[Matt Ferro]

Hi everyone,
Must apologise for my absence, but a situation has arisen which will keep me from participating in the class in real time. I willl have to do the assignments on my own. My apologies from dropping out. I would have loved to been supported by the group and offer my support as well. May you all have a great experience taking this amazing course together!
My best,
Matt

[Matt Ferro]

Matt Ferro Lesson 2 pt. 1

What I learned: Character Circle defining is a great way to parse your story’s characters in order to keep track and to make sure they are getting the right amount of focus.

THE AMERICANS

A. Main Characters Circle:

Phillip, Elizabeth, Stan,

B. Connected Circle:
Amador,
The General,
Annalise,
Nina,
Vasili,
Head of Directoriate S,
Paige,
Henry

C. Environment Circle:
Babysitters,
Stan’s wife and kids,
travel agency office comrades,
targets,
FBI office colleagues of Stan and his boss
KGB office colleagues and etc.
Russian and American intelligence folks outside of main offices

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Matt Ferro.

[Matt Ferro]

Matt Ferro
Sorry for the delay. Family man, trying to keep up!

THE AMERICANS

What I learned from this assignment: information information information – yet none of it very expositional — is the key element to building a rich tapestry full of questions we are dying to have answered with only a few answers given to orient us, but leave us wanting more. This information must not only be about plot setup, but most importantly – character, character, character, their dynamics individually and interpersonally, the stakes they are involved with professionally and personally, while also setting up the worlds in which they live, whether the familiar and mundane to us, or new and fascinating. We basic leave the episode knowing everything we need to, to judge whether we want to learn more about these people and what they are involved in.

Outline (not very brief, sorry)

1. An on-the-make blonde woman is picked up in a bar by an FBI agent who thinks he’s seducing her by sharing his identity and selling the dangerous world in which he travels, and his sacred job as protector of America and therefore the World. He spills his secrets to her in the bedroom, where she takes over aggressively and he’s all than willing to let her. The next morning she hops in her car, seemingly pumped up and agitated/disgusted. Then she removes her wig revealing she’s a brunette.

2. Two men wait for their victim and discuss the justification of killing him (duality of conscience). One’s older than the other and plays mentor. For now, we’ll call him that: the mentor. Are the men hit men? Agents? Of good? Or Bad? Must be good, because they talk sports (American). The older one seems an authority (he’s VERY AMERICAN). They see the woman from the opening pickup scene, now in a military style sniper-type uniform, gaining entry to an apartment near them. Is she also a target, or is she joining them in this operation?

3. Despite the mentor’s advice to the other man, when a chase ensues, the younger one is stabbed by their target and falls. The mentor battles his target who reminds him the target is probably not supposed to be killed. The Mentor reminds him he’s a bad man and there are a lot of people who wouldn’t mind him dead anyway. (We wonder: is this target a spy? The mentor and woman stuff him in the trunk of their car and drive off, changing the license plate first. Why are they hiding their tracks? Maybe THEY’RE the spies! And the target betrayed them? Who’s working for who? In the car the woman and the man argue: the woman wants to finish their captive off right now, but the mentor wants to drop the critically wounded man at a hospital first. It’s obvious from his tutelage during the stakeout and chase, and his concern for a life, that she is a badder-ass than he. Compromising, they release the wounded man to make his own way to the hospital – but you can see the mentor doesn’t feel right about it. They arrive at the handover – a pier – but they are too late, the ship has literally sailed. Mission: failed. At least for now.

4. Meet the COPS (FBI). They talk about the challenge of working with these Russian spies and their credible threat to the U.S.. They are waiting for the spy who was captured in the previous scene. It’s unlike him to be late without warning. (This spy (now captured by the mentor and the woman) must be working for the U.S.). The bald agent, who seems to know everything, doesn’t believe there is really a huge network of spies in the country, and the few who have turned are doing so just to get the big payouts.

5. The captured spy offers the mentor a chance to make millions releasing him to his people. The mentor hears it but refuses.

6. Meet the mentor’s family: a typical busy family with a maybe 9 year old son and 13 year old daughter. It’s a typical school morning breakfast rush. We realise the mentor’s wife is the WOMAN from the previous scenes. They are a TEAM. In a sidebar, he tells her how many millions the captured spy said they could make turning him to his own people. In between, they talk about normal family stuff. He comes back to the money – imagine it ! – but she is unmoved.

7. In the park, the mentor is dressed in a business suit having a takeaway coffee, looking like any other businessman on a coffee break. With police a few feet from him, discussing the discovery of a body, and that there are witnesses. We assume it’s the younger assassin from the opening. When the police aren’t watching, the mentor slaps a sticky pouch under the park bench, and leaves.

