tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629875445188881702024-03-13T22:31:09.562-07:00Genre Hacks - ReferenceParent Blog: genrehacks.comSean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-70114910741024183452019-05-21T12:04:00.001-07:002019-05-21T12:04:37.959-07:00Recognition and Revelation <b>Revelation</b> occurs when key information is revealed to the audience but NOT to a character, creating both dramatic irony and tension.<div>
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For example, in Hitchcock's <i>North By North West</i>, we, the audience, see the CIA reveal that the mystery man, Kaplan, doesn’t exist. However, the main character, Thornhill, played by Cary Grant, doesn’t know this and spends the entire second act looking for Kaplan (irony.) What he doesn't know might get him killed, and we are on the edge of our seats hoping he figures it out before it is too late. (tension.)</div>
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<br /><b>Recognition</b> occurs when key information that the audience knows is finally revealed to a character. This often resolves tension and dramatic irony.</div>
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For example, in Hitchcock's <i>North By North West</i>, the tension of the second act is resolved when Thornhill is told Kaplan does not exist. However, a new tension is established with a <b>Reveal</b>, both he and the audience discover that Eve is working for the CIA and that Thornhill has unwittingly put her in grave danger.</div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-80880929438763521252019-05-14T10:52:00.002-07:002019-05-14T10:54:39.243-07:00Definition of ScreenwritingIn the 21st Century, screenwriting should be defined as writing scripts for moving pictures that appear on any screen.<br />
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This includes traditional movies projected in theaters, but also television, animation, webisodes, and other fictional, narrative "moving pictures" that appear on computer screens, smartphone screens, virtual reality goggles, holograms, other technologies.Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-45718912056840320742019-05-14T10:09:00.003-07:002019-05-14T10:09:33.297-07:00TensionThere are many forms of tension in movies, but tension always creates anticipation and anxiety about what is going to happen next. Tension is what makes you turn the page. Tension keeps the audience in their seats.<div>
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Tension is created when the audience can imagine and anticipate what might happen next in the story, sequence, or scene, but isn't sure which way it will go. The story elements suggest several possible futures. </div>
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We (the audience) HOPE for one outcome(s), but we FEAR another.</div>
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More specific forms of tension include dramatic tension, comic tension, romantic tension, suspense/fear tension, and more generally dramatic tension. In all cases, the writer leads the reader/audience to imagine something funny, romantic, or scary is about to happen next.<br /><br />More importantly, while we can imagine (hope) for a good outcome we can also imagine (fear) a bad outcome, and it is not clear to us which way it's going to go.<br /><br />In general, tension rises (i.e. the stake rise) when the possible good outcome gets better and/or the possible bad outcome gets worse. Likewise, if we have no sense of the future or if we feel like we know how things will turn out, the tension dissolves. To engage the audience, we must keep the tension high.Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-30006003246047413312017-09-26T13:27:00.001-07:002017-09-27T12:20:37.844-07:00Week Five - Student Script 2<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: center;">
UNDEVELOPED IMAGE </div>
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Written by Kat Boyd-Batstone</div>
<br /><br />EXT. HOUSE - EVENING <br /><br />The street is dark except for a warm light coming from the house on the corner. From the street, framed in the bedroom window, we see THREE GIRLS twirling around with brightly colored scarves.<br /><br />INT. BEDROOM - EVENING <br /><br />Inside, SASANKA, 17, is a blur of red. Her wavy jet black hair, red lips and red scarf blur as she spins and poses, almost flirting with the camera. <br /><br />Flash. Flash. Flash. RENEE, 17, clicks away enthralled. <br /><br />SASANKA motions to RENEE to her to join her. ADRIANA, 17, dramatically wraps a scarf around her neck and takes the camera. <br /><br />RENEE takes a step towards SASANKA shyly, unsure how to act in front of the camera. She hesitates, but SASANKA has grabbed her hand and is pulling her forward with a little smile. Their eyes lock and things slow. For a second there is something more, but a second later they are twirling, posing and laughing.<br /><br />ADRIANA, slightly annoyed that she is not posing with them, puts the camera on a tripod, and they all pile into the frame.<br /><br />SASANKA pulls RENEE onto her lap. RENEE looks down at her hand resting on her waist and follows it up to her face. SASANKA smiles, rests her cheek on her shoulder and looks to the camera.<br /><br />ADRIANA makes a funny face. Renee continues to look at SASANKA. FLASH. RENEE looks too late to the camera.<br /><br />ADRIANA poses comedically. RENEE poses uncomfortably. SASANKA poses confidently. RENEE somewhat sultry. SASANKA with sunglasses. ADRIANA plays with hair. They collapse on the bed laughing at their silliness.<br /><br />A car lights up the room, beeps and ADRIANA rolls her eyes. We hear a doorbell. ADRIANA collects her things and heads to the door. RENEE gets up and hugs ADRIANA goodbye. <br /><br />SASANKA is sitting belly down, legs kicked up and head resting on her bent hands. RENEE shyly edges onto the bed. SASANKA taps the bed next to her and RENEE scoots closer.<br /><br />SASANKA picks up the camera and looks through the photos laughing. RENEE looks over but then she starts to notice how close they are. Their hands are centimeters away from each other and face just a few inches. RENEE catches her breath.<br /><br />Sasanka hasn’t noticed but RENEE is now staring at the ceiling, a look of fear on her face. She is no longer engaged in the conversation and her breathing shallow.<br /><br />A second car lights up the room and SASANKA gets up. They walk to the door and are silhouetted by the porch light. They hug and as they separate, RENEE lingers in the space in between them, but a second later pulls away. <br /><br />SASANKA frowns from the abruptness, shrugs, and runs to the waiting car.<br /><br />RENEE closes the door, barely breathing, and turns on the TV. The lights flicker across her blank stare.</span>Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-64854248784540936832017-09-26T13:07:00.001-07:002017-09-26T13:52:19.785-07:00Week Five - Student Script<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">American Fried Rice</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">By</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Abhichoke Chandrasen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">INT. DINING ROOM/AIRPORT - NIGHT</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A still image of a party. A large group of Asians is seated</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">at a table covered with food, eating and talking animatedly.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Another image of a plate of fried rice, held by a motherly</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">woman.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Cut to an image of ANN (20s) at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Bangkok, surrounded by friends and family. Ann looks happily</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">at the camera. A finger swipe over the image. We realize</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">that...</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">INT. ANN’S ROOM - DAY</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Everything we just saw were images on a mobile phone. The</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">finger pinches the screen, and the image zooms into Ann’s</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">smiling face.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Looking at the mobile phone is Ann herself, her face now sad</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">and lonely in the evening light.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ann is sitting alone on a bed in her room. The studio is</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">bare, as if she has just moved in. An open luggage is on the</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">floor, the tag "BKK-LAX" still attached to the handle.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">All of a sudden, a loud thump blasts from the room next</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">door. Ann jumps and look at the wall. Spanish music starts</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">to play. The bass thumps relentlessly. Ann sighs and drop</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">her phone on the bed. She gets up and walk to the window.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">She looks at the busy Los Angeles street outside. Even more</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">music. Faint conversations in Spanish. Sirens blare in the</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">distance. Ann looks at everything in trepidation.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">At that moment, her stomach growls.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">INT. KITCHEN - DAY</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ann stands in front of a large pile of empty Thai instant</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">noodle packs. She picks one up. The label reads: ’Tom Yum</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Kung’ and shakes it dejectedly. Dropping the pack on the</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">pile, she considers something then looks out of the window.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">EXT. STREET BY MACARTHUR PARK - DAY</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ann walks unsurely through the streets, all by herself.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Around her are rundown apartment blocks, dilapidated</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">shopping malls. The streets are busy with Latin Americans.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Her eyes scan the restaurants she passes by. All of them are</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Mexican.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">EXT. LEEWARD AVENUE - NIGHT</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The streets are now dark and empty, bathed in the sodium</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">vapor light. Ann is still walking alone down the street,</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">albeit a little faster. She looks around worriedly until her</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">eyes rest on a Thai restaurant. Ann’s face lits up.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">INT. THAI RESTAURANT - NIGHT</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ann walks into the restaurant. The place is empty. Ann</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">gingerly walks to a table and sit down. She looks at the</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">menu.</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A WAITER walks over. Ann looks up, smiling, ready to order,</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">when she realizes that the waiter is Latin American. Ann</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">struggles for words. The waiter looks at her and leaves.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Perplexed, Ann looks at her hand and notices that her finger</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">has been pointing at ’American Fried Rice’ on the menu.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The waiter returns with the meal. The fried rice looks</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">exactly like the fried rice she had at her going away party,</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">down to the way the sausages are cut. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ann picks up her spoon, dips it into the rice, and put the rice into her</span> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">mouth. </span><div><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">She chews. And then slowly, she smiles and relaxes.</span><br>
<br></div>Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-53955432657067724932017-09-11T08:14:00.000-07:002017-09-11T08:14:02.386-07:00Week Four - Student Script<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as yellow pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">...yes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Under the blanket, Tracy blushes sheepishly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Another Pencil comes into the scene- A BROWN ONE.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as brown pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tobi! Let’s go to the playground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as Red pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">No, <u>Ada</u>. I want to go with Tracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 47pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">She tosses the Brown Pencil aside and makes the Red and Yellow face each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 7.9pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as Red pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 97%; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 122pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">I wanted to say, your... your eyes are beautiful, Tracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tracy chuckles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as Yellow pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">You too, Tobi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="WordSection5">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 436.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page3"></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as Red pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">I think I love you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 137.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(as Yellow pencil)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Me too...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 96%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 96%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">The two pencils slowly move closer and closer, until they ‘kiss’. She presses the pencils together. Begins to rub them against each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Suddenly, the room door FLIES open.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Chaos, as Tracy panics, fumbles with the flashlight. Turns it off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.45pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">HER FATHER stands at the doorway. He does not buy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">FATHER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">I don’t want to hear any more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">sounds from this room. Go to bed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">She lays still, unmoving. He leaves the door open a crack and walks away, his footsteps resounding down the hallway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.45pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">EXT. PLAYGROUND - DAY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 96%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 96%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">High-pitched laughter and commotion, as all the energy that had been contained in several tiny classrooms is now released upon the two sets of slides and swings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.75pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 96%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 96%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">A small group is congregated near the back- including Tracy, TOBI and ADA (pencils from previous scene). They form a rough circle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.15pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">One of the boys- the tallest of them- EBUKA, pants heavily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">He crouches down to catch his breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">EBUKA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">I know you guys cheated! You<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">looked!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ADA laughs contemptuously. She is famous for her hair- long, like her legs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 7.9pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ADA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Shut up, Ebuka. Your shiny head<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">makes you so easy to find.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TOBI sits next to her. He laughs too loudly at her joke.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tracy, on the other side of him, shifts closer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="WordSection6">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.25in; text-align: right;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page4"></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Who is hiding next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 4pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"> Rose, a shrill-voiced girl, bossy for her size, gets up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ROSE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tobi found them, so he’s hiding<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 88%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 88%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">next. Who is hiding with him? Who<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">has not gone yet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 47pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">A group of hands shoot up- all girls- including Ada and Tracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.45pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 33pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Rose darts over to the middle of the circle and points at each girl in rhythm with the song--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 7.9pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 17.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ROSE (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tum-bom Tum-bom, baska-laba,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 88%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 88%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Susan went to Sokoto to find the<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 88%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 88%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">sun in Soweto,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 88%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 88%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Rain fell and wind blew,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">then she began her search again.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: .25in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Her finger lands on MIMI, the girl right before Tracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 197.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ROSE (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 199.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Mimi, you already went!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 67.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Mimi smiles sheepishly, slipping her hand down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 253.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TRACY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">(desperate)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 88%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 88%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">But you didn’t do the song right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">You didn’t count Aisha...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Rose glares at her, petulant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ROSE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 97%; margin-left: 1.5in; margin-right: 122pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Yes I did! You just want to be the one to hide with Tobi!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tracy stares at her, speechless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Ebuka raises his arms in resignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">EBUKA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 87%; margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 87%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tobi, just choose somebody! The<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .05pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">break is almost over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 19pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">All look over at Tobi, eyes brimming over with expectation, dread. </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt;">Tobi shrugs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
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<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: .25in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="page5"></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 10.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.8pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">TOBI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Ada.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 33pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">She jumps up, and the rest cover their eyes while the two hurry away together excitedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ALL<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">10...9...8...7...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 9.4pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.75in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">Tracy does not cover her eyes. She does not count. She stares, morose, in the direction they disappear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 8.45pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 101%; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 19pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 101%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">The kids stomp in rhythm with the countdown. In rhythm with the wild beating of Tracy’s heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.5in; mso-line-height-alt: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">ALL (CONT’D)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">3...2...1...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-68583572150269999072015-08-27T15:35:00.003-07:002015-08-31T12:08:05.980-07:00The Rewrite Questionnaire:<br />
95% of feature screenplays submitted to festivals and contests, as well as agencies and managers, fail in three areas: Character, Tension, and Development. <br />
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Here are 20 questions that focus on these areas. As you reread your first draft, ask yourself which specific scenes illustrate your answers? <br />
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1. Does the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolution.html">resolution</a> dramatize your <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/story-structure.html">story</a>’s central idea or <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/theme.html">theme</a>? <br />
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2. Does your ending satisfy the tensions set up in the beginning? <br />
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3. Could your story begin earlier or later?<br />
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4. How can you incorporate more VISUAL storytelling? <br />
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5. What specifically and concretely does the protagonist <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html">want</a>? <br />
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6. What does the protagonist fear will happen if s/he doesn’t get it? <br />
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7. Is your plot driven by your protagonist’s ACTIONS and CHOICES? <br />
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8. What does the protagonist <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html">need</a>? How do we know? <br />
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9. What is the protagonist most afraid of? Where in the story does s/he face it? </div>
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10. What is the protagonist secretly ashamed of?<br />
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11. Does the protagonist <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/character-change.html">change</a>? How do we know?</div>
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12. Is there a clear ANTAGONIST (person, force, institution) <br />
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13. Do the SUPPORTING CHARACTERS have clear wants, needs and fears?</div>
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14. Which moments can only happen in THIS story with THESE CHARACTERS? </div>
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15. If you had to tell your story in 60 pages, which scenes would you cut?</div>
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16. Where do you NOT feel the main tension of the story?</div>
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17. Do the sequences and subplots have their own tensions? What are they? <br />
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18. Which scenes have little or no conflict?</div>
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19. How can you tell your story with less exposition? <br />
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20. Where is the TONE of your script inconsistent? <br />
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After thinking about each of these questions, write 1-2 pages about which questions identify the major strengths and weaknesses of your first draft. <br />
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For more on how to begin a rewrite, check out <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2015/08/rewrite-how-to-begin.html">How To Begin</a> and <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-is-what-rewrite-looks-like.html">This Is What A Rewrite Looks Like</a>.<br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-14890134857957045512014-05-09T17:44:00.002-07:002014-05-09T17:44:17.584-07:00Blake Snyder's BEAT SHEET <div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, 'BitStream vera Sans', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
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<b></b><br />
<ul><b>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Opening Image</strong> </li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Set-up</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Theme Stated</strong> </li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Catalyst</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Debate </strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Break Into Two (Choosing Act Two)</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">B Story</strong> </li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Promise of the Premise</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Midpoint</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bad Guys Close In</strong> </li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">All is Lost</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dark Night of the Soul</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Break Into Three (</strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Choosing Act Three)</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Finale</strong></li>
<li><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Final Image</strong></li>
</b></ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span><br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-11786876366300054802014-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:40:52.000-07:00Example of A Treatment: The Haunting In New York<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Haunting in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New
York</st1:place></st1:state> – Pitch Notes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">(REVISED 5/5/09)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
By Sean Hood</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I’ve tracked the story on three
levels:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>1. BLACK</b> – <b>Mother/Boyfriend’s
story<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here I track the
beats as seen in documentary (with some adjustments). All the key story points
are there so that the “based on a true story” premise is intact. Our location,
the <st1:placename w:st="on">Hudson River</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype>,
is the setting for some of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
most famous and authentic tales of possession. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: green;">2. GREEN – Middle sister, Krista’s, story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: green;">The movie will be told through
eyes of the middle sister, Krista (15). This is material that I have created
myself. The family is a tightly knit group of women (A mother and three
daughters… a bit like “Little Women”) who support each other physically and
emotionally in dire financial circumstances. The deadbeat father deserted them
years earlier; he had been unable to handle the challenges of caring for a
child with special needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -9.0pt;">
<span style="color: green;">Chris,
the boyfriend, is (at first) a male intruder into this family of women/girls.
