[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Profound Map

What I learned: This Map could be better laid out by using more accurate references back to the 15 lessons we just did. As it is, there are different headings in different places, making it a headache to follow: brain work that could better be applied to the content of my screenplay. (Also, Soth needs to fact check his Casablanca MM Analysis: “…Ugarte is shot, slipping the transit letters in Rick’s pocket.” C’mon! That’s not the way it goes down.)

Title: A Girl Like I

Written by: Marie Wilson

1. What is Your Profound Truth?

It’s not enough to say you care or give lip service to a cause, you must act.

2. What is the Transformational Journey?

Old Ways: Practically the whole town is stuck in the Old Ways of life but they are most clearly represented by a posse of drama club members. These folks believe in a binary of all things: good/bad, black/white, man/woman. Their rule of do unto your neighbour and “be kind” is shallow. Their kindness is something they practice by rote, not by understanding and accepting people different from themselves, therefore it is insincere and hypocritical. The lead character, while not of this small town mentality discovers her own superficial ways while trying to bring her hometown into the 21st century.

New Ways: Going through the process of putting on the play and getting to know the cast, the townsfolk realize that there is nothing wrong with being gender fluid or transgender. Their minds are opened up to the possibilities beyond a binary definition of everything. They develop paths of true understanding (not just lip service) so they can truly accept the trans character as well as others who are different from themselves. The lead character has also come to accept the townsfolk in all their imperfection, although not going so far as to tolerate their bigotry – she feels a love for them as they take baby steps into a more enlightened future, and this love has replaced her previous disdain.

Transformational Logline:

1. Transformable Character with an issue…

2. …takes a journey that challenges them deeply…

3. ..and concludes with the transformation.

A Hollywood actress’ sentence for disorderly conduct is to help an amateur theatre group put on their Christmas play but she throws the whole town into an uproar when she casts a young trans woman in the lead female role.

3. Who are Your Lead Characters?

Change Agent (the one causing the change): Emoke Slater

Transformable Character(s) (the one who makes the change): Kay Morgan, Sandra Morgan, various townspeople

Betraying Character (if you have one): Josephine

Oppression: Small town small mindedness

4. How Do You Connect With Your Audience in the Beginning of the Movie?

A. Relatability – Kay comes from a small town, she loves her mom but finds her overbearing; Emoke loves books and kids.

B. Intrigue – she’s an actress playing a princess on a popular TV show – the intrigue of celebrity; Emoke’s her gender is intriguing to many.

C. Empathy – Kay feels stifled by her mother and some neighbours and wants to get away from it all; Emoke is abused just for being who she is; makes her a loner.

D. Likability – Kay has a good sense of humour and beneath the TV star veneer seems very down to earth; Emoke likes children, books, the arts and she’s witty and amusingly sarcastic.

5. What is the Gradient of the Change?

What steps do the Transformational Characters go through as they are changing?

Gradient 1. The Emotional Gradient

A. The “Forced Change” Emotional Gradient

1. Emotion: Denial

2. Action: She ignores the court order and hands the play over to Eunice

3. Challenge: She’s forced to stay in this small town that she hates, helping with an amateur play which she hates. Weakness: Self-involved

1. Emotion: Anger

2. Action: casting Emoke in the lead

3. Challenge: if she must do this play she will do it her way; Weakness: her only form of rebellion is to lash out and it doesn’t achieve lasting results

1. Emotion: Bargaining

2. Action: she gives Eunice a good role in exchange for her co-operation

3. Challenge: Eunice is a bigot. Weakness: Kay doesn’t know how to call out bigotry when it is in disguise, so she does nothing

1. Emotion: Depression

2. Action: abandons the play and leaves for LA

3. Challenge: To be a better actress getting more serious roles. Weakness: lack of confidence in her abilities as an actress.

1. Emotion: Acceptance

2. Action: goes back and tries to gain control of play

3. Challenge: putting on the play when the whole town is against her and threatens to boycott the play. Weakness: feels inadequate as a director, fear of failure

6. What is the Transformational Structure of Your Story?

Mini-Movie 1 ­ Status Quo and Call to Adventure

The court order to direct the drama club Christmas play. (Kay is in denial that she’s been court ordered to do this and thinks she’ll just slip out of it somehow, like paying her way out of other jams.) Old ways: self involved. Challenges: ordered by a higher authority that doesn’t recognize her fame nor her fortune.

Weaknesses: she’s acting like a child – privileged and whiny

Mini-Movie 2 ­ Locked Into Conflict

The Judge auditions for the play. If he gets cast by Eunice, whom Kay has handed her duty over to, then he will observe that Kay is not fulfilling his court order of directing the play. Kay decides she must take control of the casting process so that she can exclude the Judge from the play and also not give Eunice a part, since she finds Eunice to be a toxic person.

But the stage manager says that not casting the Judge and/or Eunice would have dire consequences – the two of them are staples in the Yuletide show, they rep Christmas itself to the Haywood townsfolk, who would rise up with pitchforks if they were not included in the show. Kay is trapped (or locked). Old ways: festering resentment against her high school teacher Eunice Crupp. Challenges: has to co-operate with the teacher, respect the Judge. Weaknesses: she’d rather just bask in the adoration for her mediocre TV show

Mini-Movie 3 — Hero Tries to Solve Problem But Fails (or Standard Ways Fail)

Kay tries to play along as if she’s fulfilling the court order; she will just do a good acting job of pretending to direct or even care about the production (which she doesn’t). When that can’t work out (because the Judge is in play) then she makes a plea to her agent Schultzy to help get her out of this jam. Schultzy consults a lawyer who says that Kay’s best recourse is to suck it up, do the few months penance, and put it behind her. Schultzy reminds her that the press coverage will be even worse if Kay tries to wriggle out of helping her hometown with their beloved Christmas play, and that carry through with it can be spun to make Kay look really good. Old ways: relying on her privilege to get her out of jams. Challenges: to direct a play with amateurs and former neighbours that she abhors. Weaknesses: she has no real substance, just a manipulative approach to life

Mini-Movie 4 ­ Hero Forms a Plan (or Plan Backfires)

The bigger plan: she take the reins due to the Judge auditioning. She is fuelled in this by her hatred of Eunice (who has to be cast) so she decides to run the show just to spite Eunice and her mother and the whole town. She casts Emoke and this is the “goes horribly wrong”; Eunice has tremendous influence in the town and she doesn’t like this casting choice so takes it out on Kay’s mother (who was previously Eunice’s friend) by putting a social freeze on her. This tips the mom into a mental breakdown. The revolt against Kay signals the “vital info she lacked about the forces of antagonism against her”. The vital info she discovers is that the kind people of this town are bigots way beyond what she might have suspected. Old ways: doing things out of hatred or spite (the “I’ll show you!” method). Challenges: getting past the town’s bigotry. Weaknesses: obedience and reliance on her mom, causing her pain over her exclusion by Eunice.

Mini-Movie 5 ­ Hero Retreats & Antagonist Wins (or Decision to Change)

So Kay has been doing all that casting business that upsets everyone from a selfish motive, determined to show the townsfolk who gave her a hard time growing up that she’s better than they are. She’s not considering the real people involved, primarily Emoke. It seems as if Kay has just cast her to play devils advocate. Emoke may even accuse her of tokenism. She has a glimmering of understanding, as she retreats to lick her wounds, that her motives are wrong.

Old ways: doing things to show people she’s good and worthy. Challenges: her own ally Emoke even sees through this motive. Weaknesses: not considering others

Mini-Movie 6 ­ Hero’s Bigger, Better Plan! (or The ultimate failure)

Kay goes back to LA – something about being there has her understand her self-involved approach, hits her hard, things people say at her party – realization of what she’s done to people, using them, Emoke in particular. She realizes she really likes these folks who have been working on the play. So she goes back and hatches the new plan – meeting with the Judge and Eunice and Emoke. But: “very nearly destroyed by it” – the upshot of this meeting is that Eunice goes to the press and says horrible things about Kay and what she’s doing to their beloved Christmas play. As a result Kay is called in to the town council, given ultimatums. And then comes the “revelation” – this is when she gets celebrity LGBTQ community to put on a Christmas fair and sell the play. Old ways: back to the adored party girl and TV star. Challenges: realizes she can’t leave the cast in the lurch like this. Weaknesses: wants to sink into the comfort of an LA lifestyle: partying, brunching

Mini-Movie 7 ­ Crisis & Climax (or Apparent victory)

The fair is a huge success, Kay has new fervor, and has turned the tables on Eunice and her posse. Victory as they go back into rehearsals without Eunice and with more support of the townspeople. Tables turn one more time… Old ways: Kay is still working from a resentment angle. Challenges: getting the play mounted now that several people have quit. Weaknesses: wanting approval.

Mini-Movie 8 ­ New Status Quo

Eunice’s last attempt to defeat her might be picketing the play…Kay has to put down that attempt by having Harry and other helpers coral the protesters (there are only about four at this point) and let the audience in for opening night.

