Marguerite Langstaff
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Module 7 Lesson 5 Dialogue from Character Profiles
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to write and market screen scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I need to go through 100% of my dialogue and consider whether it fits my character’s profile and also whether it’s just too wordy with the words being unnecessary. Dialogue should not be used as a “filler.” I look forward to studying this further and working on and through it. I also learned that it’s time I started incorporating AI in my work. Based on what we’ve done I need to learn to fashion the effective questions for ChatGPT and use it as my assistant, and that’s what I plan to do. Immediately….at least when I get caught up with all the lessons.
State/I absolutely love to move right along in this course and when I study the dialogue I can see that some needs changing.
Activity: writing from character profiles.
Pappy:I’m choosing Pappy to improve dialogue first. He is a lead character and yet his dialogue could probably come from most any character…it’s too bland. When the characters talk about having a market & Pappy says “Could we..etc.” that should be changed to dictatorial type remarks and plans from Pappy. He is used to being in charge and telling the world what to do and how to do it. Example: Instead of, “Can we sell them in the summer market in front of Shady Acres?” He says, “We’ll set up booths and bring in the public. Mimi, you’re the advice booth, and Frances knits mittens.” Instead of saying, “I hope so. Chaking!” when referring to Frances as the cash register, he simply says, “Chaking.” Small things but I will change his dialogue from bland to bossy.
Mimi: Mimi has too much superfluous dialogue also. Example: She says the market is in “three weeks.” That’s useless in the movie…who cares. For example, when she meets Sally and says, “I have to go over and let Frances tell my fortune, “ that’s worthless dialogue. Nobody cares where she’s going. She should just leave.
This overhaul of my dialogue may be the biggest project yet, because it needs rework in its entirety.
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Module 7 Lesson 4 Increased interest in key scenes!
Marguerite Langstaff:THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
I want to write and market screenwriting scripts.
State: I absolutely love the outcome of my script.
Activity: Making scenes more interesting!
What I learned: I learned that just when I though my main scenes to be great that there are ways to try out to change them.
Scene 3: One of my most important scenes where Mimi comes into Shady Acres and follows a woman with groceries who is on her walker and picks up her spills. Pappy sits in the room watching from behind a newspaper and finally helps.
The scene could be more interesting if, when Pappy picks up the falling oranges too, he begins to spill them and Mimi is frantically trying to pick up the ones that both he and the woman she’s following are falling.
Or Papa could trip and fall and Mimi is horrified and rushes to his rescue. He is clearly not hurt but he looks at Mimi and is instantly smitten. She can tell him that he is absolutely the first one. He has no idea what she’s talking about, but we learn later that she’s determined to make friends and he’s her first.
Or when he falls the concierge calls 911 and Pappy is furious at the concierge and refuses all treatment when the firemen come to take him to the hospital. He refuses to go. In the confusion Mimi can use her new cell and accidentally call her son Zack who come rushing in thinking she is in dire circumstances.
Another scene which isn’t quite as important as the first where Mimi is introduced to us can be the dinner scene where she eats with Pappy and a couple of other residents. In the conversation we can learn why it’s so important for her to stay at S Acres…making friends…because the ranch was so isolating and sAcres was the only place close to Zack and Tim.
She was isolated on the ranch and after a career in counseling she loved people and yearned to be near people. As a contrast one of her new friends at dinner never married, and confesses she never had a sweetheart or relationship and all her relatives are dead. She needs Mimi. In a later scene we can show that friend sweet-talking one of the male residents of S Acres and we know she’s about to have her first sweetheart.
The market scene where everything is so disasterous need work. We can see shoppers arriving, staying about three to five minutes and leaving disinterested. The residents with their wares of knitted scarves and mittens bend over backwards to reach out to the shoppers, but the interest is simply missing. Finally an enormous rain story shuts them down…all except Mimi who moves inside S Acres with her advice booth. Mimi breaks into sobs at the end of the scene and Tim and Pappy try to console her. It’s no use. She knows she’ll have to move in with Zack which she has tried so hard to avoid.
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Module 7 Lesson 3 Make scenes with more emotion
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
I want to write and market screenplays.
State/ I absolutely love the emotion in my script.
Activity/ Make my scenes double the emotional experience of the audience.
More emotion could be felt in the scene where Mimi’s husband crashes. She could fall down kicking and screaming on the ground and the audience would join her…or crying herself to sleep ever night or calling friends for solace afterwards…or talking to Zack her son on the telephone. Indeed he is gone.
More emotion could be felt in the scene where Sally warns her father Pappy not to get too friendly with Mimi. More emotion could be given to every scene in which she warns him…and more emotion could build as he begins to respond with more and more resistance. Such emotions are frequently built in families…and contrasts greatly with Mimi’s familial relationships.
More emotion could be felt in the final scene where Mimi and Pappy leave on a date, cheered on by their friends at the Acres. They could exchange looks, he could pinch her butt, he could spontaneously pick her up and carry her to the car, etc.
More emotion could be put into the scene where Mimi announces that she’s a billionaire with successful world wide advice column. Tim (grandson) could burst into tears thinking she’ll not need him anymore, and this time it could be Pappy’s arms where he runs instead of his Dad or Mimi’s. Of course she’ll need him even more and they will put a big lump sum into the savings account just for his college. Anything is possible when a grandmother and grandson join forces.
What I learned: I learned to activate my imagination more and feel the emotion that I want to convey to the audience….and/or to convey that emotion which I’m already feeling and just assume that the audience has rec’d.
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Module 7 Lesson 2 Elevating the reveals
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to write and market screen plays.
State/activity: creating powerful reveals
1. Reveals: My reveals include: Act 1: why Mimi wants to move to SA (her husband’s crash).
2. Reveal: Walter, the financial adviser, tells Mimi she’s lost all her money.
a. Reveal: Mimi suggest starting a business….needs to be better reveal.
3. Reveal: Act 2…column in paper with Mr. Oliver…
4. Reveal Act 3: Market fails miserably
. 5. Reveal Act 4: Mimi becomes a Billionaire…with advice column
6. Reveal Act 4: Mimi and Pappy are a couple and everybody is happy
What is the DEMAND
1. The crash demand is ok, but there need to be more demand from living on a secluded ranch to make Mimi want to be around people and make more friends.
2. Demand ok for Walter telling Mimi about financial disaster.
Need better reveal for necessity for starting a business.
3. Demand comes from Mimi’s profession as a counselor giving advice to everybody. She even does it at SA…can’t keep from it.
4. Build up for Market needs to be smoother…and perhaps an enormous rainstorm comes and ruins the day….for the reveal that the Market is a failure.
5. More demand for buildup for Mimi to keep giving advice….whether she wants to or not.
6. The demand is throughout the entire script for Mimi and Pappy becoming a couple.
For each of these reveals I will plant more demand … with the exception of 5 and 6. The entire script plants the demand for these reveals.
What I learned: I learned that there must be a demand for a reveal.
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Module 7 Lesson 1 more character depth
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
State: I absolutely love: continuing on with this course and seeing that again Lauree is involved.
Activity: Building more depth into my characters.
I am elevating my two main characters, Mimi and Pappy, by studying what they may be hiding and what triggers each need. It seems that thinking like this adds to the story! Clearly I realize now that when Mimi experiences a financial setback she should be far more devastated that she was in the first draft….and as for triggers….she has worked all her life as a high school counselor solving problems and she is triggered when she is needed…That needs to be shown better. The Pappy character is lonely, but I’ve not particularly shown that in the script…just sort of assumed everybody would recognize it.. But now I know I need to show it more. Pappy’s emotions are clearly triggered just by the mere touch of Mimi and that needs to be shown…when their fingers touch over a dropped napkin, or their shoulders when simply watching TV together. This lesson triggers an emotion in me just thinking about my characers and the potential which can be better shown.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned to consider triggers and analyzing the characters and what that can trigger to me in my own realizations. I do want to elevate them. I love them and want the movie goers to love them too.
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Module 6 Lesson 5 exchange feedback
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned…I learned that I have gotten too far behind in my lessons and classes to have feedback with anybody and do it justice. That is a loss for me, but I am behind in the course. I moved this month and was unable to do any of the lessons. That is a reason and not an excuse. Actually it’s a true confession thing. I had to prioritize and am still rather caught up in the move and am still behind. My goal is to catch up with the rest of my class!
I love…no, actually I do not love being behind and knowing there will be a lot of work to catch up…but I do love that I intend to catch up with my lessons.
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Module 6 Lesson 4 Solving Scene Problems
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment: I was limited in what I learned from this lesson, because try and I did..over and over…I could not access the website suggested. However I did learn that one of my scenes…a meal scene….accomplished exactly nothing and should be eliminated…I also learned that most of my scenes accomplished only one purpose, and that I should think more deeply with regard to those scenes because the story becomes a richer story with more than one meaning in its scenes.
I also learned that when my scenes had these problems that a common problem they had was too much conversation/dialogue…dialogue without much purpose. I think that’s a fairly common problem in my script and have just realized it.
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Module 6 Lesson 3 cliché busting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that even though I couldn’t find a scene in my script which I could have subconsciously copied from another movie I did have some pretty trite moments. When I looked for that I found several things to do about them. One was the flowers sent by Pappy every day to Mimi….and Mimi marches down to Pappy’s apartment and dumps them at his door…until the day she keeps them…and that signals that she’s softening toward his advances, etc.
I shortened the advice scenes Mimi gave, and added a bit of spice to a few.
I learned to look at my script in a new way…seeking for the triteness…the cliches. This was a valuable lesson in a new way to look at my script.
I love discovering something that I’ll use and use often.
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Module 6 Lesson 2 character problems
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Visiion: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that my two main characters, Protagonist Mimi, and Antagonist Pappy were both two weak..so I had to add some scenes to remedy that.
State/Activity: I love tackling this problem….sort of.
Mimi was too goody-good. She is more interesting if she isn’t so perfect, so I added a few things for her to do wrong, hoping that we, the audience, can even identify with some of those things. Then I added a unique way for her to dress throughout. Since she’s now from a ranch I’ve dressed her in cowboy boots and fancy belt buckles.
Pappy was just too bland. I’ve increased his personality, made it stronger and now he sends Mimi flowers every day…much to her chagrin. He is also stronger standing up to his daughter Sally who wants desperately to keep him away from Mimi.
These improvements to the characters making them stronger increases my own interests in the script.
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Module 6 Lesson 1 Structure Solutions
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that I could change any part of my script that I wanted to change.
State/Activity: I had to step back and think about my script rather than being so close to it.
Changes made:
I realized that the audience didn’t have any explanation as to why my Protagonist, Mimi, wanted to go to Shady Acres….and why she wanted so much to stay there instead of moving somewhere else.
So I added a flashback scene showing her living on a ranch where her husband had his own airstrip and plane. She kissed him goodby, turned to go back to the ranch house and her husband climbed into the plane, took off, and suddenly crashed to the ground.
Another change was made to make the relationship between Mimi and her son closer…or to clarify it. It was a very close relationship, but the original script didn’t do it justice…so I added a scene for that.
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aModule 5 Lesson 14: Finish up Act 4a
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
What I learned from doing this assignment: I find that I could put all else aside in order to finish this draft.
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
State/Activity: I am proud of myself for finishing this draft.
It is going well for me. Thank you.
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Module 5 Lesson 13 Continue Act 4
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment…I learned that when I think I can’t, that sometimes I actually can.
State/Activity: I am looking forward to finishing this draft.
It’s going ok for me.
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aModule 5 Lesson 12 Start Act 4
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned writing this assignment: I learned I can keep writing even when I think I can’t.
State/Activity: Putting my characters in the ultimate conflict.
How is it going? It is coming along…I’d love to say it’s sailing along nicely, but there is this moment when I have to force myself to write.
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aModule 5 Lesson 11 Finish Act 3a
Marguerite: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision:I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned: Persistence…and more persistence. I am grateful that Hal says keep on regardless of what you say. Module 5 Lesson 10 Continue Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION:I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE AND MARKET MOVIES.
WHAT I learned from doing this assignment: I learned I might have to put the rest of my life on hold while I complete assignments.
State/activity: I love moving forward with my script.
It is going all right, but I’m not so much “into my story.”
State/activity: I am totally committed to finishing Act 3.
It’s going o.k.
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Module 5 Lesson 10 Continue Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION:I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE AND MARKET MOVIES.
WHAT I learned from doing this assignment: I learned I might have to put the rest of my life on hold while I complete assignments.
State/activity: I love moving forward with my script.
It is going all right, but I’m not so much “into my story.”
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Module 5 Lesson 10 Continue Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION:I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE AND MARKET MOVIES.
WHAT I learned from doing this assignment: I learned I might have to put the rest of my life on hold while I complete assignments.
State/activity: I love moving forward with my script.
It is going all right, but I’m not so much “into my story.”Module 5 Lesson 10 Continue Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION:I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE AND MARKET MOVIES.
WHAT I learned from doing this assignment: I learned I might have to put the rest of my life on hold while I complete assignments.
State/activity: I love moving forward with my script.
It is going all right, but I’m not so much “into my story.”
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Module 5 Lesson 10 Continue Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION:I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE AND MARKET MOVIES.
WHAT I learned from doing this assignment: I learned I might have to put the rest of my life on hold while I complete assignments.
State/activity: I love moving forward with my script.
It is going all right, but I’m not so much “into my story.”
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Module 5 Lesson 9:Start Act 3
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment: I’m learning that my brain is beginning to encompass the entire script rather than bits and pieces…and to be thinking how one thing impacts other things. I also continue to appreciate how Hal’s High Speed Writing Rules give me permission to be imperfect.
State/Activity: I am completely willing to ignore unwarranted criticism.
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Module 5 Lesson 8: Finish Act 2
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that when ideas enter my brain about my script I really can’t use them until I have them down on paper in some way. I’ve already learned that my outline was inadequate. I also have learned that I can’t really enjoy the rest of my day until I’ve done at least 6 pages. I also realize that I am eager to get to the next few drafts to improve my draft, because as Hal has said…a lot of this I’m doing is crap. I also realize that I want to get on with some earlier scripts I’ve done so that I can improve them. That’s a lot of learning…by doing.
State/Activity: It really is possible to have control of my creative processes.
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Module 5 Lesson 8: Finish Act 2
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that when ideas enter my brain about my script I really can’t use them until I have them down on paper in some way. I’ve already learned that my outline was inadequate. I also have learned that I can’t really enjoy the rest of my day until I’ve done at least 6 pages. I also realize that I am eager to get to the next few drafts to improve my draft, because as Hal has said…a lot of this I’m doing is crap. I also realize that I want to get on with some earlier scripts I’ve done so that I can improve them. That’s a lot of learning…by doing.
State/Activity: It really is possible to have control of my creative processes.
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Module 5 Lesson 7
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned: I learned that my outline is too short and that seems to truly weaken my script. As the song says, I shall overcome!”
State/activity: I’m completely capable of writing Act 2.
How is it going? It’s going great in one respect and pretty slowly in another. I find that Hal’s caution not to worry is a great motivator and am taking him at his word. I also have a strange reaction to the four scripts I’ve already written. This motivates me to go to them and do some more drafts!
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Module 5 Lesson 6: Start Act 2; 6-10 pages
MARGUERITE LANGSTAFF: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that what is crap can eventually be done away with and that I’ll recognize it better after writing Act 2.
Activity: It is ok to race with a timer….
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Marguerite Langstaff THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Module 5 Lesson 5: Final 6 – 10 pages of Act
VISION: I want to learn to writ4e and market movie scripts.
State: I’m completely empowered to write this first draft.
Activity…to write this draft quickly.aMarguerite Langstaff THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Module 5 Lesson 5: Final 6 – 10 pages of Act
VISION: I want to learn to writ4e and market movie scripts.
State: I’m completely empowered to write this first draft.
Activity…to write this draft quickly.aMarguerite Langstaff THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Module 5 Lesson 5: Final 6 – 10 pages of Act
VISION: I want to learn to writ4e and market movie scripts.
State: I’m completely empowered to write this first draft.
Activity…to write this draft quickly.a
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Module 5 Lesson 4: Continue Act 1 – next 6 -10 pages
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: What I learned from doing this assignment is that I will have to devote more time daily to this script.
I truly enjoy working out the problems of retirement through this script.
Activity: …writing a high speed first draftaa
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Module 5 Lesson 2: High Speed Writing
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
Vision: What I learned doing this assignment was: I anticipate this to be a warm up for the next month of writing.
State/activity: I’m going to be great at the high-speed writing model.
How I used the high-speed writing rules: I depended on these rules to give me permission when I stalled to move on whether the quality was good or not…it seems the quantity of just getting the movie written for the first draft is all-important, so I leaned on these rules. Speed over quality. That’s a great motivator. I just kept moving. It was really easier than I anticipated…all because of the high-speed writing rules. It’s kind of nice knowing I will just delete what’s not very good…or add something I’ve hatched in the meantime. I did have to learn Final Draft 12…but it wasn’t so complicated that that was a relief.
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Module 5 Lesson 2: High Speed Writing
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
Vision: What I learned doing this assignment was: I anticipate this to be a warm up for the next month of writing.
State/activity: I’m going to be great at the high-speed writing model.
