Cecilia Gonzales
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Celia profiles the extremes
What I’ve learned: I have vastly increased the clinical approach to people over the past several years. I was born into an environment of extreme personalities and taught to accept and tolerate regardless of their treatment of me; only recently have I cleaned house, as it were, but I have used many of these characters both in writing and acting. Once I have identified the motivation(s) behind the veneer, I sometimes like to bait the person, much like this assignment, to verify or expand the character for my future reference. I realise that this sounds rather sociopathic – it is not. It is my personal defense mechanism.
Person #1
Extrovert
Dynamic
Effusive
Racist
Narrow-minded
The conversation with this person took place a couple of years ago. After several years of seemingly accepting friendship, they attempted to involve me in their own relationship issues in a most insulting, racist manner (I am of Mediterranean descent; they are Slavic/blonde/blue eyed, and assumed that “my culture” included illegal activities, etc.) I thoroughly torpedoed their “white privilege ” statements, which as predicted, did not register. I have used elements of this deceptive friendship/undercover racism in subsequent scripts/writing as well as the use of patience prior to shock tactics.
Person #2
Conceited
Hedonistic
Selfish
Stuck in time warp
This conversation took place a few months ago: this chance meeting could/should have been ‘lose his business card immediately ‘, but I was curious and definitely prepared to bait. He continually interrupted me and put my opinions down, so I threw some wild cards to listen to the verification of his reach toward gaining a second dimension for his personality. He actually asked for a date at the end of that character study! I know he will appear in my work at some point, perhaps also in my acting if I need to play a character who is oblivious to the passage of time and the value of other people.
Person #3
OCD!!!
Introvert
Narcissist
Denial
This person was one of the catalysts that led to my personal ‘house cleaning ‘. I have no idea how someone with the consuming need to be ‘perfect’ would be able to deal with me! As I was slammed, over and over again, by the universe telling me that I do not have to tolerate this extreme, I began to bait him. I challenged the ‘perfection’ thing and glimpsed the shift in dimensions to his truncated perspective of reality. I wrote a narrative POV short about him – a terrific character study in controlled paranoia.
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Celia has an essence breakthrough:
I’m using my script “Unspoken” for this class. For reference, my writing process is anathema to many writers – I write when the film runs in my mind. Unspoken was a shock to me in that it appeared in my mind fully filmed, the first time this has happened. The essence of the film, characters and scenes possess the greatest clarity I’ve yet experienced, which has led me to explore different ways to illustrate these essences moreso than reimagining the essences themselves.
That said, throughout this assignment, I found myself mentally revisiting other scripts, short stories, and novellas in my files, clearly identifying new essences and weaknesses in those pieces. One feature script received notes including ‘It’s unclear why Chris kind of jumps in with questions out of nowhere’. The reason is that I had received notes on that script from a previous submission that recommended elimination of most of the descriptive text… which ended up destroying the essence throughout the script. [Sigh] At least I know that my writing is improving already, even if competition judges remain dissatisfied.
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Celia puts essence to work.
What I’ve learned is that essence may be clear to me, but exploring different ways to express it/them through each scene enables me to expand the depth and scope of characters as a result of re-imagining.
1) Location: Courtroom
Logline: The trial of the Frat Brothers for the rape of Elena erupts in surprise and chaos.
Essence discovered: Surprise accusations that reverse the assumed outcome of the trial establish the basis for David’s absolute belief in his wife and family.
New logline: Surprise and chaos at the end of the Frat Brothers’ trial show the first signs of cold resolve in David.
2) Location: Cheap hotel room
Logline: David personally collects HIV-positive semen from an infected sex worker.
Essence discovered: This additional layer of David’s dedication to an as-yet unanticipated and complex revenge demonstrates that emotional pain far outweighs the physical.
New Logline: David endures acts which are not natural to him without regard for his potential, personal trauma as he begins his journey of revenge.
3) Location: Dos Santos family kitchen
Logline: David agrees to represent a relative of one of Elena’s rapists as a corporate attorney; his son Eddie violently objects.
Essence discovered: The juxtaposition of anger on the low-key, intelligent introverted Eddie and sudden flash of intensity in David’s response establish a deep father-son connection that questions whether Eddie could ever be capable of David’s type of revenge.
New Logline: Eddie loses his temper when David separates business from personal,, demonstrating his strength in patience and apparent submission to both his law firm and fate.
4) Location: Metropolitan Police Station
Logline: The Frat Brothers are unable to remember details of David’s disguises well enough to identify him from various photos.
Essence discovered: People refuse to see or remember clearly that which they find distasteful, even when it could save their lives.
New Logline: The Frat Brothers, their attorneys and police are all increasingly frustrated when the Brothers cannot begin to identify the various Latino men who were actually David in disguise.
5) Location: East River Bank
Logline: David throws the old, worn wedding ring and crucifix he wore as part of his disguises into the river.
Essence discovered: More than just ‘ closing the book’ on completed revenge by disposing of the last of the evidence, David both honours Elena’s memory and acknowledges the extent to which he will go to stand for his beliefs.
New Logline: David’s face reflects the pain of the past couple of years since his family was destroyed, but he smiles as he throws the last of the evidence, the old wedding ring and crucifix into the river as a marker for Elena.
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I agree to the terms of this release form.
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Celia Finds the Essence
What I’ve learned: layers of essence can be introduced in varying degrees at any time in the storyline to clarify and create/maintain tension. Upon the conclusion of the story, the material woven by essences can leave the audience with more questions than answers.
Script: “Unforgiven”
Scene 1) Location: Opening sequence word crawl.
Logline: Munny is a highly questionable choice as a husband for a respectable woman.
Essence: Establishes the conundrum of whether or not Munny is a redeemable human.
Scene 2) Location: Ned’s Logan’s farm
Logline: Sally Two Trees watches Ned and Munny leave on their mission to kill for pay,, the men who maimed the prostitute Delilah.
Essence: Sally represents both society and Munny’s own conscience, both of whom doubt his ability to change for the better.
Scene 3) Location: Farmhouse, Manny and Delilah
Logline: Manny awkwardly turns down Delilah’s offer of a “free advance”.
Essence: Munny’s complete trust and respect for his late wife leads him to believe in himself, however reluctantly.
Scene 4) Location: Field outside Bar T ranch, Manny and The Kid
Logline: The Kid reveals that his murder of Quick Bill in the outhouse was his first kill, both disappointing and regretted.
Essence: We build ourselves up and slam ourselves into the dirt without needing assistance from the universe.
Scene 5) Location: Ned’s body outside Greely’s
Logline: Ned’s battered body, posted as a warning outside Greely’s, pushes Munny past his breaking point.
Essence: This visual illustrates Munny’s decision to descend to the man he had left behind; listening to the description of Ned’s death, he prepared himself for revenge, but the inner demons were not unleashed until that moment.
Scene 2 is my choice for the most profound essence.
EXT. LOGAN’S FARM, CLOSE VIEW – DAY
The sad,, wide eyes of Sally Two Trees as she watches the two riders disappearing in the distance. Her eyes are saying goodbye.
Sally stands for all of us who wonder how Munny’s wife saw the soul in him that the rest of us, including Munny, find so difficult to identify. Is he, or are we, as fellow flawed human beings, doomed to remove ourselves from potential forgiveness as we continue to mortgage our souls?
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Celia de la Vega
I agree to the terms of the release form