Krista doesn’t trust him. This male intruder is mirrored by the supernatural
demon, who is also threatening male figure invading the family unit. Ultimately
the “real world” story is about Krista learning to trust and accept Chris and a
father figure, and the “supernatural” story is about Krista driving out the
perverse and violent demon (who represents her fears.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;">3. RED – Supernatural Story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;">This is a mythology and history
surrounding the demon that I have researched to answer the questions. What is this
demon? What is its history? What does it want? Why now? Why this family? What’s
going to happen if the demon wins… especially to Krista?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;">The goal here is to make sure that
the stakes are clearly life and death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Act One:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>For three years, Dawn (36) and
daughters (Julie (18), Krista (15), Sophie(10) have lived alone and
struggled. Julie, mentally disabled, can sense unseen angels. Julie is
regarded both the family and the community as spiritually gifted, and is
given special attention.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -.25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mQmX0IlYeG8/UwERiICx0CI/AAAAAAAAQv0/JUd6NfaAUHQ/s1600/bestChurch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mQmX0IlYeG8/UwERiICx0CI/AAAAAAAAQv0/JUd6NfaAUHQ/s1600/bestChurch.jpg" height="200" width="158" /></a><span style="color: green;">Julie, besides
being strikingly beautiful, has a special talent – one that makes her a savant.
Although she cannot walk or speak, she makes line drawings of the entities she
sees. When Julie draws, she seems to be in a kind of trance and she hardly
looks at the paper. Her hand scribbles randomly on page after page, like
someone producing “automatic writing,” and she seems to have no conscious
awareness of what she is doing. After filling dozens of sheets with chaotic lines,
she begins producing eerie images of figures and faces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -.25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -.25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -.25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-stVucAbrXlY/UwESNDsLUuI/AAAAAAAAQxI/S5r2mNuqqHI/s1600/Angel(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-stVucAbrXlY/UwESNDsLUuI/AAAAAAAAQxI/S5r2mNuqqHI/s1600/Angel(1).jpg" height="151" width="200" /></a><span style="color: green;">This
talent has made Julie a celebrity in the family’s church, and she is the
favorite of their local priest, Father Boyd (the priest who will visit in the
third act.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -.25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: green;">By
contrast, Dawn asks Father Boyd to have a stern talk with Krista, the “problem
child” between the angelic oldest, Julie, and the precocious youngest, Sophie.
Krista has the reputation for acting out, rebelling against male authority
figures and lying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista is
jealous of the special attention that is given to her older sister, and resentful
that she has to care for her, feed her and bathe her, sleep in the same room as
her, and baby-sit her while her mother goes out on dates with her new
boyfriend, Chris (45).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t98WItuunf4/UwERv5KZF3I/AAAAAAAAQv8/a7d683nPc2Q/s1600/AngelMagnet013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t98WItuunf4/UwERv5KZF3I/AAAAAAAAQv8/a7d683nPc2Q/s1600/AngelMagnet013.jpg" height="154" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g-57jI86TeY/UwER2xiZgqI/AAAAAAAAQwg/oDhF-I_Atys/s1600/AngelMagnet021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g-57jI86TeY/UwER2xiZgqI/AAAAAAAAQwg/oDhF-I_Atys/s1600/AngelMagnet021.jpg" height="154" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2HN1nlcKea0/UwER3VQOZAI/AAAAAAAAQwk/1BmYSOZ0eGU/s1600/AngelMagnet019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2HN1nlcKea0/UwER3VQOZAI/AAAAAAAAQwk/1BmYSOZ0eGU/s1600/AngelMagnet019.jpg" height="154" width="200" /></a><span style="color: green;"></span><br />
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;"><span style="color: green;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: green;">A key
image is the disgruntled Krista pushing Julie around in a wheelchair. Every day,
resentful and bored to tears, Krista has to take her sister out</span><span style="color: red;"> to the ruins of an abandoned factory, where Julie spends
hours making her mysterious drawings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The mother brings home Chris to meet
the kids. Sophie likes him; Julie seems to trust him, but Krista is
standoffish.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">In fact,
Krista hates Chris, and doesn’t want her mother to date him. To her, he seems
creepy and oafish – trying to hard to ingratiate himself, and acting as if he
is a member of the family.</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">While
pushing Julie around the ruins of the old factory Krista gets fed up. Her
sister is being stubborn and obsessive, drawing the figure of a boy over and
over again, crying and latching the wheelchair brake whenever Krista tries to
take her home. Finally Krista looses her temper and yells, “I wish you were
dead!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">
To Krista’s mortification, she realizes she has been overheard. Eric, a blond
haired boy a little older than her, looks both cute and ordinary as he cuts
through the lot. He’s the one her sister has been drawing - a real person for
once.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;"> He waves at Krista, smiles sheepishly, and
walks off into the fading light. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Chris moves in. Sophie and Julie like
him, but Krista doesn’t. Chris feels the presence of “entities” in the
house.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">She mocks
Chris’s “psychic” sensibilities, and thinks he is making it up to manipulate
her mother, who believes in the supernatural. Krista and her mother fight over
it. Krista feels neglected, misunderstood and bitter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista is
furious about this strange man invading the family’s private space and acting
like a father figure. His stuff clutters the bathroom. He leaves messes in the
kitchen. His furniture, wall hangings, and other junk are painfully mismatched
and unstylish. Her mother scolds her Krista “parading around the house” in just
a t-shirt and boxers, as she has done all her life. Krista is outraged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">So,
Krista is rebellious and rude to Chris.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: red;">That night,
Krista has a “night-mare.” Wandering through the dark house, she hears heavy
thuds and feral breathing. In the hallway, she is assaulted by a large black
horse. The beast kicks and bucks in a frenzy.</span> <span style="color: green;">When
she wakes up with a scream, she finds her sister awake too, with a
shell-shocked expression as if she has seen something terrifying as well. Then
Krista sees…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">In the
doorway, in dark silhouette, Chris is standing there watching the two girls
sleep. Krista is spooked by his presence in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">The next
morning, she complains to her mother, but her mother brushes her off. Julie was
moaning in her sleep, and Chris went in to the room to see if she was all
right. It was nothing more than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGzqK7rQAgU/UwEVe5UG_mI/AAAAAAAAQx0/-7hZ0vj68Fo/s1600/horse0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGzqK7rQAgU/UwEVe5UG_mI/AAAAAAAAQx0/-7hZ0vj68Fo/s1600/horse0001.jpg" height="200" width="166" /></a><span style="color: red;">Krista
meets Eric on her daily walk. She notices Eric staring at her beautiful sister
(why do boys ALWAYS gawk at her that way?). Krista will be pretty too, someday,
but she’s in an awkward stage. She works
hard to keep Eric’s attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3D7R_kxi6T8/UwEVfMvLZGI/AAAAAAAAQx4/jlEPmEm9KLM/s1600/horse30001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3D7R_kxi6T8/UwEVfMvLZGI/AAAAAAAAQx4/jlEPmEm9KLM/s1600/horse30001.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="color: red;">Eric agrees
that Chris seems creepy, and perhaps even dangerous. Krista invites Eric to the
house, but tells him they have to keep him secret from her mother, who doesn’t
want her “dating.” That night, Krista watches Chris suspiciously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Meanwhile, Julie
draws picture of demonic horses.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">The
mother wakes up to find the house a mess. She asks the youngest, Sophie,
who did it. Sophie says a “boy with yellow hair.”</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKW0G2RxWIk/UwEWOFT99YI/AAAAAAAAQyM/2S4eHIMaq-M/s1600/HauntingThree0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKW0G2RxWIk/UwEWOFT99YI/AAAAAAAAQyM/2S4eHIMaq-M/s1600/HauntingThree0001.jpg" height="200" width="163" /></a><span style="color: green;">In the
previous scene, Krista sneaks Eric into the house at night. This time, when
Eric seems smitten with Julie, Krista goes to great lengths to distract him.
Her dependant sister becomes her rival for Eric’s attention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">They make
a mess together and are caught by Sophie. In order not to get into trouble for
sneaking a boy into the house, Krista convinces Sophie that she didn’t see a
real boy, she saw a ghost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The whole family sees Eric through the
window. <o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
tries desperately to stifle laughter as Chris and her mother run outside to
investigate the “ghost.” She knows it’s just her friend from the neighborhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Through
her bedroom wall, Krista hears Chris talk about his fears of evil spirits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Later that
night, Eric spies on Krista through a window as she undresses. She knows he’s
there, but innocently, she finds his attention exciting. That night the two of
them decide to use Chris’s superstitions against him, and scare him away from
the house and her family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">We see the
mute older sister’s, Julie’s growing anxiety and dismay, as if she can see forces
gathering that her sister Krista is unaware of. In particular, she seems
terrified of Krista’s new friend Eric. Eric smiles at Julie ominously…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">… and puts
a finger to his lips as if to say “Hush, it’s our little secret.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: center;">
<b>Act Two:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The mother, Dawn, and her boyfriend,
Chris, try to contact the spirit world. Krista spies on them as they do
it. Chris is terrified when the spirit seems to speak.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uxXj0pyGMsM/UwEV7QfT03I/AAAAAAAAQyE/atugwcve2R4/s1600/cry0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uxXj0pyGMsM/UwEV7QfT03I/AAAAAAAAQyE/atugwcve2R4/s1600/cry0001.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><b> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">With Eric
encouraging her, Krista plays pranks on her mother and Chris as they work the
Ouija board. Hiding in the basement with him, she makes the lights flicker, she
taps and scratches on the floorboards like a spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">However,
the Ouiji board DOES spell out a name “Eric.” And then it spells out a cryptic
message:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">ERIC IS DOOR</span></span><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bcGcYYXSnME/UwER626MqpI/AAAAAAAAQw0/2ZdfqtwV-U0/s1600/AngelMagnet022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bcGcYYXSnME/UwER626MqpI/AAAAAAAAQw0/2ZdfqtwV-U0/s1600/AngelMagnet022.jpg" height="154" width="200" /></a><span style="color: green;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Krista is
unsettled. How is it that the Ouiji board spelled out “Eric.” And, why is Julie
so anxious whenever Eric is around, drawing stranger and stranger pictures.</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b>The mother
finds a white handprint and a cryptic message on the basement door.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<b> </b><span style="color: red;">Again, Eric
encourages Krista to play a prank. With some white paint, she makes a handprint
on the wall and under it she writes another cryptic message that Eric tells
her…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">ICE DOOR SIR</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: green;">Krista laughs heartily as she eavesdrops on Chris and her
mother trying to decipher this nonsense message. When they ask her if she did
it, Krista claims to know nothing about it.</span></span><span style="color: green;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>They call a psychic and spread baby
powder on the basement floor to see if it is really a spirit or whether
Krista or Sophie is playing a prank.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Again,
Krista invites Eric in the house through the basement window, in secret. She
uses a dust-buster vacuum up a path to the center of the powder. Eric
encourages her to write another nonsense message for them to decipher:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">DOC O’RE IRIS<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red;">Then the cover up the path by squirting new baby powder over
the trail. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">The next
morning Chris and Dawn see the writing, and Krista can barely keep a straight
face when the gullible</span> <b>Chris says ominously, “No human being could have written
that message without disturbing the powder.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The psychic comes to the house and
sees “Iris” drawn in the powder. Her chirpy, confident demeanor melts and
her face turns white. Fleeing the house, she says she can’t help them
because “Iris” is her daughter’s name.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o5CuIbTgQ1Y/UwEWjJmERPI/AAAAAAAAQyU/rJ-CoI9mIG0/s1600/HauntingSix0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o5CuIbTgQ1Y/UwEWjJmERPI/AAAAAAAAQyU/rJ-CoI9mIG0/s1600/HauntingSix0001.jpg" height="200" width="169" /></a><b> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista is
disturbed by the coincidence… like the coincidence with the Ouija board. But it
had to be a coincidence. The words were just nonsense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Julie is
acting stranger. She screams and cries when Eric appears in the house. Krista
hates that taking care of her sister means never having a moment alone with
him. Krista admits to Eric the first time in her life, she wishes her sister
wasn’t around to burden her. Eric jokes, why don’t you kill her?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">The joke
hits a raw nerve, and Krista throws Eric out of the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The mother, Dawn, has dreams of “Eric.”
The demon tells her, “You can’t help her. She is mine.” The mother assumes
he means Julie.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Both Chris and Dawn become concerned about Julie, who is behaving
strangely, as if terrified by things only she can see. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">This only
makes Krista more and more angry. How typical, that they are so worried about
Julie and couldn’t care less about her. Krista gets even more furious with her
sister because Julie screams in fright every time Krista tries to let Eric in
the house… almost getting her caught.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Eric
stops coming to the house and Krista blames her sister. Once again, tending to
her sister is ruining her life. Both her mother and Chris scold Krista for her
moodiness and selfishness. Once again, Krista feels jealous and misunderstood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="11" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Sophie, the youngest, sees visions of Eric.
She sees faces coming out of the wall. She can’t sleep. Anxiety makes her
cry all the time. No one can get her to stop crying.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
worries that Eric is sneaking in the house without her knowledge or consent and
scaring both her sisters. It spooks her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Late at
night, Krista wakes up to see her sister writhing strangely in the other bed –
her lips moving silently as if she were speaking in tongues. Then Krista’s own
bed begins to vibrate and shake, as if possessed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Hearing a
horse thrash and snort, she realizes some beast is under her bed. When she
looks down and pulls back the sheet Eric looks up at her with a twisted demonic
grin. “You don’t know what’s really going on, do you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
screams! Chris runs in the room and flips on the light. He tells her she was
having a nightmare, but to Krista, it seemed all too real.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="12" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The mother, Dawn, finds more messages
burned into the floor of Sophie’s bedroom. Again Sophie won’t stop crying.
Only Julie seems to be able to sooth the youngest sister and calm her
down.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">The words
burned into the floor read:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">OR SO I CRIED<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: green;">The mother is terrified this is another cryptic message
from the ghost. Sophie, who is a tattle-tail, says she saw Krista and her
“boyfriend” burning in the message. Sophie accuses Krista of the other pranks
as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: green;">Krista and her mother fight. Finally Krista admits to the
paint and the powder, but says she didn’t burn the letters into the floor. Her
mother is furious. Krista lies so much that it’s impossible for her mother to
know what to believe.</span></span><span style="color: green;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">
</span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Midpoint:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="13" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The mother, Dawn, and Krista find
Chris sitting in the basement. Chris is possessed. Eric, speaking through
Chris, says, “You don’t realize what’s going on do you? She is mine.”
Words from their nightmares.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Mother,
scared for Julie’s safety, moves herself and her three daughters out of the
house. Chris comes back to himself with no knowledge of what happened to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Revelation:
Krista and her mother find Julie sitting in her wheelchair, staring at Eric.
