-
Post Day 3 Assignment Here
Click Reply to post your assignment.
-
7 Replies
-
Tracy El Pueblo Five Seasons
What I learned doing this assignment is this was too much for me to think about in just two days. I originally conceived of this as a limited series, not spanning five years. In expanding out my concept, I can think out about three years at this point– just don’t have the ideas yet for the full five. I need to stay grounded in somewhat historical accuracy, so can’t bound off into implausible imaginative scenarios.
1. Brainstorm to find the arc of the entire journey, from Season One to Five.
The first two illegal immigrants to El Pueblo/<st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city> — a black American and a white American — arrive as destructive enemies in Season One and are slowly integrated into Spanish life by Season Five.
2. Brainstorm the Stair Step version.
Season 1: Two young men from the outside, Spanish citizens,
arrive in El Pueblo during the Insurgency in <st1:country-region w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>, altering Antonia’s
life for the good she believes <div>Season 2: Two young American men arrive violently from the
outside, altering Antonia’s life drasticallySeason 3: Life is out of kilter in the village when they allow
the Americans to hideSeason 4: The church is built showing the good faith of the
AmericansSeason 5: The two Spanish men return home to <st1:place w:st=”on” style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”><st1:country-region w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>, but the Americans
remain permanently.<div>
3. For each season, brainstorm the Building Blocks.
Season 1: (False Alarm)
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
Two young Spanish men affected by the war for <st1:city w:st=”on”>Independence</st1:city> raging in <st1:country-region w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:country-region> are sent by their families to the <st1:state w:st=”on”>northern territory</st1:state> <st1:state w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>California</st1:place></st1:state>, impacting the life choices of a provincial girl
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey:
The village goes from sleepy “nothing every happens here” to high alert preparation for an attack while Antonia enjoys the attention of both outsider men
C. Main Conflict:
The village gets word that a pirate attack is being amassed in <st1:state w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Hawai’i</st1:place></st1:state>
D. Mystery/Open Loops:
Nothing seems to come of the false alarm and life goes back to normal, except for Antonia whose life gets more complicated with the options these two men offer of a different life
E. Cliffhanger:
The pirates are poised to take out the <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:placetype w:st=”on”>kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st=”on”>Kaua’i</st1:placename></st1:place> to get one of their AWOL men back
Season 2: (Five Weeks Later)
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
Two young American sailors are brought together on a mercenary voyage crossing the Pacific to enemy Spanish lands
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey:
The Californios defend themselves, though scared to pieces
C. Main Conflict:
The attack turns out to be real and the territory swings into action though outnumbered and outgunned. Reports come to El Pueblo begging for reinforcements, leaving Antonia, the women, old men, and Lucas behind.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:
The pirates are stunned to face any resistance, let alone find all valuables stripped from the capital.
E. Cliffhanger:
The pirates successfully take the capital of <st1:state w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>California</st1:place></st1:state>, looting it bare for six days while Joseph repairs the damaged ship hit by cannon. Then they burn it to the ground as they head south towards the pueblo of <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>.
Season 3: (The Enemy Within)
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
Two American pirates are captured — what to do with them when they ask to jump ship?
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey:
The Californios defeat the pirates on land by expert riding and roping
C. Main Conflict:
After the pirates burn down the hacienda where American/English ships stop in secret to unload contraband for the black market, some are captured in a battle on the beach
D. Mystery/Open Loops:
Who are these strange Americans and why do they ask to stay? Why did the military officer not execute them but instead brought them to El Pueblo?
E. Cliffhanger:
Will the village keep the two violent pirates they’ve captured, kill them, or send them back to their captain?
Season 4: (American Prisoner)
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
El Pueblo allows the two American pirates to hide with them after Lucas holds a trial to get rid of them
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey:
It’s rough going as neighbor is set against neighbor regarding the decision to defy the fearsome Captain Bouchard seeking the return of his men. An alliance is formed by Antonia, Father Diego, Antonia’s grandmother and other leaders to vouch for the Americans.
C. Main Conflict:
The Americans are kept in the jail, allowed out only for work detail. The villagers value Joseph’s woodworking expertise, but his temper is so bad the native workers from the mission run away from him.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:
Will the villagers be reported, or the local government look the other way? Are the Americans biding their time to kill citizens once they let their guard down?
E. Cliffhanger:
After Captain Bouchard left the area, he went further south and burned <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>San Juan Capistrano</st1:place></st1:city>. A couple more pirates ran off. One is lurking in the dark near El Pueblo’s plaza spying on the families.
Season 5: (Not Everyone Gets What She Wants)
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The plaza church gets built, assuring Joseph’s place in the community.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey:
Joseph and Thomas integrate into village society as they provide value.
C. Main Conflict:
Joseph wants to court the daughter of the hacienda owner the pirates burned to the ground. He asks his benefactor to broker the request. Antonia is married to an older man with children.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:
A few more foreign sailors live in the area. The priests insist they must covert to Catholicism, but leave Joseph alone. He’s known as Blond Joe.
E. Cliffhanger:
Don’t know yet… Father Diego and Lucas return to their families in <st1:country-region w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
4. Write a description of each season and give us the 5 seasons.
Season 1: (False Alarm)
We begin the story of how two American sailors became the first illegal immigrants in <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city> in 1818.
Each week shows a portion of the journey of four very different men on their way to El Pueblo. They will converge at this most unlikely spot on the globe from faraway places to impact the life of one girl and her inconsequential village.
Antonia’s life in El Pueblo shows what it’s like for colonial Spanish women living under a strict caste system that determines fate in a male-dominated society on the frontier.
In contrast,
Joseph begins his journey in <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:city w:st=”on”>Boston</st1:city></st1:place> aboard a whaling ship heading to the south Pacific.
Thomas begins his journey in <st1:city w:st=”on”>Buenos Aires</st1:city> heading east towards <st1:place w:st=”on”>Africa</st1:place>.
Lucas begins his journey from <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:city w:st=”on”>Mexico City</st1:city></st1:place> heading north to the port at San Blas.
Father Diego begins his journey west from the <st1:city w:st=”on”>Rio Grande</st1:city> on the <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:state w:st=”on”>Texas</st1:state></st1:place> border to the port at San Blas.
Lucas is lost at sea for three weeks before arriving in <st1:state w:st=”on”>California</st1:state>’s capital <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Monterey</st1:place></st1:city> nearly dead, must recover before making his way to his uncle in El Pueblo.
Father Diego reports for a rigorous religious interview in <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Monterey</st1:place></st1:city> before being assigned to a parish with no church in El Pueblo.
Joseph and Thomas meet in the <st1:placetype w:st=”on”>kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st=”on”>Hawai’i</st1:placename> and serve on the same ship in the same cabin bound for a secret attack on <st1:state w:st=”on”>California</st1:state>’s capital <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Monterey</st1:place></st1:city>.
But the Californios have been warned that the pirates are on their way by a friendly sea captain who saw what they were up to in <st1:state w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Hawai’i</st1:place></st1:state>, thus giving the province time to prepare a defense!
Season 2: (Five Weeks Later)
The departure from the <st1:place w:st=”on”>Sandwich Islands</st1:place> is delayed five weeks because Captain Bouchard insists on tracking down every last sailor who mutinied and ran off into the jungles and islands to avoid service. After a confrontation with the king of Kauai’i for their #1 fugitive, the two Argentine ships head east to the North American continent. They practice military maneuvers while at sea, turning into a formidable fighting force. They refuel at the Russian fort above <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:city w:st=”on”>San Francisco</st1:city></st1:place> to assess the Spanish situation, plotting the attack. There is no coast guard or ship in the entire territory! This will be a piece of cake.
What the mercenaries don’t know is that the Californios are preparing at the same time. Once the black ships are seen crossing into Spanish waters, sentinels stationed every two miles report on them. The capital defends itself as best it can with antiquated weapons, blowing a hole in Joseph’s ship. Five hundred pirates take over every inch of the town for six days while the ship is repaired. The governor, military, and townspeople can only watch from afar. As the pirates depart the stripped capital, they set it ablaze, turning south towards rich haciendas, <st1:city w:st=”on”>Santa Barbara</st1:city>, and <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:city w:st=”on”>Los Angeles</st1:city></st1:place>.
