-
Lesson 8
Reply and post your assignment.
-
11 Replies
-
Subject: Monica’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned doing this assignment is the conventions for an action movie which I didn’t know before.
1. Brainstorm answers to Likability/Empathy / Distress/Justified for your Hero.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
A. Other people like or respect the character. Victoria has been looking for her sister for several years.
B. The character shows love for something. Victoria loves her sister and her dad and needs to find her.
C. They’re trying to do something good. Finding her sister may also mean taking down a human trafficking ring.
D. Save the cat — rescue or do something good for someone else. Rescue her sister and any other victims she can find, gave peace to the families – and herself.
E. Kindness – Stays with one of the trafficked woman who didn’t want to be alone even though Victoria gets arrested.
F. Good moral decisions and actions. Being on the right side. Takes pride in being a police officer and doing good.
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
A. Undeserved misfortune. Victoria was out with her sister and her sister’s friends but went to powder her nose when her sister left with a group of men they didn’t really know.
B. External Character conflicts. Victoria lost her sister and her mother died because she couldn’t cope with the loss. She has only her dad now.
C. Plot intruding on life.
D. Moral dilemmas. Victoria is helping to try and shut down the human trafficking ring but has to be part of the ring as she’s undercover.
E. Forced decisions they’d never make. Kidnap victims to maintain cover.
F. Wound attacked. Wound is her guilt in allowing her sister to be kidnapped and now she’s kidnapping victims to find her sister.
JUSTIFICATION
A. The character or their family abused. Sister trafficked.
B. Threatened by others. Villain trying to find out who exactly is Victoria.
C. The Heroine is the victim of attacks. Villain tries to neutralize Victoria.
D. They’ve suffered major losses. Not knowing what happened to her sister. Her mother dying because she couldn’t cope with that loss.
E. The Villain or their representatives have trespassed. Villain kidnaps Victoria twice and she gets out of it both times. She ends up killing the villain in the end.
2. Organize them into a sequence that happens in the first Act of your script and tell us the story in a concise form (like I did for John Wick and Salt above).
In the opening scene, Victoria returns to Toronto. She’s visiting her mother’s grave when she runs into an old friend. The both let us know they’re undercover cops. Victoria has a lead in her sister’s disappearance. Turns out the lead (villain 1) knows Victoria’s friend.
The plan is put into place for Victoria to take her place undercover. She is introduced to the brains behind the ring (villain 2) and is accepted.
The plan is to bring down the ring at the new night club. But Victoria is arrested because she stayed to comfort one of the victims the villains have kidnapped. And the villain got away and the victims rescued.
-
ACTION LESSON 8 – Why Do We Care
ASSIGNMENT
BG’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned doing this assignment: This assignment made me think and come up with at least one new scene idea.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
A. Other people like or respect the character. REPORTER’s neighbors and his editor like him and try to cheer him up.
B. The character shows love for something. He’s been dumped by the love of his life. He’s still in love and he’s in the middle of his grieving process.
C. They’re trying to do something good.
D. Save the cat — rescue or do something good for someone else. The first time we meet him, he’s under an elderly neighbor’s kitchen sink, fixing a broken pipe.
E. Funny, humorous, witty. REPORTER has self-deprecating, bitter wit of the kind that depressed people have.
F. Kindness. He’s a kind, courageous person, who risks his own life to rescue his friend.
G. Good moral decisions and actions. Being on the right side. He will get out of his funk and will try to stop a war. And he will try to do it without killing anyone.EMPATHY / DISTRESS
A. Undeserved misfortune.
B. External Character conflicts.
C. Plot intruding on life.
D. Moral dilemmas. REPORTER has to decide between saving his friend and not breaking the law.
E. Forced decisions they’d never make.
F. Wound attacked.JUSTIFICATION
A. The character or their family abused.
B. Threatened by others.
C. The Hero is the victim of attacks. REPORTER is ambushed twice.
D. They’ve suffered major losses.
E. The Villain or their representatives have trespassed. The villains want to start a war for their own interests and benefit. They abduct and torture his friend. -
Patricia’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned doing this assignment is that the audience needs to know that this is a redemption tale early in the first act. I wanted the details of his background to be revealed over time, but I think that if I hold back too much, the audience won’t empathize with him. He is a criminal. The men in the unit (with the exception of the kid he tries to save) are criminals. It is going to be important for the audience to see them as people and not just crimes, if they are going to root for them to survive the storm and the villain.
In the first act —
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
-He has impressive survivalist skills — grudging respect by law enforcement for those skills, even when they are taking him in.
-The men of the PCU have respect for Donovan. He’s mysterious, but they look to him as a negotiator.