8. The wife goes to the garage to look at the captured spy in the trunk of her car, and seeing a reflection of what her present self has become in her rear windshield, she flashes back to her early days of training as a spy in Moscow. In her flashback, she is sparring with her teacher. The captain of the program walks in and we see it is THE CAPTURED SPY. This is the first memory of her being trained by him. It’s clear now FOR SURE that she and her husband are Russian operatives undercover in the U.S. The captain beats her in the fight and rapes her. Coming out of the flashback, she opens the car trunk to see him there, tied up. She taunts him: “Remember me, captain?”

9. Back at home, we learn that the wife can’t relate easily to her kids. she’s all business, and very hard and black and white; the kids have to educate her on basic social norms like political correctness. They go out for ice cream; we see that the mentor is a great dad. He is playful and they respond to him. The wife watches, but doesn’t want to play their game. He tells the kids he can’t have dinner with them because he has to work late.

10. The mentor goes to a public bathroom and changes into a disguise as a different man, and visits an FBI agent named MARTHA who cooperates with him. He is posing as a counter-intelligence “oversight” agency man who needs to keep secret tabs on her counterintelligence dept. It’s all flirty and taken by the spark she senses between them, gives him valuable information about the agency’s progress in finding the missing spy, whom we now know is being held captive in the Mentor’s car trunk.
11. At home, the mentor goes to the safe in their closet where they keep their spy stuff. As he puts his disguise away, he finds his wife’s blonde wig and her voice recorder. He plays the recording she made of the seduction of the FBI agent in the opening. The agent gave her the information about the spy coming to town who had turned against the Russians. We realise this is how the mentor, his wife and the younger agent came to know where the spy would be and hatch their plan to kidnap him. But…he also hears the full audio of how she seduced the fbi agent and had very kinky sex with him. Is a he jealous? Mad? Intimidated? Or does he understand it’s just part of the job? Either way, it’s intense. Could she like sex that way? Is he too timid in bed? Is that why she doesn’t feel attracted to him? All these things could easily be playing in his head as he listens to the sounds of his “wife” – with which he has had and raised two children.

12. They talk about the witnesses who saw the car and what to do with the spy – she wants to kill him (as we know of their past) and the mentor wants to finish the operation and deliver him to their people (the Russians). They plan their next steps.

13. The mentor takes their daughter shopping in the mall; the wife declines an invitation to join them. He seems a little disappointed.

14. In the mall, he waits in the dept. store while his daughter tries something on. He playfully starts line dancing to himself, to a country music song on the PA system. (How much more AMERICAN can you get?)..and embarrassing for his daughter. A bully with a younger girfriend whom he obviously controls, hits on the mentor’s daughter; the mentor stands off with him. It’s obvious to him that this is a PREDATOR, the worst kind of guy.

15. 14. At home, the wife sees a reflection of herself in a kitchen knife she’s about to use to cut some brownies, reminding her once again of her past with the captain, and she takes the knife down to the garage, where the captain is still held captive. The mentor comes home and sees her with the knife as she quickly returns to the kitchen. They grapple with her desire to kill the captain. He stops her, kisses her neck – trying to get her attention romantically but she stops him, (is he more attracted to her than she is to him? Or is she just startled by the resurfacing feelings of trauma she is experiencing having the captain back in her life-) but he doesn’t stop she turns and raises the knife. He declares that she’s his wife (implying there’s nothing wrong with him kissing her neck) and she says: “Is that right?” And they stare each other off. WHAT is their relationship all about???????
16. MIDPOINT: The brownies she was cutting was for their family visit to meet the new neighbors. The two men introduce themselves. This is the first time we learn the mentor’s name: he is PHIL. His wife is ELIZABETH. Standing there with their children, holding a tray of BROWNIES they look like the quintessential all-American family. The new neighbor husband is STAN. And then they learn: STAN is an FBI AGENT. Are they under suspicion? Or is this just a coincidence? Phil tries to understand more: does Stan mix it up with bank Robbers and the like? No – Stan is part of the counterintelligence unit – as Phil tries to joke: you mean spies, right? Ironically – the exact thing that Phil has posing as when seducing MARGARET for information.! Phil jokes he better not do any spying around here! And Stan agrees with humour: “especially not for those Russians.” Phil jokes, oh they’re the worst, right? Awkwardness.

