1. int. A ‘big top’ circus (ELINOR’S THOUGHT BUBBLE/fantasy) A <FANFARE> plays, as ELINOR, dressed in a top hat ENTERS to stand in a circus ring, under a spotlight. ELINOR (Grandly) Ladies and Gentlemen! Friends of alllll ages! Welcome to the Animal Town Circus! The unseen audience in the tent <WHOOPS AND CHEERS>! OS <CALLIOPE MUSIC> plays, as a spotlight finds ARI, wearing a FANCY HELMET with stars and a BOW TIE, wheeling into the ring on a snazzy UNICYCLE. (Note: he doesn’t hold out his arms for balance, but since this is Elinor’s daydream, he has no trouble staying up.) <SFX: CROWD OOOOH> WALLA Next, OLIVE, wearing a TUTU, strides in confidently, on TOWERING STILTS. <SFX: CROWD AHHHH> Next, we CUT TO Elinor, on the platform of a TIGHT-ROPE. (There’s a net.) Without using her arms or a pole to balance, she saunters across the high-wire. <SFX: CROWD CHEERS (MAYBE CHANTS THE NAME “ELINOR” IF POSSIBLE> OLIVE ( vo ) Elinor? Elinor! Smash cut to: NOTE: Or we could WIDEN and PAN DOWN to reveal this is a THOUGHT BUBBLE 2. EXT. forest - DAY Elinor startles from her daydream. She’s standing in a little forest glade which has been decorated for a kid-like circus, with a tent made of streamers, balloons, stumps set up as chairs for the audience, and maybe kid-pictures of clowns etc. Elinor’s holding a roll of STREAMER PAPER. ELINOR Huh? Olive comes over, smiling. olive (chuckling) You were daydreaming. What do you think of our circus tent? She points up. CUT WIDE to reveal Ari, just finishing an airy ‘ROOF’ made of alternating RED AND BLUE PAPER STREAMERS. (These are ‘tented’ over a high branch, then anchored to low tree branches.) ELINOR Wow, nice job! Our circus is going to be AMAZING. OLIVE I know. I hope the audience loves it. Ari flies back down to join them. aRI Of course they’ll love it. (puffs up, proud) After all, we have a real circus tent and a real circus unicycle... CUT TO a gently used UNICYCLE and HELMET decorated with stars resting nearby. ARI (CONT’D) And a super-fancy circus helmet...what more could you want? Elinor (teasing) A unicycle rider? But Ari dismisses her teasing with a wave of his hand. ARI (unconcerned) I’ll get the hang of it by show time. I just need some practice. Olive picks up a pair of low PLAY STILTS lying on the ground. OLIVE I should practice too. I borrowed these play stilts, so I’ve never used them before. ELINOR Okay. And I’ll work on my tight-rope walking! She scans around - her gaze settles on a handy FALLEN LOG. ELINOR (CONT’D) That log should do the trick. Ari buckles on his helmet, full of excitement. ARI This is going to be the Greatest Show in Animal Town. Ari grabs his unicycle by the seat, and stands it up. ARI (CONT’D) Now. How do I get up on this thing? Elinor and Olive <SFX: GIGGLE> ‘wheel’ wipe to: 3. EXT. FOREST GLADE - MINUTES LATER Elinor steps up onto one end of the FALLEN LOG and strikes a confident pose. (This is her ‘tight-rope’.) ELINOR (grand) Make way for The Amazing Elinor, the brave tight-rope walker. Elinor takes a deep breath then tries to walk across the log. (NOTE: She does NOT put out her arms for balance.) After three wobbly steps, she loses her balance and hops off. ELINOR (mutters) (CONT’D) ( huff ) This is trickier than I thought. ARI (os) Tell me about it. CUT TO Ari, who’s perched on his low unicycle, awkwardly clutching a small nearby tree for support. ARI (CONT’D) I can get ON my unicycle and push off, but then look what happens - Ari demonstrates, letting go of a tree and taking a couple of pedal strokes. (He doesn’t hold out his wings for balance yet.) But soon, he starts to wobble and tip sideways - ARI (CONT’D) Whoa! - and he’s obliged to hop off, landing on his feet. ARI (CONT’D) I tip over. Olive holds a stilt in each hand. OLIVE I know what you mean! Watch... Olive steps up onto the stilts, and shuffles a few steps - OLIVE (CONT’D) I can go a few steps, but after that - whoa! - but then she loses her balance and has to step