Valerie Getsinger
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Day Nine Old Ways Challenge Chart
Valerie’s 12 Angry Men Analysis
What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s very important to do a good job of developing each character’s personality, so that in tense situations like this the dialogue will be stronger and heartfelt.
Old Ways/ Challenge
“Born liars “Only an ignorant man would believe that.”
Assuming he did it. “You don’t believe the boy’s story. You believe the woman’s story. She’s one of them isn’t she? And I can’t see?
“It’s a motive.” “Two slaps on the face provoking him into commiting murder?”
Assuming the case was handled properly. “If it were me, I’d want my lawyer to tear the prosecutor to shreds.”
“It was the only knife like it.” He pulls out the same type of knife.
Man said he heard the boy. “It’s not that easy to recognize a voice.” The L train is too loud to hear accurately. Testimony putting the boy in the electric chair-needs to be accurate.
A prejudice rant “Prejudice obscures the truth.”
Valerie’s old ways challenge chart
Habits-Esme oscillating between cruel and kind behaviors towards Mary Belinda-The two women have a heart to heart or have a huge fight to work towards resolving underlying tensions
Social values-family must be perfect-without revealing dark family secrets, allow family members either in separate groups or all together to discuss or argue about secrets to help with reducing the need and the feeling that they must be perfect and/or put on a perfect front as a family.
Filters of perception- Mary Belinda believes that parents, and or Al and Esme killed her sister. Have her confront them.
Rules-not allowing Mary Belinda to leave the property-father takes her off the property and explains what is happening.
Filters of perceptions-Momma plays the piano all the time rather than dealing with her feelings- have her keep a journal in which she expresses her feelings
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Valerie’s Profound truth ending
What I learned doing this assignment is that there are lots of ways to end a story and still keep It profound.
My profound truth is:
In life things aren’t always how they appear. Those who love you can go to extreme means to protect you from a horrible truth. Loss of someone close feels unbearable.
The profound truth will be delivered powerfully in my ending by Esme’s one statement and by her breaking the telephone in her attempt to protect Mary Bells, not from knowing a horrible truth but to stop her from sharing it with others outside the family. Esme’s goal is to keep the family’s good name intact and not bring shame on the family, which demonstrates the profound truth that in life things are not always as they appear.
The change is completed as Mary Belinda now understands how her sister died, and she also understands that she must protect the family name by keeping the family secret of how her sister really died, as well as all the other family secrets she discovered in her attempts to learn the truth of how her sister died. She has a total understanding that in life things aren’t always as they appear, and sometimes that is for the best. Bessie in her unique way is going to extreme measures to protect the family’s horrible truths. Mary Belinda is still very sad about losing her twin sister. Yet, she has understanding about all the misconstrued whispered conversations she heard and how her sister died. This in turn is helping her to go on in life, even though she lost her sister and this is unbearable to her.
The set ups for the ending are the whispered conversations that implied that Mary Belinda’s parents, Esme, and Al were all part of murdering Liddy Katherine, or at the very least responsible for covering up what happened. The pay off for this is when Mary Belinda runs to the beach when she remembers how her sister died. There, she learns the truth of what truly happened from Esme and her father.
Another set up is when Mary Belinda goes to the barn and finds her dead sister’s body under the floorboards, which makes her think she did not drown but was murdered. The payoff is finding out the truth.
Another set up is her father putting locks on all the gates, so Mary Belinda can’t leave the property. On the beach he tells her they are being blackmailed. The locks were to keep the blackmailer out and to protect her. Another set up is the blackmail letter she received addressed to her dead sister. The blackmail letter she received came from the blackmailer.
I am designing it to have the audience see an inevitable ending by showing Esme oscillating between being kind and cruel to Mary Belinda throughout the screenplay. The ending is surprising because Esme ups her cruelness right before she breaks the phone when Mary Belinda gets a call from her best friend. When Mary Belinda gets to the phone, Esme says the last line.
The parting image is of a shattered and broken telephone, as well as Esme’s icy-cold eyes, as she says, “I didn’t know the telephone broke. It’s the only telephone we have.” She puts a finger to her lips and says, “Sh! Family secrets!”
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Valerie’s Connection with Audience
ASSIGNMENT
Tell us which characters you
are going to INTENTIONALLY create a connection with the audience.
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. A. Relatability B. Intrigue C. Empathy D. Likability
Answer the question “What I
learned doing this assignment is…?” (place at top of your work).