17. At home Phil is afraid that this means the FBI is closing in. He is in a panic. Elizabeth thinks it’s a coincidence – FBI agents have to live somewhere, right? – but uses Phil’s fear as a reason to push for killing the captain now, get rid of the evidence with an agent so close to them. Phil brings up a sensitive subject: if the FBI is getting close, maybe this is a right time to hand themselves in, like the captain was saying – turn on the Russians, get paid millions to be a protected informant – and live the rest of their lives as a normal American family, and them having a normal, romantic marriage. “Be relocated, take the good life, and be happy.” Elizabeth can’t believe what she’s heard. She sees this as him wanting to betray their country. Phil expresses how comfortable he is as an American. She slaps him. she fears what the children would think of them, after having lied to them their entire lives.

18. Phil goes out for a run, high speed to burn off his angst. While he runs he has a flashback: he sits waiting in an office. Takes out a picture of a girl he obviously held dear; he rips up the photo as if saying goodbye to her. A Russian officer introduces him to Elizabeth for the first time. They are told that they are meeting only as Philip and Elizabeth, and they are not to reference their former lives/names in any way. As part of their prep to become Americans, they should only discuss their fabricated American pasts, and look forward to their American futures. We learn about their fake births and childhoods in America. Back in the present, phil uses a pay phone to pose as a police officer and enquire about the health of the agent who was stabbed in the beginning. The nurse on duty tells him the man died that night.

19. Returning from his walk Phil bumps into Stan outside their homes. He offers Stan a beer (very American) but what Stan wants are jumper cables. That means going into Phil’s garage to get them. Phil feels the jeopardy and you can tell he’s wondering if this is a ploy to get to the captive Captain, who is in their car trunk. He has Stan follow to the garage, but with great trepidation in his face (unseen by Stan). Phil offers Stan another beer (very American again, and also an attempt to use alcohol to loosen Stan’s lips). Stan says he can’t, he’s going into work. Stan recognizes the car model (there were witnesses that night), and they talk about the model as Phil gets the jumpers out of the boot, warning the gagged captain in the boot not to make a sound. As Stan comes around the back of the car, Phil gets the jumpers and quickly closes the trunk, hands Stan the jumpers.

20. In the FBI office, the bald agent discusses Russian food with a colleague and admits he kinds of likes them. Stan is introduced around – the bald agent is CHRIS. Stan reveals his last job was being embedded in a white supremecist group – and also introduces the strain it put on Stan’s family. Stan indicates he believes that the captain is still alive, and the race is on to find him before the Russians get him back. He theorizes that the kidnappers would have taken them to their house and keeping a regular profile. (This indicates that it is probably a coincidence that he’s moved next door to Phil and Elizabeth).

21. Walking to school assembly with his son, he expresses that Elizabeth isn’t warm to change (implying to us, the contrast between them). It’s clear that his son is very comfortable with his dad, they have a close bond. It’s clear he would love to live a normal life and be a normal dad.

22. In the garage, Phil removes the captain’s gag and handcuffs and talks about making a deal. He removes the straight jacket, but Elizabeth watches quietly, then stops them. Phil says he’s taking him over to Stan, and that they are going to turn themselves all in. Elizabeth is furious – he’s deciding for her, too. She refuses – she is a KGB officer to the end. She would go to jail, she would die – she would suffer anything before betraying her country. She knocks Phil out of the way with an elbow to his jaw, and attacks the captain. She’s savage. The battle’s savage. She kicks his head through a wall and beaten, he apologises that he had his way with her and hurt her – explains it was a perk he had with the cadets. Phil doesn’t know what they’re talking about. He wants to know. She walks away, telling Phil to do what he wants with him – take him to the Americans or whatever – with the rage inside him palpable, Phil breaks the captain’s neck. Elizabeth watches on.

23. In the car, a quiet moment between Phil and Elizabeth. she looks at him as he drives, considering the passion for her that fuelled his rage. Surely she must be wondering if the fire in him now makes him more attractive to her. They dispose of the body together. A long quiet look at each other in the car ends with Elizabeth moving over onto his lap to kiss phil passionately. They fall into the backseat and make love; she stares into his eyes, connected to him perhaps in a new way.

24. In the bathroom, they lean each other up in time for family breakfast. Elizabeth puts more energy into interactions at the table. Leaving for hockey practice, Phil and his son stop to gab with Stan, getting his newspaper out front. Stan notices a couple of bandaids on Phil’s neck. Phil attributes them to shaving. Stan takes a long look at them as they drive away.

25. Inside their kitchen, Stan eats one of Elizabeth’s brownies, and expresses that he likes Phil, even if he has a bit of an “off” vibe. His wife makes fun of his over-developed nose for criminality, and reminds him that he can fun in the “normal world” again.

