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Day 2 Assignment
Reply to post your assignment.
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20 Replies
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PS81 Anna Harper Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned from doing this assignment: the plot format options give me a bird’s eye view of what would work best for the proposed storyline. Even though I was able to change it to fit Underdog, I really feel the first option Rescue worked best.
4.. Rescue
The Hero will rescue a victim from the villain but the focus of the story
is often on the hero’s pursuit of the villain. The natural progression:
separation, pursuit, confrontation, and finally reunion.The Hero of my screenplay is a dog named Alfie, he has telepathic powers and befriends Dylan, boy who has become mute following the trauma of his mother dying in a car crash.
Alfie is established as a hero when he intercepts a group of bullies beating Dylan up and name-calling. Alfie demonstrates his telepathic powers by communicating with the boy briefly, and then he runs off, leaving Dylan to go home alone, his father does not understand what has happened to Dylan and thinks he had a fall. Dylan is not speaking, so he suffers in silence.
As the story unfolds with Alfie appearing at Dylan’s garbage bin, they become friends, and Alfie is aware of Dylan’s predicaments 1. not speaking 2. A nasty school teacher who is intent on becoming Dylan’s new stepmother and plans to send him off to a special boarding school.
With Alfie’s help, and in the nick of time a string of cruel offenses is revealed, Dylan is saved from boarding school and begins to speak again. Alfie becomes a member of the family and uses his clever ways to guide Dylan’s Dad towards a more suitable love interest.
9. Underdog
This plot is similar to Rivalry, except that the protagonist is not matched
equally against the antagonist. The antagonist can be a person, place
(ocean), or thing (bureaucracy), and clearly has much greater power than
the protagonist.The opening scene is of Dylan being locked in a basement by the grade 5 teacher. Outside of the school, the local dog catcher is pursuing Alfie, who is having difficulty hiding because he is so big. Eventually, Alfie finds an open door to a porch and hides inside, only to be found later by a very sad Dylan when he returns home after spending the day in the school basement.
As the story unfolds, Alfie demonstrates his powers to have a two-way telepathic conversation with the mute boy. They help each other, they protect each other from many difficult skirmishes.
Eventually, Alfie gets the boy to speak again and reveals the evil deeds of the teacher to Dylan’s Dad and the school board. Alfie avoids being put down by the dog catcher when Dylan’s Dad takes responsibility for the dog
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by anna harper.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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DRAMATIC PLOTS #1
What I learned doing this is it certainly focuses the mind in a disciplined way within the narrow scope and thus pinpoints a possible direction without sidetracking.
• Revenge
Luciana, the small town Mayor, whose family ranch was unfairly bought by newcomer billionaire Darrogh sets out to ruin and humiliate him by setting up a sting ‘investment ‘company, with the funds going the financially stricken town.
Nia, his long-abandoned now theatre professional daughter who arrived on a touring gig, meets Luciana and discovers she was her long deceased Mother’s best friend in college. They join forces and with the enthusiastic support of the local community, Nia devises a play which he is flattered into attending. He sees the sting for what it was when it is too late, and comes face to face with his daughter after 15 years. He is exposed and humbled in public.
Darrogh loses his fortune and is brought to account for running away from responsibility for his then 10year old daughter. He is now dependent in her for his future wellbeing. Luciana and Nia can decide what to do with him.
• Underdog
Darrogh owns most of the land around a small struggling town and also owns a hugely successful business empire but refuses to engage with nor support the mainly ill-educated and impoverished community.
Luciana, an older Latina woman whose family lost the family ranch to Darrogh and is also Mayor of this dying town, determines to get the money they all need from him by setting up a ‘sting’ company in spite of the odds.
Nia, Darrogh’s daughter whom he abandoned after her Mother died when she was 10, is now a theatre professional and arrives in town on a touring gig. On discovering her long lost Father lives here, and meeting Luciana who she finds out was her Mother’s best friend at college, she hatches a plan. The two women have similar goals and pool their resources.
With no capital but with the enthusiastic support of the theatrically inexperienced but desperate community, Nia devises a performance to which Darrogh is invited as a guest of honor. The play reveals the sting, Nia announces herself, and ultimately, he is exposed and humbled, having lost all his fortune with the only option to throw himself on the mercy of his daughter – and /or the community – for his future wellbeing.
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Subject: Antonio Flores’ Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this is…
I bought Tobias’ book and the first couple of chapters helped me reconsider my understanding of plot. Tobias proposes that plot, rather than structure, is a kind of force that holds everything together. I like that understanding because it makes plot appear as something organic instead of rigid or formulaic.
1. Select two plots that could possibly work for your story.
- Riddle
- Escape
2. Tell the name of the plot selection and write a one paragraph synopsis for each one.
Riddle: The audience should think on a “rescue” where Parisa, a cheerleader-made-MMA-contestant, fights to find her runaway fiancé, an underground MMA prizefighter, who (mystery/separation) broke up with her and ran away with a man from the lab where he daytime works as janitor. Parisa finds her way into the underground octagon (pursuit / clues with misdirection), wins every fight, until she finally spots her fiancé and the runaway partner, just to find out (confrontation) that she had misjudged the situation (real sequence of events / reunion)
Escape: They fall in the hands of the Ruler (imprisonment), a dangerous criminal, leader of the underground octagon. Transported to a remote place in the desert where the Ruler’s gang prepare a “Fire Festival” MMA underground tournament. All attempts to escape are futile, but in the meantime, Parisa completes her training as MMA fighter, which she badly needs because her fiancé has been poisoned and she must fight for the antidote in the underground octagon. “Sometimes to escape, you must stop running away.”