The successful opening night is the wrap up to the story; a new revelation is that Kay will return each winter to stage the Christmas play. Also that Eunice tells the picketers to go home and hug their children and grandchildren (this must be understood as her acceptance of new ways.)

Kay moves into a new world which is a deeper, truer and richer, and those who stick with her – from here she can take on better roles than her TV princess, from here she can help with her hometown’s Christmas play every year, make it something as special as this one turned out to be. Old ways: acting out of self-serving. Challenges: the show must go on. Weaknesses: scared of her future with the amateur theatre group

7. How are the “Old Ways” Challenged?

What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change?

Kay’s belief system allows her to blindly remain a privileged person.

A. Challenge by “Should Work, But Doesn’t” 1) Kay expects her money to solve her legal problem. 2) Kay doesn’t expect to actually have to carry out her court order. If her agent can’t get her out of it, then she will just show up and pass the duty along to others, like she always does. 3) Eunice’s position as a teacher has helped her wield power by treating everyone like a student that needs to be disciplined. 4) Sandra thinks that treating Kay like a child will get the same “proper” behaviour results from Kay that it did when she was actually a kid.

B. Challenge through Living Metaphor – 1) Diagrams that go up on the bulletin board that show where actors move on what lines, like a football game more than a creative endeavour. 2) Sandra’s exaggerated heartburn episode, which gets her out of having to meet Emoke.3) The theatre’s lift in the trap room. 4)The name of Emoke’s bookstore is Love & Squalor, suggesting a binary with no grey area.

8. How are You Presenting Insights through Profound Moments?

A. Action Delivers Insight

a) Insight: People are not always who you think they are so if you don’t know how they identify, then you shouldn’t care one way or the other. Action: Wes shows Kay a photo of himself as a child, she sees a little girl and understands that he was misgendered at birth; no one else in town knows this. Later this will be echoed when Wes challenges Eunice on her knowledge of peoples’ identities.

b) Insight: People who seem different from you (in this case non binary and trans folks seeming different from the townspeople), can be just as valuable as anyone else. Action: The Christmas fair is put on by a merry gang of queer folk and everyone has a wonderful time, especially the children, demonstrating that these people are fun-loving and valuable members of society.

c) Insight: Conforming will lead to trouble because life is about change not stasis, life is about being creative not cookie-cutter. Action: Sandra, who has valued Eunice as a good friend, is not invited to Eunice’s annual big bash, forcing Sandra to realize that Eunice is only a friend when Sandra conforms to her idea of who she should be – which is the same as her whole posse.

d) Insight: People who seem different from you (and that you disapprove of) could come to your aid in compassionate ways. Action: When Sandra thinks she’s having a heart attack Emoke stays with her to comfort her until the ambulance arrives.

e) Insight: Putting on a play or any artistic endeavour is more about the process or the journey than it is about the product. Action: Kay has the cast go through some fun exercises to discover their characters which contrasts sharply with Eunice’s blocking by diagrams.

B. Conflict Delivers Insight –

a) Having the cast experience the tension of rehearsing using old ways like blocking then see instantly how freeing it is to use creative approaches

b) Casting an “outcast” in the play which upsets the town who calls for recasting, causing some townspeople to see how unjust and hurtful their attitude is

c) Eunice calls the police suspecting Kay doesn’t have a permit for her fair, illustrating to closed minds how destructive the “opposed to others” can be

d) Kay is flippant about drinking although she’s been ordered to go to AA; her insight comes when Wes tells her about his alcoholism, just as she is about to flaunt the order and have a drink.

e) Kay rebels against the court order to direct the play by secretly letting their star attraction (Eunice) run the whole show; the insight happens when she is forced to take the reins because not only is the judge in the show but so is someone (Emoke) for whom the opportunity means a lot, someone marginalized and generally denied opportunities that others (like Kay) take for granted.

C. Irony Delivers Insight

a) Kay wants the world to see the talent in Emoke but in casting her in the play, the townspeople boycott the play. Insight: You can lead horses to water but you can’t make them drink.

b) Instead of a fun afternoon where Kay introduces her mom to Emoke, her mom has a heart attack. Insight: You can’t force people to have fun or to like someone.

c) In her apron, humming merry tunes, Sandra bakes pies to raise money for the drama club. Kay helps. But Sandra’s cheery good-neighbour attitude does not extend to including a so-called outsider into the club, and she threatens to destroy her apple pies if Kay insists on including Emoke in the play. Insight: a cheery attitude and an apple pie are just fake if that attitude is selective.

d) Kay goes to the bookstore to apologize to Emoke for breaking her window, expecting the usual adulation because she’s a TV star, but instead Emoke tells her off for being such a whiny drunk princess the night the window got smashed. Insight: Check your privilege.

e) Opening night is sold out; there are a few picketers, but mostly a feeling of celebration as audience arrives. Some Eunice supporters show up to heckle, but when an egg gets pitched at a cast member, it is Eunice herself (having gone through her own gradient steps) who stops the show to tell them to sit up and pay attention to the hardworking actors. Insight: Even the most strident of opposition can see the light.

9. What are the Most Profound Lines of the Movie?

a) I’d do anything for you.

b) If this is the squalor, where is the love?

c) And everything in between.

Pattern A: Height of the Emotion

a) Height: After hearing jeers and laughs from the other auditionees, Emoke is so crushed and overcome with fear that she can’t perform her monologue. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Kay to Emoke: “Every time someone like you steps up to the plate, steps up on a stage or up to a podium, you bring so many others along with you.” “Sure, the loud and horrible come crawling out of the woodwork. But every time you step up, you create avenues for good folks and they are legion.”

b) Height: After walking out on the play and leaving town Kay returns and Emoke is overjoyed. Emoke tells Kay what life has been like before the play. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Emoke: “I’ve dealt with a lot of haters. I always have and I guess I always will.” “This play…this is the love amidst the squalor.”

c) Height: Kay is terrified that her mother will die. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Kay to Mom: “Nothing matters to me as much as you do.” “I’d do anything for you.” “Without you I am nothing.” “I owe you everything.”

d) Height: Kay is enraged that her mom may have faked her attack, opening her eyes to the fact that her mom is one of the shallow townspeople, so Kay packs and leaves. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: “I simply don’t care anymore. I can only wonder how you can stand to stay in this horrible little town, with everyone bowing and kowtowing to that vicious woman.”

e) Height: In the midst of an LA party Kay realizes she has grown to love the people in the play, especially Emoke. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: “That’s the love amidst the squalor.”

Pattern B: Build Meaning Over Multiple Scenes

a) Line: “I’d do anything for you.” Arc: Being made under duress, to qualifying the comment, to really meaning it. Different Meaning in each scene it appeared:

Sc.1: Kay feels like an emotional toady to her mom. Sc 2: Kay is taking a stand against the power her mom holds over her. Sc 3 Kay has uncovered her true love and respect for her mom.

b) Line: “If this is the squalor, where is the love?” Arc: The squalor is more predominate than the love but by the end it’s been flipped – love overtakes. Different Meaning in each scene it appeared: Sc.1: Squalor (representing negativity and haters is predominate, the love is hard to see. Sc 2: Love is overtaking squalor in Kay’s world Sc 3: Squalor takes a backseat in the larger world of the town, and love reins.

c) Line: “And everything in between.” Arc: From rejection of anything other than the binary to acceptance of “everything in between.” Different Meaning in each scene it appeared: Sc.1: The tagline for the bookstore: it’s meaning here is mostly hidden and has to be explained. Sc 2: Nasty sarcasm. Sc 3: These “others” that make up the colourful “in between” are accepted and celebrated.

10. How Do You Leave Us With A Profound Ending?

Profound Truth:

It’s not enough to say you care or give lip service to a cause, you must act.

Changes in Transformable Character and Change Agent:

Kay has seen her entitlement and moved to change it with support of others who do not share her privileges. Emoke sees that others who say they care will go out of their way to support her. Eunice is letting go old beliefs but has yet to embrace new.

Setup/Payoffs:

The set up has been the difficulty mounting a play in a small town that is set in its traditional ways; the pay off is that they succeed in putting the play on in a new way and that it is accepted by a huge portion of the town. And that accomplishment reps a new way of thinking, a more inclusive bunch of people, putting care of neighbours above nice decor, putting action where there was just lip service

Inevitable Ending with Surprise:

I’m designing it to show the resilience of the people who are trying to break new ground with the Christmas play. They come up against formidable opposition but we see them spring back each time, such that it will seem inevitable that the play will not only open but be a success. Surprising? Hecklers show up with tomatoes and eggs to throw at the performers on stage. Others in attendance, fans of Eunice, are there to see the play fail or see various actors humiliated. The big surprise will be that Eunice will be the one to step up and tell the hecklers to stop it, while handing her handkerchief to Emoke to wipe egg off her dress. The play continues and the last big reveal is MJ Rodriguez playing the part of the angel.

