Maria Helena Nascimento
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Maria Helena Nascimento – three gradients ASSIGNMENT day 5
What I learned doing this assignment:
To look for actions that translate emotions.
What is the Emotional Gradient you’ll
use?Forced change
For each emotion of that gradient, tell
us the following:DENIAL
ACTION: Tries to escape
CHALLENGE/ WEAKNESS: She has to escape by herself through the forest – She has no resources to do that
ANGER
EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: She allows herself to feel all the anger she repressed for years
ACTION: She confronts her father about everything he did and does, tries to demoralize him in front of all the community
CHALLENGE/ WEAKNESS: She challenges his authority/ She depends on him to escape the police
BARGAINING
EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: She wants to go away, but not blindly this time
ACTION: She uses her father’s girlfriend helicopter to get out
CHALLENGE/ WEAKNESS: She has to lure the pilot/ she does not trust her abilities to seduce the pilot
DEPRESSION
EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: She understands that she shouldn’t have escaped but faced her father/ her feelings.
ACTION: She gets home, to her mother, to their old ways
CHALLENGE/ WEAKNESS: She is in panic when she discovers that her mother’s boyfriend is a police officer
ACCEPTANCE:
EMOTIONAL GRADIENT: She uses something her father has taught her
ACTION: She takes a huge risk sending to the foreign press proof of the dictatorship violence against civilians
CHALLENGE/ WEAKNESS: She understands that she does not belong in the community, nor with her mother. she has to discover her own place in the world.
(no weakness here, I guess)
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MARIA HELENA NASCIMENTO – Day 4 – ASSIGNMENT 1:
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
I haven’t thought of any character in my story as a betraying character, so this is really going to be a guess, as Hal suggests.
I have another question: is there always a betraying character? Who would be this character in Groundhog Day?
Tell us your transformational journey
logline.A naïve, fragile young woman is thrown in a wild hippie community led by her estranged father and has to tap her inner strength in order to survive.
Tell us who you think might be your
Change Agent and give a few sentences about how that character fits the
role.I guess my Change Agent is the hippie father. Although his rejection of his family and his lack of limits deeply disturb Malu (the main character) he has something that she envies: his freedom. She will never live exactly as he does, but she can learn something from his approach to life.
Tell us who you think might be your
Transformable Character(s) and give a few sentences about how that
character or characters fit the role.Malu is the transformable Character. At first, she happily fits the role of the good family girl of the early 60’s, but a traumatic experience will show her that real life is much more complex and demanding and she won’t be able to cope with it just playing a role.
Tell us who or what you think might be
The Oppression and give a few sentences about how The Oppression works in
your story.The oppression is the 60’s society values and the environment in Brazil during the military dictatorship. It works… well, really oppressing everybody, creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.
Tell us who you think might be your
Betraying Character and give a few sentences about how that character fits
the role.As I said, I have never thought of a betraying character before. Probably is Malu’s bipolar mother, who won’t let her break their mutual dependency so easily.
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MARIA HELENA NASCIMENTO – Transformational Journey
Day 3 ASSIGNMENT
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
I have learned that is gets more and more complicated to really see my story and my main character. It’s as if I had to prune everything around it to focus on the core. Very interesting.
Tell us your logline for the
transformational journey.A naïve, fragile young woman, thrown in a wild hippie community led by her estranged father, has to tap her inner strength in order to survive.
<div>
</div>Tell us what you see as the Old Ways.
dominated by her bipolar mother
passive
submissive to her bossy boyfriend
deeply hurt by the absence of her father
<div>
</div>Tell us what you see as the New Ways.
She has to define her limits in order to cope with the lack of boundaries of the community
She deals with her father as an adult.
She becomes independent
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MARIA HELENA NASCIMENTO – FIRST 3 DECISIONS – ASSIGNMENT 2
“What I learned doing this assignment is…”
That it will still take me some time to understand who my leading character really is.
What is your profound truth?
People can succeed in spite of (and acknowledging) their weaknesses.
What is the change your movie will cause
with an audience?Nothing in life is black and white. It is much more interesting when we try to see a human being for his/her truth and uniqueness instead of judging and classifying them.
What is your Entertainment Vehicle that
you will tell this story through?The end of the 60s in Brazil, during the military dictatorship. A naive and straight-laced young woman has to deal with the unforgiving environment of a clandestine guerrilla group and a wild hippie community led by her estranged father.
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Maria Helena Nascimento – analysis of Groundhog Day:
– What I learned doing this assignment:
I realized how powerful it is for a story when a character does not know himself, but we do. ( I also confess that I wasn’t crazy about this movie, but liked it much more this time)
– What is the CHANGE this movie is about? What
is the Transformational Journey of this movie?The change is about Phil breaking the shell of arrogance that he built to protect him from other people and accepting and cherishing his imperfect humanity.
– Lead characters:
Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the
change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?It’s Rita. Because she is honest, open, empathic – his opposite. And because she awakens the love in him, forcing him to acknowledge his true feelings.
– Who is the Transformable Character (the one
who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver
this profound journey?Phil. Because he has reached the peak (or bottom) of his emotional isolation and intolerance of his fellow human beings.
– What is the Oppression?
I am not sure if it is his own difficult personality or if it is the day that never ends.
– How are we lured into the profound journey?
What causes us to connect with this story?We want to see how he will cope with the day that never ends, how he will manage to escape it.
– Looking at the character(s) who are changed
the most, what is the profound journey? From “old ways” to “new way of
being.” Identify their old way: Identify their new way at the conclusion:Phil. He begins as a cynical, arrogant prima donna, with no compassion, incapable of truly relating to anyone – though very charming. At the conclusion, he sheds all these traits that protected him against pain and find the freedom and greatness of being open to life.
I don’t see much change in other characters.
– What is the gradient the change? What steps
did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?The steps are marked by the repetition of the Groundhog Day. Each day is a test, and Phil tries new ways to act to escape the strange predicament. Aggressive, indifferent, wild as a teenager, suicidal… but all these behaviors are artificial and still reflect his difficulty to open himself. It is only when he tries kindness – although at first in a calculated way – that things begin to change.
– How is the “old way” challenged? What beliefs
are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and
make the change?Phil is literally stuck in his way of life. Little by little, he understands that nothing that is built or faked will help him out, only his true, profound feelings will save him.
– What are the most profound moments of the
movie?I think one is when he declares his love to Rita when she asleep.
– What are the most profound lines of the movie?
Phil’s lines: “If you had one day to live, what would you do?” “I don’t even like myself”, “if I could, I would love you”, “only God can make a tree”, “I’m a god”. And Rita’s “I live to go with the flow”, “Maybe it’s not a curse, it depends on the way you look at it”.
– How does the ending payoff the setups of this
movie?”Phil finds love as reward for finally facing his true self as a vulnerable, imperfect human-being.
– What is the Profound Truth of this movie?
Life may hurt, but nothing good ever comes from trying to protect ourselves from it.
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Maria Helena Nascimento. I agree to the terms of this release form.
GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
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Hi!
Maria Helena Nascimento, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I have written telenovelas and series for Brazilian TV for the past 30 years. As a co-writer I worked in more than 10 titles, and as a leading writer in one.
I came to this course because I hope to add depth to my first movie idea. At this point, the story is outlined, but I feel it misses punch, impact.
Something special about me… not so special, but I graduated in Journalism and never worked in any newspaper or magazine. I also have published a novel in the early 2000s.