Post to the forums at
https://www.screenwritingclasses.com/forums/Subject line: (Your name’s) Connection with Audience (place in first line)
I learned to use relatability, intrigue, empathy, and likeability to create a full character, a rounded one to show the audience what they are like.
Mary Belinda is the character I am going to intentionally create a connection with.
Relatability-We relate to her as she is so loving to her horse and rides him often. Many people have had a pet that they have loved or have a pet presently that they love.
Intrigue-Mary Belinda receives a blackmail letter addressed to her twin sister with no indication of who it came from or what the particulars are that she is being blackmailed for.
Empathy-Mary Belinda’s twin sister has either drowned or been murdered. The audience will feel badly for her, as many people have suddenly lost someone they are close to. The audience sees how very upset she is about losing her twin sister.
Likeability-We see her likability when she shares with the gravedigger how her sister told her God painted the sky with beautiful colors just for them and how she carefully places her sister’s favorite flowers-pink roses in the casket with her. She see how caring she is to her sister.
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Valerie’s Three Gradients
What I learned from doing this assignment is that incorporating the connections between emotion, action, and challenge-weakness will help tremendously in outlining stories.
The emotional gradient I will use is forced change.
A young woman’s identical twin sister drowns, but she believes her twin sister was murdered, and as she works at finding who murdered her, she discovers several dark, family secrets and is finally able to accept the truth of what actually happened.
Emotion-Excitement- Mary Belinda discovers a letter addressed to her deceased sister
Action-She reads the letter
Challenge-it is a blackmail letter. She believes the writer is her sister’s killer, but there is no legible signature, return address, or postmark, no clues, as to who wrote it.
Emotion-Doubt- She searches for the writer of the letter but can’t find anything out
Action- She hears someone typing in the middle of the night and follows the sounds of the typing. She ends up in the kitchen outside the pantry door.
Challenge-It is Esme typing. Esme refuses to let her see the letter or loan her the typewriter. Because of this, she isn’t able to check to see if the type on Esme’s letter or typewriter matches the type on the blackmailer’s letter.
Emotion- Hope- She discovers a locked space behind a picture hanging on the wall in her father’s study.
Action- She searches for the combination and finds it. Then she discovers some sealed documents.
Challenge-She discovers that Esme, the housekeeper, is also her father’s sister. She discovers nothing about her sister’s death. However, she didn’t have time to look at all the documents.
Emotion-Discouragement-Her boyfriend is killed in a car accident. She feels there is no point to life, as she is already so sad without her sister, and losing her boyfriend makes her life feel beyond unbearable.
Action- she attempts to kill herself.
Challenge-Esme stops her. She then has to deal with difficult emotions about her father and Esme being related and confronts her father and Esme about this. She then shares with her father her feelings about losing her boyfriend and her sister, which is very painful.
Emotion-Courage-She decides that life is worth living.
Action-To honor her sister, she wears Liddy Katherine’s dress on her birthday.
Challenge-When Esme lights the birthday candles on the cake, she has a memory of how her sister died.
Emotion-Loss- Remembering how her sister really died is very upsetting to her.
Action-She runs to the ocean. Esme and her father follow her, and they have a heart to heart about Liddy Katherine’s death.
Challenge-She must accept the truth of what really happened.
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Valerie’s Lead Characters
Change Agent and Transformable Character
What I learned in this assignment is that there are many aspects of oppression and that a character I did not consider as having a transformational journey was actually struggling to get through her own private transformational journey.
Tell us your transformational journey logline.
Mary Belinda believes that her twin sister, Liddy Katherine, who the town constable says drowned, was murdered, and as she searches to uncover the truth, she discovers some dark family secrets and must finally come to grips with the truth of these secrets, as well as the truth of how her sister died.
Tell us who you think might be your Change Agent and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role. Also, include: – Their vision: – Their past experience that fits that vision:
The change agent, I think is Esme, the housekeeper, as she fluctuates from being cruel to kind throughout. Esme also raised both girls from the day of their birth, while working as a housekeeper for the family. Because of this, she is in a deep state of grief. I think also if this is possible, that Mary Belinda’s surfacing memories might also be the change agent
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.
Mary Belinda is the transformable character, as she is grieving the sudden death of her twin sister. As she works to discover the truth of how her sister died she uncovers some dark family secrets, which shake up her beliefs about her world. One of these dark family secrets is about Esme, and as she struggles to come to grips with this family secret, Esme continues to oscillate between showing her kindness and being cruel.