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What I learned doing this assignment is that having a handle on your plot is like having your hand on the steering wheel of a car. Without it, you’re going to crash. I tend to come at story from the character perspective and keep the figuring out of the plot until later. I now see how crucial it is to really think about and commit to the plot. It is your guidepost to making the story cohesive and having characters behave in believable ways. But to be honest, I’m still working out the mechanics of the plot to my script. This exercise was very helpful.
1. Underdog
Katie is clearly the underdog to her imperious, narcissistic father whose power and influence are no match for her as she rebels against him and tries to go her way. Once her father fires her, she is set adrift, suddenly without the stability that being in her father’s employ provided. Nonplussed and wounded by her father firing her and then investing in and backing her former Sous chef and now rival, Katie must reconcile a lot of emotions and then either be proactive or quit altogether. The entrance of Eamon into her life and world, help her to regain her confidence to face up to her father to fulfill her own dreams and ambitions.
2. Rivalry
As the story unfolds and Katie gains some notoriety, she becomes a rival to her father. Additionally, her former Sous Chef becomes her rival as well when he opens his own restaurant in close proximity. When they both find out that they are being evaluated for a James Beard award – the Oscars of the Food world – the rivalry heats up, literally. Feigning needing to borrow some produce for his restaurant, the Sous Chef takes advantage of some faulty electrical wiring in Katie’s restaurant and sets in motion a fire that will happen during that night’s service.
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Nancy Kates Proseries 81 Dramatic Plots #1
What I learned: doing this is kind of fun, in the same way that all the brainstorming exercises are…there are many many different ways to tell a story, just as there are many ways to think about and modify a story concept.
Quest plot: This scenario maps fairly well to my concept, ie that two women have switched bodies, and have to learn something and grow in order to be able to switch back. It’s not exactly looking for the Holy Grail, but close enough…the trials and tribulations they face are very close to home, with each other’s spouses, children and professional lives, not dragons and monsters. The object of their respective quests is self awareness, as well as greater understanding and compassion for each other and the other’s life circumstances. Each woman has to find something in the other that she can emulate, in order to come together to solve the riddle, ie how to undo the magic that created the situation.
Escape plot: My story is about two people stuck in each other’s body, so they do literally need to escape, but it’s an escape story in which there are no clear avenues for escape. They must go through a lot of picaresque adventures in order to work together to figure out the solution. there’s a deeply oppressive quality to being stuck in the wrong body, even if one of the characters actually enjoys it. Framing the plot this way also allows the whole story to work as a metaphor. We are all “stuck” in our bodies and our circumstances, even if the circumstances are mostly of our own choosing. By finding themselves in each other’s bodies, they see where they’re stuck in their own, and where the path to greater freedom might lie.
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PS81 Dev Ross – Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned surprised me big time! I thought RIVARY was going to be the plot for me. RIDDLE only came in as a far second choice. I wasn’t looking forward to tackling it. But as soon I began idea-rifting on RIDDLE, I went crazy with the possibilities.
RIVALRY
Alienated from his wife and kids, and fading in his once commanding influence, a middle-aged KKK Grand Dragon longs to regain his status among white supremacists. He plots to do it by audaciously murdering a rising black leader. The Black Leader has everything the Grand Dragon once had and believes he’s entitled to again: a loving family, and a powerful sphere of influence. The Grand Dragon plans to cut the leader’s influence and life short by assassinating him during the Black Leader’s announcement that he’s running for office. After cleaning his rifle, the Grand Dragon goes to bed with dreams of renewed grandeur. But when he awakens, he IS that black leader. But like a dream that fades from your grasp, his awareness of what? Being white? – vanishes, leaving him with a gnawing anxiety and a single pervasive thought: he must first assassinate the Grand Dragon. Though he tries to erase and then rationalize such a violent thought, he can’t escape the force driving him. These two men’s following days are spent in a cat and mouse pursuit to kill one another. In their growing obsession, the Black Leader loses momentum gained in his campaign, and his family, no longer recognizing him, leaves him. Meanwhile, the Grand Dragon’s obsession gains him new followers, but these people are wildly out of balance and dangerous. Both men are pushed to further and further extremes until their final and most vicious confrontation, where the shifting dimension finally brings them face to face in a mirror. They are each other.