Parting Image/Line:

Image: Kay and MJ come out for curtain call – they part a path for Emoke who gets a standing O. The joyous look on her face casts us back through the journey to the guarded Emoke we first saw.

Line: So far, I have Eunice tell one of her posse just outside the theatre, as she takes the protest sign out of her hand and throws it down: “Go home and hug your grandchildren.” I can do better.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie Builds Meaning with Dialogue (assignment 2 Day 15)

What I learned doing this assignment is that I would need way more time to do justice to this kind of work. But it’s a good intro for me, gets my brain working in the right direction.

1. Select three lines (from your script or lines you make up) that you want to build deep meaning around.

a) I’d do anything for you.

b) If this is the squalor, where is the love?

c) And everything in between.

2. Create an arc for each line — Beginning meaning to ending meaning.

a) Arc: Begin: Kay says this when she thinks her mom is dying and she means it, word for word. Middle: Sandra (the mom) tells Kay she must recast the role that Emoke has: “I’d do anything for you – except this.” Sandra sees the light, Eunice has stepped way over the line and Sandra turns on her. End: Kay to Sandra: “I’d do anything for you.”

b) Arc: Begin: An egg is thrown at Emoke’s bookstore window, leading Kay to ask the question: “If this is the squalor, where is the love?” Middle: Kay has left the play and realizes she misses the people in it, she says: “They are the love amidst the squalor.” End: Kay and Emoke have brought the town around to accept and celebrate Emoke and all non binary and trans folk. Kay: “Love can transform squalor.”

c) Arc: Begin: There is only the binary for some people, but the tagline of Emoke’s bookstore (called Love & Squalor) is “And everything in between.” Middle: Someone says the line sarcastically to Coco, making fun of their chosen pronoun. End: The exclusionists (except for a few) will no longer exclude and one of them repeats the line in a celebratory way: “And everything in between.”

3. With each line, look through your script to find opportunities to build the line into at least three scenes that work for the arc.

a) 3 Scenes for “I’d do anything for you.” 1) Ambulance/heart attack scene 2) Kay packs to leave while Sandra suggests a solution would be to recast Emoke’s role. 3) Sandra rebels finally against Eunice’s wicked rule and gets formally introduced to Emoke – she shakes her hand and apologizes for past behaviour.

b) 3 Scenes for “love and squalor”. 1) Someone throws an egg at Emoke’s window 2) the Hollywood party when Kay realizes she loves those people in the play. 3) The standing ovation for Emoke on opening night.

c) 3 Scenes for “And everything in between.” 1) When Kay first visits the bookstore she asks Emoke about its name (Love & Squalor) and its tagline: “And everything in between.” 2) At rehearsal someone says the line sarcastically to Coco, making fun of their chosen pronoun. 3) At the Christmas fair, one of the townsfolk whose had a change of heart repeats the line in a celebratory way: “And everything in between.”

4. For each one, tell us the line, the arc, and the different meaning you gave the line in the scenes it appeared.

a) Line: “I’d do anything for you.” Arc: Being made under duress, to qualifying the comment, to really meaning it. Different Meaning in each scene it appeared: Sc.1: Kay feels like an emotional toady to her mom. Sc 2: Kay is taking a stand against the power her mom holds over her. Sc 3 Kay has uncovered her true love and respect for her mom.

b) Line: “If this is the squalor, where is the love?” Arc: The squalor is more predominate than the love but by the end it’s been flipped – love overtakes. Different Meaning in each scene it appeared: Sc.1: Squalor (representing negativity and haters is predominate, the love is hard to see. Sc 2: Love is overtaking squalor in Kay’s world Sc 3: Squalor takes a backseat in the larger world of the town, and love reins.

c) Line: “And everything in between.” Arc: From rejection of anything other than the binary to acceptance of “everything in between.” Different Meaning in each scene it appeared: Sc.1: The tagline for the bookstore: it’s meaning here is mostly hidden and has to be explained. Sc 2: Nasty sarcasm. Sc 3: These “others” that make up the colourful “in between” are accepted and celebrated.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Height of the Emotion

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s worth persevering with the outlined steps. I usually have to go right into a scene and become the characters, more of less, to develop dialogue, so I had a hard time with this approach at first. But rereading the lesson helped (as well as some stick-to-it-ness), and I began to see how the patterns can work. I didn’t have the time with the deadline to brainstorm “10 – 20 ways to say the important lines”, but I got the hang of it with a little less brainstorming.

1. Make a list of the 5 most emotional moments in your screenplay.

a) Despite a fear of appearing in public Emoke auditions

b) Kay leaves for LA then turns around and comes back

c) Sandra’s heart attack

d) Kay suspects Sandra faked her heart attack

e) Kay realizes she feels a sense of duty towards the cast

2. With each of those scenes, go to the height of the emotion and brainstorm lines that can deliver the deeper meaning of the scene.

a) Height: After hearing jeers and laughs from the other auditionees, Emoke is so crushed and overcome with fear that she can’t perform her monologue. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Kay to Emoke: “Every time someone like you steps up to the plate, steps up on a stage or up to a podium, you bring so many others along with you.” “Sure, the loud and horrible come crawling out of the woodwork. But every time you step up, you create avenues for good folks and they are legion.”

b) Height: After walking out on the play and leaving town Kay returns and Emoke is overjoyed. Emoke tells Kay what life has been like before the play. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Emoke: “I’ve dealt with a lot of haters. I always have and I guess I always will.” “This play…this is the love amidst the squalor.”

c) Height: Kay is terrified that her mother will die. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: Kay to Mom: “Nothing matters to me as much as you do.” “I’d do anything for you.” “Without you I am nothing.” “I owe you everything.”

d) Height: Kay is enraged that her mom may have faked her attack, opening her eyes to the fact that her mom is one of the shallow townspeople, so Kay packs and leaves. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: “I simply don’t care anymore. I can only wonder how you can stand to stay in this horrible little town, with everyone bowing and kowtowing to that vicious woman.”

e) Height: In the midst of an LA party Kay realizes she has grown to love the people in the play, especially Emoke. Lines that deliver deeper meaning: “That’s the love amidst the squalor.”

3. Give us a quick explanation of the emotion and meaning of the scene, then the new line that you are going to place there.

a) Emotion: Fear. Meaning of scene: One has to step up and be counted, no matter the negativity. New line: “Every time someone like you steps up to the plate, steps up on a stage or up to a podium, you bring so many others along with you.”

b) Emotion: Overjoyed. Meaning of scene: That all the rehearsals and pep talks and movement forward hasn’t been for nothing – they will take back the play. New line: “There’s the love amidst the squalor.”

c) Emotion: Desperation; Meaning of scene: Despite Kay’s efforts to free herself from her mother’s grasp, she loves her deeply, due to this devotion, her mom repeatedly manipulates Kay. New line: “I’d do anything for you…”

d) Emotion: Rage. Meaning of scene: Kay is finally understanding that her mother won’t change. New line: “I’d do anything for you…except this.”

e) Emotion: Love. Meaning of scene: Kay sees beyond her world as a TV princess and finds she cares about her amateur cast and crew. New line: “You are the love amidst the squalor.”

[Marie Wilson]

Marie Delivers Irony!

What I learned doing this assignment is that it can be hard to wrap your brain around true irony, but the descriptions in this lesson were very helpful – I reread and contemplated them often while I worked, along with one of the most concise examples of irony in movie history: from Dr. Strangelove: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the war room!”

1. With your list of the New Ways / Insights you want audiences to experience, go through these steps:

Step 1. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver?

a) Putting on a play or any artistic endeavour is more about the process or the journey than it is about the product.

b) People are not always who you think they are, so if you don’t know how they identify, then you shouldn’t care one way or the other.

Step 2. How could you deliver that insight through opposite experiences?

a) The cast adheres to Eunice’s football-like diagrams for blocking the play, but eventually it makes them so agitated by its mindlessness that they start on their own accord doing creative things within the play’s scenes.

b) Eunice comes to Wes to complain, he has always been her sounding board, but the more she blathers on this time, the more he realizes he can’t take her bullshit, so he tells her to look around the room and understand that she doesn’t know who everyone is or what their birth assigned gender may have been. He gives her a lecture, ending with having her look into to his eyes and answer whether she really knows who he is. What the audience knows but she doesn’t is that he is trans and after this she looks at him and wonders what he was getting at.

OR

Step 1. Where could you build opposite experiences into your screenplay?

a)The homecoming party for Kay where everyone is being happy and wanting selfies with Kay because she plays a TV princess, but she can’t stand their phoney adulations and inside she’s sad. She wanders off, a bit drunk, & unwittingly wrecks some harvest decor on Main Street.

b) At the AA meeting Wes tells Kay her TV show is pretty mediocre; she gets angry and tells him his commentary makes her want to go get drunk.

Step 2. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver through them?

a) You can’t just “love” someone because they are now a TV princess while in the past you treated them poorly and continue to treat others poorly.

b) One must be honest about certain things but one must also read the room.