off. OLIVE (CONT’D) I can’t stay up. Elinor comes over to join her friends. ELINOR Circus performers can do this stuff, so there has to be a way. (curious) What do we have to do, to stay up? Just then - Philbert (os) Hi! They turn to see a BOY SQUIRREL bounding over. This is PHILBERT, a sweet, bright-eyed squirrel who tends to ‘upspeak’ - he makes everything sound like a question. PHILBERT (CONT’D) I’m Philbert? I just moved here? ELINOR Hi! I’m Elinor. This is Ari, and Olive. Ari / Olive (wave) Hi. / Nice to meet you! Philbert looks up at their streamer ‘tent’, curious. PhILBERT You too! What’cha doin’ ? OLIVE Putting on a circus! Want to join us? PHILBERT (delighted) Yeah! Can I be in the audience? I looove clapping and cheering, so I’d be a reeally good audience? Elinor shares a grin with her friends. ELINOR That’s awesome, we need an audience. Bu-uut our show’s not quite ready yet. PHILBERT That’s okay. It’ll take me a while to find the perfect seat, y’know ? Philbert hops up onto one of the LOGS they’ve gathered and placed on their ends, like stools. (The stool wobbles, but Philbert uses his tail to counterbalance and stays up.) ELINOR Sit anywhere you like! We’d better get back to practicing. Elinor heads back to her log, and hops up onto the end. She tries to walk across, but after a few steps, the same thing happens - she wobbles and steps off. ELINOR (CONT’D) Whoops! PHILBERT (part os) Yeah! Go, Elinor! The other three look over at Philbert, puzzled. PHILBERT (sheepish) (CONT’D) Heh . I’m practicing too. Cheering? Yaaay ! He mimes ‘cheering’. The others <SFX: GIGGLE> Philbert wobbles on his stool. PHILBERT (CONT’D) I’m gonna try another seat. He scurries OS to find a better one. Meanwhile, Elinor tries again to cross her log - same result. ELINOR Oof . What am I doing wrong? What do real circus performers have that I don’t? phILBERT (os) How about costumes? CUT TO Philbert, who is trying out a new perch, on a BOULDER. PHILBERT (CONT’D) You know how they usually wear sparkly stuff? Or clown costumes? Olive nods eagerly. OLIVE We have costumes! Let’s show him. Olive goes under the play structure to get a TOTE BAG. From it, she takes out a POLKA-DOT BOW for Ari, a TOP HAT for Elinor, and a TUTU for herself (same as in the opening THOUGHT BUBBLE). We CUT AWAY to Philbert, while they put on their accessories. PHILBERT Ooh niiice ! That makes you guys look really um , circus-y? BACK ON Elinor, Olive and Ari, now wearing their costumes. OliVE I feel circusy. ELINOR Well, we if we feel like circus people. Maybe that’ll help us perform like circus people, too. ARI Only one way to find out! Ari picks up his unicycle, and goes back to the tree to help himself get up on it. ARI (CONT’D) ( exhale ) Okay. Here goes! He pushes off, wobbling as he pedals. But this time, he holds his elbows out, and he lasts longer before toppling! ARI (CONT’D) I’m doing it, I’m doing it! Oof . He lands safely on his feet. CUT TO Philbert, who has moved to a swaying TREE BRANCH, near/above Elinor’s log. (Using his tail to counter-balance as he sways, as squirrels do. But no one notices, yet.) philbert See? That was better? ARI (surprised) Yeah! I think holding my wings out makes it easier, somehow. Ari gets up and tries again, riding with his arms out somewhat. When he tips to the right - ARI (CONT’D) Whoa! - he instinctively reaches/leans to the left, and stays up. ari (CONT’D) Whew! I thought I was going to fall. OLIVE Me too. But you didn’t! ANGLE ON Elinor, looking very curious. ELINOR Yes. You were tipping one way, but then you put your wing out the other way... and you stayed up. That’s SO interesting! Ari hops off his unicycle, delighted. ARI So that’s the secret. You have to use your wings to stay up! Olive picks up her play stilts, looking a bit wistful. OLIVE Well I hope that’s not the only way, since we don’t have wings. ARI (eager) I’m gonna practice some more! Ari hurries OS with his unicycle. OLIVE Me too. I’ll