RIDDLE
A middle-aged KKK Grand Dragon longs for the good ole days when a white man could lynch a black man with immunity. Now it’s all changed. Get caught on a cell phone video and its life imprisonment. With his membership leaving to join other younger, sexier white hate groups, the Grand Dragon decides it’s time to act. He’ll plot the murder of some random black guy, make sure no one is around to video it, but make sure through the proper channels that everyone knows he did it. He selects a middle-class black man with a wife and kids, cleans his rifle and goes to bed. In the morning, we see a Black Man startle awake from a bad dream. As he tries to put the pieces of the dream together, it fades away. All that is left is a desire to murder a white man. The idea is intoxicating. At work and with his family, he tries to push the desire aside, but it’s becoming a raging obsession that is only assuaged when he finally picks out the Grand Dragon of the local KKK to murder. A cat and mouse game ensues with each getting close to killing the other but with no success. Both men become so obsessed they ruin their families, are fired from their jobs, and become embittered loners. With nothing left to lose, they both plot to kill each other and then to turn their guns on themselves. They arrange a meeting in a warehouse where they will duel it out. Each shows up but can’t find the other. Finally, they both enter a strange room where broken mirrors and inky pools of water keep flashing reflections of the other. They fire at random, bullets ricocheting that ultimately hit them. Riddled with bullets, they both collapse. They each spot the other and drag themselves together for a final, hate fueled verbal confrontation. But when they pull themselves closer, the other isn’t there. Dying, each catches a glimpse of a reflection in the water. They see each other, themselves.
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PS81 Lisa Long’s Dramatic Plots – Part One
What I learned from this assignment is…that I usually let the characters push the plot along, but that I can have more control over the plot by making choices. And that more than one plot can be combined to add layers.
4. Rescue
The Hero will rescue a victim from the villain but the focus of the story
is often on the hero’s pursuit of the villain. The natural progression:
separation, pursuit, confrontation, and finally reunion.Protagonist Mary is an every woman who tries to rescue others all the time. She is trying to rescue her ex-husband from his demons, and she is trying to save the town by making the festival a success. She also is constantly looking out for her two daughters. By the end, she rescues everyone and everything, but most importantly she rescues herself by realizing what it is she truly wants from life.
10. Temptation
This character plot depends largely on morality and the effects of giving
into temptation. Usually, you establish the nature of the protagonist and the natureof the temptation. Show how the protagonist struggles over their decision to
avoid the temptation, then have the protagonist give in. Once the
short-term gratification is over, the pain and consequences set in. As the
negative effects of the temptation surface and increase in intensity, the
protagonist fights to avoid responsibility and punishment for the act. Finally, after much internal and external conflict, the protagonist reaches some kind resolution.Protagonist Mary has two men in her life. Her ex-husband who still lives nearby and she worries about in a way that makes her think that maybe she still loves him. Peter is her boss whom she has seen a couple of times outside of work. Mary is enamored with Peter. He is well off, secure, and really cares about her. Mary is struggling with 2 temptations, but are either what she really wants?
Thank you,
Lisa Long
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Laura Woodworth’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment: It was fun to try the different plot possibilities out and see where it takes the story.
1. Possible plots: Quest, underdog
2. Paragraphs with each plot possibility.
Quest: A Russian college student goes in search of her life purpose in the oppressive society of 1960’s Russia and discovers her grandmother’s hidden illegal Bible. It sparks a spiritual revival in Natalia as well as the student body at a Moscow university. But the popularity of the forbidden book jeopardizes her grandmother’s life as she comes on the radar of the KGB as the source of the illegal bible. Natalia seeks to smuggle her out of the country, but her grandmother instead ensures Natalia’s escape, giving her life for her granddaughter, and bringing Natalia to a new grasp of the real meaning of life.
Underdog: When a Russian college student discovers her grandmother’s illegal bible, it sparks a spiritual awakening on a Moscow university, but draws the attention of the KGB. With her grandmother’s life jeopardized as the source of the forbidden book, Natalia must outwit the powerful KGB and smuggle her grandmother out of the country before they can execute her.
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PS 81 Anita Gomez Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment: It certainly made me think about the motivations behind my character’s actions.
Plot #1 “QUEST”
In its most simplistic core this story is about a woman who must seek out her now-grown abandoned daughter for a life-saving kidney transplant. But this would be not only a rather gruesome, even evil “quest” it would leave no room for character change or growth. I have already moved past this thin through-line and reject it as my main (or only) plot line. Certainly her search for her daughter is important, but it will take on a much more layered meaning and emotional weight as she gets closer to finding her.
Plot #10 “TEMPTATION”
Certainly the moral implications and dilemma of a young ambitious single woman faced with an unwanted pregnancy would put her in a position of being tempted to have an abortion. Add to that the unfortunate circumstance that she lives in a state that disallows abortion, under any circumstance, and she is forced to flee her home to seek out her remedy. Yet, faced with the ultimate decision of a now later-term abortion, the woman can’t go through with the procedure, even though carrying to full-term puts he own life in danger. The internal struggle is monumental and she decides to have the child, nearly dying in the process. Her disassociation with either the father or the baby leads her to the third dilemma – abandoning the child to a ‘safe haven’ rather than face the protracted agonies associated with adoption.
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Alice’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this is it wasn’t symple, and I could do it only with the help of structure of nine. Maybe there are still some sentences given too much of story.
MYROPOLIS SEPARATION
Part 1
7. The Riddle
This one challenges the viewer to solve the riddle before the protagonist
does. The core of your riddle should be cleverness: hiding that which is
in plain sight. You set up a mystery, provide clues and misdirection, and
finally give the solution, explaining the motives of the antagonist and the
real sequence of events (as opposed to what seemed to have happened).
