[Judith Praag]

Judith's Rom Com: Day and Knight
What I learned doing this assignment is that adding on to what I started with is fun.

1. Starting with your concept and conventions, fill in as many blanks as you can for each of your lead characters.
• Who is She? Day (29) is a food truck cook, and student dietitian, she became an apprentice nun because she couldn’t say no to no good guys. She feels safe among the nuns and finds fulfillment in helping others, but she dreams of foodie, rock, and movie stars taking a liking to her.
• Who is He? Jay(34) has a debilitating rare disease and is supportive of others like him. He depends on caregivers and relies heavily on technology to communicate.
• What makes them lovable? She’s sassy and kind. He’s compassionate and funny.
• What attracts them to each other? There is chemistry. She’s caring toward customers and has the right moves. He pays attention and reads people.
• What needs does each fulfill for the other? For Day, Jay seems safe, not immediately a love interest, not a bad boy, she’s not a toy in his eyes. For Jay, Day is a way out of his isolation, playfulness, and adventure.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Judith Praag.

[Judith Praag]

What I learned: Trusting the process, and filling in the blanks, while allowing scenes from RomComs to enter my consciousness allows for creative ideas of my own.
Create your Concept and Conventions

Judith’s RomCom: Day and Knight
Day a lay-nun working at a food truck and Jay a wheelchair-bound rare disease ambassador are thrown together when his best friend and caregiver is called away for a family emergency.

1. Starting with whatever idea you have, fill in the blanks to create a concept.
• Two People Who Belong Together: Day, a student Dietitian, and Jay a rare disease ambassador.
• How Are They Separated: She’s a nun who works in a food truck, he’s a wheelchair-bound public speaker who relies heavily on texting.
• What Forces Them Together: Food. Her boss, Jay’s friend is called away and leaves Day and Jay together at the end of a work day, and not just then.
• Issues to be Resolved: Inequality between able and disabled, meeting future dreams, employee versus a friend of the employer. She dreams of a career in the church, and secretly of a knight on a motorbike, not a disabled film buff with beer-can abs, in a power chair.
• On Their Journey of Love: They meet through texting, which plays a role in creating expectations. Jay is a charmer, intelligent, and empathic. Day is stand-offish but charmed. Meeting in person there’s getting used to the disadvantage of having different abilities. They have similar interests; and fight stigmas, and prejudices, their own and those of others. There’s slapstick, as they fall in and out of love (literally). What does friendship with benefits mean to them?

2. Then fill in the blanks to create your conventions. Even though some of these are the same, it is worth looking at them in the context of the conventions.

• Experience of Falling In Love: Infatuation via Texting, Jay is very empathic toward Day.
• The Journey of Love:
• Relationship Set-up: Meet Cute happens when Jay texts the lovely Day from KC’s vehicle and all she sees is a handsome man, in her boss’s car.
• Issues each must Resolve: Day is a nun, who secretly dreams of a knight on a motorbike, not a disabled film buff with beer-can abs, in a power chair. Jay is an intellectual who wants to be as independent as possible.
• Separation: Day moves back to her hometown. Jay can’t follow her on his own.
• How will Comedy be Expressed: Dialogue created by texting gets a different meaning when Day and Jay meet in person. Figurative speech becomes literal and visa-versa. Slapstick between able-bodied yet awkward Day and wheelchair-bound Jay. Humorous interactions between the two and her boss/ his friend and outsiders.

3. Edit both lists to improve the expression of the concept and conventions.
4. Answer the question, “What I learned doing this assignment is…” and place that at the top of the page.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Judith Praag.

[Judith Praag]

1. Judith Van Praag
2. A weird stage play, two features, one short, and recently finished the pilot for a Comedy show with four(4) co-writers.
3. Open my mind to write fun-filled RomCom.
4. My ex-husband told me decades ago that I should write comedy. I didn't know whether he was serious.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Judith Praag.

[Judith Praag]

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

[Judith Praag]

The issues to be resolved are Big. There’s great opportunity to open people’s minds. Curious to see this developed David.