Daisy Khalifa
Forum Replies Created
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Skylar and Will are excellent characters from a writing perspective because, simply put, they are young. They are at that perfect age where the ultimate “loss of innocence” is played out. Both are in love for the first time, both are wounded, and both are terrified of being hurt, and, so they are impulsive, defensive and fragile, and so goes the dialog in what is a very powerful, memorable scene.
Skylar asks Will to go to California and Will immediately envisions the worst possible scenario—that she will regret she asked him. “You may find something out about me that you don’t like…and you’ll wish you had a ‘take back’.”
When he says no, Skylar challenges him with the question, “What are you scared of?” This sets Will off, and he continues to put himself in the ugliest of contexts, suggesting she is “slumming” and just wanted to “have a fling with a guy from the other side of town,” which is more his self-defeating, self-loathing fantasy than anything she is thinking.
She then puts it to him: “What is your obsession with money?” And she reveals that her father died when she was 13, and that she would “give it back in a second if she could spend one more day with him.”
They spar intensely, and she tells him, “don’t put your shit on me when you’re the one that’s afraid…afraid that I won’t love you back…” And she says she is afraid too, but she wants to give it a shot, and “at least I am honest with you.”
Though Will is enraged, the exchange is almost cathartic for Will, and he rattles off a litany of heartbreaking abuses he suffered as a child, an “orphan”. This reveal, in turn, causes Skylar enormous pain because she loves him. But Will, having never felt true love, and being the one who is almost blinded by his fear, levels, for the moment, the coup-de-grace, as he tells her: “I don’t love you.”
The wounded young man only knows pain, and believes it is easier to cut his losses by rejecting any hint of a loving romantic bond with a woman—something that represents his transformation into a man whose future could be promising. Love is the ultimate measure of self-awareness. Not only are young Will and Skylar ideal for the coming-of-age aspects of love, they are also complex enough to elevate the discussion of love so that it reveals two people who have the capacity to be very self-aware and lead fulfilled lives, all of which are powerful themes for an audience.
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Aaah. I am so ashamed but…
at the risk of sounding like a cop-out, I cannot understand the relevance of the clips provided to the subject of SECRETS & REVEALS. The context is lost on me, pardon the pun:(
Seems I have missed out on not watching Lost, and in particular I have no sense of timing—how long were these secrets covered up and at what point in the relationships were they revealed?? This is an important lesson too. Secrets & Reveals are completely fantastic, and important to this aspiring writer!
I am certain I would be very invested in these scenes and in a discussion of the SECRETS & REVEALS, but I am at a loss on this lesson. I’ll try to go back to it and figure out how Lost makes secrets & reveals work well—I am sure it does! Sadly, I have to pass.
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Junah is coming from a place that longs for redemption and purpose. He wants to save the local golf resort because it is very much part of who he is. Moreover, he has lost confidence in himself and he is shaken — his well being, his stability are hanging by a thread, which is to say his future is threatened — by the War. Still, he is too proud to show this, but deep down he has to know, even if he has serious doubts, if he can play golf and possibly win it all.
Like the proverbial “good angel/bad angel’, Bagger Vance is coming from a place that represents everything it would take for Junah to be in that golf match and win. He represents that gnawing, meaningful and feisty consciousness inside of Junah that nudges him toward giving the golf match a try.
Junah and Bagger are right for the roles because they are polar opposites in terms of their belief systems. Junah sees doom while Bagger sees opportunity. Junah is fearful and a pessimist at this point in his life while Bagger is full of hope, optimistic and fearless. Junah thinks everything could be lost while Bagger looks at life and says, “What have you got to lose?” One character is on an odyssey to become self-aware while the other is completely aware of himself and he knows he is alright.
Junah is skeptical and cynical, and Bagger is a soft-touch, almost. He pushes Junah’s buttons and challenges Junah just enough. Junah asks Bagger, “You a caddy?” To which Bagger replies, “That depends, you a golfer?”
Bagger says just enough to make Junah think twice. When Junah says he doesn’t need a caddy because he is not playing in the match, Bagger presses him and asks him why then is he “hitting balls off in the dark where you can’t even see them?”
Bagger wants to be Junah’s caddy, and Junah needs Bagger to be his caddy but there is something of a dance going on as the two iron out their trust issues, or as Junah irons out his trust of Bagger. The scene takes us from watching a desperate and anxious young man who doesn’t know what he can do to save the golf resort, to a triumphant end when it is clear that the two men are going to come together and make a go of it. Junah’s change of heart about the stranger comes when Bagger says, “Trick is to find your swing?’ Another trick Bagger brings is his ability to get Junah to swing and hit balls for him, as golf balls appear out of Bagger’s hand like magic one after the other.
What I learned with this scene is that characters can convey a lot with carefully chosen threads of dialog. Enactment, or good acting, coupled with well-chosen words that a comprise quick back-and-forth can make a scene very meaningful and profound.
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CHARACTER MASTERY WEEK1 DAY 2
Sarah Conner is the reluctant “mother of the future”. She leads an unremarkable life as a waitress, and she is for the most part unhappy and lonely. And while she says emphatically to Kyle, “I don’t want this honor,” the prospect of being a mother seems to warm her heart, as does the thought of having a son. She is an excellent character for a writer because her prosaic life serves as a perfect backdrop for being the mother of the man who is destined to save civilization. This formula alone is incredibly relatable for the audience. It is Science Fiction, unplugged! Much like ET, we are given obscure, average, run-of-the-mill adult characters, or naive children, who must interface and deal firsthand with the most important people and events in the universe.
Kyle’s future hinges on protecting Sarah. The world in which he lives is safe only because John Connor has control and many good people, according to Kyle, rely on John’s guidance for their safety and prosperity. Kyle tells Sarah he volunteered, and based on his description of their way of life, it becomes clear that it would have been easy to volunteer to go back in time and protect John Connor’s mother. In essence, Kyle implies that he would not be alive, nor would his world be safe, without John Connor to protect them. In short, Kyle is in awe of Sarah. He is loyal, he is committed and, as he himself says, “I’d die for John Connor.”
Meanwhile, Sarah is a typical young woman who exhibits maternal instincts straightaway—she nurses Kyle’s wound and quickly exudes a reassuring, caring nature. From Kyle’s response, the audience sees that anyone would want to be in Sarah’s care. Sarah’s implied transformation is her acceptance about being a mother, and, furthermore, she is starting to believe that the world is going to change drastically in her lifetime.
Others in the class have pointed out that Kyle is a zealot and a martyr, which is true, and, yet, he is also vulnerable and figuring out as he goes along his game plan for Sarah given he is adjusting to time travel. They need each other, and, yes, they save each other in different ways, even though Kyle dies in the end. His meeting Sarah fulfills him and he is tireless and fearless when it comes to her safety and well being.
What I learned is that we have to keep in mind all perspectives as we write characters—and we have to revisit and refresh our understanding of what it means to “suspend our disbelief”. In this case we have to train our characters to not only be able to suspend their disbelief with what’s going on, but also convey to the audience that this is a plausible and excellent story!
To make it easy on myself, I think about the ultimate “human-confronts-super-human” tale: the New Testament. I think this scene from The Terminator is a good example of “Biblical Sci-Fi.” In this case, we’re watching the Annunciation, with Kyle in the role of the angel Gabriel and Sarah as the Virgin Mary. What is most important from each scene is the “bringing of the news” or “the telling”, “the notifying”, and then figuring out how it is handled in dialog and imagery—and, most importantly, character mastery.
We have to know (internalize) what they think about life, the unexpected—and death. Even if it is just an exercise, ask yourself as a writer, how this character views death, and anything far-fetched, for that matter. I am also learning how to write a character that must face and accept a totally inexplicable situation, like meeting a person from another point in time and being told you have to be protected because all of civilization relies on the child you are going to have (even though you’re not pregnant and don’t even like anyone at the moment). Yes, my characters’ reactions needs to be handled and written as well as Sarah’s and Kyle’s—and any number of individuals in the Bible!
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I learned that it is a real skill, an art, to convey to the audience key character traits that need to be conveyed in order for the movie to proceed. And these moments have to happen at a certain time in the story’s set-up. And, if it is done well, and timed well, and if the character is a unique, exceptional individual, you as a writer stand the chance of having a good story. Character is immensely important, and so too are all of the other components, but if the character is presented and written well, it will make the rest of the task that much easier.
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Daisy Ridgway Khalifa
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.
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Hello Everyone:
It’s wonderful to be in this Character Mastery class.
1. Name? My name is Daisy Khalifa
2. How many scripts you’ve written? None. I am very close to finishing the first draft of my first screenplay, thanks largely to Hal and Cheryl’s classes. Nice thing is, I have to finish. I won a contest, and I am expected to deliver the screenplay early next year prior to the retreat we will take, and where I will be working with a director, producers and so on and so forth. I could go on about how painful and lonely it is writing this screenplay outside of an academic–or professional– environment, but I know it will get done. I could also go on about how I could get “big-footed” and told to keep my day job once I attend the retreat. But it’s the writing that I want to hone, and I sincerely enjoy these classes. In the past few years, I’ve had about a dozen ideas that have turned into inch-thick files of research, treatments, rough dialogues, and several have even been “storyboarded”. I am farther ahead, actually, on another screenplay which is not the one that has been acknowledged by the contest I entered. So, while I am ensconced in screenplay processes, the answer is still none.
3. What you hope to get out of the class? This is going to be an incredible class. I would say in order to write a screenplay well, and with relative ease (especially when it comes to dialogue and turning points), we have to know our main character and, just as much, we must know –and show– the motives and needs of all of our other characters. This is how we enrich or story–and make it a compelling, intriguing (read: sellable) story. Viewers and readers have to care about the characters.
4. Something unique, special, strange or unusual about you? I am a native of West Los Angeles. I moved to Washington, DC right out of college. I really don’t want to live in Los Angeles and I understand that if you want to be in this business, it is advised that you move to L.A. Another special fact: I have cherished my years living in Washington, D.C. When I started out, I worked for about 10 years at the Smithsonian Institution and, since, have been a consultant for most of my career while also working as a journalist, covering history, lifestyle and, mostly, national defense, maritime security, global trade/supply chain, the U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard and nearly all of the military service branches. It is amazing what happens to you when you live in Washington, as I had no idea that my aspirations to work as a journalist would take me down this path. And, yes, several screenplays have ended up being informed by (even inspired by) maritime and ocean-related themes.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 3 Turning Point [Lesson 19]
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that it never hurts to refresh oneself on the “High Speed Writing Rules”
Act. 3/Key Scene 4/Turning Point 3/Protagonist’s Lowest Low/Outline:
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
TE/Key Scene 4/Turning Point/Lowest Low: Mia gets to Pinecliff, which is still abandoned but it looks different. When Mia finally figures out how to reach Charles*, they spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles.
BEGINNING: Mia finally gets to Pinecliff again, but she has never lived there, and she wonders if Charles will know who she is.
MIDDLE: To Mia’s relief, Charles does recognize her. Because his time hasn’t move forward since the last few times he saw Mia, even as Little Mia. Mia learns that he is still convinced that Little Mia and Adult Mia are nothing more than a Muse.
END: Charles feels that Adult Mia is pushing far too much, after she pleads with him to reconsider moving. He insists on staying at Pinecliff, and has “already set that in motion.” He refuses to listen to her anymore and he disappears. Before he goes, he says “for what it’s worth” he asked Michael Gardner to move to Los Angeles, and that Gardner said yes.
Scene:
TK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 3 Middle Scenes [Lesson 18]
What I learned doing this assignment: I am learning that I need to stay calm, cheer myself on and forge ahead. It’s getting a little crazy here, as in confusing and frustrating. I have to let the pieces fall together, random as it may feel. Multiple placeholder scenes also seems to be necessary, given how this act has a fair amount of action, which makes it a little harder to really envision the exact ‘key scenes’.
Act. 3/Middle Scene Outlines:
EXT. OFFICE BUILDING – WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY – 1999
Key Scene 2/Makes a New Plan: Mia goes to her “office” in Washington, and sorts our her new reality. And while she actually likes her own new outcome and her family seems to be in a better place; she is an influential fundraiser in Washington, with her own company, and she has different people and friends in her life, questions abound and she is having one shock after another. Funny sequence as she figures out where she works, and how much money she has in the bank. She adjusts slowly, and makes herself handle her circumstances with composure.
BEGINNING: Mia sets out to find Ian and sort out her “new” reality. At her office that she is seeing for the first time, she asks one of her employees to track down Ian or “literature professor” Michael Gardner. They think she is acting daft, but everyone is fond of her and they let it slide.
MIDDLE: She makes a lot of funny and shocking discoveries about her everyday life, her work, her family and about the world, culture, society.She learns she has a big fundraising pitch coming up.
END: Success, she is given Michael Gardner’s contact information.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – DAY
Key Scene 3/Things go Well Until: In doing some research she also comes to discover horrifying things. Mia never lived in the oceanfront house in the new reality; how will she correct things and ever find Charles? And, worse, Charles died alone. Elsa moved out of Pinecliff, while Charles stayed—and taught. He never went on reading tour (which earned him a lot of money). Paul Gregory moved on to other clients. Charles never directed Night of the Hunter, and he was never in Advise and Consent. *(maybe show this in scenes as she is researching). Last, Mia discovers the biggest shocker of all when she is at LC: or (she calls by phone or meets) Michael Gardner only had three children. Ian was never BORN! She always assumed he was.
BEGINNING: She is getting somewhat swept up in her company, and seems to know just what to do. She also feels more connected to her family. But she has gnawing questions, there is an emptiness — as if this isn’t rightfully her life. She knows she needs to find out about Charles and, at least, communicate with Ian. She goes to LC to do research as she did with Ian.
MIDDLE: She starts to learn heartbreaking things about Charles. His life was entirely different and he died alone in a VA hospital in 1962. No Night of the Hunter, no Advise and Consent. No Elsa. She does see that Michael Gardner collaborated with Brecht and Laughton on Galileo and Don Juan and other projects.
END: When she reaches Michael Gardner by phone that day, she learns that she is talking to Michael Gardner Senior’s son, a professor at Yale. Mia: “Oh, you must be Ian’s older brother.” Michael junior: ‘I don’t have a brother named Ian. I just have two younger sisters, and they still live near my parents in Los Angeles.’
Key Scenes 2-3: TK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 3 Reaction to Midpoint [Lesson 17]
What I learned doing this assignment: I realized that the text/content that I wrote for the Midpoint was actually a solid REACTION to the Midpoint. Having fallen behind —but NOT stalling — on scenes in Act. 2, I am plowing through my writing of outlines and scenes for Act. 2 and outlines for key scenes going forward, and I am not worrying nor am I wordsmithing. This is a point in the 30-day lesson that is challenging only in that one gets a sense of whether the story is working at all. But, I am not asking that question yet. The mantra for the day—and the week—is “today, a 20 percent quality level is acceptable”.
Act. 2/Key Scene 4/Midpoint/Outline:
BEGINNING: Mia wakes up to the sound of a ringing phone and finds that she is in an entirely new reality- indeed, she is in her own home, but she has a totally different life.
MIDDLE: Mia explores her house and unearths a little of information about who she is in this new reality, and she is perplexed and panicked.
END: She decides that she needs to find Ian, given he is the only one who might understand what has happened.
Act. 2 /Key Scene 4/Midpoint/Scene:
INT. WASHINGTON, DC – MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – MIDPOINT
Mia is in bed and opens her eyes to the ringing phone. As she rolls over to her side, she almost jumps out of her skin and nearly falls off the mattress. These aren’t her sheets, her window is different. This isn’t even her room. When she looks at the phone, which also has caller i.d., she sees that it is her sister, Carey. But, even the phone is different, actually a nicer Panasonic.
She is in a panic. She answers the phone tentatively.
MIA
Hello?
CAREY
Hey, Mi. How are you? Just wanted to say that —
MIA
Hey. Um, how are you?
CAREY
I am fine, Sweetie. You okay? I am actually in a hurry but wanted you to know that Laura knows you’re calling and is looking forward to talking about their contribution to the museum. I think it’s gonna happen- even a half million would be outstanding–
Mia is still, like a zombie. She talks very slowly.
MIA
A half million is always good. Thank you?
CAREY
Right. I am going to email you her phone number and contact information again. I have to fly to San Francisco in a couple of hours, so I’ll talk with you maybe tonight or tomorrow. Getting ready for another Hoard Festival, but I’ve hired an agency this time. Thank God.
MIA
Right. Agencies are …really helpful. Let them do everything.
CAREY
We’ll see, You know what a control freak I am. I love doing it and knowing everything. Just like my baby sister. Alright, I love you. Gotta run. Oh, did you get your plane ticket for Christmas? Dad and Mom are having a semi-big gathering Christmas Day. And Mom got another cat, of course. That’s five now. She says that’s all she wants for Christmas. Yeah. Right. Only yesterday she sent a picture of some French cookware she covets.
MIA
Five cats. Shoot.
CAREY
Go make some coffee. Talk to you later. Mwaa.
Carey hangs up on her sister. Mia is sitting up in bed, a bed that she is certain can’t be hers. There are pillows in Porteuil cases and Yves DeLormes sheets around her, and a headboard. She touches the fabric headboard.
MIA
Nice.
Her black humor is all she can resort to as she proceeds to get out of bed cautiously. She is in a very attrative bedroom. An armchair looks familiar — it was something from Katrina. But the windows are different. She realizes she is not in an apartment. She is in a house. A little house.
She starts muttering to herself. Audible shock.
MIA
Shit. Shoot. Shit. Shoot. No, no, no, no, no. Mia, just be you. Figure this out.
She walks into a very lovely, small and well-appointed living room and kitchen area. She spots a purse, hers presumably. She also pauses to peer around the place to make sure no one else is there. She nods to herself with a sigh of relief.
She rushes to the purse. And she also sees her mail.
MIA
(still muttering)
Aah. Sources. Data points. Where the eff am I?
She goes to the purse. It is a woven leather bag. She lifts it up.
MIA
Nice. Bottega? But I hate Bottega.
She pours the contents of her purse out. A large Gucci wallet falls out. A glasses case and a card holder, also Gucci, but old. Her old cardholder that she has always used.
MIA
A clue. A parallel.
Before looking any further, she sits back on her heels and looks around and thinks.
MEMORY FLASH
Charles and Mia are parting ways at PINECLIFF. On Charles, as he listens intently to Mia– about earthquakes.
MIA
There was not a major earthquake until 1971. The Silmar Quake. Take it for what it’s worth. I can see you find this outlandish. Too incredible?
CHARLES
No. Certainly not, Madame. Everything is significant. You are helping me arrive at a simple decision.
MIA
What decision?
CHARLES
That we can stay here, perhaps. I can live in this heavenly villa for a few more years.
MIA
All I know is that it might be good to collaborate more wiht Micahel Gardenr. That Berkeley Byron expert.
BACK TO PRESENT
Mia shakes her head. She opens the card case and pulls out one of the business cards with her name on it:
“MDP Consulting & Development, Mia Donovan Pauley, Founder & Principal”
She is shaking at this point. She reaches for the Gucci wallet and opens it.
ON WALLET
There are an assortment of platinum and gold credit cards inside. She pulls one out and sees that her name is on it. There are also all sorts of bills pushing out of the money slot, including a couple of c-notes.
ON MIA
She looks through the items in the purse for something. No luck. She gets up and looks around the kitchen and living room.
MIA
Just think as you would normally think. Calendar. Calendar.
Beat.
I better not have a secretary.
Pull back on Mia standing in her house. She is in a crisp new-looking pink satin nightgown. She folds her arms and hugs herself. She has an idea.
MIA
Find Ian. Today, I must find my friend Ian.
(sighs)
Along with, maybe, figuring out who I am — and, why not, getting that half mill.
DISSOLVE TO:
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 2 TP -Midpoint [Lesson 15]
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that Midpoints are tricky while also very helpful in directing the writer to think through each scene and its respective significance.
Act. 2/Key Scene 4/Midpoint/Outline:
BEGINNING: Mia wakes up to the sound of a ringing phone and finds that she is in an entirely new reality- indeed, she is in her own home, but she has a totally different life.
MIDDLE: Mia explores her house and unearths a little of information about who she is in this new reality, and she is perplexed and panicked.
END: She decides that she needs to find Ian, given he is the only one who might understand what has happened.
Act. 2 /Key Scene 4/Midpoint/Scene:
INT. WASHINGTON, DC – MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – MIDPOINT
Mia is in bed and opens her eyes to the ringing phone. As she rolls over to her side, she almost jumps out of her skin and nearly falls off the mattress. These aren’t her sheets, her window is different. This isn’t even her room. When she looks at the phone, which also has caller i.d., she sees that it is her sister, Carey. But, even the phone is different, actually a nicer Panasonic.
She is in a panic. She answers the phone tentatively.
MIA
Hello?
CAREY
Hey, Mi. How are you? Just wanted to say that —
MIA
Hey. Um, how are you?
CAREY
I am fine, Sweetie. You okay? I am actually in a hurry but wanted you to know that Laura knows you’re calling and is looking forward to talking about their contribution to the museum. I think it’s gonna happen- even a half million would be outstanding–
Mia is still, like a zombie. She talks very slowly.
MIA
A half million is always good. Thank you?
CAREY
Right. I am going to email you her phone number and contact information again. I have to fly to San Francisco in a couple of hours, so I’ll talk with you maybe tonight or tomorrow. Getting ready for another Hoard Festival, but I’ve hired an agency this time. Thank God.
MIA
Right. Agencies are …really helpful. Let them do everything.
CAREY
We’ll see, You know what a control freak I am. I love doing it and knowing everything. Just like my baby sister. Alright, I love you. Gotta run. Oh, did you get your plane ticket for Christmas? Dad and Mom are having a semi-big gathering Christmas Day. And Mom got another cat, of course. That’s five now. She says that’s all she wants for Christmas. Yeah. Right. Only yesterday she sent a picture of some French cookware she covets.
MIA
Five cats. Shoot.
CAREY
Go make some coffee. Talk to you later. Mwaa.
Carey hangs up on her sister. Mia is sitting up in bed, a bed that she is certain can’t be hers. There are pillows in Porteuil cases and Yves DeLormes sheets around her, and a headboard. She touches the fabric headboard.
MIA
Nice.
Her black humor is all she can resort to as she proceeds to get out of bed cautiously. She is in a very attrative bedroom. An armchair looks familiar — it was something from Katrina. But the windows are different. She realizes she is not in an apartment. She is in a house. A little house.
She starts muttering to herself. Audible shock.
MIA
Shit. Shoot. Shit. Shoot. No, no, no, no, no. Mia, just be you. Figure this out.
She walks into a very lovely, small and well-appointed living room and kitchen area. She spots a purse, hers presumably. She also pauses to peer around the place to make sure no one else is there. She nods to herself with a sigh of relief.
She rushes to the purse. And she also sees her mail.
MIA
(still muttering)
Aah. Sources. Data points. Where the eff am I?
She goes to the purse. It is a woven leather bag. She lifts it up.
MIA
Nice. Bottega? But I hate Bottega.
She pours the contents of her purse out. A large Gucci wallet falls out. A glasses case and a card holder, also Gucci, but old. Her old cardholder that she has always used.
MIA
A clue. A parallel.
Before looking any further, she sits back on her heels and looks around and thinks.
MEMORY FLASH
Charles and Mia are parting ways at PINECLIFF. On Charles, as he listens intently to Mia– about earthquakes.
MIA
There was not a major earthquake until 1971. The Silmar Quake. Take it for what it’s worth. I can see you find this outlandish. Too incredible?
CHARLES
No. Certainly not, Madame. Everything is significant. You are helping me arrive at a simple decision.
MIA
What decision?
CHARLES
That we can stay here, perhaps. I can live in this heavenly villa for a few more years.
MIA
All I know is that it might be good to collaborate more wiht Micahel Gardenr. That Berkeley Byron expert.