Young scientists comes back with his girlfriend from across the sea, where they spent weekend. Next day, Kiat cannot be found. Every next person who disappears is posed as taken a leave, or being on vacation. Anaupsh kills Director of Research Institute, and erases information about her genetic development experiments. One of workers enters, as there are tired up victims, and separates prior they have time to kill him. A commission of aged man and young girl come, and almost blow up their hiding place, but also become victims. Young scientist pays visits to all the labs in sequence, then his journalist brother puts the case on TV. Young scientist gets contacted by secret government organization. They themselves are afraid. At one point at night he can hear knocking from behind the wall when everyone left. He visits Anaupsh’s lab, and loses himself at the site of what she shows him, falling as victim. Government workers who contacted him get killed. Anaupsh presents her work at symposium, and lets her monsters out and they float up to the sky. They get destroyed by dispatch. Anaupsh faces court. Her brother is chosen for judge, so that he would justify her, as she bought governmental police with her “weapon talk”. He gradually pulls every next piece of information out of her, uncovering her vile nature. At the end, he proposes there to be zones, to send outcastes to, no matter consequences. As he separates, video detects his subtle body walking the aisle, streaming it to all screens. This is obvious, now they would face exchange of social system.
Part 2
Akata inside of Reservation
5. Escape
Your hero is confined against his will (often unjustly) and wants to
escape. In this case, the hero is the victim. The natural
progression: imprisonment, initial attempts to escape fail, new plan
is made that is also thwarted, and finally, the actual escape.
Ward choses certain restricted area, where he meets Akata. She keeps visiting him, learning martial arts and writing. Akata commonly avoids other habitants, and is hiding in Ward’s apartment for a couple of days. Their neighbors do all thing to them as the door is locked. Then helicopter brings goodies. Seeing, Akata might get liberated, her family kills Ward. They rob his apartment, and Akata gets tortured. She recovers, and now can see Ward in spirit. He tells her how to fight her step-mother. Then guides upstairs to deposits report. She fights a newcomer in martial combat, disarms her and shoots. Then she picks up on helicopter pilot, deceives him, so that he would take her away. Then points a gun on him. Radio works, and they get contacted. This happens to be military of high rang who choses to bring her to his last gig of technology station.
Akata outside of Reservation
9. Underdog
This plot is similar to Rivalry, except that the protagonist is not matched
equally against the antagonist. The antagonist can be a person, place
(ocean), or thing (bureaucracy), and clearly has much greater power than
the protagonist.
Military who picked up Akata gets quickly evolving feelings to her. Seeing this is mutual, he brings her to hotel, where they have sex. Not naive anymore, Akata stands naked as servant brings wine. They get reported and must fight their way from hotel. As he awakes at a hospital, Akata keeps warding away every next person coming to get hold of them. They are saved by military dispatch. She becomes his wife and travels with him around. She overlooks she is pregnant, not knowing what it is. At one hotel stay, her different behavior evolves into wakeful night with military dispatch finding dead girl’s body with one of residents, and psychologist coming to pacify disturbed officer and hotel’s owner. They make friends for life, meanwhile keeping arresting people to send into zones even from the streets, up to the morning. They never have piece. And yet to go as a Ward into zone means imminent death, as they are forbidden to use weapon on untrained habitants of zones. Not being able to bring resolution to dilemma, he separates.
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Michael Katz Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned: I’ve always heard there were a limited number of plots — 36, 10, 20, 7. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. For me, having plot guidelines sparks ideas, doesn’t constrain/inhibit them.
ASSIGNMENT – select two plots that could work for your story and write a logline/paragraph synopsis for each one.
6. Revenge – hero has a moral justification for vengeance and seeks retaliation against the antagonist
Traeger the scientist is demonstrating a key research breakthrough that will be part of a revolutionary energy system, but has an experiment catastrophe, which disfigures him and causes investors to pull the plug on the project. Traeger discovers that there was sabotage by foreign governments, and he becomes filled with a moral justification for vengeance and seeks retaliation against them. With the help of his new girlfriend Imelyna who instills her fight global warming ideology in him, Traeger commercializes a smaller aspect of his technology to start amassing wealth in order to build his power. As he continues to further the commercialization of pieces of his technology, entrenched oil interests lobby governments to hinder his progress with regulations, lawsuits, interference, sabotage, hacking, stolen IP, and lies. As he becomes even more disillusioned with how the world works, he abandons normal channels that aren’t working and pursues the devious methods of a supervillain, including gaining ill-gotten money and taking power by force. Though his intentions are honorable as he just wants the world to adopt his advanced energy technology to combat global warming, Traeger develops a masterplan for vindication of his energy system and revenge against governments by coerced overthrow, but first he has to elude being captured and killed by a government spy Derek. The spy wreaks havoc with Traeger’s operations, causing apparent failure of his plan, but with the help of Imelyna he is able to improvise one last attempt at vindication. But, losing his self-control after continued government defiance and attempted murder, Traeger achieves final revenge by using his energy system as a weapon, destroying the governments and the very world it governs.