How I used the high-speed writing rules: I depended on these rules to give me permission when I stalled to move on whether the quality was good or not…it seems the quantity of just getting the movie written for the first draft is all-important, so I leaned on these rules. Speed over quality. That’s a great motivator. I just kept moving. It was really easier than I anticipated…all because of the high-speed writing rules. It’s kind of nice knowing I will just delete what’s not very good…or add something I’ve hatched in the meantime. I did have to learn Final Draft 12…but it wasn’t so complicated that that was a relief.
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Module 5 Lesson 2: High Speed Writing
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
Vision: What I learned doing this assignment was: I anticipate this to be a warm up for the next month of writing.
State/activity: I’m going to be great at the high speed writing model.
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Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
(WIM) Lesson 1: Basic Formatting, Description and Dialogue
Vision: What I learned from doing this assignment was that I have to learn Final Draft 12.
State: I am excited to write this first draft.
This process was slower for me than it should have been because I have to learn Final Draft and how to master the computer more completely, but once I made myself get started there is finally a good feeling of satisfaction to know that I’m underway and am committed to writing the first draft. Might even change the title of the script to WATCH OUT WORLD! (smile)
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Lenore…Thanks. I’ve sent it to you. Marguerite
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I would love to exchange feedback with anyone who’s ready! Let me know and we can share contact info. Fyi.. say yes!
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Module 4 Lesson 11: Time to Exchange Feedback
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Request to exchange feedback in Module 4 forum.
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Module 4 Lesson 10 : Making every scene fascinating.
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was that during the writing one has to keep using “what if?” technique and not get quite settled in just the plot or anything else.
State/Activity: I love discovering interesting ways to write scenes through interest techniques.
SCENES:
Act 1, Scene 1: Beginning: (uncomfortable moment)
The driver loads GM’s luggage onto a heavy luggage carrier.
Middle: Driver refuses to give GM the luggage carrier until she tips him. (shock)
Ending: Driver refuses to push the luggage carrier for GM so she pushes it herself causing another (uncomfortable moment).
Act 1: Scene 2 (beginning)
GM follows a handicapped woman dropping her grocery sack of oranges…one at a time…and GM picks them up while trying to push her heavy luggage carrier through the lobby.
Middle: Pappy watches GM working so hard with the oranges and luggage and puts down his newspaper and follows GM..putting the oranges in his own pockets as he walks behind her. (comedy)
Ending: After Mattie (the woman dropping oranges rides away on the elevator Pappy dumps all the oranges in his pockets into GM’s luggage carrier telling her she earned them. (surprise)
Act 1: Scene 3: (Character changes radic ally)GM works hopelessly on her checkbook, puts down her head onto the desk and sobs, the stand in tearful anger and bangs the checkbook up and down furiously on the desk until papers begin flying everywhere.
Middle: (Surprise)
GM gathers all the papers and dumps them into the waste paper basket.
Ending: (Suspense)GM sticks the checkbook under her mattress .
Act 2: Scene 1 Beginning: GM meets with her son Alex who just shrugs when she tells him she’s broke and has lost all her money. He says it’s impossible because she made a small fortune when she sold the house. She says, yes , and Healthy Peanuts, Inc. lost it all when they went bankrupt. (Mislead)
The audience doesn’t know whether to believe Alex of GM.Middle: (sudden change) GM changes altogether when Alex asks her to take care of 10 year old Sam. She is thrilled to have him there with her and instantly ignores her anger about the bankruptcy.
Ending:GM is so very enthusiastic about having Sam that it makes us wonder…It creates a suspense when we wonder just why she’s so excited to have Sam coming by three times a week.
Act 2: Scene 2: Beginning: We find out just why GM’s so excited to have Sam (Reveal). Sam is just as excited to help GM learn computer skills as she is to learn.
Middle: Sam initially acts like he doesn’t want to teach GM computer skills, and he acts like he doesn’t know anything about computers, until GM says she’ll make cinnamon toast if he can remember. (Cliffhanger)
Ending: (Surprise) When cinnamon toast enters the picture Sam not only suddenly remembers his computer skills but he skillfully teaches them to GM for the rest of the movie.
Act 2 Scene 3: Pappy and GM share a bottle of wine (beginning)and also share their problems with each other. (External dilemma)
Middle: Pappy tells GM he really likes her so much but that Sally won’t let him have a relationship with GM. (dilemma)
Ending: They consume the entire bottle and as the bottle is consumed they become better and better friends and end the scene with a few smooches …(kisses). (Comedy)
Act 2 Scene 4: Beginning: Pappy and GM meet with their fellow residents who are becoming friendlier and friendlier and more and more dependent on GM, a former middle school counselor, to give them routine advice. The meeting is to plan a market to sell handicrafts and raise enough money for GM to stay at Shady Acres. (Uncertainty)
Middle: Pappy wants to boss everybody around, but people just sort of ignore his advice, and GM goes along to get along and agrees with every thing everybody suggests. (Internal dilemma)
Ending: (Uncertainty) They agree to knit wool hats and mittens, to paint pictures of flowers and animals and to string beads to wear with sweaters in the wintertime.Pappy advises against all these things saying nobody will buy them, but the residents insist they will sell.
Act 3: Scene 1 Beginning: Sam (age 10) and GM work furiously on the computer in GM’s apartment….as he shoots her a question and she shoots back a smart answer. (Character changes radically)
Middle: GM types furiously on the computer. (surprise)
Ending: Sam has become the teacher and GM the student as she barks out the answers. When Pappy knocks and wants to come in GM goes to the door and whispers something to him. He just laughs, but she’s quite serious about it all. (Superior position: The characters know something we, the audience, don’t know.)
Act 3: Scene 2: Beginning: Pappy’s daughter Sally and Pappy have coffee together and she tells him in no uncertain terms to shun his relationship with GM.
Middle: Pappy tells Sally that he hasn’t lots of life left, and he loves Sally, but he has to live life as he wants. (Internal dilemma)
Ending: Sally leaves her father without saying goodby or anything. (awkward moments)
Act 3: Scene 3: Beginning: The residents meet and we learn the market was a massive failure. There is not enough money to keep GM at Shady Acres: (Reveal)
Middle: The residents make known their love of GM. (major twist)
Ending: Pappy tells GM he’ll have to tell her goodby, but she says no, not yet, that Sam has some good ideas. (Sam is 10 years old so this is a mystery to the audience and to Pappy.)
Act 4: Scene 1 (Beginning)Sam and GM pick up a special letter at the Shady Acres Post office. (mystery)
Middle: They are ecstatic. (still mystery and perhaps intrigue.)
Ending: GM calls Pappy on her cells and tells him to plan a meeting in one hour. Get everybody there. (intrigue)
Act 4: Scene 2: Meeting : Beginning: GM confesses she and Sam have published and sold an advice column to the NY Times and that several big worldwide news services have bought it so that she is now flush with cash and can stay at Shady Acres with her friends. (Major twist)
Middle: Pappy holds her hand throughout her announcement and high fives Sam.(Surprise)
Ending:(Comfortable moment) Money can’t buy everything, but it can buy some things…like an apartment to live in at Shady Acres.
Act 4: Scene 3: (Celebration) Beginning: The lobby is decorated with balloons and confetti and all the residents are dressed up and drinking wine and eating cake…celebrating GM’s success.
Middle: GM and Pappy, dressed to the nines, go through the party holding hands, on their way to their waiting limosine, obviously having a date. (Reveal)
Ending: Sally and Alex (GM’s son) sit at a table in the lobby sharing a glass of wine and he asks her if Pappy is chasing GM for her money. (Major twist).
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Module 4 Lesson 9: Scene Requirements
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that my assignments act as my notes and memory joggers, and when I worked on the scene requirements I learned to loosen up my too-pragmatic-imagination and think through a few scenes.
State/Activity: I have so much fun creating scene requirements for my outline.
Act 1:
EXT. SHADY ACRES RETIREMENT VILLAGE-DAY
Scene One:
Scene Arc: The driver helps GM out of limo, loads her luggage onto a massive luggage carrier, and leaves GM and the luggage at the front door so GM has to push the heavy luggage carrier into the bldg..
Essence: I want the audience to know that GM is “on her own” from the very beginning.
Conflict: GM arrives in the elegant luxury of a limo, with the solicitous help of the driver, goes into a beautiful retirement center, and suddenly is faced with pushing her own heavy luggage without help of anybody.
Subtext: GM has to be independent from the very first scene.
Hope/Fear: We hope the driver will help GM push her luggage inside, but we fear he won’t help her.
INT. SHADY ACRES LOBBY-DAY:
Scene Two:
Scene Arc: GM struggles with the luggage in the lobby but is behind a woman pushing a walker with a bag of oranges. GM leaves her luggage and walks behind the woman picking up the oranges and giving them to the woman as she continues to push her walker and spill oranges. Pappy sits behind a newspaper pretending to read but actually taking in the entire scene. A few other residents sit around the lobby paying no attention to the woman spilling her oranges and making no efforts to help. Finally when the woman reaches the elevator without even acknowledging GM’s kindness Pappy yells across the room for Mattie (the woman with the oranges) to say “thank you.”
Essence: I want the audience to have positive feeling about GM right at the first of the movie.
Conflict: Clearly GM can use some help, but none of the residents seem friendly as they just ignore her.
Subtext: Pappy has his eye on GM from the very beginning, and he shows his bossiness from the very beginning.
Hope/Fear: We hope someone will stop Mattie who is dropping the oranges and will help GM, but we fear nobody will.
INT. GM’S APARTMENT AT SHADY ACRES-NIGHT
Scene Three
Scene Arc: GM sits at her desk with a great big checkbook open in front of her and with an adding machine right beside her. Her purse is on the desk and is wide open. GM has pens and paper and a stack of notes cluttering her desk. She hums softly as she works with the checkbook and the adding machine. After a few times adding she begins to look worried … and then more worried, etc…and finally frantic she pulls out her cell and makes a phone call to her son Alex. She tells him all is lost…then in exasperation she says…it’s Healthy Peanuts, Inc which is lost. She tells him it went bankrupt today. In greater exasperation she tells him yes, yes..she went all in and gave Healthy Peanuts all the money she had. She hangs up, puts her head down on top of the checkbook and sobs.
Scene Arc: We’re happy to see and hear GM humming while in her new apartment and while working on her checkbook. We’re sad to see the change in her as she works with the adding machine and calls Alex, her son.
Essence: I want the audience to suffer GM’s awful discovery of financial embarrassment.
Conflict: The conflict is that she’s finally in her beautiful new apartment and tragedy has struck.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that she can’t afford to stay at Shady Acres.
Hope/Fear: We hope she has made a mistake and that she didn’t really give Healthy Peanuts, Inc all the money she had, but we fear it may be true.
Act 2:
INT. FRONT DOOR IN LOBBY OF SHADY ACRES/ DAY
Scene One:
Scene Arc: GM meets Alex, her 35 year old son, and Sam, her 10 year old grandson, at the front door of the lobby of Shady Acres. She is smothered with hugs and kisses from Sam…and a few hugs from Alex. When Alex asks if Sam can come over after school for three days a week she, of course agrees and after more hugs and kisses Alex leaves and GM and Sam get onto the elevator to go to GM’s new apartment. Alex’s reaction to GM’s being broke is merely a shrug.
Scene Arc: We’re happy to see GM and 10 year old Sam, but we’re disappointed that her son Alex doesn’t come to GM’s rescue for the financial disaster.
Essence: I am trying to accomplish the wonderful family relationships GM has with her family…and Sam, whose parents are divorced and sort of juggling him around can flourish and be happy with GM’s association and love.
Conflict: Although Alex is no help in the financial problem, GM holds no grudge or responsibility for him to do so. Again we see that she is indeed an independent soul.
Subtext: GM’s priorities are not in question. She maintains her strong independence, but she takes the role of rescue person for Sam….three days a week.
Hope/Fear: We hope all will be well for GM AND for Sam, but we fear that she may not be at Shady Acres long enough to benefit either of them.
Act 2, Scene 2:
INT. GM’S APARTMENT-DAY
Scene Arc: GM and Sam bond immediately. GM tells Sam how she was a counselor in Middle School and had to answer millions of questions from her students. Sam tells how his counselor locks herself away and won’t answer any questions. They agree tat questions need answers. GM shows Sam her new computer and he shows her how to turn it on.
Scene Arc: Wheras this scene could begin with a “what shall we do together?” bit, it begins with an enthusiastic let’s do this together enthusiasm. It ends with a knowledge that this enthusiasm may be short lived if GM can’t afford to stay at Shady Acres.
Essence: I am trying to establish a close relationship between GM and Sam.
Conflict: The conflict is that GM may not be there long enough to establish a close relationship with her Grandson Sam.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that GM who spent her entire life advising other people what to do is now relegated to trying to decide what to do for herself.
Hope/fear: We hope that having Sam come in the afternoons will work out all right, but we fear, still, that GM cannot stay at Shady Acres because she cannot pay.
Act 2: Scene 3:
INT. DINING ROOM SHADY ACRES – DAY
Scene Arc: Pappy and GM have a glass of wine together in the diningroom at Shady acres and share that GM is broke and that Pappy has a little/big problem with his daughter wanting to be his mother and telling him everything to do.
The change in his scene is that the good news is that Pappy and GM are together sharing wine and feelings, but that the future looks bleak with Pappy’s daughter being so forceful and intrusive and with GM’s sad financial outlook.
Essence: I am trying to have the audience feel the inner frustration of Pappy who is experiencing loss of independence and of GM who knows she can’t stay at Shady Acres without any money.
Clinflict: The conflict of the scene is that they found each other and a grand relationship in old age….but it’s hampered by new age problems…children and money. They discuss getting into a business with the other residents.
Subtext: They’re beginning a grand new relationship.
Hope/Fear: We hope they can get together, but we fear they cannot.
Act 2, Scene 4: Pappy and GM meet with about 16 residents and talk about starting a business so GM can stay. They will make homemade wares and sell them outside like an old fashioned market. Various residents ask GM questions re: their personal problems….all of which she easily answers.
Scene Arc: We see them being optimistic about having a market and making a thriving business, but then we hear them planning obsolete type marketing and items in their planning.
Essence: I’m trying to show total failure on the part of GM’s new friends to made a going business of anything, but they continue to rely on GM for advice…increasingly so. Everything seems out of date….EXCEPT GM’s consistent advice.
Conflict: Pappy’s daughter Sally continues to nag him to “give up” his friendship with GM. She thinks GM is after his money. We’re beginning to wonder too.
Subtext: The whole matter has been set up for failure.
Hope/fear: We hope the market business will be a success, but we fear failure, because people don’t want knitted hats in the summertime.
Act 3, Scene 1:
INT. GM’S APARTMENT – DAY
Sam and GM work on the computer. He shoots her a question and she shoots back an answer…and then she type furiously on the computer with Sam directing her as far as settings, etc go.
Scene Arc: We think GM is simply babysitting Sam after school, but then we realize they’re truly bonding and seem to be relishing an activity which is getting all the attention from both GM and Sam.
Essence: I am trying to accomplish having the audience join with Sam and GM in trying to accomplish a business or other activity.
Conflict: The conflict in this scene is Sam’s youth (10 years old) and GMs retirement age (70’s). That they could even be interested in the same thing brings some conflict. The younger has become the teacher, but the older still is in charge of whatever project they’re working on.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that even though things seem to be failing … such as GM’s losing all her money in a failed investment, and the business undertaken by the residents at Shady Acres….and the relationship between Pappy and GM….Something of interest is definitely going on when GM and Alex get together three times a week.
Hope/fear: We’re hoping for a miracle for the protagonist (GM) but fear for her failure.
INT.PAPPY’S APARTMENT – DAY
Act 3, Scene 2: Sally, Pappy’s daughter, pins him down and has a heart to heart with him in his apartment during which she tells him in no uncertain terms to terminate his relationship with GM and that he is an old man who should know better.
Scene Arc: When Sally and Pappy meet again we hope they’ll agree on some things…but when the scene ends we know they’ve agreed on absolutely nothing.
Essence: I am trying to show that for Pappy his daughter wants to be his boss, and many in the audience will identify with that problem.
Conflict: The conflict in this scene is between Pappy and Sally. Sally wants him to give up GM’s friendship, and he is not going to do that.
Subtext: Beneath the surface we, the audience, want GM and Pappy to get together….
Hope/fear: We hope that Sally will go away or at least leave her father alone to make his own friends, but we fear that he will give in to her pleas. \
Act 3, Scene 3:
INT. MEETING ROOM SHADY ACRES- DAY
The residents of Shady Acres as so sad because GM will have to leave Shady Acres and they’ve all perked up and become more active just having her there. The has been so good at helping them with their problems and gloom and doom reign over the meeting in Scene 3 of Act 3.
Scene Arc: The change in this scene demonstrates the change in attitudes at Shady Acres since GM came. GM and Pappy interact with their friends there and good will abounds. The gloom and doom exists because GM is going to have to leave.
Essence: I want the audience to feel that GM has made such a difference in how people feel about each other.
Conflict: The conflict is the vast difference in what the people all want and what is actually happening.
Subtext: Pappy is the saddest of all. He has fallen head over heels in love with GM even though she never will let him boss her around.
Hope/fear: We hope for a miracle, but we fear that GM will have to leave this beautiful community.
Act 4, Scene 1
INT.POST OFFICE SHADE ACRES-DAY
GM and Sam pick up a special letter at the Post Office…and after they open it they hug and dance around with glee and happiness.