BACK TO PRESENT
Mia shakes her head. She opens the card case and pulls out one of the business cards with her name on it:
“MDP Consulting & Development, Mia Donovan Pauley, Founder & Principal”
She is shaking at this point. She reaches for the Gucci wallet and opens it.
ON WALLET
There are an assortment of platinum and gold credit cards inside. She pulls one out and sees that her name is on it. There are also all sorts of bills pushing out of the money slot, including a couple of c-notes.
ON MIA
She looks through the items in the purse for something. No luck. She gets up and looks around the kitchen and living room.
MIA
Just think as you would normally think. Calendar. Calendar.
Beat.
I better not have a secretary.
Pull back on Mia standing in her house. She is in a crisp new-looking pink satin nightgown. She folds her arms and hugs herself. She has an idea.
MIA
Find Ian. Today, I must find my friend Ian.
(sighs)
Along with, maybe, figuring out who I am — and, why not, getting that half mill.
DISSOLVE TO:
ACT. 3
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 2 Middle Scenes [Lesson 14]
What I learned doing this assignment: I am learning, at this point, about brevity and about how to determine the essential content within scenes. Again, outlining is so valuable, as is employing the fast writing rules. I am feeling a little behind with a few outlines and scenes here in Act 2, and need to just write them fast.
Act 2/ Key Scene 1 + Placeholder Scenes/Reaction to Turning Point/Outlines:
INT. MIA’S LOS ANGELES HOTEL – NIGHT
Key Scene 1/Reaction to Turning Point: Mia frantically calls Ian, feeling sheepish and selfish, given his tragedy. But, she has seen Charles and must convey this. He could care less-he is mourning and, what is worse, he is jealous and hurt.
BEGINNING: Mia goes back to her hotel in a panic, frightened-a very “adult” reaction.
MIDDLE: She calls Ian. She is so sorry about his father. She is sorry about her circumstances (with Paul); but, she saw him, she saw Charles etc..
END: He is sad and therefore cynical. It’s not that he could care less, but he is ambivalent. Still, their convo cheers him up. She says she is going ask for Elvis tickets. He says instead, to paraphrase “… if you see him, why don’t you try to make it so that my old man doesn’t get hit by a drunk driver on May 25, 1999, at four in the afternoon.”
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES LOCATIONS – DAY – 1999
PLACEHOLDER: Mia sees old friends in LA; she goes to library to research Charles; she does some investigating; she encounters an older Carlos Tobalina, the former neighbor. “Tell your parents I am making general release pictures now.”
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY 1999 + 1948
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Mia meets Charles again and explains why she fled. The RECKLESS conversation. She starts to prove to him that she is the young Mia, though she is perplexed about the fact that she is older and he is in the same “place” in time — around 1948. She uses the subject of Charlie Chaplin to make her case, and the how’s him his old pencil. But why? He then asks her about earthquakes and mudslides, first the early history and, Mia clarifies the facts. AND the years as well as the history of fault lines and earthquakes in CA in the 20th century. She gets into the Silmar quake. What year again? He asks. 1971, she replies. She ends with Michael Gardner and he talks about acting.
BEGINNING: Mia returns to Pinecliff the next day and upon seeing Charles, claims she is the person who fled.
MIDDLE: Mia sees Charles in the garden in the same spot —their spot—in the garden. They have a discuss about earthquakes, Charlie Chaplin, Mrs. Buttle, Tina, and things that help prove to Charles that she is Mia, but an adult now. She puzzles about how he looks the same —for he is the same, as it is still around 1948 — while she is now from the year 1999. When she tells him she is the little girl, Charles finds it absurd and impossible (and he feels crazy and neurotic enough as it is). Still, he asks about earthquakes and mudslides.
END: Mia may or may not be convincing Charles she is from the future. She asks for Elvis’ autograph, “because you are going to guest-host a show for Ed Sullivan”. ‘Elvis Who?” he asks. Still, Charles is unconvinced and they agree to meet again. When they part, she asks him about the Lord Byron scholar Michael Gardner and said if he helps you with Don Juan in Hell, make sure you give him a job. Mia is unaware that even by saying that, she is already meddling with fate.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 1947
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Meanwhile, Charles meets with seismology expert, MERLE PRICE, at Pinecliff. Price is saying that they must move because of the threat of earthquakes, as well as mudslides, like the one they just went through. With new data, Charles challenges Price. No insurance company will insure their valuable paintings, art collection, antiques, nothing. David is there and we also learn more about what Charles wants to do with his life-his fears etc…
BEGINNING: Charles is at home with David, his friend and protege. He is teaching him acting. He is expecting company. Dr. Merle Price, a zoning official for Los Angeles and an authority on seismology for the state of California, arrives at Pinecliff.
MIDDLE: Charles and Dr. Price have a friendly—not contentious- discussion about the “next one”, and about the inherent stability of the house itself. They discuss the mudslide. Charles and Elsa were reimbursed for the lost sculptures. Charles says to Price: “What if I told you I don’t think a quake is going to come for another 25 years?” Charles has also done his own research.
END: Charles gives an animated tour of his art collection. Price says that even if he might well agree with Charles about the next major earthquake—and he is impressed with how astute Charles is — he won’t be able to help Laughton get an override in order to secure an insurance policy for his personal property.
Act 2/Key Scene 2/ Protag Makes a Plan & Executes it/Outline:
INT. KATRINA PAULEY’S HOUSE – PASADENA – DAY – 1999
PLACEHOLDER/“Pre” Key Scene 2/Protag’s New Plan: Mia talks to her mother. Katrina tells Mia that she met Elsa, and Elsa asked about the garden and her “bowling green”.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
Key Scene 2/ Protag. Makes a New Plan & Executes: The DECIDING conversation. Charles and Mia meet again days later and their encounter changes fate, while Mia just wants to maybe get an autograph and hope to make Ian feel better with the Michael Gardner request.
OUTLINE TK
Act 2/Key Scene 3/ Not Only Does the Plan Fail, But…/Outline:
EXT. PINECLIFF – NIGHT – 1947
Key Scene 3/TE/Not Only does Plan Fail, But…/Antagonist Journey: Charles is convinced and he decides not to move from Pinecliff, based on Mia’s information about earthquakes. Charles has been so happy at Pinecliff, teaching, enjoying nature, “the garden and the cold night air”, embarking on a reading tour, that he longs to stay. Whether Charles accepts that she is actually from the future, he tells himself that at the very least, that this woman, like the little girl, is his muse and the message is: do NOT move from Pinecliff, and to, perhaps, upend other things like getting rid of Paul Gregory. Charles changes Mia’s and his life by deciding once and for all to stay at Pinecliff. He also brings Michael Gardner to Hollywood, which has profound results. Elsa leaves Charles (maybe).
OUTLINE TK
Act 2/Key Scenes 2 & 3 + Placeholder Scenes:
TK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 2 Reaction to TP 1 [Lesson 13]
What I learned doing this assignment: I have learned that figuring out each scene, and the dialog, is challenging—and exciting. I’ve come to really appreciate outlining scenes. I have a lot of scenes to write at this point.
Act 2/Key Scene 1/ Reaction to Turning Point/Outlines:
INT. MIA’S LOS ANGELES HOTEL – L.A. – NIGHT
Key Scene 1/Reaction to Turning Point: Mia frantically calls Ian, feeling sheepish and selfish, given his tragedy. But, she has seen Charles and must convey this. He could care less-he is mourning and, what is worse, he is jealous and hurt.
INT. MIA’S LOS ANGELES HOTEL – L.A. – NIGHT
BEGINNING: Mia goes back to her hotel in a panic, frightened-a very “adult” reaction.
MIDDLE: She calls Ian. She is so sorry about his father; did he get her letter? She is sorry about her circumstances (with Paul); but, she saw him, she saw Charles etc..
END: He could care less, but throws this bone: “Well, if you see him, why don’t you try to make it so that my father doesn’t get killed by a drunk driver on his 60th birthday?”
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
Key Scene 1/Reaction to Turning Point/New Plan: Mia sees Charles again.
BEGINNING: Mia returns to Pinecliff a few days later.
MIDDLE: Mia sees Charles in the garden in the same spot —their spot—in the garden. They have a discussion about earthquakes, Charlie Chaplin and things that help prove to Charles that she is Mia, but an adult now. He looks the same —for he is the same, as it is still around 1948 — while she is now from the year 1999. When she tells him she is the little girl, Charles finds it absurd and impossible (and he feels crazy and neurotic enough as it is).
END: Mia may or may not be convincing Charles she is from the future. She asks for Elvis’ autograph, “because you are going to guest-host a show for Ed Sullivan”. Charles has been so happy at Pinecliff, teaching, enjoying nature, embarking on a reading tour, that he longs to stay. Like Mia, he treats this visitor as if she is a muse. He did get the skinny on earthquake history. Still, Charles is unconvinced and Mia asks if they might meet again. When they part, she asks him about the Lord Byron scholar Michael Gardner and said if he helps you with Don Juan in Hell, make sure you give him a job. Mia is unaware that even by saying that, she is already meddling with fate.
Scenes TK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Finished Act 1 [Lesson 12]
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I am not certain as to the flow of scenes, information, and even the chronological order of the story. Still, outlining scenes and adding new scenes, and deleting others, is absolutely critical and eye-opening. Also, I re-worked by beat sheet, which has been incredibly helpful. I also happen to be having a little more fun, though I am struggling with dialog. But, I am at least cranking out the key scenes, while outlining and writing dialog slowly for the others. I feel like I am in control, and, with that, that I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Act 1/Key Scene 4/Turning Point/Lock in the Journey Outline:
BEGINNING: Mia arrives in L.A. with Paul. She is equipped with her research and all sorts of data, is in L.A. as she makes her way alone to visit abandoned Pinecliff. Ian’s father’s death consumes Mia.
MIDDLE: Mia goes to her old house and takes it all in. She sees that some the expensive beautiful things her mother did to the house are still there. She has a flashback about a fight her parents had.
END: She goes to the backyard and sees nothing initially. She feels like a fool and starts to leave, until she hears a voice. It is Charles, who asks: who might you be? Mia flees.
Act 1/Turning Point/FLASHBACK Outline:
BEGINNING: A fight between parents,Katrina has locked herself in the master bedroom to be alone and talk on the phone with a friend. Girls are crying. Tina tries to calm them, and stay out of harms way
MIDDLE: While Katrina continues her phone call and ignores the family, Bruce Pauley punches his fist into the heavy paneled master bedroom door and makes a u-shaped cracked. The door was too thick to allow Bruce to make a hole.
END: Bruce storms out of the house, and tears off in the car away from the house. We see the “FOR SALE” sign in front of the. House, with an ‘OPEN HOUSE TOMORROW’ banner. [Somehow cut back to Katrina/OR CUT TO NEXT DAY, the open house, and Katrina, who remedies the door situation by hanging a chic Pucci dress over the crack in the Master Door as it is propped open.]
Act 1/ Key Scenes + Placeholder Scenes:
FADE IN:
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
Exanpsive BIRDSEYE shots of a slumbering pre-dawn Los Angeles, peaceful but for flickering city lights, all cast in a blue glow in the minutes shortly before sunrise. As we scroll through various iconic shots of greater L.A., from downtown to Beverly Hills, up the 405 to the Valley, to Century City and then west toward the ocean, the stillness of the scene begins to shake, as we hear the eerie sounds of a massive city becoming unhinged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
UP AUDIO, alongside the city sounds, is the voice of CHARLES LAUGHTON as he recites the Gettysburg Address.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.)
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war…
CUT TO:
EXT. WEST LOS ANGELES – OCEANFRONT HOUSE – CONTINUOUS
Zero in on the terrace of an oceanfront house known as PINECLIFF. The shaking continues.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (CON’T)
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract…
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
A HUSBAND and WIFE shoot out of bed and scramble frantically.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (CON’T)
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced…
ON WIFE
As she bolts from the BEDROOM INTO the HALLWAY where she is met the CARETAKER, who is holding a baby and has another child by hand.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (CON’T)
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced…
BACK to MASTER BEDROOM
On husband, as he cuts across the spacious bedroom with its sweeping ocean view, grabbing what he can of his wife’s jewelry on the way. Follow him into a huge walk-in closet, where he whips aside clothes and opens a safe that is on the floor. He pulls out documents, and his Glock. He heads for the front door.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (CON’T)
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
INT/EXT. PINECLIFF – FRONT DOOR THRESHHOLD – CONTINUOUS
HUSBAND stands at front door as the QUAKE’s last explosive sound is heard. He turns to look back at his beautiful investment, worth millions UP TO NOW. The hallway floor BUCKLES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Beyond, across the cracked terrace, the ocean is sapphire blue, calm, but for the periodic sound of giant waves pounding on the shore below.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – ABOUT 20 YEARS EARLIER
Establish with a bird’s eye view over the terrace of the oceanfront house, PINECLIFF, on a bright sunny afternoon and we zoom in to the windows of the elegant DINING ROOM.
INT. PINECLIFF – DINING ROOM – CONTINUOUS
MIA PAULEY, 8, is straddling her housekeeper, TINA, in a tight hug, while Tina sits in a dining room chair, dressed in her finest Sunday clothes. Mia won’t let go so as to hide her tears. Tina knows. Mia’s father, BRUCE PAULEY, and her mother, KATRINA PAULEY, look on helplessly.
BRUCE
Mi-mi, I think I have to take Tina downtown now.
Tina prompts Mia and Mia finally lets go, kisses her on the cheek one more time, and gets off TINA’s lap quickly. Distraught, Mia hides her face, and runs out of the dining room. Tina sheds a tear as she watches Mia go.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN
MIA runs to the garden at the side of the house. She goes toward the fringes, where there is a brick storage building. She reaches a dark garden path, covered by pine trees, where a massive unused fire pit sits in a circle. In a daze, the child picks up rocks to toss into the pit. She is kneeling by the fire pit, lost in thought, bewildered. Out of nowhere a man with rolled up shirt sleeves and loose, wrinkled pants appears. It is CHARLES LAUGHTON. He is lost in thought, muttering a little. He spots Mia.
CHARLES
Hello there you.
MIA is startled but sees it is Charles. She rubs her eyes and brushes the tears away. She turns so he won’t see her red eyes.
MIA
Hello. Mr. Charles.
CHARLES
You know you’re welcome to call me Charlie.
(Beat)
Are you alright? You’re sad? Why are you sad, Mademoiselle Mia of the Palisade?
MIA
Tina is leaving. And, we’re moving.
CHARLES
Who is Tina? I do not know who tina is, I am afraid. Is she your friend? Funny. I have to move too.
MIA
She is our housekeeper. And she is my friend.
CHARLES
Oh, child, I do understand. You were close? People like that are so very important to us.
MIA
I called her my second mommy.
CHARLES
Well, you will always love her. And she will always love you. Always. That’s a nice thing. She’ll always be with you in some way, you know.
(Beat)
Who is going to take care of you now?
MIA
Probably Mrs. Buttle.
CHARLES
Buttle. Buttle sounds very English. Who is that?
Mia’s face brightens a little.
MIA
She is our babysitter. Yes. She is English like you. She is Cockney. Are you Cockney?
Charles smiles and laughs softly, as the child is not quite sure what she is even describing.
CHARLES
No. I am not Cockney. How do you know she is Cockney?
MIA
She told us. She always tells us. She says she was born near the sound of the baw bells. I don’t know what she is saying.
CHARLES
Aaah. Within earshot of The Bow Bells. Does she talk like this, and does she have a loud, let’s say jovial, laugh? Those are the bells of a church. Did she tell you that? St. Mary Le-Bow Church. I’ll have to ask Elsa.
Charles puts on a perfect Cockney accent for Mia and Mia giggles, her sadness having almost fallen away.
MIA
Yes, and she sings a lot. She likes to sing. And she likes when my sister and I sing for her.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
That is very sweet. Does she have a name for you? A special name. I suspect she does. They’ll call you anything but your real name. Right?
MIA
Yes! She does. She calls me Duh. But I don’t understand when she calls me Du-h. Listen, Du-h. Hello, Du-h. C’mon duh. Don’t be stupid, Duh.
Mia makes herself laugh and Charles continues in his Cockney which makes Mia laugh more.
CHARLES
Oh my! She certainly is Cockney.
(warmly, back in his regular English accent)
You know, even when she says don’t be stupid, I have a feeling she likes you very much. I think she is calling you, Duck, actually, because you are her little duck. And she probably has lots of ducks, right? Or are you her most important duck?
Mia’s eyes light up.
MIA
Duck! Duck! Oh. That’s it…duck.
Mia smiles as if she has just discovered a buried treasure. Charles hears his name called and looks toward the house.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
Must go, Love. Oh, forgive me. Listen, Duck, I’ve got to go.
(back to his English accent)
By the way, I don’t know if I
want to move.
MIA
Well, why are you moving?
CHARLES
Oh, something about mudslides and earthquakes.
MIA
I’ve been in an earthquake here, at this house. When I was in kindergarten. It wasn’t that scary. My sister and I got in bed with Mom and Dad and there were termors. Tina was out in the living room, but near us.
CHARLES
I don’t recall an earthquake. I know kindergarten feels like a hundred years ago, but can you remember how long ago that was?
MIA
Well…I am in second grade now.
CHARLES
Hm. Two years ago..
Charles is contemplating what Mia is saying. He hears his name again.
CHARLES
Well, I am off. They’re calling me.
MIA
Who is calling you? My mother says our new house is a treehouse.
CHARLES
How nice for you. I’ve lived in a treehouse. In England, with Mrs–with Elsa Lan?
Charles is being playful with Mia.
MIA
Lan…CHESTER.
CHARLES
Very good, Mademoiselle. Now I must go. Are you going to climb over the wall again, that way?
Charles points to a far end of the yard that borders the street. Mia looks at him and nods playfully.
CHARLES
Next time we talk, do sing a song for me that she sings. Your Mrs. Buttle. Do you know any?
MIA
Well, not really. Oh, but one. It’s I’ve got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.
Mia doesn’t sing, but without hitch, Charles begins the next line.
CHARLES
“…there they are all standin’ in row. Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer ‘ead.”
Mia nods and smiles from ear to ear, but is hesitant to sing.
CHARLES
C’mon you can do it. Sing with me. It’s just an English, um, affinity we have. It’s our way. We sing. We have to sing. “give us a twist, a flick of the wrist, that’s what the showman said…”
Mia whispers a few words but is too shy to sing. When she heads to the wall, she sings quietly to herself. Charles whistles the song as he heads back to the terrace of PINECLIFF.
EXT. SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF PINECLIFF
PLACEHOLDER: Little Mia leaves Charles and goes next door by climbing over the wall in the yard. She interacts with neighbors. Meet CARLOS TOBALINA and his daughter, LINDA.
EXT. PINECLIFF – TERRACE — 1947 – CONTINUOUS
ON CHARLES, he makes his way out of the garden, we follow him to the terrace. It has the same splendid view, but it is not the same terrace of Mia’s house.
It is his home, and IT IS 1947.
There are two people on the terrace: his agent, PAUL GREGORY, and his wife, ELSA LANCHESTER.
ELSA
There you are! Paul told me about your reading [see notes] Charles, I must go to Turnabout but would you kindly ask your student, Miss Winters, not to block my driveway. And kindly ask the rest of your troupe to park on the street.
CHARLES
Perhaps move your car now. Dear, have you ever seen a child in our garden before? A lovely little girl with bright, golden hair. She had on the most unusual orange plaid play clothes, pants. Sweet thing. But she said she lived here.
ELSA
I like her imagination. Probably one of the neighbors, of course.
Paul is strolling around the terrace.
PAUL
There is no one in the garden now. Where is the mudslide damage? It looks wonderful today. I am so sorry you have to move.
CHARLES
Oh, we cleaned that up right away. I was distraught. We looked as hard as we could for the x sculptures. They just absolutely disappeared. Bit ominous, actually. Gone.
Beat.
CHARLES
This child. She said she was moving. From this house. I could be loosing my mind.
ELSA
Sounds like you are. Have a good class. It’s a lovely day for it. Paul, should we be worried that a little girl is milling around our house? Maybe she’s an English spy.
PAUL
You have little to worry about. Particularly with Charles’ speaking tour. It is going to keep him very busy–and flush.
ELSA
You will have to fill me in. It might be a relief for you, Dear to not be making a movie for a while. But, as I speak, no contracts, and little in the coffer, so off I go.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF/Antagonist Journey – DAY – SAME
Charles is greeting students, SHELLY WINTERS, ROBERT RYAN, among others, as they arrive for acting class he teaches at Pinecliff. Charles is happy at Pinecliff. He “hates himself a fraction less” at the house in West L.A. He thinks maybe the little girl is a muse telling him to stay put despite insurance problems.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – SAME
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles and Elsa have a run-in over parked cars and one of his students, as Elsa is trying to leave for the Turnabout Theater for her work. Show how Charles takes a lot out on Elsa. Charles is self-absorbed and sabotages Elsa a lot of the time.
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – 25 YEARS LATER(1999) – MORNING -ESTABLISHING
We see the outside of a Washington, D.C. townhouse. Upsound a phone rings.
INT. WASHINGTON, DC – MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – SAME
MIA PAULEY, 33, is in bed and opens her eyes to the ringing phone. She closes them again and cups her eyes with her hands, suffering the pangs of a hangover headache. She rolls over and eyes the caller i.d. It is her older sister, CAREY PAULEY. Mia is reluctant to answer, as Mia never knows what mood Carey will be in, gvien Carey’s drug problems, and Mia’s own hangover doesn’t help. Still, she answers.
MIA
Hello, there, Sister.
CAREY (V.O.)
Mi? I’m so glad you answered. Oh my God! I have to talk to you.
Mia sighs quietly in bed but is relieved that her sister sounds cheery. While they talk, Mia proceeds get out of bed and roam around her apartment, which is in a post-party shambles.
MIA
It’s early for you, Girl. What are you doing up?
INT. CAREY PAULEY’S APARTMENT – L.A. – MORNING
CAREY
Oh. I went running this morning. It was beautiful. I saw the sun come up.
Carey’s apartment is a dump. There are drugs next to her bed, mail stacked up nearby and plastic grocery bags and half opened merchandise everywhere. She is post-high and very relaxed, which means she is in a great mood.
BACK to MIA
Mia frowns and is quiet. She doesn’t want to ask. Carey’s voice was so normal, but an early morning good mood usually meant Carey was still high from snorting heroine.
MIA
It’s good of you to get up early. Early bird catches the worm. And, I’m late for work, Honey. Thank you, you’re my alarm clock.
CAREY (V.O.)
I won’t keep you. I know you have to get going. Let’s talk later, but I want to tell you that the house- our old house -is abandoned. Empty. Apparently in the Northridge Quake, it was totally wrecked. And now it is quarantined, or whatever, because it is unsafe. You know, it’s got, like, police tape around it.
Mia looks at her phone and rolls her eyes.
MIA
Which old house? Kidding. Pinecliff. Our house on Corona del Mar? Wow. How do you know? Did you go? You mean, no one is supposed to trespass cuz it’s maybe unsafe?
CAREY (V.O.)
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, damaged, and dangerous.
MIA
I don’t think its that dangerous. Dad always said it was built so far back from the cliff that it would be the last house to fall.
CAREY (V.O.)
Oh my god! That’s exacly right. You won’t believe it. The house on the corner fell into the ocean. What did Mom call it? Lou Costello’s house. The observatory? And the Tobalina’s house–Carlos’ studio…is gone. It totally fell down the cliff.
They both laugh, as Carey lilts her voice in a sexy way with the word studio.
MIA
What? That cute little hacienda. That’s what happens when you tape shitty porn flicks in a house. It’s hexed. And then ours is just a solid body.. but with a lot of structural damage is what you’re saying.
CAREY (V.O.)
I dunno. Yeah. You gotta come out and check it out with me.
MIA
It finally happened. How’d you find out?
Carey launches into a short description of finding out through the grapevine about their old house as Mia, zoning out of the phone conversation, eyes playing cards that are strewn everywhere in her living room.