2. Come up with at least five (5) different ways you can create IRONY in your screenplay and deliver an insight.

a) Kay wants the world to see the talent in Emoke but in casting her in the play, the townspeople boycott the play. Insight: You can lead horses to water but you can’t make them drink.

b) Instead of a fun afternoon where Kay introduces her mom to Emoke, her mom has a heart attack. Insight: You can’t force people to have fun or to like someone.

c) In her apron, humming merry tunes, Sandra bakes pies to raise money for the drama club. Kay helps. But Sandra’s cheery good-neighbour attitude does not extend to including an “outsider”, and she threatens to destroy her apple pies if Kay insists on including Emoke in the play. Insight: a cheery attitude and an apple pie are just fake if that attitude is selective.

d) Kay goes to the bookstore to apologize to Emoke for breaking her window, expecting the usual adulation because she’s a TV star, but instead Emoke tells her off for being such a whiny drunk princess the night the window got smashed. Insight: Check your privilege.

e) Opening night is sold out; there are a few picketers outside, but mostly a feeling of celebration as audience arrives. Some Eunice supporters show up to heckle, but when an egg gets pitched at a cast member, it is Eunice herself (having gone through her own gradient steps) who stops the show to tell them to sit up and pay attention to the hardworking actors. Insight: Even the most strident of opposition can see the light.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie Delivers Insights Through Conflict

What I learned doing this assignment: It was a tad labyrinthian to do this assignment, as some steps seem to be the same as other steps, just differently worded. Nevertheless, I learned to focus on conflicts that will reveal insights, and that was a useful exercise for my brain.

1. With your list of the New Ways/Insights you want audiences to experience, go through these steps:

Step 1. What is the New Way/Insight you want to deliver?

a) Acceptance of those who seem different

b) Conformity must be challenged in order to thrive by living creatively

Step 2. What kind of conflict could that insight show up in?

a) Letting one who seems different join the group or club

b) Replacing traditional ways of staging the play with experimental approaches

Step 3. Brainstorm ways you might deliver the insight through the conflict.

a) In court Kay behaves as if she can buy her way out of the problem, but the judge reprimands her for her behaviour and lets all know (including audience) that money and her privileged attitude can’t always fix things. He does this by assigning her community hours, which she can’t stand the thought of doing.

b) An argument that turns physical when one person wants to block and the other wants to explore the play’s characters and their motives in creative ways.

2. Come up with at least five (5) different ways you can use conflict to express an insight.

a) Having the cast experience the tension of rehearsing using old ways like blocking and early line memorization, then have them instantly see how freeing it is to use creative approaches.

b) Casting an “outcast” in the play which upsets the town, who then calls for recasting, causing some townspeople to see how unjust and hurtful their attitude really is.

c) Eunice calls the police suspecting Kay doesn’t have a permit for her very-queer, super-fun Christmas fair, illustrating how destructive and joy-killing closed minds can be. (Kay does have a permit.)

d) Kay <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>is casually ordering a drink, flaunting the court order that has her attending AA meetings and committing to staying dry. <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Wes argues with her over this attitude, and her insight comes when he vividly describes problems his alcoholism has caused.

e) Kay rebels against the court order to direct the play by secretly letting the star attraction (Eunice) run the whole show. The conflict and its attendant insight happen when Kay realizes the judge has been cast in the play. She is forced to take the reins but is still not committed, not until she casts Emoke and understands that the opportunity means a lot to her because she is of a marginalized community who are generally denied such opportunities (that others, like Kay, take for granted).

[Marie Wilson]

Marie Turns Insights Into Action

What I learned doing this assignment is to welcome intuitions about action in scenes, write them out, and then see if they fit the criteria of bringing the audience into new insights – very often they do, so don’t discard these ideas/scenes before trying them out.

1. Create a list of the New Ways and Insights you’d like audiences to experience when they watch your movie:

a) New Way/Insight: People are not always who you think they are, so if you don’t know how they identify, then you shouldn’t care one way or the other.

b) New Way/Insight: People who seem different from you (in this case non binary and trans folks seeming different from cis people), <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>and whom you therefore look down on, <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>can be just as valuable as anyone else.

c) New Way/Insight: Conforming will lead to trouble because life is about change not stasis, life is about being creative not cookie-cutter.

d) New Way/Insight: People who seem different from you (and that you therefore disapprove of) could come to your aid in compassionate ways.

e) New Way/Insight: Putting on a play or any artistic endeavour is more about the process or journey than it is about the product.

2. With that list, brainstorm ways to turn the New Ways / Insights into Action. Come up with at least five (5) New Ways and the Action that will express them.

a) New Way: People are not always who you think they are so if you don’t know how they identify, then you shouldn’t care one way or the other. Action: Wes shows Kay a photo of himself as a child, she sees a little girl and understands that he was misgendered at birth; no one else in town knows this. Later this will be echoed when Wes challenges Eunice on her knowledge of peoples’ identities.

b) New Way: People who seem different from you (in this case non binary and trans folks seeming different from cis people), and whom you therefore look down on, can be just as valuable as anyone else. Action: The Christmas fair is put on by a merry gang of queer folk and everyone has a wonderful time, especially the children, demonstrating that these people are valuable members of society.

c) New Way: Conforming will lead to trouble because life is about change not stasis, life is about being creative not cookie-cutter. Action: Sandra, who has valued Eunice as a good friend, is not invited to Eunice’s annual big bash, forcing Sandra to realize that Eunice is only a friend when Sandra conforms to her idea of who she should be – which is the same as her whole posse.

d) New Way: People who seem different from you (and that you therefore disapprove of) could come to your aid in compassionate ways. Action: When Sandra thinks she’s having a heart attack Emoke stays with her to comfort her until the ambulance arrives.

e) New Way: Putting on a play or any artistic endeavour is more about the process or journey than it is about the product. Action: Kay has the cast go through some fun exercises to discover their characters which contrasts sharply with Eunice’s blocking by diagrams.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Seabiscuit Analysis

What I learned doing this assignment is that the insights/new ways I wish to explore in my own screenplay must happen in real life as I create a script that is not based on formulaic screenwriting but on original ideas supported by some important structural rules of screenwriting.

1. Watch the movie SEABISCUIT. As you do, look for the Profound Moments (any moment in the story that seems profound to you). 2. List the Profound Moments, then tell briefly what made them profound for you:

a) The parents bring Red’s books and tell him to live with the horse trainer. So many profound moments portrayed, as the strife during the Great Depression, rips through the country. But this one really hits home, as parents have to give up their beloved child for his own sake.

b) The Howard child dies. Death is profound, perhaps more so when it’s a kid, and watching the grief that the father (and mom) go through takes us into that deep dive when someone so loved is taken, and in this case, much much too soon.

c) Tom Smith saving the white horse. This was profound to me because animals are so vulnerable and such sentient beings. The way Smith soothes the terrified horse cuts deeply into our hearts.

d) Smith says to Charles of the white horse: “Don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little.” And we know he’s speaking of the horse but also of himself and others who are not quite what “the norm” would expect them to be.

e) Hearing about when Smith saw Seabiscuit for the first time, through the fog: Narrator: “Smith would later say that the horse looked right through him.” This is profound in its mystical suggestion that animals are just as smart as people, if not smarter; profound in its acknowledgement of something beyond our own small worlds of our thoughts and feelings.

f) Smith says that Seabiscuit needs to learn how to be a horse again, and then we see the beautiful moments of Red riding him through foliage and wild nature. Profound in its suggestion that all animals need to be allowed to be their true selves, including people.

g) Narrator: “They called it relief…for the first time in a long time someone cared…you were no longer alone…” with images of children during the depression, now with proper beds and food. The profundity here is obvious!

h) The line: “Sometimes you just need a second chance” is profound as it encapsulates what we see these four broken beings going through as each is given a new lease on life – a second chance.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Living Metaphors

What I learned doing this assignment is that I had some good metaphors in my screenplay that I axed, not realizing how useful they are until reading this lesson. I put some back in and brainstormed on new ones – love the newfound awareness and now conscious use of this rather intuitive tool.

– 5 Should Work, But Doesn’t challenges:

A) 1.Take an Old Way that has worked for them before: Kay expects her money to solve her legal problem. 2. Have them use that Old Way, expecting success: Kay tells judge “I’ll write a cheque”, expecting that to be the end of it. 3. It fails because it is time for the character to start using the New Ways: The judge wants Kay to do community service, in other words: help others, and so her offer of money is not enough and she must extend herself in other ways (caring).

B) 1.Take an Old Way that has worked for them before: Kay doesn’t expect to actually have to carry out her court order. If her agent can’t get her out of it, then she will just show up and pass the duty along to others, like she always does. 2. Have them use that Old Way, expecting success: Kay has handed the job to Eunice, but Eunice is doing it in a way that will reveal to the judge that Kay isn’t fulfilling the court order. 3. It fails because it is time for the character to start using the New Ways: The new way indicates she needs to start thinking about others not just herself.