-While largely seen as a loner, Donovan will step in when needed. He tries to stop the kid from getting into a fight and then tries to stop him from going to SEG.
-He befriends the young guard — a person who many of the other inmates want permission to kill or at least harm in revenge for an accidental shooting of another inmate.
-He warns the villain about the approaching storm.
-He prepares the men the best he can as the storm approaches.
-We believe Donovan is the only person who can save those left behind.
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
-Donovan made a choice he never would have made — aka trusted the wrong person. That choice cost him someone he loved.
-He is faced with the option of early release — leaving the prison before the storm, but he chooses to stay, to help.
JUSTIFICATION
-Donovan has suffered the loss of his younger brother.
-Donovan is threatened by Sykes, the head guard — faces physical and psychological attacks
-Donovan knows that he is the only person who can save those who are left behind.
-
Evelyn’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned doing this assignment is to always keep the audience in mind while structuring my story. I know my hero Mikki is likeable, etc, but I have to make sure that’s not a private assumption on my part because I know her so well–I have to build the “why we care” elements into my story from the beginning to make the journey we take with Mikki more emotionally powerful and engaging.
Mikki Salvador — MMA pro champion — Why We Care
Her fans adore her and speak highly of her.
Reporters praise her for being a role model for young women athletes even though she is in an extreme sport, MMA fighting.
She has a loving husband and little girl, and her family is respected in their community.
When her cousin Shayla is fired from a casino job, Mikki invents a job for her, hiring Shayla as her social media director.
She’s the victim of unprovoked attacks.
Her husband is killed in front of her.
While she’s still grieving her husband, her little girl is kidnapped, with the threat of death if the ransom deadline is missed.
She gets as much cash together as she can but falls short of the ransom amount. To quickly earn the balance before the deadline, she’s forced to decide between her lauded professional career as an MMA fighter or become a brawler in underground fight clubs.
She earns the money for the ransom at a fight club, but it is stolen from her.
When she discovers her cousin Shayla is the kidnapper, Mikki offers Shayla a way out, but Shayla forces the outcome and so Mikki must kill someone for the first time in her life, to save her daughter.
-
Mark’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned doing this assignment is that it is not enough for the writer to like his character; the audience has to like her too. This assignment provides signposts to help the writer ensure that the audience gets and understands the emotional ties to and sympathy with the character.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
She is very good at her job in Pest Control.
She has a warm heart. She can’t bear to kill the animals she catches, but drives them out to the woods and lets them go at night.
She is funny…but sometimes unintentionally
She has good moral sense, but in a funny, slightly twisted way.
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
While carrying out Pest Control, she is mistaken for a bomber! She is not the typical Bomb Squad type.
She is naturally clumsy.
She desperately wants to be accepted into the Bomb Squad.
Her dad, whom she loved and admired, was a victim of the Unabomber.
JUSTIFICATION
She wants to avenge her father…and will direct her vengeance against any bomber.
She is made fun of and jeered at by the experienced Squad members.
Her team-mates are injured by the Villain’s booby traps. Now she needs to avenge them.
-
ASSIGNMENT:8
Subject line: Pat Galbraith’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
What I learned during this assignment is how to make heroes more likeable.
1. Brainstorm answers to Likability/Empathy / Distress/Justified for your Hero.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
1. Myra, a perfect lady who plays a piano and makes good grades in school especially math.
2. She shows her love for her family.
3. During the civil war, she begins to ride with an outlaw gang. She feels it’s her duty to protect family and neighbors.
4. She steals medicine for her little brother who is dying
5. Reveals her kindness by helping someone on the road. She talks to her horse like a friend.
6. Makes good moral decisions, feels like the renegades are the bad guys.
1.EMPATHY / DISTRESS
1.The attacks are undeserved.
2.She has to prove to her own gang that she’s able to do anything they can.
3. She sets her own life aside to accomplish her goal.
4. Moral dilemmas are there, but she realizes this must be done or the whole area will parish.
5. Hearing that Bud has been killed by Henry Brice.
6. She realizes she must kill the man who killed her brother.
7. Her Forced decision is stopping the Renegades even though she could be killed or injured.
JUSTIFICATION
1. Myra’s Father has been threatened by the Renegades.
2. Renegades have killed her brother.
3. Renegades threatened the whole area.
4. Her Father’s house is burned to the ground. Forcing them to move to Texas.
5. She is forced to move to Texas where she finds her husband.
-
John Woodward’s Likability/Empathy/Justification.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I had several of these elements in my previously submitted structure/plot/outline, but I did brainstorm a few new ideas, or more effective ways to handle existing material related to Likability/Empathy/Justification.