stay close to those trees so I can grab one if I start to tip over. Olive carries her stilts close to a line of small trees (or maybe there’s a rustic fence nearby?), to practice. ELINOR (to philbert) Let’s watch, Philbert. We need more observations... Olive steps up on her stilts and shuffles along beside the trees (or fence) . Until... she starts to sway. OLIVE Whoa - CUT TO Elinor and Philbert. (Philbert unconsciously mirrors Olive as she tips, but compensates with his tail to stay up on his branch.) eLINOR (calls) Grab the branch! BACK ON Olive as she uses her trunk to reach for the branch. She doesn’t actually touch it - but just the act of reaching for it, shifts her weight and stops her from falling over. oLIVE (surprised) ( gasp ) I didn’t fall. ELINOR And you didn’t grab hold, either. Olive steps down from her stilts as Elinor comes closer. olive (surprised) I just reached out the other way with my trunk, and I stayed up. ELINOR So it isn’t just wings. A trunk can help you stay up too. OLIVE (pleased) Maybe this stilt-walking thing isn’t so hard after all? Olive eagerly steps up and stilt-walks OS, actively moving her trunk to help balance herself. Elinor watches her go. ELINOR (to herself) Well, I don’t have wings. And I don’t have a trunk. But I am The Amazing Elinor, and I will do this. Determined, Elinor turns and marches back to her ‘tight-rope’ log. Philbert scampers to a new perch on the branch of a closer tree, to watch her. Wipe to: 4. EXT. FOREST GLADE - PRACTICING MONTAGE <CIRCUS MUSIC UP> - in QUICK CUTS we see Elinor try over and over, to cross her log without stepping off. (She’s still not holding out her arms or ears to help her balance.) - Elinor takes two wobbly steps, but then loses her balance and has to step off the log. - Elinor tries shuffling sideways across the log - but the same thing happens. - Elinor tries hopping across - no luck. - She tries doing it in a crouch, but still topples over and lands in the grass. <GROAN>. <MUSIC OUT> - END MONTAGE. Philbert <CLAPS> and cheers - he’s getting really good at being an audience. PHILBERT Wooh ! Yeah! Go, Elinor! Elinor sits up, feeling discouraged. ELINOR Aw , don’t clap for that , Philbert. I’m supposed to be a tight-rope walker, not a falling-down clown . Ari cycles and Olive stilt-walks over to join them. (Both are doing well at keeping their balance, now.) OLIVE Don’t give up, Elinor. ARI Yeah! Sooner or later, you always figure things out. ELINOR But if I don’t figure it out soon , then I won’t have anything to do in our circus! Just then, a single streamer from their ‘tent’ comes untied from the tree. aRI Whoops! A streamer came untied. He starts over to pick up the end of the streamer, but speedy Philbert gets there first. PHILBERT I’ll do it! It’s not a problem. Get it? Knot a problem? ( snort-giggle ) Philbert grabs the end of the streamer and carries it up to the tree to re-tie it. Just then, Elinor notices something. FRONT ANGLE (HEAD ON) - Philbert confidently walks across the branch with the streamer, in a way that echoes what she’s trying to do on her log. Only Philbert has no trouble. ELINOR Wait a second! How’d you do that? Philbert finishes his knot, then turns proudly to Elinor. PHILBERT Do what - tie a knot? Easy! I was a squirrel scout. ELINOR No, I mean how do you walk across that, without tipping over? Philbert looks down - he hadn’t noticed. PHILBERT Oh, that. It’s kind of a squirrel thing? My Mom calls it balancing? OLIVE (nodding) Balance! I’ve heard that word. ELINOR Then ‘balance’ is what I need to get across my log! How do you do it? PhILBERT (shrugs) I just keep the same amount of ‘squirrel’ on both sides of whatever I’m balancing on. Philbert leans out to the left and his big tail waves out to the right to counter-balance him. PHILBERT (CONT’D) If my top goes one way, I just stick my big tail out the other way. To make it equal, see? Elinor frowns, considering her small tail puff. elinor