9. Underdog – protagonist against the antagonist in a power struggle, except the antagonist has the advantage.
Traeger (protagonist) is an young researcher on the precipice of a research breakthrough that will be part of a revolutionary energy system that will upend the world’s current entrenched interests, including conglomerates, oligarchs, and governments (antagonists). The antagonists clearly has much greater power than the lone lowly protagonist, but they identified the protagonist as a threat and instigate the action by sabotaging Traeger’s efforts by causing an experiment catastrophe, which disfigures him, causes investors to pull the plug on the project, and sets his research back by a decade, which ensures the governments’ continued economic might. But when Traeger discovers their sabotage, instead of being dissuaded from continuing, it backfires as he gains moral superiority over the antagonist, and it drives him to work hard to defeat the antagonist, and he becomes filled with a moral justification for vengeance and seeks retaliation against them. With the help of his new girlfriend Imelyna who instills and radicalizes within him the fight global warming ideology in him, Traeger commercializes smaller aspects of his technology to start amassing wealth in order to build his power. As Traeger the underdog’s power increases, his business ventures continually face antagonist/government obstacles including regulations, lawsuits, interference, sabotage, hacking, stolen IP, and lies. Because Traeger is fighting an uphill battle against ruthless, immoral government/antagonists, he feels moral superiority and self-righteous indignation, and rationalizes that he tried creating change the right way, so now he’s entitled to bend the rules and do it the wrong way. Traeger becomes disillusioned with how the world works, and believes he, alone, can fix it, and so he abandons normal channels that aren’t working, and pursues the devious methods of a supervillain, including criminal enterprise and taking power by force/murder. His ultimate goal and intentions remain honorable as he just wants the world to adopt his advanced energy technology to reverse global warming, however Traeger develops a masterplan to give himself finally the upper hand over the antagonists so he can achieve vindication for his revolutionary energy system and get revenge against the governments by coercing their overthrow. He has gained enough power to become, at least in his mind, an equal adversary. And, of course, as the antagonist recognizes that the Traeger the supervillain’s power is formidable, and feels the threat to their power is real, they send Derek the spy to investigate Traeger, to stop whatever he’s planning, and to assassinate him if necessary. The spy wreaks havoc with Traeger’s operations, causing apparent failure of his plan, and Traeger’s power is seemingly crippled. However, with the help of Imelyna, Traeger is able to improvise one last attempt to prove his superiority. But, losing his self-control after continued government defiance and attempted assassination, Traeger achieves final revenge and world domination by using his energy system as a weapon and beating/destroying the governments and the very world it governs.
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Cameron Martin’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment is…that though the core concept and characters may remain the same, the actual story itself can very quite a bit. This lesson will be extremely useful when working with others on future projects that require any ideas I have to conform to and support the vision of the producer.
P.S. I’ve included two different concepts in this post. I plan to work with a couple others in the future as time allows.
OPEN WIDE
Plot Selections: Quest and Escape
Quest:
When a community fails to take shelter in a bunker at the outset of an outbreak of alien parasites, the worms reek havoc upon the community, killing all but three: A grandmother, a pacifist, and a smuggler. To save herself, the grandmother is forced to reveal her true identity as a spy for the Hegemony, when she uses her skills with a makeshift gun (something that’s forbidden in the space colonies) against the hosts trying to eat her. She also reveals to the two other survivors that she has a short range escape ship outside of the city, so that they can get off world before the hegemony sends conscripted liquidators to exterminate the aliens and any survivors. Together, they make their way out of their small apartment building and weave through the Smuggler’s hidden passages on floating metropolis that makes up their space colony, fighting through the alien parasites along the way. The Pacifist also reveals her true colors when, as a former Super Soldier, her programming kicks in when she is forced to engage in combat against the aliens and turns on the Smuggler and the Grandmother. Together, both are able to defeat her. Now, with the party down to two and a hundred yards away from the escape vessel, the Smuggler knocks the Grandmother unconscious and takes her to a hidden torture room adjacent to the docking bay. The Grandmother wakes up and is given an explanation by the Smuggler, who uses that reputation to trick dissenters in the Hegemony and execute them. The Grandmother, a spy who is good at her job, is able to break free from the Smuggler’s trap, revealing that being trapped was a part of her plan for escape. She allows the Smuggler to be overrun by the alien parasites and escapes off world to go to her family, moments before the conscripts land to exterminate the population.
Escape:
When a community takes shelter in a bunker at the outset of an outbreak of alien parasites, one of the people amongst them turns out to be infected and reeks havoc upon the community. To save herself, the grandmother is forced to reveal her true identity as a spy for the Hegemony, when she uses her skills with a makeshift gun (something that’s forbidden in the space colonies) against the host trying to eat them. Unfortunately, her gun also creates a breech in the bunker, and the colonists must escape the building before it is target bombed. The Smuggler of the group reveals that she knows a way and agrees to help the community before more parasitic worms slither their way into the bunker. The colonists work together to craft weapons against the worms and a way to open the breach wider so that people can crawl through. On his way out of the bunker to open the blast doors, the colonist scouting ahead discovers a nest of the worms and is quickly swallowed up by several. The other colonists prepare themselves to try and contain the breach, when the new alien host leads a dozen more worms back into the bunker. In the ensuing carnage, more than half of the remaining community is wiped out. However, they also discover the young girl who’s declared herself a pacifist was actually a Super Soldier, when her programming kicks in and she’s able to kill off the remaining worms and their hosts. She opts to go and open the blast doors so that the community can escape. She is able to open the doors so that the community can escape. The Smuggler guides the group through the secret passages within the apartment building, but leads them to another trap, gassing them to unconsciousness. The survivors wake up in a torture room and discover their resident smuggler uses that reputation to root out dissenters of the Hegemony. The Smuggler manipulates the Pacifist Super Soldier’s programming to start killing the other survivors. The Grandmother Spy, is able to escape just in time and hide from the Super Soldier and Smuggler. Through the use of makeshift tech, she’s able to find out where the secret room is and open a pathway for the alien parasites in, killing the Smuggler. She then helps the Super Soldier break free from her programming, and together they’re able to escape just before the building is target bombed.