C) 1.Take an Old Way that has worked for them before: Eunice’s holding power over townsfolk by including or excluding them from her big annual party. 2. Have them use that Old Way, expecting success: Eunice excludes Sandra from her party. 3. It fails because it is time for the character to start using the New Ways:

At first Sandra is distraught but this ploy adds up to Sandra actively turning against Eunice, signalling that Eunice better update her attitude towards her neighbours. As David Lynch said (Twin Peaks): “Fix your heart or die.”

D) 1.Take an Old Way that has worked for them before: Eunice’s position as a teacher has helped her wield power by treating everyone like a student that needs to be disciplined. 2. Have them use that Old Way, expecting success: She tries to bully the cast into knowing their lines. 3. It fails because it is time for the character to start using the New Ways: One former student has a tug-o-war with her using his script, which she is trying to confiscate; when he lets go she goes flying and lands on her rear.

E) 1. Take an Old Way that has worked for them before: Sandra thinks that treating Kay like a child will get the same “proper” behaviour results from Kay that it did when she was actually a kid. 2. Have them use that Old Way, expecting success: Sandra rewards Kay by giving her her favourite candy. 3. It fails because it is time for the character to start using the New Ways: Kay throws the bag of candy in the garbage and stands up to her mom (Sandra) when she berates her.

– 5 Living Metaphor challenges

A) 1. Select an Old Way you want to highlight: Putting on play by rote rather than creatively. 2. Brainstorm metaphors that could represent that Old Way: Diagrams that go up on the bulletin board that show where actors move on what lines, like a football game more than a creative endeavour. 3. Use that metaphor to reduce the hold of the Old Way: When Eunice tries to have actors follow the blueprint for blocking it turns into chaos; she herself falls flat on her butt while trying to implement the forced moves.

B) 1. Select an Old Way you want to highlight: Excluding people. 2. Brainstorm metaphors that could represent that Old Way: Sandra’s exaggerated heartburn episode, which gets her out of having to meet Emoke. 3. Use that metaphor to reduce the hold of the Old Way: Sandra uses this ploy but it backfires when Kay completely rejects her for having done it.

C) 1. Select an Old Way you want to highlight: Eunice’s bigotry. 2. Brainstorm metaphors that could represent that Old Way: The theatre’s lift in the trap room. 3. Use that metaphor to reduce the hold of the Old Way: Eunice is placed on the lift and descends into the trap room against her will; Jimi says: “Just wanted you to know what it feels like to be put down.”

D) 1. Select an Old Way you want to highlight: People’s insistence on a binary view of almost everything. 2. Brainstorm metaphors that could represent that Old Way: The name of Emoke’s bookstore is Love & Squalor, suggesting a binary with no grey area. 3. Use that metaphor to reduce the hold of the Old Way: Emoke paints a tagline onto her store sign, now it reads “Love & Squalor, & everything in between.”

E) 1. Select an Old Way you want to highlight: Sandra controlling her grown child with reprimands or rewards. 2. Brainstorm metaphors that could represent that Old Way: Candy. Especially orange jujubes. Whenever Sandra wants to control Kay she presents candy as the possible reward. 3. Use that metaphor to reduce the hold of the Old Way: Kay throws out a bag of candy her mom got her – it’s her favourite kind, so getting rid of it is a big deal and definitely reduces the hold of the old way.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Counterexamples

What I learned doing this assignment is that finding counterexamples is fairly easy if you just look for the opposite of the old way and then brainstorm on more opposing views or activities. Questions regarding the old ways are very good for opening up possibilities for challenges. 12 Angry Men, being so dialogue based, is a really good template to look at for questions.

1. Go through your story outline or script and brainstorm the following:

– 5 Question Challenges to an Old Way.

Old way: Kay’s disdain for the townsfolk and their community theatre. Challenge: Is it so wrong for ordinary people to want to express themselves this way?

Old Way: Eunice’s exclusion of Emoke. Challenge: What’s it to you how she identifies? What are you so afraid of that she’s not like everyone else (or you think she isn’t?)

Old Ways: Do you realize how much this play means to Eunice? Challenge: And to you realize how much this play means to Emoke?

Old Ways: People in this town go to see the play because Eunice is in it. Challenge: What if there are people in this town who don’t go to see the play because Eunice is in it?

Old Ways: This is how we always do it. Challenge: Could it be a good thing to have a whole bunch of new blood in the production?

– 5 Counterexamples to an Old Way – like opposite

Old way: Kay hates Eunice based on teen-hood grievances. Counterexample: Wesley tries to understand Crupp so he can get along with her.

Old Way: Eunice wants cast to be off book in a week. Counterexample: Kay has the cast go through Method exercises to understand the lines they are saying rather than memorizing them in a week.

Old Way: Kay always needs accolades if when she knows her work is inferior or perhaps because she knows it’s inferior. Challenge: Wesley, pointing out that truth telling is important at AA meetings tells her that her TV Series sucks.

Old Way: Townsfolk follow Eunice blindly – if she says Kay and her “alphabet soup” posse are corrupting the town’s values, they believe it and boycott the play. Challenge: Kay brings her queer friends to town to put on a Christmas fair and sell tickets to the play – townsfolk have a great time and the play gets sold out.

Old Way: Sandra treats Eunice like a god, praising her and supporting her no matter what she does or says. Challenge: Kay unmasks Eunice, causing her to give a press conference saying horrible things about Kay and revealing her true corrupt self; Sandra can’t help but see the light and turn on Eunice.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Old Ways Challenge Chart

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s not as confusing as I thought it would be to think through and then chart more than one character’s learning curve (old ways/challenges) and that these curves will naturally weave together or crisscross at points.

2. List Old Ways:

a. Kay’s assumptions and beliefs mostly have to do with her entitlement: she behaves selfishly in shirking her responsibility to the play, she’s too self centred to consider others who have less opportunities than she does, she whines about her successful TV series, etc. The townsfolk have other assumptions, beliefs and traditions: they want to put on the play exactly as it’s been done for years and years, allowing many to stay comfortable while others fall through the cracks.

b. The townsfolk believe that people who are different from the small-town norm – in appearance, attitude, approach, ideas, etc. – are lesser than and suspect. Kay also has this attitude but it manifests differently – she welcomes people who are “different” but she doesn’t want them in her life too much anyway, holds them at arms length.

c. The townsfolk have assumptions about what people are capable of eg. assuming someone in a wheelchair could not be in a play or capable of duties other than menial tasks.

d. “This is how we do it here.” The auditions go the same as always – the people in charge make the same decisions every year, giving roles to the same people. A stifling conformity of habits and traditions. No breath of fresh air, no newness to help people move forward in understanding others or themselves. And while Kay goes in for a level of creativity above what the common folk will do, she also wants to stay in her comfort zone.

e. Their rules and beliefs say that gender is binary, and that you should stay the gender you were assigned at birth.

f. Their social values are superficial: be kind is really just smile sweetly and act like you tolerate someone – a kind of passive aggressive approach. They are hypocritical, as they think they believe in acceptance and understanding but they don’t practice it – or they practice a fake brand.

3. List ways to Challenge each of the Old Ways.

a. The challenge to Kay’s entitled feelings comes mostly from Emoke telling her off or others pointing it out. When Kay does decide to seize the reins, she bucks the traditional play procedures and casts outside of the drama club clique; she also runs rehearsals in different ways: exploring character arcs as opposed to just learning lines then blocking the show.

b.Those looked upon as different and therefore lesser-than are given key roles in mounting the play. They are on display to others in the town, illustrating that they are not only capable but also good at what they do. There are also scenes where others get to see that these folks have feelings just like the rest of us – and that acceptance is critical, possibly even a matter of life and death. For Kay, as she becomes more involved in the play, she is more willing to put her money where her mouth is and actively back marginalized people.

c. Everyone gets to see how well Coco gets around in the world in her wheelchair, how being in a wheelchair doesn’t mean she has a lower IQ or can’t be creative and valuable, as some have assumed. Just as they physically look down on her in her chair they look down on her in attitudes.

d. Kay uproots the traditions of putting on the play by teaching new techniques that allow for deeper understanding of the play and the emotions within, rather than using performance tricks. She also casts differently. And this all leads to deeper understanding of individuals; but it also causes upset in the town – and this becomes Kay’s challenge to get out of her comfort zone.

e. At least two characters live as their authentic selves, openly declaring themselves trans or gender non-conforming. This is a constant challenge to the towns-folks’ binary ideas and their beliefs about birth assigned gender being the only possibility. The winter fair is a happy event for all and is put on by a contingent of LGBTQ+ folks, who are so apparently just like all of us.

f. There are many challenges to the hypocrisy, some subtler than others and some as overt as Kay or Emoke calling the hypocrites out in plain language.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s 12 Angry Men Analysis

What I learned doing this assignment is there are many ways to show old ways and the challenges to them – this movie is very dialogue based and so I’ve used dialogue snippets to show both the old habits and the challenges intended to change them. The movie is a very good study in transformational journeys and I learned many avenues into uprooting belief systems, many possibilities I can use in my own work.

