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Day 2 Assignments
Reply to post your work.
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9 Replies
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What I learned doing this assignment is…fear is a silly thing to waste any time on.
2. Pick the type of role your Protagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Dreamer<div>
She lives in a dream world and one day she is faced with reality and that turns her world upside down.
3. Pick the type of role your Antagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Change Agent</div><div>
This person guides her along the way even though it’s painful and not a path our protagonist willingly takes.
4. What other characters might be necessary?
Supporting characters: Husband</div><div>
Minor roles: Twin teenage daughters
5. Pick your genre.
Comedy</div><div>
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
Role in the story: She’s a people pleaser, lives in fear of being viewed as a failure or a loser. Wants to be a role model for her daughters but fears losing their respect.
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Age range and Description: 40s, female, teacher
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Internal Journey: Discovering her identity
External Journey: Divorce and humiliation
Motivation: Respect of children
Wound: Humiliated
Mission/Agenda: Find herself
Secret: Fear of failure
What makes them special? She’s stronger than she knows.
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Tara’s Journey
Today I learned that just by doing the work, lots of ideas emerge in the process that can move way beyond what I was trying to accomplish. I learned that I can feel really good about the process, that stress is not necessary.
Tara’s Character Profiles Part 1
2. Protaganist – KAYLA
Dreamer / Victim
Kayla has led a sheltered life looking after her very ill mother in a small town. She has dreamed of falling in love and making a difference in the lives of others. She is co-dependent, self deprecating and convinced that everyone wants to do their best and the right thing. She doesn’t have a strong sense of self, and is easily manipulated by those around her.
3. Antagonist – a) MR. BOX, b) Men at prison and Online dates
a) Predator / Change Agent
Mr. Box is a wall street wanna be stuck in a prison who dreams of more. He is ruthless in working the system to amass his fortune. He profits off corporate kickbacks from companies servicing the prison and those companies that employ the prisoners. He punishers prisoners by denying family visits and educational resources.
b) Change Agents / Villains / Predators
Add’l protagonists will be the men that Kayla faces as clients in prison and those she dates before finding her love.
4. Supporting roles – Kayla has 2 female friends, Char, early 40’s, psychologist and her neighbor, Gail, late 20’s. Both street wise and smart. They assist Kayla in dealing with her job and encourage her to start online dating, they also provide a view into her progress. Kayla has a friend in prison inmate, Bob, who assists her in taking down the warden. Kayla has her true love who is the last of her online dates.
5. Genre – Rom-Com
6. Antagonist – KAYLA
– Role: Small town do-good, social worker dreaming of love, moves to the city and is in for a rude awakening working at a men’s max prison and online dating. Prisoner to her ideals, and co-dependent, she thinks everyone is trying their best.. and wants her help
– Age: 38, attractive but not overly, dresses like a secretary but looks uncomfortable on her. She is upright and attentive. Big smile, often at inappropriate times.
– Internal journey: From an innocent, fantasy/ideal based sense of the world to having the strength to stand up for what she deeply believes in and discover her true self.
– External journey: From a wimpy, people pleaser afraid of her life to a confident force for positive change with her clients, taking down the prison warden and finding love.
– Motivation: To save people and fall in love
– Wound: Low self worth, co-dependency, anxiety, compromised center
– Mission / Agenda: To make a difference in the world, to take down the warden
– Secret: Her identity is tied up with care-giving her mother, otherwise she feels helpless in the world.
– Specialness: Her strength to face all challenges with optimism and a deeply held belief in truth and justice.
6b. Protagonist – Mr. Box
– Role: Mr. Box is a corrupt prison warden who profits off the system and enjoys a sadistic power over the inmates. He takes pleasure in dismissing and manipulating Kayla.
– Age: early 30’s, arrogant, narcissist, well dressed, sees himself above everyone else.
– Internal journey: None, bad to the bone, to the end.
– External journey: From the prison warden to convict.
– Motivation: To get rich and feed his endless ego.
– Wound: Parents hated him
– Mission / Agenda: To exert and prove his power, the get to Wall Street
– Secret: A mass of properties in his sisters name, but she’s in a mental institution with severe catatonia
– Specialness: His uncanny sense of others weaknesses
6b – Protagonists – Jail Men and Online dates
These are a variety of male and female characters that will come into Kayla’s life to represent and challenge different blind spots for Kayla, spurring her to greater self awareness and growth leading her to find her truth and love.
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Rachel’s Character Profiles Part 1
1. What I learned:
It’s ok if it’s not perfect
It’s ok if it’s not perfect
It’s ok if it’s not perfect
(Still learning that…)
2. Protagonist’s type of role:
Vic is a Runner – she avoids risk by being a helicopter parent to her stepdaughter. Life on a ranch is dangerous enough already, and she fears a similar accident happening to her stepdaughter as the one that killed her husband. She flees having to face and heal from the pain of what happened in the past (losing her husband), while also fleeing the reality of the present by staying lodged in the past. (Confused yet? Me too.)
