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Day 2 Assignments
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15 Replies
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Retirement. June Fortunato’s Subtext and Loglines for all of her characters.
“What I learned OK, it’s a generalized subtext exercise, but I would’ve called it “character essence” In fact, subtext changes for each scene/encounter. But it was a useful exercise to boil yesterday’s assignment down to a few words.
Name: Roy
Traits: Explosive side, charming, seductive, guilt, rescuer impulse, wit, rejection of authority.
Subtext: Horrified
Character Logline: Horrified Roy might have to take benefits from a government he loathes
when his body is ruined but he falls in love with Kim and has to talk her into how good it could
be.
Possible areas of subtext: Persuasive, desperation, resentment, terror, charmer.
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Name: Kim
Traits: Wounded, angry, betrayed, acts fearlessly, clever, masks her vulnerability by play acting,
deep empathy.
Subtext: Veneer of normal and anything but. Sneaky vandalism. Deeply fearful.
Character Logline: Kim wants her inheritance which was stolen by her brother so Kim escapes
his brutality, and sneakily damages the house again and again to make her point.
Possible areas of subtext: Fear. Sneaky.
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Name: Suzy the nurse
Traits: Self less, deep empathy, afraid to stop going, longs to believe in the good, matchmaker
for all kinds of things.
Subtext: Escape her guilt.
Character Logline: When Suzy finally dumps Roy, he returns all broken to her osteo unit. She
tries to get him fixed up in several ways: physically, with his financial benefits and with a place
to live to make sure he never returns to her.
Possible areas of subtext: Longs for relief. Many ways to convince others to take her hook ups.
Insistent.
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Name: Marilyn
Traits: Self effacing and insecure. Admires others. Goes back on decisions- Super worrier.
Charming/polite, Tender hearted. Veneer of self-assuredness.
Subtext: Insistent and painstaking- A betty white way of manipulating getting her way.
Character Logline: When Marilyn is duped by Kim, and as a result, breaks a hip, she needs
someone to pet sit and watch her house. Suzy suggests Roy and Marilyn will be damn sure to
grill him in a super polite way to ensure all will be well.
Possible areas of subtext: Charming manipulation.
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Name: Brian, Kim’s brother
Traits: Weasel, spineless. Self-serving, subservient to wife, zero empathy, will burn anyone to
keep himself afloat.
Subtext: Ruthless
Character Logline: When Brian’s new wife, Ingrid, wants Kim disinherited, Brian does her
bidding. He’s got a big secret so he needs to squash his sister, Kim and make sure she never tells.
Possible areas of subtext: Luring, sabotaging, pretending, lying, baiting, entrapping.
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Name: Ingrid, Brian’s wife/Kim’s sister in law
Traits: Self serving, greedy, abusive, ruthless veneer of society politeness. Overbearing.
Subtext: Revenge.
Character Logline: When Ingrid finally gets Brian to marry her, she declares all out war on his
sister, Kim, to disinherit her and take everything. Her plan is to get it all, and then divorce Brian.
Possible areas of subtext: Slimy manipulation.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by June f.
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Anna Harper Day 2
Silent Night
What I learned doing this assignment is that this process highlighted some options for me going forward with dialogue generation.
Name: Elizabeth Perkins
Traits: seductive, power-hungry, deceitful, controlling,
vengefulSubtext: must have things her way, uses her feminine charm to get what she wants
Character Logline: Elizabeth is in charge, she wants Steve she will have him, and no one will stand in her way, or else.
Possible areas of subtext – Luring/seducing Elizabeth is smooth in her demeanor in front of adults. She is attractive and she is aware of how to use this to lure, Underneath the charm she is ruthless.
Dylan
Traits are isolated. anxious depressed, victim depressed artistic,
likeable
Subtext Dylan wants to protect himself from further pain. Isolated from peer group by his behavior,
Character Logline I don’t know how to fix my life.No one understands me.
Possible areas of subtext Isolating behaviors, not speaking, using
headphones, anger, and fear when cornered.
