Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WP 2
WP 2
Almroth
Come in!
Earth
The actor mush shows the anxiety not only because of his
health issue, but also for interrupting Almroth.
Almroth
You are lucky that I’m not busy today. However,
the problem you are suffering must be challenging,
or at least interesting, for me. I mean, you are
early, and I don’t want to waste my valuable time
on a problem that can be cured by any other doc in
Outpatient department.
Almroth
So, what’s wrong with you?
Almroth
I accidentally cut my finger, but the wound is not
the problem. It’s my blood. The color of my blood
is much lighter than before. It’s becoming
transparent!
Almroth
Interesting. Get a blood test, and we will know
what is happening in your body. I never encounter
this kind of problem before
Cut to:
2. 30 minutes later. In the office of Almroth.
Tittle Card: “The shocking result.”
Almroth
So, I’m not surprised about your symptom after
reading the result of your blood test. Just look
at the concentration level of plastic debris in
your blood. Take a look by yourself.
Dr. Almroth gives the report of blood test tot earth.
Although there are many jargons, it’s not hard for earth to
see how serious the problem is.
Symptom
Direct observation: Blood color change from dark red to light red.
The blood test shows that large amount of micro plastics exists in the circulatory system.
Many kinds of cell in Internal circulatory system are experiencing blockage of intestinal
tracts, inflammation, oxidative stress, hormone disruption, reproductive impact, and
metabolic and behavioral changes
Pathogenesis
Ingestion of large quantity of plastics, including polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE),
polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyurethane (PUR), polyterephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS).
A small amount of intake will not cause too much harm, but the problem of ingestion is
long-term, especially when the body cannot deal with excess amount of plastics.
Effects
The plastics mixed with other nutrient is digested by many organs unconsciously. This will
potentially lead to the endocrine disruption, cancers, developmental disorders, and
reproductive abnormalities for many organs, especially those that have close relationship
with circulatory system.
Prescription
Gradually replace the intake of plastics.
During this process, strictly control the quality of plastics that absorbed by the body.
Consciously developed the ability of organs to classify and released them to the body.
Patient’s signature:
Earth
……
Almroth
Are you abusing plastics product?
Earth
I don’t know if “abuse” is the word for me. I
mean, plastic product is very common. I’m not
subjectively addicted to it. It’s just because
many organs in my body require it to function. I
have been using it for decades without any
apparent side-effect.
Almroth
According to the amount of plastic debris floating
in your circulatory system, you need to intake at
least 8000 million metric tons of plastic to reach
this level. I’ve never seen a person like you.
About what you think about the side-effect, I just
had a patient last week who overuses the fossil
fuel. He was pretty healthy at the first decade.
But suddenly, fever falls onto him. What I’m
trying to say is that we never encounter this
before so that we don’t know what the long-term
effect of intaking such huge amount of plastic is.
As far as we can see, those debris are causing
many healthy issue to your cells and organs. You
need to get rid of the plastic product.
Earth
I don’t know if I could. I know there are other
substitute goods, but the plastic product is very
cheap. And in my point of view, they are
beneficial to my body in many ways. For example,
it is helpful for me to transfer the nutrient to
the relatively far organs without being waste
during the path.
Almroth
You are partially right. Appropriate use of
plastics can improve the efficiency of your body.
But you have to gradually get rid of your
dependence on the plastics. Right now, about 79
percent of plastic is stack in your blood vessel,
which will eventually kill you.
Earth
With so many benefits, I cannot imagine the life
without plastic. Every organ in my body is
operating based on it
Almroth
Earth
Thanks for you advise, doc. I will pay more
attention to my body. But I think it’s still
impossible to eradicate this issue. I will keep
contact with you, and hopefully, we can solve it!
Almroth
Definitely do that. It’s my pleasure to study a
new kind of health issue.
Cut
To be continued…
Self-reflective essay:
I translate a research article in environmental studies, Marine Plastic Pollution: Sources,
Impacts, and Policy Issues, to a medical screenplay transcript. Specifically, the material is about
the analysis of plastic debris in marine ecosystems and how it potentially affects the environment
and human beings. I choose this article because, as an environmental study-majored student, this
is an opportunity for me not only to get familiar with what I might learn in the future but also to
practice conveying the complicated theory and term to the public in an attracted way without
boring them.
