My Research Notebook

Act 1:

• Has to be tight and grip the audience
• Supposed to set up your world maybe with character introductions and scene descriptions
• A good example is Saving Private Ryan where in addition to the gripping Omaha beach scene, we understand the stakes of the film, Tom Hanks’ position, and get a preview of the end of the film

Act 2:

• Confrontation portion
• Oftentimes the most difficult part to write
• The map between the beginning and ending you had thought out
• Where you explore your extra stories, answer questions from Act 1, and ask new questions for Act 3
• It ends when your characters suffer the worst loss imaginable
• Where the character should be trying for what he really wants
• Ends when your character suffers the worst loss imaginable, or the “Oh Crap” moment

Act 3:

• Where characters confront their feelings, desires, and goals
• The character faces their biggest challenge or runs into a huge problem
• Dealing with and coming to terms with their consequences
• Sixth Sense is a good example
  • Cole’s arc is completed as he finally gets his mom to believe him that he can see ghosts
  • With the B story of Malcolm’s crumbling marriage, it is resolved with him being a Ghost

Citation: Hellerman, Jason. “Three Act Structure: Breaking down Acts One, Two, & Three in Movies.” No Film School, No Film School, 12 Mar. 2022, https://nofilmschool.com/Three-act-structure.

Why was writing the screenplay so tricky, where I am still struggling to make it sound good?

I arrived at 3 main reasons, characterization, personal connection, and chronology.

Characterization:

Given more time, I would have really liked to develop the characters more. Butler was fairly developed, but understanding his backstory would have made it much easier to write in his voice. Outside of knowing he went to that same school, I didn’t really know his experiences after the fact, or what he really did when he got out of the community. Part of me sometimes felt like I was writing him in my voice. The president and parent were characters I wasn’t even thinking of until after the first draft of the scene. In fact, I never even anticipated there being a parent with actual lines of dialogue. Because of this and because of the time spent trying to make the dialogue flow well or sound somewhat melodic, I did not put in the proper time to flesh out the other characters.

Personal Connection:

There is no question that religion and education is one of the issues today I feel most passionate about. I have been talking about it for years. However, this is not a terribly personal film. For a first-time screenwriter, it seems much easier to write about what you know and what you have experienced. Outside of having some extended family members in that community, I never experienced those schools. I never had to figure out how to escape my community to learn what I wanted to learn. Perhaps as I write more and more that personal connection can become more diluted while still maintaining the quality of the script.

Chronology:

I saw a very interesting Quentin Tarantino interview that I will link below. He is one of the all-time greatest screenwriters and it’s not a coincidence that he also has written some of the best characters to ever grace the screen. One of the things he says he does while writing is that he doesn’t really plan it out all that much, but lets the characters drive the story. He stays so true to his characters that he lets them pick the direction of the film, because what Tarantino wants might not actually be what the character would do or say. For this reason, it is very important for him to write his scripts chronologically. Of course, he also does extensive characterization work and has a great deal of experience. Looking back on my writing, I wrote one of the final scenes of the movie first. That is the general direction I wanted it to go in, but if I wrote the whole screenplay, it very well could have ended differently as I learned more about my characters. I can say that at the very least, the dialogue would have probably been very different in that scene. I think moving forward, it is important not to fixate on one particular ending or one scene, but to work chronologically and see where the characters end up.

He says this in multiple interviews but here is a good concise clip:

Changes made:

• I agree that my first section on the project proposal was not clear on whether the issue was revolving around schools or students. I changed the wording to hopefully make it clear the problem I am exposing is with the schools
• Took out “unbiased education” and replaced it with “a complete education, not one that changes the science based on your religion.”
• I did not narrow my audience outside of voters but I elaborated to back it up more. Giving the reason why voting really is the issue and why this should be relevant to all voters
• Took out some of the harsher language in “the film will mean nothing to them”
• Added more scholarly articles and the screenplay to the bibliography

Ethan: Re-Creating Ebbets Field

• Museum exhibit with a 3D model, audio, and newspaper clippings
• It starts with an opening-day exhibit
• Won series against Yankees in 1955
• Left for LA due to low attendance and high success of other teams who moved
• Used original blueprints for CAD model in SolidWorks
• Audio of the beginning of a game at Ebbets Field
• The architecture of City Field and Atlantic Center Shopping Center pays homage to Ebbets Field

Cole: Flash Fiction “The Betrayal”

• Researched James Bulger, South Boston, Flash Fiction
• Inspired by the Godfather, Departed, Goodfellas
• Bulger was an FBI informant who was convicted of being an informant by Agent John Connolly
• Realized that he needs to be very specific

Matt: Short Film DUPE

• Into Photography and Videography

Meri

• Public transportation in Atlanta
• Created a Museum exhibit
• Made it past, present, and future
• MARTA is thought of as a social service and a congestion relief
• Did a good job of combining the presentation with a physical thing like what I needed to do

Aubrey

• Peruvian Presidencies Podcast
• Machu Picchu was closed for Pedro Castillo’s rebellion
• Made for people who listen to NPR
• Discusses the Fujimori family and its corruption and how it led to Castillio getting elected
• She was very very knowledgeable on her topic and was able to give nice details in her answers. I should review some of the backgrounds more to prepare for that.