Old Ways and the Challenges in 12 Angry Men:

Assumption of guilt – Juror #3 calls it “an open and shut case” and says: “You can’t refute facts. The kid is guilty.” One of them says “If we are a hung jury, they will try him again and they’ll find him guilty just as sure as he’s born.” Juror #8 has many challenges to this, starting with: the defence council “let things go by”… “a lawyer can be stupid”.

Just want this over – #7 wants to get out quick; he’s got tickets to game; #8 challenges them all, saying “This isn’t a game.” He tries to impress on them that this is a boy’s life; he’s not willing to call him guilty without talking about it a bit.

Not caring – Many of them behave very casually about their duty, making jokes, talking sports and business; #8 challenges by saying “Suppose it was you on trial” and reminding them over and over that a boy’s life is on the line.

Prejudice – “Slum…kids are trash,” #10 says, and: “They are born liars”; #8 challenges: “You don’t believe the boys story, why did you believe the woman? She’s one of ‘them’ too isn’t she?” #10 rants: “They don’t know what the truth is – don’t need any reasons to kill someone – the way they are by nature – violent… these people are dangerous.” #8 challenges: “It’s always hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth…”

Not looking beneath the surface – #8 challenges their casual attitudes with examples: “Let’s look at the knife” and viewing other evidence more in depth. Juror #11 points out that “on the surface the boy looks guilty” but “maybe if we go deeper” – so he goes into some details, and raises questions, eg. “Where did the panic start?”

Assuming the evidence is not questionable – #3: “We’ve heard the facts!” #8 challenges the evidence by producing the other knife and by pacing out the apartment, etc; He challenges: “It’s just possible – just staying a coincidence is possible.” When #7 counters: “The odds are a million to one,” #8 says: “I’m just saying it’s possible.”

Assuming the witnesses were accurate – Some of the jurors are hell bent on believing the testimonies of the witnesses; #8 challenges: “Could they be wrong?” He questions how fast the guy could have got to the door and sets up an experiment to throw his testimony into question. “Witnesses can make mistakes,” he says. #3 balks that the witnesses couldn’t be that accurate when it comes to hearing the train, etc. and that it doesn’t matter that they weren’t. #8 challenges: “Well, I think testimony that could put a boy into the chair should be that accurate”; #9 provides a character portrait of the old man witness that points to his testimony being made up.

Assuming defence attorney did his job – #8: “A lawyer can be stupid”; the lawyer for the kid was court appointed, didn’t want the case; “lawyers aren’t infallible”.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Profound Ending

What I learned doing this assignment is that the more brainstorming I do, the more material I have to work/play with, catapulting me out of the stuck-in-my-brain ideas of how the story should go. I learned that this kind of devoted brainstorming gives my story and characters depth and I can’t wait to do more of it.

1. What is your Profound Truth and how will it be delivered powerfully in your ending?

It’s not enough to say you care or give lip service to a cause, you must act.

2. How do your lead characters (Change Agent and Transformable Characters) come to an end in a way that represents the completed change?

Kay has seen her entitlement and moved to change it with support of others who do not share her privileges.

Emoke sees that others who say they care will go out of their way to support her.

Eunice is letting go old beliefs but has yet to embrace new.

3. What are the setup/payoffs that complete in the end of this movie, giving it deep meaning?

The set up has been the difficulty mounting a play in a small town that is set in its traditional ways; the pay off is that they succeed in putting the play on in a new way and that it is accepted by a huge portion of the town. And that accomplishment reps a new way of thinking, a more inclusive bunch of people, putting care of neighbours above nice decor, putting action where there was just lip service

4. How are you designing it to have us see an inevitable ending and then making it surprising when it happens?

I’m designing it to show the resilience of the people who are trying to break new ground with the Christmas play. They come up against formidable opposition but we see them spring back each time, such that it will seem inevitable that the play will not only open but be a success. Surprising? Hecklers show up with tomatoes and eggs to throw at the performers on stage. Others in attendance, fans of Eunice, are there to see the play fail or see various actors humiliated.The big surprise will be that Eunice will be the one to step up and tell the hecklers to stop it, while handing her handkerchief to Emoke to wipe egg off her dress. The play continues and the last big reveal is MJ Rodriguez playing the part of the angel.

5. What is the Parting Image/Line that leaves us with the Profound Truth in our minds?

Image: Kay and MJ come out for curtain call – they part a path for Emoke who gets a standing O. The joyous look on her face casts us back through the journey to the guarded Emoke we first met and her struggle to arrive at this place.

Line: So far, I have Eunice tell one of her posse just outside the theatre, as she takes the protest sign out of her hand and throws it down: “Go home and hug your grandchildren.” I can do better.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Connection with Audience

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s not difficult to find traits in my characters that will have them fulfil the four essentials for connectivity. Revealing these traits through their actions and dialogue may be a bit more tricky but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

1. Tell us which characters you are going to INTENTIONALLY create a connection with the audience.

Kay, Emoke, Wesley

2. With each character, tell us how you’ll use each of the four ways of connecting with the audience in the first 30 minutes of the movie.

Kay:

A. Relatability – she comes from a small town, she loves her mom but finds her overbearing

B. Intrigue – she’s an actress playing a princess on a popular TV show – the intrigue of celebrity

C. Empathy – she feels stifled by her mother and some neighbours and wants to get away from it all

D. Likability – she has a good sense of humour and beneath the TV star veneer seems very down to earth

Emoke:

A. Relatability – she loves books and kids

B. Intrigue – her gender is intriguing to many

C. Empathy – she is abused just for being who she is; makes her a loner

D. Likability – she likes children, books, the arts and she’s witty and amusingly sarcastic

Wesley:

A. Relatability – he speaks his mind but tries to be kind

B. Intrigue – he seems to have a secret

C. Empathy – he likes Eunice but she walks all over him; he’s had a somewhat hard life but doesn’t underline it

D. Likability – he is a positive addition to the theatre crew, always good energy and helpful

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Transformational Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is that this is intense and requires serious thought. I have written up ideas here, yet, I’m not sure just where they fit into the structure of my screenplay. I learned that sometimes you just have to ride it out on faith alone (at least until the next lesson where hopefully puzzle pieces fall into place).

1. Tell us your Transformational Logline.

A Hollywood actress’ sentence for disorderly conduct is to help a community theatre put on their Christmas play. When a talented trans woman auditions, she casts her in the lead role, bringing out and overcoming the town’s bigotry.

The transformational journey listed in my logline is: overcoming the town’s bigotry.

2. Tell us who the main character will be:

Change Agent: Emoke

Transformational Character(s): Kay, townsfolk

3. List out your Mini-Movie structure, (or whatever structure you’ve chosen) for your story.

MM #1: P1-15: Call to Adventure

The court order to direct the drama club Christmas play. (Kay is in denial that she’s been court ordered to do this and thinks she’ll just slip out of it somehow, like paying her way out of other jams.)

old ways: self involved

challenges: ordered by a higher authority that doesn’t recognize her fame nor her fortune.

weaknesses: she’s acting like a child – privileged and whiny

MM#2: P15-30: TP: Locked In

The Judge auditions for the play. If he gets cast by Eunice, whom Kay has handed her duty over to, then he will observe that Kay is not fulfilling his court order of directing the play. Kay decides she must take control of the casting process so that she can exclude the Judge from the play and also not give Eunice a part, since she finds Eunice to be a toxic person.

But the stage manager says that not casting the Judge and/or Eunice would have dire consequences – the two of them are staples in the Yuletide show, they rep Christmas itself to the Haywood townsfolk, who would rise up with pitchforks if they were not included in the show.

Kay is trapped (or locked).

(Here she realizes that if she is forced to cast the judge and Eunice then she will do other casting as she sees fit – that’s when she calls on Emoke; or Emoke has auditioned and now Kay is bold enough to cast her.)

old ways: festering resentment against her high school teacher Eunice Crupp

challenges: has to co-operate with the teacher, respect the Judge

weaknesses: she’d rather just bask in the adoration for her mediocre TV show

MM #3: P30 – 45: Standard ways fail

Kay tries to play along as if she’s fulfilling the court order; she will just do a good acting job of pretending to direct or even care about the production (which she doesn’t).

When that can’t work out (because the Judge is in play) then she makes a plea to her agent Schultzy to help get her out of this jam. Schultzy consults a lawyer who says that Kay’s best recourse is to suck it up, do the few months penance, and put it behind her. Schultzy reminds her that the press coverage will be even worse if Kay tries to wriggle out of helping her hometown with their beloved Christmas play, and that carry through with it can be spun to make Kay look really good.

old ways: relying on her privilege to get her out of jams

challenges: to direct a play with amateurs and former neighbours that she abhors

weaknesses: she has no real substance, just a manipulative approach to life

MM #4 – Pages 45 — 60 – Plan Backfires:

The bigger plan: she take the reins due to the Judge auditioning. She is fuelled in this by her hatred of Eunice (who has to be cast) so she decides to run the show just to spite Eunice and her mother and the whole town

She casts Emoke and this is the “goes horribly wrong”; Eunice has tremendous influence in the town and she doesn’t like this casting choice so takes it out on Kay’s mother (who was previously Eunice’s friend) by putting a social freeze on her. This tips the mom into a mental breakdown.