MEMORY FLASH
Mia and PAUL GATTO, her married lover, are playing gin rummy. He puts a card face down, and Mia, relaxed and quite drunk, responds by throwing all the cards in the air in feigned frustration, then laughter, as she lunges toward Paul. They kiss passionatley and start to peel each other’s clothes off.
BACK TO SCENE
Mia snaps out of her daze and finds a note on the coffee table.
INSERT – NOTE
“I PUT YOU TO BED, LIKE A GENTLEMAN. TRAVELING NEXT WEEK. I’LL CALL YOU.”
Mia shakes her head as Carey’s voice comes back through the phone.
CAREY
…apparently it was renovated, but it looked like a Ritz carlton lobby. And the basement is like a movie theater, or something.
MIA
Eew. I liked it as a basement. Why can’t people just leave basements old and dusty like they’re supposed to be? I wonder if they destroyed the train tracks.
CAREY
Whatever they did they kept Mom’s pretty pink sinks. Andrew told me that, and he should know–we were all kids there. And the parquet floor was still there and some tiles in Mom and Dad’s bathroom were the same.
MIA
Damn stragiht they were. You’d have to be really stupid and gauch to get rid of those. They were about as nice anything. The tiles were hand-painted from Portugal and the sinks were Italian and from some crazy artist. Mom got them from a dealer in Beverly Hills. Dad told me that. He hated how much mom spent on that room. Have you talked to Mom?
CAREY
No. I guess I’ll call her and tell her about the house.
Carey’s voice dips a little and she sounds less upbeat. Mia is eager to get off the line before the conversation gets morose-or before they start to fight.
MIA
Yeah, I think about that amazing master bedroom. Mom put in a parquet floors and then covered it with a wool, custom-designed wall-to-wall carpet. Beautiful. Yes. Did it break the bank? I am thinking yes.
CAREY
Okay, I am gonna let you go.
MIA
Yeah. I have to clean up and get going.
CAREY
You have to get a plane ticket and come out here. You need to visit the house. We do. You ought to come out.
MIA
I’ll do my best. I love you, Sis. Take care of yourself. And have a pretty day.
CAREY
Bye, Sweetie. Mwaa.
Mia puts the phone down and goes into her closet where she finds files and an album of Charles Laughton memorabilia— papers that are a little musty, given she has not looked at them in very long time.
CUT TO:
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – WASHINGTON, D.C. – MORNING
Establishing. Mia works in the National Museum of American History. She greets colleagues, puts her bags down, and heads straight for another office.
INT. MUSEUM – IAN GARDNER’S OFFICE – DAY
Mia appears in IAN GARDNER’S office, which is more of a storage closet with a window, lodged between the director’s office and a secretary’s office. Ian, 35, is a young, smart, handsome, if quirky and nerdy, assistant to the museum director. Mia and Ian have become close friends.
MIA
Are you curious about me?
IAN
Infinitely.
MIA
Have I ever mentioned my Los Angeles roots?
IAN
Which part?
MIA
The part about Hollywood.
IAN
Please be more specific.
MIA
The part about Charles Laughton.
IAN
Laughton. Laughton. Laughton. Aah. Let me guess. You lived in the same house as he did.
MIA
Very good. But did I ever mention that I met him?
IAN
You left that out.
MIA
Ian, I need to talk with you. This is important, maybe because it s so silly and unimportnat, but my mind is racing with strange memories of a supernatural nature.
IAN
Super-natural-nature. This must be very important or you wouldn’t have coined such a clever collection of words.
MIA
Drinks tonight?
IAN
I’ve been waiting for you to ask since —
Ian sits up as he sees the museum director, BLAIR GORDON, standing in the doorway. From Ian’s look, Mia responds, and turns quickly to greet at the formidable Gordon, a tall, lanky, bepsecptacled septugenarian with the energy of college student. Gordon gives Mia a disinterested once over and directs his attention to Ian.
GORDON
Good morning, Ian. Have you got that Molly Pitcher research for me?
Awkward. Mia is so unwelcmome and needs to get out of the office.
MIA
Thanks, Ian. Talk to you soon. Nice to see you, Sir.
INT. HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
Mia beelines it down the hall and mouths to herself:
MIA
Molly Pitcher?
INT. IAN’S OFFICE
Gordon steps in and stands where Mia was standing, giving Ian a look of mild disgust.
GORDON
Ian, seducation is the art of a careerist woman.
Ian is dumbstruck and smiles uncomfortably. Gordon’s jealousy is hanging in the air. Ian pulls some papers from a stack on his desk.
IAN
This is what I found on Molly Pitcher.
INT. GEORGETOWN – BAR – EVENING
BEGINNING: Mia and Ian have fun at happy hour. Their relationship is affectionate but not romantic, yet.
MIDDLE: Ian is awestruck and wants to know more about the house where Laughton lived. Mia shares fun facts, among them, Charles hosted for Ed Sullivan the night Elvis Presley appeared. Ian finds evidence about in Brecht’s papers that there was a child. Charles mentioned it to Elsa and she includes a sentence or two in her autobiography. “We a;; thought we were losing our minds, I suppose. We had moved so much…”
END: Ian helps Mia remember some key things about her meeting with Charles. They agree it all has to do with earthquakes, when they happened—and when they didn’t.
MIA
Truth is I don’t know why I am even doing this. Thinking about it. It’s ridiculous but something is gnawing at me. Why am I thinking about my old house–like a fool–thinking I’ll see him again if I go?
IAN
Let’s just go with it, Mi. Y’know. Let’s suspend our disbelief.
MIA
See? Deep down, you’re a practical man, Mr. Gardner. And so, so, generous with your imagination.
IAN
I’ll be generous with any part of my person, tangible or intangible, for you.
MIA
Promise you’re not patronizing me? And that you’re not rolling yourt eyes and shaking your head in pity because I am bat shit crazy. I remeber it, Ian. I remember it, like a dream but I also recall the very momnet, thephsycial moment, where I was standing. It happened. But, here’s the problem.
IAN
There’s a problem?
MIA
I was child. My mind was nimble, hopeful, naive. I had so much fear, and yet none at all. But everything was so clear.
Beat.
MIA
I’m obviuosly nuts, but, Ian, it was so clear. I can just see him now.
IAN
Okay. So? What do you want to do?
MIA
Study him. I want to show you everything I know. There is something else. I have something he dropped- a piece of stationary. You’re going to freak out.
IAN
I don’t freak out, in case you haven’t noticed.
MIA
We need to know everything about his life at that time. He was teaching acting classes in the back yard. He had Shelley Winters in his classes. She went to Pinecliff.
IAN
Really? Poseidon Adventure Shelley Winters?
MIA
She was in a lot of important movies, Ian. Gas Light, A Place in the Sun, the Anne Frank Movie and, Night of the Hunter.
(beat)
And there is more–something important, two things, actually. That you will care about.
IAN
Hold on. Before I care to much, I have to be the devil’s advocate about one minor detail. Why are you so worked up? I think it’s fascinating. I think what happened is fascinating. But, why now? Why are you so charged up about this? Because the house is empty? Well, okay. So you go, and then what? You see him again? I just don’t want you to be disappointed.
MIA
Fair enough. You are so right. I’ve created a scenario that is a fantasy. Incidentally, I always do that.
IAN
What are the two things?
MIA
Umm. Two things? I forgot.
Ian rolls his eyes.
IAN
Wondering. You probably wouldn’t make a very good litigator.
MIA
Wait! I remember. Oh. These are big. Laughton mentioned meeting a child in “orange plaid pants” to robert Ryan, the actor, one of his students that day. Robert Ryan put that in his biography- I think he was talking about how weird Charles was. I happen to adore Charles by the way.
IAN
I am not sure whether to ask about the orange plaid pants in, when was it, June? – you poor kid– or about where you found that information. It’s pretty spooky.
Mia is looking somberly at Ian.
MIA
There is something else.
(Beat)
He guest hosted for Ed Sullivan.
IAN
That’s what celebrites do for each other, I suppose.
(Beat)
It’s very cool. Nice.
Mia is still as she speaks.
MIA
The night he hosted, the guest on the show was Elvis Presley.
Ian gets up and walks around the table. He walks over to the dart board. He walks out the door of the bar and back in. He sits.
IAN
Let’s be reasonable here. I would like two more shots, and
(Beat)
I would like Charles to get me an autograph, to me,something like, to Ian Gardner, Fondly, Elvis Presley. Provided you see him again.
He smiles, relaxes, his theatrics have put Mia into hysterics.
IAN
Do tell. When did Mr. Laughton and you first meet?
(Beat)
Maybe not fondly. We can work on that–
MIA
–I remember it vividly. It was at Christmas. It was very brief but we both regsitered, I suppose. My parents were having a beautiful party. A ball. I swear. It was called a ball. It was in the LA Times. I wore red.
IAN
You were six. You weren’t exactly the lady in red.
MIA
I mean I had on an adorable red velvet long dress with white cap sleeves.
EXT. PINECLIFF – FLASHBACK
PLACEHOLDER: As Mia tells Ian about her first meeting with Charles over drinks (above), and we do this:
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – NIGHT – FLASHBACK
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Mia and Charles have their first meeting at night while her family is hosting a Christmas Ball. She thinks he is one of the guests, a friend of her parents, but also knows, sort-of, that he is Charles Laughton. Charles is getting wood in the brick shed.
EXT. PINECLIFF TERRACE – NIGHT – 1947* – CHARLES’ WORLD
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: We follow Charles back into their own party they are having a Christmas for Royal Air Force (RAF). They take a lot of heat about being ex-pats so they want to show England that they care.
BACK TO:
INT. GEORGETOWN BAR – NIGHT – PRESENT
Mia and Ian have been talking –and drinking — for hours. They are animated and buzzed, and are having a second round of shots.
IAN
To Charles and Elvis.
MIA
You already toasted them. And they weren’t really friends. They had nothing in common. It was an awkward night at best. To Charles and Elsa!
IAN
To Elsa and Elvis! Golly, all of these firsts with you. Who knew I would ever raise a glass to Elsa Lanchester and Elvis Presley?
Ian reels it all in for the moment and looks at Mia sincerely.
IAN
Mi, this is to you. You’re a strong woman with a beautiful imagination, whose words I don’t doubt for a minute–
MIA
Yes you do.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – DAY
PLACEHOLDER:
Ian, a very good researcher by trade, teaches Mia how to navigate the Library of Congress. They research Charles and Elsa and find all sorts of papers, and Mia finds some curious clues. Ian has also brought some of his own correspondence furnished by his father, MICHAEL GARDNER. Seems Michael was contacted by Gregory and Laughton about having him help write Don Juan in Hell. Ian says: “My dad and mom were younger than we are and had just gotten married. I think they had my brother and sister, but other sister and I, the youngest, naturally, weren’t around. He was a graduate student. Apparently my dad worked with him. And Charlie wore black satin pyjamas and Dad and he liked each other a lot! Dad was intrigued and we should be able to find more notes here among Gregory’s papers. Dad told me where to look. He gets me.”
EXT. LOS ANGELES – 1948 – CHARLES’ WORLD
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles is working on Don Juan in Hell and John Brown’s Body (Callow p. 208). He is corresponding with various literary experts, including Michael Gardner. Charles tells Paul Gregory more about the “little girl muse” and that he is considering not moving, and that he is so happy just teaching, which concerns Paul.
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s married “lover”, PAUL GATTO, asks her to accompany him to California. She accepts in order to visit Pinecliff, as money is tight. Is she prostituting herself for a trip to L.A?
INT. AIRPLANE CABIN – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia and Paul discuss their future, or, rather, their “non-future” together. He will never divorce; she tells him she can’t be a mistress and that she will move on and have a family. He asks about her visit to her old house.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia gets news that Ian’s father, MICHAEL GARDNER, was killed in a car crash. Ian has gone home. Weave in Ian’s journey: from immature Pater Pan to tragically sad to non existent to amazing scholar/museum director.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
Mia approaches the gates of PINECLIFF from the street. The elm tree is still there and she nods as she sees that the circular driveway is exactly the same. She goes in and can see straight away that the house is abandoned. To her amazement, the front door is open.
The house is empty, but not quite a stripped shell. And, to Mia’s astonishment, there are things there from her family’s day, even though the house had been renovated. She finds one of Katrina’s pink Italian sinks on the second floor, a symbol of Katrina’s excesses.
As Mia makes her way into the master bedroom, she looks at the doorway and remembers.
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – 25 YEARS EARLIER – FLASHBACK
Katrina has locked herself in the bedroom while Bruce bangs on the door.
CUT TO:
KATRINA
She is kneeling on the floor on the opposite side of the room by her side of the bed. She is on the telephone. PLACEHOLDER
BACK TO:
MIA’S WORKPLACE
Standing at the bedroom door threshold. Suddenly, she turns around and rushes back downstairs. She moves quickly through the dining room and looks at the wall where Tina sat in a chair and held her. There is a huge, jagged horizontal crack across the wall.
She heads out the French doors and walks on to the terrace and stops. That view. She takes in the dazzling ocean view and smiles.
MIA
(under her breath)
I’ll always have you. Thank you and God bless you very much.
She looks toward the garden, and slowly makes her way to the side yard. She crosses the lawn and finds herself in the dark part of the garden where the brick shed still stands. She kicks the pine needles.
MIA
Hello, detritus. How could I forget you?
She looks for the circular fire pit and finds that it has been rebuilt. When she looks up and around, she sees nothing. She is lost in thought.
MIA
What a silly fool I am? What did I expect?
Mia feels a breeze in the garden and she looks toward the ocean and sees that the fence has fallen away. She starts to walk back toward the house and cuts behind the brick shed, curious about what might be inside. She is shaking her head.
MIA
Fool.
As she comes around toward the house again, a familiar voice stops her in her tracks.
CHARLES
Now who might you be?
When Mia sees Charles, she feels a rush of fear. She is stunned and her breath becomes short. She can think of nothing else, but to run. She races from the spot and cuts to the front of the house, avoiding going inside PINECLIFF entirely.
FADE OUT.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Daisy Khalifa.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Turning Point Scene [Lesson 11]
What I learned doing this assignment: This lesson is helping me really “beat out” story scenes and see the story. At this point, I am seeing a few changes I can make to my beat sheet, but, I also must remember to just keep moving ahead and write.
Act 1 Scenes Leading up to Turning Point & Turning Point Outlines:
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – MORNING
BEGINNING: Mia works at a museum. Has a good job and has interesting work. [establishing]
MIDDLE: Mia tells her close friend and confidante at work, IAN GARDNER, 34, about her old house and asks him to have drinks after work.
END: Mia and Ian plan to go out after work to discuss PINECLIFF, because Mia has something on her mind.
INT. GEORGETOWN BAR – NIGHT
BEGINNING: Mia and Ian have fun at happy hour. Their relationship is affectionate but not romantic, but more or less, they are falling in love.
MIDDLE: Ian is awestruck and wants to know more about the house where Laughton lived. Mia shares fun facts, among them, Charles hosted for Ed Sullivan the night Elvis Presley appeared.
END: Ian helps Mia remember some key things about her meeting with Charles. They agree it all has to do with earthquakes, when they happened—and when they didn’t. They get drunk.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Ian, a very good researcher by trade, teaches Mia how to navigate the Library of Congress. They research Charles and Elsa and find all sorts of papers, and Mia finds some curious clues. Ian, of course, pulls all of the Elvis documents he can find and veers off into numerous directions b/c he loves this stuff. Ian also brings information from his father, MICHAEL GARDNER, who corresponded with Charles Laughton about the script for the play Don Juan in Hell.
INT. MIA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Paul Gatto asks Mia to go to L.A. She says yes because it is a chance to visit Pinecliff. “We’re going first class. Thought you might enjoy that,” he says. Mia wonders if she is prostituting herself and feels shame.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – NEXT DAY
PLACEHOLDER: News arrives that Michael Gardner, Ian’s beloved father, was killed in a car crash. Ian has gone home to be with family.
Key Scene 4/Turning Point/Lock in the Journey:
BEGINNING: Mia arrives in L.A. with Paul. She is equipped with her research and all sorts of data, is in L.A. as she makes her way alone to visit abandoned Pinecliff. Ian’s father’s death consumes Mia.
MIDDLE: Mia goes to her old house and takes it all in. She sees that some the expensive beautiful things her mother did to the house are still there. She has a flashback about a fight her parents had. And then she sees Charles in the same spot— “their spot” — in the garden. He looks the same while she is 25 years older. She tells him she is the little girl, which Charles finds absurd and impossible.
END: They have a long interaction about earthquakes, fate, her life and his life—and she provides proof that she is Little Mia, 25 years older. Still, Charles is unconvinced and Mia asks if they might meet again. When they part, she asks him about the Lord Byron scholar Michael Gardner and said if he helps you with Don Juan in Hell, make sure you give him a job. In other words, Mia wants to meddle with fate and believes she can because she has encountered Charles again.
Scenes:
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – WASHINGTON, D.C. – MORNING
Establishing. Mia works in the National Museum of American History. She greets colleagues, puts her bags down, and heads straight for another office.
INT. MUSEUM – IAN GARDNER’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
Mia appears in IAN GARDNER’S office, which is more of a storage closet with a window, lodged between the director’s office and a secretary’s office. Ian, 35, is a young, smart, handsome, if quirky and nerdy, assistant to the museum director. Mia and Ian have become close friends.
MIA
Are you curious about me?
IAN
Infinitely.
MIA
Have I ever mentioned my Los Angeles roots?
IAN
Which part?
MIA
The part about Hollywood.
IAN
Please be more specific.
MIA
The part about Charles Laughton.
IAN
Laughton. Laughton. Laughton. Aah. Let me guess. You lived in the same house as he did.
MIA
Very good. But did I ever mention that I met him?
IAN
You left that out.
MIA
Ian, I need to talk with you. This is important, maybe because it s so silly and unimportant, but my mind is racing with strange memories of a supernatural nature.
IAN
Super-natural-nature. This must be very important or you wouldn’t have coined such a clever collection of words.
MIA
Drinks tonight?
IAN
I’ve been waiting for you to ask since —
Ian sits up as he sees the museum director, BLAIR GORDON, standing in the doorway. From Ian’s look, Mia responds, and turns quickly to greet at the formidable Gordon, a tall, lanky, bespectacled septuagenarian with the energy of college student. Gordon gives Mia a disinterested once over and directs his attention to Ian.
GORDON
Good morning, Ian. Have you got that Molly Pitcher research for me?
An awkward moment, Mia is so unwelcome and needs to get out of the office.
MIA
Thanks, Ian. Talk to you soon. Nice to see you, Sir.
INT. HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS
Mia beelines it down the hall and mouths to herself:
MIA
Molly Pitcher?
INT. IAN’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
Gordon steps in and stands where Mia was standing, giving Ian a look of mild disgust.
GORDON
Ian, seduction is the art of a careerist woman.
Ian is dumbstruck and smiles uncomfortably. Gordon’s jealousy is hanging in the air. Ian pulls some papers from a stack on his desk.
IAN
This is what I found on Molly Pitcher.
CUT TO:
INT. GEORGETOWN – BAR – NIGHT
Mia and Ian are seated at a table, working on their second drink. Two empty shot glasses are on the table and Ian and Mia are in the thick of discussion.
MIA
Truth is I don’t know why I am even doing this. Thinking about it. It’s ridiculous but something is gnawing at me. Why am I thinking about my old house–like a fool–thinking I’ll see him again if I go?
IAN
Let’s just go with it, Mi. Y’know. Let’s suspend our disbelief.
MIA
See? Deep down, you’re a practical man, Mr. Gardner. And so, so, generous with your imagination.
IAN
I’ll be generous with any part of my person, tangible or intangible, for you.
MIA
Promise you’re not patronizing me? And that you’re not rolling your eyes and shaking your head in pity because I am bat shit crazy. I remember it, Ian. I remember it, like a dream but I also recall the very moment, the physcial moment, where I was standing. It happened. But, here’s the problem.
IAN
There’s a problem?
MIA
I was child. My mind was nimble, hopeful, naive. I had so much fear, and yet none at all. But everything was so clear.
Beat.
MIA
I’m obviously nuts, but, Ian, it was so clear. I can just see him now.
IAN
Okay. So? What do you want to do?
MIA
Study him. I want to show you everything I know. There is something else. I have something he dropped- a piece of stationary. You’re going to freak out.
IAN
I don’t freak out, in case you haven’t noticed.
MIA
We need to know everything about his life at that time. He was teaching acting classes in the back yard. He had Shelley Winters in his classes. She went to Pinecliff.
IAN
Really? Poseidon Adventure Shelley Winters?
MIA
She was in a lot of important movies, Ian. Gas Light, A Place in the Sun, the Anne Frank Movie and, Night of the Hunter.
(beat)
And there is more–something important, two things, actually. That you will care about.
IAN
Hold on. Before I care to much, I have to be the devil’s advocate about one minor detail. Why are you so worked up? I think it’s fascinating. I think what happened is fascinating. But, why now? Why are you so charged up about this? Because the house is empty? Well, okay. So you go, and then what? You see him again? I just don’t want you to be disappointed.
MIA
Fair enough. You are so right. I’ve created a scenario that is a fantasy. Incidentally, I always do that.
IAN
What are the two things?
MIA
Umm. Two things? I forgot.
Ian rolls his eyes.
IAN
Wondering. You probably wouldn’t make a very good litigator.
MIA
Wait! I remember. Oh. These are big. Laughton mentioned meeting a child dressed in “orange plaid pants” to Robert Ryan, the actor, one of his students that day. Robert Ryan put that in his biography- I think he was talking about how weird Charles was. I happen to adore Charles by the way.
IAN
I am not sure whether to ask about the orange plaid pants in, when was it, June? You poor kid– or about where you found that information. It’s pretty spooky.
Mia is looking somberly at Ian.
MIA
There is something else.
(Beat)
He guest hosted for Ed Sullivan.
IAN
That’s what celebrities do for each other, I suppose.
(Beat)
It’s very cool. Nice.
Mia is still as she speaks.
MIA
The night he hosted, the guest on the show was Elvis Presley.
Ian gets up and walks around the table. He walks over to the dart board. He walks out the door of the bar and back in. He sits.
IAN
Let’s be reasonable here. I would like two more shots, and
(Beat)
I would like Charles to get me an autograph, to me, from Elvis. Provided you see him again.
He smiles, relaxes, his theatrics have put Mia into hysterics.
INT. GEORGETOWN – BAR – LATER
Mia and Ian are animated and buzzed. They are having a second round of shots.
IAN
To Charles and Elvis.
MIA
You already toasted them. And they weren’t really friends. They had nothing in common. It was an awkward night at best. To Charles and Elsa!
IAN
To Elsa and Elvis! Golly, all these firsts with you. Who knew I would ever raise a glass to Elsa Lanchester and Elvis Presley?
Ian reels it all in for the moment and looks at Mia sincerely.
IAN
(holding is shot glass)
Mi, this is to you. You’re a strong woman with a beautiful imagination, whose words I don’t doubt for a minute–
MIA
Yes you do.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Inciting Incident (Lesson 10)
What I learned doing this assignment: Do not wordsmith too soon because I will create a glut of good and bad language and ideas that might be hard to sift through. Also, not too convinced of my inciting incident at this point, but I am keeping the faith!
Inciting Incident/Key Scene 2/Outline/Revised from Lesson 9:
BEGINNING: Mia and Tina have just part ways, a trauma for Mia as she goes off into the garden.
MIDDLE: Mia encounters Charles Laughton in her garden. They talk and hint at moving away and earthquakes and lay the groundwork for their cosmic bond.
END: Charles leaves the garden and goes back toward the house, PINECLIFF, and tells a few people about the little girl. Mia leaves Charles by climbing over a wall that leads to the street and she joins some neighbors who are playing at the house next door.