Essence: They received good news in the mystery mail.
Conflict: What is the good news?
Subtext: We hope GM can stay at Shady Acres.
Hope /fear: But we fear she cannot.
Act 4: Scene 2
INT.SHADY ACRES MEETING ROOM-DAY
Pappy and GM whisper together as Sam helps the residents find chairs to sit in in the meeting room. GM stands on the stage and announces that her advice column is a major success and is bringing in so much money that she can spend the rest of her life at Shady Acres. Pappy beams and the residents cheer.
Essence: GM’s worries are over.
Conflict: Will Sally change?
Subtext: Pappy continues to advise GM what to do with her new wealth, and she patiently tells him she’ll continue to do as she always has…what she wants to do…but no more fly-by-night stock investments.
Hope/fear: We hope Pappy and GM are now a twosome, but we fear Sally’s appearance on the scene will dampen all spirits
Act 4: Scene 4:
INT.LOBBY SHADY ACRES- DAY
The lobby is decorated with balloons, confetti, and signs of hurrahs! Cakes and wine are on all the tables and counters. People are wearing party clothes. Pappy and GM come through the lobby together with cheers and applause coming from the happy residents. Sally and Alex (GM’s son) are together drinking wine. He asks her if he thinks Pappy is after GM’s money. Pappy and GM leave in a long black limo.
Scene Arc: The celebration is underway and the arc is that it gets better and better when we see GM and Pappy leaving on a real date.
Essence: We’re trying to accomplish a happy ending and great celebration.
Conflict: The conflict of Sally’s bossing her father is turned light heartedly to comedy when Alex asks her if he’s dating GM for her money.
Subtext: Old age can be fun. People need other people. Stay active. Grandchildren are pretty wonderful.
Hope: The hope is that people can keep leading active and fun-filled lives after retirement…without fears of “what if?”a
Module 4 Lesson 9: Scene Requirements
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that my assignments act as my notes and memory joggers, and when I worked on the scene requirements I learned to loosen up my too-pragmatic-imagination and think through a few scenes.
State/Activity: I have so much fun creating scene requirements for my outline.
Act 1:
EXT. SHADY ACRES RETIREMENT VILLAGE-DAY
Scene One:
Scene Arc: The driver helps GM out of limo, loads her luggage onto a massive luggage carrier, and leaves GM and the luggage at the front door so GM has to push the heavy luggage carrier into the bldg..
Essence: I want the audience to know that GM is “on her own” from the very beginning.
Conflict: GM arrives in the elegant luxury of a limo, with the solicitous help of the driver, goes into a beautiful retirement center, and suddenly is faced with pushing her own heavy luggage without help of anybody.
Subtext: GM has to be independent from the very first scene.
Hope/Fear: We hope the driver will help GM push her luggage inside, but we fear he won’t help her.
INT. SHADY ACRES LOBBY-DAY:
Scene Two:
Scene Arc: GM struggles with the luggage in the lobby but is behind a woman pushing a walker with a bag of oranges. GM leaves her luggage and walks behind the woman picking up the oranges and giving them to the woman as she continues to push her walker and spill oranges. Pappy sits behind a newspaper pretending to read but actually taking in the entire scene. A few other residents sit around the lobby paying no attention to the woman spilling her oranges and making no efforts to help. Finally when the woman reaches the elevator without even acknowledging GM’s kindness Pappy yells across the room for Mattie (the woman with the oranges) to say “thank you.”
Essence: I want the audience to have positive feeling about GM right at the first of the movie.
Conflict: Clearly GM can use some help, but none of the residents seem friendly as they just ignore her.
Subtext: Pappy has his eye on GM from the very beginning, and he shows his bossiness from the very beginning.
Hope/Fear: We hope someone will stop Mattie who is dropping the oranges and will help GM, but we fear nobody will.
INT. GM’S APARTMENT AT SHADY ACRES-NIGHT
Scene Three
Scene Arc: GM sits at her desk with a great big checkbook open in front of her and with an adding machine right beside her. Her purse is on the desk and is wide open. GM has pens and paper and a stack of notes cluttering her desk. She hums softly as she works with the checkbook and the adding machine. After a few times adding she begins to look worried … and then more worried, etc…and finally frantic she pulls out her cell and makes a phone call to her son Alex. She tells him all is lost…then in exasperation she says…it’s Healthy Peanuts, Inc which is lost. She tells him it went bankrupt today. In greater exasperation she tells him yes, yes..she went all in and gave Healthy Peanuts all the money she had. She hangs up, puts her head down on top of the checkbook and sobs.
Scene Arc: We’re happy to see and hear GM humming while in her new apartment and while working on her checkbook. We’re sad to see the change in her as she works with the adding machine and calls Alex, her son.
Essence: I want the audience to suffer GM’s awful discovery of financial embarrassment.
Conflict: The conflict is that she’s finally in her beautiful new apartment and tragedy has struck.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that she can’t afford to stay at Shady Acres.
Hope/Fear: We hope she has made a mistake and that she didn’t really give Healthy Peanuts, Inc all the money she had, but we fear it may be true.
Act 2:
INT. FRONT DOOR IN LOBBY OF SHADY ACRES/ DAY
Scene One:
Scene Arc: GM meets Alex, her 35 year old son, and Sam, her 10 year old grandson, at the front door of the lobby of Shady Acres. She is smothered with hugs and kisses from Sam…and a few hugs from Alex. When Alex asks if Sam can come over after school for three days a week she, of course agrees and after more hugs and kisses Alex leaves and GM and Sam get onto the elevator to go to GM’s new apartment. Alex’s reaction to GM’s being broke is merely a shrug.
Scene Arc: We’re happy to see GM and 10 year old Sam, but we’re disappointed that her son Alex doesn’t come to GM’s rescue for the financial disaster.
Essence: I am trying to accomplish the wonderful family relationships GM has with her family…and Sam, whose parents are divorced and sort of juggling him around can flourish and be happy with GM’s association and love.
Conflict: Although Alex is no help in the financial problem, GM holds no grudge or responsibility for him to do so. Again we see that she is indeed an independent soul.
Subtext: GM’s priorities are not in question. She maintains her strong independence, but she takes the role of rescue person for Sam….three days a week.
Hope/Fear: We hope all will be well for GM AND for Sam, but we fear that she may not be at Shady Acres long enough to benefit either of them.
Act 2, Scene 2:
INT. GM’S APARTMENT-DAY
Scene Arc: GM and Sam bond immediately. GM tells Sam how she was a counselor in Middle School and had to answer millions of questions from her students. Sam tells how his counselor locks herself away and won’t answer any questions. They agree tat questions need answers. GM shows Sam her new computer and he shows her how to turn it on.
Scene Arc: Wheras this scene could begin with a “what shall we do together?” bit, it begins with an enthusiastic let’s do this together enthusiasm. It ends with a knowledge that this enthusiasm may be short lived if GM can’t afford to stay at Shady Acres.
Essence: I am trying to establish a close relationship between GM and Sam.
Conflict: The conflict is that GM may not be there long enough to establish a close relationship with her Grandson Sam.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that GM who spent her entire life advising other people what to do is now relegated to trying to decide what to do for herself.
Hope/fear: We hope that having Sam come in the afternoons will work out all right, but we fear, still, that GM cannot stay at Shady Acres because she cannot pay.
Act 2: Scene 3:
INT. DINING ROOM SHADY ACRES – DAY
Scene Arc: Pappy and GM have a glass of wine together in the diningroom at Shady acres and share that GM is broke and that Pappy has a little/big problem with his daughter wanting to be his mother and telling him everything to do.
The change in his scene is that the good news is that Pappy and GM are together sharing wine and feelings, but that the future looks bleak with Pappy’s daughter being so forceful and intrusive and with GM’s sad financial outlook.
Essence: I am trying to have the audience feel the inner frustration of Pappy who is experiencing loss of independence and of GM who knows she can’t stay at Shady Acres without any money.
Clinflict: The conflict of the scene is that they found each other and a grand relationship in old age….but it’s hampered by new age problems…children and money. They discuss getting into a business with the other residents.
Subtext: They’re beginning a grand new relationship.
Hope/Fear: We hope they can get together, but we fear they cannot.
Act 2, Scene 4: Pappy and GM meet with about 16 residents and talk about starting a business so GM can stay. They will make homemade wares and sell them outside like an old fashioned market. Various residents ask GM questions re: their personal problems….all of which she easily answers.
Scene Arc: We see them being optimistic about having a market and making a thriving business, but then we hear them planning obsolete type marketing and items in their planning.
Essence: I’m trying to show total failure on the part of GM’s new friends to made a going business of anything, but they continue to rely on GM for advice…increasingly so. Everything seems out of date….EXCEPT GM’s consistent advice.
Conflict: Pappy’s daughter Sally continues to nag him to “give up” his friendship with GM. She thinks GM is after his money. We’re beginning to wonder too.
Subtext: The whole matter has been set up for failure.
Hope/fear: We hope the market business will be a success, but we fear failure, because people don’t want knitted hats in the summertime.
Act 3, Scene 1:
INT. GM’S APARTMENT – DAY
Sam and GM work on the computer. He shoots her a question and she shoots back an answer…and then she type furiously on the computer with Sam directing her as far as settings, etc go.
Scene Arc: We think GM is simply babysitting Sam after school, but then we realize they’re truly bonding and seem to be relishing an activity which is getting all the attention from both GM and Sam.
Essence: I am trying to accomplish having the audience join with Sam and GM in trying to accomplish a business or other activity.
Conflict: The conflict in this scene is Sam’s youth (10 years old) and GMs retirement age (70’s). That they could even be interested in the same thing brings some conflict. The younger has become the teacher, but the older still is in charge of whatever project they’re working on.
Subtext: The deeper meaning is that even though things seem to be failing … such as GM’s losing all her money in a failed investment, and the business undertaken by the residents at Shady Acres….and the relationship between Pappy and GM….Something of interest is definitely going on when GM and Alex get together three times a week.
Hope/fear: We’re hoping for a miracle for the protagonist (GM) but fear for her failure.
INT.PAPPY’S APARTMENT – DAY
Act 3, Scene 2: Sally, Pappy’s daughter, pins him down and has a heart to heart with him in his apartment during which she tells him in no uncertain terms to terminate his relationship with GM and that he is an old man who should know better.
Scene Arc: When Sally and Pappy meet again we hope they’ll agree on some things…but when the scene ends we know they’ve agreed on absolutely nothing.
Essence: I am trying to show that for Pappy his daughter wants to be his boss, and many in the audience will identify with that problem.
Conflict: The conflict in this scene is between Pappy and Sally. Sally wants him to give up GM’s friendship, and he is not going to do that.
Subtext: Beneath the surface we, the audience, want GM and Pappy to get together….
Hope/fear: We hope that Sally will go away or at least leave her father alone to make his own friends, but we fear that he will give in to her pleas. \
Act 3, Scene 3:
INT. MEETING ROOM SHADY ACRES- DAY
The residents of Shady Acres as so sad because GM will have to leave Shady Acres and they’ve all perked up and become more active just having her there. The has been so good at helping them with their problems and gloom and doom reign over the meeting in Scene 3 of Act 3.
Scene Arc: The change in this scene demonstrates the change in attitudes at Shady Acres since GM came. GM and Pappy interact with their friends there and good will abounds. The gloom and doom exists because GM is going to have to leave.
Essence: I want the audience to feel that GM has made such a difference in how people feel about each other.
Conflict: The conflict is the vast difference in what the people all want and what is actually happening.
Subtext: Pappy is the saddest of all. He has fallen head over heels in love with GM even though she never will let him boss her around.
Hope/fear: We hope for a miracle, but we fear that GM will have to leave this beautiful community.
Act 4, Scene 1
INT.POST OFFICE SHADE ACRES-DAY
GM and Sam pick up a special letter at the Post Office…and after they open it they hug and dance around with glee and happiness.
Essence: They received good news in the mystery mail.
Conflict: What is the good news?
Subtext: We hope GM can stay at Shady Acres.
Hope /fear: But we fear she cannot.
Act 4: Scene 2
INT.SHADY ACRES MEETING ROOM-DAY
Pappy and GM whisper together as Sam helps the residents find chairs to sit in in the meeting room. GM stands on the stage and announces that her advice column is a major success and is bringing in so much money that she can spend the rest of her life at Shady Acres. Pappy beams and the residents cheer.
Essence: GM’s worries are over.
Conflict: Will Sally change?
Subtext: Pappy continues to advise GM what to do with her new wealth, and she patiently tells him she’ll continue to do as she always has…what she wants to do…but no more fly-by-night stock investments.
Hope/fear: We hope Pappy and GM are now a twosome, but we fear Sally’s appearance on the scene will dampen all spirits
Act 4: Scene 4:
INT.LOBBY SHADY ACRES- DAY
The lobby is decorated with balloons, confetti, and signs of hurrahs! Cakes and wine are on all the tables and counters. People are wearing party clothes. Pappy and GM come through the lobby together with cheers and applause coming from the happy residents. Sally and Alex (GM’s son) are together drinking wine. He asks her if he thinks Pappy is after GM’s money. Pappy and GM leave in a long black limo.
Scene Arc: The celebration is underway and the arc is that it gets better and better when we see GM and Pappy leaving on a real date.
Essence: We’re trying to accomplish a happy ending and great celebration.
Conflict: The conflict of Sally’s bossing her father is turned light heartedly to comedy when Alex asks her if he’s dating GM for her money.
Subtext: Old age can be fun. People need other people. Stay active. Grandchildren are pretty wonderful.
Hope: The hope is that people can keep leading active and fun-filled lives after retirement…without fears of “what if?”
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Module 4 Lesson 8 Depth – intriguing moments
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501caac
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that my brain is feeling stale, and it feels like what I initially considered a “problem” for my protagonist isn’t really a problem….but a rather trite idea for a story. I will have to charge up the brain and imagination. I am beginning to feel like the Little Engine that Could……I think I can, I think I can.
State/Activity: I am great at discovering and creating intriguing moments.
Intriguing moments in each act:
Act 1. Pappy & GM meet in the lobby of Shady Acres, and although they bond immediately GM resents Pappy’s superior attitude and covers up the fact that she likes him and that she hasn’t enough money to stay permanently at Shady Acres.
Act. 2. 10 year old Sam comes to GM after school 3 days a week, and they scheme together to teach computer skills to GM who pretends to all of her new acquaintances to be an expert on the computer as she begins dispensing advice to them all.
Act 3. Pappy’s daughter nags him to stop wooing GM because she thinks GM wants Pappy’s money, and since the initial business failed when the residents tried to help GM start the business, there is doom and gloom among all the residents knowing GM will have to be leaving soon due to lack of funds.
Act. 4. GM’s major success with the advice column provides her with enough income to stay at Shady Acres, and provides cause for celebration among her new friends and double celebration in the audience because she is free to accept Pappy’s courtship and enjoy falling in love all over again.
Ways to turn drama into intrigue:
Act 1. Pappy schemes ways to meet GM and to see her throughout the day. When she talks about starting a business he is quite superior with all his suggestions…which are more like commands than suggestions…and GM resents his superior attitudes and lets him know as much. We the audience fear the budding romance will be nipped in the bud by her cold shoulder. GM covers up the fact that she is broke, but she confides in Sam. While everything else is happening, Sam and GM scheme to write the advice column just to calm GM’s nerves.
Act 2: Gm and Sam continue to scheme with the computer skills and advice, but they keep that a secret and GM openly works with h er friends to develop the market products, i.e. knitted hats and strung beads. Some may even paint some crude watercolors to sell. GM’s willingness to give advice to everybody, solicited and unsolicited, remains a mystery to Pappy, but he schemes ways to get her attention and to be with her. He has to scheme to do it so that his daughter won’t be so hostile about the relationship. He keeps his feelings for GM a secret from his daughter.
Act 3: When the market fails and none of the residents’ wares sell there is doom and gloom among the residents as they offer to help GM pack to move. Further doom and gloom emerges when Pappy’s daughter discovers that Pappy still has feelings for GM to the point of actively wooing her, and she forces him to stop seeing GM altogether. They have to meet in secret. All the while GM covers up her computer activity with Sam where she is selling her advice column to large news outlets. When one comes to interview her in order to do a feature story on GM she has to keep it a big secret as she and Sam scheme to hide their activities.
Act 4: GM confides in Pappy and realizes that her advice column is really a major success and that she has more money than she ever dreamed of having. Together they announce to their friends the major breakthrough and the big party is planned. Pappy’s daughter is furious when she arrives at the party and finds Pappy and GM celebrating GM’s success and each other….until she hears of GM’s new wealth and then she changes attitude immediately and seeks to become GM’s new best friend. Pappy with his superior attitude advises GM what to do with so much money, but GM says she’ll just stack up the new wealth in Suite 501.csscModule 4 Lesson 8 Depth – intriguing moments
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501caac
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that my brain is feeling stale, and it feels like what I initially considered a “problem” for my protagonist isn’t really a problem….but a rather trite idea for a story. I will have to charge up the brain and imagination. I am beginning to feel like the Little Engine that Could……I think I can, I think I can.
State/Activity: I am great at discovering and creating intriguing moments.
Intriguing moments in each act:
Act 1. Pappy & GM meet in the lobby of Shady Acres, and although they bond immediately GM resents Pappy’s superior attitude and covers up the fact that she likes him and that she hasn’t enough money to stay permanently at Shady Acres.
