Kēnya's Mastery Journal

Hear Ye, Hear Ye - This is my Writer’s Decree!

My name is Kēnya Claytor. 

I am a writer. 

Creative Writing Portfolio Mastery Assignment Branding is a necessary marketing strategy that enlarges and ensures the visibility of a company or organization. One form of branding that addresses and fulfills a company’s CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility is Cause Branding. Cause Branding is defined as “the process of crafting and marketing a social or environmental identity in order to differentiate a business or otherwise enhance the image of a business’s overall brand”(https://www.causegood.com/blog/cause-branding/). 

There are branding campaigns going on every single day, but very few catch my attention like the following three have. Each campaign answers the social responsibility that companies must fulfill to ensure their culture and products reflect the people who produce and purchase their goods. With cause branding, there is an additional element of giving back to the communities and world in and from which these companies operate and benefit. Here are my favorites:

Barbie (http://shop.mattel.com/family/?categoryId=45063936)

Barbie had a midlife crisis on her 57th birthday this year and finally caught up with the times. Mattel unveiled their new line of dolls that are a beautiful reflection of the thousands of shades and sizes of young women who have grown up on Barbie. Dolls now come in all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities allowing little girls to see themselves on store shelves across the world.

Coca-Cola (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgGfBiswon0)

Coca-cola has long since been a global leader and now their new initiative, which brings awareness to such issues as rebuilding schools and providing clean water to poor communities, brings their Corporate Social Responsibility to a new level. Coke is still giving out smiles. (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33857/10-Businesses-We-Admire-for-Brilliant-Global-Marketing.aspx)

Yoplait Save Lids To Save Lives (https://friendsinthefight.yoplait.com/#enter-your-codes)

You can’t walk a city block without bumping into someone who has been affected by cancer. Yoplait’s “Friends In The Fight” (formerly known as “Save Lids to Save Lives”) has been in existence and a staple in my household since 1999. With its lid redemption program, where each one is worth ten cents, Yoplait has raised more than $30 million dollars towards breast cancer research specifically.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzH6D_XSrY)

If we want to seriously talk about Mastery, we have to talk about Maurice White! 

His influence on music will know no bounds! 

For our Advanced Editing class, we have a two-part assignment. The first part involved picking a classic love story and providing a summary for it, including a new log line. Part two of the assignment is writing an original story based on another classmates love story summary and their new log line. 

For this assignment I’ve chosen to run with my classmate Bill’s summary on “The Wedding Singer” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Below is Bill’s summary with my revised story immediately following:

1: CLASSIC STORY

The Wedding Singer, a classic “love conquers all” themed story (The Script Lab, n.d.).

IMDb Synopsis (BigJobMan, 2015)

Trailer (New Line Cinema, 1998)

2: NEW VERSION

Logline – When a hilarious birthday clown falls in love with a mom he sees at several parties that is about enter a second marriage with another wealthy man who doesn’t really care about her, he hatches all sorts of zany scenes to win her over, but eventually finds that all he had to do was let her see his genuine self that hides behind the makeup and jokes.

3: STRUCTURE

Beginning – When Robbie is at the low point of his life after being left at the altar by Linda, he agrees to help his friend Julia plan her wedding to Glenn, but winds up falling for her. So when Robbie finds out that Glenn cheats on her and has no respect for her, he wishes he could find a way to steal her from him.

Middle – Robbie’s flailing to impress Julia actually pushes her away, so when Linda gives her the impression that her and Robbie are back together, Julie hops a flight to marry Glenn ASAP.

End – Robbie breaks the bank to get on the flight, and wins her with a heartfelt song and the help of sympathetic passengers.

4: CORE

Conflict – Julie is engaged to the “perfect” successful and handsome guy; whom her family and friends are pushing hard for her to marry (Fogarty, 2007).

Message – Genuine love is more important in a partner than status, appearance, or the opinions of friends and family.

Hero – Robbie is a kind-hearted, humorously gifted, and humble “average Joe” who can’t catch a break.

Why we empathize – It’s painful to watch circumstances repeatedly turn against him through no fault of his own, and it’s clear the he and Julie belong together even though odds are against it.

References

BigJobMan. (2015, March). Synopsis for The Wedding Singer. Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120888/synopsis

Fogarty, M. (2007, March 9). Who Versus Whom. Retrieved from Grammar Girl: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/who-versus-whom

New Line Cinema. (1998). The Wedding Singer (1998) Trailer. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bhU3NsCIDs

The Script Lab. (n.d.). Top 10 Central Themes in Film. Retrieved from The Script Lab: http://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting/story/development/1005-top-10-central-themes-in-film?showall=&start=9

The Birthday Clown

The Cohen Bah-Mitzvah is a roaring success. A crowd of laughing children excitedly sit in a circle while CLARENCE THE CLOWN, (32), dazzles them with tricks and stunts like he’s the star of the playground. Out of the corner of his eye, Clarence spies little BETHANY desperately clinging to her mother CHLOE, (29), away from the crowd. Slowly Clarence makes his way over to where the two ladies are standing, pulls out a flower and presents it to Bethany. She slowly releases her grip on her mother and after a momentary pause, runs off to join the circle of other children.

 Clarence takes the opportunity to start a conversation with Chloe. He has performed at a number of birthday parties in this part of town and Chloe and Bethany have attended a few of them. He first noticed Chloe at a Bar-Mitzvah he was hired for two months ago. Her golden hair had caught flecks of sunlight as she walked into the backyard, giving her an almost heavenly glow and for a moment, Clarence thought he had actually seen an angel. During the awkward small talk, Clarence notices a huge diamond ring on Chloe’s finger and out of sheer morbid curiosity, he changes the topic of conversation to find out more about Chloe’s engagement.

Though he expected an exuberant recount of all the loving details, Chloe talks about her fiancé and engagement as if it’s some sort of endangered servant obligation. In the same labored breath, she chronicles her family’s love of DONALD DUMP, his budding trapeze artist career with the Flying Dumps, her desire to give Bethany a stable home and to make everyone happy, even at her own personal expense. Instead of feelings of jealousy, Clarence is filled with an overwhelming urge to make all of Chloe’s dreams come true. He wants to reach into his clown costume and pull out all of Chloe’s dreams like he did with Bethany’s flower.

Though he knows that the odds are stacked against him, he can’t shake the feeling that he could make Chloe happy and leaves the party resolved to win her over before the fateful wedding. On his way home he hatches a plan to woo the lovely Chloe. He decides to give her a jack-in-the-box with a love note inside. On his way to deliver the box, Clarence catches Donald cheating with another woman and confronts him. Seeing how worked up he is about it, Donald realizes that Clarence has feelings for Chloe. Donald, in all of his macho bullying ways, grabs and destroys the box.

Needing to “mark his territory”, Donald challenges Clarence to a tight rope walking contest, to which Clarence hesitates to accept until he sees Chloe watching from afar. Clarence in his clown costume and Donald in his trapeze attire, climb to the top rope.  Donald insists on going first and traverses the rope with ease. As Clarence begins his balancing act, Donald grabs hold of the rope and begins to shake it uncontrollably until Clarence can no longer stand and falls to the net below. Donald gloats from high above proclaiming his dominance.