Key Scene 3/Protagonist Reacts/Outline:
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – 25 YEARS LATER
BEGINNING: Mia Pauley, 32, receives a phone call from her sister, CAREY. Carey, a drug addict, is chatty but calls to tell her sister that their old house finally gave out and is abandoned because of damage years earlier in the Northridge Earthquake.
MIDDLE: MIA is hungover as she talks by phone to her sister and observes a mess in her apartment from her previous night of partying with her client/married lover.
END: Mia promises her sister — and herself — that she will somehow get to California to visit their old abandoned family home. After the phone call Mia goes to a shelf in her closet and pulls out an old small scrap book and some files. It contains memorabilia and papers about Charles Laughton. She hears her sister’s voice: “You ought to come out.”
Scenes:
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN
MIA runs to the garden at the side of the house. She goes toward the fringes, where there is a brick storage building. She reaches a dark garden path, covered by pine trees, where a massive unused fire pit sits in a circle. In a daze, the child picks up rocks to toss into the pit. She is kneeling by the fire pit, lost in thought, bewildered. Out of nowhere a man with rolled up shirt sleeves and loose, wrinkled pants appears. It is CHARLES LAUGHTON. He is lost in thought, muttering a little. He spots Mia.
CHARLES
Hello there you.
MIA is startled but sees it is Charles. She rubs her eyes and brushes the tears away. She turns so he won’t see her red eyes.
MIA
Hello. Mr. Charles.
CHARLES
You know you’re welcome to call me Charlie.
(Beat)
Are you alright? You’re sad? Why are you sad, Mademoiselle Mia of the Palisade?
MIA
Tina is leaving. And, we’re moving.
CHARLES
Who is Tina? I do not know who tina is, I am afraid. Is she your friend? Funny. I have to move too.
MIA
She is our housekeeper. And she is my friend.
CHARLES
Oh, child, I do understand. You were close? People like that are so very important to us.
MIA
I called her my second mommy.
CHARLES
Well, you will always love her. And she will always love you. Always. That’s a nice thing. She’ll always be with you in some way, you know.
(Beat)
Who is going to take care of you now?
MIA
Probably Mrs. Buttle.
CHARLES
Buttle. Buttle sounds very English. Who is that?
Mia’s face brightens a little.
MIA
She is our babysitter. Yes. She is English like you. She is Cockney. Are you Cockney?
Charles smiles and laughs softly, as the child is not quite sure what she is even describing.
CHARLES
No. I am not cockney. How do you know she is Cockney?
MIA
She told us. She always tells us. She says she was born near the sound of the baw bells. I don’t know what she is saying.
CHARLES
Aaah. Within earshot of The Bow Bells. Does she talk like this, and does she have a loud, let’s say jovial, laugh? Those are the bells of a church. Did she tell you that? St. Mary Le-Bow Church. I’ll have to ask Elsa.
Charles puts on a perfect Cockney accent for Mia and Mia giggles, her sadness having almost fallen away.
MIA
Yes, and she sings a lot. She likes to sing. And she likes when my sister and I sing for her.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
That is very sweet. Does she have a name for you? A special name. I suspect she does. They’ll call you anything but your real name. Right?
MIA
Yes! She does. She calls me Duh. But I don’t understand when she calls me Du-h. Listen, Du-h. Hello, Du-h. C’mon duh. Don’t be stupid, Duh.
Mia makes herself laugh and Charles continues in his Cockney which makes Mia laugh more.
CHARLES
Oh my! She certainly is Cockney.
(warmly, back in his regular English accent)
You know, even when she says don’t be stupid, I have a feeling she likes you very much. I think she is calling you, Duck, actually, because you are her little duck. And she probably has lots of ducks, right? Or are you her most important duck?
Mia’s eyes light up.
MIA
Duck! Duck! Oh. That’s it…duck.
Mia smiles as if she has just discovered a buried treasure. Charles hears his name called and looks toward the house.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
Must go, Love. Oh, forgive me. Listen, Duck, I’ve got to go.
(back to his English accent)
By the way, I don’t know if I
want to move.
MIA
Well, why are you moving?
CHARLES
Oh, something about mudslides and earthquakes.
MIA
I’ve been in an earthquake here, at this house. When. was in kindergarten. It was scary. My sister and I got in bed with Mom and Dad and there termors. Tina was out in the living room, but near us.
CHARLES
I don’t recall an earthquake. I know kindergarten feels like a hundred years ago, but can you remember hpw long ago that was?
MIA
Well…I am in second grade now.
CHARLES
Hm. Two years ago..
Charles is contemplating what Mia is saying. He hears his name again.
CHARLES
Well, I’ve got to go. They’re calling me.
MIA
I didn’t hear anything. My mother says our new house is a treehouse.
CHARLES
How nice for you. I’ve lived in a treehouse. In England, with Mrs–with Elsa Lan?
Chalres is being playful with Mia.
MIA
Lan…CHESTER.
CHARLES
Very good, Mademoiselle. Now I must go. Are you going to climb over the wall again, that way?
Charles points to a far end of the yard that borders the street. Mia looks at him and nods playfully.
CHARLES
Next time we talk, do sing a song for me that she sings. Do you know any?
MIA
Well, not really. Oh, but one. It’s I’ve got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.
Mia doesn’t sing, but without hitch, Charles beginss the next line.
CHARLES
“…there they are all standin’ in row. Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer ‘ead.”
Mia nods and smiles from ear to ear, but is hesitant to sing.
CHARLES
C’mon you can do it. Sing with me. It’s just an English, um, affinity we have. It’s our way. We sing. We have to sing. “give us a twist, a flick of the wrist, that’s what the showman said…”
Mia whispers a few words but is too shy to sing. When she heads to the wall, she is sings quietly to herself. Charles whistles the song as he heads back to the terrace of PINECLIFF.
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – 25 YEARS LATER (1999) – EARLY MORNING -ESTABLISHING
We see the outside of a Washington, D.C. townhouse. Upsound a phone rings.
INT. WASHINGTON, DC – MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – SAME
MIA PAULEY, 33, is in bed and opens her eyes to the ringing phone. She closes them again and cups her eyes with her hands, suffering the pangs of a hangover headache. She rolls over and eyes the caller i.d. It is her older sister, CAREY PAULEY. Mia is reluctant to answer, as Mia never knows what mood Carey will be in, gvien Carey’s drug problems, and Mia’s own hangover doesn’t help. Still, she answers.
MIA
Hello, there, Sister.
CAREY (V.O.)
Mi? I’m so glad you answered. Oh my God! I have to talk to you.
Mia sighs quietly in bed but is releived that her sister sounds cheery. She manages to sit up while they are talkig and proceeds get out of bed and roam around her apartment, which is in a post-party shambles.
MIA
It’s early for you, Girl. What are you doing up?
CAREY (V.O.)
Oh. I went running this morning. It was beautiful. I saw the sun come up.
Mia frowns and is quiet. She doesn’t want to ask. Carey’s voice was so normal, but an early morning good mood usually meant Carey was still high from snorting heroine.
MIA
It’s good of you to get up early. Early bird catches the worm. And, I’m late for work, Honey. Thank you, you’re my alarm clock.
CAREY (V.O.)
I won’t keep you. I know you have to get going. Let’s talk later, but I want to tell you that the house- our old house -is abandoned. Empty. Apparently in the Northridge Quake, it was totally wrecked. And now it is quarantined, or whatever, because it is unsafe. You know, it’s got, like, police tape around it.
Mia looks at her phone and rolls her eyes.
MIA
Which old house? Kidding. Pinecliff. Our house on Corona del Mar? Wow. How do you know? Did you go? You mean, no one is supposed to trespass cuz it’s maybe unsafe?
CAREY (V.O.)
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, damaged, and dangerous.
MIA
I don’t think its that dangerous. Dad always said it was built so far back from the cliff that it would be the last house to fall.
CAREY (V.O.)
Oh my god! That’s exacly right. You won’t believe it. The house on the corner fell into the ocean. What did Mom call it? Lou Costello’s house. The observatory? And the Tobalina’s house–Carlos’ studio…is gone. It totally fell down the cliff.
They both laugh, as Carey lilts her voice in a sexy way with the word studio.
MIA
What? That cute little hacienda. That’s what happens when you tape shitty porn flicks in a house. It’s hexed. And then ours is just a solid body.. but with a lot of structural damage is what you’re saying.
CAREY (V.O.)
I dunno. Yeah. You gotta come out and check it out with me.
MIA
It finally happened. How’d you find out?
Carey launches into a short description of finding out through the grapevine about their old house as Mia eyes playing cards that are strewn everywhere in her living room.
MEMORY FLASH
Mia and PAUL GATTO, her married lover, are playing gin rummy. He puts a card face down, and Mia, relaxed and quite drunk, responds by throwing all the cards in the air in feigned frustration, then laughter, as she lunges toward Paul. They kiss passionatley and start to peel each other’s clothes off.
BACK TO SCENE
Mia snaps out of her daze and finds a note on the coffee table.
INSERT – NOTE
“I PUT YOU TO BED, LIKE A GENTLEMAN. TRAVELING NEXT WEEK. I’LL CALL YOU.”
Mia shakes her head as Carey’s voice comes back throuhg the phone.
CAREY
…apparently it was renovated, but it looked like a Ritz carlton lobby. And the basement is like a movie theater, or something.
MIA
Eew. I liked it as a basement. Why can’t people just leave basement old and dusty like they’re supposed to be? I wonder if they destroyed the train tracks.
CAREY
Whatever they did they kept Mom’s pretty pink sinks. Andrew told me that and he should know–we were all kids there. And the parquet floor was still there and some tiles in Mom and Dad’s bathroom were the same.
MIA
Damn stragiht they were. You’d hae to be really stupid and gauch to get rid of those. They were about as nice anything. The tiles were hand-painted from Portugal and the sinks were Italian and from some crazy artist. Mom got them from a dealer in Beverly Hills. Dad told me that. He hated how much mom spent on that room. Have you talked to mom.
CAREY
No. I guess I’ll call her and tell her about the house.
Carey’s voice dips a little and she sounds less upbeat. Mia is eager to get off the line before the conversation gets morose-or before they start to fight.
MIA
Yeah, I think about that amazing master bedroom. Mom put in a parquet floors and then covered it with a wool, custom-designed wall-to-wall carpet. Beautiful. Yes. Did it break the bank? I am thinking yes.
CAREY
Okay, I am gonna let you go.
MIA
Yeah. I have to clean up and get going.
CAREY
You have to get a plane ticket. You ought to come out here. You need to visit the house. We do.
MIA
I’ll do my best. I love you, Sis. Take care of yourself. And have a pretty day.
CAREY
Bye, Sweetie.
Mia puts the phone down and goes into her closet where she finds files and an album of Charles Laughton memorabilia— papers that are a little musty, given she had not looked at them in very long time.
-
Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 1: Opening Scenes (Lesson 9)
What I learned doing this assignment: Do not wordsmith too soon. You will create a glut of good and bad language and ideas that might be hard to sift through. Also, I am having some anxiety about writing dialog.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program.
=====
Opening/Key Scene 1/Outline:
BEGINNING: Early morning. Various birds eye shots of a quiet pre-dawn Los Angeles. It is January 1994.
MIDDLE: Shots of pre-dawn Los Angeles, this time shaking as we hear eerie, real-time sound for all of the seconds that are the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. During the earthquake, we have zeroed in on an oceanfront house that is rupturing from the ground up as a family escapes at sunrise.
END: The father is the last to leave the house and turns for one last look as he watches the entry hall floor rise and fall like a serpent. Moving beyond the hall, we are on the terrace, which cracks quickly, cleanly making a thin, jagged line down the middle. Past the terrace, all we see is the massive, dark sapphire ocean expanse, barely lit in a pre-dawn glow. The ocean is flat and calm, save for the sound of a powerful wave crashing, pounding down on the shore below.
Inciting Incident/Key Scene 2/Outline:
BEGINNING: Mia and Tina part ways, a trauma for Mia.
MIDDLE: Mia encounters Charles Laughton in her garden. They talk.
END: Charles leaves the garden and goes back toward the house, PINECLIFF, and tells a few people about the little girl. Mia leaves Charles by climbing over a wall that leads to the street and she joins some neighbors who are playing at the house next door.
Scenes:
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
A slumbering pre-dawn Los Angeles, seen in millions of flickering lights in various expansive shots of the city, goes from tranquil to unhinged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. We hear low audio of the sounds of the city alongside the voice of CHARLES LAUGHTON as he recites the Gettysburg Address.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.)
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought both oaths continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war…
EXT. LOS ANGELES – OCEANFRONT HOUSE ON A CLIFF/“PINECLIFF” – CONTINUOUS
Zero in on the terrace of an oceanfront house known as PINECLIFF. The shaking continues.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (Con’t)
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract…
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
A husband and wife shoot out of bed and scramble frantically.
ON WIFE:
As she bolts into the HALLWAY and meets the caretaker, who is holding a baby and has another child by hand.
BACK to MASTER BEDROOM
On husband as he goes to his safe across the spacious bedroom-over-the-ocean, grabbing what he can of his wife’s jewelry on the way. He pulls out documents, even a gun. He heads for the front door.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (Con’t)
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced…
INT/EXT. PINECLIFF – FRONT DOOR THRESHHOLD – CONTINUOUS
HUSBAND stands at front door as the QUAKE’s last explosive sound is heard. He turns to look back at his beautiful investment, worth millions UP TO NOW. The hallway floor BUCKLES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Beyond, across the cracked terrace, the ocean is sapphire blue, calm, but for the crashing waves.
CHARLES LAUGHTON (V.O.) (Con’t)
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not the died in vain — that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1974
Establish with a bird’s eye view over the terrace of the oceanfront house, PINECLIFF, on a bright sunny afternoon and we zoom in to the windows of the elegant DINING ROOM, where MIA PAULEY, 8, is straddling her housekeeper, TINA, in a tight hug, while Tina sits in a dining room chair, dressed in her finest Sunday clothes. Mia won’t let go so as to hide her tears. Tina knows. Mia’s father, BRUCE PAULEY, and her mother, KATRINA PAULEY, look on helplessly.
BRUCE
Mi-mi, I think I have to take Tina downtown now.
Tina prompts Mia and Mia finally lets go, kisses her on the cheek one more time, and gets off TINA’s lap quickly. Distraught, Mia hides her face, and runs out of the dining room. Tina sheds a tear as she watches Mia go.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN
Mia runs to the garden at the side of the house. She goes toward the fringes, where there is a brick storage building. She reaches a dark garden path, covered by pine trees, where a massive unused fire pit sits in a circle. In a daze, the child picks up rocks to toss into the pit. She is kneeling by the fire pit, lost in thought, bewildered. A man with rolled up shirt sleeves and loose, wrinkled pants appears. It is CHARLES LAUGHTON. He is lost in thought, muttering a little. He spots Mia.
CHARLES
Hello there you.
MIA is startled but sees it is Charles. She rubs her eyes and brushes the tears away. She turns so he won’t see her red eyes.
MIA
Hello. Mr. Charles.
CHARLES
You know you’re welcome to call me Charlie.
(Beat)
Are you alright? You’re sad? Why are you sad, Mademoiselle Mia-of-the-Palisade?
MIA
Tina is leaving.
CHARLES
Who is Tina? I do not know who Tina is, I am afraid. Is she your friend?
MIA
She is our housekeeper. And she is my friend.
CHARLES
(Beat)
Oh, child, I do understand. You were close? People like that are so very important to us.
MIA
She was second mommy. That’s what we said to each other.
CHARLES
Well, you will always love her. And she will always love you. Always. That’s a nice thing. And, she’ll always be with you in some way, you know.
Beat.
CHARLES
Who is going to take care of you now?
MIA
Probably Mrs. Buttle.
CHARLES
Buttle. Buttle sounds very English. Who is that?
Mia’s face brightens a little.
MIA
She is our babysitter. Yes. She is English like you. She is Cockney. Are you Cockney?
Charles smiles and laughs softly, as the child is not quite sure what she is even describing.
CHARLES
No. I am not cockney. How do you know she is Cockney?
MIA
She told us. She always tells us. She says she was born near the sound of the Baw Bells. I don’t know what she is saying.
CHARLES
Aaah. Within earshot of The Bow Bells. Bow, like a bow in your hair. Does she talk like this, and does she have a loud, let’s say jovial, laugh? Those are the bells of a church. Did she tell you that? St. Mary Le-Bow Church. I’ll have to ask Elsa.
Charles puts on a perfect Cockney accent for Mia and Mia giggles, no longer so shaken by the parting with Tina.
MIA
Yes, and she sings a lot. She likes to sing. And she likes when my sister and I sing for her.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
That is very sweet. Does she have a name for you? A special name. I suspect she does. They’ll call you anything but your real name. Right?
MIA
Yes! She does. She calls me Duh. But I don’t understand when she calls me Du-h. Listen, Du-h. Hello, Du-h. C’mon duh. Don’t be stupid, Duh.
Mia makes herself laugh and Charles continues in his Cockney which makes Mia laugh more.
CHARLES
Oh my! She certainly is Cockney. You know, even when she says on’t be stupid, I have a feeling she likes you very much. I think she is calling you, Duck, actually, because you are her little duck. And she probably has lots of ducks, right? Or are you her most important duck?
Mia’s eyes light up.
MIA
Duck! Duck! Oh. That’s it…duck.
Mia smiles as if she has just discovered a buried treasure. Charles hears his name called and looks toward the house.
CHARLES
(in Cockney)
Must go, Love. Oh, forgive me. Listen, Duck, I’ve got to go. Are you going to climb over the wall again, that way?
Charles points to a far end of the yard that borders the street. Mia looks at him and nods playfully.
CHARLES
Next time we talk, do sing a song for me that she sings. Do you know any?
MIA
Well, not really. Oh, yeah, there is one. It’s I’ve got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.
Mia doesn’t sing, but without hitch, Charles begins the next line.
CHARLES
“‘ere they are a standin’ in row. Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer ‘ead.”
Mia nods and smiles from ear to ear, but is hesitant to sing.
CHARLES
C’mon you can do it. Sing with me. It’s just an English affinity we have, um, way. We sing. We have to sing. “give us a twist, a flick of the wrist, that’s what the showman said…”
Mia whispers a few words but is too shy to sing. When she heads to the wall, she is sings quietly to herself. Charles whistles the song as he heads back to the terrace of PINECLIFF.
-
Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Beat Sheet Draft #2 (Lesson 8)
What I learned doing this assignment: I must forge ahead, and stop the self-loathing. I must not be concerned that a fair amount of the story is starting to confuse me and feels “out of order”. It will come together. Breath.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program.
Act 1
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
Opening: The Northridge Earthquake of 1994 strikes Los Angeles.
INT. LOS ANGELES – HOUSE OVER THE OCEAN (PINECLIFF) – DAWN – CONTINUOUS
Key Scene 1: We see a family flee an oceanfront house, known as PINECLIFF, that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape. TE: Major earthquake in 1994 causes protagonist’s childhood home, Pinecliff, to get severely damaged.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – ABOUT 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1973
At the same house 20 years earlier, we meet MIA PAULEY, 8, who is saying a sad farewell to a friend/her caretaker, TINA, while her parents, BRUCE PAULEY and KATRINA PAULEY look on sadly.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN – SAME
TE/Key Scene 2/Inciting Incident: Little Mia Pauley meets CHARLES LAUGHTON, who also lived in the house but 25 years earlier, in 1947, in the garden of the house. They are from different points in time. It is NOT the first time they have met*.
THEME: This film is about loving oneself and overcoming trauma, be it divorce or ugliness or closeted secrets. It is about facing reality, accepting matters as they are, and not changing it or erasing it.
EXT. SIDEWALK – 1973
Little Mia leaves Charles and goes next door by climbing over the wall in the yard. She interacts with neighbors. Meet CARLOS TOBALINA and his daughter, LINDA.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN – CONTINUOUS
Charles puzzles over the child, can’t tell where she disappeared to, and at the same time hears his name called out. He returns to the house.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 1947 (CHARLES’ WORLD)
Follow Charles back into his world. He walks onto the same terrace but it is the late 1940s and is decorated beautifully, according to Charles- arts, sculpture, books. He is greeted by his wife, ELSA LANCHESTER and his manager, PAUL GREGORY.
INT. PINECLIFF – SAME
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles is happy at Pinecliff. He “hates himself a fraction less” at the house in West L.A. He sees the little girl as a muse telling him to stay put despite insurance problems.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – SAME
Charles is greeting students, SHELLY WINTERS, ROBERT RYAN, among others, as they arrive for acting class he teaches at Pinecliff.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – CONTINUOUS
PLACEHOLDER: Charles and Elsa have a run-in over parked cars and one of his students, as Elsa is trying to leave for the Turnabout Theater for her work. Charles takes a lot out on Elsa.
EXT. PINECLIFF – SAME
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles is self-absorbed and sabotages Elsa a lot of the time.
INT. MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – WASHINGTON, DC – MORNING – 1997
TE/Key Scene 3/Protagonist reacts: Mia, 33, who lives as an adult in Washington DC, is woken up by a ringing phone, and told by her sister, CARRIE PAULEY, of the damage to her house.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – WASHINGTON, DC – MORNING
Meet Mia’s colleagues, her work life and Ian Gardner, 34, a close friend and work colleague on whom she relies to help her navigate this odyssey, as he is just quirky enough to believe her—and he loves her.
INT. GEORGETOWN BAR – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia tells Ian the stories about the encounters (plural!). We glimpse her shame about her family. There are a few flashbacks, i.e. the two Christmas Parties; the garage sale; and when they both realized they had to move from Pinecliff.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – NIGHT – FLASHBACK
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Mia and Charles have their first meeting at night while her family is hosting a Christmas Ball. She thinks he is one of the guests, but also knows, sort-of, that he is Charles Laughton.
EXT. PINECLIFF TERRACE – NIGHT – 1947* – CHARLES WORLD
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles goes back into their own party they are having a Christmas for Royal Airforcement (RAF). They take a lot of heat about being ex-pats so they want to show England that they care.
THEME: Mia feels a lot of shame about her family, herself and some of the decisions she has made with her life. She needs to accept her actions, move on with confidence, and overcome her shame.
THEME: This film is about being our best, doing our best—acting well and being proud of who you are. [Sub-theme: The film explores acting, the challenge, what it is; the actor’s plight Sub-theme/question that lingers: The film explores nature and earthquakes, and the question of when “the big one” will hit Los Angeles. It conveys the understanding that ultimately, nature trumps all-even fate and chaos.]
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS -DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Ian, a very good researcher by trade, teaches Mia how to navigate the Library of Congress. They research Charles and Elsa and find all sorts of papers, and Mia finds some curious clues. Ian, of course, pulls all of the Elvis documents he can find and veers off into numerous directions b/c he loves this stuff.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – 1948 – CHARLES WORLD
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles tells Paul Gregory about the “little girl muse” and that he is not going to move, which concerns Paul.
INT. MIA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia and Ian are getting to work on researching Charles, while also smoking weed, talking, laughing and probably falling in love. They learn that Charles hosted an Ed Sullivan show when Elvis was guest, and Ian asks Mia to ask Charles for an autograph.
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s “lover”, JOHNNY GATTO, a married man, asks her to accompany him to California. She accepts in order to visit Pinecliff. Is she prostituting herself for a trip to L.A?
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
Mia gets news that Ian’s father, MICHAEL GARDNER, was killed in a car crash. Ian has gone home.
PLACEHOLDER
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
TE/Key Scene 4/Turning Point-Lock in the Journey: When Mia visits the abandoned house, she encounters Charles again as an adult. She is scared and flees, but knows there is a reason for these cosmic encounters and that she must talk with him.