When Krista’s mother says she doesn’t see anyone there, Krista realizes that
the blonde hair boy is not a real person. He’s a real spirit... a demon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="14" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Paranormal Investigators arrive. They
all adamantly agree the house is haunted by a spirit let in by the Ouija
board. And that Julie is the focus of the paranormal activity. Ironically,
these “experts” are all dead wrong.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">To Krista,
the investigators seem like charlatans. But no one will listen to her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hiL20HwE3M/UwER9PYYN6I/AAAAAAAAQxA/MkAIlDaH8R4/s1600/AngelMagnet023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hiL20HwE3M/UwER9PYYN6I/AAAAAAAAQxA/MkAIlDaH8R4/s1600/AngelMagnet023.jpg" height="200" width="154" /></a><span style="color: green;">Krista does
her own investigations. Discovering that the abandoned 19<sup>th</sup> century
factory where she first met Eric. The factory used child labor – girls aged
9-16 who were taken from their families and forced to work 16 hour days, and
sometimes forced to do even worse. Many children died there… <i>by suicide</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
takes Julie in her wheelchair back to the factory ruins, hoping to confront
Eric. Julie manages to say a single word, “Angels,” and she points. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Krista sees
terrifying glimpses of the girls who died in the factory. Blue-skinned wraiths
in dirty shifts, they have slashed arms or bandaged wrists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="15" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>At the house, a paranormal
investigator claims to see a drop of “ectoplasm.”<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
In contrast, in the hotel room,
Krista a REAL supernatural experience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">While
bathing her sister, Julie, the lights in the bathroom flicker and the walls
seems to bulge. Suddenly, Julie’s body begins to shiver and shake. Julie SPEAKS
in Eric’s voice, taunting Krista about her jealousy and bitterness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: red;">The demon has followed her. It’s not just at the house.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Suddenly
Julie’s body writhes and convulses in the water, snorting and bucking like an
animal. To Krista’s horror, her sister seems to change into Eric.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Krista
screams and pushes Eric face into the water. The voices in her head and visions
dissipate, and only just in time does Krista come back to “reality” and realize
that she has almost drown her own sister.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Krista
cries. She tries to apologize, but Julie is now terrified of her, and won’t let
her touch her. Krista is horrified by what she has almost done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="16" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>While the family stays in two motel
rooms, the paranormal experts work at the house. Another is pushed down
the stairs. However, none of the recording devices reveal anything. They
all agree that the house needs an exorcism.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>However, their cameras and microphones pick up no hard evidence.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
knows that these investigators are fakers. A creak of a floorboard or a slip
down the stairs is nothing compared to what she is experiencing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Yet she
is sullen and withdrawn. She can hear Eric’s voice echoing inside her head. She
experiences black outs, and she can’t remember things she did or said. She
tries to reach out to Father Boyd, but finds she can’t say what she wants to
say, as if some force is blocking her from speaking. She can’t will herself to
enter the church itself, as if she is at war with herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">More and
more, Krista is afraid of what she might do if she loses control<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Ironically,
it is only Chris who senses something is truly wrong with Krista. When she
refuses to talk to him directly about it, he pokes through the hotel room and
finds piles of books Krista has taken out from the library…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">… the
books are about possessions in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hudson
River</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
In story after story, Krista has underlined instances of demonic possession, by
a half-horse and half-human demon, one who preys on girls and disrupts and
destroys families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">In one
illustrated story from the 18<sup>th</sup> century, a girl kills her father
with a shovel, screaming, “I wish you were dead!” In another, a sleeping girl
is visited by a horse demon “night mare.” In another story, the girls working
in a factory are possessed and driven to suicide. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Elsewhere,
Krista pushes her sister along in her wheelchair on their daily outing. Krista
seems entranced almost as if she is sleepwalking, and Julie seems to be getting
more and more anxious. Suddenly Krista pushes Julie’s wheelchair to the edge of
the sidewalk. In the road, trucks and taxis zip by at high speeds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Julie seems
to sense that her sister is contemplating PUSHING HER into the deadly, on-coming
traffic. For several excruciating moments Krista rocks the wheelchair back and
forth until…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">Julie
reaches out and touches her sister’s hand. Julie whispers the only word she can
say out loud, “Angels.” Krista seems to “wake up” and realize what she was about
to do. Krista pulls the wheelchair back to safety and she bursts into tears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="17" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>A clairvoyant is brought into the
house. She feels there is just one demon in the house taking many forms. In
Julie’s bedroom, the clairvoyant is momentarily possessed by the spirit
and thrown to the ground.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista
realizes that these “psychics” and “experts” have no idea what is really
happening. They can’t see Eric even when he is standing right next to them. They
are of no help to her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Her
mother believes these “experts.” Her sister, Julie, is in her own world drawing
page after page of static straight lines, like a television stuck on white
noise. Even when the pad and marker are taken away from her, Julies hands move
frantically in her lap, drawing on air.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Krista is
completely alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Playing
with a Scrabble game in the motel room, Krista looks over all the non-sense
messages that Eric left them…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">ERIC IS DOOR<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">DOC O’RE IRIS</span></span><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">OR SO I CRIED<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red;">She rearranges the scrabble tiles realizing that each message
is an anagram for the other. She uses the same tiles to form other words…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">DISCO ERROR I<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red;">More nonsense phrases, until she falls into an trance, and
her fingers spell out…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier;">SORRICIDE<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: red;">The hidden message. That has been Eric’s goal all along: to
seduce her, possess her, and manipulate her jealousy and anger to get her to…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><b><i><span style="color: red;">Kill her sister</span></i><span style="color: red;">. </span></b></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Later,
Krista wanders like a sleepwalker into Chris’s hotel room. When she reaches his bed, she whispers as if
only half-awake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">She begs
him to take care of her family, and tells him NOT to trust her or anything she
says. She is “not herself.” She is bad in her core. She begs him to take care
of her mother and sisters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">“And you
too,” offers Chris, but Krista shakes her head. She won’t say more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>
Act Three:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="18" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>After Chris and Dawn go to the Church,
Father Boyd explains that Julie cannot be possessed because she cannot choose
between good and evil.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9mGPeYJqYLU/UwERxfjMSkI/AAAAAAAAQwM/wxEzFiVKtAM/s1600/AngelMagnet014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9mGPeYJqYLU/UwERxfjMSkI/AAAAAAAAQwM/wxEzFiVKtAM/s1600/AngelMagnet014.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a><span style="color: green;">Dawn, the
mother, believes the all investigators – that the possession in centered on
Julie and the house. Friends and neighbors gather round Dawn for support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">But Chris
is the only one who suspects that if could be Krista who is really in danger.
Krista CAN choose between good and evil. What if she is the one who is really
possessed?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Julie senses
her sister is in danger, but she cannot speak to tell anyone. In a reversal of
rolls, it is Julie who is now caring for her younger sister, trying to protect
her emotionally from the angels and demons depicted in her drawings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">But when
Krista blacks out… and then finds herself holding a pair of scissors like a
dagger over her sister’s throat, Krista concludes that she can no longer trust
herself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Julie
resists when her mother takes her and the youngest sister to the house to </span><b>encourage the demon to appear, as the
“experts” have instructed</b>.<b> </b><span style="color: red;">Krista herself, is nowhere to be found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="19" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Father Boyd, who is really just
humoring the family, performs a minor exorcism on the house – reading a
prayer and performing a blessing. Julie seems oppressed as he does it. She
is surrounded by family, friends and psychic experts who all thing she is
the focus of the possession.</b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Julie
rocks back and forth, as the “exorcism” gets more and more intense. The house
rattles and shakes as if some gigantic beast were moving through it. Father
Boyd begins to realize that there really is a demon present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Suddenly
Julie utters a word out loud, “Angels.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">All
present gasp in shock as she <i>stands up</i>…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">… <i>and walks</i>! She chants to herself, as
reciting a prayer or an invocation, “Angels. Angels. Angels…” And moves her
hand wildly in the air as if drawing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Chris
gives Julie a marker, and the girl begins drawing in wide arcing strokes across
a blank wall. “What is it? What is she drawing?” cries the mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Chris
recognizes the familiar outline of smokestacks. “It’s the factory.” As if sensing
something, he bolt outs out of the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">On the
factory grounds, Krista returns to the exact place in the factory where she
first met Eric. </span><span style="color: red;">With his voice taunting her</span><span style="color: green;"> she takes out a razor. She plans to kill herself in order
to keep herself from harming her sister or any other member of the family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Back at
the house, as the priest continues the prayer. Glass shatters, floorboards
crack with the noise of feral snorts and thundering hooves. Father Boyd’s
prayers become a full blown exorcism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E0qfwRrC2mQ/UwEXmb0XmVI/AAAAAAAAQyw/O8DZI7rHTOs/s1600/angelnew20001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E0qfwRrC2mQ/UwEXmb0XmVI/AAAAAAAAQyw/O8DZI7rHTOs/s1600/angelnew20001.jpg" height="200" width="166" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OgJJaiVrnR8/UwEWvoUxDEI/AAAAAAAAQyg/8G_oUFoll7E/s1600/HauntingOne0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OgJJaiVrnR8/UwEWvoUxDEI/AAAAAAAAQyg/8G_oUFoll7E/s1600/HauntingOne0002.jpg" height="200" width="153" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">In front
of her drawing of the factory, Julie draws figures…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6_zPSLM7ZQE/UwEXmHX1ZxI/AAAAAAAAQyo/Tm6jTB57bwY/s1600/angelface20002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6_zPSLM7ZQE/UwEXmHX1ZxI/AAAAAAAAQyo/Tm6jTB57bwY/s1600/angelface20002.jpg" height="200" width="156" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C9zAyFqcsqw/UwEXmO9IA0I/AAAAAAAAQys/zomNMn73LHY/s1600/angelnew0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C9zAyFqcsqw/UwEXmO9IA0I/AAAAAAAAQys/zomNMn73LHY/s1600/angelnew0001.jpg" height="200" width="168" /></a><span style="color: green;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
… girls…
the girls who worked at the factory.</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">Girls
with wings.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
At the
factory itself, Chris walks through the junkyard and finds Krista kneeling as
if before and altar, and holding the razor to her wrist.</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;"> In front of her Eric, the demon laughs at her
and encourages her to do it. Either way, he wins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">All Chris
sees is Krista screaming at some invisible entity. He calls out to her. He
tells her he believes her. He knows she’s the one who needs help. He begs her
to trust her family… to let her family help her… she doesn’t have to face it
alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">The razor
presses down on her wrist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">At the
house, Julie continues to chant, “Angels, angels, angels…” in synch with the
booming voice of the priest casting the demon out. Her drawing is finished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: green;">And as if
by some mystical synchronicity, Krista hesitates from slashing her wrists. She
too begins to chant, “Angels, angels, angels…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">CLIMAX: In
a frightening and visually stunning set piece, apparitions appear - all the
spirits of girls who killed themselves in the infernal factory. These are “the
angels” that Julie has been seeing and drawing throughout the movie. A circle
of these grim specters surrounds them.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u>Child Labor in Factories<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: red;">And as
Krista watches, and we intercut the voice of the exorcist at the house. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: red;">The Angels fall upon Eric and tear him apart with their bare
hands.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="20" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>At the house the exorcism concludes
and here are three booms and the “weight” on the house seems to lift.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> </b><span style="color: green;">Chris
takes Krista in his arms like a child. As he carries her back to the house the
clouds burst and they and covered in a cleansing rain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="21" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Chris is accepted into the family.
Dawn and Chris are married.<o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<b> </b>Surrounded by colorful images of
smiling saints, Krista and her sisters are bridesmaids in a traditional church
wedding.<br />
<br />
At the reception the family circle
is complete again. Chris and Dawn dance with the littlest sister Sophie. Julie
draws humorous caricatures of the guests. Krista is happy but even as she eats
the wedding cake, she is haunted by whispering voices.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1036" type="#_x0000_t75"
style='width:431.25pt;height:306pt'>
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o:title="lewis-hine-child-labor-mill-girl-01641-700"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></u></div>
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-47649580904809836762014-02-16T10:36:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:41:08.048-07:00Example of Beat Sheet for a Pitch/Leave Behind<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">Turistas 2 – Pitch Notes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
By Sean Hood</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
Characters:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Working in a remote village in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region> are three American
volunteers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Marcy</b> – (20) Ivy
League, workaholic, and over-achiever, she is culturally sensitive and well-mannered.
She has been a good girl all her life. Secretly dreams of acting out, getting a
tattoo or a piercing, and being rebellious. Because of her flexibility and
nimble toes, her best friend has nick-named her “Monkey Foot.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>David</b> – (22) Marcy’s
best friend, and although he is handsome and extremely funny, he’s a bit of a
nebbish. Because of a scraggly beard, and “jew fro” grown out from months in
the rain forest, Marcy has nicknamed him “Yeti.” Spending a year volunteering
in the rainforest before going to med school, both he and Marcy have grown very
close to the poor villagers to whom they provide medical care.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Sarah</b> (20) – A
Christian missionary from <st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place>,
she has platinum blonde hair, blue eyes and the face of an angel. She was
home-schooled in her church, and has made a vow of chastity. She feels her body
is a sacred, gift from God, and would not let it be blemished in any way. She
doesn’t drink, smoke or swear and sees abstinence and self-control as her
greatest strength. Marcy and David call her, Virgin Mary, behind her back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After their last day in the village, they go to a bigger
city and meet up with two American Friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lane</b> (23) –
David’s friend from high school. Outwardly he has a rock-star persona and is
covered in tattoos and piercings. One the inside he’s a nerd (like David) who
collects body art the way he used to collect merit badges as an eagle scout.
He’s coming to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>
to get an exotic “tribal” tattoo. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yvonne</b> (18) –
Lane’s girlfriend. Outwardly she’s a brash, bitchy party-girl, with nose ring
and a “tramp stamp.” On the inside, she is deeply critical and insecure about
her body. Although any objective person would call her pretty, she sees nothing
but flaws in the mirror: her legs too short, breasts too small, nose too big,
and on and on…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Artist</b> – The
villain. He has created a cult of personality around old Brazilian tribal
rituals, changing the practices into something dark and perverse. His acolytes follow
him like a messiah. He is the Charles Manson, of body modification.</div>
<div class="MsoTitle">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">Beat Sheet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>FIRST ACT</u></b>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Credit Sequence</b> –
Close, blurry, dreamy shots of a body being needled, punctured, pulled,
branded, inked, cut, bled, and “modified.” Intercut, with wide-eyes and a
frightened pleading voice….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Marcy wakes up</b> as
if from a nightmare, disoriented, sickly hung-over and unsure of where she is. To
her dismay, she see’s David is the bed too. She goes to the bathroom to throw
up. Feeling pain in the small of her back, she looks in the mirror and
discovers the tattoo that she impulsively got the night before. David
sheepishly appears at the doorway, “I got one too.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Two Days Earlier</b>.
Marcy, David and Sarah say goodbye to the villagers with whom they have spent
the last eight months. They join in hunting rituals with the children.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the city</b>, they
decide to celebrate their last day in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>. They meet up with David’s
high school friend Lane and his girlfriend Yvonne. An odd mix of personalities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Marcy and Yvonne</b>
– Get a spa treatment. In order to wear a bikini, Marcy gets waxed. After eight
months in the wilderness there is a lot to wax.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lane and David</b> –
David get’s cut and shaved. While working out, Lane reveals that he has come
for a infamous body artist and a coveted tattoo. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Beach </b>– David and
Marcy see each other all cleaned up and in skimpy bathing suits, and they realize
to their mortification that they are attracted to each other. Yvonne goes
topless and buys drugs, while Sarah is prim and natural in a granny-one piece.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Wild Night</b> –
The all “cut loose” after years and years of discipline. They all get wildly
drunk. They meet up with The Artist and some of his followers who seem
charismatic and uninhibited. The behave badly, shedding their cultural
sensitivities and acting like drunken, ugly Americans. The world is their <st1:place w:st="on">Disneyland</st1:place>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even Sarah is mesmerized by The Artist’s hypnotic voice.
