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Day 2 Assignments
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Day 2: Designing Characters for Subtext
Lisa’s Subtext Characters
What I learned is adding more subtext makes the characters more interesting and adds depth to them…and the story.
Character Name: MARY WINTERS
Subtext Identity: Mary holds in 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 Traits: Competitive, Clever, Energetic, Driven, EVASIVE
Subtext 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 while not letting on that she wants her ex-husband back.
Possible Areas of Subtext: (Actions) Tells everyone she’s in love with Joseph to cover up the fact that she still loves Peter (”me thinks the lady doth protest too much”), and deep-down Mary is somewhat suspicious of Joseph.
Character Name: PETER WINTERS
Subtext Identity: Peter is full of fear: Afraid of failure and of losing his business; Afraid of losing his daughters; Afraid of not living up to his “hero” status
Character Traits: Depressed, Kind, Lost, Desperate, MANIPULATIVE
Subtext Logline: Peter doesn’t let on that he made the biggest mistake of his life divorcing Mary and thinks kidnapping Santa is the best of two wrongs…getting Santa to help him vs losing everything!
Possible Areas of Subtext: Conceals what he’s doing and sneaks around. Manipulates by leaving out information on purpose. Doesn’t care what others think of him.
Character Name: JOSEPH BISHOP
Subtext Identity: Fear: Afraid of losing Mary and her girls
Character Traits: Intelligent, Stubborn, Happy, Refined, SEDUCTIVE
Subtext Logline: Joseph is persistent when he wants something in business or in his personal life and Mary gives him a real challenge, but is his relentless happy disposition for real?
Possible Areas of Subtext: Relentlessly pursues Mary. Plays nice with the daughters to get on Mary’s good side. Fights with Mary on matters that shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Secretly hates Peter. Flirts with Violet…and others.
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June Fortunato’s Subtext Characters for Retirement DAY 2
What I learned: Interesting take on subtext as character. I’ve previously thought of it as moment to moment.
Character Name ROY DENT lead
Subtext Identity Angry, resentful, unforgiving of past Vietnam War veteran Character Traits Wiseass, quick wit, protective, defensive
Subtext Logline Roy mooches off of everyone to avoid being part of the system. His veneer is an easy going guy but underneath- a raging fire.
Possible areas of subtext Persuasive, desperation, resentment, terror, charmer.
Character Name KIM KIRBY lead
Subtext Identity Upper middle class disenfranchised spirit wounded woman fights to get what she deserves. Character Traits Puts on a show of fearlessness, clever, masks her vulnerability by play acting, deep empathy. Talented performer. Distributes goodies as well as steals. Quick wit. Escape artist. Free spirit.
Subtext Logline Kim plays sexy cute but underneath, she’s afraid to trust and will run as soon as anyone gets too close.
Possible areas of subtext Fear. Sneaky. Wild. Vulnerable. Retaliatory. Vengence.
Character Name NURSE SUZY WELSH- Ally
Subtext Identity Selfless Nurse who takes care of everything above and beyond. Character Traits Warm, receptive, smart, organized, in charge, overworks, goes out on a limb for the vulnerable. Very difficult to say no.
Subtext Logline Suzy keeps trying to dump Roy, to limit her involvement, but her underlying fear of loss and indirection keeps driving her forward. She will use her insecurity to keep others in line.
Possible areas of subtext Fear of stillness and quiet. Keeps everyone else juggling.
Character Name TARA Ally
Subtext Identity Nurse, second in command and loyal friend to Suzy- great caregiver Ally Character Traits She’s kind, a bit weary – easily stressed- a lot of stress at home Forthright fast comeback- not reluctant to speak Loyal friend. Easily charmed. Quick wit. Energetic, except when she’s exhausted. Sincere. genuine.
Subtext Logline Just get through the day. Just keep it uplifted, don’t go under. Push back.
Possible areas of subtext Acts strong. Acts nonchalant. Acts weary. Veneer.
Character Name MARILYN CARTER Ally
Subtext Identity Formerly a concert flutist for the orchestra, well established has distanced herself from almost everyone in her life. Now she’s in desperate need of people to trust. Character Traits Afraid to bond for fear of loss. Afraid of being crushed. Keeps a polite distance to be civil but unengaged. Insistent and painstaking. Fears her own vulnerability and frailty.
Subtext Logline Must protect the dogs at all cost and use any and every means of manipulation.
Possible areas of subtext desperate to take care of the pets she knows will be loyal to her, afraid they too, will abandon her- She will manipulate anyone she thinks can solve her problem.
She’s willing to lose everything but her dogs.
Character Name BRIAN KIRBY Antagonist
Subtext Identity Corporate CPA who’s great at embezzling and well connected to powerful people. Character Traits Weasel, spineless. Self-serving, subservient to wife, zero empathy, will burn anyone to keep himself afloat.
Subtext Logline Brian does the bidding of his wife who is a prestige wife- half his age- to make inroads into bigger and bigger corporations from whom he can embezzle.
Possible areas of subtext Luring, sabotaging, pretending, lying, baiting, entrapping, sucking up.
Character Name INGRID NEE LITTMAN Antagonist
Subtext Identity Brian’s trophy wife but not for long. Character Traits Manipulative, cruel. Indecent. Player. Self serving, greedy, abusive, ruthless veneer of society politeness. Overbearing. Hard as stone.
Subtext Logline Manipulate anyone and everyone to get what she wants while acting the innocent and vulnerable.
Possible areas of subtext Lying, cheating, blackmail, slandering.
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Cameron Martin’s Subtext Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is…Make the subtext connected to the plot and themes. Going into this assignment, I wanted to take another look at my protagonist, Sully, and see if there was another dimension I could connect him to with the aliens. For example, could one of Sully’s subtexts be related to him trying to cover up some involvement with the aliens, similar to the subtext given to Jude? After brainstorming for a while with that particular subtext logline, I developed a subtext conflict between Sully and Isaiah: One wants to destroy his past, while the other wants to preserve it. That was a breakthrough for this story, and it made too much sense to not use it and allow it to elevate the whole story (I have a rule for writing that when something makes too much damn sense, it’s better to use that something than make excuses not to). Luckily, I held off writing much of the scenes involving Jude until we could get to this module, which means I can completely rework a portion of my outline without it impacting most of the scenes I’ve already written.
Character Name: Sully
Subtext Identity: Spy who is a reluctant father
Character Traits: Loving, Controlling, Confrontational, Protective
Subtext Logline: Sully is a Spy who Covers up the Hegemony’s involvement with the aliens
Possible areas of subtext: Confronts others to keep the attention on him more than what he’s covering up. Dismisses Isaiah to keep him away from the work he’s doing. Locks away and destroys evidence to prevent others from coming to know the aliens better.
Character Name: Isaiah
Subtext Identity: Aspie who is obsessed with studying the aliens
Character Traits: Obsessive, Awkward, Hiding, Problem Solver
Subtext Logline: Isaiah is a self made expert on the aliens who hides his research from his controlling father.
Possible areas of subtext: Hides his “pets” from his father, Lies about how he knows so much about the aliens, Fights his father to protect the aliens that are trying to kill them
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Alice’s Subtext Characters
What I learned, doing this assignment is I did not brainstorm subtext good enough when I was creating it. Maybe this one is better. It won’t change my story, but might give more depth to events.
Character Name: Thanakh
Subtext Identity: Suspicious, reserved
Character Traits: talented, refined, polite
Subtext Logline: Thanks is scientist from Research Institute who suspects political organization might be behind his girlfriend’s disappearance.
Possible areas of subtext: He endeavors to shift attitude of other RI workers, involve police in investigation, as he pulls public attention at the fact of workers disappearing on RI grond.
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PS81 – Dana’s Subtest Characters
What I learned from this assignment:
I learned my characters have grown since I first wrote their subtexts. Writing several interactive character scenes, their subtext identities have become stronger and more complex.
Character Subtext Outline
Character Name: Ellen Landry
Subtext Identity: broken psychologist/struggling talk show host
Character Traits: curious, sympathetic, concealing, insecure.
Subtext Logline: Ellen is a broken psychologist hiding from a past tragedy as a radio talk show host to avoid direct and emotional involvement with patients.
Possible areas of subtext: Ellen conceals her patient’s (William) attempted suicide; she must save her kidnapped family; she spars with Ryan, the sociopathic alter; she deceives Jason to surrender control his other personality – William; she manipulates William to commit suicide.
Character Name: Ryan
Subtext Identity: Murderous sociopath
Character Traits: polite, calculating, sinister, violent
Subtext Logline: Ryan is a sadistically polite sociopath who emotionally tortures his victims by blackmailing them into making impossible choices.
Possible areas of subtext: Kidnaps and threatens Ellen’s family; blackmails her to disregard her oath; demands she manipulate Jason to surrender control to another alter; murders Ellen’s husband on-air; plays cat and mouse with the police.
Character Name: Jack Sorensen
Subtext Identity: A street smart San Francisco cop
Character Traits: controlling, suspicious, vengeful, compassionate
Subtext Logline: Sorensen is a hardened, cynical cop who will push the rules to find justice for victims by any means possible.
Possible areas of subtext: Sorensen witnesses the interrogation of a family annihilator; he’s assigned to investigate the phone call; he questions Ellen about Jason; he questions Jason’s psychiatrist; he orchestrates the investigation to find Jason; he manipulates Ellen’s emotions to keep her engaged; he’s in conflict with the command team.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by Dana Abbott.
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This reply was modified 3 years ago by
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Matthew Frendo’s Subtext Characters
WHAT I LEARNED: I learned how to create more interesting characters through subtext. This will help my scripts be stronger and more compelling.
I’m really glad we did this a second time. I understand it WAY better now and my characters became WAY stronger because of it.
Character Name: Alicia
Subtext Identity: Secretive contestant
Character Traits: Protective, Brave, Secretive, Loner
Subtext Logline: Alicia is a secretive contestant who is hiding the fact that her little brother is really her son, conceived after her father raped her.
Possible areas of subtext: gets quiet whenever talk about family is brought up, stifles talk about brother, overprotective of brother on stage, loses it when someone talks about listening to family or elders, tries to be alone
Character Name: Host
Subtext Identity: devious game show host
Character Traits: Power Hungry, Arrogant, Devious, Charismatic
Subtext Logline: The Host is a devious “game show” host who enjoys making the players squirm before they die.
Possible areas of subtext: makes players squirm on stage, sets up difficult situations in games, makes jokes when bad things happen to them, makes life harder for them whenever he can
Character Name: Kristen
Subtext Identity: Christian girl covering up problems
Character Traits: caring, self-righteous, covering up, loyal
Subtext Logline: Kristen is a Christian girl who uses religion to cover up the fact that she has no friends and is suicidal.
Possible areas of subtext: talks about religion constantly, keeps talking up her relationship to God as the only thing that matters, changes subject when emotions or feelings are brought up, stickler for Christian rules
Character Name: Nick
Subtext Identity: evasive contestant
Character Traits: strong, evasive, hot-headed, remorseful
Subtext Logline: Nick is an evasive contestant who entered the games willingly to try and get money for his girlfriend’s artificial leg after a tragic accident
Possible areas of subtext: won’t talk about home life, won’t talk about why he was picked for the games, gets pissed whenever someone pushes him about anything, tries to stay apart from group
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Day 2: Subtext – Anita’s Subtext Characters
What I learned from this scene: My characters have clearly evolved since I first looked at their traits. Bringing their subtext traits to the foreground gives an added dimension of richness.
Character Name: Danica Brahms
Subtext Identity: Secretive / Evasive, In denial
Character Traits: Success-oriented, Driven, Self-sufficient / Independent
Subtext Logline: Danica is a driven pro-life lawyer with a secret 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 both more of a pro-choice advocate and a loner and emotionally detached. Her secret ultimately leads to her emotional and physical breakdown, leading her to search for her unwanted daughter.
Character Name: Cyrus Kilner
Subtext Identity: Unethical, Political
Character Traits: Image-Conscious Narcissist, Hypocrite, Manipulative, Workaholic
Subtext 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 Harley.
Character Name: Harley Wozniak
Subtext Identity: Evil / Amoral, no moral center or self-restraint
Character Traits: Intelligent, Self-confident, Willful, Bad-tempered
Subtext Logline: Harley 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: Harley is the ultimate product of her parents’ genetics – she is both brilliant and damaged. Harley 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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ASSIGNMENT:
KATES SUBTEXT CHARACTERS
What I learned doing this is that all except one of my characters don’t seem to have major mean, evil agenda’s and so their subtext is usually in the service of achieving their (good) ends and/or arise out ignorance or lack of courage until something is revealed.
1) Character Name: DARROGH
Subtext Identity: The Revenger
Character Traits:
•Traits: Greedy, Supremely confident, Smooth
• Covert Traits: Suspicious, Lonely
Subtext Logline: Darrogh is vengeful, suspicious billionaire who seeks to punish one woman by turning an entire community into a landfill while also trying to keep his recently re-discovered estranged daughter’s love.
Possible areas of subtext:
* offering to help people out of poverty buying their land, secretly planning a landfill
* kind,welcoming to Nia but forbids her friendships
* talks warmly of her Mother, but then tears her down when angry with Nia
2) Character Name: NIA
Subtext Identity: The Innocent
Character Traits:
• Traits: Kind, Hopeful, a little Manic, Principled
• Covert Traits: In denial, Self-Censoring
Subtext Logline: Nia is a hopeful, slightly manic, naive young woman in denial about the truth of her father who has to choose whether to support him or the local community whose values she shares, in an all or nothing big sting.
Possible areas of subtext:
• Drawn to Luciana and then suspicious and afraid of her.
• desperate to love and know her father while resisting who he is proving to be
• maintaining a hopeful relationship with him while working with the locals against him
3) Character Name: Luciana
Subtext Identity: The Equalizer
Character Traits:
• Traits: Determination, Courage, Impatience, Longing
• Covert Traits: Scheming, Concealing
Subtext Logline: Luciana is determined, scheming woman who concocts a great ‘Sting’ to exact justice equalizing an old score that has become a current local ‘war’ for life, land and justice.
Possible areas of subtext:
• befriends Nia while hiding her relationships to her Mother and to Darrogh
• saving the community from D while primarily just wanting the family farm back and to humiliate him publicly
4) Character Name: SHAUNN
Subtext Identity: The Boyfriend
Character Traits:
• Traits: Kind, Romantic, Shy, Uncertain, Dutiful
• Covert Traits: Evasive, Resentful
Subtext Logline: Shaunn is dutiful but resentful young man whose relationship with his Tiger Mother threatens to undermine his courage to tell Nia that he loves her.
Possible areas of subtext:
• Passive aggressive to his Mother
• brotherly to Nia while trying to build a romantic relationship
• trying to be bold and strong while he is really quite a rule-follower
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Day 2: Designing Characters For Subtext – Assignment
Mike O – Subtext Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is the subtext character process instantly allows for your character to be multifaceted, complex and the type of person an A-list actor/actress would love to play!
[I] Elevate two or more characters with traits that make subtext natural. Then write a list of possible areas for subtext with each character. Like this:
Character Name: Brooklyn (protagonist)
Subtext Identity: Talented painter hungry for fame.
Character Traits: workaholic, romantic, indecisive, struggles with OCD, hungry for fame
Subtext Character: CONFLICTED, In denial and unwilling to acknowledge her pain, her hunger for fame.
Subtext Logline: Brooklyn is a talented artist who hungers for fame, for recognition and approval. She has found a way to achieve fame, fortune and success, will she take it?Character Logline: Brooklyn, a gifted painter who hides in her work in order to avoid facing life.
Possible areas of subtext: understands exactly what the wealthy client wants as they share the same outlook, Brooklyn’s love interest keeps her from going to the dark side.
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Character Name: Tarek (love interest)
Subtext Identity: lonely, lost, wanting love, needing a wife
Character Traits: honest, protective single father, SCHEMING
Subtext Logline: Tarek is an attentive father who hungers for love, wants to rebuild his family and find a wife.
Character Logline: Tarek is between careers, his world revolves around his two young sons as they keep him from facing the fact he is lonely, that he needs love and wants to be in love.
Possible areas of subtext: His meeting Brooklyn at her father’s cabin, their subsequent dating and preparing for the holidays.
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Day 2: Designing Characters For Subtext – Assignment
DEV ROSS – Subtext Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is the subtext character processes allows for them to have multi-facets in their being, thus making them attractive to play for an A list actor.
[I] Elevate two or more characters with traits that make subtext natural. Then write a list of possible areas for subtext with each character. Like this:
Character Name: Clay Caine (protagonist)
Subtext Identity: A KKK leader hungry for power and influence
Character Traits: Passionate, driven, judgmental
Subtext Character: CONFLICTED, In denial of his upbringing and of who he really is. Fear of his own impotency.
Subtext Logline: Clay is a passionate leader of the KKK who longs for his former recognition and power.Character Logline: Clay is a once powerful leader of the KKK who fights to regain his power in order to fix the country.
Possible areas of subtext: His belief he is the chosen one. That he knows better than anyone else. When he speaks to his followers, wife.
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Character Name: Hannah Caine
Subtext Identity: lonely, lost, wanting love, needing physical sex and love from her husband. Hates what he’s doing with his life.,
Character Traits: Demure, fragile, passive aggressive.
Subtext Logline: Wants desperately to get her husband to quit his work and pay attention to her and their child
Character Logline: Hannah wants her husband to leave his work behind and start a new life with her and their daughter somewhere else where no one knows them.
Possible areas of subtext: When she confronts him about leaving
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