Act. 2. 10 year old Sam comes to GM after school 3 days a week, and they scheme together to teach computer skills to GM who pretends to all of her new acquaintances to be an expert on the computer as she begins dispensing advice to them all.
Act 3. Pappy’s daughter nags him to stop wooing GM because she thinks GM wants Pappy’s money, and since the initial business failed when the residents tried to help GM start the business, there is doom and gloom among all the residents knowing GM will have to be leaving soon due to lack of funds.
Act. 4. GM’s major success with the advice column provides her with enough income to stay at Shady Acres, and provides cause for celebration among her new friends and double celebration in the audience because she is free to accept Pappy’s courtship and enjoy falling in love all over again.
Ways to turn drama into intrigue:
Act 1. Pappy schemes ways to meet GM and to see her throughout the day. When she talks about starting a business he is quite superior with all his suggestions…which are more like commands than suggestions…and GM resents his superior attitudes and lets him know as much. We the audience fear the budding romance will be nipped in the bud by her cold shoulder. GM covers up the fact that she is broke, but she confides in Sam. While everything else is happening, Sam and GM scheme to write the advice column just to calm GM’s nerves.
Act 2: Gm and Sam continue to scheme with the computer skills and advice, but they keep that a secret and GM openly works with h er friends to develop the market products, i.e. knitted hats and strung beads. Some may even paint some crude watercolors to sell. GM’s willingness to give advice to everybody, solicited and unsolicited, remains a mystery to Pappy, but he schemes ways to get her attention and to be with her. He has to scheme to do it so that his daughter won’t be so hostile about the relationship. He keeps his feelings for GM a secret from his daughter.
Act 3: When the market fails and none of the residents’ wares sell there is doom and gloom among the residents as they offer to help GM pack to move. Further doom and gloom emerges when Pappy’s daughter discovers that Pappy still has feelings for GM to the point of actively wooing her, and she forces him to stop seeing GM altogether. They have to meet in secret. All the while GM covers up her computer activity with Sam where she is selling her advice column to large news outlets. When one comes to interview her in order to do a feature story on GM she has to keep it a big secret as she and Sam scheme to hide their activities.
Act 4: GM confides in Pappy and realizes that her advice column is really a major success and that she has more money than she ever dreamed of having. Together they announce to their friends the major breakthrough and the big party is planned. Pappy’s daughter is furious when she arrives at the party and finds Pappy and GM celebrating GM’s success and each other….until she hears of GM’s new wealth and then she changes attitude immediately and seeks to become GM’s new best friend. Pappy with his superior attitude advises GM what to do with so much money, but GM says she’ll just stack up the new wealth in Suite 501.cssc
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Module 4 Lesson 7: Depth -emotional moments
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment:
State/Activity: I absolutely love causing my audience to feel emotional.
What I learned from doing this assignment is that I will consciously have to look for the emotional moments for my audience to relate to and make sure that they, not just I, are relating to them. I also learned to study the negative, as well as the positive, emotions.
Act 1. BONDING:
Pappy and GM bond when GM goes through the lobby picking up somebody elses dropped oranges, and Pappy follows along telling the woman pushing the walker and dropping her groceries to “say thankyou.”
HIDDEN WEAKNESS:
When GM checks her checkbook and knows for certain that she is so short of money she hasn’t the funds to pay the rent at Hidden Acres. She knows that she has spent 100% of her money on a fly by night stock which tanked.
Act 2: Success: GM sets out to make friends, and she accomplishes that when she bonds and makes friends with Gladys, a lady on a walker who is outspoken, and who bonds and makes friends with GM.
Love: 10 year old grandson Sam begins coming to Shady Acres after school to stay with GM until his Dad picks him up, and he and GM instantly bond with their grandparent relationship, and their need for each other. He teaches her to work the computer, and she teaches him to know that he can accomplish anything he sets out to do.
Act 3: Emotional Dilemma: Pappy obviously woos GM, and she likes him, but since he wants to boss her around and tell her how to do everything and what to do and what to think and feel she doesn’t want to continue the relationship. She values her independence and up to a point has confidence in herself.
Hidden weakness: The weakness of the original business idea to sell things “at a market” fails miserably and there is great sorrow among GM.s friends and all the people at Shady Acres. They had been so excited and optimistic, and the massive failure made them settle into a retirement blue funk stage again.
Act 4: Breakthrough: When the major success of GM’s advice column and her personal financial windfall is disclosed the entire community at Shady Acres celebrates.
Love: Love blossoms at Shady Acres when Pappy and GM step out on a wonderful date….dressed to the nines, into a waiting limo, and cheered on by GM’s new friends at Shady Acres.
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aModule 4 Lesson6: What do you reveal and when?
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I need to activate my story telling part of my brain and create more setups.
State/Activity: I am great at discovering cool reveals!
Act 1. Reveal: Part of this reveal will be immediately in Act. 1 because it’s the main thread of the story. GM reveals to Pappy and to her son that she cannot pay her rent at Shady Acres because she’s out of money.
The reveal shows up in the First Act.
The set ups are in place when she works on her checkbook and knows that she can’t pay in the first act, but in the second act another set up shows up for this reveal when GM says how she lost all her money, investing on a wonderful stock which the “man” said would absolutely double her money when she sold her house….so she invested 100% of her money in this “wonderful stock” and it went belly up. She’s financially embarrassed by it, but she’s also mortified and doesn’t want everybody to know it.
Act 2. The set up for the big reveal in Act 3 (GM writing her advice column) shows up in Acts 1, 2, and 3. As GM makes friends in Shady Acres, they ask her questions, personal questions, how to find a boyfriend, how to make friends in general, how to put on their make-up, what to advise their grandchildren about money…and a host of other questions. An early reveal which is a set up is that GM’s career was as a counselor in Middle School so that she is used to giving advice, and she easily answers the many questions asked by her friends. A further set up is when her 10 year old grandson helps her with the computer and she starts a new business in Act 4 and becomes wildly successful at it, i.e. the reveal, the popular GM’s advice column for the elderly. As GM says, there’s not a whole lot of difference between middle schoolers and the elderly anyway.
Act. 3. The reveal in Act 3 includes Pappy’s constant attention and falling in love with GM. The set up is in Acts 1 and 2 where he tries to boss her around, tries to kill her with kindness, tries to ignore her, and finally in Act 3 he levels with GM and she is friendly to him….but certainly not loving…she’s way to independent for that.
Act 4: The reveal is (after the GREAT REVEAL about GM’s great business success) that GM agrees to go out with Pappy and as the entire Shady Acres celebrates her success she and Pappy step out together, dressed to the nines, go hand in hand to the waiting limo…and leave the audience with a warm fuzzy YES feeling.
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Other reveals and setups:
Act 1: Set ups in Acts 1, 2, and 3 with 10 year old Sam, GM’s gson. He comes to her apt after school 3 days a week, and together they work on a computer. She learns to have computer skills from Sam, and we see her and Sam work on a project until Sam’s Dad picks him up. We don’t really know what they’re working on. The great reveal is in the last act when we learn that GM has been wildly succrssful in the publishing world selling her advice column. Advice…she loves giving it…and knows how to do it perfectly.
Act two: both the setup and reveal. The residents are so excited to work with GM in making items to sell in an outdoor market and start a real business. Pappy advises them…or tries to boss them around…and they claim so many talents…but: reveal! When they try to sell it at their market they can’t get anybody to buy woolen mittens in the middle of summer…..or heavy wooden beads. That business is revealed as a massive failure. GM, working on her computer, looks up at Pappy and asks how to spell “bankruptcy.”
Act 4: The set up for GM’s advice column has been going on for several acts while Sam and GM work on the computer, GM gives advice to friends, and they make numerous trips to the post office at Shady Acres…but the big reveal is when GM and Sam
Go a a meeting of all the residents of Shady Acres to accounce GM’s phenomenal success, and the press is there to do a story on GM herself. She is making money hand over fist….and is dubbed THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501.
ACT 1: Sally is Pappy’s bossy daughter who wants to tell him what to eat, what to wear, and who to be friends with. She resents that he is so smitten with GM because she things GM is after Pappy’s money….and GM is so broke that we, the audience begin to wonder if that’s true. She warns Pappy to end the friendship, and Pappy has to keep his affections for GM secretive so Sally will leave him along. This is true in Acts, 1,2, and 3…so when Act 4 happens and GM announces her success with the advice column, Sally is strangely quiet…with this big reveal. The last Act (Act 4) final scene has Sally being extra friendly to GM’s adult son, tall, handsome and friendly, ..who says to Sally, (as Pappy and GM leave on their big date)…maybe he’s after her money.”
Act 4: One of the great reveals in Act 4 is that GM has become most beloved and has made many friends at Shady Acres. Throughout the movie we watch her trying to make friends, successfully, we believe. Then when the market fails she is alone for several scenes and we worry about her lonliness. That’s a set up. The big reveal is when she announces in Act 4 that she’s successful, her fellow residents crowd around and smother her with their friendship. This is an especially big reveal at the big party in the lobby of Shady Acres where we encounter balloons, wine, ice cream and friendship every where.
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Module 4 Lesson 5:Character Action Tracks
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I know my characters.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of writing my movie script.
First beat:
GM, a retired counselor in middle school who is now a handsome woman in her 70’s, arrives at Shady Acres. As she enters the lobby she follows behind a tiredwoman pushing a walker with a grocery bag on the walker and as she walks oranges spill out, one at a time and beginning rolling across the floor. The woman is unaware. GM is behind her, and she picks up the oranges as they spill out of the woman’s bag, and returns them to the woman. Pappy ssits in the lobby behind his newspaper but observes this….and just before the woman rolls her walker away after taking the oranges from GM Pappy sticks his cane in front of her to stop her, and says, “Say thank you.” The woman with the walker turns to GM, says, “thank you,” and then rolls on away with her walker.
GM looks at Pappy, and laughs and says, “thank YOU.”
PAPPY says, “No worries,” goes back behind his newspaper and pays no more attention to GM until she walks away. Then he pulls the paper away from his face and follows her with his eye across the lobby to the elevator.
In the future, after GM makes friends at Shady Acres and presents a program about starting a business, the woman with the walker comes up and says, “I never thanked you properly that day for picking up all my oranges.” She & GM are instant friends and laugh. Pappy, throughout the movie, becomes less stiff and more warm to GM. He can even say, some day, “I’m waiting for you to spill your oranges in the lobby so I can pick them all up for you.” GM, ever the independent soul advises Pappy to “mind his own garden.”
GM mees with groups and starts her own business. When she meets with the first group nobody shows up except Pappy. Sally, Pappy’s daughter, is standing outside the door and meets with her father telling him to stay away from that gold digger.
The market, held on the street outside of Shady Acres, is a major failure. People stop their cars and come over to look at the wares GM and her friends have on tables outside ShadyAcres, but when they see old fashioned gloves or mittens in the dead of summer, or odd-looking wooden beaded necklaces lying around the shoppers leave immediately. In the last scene of the movie, as the residents are celebrating in the lobby of Shady Acres, most of the women are wearing long wooden beads…obviously the ones they didn’t sell at the market.
Throughout the movie people ask GM for advice…..simple questions….and she give them simple answers. She even confides to Pappy that it’s just like middle school there at Shady Acres. People are the same everywhere. People just need other people…and that’s what most questions are about.
GM & Sam work on the computer project. She tells him a few times that he is so smart and so competent , that he can do anything, and that she’s just so proud of him. He says to her, one afternoon, just before he goes home, “I’m proud of you, too, GM. You can do anything.” GM sheds tears…. Says a few things into her dead husband’s picture….about their wonderful family.
I am considering having GM talk to her late husband’s picture throughout the movie. That’s rather like looking into her mind…the subtext of her life. Just a thought.
Throughout the movie Sam and GM work on the computer….and throughout the movie GM gives simple advice when asked…Pappy make fun of her and calls her GM’s advice corner. When the great reveal happens and GM confesses that she has made a fortune with her world wide news contacts on her advice column she confesses it has been title “Grandma’s Advice Corner.” Pappy, ever expressive with his cane, punches his cane toward the ceiling of the room and yells, “Yes.”Module 4 Lesson 5:Character Action Tracks
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I know my characters.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of writing my movie script.
First beat:
GM, a retired counselor in middle school who is now a handsome woman in her 70’s, arrives at Shady Acres. As she enters the lobby she follows behind a tiredwoman pushing a walker with a grocery bag on the walker and as she walks oranges spill out, one at a time and beginning rolling across the floor. The woman is unaware. GM is behind her, and she picks up the oranges as they spill out of the woman’s bag, and returns them to the woman. Pappy ssits in the lobby behind his newspaper but observes this….and just before the woman rolls her walker away after taking the oranges from GM Pappy sticks his cane in front of her to stop her, and says, “Say thank you.” The woman with the walker turns to GM, says, “thank you,” and then rolls on away with her walker.
GM looks at Pappy, and laughs and says, “thank YOU.”
PAPPY says, “No worries,” goes back behind his newspaper and pays no more attention to GM until she walks away. Then he pulls the paper away from his face and follows her with his eye across the lobby to the elevator.
In the future, after GM makes friends at Shady Acres and presents a program about starting a business, the woman with the walker comes up and says, “I never thanked you properly that day for picking up all my oranges.” She & GM are instant friends and laugh. Pappy, throughout the movie, becomes less stiff and more warm to GM. He can even say, some day, “I’m waiting for you to spill your oranges in the lobby so I can pick them all up for you.” GM, ever the independent soul advises Pappy to “mind his own garden.”
GM mees with groups and starts her own business. When she meets with the first group nobody shows up except Pappy. Sally, Pappy’s daughter, is standing outside the door and meets with her father telling him to stay away from that gold digger.
The market, held on the street outside of Shady Acres, is a major failure. People stop their cars and come over to look at the wares GM and her friends have on tables outside ShadyAcres, but when they see old fashioned gloves or mittens in the dead of summer, or odd-looking wooden beaded necklaces lying around the shoppers leave immediately. In the last scene of the movie, as the residents are celebrating in the lobby of Shady Acres, most of the women are wearing long wooden beads…obviously the ones they didn’t sell at the market.
Throughout the movie people ask GM for advice…..simple questions….and she give them simple answers. She even confides to Pappy that it’s just like middle school there at Shady Acres. People are the same everywhere. People just need other people…and that’s what most questions are about.
GM & Sam work on the computer project. She tells him a few times that he is so smart and so competent , that he can do anything, and that she’s just so proud of him. He says to her, one afternoon, just before he goes home, “I’m proud of you, too, GM. You can do anything.” GM sheds tears…. Says a few things into her dead husband’s picture….about their wonderful family.
I am considering having GM talk to her late husband’s picture throughout the movie. That’s rather like looking into her mind…the subtext of her life. Just a thought.
Throughout the movie Sam and GM work on the computer….and throughout the movie GM gives simple advice when asked…Pappy make fun of her and calls her GM’s advice corner. When the great reveal happens and GM confesses that she has made a fortune with her world wide news contacts on her advice column she confesses it has been title “Grandma’s Advice Corner.” Pappy, ever expressive with his cane, punches his cane toward the ceiling of the room and yells, “Yes.”
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Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”
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Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”
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Module 4 Lesson 4: Basic Plotting
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: to use logic when dealing with the beats…almost a “fill in the blanks” approach if a doesn’t result from B – i.e. looking for holes in the logic.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of basic plotting.
Beginning to end: The Beat Sheet should show Pappy’s constant bearing down on GM’s plans and that he actually gets in her way more than helps…most of the time.
The beat sheet should show Sally’s constant nagging of Pappy to shun GM’s friendship.
Working forward:
GM begins to make friends in the retirement facility and my beats don’t show that. GM’s former occupation was as a counselor in a local middle school. She’s used to handling problems and giving advice. Occasionally her friends ask for her advice…all in a casual way…but it can lead to the advice column.
GM & Sam work in secret on the computer project initially so that her success comes as a surprise to her new friends. The writing should be there for the audience to see, but not for GM’s friends in Shady Acres.
The beat sheet should probably show the residents stringing beads and knitting mittens so that when the first business sets up a market outside Shady Acres one thing causes another. THEN , we can see how and why that first business fails.
GM works with Sam on the computer. She is thrilled to be freed from a heavy typewriter and finds the easy communication so satisfying. In Act 4 She checks out the checks she receives from the news outlets and can’t believe what’s happening. She has Pappy to drive her to the bank occasionally.
Before the final party we see GM all dressed up in a lovely outfit and wiggle around trying to take a selfie of herself. She finally gives up and we see her funny looking picture.
Working backwards:
GM can’t just surprise with her overnight success without working on the computer to send out the advice columns…
The business can’t just fail without showing the business and how and why it fails. The residents have been busy making beads and knitting hats and mittens. The market is in the summertime, and the hats and mittens are out of season and the beads are all so big nobody wants to wear them. Shoppers are looking for presents for their grandchildren or adult children, and people don’t wear beads like that anymore.
In Act 1 GM must make moves to make new friends…so that she can form groups to start the business.
Turning points:
For Pappy and GM to have a love relationship they must get to know each other better and have more contact. Throughout the movie Pappy woos GM in his own way…bossing her around, being grumpy and then in a turnaround sending her flowers. She cries with sentimentality when she gets the flowers.