Act 2
EXT. PINECLIFF – DAY
Key Scene 1/Reaction to turning Point/New Plan: Mia prepares for seeing Charles again-fix this scene.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: When Charles meets the adult Mia, and she drives she is Mia, he is convinced that it is a message: to not move from Pinecliff, and to upend other things like getting rid of Paul Gregory.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 1947
PLACEHOLDER: Meanwhile, Charles and Elsa are being told, again, by a geologist, MERLE PRICE, that they must move because of the threat of earthquakes, as well as mudslides, like the one they just went through. No insurance company will insure their valuable paintings, art collection, antiques, nothing.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES LOCATIONS – DAY – 1997
PLACEHOLDER (s): Mia sees old friends in LA; she goes to library to research Charles; she does some investigating; she talks to her mother; she encounters an older Carlos Tobalina, the former neighbor.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
Key Scene/Plan in Action, Executed: Charles and Mia meet again days later and their encounter changes fate. Mia tells him things. She convinces Charles she is from the future. She asks for Elvis autograph, “because you are going to guest-host a show for Ed Sullivan”. Charles has been so happy at Pinecliff, teaching, enjoying nature, embarking on a reading tour, that he longs to stay. He gets the skinny on earthquake history.
INT. MIA’S LOS ANGELES HOTEL – NIGHT
Key Scene/Not only does it fail, but/PLACEHOLDER: Mia and Ian talk by phone. Ian is not as interested in their project, given she is with Gatto. Mia promises to get the Elvis autograph
EXT. PINECLIFF – NIGHT – 1947
TE/Key Scene/Midpoint /Turning Point: Charles is convinced and he decides not to move from Pinecliff, based on Mia’s information about earthquakes.
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles changes Mia’s and his life by deciding once and for all to stay at Pinecliff. Elsa leaves Charles.
INT. MIA’S HOUSE – WASHINGTON, D.C. – MORNING – 1997
TE/MIDPOINT: Mia is woken up by a ringing phone and a call from her sister, Carrie, but when she wakes up, she is in a whole different reality. She learns she is even in a little house that she owns. Carrie, sober, is a successful industry agent. Mia is in DC, but she has to cobble together how she got there, and why, and learn what she does for a living. Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure. What did Charles and she do?
Act 3
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY – 1997
Key Scene 1/Rethink Everything: Mia sorts our her new reality, and while she actually likes her own new outcome and her family seems to be in a better place, she has different job, and different people and friends in her life. Funny sequence as she figures out where she works, and how much money she has in the bank. She finds hew own business card: “President, MDP Consulting and Fundraising”.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia is living in a new reality, but something is amiss, and it only gets worse. There is no Ian, and she is in a different workplace. Mia discovers she is an influential fundraiser in Washington, with her own company. She can do what she wants.
INT. MIA’S HOUSE – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia talks with family. They are all well, kooky, but well. Dad is woo-woo. Mother is a cat lady who cooks very well and sells her sauces. Amusing.
INT. LOS ANGELES – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles’ new life: he pursues Shakespeare and fails. Lawerence Olivier weighs in.
EXT. GEORGETOWN BAR – WASHINGTON, D.C
PLACEHOLDER: Mia returns to some the haunts she knows. They are different. It is as if she was never born, but she is known and has friends—just to different people in different places. Among other new/altered cultural phenomena, she sees that John Lennon is performing with Mark Knopfler. And that Teddy Pendergrass is the biggest star ever. She has to find Charles, but has no idea how, until she goes back to Pinecliff.
PLACEHOLDER/Key Scene 2/New Plan: Mia is deciding what to do. Leave it all alone and go one living this incredibly functional, successful life, or return to the old life? She decides to go to Library again, where she and Ian did research.
THEME: Mia is on the verge of making a poor decision, or is she? Marin is facing a dilemma, and it reflects on her very deeply. She ponders a big questions about making the “right” decision.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – DAY
Key Scene 3/Things go Well Until: In doing some research she also comes to discover horrifying things. Mia never lived in the oceanfront house in the new reality; how will she correct things and ever find Charles? And, worst of all, Charles died alone. Elsa moved out of Pinecliff, while Charles stayed—and taught. He never went on reading tour (which earned him a lot of money). Paul Gregory moved on to other clients. Charles never directed Night of the Hunter, and he was never in Advise and Consent. *(maybe show this in scenes as she is researching).
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
Mia “asks permission” to go to California. Her employees think she is acting weird but they are focused on work. They say she will miss a big pitch. Mia asks: “Well, how much am I needed?” Amusing, but she leaves.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY
Placeholder(s): Mia returns to LA. Sees//or at least looks for the same old friends, neighbors. So much is different.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
TE/Key Scene 4/Turning Point/Lowest Low: Mia gets to Pinecliff, which is still abandoned but it looks different. When Mia finally figures out how to reach Charles*, they spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles. (Figure this out) but Mia kind-of likes her new life too?
THEME: Mia longs to do the right thing. And that “thing” is to adhere to the original narrative of her life and, especially, Charles’. Given what he has gone through and how much he has suffered for his craft, Mia knows that he needs to have his original, profound legacy play out.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY – SAME
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Mia thinks Charles should move and tell shim so. Charles is adamant: he is not moving.
EXT. LOS ANGELES RESTAURANT – 1948 – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles fires Paul Gregory over lunch, where they were supposed to meet about a new script Paul found, Night of the Hunter. Charles never sees it.
INT. LOS ANGELES CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL – 1961 – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles is dying, alone, miserable, less accomplished, and believes he has failed to accomplish what he wanted.
Act 4
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Key Scene 1/Reaction to Turning Point: Mia has to decide what to do and force Charles’ hand. Scene: TK-something with Ian, his father, altering the other things Charles wants to alter.
EXT. PINECLIFF – DAY
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life that won’t be, and what she saw versus the great legacy he is supposed to leave; and, when he asks, she tells him about how he died. Mia is having a bittersweet time with returning back to her original, darker family situation.
THEME: By doing the right thing for Charles, by rearing to her old family situation, Mia is stronger. By stronger, she can see, feel and sense love. She will find Ian and they will love each other. Her heart has opened and she is fearless.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES – DAY – 1947
PLACEHOLDER/Climax: Charles decides what to do.
INT. MIA’S APARTMENT – MORNING
PLACEHOLDER: Mia is woken up by a ringing phone, her sister, Carrie. Carrie sounds loopy again, a relief to Mia, but still some things are different.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES – 1947
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution: Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe…
INT. CURSON STREET HOUSE – BEVERLY HILLS – 1961
PLACEHOLDER/Antagonist Journey: Charles. tampers with a few things that change history, one of which involves saving Marilyn Monroe by asking young Albert Finney to court Monroe in or around summer 1962.
EXT./INT. LOS ANGELES – 1960s to 1990s
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution/Denouement/New Status Quo: Montage/Graphic of newspaper items on Marilyn Monroe, Albert Finney, Laughton’s Night of the Hunter becoming one of the most revered films etc..
INT. NATIONAL MUSUEM OF NATURAL HISTORY – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 1997
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution/Denouement: …among them Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian. Still, he seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father, a more mature man. She gives him autograph;
EXT. NATIONAL MALL – WASHINGTON, DC – 1997
PLACEHOLDER/New Status Quo: Ian chases after Mia as she leaves the museum. Birdseye view: He catches up to her, and they walk off across the National Mall together.
FADE TO BLACK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s High Speed Beat Sheet
What I learned doing this assignment: In creating the beat sheet, I have learned to just keep going, to put my head down and to write. I have also learned to believe that things will fall together, and that, out of nowhere, it gets exciting. But, I have to take the stress and the “dips” along with the joy.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program.
Act 1
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
Opening: The Northridge Earthquake of 1994 strikes Los Angeles.
INT. LOS ANGELES – HOUSE OVER THE OCEAN (PINECLIFF) – DAWN – CONTINUOUS
Key Scene 1: We see a family flee an oceanfront house, known as PINECLIFF, that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape. TE: Major earthquake in 1994 causes protagonist’s childhood home, Pinecliff, to get severely damaged.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – ABOUT 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1973
At the same house 20 years earlier, we meet MIA PAULEY, 8, who is saying a sad farewell to a friend/her caretaker, TINA, while her parents, BRUCE PAULEY and KATRINA PAULEY look on sadly.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN – SAME
TE/Key Scene 2/Inciting Incident: Little Mia Pauley meets CHARLES LAUGHTON, who also lived in the house but 25 years earlier, in 1947, in the garden of the house. They are from different points in time. It is NOT the first time they have met*.
EXT. SIDEWALK – 1973
Little Mia leaves Charles and goes next door by climbing over the wall in the yard. She interacts with neighbors. Meet CARLOS TOBALINA and his daughter, LINDA.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN – CONTINUOUS
Charles puzzles over the child, can’t tell where she disappeared to, and at the same time hears his name called out. He returns to the house.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 1947 (CHARLES’ WORLD)
Follow Charles back into his world. He walks onto the same terrace but it is the late 1940s and is decorated beautifully, according to Charles- arts, sculpture, books. He is greeted by his wife, ELSA LANCHESTER and his manager, PAUL GREGORY.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – SAME
Charles is greeting students, SHELLY WINTERS, ROBERT RYAN, among others, as they arrive for acting class he teaches at Pinecliff.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – CONTINUOUS
PLACEHOLDER: Charles and Elsa have a run-in over parked cars and one of his students, as Elsa is trying to leave for the Turnabout Theater for her work. Charles takes a lot out on Elsa.
INT. MIA PAULEY’S APARTMENT – WASHINGTON, DC – MORNING – 1997
TE/Key Scene 3/Protagonist reacts: Mia, 33, who lives as an adult in Washington DC, is woken up by a ringing phone, and told by her sister, CARRIE PAULEY, of the damage to her house.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – WASHINGTON, DC – MORNING
Meet Mia’s colleagues, her work life and Ian Gardner, 34, a close friend and work colleague on whom she relies to help her navigate this odyssey, as he is just quirky enough to believe her—and he loves her.
INT. GEORGETOWN BAR – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia tells Ian the stories about the encounters (plural!). We glimpse her shame about her family. There are a few flashbacks, i.e. the two Christmas Parties; the garage sale; and when they both realized they had to move from Pinecliff.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS -DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Ian, a very good researcher by trade, teaches Mia how to navigate the Library of Congress. They research Charles and Elsa and find all sorts of papers, and Mia finds some curious clues. Ian, of course, pulls all of the Elvis documents he can find and veers off into numerous directions b/c he loves this stuff.
INT. MIA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia and Ian are getting to work on researching Charles, while also smoking weed, talking, laughing and probably falling in love. They learn that Charles hosted an Ed Sullivan show when Elvis was guest, and Ian asks Mia to ask Charles for an autograph.
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s “lover”, JOHNNY GATTO, a married man, asks her to accompany him to California. She accepts in order to visit Pinecliff.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
TE/Key Scene 4/Turning Point-Lock in the Journey: When Mia visits the abandoned house, she encounters Charles again as an adult. She is scared and flees, but knows there is a reason for these cosmic encounters and that she must talk with him.
Act 2
EXT. PINECLIFF – DAY
Key Scene 1/Reaction to turning Point/New Plan: Mia prepares for seeing Charles again-fix this scene.
INT. PINECLIFF – DAY – 1947
PLACEHOLDER: Meanwhile, Charles and Elsa are being told, again, by a geologist, MERLE PRICE, that they must move because of the threat of earthquakes, as well as mudslides, like the one they just went through. No insurance company will insure their valuable paintings, art collection, antiques, nothing.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES LOCATIONS – DAY – 1997
PLACEHOLDER (s): Mia sees old friends in LA; she goes to library to research Charles; she does some investigating; she talks to her mother; she encounters an older Carlos Tobalina, the former neighbor.
EXT. PINECLIFF GARDEN – DAY
Key Scene/Plan in Action, Executed: Charles and Mia meet again days later and their encounter changes fate. Mia tells him things. She convinces Charles she is from the future. She asks for Elvis autograph, “because you are going to guest-host a show for Ed Sullivan”. Charles has been so happy at Pinecliff, teaching, enjoying nature, embarking on a reading tour, that he longs to stay. He gets the skinny on earthquake history.
INT. MIA’S LOS ANGELES HOTEL – NIGHT
Key Scene/Not only does it fail, but/PLACEHOLDER: Mia and Ian talk by phone. Ian is not as interested in their project, given she is with Gatto. Mia promises to get the Elvis autograph
EXT. PINECLIFF – NIGHT – 1947
TE/Key Scene/Midpoint /Turning Point: Charles is convinced and he decides not to move from Pinecliff, based on Mia’s information about earthquakes.
INT. MIA’S HOUSE – WASHINGTON, D.C. – MORNING – 1997
TE/MIDPOINT: Mia is woken up by a ringing phone and a call from her sister, Carrie, but when she wakes up, she is in a whole different reality. She learns she is even in a little house that she owns. Carrie, sober, is a successful industry agent. Mia is in DC, but she has to cobble together how she got there, and why, and learn what she does for a living. Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure. What did Charles and she do?
Act 3
EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY – 1997
Key Scene 1/Rethink Everything: Mia sorts our her new reality, and while she actually likes her own new outcome and her family seems to be in a better place, she has different job, and different people and friends in her life. Funny sequence as she figures out where she works, and how much money she has in the bank.
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
PLACEHOLDER: Mia is living in a new reality, but something is amiss, and it only gets worse. There is no Ian, and she is in a different workplace. Mia discovers she is an influential fundraiser in Washington, with her own company. She can do what she wants.
INT. MIA’S HOUSE – NIGHT
PLACEHOLDER: Mia talks with family. They are all well, kooky, but well. Dad is woo-woo. Mother is a cat lady who cooks very well and sells her sauces. Amusing.
EXT. GEORGETOWN BAR – WASHINGTON, D.C
PLACEHOLDER: Mia returns to some the haunts she knows. They are different. It is as if she was never born, but she is known and has friends—just to different people in different places. Among other new/altered cultural phenomena, she sees that John Lennon is performing with Mark Knopfler. And that Teddy Pendergrass is the biggest star ever. She has to find Charles, but has no idea how, until she goes back to Pinecliff.
PLACEHOLDER/Key Scene 2/New Plan: Mia is deciding what to do. Leave it all alone and go one living this incredibly functional, successful life, or return to the old life? She decides to go to Library again, where she and Ian did research.
INT. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS – DAY
Key Scene 3/Things go Well Until: In doing some research she also comes to discover horrifying things. Mia never lived in the oceanfront house in the new reality; how will she correct things and ever find Charles? And, worst of all, Charles died alone. Elsa moved out of Pinecliff, while Charles stayed—and taught. He never went on reading tour (which earned him a lot of money). Paul Gregory moved on to other clients. Charles never directed Night of the Hunter, and he was never in Advise and Consent. *(maybe show this in scenes as she is researching).
INT. MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
Mia “asks permission” to go to California. Her employees think she is acting weird but they are focused on work. They say she will miss a big pitch. Mia asks: “Well, how much am I needed?” Amusing, but she leaves.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY
Placeholder(s): Mia returns to LA. Sees//or at least looks for the same old friends, neighbors. So much is different.
EXT. PINECLIFF – DAY
TE/Key Scene 4/Turning Point/Lowest Low: Mia gets to Pinecliff, which is still abandoned but it looks different. When Mia finally figures out how to reach Charles*, they spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles. (Is it still 1947? Figure this out) but Mia kind-of likes her new life too?
Act 4
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY
PLACEHOLDER/Key Scene 1/Reaction to Turning Point: Mia has to decide what to do and force Charles’ hand. Scene: TK-something with Ian, his father, altering the other things Charles wants to alter.
EXT. PINECLIFF – DAY
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life that won’t be, and what she saw versus the great legacy he is supposed to leave; and, when he asks, she tells him about how he died.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES – DAY – 1947
PLACEHOLDER/Climax: Charles decides what to do.
INT. MIA’S APARTMENT – MORNING
PLACEHOLDER: Mia is woken up by a ringing phone, her sister, Carrie. Carrie sounds loopy again, a relief to Mia, but still some things are different.
EXT/INT. LOS ANGELES – 1947
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution: Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe…
EXT./INT. LOS ANGELES – 1960s to 1990s
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution/Denouement/New Status Quo: Montage/Graphic of newspaper items on Marilyn Monroe, Albert Finney, Laughton’s Night of the Hunter becoming one of the most revered films etc..
INT. NATIONAL MUSUEM OF NATURAL HISTORY – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 1997
PLACEHOLDER/Resolution/Denouement: …among them Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian. Still, he seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father, a more mature man. She gives him autograph;
EXT. NATIONAL MALL – WASHINGTON, DC – 1997
PLACEHOLDER/New Status Quo: Ian chases after Mia as she leaves the museum. Birdseye view: He catches up to her, and they walk off across the National Mall together.
FADE TO BLACK
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’ Khalifa’s Transformational Events (Lesson 6)
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I am having a little trouble figuring out the sequence of dramatic events and need to work on it–but must forge ahead!
Character ARC: Mia Pauley
Beginning: Mia is moderately happy in life and haunted by a cosmic encounter with Charles; she judges herself and her family; she has never been in love.
Ending: Mia is a bold decision maker; and she has good intentions even if she has to sacrifice certain things she wants, she does it for a better place in life, the universe
In Between: Mia, as a child and then as an adult, has a series of experiences that inform and transform her life and the lives of those around her and change her view of her present world, from the dissolution of her family, the loss of Tina and the chance encounter with Charles to being able to endure and navigate an alternate reality.
Steps [6-8] of changes that need to happen for character to go from who they are in the beginning to the ending. Steps should be sequenced from easiest to most difficult:
-Mia needs to be certain she met Charles Laughton in the garden of her home when she was a little girl.
-Mia accepts this seemingly-impossible reality and is drawn to finding out why it happened. She also decides to confide in her friend Ian Gardner about her “supernatural” moments as a child.
-Mia learns/finds evidence through her study of Charles that he talked about “the little girl in the garden”. Mia learns she is not crazy and imagining things, but that she actually has a strange, cosmic gift (as does Charles)
-Mia decides to return to the house, now abandoned since the earthquake, even though she has a lot of fear about what could happen.
-Mia, an adult, encounters Charles again and has to explain who she is and reveals that there are no earthquakes until the mid-1990s that threaten their beloved house, Pinecliff.
-Charles decides he won’t move, even though Mia tells him about some of the great things he achieved, and that he risks losing that.
-Because of Charles decision, Mia is in a new reality, alone, without Ian, and her new world is a better reality for her family. While some things are appealing, and her family is more functional, she is completely spooked and needs to reverse what happened, especially after learning that Charles did not achieve some of the great things he was supposed to accomplish- i.e. direct Night of the Hunter and act in Advise and Consent.
-Mia becomes confident, noble and fair; and she is no longer ashamed.
-Mia knows she loves Ian and needs to find him and tell him. She knows they belong together.
Act 1
Opening The Northridge Earthquake of 1994 strikes Los Angeles and we see a family flee an oceanfront house, known as PINECLIFF, that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape. At the same house 20 years earlier, we meet MIA PAULEY, 8, who is saying a sad farewell to a friend/her caretaker.
Inciting Incident Little girl Mia Pauley meets Charles Laughton, who also lived in the house but 25 years earlier, in 1947, in the garden of the house. They are from different points in time. This memory stays with Mia her entire life. 25 years later, Mia, who lives as an adult in Washington DC, is woken up by a ringing phone, and told by her sister of the damage to her house (key scene 3 – reaction) and she plans a visit to the house. She relies on a close friend and work colleague, Ian Gardner, to help her navigate this odyssey, and he is just quirky enough to believe her.
Turning Point When Mia visits the abandoned house, she meets Charles again as an adult. She is scared and flees, but knows there is a reason for these cosmic encounters.
Dramatic Events:
1. Major earthquake in 1994 (Northridge Quake) causes Mia’s childhood home, Pinecliff, to get severely damaged
2. Mia, 8, and Charles, 47, meet in the garden of the oceanfront home, where they both live, but at different points in time; Mia talks as if it is her house, which catches the non-believing Charles by surprise
3. Both Mia and Charles are distraught because they are being forced to leave their beloved home, but for different reasons: Mia’s family life is shattering around her, her parents are divorcing; and, Charles’ insurers will not cover his valuable art and sculpture collection as long as he lives in the house on the cliff (Pinecliff)
Act 2
New Plan Mia prepares for seeing Charles again. She sees old friends in LA; she goes to library; she talks to her mother; she encounters a former neighbor.
Plan in Action Charles and Mia meet again days later. Mia tells him things. She convinces Charles she is from the future.
Midpoint /Turning Point Charles is convinced and he decides not to move from Pinecliff, based on Mia’s information about earthquakes. Mia is woken up by a ringing phone and a call from her sister, but when she wakes up, she is in a whole different reality. She is in DC, but she has to cobble together how she got there, and why. What did she do?
Dramatic Events:
1. Mia meets Charles as an adult and their encounter changes fate
2. Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure
Act 3
Rethink Everything Mia sorts our her new reality, and while she actually likes her own new outcome and her family seems to be in a better place, she has different job, and different people and friends in her life. But, she also comes to discover horrifying things.
New Plan Mia is living in a new reality, but something is amiss, and it only gets worse. She has to find Charles, but has no idea how, until she goes back to Pinecliff.
Turning Point: When Mia finally figures out how to reach Charles, they spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles
Dramatic Events:
1. Mia learns things that are good and bad about the new life; about Ian’s life; about Charles’ life
2. Mia never lived in the oceanfront house in the new reality; how will she correct things and ever find Charles?
3. Mia really likes her new world. Certain historic people are actually alive and well. Should Mia just stay in her new world, or try to reverse what happened?
Act 4
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life that won’t be, and what she saw versus the great legacy he is supposed to leave; and, when he asks, she tells him about how he died.
Resolution Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe, among them Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian. Still, he seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father, a more mature man. She gives him autograph; he chases after her as she leaves. They walk off across the National Mall together.
Dramatic Events:
1. Mia must find out what Charles new life was like; and she must figure out how to encounter him.
2. Mia convinces Charles to move and to, therefore, return events to their original state—all but a few.
3. Though Mia does not know Ian in the “adjusted” new life—she seeks him out. They will get to know each other and fall in love, because it was meant to be.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s 4 Act Transformational Structure (Lesson 5)
What I learned doing this assignment: This screenplay might be better suited to episodic television what with multiple characters who have conflicts. Still, this story has one central matter, and for that reason, it also makes a good screenplay. At this point in the process, I think it is important to keep it simple, persist and figure this out.
Concept: Mia Pauley, as a little girl and then as an adult, has cosmic encounters with Charles Laughton, a person from another time— the late 1940s— and realizes that the information they share could propel both of them into different trajectories for the rest of their lives.
Main Conflict: After Mia convinces Charles that she is for real and that they both live in different places in time, Charles uses the information she shares with him about earthquakes and decides he can stay in the house in which they both live, Pinecliff, and sends her life and his life into chaos, and only Mia can reverse these events, provided she can find Charles again and convince him to move when he was supposed to move.
Mia Pauley Old Ways
Ignores her memories and plods through life, but lacks confidence
Happy but unsure of herself; questions happiness
Simultaneously angry at and worried about her family; privately ashamedMia Pauley New Ways
1. She is strong enough to deal with different fates presented to her; bold time traveler, of sorts
2. Learned in a whole new way; aware of huge chunks of history, and subsequently enlightened about life as it is
3. Accepts the hand dealt her; she wants her family back for all their warts; a good and righteous person with integrity—she is not tempted to take the better existence that occurs after Charles tampers with their fates
3. Capable of falling in love, being in love, giving love; open heart
Act 1
Opening The Northridge Earthquake of 1994 strikes Los Angeles and we see a family flee an oceanfront house, known as PINECLIFF, that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape. At the same house 20 years earlier, we meet MIA PAULEY, 8, who is saying a sad farewell to a friend/her caretaker.
Inciting Incident Little girl Mia Pauley meets Charles Laughton, who also lived in the house but 25 years earlier, in 1947, in the garden of the house. They are from different points in time. This memory stays with Mia her entire life. 25 years later, Mia, who lives as an adult in Washington DC, is woken up by a ringing phone, and told by her sister of the damage to her house (key scene 3 – reaction) and she plans a visit to the house. She relies on a close friend and work colleague, Ian Gardner, to help her navigate this odyssey, and he is just quirky enough to believe her.
