[Kate Gleeson]

Kate Gleeson’s Lead Characters

What I learned doing this assignment is how freeing it is when you focus on the purpose of each characters instead of the details of the story.

Transformational journey logline: An idealistic, ambitious young Techie at the start of his career working at a very successful and respected high tech company discovers the hypocrisy of the greedy tech industry and must stop the social injustices perpetuated by AI/ML.

Change Agent: The professor. He’s a former professor of the young software engineer. The young Techie respects him and has a strong, trusting relationship with him. He has experience in the high tech field, a deep understanding of the old ways, and has broken away from that world.

• CA’s vision: People who work on technology need to develop empathy so that they understand the impact of the software they develop.
• CA’s past experience that fits that vision: The Professor worked in the tech industry in the early days so he understands the draw and promise of technology (old ways), but abandoned his career because he saw the misuse of technology and now believes that we need a different model with guardrails on the behavior of software developers and corporations that develop tech (new ways).

Transformable Character: The young Techie. He is invested in the status quo because he is benefiting from it, but he starts to see the hypocrisy and amorality of the tech industry, which conflicts with his sense of himself as a good person contributing something positive to the world.

The Oppression: The hypocritical corporation represented by corporate leadership and the Techie’s coworkers that pretend to care about their employees and customers well being. In reality, they just want to work their employees to death and throw them by the wayside, and exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of their customers to maximize profits.

Betraying Character: The Manager. Pretends to care about the Techie but in reality is spying on him and undermining his efforts to change the corporate culture and blow the whistle on the company. He uses passive aggressive techniques to gaslight the Techie, slander him, and destroy his reputation.

[Kate Gleeson]

What I learned doing this assignment is don’t let the desired result dictate the journey.

Logline: An idealistic and ambitious techie at the start of his career working at a very successful and respected high tech company discovers the hypocrisy of the greedy tech industry and must stop the social injustices perpetuated by AI/ML.

• Lead character with an issue: An idealistic and ambitious techie at the start of his career
• Journey: …working at a very successful and respected high tech company discovers the hypocrisy of the greedy tech industry…
• Transformation: must stop the social injustices perpetuated by AI/ML.

Old ways: Trust that older, more experienced leaders and coworkers care about the impact of their products on people and that they have “good intent.” Trust that the industry wants to “change the world” in a positive, benevolent way. Believe that technology is benign and can’t actually hurt people.

New ways: Don’t trust the that the older, more experienced leaders and coworkers have “good intent.” Recognize that technology is a tool that can be used to promote social justice or destroy it. Take control of the technology and the people who create it by putting guardrails on the people who create and own it.

[Kate Gleeson]

Kate Gleeson’s First Three Decisions

What I learned doing this assignment is focus on what I want to say and don’t get hung up on the specifics (the world, the timeline, etc.).

What is your profound truth?

The choices we make individually construct the reality of our collective world.

What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?

Recognize the impact of your small, daily choices and make choices that build the world you want to live in.

What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?

Explicit dual timelines with split storylines.

[Kate Gleeson]

Subject: Kate Gleeson’s Analysis of Groundhog Day

What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of incremental change that moves forward and then back and then forward again. The rhythm of the change. It’s important to have those backsliding moments that create uncertainty because they pull the audience in and make the main character relatable.

What is the CHANGE this movie is about?

Going from being an egocentric, frustrated person who is never satisfied to being someone who is present and finds meaning in the day-to-day life.

What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?

From being a career striver always looking for the next big step up to a successful weatherman who enjoys his current job and present life. <div>

Lead characters:

Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change? Rita (Andie MacDowell)

Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey? Phil (Bill Murray)

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What is the Oppression?

Tedium of living a self-absorbed mundane life/meaninglessness of daily life

How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story?

Repeating variations of the waking up in the morning scene.

Repeating the song and radio hosts.

Looking at the character(s) who are changed the most, what is the profound journey? From “old ways” to “new way of being.” </div>

Identify their old way: Cynical, self-absorbed, arrogant, sarcastic, narcissistic

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Identify their new way at the conclusion: Present, kind, caring, embraces the futility of daily life, which liberates him and enables him to actually be present and enjoy life.

What is the gradient the change? </div><div>

5 stages of grief (see next)

What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing? </div><div>

Denial – Doesn’t believe it’s happening to him.

Anger/fighting it – Fights with everyone. Tries to rush through the day to make it end faster.

Bargaining – No consequences sequence to test whether it’s really happening.

Depression – Realizes that nothing is going to break the cycle so he tries to kill himself in different ways to get out of the cycle.

Acceptance – Breaks the spell and he can begin to live his life again.

How is the “old way” challenged? What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change? </div><div>

When he keeps doing the same thing and getting the same result—misery (steps in puddle, rude to people, cold shower)

When he asks for help and realizes that no one else can help him.

When he realizes that he doesn’t have to step in the puddle because he can make a different choice.

When he starts really talking to Rita to get to know her and realizes that he cares about her and that relationships matter.

When he tries to be someone he’s not by studying Rita too closely—that the formula doesn’t work if it isn’t authentic.

What are the most profound moments of the movie?

The first morning that he realizes he’s stuck on repeat and steps in the puddle.

When he’s with the drunk guys and he drives them home and realizes that he can do anything he wants without consequences.

When he wakes up after crashing the car and he realizes that there really aren’t any consequences for his actions.

When he tracks everything that’s going to happen.

When he tries to kill himself the first time.

When he has the night with Rita and still wakes up to repeat the day and embraces the day, starting to accept his plight.

When he helps the old man even though he ends up dying over and over.

When he stops trying to be someone he’s not to impress Rita and starts just being present and being himself.

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What are the most profound lines of the movie?

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Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

Drunk guy: That about sums it up for me. <div>

Phil: I’ve been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned…and every morning I wake up without a scratch on me, not a dent in the fender…I am an immortal.

Rita: It was a perfect day. You can’t plan a day like this.

Phil: Well, you can but it takes an awful lot of work. </div><div>

Phil: I killed myself so many times I don’t even exist anymore.
Phil: No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now because I love you.

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Phil: Something is…different.

Rita: Good or bad?
Phil: Anything different is good. </div><div>

How does the ending payoff the setups of this movie?

The music is the same so we assume the day is the same until the announcers complain about the song. It’s like Scrooge waking up on Christmas Day or Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. Phil is genuinely in the moment and grateful for his life.

What is the Profound Truth of this movie?

Being your authentic self and being present in the moment are what make a life meaningful.

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[Kate Gleeson]

Hi everyone. I’m Kate Gleeson. I haven’t written any scripts before. Have a stack of notes and ideas that I’ve been dragging around for years and finally want to do something. I’m hoping this class will light a fire under me and get me to work on one of these ideas. When I was in my early 20s I lived with a bunch of hippies in the Australian bush–totally off the grid with no running water or electricity.

[Kate Gleeson]

Kate Gleeson
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