[Brent KINETZ]

Lesson 5 – Brent’s Three Gradients

What I learned from this lesson is: I learned how much my story as I’d outlined it (and my transformable character) already follows the different stages of grief depicted in the emotional gradient. But while this is generally true, each step along the way can be deepened and sharpened by asking the question, “But, what’s beneath that?”…. which is great! And then to more lateral to see the actions that bring the emotional gradient to life, and each step’s challenge and weakness in Lionel, my transformable character, led me to a place where I much better understand how he becomes changed.

1. My story uses the Forced Change Gradient.

2. My story’s three gradients:

==DENIAL==

ACTION: Lionel just acts happy around his family, denying the tension created by Martha’s restrictions.

CHALLENGE: The stress from Billy not being able to go with Bode threatens to ruin their weekend.

WEAKNESS: Lionel allows Billy to stay at a neighborhood friend’s for the weekend to avoid the tension.

==ANGER==

ACTION: After Lionel tries to create a “carefree weekend” for Martha, but she can’t let go of her worry.

CHALLENGE: Lionel’s sense of self is threatened because he can’t connect to this worry that Martha feels and he’s not “enough” to distract her from it.

WEAKNESS: Lionel isn’t strong enough to talk to her about it, and instead seeks to redirect his pain and hurt her by first walking away, and then sharing that Bode and the whole group are going “offline” and will be unreachable for the weekend.

==BARGAINING==

ACTION: After several social media posts that disturb Martha deeply, Lionel seeks to calm her.

CHALLENGE: He struggles to have any soothing effect with his logic, so he turns to alcohol.

WEAKNESS: He can’t stand up and tell Martha to just let go! Bode is 14! Despite his instincts begging him to do so.

==DEPRESSION==

ACTION: Once Martha identifies the place where Bode is, she heads there directly, and cannot be stopped.

CHALLENGE: Lionel follows along, knowing that nothing good will come of this. Not for Martha, not for Bode, and not for Bode’s friends.

WEAKNESS: Lionel is so beat down, he doesn’t even argue. He has given up.

==ACCEPTANCE==

ACTION: Once they realize Bode is not where Martha thought, Martha breaks down and becomes severely distraught.

CHALLENGE: Lionel finally sees that he must stop coddling and protecting and basically enabling Martha. He must insist on parenting with more trust. And not let Martha hold him back.

WEAKNESS: He is not 100% sure that he is right to make this decision, but realizes it’s better than the alternative.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by  Brent KINETZ.

[Brent KINETZ]

Brent’s Lead Characters

What I learned doing this assignment is:
Maybe I can have a more authentic, fresh and powerful transformation if I reverse which character (the mother instead of the father) transforms within my story. (However, I have written it below as though as it’s still Lionel, the father, who transforms.) I also learned more about my story’s Oppression and Change Agent by being forced to write it out.

Transformational Log Line:
When their teenage son goes away with friends for the weekend, two parents must face their anxiety and helplessness after they realize their only contact will be watching social media posts.

Change Agent:
On the surface, it’s the social media posts, but in reality (spoiler alert) it is their younger son (Billy) who feels left out and creates fake social media posts with the sole purpose of punishing his parents. Billy is tired of being overprotected by his parents, and mainly his father, Lionel. He feels like he’s being held back because of his parents’ fears, which he sees as largely irrational. And when his older brother is invited to a friend’s summer house, and Billy is invited to tag along, but his parents won’t let him, he’s had enough. And he decides to force them to face their fears.

Transformable Character:
Lionel, the dad. When the story begins, Lionel is reluctantly devoted to his wife Martha’s particular brand of fear-based “overprotective” parenting. Through a particularly tough weekend, he finds a voice for his own instinctive parenting method, one where he allows his children more risks and opportunities for growth. And in the end, he’s faced with a big decision where he must either ignore or take action against one of his child’s clear transgression.

The Oppression:
The Oppression in this story is the parent’s interpretation of the risks the world presents to their kids. This is general, and to bring to it more specificity, I can say that it is fueled by two main forces, the parents’ consumption of media’s (both news and social) narrative over what’s wrong in this world AND their perception of what exactly is successful parenting (i.e. the balance between NEVER making a mistake and reaching age 18 with a perfect score of your kid never being seriously “hurt” vs. the natural growth and learning a child experiences by giving them the freedom to experiment, take risks, and fail. The parents in this story lean much more to the former – wanting to reach 18 with a perfect score.

The Betraying Character:
Martha, the mother, the wife, goes through a stressful weekend that forces her to confront her worst fears about letting her children out on a longer leash. This pushes her and her husband Lionel to the brink of either trying to swoop in and save them, or letting the kids learn from the complication of real life, even if it means suffering some along the way. While Lionel takes the latter fork, Martha can’t abide and decides to take no more risks.

[Brent KINETZ]

Brent’s Transformational Journey

What I learned from doing this assignment is how hard it was for me to turn my logline into something that describes both the old ways and the new ways. I’m so used to my log line just describing the crux of the problem, but not the way it sort of turns out. I also really struggled with creating a contained list of simple descriptions of the old and new way. For me, it’s easier to conceptualize than to actually do it. What I’ve come up with feels at once, overly verbose and sickeningly vague and cliché. I think what it all tells me is I’ve got more work to do in order to really find my character’s transformational journey.