Turning Point When Mia visits the abandoned house, she meets Charles again as an adult. She is scared and flees, but knows there is a reason for these cosmic encounters.
Act 2
New Plan Mia prepares for seeing Charles again. She sees old friends in LA; she goes to library; she talks to her mother; she encounters a former neighbor.
Plan in Action Charles and Mia meet again days later. Mia tells him things. She convinces Charles she is from the future.
Midpoint /Turning Point Charles is convinced and he decides not to move from Pinecliff, based on Mia’s information about earthquakes. Mia is woken up by a ringing phone and a call from her sister, but when she wakes up, she is in a whole different reality. She is in DC, but she has to cobble together how she got there, and why. What did she do?
Act 3
Rethink Everything Mia sorts our her new reality, and while she actually likes her own new outcome and her family seems to be in a better place, she has different job, and different people and friends in her life. But, she also comes to discover horrifying things.
New Plan Mia is living in a new reality, but something is amiss, and it only gets worse. She has to find Charles, but has no idea how, until she goes back to Pinecliff.
Turning Point: When Mia finally figures out how to reach Charles, they spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles
Act 4
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life that won’t be, and what she saw versus the great legacy he is supposed to leave; and, when he asks, she tells him about how he died.
Resolution Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe, among them Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian. Still, he seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father, a more mature man. She gives him autograph; he chases after her as she leaves. They walk off across the National Mall together.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s 4 Character Interviews (Lesson 4)
What I learned doing this assignment: This screenplay might be better suited to episodic television what with multiple characters who have conflicts. Still, this story has one central matter, and for that reason, it also makes a good screenplay. At this point in the process, I think it is important to keep it simple, persist and figure this out. This interview exercise was wonderful and helps me understand the “voices” for my protagonist and antagonist, and get a feel for writing dialog for these two characters.
MIA PAULEY
Tell me about yourself. The seven-year-old me? Or, the adult Mia? Both of us, but mostly the adult Mia, will have a point of view.
Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you? I am very strong, and probably have extrasensory perception, a psychic gift, and I always knew that I met Mr. Laughton as a child in the garden of the house in which we both lived but at different times, inexplicable as it may be. I’ve also had other encounters with so-called ghosts, which they aren’t.
You are up against C.L. and FATE. What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you? The difficult part is proving to myself and my friend, Ian Gardner, that this happened. I wouldn’t even believe me. But, Laughton’s decisions are critical. Anything he does will effect, pretty much, my whole life. If he stays in Pinecliff, the house we both lived in, my family’s fate will change.
In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult? Keeping my composure and sanity upon facing an entirely new life because of Charles’ decisions. Read: living a whole new life while being perfectly aware of the previous life.
What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of? I judge myself, my family and everything associated with me. Sometimes I am on top of the world and see myself as intensely smart, aware and in touch. Other times, to put it bluntly, I hate myself, and think I am worthless, frivolous and searching. I am a dreamer in the most positive way, and, likewise, the most useless way, or so I tell myself in a fit of pique.
What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back? My parents’ absenteeism, and their own struggles. My “unsupervised” childhood. The loss of Tina, my housekeeper and best friend, who lived with us, and who was more of a true, nurturing mother to me. I also feel like I have never been able to love someone, or, put another way, to be in love—without losing that love and having my heartbroken. I never get what I want when it comes to love. I am never chosen by the ones I want to choose me. Charles and I are kind-of alike this way.
What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist? My imagination and creativity, my sense of adventure and my flexibility about the impossible (to me nothing is impossible) coupled with a lot of knowledge of Charles Laughton’s life. I have to handle Charles with care. That part is easier than even remotely understanding what goes on in his mind.
What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know? Most see me as strong, attractive, privileged and a person with “flair”, which I like to think is valid, but I am an anxious mess, and have been since I was about seven, when my parents divorced, when I lost Tina…when I met Charles!
What do you think of Charles? He confuses me. He is in another world and is so good at acting that I feel like an outsider, and that I have to reel him in to get him to really understand the situation. To that end, he does’t believe in me, or that I exist as “someone from the future’”. He deals in facts—when he is not creating his characters for another film or play—so my only leverage is on the topic of earthquakes, since that is what got us into this in the first place.
Tell me your side of this whole conflict. TK
What does it do for your life is you succeed here? It gives me peace of mind and allows me to love someone with all of my heart.
Ask any other questions about their character profile that will help you.CHARLES LAUGHTON
Tell me about yourself. I am an actor. It is all I know and what I adore. I went to RADA- the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts at 19. I have an Oscar—for Henry VIII that I couldn’t be there to accept. I was famous at a young age. I have demons. Among them, William Shakespeare, which I try to avoid—that blasted iambic pentameter. My last role at the Old Vic was a humiliation that haunts me. Shakespeare, my bete noire. I am an Englishman from “tradesman” stock. My parents were hoteliers. I was in the War. I am injured, and I am ugly as it is. I don’t care to look at myself. I only feel free in my roles, never in my own skin. I am happiest teaching, I might add, my young actors, like Shelly Winters and Robert Ryan.
Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses? It is absolutely absurd to think I met a child one Sunday afternoon in my garden at Pinecliff. My students were on their way over to the house for acting class. I can’t believe in something as otherworldly as a child meeting me from the future, yet she spoke with such conviction about the house, calling it “her house”, and when she said she had lived though an earthquake, I was dumbfounded. I see this child a is see God and faith—it might be beneficial to believe. But I am too busy to think about it.*
Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change? I see it a as stroke of luck- the fates- that she came along at the very moment Elsa and I have been told to move from my beloved home here in Pacific Palisades. Whether she is a figment of my wishful imagination, or if indeed, I am part of a great otherworldly conspiracy, I am to understand that I do not have to move. As I piece to gather the puzzle of the little blonde creature roaming in my orchard, I take it to be a message, nothing more, that I can live in this beautiful home for the rest of my life! We are being forced to move, in my opinion, because of something that hasn’t happened- an earthquake. We had a mudslide, and I lost some sculptures. Now, I can’t get insured because of the potential damage to my art-my beautiful paintings. I don’t want to harm the child, or upset her, but were I to stay in the house, we would never know. As for the grown woman I met, who tells me —it’s lunacy I, I say—that she is the same little girl, and that nothing brought down the house until nearly the year 2000. The future! Whatever is going on, I am intent upon staying in my home, and not moving to the Beverly Hills house Elsa found for us, though it has a swimming pool, which I would enjoy.
What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition? I get to live in the home that has so much meaning to me, and where I have done wonderful things. Paul (Gregory, my manager) got me started on my “touring”, which has been a splendid success, and kept me away from wasting my energy on lackluster achievements at the Playhouse. I read to groups all over the country—alas, they like me, these war veterans, and patients, and students in college- excerpts from the Bible and great poems, and my favorite literature.
What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death? Sometimes I already feel dead, I am so miserable. If I can do what I love, and if Pinecliff has anything to do with it, I may stop thinking about death, or my fear of death, or my unworthiness as a living mortal. These are moments in my mind. Forgive me. I only wish to act well, and to work.
What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity? I love my wife dearly, she is my muse, my confidante, my helper. But , as she is well aware, I yearn for others, for the boys and men. I need that companionship too, which makes me angry with myself. When I fail in a role, I am morose, sometimes hellbent on disappearing forever.
Compared to other people like you, what makes you special? I understand the art of acting. I love beauty. I do admit there are moments —most often when I am empowered by a good role- when I believe I am a force.
What do you think of Mia Pauley? I think she is a lost soul, a total curiosity, and while I wonder whether she is telling the truth, I do not think she is a liar, nor is she malicious in any way whatsoever. I have not yet I determined as to whether I need to help her. She is also rather lovely, the child, and, so too, the other woman, who claims to be the child after 25 years.
Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. I’ve explained as much as I can for now. Very little will make me change my mind about leaving this house. When the child first appeared, it was a wonderful day. My at-home acting classes were in full swing, and I was making a bit of money staying off the stage and preparing to tour around the country and do readings. What irony! When the woman appeared and explained all there was to explain about the history of earthquakes along the Southern California coast line, I decided to believe her. Another secret. Who could possibly identify accept this tale in my life? No one. Well, perhaps Bertolt (Brecht). And Norman (Corwin).[[Note from D. Khalifa: I need to flesh out the beats and structure of the story, and I having trouble with the time continuum narrative. Charles is a passive change agent/antagonist. He means no harm, except for his trials and struggles to be admired, to conquer Shakespeare, to direct great films, to work and do it well, to love and be in love.]
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Daisy Ridgway Khalifa
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Character Profiles Part 2 (Lesson 3)
What I learned doing this assignment: Without the character’s experience and transformation, your story, as good as it might be, means very little.
MIA PAULEY
What draws us to this character? As LITTLE MIA who meets Charles at age 8, we meet her when her innocence is, for the first time, being eroded from an experience with her family. As adult MIA, she is an imaginative, humorous, open-minded force and must prove that Charles and she met.
Traits: Witty, cynical, beautiful, respects confidences; never tells a secret; cogent; loves to learn; believes in the unfathomable.
Subtext: She is worried she is crazy with her story of the Charles encounter as a child.
Flaw: She sells herself short in life.
Values: She believes in love, kindness, following through, and improving herself
Irony: She appears put together on the outside, and is falling apart on the inside; her family history and low-self esteem haunt her, though few can tell.
What makes her/him the right character for this role? The innocent child whose family life is shattering around her, Mia’s cosmic experiences are so implausible, they seem brought on by trauma; yet she can cope like no one else; her strong mind is equally imaginative; she has faith in the impossible.
CHARLES LAUGHTON
What draws us to this character? He is an astonishing, gifted, little-understood actor; he is a creative force; he is tortured by self-hatred though he is one of the most revered, respected men in Hollywood for his talent. Many unusual things happened to him in his lifetime, and he is someone who is inspired by many aspects, large and small, in nature and the world.
Traits: Self-absorbed; preoccupied; brilliant; sensitive; excitable; famous
Subtext: He works very hard at his craft, and at giving back to actors by teaching, educating; he is accomplished yet sad and worried about daily life; he struggles with his homosexuality
Flaw: Workaholic; health issues; physically ugly; ashamed of himself
Values: Truth in acting; conveying meaning through performance
Irony: Ugly and full of self doubt, Charles is a giant in Hollywood, well-respected and considered one of the great actors. Charles’ work is rooted in all that is imagined and conjured, yet the encounter with Mia is impossible to accept
What makes her/him the right character for this role? His glamorous, heady, intellectually-loaded life in 1940s Hollywood is the right backdrop for someone who must face a supernatural event and deal with it while also juggling all of his projects, and, even more, all of his demons. Charles’ quest to be an authentic actor, and to conquer hard roles for him like Shakespeare’s Lear, make him all at once manic and great. He is powerful man, spiritually and in terms of his presence, whose performances convey this unusual gift. Still, he does not treat those who care about him all that well, especially Elsa Lanchester, his wife and muse and confidante. He must see how important she is to him, and meeting Mia helps him do that.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Daisy Khalifa.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
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Subject line: Daisy Khalifa’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment: There are different types of heroes/protagonists and antagonists. I also learned that my genre may be different than what I thought!
Protagonist: HERO/DREAMER
MIA PAULEY, 31, is consumed by memories of an encounter she had at the age of seven with an actor, Charles Laughton, who lived in her home in Los Angeles, but at a different point in time. She is convinced they met and that their encounter had lasting impacts on her life. She wants to prove this is true.
Antagonist: CHANGE AGENT
CHARLES LAUGHTON, the actor, is 47-years-old when he and Little Mia, age 7, meet in the garden of the home in which they both lived but at different points in time. Charles makes decisions that affect Mia’s life trajectory. Adult Mia (main character) must find Charles and convince him to do certain things in order to correct the time continuum.
Supporting Characters:
IAN Gardner, Adult Mia’s best friend
ELSA Lanchester, Charles Laughton’s wife
BRUCE Pauley, Mia’s father
KATRINA Pauley, Mia’s mother
BABS BUTTLE, Little Mia’s sitter
CARRIE PAULEY, Mia’s older sister
PAUL Gregory, Charles’ agent
DAVID SMITH, Charles’ protege and lover
BERTOLT BRECHT, writer, collaborator of Charles’
NORMAN CORWIN, writer/journalist, friend of Charles’
BURGESS MEREDITH, actor, friend of Charles’
ALBERY FINNEY, actor, “
ROBERT MITCHUM, actor, “
JOSEF von STERNBERG, film director
WILLIAM DIETERLE, film director
ALEXANDER KORDA, film director
TINA BARRIENTOS, Mia’s housekeeper and “second mother”
MICHAEL GARDNER, Ian’s father
MEYRL PRICE, geologist for Los Angeles/earthquake specialist
Genre: SCI FI
MIA PAULEY
Role in the story: Hero/Dreamer. Mia, 31, is aware that something is not right with the universe and it is because she encountered Charles Laughton when she was seven-years-old, as LITTLE MIA. Mia wants to set her life straight but it is notsmall task, given her unfathomable story that no one would believe.
Age Range and Description: Female, 31, attractive, witty, confident yet a little awkward, if wreckless.
Internal Journey: Wild, self-destructive and “blocked” to focused, clear and able to challenge time and the Cosmos using her mind and skill.
External Journey: She is living one life and must experience an interruption in the time continuum after which she will live a better life.
Motivation: To accept happiness, find love and to stop judging her family and herself.
Wound: A damaged, distant, tragic family-divorce; loss of Tina
Mission/Agenda: To confirm that she met Charles Laughton, who was from another time, and to understand what changed because of that meeting.
Secret: Chance encounters with people from another place and time: a meeting with Charles Laughton when she was seven.
What makes them special: Mia did meet Charles Laughton and Charles did meet Mia, though both were living in different times, Mia in 1972 and Charles in 1947. Both are at emotional turning points because they have to leave their beloved home, but for different reasons.
CHARLES LAUGHTON
Role in the story: Change Agent. Charles struggles with his own self-loathing —and his achievements as an actor — so much that he is slow to learn that the child he encountered was indeed from the future. When he does, he decides things that change his own life and hers.
Age Range and Description: Male, 47, unattractive, round, kind, aloof, self-absorbed, tortured, hard-working. Something of a dizzy professor.
Internal Journey: Disinterested to interested in the unfathomable; self-loathing to slightly more proud
External Journey: From a life of successful acting/directing to a different, more tragic professional life — and then back.
Motivation: To act well, classically; to stay in his beautiful ocean-front home in Los Angeles despite the threat of earthquakes (a decision that impacts everyones’ fates)
Wound: World War I injuries; his ugliness; closeted homosexuality
Mission/Agenda: To be a great director and actor
Secret: Chance encounters with people (MIA) from another place and time
What makes them special: Charles’ mind and his creative endeavors in 1940s Hollywood as one of its biggest stars. And, Charles has the power to change Mia’s fate, unbeknownst to him. Charles Laughton and Mia did meet, though both were living in different times, Mia in 1972 and Charles in 1947. Both are at emotional turning points because they have to leave their beloved oceanfront home, but for different reasons.
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Subject line: Daisy Khalifa’s Transformational Journey
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned more about character and the imperative of having your main character change, grow, and have a new worldview by the end. I learned that I must look for that progression and ensure it is happening, so that my story is engaging enough to keep viewers “rooting” for my hero.
Internal Journey: Mia Pauley, mid-thirties, is a single girl who lives and works as far away from her family and hometown as possible. She cares about her family but wants distance, though she has not necessarily found happiness in her adopted hometown, and feels that she is “blocked” and unable to be in love, or have success. Instead, she is wild, has lovers, and lives life on the edge. She questions herself, her childhood and the emotional “damage” her family created and sustained for her and for themselves. By the end of the film, Mia has seen her family for all of their failures and accepts these serious flaws—she no longer wishes she could erase them or that they never happened. Mia breaks through her self-imposed barriers and her heart is open, her life is calm again and she sees clearly the gift she has been given of a good, happy life.
“From a carefree, self-destructive cynic to a self-respecting, confident woman.”
External Journey: Mia is unsure, indecisive and lives life tentatively, full of worry and insecurity, though she is a good person. By the end, Mia has endured, through a chance cosmic encounter with a man from an earlier time in history, a view of her “alternate life and reality” and, while tempted to live it, makes an even more bold decision to accept what she was dealt. Mia’s encounter with alternate events of her life force her to make difficult decisions that further illustrate her capacity to do what is kind and loving and right with the universe.
“From indecisive, timid thinker in her own world to an experienced, informed observer and ‘traveler’ of time, who commandeers history and events over which she has control, and that she knows she can change for better or for worse.”
Mia OLD ways:
1. Passionate and wild; impulsive; hiding low-self esteem.
2. Unclear, vague though intensely smart. Untapped, dormant talent.
3. Bitter, mad, judgmental; not been in love.
Mia NEW Ways:
1. Peaceful and calm, resolved and free of heavy emotional worries.
2. Focused, successful, wiser; aware of her powers and intellectual gifts.
3. Capable of being in love.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Turning Point Scene [11]
What I learned doing this assignment: This lesson is helping me really “beat out” story scenes and see the story.
ACT 1 TURNING POINT
Outline turning point scene and any scene leading up to it
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – 25 YEARS LATER
BEGINNING: Mia Pauley, 33, receives a phone call from her sister, CAREY. Carey, a drug addict, is chatty, high, and calls to tell her sister that their old house finally gave out, and is now abandoned, because of the Northridge earthquake. “You ought to come out.”
MIDDLE: MIA is preoccupied with thoughts about Charles and her old house.
END: MIA heads to work …
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
BEGINNING: Mia works at a museum. Has a good job and has interesting work. [establishing]
MIDDLE: Mia tells her close friend and confidante at work, IAN GARDNER, about her old house.
END: Mia and Ian plan to go out after work to discuss PINECLIFF, because Mia has something on her mind.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – BAR – EVENING
BEGINNING: Mia and Ian have fun at happy hour. Their relationship is affectionate but not romantic, at this point.
MIDDLE: Ian is awestruck and wants to know more about the house where Laughton lived. Mia shares fun facts, among them, Charles hosted for Ed Sullivan the night Elvis Presley appeared.
END: Ian helps Mia remember some key things about her meeting with Charles. They agree it all has to do with earthquakes, when they happened—and when they didn’t.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
BEGINNING: Mia unearths, i.e. faces, old memorabilia about Charles.
MIDDLE: Mia comes across the “thing” Charles left behind that is proof that she met him. A PEN OR A NOTE FROM THE CLASS HE IS ABOUT TO TEACH, that Charles dropped.
END: Mia hears her sister’s voice: “You ought to come out,” and makes a plane reservation to go to L.A. and visit.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S WORKPLACE – DAY
BEGINNING: Mia arrives at work and learn Ian did not come in to work this morning.
MIDDLE: Mia and her colleagues learn that Ian has gone home because Ian’s father, MICHAEL GARDNER, a university professor, was killed in an auto accident the previous day.
END: Mia and Ian talk by phone. Ian, seeking answers, says he is game for helping Mia with the Charles memory and pretty much “believes anything is possible.”
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
BEGINNING: Ian is back and arrives at Mia’s. He is traumatized and mourning his father.
MIDDLE: Ian has some of his father’s papers, including correspondence from Charles Laughton, who sought information about Lord Byron from Michael Gardner. Mia promises jokingly, that if she meets Charles again she will somehow arrange for Ian to get an autograph from Elvis Presley.
END: Mia and Ian find discover information in which Charles told people about a little girl in “orange plaids” in his garden. They both begin to believe the meeting is real.
EXT. – PINECLIFF – DAY
BEGINNING: Mia, equipped with her research and all sorts of data, is in L.A. and arrives at Pinecliff
MIDDLE: Mia and Charles meet again. Long interaction about earthquakes, fate, her life and his life.
END: After an exchange about “the little girl in orange plaids” and earthquakes, Charles, whether convinced or not, see it as a sign that he should stay in the house and not move from PINECLIFF.
EXT. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – DAY
BEGINNING: Mia’s world is upside down.
MIDDLE: Mia learns details of her new life
END: Mia must find Charles and fix this—or not.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Inciting Incident [10]
What I learned doing this assignment: I thought I liked writing dialog and, at least for the time being, it makes me very nervous. Alas, I need to relax. I also realize my beat sheet be might off.
ACT 1 INCITING INCIDENT
KEY SCENE 2 — Mia meets Charles; Two worlds converge, Mia’s and Charles 1974 & 1947
KEY SCENE 3 — PINECLIFF – Charles world, 1947 [The Protagonist Reacts]
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN — CONTINUOUS
MIA runs to the garden at the side of the house. She goes toward the fringes, where there is a brick storage building. She reaches a dark garden path, covered by pine trees, where a massive unused fire pit sits in a circle. In a daze, the child picks up rocks to toss into the pit. She is kneeling by the fire pit, lost on thought, if a little bewildered. Out of nowhere appears a short, plump man with rolled up shirt sleeves and loose, wrinkled pants.
CHARLES
Well, who do we have here?
MIA is startled but doesn’t run, though she peers toward her house, knowing she is safe.
MIA
Hello. Are you working in the garden?
CHARLES
Yes. I am working in the garden. Are you?
MIA
I live here. That is my playhouse.
Mia points toward some citrus trees, though it is hard to see through the garden.
CHARLES
Play house? In the garden?
Charles goes along with the child, not sure what to think- but how harmful could she be.
MIA
Are you Charles Laughton?
CHARLES
I am.
They are quiet until Mia works up the nerve to speak.
MIA
Were you the Hunchback of Notre Dame?
CHARLES
I was the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Did you see that picture?
MIA
Yes. It was good. It is one of my favorites.
Beat.
MIA
You used to live in my house. In this house. Do you know my parents? And Elsa Lan-kaster.
Charles looks at the child, completely perplexed.
CHARLES
It’s “Chester”. Elsa Lanchester. And I am afraid I don’t know your parents. But, young lady, I thought I lived in this house.
MIA
Chester. Else Lanchester. We’re moving.
CHARLES
You’re moving.
MIA
And my parents are having a really big garage sale in our driveway soon.
CHARLES
I am moving too, but I don’t want to. How about you?
Mia shakes her head.
MIA
My mother said our new house is a treehouse. So, I am excited.
CHARLES
I love the sea. I grew up by the sea in England. And I’ve also lived in a treehouse.
Mia smiles.
MIA
Really? You sound like Mrs. Buttle. Are you Cockney?
Charles is bemused.
CHARLES
No, dear. I am not. Is your Mrs. Buttle Cockney?
MIA
Yes. She said so because she was born near the BAWBELLs. Sometimes I don’t understand what she says. She calls Du-h. Listen, Du-h.
Charles laughs.
CHARLES
She might well be a cockney (name-term). You know, I have a feeling she likes you very much. Because she is calling you, Duck, actually.
Mia’s eyes light up.
MIA
Duck! Duck! Oh. That’s it …duck.
Mia smiles and is lost in the thrill of knowing this, as if she has just discovered a buried treasure.
[The dialog above is place holder text;(—more dialog tk] Charles drops something that Mia finds and keeps, a pen or paper. Mia picks it up and keeps it. They part.
ON CHARLES
As he makes his way out of the garden, we follow him to the terrace. It has the same splendid view, but it is not the same terrace of Mia’s house.
It is PINECLIFF, but it is 1947.
Two people are standing on the terrace: his agent, PAUL GREGORY, and CHARLES’ WIFE, ELSA LANCHESTER.
[-THEY ARE DISCUSSING CL’s speaking tour; she is on her way to the Turnabout Theater.TK]
ELSA
There you are! Paul told me all about your reading tour. This might be just the thing, Dear. [see notes] Charles, I must go but would you kindly ask your student, Miss Winters, not to block my driveway. And kindly ask the rest of your troupe to park on the street.