POSSESSING EDEN
Plot Selections: Quest and Adventure
Quest:
In a post death future, a computer virus, Adam, holds a high rise tower hostage, along with the Afterlife Protocol that allows its residents to reincarnate in the form of robotic surrogates. After hundreds of years, Adam has created his own heaven, his own hell, and his own creations in his image to guide the residents in a religion that worships him as a god. One of his creations, Janus, shows more promise than her siblings and is offered a glimpse into the extant of her powers. Adam teaches Janus how to duplicate herself. However, unbeknownst to Janus, the process of duplication requires the deletion of the consciousness already present within the host’s shell, effectively committing murder in a world where death should be impossible. Janus and her Copy go in search of a way to resurrect her victim by using the technology and code Adam used to create her. On her way down the high rise and into the underworld, the Copy manipulates Janus and her guilt to control her for power. In addition, Adam, tussling with his own duplicates, chooses to retaliate from his perceived rejection rather than love or help his daughter, and attempt to kill her. Adam also offers the Copy a place at his side, if the Copy kills Janus. The Copy is almost successful in killing Janus, but Janus does something different than her creator. Instead of killing a part of herself, she chooses to heal and comfort, merging with her Copy to become a more complete person. When Janus returns to her creator, she is more powerful and is able to free the residents into a world that is much larger than what Adam told them.
Adventure:
In a future where people are reincarnated into robot surrogates through a communication chip, a mysterious hacker/assassin begins to hijack the Afterlife Protocol and go on a killing spree. One spunky young woman, Janus, tries to stop him, but in the ensuing chase and scuffle, accidentally creates a copy of herself with the assassin’s tech, directly resulting in the murder of an innocent bystander. Janus goes with her copy to the church to find redemption and is given a task to find the “god” of the Afterlife Protocol to resurrect her victim. Janus and her Copy leave their town, the murderer still on the loose, and venture up, into and through the “Mountain of the Gods,” full of robotic and cybernetic wildlife, monstrosities and heroes, all of whom provide different challenges to Janus and her Copy, requiring them to find a way to work together. Janus and her Copy struggle for who is in charge and whether Janus really deserves forgiveness. Her greatest challenge comes when they discover the “god” they’re seeking is a weak computer virus, Pan, that’s copied himself over and over to create the world they live in, but that one of the copies is the murderer they faced earlier. Unable to bring the victim back to life (that’s not what computer viruses do, even in the future) or earn redemption through the god they worship, Janus’ Copy tries to kill Janus, believing she must finally pay for her mistakes. However, Janus is able to comfort and heal herself, merging with her Copy to become a stronger person. She then looks out over the summit to her city at the base, and prepares for the journey home, merged with her Copy and Pan as an ally.
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Follow up…While I’m not happy with some of the synopses I came up with, the important lesson learned was how to finish the assigned plot conventions, taking the characters to the end of the line. There’s plenty of time to improve these later on.
GRAND THEFT ROAD TRIP
Plot Selections: Adventure and Rivalry
Adventure:
What starts out as a routine defensive driving course between a domineering parent and his/her child takes a sudden turn when the lights on a police cruiser flare up in the rear view mirror. The parent’s child slams on the gas and takes his/her parent on the ride of their life across the country. As they sort through their differences, they also stop in different hole-in-the-walls they’d visited on previous family road trips. There parallels become apparent when the same reasons for the fun that they’d had before come to the surface, as well as the reasons for previous fights: The parent wanted their child to act, partake in, or do something the parent wanted, regardless of the child’s desires. Vice versa, the child would act out in increasingly extreme circumstances, taking creative tantrums after not getting their way to drive fast for a while. It’s only when the parent accepts his/her child for who they are that the child accepts responsibility and turns his/herself in, bringing the road trip to an end and an undetermined future ahead of the both of them.
Rivalry:
What starts out as a routine defensive driving course between a domineering parent and his/her child takes a sudden turn when the lights on a police cruiser flare up in the rear view mirror. The parent’s child slams on the gas and takes his/her parent on the ride of their life. The parent works to turn their child in at every chance they get, whether that be at a gas station, a diner, or a backlot. Meanwhile, the child takes more and more extreme measures to keep their parent hostage, escalating from a car chase with their parent in the passenger seat, turning the passenger airbag off, to holding them at gunpoint. Along the way, different flashbacks compare the trip together now to the road trips the family had in the past, showing how the child became a ruthless criminal. The parent makes one more attempt to stop their child, but it leads to the child going on a rampage that results in the parent’s death and the deaths of several other cops and bystanders. The child gets away, fully turning to the criminal underworld for freedom.
