Steven McChesney
Forum Replies Created
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Steve McC’s Developing the Three Emotional Gradients.
What I learned doing this assignment.
I learned to think of this journey as a distinct steps of specific emotional moments, rather than a kind of muddled wash of confrontation and retreat. I also had the insight of what the reader and audience’s journey must be. Early readers of first scenes responded that they didn’t like this guy so much (whereas, the all loved his dog–much better personality). And I realized in the Bargaining scene that this is the opportunity to get to know his true passion and talent as an exceptional artist. I need to win the audience over to his side.
The Emotional Gradient I used:
“Forced Change” Denial/Anger/Bargaining/Depression/Acceptance
MIDSUMMER (expanded, looser logline). A promising artist suffering emotional bereavement has an unfinished painting that will establish his career, if he can meet the midnight deadline for entry to an important juried exhibition), while family & others are pressuring him to give it up and pursue a convention route of business/law (?) school, which also has a looming deadline for registration. Unlikely mentors help him to recover his creative drive and confirm him in his artistic vocation, and find new love.
I. A. DENIAL. (“All the time in the world.”)
B. Action. Moving through morning like he has all eternity to heal his soul and completing his masterwork He indulges in luxury of solitude, music, beautiful surrounding,
C. Challenge. He needs to heal enough to awaken his creative flow.
Weakness. Easily distracted, procrastinator, and indulges in doodlings and trivialities.
II. A. ANGER (None of you F@#$%ing business what I do!)
B. Action. Thrust out of the cocoon into the small-town world, he is confronted by well-meaning friends, acquaintances and his ex-fiancee about what he is going to do (which was central problem in their relationship, too.) He lashes out at her, accusing her of all kinds of bad intentions and bad behaviour and tries to beat up her male companion (gets himself knocked in the jaw, and falls into a puddle at the curb). Nearly drives his car off a cliff into a massive quarry.
C. Challenge: Answer with commitment and confidence the path he will take.
Weakness: His self-doubt about his ability to succeed makes him more attracted to and envious of the saccharine charms, suffocating comforts, and entitled certainties of conventional mall town life that he once spurned.
III. A. BARGAINING. (I’m no one special; I’m just like anyone else.)
B. Returning to home to find the workmen lounging in the garden. He is apologetic and hospitable and makes friends with them. Talks away the pressure of his situation but talks away the hours that could be used to address the situation. They get drunk, they play games, they enjoy the day–all part of his creative process (or so he tells himself). But he also begins to talk about his art–shows them his work, gives demonstrations of his astonishing skill, and also recounts therapeutically the love and loss of his fiancee.
C. Challenge. It does open his creativity and he realizes that pursuing a vocation as a professional artist is the thing he must do and wants to do.
Weakness. He is scared. Realizes the thing holding him back is the frightening solitary effort each painting requires if he is to make it “true art” and the one he must do immediately will requiire him to unlock demons. And he just wants — on one level — to have a pleasant evening, an unharried life.
IV. A. DEPRESSION. (It can’t be done. I am insufficient and time has gone.)
B. Action. Left alone, drunk, stoned, staring at the trees. The day has passed like a dream. He floats in a pool surrendered. But in this state, begins to see visions, and sees the play of light and shade and wind on the trees and clouds, leading to visions of the woman (the subject of the painting). These only confuse him and suggest unattainable effects for painting.
C. Challenge. He is seeing new approach and style and effects that would make the painting exciting to create and exciting to view.
Weakness. He fears he doesn’t have the skill or creative power to achieve this new vision; he is merely a childish dreamer and dilletante who can’t do the real work of creation.
V. A. ACCEPTANCE. (It will be what it will be and the “career” or “laurels” don’t matter.)
B. Huge storm blows up, forcing him to shelter in his studio, knocking out power–so no lights to read by, no television or videos or radio to distract. He must confront the painting by candelight as the hurricane batters the glass walls of the studio. These circumstances draw him into a communion and argumentative communication with the painting. He is no longer seeing it as the “pretty” portrait. He fights with his emotions, with her memory, with the changing light, with diminishing supplies and paints, forcing him to improvise, abandon his tricks and preconceived notions.