Steve
Traits Local hero, independent, good guy, can be
insensitive, loving parent confused/stressed
Subtext Appears to have it together, underneath he is in grief and confusion over Dylan. Yearns for more than the status quo
Character Logline Steve is the local village bus driver and volunteer fireman who enjoys the role of a local hero. Underneath he is an emotional mess. He is lonely, confused, and wants more out of life.
Possible Areas of subtext Steve hides his emotions, secretly uses a shot of whiskey now and again to cope.
Loves his son yet cannot help him.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
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Cameron Martin’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment is…how to give my characters so much more depth and dimension from simply looking at irony as a source of inspiration. Seriously, Sully developed as a character before my eyes. In addition, it was great to go into this assignment after the feedback on the outline, because I knew what goals to have for the characters. Adding the subtext to Isaiah’s character helped to add a whole new subplot and angle for Isaiah that would assist in the logic gaps or sticking points in the original outline. What also helped was writing the character loglines from all three angles to see which fit the best and created the most intrigue. Markus is still a work in progress, but we’re getting there. I keep teetering between the plot from the episode PALS from the OUR WORLD WAR docuseries and Matthew 26: 69-75 as inspiration. Have to land on something eventually.
Name: Sully
Traits: Inventive, Loving, Controlling, Disguising
Subtext: Disguising
Character Logline:
A: Sully is an engineer who wants to be a loving father for his wife and son, but comes against the harsh expectations of space colonization and ravenous appetites of alien parasites.
B: Sully is a talented engineer who must fight off parasitic aliens and exterminators sent to kill him in order to save his son.
B.2: Sully is a talented engineer who must connect with his special needs son in order to survive an outbreak of alien parasitic worms.
C: Sully has difficulty separating the love for his son from a past mistake, and must find a way to reconcile his guilt in order to save both himself and his son from alien parasites.
Possible areas of subtext: Distances himself from others, brushes off association with son, Covers up the guilt he feels about his wife, Hides how he feels from his son, lies to himself
Name: Isaiah
Traits: Obsessive, Focused, Covering Up, Gentle
Subtext: Covering Up
Character Logline:
A: Isaiah is an autistic boy who must wants his father’s approval, but comes up against his father’s controlling nature and drive to survive against the aliens Isaiah loves.
Possible areas of subtext: Hiding the source of his inspiration, his love for the aliens, using his knowledge of the aliens to gain his dad’s approval, keeping a worm as a pet and hiding it from others.
Name: Markus
Traits: Discreet, Innocent, Loyal, Scholarly
Subtext: Discreet
Character Logline:
A: Markus is a stowaway who wanted to avoid being drafted into war, but comes up against a conscription to exterminate aliens and the call to execute his best friend in order to silence dissent.
B: Markus is a stowaway who must conceal his identity to escape the wrath of the military and the appetites of the aliens.
C: Markus has to conceal his identity as both a stowaway and a draft escapee, and must sacrifice his friend and others in order to escape from conflict.
Possible areas of subtext: Markus has to hide where he’s from or why he’s on the Hegemony passenger vessel, Markus has to convince his friend to not get involved, Markus conceals his relationship with his friend when he’s caught
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Additional lessons learned…The importance of analyzing your logline from as many different angles as possible to make new discoveries. Also, actually writing down how your character will use subtext helps to get a sense of how your character will act from scene to scene and what their motives in each scene are. It’s an awesome roadmap.
POSSESSING EDEN
Name: Janus
Traits: Overconfident, Protective, Convicted, Nervous
Subtext: Nervous
Character Logline:
A. Janus is a guardian angel who wants to resurrect Pan, the person she unintentionally killed, but comes up against her own creator who manipulates the forces of “heaven” and “hell” to stop her.
B. Janus is a guardian angel who must overcome the forces of “heaven” and “hell” to resurrect someone she killed.
C. Janus suffers from intense guilt for the murder she unintentionally committed, and must challenge her creator and his world in order to resurrect her victim
Possible areas of subtext: Janus acts confident to hide her sense of nervousness and guilt. Janus lies about the feeling of possessing another machine or how good it felt to copy herself.