1. Brainstorm answers to Likability/Empathy / Distress/Justified for your Hero.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY:
A. Other people like or respect the character.
B. The character shows love for something.
C. They’re trying to do something good.
D. Save the cat — rescue or do something good for someone else.
E. Funny, humorous, witty.
F. Kindness.
G. Good moral decisions and actions. Being on the right side.
Trey’s brother loves his brother and shows it by trying to guide him in his attitudes about life and people. After learning more about Trey, a very skeptical survivalist shows him respect, and assists Trey in stealing weapons from his group.
Trey shows love for his brother, and respect for Politician Patricia Hamilton.
Trey makes it his mission to save Patricia Hamilton from an assassin she is completely unaware is hunting her.
Trey risks his life to save his brother’s life, but Domino dies in Trey’s arms. Trey saves a cop from Makepeace. Trey rescues Hamilton from Makepeace’s attempts to assassinate her.
Discussions between Trey and Domino are frequently humorous. Banter between Trey and Joe are often witty. Some situations with the police make Trey the butt of humor. He goes with it.
Trey saves a wounded cop from Makepeace.
Trey decides to avenge his brother’s murder, and to save Hamilton from the evil immortal racist Makepeace. He repeatedly risks his life to take action to do both.
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
A. Undeserved misfortune.
B. External Character conflicts.
C. Plot intruding on life.
D. Moral dilemmas.
E. Forced decisions they’d never make.
F. Wounded or attacked.
Trey doesn’t deserve to be hunted by gangbangers for making a play in a baseball game that offended their egotistic sensibilities. Trey doesn’t deserve to be hunted by Makepeace, the police, or the surviving gang members.
Trey has major conflicts with Makepeace, the gangbangers, and initially with Joe whom he later befriends.
When Makepeace escapes his imprisonment, he hunts Trey forcing Trey to completely restructure his life.
Trey needs help to destroy Makepeace, and Joe appears to be his only option, but should Trey trust Joe, a guy who initially constrained him and threatened to turn him into the police.
Virtually all of Trey’s decisions to escalate the battle with Makepeace are forced on him by Makepeace or the gangbangers.
Everybody attacks Trey: the gangbangers, Makepeace, even Joe initially roughs Trey up.
JUSTIFICATION
A. The character or their family was abused.
B. Threatened by others.
C. The Hero is the victim of attacks.
D. They’ve suffered major losses.
E. The Villain or their representatives have trespassed.
Gangbangers abuse Trey and his brother. Makepeace kills Domino (Trey’s brother), and abuses Trey.
Makepeace, the gangbangers, a few cops, and Joe threaten Trey.
Trey (the Hero) is unjustly attacked by gangbangers, repeatedly by Makepeace, and once by Joe who later becomes Trey’s ally.
Trey lost his brother when Makepeace killed him. Trey blames himself and suffers because he failed to stop Makepeace from killing revered leader Walker Jones.
Makepeace kills Trey’s brother, kills a respected civil rights leader, and attempts to assassinate a revered presidential candidate. The gangbangers attempt to murder Trey and his brother.
-
ASSIGNMENT:8 Subject line: Pat Galbraith’s Likability/Empathy/Justification What I learned during this assignment is how to make heroes more likeable.
1. Brainstorm answers to Likability/Empathy / Distress/Justified for your Hero.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
1. Myra, a perfect lady who plays a piano and makes good grades in school especially math.
2. She steals medicine for her little brother who is dying. Because the doctor won’t come to the house.
3. She shows her love for her family.
4. During the civil war, she begins to ride with an outlaw gang. She feels it’s her duty to protect family and neighbors.
5. She talks to her horse like a friend.
6. Makes good moral decisions, feels like the renegades are the bad guys.
1.EMPATHY / DISTRESS
1.The attacks are undeserved.
2.She must prove to her own gang that she’s able to do anything they can.
3. She sets her own life aside to accomplish her goal.
4. Moral dilemmas are there, but she realizes this must be done or the whole area will parish.
5. Her Forced decision is stopping the Renegades even though she could be killed or injured.
JUSTIFICATION
1. Myra’s Father has been threatened by the Renegades.
2. Renegades have attacked the youngers.
3. Renegades threatened the whole area.
-
Daniel’s Likability/Empathy/Justification
Hero: Jordan Hendrix
What I learned doing this assignment is that every day isn’t a holiday and that I won’t do a great job on every assignment. This draft defines rough.
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
A. Other
people like or respect the character:As a former Army Officer and Head of Security for a Fortune 100 Company, he is respected for both his experience and his competence.
B. The
character shows love for something.Jordan is a caring leader in every environment and a patient, good-humored teacher/instructor. He is a champion for abused/endangered innocents.
C. They’re
trying to do something good.Jordan wants to bring excellence and integrity to his work and is working diligently to be there for his daughter and win the heart of his ex-wife, who both reject him.