CHARLES
Yes, of course. Have you ever seen a child in our garden before? A lovely little girl with bright, golden hair. She had on the most unusual orange plaid play clothes, pants. Sweet thing. But she said she lived here.
ELSA
I like her imagination. Probably one of the neighbors, of course.
Paul is strolling around the terrace.
PAUL
There is no one in the garden now. Where is the mudslide damage? It looks wonderful today.
CHARLES
Oh, we cleaned that up right away. I was distraught. We looked as hard as we could for the x sculptures. They just absolutely disappeared. A bit ominous, actually. Gone.
Beat.
CHARLES
This child. She said she was moving. From this house. Am I loosing my mind?
ELSA
Sounds like you are. Have a good class. It’s a lovely day for it. Paul, should we be worried that a little girl is milling around our house? Maybe she’s an English spy.
They laugh, and Elsa departs.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Act 1 Opening Scenes
What I learned doing this assignment: Do not wordsmith too soon. You will create a glut of good and bad language and ideas that might be hard to sift through. Also, I am having some anxiety about writing dialog.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program. [after lessons 7 and 8;)]
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Opening
BEGINNING: Shots of a quiet pre-dawn Los Angeles.
MIDDLE: Shots of pre-dawn Los Angeles, this time shaking and breaking in an the 1994 Northridge Earthquake
END: An oceanfront house that is rupturing from the ground up as a family escapes at sunrise. The terrace, cracked down the middle, and ocean beyond are silent and calm again in the aftershock.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
A slumbering pre-dawn Los Angeles, seen in millions of flickering lights in various expansive shots of the city, goes from tranquil to unhinged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. We hear low audio of the sounds of the city as a VOICE OVER begins of a reading from the BIBLE.
V.O.
And then there was…
EXT. LOS ANGELES – OCEANFRONT HOUSE ON A CLIFF/“PINECLIFF” – CONTINUOUS
The terrace of an oceanfront house known as PINECLIFF, fractures in several places during the earthquake. We can hear slightly the natural sounds of the city, the air, the quake in all of their eeriness.
V.O. (Con’t)
…damnation – tk
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
A husband and wife shoot out of bed and scramble frantically.
ON WIFE:
As she bolts into the HALLWAY and meets the caretaker, who is holding a baby and has another child by hand.
BACK to MASTER BEDROOM
On husband as he goes to his safe across the spacious bedroom-over-the-ocean, grabbing what he can of his wife’s jewelry on the way. He pulls out documents, even a gun. He heads for the front door.
V.O. (Con’t)
Bible…tk
INT/EXT. PINECLIFF – FRONT DOOR THRESHHOLD – CONTINUOUS
HUSBAND stands at front door as the QUAKE’s last explosive sound is heard. He turns to look back at his beautiful investment, worth millions UP TO NOW. The hallway floor BUCKLES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Beyond, across the cracked terrace, the ocean is sapphire blue, calm, but for the crashing waves.
V.O. (Con’t)
Ends…
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. PINECLIFF – TERRACE – DAY – 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1974
BEGINNING: Mia and Tina part ways, a trauma for Mia.
MIDDLE: Mia encounters Charles Laughton in her garden. They talk.
END: Charles leaves the garden and goes back to his home, PINECLIFF in 1947, and tells a few people about the little girl “in orange plaids”.
Birds eye view over the terrace of the oceanfront house on a bright sunny afternoon. We pan windows of the DINING ROOM of Pinecliff, where MIA PAULEY, 8, is straddling her housekeeper, TINA BARRIENTOS, in a tight hug, while Tina sits in a dining room chair, dressed in her finest Sunday clothes. MIA won’t let go. She is hiding tears. Tina knows. Mia’s father, BRUCE PAULEY, and her mother, KATRINA PAULEY, look on helplessly.
BRUCE
Baby, I think I have to take Tina downtown now.
TINA prompts Mia and Mia finally lets go, kisses her on the cheek one more time, and gets off TINA’s lap quickly. Distraught, Mia hides her face, and runs out of the dining room. TINA sheds a tear as she watches Mia tear out.
EXT. PINECLIFF – GARDEN — CONTINUOUS
MIA runs to the garden at the side of the house. She goes toward the fringes, where there is a brick storage building. She reaches a dark garden path, covered by pine trees, where a massive unused fire pit sits in a circle. In a daze, the child picks up rocks to toss into the pit.
MEETS Charles.Placeholder: The CONVO: Dialog starts with Mia so much in tears she isn’t scared. She asks him if he is CL? Were you the Hunchback? Yes. You lived here before we did. Charles grows curious. Saw Charlie Chaplin, Laughton’s quips, “Bully for you.” Mia says you sound like Mrs. Buttle, she is mean to me and is funny. She says, “Listen duh,” and I don’t understand her. Charlie laughs. I think she is calling you Duck. Let me show you: “Listen, DUCK, I don’t think we both live in this house.” Duck, Oh. Duck, she grins. That’s it. DUCK!” Well. How is Chaplain? How is he? “He is an old man,” says Mia. Spooks Charles more, CL thinks he might be losing his mind and says as much. “We’re having a garage sale. We’e moving…” Charles says he is too.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – 25 YEARS LATER
BEGINNING: Mia Pauley, 32, receives a phone call from her sister, CAREY. Carey, a drug addict, is chatty but calls to tell her sister that their old house finally gave out, and is now abandoned, because of the Nothridge earthquake. “You ought to come out.”
MIDDLE: MIA is dumbstruck, nervous and preoccupied, as she heads to work and we meet IAN GARDNER, whom she will confide in about PINECLIFF.
END: MIA and IAN go to happy hour, and have fun, and also touch on PINECLIFF, because Mia has something on her mind. IAN is awestruck and wants to know more about the house where Laughton lived. That night, MIA has dreams. That morning, searching for an old box of files, Mia unearths her research about Charles Laughton. She hears her sister’s voice: “You ought to come out.”
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s Beat Sheet Draft #2
What I learned doing this assignment: I must forge ahead, and stop the self-loathing. I must not be concerned that a fair amount of the story is still feeling “out of order”.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program. [after lessons 7 and 8;)]
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Opening
The 1994 Northridge Earthquake strikes Los Angeles as we see a family flee an oceanfront house that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape at sunrise.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
Shots of expanses across a slumbering Pre-dawn Los Angeles transform as we see the same set of shots but this time as the city violently rocks and rumbles in a major earthquake.
[OR, A slumbering pre-dawn Los Angeles, seen in millions of flickering lights across various expansive shots of the city, goes from tranquil to unhinged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.]
EXT. LOS ANGELES – OCEANFRONT HOUSE ON A CLIFF/“PINECLIFF” – CONTINUOUS
The terrace of an oceanfront house known as PINECLIFF, fractures in several places during the earthquake. We can hear slightly the natural sounds of the city, the air, the quake in all of their eeriness.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: There is a VOICE OVER of an excerpt BEING RECITED from the Bible/maybe Gettysburg. It is the voice of Charles Laughton.
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
A husband and wife shoot out of bed and scramble frantically.
We follow WIFE, who bolts into the HALLWAY and meets the caretaker, who is holding a baby and has another child by hand.
BACK to MASTER BEDROOM
Husband goes to his safe, grabbing what he can of his wife’s jewelry on the way. He pulls out documents, even a gun. He heads for the front door.
INT/EXT. PINECLIFF – FRONT DOOR THRESHHOLD – CONTINUOUS
The QUAKE’s last explosive sound is heard. HUSBAND turns to look back at his beautiful investment, worth $7 million UP TO NOW. The hallway floor BUCKLES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Beyond, the ocean is sapphire blue, calm, but for the crashing waves.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: V.O. Ends
EXT. PINECLIFF – TERRACE – DAY – 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1974
Description: PLACEHOLDER: We are back on the terrace in broad daylight and peer through glass windows to find people in the DINING ROOM of Pinecliff.
TE: MIA PAULEY, age 8, says goodbye to TINA, her beloved housekeeper. Her parents, BRUCE and KATRINA PAULEY, look on.
EXT. PINECLIFF – 1974 and 1947
TE: A distraught Mia meets Charles Laughton in the garden of Pinecliff in a “cosmic patch in time”
Placeholder: The CONVO: Dialog starts with Mia so much in tears she isn’t scared. She asks him if he is CL? Were you the Hunchback? Yes. You lived here before we did. Charles grows curious. Saw Charlie Chaplin, Laughton’s quips, “Bully for you.” Mia says you sound like Mrs. Buttle, she is mean to me and is funny. She says, “Listen duh,” and I don’t understand her. Charlie laughs. I think she is calling you Duck. Let me show you: “Listen, DUCK, I don’t think we both live in this house.” Duck, Oh. Duck, she grins. That’s it. DUCK!” Well. How is Chaplain? How is he? “He is an old man,” says Mia. Spooks Charles more, CL thinks he might be losing his mind and says as much. “We’re having a garage sale. We’e moving…” Charles says he is too.
*THEME: This film is about loving oneself and overcoming trauma, be it divorce or ugliness or closeted secrets, and coping. It is about facing reality, and not changing it or erasing it. Even if the universe is full of miracles.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – 25 YEARS LATER
Inciting Incident
Description: Twenty five years later, Mia Pauley, 31, is told of the damage to her old oceanfront home, called Pinecliff. She is flooded with memories, dreams even, about an encounter she had as a little girl with Charles Laughton, yet another tenant of the house, but who lived there in 1947. Mia decides to face them head on by visiting the house, called Pinecliff, while reliving (flashback) the experience she had as a child. She recalls that Charles and she were both sad about having to move from the house.
TE: Mia is flooded with memories, dreams even, about an encounter she had as a little girl with Charles Laughton, yet another tenant of the house, but who lived there in 1947.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: WE LEARN Mia has evidence of Charles’ talking about meeting exactly her from friends who were there that day in 1947. It is a fluke that he said anything, and he never spoke about it again. She has never claimed such a thing, obviously. But she is the child in “orange scotch plaid”. Mia has been doing her homework for years.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Enter Charles’ world after he has met Mia. Who is there? Friends of Charles and the crew who listened to Charles question and muse over the child roaming in their yard are links to the past and future. Where and when do we explain Charles’ claims? How much of Charles’ life do we see?
EXT./INT. LOS ANGELES – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER Hollywood and Los Angeles circa 1947. We meet ELSA LANCHESTER and PAUL GREGORY, his agent, among others. [[this could move to later, after Mia has second encounter with Charles.]]
EXT/INT LOS ANGELES – 1974
TE: Mia must face them head on by visiting the house, called Pinecliff, while reliving (flashback) the experience she had as a child. She recalls that Charles and she were both sad about having to move from the house.
EXT/INT. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 1999
Turning Point
TE: After recounting the experience she had as a little girl to her friend Ian Gardner, Mia reveals her old research to Ian and they begin examining Cahrles’ life.
TE: Ian Gardner’s father is killed. Ian is game for anything. Mia prepares* to go back to LA to visit the house.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Ian and Mia learn that Laughton guest-hosted for Ed Sullivan on the night that Elvis Presley wa the guest. Ian makes Mia promise to get an autograph from Elvis to Ian.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia has prepared with Ian, gone back through her memory and forensically examined the encounter with Charles. Ian was there throughout, nothing to lose, Ian is cynical, sad and willing to believe in miracles, if only to distract him. We don’t know if IAN really believes, but he seems to because he is in shock —read: traumatized — by his father’s death.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY – 1999
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia arrives in L.A. with a lover, a paramour, sort-of. MAYBE? Ian is ambivalent about Mia’s private life though they are very close. They have not hooked up. Neither is sure the other is right. And Mia has this man in her life, who takes her to LA. Like many things in Mia’s life, this doesn’t sit well with Mia but she does it anyway.
EXT. – PINECLIFF – GARDEN – DAY – 1999 and1947 *
TE: Mia meets Charles as an adult and their encounter changes fate
Description: PLACEHOLDER: When she visits, Mia, 31, now an adult, finds herself in the same garden spot of the house face to face with Charles Laughton.
*[EXT. PINECLIFF — DAY — 1999 and 1947 -What do I call the ‘wrinkle’ or ‘patch’ in time where Charles and Mia meet??]
New Plan
Mia, equipped with new and long-held knowledge and the evidence that Charles talked about their meeting, has to convince Laughton she is the little girl. When she does, and tells him all sorts of things about the future, Charles casually changes his mind about the house and decides to stay, and not move out in 1947. Now, we see Charles’ life. [We need to have dramatic introduction of Charles’ world and Mia’s childhood world]
EXT./INT. — LOS ANGELES – 1999
TE: Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure
Description: PLACEHOLDER: After she and Charles part, Mia is makes bizarre discoveries, some thrill her, some shock her.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia figures out she has the power to change some events, big and small. [maybe she starts getting into this ‘power’ in Act. 2]
Act 2
New Plan
EXT/INT. – LOS ANGELES – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Charles’ life
Plan in Action
Charles is in his world; we see Elsa, his agent, his readings, his classes, his filmmaking; and what he is working on (Brecht; Don Juan in Hell). All the while, he is slightly haunted, if vexed, by the child. Was it a sign about earthquakes and staying by the sea? Meanwhile, it is a completely different life for Mia; many things are reversed in her new world. Charles’ decision created chaos for Mia’s family, but Mia’s new way of life is beginning to grow on her.
EXT./INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. — 1999
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia arrives home after her trip to L.A. to a new reality.
Midpoint Turning Point
Mia is seeing all sorts of things in the new world. Teddy Pendergrass lives; John Lennon is performing with Lyle Lovett; her father is remarried; her mother is happy and not married; Ian Gardner’s father, Michael., was not killed; and, to her horror, Charles has No Night of the Hunter, or Advise and Consent, or anything.
THEME: This film is about being our best, doing our best—acting well and being proud of who you are.
Sub-theme: The film explores acting, the challenge, what it is; the actor’s plight
Sub-theme: The film explores the lingering question about nature and earthquakes, and the question of when “the big one” will hit Los Angeles. It conveys the understanding that ultimately, nature trumps all-even fate and chaos.
EXT/INT LOS ANGELES – 1974
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s 70s life. All of the events leading up to farewell to Tina.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: The unraveling and split of Bruce and Katrina. Their backstory. The garage sale with neighbor, the porn king CARLOS TOBALINA.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia as a little girl visits her grandparents and the races at DEL MAR, which is a bastion of Hollywood celebrities. This [someone at the track, like Deana Durbin] is possibly another link for adult Mia to Charles’ life.
[[at this point, my beats are still out of order]]
Act 3
Rethink Everything
While Mia likes her own new outcome and family more, she is missing Ian, whom she doesn’t know, and Charles is having a more lackluster life than he did. She also never meets Tina.
EXT./INT. – DC and Los Angeles – 1999, 1974 and 1947-48
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s alternate childhood plays out. They moved to Brentwood b/c Laughton’s were in the house. They stayed together. A neighbor —old family friend —in Brentwood saved Bruce, spiritually and financially. Her family even moved back to Pasadena, but Katrina left after that. She preferred the West Side.
New Plan
Mia must get to Charles and convince him to move from the house. She wants it to go back to the old way for the sake of Charles’ life, among other things.
Description: Placeholder: Mia finds connections between her life and Charles’. One of them is Charles’ mention of seeing the little girl that day to his colleagues,Elsa. Another is the fact that Katrina once met Elsa and they discussed the house. Elsa asked about the bowling green. Do the talk about how Katrina’s little girl always liked to say she met Chalres. Does Elsa reply with, “That’s funny. Charles always said he saw a little girl…” But what comes of this?
Turning Point
Charles and Mia spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles
Act 4
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict
Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life and, when he asks, his death. She also figures out that in order to save Michael Gardner, Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian, though Ian, at the beginning, asks for Charles to get him an Elvis autograph (details later). How is all of this accomplished?
EXT./INT. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 2000
Resolution
Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe. Marilyn etc..; Michael Gardner, and Mia’ and Ian’s now-non-existent friendship. Still, she has the autograph; she seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father. She gives him autograph; he chases after her as she leaves. They walk off across the National Mall together.
Fade to Black
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway Khalifa’s High Speed Beat Sheet
What I learned doing this assignment: I can see with this lesson that I should stop using my inability to use proper structure cues as an excuse to stall and stop. Lo, I am forging ahead. Moreover, learned that I know nothing; and, this screenplay might-be-better-as-multiple-television-episodes.
Commitment to my fellow classmates: I will intentionally use the High Speed Writing Rules throughout the rest of this program. [after lessons 7 and 8;)]
=====
Opening
The 1994 Northridge Earthquake strikes Los Angeles as we see a family flee an oceanfront house that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape at sunrise.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAWN
Shots of expanses across a slumbering Pre-dawn Los Angeles transform as we see the same set of shots but this time as the city violently rocks and rumbles in a major earthquake.
[OR, A slumbering pre-dawn Los Angeles, seen in millions of flickering lights across various expansive shots of the city, goes from tranquil to unhinged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.]
EXT. LOS ANGELES – OCEANFRONT HOUSE ON A CLIFF/“PINECLIFF” – CONTINUOUS
The terrace of an oceanfront house known as PINECLIFF, fractures in several places during the earthquake. We can hear slightly the natural sounds of the city, the air, the quake in all of their eeriness.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: There is a VOICE OVER of an excerpt BEING RECITED from the Bible/maybe Gettysburg. It is the voice of Charles Laughton.
INT. PINECLIFF – MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
A husband and wife shoot out of bed and scramble frantically.
We follow WIFE, who bolts into the HALLWAY and meets the caretaker, who is holding a baby and has another child by hand.
BACK to MASTER BEDROOM
Husband goes to his safe, grabbing what he can of his wife’s jewelry on the way. He pulls out documents, even a gun. He heads for the front door.
INT/EXT. PINECLIFF – FRONT DOOR THRESHHOLD – CONTINUOUS
The QUAKE’s last explosive sound is heard. HUSBAND turns to look back at his beautiful investment, worth $7 million UP TO NOW. The hallway floor BUCKLES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Beyond, the ocean is sapphire blue, calm, but for the crashing waves.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: V.O. Ends
EXT. PINECLIFF – TERRACE – DAY – 20 YEARS EARLIER – 1974
Description: PLACEHOLDER: We are back on the terrace in broad daylight and peer through glass windows to find people in the DINING ROOM of Pinecliff.
TE: MIA PAULEY, age 8, says goodbye to TINA, her beloved housekeeper. Her parents, BRUCE and KATRINA PAULEY, look on.
EXT. PINECLIFF – 1974 and 1947
TE: A distraught Mia meets Charles Laughton in the garden of Pinecliff in a “cosmic patch in time”
Placeholder: The CONVO: Dialog starts with Mia so much in tears she isn’t scared. She asks him if he is CL? Were you the Hunchback? Yes. You lived here before we did. Charles grows curious. Saw Charlie Chaplin, Laughton’s quips, “Bully for you.” Mia says you sound like Mrs. Buttle, she is mean to me and is funny. She says, “Listen duh,” and I don’t understand her. Charlie laughs. I think she is calling you Duck. Let me show you: “Listen, DUCK, I don’t think we both live in this house.” Duck, Oh. Duck, she grins. That’s it. DUCK!” Well. How is Chaplain? How is he? “He is an old man,” says Mia. Spooks Charles more, CL thinks he might be losing his mind and says as much. “We’re having a garage sale. We’e moving…” Charles says he is too.
INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. – MIA’S APARTMENT – 25 YEARS LATER
Inciting Incident
Description: Twenty five years later, Mia Pauley, 31, is told of the damage to her old oceanfront home, called Pinecliff. She is flooded with memories, dreams even, about an encounter she had as a little girl with Charles Laughton, yet another tenant of the house, but who lived there in 1947. Mia decides to face them head on by visiting the house, called Pinecliff, while reliving (flashback) the experience she had as a child. She recalls that Charles and she were both sad about having to move from the house.
TE: Mia is flooded with memories, dreams even, about an encounter she had as a little girl with Charles Laughton, yet another tenant of the house, but who lived there in 1947.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: WE LEARN Mia has evidence of Charles’ talking about meeting exactly her from friends who were there that day in 1947. It is a fluke that he said anything, and he never spoke about it again. She has never claimed such a thing, obviously. But she is the child in “orange scotch plaid”. Mia has been doing her homework for years.
EXT./INT. PINECLIFF – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Enter Charles’ world after he has met Mia. Who is there? Friends of Charles and the crew who listened to Charles question and muse over the child roaming in their yard are links to the past and future. Where and when do we explain Charles’ claims? How much of Charles’ life do we see?
EXT./INT. LOS ANGELES – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER Hollywood and Los Angeles circa 1947. We meet ELSA LANCHESTER and PAUL GREGORY, his agent, among others. [[this could move to later, after Mia has second encounter with Charles.]]
EXT/INT LOS ANGELES – 1974
TE: Mia must face them head on by visiting the house, called Pinecliff, while reliving (flashback) the experience she had as a child. She recalls that Charles and she were both sad about having to move from the house.
EXT/INT. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 1999
Turning Point
TE: After recounting the experience she had as a little girl to her friend Ian Gardner, Mia reveals her old research to Ian and they begin examining Cahrles’ life.
TE: Ian Gardner’s father is killed. Ian is game for anything. Mia prepares* to go back to LA to visit the house.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Ian and Mia learn that Laughton guest-hosted for Ed Sullivan on the night that Elvis Presley wa the guest. Ian makes Mia promise to get an autograph from Elvis to Ian.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia has prepared with Ian, gone back through her memory and forensically examined the encounter with Charles. Ian was there throughout, nothing to lose, Ian is cynical, sad and willing to believe in miracles, if only to distract him. We don’t know if IAN really believes, but he seems to because he is in shock —read: traumatized — by his father’s death.
EXT. LOS ANGELES – DAY – 1999
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia arrives in L.A. with a lover, a paramour, sort-of. MAYBE? Ian is ambivalent about Mia’s private life though they are very close. They have not hooked up. Neither is sure the other is right. And Mia has this man in her life, who takes her to LA. Like many things in Mia’s life, this doesn’t sit well with Mia but she does it anyway.
EXT. – PINECLIFF – GARDEN – DAY – 1999 and1947 *
TE: Mia meets Charles as an adult and their encounter changes fate
Description: PLACEHOLDER: When she visits, Mia, 31, now an adult, finds herself in the same garden spot of the house face to face with Charles Laughton.
*[EXT. PINECLIFF — DAY — 1999 and 1947 -What do I call the ‘wrinkle’ or ‘patch’ in time where Charles and Mia meet??]
New Plan
Mia, equipped with new and long-held knowledge and the evidence that Charles talked about their meeting, has to convince Laughton she is the little girl. When she does, and tells him all sorts of things about the future, Charles casually changes his mind about the house and decides to stay, and not move out in 1947. Now, we see Charles’ life. [We need to have dramatic introduction of Charles’ world and Mia’s childhood world]
EXT./INT. — LOS ANGELES – 1999
TE: Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure
Description: PLACEHOLDER: After she and Charles part, Mia is makes bizarre discoveries, some thrill her, some shock her.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia figures out she has the power to change some events, big and small. [maybe she starts getting into this ‘power’ in Act. 2]
Act 2
New Plan
EXT/INT. – LOS ANGELES – 1947
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Charles’ life
Plan in Action
Charles is in his world; we see Elsa, his agent, his readings, his classes, his filmmaking; and what he is working on (Brecht; Don Juan in Hell). All the while, he is slightly haunted, if vexed, by the child. Was it a sign about earthquakes and staying by the sea? Meanwhile, it is a completely different life for Mia; many things are reversed in her new world. Charles’ decision created chaos for Mia’s family, but Mia’s new way of life is beginning to grow on her.
EXT./INT. WASHINGTON, D.C. — 1999
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia arrives home after her trip to L.A. to a new reality.