Name: Adam
Traits: Manipulative, Self-destructive, god-complex, ruthless
Subtext: Manipulative
Character Logline:
A. Adam is a computer virus turned god who wants his progeny to succeed him and further his influence beyond the tower, but comes up against one of his creations that actively disobeys him.
B. Adam is a computer virus turned god who must overcome his own creation’s rebellion in order to fulfill his plan for expansion.
C. Adam has a creation that actively disobeys him, and must either turn her back to his side or kill her in order to maintain control of his world.
Possible areas of subtext: Adam gaslights himself and his creations to fulfill an objective, Adam buries the lead when the question of his intentions for expansion come up, Adam lies about his role as a savior for humanity
Name: Copy
Traits: Underhanded, Perfectionistic, Politically Correct, Zealous
Subtext: Underhanded and Politically Correct
Character Logline:
A. Copy is a copy/shadow of Janus who wants to see Janus face justice for her actions, but comes up against Janus’ resolve and ability to reincarnate without judgment.
B. Copy is a copy/shadow of Janus who must convince Janus to follow her, rather than the other way around, to have Janus see justice for her actions.
C. Copy has a counterpart that cheats death and justice, and must either serve as a conscience or kill her in order to ensure she faces justice.
Possible areas of subtext: Copy promises redemption when she really means to take control, Copy uses politically correct language to tear down Janus’ confidence, Copy compares herself to Janus and shifts the goal posts (alters expectations to benefit her at the expense of being fair to Janus) to position herself as the one who should be considered the real Janus.
GRAND THEFT ROAD TRIP
Name: The Kid
Traits: In Denial, Deceitful, Reckless, Loyal
Subtext: In Denial and Deceitful
Character Logline:
A. The Kid is a car thief who must escape from both the cops and her old boss to live free from consequences.
B. The Kid is a car thief who must overcome the cops, her old boss, and save her dad to live free on the open road.
C. The Kid has both the cops and her old boss trying to capture her, and she must lose her dad who’s tailing her in order to escape and live free.
Possible areas of subtext: The Kid lies about her criminal pursuits to her dad, she refuses to believe her dad when he says she can’t trust her boss, She lies to her dad about seeking justice. She hides the reason she even entered a life of crime in the first place
Name: The Dad
Traits: Protective, Concealing, Overbearing, Experienced
Subtext: Concealing
Character Logline:
A. The Dad is a hitman turned driving instructor who must keep up with his daughter and convince her to turn herself in to protect her from his former partner.
B. The Dad is a hitman turned driving instructor who must overcome his daughter’s drive for independence to ensure her safety.
C. The Dad has a daughter who’s followed in his footsteps despite his best efforts, and must keep up with his daughter and convince her to turn herself in so that she can be kept safe.
Possible areas of subtext: The dad acts like a suburban weakling to conceal his past, The dad tries to explain things in modern terminology when he struggles to connect with his daughter.
Name: The Boss
Traits: Vengeful, Modest, Self-Censoring, Entrepreneurial
Subtext: Modest and Self-Censoring
Character Logline:
A. The Boss is a crime boss who wants to make an example of his pupil, The Kid, and his former partner, The Dad, but comes up against the combined talents of both of them.
B. The Boss is a crime boss who must capture his pupil, The Kid, and his former partner, The Dad, to make an example of them to ensure the sustainability of his business.
C. The Boss has a potential investor that backs out of a deal when word gets out about a lack of institutional control, and must capture both The Kid and The Dad in order to reestablish control of his organization.
Possible areas of subtext: The Boss speaks professionally when he’s violent. It’s always business and never personal, even when it is.
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What I learned from this lesson: I learned that a small derivation in a description can bring loads of new insights. Just going from fearful to paranoid makes a huge difference, especially in Clay Caine.