In El Pueblo, a rider comes for the military men and young vaqueros eager to ride north. Antonia, Lucas, the women, and old men prepare defenses, cart valuable belongings out of town to be buried. At the mission the friars and Father Diego marshal the native men to make bows and arrows. When a rider brings word that the capital has been destroyed and the pirates are heading south, panic sets in.
Season 3: (The Enemy Within)
At the hacienda that has traded happily for black market goods with American and English ships and gotten very rich as a result, the Argentines learn the owner is a staunch Royalist. Since they are pro-liberation from <st1:country-region w:st=”on”>Spain</st1:country-region>, Captain Bouchard takes offense that the ranchero actually charged higher prices to those supporting the Insurgent efforts in <st1:place w:st=”on”>South America</st1:place>. They burn the place to the ground.
But the men from El Pueblo wait in the trees on horseback for an opportunity to attack on the beach. They gallop off with several prisoners to the garrison at <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Santa Barbara</st1:place></st1:city>, including Joseph and Thomas. Captain Bouchard anchors at the fort, demanding his men back. Some are returned in exchange for the town drunk captured at <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Monterey</st1:place></st1:city>. The military officer from El Pueblo intervenes, sparing the two Americans from the firing squad. He takes Joseph on his own horse back to El Pueblo, leaving Thomas in chains to be rowed down later.
Meanwhile in El Pueblo, a rider informs them of the stand-off at <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Santa Barbara</st1:place></st1:city>. They are in utter shock when their own respected citizen shows up later with a blond American pirate riding double on his horse. He’s brought the infidel into their midst, endangering them all!
Season 4: (American Prisoner)
Lucas sees Joseph as a rival for Antonia’s affection and pushes to send all the captured pirates back to Captain Bouchard. He sets up a trial using eyewitness soldiers from the brutal destruction of <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Monterey</st1:place></st1:city> and the hacienda. Lucas is dismayed that some of the town side against him, including Antonia and Father Diego. In the end, they win to keep the Americans because these men can build a church and ship for the neglected village — two huge desires for years. To get what they want, these villagers are willing to make a deal with the devil. Tension is high among people who have known each other for years. At what time will the heavy hand of the Spanish government or Inquisition come for them?
The Americans are put into jail for safekeeping, let out for work details under guards during the day. Joseph is so abusive to the native workers that they run away into the hills. That sends the military men out to roughly round them up and they are whipped. After jumping ship to expected freedom, Joseph loses his. Thomas knows how to fit in better, and since he speaks Spanish, is given the job tending the horses of the military on trial basis — and allowed the freedom to sleep in the stables. He thwarts an attack from natives from the desert stealing the horses under his care, cementing his value. He has no intention of leaving <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>.
A runaway pirate from Bouchard’s attack on <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>San Juan Capistrano</st1:place></st1:city> hides in the area around El Pueblo, watching them.
Season 5: (Not Everyone Gets What She Wants)
The church in the plaza is built. It will still be standing and used 200 years in the future. A small community of former sailors of different nationalities live in the area working for ranchers. The one with the highest status is Joseph, known as Blond Joe. He’s the only one still allowed to resist conversion to Catholicism.
Joseph has been given a house, plants the first vineyard in El Pueblo. He asks the military officer who saved them to arrange his marriage to the daughter of the hacienda owner whose place he’d burned down during the pirate barrage. Thomas works for their benefactor, in charge of his vast horse herds — even though he’d participated in the slaughter of the hacienda’s finest horse in the pirate attack. Father Diego and Lucas return to their families in <st1:country-region w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>, no longer in exile.
Antonia is married to an older man, but of more humble circumstances than if she’d married when she was younger and so resistant. She has stepchildren as old as she, and a small child. What of her hopes and dreams that these four outside men stirred in her at age 17, when she thought she could control her destiny? Who’s to say that this girl of El Pueblo hasn’t?
</div></div>
-
R. Reid Jr’s Five Seasons
“What I learned doing this assignment is the planning I have done up this point and assignments I have completed have prepared me for this work. And it will get better as I go back and revised and retool this project until she is ready to dazzle and swim on her own. ” I also was able to use the building blocks to do a basic layout of points of the season but using the High Concept to cliff-hanger to have a visualization. But the summary really had me thinking how things can sound to a producer, who sees I really have a grasp of my story in a way I didn’t think was possible.
Season 1: FISH OUT OF WATER
Season 2: LEARNING TO SWIM
Season 3: WHO ARE MY FRIENDS?
Season 4: WHO ARE MY ENEMIES?
Season 5: TIME TO FIGHT BACK
Season 1: FISH OUT OF WATER
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. An alien without a memory is sent to earth to find stolen TECH and return it.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey: the alien learns that Humans come in all shapes and forms.
C. Main Conflict: Alien must consider who is his friend and make alliances or go it alone.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:<font face=”inherit”> Why did the </font>Mysterious<font face=”inherit”> woman say he has been to Earth/SIGMA 2619 before? Would one of the 2 agents </font>trying<font face=”inherit”> to catch the Mysterious woman turn on everyone for his promotion? Can the Mysterious woman really be a friend? Who is the female </font>Agent with the hidden past? Is it right to help the victim if you didn’t know who she was at first?<font face=”inherit”> </font>
E. Cliffhanger: Bruce gets saved by the MYSTERIOUS WOMAN.
<font face=”inherit”>Summary: SEASON 1 Bruce and </font>alien<font face=”inherit”> sent to earth called SIGMA 2619, based on </font>the<font face=”inherit”> star year Earth was discover and named after the </font>Galactic<font face=”inherit”> Emperor at that time. A technology is lost </font>and being<font face=”inherit”> used to control humans and is </font>running<font face=”inherit”> rampant. And may </font>destroy this tiny planet. Bruce arrives after a signature technology that monitors the emissions that are emitted point him to a city in North America. As he monitors the situation he finds out there are 2 agents dispatched from a secretive agency to capture the woman responsible. They call her the Mysterious Woman. Bruce tries to navigate earth but gets helps from an elderly man who is blind thinks he is a immigrant that just doesn’t know US culture rather than him being an alien.
Season 2:LEARNING TO SWIM
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. The Alien Bruce quickly adapts to Earth or Sigma 2619 by talking daily with a blind man, who mistakes his for an immigrant instead of the Alien he is.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey: Bruce is adapting to Earth, not just his environment but the people live here and learns how their rules work.
C. Main Conflict: Bruce playing the middle between the Mysterious woman and the Agents.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:<font face=”inherit”> Will Bruce be able to adapt to Earth? What memories are coming back for Bruce to know about the Mysterious woman? </font>
E. Cliffhanger: the Agent who is willing to sell out everyone get his chance. <font face=”inherit”>
</font>Summary: SEASON 2 Bruce is getting his earth knowledge by trial-and-error, who to trust: possibly the agents but it comes with a price: exposure of his TECH or who he maybe or at least whom he is working for. The earth advisor, aka the blind old man guides Bruce to take some extra courses at a community college a few nights a week. In the class he meets Snowy who he met in the first season. Going back to school, even for an advanced alien proves its difficulties as Bruce feels drained he is introduced to everything from energy bars, smart classmates, coffee pills (after coffee) and even marijuana ( which has a hilarious effect on Bruce). During the day time Bruce is dealing with the Mysterious woman who is only leaving slight clues about her moves or none at all. And the agents go from clueless to hostile toward anyone working with them and making them look like fools. Bruce at the end of the season finds the lead agent is almost willing to risk the lives of those around him and maybe even his partner to catch the Mysterious woman as the season ends. <font face=”inherit”>
</font>Season 3: WHO ARE MY FRIENDS?
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. Bruce, an Alien is learning who to trust as he navigates Earth.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey: In a twist, Bruce enrolls in a local college that is part time studies. Only some of his classmates may have been planted there to spy on him. Bruce is learning as Earth Humans do by trial and error.