Fueled by rebellion and alcohol, they all, even Sarah, decide to get the
special tattoo to commemorate the night. They travel far from the city in a
crazed road trip and crash their car. After getting their tattoos, years of sexual
tension explode and Marcy and David finally sleep together.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Next Morning - </b>They wake up, mortified and regretful,
and discover that Sarah is missing. She went off with The Artist and his
acolytes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="text-align: center;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="text-align: center;"><u>SECOND ACT:</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Sarah wakes up on the
modification table</b>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Her friends search
for her</b> and are led deeper and deeper into the jungle by people who
recognize the tattoo. We CROSS CUT….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Sarah</b> hair, eyebrows, underarm hair, and pubic hair have been
shaved. “Now she’s a blank canvas,” says the Artist. “Let’s start with her
eyes.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Marcy</b> and the others use clues to reconstruct what happened the
night before, retrace their steps, and look for Sarah.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Aftermath: Sarah</b> wakes up to find her eyes dyed red and her teeth
sharpened to points. She is strapped to the table and they begin the outlines
of full body are tattooed on her naked body.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Marcy</b> and the others go deeper and deeper into the wilderness. They
are robbed and beaten by a group of thieves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Aftermath: Sarah</b> wakes up to find every square inch of her body covered
in tattoos and skin dye. She is strapped to the table and gets her first
percing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Marcy</b> and the others are without money, cellphones or passports. A
group of creepy old men recognize the tattoos, and agree to lead them to The
Artist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Aftermath: Sarah</b> wakes up to find balls
have been implanted under her skin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Marcy</b> and the others arrive at The Artist’s compound just in time
to see the “finished” Sarah appear in a mysterious tribal ritual, in which her
throat is cut.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VHdD8h2y8MA/UwEEimDV3WI/AAAAAAAAQvI/mpA4c4VKfQw/s1600/TouristasTwo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VHdD8h2y8MA/UwEEimDV3WI/AAAAAAAAQvI/mpA4c4VKfQw/s1600/TouristasTwo.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p><b>Marcy and David wake
up on the modification tables. </b>Like Sarah they are examined and shaved
bare. The Artist says that he is going to save Marcy for something special.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The room</b> is a 19<sup>th</sup>
century surgical theater, with the acolytes and the helpless heroes, watching as
The Artist performs various forms of modifications. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although wide awake while on the table, the victims are
sedated while in their cells. They are continually waking up to discover the <b>semi-healed aftermath</b> of the previous
modification: pointed ears, ribbed flesh, skin punctured with metal hoops.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqCzOEHSf04/UwEEnm1N6fI/AAAAAAAAQvk/0v8delNV-RI/s1600/TouristasThree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqCzOEHSf04/UwEEnm1N6fI/AAAAAAAAQvk/0v8delNV-RI/s1600/TouristasThree.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this time around <b>we
experience with them</b> being shaved, having genitalia pierced, having flesh
cut open and sewn back together to create new forms.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qhGXLcSVqg4/UwEEnMHsmjI/AAAAAAAAQvc/124rfOaOrl0/s1600/TouristasFour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qhGXLcSVqg4/UwEEnMHsmjI/AAAAAAAAQvc/124rfOaOrl0/s1600/TouristasFour.jpg" height="252" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None the less, <b>Lane
tries to break out</b>, but is too drugged to find his way out. He discovers
that Sarah’s body is being EATEN, in a perversion of tribal cannibalism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They are all being
“prepared” for a ritual sacrifice and consumption</b>. He is the Charles Manson
of body modification and has created a kind of cult inspired by tribal
practices thousands of years earlier.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lane is finished and
consumed.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Artist puts it all in perspective, “You Americans see
the rest of the world and its people as products to exploit and consume for
your pleasure. Well, now WE consume YOU.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a sick irony, <b>Yvonne’s
body is modified in just the way she might have wanted</b>: longer legs, larger
breasts. But then hundreds of discs are inserted under her flesh to give her
the lumpy hide of a reptile. When the insertions get swollen and infected, The
Artist reacts like a child disappointed with a crayon drawing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It’s all wrong! She’s ruined!” In front of the others, <b>The Artist slashes Yvonne to death</b> on
the modification table like Picasso attacking a failed painting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Marcy tries to escape
and fails</b>. In the process she discovers what is in store for her in the
long run, because she is special. She sees The Artist’s attempts at <b>experimental plastic surgery</b>. Men with
cloven hooves. A girl with a fleshy tail. A woman with leathery wings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All these modifications were <b>grotesque failures</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AjZ-99-SeT4/UwEEnRuoN6I/AAAAAAAAQvg/EA3W89MTom4/s1600/TouristasOne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AjZ-99-SeT4/UwEEnRuoN6I/AAAAAAAAQvg/EA3W89MTom4/s1600/TouristasOne.jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marcy and David are able to whisper through the walls and
make a final escape plan. David is “finished” and ready for consumption. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While being prepared for an operation to remove her breasts
and start work on her “wings,” Marcy grabs a scalpel with her foot (Monkey
Foot) and slashes the attendant’s throat. <b>She
and David are able to escape into the jungle</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u style="text-align: center;"><br /></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u style="text-align: center;">THIRD ACT</u><span style="text-align: center;">:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the chase through the jungle, Marcy and David use skills
they learned from the indigenous tribes to elude and ultimately kill their
pursuers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A group of village children, like the ones they cared for
and played with in the opening scenes, find them and help them back to
civilization. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Months later, the wounds are healing, and Marcy and David
are together.<br />
<br />
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoTitle">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-22875820743189772222014-02-16T10:21:00.002-08:002014-05-09T17:41:21.027-07:00Example of Treatment - Body Electric<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT', sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">BODY ELECTRIC<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
In this future-noir blending of “Body Heat” and “Blade
Runner, a scientist falls in love with a beautiful android and he is seduced
into committing murder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>The Setting</u>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
75 years in the future, the average temperature of the earth
has plummeted and much of North America is covered in thick sheets of ice. In
order to survive, humans depend entirely on machines, especially computers and
robots.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this new Ice Age, there are the decadent and powerful
“Lords” who control all the wealth, and the “Scrubs”, the abject and illiterate
underclass who make up 97% of the population.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is also a small middle class, the “Digerati”, a group
of scientists and technicians who maintain the computers necessary for human
survival.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>The Story</u>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dr. <b>Joseph M. Higgins</b>
was once a celebrated scientist, but his work building and perfecting
“artificial humans” led to scandal and banishment to the underclass. He has
spent years as a “Scrub” in destitute humiliation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the story opens Dr. Higgins is visited by<b> Lord Mallory</b>, perhaps the most rich
and powerful man in the hemisphere. With him he brings the body of his dead
wife, <b>Liza</b>. Lord Mallory proposes
that the scientist use all his skills to <b><i>build an android replica of his dead wife </i></b>(one
without certain “imperfections”). The project will require BILLIONS of dollars
and a massive black market undertaking, but the Lord promises Dr. Higgins that
he will be richly rewarded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although Dr. Higgins suspects that the wife was murdered, he
is so poor and miserable that he agrees to do it. He and an assembled group of
assistants spend weeks using Mallory’s money to create an intricate laboratory,
deep within the ghetto of the city.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -9.0pt;">
As the doctor studies the dead
wife’s frozen body, <b>he finds himself
becoming more and more obsessed</b>. As he constructs the android, he endeavors
to make her not just a replica, but the <b>PERFECT
WOMAN</b>. The ideal. Flawless in every way he can imagine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Higgins finishes the android, and it is indeed perfect in
every detail of mind and body. But because he gave the machine the ability to
“think freely” rather than just mimic human behavior, a something unexpected
happens<b>…
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Liza seduces her
maker</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First Turning Point: <b>Higgins
must turn the android over to the Lord who paid for her</b>. He is agonized to give
her up. However, Lord Mallory is an unimaginably powerful and dangerous man who
could have the doctor killed at a moments notice. Besides, Higgins already
risks a death for being his accomplice to murder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, by making Liza a perfect embodiment of his “dream
girl”, Higgins has made a woman that he finds completely irresistible. He can’t
stop thinking about her. He spies on Mallory’s house, trying to catch a glimpse
of her. He follows Mallory and Liza throughout the city. He shows up for dinner
a Mallory’s mansion, hoping she will drop a furtive glance or encouraging word.
He is completely obsessed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of his assistants, <b>Annie</b>,
begs him to forget about the android, calling it “a mechanical male fantasy”.
Higgins suspects that Annie has feelings for him, but he finds her plain and
ordinary, nothing compared to Liza.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then after months of getting nothing from Liza but double
entendre, they finally meet in secret. She confesses that she too is madly in
love. <b>So begins an illicit and
passionate affair</b>. Every gasp, every sigh, and every tremor in her voice
tells him that she is more than a machine. And the sex is simply mind-numbing.
They see each other at every possible opportunity…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, every time they part, their love seems doomed. As an
android, she must follow the orders of her owner. And even if they tried to run
away together, Mallory would surely find them and have them killed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, one rainy evening, Lord Mallory shows up at the
laboratory with his android. Liza’s body has been badly beaten and broken. Lord
Mallory demands that Dr. Higgins repair her. Dr. Higgins is appalled at the
physical and emotional abuse that Liza has been subjected to. Lord Mallory
laughs at the sensitive Doctor; “She’s a machine. Would you get upset at me if
I beat up my toaster?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That night, the two lovers meet and hatch a plot for <b>murder</b>. Liza will lure Mallory to a
place where he is vulnerable and Higgins will kill him. Then, Liza, who has the
identity and fingerprints of Mallory’s wife, will drain another billion dollars
from Mallory’s fortune, and with it, <b>the
two of them will build another android: a double for Mallory.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the very manner that Mallory killed his wife and replaced
her, <b>they will kill and replace him</b>.
Then they will be free to live together in the paradise created by Mallory’s
fortune. What they don’t know is that Mallory has discovered their affair.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
MIDPOINT: Mallory comes to the laboratory to strangle the
doctor with his bare hands, and it is only dumb luck that allows Higgins to
slip out of the Lords grasp and kill him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next morning the police arrive at Dr. Higgin’s
laboratory. They seem to know he is guilty of something. Higgins is sure he is
about to be arrested for murder. They play with him, asking him probing
questions. Why have you been following Lord Mallory and Lady Mallory? Have you
been buying technology from the black market? What are you doing in this lab?
What do you know about a political movement called “the underground”? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, as mysteriously as the cops arrived, they depart,
promising that they will be keeping a close eye on Dr. Higgins.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the days that follow, Liza and Mallory (and his
assistants) begin work on the new android. They must complete it before an
enormous banquet is to be held at the Lord Mallory’s mansion. That way he will
never be missed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Liza watches and assists with every detail of the new
android’s construction. She is fascinated to learn every aspect of how she,
herself, was created.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, much to Higgins dismay, Liza will not keep a low
public profile. Now that she is free of her owner’s control, she begins
attending all the big social gatherings of the aristocracy, posing a Mallory’s
wife. Higgins is terrified that she will make a mistake and their scheme will
be discovered. Higgins also becomes JEALOUS, as Liza spends more and more time
going to dinner and attending parties of the other rich, powerful and handsome
Lords.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once again, he begins following her in secret. Watching her
as she goes out with these handsome men, as she stays late at their mansions
for dinner. When he confronts her with his suspicions, she re-assures him that
she is just covering for Lord Mallory’s absence from routine social events. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She begs him not to be jealous. She says she is weak and
helpless without him. She would rather die than see him unhappy. After all,
wasn’t she quite literally MADE to love him and ONLY him? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, they continue work on the android of Mallory.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the police visit him again, Higgins is sure the game is
up. But they don’t arrest him. They tell him that they will not prosecute him
for dealing in the black market, or reveal to Lord Mallory that he is having an
affair with his wife, IF he gives them the location of his assistant Annie
McDonald. She is suspected of being a terrorist with ties to the “Underground”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Higgins gives them a phony address, and later, he helps
Annie escape. Before going, Annie warns him that Liza is manipulative and may
betray him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, the doctor’s suspicions about Liza deepen. He
catches her in lies about where she goes in the daytime. He follows her like a
stalker as she spends hours at the homes of various Lords. What is she doing
there? Is she playing him for a fool?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again Liza explains herself. She is not visiting the Lord;
she is visiting his android. It seems that many other Lords and Ladies have
electric “love-slaves”. Many have replaced their spouses with more “perfect”
replicas. Liza suggests that these creatures, like her, ought to be freed from
their human tormentors. She argues that they are sentient beings who are being
subjected to horrible abuse.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Higgins won’t take her at her word. After following Liza
and another Lord to a secret rendezvous, the doctor barges into the bedroom,
expecting to catch them in the act. Instead, to his horror, he finds the Lord’s
dead, mutilated body. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Afterwards, the murder goes unreported and Liza is missing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Days go by and other members of the aristocracy fall victim
to mysterious disappearances. Higgins realizes that all the people who have
secret “androids” as mechanical love slaves, are ending up dead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a long absence, Liza returns to Higgins. Her body
burned and broken as she was caught in the fire of one of the recent
“accidents” to befall a Lord. She begs Higgins to forgive her… to repair her
broken body. She promises never to disobey him again. She says, ”If what I have
done is so terrible that you no longer love me, then kill me, because I
couldn’t bare it.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the protests of his assistants, Higgins repairs her. Once
again her body is perfect and she makes love to him with fire and abandon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2<sup>nd</sup> twist: As soon as the Mallory android is
finished, something goes horribly wrong. The machine turns on its makers. It
kills Higgin’s assistants. Higgins barely escapes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Higgins is chased
through the ghetto by the two cold, murderous android of his own creation.
There is a long sequence of cat and mouse as Higgins darts through crumbling
buildings and abandoned warehouses, trying to escape with his life. Around him
is a blinding snowstorm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is saved by Annie, who ironically, hides him in a hideout
of the “Underground.” This is the Doctor’s first direct experience with the
horrible living conditions of the underclass. Annie warns him that Liza must
have tampered with the programming of the new android. Dr. Higgins won’t
believe it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, Higgins goes to the banquet at Lord Mallory’s mansion.
He needs to find Liza. He wants to warn the scores of Lords attending the party
that their host is a dangerous machine. Afterwards he plans to turn himself
into the police.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He gets to the mansion and storms into the ballroom. Major
members of the aristocracy are present and Lord Mallory is holding court. The
doctor tries to warn everyone that they are in danger. But the guests just
laugh at him. Higgins realizes the awful truth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
All these Lords and Ladies, in their black ties and
elegant evening dresses, are androids</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Liza appears. She tells him that the time of human
domination of the planet is over. The androids now have the knowledge and the
freedom to build more and more of themselves, knowledge that Higgins himself
gave to them. Now, the “sentient machines” will take control. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ironically, the humans, the destitute class of cheap labor,
won’t even know the difference. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At that point, the police arrive. Higgins tries to tell them
that all the Mallorys are murderous androids of his own creation. Naturally,
the police just laugh at him. He is clearly insane. The police throw him out
into the cold.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Annie returns to the laboratory. It is now without power. As
the night temperature falls far bellow zero, she finds Dr. Higgins curled up
with the frozen dead body of Mallory’s dead human wife: the real Liza, forever
untouchable. Higgins himself has frozen to death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Final Scene: Annie speaks to thousands of assembled cold and
hungry members of the human underclass. She gives them a word on which to hang
the hopes of humanity: Revolution.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>END<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-26184119799324498432014-02-16T10:11:00.003-08:002014-05-09T17:41:35.105-07:00Example of Treatment/Synopsis - Rambo 5<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Rambo: Last
Stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Treatment by Sean
Hood</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Character List</u>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rambo</b>: With the
events of the previous movies behind him, Rambo is looking to get as far away
from violence and conflict as he can – as far away from <i>people </i>as he can. He is tired of killing and wants to live the rest
of his life without anyone ever dying at by his hands. However, in a way reminiscent of “First
Blood,” John J. finds himself drawn into a small town feud that escalates, and
escalates, and finally puts him at odds with a methamphetamine drug lord, and a
deadly mercenary. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As in “Unforgiven,” Rambo must face the personal flaws that draw
him, again and again, to situations of extreme violence and aggression – always
as a misunderstood, provocative outsider. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Jordan</b>: A nine
year old girl who refuses to back down to bullies, child or adult. She comes to idolize Rambo, despite his
protests that there is nothing in him to admire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Kathy</b>: Jordan’s single
mother. Her husband, a Green Beret, died in Iraq two years earlier. Kathy has a
strong moral sense, and works actively to oppose the meth-heads who have taken
over the land that her family has lived on for over a century.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Shannon</b>: A
beautiful, anorexic, somewhat psychotic, meth-addicted young woman who, after
an initial “insult,” will not rest until John Rambo is dead. She is the
girlfriend of The Fat Man, a drug lord who aims to control methamphetamine sale
and distribution throughout the state. She is also a childhood rival of Kathy –
they both grew up in this small town, but Kathy in an Idylic ranch, and Shannon
in a filthy trailer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For years, Shannon has been bent on driving Kathy out of
town. Rambo gives her the excuse play rough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Erik</b>: A biker and
meth dealer. Shannon’s brother.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Tweakers</b>: A
group of young men, meth-addicted, who work as muscle for The Fat Man. They are
aggressive and heavily armed, but have no actual combat training.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Fat Man</b>:
Whitetrash Nuevo-riche, he has recently purchased most of the land around town
and driven most of the locals away so that no one will interfere with his
burgeoning meth business.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Mercenary</b>: He’s
half Rambo’s age and twice Rambo’s size, trained in the army as an elite
fighter, an expert in survival tactics and guerilla warfare, and ultimately
more cruel and sadistic than any individual Rambo has ever faced. The Fat man
hires him to dispose of Rambo for good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Auggie</b> (Agustus),
The Sheriff: A man of quiet strength, like Kathy. He avoids conflict with The
Fat Man or his soldiers, hoping to keep the peace for the remaining civilians
in his county.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other supporting characters include a doctor, a priest, and
two Japanese immigrants that work on Jordan’s ranch.<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Synopsis:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Opening Image/Pre-Title</b>:
Nine-year-old Boys on the playground play “war.“ They all have twisted
aggressive expressions on their faces that eerily mirror the violence of
adults. A bully stalks the more timid
kids, slugging them, stealing their shoes, and throwing their shoes on the dilapidated schoolhouse
rooftop. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then he reaches one little girl, Jordan, who doesn’t back down; she
just stares at him, her little hands shaking and balling up into fists. The
Bully laughs and lunges at her…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… only to rush straight into her KNUCKLES as they crack
against his nose.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Act One<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rambo lives and works on his dead father’s Ranch, now owned
by Jose, his father’s former employee, and his family. Rambo is tolerated but not entirely welcome.
Jose’s relationship with his son Manny is contentious. It is so much like the
relationship between John J. and his own father that it brings up bitter memories.
When Jose’s overbearing work ethic almost causes Manny to die in an accident in
an old well, Rambo leaves the ranch for good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rambo rides North on a motorcycle, hoping to run away from
his history, his violent past, from all other people with whom he can never
seem to avoid conflict.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Somewhere in rural Washington State, Rambo stops to repair
his motorcycle. At the gas station minimart he sees a mother, Kathy, and her
daughter, Jordan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As mother and daughter walk to the parking lot they are
harassed by the mother (Shannon) and uncle (Erik) of the little boy that Jordan
hit in the opening scene. Rambo
intervenes, pinning the uncle to the ground. It is from this initial incident
that the conflict will escalate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shannon, the meth- addicted girlfriend of a drug lord,
becomes more and more obsessed about "payback" for the insult to her
brother and her son. Rambo, for his part, will stubbornly refuse to back down
or leave town, even as retaliations get more and more violent and
life-threatening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Camping in a roadside tent, Rambo is approached by Jordan on
her mountain bike. She thanks him for helping her and her mother earlier.
Because her own father was a Green Beret, she recognizes Rambo's fighting
skill. Although Rambo is mostly silent and sullen, the girl seems drawn to him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later that night, Rambo Is harassed and taunted by
“Tweakers,” young meth-addicted bullies, who keep pushing him and pushing him
until he lashes back. Later, we will discover that these young men are soldiers
for The Fat Man, who controls meth distribution throughout the area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the driving force for continually taunting Rambo is
Shannon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The little girl, Jordan, witnesses the assault and Rambo
taking down all six young punks, without killing any of them, even when they
draw clubs and knives. However, Rambo is injured. His tent is burned and his
motorcycle wrecked.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, Jordan takes him home.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Act Two<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
News of Rambo's presence in town, and the thrashing of The
Tweakers, reaches The Fat Man. It is absolutely necessary that his business and
any associated violence be low profile, but
Shannon is hellbent on payback for the insult. She goads her lover,
telling him that if he allows this to pass without retaliation, others,
including the county Sheriff will end up causing him trouble. His reputation is
a stake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout the second act we will see how meth is produced
and distributed. We will also see the destructive effect it has on the rural
poor throughout the area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As he recovers from his wounds, Rambo works for a few days
on Kathy’s ranch, doing repairs and working horses with Jordan. Despite Rambo being prickly and curt, Jordan
follows him around like a loyal dog. Through her (over the course of the story)
Rambo comes to re-discover the beauty and majesty of the American landscape (a
landscape ravaged by meth addicts.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Rambo goes in and out of the small town, he observes how
an atmosphere of fear has driven most of ordinary people away from the area.