That might not work for me. My tail’s pretty small. Ari turns around to feature his non-existent tail. aRI ( chuckle ) Join the club. ELINOR (to Ari) But you don’t need a tail to help you balance. You have wings. ARI The Winged Wonder, that’s me. Ari does a quick demo, unicycling with his wings out. OLIVE And I don’t use wings or my tail. When I start to tip, I use my trunk to even things out. Olive rocks side-to-side on her stilts, swinging her trunk to counterbalance. CUT TO Elinor, finally ‘getting it’. ELINOR I get it. You’re all using your body parts to help you balance. But I haven’t been using any. Maybe that’s why I can’t stay up? Elinor hurries back to her log, and hops up to try again. ELINOR (CONT’D) Well, I don’t have wings, or a trunk or a long tail, but I DO have arms...and ears! Elinor holds both her arms and ears out horizontally, then carefully starts to walk across. This time she gets further! ELINOR (CONT’D) It’s working! Whoa... - she wobbles and steps off. She chuckles. ELINOR (CONT’D) Well it helps , anyway. I wonder - if my arms and ears were longer, would it be easier? CUT TO Olive, as a THOUGHT BUBBLE forms above her. She pictures Elinor holding out comically long arms and ears. OLIVE ( chuckle ) It would be funnier. ELINOR ( laugh ) Yeah. But what if I can borrow something to be like longer arms? Hmm... Elinor goes into the bushes, <RUSTLES> around for a moment, then comes up with a LONG, STURDY, LEAFLESS BRANCH. ELINOR (CONT’D) Like this! Maybe this’ll help? Elinor hops up on her log, holding her branch horizontally like a proper balance pole. She already looks more secure. ELINOR (CONT’D) Drum roll, please! Using two sticks, Ari <’DRUM ROLLS’> on one end of her log. ON Elinor as she takes a deep breath, and starts to walk. She wobbles - but uses her stick to counter balance, and recovers. Finally... she makes it all the way across! ELINOR (CONT’D) I did it! I really did it! Philbert leans over to whisper in Ari’s ear. Ari laughs. ARI Yup . NOW we can cheer. PHILBERT / OLIVE / ARI ( cheering for Elinor) Wipe to: 5. EXT. FOREST GLADE - DAY (MINUTES LATER) MINUTES LATER - A beaming Elinor has a paper MEGAPHONE in hand. She addresses a ‘crowd’ of a FEW LOCAL KIDS who have joined Philbert on the log stools to watch the show. ELINOR Ladieees and Gentlemen! Let the Greatest Show in Animal Town BEGIN! <MUSIC UP> - as the performers launch into a circus act showcasing the art - and science - of keeping your balance! SONG - “YOU CAN BALANCE IF YOU TRY” First Elinor gestures to Ari, riding his unicycle. He holds his wings out ‘wide’ for balance as he cycles TOWARDS CAMERA. ELINOR / OLIVE / ARI (SING) To stay upright when you ride Just keep it even on every side It’s easier if you spread out wide You can balance if you try Now Elinor ‘presents’ Philbert, back on the wobbly log stool. (As they sing, Philbert sways side to side, clearly using his ‘fluffy tail’ to counterbalance.) A big long tail will help a lot to keep you balanced on a spot Just reach it over where you’re not You can balance if you try Elinor picks up her long stick and holds it horizontally. (Olive enters, stilt-walking, for the second line.) A good long stick can help you out (just OLIVE, joking) I like to use my nice, long snout (ALL) Staying up is what it’s all about You can balance if you try CUT TO Elinor’s log, as Elinor runs INTO FRAME and leaps up on one end, holding her balance pole. Just practice hard, and there’s no doubt... To a <DRUM BEAT>, Elinor crosses the log with a strut in her step - and makes it all the way! You can balance if you try! END SONG. The audience jumps to its feet! <SFX: CHEERING!> WIDE as Elinor, Olive and Ari regroup in the centre of their ‘Big Top’. Elinor beckons to Philbert. ELINOR Philbert, I couldn’t have done it without you, come take a bow! Philbert brightens, and scurries over to join hands with his new friends. As they all take a dramatic and well-deserved bow, we... FADE OUT.