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 being cloistered on the property, unable to leave, as her father has had locks put on all the gates. This feeling of being imprisoned is further compounded by hearing family and Esme and Al whispering to each other and misconstruing the true meaning of what they are saying. Another part of the oppression is the deep set grief she feels from losing her sister and then her boyfriend, who is later killed in a car accident.
Tell us who you think might be your Betraying Character and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role.
I think that the betraying character could be Al. He lies to Mary Belinda about his actions the night Liddy Katherine died. After that, he brings a trunk he denied as existing to Mary Belinda into the garden to do his work. I think also that the betraying character could be Esme, as she oscillates so much between being kind and outright cruel. She does this, as she is struggling with accepting how Liddy Katherine died. She is unable to complete her own transformational journey. This is because she is unable to completely process her grief.
TODAY: Watch and analyze DEAD POETS SOCIETY.
We are looking at this movie from the perspective of the change that occurs for the lead character and the audience.
1. What is the change this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?
The change this movie is about is about learning to think for yourself and following your heart, while living in an environment demanding conformity and obedience.
2. Lead characters:
– Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?
The change agent is Mr. Keating. He is the right character to cause the change, as he went to this school when he was younger. He also is following his heart in his choice to be a teacher and lives a life, in which he thinks for himself and does not follow the rules of conformity even within his teaching job. He cares very much about the boys he teaches and wants them to learn to think for themselves and live lives they feel passionate about, to find their own voices.
– Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey?
Neil is the transformable character. He is the right character to deliver this profound journey, as he has a very strict and abusive father, who insists he conform to what he wants. Yet, inside Neal’s heart, he wants to be an actor, and he is a very good actor.
Some of the other boys are also the transformable characters, as they change too. They are the right characters to deliver this profound journey, as they want to change and are able to look inside themselves and outside the box of the oppression of the rules of the boarding school.
What is the Oppression?
The oppression includes the rules of the school and the staff at the school, excluding Mr. Keating.
3. How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story?
We are lured into the profound journey by Mr. Keating, who very clearly behaves and thinks outside the box in a private boarding school setting with many strict rules that demands compliance from the students. We are lured into the story by the connection the boys have with Mr. Keating, as well as the photo of past students at the school, including what Mr. Keating says about these boys. We are also lured into the profound journey by the boys starting their own dead poets society.
4.) m “old ways” to “new way of being.”
The profound journey starts with doing what they are told, following their parents desires and expectations, and following the school rules, not seizing the moment, not following their heart. The profound journey ends with a transformation into their new way of being, including thinking for themselves, stating what is their truth, and standing up for Mr. Keating.
Identify their old way: Doing what their parents and the school staff tell them to do-conforming, following the rules, not thinking for themselves.
Identify their new way at the conclusion:
They stand up for what is right-speak their truth that Mr. Keating did not encourage them to have their own dead poets society. As well, the boys that were transformed all stand on their desks in support of Mr. Keating, who was fired and blamed for the suicide of Neil Perry. They do not listen to the dean, who tells them to get down from off of the desks.
5. What is the gradient the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?
Forming and joining the dead poets society
Saying the words that Mr. Keating wrote on a slip of paper, while kicking a ball
Auditioning for an acting part
Getting the acting part
Typing a letter-pretending to be his father
Lying to his father that he wouldn’t be in the play
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 following beliefs are challenged.
He must do as his father wants and go to medical school. What he loves to do and feels he is inside himself is not important and that what he wants doesn’t count. He doesn’t have a right to choose what he wants to do in life. All that counts is what his father wants for him.
7. What are the most profound moments of the movie?
Ripping the pages of the poetry text book out
Throwing the desk set off the roof
The dead poets society meetings
Slipping the article in the school newspaper by the dead poets society to allow girls into the school
Neil’s success in the play
Neil’s suicide
Standing on the desks in support of Mr. Keating
Mr. Keating saying thank you to the boys for their support when they stood on their desks and voiced that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
8. What are the most profound lines of the movie?
“Oh captain, my captain”
“Carpe diem- seize the day.”
-“Gather rosebuds while you may.”
“Make your lives extraordinary.”
“Rip out the entire page. Rip it out!”
“Poetry, love, are what we stay alive for.”
“You must trust that your beliefs are your own.”