Sally needs to know her father is soft on GM before Sally warns him to stay away from GM. Sonny, GM’s adult son and Sam’s father, picks Sam up in the afternoons at GM’s…and he and Sally need to have a few exchanges so that they can have the last line in the resolution. Sonny asks, “Do you think he’s after her money?”
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Module4 Lesson 3: Beat Sheet Part 1
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: It’s time to move on.
State/Activity: I am absolutely capable of creating a sequence of events for my Beat Sheet.
4-act structure: #1: GM arrives at Shady Acres, meets Pappy, who finds out she doesn’t have enough money to pay the rent.
#2. GM meets with groups and starts her business.
#3The business fails…big time!
Act 4: Climax : GM surprises with having her advising column business.
Protag Journey Structure: GM seeks a business.
Antag Journey Structure: Pappy wants to help in spite of GM’s wanting to do it herself.
Deeper layer: GM & Sam work on computer project.
Genre: Conventions with drama and comedy in Shady Acres with GM, Pappy, Sam and the residents there. a
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Module 4 Lesson 2: The Deeper Layers
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
1.State to Activity: I am absolutely capable of building in an engaging deeper layer.
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Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment is: I learned to search for the Deeper Layer of my script.
2.Surface Layer: GM with the help of 10-year-old Sam and Pappy needs to find a way to pay for her rent at Shady Acres Retirement Facility.
Deeper Layer: Pappy is a grouchy fellow who tries to convince GM to do things his way, but when she starts a business she finally agrees to accept his ideas. Pappy’s daughter Sally tries to destroy the friendship between GM and Pappy because she insists GM is chasing Pappy for his money.
Major Reveal: When the business is an enormous failure GM decides to take matters into her own hands without Pappy’s input.
Influences Surface Story: Sam teaches GM to work the computer, and together they work on a project together without Pappy or any of GM’s friends knowing what they’re doing.
Hints: When GM socializes with friends at Shady Acres they fall into the habit of asking her advice on various topics which are of interest to the seniors who live in retirement facilities.
Changes Reality: Grandmother announces her phenomenal success in marketing her popular worldwide advice column which she has sold to news services all over the world. She is suddenly a wealthy woman.
3.
Beginning: GM arrives at Shady Acres and meets Pappy who is a resident there.
Inciting Incident: We learn GM doesn’t have enough money to live at Shady Acres.
Turning Point 1: GM decides to start a business to make enough money to stay at Shady Acres.
Act 2: GM unites a group of residents and starts a business employing her new friends with their handicrafts. Pappy helps her get started.
Turning Point2/Midpoint: GM’s 10-year-old grandson Sam comes by Shady Acres after school every day and teaches GM to operate a computer. GM and Pappy become better friends, but he has to sneak around to see her because his adult daughter Sally disapproves of his friendship with GM. She accuses GM of chasing Pappy for his money.
Act 3: The business fails, but Pappy and GM become better friends.
Turning Point Act 3: GM announces she will have to leave Shady Acres, and her friends and GM are sorrowful about that.
Act 4 Climax: GM and Sam surprise everybody by announcing that GM has become a huge success, both in popularity and in financial rewards, by marketing her successful advisory column to the NY Times and to news outlets all over the world. She’s not quite the Billionaire in 501 as Pappy had teased her about during the movie, but she’s well on her way. Shady Acres has a massive celebration in its lobby, and Pappy and GM, dressed to the nines, climb into a waiting limo to go on their first date with each other.
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Module 4 Lesson 1:Character Journey Structure
Marguerite Langstaff: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned it’s about time I gave my characters names, and I also learned that I can do this. I also learned there are gaps in the progress of my antagonist.
State: I am absolutely capable of this activity.
Activity: creating great character structures.
Main Character: Grandma (GM) Protagonist
Beginning: GM an attractive lady in her seventies arrives at Shady Acres where everybody ignores her.
Inciting incident: GM is bent over her checkbook and tells her adult son (Sonny for now) that she’s completely out of money.
Turning Point: GM decides to start a business to make enough money to stay at Shady Acres.
Act 2: GM gets a group of residents to do her handiwork so she can start a business.
Turning point 2/Midpoint: 10 year old grandson, Sam, comes to help her and brings his computer. He teaches her to use it. GM pitches her business to friends and clashes with Pappy.
The business is a massive failure and she still needs money.
Wit
Act 3: Pappy makes an elaborate business plan for GM to teach her new computer skills to her friends. They will pay her for lessons and she can stay at Shady Acres. GM and Sam make frequent trips to the mailbox room in the lobby and become great friends with the mailman. GM teaches her friends, and during the lessons they often ask her for advice. At such times Sam and GM conference together and GM gives her friends answers. Pappy is impressed. He and GM begin speaking and become better friends…even sharing a bottle of wine occasionally. GM spends more time on the computer.
Turning Point 3: GM announces she will have to leave Shady Acres, and her friends and GM are sorrowful about that.
4<sup>th</sup> Act Climax: Sam and GM go to a meeting of her friends and she announces her new business, a major success. It is an advice column which she sold to the New York Times and was picked up world wide by news services. Seniors do rule. She’s not quite the Billionaire in 501 that Pappy predicted when he made fun of her, but she’s on her way. With Sam’s help.
Resolution: There is a party in the lobby with cake, wine and balloons for all. GM’s new friends toast her as she and Pappy, dressed to the nines, leave in a waiting limo on their first date. Love blossoms at Shady Acres.
Antagonist: Pappy
Beginning: Pappy is a retired businessman in his 70’s living at Shady Acres. He is sitting in the lobby reading a newspaper when GM enters for the first time..;..and he takes an immediate interest in her but tries to avoid showing that.
Inciting incident: Pappy wants to show GM how to start a business and tries to control what she does and how she does it. Pappy makes fun of GM calling her the Billionaire in 501. GM, an independent soul, will not let him do that, and she controls everything she does herself ignoring Pappy.
Turning Point 1: Sally, Pappy’s daughter visits and tells him to stay away from GM because she things GM is simply after Pappy’s money.
Act 2: GM starts the business with her friends stringing beads and knitting shawls…and Pappy does everything he can to sabotage that business.
Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Pappy simply cannot stay away from GM, but Sally tells him constantly to have nothing to do with GM…that GM is a gold digger looking for a man to pay her rent. Every time Sally visits Pappy pretends he doesn’t really know GM.
Act 3: Pappy makes an elaborate plan for GM to teach her friends at Shady Acres the computer skills which Sam has taught GM. He wants her friends to pay GM for the lessons, but even though they’re excited to work computers, GM’s friends refuse to pay for the lessons. When Pappy tells GM about some of his problems adjusting to retirement she gives him wonderful advice, but she tells no one except Sam about her advice column.
Turning Point: GM tells Pappy and all her friends about the enormous success, financial and personal, she is having with her worldwide advice column sales
Act 4 Climax: Pappy goes with GM and Sam when she tells them about her fantastic successes, and he beams with pride for her and with her.
Resolution: The big party for GM is in the lobby of Shady Acres, and as everyone waves good-by to Pappy & GM, GM’s son Sonny and Pappy’s daughter Sally are standing together drinking wine and eating cake, and Sonny asks Sally if she thinks Pappy just might be after GM’s money. A fun touch of irony.
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Module 3 Lesson 8 Purpose Driven Supporting Characters
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned while doing this assignment: I learned that two of my supporting characters are essential to the subtext of this movie, and that I will need some minor supporting characters but haven’t really thought about them until this lesson.
State: I have fun with my two important supporting characters.
Activity: to focus on the name, role, main purpose and value of my supporting characters.
Supporting Characters: Alexander, the 10 year old grandson, the computer whiz who works with Grandmother’s new profession.
Sally, Pappy’s middle aged daughter, who wants to tell him everything to do and not to do.
Background Characters: Other residents of the senior residence who are friends of Grandmother and Pappy.
Support 1:
Sally:
Role: Pappy’s middle-
aged daughter who interacts with Pappy and in important in one of the subtexts.
Main Purpose: Sally is like so many people with their parents…wanting to tell her parent (Pappy) what to do and what not to do. She is so against his friendship with Grandmother, because she thinks there may be a love affair and thinks that Grandmother is only eager to get Pappy’s money.
Value: Sally is absolutely necessary in the script because in the stories of the lives of so many people there is an adult child to interfere and try to tell the parent what to do. As seniors say, “Our children turn into our parents.” So goes the subtext.
Support 2:
Alexander, Grandmother’s 10 year old grandson.
Role: Alex helps Grandmother through the senior jungle of computer skills….while she is writing her advice column he helps her with the computer and is supportive of anything she does or wants. He lets her know he thinks she’s just perfect. She thinks he’s perfect too.
Main Purpose: Alex helps provide the subtext , because without him Grandmother could never complete her advice column or market it. Alex helps to guide her through the maze of complications. He is able because he is confident in his own computer skills and doesn’t have a clue in the world that he might fail at some of his directions.
Value: Alex is essential to Grandmother’s success. It’s no secret that in today’s world our 10 year olds are much more accomplished with computer skills than most of the seniors living in retirement homes. n
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Module 3 Lesson 7 Character Profiles Part 2
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned while doing this assignment: I learned that this movie is putting together the totality of all my lessons in these classes…cannot just do a lesson and “forget it,” the way I have done so many studies…but good to keep it in front of me as I go along.
State: I have fun still thinking about Grandmother and the experiences she’s going to have in my movie.
Activity: to discover what is under the surface for my characters.
Grandmother
A. The High Concept: Grandmother moves into a retirement community where she faces huge challenges of making new friends, financing her move and way of life, and carving out a new career in spite of so many obstacles facing her.
B. Grandmother’s journey is from sad, lonely and broke to prosperous, leadership and a new love in her life.
C. Grandmother’s actor attractors are what we see in most of our grandmothers. She is lovable and loves, needs friendships and family, faces her problems with energy and imagination, is persistent in new and unusual ways, and makes those friends, and Pappy her new love, bloom with newfound fun and joy.
Pappy
A. The High Concept: Pappy appears over confident as he hides behind his newspaper while observing everything happening in his retirement community. In actuality he needs more confidence to be able to participate with Grandmother’s projects. He is used to having people take his advice and when they don’t he really doesn’t know how to accept that. He hides his love for Grandmother from his daughter, because his daughter wants to boss him around and tells him that Grandmother just wants his money.
B. Pappy’s journey is that he changes from being self-centered to focused-in on helping Grandmother complete whatever project she is currently involved in. He dresses in a bow tie and coat and dressy clothes every day to changing his dress in the last scene to wearing comfortable golf clothes after Grandmother falls in love with him. She gives him confidence and ability to socialize comfortably with others. He has found his true love.
C. Pappy’s Actor attractors are that in any situation he stands apart from the rest of the men in the retirement facility. Initially he stands apart from his fellow residents, but by the end of the movie he is a leader of their activities, remembers names, performs good deeds gratuitiously, relaxes and is able to deal with his bossy daughter in a loving but forceful way. We the audience feel like we have become a success. Thanks, Pappy.
Profile components for Grandmother:
7. Character Subtext: Broke with money problems and ways to survive financially. Relationship with Pappy proving awkward. Efforts to make friendships successful sometimes, failures at others. Success in business fails big time, and then with the efforts with her grandson and her talents major successes happen.
8 . Character Intrigue. Grandmother doesn’t want her daughter to know she invested all of her money foolishly in the fly by night drilling stock. She doesn’t want anybody to know she’s broke. She doesn’t want a new love of her life. She didn’t seek the joy and new love in her life…it sought her.
9. Grandmother has flaws… She is like the rest of us. She follows a fairly dull routine in the am getting dresses…and we live through a period with her where she tries new youth enhancing makeup and hairdos to look more attractive and younger. We watch her become friendlier and more comfortable with her neighbors as she seeks friends in her new neighborhood. We suffer with her when she realizes she had led her fellow residents into a failing marketing business. We identify with her when she has to rely on her grandson to help her with computer skills.
10. We live with Grandmother’s value of persistence as she overcomes her flaws to compose and market consistent remarkable advice columns to be published for people all over the world. Her persistence pays.
11. Character dilemma: She finally admits she has fallen in love with Pappy even though she has advised in her columns for seniors to beware of the emotions that loneliness can cause and not to just hood up with the first suitor who come to call. Her other dilemma is keeping her financial problems from her son as she advises her readers to be honest with family members. Share the good and the bad.
Profile components for Pappy:
7. Character subtext: Pappy has a crush on Grandmother but keeps showing it in awkward ways. Finally he give in and lets the world know he cares. His relationship with his daughter Sally is iffy because he cannot be honest and open with her. He finally realizes that the relationship with him and Grandmother is between Grandmother and him, and that Sally as a third party isn’t really involved.
8. Character intrigue: Pappy’s character traits are opposite ones to Grandmothers. He’s not as confident as she and he’s not as persistent. He has a problem with his daughter who wants to be in charge of him…he needs to stay independent from her and he does. He is persistent only in the one thing and that is that he wants Grandmother’s love….in return for his own.
9. Flaw: The flaw is that Pappy is too self-centered initially to accomplish any of the things he wants i.e. friends and Grandmother’s love. He has to conquer that by the end of the movie…and we know that he will have a happier, more joyful period of senior years when and if he does.
10. Value: Pappy is honest and loyal. He is loyal to his daughter even though she is so bossy and wants him to live exactly as she says. This is a problem many seniors have….their children want to tell them what to do, how to do it and to take over their lives.
11. Character dilemma: Pappy has two dilemmas…one with Grandmother and another with his daughter Sally. He solves the one with Sally when he decides to remain independent and to be his own boss as he has always been. He solves the one with Grandmother when she finally agrees to go out with him and to fall in love with him.
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Module 3 Lesson 6 Character Profiles Part 1
Marguerite Langstaff : THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned during this assignment: I learned that just when I thought I knew my lead characters well I didn’t really have firmed up ideas of aspects of their characters.
State: I have fun simply thinking about how my lead character is going to heal her wound.
Activity: Creating character profiles for my main characters, Grandmother and Pappy.
Grandmother, the lead character, the protagonist.
A. The high concept: Grandmother moves into a retirement community. She has sold her house in order to be able to afford the move, but then she foolishly invested it in a fly by night investment scheme and has no money at all when she moves. She is too embarrassed to tell her son so while trying to make new friends in her new community she spearheads a business activity for all the residents so she can make some money. Pappy helps her and falls in love with Grandmother. He is so competitive, however, that the romance doesn’t thrive. The business fails and all is lost…. So Grandmother, with the computer help of her 10 year old grandson, secretly writes an advice column, sells it to a big international news outlet, makes a pile of money, falls in love with Pappy, and together they experience fun , rejuvenation and joy in the retirement community.
B. Grandmother’s journey is from sad and broke to prosperous and romantically involved with the new love of her life.
C. The Actor Attractors for Grandmother: Grandmother is in her seventies, and is the hero we all see in our grandmothers. She is lovable, independent, fun loving, and smart while dealing with the problems many seniors face…loneliness, money problems, maintaining independence from her children and dealing with white hair and wrinkles. She faces her problems with energy and imagination and when the business venture she leads her friends into fails she incorporates new skills and major successes into her life…with the help of a 10 year old grandson. She spend the entire movie sparring with Pappy about everything, friendship, money and relationships, but finally she admits to a love affair in her senior years…with Pappy. Grandmother is a character who makes the other senior residents, her new friends, bloom throughout the movie right along with her own arc of success.
Pappy is the antagonist and is a lead character:
A. The high concept: Pappy is sitting in the lobby of Shady Acres when Grandmother arrives. He is a gentleman, but he is self-centered and thinks he is the smartest person in the retirement community. He dresses up every day…no jeans or shorts…but a colorful bowtie and pocket handkerchief to match…spiffy…and out of place in this senior setting. He is a retired financial consultant who desperately wants to tell Grandmother what to do and how to do it. She’s an independent soul who spars with him throughout, but when Grandmother becomes financially successful on her own without his help she finally accepts his romantic advances and together they bring fun and joy to each other. Pappy doesn’t change his basic ways, however. He maintains his self-confidence and dressy appearance throughout the movie. Throughout the movie Pappy tries to help Grandmother succeed, but he always seems to fail, and ultimately she brings about her own success financially, but Pappy succeeds in winning her heart.
B. This character’s journey: Pappy, a senior resident, is introduced to us as he sits in the lobby of the retirement facility, hiding behind the newspaper as he observes what everybody else is doing. He is a nonparticipant in everything until he meets Grandmother. That sort of wakes him up in his senior years and he ends the movie by, for the first time dressed in casual golf clothes, stepping out on a date with Grandmother and the two of them climb into a swanky black limo projecting happiness, joy and love.
C. Actor Attractors: Pappy is a character the audience will remember for a long time, because he has so many common traits with seniors who have a hard time chumming around with new acquaintances….and making friendships. It is hard because he has worked hard all his life and not taken time to “smell the roses,” as they say. He dresses differently from his peers in the retirement community and is a loner until he falls in love. He has to work to make Grandmother even like him, and as she begins to like him better and better, so does the audience. He actually does good deeds throughout the movie, which make his character one with the audience would like to identify…and when he wins Grandmother’s heart in the movie, he also wins the hearts of the audience. He evokes empathy when he rejects his daughter’s criticism of Grandmother because she thinks Grandmother is trying to get Pappy’s money.
Grandmother:
1. Role in the story: The story is about Grandmother as she goes from being the poor, broke senior who moves into a retirement community to become the billionaire in 501 who makes many, many friends and falls in love with Pappy.