C. Main Conflict: Working with the two agents he learns that 3s a crowd in a team of 2.
D. Mystery/Open Loops:<font face=”inherit”> What really happened to the 2nd agent and how did she get like this? </font>
<font face=”inherit”>the old man he meets in the mornings has a strange past, will he open up? How will he connect with Snowy-help her or </font>love<font face=”inherit”> her?</font>
E. Cliffhanger: Snowy’s life is in danger and the alien may have to use his powers to save her. Will things ever be the same when you discover your friend has powers?
Summary: SEASON 3 Bruce opens the season with deciding not to help the agent catch the Mysterious woman at the risk of the female agent. The female agent instead of turning on her fellow agent secretly starts to like Bruce, even though she is not sure his actual identity. They strike up a conversation at a coffee shop and meet there almost every 2nd day as they start their days. It is lite conversation. She does notice Bruce is studying for a class and offers to help him indirectly. Meanwhile, Snowy and Bruce get closer until Snowy sees Bruce talking to the female agent and it look flirtatious to her. So Bruce is involved in what can be described as a love triangle, only Bruce never had one before. At the end of the season it seems the old man might not be so naive as he seems. And Bruce may have to show his TECH in trying to save Snowy who suddenly gets in some danger.
Season 4 WHO ARE MY ENEMIES?
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. Another collector is sent from the homeward.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey: Going from seeker of the TECH to protector of human rights on SIGMA 2619.
C. Main Conflict: To keep on working with the Humans and not form any attachments that can put them in harm. The Mysterious woman steps up her attacks. Memories are pouring back in in fragments.
D. Mystery/Open Loops: Who is the new collector here to monitor the humans or Bruce? Will the female agent say how she feels about Bruce as he gets closer to Snowy?
E. Cliffhanger: the Mysterious Woman purposes to finish off the new collector or send him back for a price.
Summary: SEASON 4 Snowy is saved and Bruce is able to do it with the help of the Agent and both of them don’t realize it. But a big surprise happens and it is the form of a 2nd collector. This one is like Bruce but he has all his memory in-tact. He also seems to be more familiar with Sigma 2619/Earth than Bruce was when he arrives. And at the same time the other agent who seems very uncooperative with getting outside help. Namely Bruce’s help directly or indirectly turns out to be a bit of difficult person so much Bruce might have to use his TECH to put him down. And to end the season with the Mysterious woman who comes to Bruce and proposes to finish off the collector and or the agent and show Bruce who he really is as he gets more and more of pieces of his memory.
Season 5 TIME TO FIGHT BACK
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. Bruce is sure those who sent him are the ones who robbed him of his memory to protect the TECH.
B. Big Picture Arc/Journey: Bruce instead of being a collect starts to fight back against the home world.
C. Main Conflict: Against the Mysterious Woman who now has enemies it is revealed.
D. Mystery/Open Loops: Can Bruce flush out the Mysterious Woman with her enemies in pursuit? Who are the Mysterious Woman’s enemies? Who was the 2nd collector before coming to Sigma 2619? Can people be redeemed (one of the agents or the 2nd collector or the Mysterious woman)?
E. Cliffhanger: All secrets are revealed, what Bruce feels for Snowy. Who the Mysterious woman really is and how she knows Bruce! And with more memories does Bruce want to really find the TECH? And will he allow the TECH to be copied? Can it be copied?
Summary: SEASON 5 Bruce doesn’t take the offer of the Mysterious wholly to finish off the 2nd collector cause that will bring the Empire’s people in full force upon Sigma 2619. Bruce is seeing almost no choice but to work with the Mysterious woman as she offers to tell Bruce who he really was before he lost his memory and asked for this assignment to show the Empire he is worthy. Meanwhile, the agents might have made a big breakthrough just as the female agent is on the verge of quitting the “agency” and telling Bruce how she really feels Snowy surprises Bruce at the coffee shop and is already sitting with Bruce for a last-minute cram session before his test. Bruce finds out who the old man is who has been helping him. He is an ex agent who was sent over 50 years ago but decided to retire on Earth then go back and even raised a family. The final blow to this final season is when the Mysterious woman says it is a waste for Bruce to get his memory back fully because the people that sent him are really his enemy and he in fact is responsible for the TECH be stolen and sent to earth to keep it ‘out of the hands’ of bad people.
-
Jack’s Five Seasons
What I learned form this assignment is that a writer must organize the plot over five seasons so the intrigue is kept high
Season 1: Character Arcs – Originally too busy to think of having children, Victoria and Kayla decide to have children with surrogate mothers and 3 children are born:
1. A boy later known as Python Jack – Victoria and Sir George’s biological son raised by Billy Osceola and this daughter Windy Moon in The Everglades (Modern-day Tarzan story)
2. A girl named Katherine, Kayla and Sir George’s biological daughter raised in England by Victoria’s parents
3. A girl later known as Dana The Celtic Princess – Kayla and Professor Matthews’ biological daughter with DNA from Bran The Blessed, raised by the professor and his daughter Bryony
Season
2: The 3 children born are raised
by parents not biologically related. The truth is unveiled at the end of
season 2, leaving all parties’ lives in emotional shamblesCharacter Arc’s – Victoria, the billionaire, loses her money and becomes a desperate gambler to avoid prosecution or worse. When confronted with the truth about her daughter, becomes revengeful and hateful toward Kayla, her former lover and client
Character Arc – Kayla, the confident lawyer, loses her litigation after being cursed by her opponent Adolpho Ramirez’s voodoo wife. When confronted with her betrayal of Victoria because she switched eggs, denies everything
Season
3: The real parents try to cope with loving the children they have raised
and negotiating involvement with their biological offspring, creating hatred,
conflict and negotiationsSeason
4: The children meet each otherSeason 5:
The children and their parents collide3. For each season, brainstorm the Building Blocks.
Season 1: (The eggs hatch)
A.
High Concept or major hook of the season.
– In the final episode, three women are
pregnant, have problems and fight with friends and family about personal
conflicts– the children are born, none of whom will grow up initially knowing
who they are–
Victoria’s hedge fund is hacked,– Victoria is betrayed by Kayla
– Kayla is cursed, her lawsuit is lost,
then settled– Billy Osceola is lied to by Kayla about
who the son is he will be raising– Santiago and Sir George successfully sell
Hitler’s genesB.
Big Picture Arc/Journey:
Nature vs Nurture – Kayla’s internal wound of
not knowing her father. Can she be a parent?– Victoria’s social disability
with menC.
Main Conflict:D.
Mystery/Open Loops: What will happen when the children are born?E.
Cliffhanger: The women have
problems in delivery, leaving the audience to wonder what will happenSeason 2 – Anti-parenting Victoria becomes doting parent – Kayla is jealous because beautiful Katherine is really Kayla’s child
– Victoria solves the mystery of who hacked her fund – betrayal of bodyguard Charles who sold password
– Kayla continues to lose on her lawsuit to save Everglades – considers taking it out on Sir George’s son Tarzan, but can’t tell Billy O – Internal Conflict
Season 3 – The offspring grow up – Irony – Hitler’s breed are softies, Victoria’s is a Tarzan-like son. Kayla’s girl raised by Victoria turns out to be perfectly adorable, making Kayla resentful. Victoria thinks Santiago is behind the hacking and theft of her funds, so she pretends to be a realtor and becomes involved with Santiago’s customers (white supremists) to spy on his Hitler DNA business
Irony – Victoria loses her money, her job, and must start over
Season 4 – The children meet each other, become involved – to dismay of parents who dislike each other
Season 5 – Cloning
-
Rob’s Five Seasons
What I learned doing this assignment is the benefit of breaking the story into bite-size pieces and answering questions about it one at a time to gather the puzzle pieces before trying to assemble and organise them.
1. The arc of the entire journey, from Season One to Five:
Season 1 Start:
David / The Mirage is an ancient spirit with no knowledge of who he is, where he comes from, or why he has powers and is seemingly unique. He fights crime, protects people from danger, and battles demons.
Season 5 End:
David / The Mirage, having been restored to his human form and in full possession of self-knowledge and powers, hunts down the shadowy entity responsible for evil and suffering on the Earth.