C. Challenge. The visions, and emotional riot, and supply shortage force him to improvise, and allow him to pursue a radical approach with bold technigques (including collage, found objects, etc),
Weakness. His default, comfort zone has been meticulous and beautiful paintings that are conventional and pleasing. He struggling to give birth to an authentic self expression on the canvas. The ex-fiancee may not be flattered.
THIS GET THE PAINTING DONE. PROBLEM: It does not encompass the final act; a resolution of the painting and the juried art show.
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Steve McChesney’s Lead Characters.
1. What I learned doing this assignment. I learned two key things. First, I learned why Tony & Jose are good at being Change Agents; I sketched some developments about their backgrounds as artists and true free spirits. I knew something about their personalities–but now I am finding specific qualities and experiences that they will use as tools or surgical instruments to repair Edward. My vague ideas about the action of the transformation are forming into specific activities and tactics. Second, getting me to consider a Betraying character in Jose–makes his journey more interesting to me and begins to raise the stakes for the competing values (Conventional vs Artistic life). I also learned that I must be clearer about the Oppression. How it comes from every side, how it will even effect the Change Agents. My goal with this screenplay was minimalism: a single day, mostly in a half-acre of backyard, completely in a small country town; a single 24″ x 36″ canvas; the visions in the gray matter in the space between his ears; two seemingly simple-minded “ministering angels” to help get the visions onto canvas. Considering the Oppression fills up the small universe and makes it perfectly claustrophobic.
2. Tell us your transformational journey logline. A solitary, heartbroken, creatively blocked artist is about to give up his vocation until unlikely intervention of ex-con tree-cutters inspire him to finish a seminal painting, allowing him to have a career and re-engage in life and love.
3. Tell us who you think might be your Change Agent and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role; include: their vision & their past experience that fits that vision: Tony Giampietro & Jose Diaz–freewheeling workmen, there to cut branches in the high trees, are treated rudely, dismissively by Edward, the artist. But a bond begins over a simple offer of ice water on a hot day and Edward overlooking an offense. These guys are skilled singer/songwriters/guitarists who have been in worse prisons than the self-imposed mental one that Edward is in. In prison, they developed their artistry as well as their appreciation for preciousness of life and freedom. They see evidence of Edward’s talents and are discerning critics. They use the waning day with song, games, conversation, shared stories, and a little excellent Honduran weed to cure heartache and his crisis of competing expectations and restore his joy of art and life. They know what it is like to have had chances and completely blow them; but also, how to recover from the lowest depths of imprisonment and failure.
4. Tell us who you think might be your Transformable Character(s) and give a few sentences about how that character or characters fit the role. Edward, the blocked artist, is shackled by heartache (broken wedding engagement), competing expectation to give up artistic ambitions for a conventional career, and fear of failure–the one thing that will bring him great success and satisfaction is the one thing he can’t get himself to do: complete on large painting as the centerpiece of a juried art exhibition at the prestigious local museum.
5. 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 conventional expectations and comfortable lure of the small town where he lives–no one (family, friends, neighbors, town leaders/elders) takes him serious as an artist and all expect he has returned home to follow tradition–attend the local law school (the admission paperwork is deadline is midnight) and get on with life like his parents knew it.
Tell us who you think might be your Betraying Character and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role. This one I wasn’t sure about as the focus is on Edward’s transformation, no one else’s. However, Tony and Jose get in some trouble at the end of the day (Their boss returns to find them goofing around, smoking, and drinking with half the work undone) –and Jose (as an immigrant) is more enamored with the nice life that the conventional society provides, and turns on Tony to keep his job, and pleads with Edward to become a traditional small-town lawyer despite his artistic ability. Whereas Tony throws all caution to the wind. But this shows an awareness of the risk that Edward may be taking, and another perspective.
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<div>Steve McChesney’s Transformation Journey</div>
What I learned from this assignment.
What I learned doing this assignment is that the more I can whittle my logline, the more I can see sharply what the story is and understand the character’s journey. It keeps me from getting lured off the path by stray ideas and lost in the thicket. Also, it helps to define the character by describing his Old Ways and contrasting them to New Ways. I don’t think this is complete or clear, by any means, but it is a lot cleared than it was a few hours ago.