2. Age range and description: Grandmother is in her 70’s, and she dresses the part with heavy clunky shoes and dull colored clothes. During the movies she becomes more modern and colorful with flashy flat type shoes and slacks and other newer styles. Finally, in the last scene in which she steps out on a date with Pappy she has no trouble displaying her still-not-so -bad-looking legs with high heels and sexy stockings.
3. Core traits: energy, kindness, empathy and friendship with others, frankness and persistence.
4. Motivation: Want/Need: She wants to make friends and make money so she will have enough money to pay her monthly rent. She needs to make money so she doesn’t have to confess to her son how she invested all her money carelessly on a fly-by-night stock and lost every penny causing a wound of guilt.
5. Wound: Grandmother sold her house to have enough money to move into the retirement community but spent 100% of it on a fly-by-night investment in copper and can’t face telling her son what she did.
6. Likability, Relatability, Empathy: She is likable. She puts herself out to be nice to her fellow residents in her new neighborhood and to like them and make them like her. When she has no money but doesn’t want anyone to know, most people can relate to that feeling at times in their lives. Empathy: She wants to do what her son wants and expects of her, but it’s not always easy. Don’t we all empathize with that?
Pappy:
1. Role in the Story: Pappy is the protagonist whose role is to make Grandmother like him and love him.
2. Age and Description: Pappy is in his seventies…a dapper retired financial consultant who dresses like he is a model for the bow-tie types. He, finally, in the last scene changes into more casual dress while contrasting Grandmother’s change into more dressy clothes.
3. Core traits: Pappy is independent and confident except when his daughter is around. She is a pushy person who tries to tell him what to do, who to like or not like, what to eat, etc. He is somewhat afraid of her because she is so pushy. He is bossy, but always kind and helpful, when trying to help Grandmother straighten out her financial dilemmas.
4. Motivation: Want/Need: Pappy wants to help Grandmother because he wants her to be his friend, and then he wants her to be his honey. He has a need to be in charge, because that’s how he got his clients to believe him to be competent when he was a practicing financial adviser.
5. Wound: Pappy did not want to move to the retirement community, but his daughter insisted and now she wants him to stay there and stay alone. She resents when he makes friends so he is afraid to let her know that he actually likes Shady Acres and loves Grandmother.
6. Likability, Relatability, Empathy: Pappy sincerely wants to help Grandmother, so we like his efforts. He falls in love with her. We can relate to that, because most of us have fallen in love at sometime during our life. When we’re lonely, as Pappy is in the beginning of the story, we can relate to that because, like falling in love, most of us have at some time been lonely. All of the three, likability, relatability, empathy are involved here, and so, too, does it include possible family problems with nay-saying to all of the above.
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Module 3 Lesson 5Audience Connection to characters
Marguerite Langstaff: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned during this assignment: That my characters are just like all of us in real life….we have our good traits and bad traits….and it’s what audiences identify with….both good and bad. So don’t discount the good.
STATE: I have fun simply doing these assignments…
Activity ; Making my charaters likable, relatable and empathetic!
Protagnist: Grandmother: She is likable…she puts herself out to be nice to the residents in her new neighborhood and to like them and to make them like her…. When she has spent all her money but doesn’t want anyone to know…everybody can relate to that. Empathy…She wants to do what her daughter wants and expects of her, but it’s not always easy….don’t we all empathize with that!!!
Antagonist: Pappy: Pappy falls in love with Grandmother. Can’t most of us identify with that…we’vee fallen in love with someone…and when and if that spouse dies we are lonely. We’re lonely…we relate to that…and we are looking for another love. There is all of the three: likability, relatability and empathy…..involved here…and so too does it include possible family problems with nay-saying to all of the above.
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Module 3 Lesson 4 Character Intrigue
Marguerite Langstaff : THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie sctipts.
What I learned during this assignment: I learned not to fall in love with my characters and not to make them “perfect,” or it might make intrigue more difficult.
State: I just love discovering how to
add intrigue to my main characters even though it is the most difficult assignment for me so far.
Activity: the intrigue of my characters.
Character name: Grandmother .Grandmother’s subtext might show up in the movie in three ways: Secret, Hidden agendas and deception. She was quite affluent and sold her house to retirement in a retirement community (Shady Acres) but then invest all her money in a fly by night stock which went south and bankrupt so she lost all her money, but she doesn’t want her daughter to know about that. She deceives her daughter. She also has an unspoken wound. She is basically shy and yet she has to make new friends in her new community…so she carries this wound while trying to lead her new neighbors into money making events.
Character: Pappy: Pappy is my antagonist. He is a retired doctor who has a crush on Grandmother but is too proud to show it. That’s his wound….he carries an ego which makes him think that he shouldn’t stoop to court Grandmother so he expresses his emotions in rather imposing and unhelpful ways. He also has a secret. His daughter is terribly afraid that all women are after Pqppy’s money…so he has to keep his crush on Grandmother a secret.Module 3 Lesson 4 Character Intrigue
Marguerite Langstaff : THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
VISION: I want to learn to write and market movie sctipts.
What I learned during this assignment: I learned not to fall in love with my characters and not to make them “perfect,” or it might make intrigue more difficult.
State: I just love discovering how to
add intrigue to my main characters even though it is the most difficult assignment for me so far.
Activity: the intrigue of my characters.
Character name: Grandmother .Grandmother’s subtext might show up in the movie in three ways: Secret, Hidden agendas and deception. She was quite affluent and sold her house to retirement in a retirement community (Shady Acres) but then invest all her money in a fly by night stock which went south and bankrupt so she lost all her money, but she doesn’t want her daughter to know about that. She deceives her daughter. She also has an unspoken wound. She is basically shy and yet she has to make new friends in her new community…so she carries this wound while trying to lead her new neighbors into money making events.
Character: Pappy: Pappy is my antagonist. He is a retired doctor who has a crush on Grandmother but is too proud to show it. That’s his wound….he carries an ego which makes him think that he shouldn’t stoop to court Grandmother so he expresses his emotions in rather imposing and unhelpful ways. He also has a secret. His daughter is terribly afraid that all women are after Pqppy’s money…so he has to keep his crush on Grandmother a secret.
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Module 3 Lesson 2 Roles that Sell Actors
Marguerite Langstaff: Actor attractors!
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
State: I just love my lead character.
Activity: Creating Actor Attractors for my characters.
Actors Protagonist is Grandmother.
Antagonist is Pappy.
My lead character is Grandmother. Her Actor Attractors are:
This role is about a 74 year old character, Grandmother, who has the lead role, and she is the story itself. She is a lovable, independent senior who is strong, smart and loves being with and helping other people. The audience will be cheering her successes and feeling her failures throughout the movie.
2. She is a senior citizen who is ultimately successful in a new career at the same time she is adjusting to life a retirement community, Shady Acres.
3. Grandmother motivates the entire population in Shady Acres to work at making products and trying to sell them. She writes and sells an advice column which is picked up by news outlets around the world, and she is delighted to be THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501.
4. I would introduce this role as a character who will be remembered long after the movie’s story itself has been forgotten. Most people in our audiences have a senior grandmother or some one else they love, and many are involved in helping steer the course for a loved one’s old age. Others are well acquainted with a Shady Acres somewhere. Grandmother is the hero we recognize in all our grandmothers. She is the role model we all strive to be. This character will live in the history of movie making.
5. Grandmother’s emotional range is enormous and remarkable. She is initially a little old lady eager to “fit in” in her new community….wearing dull black and grey blouses and lace up heavy shoes, but in her efforts to supplement her income she assumes a vast leadership role, and she reacts to success with new energy, new talents, new clothes and even a new hair color. She, who was initially shy, gains confidence and friendships as she gives speeches, creates new ideas and falls in love … even at her advanced years.
6. The subtext Grandmother plays is that she is not just financially insecure, but she is flat broke and cannot stay in the retirement home. Another subtext is that she’s so close to her 10 year old grandson and that in this relationship she gains confidence and success while encouraging him to be a confident, successful little boy. Finally, there is a subtext that Pappy is becoming obviously smitten and attracted to Grandmother while at the same time he acts superior to all her ideas and actions. She changes from harboring resentment toward Pappy to finally falling in love too.
7. The most interesting relationships Grandmother has are with the other residents at Shady Acres. We see the senior citizens blooming beautifully and gradually into old age and how this can be challenging and satisfying at the same time. We learn that one person can make a huge difference in the lives of many. The other interesting relationships Grandmother has are those with Pappy and with her 10 year old grandson. She talks often with her daughter on her cell phone, but she doesn’t get together with her the way she does with her grandson.
8. Her unique voice will be presented by her initial quiet actions’ being replaced with bod ones and by her awakening to the fun of a senior romance. It will also be presented by the satisfaction she enjoys with financial security.
9. Her desire to conform to the ways of the elderly residents at Shady Acres and her being distraught over the lack of money to becoming an outgoing, active, independent thinker who acts with clever business sense, dresses in fun outfits and secretly hopes that AI will find a way to make her new life last forever.
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Module 3 Lesson 2 Roles that Sell Actors
Marguerite Langstaff: Actor attractors!
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
State: I just love my lead character.
Activity: Creating Actor Attractors for my characters.
Actors Protagonist is Grandmother.
Antagonist is Pappy.
My lead character is Grandmother. Her Actor Attractors are:
This role is about a 74 year old character, Grandmother, who has the lead role, and she is the story itself. She is a lovable, independent senior who is strong, smart and loves being with and helping other people. The audience will be cheering her successes and feeling her failures throughout the movie.
2. She is a senior citizen who is ultimately successful in a new career at the same time she is adjusting to life a retirement community, Shady Acres.
3. Grandmother motivates the entire population in Shady Acres to work at making products and trying to sell them. She writes and sells an advice column which is picked up by news outlets around the world, and she is delighted to be THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501.
4. I would introduce this role as a character who will be remembered long after the movie’s story itself has been forgotten. Most people in our audiences have a senior grandmother or some one else they love, and many are involved in helping steer the course for a loved one’s old age. Others are well acquainted with a Shady Acres somewhere. Grandmother is the hero we recognize in all our grandmothers. She is the role model we all strive to be. This character will live in the history of movie making.
5. Grandmother’s emotional range is enormous and remarkable. She is initially a little old lady eager to “fit in” in her new community….wearing dull black and grey blouses and lace up heavy shoes, but in her efforts to supplement her income she assumes a vast leadership role, and she reacts to success with new energy, new talents, new clothes and even a new hair color. She, who was initially shy, gains confidence and friendships as she gives speeches, creates new ideas and falls in love … even at her advanced years.
6. The subtext Grandmother plays is that she is not just financially insecure, but she is flat broke and cannot stay in the retirement home. Another subtext is that she’s so close to her 10 year old grandson and that in this relationship she gains confidence and success while encouraging him to be a confident, successful little boy. Finally, there is a subtext that Pappy is becoming obviously smitten and attracted to Grandmother while at the same time he acts superior to all her ideas and actions. She changes from harboring resentment toward Pappy to finally falling in love too.
7. The most interesting relationships Grandmother has are with the other residents at Shady Acres. We see the senior citizens blooming beautifully and gradually into old age and how this can be challenging and satisfying at the same time. We learn that one person can make a huge difference in the lives of many. The other interesting relationships Grandmother has are those with Pappy and with her 10 year old grandson. She talks often with her daughter on her cell phone, but she doesn’t get together with her the way she does with her grandson.
8. Her unique voice will be presented by her initial quiet actions’ being replaced with bod ones and by her awakening to the fun of a senior romance. It will also be presented by the satisfaction she enjoys with financial security.
9. Her desire to conform to the ways of the elderly residents at Shady Acres and her being distraught over the lack of money to becoming an outgoing, active, independent thinker who acts with clever business sense, dresses in fun outfits and secretly hopes that AI will find a way to make her new life last forever.
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Module 3 Lesson 1 Characters that Sell Scripts
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I should be studying movies’ characters…not simply enjoying them….and the deliberate things that their authors have them do.
State: I have so much fun seeking comedic opportunities for my characters.
Activity: discovering what will cause actors to sign onto my movies!
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Movie Title: 80 FOR BRADY (genre: comedy and drama)
Lead Character Name: Lily Tomlin …. Luella….
An actor would WANT to be known for this role. It is a character that the audience falls i love with because she is fun, generous to a fault, is loving and is loved. She is the story that makes the movie so delightful. She is the hero who motivates Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl, she is the leader really of her little group of friends and leads them on an adventure of a lifetime. She does things that the audience can identify…for example believing that the Patriots’ victory depends partly on how she acts during each game…as she intentionally knocks over a bowl of potato chips believing that’s important to bring the Patriots good luck. We see her kindness when she gets Rita Moreno (who spills her drink) another drink, and later we’re overwhelmed with her kindness and generosity for secretly using all her money to buy game tickets for her good friends. There are other strong characters in this movie, but none is strong enough to steal the show from Luella. She can do anything. For example in the contest to throw the football into a net Luella wins hands down. She has a message we all want to hear, “This is gonna work out.” Her relationship with her friends and with Tom Brady is always complementary. We laugh, cry, act, worry and respond to all of Luellas emotions during this movie, all the time knowing down deep inside that “This is gonna work out.”
2. Luella (Lily Tomlin) is one of the most interesting characters in the movie, because the story is her story….her recovery from cancer, her group of friends, her daughter’s constant contact with her, her positive relationship with everybody else in the movie, their loving her so much. She makes mistakes, has secrets, is a hero, and is a leader of the group right up to the end of the movie….and we the audience travel those roads or roles right along with her.
3. The most interesting actions Luella makes are: getting Super Bowl tickets, keeping her pending results at bay because she doesn’t really want to hear bad news, leading her little group to the Super Bowl, and finally motivating Tom Brady.
4. How is this character introduced that could sell it? She’s fun and confident and caring in a situation that most of us can identify with….watching the Super Bowl with friends…and she is the obvious leader of the group.
5. What is Luella’s emotional range? It is full range…from a cancer victim who suffers to losing her dream of seeing the big game, to recovering the dream, to the despair of losing the game to the thrill of victory and success.
6. What subtext can Luella play? She knows there is a distinct possibility that her cancer has returned, but she keeps this news away from, not only her friends but also from herself. She uses all her money for the tickets, but she makes her friends think they won the tickets, because she doesn’t want them to feel bad about her spending all her money in order to see the Super Bowl.
7. The most interesting relationships Luella has are initially with her three best friends and then with Tom Brady. The relationships are all close and considerate ones, and each is different in its own way.
8. Luella’s unique voice is presented through her actions. She is kind to all her friends and she acts by doing what she wants to do….not especially by what she is expected to do. She buys the tickets, has the reveal party, plans the trip, goes into the communication booth and talks to Tom Brady….her actions are her voice. Her message, in addition to “This is gonna work out.,” is, “Friendship is facing the unknown hand in hand.”
9. Everything this character does is special and unique, and yet it is full of activity with which the audience can identify. The friendship, the ups and downs of life, the shortage of money, the retirement home, worried adult daughter, etc. Going to the Super Bowl and making major decisions such as motivating Tom Brady and special and unique. We all love Luella. We have to suspend belief in many real things happening….the half time actor helping them into the game, one character winning tons of money, the winning basket shooting, communication during the game with Tom Brady….and we accept those things as real.
10. There are so many scenes in this movie which show Luella fulfilling the actor Attractor model…but we’ll just take the first one in which she is introduced as a strong character…the party is at her house and she leads her friends into the usual actions of good luck while showing the kindness to them
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Module 2223 Lesson 6 Genre Conventions
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I know my characters intimately.
State: I’m completely frustrated with the computer problems and posting, but happy with everything else. I’ve had to type this too many times.
Activity…building genre conventions into my structure.
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Home, isn’t very happy and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her new friend Pappy.
Genre: Drama and Comedy
Drama Conventions:
Purpose: To explore the story of Grandmother’s moving into a retirement home, overcoming a bland and not-too-friendly atmosphere, shoring up her money supply, and making a success of living….showing that yes, people need people.
Character-Driven Journey: Grandmother is the protagonist and Pappy the antagonist. Their relationship and problems drive the story. Hopefully the audience will learn to love them both….including their differences and similarities.
High Stakes from Within: All the high stakes come from within…from within the main characters as well as all the residents of Shady Acres. This is where the changes and challenges take place….more within the characters.
Emotionally resonates: This story is more emotionally driven than action driven. Older people have emotions which are usually felt and interpreted by family but not always by other people.
Challenging, emotionally-charged situations: There are happiness challenges from the start…and also money challenges, friendship challenges, and career challenges.
Real-life Situations: The challenges here are real life challenges…problems so often felt by seniors but rarely shared. Loneliness is currently a national problem….but it’s a problem that seniors have felt for centuries…and always we acknowledge that People need People….This movie is about those situations.
Comedy Conventions:
Purpose: To entertain the audience with a story which includes laughter-inducing moments Shady Acres. Often we just have to laugh at our problems.
Incongruence: The unconventional pairing of Grandmother and Pappy can cause the audience to laugh or cry and to recognize how often these things happy in real life…not just the movies.
Mechanics of comedy: The setup here is an invitation to induce laughter, both in settings and in conversations.
Comedic Protagonist: Grandmother is the straight man in this movie, and she triggers amusing situations and amusing behavior throughout.