2. Brainstorm the Stair Step version:
Season 1: The Mirage fights a Necromancer in the large city where he lives
Season 2: The Mirage fights the demons who controlled the Necromancer and roam the city
Season 3: The Mirage fights the Queen of the Demons across an international battleground
Season 4: The Mirage fights the Lord of the Demons in a battle across time
Season 5: The Mirage fights the shadowy Entity behind the Lord of the Demons across time and multiple dimensions.
3. For each season, brainstorm the Building Blocks.
Season 1:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season:
A spirit being fights crime, protects people from danger, and battles demons.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
The Mirage grows from being an arrogant loner to accepting the help of others, and discovers that he was once human.
C. Main Conflict:
The Mirage vs a Necromancer who can animate corpses and summon demons
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Who is the Mirage and where did the Necromancer get his powers?
E. Cliffhanger: The Mirage learns that he was once human and that the demons are controlling the Necromancer.
Season 2:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season:
The Mirage tracks down information about his origins and discovers that he had a wife and family who were killed by demons.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
The Mirage gains hope in his goal of becoming human, having seen that it was once his identity.. Having been in denial about the true pain he carries of not knowing who he is or being able to touch people he learns to acknowledge this and not keep people at such distance emotionally.
C. Main Conflict:
The Mirage vs Demons
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Who was the Mirage while he was human and how did he come to be immortal? What is the mysterious parchment that the Necromancer used to challenge him and who wrote it? What is “the Blade” that the Demons refer to and why are they seeking it?
E. Cliffhanger:
The Queen of the Demons is revealed as a close associate of the Mirage, hiding from his mystical sight using his own human skull as a mask / disguise.
Season 3:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season:
The Mirage hunts down and fights the Queen of the Demons who leads them in their Lord’s absence. He discovers that he became immortal as a result of the suffering he experienced when the demons killed his family.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
The Mirage learns that his mystical sight is not as complete as he first thought, when he discovers that the Demon Queen has been concealing herself from him all this time.
C. Main Conflict:
The Mirage vs Queen of the Demons
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Where is the Queen of the Demons hiding and what is she planning? Who is the powerful being of Fire and Light that appears to threaten both the Mirage and the Demons? What is the goal of this Third Party? Having found the hilt of the Talen Blade, how will the Mirage find / assemble the rest of it?
E. Cliffhanger:
The Queen of the Demons in the her lair bows before an altar with a terrifying beast (the Demon Lord) seemingly encased within the black stone of the altar.
Season 4:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The Mirage hunts for the sword blade of the mystical “Talen Blade”, the only weapon that can kill the Lord of the Demons.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
The Mirage starts the season believing he is the good guy then learns that he is the bad guy, and must use the Talen Blade on himself, sacrifice himself to save the world. He learns that the suffering of losing his family to the demons was more intense than he thought – because he caused it, resulting in him becoming a ghost, separated from his own truth and identity, condemned to wander until he can acknowledge and undo his act of betrayal.
C. Main Conflict:
The Mirage vs the Lord of the Demons. The Mirage discovers that he himself is the Lord of the Demons, and must fight temptation, choose to unleash them on the world or destroy them. The Demon Queen is utterly stunning, and capable of fulfilling his long-held need for physical intimacy – at the cost of unleashing an unstoppable army of demons upon the world.
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Where is the Demon Lord lying dormant? Where are the additional elements of the Talen Blade and how will they be assembled?
E. Cliffhanger:
The Mirage is restored to human form, now in full possession of self-knowledge and power, and the Talen Blade. We learn that the powerful being of Fire and Light was the spirit of the Mirage’s dead wife calling him home and offering forgiveness for his betrayal of her.
Season 5:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The Mirage hunts down the shadowy Entity behind all evil and suffering on the Earth
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
The Mirage learns to fully trust the good powers that have shepherded and assisted him this far.
C. Main Conflict:
The Mirage vs the shadowy Entity behind the Lord of the Demons
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Where did this Entity come from and how will it be defeated? How does it relate to the choices that humans make which result in suffering and self-destruction?
E. Cliffhanger:
None – The Mirage resumes the life he was leading 500 years ago with his loving family
4. Write a description of each season and give us the 5 seasons.
Season 1:
David, an ancient spirit with no memory of his origins, lives in secret amongst 21<sup>st</sup> century humans. He appears normal but can pass through solid matter and is invulnerable to normal weapons, allowing him to rescue people from danger and thwart criminal activity. His face cannot be captured on camera, appearing only as a hazy visage, earning him the public moniker “The Mirage”.
The Mirage’s touch is repulsive to the living, keeping him apart, alone, isolated – with the exception of his 80-year-old live-in companion Madeleine, with whom he shared his secret when she was a child; for centuries The Mirage has searched in vain for a way to become human, to free himself from the affliction of his isolation, his incapacity for physical intimacy.
Habitually helping people in distress, The Mirage rescues a feisty young archaeologist, Julia Lockhart, from a demon attack. He tracks the attackers and uncovers a dark underbelly of demonic beings who prey on humans, led by the mysterious Necromancer Vincent Chamberlain, who can animate corpses, summon demons and use magic from a mysterious parchment written in an inhuman language. The Mirage’s supernatural sight allows him to see through the demons’ human disguises to identify them.
Vincent is obsessed with destroying the Mirage and stealing his immortality for himself. In pursuit of this goal he murders Madeleine, the Mirage’s sole friend and confidante.
Overwhelmed by grief and rage, The Mirage struggles against the desire for revenge, but resists taking Vincent’s life. In a climactic battle The Mirage defeats Vincent and discovers the source of the Necromancer’s power to challenge him – David’s own human skeleton which Vincent has exhumed and used to weaken and entrap him. The Mirage takes possession of the skeleton to prevent it being used against him again and in the hope of using it somehow to restore himself to human form.
Julia succeeds Madeleine as David’s confidante, their affection for one another having developed over time. The Mirage, who started Season 1 as an arrogant loner, learns to accept the help of others, and the discovery that he was once human, spurs him on a quest into …
… Season 2:
The Mirage, having learned that he was once human, resumes his investigation into his origins with renewed vigour. He and Julia are now friends, she knowing his secret, and there is a frisson between them in spite of his incapacity to engage in intimacy.
The Mirage battled the Necromancer’s demons, discovering that they were not under Vincent’s control at all but in service to another, as yet unknown, entity who it seems wrote the Necromancer’s book of evil magic. He learns that the demons were merely feigning subservience to Vincent – their objective was to incite The Mirage to kill a human being, an act of evil that he has never committed and which would have rendered The Mirage powerless to challenge them if he had taken Vincent’s life.
David delves more deeply into Vincent’s parchment and learns more about his human life – that he was a blacksmith who lived over 500 years ago, and he had a wife and two young children. He also learns that they were all killed by the demons in a fire that consumed their home. But how did David come to be immortal? What is the mysterious parchment that the Necromancer used to challenge him and who wrote it? And what is “the Blade” that the Demons refer to and why are they seeking it?
Amidst his search David encounters an overwhelmingly powerful being of Fire and Light which appears to threaten both the Mirage and the Demons. It appears suddenly and is gone moments later, leaving destroyed demons and a shell-shocked Mirage in its wake. What is the goal of this mysterious Third Party?
The Mirage learns to drop his denial and acknowledge for the first time the true pain he carries of being unable to touch people, allowing him to grow closer to Julia. He also learns that the book of magic was written by the Queen of the Demons who leads them and hides from The Mirage using some ability he knows nothing about.
Season 2 concludes with the Demon Queen secretly revealing herself to viewers – a close associate of the Mirage reaches into her own face and removes a human skull – David’s own skull – the means by which she has managed to evade his mystical sight so far.
Season 3:
We learn that the skull associated with David’s skeleton that Vincent exhumed was not David’s but that of someone else, allowing the Queen to retain David’s skull as a disguise without raising suspicion.
We also learn that the Queen has been seeking Julia’s death because Julia alone was able to see through the Queen’s disguise. The Mirage humbly learns that his mystical sight is not as complete as he first thought, when he discovers that the Demon Queen has been concealing herself from him all this time. But where is the Queen of the Demons hiding and what is she planning?