Midpoint Turning Point
Mia is seeing all sorts of things in the new world. Teddy Pendergrass lives; John Lennon is performing with Lyle Lovett; her father is remarried; her mother is happy and not married; Ian Gardner’s father, Michael., was not killed; and, to her horror, Charles has No Night of the Hunter, or Advise and Consent, or anything.
EXT/INT LOS ANGELES – 1974
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s 70s life. All of the events leading up to farewell to Tina.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: The unraveling and split of Bruce and Katrina. Their backstory. The garage sale with neighbor, the porn king CARLOS TOBALINA.
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia as a little girl visits her grandparents and the races at DEL MAR, which is a bastion of Hollywood celebrities. This [someone at the track, like Deana Durbin] is possibly another link for adult Mia to Charles’ life.
[[at this point, my beats are still out of order]]
Act 3
Rethink Everything
While Mia likes her own new outcome and family more, she is missing Ian, whom she doesn’t know, and Charles is having a more lackluster life than he did. She also never meets Tina.
EXT./INT. – DC and Los Angeles – 1999, 1974 and 1947-48
Description: PLACEHOLDER: Mia’s alternate childhood plays out. They moved to Brentwood b/c Laughton’s were in the house. They stayed together. A neighbor —old family friend —in Brentwood saved Bruce, spiritually and financially. Her family even moved back to Pasadena, but Katrina left after that. She preferred the West Side.
New Plan
Mia must get to Charles and convince him to move from the house. She wants it to go back to the old way for the sake of Charles’ life, among other things.
Description: Placeholder: Mia finds connections between her life and Charles’. One of them is Charles’ mention of seeing the little girl that day to his colleagues,Elsa. Another is the fact that Katrina once met Elsa and they discussed the house. Elsa asked about the bowling green. Do the talk about how Katrina’s little girl always liked to say she met Chalres. Does Elsa reply with, “That’s funny. Charles always said he saw a little girl…” But what comes of this?
Turning Point
Charles and Mia spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles
Act 4
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict
Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life and, when he asks, his death. She also figures out that in order to save Michael Gardner, Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian, though Ian, at the beginning, asks for Charles to get him an Elvis autograph (details later). How is all of this accomplished?
EXT./INT. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – 2000
Resolution
Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe. Marilyn etc..; Michael Gardner, and Mia’ and Ian’s now-non-existent friendship. Still, she has the autograph; she seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father. She gives him autograph; he chases after her as she leaves. They walk off across the National Mall together.
<i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Fade to Black
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Daisy R. Khalifa
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay 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, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay 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.
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Daisy R Khalifa
I agree to the terms of this release form.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’s Transformational Events
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I am stalled on figuring out the sequence of dramatic events and need to work on it.
-Character ARC: Mia Pauley
Beginning: Mia is moderately happy in life and haunted by a cosmic encounter with Charles; she judges herself and her family
Ending: Mia is a bold decision maker; and she has good intentions even if she has to sacrifice certain things she wants, she does it for a better place in life, the universe
In Between: Mia, as a child and then as an adult, has a series of experiences that inform and transform her life and the lives of those around her and change her view of her present world, from the dissolution of her family, the loss of Tina and the chance encounter with Charles to being able to endure and navigate an alternate reality.
-Steps [6-8] of changes that need to happen for character to go from who they are in the beginning to the ending. Steps should be sequenced from easiest to most difficult.
-Mia is certain she met Charles Laughton in the garden of her home when she was a little girl. As Little Mia, the child is traumatized after saying goodbye to her caretaker Tina and flees to her garden after the final farewell, where she first meets Charles
-Mia accepts this seemingly-impossible reality and is drawn to finding out why it happened
-Mia has other smaller psychic moments, such as talking to the host of romper room—is she dreaming, or is it real?
-Mia decides to confide in her friend Ian Gardner about her “supernatural” moments as a child
-Ian helps Mia explore the life of Charles and understand why it happened
-Mia’s family life is falling apart when she is the little girl; and as an adult, her family is unstable
-Mia learns all about Charles’ life
-We go to Charles’ life in 1940s Hollywood; his readings; his plays; his movies; his life with Elsa; and that they suffered a mudslide at the house and are being told to move
-Mia returns to the house, now abandoned since the earthquake
-Mia, an adult, encounters Charles again and has to explain who she is and explain that thee are no earthquakes until the mid-1990s that threaten their house.
-Charles decides he won’t move, even though Mia tells him about some of the great things he achieved
-Because of Charles decision, Mia is in a new reality, alone, without Ian, and her new world is a better reality for her family. She finds out Ian’s father is not dead.
-Charles’ life took a different, more precarious, turn
Brainstorm dramatic events that forced the growth process. [Add these events to the four act structure*]:
-Major earthquake in 1994 (Northridge Quake) causes Mia’s childhood home, Pinecliff, to get severely damaged
-Mia, 7, and Charles, 47, meet in the garden of the oceanfront home, where they both live, but at different points in time; Mia talks as if it is her house, which catches the non-believing Charles by surprise
-Both Mia and Charles are distraught because they are being forced to leave their beloved home, but for different reasons: Mia’s family life is shattering around her, her parents are divorcing; and, Charles’ insurers will not cover his valuable art and sculpture collection as long as he lives in the house on the cliff (Pinecliff)
-Mia meets Charles as an adult and their encounter changes fate
-Mia is seeing a whole new existence for herself but is aware of her previous life; she must manage it with composure
-Mia learns things that are good and bad about the new life; about Ian’s life; about Charles’ life
-Mia never lived in the oceanfront house in the new reality; how will she correct things and ever find Charles?
-Mia really likes her new world. Certain historic people are actually alive and well. Should Mia just stay in her new world, or try to reverse what happened?
-Dilemma: Mia returns to the house again but it is different; no Charles, or so she thinks. How will they meet again?
-Mia must find out what Charles new life was like; and she must figure out how to encounter him. He did do a number of things, I.e. Ed Sullivan sub-host, his reading tour; Don Juan in Hell, but then never did other things, like direct night of the Hunter and act in Advise and Consent
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
What I learned doing this assignment: This screenplay might be better suited to episodic television what with multiple characters who have conflicts. Still, this story has one central matter, and for that reason, it also makes a good screenplay. At this point in the process, I think it is important to keep it simple, persist and figure this out.
Concept
Main Conflict
Mia Pauley Old Ways
1. Ignores her memories and plods through life <div>
2. Happy but unsure of herself; questions happiness
3. Simultaneously angry at and worried about her family
Mia Pauley New Ways
1. She is strong enough to deal with different fates presented to her; bold time traveler, of sorts
2. Learned in a whole new way; aware of huge chunks of history
3. Accepts the hand dealt her; a good and righteous person with integrity
4. Capable of falling in love, being in love, giving love; open heart
Act 1
Opening
A major Earthquake strikes Los Angeles we see a family flee an oceanfront house that is rupturing from the ground up as they escape
Inciting Incident
Mia Pauley, who once lived in house in the earthquake, is told of the damage to her old oceanfront home, called Pinecliff. She is flooded with memories, dreams even, about an encounter she had as a little girl with Charles Laughton, yet another tenant of the house, but who lived there in 1947. Mia decides to face them head on by visiting the house, called Pinecliff, while reliving (flashback) the experience she had as a child. She recalls that Charles and she were both sad about having to move from the house.
Turning Point
After recounting the experience she had as a little girl to her friend Ian Gardner, who just lost his father, Mia prepares* to go back to LA to visit the house. When she visits, Mia, now an adult, finds herself in the same garden spot of the house face to face with Charles Laughton.
Act 2
New Plan
Mia has to convince Laughton she is the little girl. When she does, and tells him all sorts of things about the future, Charles casually changes his mind about the house and decides to stay, and not move out in 1947. Now, we see Charles’ life.
Plan in Action
Charles is in his world; we see Elsa, his agent, his readings, his classes, his filmmaking; and what he is working on (Brecht; Don Juan in Hell). All the while, he is slightly haunted, if vexed, by the child. Was it a sign about earthquakes and staying by the sea? Meanwhile, it is a completely different life for Mia; many things are reversed in her new world. Charles’ decision created chaos for Mia’s family, but Mia’s new way of life is beginning to grow on her.
Midpoint Turning Point
Mia is seeing all sorts of things in the new world. Teddy Pendergrass lives; John Lennon is performing with Lyle Lovett; her father is remarried; her mother is happy and not married; Ian Gardner’s father, Michael., was not killed; and, to her horror, Charles has No Night of the Hunter, or Advise and Consent, or anything.
Act 3
Rethink Everything
While Mia likes her own new outcome and family more, she is missing Ian, whom she doesn’t know, and Charles is having a more lackluster life than he did. She also never meets Tina.
New Plan
Mia must get to Charles and convince him to move from the house. She wants it to go back to the old way for the sake of Charles’ life, among other things.
Turning Point
Charles and Mia spar over what to do. Charles won’t move and Mia appears to be shut off from Charles
Act 4
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict
Mia figures out how to get to Charles and walks him through his life and, when he asks, his death. She also figures out that in order to save Michael Gardner, Mia has to sacrifice ever knowing Ian, though Ian, at the beginning, asks for Charles to get him an Elvis autograph (details later). How is all of this accomplished?
Resolution
Charles has moved from the house but, with Mia’s input, has made a few alterations to the universe. Marilyn etc..; Michael Gardner, and Mia’ and Ian’s now-non-existent friendship. Still, she has the autograph; she seeks Ian out; he is a museum director, same wonderful guy, but a single father. She gives him autograph; he chases after her as she leaves. They walk off across the National Mall together.
Fade to Black
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’s Character Interviews
What I learned doing this assignment: This was a fantastic exercise and the following two interviews sound completely crazy, and disorganized, because I realize I don’t have the beats and the narrative figured out yet! This exercise, furthermore, allowed me to hear my characters “speak” for the first time, which is to say I saw, up to a point, who they are in large, and also very subtle, ways. And it taught me about how much more work I need to invest in understanding them, creating their personalities and solidifying their motives. To that end, this exercise will help me be consistent and keep my characters “in character” whereby I will be more aware of making sure, via dialog, that these characters’ voices stay true to who they are.
MIA PAULEY
Tell me about yourself. The seven-year-old me? Or, the adult Mia? Both of us, but mostly the adult Mia, will have a point of view. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>I am very strong, and probably have extrasensory perception, a psychic gift, and I always knew that I met Mr. Laughton as a seven-year-old in the garden of the house in which we both lived but at different times, inexplicable as it may be. I’ve also had other encounters with so-called ghosts, which they aren’t.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>You are up against <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>C.L. and FATE.<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”> What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>The difficult part is proving to myself and my friend, Ian Gardner, that this happened. I wouldn’t even believe me. But, Laughton’s decisions are critical. Anything he does will effect, pretty much, my whole life. If he stays in Pinecliff, the house we both lived in, my family’s fate will change.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Keeping my composure and sanity upon facing an entirely new life because of Charles’ decisions. Read: living a whole new life while being perfectly aware of the previous life.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What habits or ways of thinking do you think will be the most difficult to let go of? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>I judge myself, my family and everything associated with me. Sometimes I am on top of the world and see myself as intensely smart, aware and in touch. Other times, to put it bluntly, I hate myself, and think I am worthless, frivolous and searching. I am a dreamer in the most positive way, and, likewise, the most useless way, or so I tell myself in a fit of pique.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What fears, insecurities and wounds have held you back? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>My parents’ absenteeism, and their own struggles. My “unsupervised” childhood. The loss of Tina, my housekeeper and best friend, who lived with us, and who was more of a true, nurturing mother to me. I also feel like I have never been able to love someone, or, put another way, to be in love—without losing that love and having my heartbroken. I never get what I want when it comes to love. I am never chosen by the ones I want to choose me. Charles and I are kind-of alike this way.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>My imagination and creativity, my sense of adventure and my flexibility about the impossible (to me nothing is impossible) coupled with a lot of knowledge of Charles Laughton’s life. I have to handle Charles with care. That part is easier than even remotely understanding what goes on in his mind.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What are you hiding from the other characters? What don’t you want them to know? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Most see me as strong, attractive, privileged and a person with “flair”, which I like to think is valid, but I am an anxious mess, and have been since I was about seven, when my parents divorced, when I lost Tina…when I met Charles!
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What do you think of Charles? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>He confuses me. He is in another world and is so good at acting that I feel like an outsider, and that I have to reel him in to get him to really understand the situation. To that end, he does’t believe in me, or that I exist as “someone from the future’”. He deals in facts—when he is not creating his characters for another film or play—so my only leverage is on the topic of earthquakes, since that is what got us into this in the first place.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Tell me your side of this whole conflic<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>t. TK
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What does it do for your life is you succeed here? <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>It gives me peace of mind and allows me to love someone with all of my heart.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Ask any other questions about their character profile that will help you.<div>CHARLES LAUGHTON
Tell me about yourself. I am an actor. It is all I know and what I adore. I went to RADA- the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts at 19. I have an Oscar—for Henry VIII that I couldn’t be there to accept. I was famous at a young age. I have demons. Among them, William Shakespeare, which I try to avoid—the iambic pentameter. No! My last role at the Old Vic was a humiliation that haunts me. Shakespeare, my beta noire. I am an Englishman from “tradesman” stock. My parents were hoteliers. I was in the War. I am injured, and I am ugly as it is. I don’t care to look at myself. I only feel free in my roles, never in my own skin.
Having to do with this journey, what are your strengths and weaknesses? It is absolutely absurd to think I met a child one Sunday afternoon in my garden at Pinecliff. My students were on their way over to the house for acting class. I can’t believe in something as otherworldly as a child meeting me from the future, yet she spoke with such conviction about the house, calling it “her house”, and when she said she had lived though an earthquake, I was dumbfounded. I see this child a is see God and faith—it might be beneficial to believe. But I am too busy to think about it.*
Why are you committed to making the Protagonist fail? Or for a relationship movie, why are you committed to making them change? I see it a as stroke of luck- the fates- that she came along at the very moment Elsa and I have been told to move from my beloved home here in Pacific Palisades. Whether she is a figment of my wishful imagination, or if indeed, I am part of a great otherworldly conspiracy, I am to understand that I do not have to move. As I piece to gather the puzzle of the little blonde creature roaming in my orchard, I take it to be a message, nothing more, that I can live in this beautiful home for the rest of my life! We are being forced to move, in my opinion, because of something that hasn’t happened- an earthquake. We had a mudslide, and I lost some sculptures. Now, I can’t get insured because of the potential damage to my art-my beautiful paintings. I don’t want to harm the child, or upset her, but were I to stay in the house, we would never know. As for the grown woman I met, who tells me —it’s lunacy I, I say—that she is the same little girl, and that nothing brought down the house until nearly the year 2000. The future! Whatever is going on, I am intent upon staying in my home, and not moving to the Beverly Hills house Elsa found for us, though it has a swimming pool, which I would enjoy.
What do you get out of winning this fight / succeeding in your plan / taking down your competition? I get to live in the home that has so much meaning to me, and where I have done wonderful things. Paul (Gregory, my manager) got me started on my “touring”, which has been a splendid success, and kept me away from wasting my energy on lackluster achievements at the Playhouse. I read to groups all over the country—alas, they like me, these war veterans, and patients, and students in college- excerpts from the Bible and great poems, and my favorite literature.
What drives you toward your mission / agenda, even in the face of danger, ruin, or death? Sometimes I already feel dead, I am so miserable. If I can do what I love, and if Pinecliff has anything to do with it, I may stop thinking about death, or my fear of death, or my unworthiness as a living mortal. These are moments in my mind. Forgive me. I only wish to act well, and work.
What secrets must you keep to succeed? What other secrets do you keep out of fear / insecurity? I love my wife dearly, but I yearn for others, for the boys and men. I need that companionship too, which makes me angry with myself. When I fail in a role, I am morose, sometimes hellbent on disappearing forever.*
Compared to other people like you, what makes you special? I understand the art of acting. I love beauty. I do admit there are moments —usually soaring in role- when I believe I am a force.
What do you think of Mia Pauley? I think she is lost, and yet I don’t think I need to help her. She is also rather lovely, the child, and, so too, the other woman, who claims to be the child after 25 years.
Tell me your side of this whole conflict / story. I’ve explained as much as I can for now. Very little will make me change my mind about leaving this house. When the child first appeared, it was a wonderful day. My at-home acting classes were in full swing, and I was making a bit of money staying off the stage and preparing to tour around the country. What irony! When the woman appeared and explained all there was to explain about the history of earthquakes along the Southern California coast line, I decided to believe her. Another secret. Who could possibly identify accept this tale in my life? No one. Well, perhaps Bertolt (Brecht). And Norman (Corwin).</div>
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’s Character Profiles Part 2
What I learned doing this assignment: Without the character’s experience and transformation, your story, as good as it might be, means very little.
MIA PAULEY
What draws us to this character? As LITTLE MIA who meets Charles at age 7, we meet her when her innocence is, for the first time, being eroded from an experience with her family. As adult MIA, she is an imaginative, humorous, open-minded force and must prove she and Charles met.
Traits: Witty, cynical, beautiful, respects confidences; never tells a secret; cogent; loves to learn; believes in the unfathomable.
Subtext: She is worried she is crazy with her story of the Charles encounter as a child.
Flaw: She sells herself short in life.
Values: She believes in love, kindness, following through, and improving herself
Irony: She appears put together on the outside, and is falling apart on the inside; her family history and low-self esteem haunt her, though few can tell.
What makes her/him the right character for this role? The innocent child whose family life is shattering around her, Mia’s cosmic experiences are so implausible, they seem brought on by trauma; yet she can cope like no one else; her strong mind is equally imaginative; she has faith in the impossible.
CHARLES LAUGHTON
What draws us to this character? He is an astonishing, gifted, little-understood actor; he is a creative force; he is tortured by self-hatred though he is one of the most revered, respected men in Hollywood for his talent. Many unusual things happened to him in his lifetime, and he is someone who is inspired by many aspects, large and small, in nature and the world.
Traits: Self-absorbed; preoccupied; brilliant; sensitive; excitable; famous
Subtext: He works very hard at his craft, and at giving back to actors by teaching, educating; he is accomplished yet sad and worried about daily life; he struggles with his homosexuality
Flaw: Workaholic; health issues; physically ugly; ashamed of himself
Values: Truth in acting; conveying meaning through performance
Irony: Charles’ work is rooted in the imaginary, yet the encounter with Mia is impossible to accept
What makes her/him the right character for this role? His glamorous, heady, intellectually-loaded life in 1940s Hollywood is the right backdrop for someone who must face a supernatural event and deal with it.
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Subject line: Daisy Ridgway’s Character Profiles Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment: There are different types of heroes/protagonists and antagonists. I also learned that my genre may be different than what I thought!
Protagonist: HERO/DREAMER
MIA PAULEY, 31, is consumed by memories of an encounter she had at the age of seven with an actor, Charles Laughton, who lived in her home in Los Angeles, but at a different point in time. She is convinced they met and that their encounter had lasting impacts on her life. She wants to prove this is true.
Antagonist: CHANGE AGENT
CHARLES LAUGHTON, the actor, is 47-years-old when he and Little Mia, age 7, meet in the garden of the home in which they both lived but at different points in time. Charles makes decisions that affect Mia’s life trajectory. Adult Mia (main character) must find Charles and convince him to do certain things in order to correct the time continuum.
Supporting Characters:
IAN Gardner, Adult Mia’s best friend
ELSA Lanchester, Charles Laughton’s wife
BILL Pauley, Mia’s father
KATRINA Pauley, Mia’s mother
MRS. BUTTLE, Little Mia’s sitter
PAUL Gregory, Charles’ agent
TINA Barrientos, Mia’s housekeeper and “second mother”
Genre: SCI FI
MIA PAULEY
Role in the story: Hero/Dreamer. Mia, 31, is aware that something is not right with the universe and it is because she encountered Charles Laughton when she was seven-years-old, as LITTLE MIA. Mia wants to set her life straight but it is no small task, given her unfathomable story that no one would believe.
Age Range and Description: Female, 31, attractive, witty, confident yet a little awkward, if wreckless.
Internal Journey: Wild, self-destructive and “blocked” to focused, clear and able to challenge time and the Cosmos using her mind and skill.
External Journey: She is living one life and must experience an interruption in the time continuum after which she will live a better life.
Motivation: To accept happiness, find love and to stop judging her family and herself.
Wound: A damaged, distant, tragic family-divorce; loss of Tina
Mission/Agenda: To confirm that she met Charles Laughton, who was from another time, and to understand what changed because of that meeting.
Secret: Chance encounters with people from another place and time; a meeting with Charles Laughton when she was seven.
What makes them special: Mia did meet Charles Laughton and Charles did meet Mia, though both were living in different times, Mia in 1972 and Charles in 1947. Both are at emotional turning points because they have to leave their beloved home, but for different reasons.
CHARLES LAUGHTON
Role in the story: Change Agent. Charles struggles with his own self-loathing —and his achievements as an actor — so much that he is slow to learn that the child he encountered was indeed from the future. When he does, he decides things that change his own life and hers.
Age Range and Description: Male, 47, unattractive, round, kind, aloof, self-absorbed, tortured, hard-working. Intense thesbian: “A method actor without all the bullshit,” as a fellow actor puts it.
Internal Journey: Disinterested to interested in the unfathomable; self-loathing to slightly more proud
External Journey: From a life of successful acting/directing to a different, more tragic professional life — and then back.
Motivation: To act well, classically; to stay in his beautiful ocean-front home in Los Angeles despite the threat of earthquakes (a decision that impacts everyones’ fates)
Wound: World War I injuries; his ugliness; closeted homosexuality
Mission/Agenda: To be a great director and actor
Secret: Chance encounters with people (MIA) from another place and time
What makes them special: Charles’ mind and his creative endeavors in 1940s Hollywood as one of its biggest stars. And, Charles has the power to change Mia’s fate, unbeknownst to him. Charles Laughton and Mia did meet, though both were living in different times, Mia in 1972 and Charles in 1947. Both are at emotional turning points because they have to leave their beloved oceanfront home, but for different reasons.
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Subject line: Daisy Khalifa’s Transformational Journey
What I learned doing this assignment:
I learned more about character and the imperative of having your main character change, grow, and have a new worldview by the end. I learned that I must look for that progression and ensure it is happening, so that my story is engaging enough to keep viewers “rooting” for my hero.
Internal Journey:
Mia Pauley, 31, is a single girl who lives and works as far away from her family and hometown as possible. She cares about her family but wants distance, though she has not necessarily found happiness in her adopted hometown, and feels that she is “blocked” and unable to be in love, or have success. Instead, she is wild, has lovers, and lives life on the edge. She questions herself, her childhood and the emotional “damage” her family created and sustained for her and for themselves. By the end of the film, Mia has seen her family for all of their failures and accepts these serious flaws—she no longer wishes she could erase them or that they never happened. Mia breaks through her self-imposed barriers and her heart is open, her life is calm again and she sees clearly the gift she has been given of a good, happy life.
“From a carefree, self-destructive cynic to a self-respecting, confident woman.”
External Journey:
Mia is unsure, indecisive and lives life tentatively, full of worry and insecurity, though she is a good person. By the end, Mia has endured, through a chance cosmic encounter with a man from an earlier time in history, a view of her “alternate life and reality” and, while tempted to live it, makes an even more bold decision to accept what she was dealt. Mia’s encounter with alternate events of her life force her to make difficult decisions that further illustrate her capacity to do what is kind and loving and right with the universe.
“From indecisive, timid thinker in her own world to an experienced, informed observer and ‘traveler’ of time, who commandeers history and events over which she has control, and that she knows she can change for better or for worse.”
Mia OLD ways:
1. Passionate and wild; hiding low-self esteem.
2. Unclear, vague though intensely smart. Untapped, dormant talent.
3. Bitter, mad, judgmental.
Mia NEW Ways:
1. Peaceful and calm, resolved and free of heavy emotional worries.
2. Focused, successful, wiser; aware of her powers and intellectual gifts.
3. Capable of being in love.