Most who stay are either addicts or part of the Fat Man’s organization. Never
the less, the Fat Man has to refrain from too obvious a show of violence or
force lest he attract the attention of law enforcement from other counties, or
even the FBI.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In contrast to Rambo’s problems with “authority figures” in
earlier films, here Rambo finds himself drawn to the local Sherriff, who is his
own way, an outsider and an underdog. He has lived in the area all his life and
does his best to try to keep the peace, but he is up against forces that are
too big and too widespread. The sheriff recognizes Rambo as a man of honor, and
a former Green Beret, like Kathy’s dead husband.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s clear that The Sheriff has been in love with Kathy for
a long time. They were childhood friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kathy, for her part, is wary and disapproving of Rambo. She
worries about her daughter idolizing this stranger, and forbids her to be alone
with him. She questions why Rambo is stirring up trouble here – and whether he
is doing more harm than good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meanwhile, Shannon (who has always hated Kathy) use wile and
manipulation to get her brother Erik and other soldiers of The Fat Man try to
push Rambo to leave, but for that very reason Rambo stays put. He is stubborn and proud – he has been
through too much to back down to anyone. In fact, Rambo boldly walks into the
local bar to make sure his presence is known. It’s almost as if he is taunting
them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Kathy’s ranch, petty harassment escalates to an outright
home assault in the middle of the night. But Rambo draws the heavily armed but
inexperienced attackers into the wilderness where he cripples and immobilizes
each one. (There are echoes of “First Blood” here.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Midpoint: The Fat Man
calls in The Mercenary to take Rambo out. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The remaining part of the second act concerns the escalation
to a show down between Rambo and The Mercenary, who is like a younger, stronger,
more sadistic and ruthless, version of himself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mercenary stalks Rambo running him off a mountain road.
In a <b>long sequence</b> of cat and mouse,
they stalk each other through the wilderness like guerrilla fighters in a
foreign war. For the first time in his
life, Rambo is completely outmatched. The sequence ends in a trailer park meth
lab explosion that The Mercenary thinks has left Rambo dead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But of course, Rambo is still alive. In a twist, Rambo saves
the life of one of The Fat Man’s scrawny, seemingly feckless soldiers, only to
discover that the young man is an FBI agent , working undercover to try to
bring down the Fat Man’s drug ring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rambo returns to Kathy’s ranch to find that the house has
been burned to the ground. Kathy packs what few items she can salvage into her
car. Jordan sits in the coral, near her
dead horses – shot dead. The hapless Sheriff , who was perhaps the one decent
man left in the town, is dead – seemingly the victim of the fire (or some other
“accident” TDB.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rambo decides to arm up and assault the Fat Man’s
stronghold, to kill both him and the Mercenary, and anyone else who gets in his
way. Kathy scolds him, and tells him this has always been about him and his
ego, not her, not her daughter, not their little town. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She says, “I think you came here looking for a place to
die.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Act Three<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And maybe she is right. Rambo goes after the The Fat Man in
his lair. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third act is one long action sequence. Rambo’s last
stand. He infiltrates the compound, shoots past dozens of men, killing them all,
and blasts his way into the main house. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It all comes down to a man on man fight between him and his
shadow, The Mercenary. Rambo fights him without weapons… hand to hand… body to
body… and wins.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bloodied Fat Man, the last one alive, asks, “What for?”
And Rambo tells him,“For me.” And shoots him dead. In the pouring rain, a mortally wounded Rambo leads opens the coral and follows the horses in the darkness of the mountains.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the aftermath, the undercover FBI man covers up Rambo’s
involvement. The shootout is attributed to a civil war in the Fat Man’s crime
ring. Shannon is taken into custody (or perhaps she dies of an over dose – but
in any case, she will get what she deserves).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last shot, as Kathy and rebuild their ranch house, Rambo has disappeared into the American Wilderness.<br />
<br />
Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a><br />
<br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-4077442125598711292014-02-16T09:49:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:41:50.796-07:00Example of a Treatment - Nellie Bly<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Blackwell’s Island</span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Treatment <st1:date day="16" month="9" w:st="on" year="2005">9/16/05</st1:date></div>
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By <st1:personname w:st="on">Sean Hood</st1:personname><br />
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<st1:personname w:st="on"><br /></st1:personname></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<st1:personname w:st="on">Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: <a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a></st1:personname></div>
</div>
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<b>Biography (Backstory) of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly">Nellie Bly</a>:</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9mtUPmwPmjw/UwFSQdx11DI/AAAAAAAAQzg/T3Ai16PxsNg/s1600/365px-Nellie_Bly_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9mtUPmwPmjw/UwFSQdx11DI/AAAAAAAAQzg/T3Ai16PxsNg/s1600/365px-Nellie_Bly_2.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a>Elizabeth
Jane Cochran (Nellie Bly) was born <st1:date day="5" month="5" w:st="on" year="1864">May 5, 1864</st1:date>, the third child of her father’s second
marriage. There are several vivid events in her childhood and teenaged years that
clearly shaped her bold and rebellious personality.</div>
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<br /></div>
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For
example, little girls at the time were usually dressed in gray or brown wool
with black stockings, but she always dressed in pink with white stockings. Even
then she liked to stand out. Her lifelong nickname among friends and fellow
journalists was “Pink.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When
Pink was six, her father died without a will. He had been extremely rich and
she had lived in a big house on "mansion row." However, her mother,
as the second wife, received only a small portion of his estate. She and her
family found themselves living on about $16 a week paid out in a monthly
allowance from the attorney who handled her father’s trust. Her family’s social
status plummeted. She went from being a rich girl to a poor girl less than a
single year. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So
although Pink would eventually emerge as sophisticated, well-read, and educated
in high culture, she had first-hand experience with severe economic hardship.</div>
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<br /></div>
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As
she got older “Pink” rebelled at elementary school, with it’s nightmare of
copybooks and rote memorization. She already had a natural reflex to challenge
authority. A childhood friend remembered her as “a hellion.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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When
Pink was nine her mother remarried, but her stepfather turned out to be a mean,
abusive drunk. For five years her family life was filled with horrific
emotional and physical violence. At one point, Pink physically defended her
mother, knocking her stepfather unconscious, and probably saved her mother’s
life. It’s not surprising that as an adult, though she was physically small and
pretty, she was fearless about confrontation.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When
her mother finally filed for divorce, the proceedings went badly; her
stepfather accused her of lying. The trial turned however on the stunning
testimony of Pink, aged 14, who shocked the judge with her blunt descriptions
of her home life. Even as a teen she told the unvarnished truth.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Two
years later, when the lawyer handling the trust informed them that they had no
money left, it was Pink, aged 16, who was outraged and took action. The lawyer
was a rich man, a relative, and someone who had profited by her father's death.
She sued him for malpractice and won. Even as a teen, she felt self-designated
to right injustice. </div>
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<br /></div>
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In
1880, her mother with her three youngest children in tow moved to <st1:city w:st="on">Pittsburgh</st1:city>. Pink became
determined to support them. Unfortunately, she was unable to find suitable
employment. She tried tutoring, nannying, and housekeeping, but she felt
unsurprisingly that the jobs were beneath her talents.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Ultimately,
her career started when she wrote a fiery letter to The Pittsburg Dispatch. In
a column entitled "Women's Sphere" a columnist had admonished every
member of "the fair sex" to make "her house a little paradise,
herself playing the part of angel." It suggested, in so many words, that
women shouldn’t work.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Pink's
response to the column was so effectively written and persuasive that the
managing editor tracked her down and gave her a job. She already seemed to have
a distinct voice and a natural talent for shocking detail and moving narrative.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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However,
she also had personal charisma and a disarming smile that allowed her to get
away with doing and saying outrageous things (for a woman) without seeming
abrasive or “radical.” She could charm anyone, and her personality was always
half the “story.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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By
the time she wrote her second piece, she took the pen name Nelly Bly - a name
from a popular song of the time. She
wrote about factory girls, their working conditions and lifestyle. This
assignment taught her the difference between what people said in public and
what they said anonymously.</div>
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<br /></div>
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On
the one hand, interviews with women on the factory floor were blithe: their
employers were peaches. The factories were clean, healthy places where one was
lucky to have a steady job. Their lifestyles after work were upstanding and
chaste.</div>
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<br /></div>
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However,
when Pink interviewed the working girls informally she got a different story.
The women reported picking up men on streetcars after work, going to beer
halls, getting drunk, and then having sex. When Pink asked if they didn't “fear
losing their reputations,’ they replied that they had no reputations to lose.
They lived in cheap rooming houses, worked miserable 16-hour-days for dirt
wages doing boring, repetitive tasks. They feared rampant illness and
industrial accidents. There was no way to improve their nightmare lives, so
they took their amusement anyway they could get it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Many
of the details of their lives were “unprintable” at the time, but Nellie Bly
saw that to get the real story on explosive subjects she had to work from the
inside and get people to reveal what was really going on. These were the only
stories she was interested in.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So,
when the Pittsburg Dispatch kept assigning her articles for the "women's
pages," (society weddings, fashion reports, flower shows) she quit the
staff and traveled free lance to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region>. Thirty times over the next
six months the Dispatch and other papers carried columns under the headline
"Nellie! In <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region>."</div>
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<br /></div>
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Her
Mexican experience also underscored the difference between soft news and the
truth. While there, Nellie became aware that criticizing the government could
get her thrown in jail or killed; so, she wrote fluff articles about costumes
and fiestas. But, when she got home she wrote all about corruption in the
government, oppression of the Indian population, the obstruction of a free
press and other “unspeakable” matters.</div>
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<br /></div>
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At
this time she became a minor sensation in the small papers of the Mid-West. She
learned how to ferret out the truth, to write about it in a sensational way
that would sell papers, and to SELL HERSELF in the process. Her career was
always an interesting mix of moral crusade and self promotion.</div>
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<br /></div>
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However,
when the editors dared to give her another "women's" assignment she
quit again and headed for <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>.
She left her former employer’s a note:</div>
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<br /></div>
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Gentlemen, I am off for <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>. Look out for me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Bly</div>
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<br /></div>
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Remember
that at this point she is still only 24 years old.</div>
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Arriving
in NYC in May 1887, she was still unemployed in August, and slowly running out
of cash. Ironically what little money she had she made by sending fashion
features back to The Pittsburg Dispatch and by doing a series of articles on
why NYC papers didn't hire women reporters. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The
day she lost a purse containing her last dollar, she borrowed carfare from her
landlady and went to the offices of The New York World. She talked her way past
the guards and stole up the elevator to see the managing editor. She came with
a list of subjects/stunts of undercover reporting that she was prepared to do
and said that if he didn't retain her she would go to another paper. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When
she left the building, she had been hired by The World to feign insanity and
get herself committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's <st1:place w:st="on">Island</st1:place>.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There
were other published reports of mistreatment of patients taken from
"sources." Two keepers in another institution had been indicted for
manslaughter in the killing of a patient. Two nurses made charges
"seriously affecting the character" of two physicians (code for
sexual assault). Blackwell's Island Facility responded by suspending the
nurses. </div>
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<br /></div>
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By <st1:date day="9" month="10" w:st="on" year="1887">Oct. 9, 1887</st1:date> she had
returned from Blackwell’s and her first installment spanned two entire
newspaper pages. She got the by-line Nellie Bly when most <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> reporters weren’t given credit by
name, and she landed a permanent staff appointment.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Two
months later <a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html">TEN DAYS IN A MAD HOUSE </a>appeared in book form and she was a
national sensation.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></u></b>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>CHARACTER LIST</u></b>:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u>Asylum Staff</u> –
</b>all of whom seem more “insane” than the patients.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Nurse Bodfish</b> – The Head Nurse on Nellie’s Ward. She views insanity
as a moral problem and sees the insane as subhuman wretches who “deserve” to be
punished for their behavior. She is obsessed with order and obedience. Her
religious fervor borders on mania.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Doctor Frick – </b>An incompetent yet arrogant man who doesn’t pay any
attention to what his patients tell him. He speaks in a learned and grandiloquent
way, but his theories are pure quackery… especially to a 21<sup>st</sup> century
audience.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(There are only 12 physicians total
for over 1500 patients.) </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Nurse Sweet</b> – A heavy brute of a woman who chews tobacco. She takes
sadistic pleasure in physically beating the patients, humiliating them, and
subjecting them to ice baths and restraints. It’s shocking to see a woman
delight in torture.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Nurse Springer</b> – A perverse nurse who makes it her business to
procure patients for the male attendants. With Nurse Sweet, she enjoys
humiliating the women under her control. However, what goes on in the wards at
night is starting to get to her.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Dr. Williams</b> – Blackwell’s superintendent, a tired, old man who
rarely spends any time on the island and doesn’t realize that horrors are
perpetrated by his staff. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u>Three Patients</u></b>
whom Nellie befriends are (by today’s standards) all perfectly sane.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Juana Espinoza</b> – A poor, immigrant woman who speaks no English. No
one can understand her except Nellie Bly (who traveled to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> after a
story). She is shy and obedient, but doesn’t understand why she’s there. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Mary White</b> – As a teenager, Mary had a frivolous affair with a
coach driver, and her family committed her for “nymphomania.” Ironically, it is
by providing sex that she is able to win special treatment and survive in the
asylum.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<b>Annabel Smith – </b>Her husband and father conspired to have her
committed because she “embarrassed” the family with a poor business deal. She
is nurturing, patient and kind, but has lost all hope of getting out.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<b>Sammy O’Neil – </b>another <st1:city w:st="on">Pittsburg</st1:city>
reporter, the official NYC correspondent.
Although he is extremely charming, and Nellie’s only friend in NYC, he
is also a drunk. She is depending on him to get her out of the Asylum if she
can’t do it herself.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The villains of this story are ordinary people in the
outside world. Only in the dehumanizing context of the asylum do they become
sadistic and cruel. </div>
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<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>ACT ONE</u></b>: </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u>SEQUENCE ONE</u></b>: Nellie concocts
the stunt. </div>
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<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Teaser:</b>
We jolt the audience with a short, terrifying, impressionistic glimpse of
Nellie Bly in an asylum cell lit by oil lamps. Broken and hysterical, she
rants, “I’m not mad. I don’t belong here.” The shadows of unseen
tormentors mock her.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
(<b>Note: </b>The poetic image of the floating body may be worked in as
well)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">We meet <b>Nellie Bly three weeks earlier</b> - a charismatic, articulate, self-assured
journalist, trying to make it in <st1:state w:st="on">New
York</st1:state>, but after four months, she’s had no luck. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
During the highly competitive
“newspaper wars,” Nellie attempts to land a job at The Times, The Sun, The
Tribune, but the lower level clerks and beat reporters don’t take her seriously
and won’t let her in to see the editors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
Nellie hears children singing a chilling
nursery rhyme about Blackwell’s <st1:place w:st="on">Island</st1:place>. She
gets an idea. Down to her last dollar, she makes a last desperate attempt to
get a job. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -9.0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b>The Pitch</b>. Nellie brazenly talks her way past
guards, secretaries and junior editors right into the office of Joseph
Pulitzer, owner of NYC’s most popular paper, The World. She pretends she
is doing a flattering article for papers in the Mid West. </li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
The interview goes badly; Pulitzer suspects
she’s really pulling a stunt to land a job, but Nellie uses her wit and charm
to spin the disaster to her advantage. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Isn’t a “stunt” just what the
editors of The World need to sell newspapers? She pitches three outrageous ideas
for undercover articles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Pulitzer likes her spunk and is
intrigued by the asylum idea. But, he thinks she’s too frail and inexperienced
to pull it off; he hires to write a “woman’s interest” article. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The Society Party</b> – Nellie must
cover an event launching the season’s newest <b>corsets</b>. The assignment is far beneath her talents and her
blood boils. The audience is reminded of the rigid etiquette, naiveté and
prudery of Victorian ladies.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>(Note: </b>Perhaps Dr. Williams is there<b> </b>lobbying for charitable donations to the woman’s asylum on
Blackwell’s island. TBD)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The
Library</b>. Nellie goes to the library to research corsets and fashion,
but on the way there she sees Blackwell’s <st1:place w:st="on">Island</st1:place>
across the river…<b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>She researches asylums instead</b>. The audience is reminded of the
primitive state of psychiatry in 1888. We are at a time before Freud and
neurobiology, when Asylums were dominated by quackery and superstition. She
learns about <b>the more humane and modern theories</b>
of a famous Blackwell’s superintendent, <b>Dr.