Logan

• Coding with ChatGPT
• Documentary-style video on how ChatGPT can be used in computer science classes
• Made a pong game completely coded by ChatGPT
• Bad at making a game from scratch but better at solving problems as a supplementary tool
• It was nice that it was very little slide reading which allowed him to communicate better. My slides were going to be denser but I think I will mostly talk instead

Leena

• Book reading of an excerpt of Thinking Through Time
• Learn more about the character as the story unfolds
• Was very entranced by the reading so I was not really taking too many notes

Will

• Relationship between Young Adults and Gambling
• Asks the audience about their experience with gambling
• A series of videos that tell a memorable story accompanied by facts
• Like TikToks with parts 1, 2, …
• Put it under the STEM FYP on TikTok

Hannah

• How Instagram is destroying teen girls’ mental health
• Looked at the negative effects for different genders and social media addiction
• Particularly looking at Instagram and the controversies surrounding it
• Meta is creating an Instagram product for teens
• Poll younger age groups and post it to a website aimed at parents

Sanjna: A teen’s guide to mental health during COVID

• Website format targeted towards teens and parents
• COVID-19 changed routines, learning, healthcare, etc. negatively impacting teens
• Teenage girls more impacted than boys
• Social Media had a major impact with teens spending much more time online
• Did a # study on TikTok with anxiety and depression having billions of views
• Has a page on the site about how parents can help their kids
• A very multimodal website with statistics and studies including a citation page

Margaret: Economics and Contradictions of Self-care

• Very engaging and anecdotal
• Looked at how self-care is displayed on the internet
• Did influencer self-care things
• Created a series of essays about the origin and how to do self-care
• The best self-care is meaningless to the world but meaningful to you

Victor: Freemasonry

• Fraternal organization finding importance in symbolism and the enlightenment of others
• Dedicated to his father to help him learn more about freemasonry and its relationship to cults
• Has the history, practices, and recent changes
• A section on cults
• A section on whether or not Freemasonry is a cult
• Found freemasonry isn’t found as a cult as cults are normally secretive and have a negative connotation
• He has a personal page with his personal connection and works cited

Iris: Shaping an understanding of poverty, education, and herself through research and reflection

• Poverty greatly reduced education access
• 62.4% of Georgia Tech students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
• Wanted to tell a story and reach an audience
• Used data from a previous research project where she showed the relationship between poverty and test scores
• New Yorker-style article that is accessible and readable

How do facts, research, and beliefs shape the world of a text?

General Outline 1:

Thesis: Different assumptions and beliefs may lead to my audience to have a different perspective on my project than originally intended.

i. Nothing is inherently a fact, because facts are influenced by your individual experiences

ii. The background of the researcher can have effects on the actual form of the text made by a researcher, thus having an effect on the audience’s beliefs. A song can have many interpretations based on the person listening, and many times different connotations between people.

iii. The choice of including certain sources while omitting others in itself is a form of bias from the researcher.

C: We must be aware of how our beliefs shape our final products, as it will impact the way in which our audience will receive the information we are attempting to convey.

General Outline 2:

Thesis: In order to create a persuasive text, there must be some sort of alignment between the beliefs that exist in our final product and our audience.

i. Connections such as the theme or the form of the text must be made for the audience to make initial connections/build credibility around the beliefs of the researcher. An audience may not necessarily agree with the themes, but the form of the text can help build a world for the researcher that the audience can understand/learn from.

ii. I combine the facts with my own beliefs to develop a more appealing text to help persuade my audience

iii. I need to make a connection with the audience, and present my point of view not from an aggressive point of view, but an understandable one.

C: Persuasion is an important part of crafting a text, however, it needs to be done in a way that will connect with an audience and align with their current beliefs in some way.

April 18th: Last day to submit for research notebook. If you wait until that day to submit you won’t get feedback

Research Notebook: Anything relevant to the project, notes, practice, drafts, journals, etc.

• The final portfolio is now 1500 points
• Requires final project, polished
• Should not summarize the semester of the final project but overall insights into writing and/or research

New Updates:

• A little over 5 pages
• Scene description added to the beginning
• Some final dialogue to conclude the scene after the monologue
• The scene is now complete not just a monologue
• Another character was added, a parent of one of the students
• Now about 5 minutes in length
• The beginning of the second part of the monologue was changed
• The immediate dialogue leading into the monologue was updated
• Minor phrases were altered throughout

Audio delivery of the scene:

Again, I made a YouTube video of the delivery of the scene with me playing all the parts to show how the dialogue should be paced.

PDF of the draft in screenplay format

Notes:

• The dialogue, in the beginning, is a little rough and I am still playing around with it.
• I like the fast-paced dialogue exchange when Mr. Butler interjects and starts questioning the parent
• The exchange starting with “How much do you know about the science I taught?” is almost verbatim from the actual Scopes monkey Trial. It was a very iconic moment when Scopes’ lawyer responded with “Do you think about things you do think about?
• Asking about whether the children were harmed is also inspired by the Scopes Monkey Trial where a student was put on the stand and asked the same thing. However, the questions that follow are my own.
• I feel now that the monologue sounds a little better and a little smoother with the changes
• I am still working on a phrase to replace: “education guided by God himself”. I was looking at Yeshiva’s mission statements to find something good but couldn’t get anything. It should be something able to be used in a condescending way
• This scene comes out to 5 minutes and 15 seconds. However, with the initial setup, Butler having to walk in as stated in the scene description, and future edits, I believe it will land around 6 minutes. That, I believe is a very good length for a scene like this.
• For reference the Scent of a Woman scene is about 7 minutes, the Newsroom scene is 5 minutes, and the Good Will Hunting Scene is 5 minutes.