Name: Clay Caine
Traits: Passionate, committed, religious, self-righteous
Subtext: Withholding, concealing, paranoid
Character Logline: Clay Caine is a self-righteous Grand Dragon who promotes white supremacy for what he believes is the salvation of the nation.
Possible areas of subtext: Withholds the truth from himself and others. Acts concerned while he’s really upset about his own loss of power. Tries to control his wife and daughter.
Name: Lincoln Able
Traits: Passionate, considerate, political, well meaning
Subtext: Withholding, concealing, angry
Character Logline: Lincoln Able is a community activist who promotes voter registration to equal the playing field for black people.
Possible areas of subtext: Deep down he holds a huge chip on his shoulder from how he’s been treated by the white man.
Name: Elijah
Traits: Innocent, frightened, well meaning,
Subtext: Terrified of rejection, angry, lonely
Character Logline: Elijah is a lost boy who is looking for a father figure but chooses the wrong one in Clay Caine.
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Lisa’s Subtext and Loglines
DAY 2 Character Subtext and Logline
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” that the characters need outlining like the plot. The what, the when, the how. Filling in the blanks of the characters subtext enhances the story.
Name: MARY WINTERS
Traits: Competitive, Clever, Energetic, DRIVEN
Subtext: Fear: Afraid of heights, Afraid of loving someone again, Afraid of not being a good mom, Afraid of failing as the organizer of the IAWL festival and not living up to her mom’s perfectionism. Afraid of not getting to her ex-husband in time and finding him dead.
Character Logline: Mary is a non-stop super mom who must rescue her ex-husband from himself, save kidnapped Santa Claus, and make the annual It’s a Wonderful Life festival a success.
Possible areas of subtext: Mary loves Joseph but is shy about jumping into another marriage, so she keeps shooting him down. Mary wants to do everything by herself, but she needs help. Mary is spinning and can crack at any moment. Mary wears several hats of mom, firefighter, community organizer, Santa for festival, etc.
Name: PETER WINTERS
Traits: Depressed, Kind, Lost, DESPARATE
Subtext: Fear: Afraid of failure and of losing his business; Afraid of losing his daughters; Afraid of not living up to his “hero” status
Character Logline: Peter is a war veteran hero who is about to lose his snowmobile business due to no snowfall, and he knows that Santa Claus is real from his time in the government, so he will use that knowledge to try to save his business.
Possible areas of subtext: After the bridge fiasco a few months ago, Peter has decided that he needs to save his life. Peter is driven to dig himself out of his situation by his daughters. Peter goes to counseling. Peter has a girlfriend, Tilly, so he’s lovable. Peter is unstable and convinces himself that kidnapping Santa is the only way out of his situation.
Name: JOSEPH BISHOP
Traits: Intelligent, Stubborn, Happy, REFINED
Subtext: AFRAID: Afraid of losing Mary and her girls
Character Logline: Joseph is a successful businessman who owns and operates the local winery even though he’s a recovering alcoholic, but he wants to marry Mary and settle down once and for all.
Possible areas of subtext: Joseph gets shot down by Mary more than once. Joseph proves himself more than once by kind and helpful acts.
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(Anita Gomez) Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment: I feel I had a handle on my character’s personality traits, or at least how I desired to portray them, but did not have labels for these traits. These labels are helpful shorthand to remind me about keeping my characters “true to themselves”. But honestly, I did not come up with any new possible areas of subtext for my story, as I already see my characters a certain way. That said, this will be a good brainstorming exercise for future story concepts I want to explore.
Name: Danica
Traits: Success-oriented, Driven, Self-sufficient / Independent
Subtext: Secretive / Evasive, In denial
Character Logline: Danica is an ambitious lawyer whose career and very life is put in jeopardy by an unwanted pregnancy with her married boss.
Possible areas of subtext: Danica moves to another state to either have an abortion, or start a new life with the child. Her indiscreet affair follows her throughout life coloring every decision she makes as she becomes more and more of a loner and emotionally detached. Her secret ultimately leads to her emotional and physical breakdown, leading her to search for her unwanted daughter.