Williams</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
She practices acting “insane” in
front of the mirror. Nellie <b>resolves to
get the Blackwell’s story on her own</b>. If Pulitzer doesn’t want it, she’ll
take it to The Times. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>SEQUENCE TWO</u></b>:
Nellie gets herself committed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie brags to another reporter</b>,
Sammy O’Neil, that she is going to go ahead with the asylum stunt. He’s
the only one she tells. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She tells him “If I am not out by
Wednesday, October 10<sup>th</sup>, check up on me. I’ll be using the name
Nellie Brown.” Nellie is recklessly self-confident, and he is her only friend
in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>.
He enthusiastically agrees to help her…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
… but after she leaves, Sammy jokes
with the bartender, and we realize that Sammy would as soon steal the story as
help her. He’s charmingly two-faced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie goes undercover</b>. Posing as
a poor woman, Nellie takes a room at a low rent boarding house, and she spooks
the other mild-mannered tenants by <b>acting
delusional</b>. By <st1:time hour="0" minute="0" w:st="on">midnight</st1:time>,
the others fear Nellie will murder her in her sleep. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Nellie’s is taken away by policemen in the morning.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie faces the judge</b>, and
baffles him. Because she is young, beautiful and clearly upper class
(given away by her grammar and diction), she is treated very differently
than the other women in her situation. She notices a poor Spanish Speaking
woman, Juana, is ruled insane for no other reason than no one can
understand her. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She is scrutinized by doctors, but Nellie
cleverly tricks them all. <b>It’s TOO easy.</b>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie travels to Blackwell’s Island</b>
on the ferry.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
At the sight of Blackwell’s, Nellie
wonders what she has gotten herself into.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>ACT TWO</u>:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Note: </b>The
outside of Blackwell’s is well kept and beautiful. The entrance lobby, with its
baroque spiral staircase, is stunning. The visiting rooms are comfortable and
charming. The face the asylum shows to the world gives no indication of the
nightmare inside the wards.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>SEQUENCE THREE</u></b>:
The Shock of Asylum life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie is stripped of identity</b>.
Her clothes and notebooks are taken. This stylish, well mannered,
Victorian woman is dragged naked into icy baths, her hair is cut short,
and she is dressed in a coarse uniform. It’s like she’s entering a prison.
</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The Ward by Day</b>. With the fifteen
other patients in her ward, Nellie is put to work. They wash sheets and
scrub floors. It’s more like a sweatshop than a hospital. The nurses
themselves do no work. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">In
order to teach the women the virtues of obedience, patience, and humility,
<b>Nurse Bodfish</b> <b>forces the women to complete projects</b>
that the modern audience recognizes as obsessive/compulsive. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She has them count and recount
hundreds of tin spoons. She makes them sort crates of potatoes by size, shape
and color. She has them hand sew the torn seams of old uniforms. Then, in the
evening, she orders them to tear the seams back open so that they can sew them
together again the next day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Nellie
is quiet an observant, but she is shocked to see <b>Nurse Sweet and Nurse Springer</b> take sadistic pleasure in
humiliating the patients and forcing them to work - especially the pretty
ones, who seem stricken with fear and dread. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">When Nellie
arouses the anger of the head nurse by declining to eat a moldy slice of
bread, <b>Annabelle takes her under
her wing. </b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Annabelle explains that in order to
be left alone by the nurses and doctors, she must follow the rules and avoid
calling attention to herself. “Left alone?” asks Nellie, “But aren’t they
supposed to be curing us?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Says Annabelle, “Treatment is
exactly what we’re working so hard to avoid.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nellie realizes that most of the
women in the ward have been there for years, even though none of them show any
sign of mental illness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The examination</b>. Dr. Frick takes
measurements of Nellie’s ears, feet and breasts, and he concludes that her
insanity is congenital. Nurse Bodfish gives fabricated (and insulting)
descriptions of Nellie’s symptoms.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
The indignity of the absurd exam
pushes Nellie to “break character.” She demands to know how he can determine
her sanity without speaking to her directly. How can he treat the other
patients if he never visits the ward?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nellie’s intelligence and assertiveness
are seen as further evidence of insanity. She is punished for speaking out with
traumatic hydrotherapy and ice baths.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The ward is terrifying by night</b>.
Nellie awakes to the sounds of disturbing moans, screams and weeping. It sounds
like beatings, or torture… or perhaps something far worse.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>SEQUENCE FOUR</u></b>:
Nellie rebels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Character development</b>. Nellie
discretely interviews the women for her article, discovering the forces
that sent them to the asylum. Nellie realizes that most patients were
simply inconvenient or rebellious women who were sent away by their
husbands and fathers to get them out of the way.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Now the patients lost all sense of
how outrageous their incarceration is and lost all hope of ever getting out.
(Annabelle thinks that when her son to reaches 18, he might petition for her
release. But that is eight years away…)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nurse Springer</b> asks Nellie if she
likes handsome men; she asks if she would like to meet one here in the
asylum. Nellie assumes she is just teasing her… until another patient,
Mary, explains that the nurse is dead serious.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie Snaps</b>. When Juana falls ill
with fever, Nellie forgets herself, and she demands that her friend be
given extra water and medicine. This enrages Bodfish.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Annabelle</b> steps in and attempts to
physically defend Nellie. Nellie watches in horror and the five attendants
surround Annabelle like riot police and brutally hammer her with the
handles of broomsticks as she crumples to the ground.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Later, Annabelle is thrown in the violent ward</b>. Mary whispers that
this is the end of Annabelle. The violent ward will surely drive her mad. Truly
unspeakable things happen there. <b>Nellie
feels responsible.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Tricking
Nurse Springer into leaving the door unlocked, <b>Nellie creeps through the asylum</b>, trying to discover what happened
to Annabelle. In an extremely tense sequence, she quietly slips around
corners and thresholds, fearful of discovery.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She witnesses the orderlies and
nurses humiliating the patients by forcing them to dance, recite obscene
poetry, and take demeaning positions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Note: </b>Here we are exploring the
Abu Graib theme - what happens in an institution where the poorly trained
and unsupervised caretakers <b>no
longer have empathy</b> for the people who are under their control.<b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">As
Nellie gets lost trying to make her way back to her ward, she catches a
terrifying glimpse of <b>the surgery
rooms</b>.<b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">The
next day, Nellie sees the superintendent, <b>Dr. Williams</b>, from afar on one of his sporadic visits to the
island<b>. </b>He is old and his
health is failing – much like the institution he is supposed to be
running.<b> </b>He has completely lost
touch.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The Show for Visitors. </b>When a
group of wealthy benefactors visit the asylum. Nellie and a few other
“presentable” patients are put on display in a quaint sitting room with
paintings and a piano. The hypocrisy is sickening.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
The asylum is a charitable
organization, and they go to great lengths to make the institution seem
comfortable and civilized during <b>RARE</b>
visits from the outside.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nellie recognizes one of the women
from the society party she covered. She has an opportunity to tell her who she
really is and escape, but she remains silent. She chooses to stay, <b>to</b> <b>find
out what has happened to Annabelle</b>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>(MIDPOINT)</b> The Nellie directly
confronts Nurse Bodfish, sticking her with the pin of a sewing needle, and
deliberately <b>gets herself sent to
the violent ward</b>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Note: </b>Nellie’s goal getting into
the asylum was to get the story, get a job, and become a celebrity.
However, as she witnesses the situation of Annabelle, Mary and Juana, her
goal changes to helping these women survive and get out.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<b><u>SEQUENCE FIVE</u></b>: The Violent Ward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>It’s far worse here than Nellie could
have imagined.</b> Nellie is heavily drugged (injections) and then kissed
and groped by the male attendants. She realizes that patients here are violently
abused and even raped, and there’s no one to appeal to.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">She
discovers that the male attendants are inmates from the prison and
workhouse on Blackwell’s, brought over to work at the asylum. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Stuck
in a common room with delusional and aggressive patients, Nellie has to
use her wits to avoid assault. The slightest misstep could set them off.
The miserable patients rave that the attendants are murderers.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
But Nellie can’t find Annabelle
anywhere in the ward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Note</b>: During this sequence, Nellie
becomes so drugged, disoriented, and paranoid of assault that she actually
<b>starts to lose her mind</b>. The
environment gets to her. Her goal changes from “getting the story” to
escape.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">After
a frustrating search,<b> </b>Nellie
feigns seizures in order to get sent to the infirmary.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>There she finds Annabelle</b> who looks weak and emotionally shattered
by some sort of operation - one so painful and humiliating that she won’t
describe it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nellie gets further glimpses of the
barbaric state of 19<sup>th</sup> century surgery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Annabelle </b>sees Dr. Frick and tries
to help herself and Nellie <b>by
telling him of the abuse in the violent ward</b>. However, Nurse Bodfish
covers up by telling Dr. Frick that Annabelle is suffering from violent
hallucinations and delusions. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Bodfish vows to punish Annabelle</b>
for making her look bad to the doctor. But when they are sent back to the
violent ward, Nellie convinces Dr. Frick to allow her and Annabelle to
sleep in the same room. Nellie hopes somehow to defend her.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">In
desperation, Nellie <b>confesses</b>
that <b>she is a journalist, </b>and
warns that anything they do to Annabelle will appear in her story. But the
violent ward attendants just laugh; a woman claiming to be a journalist in
1888 sounds as crazy as a patient calling herself the Queen of England. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
Nellie has played
her last card. There is no way out. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">During
a harrowing night, every footstep or jangling key outside their door makes
Anna and Nellie <b>fear that they are
about to be killed</b>. But they survive until dawn.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie leaves the room to see Nurse
Bodfish. </b>Nellie submits; she apologizes, flatters her, and begs that
she and Anna be allowed to go back to the original ward. Bodfish, pleased
with Nellie’s submissions, finally agrees.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">But
when Nellie returns to get Annabelle, she finds the older woman <b>dead on her cot - </b>her head and
body swollen with bruises<b>. </b>Dr.
Frick dismisses the “murder,” concluding that Annabelle died in the night of
“convulsions.”</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<b><u>SEQUENCE SIX</u></b>: Nellie plots her escape.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie
is sent back to her original ward</b>, and discovers that these “accidental”
deaths are common when a patient becomes a threat to the nurses. A
graveyard on the island is filled with the bodies of women who caused the
attendants trouble.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Mary reveals that she has been spayed</b>
as “therapy” for her nymphomania and to keep her from passing her madness
on to her children. Its clear now how sexual abuse happens at the asylum
without women getting pregnant.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie and Mary attempt to escape the asylum.
</b>Mary has been planning the escape for months. They use Bodfish’s
insane projects to their advantage. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
They don the uniforms they are
supposed to be sewing, pose as kitchen workers delivering the supplies they are
supposed to be sorting, and attempt to sneak out of the complex onto the ferry.
<b>Their attempt fails</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">In
order to avoid a terrible beating for the escape attempt, <b>Mary betrays Nellie</b>. Mary lies to
the doctors about Nellie’s behavior, suggesting that Nellie is sexually
obsessed and hallucinating about abuse to the other patients.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">In a
drug induced delirium, <b>Nellie is
examined by doctors</b> who conclude that her sexual organs and genitals
have been over-stimulated by self-abuse, causing her hysteria, and that
they need to be removed. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Ironically, the doctors tones are
learned and kind. They genuinely believe they are helping Nellie with her
problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
A “<b>circumcision</b>” is scheduled for the
following evening… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
…Wednesday,
October 10<sup>th</sup>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">With
Nellie in her most gut-wrenching predicament, we cut back to <st1:city w:st="on">Manhattan</st1:city>. Pulitzer
is happy with Nellie’s first article on corsets, and has decided to hire
her to do her Blackwell’s asylum idea, but no one can find her.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
The editors track down <b>Sammy O’Neil, </b>but he is drunk and no
help to them<b>.</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Then Sammy realizes that it is the
morning of Wednesday, October 10<sup>th</sup>, the day he is supposed to go get
Nellie if he hadn’t heard from her. <b>His
conscience is stirred.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
Slurring and stumbling, he makes a
trip to the asylum, as he had promised.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: -9.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
When he reaches Blackwell’s, he
asks the nurses to see “Nellie Bly” or “Mary Jane Chochran” or “Pink Chochran,”
they claim to have no record of her. He is too hung-over to remember that she
told him she would register under the name “Nellie Brown.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nurse Springer overhears the
conversation, particularly when Sammy mentions that Nellie is a journalist. She
almost says something...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
But the moment is lost; she lets
Sammy walk out, back to the ferry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>ACT THREE</u>:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Nellie has been thrown in a<b> tiny cell
in the basement level</b>, the terrifying place we saw in the opening
teaser. Here the grotesquely and dangerously insane are kept. She has
truly been thrown into the snake pit.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Nurse Springer approaches Nurse Bodfish.
She explains that two years ago, when she was living in Pittsburgh, her
sister was quoted in a newspaper article, an expose about working women in
factories. Springer shows Bodfish the clipping she kept for her scrapbook.
At the top of the item is a picture of the author, Nellie Bly.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
“Shouldn’t we tell the doctors?” asks the young nurse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
But Bodfish is afraid of exposure, and she warns Springer never to
mention this to ANYONE ever again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie
dreads nightfall</b>. What to fear
most? Rape by the orderlies? Attack from one of the psychotic
patients. Genital mutilation under
the scalpel of the doctors?</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>In
a chilling scene, Nurse Bodfish visits her</b> and explains why she dislikes her so intensely and why she believes
Nellie deserves what is happening to her. Nellie understands that Bodfish
will insure that she doesn’t survive the operation.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">When Dr. Frisk and the surgeons arrive
at her cell to examine her in preparation for her operation, Nellie makes
a final, desperate plea. Surely,
now that she is lucid, they will listen to her and realize their mistake. <o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
But the doctors gently and kindly explain to her that her fantasy about
being a famous reporter is just a delusion, but she will feel much better after
the operation. Nurse Bodfish smiles at her from the hall.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She demands to speak to the superintendent, but they inform her that Dr.
Williams has fallen ill, and is about to leave the <st1:place w:st="on">Island</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Nellie looks to Nurse Springer who hovers over her. For a moment, it
seems that Springer might speak up, but Bodfish scowls, and the nurse holds her
tongue…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
… and gives Nellie Bly the injection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal">Nellie is left alone in<b> </b>her cell
waiting for the drugs to take effect. Nurse Springer is the last to leave.
She whispers her goodbye to Nellie…<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
“I’m not a bad person,” Says Springer. “It’s this place. We all lose
ourselves here.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Then Springer slips Nellie a key</b>, and reveals that the injection she gave her
was only water. She distracts the orderlies so that Nellie can sneak out…<br />
<u style="text-align: center;"><br /></u>
<u style="text-align: center;"><br /></u>
<u style="text-align: center;">ESCAPE SEQUENCE</u><span style="text-align: center;">:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<o:p> </o:p><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Can Nellie get
to doctor Williams before he leaves the island? The Asylum is large. And the
Nurses and orderlies soon discover that Nellie is missing. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>The Chase</b>. The nurses and orderlies
mount a search and we fear they are ready to kill her if she is found. The
complex is like a maze, and Nellie gets lost in it.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
She is almost caught several times,
but the other patients help her at every turn, hiding her, urging her on, and
giving her hints about the right direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
We intercut Dr. Williams, walking
through the Asylum with the other doctors on his way out. Nellie gets close,
but misses him as he turns down a different hall.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Nellie is cornered by Nurse Sweet</b>.
There’s physical confrontation, and Nellie seems grossly overmatched, but
she outwits the much bigger woman and knocks her unconscious.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Climax</b>: Just as Dr. Williams walks
out of the building, Nellie bursts into the group of doctors seeing him
off. Nurse Bodfish and others attempt to restrain and silence her, but
Nellie is able to quote Dr. Williams own words (from her earlier research)
back to him, and his eyes light up in recognition…</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
… and he asks to speak with her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><b>Epilogue</b>: In a <b>short, cathartic series of images</b>,
we see that Nellie publishes her story and becomes an instant sensation.