OLD TESTAMENT BAND
Plot Selections: Revenge and Temptation
Revenge:
When the founding member of a popular Christian rock band is murdered after not paying back the loan shark that supported their initial financing, the eccentric lead guitarist goes to confront the criminal’s hideout and thugs, while the other band members try to discreetly go through the cops. But when the detective on the case starts to get too close to the band’s origins, and the lead guitarist is killed during his mission, the remaining band members host a concert at the site of their founding member’s murder as a trap to kill the loan shark, detective, and any others involved either in the murder of their band members or those who uncovered the band’s origins.
Temptation:
An up and coming Christian rock band struggles to move out of that “up and coming” status. With no regular channels to help fund them, a loan shark offers them more financing than they ever dreamed of, for a price. While the rest of the band rejects the offer, the founding member, seeing no other way, accepts the loan shark’s deal. Suddenly, the band can afford to go on tour and fulfill their mission of spreading the word of GOD. However, when the band doesn’t make as much in return as they’d hoped, the second part of the deal is demanded. The band goes on the run, doing their best to protect the founding member from a gang hot on their trail. When there’s nowhere else to run, the founding member is captured and executed in front of the other band members. The debt now falls on the remaining band members to come up with the money they owe. The band regroups and creates a plan to bring down the loan shark’s organization by putting on a concert as a trap. There, at the concert, the loan shark watches as the band puts on their biggest show yet, culminating in the band pulling out guns from their instruments and killing the loan shark and his henchmen live in front of a hundred thousand horrified fans.
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Matthew Frendo’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment is that there are mostly a few plots that are used in different ways. I never knew this before and it actually seems eye opening. It’s much easier to use these templates than trying to think of something blindly. Especially because most movies use these formats.
Escape – In the future, the judicial system is based on social media voting, after which criminals must go through livestreamed battles and deadly challenges. But Alicia wasn’t supposed to be here. She has no social media profile and stays alone in the woods. Now, she must escape…if she can survive the deadliest challenges they’ve ever used in the games before.
The Riddle – Alicia ends up in the game, even though she is an unknown who did nothing wrong. Now, she has to figure out who put here there…and why…if she plans on making it out alive.
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June Fortunato Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned: that it’s very fun to plug my idea into different templates.
Plot 2, Adventure
What’s new and strange for Roy is that having gone it alone for so long, this woman, Kim, has a lot of other places she’s crashed that he didn’t even think of! Together they brainstorm and find even more weird and free temporary places to live, but Roy’s goal is a permanent pad and there’s friction because they’re both used to going it alone. It isn’t until Roy is in serious trouble that Kim snaps out of her own world to rescue him. Together, they, incredibly lucky, hit on the perfect situation together.
Plot 8, Rivalry
Roy meets his equal in a woman who crashes as many free places as he does. They find themselves competing for some of the same hidey free rides, and her damn loud voice always gives them away. He finds her both completely frustrating and annoying and also beguiling and a blast. How irritating! She often can’t abide him either, because she’s very happy just speaking to herself. Little by little, though, they start to seek each other out. The game is to discover where the other is- and it’s so much fun- more fun than Roy has had in years. When Roy gets into serious trouble- trapped under a collapsing (mostly empty) silo- Kim pulls him out just in time. Serious romantic turn on because it validates both of them- so they decide to make it together, and as lucky as luck can be, land in the perfect free pad for life.
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Subject: Arthur’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment: There are 20 basic film plots. Choosing among these will aid in finding the focus of your film.
5. Escape
The crew of the USS Reliant is trapped on their disabled and falling out of orbit research spacecraft due to deliberate sabotage by North Korean hackers taking control of their ship. An attempt to scrub and reboot the onboard computer systems fails. Undaunted, the crew shuts down all the computer systems and attempts to control the craft with manual inputs. This leads to a near disaster as the thrusters begin to fire randomly almost ripping the ship apart. Just as the spacecraft is entering the earth’s atmosphere, the crew shuts down the ship’s computer and uses a jerry-rigged interface with the attached disabled shuttle, and regain control of the spacecraft.
9. Underdog
When a coronal mass ejection from the sun destroys most of the earth’s electronics, casting civilization back to the 1800s, the international research spacecraft Reliant is earth’s only hope against the next larger CMJ approaching in 48 hours. The crew must adapt and super-size the electromagnetic Tesla shield that saved their craft to protect the earth from the next earth-destroying solar storm. With no way to get the elements they need from the earth to upgrade their shield; the crew uses the untested near-light-speed engine to travel to the unmanned moon base to acquire an anti-matter generator. A CMJ, that misses earth, hits the moon just as their shuttle lifts off from the base to dock with the Reliant. The Reliant’s shield protects both crafts but not without damage and the loss of one astronaut. Arriving back in earth orbit just moments before the next CMJ strikes, the crew activates the Tesla Shield averting disaster for humanity.
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Dana’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned from this assignment:
This process is like conceptualizing. Using multiple master plots gives you different perspectives on how to approach your script, the character, and their interaction. The Rivalry vs. Underdog plotting provided me with a new perspective for my protagonist that places her at a greater disadvantage. Her character arc takes her from a radio shrink dealing with relationships to a powerful psychiatrist who manipulates a patient to commit suicide.