Strong Story: The comedy is coupled with drama….and that story keeps the audience engaged throughout THE BILLINAIRE IN 501.
Structure with Improvements:
Act 1. Opening:
The woman carrying groceries in the lobby of Shady Acres is on a walker and carries her groceries across the lobby spilling the oranges all the way. None of the residents sitting around the lobby either speak to her or to each other or make a move to help her. Just Grandmother makes a kind move.
Inciting incident:
Sonny has an easy relationship with Grandmother, but when he tells her she’s broke it comes as quite a surprise, and we realize that Grandmother isn’t the best business woman around, and we realize that Sonny isn’t going to help her. He would like to tell her what to do, but she treats him quite lovingly but also casually. He will not rescue Grandmother.
Turning Point: Grandmother goes around the restaurant trying to infuse a spirit of friendship and motivation for business among the tired residents. She tries to give them each a shot of friendship.
Act 2: New Plan: 10 year old Sam becomes the teacher and 72 year old Grandmother is the student in a computer situation. Pappy shows his hand when he brags about his business skills and Sally shows jealousy and insecurity when she senses right away that Grandmother is going to be an attraction to Pappy…even though he doesn’t know it yet.
Plan in Action: The items being made by the residents look quite homemade and crudely made. One resident realizes she only knitted four fingers into the glove she’s working on. Another crawls around on the floor trying to find the blue bead she dropped.
Midpoint turning point: Pappy is cool and distant with Grandmother while at the same time trying to do little things to get her attention. They share some wine, but when Pappy tells Grandmother, “I told you that business would fail,” she gets up and leaves him along at the bar and goes up to her apartment where she types away at the computer. We see she’s typing a page which reads, “Dear Friend, I am retired but about to run out of money. What can I do?” We think she’s writing a “friend”….but we don’t really know.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Sam is more evident than before in showing Grandmother computer skills. We learn that Grandmother is typing more and writing the “friend” with more problems.” Sam keeps giving her computer tips.
New Plan: Grandmother goes to the mailbox more and more frequently. She makes a point of being friendly to other residents and gradually we see friendships developing. Pappy makes a business plan for her to give lessons to the other residents in exchange for pay. She agrees. Sam helps her help the other residents learn computer skills.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents with computers in their laps, but when Pappy tries to collect their money to pay Grandmother they refuse to pay. cs Friends don’t charge friends, they say. Grandmother is disappointed but is delighted to have so many people think she is their friend. She and Pappy snuggle on the couch and drink wine and watch old movies until she says she has to work. She goes back to her typing, and asks Pappy how to spell bankruptcy.
Act 4:
Climax: 10 year old Sam & Grandmother go down hand in hand to meet the room full of residents. Pappy walks Grandmother to the lectern thinking she is going to say that she’ll be leaving soon, but no! Grandmother winks at Sam and confesses that she is making piles of money by selling her advice column to news outlets all over the world. Celebration is in order.
Resolution: Pappy and Grandmother walk through the lobby on a date. They’re dressed to the nines and step into the waiting limo. Sonny and Sally are in the very back seat of the limo, and as Pappy puts his arm around Grandmother Sonny says to Sally, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 2223 Lesson 6 Genre Conventions
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I know my characters intimately.
State: I’m completely frustrated with the computer problems and posting, but happy with everything else. I’ve had to type this too many times.
Activity…building genre conventions into my structure.
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Home, isn’t very happy and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her new friend Pappy.
Genre: Drama and Comedy
Drama Conventions:
Purpose: To explore the story of Grandmother’s moving into a retirement home, overcoming a bland and not-too-friendly atmosphere, shoring up her money supply, and making a success of living….showing that yes, people need people.
Character-Driven Journey: Grandmother is the protagonist and Pappy the antagonist. Their relationship and problems drive the story. Hopefully the audience will learn to love them both….including their differences and similarities.
High Stakes from Within: All the high stakes come from within…from within the main characters as well as all the residents of Shady Acres. This is where the changes and challenges take place….more within the characters.
Emotionally resonates: This story is more emotionally driven than action driven. Older people have emotions which are usually felt and interpreted by family but not always by other people.
Challenging, emotionally-charged situations: There are happiness challenges from the start…and also money challenges, friendship challenges, and career challenges.
Real-life Situations: The challenges here are real life challenges…problems so often felt by seniors but rarely shared. Loneliness is currently a national problem….but it’s a problem that seniors have felt for centuries…and always we acknowledge that People need People….This movie is about those situations.
Comedy Conventions:
Purpose: To entertain the audience with a story which includes laughter-inducing moments Shady Acres. Often we just have to laugh at our problems.
Incongruence: The unconventional pairing of Grandmother and Pappy can cause the audience to laugh or cry and to recognize how often these things happy in real life…not just the movies.
Mechanics of comedy: The setup here is an invitation to induce laughter, both in settings and in conversations.
Comedic Protagonist: Grandmother is the straight man in this movie, and she triggers amusing situations and amusing behavior throughout.
Strong Story: The comedy is coupled with drama….and that story keeps the audience engaged throughout THE BILLINAIRE IN 501.
Structure with Improvements:
Act 1. Opening:
The woman carrying groceries in the lobby of Shady Acres is on a walker and carries her groceries across the lobby spilling the oranges all the way. None of the residents sitting around the lobby either speak to her or to each other or make a move to help her. Just Grandmother makes a kind move.
Inciting incident:
Sonny has an easy relationship with Grandmother, but when he tells her she’s broke it comes as quite a surprise, and we realize that Grandmother isn’t the best business woman around, and we realize that Sonny isn’t going to help her. He would like to tell her what to do, but she treats him quite lovingly but also casually. He will not rescue Grandmother.
Turning Point: Grandmother goes around the restaurant trying to infuse a spirit of friendship and motivation for business among the tired residents. She tries to give them each a shot of friendship.
Act 2: New Plan: 10 year old Sam becomes the teacher and 72 year old Grandmother is the student in a computer situation. Pappy shows his hand when he brags about his business skills and Sally shows jealousy and insecurity when she senses right away that Grandmother is going to be an attraction to Pappy…even though he doesn’t know it yet.
Plan in Action: The items being made by the residents look quite homemade and crudely made. One resident realizes she only knitted four fingers into the glove she’s working on. Another crawls around on the floor trying to find the blue bead she dropped.
Midpoint turning point: Pappy is cool and distant with Grandmother while at the same time trying to do little things to get her attention. They share some wine, but when Pappy tells Grandmother, “I told you that business would fail,” she gets up and leaves him along at the bar and goes up to her apartment where she types away at the computer. We see she’s typing a page which reads, “Dear Friend, I am retired but about to run out of money. What can I do?” We think she’s writing a “friend”….but we don’t really know.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Sam is more evident than before in showing Grandmother computer skills. We learn that Grandmother is typing more and writing the “friend” with more problems.” Sam keeps giving her computer tips.
New Plan: Grandmother goes to the mailbox more and more frequently. She makes a point of being friendly to other residents and gradually we see friendships developing. Pappy makes a business plan for her to give lessons to the other residents in exchange for pay. She agrees. Sam helps her help the other residents learn computer skills.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents with computers in their laps, but when Pappy tries to collect their money to pay Grandmother they refuse to pay. cs Friends don’t charge friends, they say. Grandmother is disappointed but is delighted to have so many people think she is their friend. She and Pappy snuggle on the couch and drink wine and watch old movies until she says she has to work. She goes back to her typing, and asks Pappy how to spell bankruptcy.
Act 4:
Climax: 10 year old Sam & Grandmother go down hand in hand to meet the room full of residents. Pappy walks Grandmother to the lectern thinking she is going to say that she’ll be leaving soon, but no! Grandmother winks at Sam and confesses that she is making piles of money by selling her advice column to news outlets all over the world. Celebration is in order.
Resolution: Pappy and Grandmother walk through the lobby on a date. They’re dressed to the nines and step into the waiting limo. Sonny and Sally are in the very back seat of the limo, and as Pappy puts his arm around Grandmother Sonny says to Sally, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 2223 Lesson 6 Genre Conventions
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I know my characters intimately.
State: I’m completely frustrated with the computer problems and posting, but happy with everything else. I’ve had to type this too many times.
Activity…building genre conventions into my structure.
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Home, isn’t very happy and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her new friend Pappy.
Genre: Drama and Comedy
Drama Conventions:
Purpose: To explore the story of Grandmother’s moving into a retirement home, overcoming a bland and not-too-friendly atmosphere, shoring up her money supply, and making a success of living….showing that yes, people need people.
Character-Driven Journey: Grandmother is the protagonist and Pappy the antagonist. Their relationship and problems drive the story. Hopefully the audience will learn to love them both….including their differences and similarities.
High Stakes from Within: All the high stakes come from within…from within the main characters as well as all the residents of Shady Acres. This is where the changes and challenges take place….more within the characters.
Emotionally resonates: This story is more emotionally driven than action driven. Older people have emotions which are usually felt and interpreted by family but not always by other people.
Challenging, emotionally-charged situations: There are happiness challenges from the start…and also money challenges, friendship challenges, and career challenges.
Real-life Situations: The challenges here are real life challenges…problems so often felt by seniors but rarely shared. Loneliness is currently a national problem….but it’s a problem that seniors have felt for centuries…and always we acknowledge that People need People….This movie is about those situations.
Comedy Conventions:
Purpose: To entertain the audience with a story which includes laughter-inducing moments Shady Acres. Often we just have to laugh at our problems.
Incongruence: The unconventional pairing of Grandmother and Pappy can cause the audience to laugh or cry and to recognize how often these things happy in real life…not just the movies.
Mechanics of comedy: The setup here is an invitation to induce laughter, both in settings and in conversations.
Comedic Protagonist: Grandmother is the straight man in this movie, and she triggers amusing situations and amusing behavior throughout.
Strong Story: The comedy is coupled with drama….and that story keeps the audience engaged throughout THE BILLINAIRE IN 501.
Structure with Improvements:
Act 1. Opening:
The woman carrying groceries in the lobby of Shady Acres is on a walker and carries her groceries across the lobby spilling the oranges all the way. None of the residents sitting around the lobby either speak to her or to each other or make a move to help her. Just Grandmother makes a kind move.
Inciting incident:
Sonny has an easy relationship with Grandmother, but when he tells her she’s broke it comes as quite a surprise, and we realize that Grandmother isn’t the best business woman around, and we realize that Sonny isn’t going to help her. He would like to tell her what to do, but she treats him quite lovingly but also casually. He will not rescue Grandmother.
Turning Point: Grandmother goes around the restaurant trying to infuse a spirit of friendship and motivation for business among the tired residents. She tries to give them each a shot of friendship.
Act 2: New Plan: 10 year old Sam becomes the teacher and 72 year old Grandmother is the student in a computer situation. Pappy shows his hand when he brags about his business skills and Sally shows jealousy and insecurity when she senses right away that Grandmother is going to be an attraction to Pappy…even though he doesn’t know it yet.
Plan in Action: The items being made by the residents look quite homemade and crudely made. One resident realizes she only knitted four fingers into the glove she’s working on. Another crawls around on the floor trying to find the blue bead she dropped.
Midpoint turning point: Pappy is cool and distant with Grandmother while at the same time trying to do little things to get her attention. They share some wine, but when Pappy tells Grandmother, “I told you that business would fail,” she gets up and leaves him along at the bar and goes up to her apartment where she types away at the computer. We see she’s typing a page which reads, “Dear Friend, I am retired but about to run out of money. What can I do?” We think she’s writing a “friend”….but we don’t really know.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Sam is more evident than before in showing Grandmother computer skills. We learn that Grandmother is typing more and writing the “friend” with more problems.” Sam keeps giving her computer tips.
New Plan: Grandmother goes to the mailbox more and more frequently. She makes a point of being friendly to other residents and gradually we see friendships developing. Pappy makes a business plan for her to give lessons to the other residents in exchange for pay. She agrees. Sam helps her help the other residents learn computer skills.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents with computers in their laps, but when Pappy tries to collect their money to pay Grandmother they refuse to pay. cs Friends don’t charge friends, they say. Grandmother is disappointed but is delighted to have so many people think she is their friend. She and Pappy snuggle on the couch and drink wine and watch old movies until she says she has to work. She goes back to her typing, and asks Pappy how to spell bankruptcy.
Act 4:
Climax: 10 year old Sam & Grandmother go down hand in hand to meet the room full of residents. Pappy walks Grandmother to the lectern thinking she is going to say that she’ll be leaving soon, but no! Grandmother winks at Sam and confesses that she is making piles of money by selling her advice column to news outlets all over the world. Celebration is in order.
Resolution: Pappy and Grandmother walk through the lobby on a date. They’re dressed to the nines and step into the waiting limo. Sonny and Sally are in the very back seat of the limo, and as Pappy puts his arm around Grandmother Sonny says to Sally, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 2223 Lesson 6 Genre Conventions
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I know my characters intimately.
State: I’m completely frustrated with the computer problems and posting, but happy with everything else. I’ve had to type this too many times.
Activity…building genre conventions into my structure.
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Home, isn’t very happy and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her new friend Pappy.
Genre: Drama and Comedy
Drama Conventions:
Purpose: To explore the story of Grandmother’s moving into a retirement home, overcoming a bland and not-too-friendly atmosphere, shoring up her money supply, and making a success of living….showing that yes, people need people.
Character-Driven Journey: Grandmother is the protagonist and Pappy the antagonist. Their relationship and problems drive the story. Hopefully the audience will learn to love them both….including their differences and similarities.
High Stakes from Within: All the high stakes come from within…from within the main characters as well as all the residents of Shady Acres. This is where the changes and challenges take place….more within the characters.
Emotionally resonates: This story is more emotionally driven than action driven. Older people have emotions which are usually felt and interpreted by family but not always by other people.
Challenging, emotionally-charged situations: There are happiness challenges from the start…and also money challenges, friendship challenges, and career challenges.
Real-life Situations: The challenges here are real life challenges…problems so often felt by seniors but rarely shared. Loneliness is currently a national problem….but it’s a problem that seniors have felt for centuries…and always we acknowledge that People need People….This movie is about those situations.
Comedy Conventions:
Purpose: To entertain the audience with a story which includes laughter-inducing moments Shady Acres. Often we just have to laugh at our problems.
Incongruence: The unconventional pairing of Grandmother and Pappy can cause the audience to laugh or cry and to recognize how often these things happy in real life…not just the movies.
Mechanics of comedy: The setup here is an invitation to induce laughter, both in settings and in conversations.
Comedic Protagonist: Grandmother is the straight man in this movie, and she triggers amusing situations and amusing behavior throughout.
Strong Story: The comedy is coupled with drama….and that story keeps the audience engaged throughout THE BILLINAIRE IN 501.
Structure with Improvements:
Act 1. Opening:
The woman carrying groceries in the lobby of Shady Acres is on a walker and carries her groceries across the lobby spilling the oranges all the way. None of the residents sitting around the lobby either speak to her or to each other or make a move to help her. Just Grandmother makes a kind move.
Inciting incident:
Sonny has an easy relationship with Grandmother, but when he tells her she’s broke it comes as quite a surprise, and we realize that Grandmother isn’t the best business woman around, and we realize that Sonny isn’t going to help her. He would like to tell her what to do, but she treats him quite lovingly but also casually. He will not rescue Grandmother.
Turning Point: Grandmother goes around the restaurant trying to infuse a spirit of friendship and motivation for business among the tired residents. She tries to give them each a shot of friendship.
Act 2: New Plan: 10 year old Sam becomes the teacher and 72 year old Grandmother is the student in a computer situation. Pappy shows his hand when he brags about his business skills and Sally shows jealousy and insecurity when she senses right away that Grandmother is going to be an attraction to Pappy…even though he doesn’t know it yet.
Plan in Action: The items being made by the residents look quite homemade and crudely made. One resident realizes she only knitted four fingers into the glove she’s working on. Another crawls around on the floor trying to find the blue bead she dropped.
Midpoint turning point: Pappy is cool and distant with Grandmother while at the same time trying to do little things to get her attention. They share some wine, but when Pappy tells Grandmother, “I told you that business would fail,” she gets up and leaves him along at the bar and goes up to her apartment where she types away at the computer. We see she’s typing a page which reads, “Dear Friend, I am retired but about to run out of money. What can I do?” We think she’s writing a “friend”….but we don’t really know.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Sam is more evident than before in showing Grandmother computer skills. We learn that Grandmother is typing more and writing the “friend” with more problems.” Sam keeps giving her computer tips.
New Plan: Grandmother goes to the mailbox more and more frequently. She makes a point of being friendly to other residents and gradually we see friendships developing. Pappy makes a business plan for her to give lessons to the other residents in exchange for pay. She agrees. Sam helps her help the other residents learn computer skills.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents with computers in their laps, but when Pappy tries to collect their money to pay Grandmother they refuse to pay. cs Friends don’t charge friends, they say. Grandmother is disappointed but is delighted to have so many people think she is their friend. She and Pappy snuggle on the couch and drink wine and watch old movies until she says she has to work. She goes back to her typing, and asks Pappy how to spell bankruptcy.
Act 4:
Climax: 10 year old Sam & Grandmother go down hand in hand to meet the room full of residents. Pappy walks Grandmother to the lectern thinking she is going to say that she’ll be leaving soon, but no! Grandmother winks at Sam and confesses that she is making piles of money by selling her advice column to news outlets all over the world. Celebration is in order.