The Mirage hunts down the Queen of the Demons who leads them in their Lord’s absence. He learns that the Demon Lord is trapped somewhere, lying dormant, and the Queen seeks his resting place and the means to awaken him – to rule them and unleash an unstoppable army of demons upon the world.
David also discovers how he became immortal: the extreme suffering of losing his family when the demons killed them by fire splintered his soul from his body, turning him into a wandering ghost.
Again The Mirage encounters the supremely powerful being of Fire and Light, which vaporises all demons in its presence and threatens to consume the Mirage too, but he escapes from it, fleeing into the night.
He also learns that the demons are hunting for the mystical Talen Blade, the only weapon that can kill both the Lord of the Demons, and the Mirage himself.
The Mirage succeeds in finding the hilt of the Talen Blade, but how will he find and assemble the rest of the sword?
Season 3 concludes with The Queen of the Demons in a secret temple as she bows before an altar with a terrifying beast (the Demon Lord) seemingly encased within the black stone of the altar.
Season 4:
The Mirage is encouraged by his routing of the Demon Queen and her minions, and being in possession of the hilt of the Talen Blade. But where is the Demon Lord lying dormant? Where are the additional elements of the Talen Blade, and how will they be assembled?
The Mirage tracks down the remainder of the sword, battling through numerous dangers to compile the mystical weapon. Now in possession of the complete Talen Blade, The Mirage goes in search of the Demon Lord’s resting place with a view to killing him and ending the presence of demons on the earth once and for all. He finds the secret temple and the black stone altar with a terrifying beast locked within it. The Mirage severs the head from the entombed beast with the Talen Blade and shatters the altar into rubble …
… revealing that it is nothing more than a stone statue, merely a symbol of the Demon Lord’s entrapment, not the Demon Lord himself.
The Demon Queen reappears to confront him, revealing that The Mirage himself is the Lord of the Demons. As a human David created the demons, manifesting them out of his extreme suffering, not just just at his family’s death but out of his own guilt at causing their death. Tempted by lust for another woman he betrayed his wife and family, resulting in their accidental death in a fire. He learns that the suffering of losing his family to the demons was even more intense than he first thought, resulting in him becoming a ghost, separated from his own truth and identity. His own sense of guilt has condemned him to wander, condemned him to an absence of physical intimacy, until he can acknowledge and undo his act of betrayal.
The Demon Queen appears to The Mirage now in her full glory – utterly stunning, and capable of fulfilling his long-held need for physical intimacy – at the cost of unleashing an unstoppable army of demons upon the world. With his true pedigree now fully revealed, The Mirage faces a choice: to succumb to temptation again, reaffirm his original betrayal by breeding with the Queen, or undo that betrayal by destroying himself with the Talen Blade that he has so painstakingly restored.
Having started Season 4 with the firm belief of being on the side of good, The Mirage realises that he alone is responsible for the evil that has plagued him across the centuries, and that the Talen Blade’s sole function is for him to sacrifice himself to end that plague and save the world.
Wrestling with temptation and centuries of repressed desire, The Mirage begins to descend into darkness and appears set to fulfil the Queen’s long-standing objective of awakening his latent identity as Demon Lord. But the mysterious being of Fire and Light who has periodically intervened in the Mirage’s journey across four seasons reappears, urging him away from satisfying his desire and towards self-sacrifice.
Rather than fleeing in terror as before, this time The Mirage responds to the being of Fire and Light, and, to the distraught screams of the Demon Queen and her minions, kills himself on the Talen Blade …
… and finds himself back once again in his 15<sup>th</sup> century home with his family.
The Mirage is finally restored to human form, now in full possession of self-knowledge and power, and the Talen Blade. We learn that the powerful being of Fire and Light was the spirit of The Mirage’s dead wife calling him home and offering forgiveness for his betrayal of her – forgiveness which he could not accept until the very end.
Season 5:
Having been restored to his human form and in full possession of self-knowledge and powers, The Mirage hunts down the shadowy Entity responsible for evil and suffering on the Earth. He has learnt that a mysterious helper has been guiding and helping him all throughout his journey, and throughout Season 5 he learns to more fully trust the good powers that have shepherded and assisted him this far.
But where did the evil Entity come from? How does it relate to the choices that humans make which result in suffering and self-destruction like that he himself experienced over five centuries? And how will The Mirage’s discovery of the power of self-sacrifice assist him in tracking and defeating it?
-
Janeen’s Five Seasons
What I learned doing this assignment is that summarizing is really hard for me. Extrapolating is easy. It takes me a lot longer to summarize and I can do less of it per day than I can extrapolation. I really got bogged down on this, but finally finished a draft.
End point for season 5:
Where do you want these characters to go?
Cara is a full-fledged farmer, mother and politician fighting for farmers everywhere. She has a loving husband and children of her own, besides the twins who are about to graduate from high school and become farmers.
Randi is in a care facility where she can’t cook and endanger herself and others. She has lucid days and days where she makes up fantastic paranoid stories and days when she is catatonic.
Jim is still paranoid that someone will figure out that he killed his wife and killed Mike and Mindy. He has a stalemate with his oldest son who is working the farm with him. His youngest son saw his dad cut the brake line and is biding his time until he is out of college before saying anything to anyone although he hinted at it to the twins at one point. He and the female twin are dating seriously.What is the furthest extreme of the main character’s character arc? Cara is a great farmer, mechanic, government-program-user, fighter of big ag and user of her parapsychology skills to help get her way. She is reconciled to using them because everyone else uses any/all tools at hand and anyone could use her tools if they chose too. She’s not cheating. A far cry from her ethical concerns before. she has visions of a political career — governor or senator — using those tools and leaving her farm in the capable hands of her wards, the twins.
How far can your main plot line go? The “mysterious” deaths of Mike, Mindy and Molly will be disclosed to the audience, but who knows the truth will be limited to Jim and his boys. The parapsychology usage will be amped up by Cara over the years as she aims higher. Randi will lose her fight with Alzheimers, losing all but her wit, but gaining irrationality. The twins will grow and challenge Cara, bond with Jim’s kids and think of Cara as a parent. The Alaska brothers will try to force their hands, see the growing liability that is their mother and give up as Cara becomes the farmer they never were since farming in Iowa is very different than farming in Alaska and they have lost touch with those realities and have not made the money/progress Mike, Mindy and Cara made while recognizing that the twins will carry on the farm.
What is the entire show mystery and how can it play out across five seasons? The cause of Mike and Mindy’s deaths, the relationships Mike had with the 3 women and what his mom knew about each will be explained and minimally shared over the five seasons. As Randi deteriorates, some damning info is lost in perpetuity — perhaps in journals that are stored in the attic each year when she puts the Christmas decorations away. Maybe in the last episode, someone will find them and decide not to read them or to read them.
Season 1:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
Will Cara stay and accept that she will be on her own sooner or later because of the Alzheimers? What do farmers have to do with climate change mitigation?
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
Cara has to abandon her LA life, learn to plant, drive tractors, parent and fend off those who would rent or drive her away. We learn about crop farming economics this season.
C. Main Conflict:
Randi has her own ideas of Cara’s role, the twins hate her and rebel, Jim tries to help her and she sees him as a potential sperm donor which Randi rejects and the town speculates/probes about her role with the family.
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
How did Molly die? Suicide or murder? As the season is traversed, we see that whole situation unfold in various people’s flashbacks
E. Cliffhanger:
At the end, we see and understand Mindy and Mike’s “Molly!” realization as they die and we know that Jim’s oldest knows his dad faked the suicide note. He is not old enough to take over the farm, has no one to rely on or confide in and keeps it to himself as the abuse has been getting worse and his father more suspicious over the season and he fears his dad will kill him if he says anything.
Season 2:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The Alaska brothers come to pay their respects and pick up a load of equipment Mike had put together for them. They don’t know about their mother’s Alzheimers and it is carefully hidden from them. They consult attorneys and threaten, but in the end, Cara “makes them go away” with her powers and they give up. What are farmers being paid to do to mitigate climate change? What are they willing to accept?
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
Cara learns about the harvest part of the farm year. The dairy manager quits to take over his father’s dairy and we see a lot more of that including PETA assumptions, the real technology involved and illegals/legals who work the 7/365 jobs there.