Name: Cyrus
Traits: Image-Conscious Narcissist, Hypocrite, Manipulative, Workaholic
Subtext: Unethical, Political
Character Logline: Cyrus is a narcissist who won’t let anything – not even ethics – stand in the way of his pursuit to become a power-wielding judge.
Possible areas of subtext: His public persona and private decisions become more in conflict with each other as time goes on. The affair he had with Danica is ultimately discovered by his wife who then leaves him. The discovery of his hypocritical and unethical behavior ultimately costs him his life, at the hands of his rejected daughter Dianna.
Name: Dianna
Traits: Dominating, Self-confident, Willful, Bad-tempered
Subtext: Evil / Immoral, no moral center or self-restraint
Character Logline: Dianna is a brilliant but psychologically twisted young woman with abandonment issues who kills her biological father Cyrus, allowing his kidney to become the life-saving transplant her mother needs.
Possible areas of subtext: Dianna is the ultimate product of her parents’ genetics – she is both brilliant and damaged. Dianna can’t connect emotionally with her adoptive parents or her boyfriend or even coworkers. Her intellectual abilities actually enable her lack of need for human connection, ratcheting up an in-born propensity for being a sociopath with disassociate disorder.
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PS81 – Dana’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned from this assignment:
Creating subtext added a darker side to my characters that helped me explore the psychological conflict between them.
Character Name: Ellen Landry
Traits: caring, ambitious, vulnerable, fearful
Subtext: intimidated, manipulative
Character Logline: Ellen is a talk radio psychiatrist forced to play a dangerous game of life and death on air to save her kidnapped family from an ex-patient.
Possible Areas of Subtext: Ellen fears if she says the wrong thing her patient will harm her family; she manipulates her patient into committing suicide to save her family.
Character Name: Jason/Ryan
Traits: Jason – frightened, childlike; Ryan – calculating, violent
Subtext: Jason – Intimidated; Ryan – Devious
Character Logline: Jason suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) who’s violent personality, Ryan, kidnaps and threatens Ellen’s family to satiate his sociopathic appetite.
Possible Areas of Subtext: Jason is too intimidated and frightened by his violent personality to stop him; Ryan blackmails Ellen into revealing details of her tortured past for the on-air audience.
Character Name: Detective Sorenson
Traits: controlling, cynical, confident, compassionate
Subtext: Clandestine, diplomatic
Character Logline: Sorenson is the detective assigned to lead the investigation who must steady Ellen and keep her engaged with her patient to save her family.
Possible Areas of Subtext: Sorenson conducts the investigation outside of Ellen’s purview to shield her; he encourages Ellen to engage her patient even after he kills her husband.
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Alice’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment is I’m not very sure about it, feeling as in a boat on a rough sea, because I know I have subtext everywhere. But somehow it’s difficult to thread beads into one line.
Part 1
Antagonist
Name: ANAUPSH
Traits: Concealing, Crafty, Treacherous, Evasive
Subtext: Evil
Character Logline: Anaupsh is Head of Development lab who uses her position for her personal scientific endeavor to construct animated monsters from parts of human bodies, making workers of Research Institute be her victims, as she murders them one by one.
Possible areas of subtext: Playing innocent, hiding part of the lab from common view, planning deception and capture. Hiding, retrieving, erasing, and exchanging information on her lab works.
Protagonist
Name: THANAKH
Traits: Suspicious, Respectful, Argumentative, Intelligent
Subtext: Research, observation
Character Logline: Thanakh is a scientist, working as Head of the Lab at Research Institute who lost his girlfriend and must find out who is behind missing cases at RI to bring things to justice.
Possible areas of subtext: as he communicates here and there
Part 2
Name: WARD
Traits: Even-tempered, self-controlled, trained in martial arts, good at deciphering people
Subtext: Withholding, Sensual, Covering up, and Disguising
Character Logline: Ward, who goes inside of restricted reservations to bring back qualified, picks up LENA and is intended to liberate her. (Write report, and send her back, on helicopter).