3. Antagonist’s type of role:
Catherine is the estranged biological mother of Vic’s stepdaughter. She abandoned her family years ago but has now come back to town. Right now, I think she is more in the Villain category – a physical expression of Vic’s fears, since she literally embodies the past.
4. Other characters:
– Sarah (16), Vic’s stepdaughter, angry and troubled, secretly fearing that Vic will abandon her just like her real mother did. Victim/dreamer, driven by her fears to act out. Her journey goes from fearing abandonment, to learning to trust.
– Extended family members (grandmother/aunt/uncle), as this is a multigenerational family ranch.
– Minor/background characters: ranch employees.
5. Genre:
Western Drama
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles:
a. Vic
Role in the story:
– Runner, but she discovers her inner protective Hero/Fighter. Insecure stepparent trying to rebuild a broken family after their serious loss.
Age range and Description:
– Female, early to mid 30s, physically fit and tough, accomplished cowgirl.
Internal Journey:
– From feeling adrift & as though she doesn’t belong, to feeling at home & accepted in her family, feeling that she has something worth fighting for.
External Journey:
– From an insecure helicopter parent to a grounded, confident person who can adapt to change and doesn’t have to hide from life.
Motivation:
– Wanting a stable family
Wound:
– I think this involves the loss of Vic’s husband, and her deep-seated feeling of being abandoned (even though obviously that wasn’t anyone’s fault since he died), possibly stemming from abandonment as a child.
Mission/Agenda:
– to protect and patch together what remains of her family.
Secret:
– I don’t think I know this yet
What makes them special?
– Her loyalty. She will never, ever betray those she loves or has chosen to protect, and will do anything to keep them from getting hurt, even if she must put herself in harm’s way to do it.
b. Catherine
Role in the story:
– Villain. Element of predator as well. Vindictive ex-wife who has come to see her daughter as “just like her father” in all the ways she hated.
Age range and Description:
– female, 41, physically imposing, shrewd, intelligent, and calculating
Internal Journey:
– not a lot of change, unless you count going to successively worse lengths to get what she wants.
External Journey:
– from a charade of trying to rebuild her relationship with her daughter, to revealing her willingness to put her own daughter in harm’s way to achieve goals.
Motivation:
– it’s too late to hurt her ex husband, since he is dead, so she’ll hurt those he loved.
Wound:
– being kept away from her daughter for many years.
Mission/Agenda:
– to tear down what her husband built/stood for (but like why though? Seems like a lot of villainy villainousness just for the heck of it. We’ll see. Still getting her figured out…)
Secret:
– I do not know this yet
What makes them special?
– her ability to read people and use that to get them to do what she wants.
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WILL’S CHARACTER PROFILES Part 1
As always, I’m discovering that by carefully mapping out some details, I’m discovering little gems of character I hadn’t thought of before, particularly in the antagonist character.
2. LAUREN KILKENNY
Protagonist. Fighter. She won’t start out that way. A theme of the story is finding balance—between light and dark, monster and hero, hope and despair. As she finds her way, prodded by people and events, she slowly learns to take control, and by the end, is accepted into the ranks of an order of warriors who fight vampires.
3. JEAN CAYATTE
Antagonist. Predator. Simply put, he’s a monster, driven mad by a century of imprisonment in a mountain, but who still feels a desire for companionship, and thinks he can recreate an old passion using a new victim. But mostly, he wants to just kill and eat.
4. Supporting characters:
Mentor – John Kelley, a member of a steampunk order called the Threshold, who knows all about the villain and his type, and who has a long history of tangling with Cayatte
Companion #1 – Ben Wheeler, a mercenary who takes an interest in Lauren that grows from pity to respect to love.
Companion #2 – Kate Boggins, a reclusive hermit and ex-slave who just wants to punch things in the face
Companion #3 – Jake Thorne, town sheriff, who once loved Lauren’s mother, and protects Lauren under the guise of being a pain in her ass
Companion #4 – Patriarch of the Andersson clan, whose family is butchered in the opening moments
Companion #5 – Calico, the Apache who believes Lauren is the embodiment of an Apache legend
Minor roles:
Sarah Parsons – the new pastor’s daughter, whose abduction by Cayatte on her first night in town kicks off a quest to get her back before it’s too late.
Background characters:
Posse members, men who ride out with Sheriff Thorne, not knowing they’re soon to be vampire fodder.
5. Pick your genre.
Horror / Western
6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
LAUREN KILKENNY
Role in the story: Protagonist – Warrior. An outcast in the bustling western town of Ambition, reviled for her role in the death of the town priest, an event which most believe caused a scourge of deaths and demon sightings in the area.
Age range and Description: Seventeen, with pale skin and jet-black hair, she’s part Apache, part Irish and part opium addict. She has a flaw in one iris, a splash of gold, that catches the sun.