Tell us your logline for the transformational journey.
In a suburban garden on one long summer day, a solitary, suicidally heart-broken, creatively strangled young artist can’t finish the canvas that will launch his career until the unlikely intervention of two carefree woodcutters rekindles his creative spirit, allowing him to complete his great work, secure his career, and reopen his heart to new love and life.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Tell us what you see as the Old Ways.
Stewing in solitary misery and artistically barren; unable to paint; friendless, stuck in haunted past of romantic catastrophe and aborted marital engagement; unsuccessfully suicidal, prickly antisocial, resigned to failure of artistic vocation–about to go to law school, of all things–and resigned to life without love/marriage/romance
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Tell us what you see as the New Ways.
Basking in communal joy and creative fertility; he learns to channel emotion and life into his art. He lets others into his life–rather than wall himself up in barren solitude. He has completed the painting with extraordinary energy and emotional commitment–restored confidence; he sings, dances and parties with friends once again, and asking forgiveness and forgiving his ex-fiancee, letting go of past and meeting a new woman more suited to him, and resurrecting hope for a successful future of a fulfilling romantic and artistic life
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Steve McChesney’s First Three Decision.
1. The Profound Truth: No Man Is An Island and needs to love and be loved to heal from the past and attain his destiny as a creative being into the future.
2. Change Caused With The Audience. They become aware of how much they are strangling their spirits by holding onto the past and learn to embrace and unleash their loving potential.
3. Entertainment Vehicle. A day in the life/a life in a day on a summer day. Like Vivaldi’s “Summer” concerto. Following a broken hapless fellow through the misadventures of a single summer morning, then healing through music, storytellng, some drink, a bit of drugs, more music, parties in the midday sun, till a tumultuous latee afternoon summer storm unleashes the lifeforce of the character; and resolving in the misty moonlight of new romance and a new dawn.
4. What I Learned. That my vague ideas will begin to take concrete shape and are easier to write the more I ask, answer, revise, and re-ask these questions. This first round had me brainstorming every which way, and I know the answers I gave are open to many evolutions.
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What I learned from this assignment: I gained a greater appreciation of how each building block keeps the story moving forward and how the conclusion gains all of its power by the accumulated force of that motion.
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What is the CHANGE this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie? A cold dead shadow of a man is forced to exam his attitudes,behavior and the course of his lonely life and is resurrected through his attraction and burgeoning love for a woman who shows him the power of kindness.Lead characters:
Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?
Rita–the new producer, a fresh-faced beauty–and “upbeat lady” who is playful, kind, open to the charm of small town life. Her actual job is to get Phil to project his personality through the camera. She has a willingness to be open to him despite his prickliness…and he is attracted to her.
Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey?
Phil, the cynical, weatherman, just going through the motions. He is so bitter, he has nowhere to go but death or getting sweeter What is the Oppression? The grind of mundane life and routine and meaningless communication–the delusional lure of bigger things somewhere out there, just over the horizon (or the rainbow).
How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story? The fish out of water–the ultimate cynic, claiming he’s wanted by a Big Network, is thrust into thee ultimate small town and its old-fashioned ritual and relentless cheerfulness. And the intriguing contrast of Rita and Phil–how will these two ever get along???
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 is glib, insincere; a snarky cynic who has nothing nice to say about anything or anyone. He demeans all people and comes on to women in crass, impersonal (soulless? dehumanizing) ways.
Identify their new way at the conclusion: He is charitable to all people, acknowledges his emotional vulnerability and approaches Rita with tender affection, and sincere communcations; his eyes are open to the beauty and charm and other good qualities of the small town and the people and its traditions.