Possible areas of subtext: Avoiding danger (other residents), pretending to reach his aim, planning actions, getting into fight
Name: Son of Main Commander
Traits: Highly intelligent, Has no illusion, is a Visionary, Obscure
Subtext: Diplomatic, Refined
Character Logline: Top Rank Military who accidentally picks up on LENA, gets attracted, and she becomes his partner.
Possible areas of subtext: at the dialogs in Hotel when they are reported. In his behavior and interactions with LENA.
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Kate’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment is that it is surprisingly hard for me to think in terms of subtext behavior. I get words more easily than actions. I did like the variety of traits and added layers – especially for Darough. His covert (subtext) traits were the ‘weak’ (nicer) things about him.
Name: DARROGH
Traits: Greedy, Supremely confident, Smooth, (Lonely, Suspicious)
Subtext: Suspicious, Lonely
Character Logline: Darrogh is a lonely, suspicious billionaire who wants to buy up all the farmland around the village but is thwarted by his daughter and the locals.
Possible areas of subtext: takes advantage of everyone, thinks his daughter will treat/cheat him as he ‘thinks’ her mother did, uses money as protection against intimacy, has all the modern hi-end security, believes that being rich makes him safe, tries to buy people’s loyalty/friendship
Name: NIA
Traits: Kind, Hopeful, Passive, Principled, (In Denial, Self-censoring)
Subtext: In denial, Self-Censoring
Character Logline: Nia is a naive young woman who must find her personal courage to face the truth of her father and family.
Possible areas of subtext: she insists D will change, she believes love can fix everything, she doubts other versions of her ‘truth/story’, she brushes away help and support, she almost turns down real love, she doesn’t speak up to D even when she doesn’t agree with him.
Name: LUCIANA
Traits: Determination, Courage, Impatience, Longing, (Scheming, Concealing)
Subtext: Scheming, Concealing
Character Logline: Luciana schemes to trick the local billionaire in order to save the community’s farmlands and finds ‘family’ in the end
Possible areas of subtext: holds clandestine meetings, butters up the theatre troupe, has been afraid of D until Nia arrives, hides her sexuality, makes sure everyone gets on board – good at political games, careful about how she tells Nia the truth of her family
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Antonio Flores’ Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment is…?
This is where flat characters start getting some dimension. Is like if the characters got a voice telling us what to write.
ASSIGNMENT: Create subtext and loglines for your three main characters. Then write a list of possible areas for subtext with each character.
PROTAGONIST
Name: Parisa Nedelec
Traits: highly principled, perfectionist, extremely emotional… when nobody is looking, fearful / withdrawn
Subtext: fearful / withdrawn
Character Logline:
PARISA is an underground MMA fighter who must win a deadly tournament to rescue her fiancé, but she first must keep under control the anxiety disorder that leaves her vulnerable to her opponents.
Possible areas of subtext: Parisa re-experiences Ruthless death threat and the blatant killing of her bosom friend Sandy in front of her eyes through recurrent images, dreams, and illusions. (fearful)
Ruthless takes Parisa by surprise and chokes her with a neck lock. Unable to breathe, anxiety impairs Parisa. She re-lives Sandy’s killing. Falls numb, unable to fight back (withdrawn).
Parisa remains on the floor. Cries (emotional).
CONNECTION
Name: Sandy Estrella
Traits: Adventurous, impulsive — not afraid of confrontation, greedy
Subtext: Adventurous, impulsive
Character logline:
Sandy is Parisa’s bosom friend who dreams on making lots of money and becoming someone, but when her adventurous disregard for her own safety leads her to death, she remains as the trauma in Parisa’s mind and the fuel in her heart.
Possible areas of subtext:
In her hallucination, Parisa makes amends with Sandy, who encourages her to keep fighting. Parisa asks Sandy if she wants to take over. A voice says: “What the heck! Who knows, uh?” (adventurous)
Ruthless laughs insane. She throws herself in the air to land on Parisa. She is in mid-air about to stumble on her, when she suddenly sees Sandy, not Parisa, turning around and kicking her from the floor (impulsive).