Resolution: Pappy and Grandmother walk through the lobby on a date. They’re dressed to the nines and step into the waiting limo. Sonny and Sally are in the very back seat of the limo, and as Pappy puts his arm around Grandmother Sonny says to Sally, “Do you think he’s after her money?”Module 2223 Lesson 6 Genre Conventions
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned that I know my characters intimately.
State: I’m completely frustrated with the computer problems and posting, but happy with everything else. I’ve had to type this too many times.
Activity…building genre conventions into my structure.
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Home, isn’t very happy and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her new friend Pappy.
Genre: Drama and Comedy
Drama Conventions:
Purpose: To explore the story of Grandmother’s moving into a retirement home, overcoming a bland and not-too-friendly atmosphere, shoring up her money supply, and making a success of living….showing that yes, people need people.
Character-Driven Journey: Grandmother is the protagonist and Pappy the antagonist. Their relationship and problems drive the story. Hopefully the audience will learn to love them both….including their differences and similarities.
High Stakes from Within: All the high stakes come from within…from within the main characters as well as all the residents of Shady Acres. This is where the changes and challenges take place….more within the characters.
Emotionally resonates: This story is more emotionally driven than action driven. Older people have emotions which are usually felt and interpreted by family but not always by other people.
Challenging, emotionally-charged situations: There are happiness challenges from the start…and also money challenges, friendship challenges, and career challenges.
Real-life Situations: The challenges here are real life challenges…problems so often felt by seniors but rarely shared. Loneliness is currently a national problem….but it’s a problem that seniors have felt for centuries…and always we acknowledge that People need People….This movie is about those situations.
Comedy Conventions:
Purpose: To entertain the audience with a story which includes laughter-inducing moments Shady Acres. Often we just have to laugh at our problems.
Incongruence: The unconventional pairing of Grandmother and Pappy can cause the audience to laugh or cry and to recognize how often these things happy in real life…not just the movies.
Mechanics of comedy: The setup here is an invitation to induce laughter, both in settings and in conversations.
Comedic Protagonist: Grandmother is the straight man in this movie, and she triggers amusing situations and amusing behavior throughout.
Strong Story: The comedy is coupled with drama….and that story keeps the audience engaged throughout THE BILLINAIRE IN 501.
Structure with Improvements:
Act 1. Opening:
The woman carrying groceries in the lobby of Shady Acres is on a walker and carries her groceries across the lobby spilling the oranges all the way. None of the residents sitting around the lobby either speak to her or to each other or make a move to help her. Just Grandmother makes a kind move.
Inciting incident:
Sonny has an easy relationship with Grandmother, but when he tells her she’s broke it comes as quite a surprise, and we realize that Grandmother isn’t the best business woman around, and we realize that Sonny isn’t going to help her. He would like to tell her what to do, but she treats him quite lovingly but also casually. He will not rescue Grandmother.
Turning Point: Grandmother goes around the restaurant trying to infuse a spirit of friendship and motivation for business among the tired residents. She tries to give them each a shot of friendship.
Act 2: New Plan: 10 year old Sam becomes the teacher and 72 year old Grandmother is the student in a computer situation. Pappy shows his hand when he brags about his business skills and Sally shows jealousy and insecurity when she senses right away that Grandmother is going to be an attraction to Pappy…even though he doesn’t know it yet.
Plan in Action: The items being made by the residents look quite homemade and crudely made. One resident realizes she only knitted four fingers into the glove she’s working on. Another crawls around on the floor trying to find the blue bead she dropped.
Midpoint turning point: Pappy is cool and distant with Grandmother while at the same time trying to do little things to get her attention. They share some wine, but when Pappy tells Grandmother, “I told you that business would fail,” she gets up and leaves him along at the bar and goes up to her apartment where she types away at the computer. We see she’s typing a page which reads, “Dear Friend, I am retired but about to run out of money. What can I do?” We think she’s writing a “friend”….but we don’t really know.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Sam is more evident than before in showing Grandmother computer skills. We learn that Grandmother is typing more and writing the “friend” with more problems.” Sam keeps giving her computer tips.
New Plan: Grandmother goes to the mailbox more and more frequently. She makes a point of being friendly to other residents and gradually we see friendships developing. Pappy makes a business plan for her to give lessons to the other residents in exchange for pay. She agrees. Sam helps her help the other residents learn computer skills.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents with computers in their laps, but when Pappy tries to collect their money to pay Grandmother they refuse to pay. cs Friends don’t charge friends, they say. Grandmother is disappointed but is delighted to have so many people think she is their friend. She and Pappy snuggle on the couch and drink wine and watch old movies until she says she has to work. She goes back to her typing, and asks Pappy how to spell bankruptcy.
Act 4:
Climax: 10 year old Sam & Grandmother go down hand in hand to meet the room full of residents. Pappy walks Grandmother to the lectern thinking she is going to say that she’ll be leaving soon, but no! Grandmother winks at Sam and confesses that she is making piles of money by selling her advice column to news outlets all over the world. Celebration is in order.
Resolution: Pappy and Grandmother walk through the lobby on a date. They’re dressed to the nines and step into the waiting limo. Sonny and Sally are in the very back seat of the limo, and as Pappy puts his arm around Grandmother Sonny says to Sally, “Do you think he’s after her money?”
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Module 2 Lesson 5 Four-Act Transformational Structure
Marguerite Langstaff
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I really do love my protagonist and antagonist.
State: I feel completely confident in traveling through his script with Grandmother and Pappy….and will work to give them, especially Grandmother, justice in the story. The hardest part is trying to POST it in forums…..because my computer skills are so limited.
Activity: Creating the structure of my stories hard because it forces me to state things which have happened only in my mind and imagination.
Concept: Grandmother moves into Shady Acres Retirement Facility, isn’t very happy, and when she runs short of funds and manages to make money by sharing her wisdom to the public she suddenly makes a ton of money which helps to bring her life into a happier mode with her friend Pappy.
Main Conflict: Grandmother moves to Shady Acres Retirement Facility and meets Pappy. When working together on a project Pappy’s daughter tries to sabotage the friendship while Grandmother’s son encourages it. Grandmother finds she is short of money so she organizes a group of people to form a business. All the residents want to participate in that. When the business fails she begins to write an advice column for newspapers with the help of her 10 year old grandson Sam. She and Pappy battle in competition to start more successful businesses, but when Grandmother sells her advice to a major news outlet and becomes famous as the Billionaire in 501, Pappy concedes that she wins and that indeed people do need people….and that he needs Grandmother. Love blossoms at Shady Acres.
Old Ways: Grandmother wears dull colored and plain styled clothes, is timid and gives tired greetings to others and is hesitant in participating in activities. She watches too much tv and eats alone with only a dog for company, refusing to learn or even use a cell phone.
New Ways: Grandmother greets friends right and left in the lobby of Shady Acres, speaks up and controls meetings in participation activities, cakes calls and participates in cell telephone participation, watches tv with Pappy AND the dog Bingo, dresses in spiffy clothes and is busy all the time.
ACT 1: Opening:
Grandmother, 72 years old, gets out of a taxi and drags her suitcase inside of Shady Acres Retirement Facility. She is dressed in tired, drab-looking clothes, old shoes and purse, and she looks tired and sad. She checks in with a cold unattractive concierge who gives her keys and a big heavy pushcart to carry her bag and tells her to take care of that room because she may not be at Shady Acres very long. Grandmother pushes the heavy cart through the large lobby past several men and women who sit in chairs, all very dull looking and who pay no attention to either Grandmother or each other. Another woman in the lobby is carrying a sack of groceries, spills them, and Grandmother stops to pick up her dozen oranges rolling around the lobby. Pappy, a 75 year old man dressed in golf clothes sits in a chair behind a newspaper…see Grandmother picking up the woman’s oranges and tells the woman to say “thank you” to Grandmother. That woman says, “Thank you,” to Grandmother and then walks away.
Inciting incident:
Grandmother’s son, Sonny, coms to Grandmother’s apartment where she is bent over and studying a checkbook. He tells her she cannot stay more than two months because she is already out of money and that, in fact, she never was good at money. She is undeterred and tells him that she’ll just start a business and then she’ll have a better income.
Turning Point:
Grandmother is in the restaurant at Shady Acres and is going from table to table trying to be friendly and telling people that she’s starting a business so that if they want to participate in it to come to her meeting that afternoon in the Community Room to help plan it. Nobody pays any attention to her, but she says to some of the tables, “We do need each other.’
ACT 2:
New Plan:
Grandmother is in her apartment feeding Sam, her 10 year old grandson, cereal, and he’s telling her that she can do it. He has $5.28 he’ll give her to start a business. He tells her to remember what she keeps telling him…that he can do anything he wants to do if he just tries hard enough. Grandmother meets with the people in the Community Room and lo! there’s a huge crowd of senior citizens there withPappy sitting in the front row. Grandmother greets them with an air of excitement and gives a little speech about starting a business, and does anybody have any ideas. There is silence. Then Pappy gives a little speech about what a good b business man he is that he knows that so many of them can’t start a business because they’re too old and that there are too many people among which to have to divide the money. Grandmother calls for a show of hands for a vote and all the residents vote for her ideas except Pappy . They vote to sell something but have to decide what to sell. Pappy is defeated and says sarcastically that Grandmother should be known as the Billionaire in 501. She ignores him. His daughter Sally stops by and sees that Pappy is captivated by Grandmother. She warns Pappy to stay away from her. She’s after your money, warns Sally. Sonny meets Sally in the lobby and they laugh about their respective parents. When Sally tells Sonny that Grandmother is chasing Pappy for his money, Sonny answers, I hope so. She sure needs it. Sally leaves in anger.
Plan in action:The residents sit around the lobby making things, stringing necklaces, knitting wool caps, cutting felt Christmas ornaments. A big booth outside Shady Acres invites the public to come shop at the new Shady Acres Market place.
Midpoint Turning Point: The residents’ business venture is a failure. They not only sell nothing much, but the spring rains fall and ruin their wares. They’re too slow to bring them inside. All is lost. Pappy goes around telling them, “I told you so.”…but when Grandmother walks by he simply hides behind his newspaper pretending to read. He does, however, pull his chair near to Grandmother’s, and make little moves toward her. Finally he says, “Would you like a glass of wine?” Grandmother loves wine. She tolerates Pappy. But that’s about as good as it gets for him.
ACT 3:
Rethink everything:
Grandmother is in her apartment with 10 year old Sam who tells her solutions to her money troubles. Grandmother sits at the computer typing away. Her best skills have always been typing and telling others what to do. Pappy knocks on the door and wants to come in to visit. Grandmother tells him he hasn’t carried his weight as a good business man, so he agrees reluctantly to think of a “better idea.”
New Plan:
Pappy is so impressed with Grandmother’s typing that he makes an elaborate business plan whereby she would give lessons to all the residents at Shady Acres and they can then work their computers. They’re too sheltered anyway and need to communicate with each other and with the outside world. Social media is about to come to Shady Acres. 10 year old Sam coaches Grandmother about things she needs to learn about the computer, and she spends time practicing in her apartment with Sam. They bring up problems to solve (like how to make friends….or how to make people smile…or how to save lots of money when you don’t have a very big income) and they come up with solutions to those problems. Grandmother works on the answers and learns social media and marketing from Sam and the computer. Grandmother makes her trips to the mailbox more and more frequent.
Turning Point:
The community room is full of residents…all talking to each other…and most of them with a computer in his/her lap. Grandmother welcomes them with the we’re-getting-to-know-each other speech …then Pappy gets up and, enacting his business plan, proceeds to collect funds from the residents for the computer lessons Grandmother has been giving them. Nobody pays. They’re all so appreciative, but they won’t pay money. Grandmother forgives Pappy for causing her to have to spend so much time teaching computer skills to the Shady Acres residents, and she invites him to her apartment for more wine. The business has failed and Grandmother will have to move out to a place which she can afford. They snuggle on the couch drinking wine and watching old movies. Occasionall the phone rings and occasionally Grandmother goes to the computer to “answer e-mails.” She looks up at Pappy from one of her moments on the computer and asks how to spell “bankruptcy.”
ACT 4:
Climax:
10 year old Sam comes to Grandmother’s apartment and together they go downstairs to the Community Room. Grandmother has a smile and Sam holds her hand with pride. She winks at him on the way downstairs. When they walk into the room all the residents are there waiting for them…and they greet her with hellos and smiles in direct contrast to the welcome she received just a couple of months ago when she arrived. Pappy stands and walks with Grandmother to the lectern. He gives her hand a squeeze. She winks at him too. Pappy stands at the lectern and gives a little farewell speech Grandmother. Then it’s her turn. She announces that she has a confession to make. She isn’t leaving. She and Sam have authored an advice column for the New York Times and the responses have been so positive and popular that newspapers around the world have subscribed to her advice column. Her income has become absolutely enormous. She’s not quite the Billionaire…yet….in 501 which Pappy predicted, but she’s well on her way. New subscriptions and new charities and chocolate sundaes for everybody, says Grandmother.
Resolution:
The lobby is full of residents wanting to greet each other and Grandmother. Grandmother and Pappy step out on a date with each other, arm in arm, both dressed to the nines, laughing and holding hands as they step into a waiting limo together. Life is good. They have each other, and love blossoms at Shady Acres.
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Module 2 Lesson 3 The transformational journey
Marguerite Langstaff
Title: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment was:I had to get to know Grandmother (my protagonist) better and better.
Sate: I’m completely capable of writing this movie.
Activity: designing a great transformational journey for Grandmother.
Arc Beginning: Grandmother moves to Shady Acres Retirement home, dresses in dull clothing, has no friends, very little money and not much if anything to occupy her time all day. Life is dull.
Arc Ending: Grandmother and Pappy step out on a date with each other, arm in arm, both dressed to the nines, laughing, and holding hands as they step into a waiting taxi cab together.
Life is good.
Internal Journey: From life-is-dull, I’m not very happy and what shall I do with my time…..
External Journey: Life-is-good. I’m happy and laughing and falling in love with my honey.
Old Ways: Dull colored and styled clothes, timid and tired greetings to other [epple, hesitant participation in activities watching tv and eating alone with only a dog for company, refusing to learn to use a cell phone.
New Ways:Greets friends right and left in lobby of Shady Acres, speaks up and controls meetings in participation activities, takes calls and participates in cell telephone participation, watches tv with Pappy AND the dog, dresses with spiffy clothes, busy all the time.
ac
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Module 2 Lesson 2 Intentional Lead Characters
Marguerite Langstaff
Title: THE BILLIONAIRE IN 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment: I learned to flesh out characters and also the story line. ….somewhat.
Activity: having my lead characters deliver powerfully on my concept.
State: I am completely committed to writing a new script and polishing an old one while taking this course.
Character: My protagonist is an ambitious 74 year old grandmother who makes a billion dollars.
Logline: Our energetic grandmother arrives at Shady Acres Retirement Home, tries unsuccessfully to make new friends, but when she organizes a business to make money the other residents flood her with friendship.
Unique: Grandmother succeeds against all odds with everybody’s treating her like a has-been.
Character:My antagonist is 80 year old Pappy who is smitten with Grandmother even though Grandmother gives him the cold shoulder.
Logline: Pappy, a long time resident of the retirement home, insults Grandmother, and then, after flirting with her advises (poorly) Grandmother about business, falls in love with her and finally persuades her to give him her heart.
Unique: Pappy forces love to blossom at age 80.
Triangle Character: Sally, Pappy’s daughter, disapproves her father’s new friendship, encourages him to turn over his estate to her, but eventually succumbs to Grandmother’s charms and falls in love with Grandmother.
Logline: Sally tries to sabotage Pappy’s courtship but finds herself depending on Grandmother for support and advice.
Unique: Sally wants to become her Pappy’s boss even though he still has a mind and heart of his own.
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Module 2 Lesson 1 Great Outlines Make Great Scripts
Marguerite Langstaff
Title: The Billionaire in 501
Vision: I want to learn to write and market movie scripts.
What I learned from doing this assignment is: I needed an antagonist to come up with a plot for my story….
Activity: creating an outline that turns into an amazing story!
State: I am really good at struggling for a plot. I keep envisioning scenes and have to struggle with the rest.
Concept: Grandmother moves to Shady Acres Retirement Home, and meets Sam at a business meeting. When working together on a project Sam’s daughter tries to sabotage the friendship while Grandmother’s son encourages it, saying people need people. Grandmother finds she’s a bit short of money, so she begins to write an advice column for newspapers. She and Sam battle for having the best business model for their little group at Shady Acres, but when Grandmother sells her advice to a major news outlet and become famous as the Billionaire in 501 Sam concedes that she wins and that people need people….and he needs Grandmother. Love blossoms at Shady Acres.
The Character Structure is Protagonist versus Antagonist. Grandmother is the Protagonist and Sam is the Antagonist.
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My name is Marguerite (Margie ) Langstaff. I have written four scripts. I hope to learn to write a marketable movie script…..and to energize and stimulate my imagination so that it won’t take me forever to think up new ideas and etc. The unique things about me include that I was a judge and spent 30 years on the bench, I am almost 88 years old, have five children, 13 grand children and two great grands, live in a retirement center in Colorado and just lost my dear husband of 67 years. It has been a wonderful journey, and I pray it isn’t over!
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Marguerite T. Langstaff
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