The reason for translating the article into a screenplay transcript is that a screenplay has
significant amount of dialog. Honestly, I wanted to translate it into a novel rather than a
screenplay at first. But the story that I designed can’t perfectly fit into any genre of novel. In a
novel, many information is told by the author, which would be very redundant if I just simply tell
the audience all the conflict and background. Instead, the large amount of conversation and
interaction in a screenplay helps me show the ambivalence of facing the trade-offs of plastic
product. Moreover, the scene planning, and the angle of the camera help my audience picture the
actual screenplay and then visualize the problem. Comparing with a novel, the screenplay is
more vivid and its plot twists and turns more rapidly, which suits my goal that to make the article
Understanding the basic requirement of a screenplay transcript is important. The basic structure
for a screenplay includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. The
transcript is divided into two parts. The first part, called "the first contact, 2019", consists of
exposition and rising action. In the second part, "the shocking result" covers the climax and
falling point. Most importantly, the theme, the conflict between the human beings’ reliance on
the plastic product and its potential impact, connects each part to another.
Discussion about the marine plastic issue, including stating facts about this problem, such as the
cause and effect, and, most importantly, the human being's attitude and the possibility of the
future.
The exposition is introducing the setup and background information. In the transcript, I
introduced two characters, which are Doctor Almroth and Mr. earth. In fact, Bethanie Carney
Almroth is a person in real life, who is one of the authors of this research article. I only use one
author in this screenplay since every character needs enough context to show his characteristic,
and I don't want to discuss too many characters without their traits being understood by the
audience. The two characters represent two kinds of mainstream concept in the real world. The
first kind is that global economy greatly relies on the plastic product due to the low cost and light
weight. In the contrary, the plastic has begun to penetrate the food chain. It's apparently that I
personate the earth so that it can have expression, motion, and interaction with Almroth. In the
screenplay, the earth is damaged by itself because of abuse of plastic rather than caused by
human being. However, the truth is that our planet is an innocent victim. It's hard to blame a
specific person or a group of people since most everyone benefits from the plastics. Still, I
believe that the audiences can understand what I'm referring to since human being has dominated
In the exposition, by making earth arrives early, I create a sense of urgency for the earth to show
that people have to pay attention to this problem. We don't want to wait until the situation is
deteriorated. For Almroth, I add many action and detail to establish the credibility of her because
I want people to take the problem of plastic seriously. The conversation between them is to lead
to the problem of plastic smoothly. This is the rising action of the transcript, which introduces
the main conflict of the story. From here, I begin to use many metaphors. Based on my setting, if
the earth is a person, then the marine system is his blood or circulatory system. I compare a
human beings to organs and other species to cells because I think the impact of human beings on
earth is most significant in the Anthropocene. However, they still need the support of cells to
function normally. This is reflected in the ecosystem. Even the ability to craft and utilize tools
makes human the top predator, we still need other animals to sustain the ecosystem.
Then, the climax of the story, which builds to the height of tension, is raised by the blood test
result. The blood test result is not a necessary part of the transcript of the screen. Still, to avoid
using redundant conversation to provide information, I regard it as a prop for my screenplay and
displace it to my audience. Here, I want to talk about the challenge related to this medical report
and my audience. The audience is essential for any form of art. The challenge I have is that
potentially I have two groups of audiences. The first group is the crew of my screenplay.
Although they do not exist, I have to make my transcript easy to understand for them, which
forces me to do everything formally. For example, I need to give a name for each section and
mention the camera's angle. This information is not vital to the integrity of my story and my
For my second group of audiences, as I mentioned, conveying the central idea of the
environmental studies paper to them without boring them is difficult. To achieve this goal, I
decide to use a medical report. Although I cite some data to the dialog, most of the information
about the cause and effect of plastic debris is shown in this report. In the first part, which is the
personal information of Mr. earth, I added some exciting elements. Even if I call him "Mr.
earth," I really want to convey that there is no sexuality for the earth. The "symptom" and
"effect" are corresponding to short-term and long-term effects, the "pathogenies" is the cause,
and the prescription is the solution. I didn't just simply copy the information from the original
article. Instead, I combine the information with the metaphor I mentioned in the previous context
The falling action shows the result of what happens when the main character makes an
outstanding choice, which is done by introducing a debate between the doctor and patient. The
doctor keeps emphasizing the urgency of getting rid of plastic products, while the patient
counterargues its benefits. I want to use this part to reflect that it's hard to find balance in reality
life and industry. Many industries, such as the manufacturing industry, food industry, and the
electron industry, rely on the plastic. Thus, I'm provoking thought and leaving the question that
how we are going to find the balance between the health of marine ecosystems and a kind of
I also add a small easter egg in the last part, which is a patient mentioned by the doctor.
Although the setting of fossil fuel is a little bit deviated from reality since human beings also
cause it, I want to focus on the fact that people should learn lessons from climate change. The
enormous amount of fossil fuel is consumed for decades without seeing any clearly impact until
recent years. Therefore, I want to educate my audience (second group) that we should take this
Reference
Almroth, B. C., & Eggert, H. (2019). Marine Plastic Pollution: Sources, Impacts, and Policy Issues. Review
of Environmental Economics and Policy, 13(2), 317–326. doi: 10.1093/reep/rez012