26. The bully from the department store is brutally attacked by someone, stabbed with his own bbq fork through the hand. It turns out it’s PHIL, in disguise. NO ONE messes with his daughter.

27. Elizabeth meets with the GENERAL. He’s upset that the captain was killed instead of being handed over per the mission. He expresses his fear that Reagan is changing the game from a Cold War to a hot war. He asks Elizabeth about Philip, citing that she has reported on several occasions that Philip might be having second thoughts. He can’t afford that with the heat turned up. She says it was just a phase, and takes responsibility for the failed mission. He warns her that the orders from here will be tougher, as the game’s changing. The risks will be greater.

28. At the FBI, the assistant AG informs them that Reagan has signed an executive order giving the FBI free reigns to eliminate all Russian agents in the state.

29. Phil and Elizabeth have a vodka together in bed. Elizabeth relates her conversation with the general. Phil reassures her that they’ve been at this a long time and will be fine. They hold hands. Elizabeth breaks the rules – and finally – after two children and all this time – tells him about her childhood. Flashback to their first walk into an American motel. Phil is excited about air conditioning – they’ve never experienced it before. He looks at her romantically, and sensing it, tells him she’s not ready. He senses she’s not attracted to him, and expresses his positive reaction to living as an American; but she sees something darker – “a weakness” inside its people.

30. Stan breaks into Phil and Elizabeth’s garage to pursue investigating the car, which matches a witness description. He breaks into the trunk – but finds it well organized and normal. He shakes off his curiousity with embarrassment that he even thought it and leaves. PHIL is inside the garage, hiding in the shadows, watching. RUNNING TIME: 1:06 without commercials.

5 Star Points for THE AMERICANS:

1. Big picture hooks: The enemy lives amongst us, disguised perfectly as us – the way we walk, talk, and live – covertly gathering and passing information, acting against their targets (kidnapping, murder, etc.) and generally acting against us in whatever ways necessary (including using their bodies) in the fight to shift the global balance of power towards Mother Russia.

2. Amazing and Intriguing Characters: Their facade mimics the stereotypical American family. Yet they are betraying the people they live with. Their marriage is phony, and they have had children as part of the deception, not out of love – So there are strong bonds grown over time, and due to building and maintaining a family together. But underneath it all there are things that have, until recently, kept Elizabeth from giving herself romantically to Phil. They both maintain this marriage and family – and show signs that they do in some way love and are (at least now) attracted to each other, but still willing to seduce outsiders to glean information and do their job. Elizabeth’s need for “edge” allows her to be kinky in her approach, hard and sexual, where his similar operations are carried out more via courtship and romance. Phil is having second thoughts about continuing his work for Russia as he has been seduced by America and all it offers, where Elizabeth is a hard-liner, committed to the Russian cause.

3. Empathy/Distress: they both are torn: duty vs. love, grappling with feelings that naturally build over time in a partnership, having a family. Phil has a more maternal, caring approach than Elizabeth, but it is obvious they both feel the internal conflicts.

4. Layers / Open Loops 
Ask this: What questions are created by this first episode that can only be answered by watching the entire season? Will they become more bonded or will their internal conflicts tear them apart? How will they keep their partnership and family together under this stress? Will Stan learn their secret? Will Phil be seduced by the west? Will Elizabeth allow their personal relationship to grow despite Phil’s interest in western life and the promise of a big payoff if he turns them in?

5. Inviting Obsession 
Ask this: How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode? By posing more questions than it answers, most importantly more about the character’s dilemma’s than the situational ones – unless they relate directly to the characters and/or their interpersonal relationships. The stakes are so high on a high level (success of the free world) as they are for the condition of their marriage, their family, and physical safety. With an FBI agent right next door, and a friendship being forged between the families, the enemy has a front row seat to their private lives. That’s something you want to watch to the finish.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Matt Ferro.

[Matt Ferro]

Hi everyone,
I’m Matt Ferro.
I’ve co-written one produced online series and several un-produced (and un-submitted) first-draft shorts and tv pilots.
I hope to gain greater depth in the underlying dynamics of successful TV series, and how to utilize AI as a partner of sorts.
I have been a multifaceted entertainment professional with many different careers over my lifetime. Somehow, the writer and director in me always stepped aside to produce because I COULD. I’m trying to focus more on writing now know that this course will help me be both a better writer, with more confidence, and also a better producer.

2. How many scripts you’ve written?
3. What you hope to get out of the class?
4. Something unique, special, strange or unusual about you?
We look forward to working with you all!

[Matt Ferro]

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