to her family and how she follows through with everything she plans to do.

They are attracted to each other because of chemistry, their shared sense of humor, and their loyalty to their families above all else. They also both need to separate themselves from their family’s plans and take a look at what they each want individually.

WHAT NEEDS DOES EACH FULFILL FOR THE OTHER?

Lara wants to achieve her dad’s dream, but needs to ask herself what her own dreams are. Lars reminds her that her dad won’t be there to see her achieve his dream. And what her dad would probably like more is to see her achieve her own dreams.

Lars wants to always be in the moment, but he also needs to also take a look down the road and see if what he’s doing is sustainable. His lack of planning means his business is in financial trouble and he doesn’t have any idea how to fix it. Lara helps him see possibilities he’s never imagined in his work life, and in his personal life too.

[Katie Andrews]

Katie’s Rom Com Project

What I learned doing this assignment is how important it is to integrate the conventions of romcoms to guide decision making when it comes to setting up our stories.

CONCEPT ELEMENTS:

TWO PEOPLE WHO BELONG TOGETHER (similarities, shared values, chemistry, surprising shared background, or a deep need for what the other brings): Lara, a young woman (who’s taken over her dad’s NYC hop on-hop off bus tour business after his death and wants to honor her dad’s legacy by sticking to his vision) and Lars, a young man (who is feeling stunted while managing his mother’s canal tour business by her rules) find they share the same dream: to run their own business their own way.

HOW ARE THEY SEPARATED (something keeps them apart that they must overcome): Lara lives in NYC, Lars lives in Copenhagen. But more than that, her family business is acquiring his family business with plans to make significant changes, and it’s unclear whether Lars will be kept on after the takeover. Lars understandably feels distance and apprehension toward Lara at first and sets out to prove to her how good he is at his job. And Lara feels sympathetic to Lars’s situation, but needs to assess how he’s managing the business in order to make her decision about whether to keep him on or not.

WHAT FORCES THEM TOGETHER (an external situation or party that keeps them together long enough to build a relationship): Lara comes to Copenhagen to acquire the canal tour business Lars is operating, but Lars’s mother (who owns the business) forces Lara to spend 3 days touring Copenhagen with Lars as her guide before she will sign off on the deal. The mom wants to sell and retire, but she hopes that these 3 days together will convince Lara to keep Lars on after the takeover. The mother hopes this will also nudge Lars to go after his own dreams, since he’s worked at the family business for his whole career, and he seems to resent it at times.

ISSUES TO BE RESOLVED (both have some internal issue they must resolve in order to have this relationship):
FOR LARA: Lara thinks Lars doesn’t appreciate all that he’s been given by his mother. She also thinks it’s sad that he doesn’t value the time he still has left with his parents, since she has recently lost her dad. For her part, Lara is avoiding getting in touch with what she herself values, because she makes all her decisions based on her Dad’s playbook, out of respect for honoring his legacy, but this may not be what she herself would do.
FOR LARS: Lars resents Lara’s approach to obliterating all traces of his family’s way of doing things in the takeover. But he also needs to stand up to his mom and tell her that giving tours is his passion, but his vision for the business has never been the same as hers.

ON THEIR JOURNEY OF LOVE (a literal or figurative journey that causes them to work through their issues and find a deep love for each other): Over the course of the 3-day tour, Lara learns about Copenhagen through Lars’s eyes and comes to appreciate the unique experience he creates for his customers. Meanwhile, Lars discovers the potential to grow the business and make it more profitable through Lara’s suggestions. Together, they find they complement each other. She’s great with the numbers and budgeting while he’s great at creating a meaningful experience and dealing with the public. And they see a future together where they are running their own business by their own rules.

CONVENTION ELEMENTS

THE JOURNEY OF LOVE (two people go from their “meet-cute” to denial of love to overwhelming attraction to breaking up over differences to finally reuniting and experiencing the love of their life) Their names being so similar will be a funny revelation when they meet. Their differences of opinion will keep them at a distance, as will the takeover circumstances, but they will bond over their shared experience of living in their parents’ shadows. And they will see a new path for themselves through their heart to heart conversations.

RELATIONSHIP SET-UP (from the moment of the “meet-cute” we see the romantic future for the couple, even if they refuse to believe it. This setup allows the couple to deal with their issues while the audience yearns for them to be together.): They find they have the same favorite business motto and finish each other’s sentences. As they debate over how to best run a business, we see the fire and passion they each have for what they do. Lars loves to challenge Lara and she’s always up for whatever he proposes and tends to outdo him: swimming in the cold sea, climbing up a winding tower staircase for a view of the city, or making Danish pastries.

ISSUES (each person has an internal personal issue that must be resolved for them to truly be together. This requires personal growth for them to become a couple): Lara must learn to live out her own dreams, not just carry out her dad’s legacy, and she gains some courage to start doing so through her conversations with Lars. Lars must learn to stand up to his mom and make it clear that how she operates her business is not in line with how he wants to do things.

SEPARATION (either physically or because of a specific situation, something keeps this couple apart. It is this separation that causes the audience to yearn for them to come together.): After the tour is complete, Lars learns that Lara’s company had already hired someone to replace him before she came to Copenhagen, a move she herself only learns about mid-way through her trip and tries to hide from Lars and undo before he finds out. Meanwhile, Lars learns that his mother is taking all the info Lars has shared with her about Lara’s ideas to improve the business and has reached out to a local Copenhagen buyer instead and isn’t going to accept Lara’s company’s offer to buy the business after all. Lars and Lara need to make the case to both his mom and the Copenhagen buyer to prove that they can run the company better together.

COMEDY (relationship and personal issues are dealt with through humor. As we laugh at the embarrassing moments on the screen, the audience feels better about their relationships.): There will be funny language barrier moments, and awkward and funny moments as Lara experiences firsts (winter swimming in the sea, pedaling a bike-bar, meeting Lars’s friends and family).

[Katie Andrews]

Hello everyone!
Great to be on this journey with you. My name is Katie and I’ve written more than a dozen scripts. In terms of this class, I hope to finally finish a draft of a romcom idea that I have been mulling for several years! Something unique about me is that I lived in Copenhagen Denmark for 4 years, and funnily enough, that is where my script that I’ll be writing in this class is set! Happy writing, all! 🙂

[Katie Andrews]

I, Katherine Andrews, agree to the terms of this release form:

GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
This completes the Group Release Form for the class.