Deford Bailey Analysis

The true story of legendary Harmonica player Deford Bailey, the first American Black Blues musician to be introduced and perform in the Grand Ole Opry.

STORY SYNOPSIS
The script HARMONICA WIZARD tells the story of Deford Bailey, a legendary harmonica player who overcame discrimination to bring his music to life for others. It’s a character-driven epic, sweeping tale. The tone is consistently dramatic. His goal to play music and provide for his family is clear. The stakes for him are personal.
The time period and culture, along with the dialect are authentic to the time.
The idea of telling a story about Deford Bailey is engaging. There is an audience who knows nothing about Deford Bailey and telling his story presents with plenty of potential.
Thus, when a story isn’t focused, the tension feels mild. While there are solid moments of tension, in this type of story the tension needs to feel focused more on whether Deford will succeed as a musician or not. He seems to be cheated out of his money and this creates some tension, but this area of the script isn’t fully realized.
One way to create tension is to include a strong antagonist. In this story, Ida Lee offers some personal tension but this relationship isn’t fully developed. The Judge, also, could be an antagonist, but it’s hard to
He’s the type of character that can attract talent. However, explore more of his inner conflict and his struggle. He’s almost too calm and relaxed. Show more authentic emotions. For example, when Bessie dies, he hardly has a visual reaction (page 66). Saying, he remounts after the worst body shot is not visual. Show how he feels about his family. Give him stronger emotions when he’s let go because of the copyright issues.
Also, in a character driven story, the protagonist needs to learn something about his life aka a life lesson. Make sure to highlight this.
Ida Lee is a character that his underused. She’s also presented as being one-dimensional. The only time the audience gets to know her is when she’s complaining.
Judge is a very intriguing character, but it’s hard to know how he really feels about Deford and if he’s intentionally cheating him. Explore his feelings about Deford.
The rest of the supporting cast are all genuine and they feel realistic. However, consider streamlining the characters to only the essential characters. If a character is not needed and doesn’t forward the story, eliminate them.
The dialogue is authentic to the time, but the script relies heavily on dialogue (example pages 94, 100). Dialogue slows the