Logline: When his teenage son goes away with friends for the weekend, a father must face his wife’s anxiety and helplessness after she realizes her only contact will be watching social media posts.

Old Ways

– afraid of confrontation

– resentful

– spineless

– supportive despite instincts telling him otherwise

– does not listen to his gut

– despite trusting his kids, won’t stand up for them

New Ways

– stands up for his belief

– confronts his fear

– trusts his kids, and stands up for them

[Brent KINETZ]

Brent’s First Three Decisions

What I learned during this assignment is how much answering these three questions clarifies where my story needs work. And where there is a mismatch between the story I want to tell, and the story I’ve drafted.

1. What is the profound truth of my movie?

Trying to control everything is often far more dangerous than letting go and taking risks.

2. What change would I like people to experience when they see my movie?

Inspire them to consider if they’re holding on too tight to safety, and if that may actually be more damaging.

3. Entertainment

Pick a world? Two anxious parents experience anxiety and helplessness when they can only keep tabs of their teenage son by watching social media posts.

[Brent KINETZ]

Brent’s analysis of Groundhog Day.

What I learned doing this assignment is that we can engage with, cheer for, and feel empathy with characters who are acting bad and doing bad things, if we believe they have the capacity to find a better version of themselves, and there is an inciting incident that we suspect might put them on a trajectory to find this better version…

1. The
   transformation or change in this movie is Phil finding that caring as much
   for others as for himself, and genuinely liking others as much as himself,
   leads to a much more genuine happiness.
2. The
   element of having to relive every day (groundhog day) is the agent of
   change and it works for Phil because it keeps him experiencing the way he
   feels trying out different ways of being.
   Through this multitude of “experiments” he begins to realize it
   feels better to be good than to be bad.

Phil is the transformable character and he’s right because he’s the most obviously dysfunctional character in the story, but one we can still relate to, because whether we show it or not, we all feel like Phil from time to time. It’s very human. Most of us just cover it up better. But we never feel great about those core feelings.

Our human nature is the oppression. The habit that Phil has of giving into these feelings that he’s the only smart one and everyone else is holding him back from the greatness he so rightly deserves.

3. I
   think there are many reasons, good performances, good dialogue, etc… But I see two main reasons that got me
   hooked. First, I can relate to the
   character (as I said above) in that we can all feel at times like we are surrounded
   by fools and if only this or that, our true talent would be exposed. (Most of us, including me, hope that we
   do a better job than Phil at both handling it and eventually, gaining a
   wiser perspective. But to see this
   potential change on the horizon, it’s just very very tempting to watch
   happen. And the second big thing
   is the idea is just so novel. The
   day happens over and over again and he’s the only one who knows it, and
   can learn from it. Brilliant and
   hooking!
4. Phil’s
   old way was to see everyone as a fool and a loser and a reason why he is
   where he is at. From here, he’s
   incapable of holding any meaningful connection with others and becomes
   more and more dysfunctional inside.
   His new way is to hold himself in a more balanced context with the
   world, a little more “there but by the grace of God go I” mentality, and
   the appreciate others and what they bring, and in doing so, he’s capable
   of holding meaningful connections, and this heals him inside and brings
   out a better version of Phil.
5. It
   was slow, you might say, day by day!
   And what else is remarkable is it wasn’t a straight line. It had ups and downs. For example, for a while, he used his
   unique situation to do bad things, maybe worse things than he was capable
   of before (stealing, taking advantage of women, etc).
6. It’s
   first challenge is that Phil is stuck in a place he loathes on a day he loathes. And then further, as he gets to the end
   of each day, he starts to realize, how empty it is – even when he controls
   exactly how that day can go.
   Without real human connection and appreciation, life can not just
   be empty, it can feel hollow. And
   Phil starts to realize this when forced to live the same day over and over
   again.
7. Phil
   realizing to love others means he loves himself. And vice versa.
8. Did
   not note, but I did love his line about wanting to stay and live in Punxsutawney. It was a metaphor for wanting to leave
   his old ways behind, and stay rooted in his new way.
9. Yes. In particular, that Phil would want to
   move to Punxsutawney – the place he said would be his last trip in the
   beginning of the film.
10. To
    truly love and appreciate others is the only way to truly love and
    appreciate yourself. From here, true
    happiness is possible.

[Brent KINETZ]

Hi,

My name is Brent Kinetz.

I’ve probably written 20 scripts, though most of them are short films, and only about six would I say I really finished. Some of them I have made into short films.

I feel like I’m pretty good at helping friends find ways to make their scripts better, perhaps even more “profound.” I just have a strong sense reading someone else’s work, what it needs. But when it comes to reading my own writing, I find it very hard to to do the same. I am too old to care about becoming Hollywood’s next hot screenwriter, so what I really want to do is write my own stories that I really care about and that have a quality to make others care equally and in similar ways about it — for us both to go on that profound journey. With this said, I hope this class helps me be able to make my own stories better, and more profound.

I guess it’s a little unique that I am an American but live in Stockholm Sweden. This time of year, I’ll be doing almost all my work in the dark, even if just after lunch!

Looking forward to going through this program with you all!

[Brent KINETZ]

Brent Kinetz
I 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.