What is the gradient the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing? He must suffer through a whole day of hell for himself, wanting only to get done and get out—then it all starts over again; slowly realizes the situation–comes to conclusion that life has no consequences–he an behave as stupidly, recklessly, illegally as he wants. And the next day–a repeat of the same day–it will be wiped clean. But he sees the worst of himself, ending up in jail. And this shakes him to reconsider how he’s approaching this “curse”. He then indulges every childish appetite, whim, and fantasy he ever had (food, drink, smoke, fast cars, hitting on women in manipulative ways only to coldly discard her, dressing in costume like his childhood movie hero, and having a new woman dress in “french maid’s” outfit)… But he thenn uses the situation to try to hook up with Rita…but it is still manipulative…using information to falsely win her–con her. All this backfires again and again–still he is repeatedly fails and is repeatedly slappeed in the face. Then falls back into morose drunken despair. Each time, he gets more sincere, more direct—but also he takes action to be a better person.How is the “old way” challenged? There is no escaping the situation. He has to learn to live with it, and the strangeness of the repeated day forces him to see the world anew–like its a new planet and pay attention to what is going on. He more and more realizes his attraction to Rita and that renews every “new” day and as he falls for her, his old crass, cynical way are getting in the way of making things happen wiith her.
What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change? He believes all women (all people, really) are objects for his attractions and sour pleasures or for his service and demeaning; he believes small town people are hicks and rubes and should be treated with contemptuous sarcasm and avoided as much as possible. He sees nothing of charm or value in the small town and its people.
What are the most profound moments of the movie? Phil’s two low points, realizing how bad things are: Ending one day in prison and one day getting drunk with the hotel residents watching jeopardy, which he already knows the answers. The two deaths of the old man–the second one when he make every effort to keep him alive but then stares up at the heavens–recognition of inevitable mortality. Learning to play the Rachmaninoff romantic theme. The ice sculpture; waking to find that she is there, the curse is broken and he is changed. His final report on the event—a paean to the virtues of the small town and the charms of the people.
What are the most profound lines of the movie? The Walter Scott verse is a “profound” epigram of the movie but Andi McDowell kind of blows the delivery of it….”I need someone to give me a good slap in the face.” … HER: “I think you need help.” HIM: “That’s what I’ve been trying to say: I NEED HELP.” … “I’ve look at your face so much I could have done it (the ice sculpture) with my eyes closed.” … “No matter what happens tomorrow, I’m happy now because I love you” … “First time I saw you, something happened to me…You’re the kindest etc–I don’t deserve someone like you…But I swear I would love you for the rest of my life.” … HER: “Are you for real? Are you trying to make me look like a fool?” HIM: “I’m trying to talk how normal people talk.” (We realize he doesn’t know how to be real, to be normal–he’s trying for the first time)
How does the ending payoff the setups <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>of this movie? Miserable winter becomes Winter Wonderland in his new vision. He now wants to live there forever with her after all the contempt and blindness to its good qualities.
What is the Profound Truth of this movie? <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Love and Happiness Come to Those Who First Give Love and Happiness. Embrace Life as it Is, not as you think it should be.
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Hi, everyone.
I’m Steve McChesney from Philadelphia PA.
I have written five scripts, none polished; also, another five stories are in outline.
GOALS: I hope to be able to answer the question “Who cares?” when I–and anyone else-reads my screenplay. I have (more or less) interesting stories with compelling conflicts, unique three-dimensional characters, good dialogue–but I need to tap into what matters emotionally in dramatizing the human condition–the way we interact with one another and the society we are creating (or destroying). A million-dollar screenplay would be nice, too.
UNIQUE or MILDLY UNUSUAL THINGS ABOUT ME: I scuba dive with barracudas; I still write in pencil; I was run over by my neighbor in November 2021–crushing my right foot that has now healed enough that I can now run faster than I used to (adding to my legend of bizarrely accident-prone indestructibility); my go-to Karaoke song is Elvin Bishop’s notoriously difficult “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” (with which I won first place in a roadhouse bar somewhere west of Valley Forge); and I’m surprisingly not ashamed to say that I’m kinda digging this Barry Manilow Greatest Hits album playing on the jukebox in the greasy-spoon diner where I am now writing this between slurps of minestrone soup.
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I, Steven McChesney, agree to this release form.
Steve
GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
This completes the Group Release Form for the class.
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Bob: You nicely identified the story’s hook for the audience here: “I wonder how many in the audience reluctantly admitted that they sometimes felt the same way. I think that’s when I really began to feel ‘lured in’ to Phil’s plight. Yes, he’s still a jerk, but, maybe like me, a jerk in trouble. That’s the moment I started to root for him to dig himself out of it.” Steve McC