C. Main Conflict:
Cara flirts with Jim who deflects because he has his eye on getting more land (enough for both sons) with his next marriage and Cara can’t offer that. Randi discourages Cara because she doesn’t want Cara to be distracted from her new life as a farmer.
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
We learn more about Mike and Molly’s relationship in high school and their breakup — why did they break up?? And more about Cara’s sense of loss when Mike died. She wasn’t sad and empty just about Mindy, but about Mike too.
E. Cliffhanger:
Jim’s youngest lets the twins know that his dad worked on cars and even worked on Mike and Mindy’s vehicle. Randi overhears and puts it in her journal, but doesn’t say anything out of fear. The Alaska brothers hear that their mother has memory problems — beginning of dementia? — from someone in town.
Season 3:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The twins are helping with the farming this year and it is clear that the boy doesn’t really care about farming and that the girl definitely does. Randi starts to forget things in a dangerous way and gets cantankerous. The Alaska brothers try to wrest control of the farm from Cara, but Cara has had POA for Randi since Mike and Mindy died. She begins to use it this year. How do the climate change requirements bump up against good farming practices/finances? What are the “sides” and what are the pros and cons?
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
Big Ag rears its ugly head in terms of hog production. We explore that this season as a farming issue.
C. Main Conflict:
Randi doesn’t want to give up control of the farm even though she is forgetting about checks she wrote, forgetting bills, making illogical decisions at the dairy and the hog operation and about crops/seeds/insurance.
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Cara has grieved enough over Mike, finds a man and decides to marry which throws Randi and the twins into a tizzy. Will she stay with them or leave? In the end, she opts to stay. The man is someone she met in politics/big ag fights.
E. Cliffhanger:
Can the Alaska brothers wrest control of Randi’s shares of the estate from Cara? Is blood thicker than POAs? Will Cara be silenced by a disgruntled big ag fixer?
Season 4:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
The twins begin to resent Cara and her husband and Cara is pregnant — high risk at her age. Cara begins to feel cheated as her work on the farm is largely unpaid as far as long-range security. The farm will go to the twins and she has no share in it and her retirement money is not nearly enough to support herself in retirement. Unlike Randi, she will not be paid out of farm money once the twins are of age. She’s starts looking at what will happen after the twins are of age and it is an upheaval since the twins have college ahead of them and Cara is thinking of politics.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
Cara takes on Big Ag in the political/legal arena with her new husband who seems to be trying to hold her back. Is he progressive? Is he in Big Ag’s pocket somehow? Under duress?
C. Main Conflict:
Randi is stripped of more of her rights and freedoms. Cara has let people know that Randi is not allowed to commit funds over $1000 and she hires a dairy manager (the twin daughter may take that over one day) and the son begins rumbling about medicine and geriatrics as a possible career.
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Cara needs to earn her own living in only a couple of years. Her practice in LA is gone, her interest in that kind of work has evaporated as she’s seen how she can influence business and politics with parapsychology and she is thinking of politics at the local level. She falls into something ag related and makes a name for herself over a bill at the statehouse. Her husband is less than supportive and childcare gets tricky with the twins not wanting to be stuck with it and her husband less than helpful.
E. Cliffhanger:
Randi is caring for the baby and does something particularly dangerous to the child’s health — leaves in car, leaves alone in the house, starts a fire, something like that. Does she need to be institutionalized?
Season 5:
A. High Concept or major hook of the season.
Will Cara land a job in politics? Who will look after the farm? How will Randi handle being institutionalized?
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey:
Randi is institutionalized, the twins decide what they want to do when they graduate. Cara decides she wants to be a farmer yet and finds that Jim’s oldest son makes a good manager for her and his youngest son is looking like the love of the girl twin’s life.
C. Main Conflict:
Randi’s deteriorating condition and institutionalization offer all of the “new to an institution, rules of an institution” conflicts of someone with Alzheimers. The Alaska brothers come and think Randi’s fine and think Cara is making it up — Randi certainly says so — and they canvas locals looking for reasons to charge Cara with abuse of her POA role with a sleazy lawyer. Cara has sitter issues (can no longer take the baby everywhere with her).
D. Main Mystery/Open Loops:
Jim’s oldest son confides to Cara that he saw his dad typing up the suicide letter of his mom’s. Cara decides she wants to know once and for all if this boy is Mike’s son and finds a way to get the blood tested with that of the male twin. She gets two samples of blood and asks if they are from the same person and gets them tested to see. They are not. She tells Jim what she has done and that the eldest is his son. It seems to change him.
E. Cliffhanger:
At the holidays, Cara finds Randi’s diaries in the attic when she is putting away the Christmas decorations and sits down to read them.
Season 1: NOT WHAT SHE EXPECTED
Cara becomes the guardian of her best friends’ twins and gives up her life as a mind control and intentional healing practitioner in LA. Finding how little income is generated by the $60M in farm assets gives her pause about giving up her career to become a Midwest farmer until the twins are of age.
As Randi tries to teach her grandchildren’s new guardian what it means to be a farmer and how to put in crops using high tech farm equipment, Cara considers taking the farm organic and soon learns the stranglehold big agriculture’s chemical companies have on crop farmers.
Cara knows that Randi has early onset Alzheimers, but sees few signs of it except Randi’s extreme dislike of Cara’s friendship and mentorship with Jim, the farmer next door. Cara’s biological clock is ticking, Jim is charismatic, but he’s also grieving his wife who committed suicide. Cara becomes wary when she attempts to soften his grief with intentional healing and the results are violent.
Season 2: THE FAMILY
After six months on the farm, Mike’s brothers come home from Alaska and want to take over the farm. If they find out about their mother’s Alzheimers, they may have legal standing to get it. The long time dairy manager leaves and Cara has to manage a 3500 cow dairy and all of the business, livestock, and personnel decisions associated with it.
Her hormones raging, Cara relies on neighbor Jim who is charismatic, but makes it clear he will not marry her. She meets a politician and begins dating. Randi overhears that Jim worked on Mike and Mindy’s car and wonders if their deaths were an accident or Jim’s doing. She’s too afraid that she or Cara may be next if she tells anyone and her Alaska sons hear in town that Randi has had memory lapses and speculate about possible dementia.
Can Cara learn to use and maintain the million dollar harvester (combine) and make it through her first harvest?
Season 3: GROWING INTO THE ROLE
During Cara’s second year as a farmer, the twins begin operating the big machinery, Randi’s Alzheimers shows up in dangerous ways and Cara is forced to use her power of attorney to limit Randi’s decision power. The Alaska brothers try to wrest control of the farm from Cara while climate mitigation legislation bumps up against good farming practices and finances, causing Cara to weigh the pros and cons.
Big agriculture rears its head in the hog finishing operation on the farm and Cara’s marriage to the politician causes Randi and the twins to rebel. What will happen to them if she leaves the farm to go to Washington?
Season 4: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
The twins resent Cara and her husband when Cara gets pregnant – high risk at her age. She feels cheated financially as her work on the farm is largely unpaid and she is not getting any equity in the farm as Mike and Mindy would have. With her own family to think of, she considers getting involved in politics to combat the financial strain big ag puts on farmers. Randi is stripped of more of her rights and freedoms when she makes financial mistakes in farm business.
After the baby is born, Cara struggles with childcare. The twins refuse to babysit as they take on more farm work and she eventually takes the baby everywhere with her. The twins are thinking of careers with the girl considering dairy management and the boy, geriatrics as he watches his grandmother’s faculties failing. Cara’s husband is not supportive of her political ambitions so she resorts to her mind control techniques to limit his influence.
Randi endangers the baby. Is it time to institutionalize her?
Season 5: THE NEXT GENERATION
The twins are growing up and preparing for college. The girl is interested in farming and dairy management and is seriously dating Jim’s youngest son. Jim’s oldest becomes Cara’s right hand man when Randi is institutionalized and he confides in Cara that he saw Jim type up the suicide note after his mom’s fatal accident. After years of speculation about whether Jim or Mike is his father, Cara finds a way to compare his blood to that of the twins. Jim is really his son’s biological father and the news seems to change Jim.