The revolt against Kay signals the “vital info she lacked about the forces of antagonism against her”. The vital info she discovers is that the kind people of this town are bigots way beyond what she might have suspected.

old ways: doing things out of hatred or spite (the “I’ll show you!” method)

challenges: getting past the town’s bigotry

weaknesses: obedience and reliance on her mom

MM #5: Pages 60-75 – The decision to change.

So Kay has been doing all that casting business that upsets everyone from a selfish motive, determined to show the townsfolk who gave her a hard time growing up that she’s better than they are. She’s not considering the real people involved, primarily Emoke. It seems as if Kay has just cast her to play devils advocate. Emoke may even accuse her of tokenism. She has a glimmering of understanding, as she retreats to lick her wounds, that her motives are wrong.

old ways: doing things to show people she’s good and worthy

challenges: her own ally Emoke even sees through this motive

weaknesses: not considering others

MM #6 – Pages 75–90 – The ultimate failure.

Kay goes back to LA – something about being there has her understand her self-involved approach, hits her hard, things people say at her party – realization of what she’s done to people, using them, Emoke in particular. She realizes she really likes these folks who have been working on the play.

So she goes back and hatches the new plan – meeting with the Judge and Eunice and Emoke. But: “very nearly destroyed by it” – the upshot of this meeting is that Eunice goes to the press and says horrible things about Kay and what she’s doing to their beloved Christmas play.

As a result Kay is called in to the town council, given ultimatums. And then comes the “revelation” – this is when she gets celebrity LGBTQ community to put on a Christmas fair and sell the play.

old ways: back to the adored party girl and TV star

challenges: realizes she can’t leave the cast in the lurch like this

weaknesses: wants to sink into the comfort of an LA lifestyle: partying, brunching

MM #7 – Pages 90 – 105 – Apparent victory.

The fair is a huge success, Kay has new furvor, and has turned the tables on Eunice and her posse. Victory as they go back into rehearsals without Eunice and with more support of the townspeople.

Tables turn one more time…

old ways: Kay is still working from a resentment angle

challenges: Getting the play mounted now that several people have quit

weaknesses: wanting approval

MM #8 – Pages 105 –120 – New status quo.

Eunice’s last attempt to defeat her is aggressively picketing the play. Kay has to put down that attempt by having Harry and other helpers coral the protesters (there are only about four at this point) and let the audience go into the theatre for opening night.

The successful opening night is the wrap up to the story; a new revelation is that Kay will return each winter to stage the Christmas play. Also that Eunice tells the picketers to go home and hug their children and grandchildren (this must be understood as her acceptance of new ways.)

Wrap up any subplots: <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Sandra & <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Wesley both see the light re their friend Eunice. In finally rejecting her and all she stands for, they emerge as freer creative beings, able to help with the play.

Kay moves into a new world which is a deeper, truer and richer, with people she really cares about and vice versa; from here she can take on better parts than her TV princess role, and she can help with her hometown’s Christmas play every year and make it something as special as this one turned out to be.

old ways: acting from a place of self-serving

challenges: the show must go on

weaknesses: Scared of her future with the amateur theatre group.

4. Go back through and make sure you’ve covered each the following:

– The Transformational Journey listed in your logline – I think so.

– The Three Gradients – these are: emotional (yes); action (yes); and the Challenge/Weakness Gradient (yes)

– It is sequenced in Escalating Challenges – yes, I think I have escalating challenges.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Three Gradients

What I learned doing this assignment is that I have many questions, chief among them: how do you map this out if more than one character is involved in transforming; for instance in Dead Poets Society all the lads are transformative characters taking their own journeys. I guess one could draw up gradients for each of them For now, I’ll answer for Kay’s journey. She is my protagonist, and I also wonder whether the antagonist can be a Transformative Character. Lastly, as I fill this out, it seems to me her emotions happen in a different order than listed here.

1. What is the Emotional Gradient you’ll use?

Forced

2. For each emotion of that gradient, tell us the following:

A. Emotion: Denial

B. Action: She ignores the court order and hands the play over to Eunice

C. Challenge: She’s forced to stay in this small town that she hates, helping with an amateur play which she hates. Weakness: Self-involved

A. Emotion: Anger

B. Action: casting Emoke in the lead

C. Challenge: if she must do this play she will do it her way; Weakness: her only form of rebellion is to lash out and it doesn’t achieve lasting results

A. Emotion: Bargaining

B. Action: she gives Eunice a good role in exchange for her co-operation

C. Challenge: Eunice is a bigot. Weakness: Kay doesn’t know how to call out bigotry when it is in disguise, so she does nothing

A. Emotion: Depression

B. Action: abandons the play and leaves for LA

C. Challenge: To be a better actress getting more serious roles. Weakness: lack of confidence in her abilities as an actress.

A. Emotion: Acceptance

B. Action: goes back and tries to gain control of play

C. Challenge: putting on the play when the whole town is against her and threatens to boycott the play. Weakness: feels inadequate as a director, fear of failure

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Day 4A: Change Agent & Transformable Character

What I learned doing this assignment is that the two characters that came up as Change Agent and Transformable Character were unexpected designations in my screenplay. The Change Agent is more passive than I’d have expected, which only means that she doesn’t do a lot to change anybody but the change occurs because of who she is (and therefore what she does). I think in that respect my CA bears a resemblance to Rita who is the Change Agent in Groundhog Day. Also I didn’t have a Betraying Character but certainly there were a few options and I’ve chosen the most likely one.

1. Transformational Journey Logline:

A Hollywood actress’ sentence for disorderly conduct is to help an amateur theatre group put on their Christmas play but she throws the whole town into an uproar when she casts a young trans woman in the lead female role.

2. Change Agent and how that character fits the role:

The Change Agent is Emoke. She fits the role because she lives life as her authentic self. Emoke is the only one in this small town who is not conforming to the town-think.

Vision: Life is not worth living unless you are being your authentic self. Past Experience that fits that Vision: Emoke was trapped in an identity given to her by others and it was not who she really was and it was killing her inside.

3. Transformable Character(s) and how that character(s) fit the role:

Kay, Eunice and some townsfolk are the Transformable Characters: Kay is being someone everyone else wants her to be – her mother, her agent, her fans – and it’s making her extremely unhappy. The townsfolk, in particular three ladies of the drama club, stake all their happiness on being followers of Eunice, who follows rigid rules to be an “upstanding citizen”. If this trio obeys, they are given accolades, but it’s warping their personalities and making them nasty people instead of the lovely ladies they think they are.

4. 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 small-mindedness of the small town; it is all pervasive as everyone has learned that they will be ostracized unless they toe the line and that means behaving in a very cookie-cutter way, begetting false happiness and an underlying sadness.

5. Tell us who you think might be your Betraying Character and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role.

One of Eunice’s posse – Josephine. This character, along with her good friends and neighbours, is supposed to be learning the new ways but in the end she reverts to being Eunice’s yes-woman.

Day 4B: Dead Poets Society Analysis

1. What is the change this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?

The change is learning to think for yourself instead of blindly following traditions and rules.

2. Lead characters:

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

John Keating is the change agent. He is right for it because he’s a teacher and therefore has young minds to inform. He’s also right for it because he’s a poet and a freethinker. He knows what the boys don’t know yet and wants to impart it to them.

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

The students are the Transformable Characters – they are right for it because they are young and just learning how to make their way in the world; they have been brought up fulfilling the obligations their parents and teachers have placed on them but they are aching to find and be their true selves.

What is the Oppression?

The school is the Oppression – an institution with rigid rules and beliefs.

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

We are lured in by the refreshing and different approach of John Keating. He intrigues us and inspires us and we want to go along with him and learn what he knows.

4. 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: Tradition dictates a certain upstanding and rigid kind of behaviour – first word seen on a banner at the school is Tradition. The school insists on obedience which is supposed to lead to excellence.

Identify their new way at the conclusion: Boys who’ve seen the beauty of the world and are learning to think for themselves.

5. What is the gradient the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?

Steps: peering into the eyes of historical photos as Keating quotes from Thoreau; ripping pages from the textbooks; going to the cave; climbing on Keating’s desk; Neil getting the part of Puck; Todd works on a poem; YAWP scene; Knox calls Kris; Knox reads his poem to Kris in front of her classmates; opening night of the play and Neil’s friends’ reaction to it; Neil’s final soliloquy, much spoken to his dad; applause and standing o and his joy backstage; Neil’s suicide; standing on their desks to salute Keating as he leaves: Oh Captain, My Captain.