EWW139 "Elinor's Circus" FIRST DRAFT - 18-July-19

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ELINOR WONDERS WHY EP . 139 “Elinor's Circus” By: Karen Moonah Elinor's Question: How can we 'stay up' when we're doing our balancing tricks? Logline: When Elinor and her friends put on a 'circus', they struggle to master balancing tricks - until they observe how using different body parts can help you balance. LS2 . Understand that animals have different body parts that are used in different ways to meet their needs. d. Explore how different external features of an animal help it survive in its environment. (Elinor and her friends observe how the squirrel's tail helps him balance). ND3 . ( RTL Crosscutting concept 'Structure and Function'): Understand that structures and materials in the natural world can be used or can inspire the engineering of structures with similar function in the designed world. (Inspired by the squirrel's tail, Elinor decides to use a long pole to balance in the same way) SEP1 . Asking questions (science) and defining problems (engineering) b. Ask more complex questions about observable phenomena c. Ask and/or identify cause and effect questions that can be answered by an investigation d. Identify a problem that can be solved by the design a new or improved object or tool (engineering). Elinor and her friends ask questions, observe and define their problem (lack of balance) then solve it by using their own bodies (wings, trunk) or by inventing balancing tools. Mains - Elinor, Ari, Olive, Philbert Locations: Forest Glade Props: Top hat, bow, unicycle, helmet, tutu, stilts, streamers, balloons, circus posters, balancing branch. OUTLINE: June 18, 2019 FIRST DRAFT: July 18, 2019 Ari Ari / Olive / elinor Crowd elinor Elinor / Olive ELINOR / Olive / ari ELINOR / Olive / ARI / farmer bear / lambs Elinor / Olive / ari / others eLINOR / Olive /a FARMER BEAR G L Lamb 1, 2, 3 / beaver LamB 1, 2, 3 / BEAVER / farmer bear / Olive / ari / elinor Mrs. Mrs. Gorilla Ms. Mole Olive Olive / ARI Olive / elinor Olive. Other students ROLLIE ROLLIE’S SISTER Sr Students Tomato mascot VARIOUS STUDENTS All kids ELINOR/ari MRS. Gorilla/elinor/olive/ari Mz. Mole Ranger rabbit Mr. Hippo Mr. Beaver ARI / OLIVE / MR. BEAVER Philbert O\ PHILBERT / OLIVE / ARI! Audience (V.O.) (O.S.) (O.C.) (CONT'D) (SUBTITLE) (to herself) (muffled) (os) (thoughtful) (grins) (sings) (CALLS) (SHEEPISH) (cheery) INT EXT I/E 6. EXT 1 2 A SOUVENIR STAND DROP LADDER BEAVERS' PRACTICE AREA SCHOOLYARD CLASSROOM MRS. GORILLA'S JUICE CART INT. CLASSROOM ANIMAL TOWN EXT. ELINOR'S HOUSE INT. ELINOR'S HOUSE MR. HIPPO'S STORE MR. BEAVER'S WORKSHOP FARMER BEAR'S TREE FARM ELINOR'S HOUSE INT. A 'BIG TOP' CIRCUS (FANTASY) SCHOOL PLAYGROUND PLAYGROUND DAY NIGHT AFTERNOON MORNING EVENING LATER MOMENTS LATER CONTINUOUS THE NEXT DAY MINUTES LATER ESTABLISHING KITCHEN DAY MONTAGE CUT TO: FADE IN: FADE OUT. FADE TO: DISSOLVE TO: BACK TO: MATCH CUT TO: JUMP CUT TO: FADE TO BLACK. ‘fluff’ wipe to: ‘wheel’ wipe to: Smash cut to: