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Lesson 1
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KZ Loves Character Depth!
Vision: To master screenwriting so that I can win contests, sell scripts, and work with producers to get movies made.
What I learned doing this assignment is…how to map out aspects of character depth to see them quite clearly and make conscious changes to improve the story.
Depth Tool 1: Lay out your character storylines and elevate
It was a great exercise to map out my characters’ actions, particularly Wendy’s. I had already intuitively made these changes in Module 6. The main change was the realization about Wendy’s relationship with her bosses.
Depth Tool 2: What are they hiding from me?
- Wendy has abandonment issues from growing up in an orphanage since the age of 5, when her parents were killed in a car accident.
- She has latched onto Frances and Chuck Warner as her surrogate parents, has adopted their values as her values.
Depth Tool 3: How can this story trigger the character?
Trigger: Frances and Chuck’s biological daughter, Ivy, moves back home. The Warners stand Wendy up for their weekly dinner.
Reaction: Wendy faces her loneliness.
Trigger: Ivy says that Wendy reminds her of the pit bull the family kept chained to a doghouse in the back yard, always following them with its eyes, but never allowed to come inside.
Reaction: Wendy confronts her reality – she IS the pit bull who’s never let inside.
Trigger: Metta meditation
Reaction: Wendy realizes that she has no happy moments, but that she wants to be happy.
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Paul loves character depth!
5. Vision of success from this program: I want to write scripts that become movies that change people’s lives.
6. What I learned from this assignment was that, beyond its immediate purpose of giving greater depth to my characters, it also helped me resolve gaps in my plot. As I worked on giving my Protagonist greater depth, it was as though she became a real person. So, I asked her, “How do you want this story to end?” The 3 depth tools provide excellent guidelines for getting to know the character better. A truly excellent assignment!
4. Changes:
Depth Tool 1: Re-thinking my protagonist’s storyline, I discovered that what she is really engaged in (beyond avenging the death of her daughter) is the struggle between Truth and Falsehood. It is a basic element in her character to fight for the truth and always expose and counter lies. This means that she is not just another character with a routine life. Instead, she has metaphysical significance, and she is engaged in an existential battle. But it is not an abstract or intellectual battle. It is a battle with real people and against real lies. The biggest lie she is battling against here is the lie that is the drug war.
Depth Tool 2: Lilia, my Protagonist, was hiding from me just how much she loved the man who became Senator Marcus. It was not just a one-night stand, that took place 18 years before the movie begins. Her feelings for this man, totally change the direction the movie takes, causing her to abandon her original plan to kill the young man who caused the death of her daughter.
Depth Tool 3:
The biggest trigger for her are lies. It is the lie spoken about her dead daughter that as much as her actual death, that causes Lilia to plan to kill the liar.
Another trigger is seeing the innocent suffer. Thus, she reacts violently (going toe-to-toe with armed men) to the old man who is shot dead in the first scene.
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