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

Keating challenges the academic dryness of dissecting poetry and demonstrated this right off the top by having his students rip up a textbook; Dalton challenges by asserting that girls should be allowed into the school; Neil challenges by taking the role in the play; Keating challenges with all his lessons; Todd challenges when he stands on his desk and says Captain My Captain; the others challenge by following Todd and ignoring the headmaster. The beliefs that are challenged that cause main characters to shift their perspective are the strict adherence to the school’s code of conduct, chief among it is the belief that one must obey and not question anything for themselves.

7. What are the most profound moments of the movie?

YAWP – Todd’s first stab at liberation, from the moment Keating squats before him to the applause he receives at the end; Todd’s birthday desk set toss; Dalton after he’s received the paddle; the first time the boys call Keating Captain; when Neil talks to Keating who tells him “you’re playing the part of the dutiful son…show him your passion and conviction”; the play and aftermath with dad; the dad finding Neil dead; Dalton telling Todd Neil’s dead; Todd in the snow and the boys trying to help him, putting snow in his mouth and saying it’s gonna be okay; Mr Keating sits in Neil’s desk and opens the book and cries; the last scene

8. What are the most profound lines of the movie?

carpe diem

Oh captain, my captain

Words and ideas can change the world

That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse

All Whitman and other poets lines, esp. Thoreau opening to meeting: Sucking the marrow…discovered that I had not lived…

We didn’t just read poetry…we let it drip from our tongues.

Stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way…when you read, don’t just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think…boys you must strive to find your own voice…the longer you wait the less likely you are to find it at all…don t just walk off the edge like lemmings…dare to strike out and find new ground…

Just don’t let your poems be ordinary

Acting’s everything to me

We all have a great need for acceptance but you must trust that your beliefs unique, your own; even though the herd may go ‘that’s bad’

Robert Frost: The road less traveled…

Damn it, Neil, the name is Nuwanda

Sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone. There’s a time for daring and a time for caution; the wise man understands which is called for

9. How does the ending payoff the setups of this movie?

All the setups show the restraints put on these boys, the rules and regulations, the expectations, and when they stand on their desks at the end after having been severely reprimanded for attempting to ‘seize the day’, that’s the payoff Keating was looking for and the whole movie was leading to, the declaration that they can and will buck unreasonable authority and stand up for themselves, as themselves, with the oppressor (in the form of the headmaster) demanding that they stop – but they don’t.

10. What is the Profound Truth of this movie?

Be your unique self; think for yourself; take the road less travelled; break new ground

[Marie Wilson]

Subject line: Marie’s Transformational Journey

What I learned doing this assignment is that more than one person is transforming in my screenplay; I was confused by this at first but in answering the questions below, I believe it’s starting to make sense – puzzle pieces falling into place.

1. Tell us your logline for the transformational journey.

A Hollywood actress’ sentence for disorderly conduct is to help an amateur theatre group put on their Christmas play but she throws the whole town into an uproar when she casts a young trans woman in the lead female role.

2. Tell us what you see as the Old Ways.

Practically the whole town is stuck in the Old Ways of life but they are most clearly represented by a posse of drama club members. These folks believe in a binary of all things: good/bad, black/white, man/woman. Their rule of do unto your neighbour and “be kind” is shallow. Their kindness is something they practice by rote, not by understanding and accepting people different from themselves, therefore it is insincere and hypocritical. The lead character, while not of this small town mentality discovers her own superficial ways while trying to bring her hometown into the 21st century.

3. Tell us what you see as the New Ways.

Going through the process of putting on the play and getting to know the cast, the townsfolk realize that there is nothing wrong with being gender fluid or transgender. Their minds are opened up to the possibilities beyond a binary definition of everything. They develop paths of true understanding (not just lip service) so they can truly accept the trans character as well as others who are different from themselves. The lead character has also come to accept the townsfolk in all their imperfection, although not going so far as to tolerate their bigotry – she feels a love for them as they take baby steps into a more enlightened future, and this love has replaced her previous disdain.

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s First Three Decisions:

What I learned doing this assignment is that my screenplay in progress is not entirely about what I thought it was about and that there may be an even deeper truth going on that I’ve yet to discover or define.

1. What is your profound truth?

Life is not a fixed set of “truths” or “ways” but an ever-evolving thing that requires intelligence, understanding and a supple mind.

1a. What’s beneath that?

Let go of fear

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

Open your mind and throw away your fear

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

The world is that of a Small Town. More specifically of Small Town Community Theatre.

[Marie Wilson]

Agreed!

[Marie Wilson]

Marie’s Analysis of Groundhog Day

What I learned doing this assignment is that if you change a person gradually (gradient steps) in your screenplay then the transformation can be entirely believable.

1. What is the CHANGE this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?

The change in this movie is about finding reason to live, not just being so clever that you putting everything down to the point where you might as well shoot yourself. The transformational journey is Phil learning to consider others before himself and realize that that’s what makes life worth living

2. Lead characters:

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

Rita – she is the right character because she doesn’t take any insincere crap from Phil or anyone.

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

Phil – he’s right because he’s so cynical that he won’t have anywhere to go but further into cynicism which eventually means living without love or meaning

– What is the Oppression?

The oppression is the repetition of the same day and the inability to change that.

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

We connect with it because sometimes life seems like you’re stuck in one time or place, just as Phil literally is. We are also lured into the journey with the use of humour; Phil is really an entertaining guy with all his wit and sarcasm, and we may feel like we’d love to also call everyone a moron or a hick.

4. 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: Phil’s old way is cynicism towards life and an attitude bordering on hatred of others; he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else; as Rita says: his “defining characteristic” is “egotism”.

Identify their new way at the conclusion: Phil’s new way is caring for others, understanding others, loving and appreciating others and the world around him.

5. What is the gradient the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?

The first step is when the drunks tell him there will be no consequences; he tries that idea out and rolls with it for a few days – he enjoys it mostly because he can use people and do whatever he wants to reach his cynical ends. Next it starts making him philosophical and also “trying to talk like normal people do”, and it leads to interest in Rita. He then uses his reality to manipulate Rita. But when he says “I love you” to Rita, she gets hip to him – “You never love anyone but yourself”. So he learns as he repeats days but he learns the wrong things – he is still egocentric and insincere; he’s confounded by all his failures to get together with Rita; he’s depressed as the clock rolls over to 6 am; he drinks and makes insulting on air reports. He’s desperate and crashes the car…goes further over the edge and keeps trying to kill himself.

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

The old way is challenged by Rita. Phil really likes her but can’t get anywhere with her because he using his old ways of manipulation. His belief that everyone but him is a moron is challenged to the point where his perspective shifts…when… and he wakes up one morning understanding what life really means to him.

7. What are the most profound moments of the movie?

When he dives from the building and we see his dead face. When he’s begging Rita to believe him and then he describes her, ending with “you look like an angel”. His resignation is profound.

When he lets Rita sleep; stops being a smart ass, and talks gently about his real feelings toward her. The next day, the real change is evident in all his moves – he gives money to the guy on the corner (whom he usually shuns) and brings coffee to his coworkers – he’s happy and helpful – he starts feeling interested in other people; he takes piano lessons; he embraces the day even in its repetition; piano, ice sculpting: he’s being creative and enjoying life; and then he brings the old guy to the hospital and he dies – every repeat day thereafter he takes care of the guy – he wants him to live so much – when he dies in the alley he’s brought to his knees; next day he’s quoting Chekhov in his on-air report; he makes a really profound speech and his cameraman says: “Man, you touched me.” Now he goes round helping people – fixing a flat tire, catching a falling boy; saving a man with from choking.

8. What are the most profound lines of the movie?

His speech to her in the cafe: “You like boats but not the ocean…you’re a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones… When you stand in the snow you look like an angel.” Also: “And there’s nothing I can do about it.” “Please believe me, you’ve got to believe me”; “Killed myself so many times it doesn’t matter”; and “no matter what happens tomorrow or the rest of of my life I’m happy now because I love you.”

9. How does the ending payoff the setups of this movie?

Every new repetition was leading us to the day he’d wake up and it’d be different. All the setups either begin with the clock hitting 6 or with some other repetition, and the payoff at the end is the clock hits 6 but different things happen – the repetition is over – and he’s a different man, like Scrooge after the 3 spirits visit him.

10. What is the Profound Truth of this movie?

It’s that value in life is in caring for others and living in the moment; it’s that love is the answer – Phil is out of his nightmare because he found love and caring for others and this made the beauty of the whole universe precious to him.

[Marie Wilson]

Hi. I’m Marie Wilson. I’ve written two feature film screenplays and am almost finished my third. I hope to get out of this class a real sense of transformation in my lead characters because I know that’s what will make my work outstanding instead of just good basic writing. Harper Collins published my novel The Gorgeous Girls. And I’m a film noir aficionado. Looking forward to meeting you all and digging into the course!

[Marie Wilson]

Thanks, Maria!