Randi tells her Alaska sons that Cara is trying to steal the twins’ legacy and they hire a sleazy lawyer to trump up abuse charges against Cara to get control of the farm and Randi’s care. While stowing the Christmas trim in the attic, Cara finds a stack of Randi’s old diaries and sits down to read them, looking for answers to the many questions she’s had over the years about relationships on the farm.
-
Jean Five Seasons
What I learned doing this assignment is that going through the process, step by step, help me figure out what each season can be about. Yes, it was work, but it gives me a foundation to work with and improve.
2. Brainstorm the Stair Step version.
Arena:
1: Inside the Vault
Season2: Earth’s past
Season3: Other worlds (Ardus)
4: The Vault – 4<sup>th</sup>
dimension5: The Future
Main mystery:
<div>
Season 1: Who is the rogue agent and why he’s
after Sharra?</div>
Season 2: Who is the puppet master and why
has he singled out Sharra?Season 3: Who is Araylai and why is she
hiding her real identity?Season 4: What is wrong with the agents and
can they fix it in time?Season 5: What is the Vault and will they have
a future?Conflict:
Season 1: a rogue agent task to stop
Sharra from becoming an agentSeason 2: outside infiltration – Vault agency
has been exposed to the outside worldSeason 3: the fight has gone off-planet,
embroiling agents in an off-world political battle
Season 4: internal mutiny – The Vault’s ‘starvation’
effects agents’ brainsSeason 5: Paradox – the ultimate battle
against time itselfNew Layer Exposed:
Season 1: Sharra has a special connection to the agrylium/pylons.
Season 2: Sharra’s sociopathic brother is her nemesis.
Season 3: Discovers the agrylium/pylons is a living entity and it’s dying.
Season 4: Anyone with Infused agrylium is part of the entity and they are permanently connected to it.
Season 5: They are in a time loop and that
Sharra had unknowingly created.3. For each season, brainstorm the Building Blocks.
Season 1: TIME TRAVEL 101
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. Time travel is possible for an elite group of special agents and Sharra is their newest recruit.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey: From an unassuming accountant running from a crooked boss to a competent agent and the one to take down the rogue agent.
C. Main Conflict: learning the ropes of
time travel while a rogue agent tries to stop her from becoming an agentD. Main Mystery/Open Loops: Who is the rogue agent and why he’s after Sharra? Will Sharra overcome all adversities and become an agent? Who is Faolan and what is his connection to the Vault and
Sharra?E. Cliff-hanger: Sharra has a secret connection to the agrylium/pylons. The rogue agent isn’t the real villain. There is a
puppet-master.Season 2: THE RULES OF THE GAME
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. A game of Risk by the puppet master with the past as the playing field and all the clues are linked to Sharra.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey: Vault Agency is exposed to the outside world and the agents scramble to ‘fix’ it to correct the ripple effect while searching for the culprit.
C. Main Conflict: following the trail of
clues both outside the Vault and inside to who has infiltrated into the Vault.
Keeping outsiders in the dark about time travel.D. Main Mystery/Open Loops: Who is the puppet master and why has he singled out Sharra? Will Sharra break the rules to change her own timeline and save her parents?
E. Cliff-hanger: Sharra’s sociopathic brother is her nemesis.
Season 3: ARDUS
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. The field has expanded off-world in the future.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey: From Sharra’s
discovery of an alien agent at the Vault and Sharra’s subsequent
kidnapping to the rescue team’s embroilment into alien politics that rights
an old wrong and creates a new alliance.C. Main Conflict: the fight has gone off-planet,
embroiling agents in an off-world political battleD. Main Mystery/Open Loops: Who is
Araylai and why is she hiding her real identity?E. Cliff-hanger: Discovers the agrylium/pylons
is a living entity and it’s dying.Season 4: FOREVER FAMILY
A. High Concept or major hook of the season: Sharra breaks the ultimate rule to try and change her fixed timeline.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey: Now knowing it’s Sharra’s brother, the team set about to catch him ending in a
showdown between family, Grayson, and the dangerous pylons.C. Main Conflict: internal mutiny – The Vault’s
‘starvation’ affects agents’ brains and it’s spreading.D. Main Mystery/Open Loops: What is wrong with the agents and can they fix it in time?
E. Cliff-hanger: Tanner dies, saving
Sharra. Sharra kills her brother to save herself. Anyone with Infused agrylium is part of the entity and they are permanently connected to it.Season 5: THE BIG RESET
A. High Concept or major hook of the season. They are in a time-loop that Sharra has unknowingly created and its created a paradox that will wipe them all out.
B. Big Picture Season Arc/Journey: A race
to fix the paradox before their timeline implodes without erasing themselves
and all the good they’ve done, ending in a big reset that puts everyone
back to before the Vault but with the knowledge to fix their future.C. Main Conflict: Paradox – the ultimate
battle against time itselfD. Main Mystery/Open Loops: What is the
Vault and will any of them have a future?E. Cliff-hanger: The Vault exists in the
4<sup>th</sup> dimension4. Write a description of each season and give us the 5 seasons.
Season 1: TIME TRAVEL 101
How does an unassuming accountant become part of an elite group of time travelers?
Unlawfully fired and running from her crooked boss, Sharra needs to escape. So when Vault Agency approaches her with a job offer that will take her away, she agrees, not realizing the true nature of the job until she’s firmly implanted at the Vault. Vault Agency needs her even though the Head Director is forewarned that her addition comes with painful consequences. Learning the ropes of fixing timelines is hard enough for a recruit, especially when her first mission goes wrong. Add in a rogue agent who for unknown reasons has a vendetta against her, time travel becomes a cat and mouse game with only one walking away alive.
However, there’s more to Sharra than meets the eye and her odd connection with the internal workings of the Vault proves it. Backed up by a team of seasoned agents, she forces the rogue agent back to the Vault to fight it out. She saves the agency and learns that the Vault is more than a machine. She’s finally found a place where she belongs. There is a puppet master.
Season 2: THE RULES OF THE GAME
The puppet master is back.
A shift gone wrong exposes Sharra as a time traveler. Not only that, someone has been messing with the past that has not been authorized. The two events merge, causing a ripple effect that cripples the Vault. It becomes a game of chess between Vault Agency and the puppet-master. The team sets out to ‘fix’ the affected timelines while following the clues, both outside the Vault and inside, to who has infiltrated the Vault and why he has singled out Sharra. Sharra figures out the game and stops the last ripple. There is one last move that only she knows because she’s figured out who the puppet-master is. All roads lead home, Sharra’s home. Her nemesis is her sociopathic brother, Grayson.
Season 3: ARDUS
Who is Araylai and why is she hiding her real identity?
Sharra’s strange connection to the Vault’s pylons grows stronger after returning from a near-death shift. Not only that, but she discovers her friend and fellow agent, Araylai, is a refugee alien accused of treason in her homeworld. Who would have guessed that when Grayson abducts Sharra and leaves her for dead on a water planet that it is Ardus, Araylai’s homeworld. With her means of shifting destroyed and no way to communicate her whereabouts, Sharra learns how to survive among an alien race, taking her deep into the intrigue of the alien court. With Sharra missing, the Vault team scrambles for clues and follows them to Ardus for a rescue mission. But leaving Ardus is harder than they thought. Now, embroiled in alien politics that affects one of their own, Sharra and the team set out to right an old wrong, stopping a coupe and creating a new alliance.
Back at the Vault, Sharra makes an interesting discovery – the agrylium pylons is a living entity and it’s dying.
Season 4: FOREVER FAMILY
The team set about to catch Grayson ending in a showdown between Sharra, Grayson, and the dangerous pylons.
Mutiny is afoot inside Vault Agency and it’s Grayson’s doing. Sharra blames herself and risks her life to get Grayson tagged. The team is onto him. But Grayson figures it out and lays his own trap, capturing Sharra for the last time. He brings her home close to the time of their parents’ death to torture her. It works. She breaks the ultimate rule and interferes in her timeline to save her parents, in return causing the death of Tanner. At last, the whole family is in the Vault. Grayson forces Sharra into the pylons in a fit of madness. She takes him with her but it kills him. But not Sharra. Inside the pylon, she discovers the true nature of the lifeforce and what it needs to survive. It chose her from all of time.