D. Save
the cat — rescue or do something good for someone else.A Sigma male, Jordan combats his loneliness not with his many ardent suitors, but with community service for disabled children (an abreaction to his time in Rwanda), his friends from work, and the dojo. He also curates a veteran’s forum online. He personally ensures the children and vets in his circle are getting where they need to during the final weeks and months.
When the Ice Age arrives early, Jordan volunteers to install the foundational water sluice for D.I.G. 4 in the middle of a blizzard with 80 mph winds and – 70 F temperatures so they can get underway. When a small family is in danger of missing the departure, he braves the storm again.
E.
Funny, humorous, witty.Jordan has brutal, deadpan humor, and a way of insulting leaders to their faces without their awareness.
F. Kindness.
His actions, in the final analysis, are very kind. When confronted by those questioning his motives, though he rarely defends himself, his actions reveal noble character.
G. Good
moral decisions and actions. Being on the right side.Jordan is blessed with being able to act quickly, morally, and simply in complex scenarios. He gives to the point of making those watching wonder if he eats, sleeps, or considers himself at all.
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
A. Undeserved
misfortuneHis PTSD and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) from the combined effects of the Rwandan genocide and deployments during OIF/OEF (Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom) conspire to give him a host of interpersonal and processing challenges. These precipitate his divorce and his employment as a violence professional.
B. External
Character conflicts.Estranged ex-wife, co-parenting, low tolerance for both inefficiency and stupidity in leadership/systems.
C. Plot
intruding on life.Chief Hendrix is making real relationship gains with his daughter when the ice age/global response eclipses their time together. Finally making up with his ex – to the point of entertaining a date – when the ice age arrives several months early and overtakes Okinawa.
D. Moral
dilemmas.Accepting the position with D4, putting his daughter and ex in cryo, and leaving his father-in-law to fend for himself. Then deciding if the entire population aboard D4 should wait for a single family to traverse the ice basin and board before conditions worsen.
E. Forced
decisions they’d never make:Leaving without his own family on D4
F. Wound
attacked.In this instance, attacked by the storm. In rescuing a family seeking to board at the last second, his metallic prosthetic left leg (below the knee) conducts the bitter cold threatening severe frostbite to his upper leg.
JUSTIFICATION
A. The
character or their family abused.Simply facing a bad hand in life, all around, made impossibly tough by the ice age.
B. Threatened
by others.Claudette Martz begins insinuating her agents into the D4 leadership team, and throughout every major survival and communication hub.
C. The
Hero is the victim of attacksAs stated above
D. They’ve
suffered major losses.As stated above
E. The Villain or their representatives have trespassed.
See B, above
2. Organize them into a sequence that happens in the first Act of your script and tell us the story in a concise form (like I did for John Wick and Salt above). <incomplete>
3. Decide which ideas you’d like to keep and add them to your structure/plot/outline. <incomplete>
-
Bent’s likeability empathy and justification
what I learned doing this assignment is this … I’m finding mulitfacited characteristics and motivations. And I know what they are so I don’t stray away and remain in a smooth arc through the story.
Indigo the older brother elf to Hazela the younger sister elf
LIKABILITY/LOVABILITY
Loves his family
Respects his parents and helps his father who has one arm
Always watches over his little sister
EMPATHY / DISTRESS
Suffers anxiety
Fears the outside world
Never wants to be drafted into delivering presents outside of North Pole
Has a fear of heights.
He fears the demon Krampus based on what he’s heard of him
JUSTIFICATION
His father was almost killed so he doesn’t want to lose his family
He doesn’t do well being high up as he has proven when trained on the sleighs.
-
1. “Andre’s Likability/Empathy/Justification.”
2. What
I learned doing this assignment is,It is important that I build in Likability/Empathy/Justification to get the audience committed to my Hero!
I need my audience following the hero, caring about him or her and their cause.
3. Brainstorm
Likability/Empathy/Justification.4. Organize Likability/Empathy/Justification into
sequence that happens in Act1, and in concise form.Add to Structure/Plot/Outline. For our audience, initially from opening scene, we are fleeing hell! Visually our rocket burns the launches us upward away from the hell, war, torment and ignorance of earth. We move towards, forward, outward toward the stars with an ever-growing Moon. Survival! Survival by relying on unproven equipment, doubt, budget, etc. Our Hero has to represent consciousness of mankind.
Likability. Our Characters inherent human weakness. Unique personality quirk.
Empathy- Forced decision they’d never make. Plot intruding on life. Wound health issue Meniere’s disease.
Justification- Seek knowledge consciousness for humanity, and the sciences. Conquering Space, the villain.
-Andre
Log in to reply.