9. How does the ending payoff the setups of this movie?
The ending pays off the setups of this movie by showing the boys who were transformed thinking for themselves, seizing the moment, trusting that their beliefs are their own, and following those beliefs. They did not conform at the end of the movie. They thought for themselves and did not follow the rules.
10. What is the Profound Truth of this movie?
Follow your heart
Speak your truth
Don’t conform
Carpe diem
Find your own voice
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[Profound] Day 3: Transformational Journeys that Change Lives
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned how the old ways are transformed at the end of the story. I just saw screenplays before as having a beginning, a middle, and an end.
1. Tell us your logline for the transformational journey.
2. Tell us what you see as the Old Ways.
3. Tell us what you see as the New Ways.
4. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” (place at top of your work).
Logline for transformational journey:
A young woman’s identical twin sister drowns, but she believes her twin sister was murdered, and as she works at finding who murdered her, she discovers several dark, family secrets and is finally able to accept the truth of what actually happened.
Old ways:
All that matters is my twin sister. I can’t live without her.
Living in a deep state of grief
Suspicious that family members, the hired farm hand, and the housekeeper killed her sister.
Fixated on her sister’s death and finding out the truth of how she died
Doesn’t trust the people in her family or the hired help
New Ways:
Is able to look at the truth of how and why her sister drowned and accept this.
Is closer to her father
Comprehension of the truth about overheard conversations and actions of her family members, Al, and Esme.
Is able to feel some compassion, which replaces some of the anger she feels about the dark family secrets she discovered.
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What I learned from doing this assignment is how valuable it is to understand the process of screenplay writing to create a better screenplay.
Profound Truth:
In life things aren’t always how they appear. Those who love you can go to extreme means to protect you from a horrible truth. Loss of someone close feels unbearable.
Audience Change:
To think about their own lives and explore any possible family secrets. To consider working through wrongs in peaceful ways.
Entertainment Value:
A world filled with mystery and hidden dark family secrets.
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Ground Hog Day
I learned that when you analyze a movie that there is a lot of depth to discover and doing this makes viewing the movie much more interesting.
This movie is about Phil’s personal transformation. The transformational journey in this movie is Phil changing from a mean and selfish and negative person to a giving and caring one, who also becomes happy in his life.
Rita is the change agent. She is the right character to cause this change in Phil, as Phil cares a lot about her.
Phil is the transformable character. He is the right character to deliver this profound journey, as he is the only who is selfish, sarcastic, mean, uncaring, and negative.
The oppression is the constant repetition of the same events happening over and over every day in Phil’s life, as he finds this to be an unbearable way to live.
We are lured into the profound journey by Phil’s depressed, sarcastic nature, which at times is funny and by the celebration and excitement about ground hog day.
The celebration of Ground Hog Day and then Phil’s angst about the days event repeating themselves over and over, as well as his attempts to change the events of the day cause us to connect with the story.
Phil is changed the most and goes from his old ways of being mean, selfish, sarcastic, and negative to his new ways of being kind, caring, and giving to others, as well as being in love and in a happy relationship with Rita.
In the gradient change, Phil started trying to change what happened in the same repetitive days. This included doing mean things, such as punching his high school friend. He attempted to kill himself several different ways. He then brought coffee to a homeless man, fed him etc.. He also did nice things, including taking piano lessons, pumping a tire up for three elderly women, and making an ice sculpture for Rita. All of this slowly took away his arrogance, and he became a nice person.
The old ways were challenged when he met Rita and started to care about her. His belief that everything should be all about him and that other people didn’t matter changed when he started spending time with Rita.
The most profound moments of the movie are when he stole the truck on ground hog dog and a chase ensued. Making the ice-sculpture was profound, as well as all of his attempts to commit suicide, and as well being so kind to the homeless man.
The most profound lines of the movie are: “If you only had one day to live, what would you do? How can you start the day with one expectation and end up with another expectation? I’ve killed myself so many times I don’t even exist anymore.”
The ending pays off the setups of this movie by Phil being happy and in love with Rita and in the beginning he was miserable, lonely, mean, and very negative.
The profound truth of this movie is to be happy in the moment and to love and to be kind and give to others.
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My name is Valerie Getsinger.
I have written two screenplays. They both need work to be better.
From taking this class, I hope to learn how to write screenplays that work, have all the components needed, and are profound.
Something that is unusual about me is that I am half English and half American.
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GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I, Valerie Getsinger, 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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I, Valerie Getsinger, agree to the terms of these release forms.