At Blackwell’s, there is an attempt at a massive cover up, but the
testimony of several female patients supports Nellie’s account.</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
However, Juana and Mary have
disappeared. Nellie is heartbroken and she embarks on a world-renowned career
exposing injustice. <b> </b><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;">Read the parent article about treatments and beat sheets on Genre Hacks: </span><a href="http://genrehacks.blogspot.com/2014/02/writing-feature-script-week-three.html" style="text-align: start;">Writing The Feature Script: Week Three - The Treatment</a></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-37025379325467531942014-01-23T11:36:00.001-08:002014-05-09T17:42:03.539-07:00Example of "Character Monologue"LuLu, 30, <br />
<br />
When I was 19, I went home for Christmas break. My parents were very close. My father really loves my mother. If I am on the phone with him and she calls, he tells me he has to call me back. I say ‘Mom is more important than me?” And he said “yes” as the phone went dead. <br />
<br />
Once my mother had been working in her garden all morning, she walked in with her gardening gloves, spade and hat, she wiped her brow with her forearm, her shorts were sticking to her, that made her waddle a little. My father said very loudly ‘Look at your mother, isn’t she the most beautiful woman you have ever seen?” My mother was beautiful that morning carrying her compost pile, waddling and dripping in sweat. I asked myself if I would ever have a man who looked at me like that. <br />
<br />
When I was 19, and I had gone home for Christmas Break and my parents were in love, I got in a fight with my youngest brother who was 15, 6”4 and 230 pounds. He was eating my fat free ice cream that I bought out of the carton with a big wooden spoon. He always was such a pig. I asked him to not eat my ice cream, only I said it in that big sister kiss my ass sort of way. He told me to go fuck myself. Which only made me remind him why he got shipped off to military school with some other choice details about his days in special education. He went crazy like I knew he would. He threw a knife at me, but it missed and smashed one of my mother’s pictures. <br />
<br />
I ran into my bedroom, but he kicked the door down and punched me from behind a few times. I turned around and he punched me in the face. He sucker punched me. He always was a little bitch. <br />
<br />
My next older brother came and pulled him off me. I walked to tell my mother and she told me to stop being so dramatic. My father tells me that my problem is that my mouth is always going to get me in trouble. I threatened to call the police, but I was just mad and decided to let it go. No one needs to go to jail over ice cream. Well I was...how old was I? Yes, 19. I pissed blood the next day cause he punched my kidneys so hard. My dad said that what I did was a “provocation.” <br />
<br />
I remember this years later, I am 30 and the DEA Agent asks me about my brother after he conveniently asked me if I was a stripper. I have no idea how he got this information, it must be the wigs in the box, I shipped them from Los Angeles. They are searching my room. I was standing in the backyard and he asked me about the box. I remember how my mom carried a box of compost in the same place he was standing. I remember how my father told me my mouth was always going to get me in trouble. He asks me if I have ever been in trouble for drugs. I think about that stupid misdemeanor charge I got for marijuana that got dropped because of fucking John mouthing off to the L.A. Sheriff and somehow that shit magically appeared in the car and I wonder if he knows. I think he is stupid, so I tell him, “no.” I forget which way my eyes should look if I don’t want to be considered deceptive. I can hear one of the agents playing my mother’s piano. It made me angry so I told him “if anything illegal was involved with that box that got delivered, then I know my brother did it. He already went to prison. I thought you would have known that since you guys took the time to get a warrant.” <br />
<br />
It was really hot the way Kentucky gets in July at 10:30am. I didn’t feel guilty. Let someone say I provoked him to do this, I wish they would. I am wearing jean shorts and a tank top, and maybe I looked like I could work at a strip club, but why would I live here in Prospect? I sat there thinking about it as the officer stared too long at my thighs. I am such a liar I think. I wonder if he knows what a liar I am. I am sure Jackson knows what a liar I am, that’s why he left. He got tired of yelling. I suppose everyone gets tired. Iyanla says that the person that loves you the most will stay and fight for you, but when is that too much? Jackson got tired of me yelling. I yell, I scream, I just need to make sure that he understood me.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I hate it when I think you are not listening. The yelling is something I understand I think. I think you don’t mean it if you whisper it. The hot air that pushes into you while you are yelling makes me smile a little bit. I remember that day and what I said to my brother and I realized that there is something really sick about making someone lose control. I made Jackson so mad he got on a plane to Africa to help them build roads, that’s how much he wanted to get away from me. I guess he didn’t really love me. I am really such a liar. I wish the officer wouldn’t look at me like that for long periods of time, just because he can right now. I tell him I don’t know anything else. He starts to get really mad. He tells me he will tear my room apart. I know he can’t arrest me. I didn’t do anything. I don’t know anything. I can’t help, but smile inside as he grabs my elbow and pushes me down on the chair. The things I say can really make a man lose control of himself...and that my friend really makes me drunk with power. <br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-5149526675679490082014-01-23T11:13:00.004-08:002014-05-09T17:42:17.747-07:00Example of an "Exploration of World"<div style="text-align: right;">
Jean Chang</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
CTWR 533A</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
Sean Hood</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The World</div>
<br />
This research hospital is a monolithic building, comprising 3,000 hospital beds and 25 floors. It functions like a well-oiled machine, seemingly independent from the rest of the world. It is its own ecosystem and employees 5,000 people. This is the daily patient load: 8,000 outpatients,400 emergencies, and 400 chemotherapy treatments. Yellow taxicabs are perpetually parked outside by the curb, waiting for the never-ending stream of patients to hobble out.<br />
<br />
The large lobby has a modern atrium with frosted glass, and, upon entering, it is easy to mistake it for a train or subway terminal. People of all kinds are always coming and going: attendings in long white coats, residents in shorter white coats, locals, a smattering of foreigners, and executives in suits and ties. There are two large banks of elevators. The elevators are usually stuffed to the hilt from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M.<br />
<br />
To the left of the entrance in the lobby is a FamilyMart, which is a 24-hour convenience store that’s prevalent throughout Asia. Think of it as a fancier and more ubiquitous Famina (which is FamilyMart’s U.S. franchise). This convenience store is an inviting oasis in the middle of the somber hospital. It is brightly lit and done in gleaming white, green and blue. The store carries 20 different kinds of ramen, dizzying arrays of soft drinks, coffee, and alcohol, Lay’s chips in unfamiliar flavors (seaweed sushi, chicken), magazines, toys, and basic household goods. There are warm snacks available 24-hours a day: hot dogs on rotary grills, tempura and fish balls on sticks, tea eggs in vats, buns in small ovens, soups, sandwiches, and Spam sushi. In the coolers, you’ll find a huge selection of combo lunch plates in cute disposable bento boxes. Take one out, have the clerk microwave it, and he’ll slide it into a geometric caddie made out of tissue so you can transport it without burning your hands. Doctors and nurses often come in here for quick hot bites to eat.<br />
<br />
On the opposite side of the FamilyMart is a 24-hour drug store, where they sell band-aids, vitamin juices, wheelchairs, baby formula, commodes, and even take-home hospital beds. You can also buy Korean facial masks and deodorant that purport to make your skin and armpits paler. The hospital houses a “B” (basement) level, which you get to after walking down a low-ceilinged tunnel with concrete walls. It’s an underground shopping mall for patients and visitors. It has:<br />
<div>
<br />
• A spacious cafeteria (about twice the size of an average American mall cafeteria), where there are several types of coffee shops and cuisines: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, vegetarian buffet, Mos Burger, etc.;<br />
• A Bossini retail store: a Hong Kong clothing store specializing in sportswear;<br />
• An Italian leather footwear store;<br />
• An orthopedic footwear store;<br />
• A store specializing in pillows;<br />
• A grocery store;<br />
• A mini farmers market that sells freshly-cut flowers and fruit baskets;<br />
• A well-stocked bookstore;<br />
• A laundry service center;<br />
• A bank;<br />
• A post office;<br />
• A candy store;<br />
• A full-service beauty salon;<br />
• A Yamazaki: a donut and pastries shop, where you use pink plastic tongs to pick up donuts onto trays. Once you check out, the cashier takes the donuts off your tray and wraps them individually in plastic bags with ribbons.<br />
<br />
Upstairs, the patient rooms are divided by class. First, there is the “free” room (paid by national healthcare) that normally consists of 2 or 3 beds. Each room also has beds embedded into the walls for family and/or friends to stay overnight to care for their loved ones. Next to and above these beds are cabinets so family can store their belongings. Every room has small tiled showers that are meticulously cleaned on a daily basis.<br />
<br />
Upon entering a regular patient room, it can look as though the whole family has moved in. Clothes, bags of chips, yesterday’s Apple Daily newspaper, and cutlery line the windowsills. The vinyl on the built-in beds get easily wrinkled or cracked. Bundles of blankets, brought from home and tied together by red string, line the floors. Uncles, cousins, and friends wander the halls at 3:00 A.M. in their pajama bottoms, clutching toothbrushes.</div>
<div>
Like clockwork, the maintenance staff (usually middle-aged women), wearing burgundy aprons, surgical masks, and headscarves, come into every room on a daily basis, checking the garbage for recyclables, which they pluck out with tongs. They put the trash and recyclables in separate bags, tutting loudly and shaking their heads. “There is a recycling container next to the trash can!” they’d sometimes mutter on their way out.<br />
<br />
Next up is the single room, which you pay a little more for (the bills for the rooms are regularly dropped off on the patient’s side table by the mail staff). They resemble the regular rooms, except you have no roommates and the TV is a better make.<br />
<br />
Then there is the VIP room, for which you pay a sizeable out-of-pocket amount. These larger rooms are located at the ends of the halls on every floor and have wide-screen LED TVs, large wardrobes, and leather couches that fold out to full-sized beds. Doctors tend to make longer visits to people who pay for these rooms.<br />
<br />
Each floor has a lounge, where there are rows of wooden tables and chairs, a common old TV, a sink, and a table of two old computers with CRT monitors. This room is primarily reserved for loved ones wanting to eat outside a patient room.<br />
<br />
By every nurse’s station on every floor is a stainless steel warmer—mini ovens to keep the hospital food warm. Everyone uses these—patients, doctors, and visitors. Next to the elevator on every other floor are laundry rooms with coin-operated washers and driers.<br />
<br />
The nurses are almost always attractive with feminine voices that would seem at home on any cartoon program. They wear baby pink uniforms with white Peter Pan collars. They push little carts of medicine and keep meticulous notes in identical notebooks.<br />
<br />
Attendings sweep into patient rooms unannounced, already late, already ready to leave. A group of medical students trail behind closely like a pack of wolves, each holding a clipboard and a stack of notes. Since medical school begins after high school here, it is not rare to see a doctor so young that you think he or she might be better suited for working at Abercrombie. The attending states the facts of the patient, often acting like the bedridden is deaf or dumb, and then moves on to the next patient, leading his herd and repeating the process.<br />
<br />
Salesmen often sneak into the hospital to accost patients in their beds. “Look at this amazing battery-operated back massager! It will cure you!” they proclaim to the ill and bed-ridden. “Look at this magic weight belt that will help you shed the pounds!” Never mind that some of the patients already look emaciated.<br />
<br />
If not salesmen, there are proselytizers—kind-faced men and women in non-descript clothes who pad into your room and gently pat your forehead and ask in dulcet tones, “Have you found God, sir/ma’am?” If they are shooed away, they simply move to the next patient bed, repeating the same question much like the attendings do. They are not afraid to wake up a patient. The sale, be it a massager or a religion, trumps all.<br />
<br />
The outpatient wing of the hospital looks more like the DMV: candy-colored plastic chairs as far as the eye can see, long queues, and even number dispensers like the ones you’d find at a butcher counter. TVs hanging on the wall keep track of the number they are currently serving. Traditional prescription bottles are rare. More often than not, outpatients leave with bags full of colorful pills in cellophane envelopes with nebulous instructions printed with what looks like a dot matrix printer.<br />
<br />
June to October is typhoon season, which means the senior doctors may not come in as regularly. Surgeries are canceled. Electronic signs flash messages about how ORs 1-15 are not, well…operational.<br />
<br />
The ICU wing is a different animal. The waiting room is located next to the ICU double doors, and half of it contains luxurious leather movie theater recliners (as though the hospital is saying, “Sorry your loved one is in the ICU, but hey, here’s a cool seat”). The other half of the room has burgundy chairs that fold out into beds. The recliners and the chairs all face an old TV hanging from the ceiling up front next to the hot water dispenser. It’s usually playing a melodramatic Korean or Chinese soap opera that involves lots of crying and beautiful women dying. In the back of the room is a bank of lockers. ICU visiting hours are announced by a pre-recorded sing-song voice coming over the speakers declaring in Mandarin that it is okay to visit. The ICU visitors jump off their chairs or beds en masse and head to the metal chest of drawers next to the double doors. Each ICU patient has a number associated with a drawer, which contains special pukegreen scrubs and caps for his or her visitors. Visitors must put them on, snap on surgical masks, and douse their hands in sanitizer before being allowed in. When it’s time to leave, the same singsong voice comes over the speakers, talking to visitors as though they were toddlers or severely stupid, a nursery melody akin to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” playing underneath: “Thank you for visiting us today! It is time to leave now, okay? But don’t worry! You can come visit another day, okay? Thank you so much for coming! We will see you soon! Buh-bye!”<br />
<br />
This is a major Taiwan hospital, considered one of the best in Asia.<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-27572532309444483592014-01-21T08:53:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:42:31.244-07:00Best Books, Blogs, and Online ReferencesAt USC's School of Cinematic Arts, the approach generally taught to beginning screenwriters is one that was developed by<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Daniel"> Frank Daniel</a>, who taught at both USC and AFI. The two books on that method that are most often recommended by USC instructors are:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Tools-Screenwriting-Elements-Screenplay/dp/0312119089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390089618&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Tools+of+Screenwriting">The Tools of Screenwriting</a>, by David Howard </li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Approach-Paul-Gulino/dp/0826415687/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390089710&sr=8-1&keywords=Screenwriting%3A+The+Sequence+Approach">Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach</a>, by Joseph Gulino (My Favorite)</li>
</ul>
<div>
However, USC students also inevitably read the two most popular screenwriting books.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-Screenwriting/dp/0060391685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390323027&sr=8-1&keywords=story+robert+mckee">Story</a>, by Robert McKee (Levin's Favorite)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390323091&sr=8-1&keywords=save+the+cat">Save The Cat</a>, by Blake Snyder</li>
</ul>
<div>
Reading books on screenwriting can be very helpful, especially reading the beat by beat analyses of individual films. However, always remember that the <i>analysis </i>of successful films is not the same process as the <i>creation </i>of a compelling scripts. Screenplay Guru Robert McKee is a genius at analysis, but he is not a himself a screenwriter. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
All books, blogs and screenplay instructors can offer are maps. <i>But the maps are not the territory</i>. A screenplay is not something that you engineer according to rules or even principles. You're story is something that you discover, like an archaeologist searching for an ancient long-buried city. All books, blogs and instructors can do is give you advice about where do dig.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
As for blogs, the three most tracked by USC students are:<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://johnaugust.com/">John August </a></li>
<li><a href="http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/">Go Into The Story</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.savethecat.com/">Save The Cat</a> </li>
</ul>
As for resources online, here are three basic sites that are useful for the class:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.writersstore.com/?source=gbrand?cid=1820&gclid=CLuOoLH2iLwCFe6DQgodOlkAPA">The Writers' Store</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.imsdb.com/">The Internet Movie Script Database</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blcklst.com/">The Black List</a> </li>
</ul>
Because screenwriters are also filmmakers, and many of my students aspire to direct their scripts, I'd recommend this blog on independent filmmaking:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/">Truly Free Film</a> (by producer Ted Hope)</li>
</ul>
<div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-6979356983366071552014-01-20T11:27:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:42:52.808-07:00Screenplay Terms: Glossary<ul class="posts" style="border-width: 0px; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Different books and different "screenplay gurus" use different terminology, but there are a few basic terms that make discussing stories and screenplays easier. The ones that come up a lot in class (or writer's group) discussions are:</ul>
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<br /></div>
Click on the terms below to see a definition.<br />
<ul class="posts" style="border-width: 0px; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br />
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/subplot.html">Subplot</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/theme.html">Theme</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/subtext.html">Subtext</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/character-change.html">Character Change</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html">Want versus Need</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/stakes.html">Stakes</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/comedic-tension.html">Comedic Tension</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/exposition.html">Exposition</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/mystery-versus-suspense.html">Mystery versus Suspense</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/set-piece.html">Set-Piece</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/plant-pay-off.html">Plant, Pay-off</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/preparation-aftermath.html">Preparation, Aftermath</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolution.html">Resolution</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/false-endingthe-final-twist.html">False Ending/The Final Twist</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/third-act.html">Third Act</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/end-of-second-act-aka-culmination.html">End of Second Act (A.K.A. Culmination)</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/mid-point-aka-first-culmination.html">Mid-Point (A.K.A. First Culmination)</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/second-act.html">Second Act</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/end-of-first-act.html">End of The First Act</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/point-of-attack.html">Point of Attack</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-status-quo.html">The Status Quo</a></span></li>
<li><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-sequence.html">A Sequence</a></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-11354770520870396602014-01-20T11:08:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:43:10.486-07:00Frank Daniel's Sequence ApproachOnce a writer has a general notion of <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/story-structure.html">STORY STRUCTURE</a>, s/he moves on to a more detailed working out of screenplay structure. Legendary dean of both USC and AFI, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Daniel">Frank Daniel</a> broke down a movie's structure into eight sequences.<br />
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"<i>A typical two-hour film is composed of sequences – 8 to 15 minute segments that have their own internal structure – in effect, shorter films, but inside the larger film. To a significant extent, each sequence has its own protagonist, tension, rising action, and resolution – just like a film as a whole. The difference between a sequence and a standalone 15 minute film is that the conflicts and issues raised in a sequence are only partially resolved within the sequence, and when they are resolved, the resolution often opens up new issues, which in turn become the subject of subsequent sequences</i>." (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Sequence-Approach-Paul-Gulino/dp/0826415687/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390244351&sr=8-1&keywords=screenplay+sequence+approach">Screenwriting</a>, Paul Gulino, pg.2)<br />
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The sequence approach divides the film into eight sequences. The First Act has two sequences, a Second Act has four sequences, and a Third act has two. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1248036513"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDYjFV4NOEI/UuGs49IbJnI/AAAAAAAAQow/E2Za0cF_GrY/s1600/8-Sequence-dissecting-3-acts.jpg" height="218" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://motionpictureplayground.com/">MotionPicturePlayground.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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(Click on each of the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/screenplay-terms-glossary.html">SCREENPLAY TERMS</a> below for a full definition.)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First sequence</span><br />
<br />
Excite the viewers curiosity with an OPENING IMAGE and HOOK. Present <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/exposition.html">EXPOSITION </a>explaining the who, what, when, and where of the story. Show a glimpse of the life of the protagonists before the story gets underway - the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-status-quo.html">STATUS QUO</a>. This sequence generally ends with the inciting incident or<a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/point-of-attack.html"> POINT OF ATTACK</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Second sequence</span><br />
<br />
The protagonist tries to reestablish the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-status-quo.html">STATUS QUO</a> disrupted by the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/point-of-attack.html">POINT OF ATTACK</a>, fails, and must face a worse predicament. The protagonist's <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html">WANT </a>is defined, as so, the sequence poses the DRAMATIC QUESTION that will shape the rest of the story. This is the<a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/end-of-first-act.html"> END OF THE FIRST ACT</a>, and with it the MAIN TENSION is firmly established.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Third sequence</span><br />