Season 5: THE BIG RESET
Mess with time too long and it will eventually mess with you.
Changing a fixed timeline comes at a terrible cost. Lazarus discovers that Vault Agency is in a time-loop that Sharra has unwittily set off and its created a paradox that will wipe them all out. Tanner returns from the ‘dead’ to pull Sharra back into the game – a race to fix the paradox before their timeline implodes, without erasing themselves and all the good they’ve done in the process. With the help of the alien lifeforce that is the Vault and the agents’ ties to their own pasts, they set in motion a big reset that puts everyone back before the Vault but with the knowledge to fix their future. The last enemy of time is the Vault. With only the original team left, they battle the pylons, disconnecting it from their dimension, destroying their home, and finishing the reset. Sharra appears at her family home Here family is alive and well. She saved the world. She is at peace.
-
what I learnt from this is how effective it is to have a clear objective and to brainstorm to meet that objective. I honestly didn’t think I could come up with 5 seasons but just forcing myself to look at all the possible long term story lines, I surprised myself and came up with some great ideas.
Working title: “Fox Glove”
Season 1;
A. Zoe’s best friend turns up after being missing for 25 years. Zoe discovers her husband is lying to her and their money is missing.
Nadine is given a shot at a movie but also becomes attracted to Zoe’s dad.
1970 – a body of a young woman washes up on a beach, young reporter, Kate, is sent to her first crime scene.B. Young Zoe. She’s naive, trusting, going after her dreams, meets an amazing man, 25 years later has no career and is trapped in an unhappy marriage. She gets the strength to leave her husband, and finds herself again, discovering she is stronger than she ever though she was.
Alex Corbyn, son of a power couple and old family friend comes to visit Leo with his parents. Alex is lonely, distrusting, doesn’t have relationships. When he comes to visit Leo, he meets Claudia and they reconnect, share memories of their childhood. It’s familiar, he feels safe with her and are both attracted to each other.
Kate is not into crime reporting, she wants to be on TV, to be an ‘interviewer’. But she pushes herself and becomes intrigued by the case, it keeps her up at night.c. James. Zoe’s own insecurities of what people will think. Her fear of the unknown. Jordy thinks something is not right with Nadine, he catches her behaving strangely around his granddad. Kate (the bank is threatening to foreclose her house).
d. How will Zoe leave James, how will he react? what has he been up to? Where did Nadine disappear to? Why does Nadine act differently when alone with Leo. What is she drugging him with? Will Alex and Claudia date?
e. Zoe files for divorce. Zoe’s son sees Nadine mistreating his grandfather. An intruder enters Alex’s home. Kate discovers the dead girl is linked to Leo.
Season 2
a. After receiving the divorce papers James turns up at the house, Zoe’s party like nothing has happened. His behaviour is bizarre. Alex receives a threatening letter that a bomb is in his house. He gets extra security. They see a person on the security footage. An agent looks into it.
b. Nadine is on her first movie and is bullied by the crew and cast. She falls in love with Leo but feels guilt ridden because of Zoe. She gains respect from the director and cast. She feels she has to choose between Zoe and Leo and decides to end things with Leo but then discovers she’s pregnant. James tries everything in his power to control Zoe and to manipulate her. Zoe’s Pi gives her the info on his affair. She knows she can use it to blackmail him. She has the upper hand…for now.
c. The cast and crew. Someone stalking Alex. James turning against Zoe. Jordy doesn’t like Nadine. Kate is told to drop the story she’s working on, by her boss but she doesn’t want to and goes against his wishes. She is threatened. But this makes her more determined.
d. Who is after Alex? What will Nadine do? Will Zoe find out? What is James’s next move? e. Nadine discovering she’s pregnant. Kate’s child gets abducted. Alex learns his parents are involved with the syndicate.
Season 3
a. Kate finds her daughter. The syndicate make it clear that will kill her next time.
b. Kate drops the story. She gets promoted suddenly – more money and is moved to television . Kate and her husband start renovating their house, life seems great. But she is unhappy deep down, she’s let them win. Now 50 years later, she teaches journalism and doesn’t believe a word she is teaching.
Nadine agrees to get rid of the baby for her career. But her father is dying and she changes her mind.c. The syndicate going against Kate. Leo is against Nadine for getting pregnant. Zoe feels nadine used her to get a role in the film.
d. Who are the syndicate, why are they desperate to cover up a dead woman?
e. Leo threatens Nadine when she changes her mind. She and her father flee to the country.
Alex and his parents go on their yacht. Alex wakes to see a man onboard holding a gun, moving around the yacht. He looks over board and sees a small dinghy. Alex tries to call his dad, texting him. Lock your doors. Alex goes searching for the man. Kate’s student, Robbie, shows her information he found on the story she did 50 years ago. She decides to finish the investigation once and for all.
Nadine goes into labour, syndicate men come to take the baby, kills her family and nadine is shot at as she runs for help.
Leo escapes with the help of Jordy.
Zoe discovers Hannah is not her birth mother.Season 4
a. A bomb explodes on the yacht. A fisherman helps Alex out of the water, his parents are dead. Nadine gets to a neighbours, goes to the police but they don’t believe her.
b. Alex is in shock and grieving the loss of his parents. He helps his sister too. He is badly injured and must get over his injuries. He fronts the media. He is afraid for his life and offers a reward to whoever killed his parents. Someone close to him is suspicious.
Nadine is put into a psych ward. She escapes, goes to her brother’s friend she hated and told him to stay away but now needs him to help her escape. She flees the country. She is in a spiral of despair, turns to drugs, then decides to find her son.C. Assassinator, the syndicate going after Nadine. Nadine going after Zoe.
D. Who killed Alex’s parents? Will Nadine be safe?
E. Nadine discovers where he son is and goes back to the US, sneaking into his adopted parents home, posing as a housekeeper. Zoe has been drugged and has a psychotic breakdown. Ward. Robbie is abducted, beaten and tortured by syndicate. We discover how much Alex hated his parents. He had them killed. Claudia sees something dangerous in Alex. Nadine takes Leo away to kill him…
Season 5
a. Zoe gets placed in a psych ward. An old actress friend of Leo’s (Camille, Head of the syndicate) comes to visit her and gets her out. Kate rescues Robbie. Nadine is about to kill Leo but he finally tells her about the syndicate – who they are, how to find them.
b. Kate finds Zoe and tells her the dead woman she did a story on back in 1970 is Zoe’s birth mother. She has all her info. Now Zoe realises she was lied to by her father. She is devastated. She goes to the one person to comfort her – Hannah. They finally have an honest, heart to heart conversation. Hannah admits that she suspected the girl was killed by the syndicate and when she saw how much Zoe looked like her she found it hard to take. They both break down and cry.
Robbie has changed. He has been seduced by the syndicate. He is give his own TV show at such a young age. (Like Kate was) Kate thinks he has sold out. Kate confronts him. On hearing this and receiving a letter from her, he speaks out against the syndicate on live television – exposing them. Kate dies, but is at peace with what she has done, proud of Robbie.
Zoe gets released, fights Nadine.
Alex is power hungry and dangerous. He plans to blow up the syndicate. Syndicate key players are meeting. Nadine realises how far Alex is going, how damaged he is , but she loves him and will never turn him in.c. Robbie against Kate. The syndicate. Alex. Nadine vs Zoe.
d. Will Alex kill the syndicate, will Claudia find out what he’s up to and will he kill her? Can Leo be trusted, is he leading Nadine astray?
e. Alex confronts and threatens Claudia – she’s onto him. She gets away.
Leo is the one to blow everyone up. Alex is injured in the blast and is now paralysed, Nadine must take care of him. Both Nadine and Zoe meet up at the place they first became friends. Claudia is the one to have placed Alex in harms way, and now has injected him with the same drug her grandfather was given. Zoe, with the support of Hannah, goes to find her maternal grandmother who is still alive in a nursing home and she meets her aunty. She gives the grandmother closure and justice for the family.
Nadine gets back into acting and finally has her son back with her – but as a quadriplegic whom she has to nurse full time.
Log in to reply.