Rivalry:
A radio psychiatrist is set against an old schizophrenic patient with multiple personalities who threatens to kill her kidnapped family on air if she cannot excise his personality by the end of the show. While the police frantically search to find her patient, she uses every psychological skill in her arsenal to negotiate the release of her family. But when he follows through on his threat and kills her husband on air, she realizes she cannot talk him down. She must find another way to save her family. Strengthened by the investigating detective at the station, she fights through her pain and turns the table. She manipulates her patient, attempting to extract a suppressed, manic-depressive personality, and encourages him to commit suicide to save her daughters, violating her physician’s oath to do no harm.
Underdog:
A radio psychiatrist hosting a local relationship show must find the strength to prevent an old patient with multiple personality disorder from killing her kidnapped family on air. Joshua, the more dominant and violent personality, has assumed control of her patient and has devised a cunning, psychological game of emotional torture. He threatens to kill one member of her family every hour if she cannot excise Joshua from her patient before the end of the show. While the police search in vain to find this man, she negotiates with her patient to release her family. But when Joshua reemerges and kills her husband on air, she realizes she must find a different method. She reaches back into her training and uses every psychological skill to manipulate her patient and extract a suppressed, suicidal personality and encourages him to kill himself to save her daughters, violating her physician’s oath to do no harm.
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I learned to tell a story focusing on different ways of telling it.
1. Looking through the 10 plots above, select two that could possibly work for your story.
7. The Riddle
This one challenges the viewer to solve the riddle before the protagonist does. The core of your riddle should be cleverness: hiding that which is
in plain sight. You set up a mystery, provide clues and misdirection, and
finally give the solution, explaining the motives of the antagonist and the real sequence of events (as opposed to what seemed to have happened).
6. Revenge
Your hero has a moral justification for vengeance and seeks retaliation against the antagonist.
The natural progression: normal life, a crime against the hero, normal channels fail to resolve it, plans for revenge, pursuit of the antagonist, the confrontation, apparent failure that requires improvising, final revenge.
2. Tell the name of the plot selection and write a one paragraph synopsis for each one.
Riddle: Robert, a government official, has to figure out why his daughter killed herself, first, he learns that it was due to a gossip, about her being a slut in college, and some photos running around. Then, trying to find out who leak the photos, he finds out the photos are true, and the rumors goes beyond that. His daughter was the leader of a prostitution ring on campus. She provided the service to higher government officials. Then he discovers that she did not kill herself, she was murdered. The next piece on the puzzle is that Robert finds out that her daughter discovered a conspiracy to steal pension money by members of he government. Then he finds out His best friend and daughter’s godfather, Thomas, is the leader of this conspiracy. And wants him dead too for asking too many questions.
Revenge: Robert, a government official, doesn’t get along with his daughter after his wife dies of cancer and tries to reconnect with her, but she commits suicide. Obsessed by this, Robert embarks on an investigation of why his daughter died, and it turns out it was because of college gossip. Obsessed with getting revenge and clearing his daughter’s name, he decides to find the one who released the story, only to find that his daughter didn’t kill herself; she was murdered. His desire for revenge then increases, transmitting all his self-loathing to his daughter’s killers. Everything gets complicated when he discovers a conspiracy to steal pension money and his friend, who ordered to kill his daughter, abused her when she was a minor. Robert will stop at nothing to make him pay for his betrayal.
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Justina’s Dramatic Plots 1
What I learned doing this assignment is that even if you know the story, where you put the emphasis in the plot can make a huge difference in how it is experienced. Also choosing a plot structure can help the creativity process along immensely.
Plot Selection:
1 – Quest:
Stanley, who keeps to himself, goes incognito to find who should be the heir to his wealth. As he observes the different way his distant relatives handle money, he begins to question his own way of handling money. He is also reminded that the best people aren’t always the richest, including himself. In the end, he finds love with one of those best people which notion he was diametrically opposed to at the outset.
2 – Adventure:
Big city Stanley travels to a small, quaint town to live incognito for a time among his distant cousins as he searches for an heir. He experiences new things that his posh city life would never afford him. He also sees how different kinds of people handle wealth in a far different way than he is use to seeing among his social set. In the end, love finds him which wasn’t on his agenda at all.
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What I learned doing this is again keep an open mind, experiment and trust in the process. This exercise on possible plots has me really thinking about how every script can be written in a number of different ways given the plot you choose to utilize.
1. Looking through the 10 plots above, select two that could possibly work for your story.
For Christmas Trimmings, my script, possible plots are: #1 Quest and #2 Adventure.
2. Tell the name of the plot selection and write a one paragraph synopsis for each one.
Quest = As executor of her estranged father’s estate, Brooklyn is forced to go to leave her home, travel to a small mountain town where she discovers the truth about her father whom her mother always said was a neerdowell. Learning her father was the opposite, that he loved Brooklyn dearly and kept tabs on her, forces Brooklyn to reassess her life. At a crossroads as disillusionment and her mother’s deception change her thoughts on life and what it means to love, she finds love and sees life in a profoundly new way.
Adventure = Gifted artist from Chicago inherits property and a home from an estranged father. Brookly travels across country, to a small mountain town in Colorado where the people living there approach life in a far more relaxed and slow-paced fashion. A shoebox filled with old letters addressed to her and stamped “return to sender” forces Brooklyn to acknowledge the mother’s deception, accept the posthumous love of a father she adored as a little girl and find love for herself.
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