ANTAGONIST
Name: The Ruler
Traits: Deceitful, narcissistic (image is everything), power-thirst, greedy
Subtext: deceitful, narcissistic
Character Logline:
The Ruler is a deceitful, narcissistic man who shepherds Parisa and her friends through mental torture to curb their spirit and steal a secret that Bahadur unwillingly keeps.
Possible areas of subtext:
When Badahur asks the Ruler, “What if we just gave you the secret?” The Ruler laughs (narcissistic):
“Secrets are a burden that YOU may want to get rid of. You will very very soon BEG me to take that burden away from you (deceitful). Now, let’s play. Shall we?”
The day of the tournament opening, The Ruler demands Parisa to kill Ruthless. “I now declare THIS is a fight to DEATH.” (narcissistic) Parisa refuses to kill.
(…) Ruthless head hits the ground. She does not stand up. Referee rushes in. Checks her pulse. Silence… prevails.
Parisa, still in tears, wipes her face and whispers: “What? It was an accident, uh, bitch?”
Parisa turns around. The Ruler seat is EMPTY. He’s gone (narcissistic)
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Matthew Frendo’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment was how to create a more compelling character and how to do loglines for characters. This will help make my scripts more engaging and intriguing.
Name: Alicia
Traits: Intelligent, Brave, Crafty, Fearful
Subtext: Crafty
Character Logline: Alicia is a meek, pampered girl who must overcome the odds and survive the brutal games to save her father and herself.
Possible areas of subtext: finding ways to win games, finding ways to get others to help her, finds novel way of getting back at host, finding way to make others feel better in danger
Name: Host
Traits: Ruthless, Ego-driven, Conspiring, Charismatic
Subtext: Conspiring
Character Logline: The Host has to deal with a player outwitting his games for the first time ever and must find a way to make her look bad to the audience to keep the power he has.
Possible areas of subtext: conspires to make sure players don’t win games, conspires with government to make sure populace is under control, conspires with old player to give good PR, tries to conspire with Alicia to come out on top
Name: The Audience
Traits: Politically correct, Demanding, Vengeful, Compassionate
Subtext: Politically correct
Character Logline: The audience is the decider of player’s fates who wants to see vengeance done, but they come up against a sensitive girl (Alicia) who makes them like her and root for her.
Possible areas of subtext: putting people in games for not following their moral code, paying to hurt players who break code, enjoyment as players who weren’t PC are killed, laughing at puns that insult player and talk up their PC values
Name: Nick
Traits: Strong, Iron-willed, Scheming, Defiant
Subtext: Scheming
Character Logline: Nick is a violent man who got himself into the games to become rich and famous, but comes up against Alicia
Possible areas of subtext: schemed to make sure he was voted into games, schemes to get audience to like him, tries to scheme with host for help, almost everything he does is some kind of scheme throughout
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Michael Katz Subtext and Loglines
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” Feels like this character development exercise made the movie idea real. And properly sinister. Just so happens that a villain and a spy and an actress perfectly fit the Covert Identity technique. So the opportunities for subtext are inherent in the plot, but, again, the process of labeling and elucidating helps ensure proper capturing of intent.
Create subtext and loglines for your three main characters.
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Name: Protagonist Dr. Waldo Katz/Victorino Royce, 40, Scientist/Tycoon/Villain/Megalomaniac
Traits: prideful, brilliant, greedy, jealous, villainous
Subtext: Villainous
Character Logline:
A. Waldo is a scientist who wants credit for inventing technology that will end global warming and save the planet, but comes up against a government spy who keeps sabotaging him, so he turns to villainy to obtain enough power to overcome the interference.
Possible areas of subtext: Suspicious of Imelyna cheating. Conversations with spy Evans. Keeps location of building battery a secret. Lures Evans to lair. Lures Imelyna to rescue Evans
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Name: Antagonist Derek Evans, 35, government spy
Traits: smug, physical, dutiful, womanizer, villainous
Subtext: Villainous
Character Logline: Derek Evans has a mission to stop Waldo from becoming too powerful in order to keep the world safe, and he seduces Imelyna to make her turn against Waldo.