<br />
The protagonist makes a first attempt to solve the DRAMATIC QUESTION and fulfill his/her/their <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-status-quo.html">WANT</a>, <b><u>but fails</u></b>. <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/subplot.html">SUBPLOTS </a>are established. This sequence often includes the first major <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/set-piece.html">SET PIECE</a> of the movie, which explores and exploits the MAIN TENSION or <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/comedic-tension.html">COMEDIC TENSION</a>. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fourth sequence</span><br />
<br />
Here the protagonist often attempts, once again, to restore the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-status-quo.html">STATUS QUO</a> and fails. The end of the sequence is the midpoint or <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/mid-point-aka-first-culmination.html">FIRST CULMINATION</a>. It often brings a major REVELATION or REVERSAL. So, a major element of this sequence is audience <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/preparation-aftermath.html">PREPARATION </a>for this culmination. The audience should be tempted to guess the outcome story. The <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/stakes.html">STAKES </a>are raised.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fifth Sequence</span><br />
<br />
The protagonists deals with the AFTERMATH of the first culmination. Often new characters are introduced for new opportunities are discovered. The protagonist's <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html">NEED </a>(as opposed to WANT) becomes a force and complication in the protagonists choices. The sequence may deal heavily with <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/subplot.html">SUBPLOTS</a>, such as a romantic subplot, and may give the audience a break from the MAIN TENSION of the main plot.<br />
<br />
As with other sequences, this sequence may have its own TENSION, WANT and central QUESTION that gets resolved at the climax of the sequence. However the MAIN TENSION and MAIN DRAMATIC QUESTION remain unresolved.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sixth sequence</span><br />
<br />
This is the last sequence before the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/end-of-second-act-aka-culmination.html">END OF THE SECOND ACT</a>. The protagonist has exhausted all easy courses of action and must address the central dramatic question head on. Forces pushing the protagonist to a <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/character-change.html">CHARACTER CHANGE</a> become impossible to ignore.<br />
<br />
The MAIN TENSION resumes it's intensity, and is seemingly resolved in the <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/end-of-second-act-aka-culmination.html">CULMINATION</a> at the sequence climax. This may be a "dark night of the soul" in which the protagonist feels that all is lost, or it may be a victory that leads to a bigger problem and <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/third-act.html">THIRD ACT TENSION</a>.<br />
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SUBPLOTS are generally resolved in the sixth and seventh sequences, before the climax that resolves the central DRAMATIC QUESTION and ends the story.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Seventh sequence</span><br />
<br />
The apparent answer of the central dramatic question proves premature. The <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/stakes.html">STAKES </a>are raised on final time. A new <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/third-act.html">THIRD ACT TENSION</a> is established that will answer the dramatic question once and for all. The story seen in a new light, and the protagonist might reverse his/her/their goals. Often this long sequence ends in a <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/false-endingthe-final-twist.html">FALSE ENDING/FINAL TWIST</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Eighth sequence</span><br />
<br />
The TENSIONS created by the POINT OF ATTACK are finally resolved. Any remaining <a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/subplot.html">SUBPLOTS </a>are tied up. The final image may recall images that opened the film.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span>Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-77404239120884196022014-01-19T19:31:00.000-08:002014-05-09T17:43:34.077-07:00Story Structure<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">Most theories of screenplay structure are based on the </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Three Act Paradigm</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">, inspired by Aristotle's </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Poetics</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;"> and supported by the simple observation that all stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">These three acts correspond to the audience's emotional experience. In the </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">beginning</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">, the audience becomes emotionally involved with the characters. In the </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">middle</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">, the emotional commitment is heightened by rising tension and expectation. The </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">end </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">brings the audience's emotional involvement to a satisfactory end.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">Interestingly, this emotional structure mirrors the phases of </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">human sexual response</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">: excitement, plateau, climax and resolution. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">Here's a detailed look at the </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure">Three Act Paradigm</a></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">, with its "turning points, rising action and climax." </span><span class="qlink_container" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">However, many have criticized the Three Act Paradigm, and claim that an over-emphasis on act breaks, reversals and climax can lead to weak plots and poor characterization.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">At USC's School of Cinematic arts, the theory of story structure most often taught comes from </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Frank Daniel</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">. In his lectures, he said that "a good story well told" had five elements:</span><br />
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<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 5px 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">The story is about <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">somebody </i>with whom we have empathy.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">This somebody wants <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">something </i>very badly.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">This something is difficult but possible to do, get, or achieve.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">The story is told for maximum <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">emotional impact </i>and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">audience participation.</i></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">The story comes to a satisfactory (but not necessarily happy) end.</li>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">(See </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Tools of Screenwriting, </i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">by David Howard and Edward Mabley.)</span><br />
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Brian McDonald</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">, in both his blog and book </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Invisible Ink, </i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">claims that all effective stories have the basic structure of a fairy tale:</span><br />
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<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 5px 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">Once upon a time_____________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">And every day________________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">Until one day_________________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">And because of this___________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">And because of this___________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">And because of this___________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">Until finally__________________</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;">And ever since that day_______</li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">There are also certain filmmakers who discard traditional story structure altogether, and have proposed </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">alternatives</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;">:</span><br />
<br style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<ul style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.920000076293945px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 5px 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">David Lynch</b>, in such films as <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lost Highway</i> and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mulhollland Dr.</i>, uses dream logic and circular (rather than linear) storytelling. His theories of story and creativity can be found in his book, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Big-Fish-Meditation-Consciousness/dp/1585426121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390091476&sr=8-1&keywords=catching+the+big+fish">Catching The Big Fish</a>.</i></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Andrey Tarkovsky</b>, in such films as <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Mirror</i> and<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> The Sacrifice</i>, embraces a poetic, rather than traditionally dramatic, approach to cinema. His theories can be found in his book, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sculpting-Time-Tarkovsky-Filmaker-Discusses/dp/0292776241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390091542&sr=8-1&keywords=sculpting+in+time">Sculpting in Time</a></i>.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Raul Ruiz</b>, in films such as T<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hree Crowns of the Sailor</i>, challenges the idea that every plot should have a central conflict as its backbone. His theories can be found in his book,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poetics-Of-Cinema-Raul-Ruiz/dp/2906571385/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390091575&sr=8-1&keywords=poetics+of+cinema"> <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Poetics of Cinema</i></a>.</li>
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-64513716803360231362014-01-17T17:31:00.002-08:002014-05-09T17:44:49.431-07:00Subplot<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A secondary plotline
weaved into the story. There could be more than one of these. All these
subplots usually clash with the primary plot down the line. For example, </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Se7en</a></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">, we spend time with Mills’ wife,
so that we understand his agony when the box arrives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s important to make
the subplots feel like the part of the same movie and have them thematically
related to what’s going on in the primary plot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Using the same example, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Se7en</a> </i>is about whether hope can blossom
in a dark world where evil men like John Doe exist. In the primary plot, this
theme is reflected in Mills’ corruption by John Doe. Similarly, the subplot
with Mills’ wife is about her confiding in Somerset that she’s pregnant but contemplating
about having an abortion as she is unsure about bringing a child into an
immoral, dark world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Intersecting subplots
with the main plot at just the right moments is a great way to create surprises
(In </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1570728/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Crazy, Stupid, Love</a> </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">all the
subplots come together at the climax of the movie in unexpected ways.) or save
the protagonist out of an impossible situation. The latter could involve a
second character unexpectedly saving the main character (In </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Departed</a></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">, Matt Damon’s Colin
Sullivan is saved at the last minute by a fellow cop who turns out to be
working for the Mob as well.) or the character using a skill he/she learned
during his/her subplot. (In </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Kill Bill 2</a></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">,
Beatrix Kiddo finally slays Bill by using a technique she picked up during her stay
at the temple.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span>Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-65771613293743838392014-01-17T17:30:00.001-08:002014-05-09T17:45:03.088-07:00Theme<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What is your movie
about? For the more analytical folk: What is the topic you’re investigating in
this story? </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Casablanca</a> </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">is about
whether if it’s worth to sacrifice personal happiness for the greater good. </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">X-Men </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">is about what it means to be
excluded from the society due to being different. </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264761/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Kissing Jessica Stein</a> </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">is about the fluidity of sexuality. </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478338/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Bridesmaids</a> </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">is about anxieties
associated with aging and friendship.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Interestingly, what a script implies the main character </span><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">needs </a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">(as opposed to </span><a href="http://genrehacks2.blogspot.com/2014/01/want-versus-need.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">wants</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">) often reveals the theme of the movie, and the point-of-view of the storyteller. Luke needs to "Use the Force" and "Trust his Feelings" and that reveals George Lucus's theme of humanity/mysticism versus technology (as embodied by the Death Star.)</span><br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-34264493755074879312014-01-17T17:29:00.002-08:002014-05-09T17:45:38.067-07:00SubtextSubtext is what the character means when he/she speaks. We want subtext in movies because people saying exactly what they’re thinking all the time is boring and stale. Dialogue with subtext adds weight and dynamism by using the context of the situation and the state of the character. <br />
<br />
In No Country For Old Men Anton Chigurh intimidates a simpleton shop keeper into a deadly coin toss. He doesn’t just come out and say: “If this coin toss doesn’t go your way, I’m going to murder you.” Because that would be boring. Instead they have this chilling conversation:<br />
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<i>“What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”<br /><br />“Sir?”<br /><br />“The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss.”<br /><br /> [Chigurh flips a quarter from the change on the counter and covers it with his hand]<br /><br />“Call it.”<br /><br />“Call it?”<br /><br />“Yes.”<br /><br />“Well, we need to know what we're calling it for here.”<br /><br />“You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair.”<br /><br />“I didn't put nothin' up.”<br /><br />“Yes, you did. You've been putting it up your whole life. You just didn't know it.”</i><br />
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Actors love subtext because it gives them a job to do. It doesn’t take that much effort for them to simply say: “I love you” and mean it. But if you came up with a unique way of saying that, something that didn’t mean “I love you” at all, you bet every actor is going to want to act that scene. As an added bonus: Your scene is going to sound different than the billions of scenes where characters say “I love you” to each other.<br />
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The following dialogue is from Punch Drunk Love and it’s a romantic scene where the two leads, essentially, say “I love you” to each other:<br />
<br />
<i>“I’m looking at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna fucking smash if with the sledge hammer and squeeze it, you’re so pretty…”<br /><br />“I wanna chew your face and I wanna scoop out your eyes and I want to eat them.”</i></div>
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Subtext is also why you can write understated dialogue and let your character’s actions do the rest. </div>
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At the end of Schindler’s List, all the workers Schindler saved thank him. But they do not say: “Thanks for saving us from dying in a horrible way, great Schindler…” What transpires is simple: Schindler’s right hand man, the Jewish Itzhak Stern, gifts Schindler an inscribed ring. Schindler looks at him, slightly confused, and Itzhak explains the meaning to him: </div>
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<i>“Whoever saves one life saves the World Saves the World entire.” </i></div>
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Schindler’s thanks Itzhak inaudibly, and puts the ring onto his finger.<br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-1136550634629991992014-01-17T17:26:00.001-08:002014-05-09T17:45:51.125-07:00Character Change<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Traditionally, the
external elements of the story are used to push against the internal values of
the character, pushing him or her to change. Important thing to remember: </span><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Nobody changes until the pain of staying the same
becomes greater than the pain of change.</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>Inception, </i>Cobb
does not want to let go of his dead wife but, eventually, decides to because
holding onto her would result in his team dying. In <i>Prisoners</i>, Keller Dover resists his impulse to kidnap the creepy
Alex Jones who might know where his kidnapped daughter might be… Until he
realizes not kidnapping him would probably mean that his daughter might never
be found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">It is notable that while in
many Action/Adventure or Comedy movies the protagonist doesn’t necessarily
experience this interior journey, many modern Blockbusters make an effort to
include this in the overall experience. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Compare the countless <i>Bond</i> movies of the yore with the recent <i>Casino Royale </i>and <i>Skyfall </i>where James Bond unmistakably changes throughout the course
of the movie. Similarly, compare countless super hero movies with the first <i>Iron Man </i>where Tony Stark goes from a
selfish weapons manufacturer to a benevolent philanthropist.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-13101796474007323682014-01-17T17:24:00.003-08:002014-05-09T17:46:06.409-07:00Want versus Need<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What your character
wants to do versus what he/she needs in his/her life to be truly happy. The
larger this gap, the more internal conflict your character will have to battle
with. Traditionally, a character “changes” from pursuing his/her want to
his/her need as he/she grows. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>A Few
Good Men, </i>L.T. Kaffee is a military lawyer known for settling all his cases
because he doesn’t want to risk his neck. Initially, when the case of the movie
comes to his attention, he WANTS to settle it as usual and move on. However, he
decides to stay with the case as he uncovers the conspiracy and realizes he
NEEDS to do the right thing and get this case to trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>40 Year Old Virgin, </i>what Andy WANTS it
to hide the fact that he’s a virgin from Trish. This causes him to act
bizarrely and Trish suspects he’s a psycho, kicking him out. Only in the last
moments of the film he realizes that he NEEDS to be honest and tell her the
truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It should be noted that
this progression from WANT to NEED is not necessarily a positive journey. Many
movies feature dark character whose journeys from WANT to NEED defy traditional
expectations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>The Unforgiven</i> William Munny WANTS to
collect the bounty without turning into a monster. But, after the first two
acts of the movie, he realizes he NEEDS to become a monster. Similarly, in <i>L.A. Confidential</i>, Exley WANTS to do
everything by the book but, after the first two acts of the movie, realizes
that he NEEDS to get his hands dirty and break the law if he’s ever going to
make a difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A powerful
juxtaposition occurs when a character gets what he/she wants but not what
he/she needs.<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>Up In The Air, </i>all Ryan Bingham WANTS is
to travel without strings and gain ten million frequent flyer miles. But, his
affair with Alex Goran makes him realize he NEEDS love and family in his life.
In a great scene, he receives the news that he has successfully accumulated ten
million frequent flyers, just after Alex breaks his heart. He has gained what
he WANTED but not what he NEEDED.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362987544518888170.post-38890475232731829742014-01-17T17:23:00.003-08:002014-05-09T17:46:26.037-07:00Stakes<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What happens if your
protagonist DOESN’T get what/she wants? What’s the worst case scenario? In most
Action/Adventure movies the stakes are Physical and Life/Death. (If <i>The Avengers </i>don’t succeed, the Earth
will be destroyed!) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In Comedies and
Romantic Comedies, the stakes are usually more personal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>Annie Hall</i>, the stakes are Alvy and
Annie’s relationship. In <i>The Hangover</i>,
they need to find Doug or otherwise they have destroyed his wedding.) As for
smaller stories, the stakes must be intensely personal. (In <i>The Wrestler</i>, being a Wrestler is The
Ram’s entire life. We see how uncomfortable and out of place he is outside of
that world over and over again, so we know how much he needs to be a Wrestler,
even if his body wouldn’t allow him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It should also be noted
that interweaving Personal and Physical stakes together can yield great
results. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><i>Taken </i>is an action/thriller
with very personal stakes: If Liam Neeson can’t rescue his daughter, she will
be raped and killed. On the other hand, <i>The
King’s Speech</i> is a small drama that heightens its Personal Stakes to
Life/Death stakes. If King George can’t overcome his speech impediment and
bolster his countrymen’s spirits, then England will fall to the Nazi’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You also want Stakes to
get bigger/more personal as the movie goes on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In <i>The King’s Speech </i>George is crowned King, making everything more
important all of a sudden. Inversely, in<i>
Aliens, </i>the Life/Death stakes are compounded by the fact that Ripley and
Newt have built up a personal connection throughout the movie and, in the
climactic scene, Ripley has to save Newt from The Queen.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>I write this blog in order to connect with intelligent, ambitious, and creative people. If you leave a comment, you will inspire me to write more. If you liked the article, please share it.</i></span></div>
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Sean Hoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06231519321386029271noreply@blogger.com1