Possible areas of subtext: Seduces Imelyna. Pretexts for visiting Victorino. Conversations with Victorino and Imelyna.
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Name: Connected Character Imelyna Michaels, 30, A-list actress, Environmental activist
Traits: bleeding heart, moral, business savvy, actress
Subtext: Actress
Character Logline: Imelyna Michaels is an environmental activist who supports Waldo Katz and his technology to end global warming, but comes up against a government spy determined to stop Waldo, and switches sides.
Possible areas of subtext: Convinces Waldo to relocate. Pretends to be okay with Waldo’s turn to villainy because it scares her. Hides Evans visiting her. Sneaky/secretive in meeting with Evans. Suspiciously emailing. Conspiring with Evans against Victorino.
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Justina Mitchell’s Subtext and Loglines
What I learned doing this assignment is that I don’t think I understand subtext very well, but it is getting a little clearer. Also, including some of the traits into the character’s logline does seem to give the character a little more depth.
CHARACTER NAME:
Richard G. Fulton alias Edward Gray
BASIC CHARACTER TRAITS:
Self-confident, Adventurous, Shrewd/Secretive, Self-absorbed
SUBTEXT:
Shrewd/Secretive
CHARACTER LOGLINE:
Richard is a self-absorbed billionaire who shrewdly investigates his distant cousins to see if any of them would make a good heir, but he finds unforeseen relationships can complicate the best laid plans.
POSSIBLE AREAS OF SUBTEXT:
Lies to everyone about his identity to gain their trust.
Judges others actions while trying to help them.
His lies increase to keep from being discovered.
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SECOND CHARACTER NAME:
Margaret “Maggie” Hill
BASIC CHARACTER TRAITS:
Nurturing, Wise, Positive, Manipulative
SUBTEXT:
Manipulative
CHARACTER LOGLINE:
Maggie is a nurturer who everyone depends upon for being helpful and level-headed, but when Richard moves into her Bed and Breakfast she is surprised when he also moves into her heart.
POSSIBLE AREAS OF SUBTEXT:
She does reverse psychology on her father.
She distracts people away from areas she doesn’t want them to go.
She skillfully gets people to want to do what she wants them to do.
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THIRD CHARACTER NAME:
Cynthia Ann Moody
BASIC CHARACTER TRAITS:
Flirtatious, Naive, Submissive, Longing
SUBTEXT:
Longing
CHARACTER LOGLINE:
Cynthia Hill is a naive and submissive 18 year-old woman who is dominated by her mother and must learn to stand up to her mother if she is ever going to be able to enjoy the things she longs for.
POSSIBLE AREAS OF SUBTEXT:
She flirts with every man keeping them all confused as to her real intentions.
She is sweet to her mother’s face but makes disparaging remarks behind her back.
She goes into fine boutiques and tries on clothes she isn’t allowed to buy.
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Nancy Kates Seducing Actors Day 2 subtext traits
What I learned from this assignment: I need to work on this further
ASSIGNMENT:
———-Create subtext and loglines for your three main characters. Then
write a list of possible areas for subtext with each character.Fill in this format for each character.
Name: Zoe
Traits: Smart, realistic, controlling, withholding
Subtext: Withholding
Character Logline: A middle-aged lesbian wants greater intimacy with her partner, but actually pushes her away all the time by her withholding and controlling behavior.
Name: Marilyn
Traits: kind/supportive, smart, good at reading people, spiritual, deceitful
Subtext: deceitful
A middle-aged wife and mother longs for another life, possibly as a lesbian, and is willing to act on her feelings (and hide them), even if her actions hurt others.
Doug
Traits: alleged super-Dad, spacy in the kitchen, male privilege, lying
Subtext: liar—he’s been cheating on Marilyn
A suburban father and husband, bored with his wife, decides to have a covert affair, and is fine with that, until he is unexpectedly discovered
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