Internal Journey: From a self-pitying outcast to a confident woman who has the strength to assume enormous responsibility.
External Journey: From drug-addled loner to a leader in the fight against vampires.
Motivation: Atone for her mother’s sin (who murdered the town’s old pastor) by saving the daughter of the new pastor, especially because Sarah was kind to her.
Wound: She believes that by murdering the pastor (who was a genuinely corrupt man) she caused her own mother to be murdered when she assumed the blame for the man’s death.
Mission/Agenda: To join the posse riding out in search of Sarah Parsons, but truly to find her own purpose, whatever it might be.
Secret: It was really her who killed the pastor, who was trying to rape her mother. Her mother protected her by taking the blame, and was murdered herself as a result.
What makes her special? Her transformation has been foretold in Apache myth, and eventually she comes to accept her role as a leader in a fight against evil.
JEAN CAYATTE
Role in the story: Antagonist, predator.
Age range and Description: Honestly, it’s hard to tell by lookin’ at him. He was born in the 1600s, but he can look however old he wants. His true form is hideous indeed.
Internal Journey: He begins the story thinking he can recreate a lost love by corrupting a young woman who looks like her, to realizing that maybe he’s just a bit too soulless to pull it off.
External Journey: From demon in complete control of his powers to accepting his damnation by facing a sunrise.
Motivation: He’s got a Pygmalion complex, thinking he can turn a young woman into a suitable companion for him. And simply causing chaos and destroying everything in his path.
Wound: His female companion was slain by the Threshold shortly before he himself was imprisoned in an old mine for a century, and he suffered the entire time not realizing she was alive and searching for him.
Mission/Agenda: To kill everyone who comes up against him, while trying to twist the hapless Sarah Parsons into a vampiric mate.
Secret: Not sure yet!
What makes them special? He’s a centuries’-old vampire with a grudge
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Joe’s Character profiles part 1
What I learned (once again) is that when I just start writing, the answers to these questions start to flesh out. I feel like Ezekiel connecting dry bones one ligament at a time. My Trek horror-thriller seems to be taking shape now moreso than my “Winter Warlock” script (can’t figure out who the antagonist is really. (Who was the Antagonist in Citizen Kane? not really sure. Anyone got insight on that?), but in the meantime, I’ll put some flesh on the bones of TREK…
PROTAGONISTS:
Husband is:
Runner: He’s put into a position of running from the pursuing driver. It’s his best option. On a subconscious level, he wrestles with the idea that that is what he’s doing now in life with their “early retirement, buy a winnebago and drive cross-country” plan. His wife’s subtext also eludes to the idea that she thinks that of him too.
Fighter: While that may or may not be true, his strength throughout his adult life decisions has ALWAYS been to adapt/survive/endure. If he can’t figure out how to defeat the pursuer because of his “old/big” obstacles (he can’t run very well these days, his thumbs are too big to type on smartphones easily, he doesn’t even pretend that he’d know how to use half of the tech gadgets in new cars) he will at least endure with the old technology that he’s familiar with.
Wife is:
Victim: Sometimes she feels a victim of her husband’s shortcoming. But in the big picture, she is framed as the potential innocent victim of their pursuer. Forcing the audience to feel empathy for her and forcing the husband into action. And ironically, she will be the one who reaches out to her pursuer with healing. She NEEDS to survive his attacks so that she can help to heal/save him.
Dreamer: While they both dream of a happier retirement future, she totally encouraged the “drive cross-country trek” in the first place and was the main planner of hotels/roadmaps/travel apps to make it successful.
ANTAGONIST
Tesla driver is:
Villain: He understands the new tech. He is nimble and skinny and can hide in a field of rocks if being pursued (probably learned how to do that when he was a child and was being chased by bullies or an abusive authority figure)
Predator: As a skinny wimpy kid, he has no power. But his Tesla is like his very own Ironman suit, and he has put in the time to learn all its tricks & tools like a James Bond car. He’s going to use it/test it on this old RV, clearly full of a couple of old people who already lived their life high on the hog. He was already suicidal, so if he dies he’s OK with it. But this older generation is most likely the cause of all the reasons he has no hope for this life anyway. And at least they have each other after all.
His external journey: Simple enough. Just pursue these guys, and don’t get caught. Lets see where they take him. If they take him on a cross-country road trip, how cool is that?
His inner Journey: I don’t know if he dies in the end, or if the couple is able to save him. But he does admit to them in one form or another that “you guys still got a lot worth living for and to contribute to society”. He can’t place all the blame on them as a scapegoat. They want to say the same about him too. Can they? Is it better if he dies? Will they press charges? Maybe they think he has suffered enough?
Other Characters:
Supporting characters & Background characters: Cops? Gas station owners? Servicemen at Dealers for Teslas & RVs. People in the diner? Other drivers on the road? Truckers? ALL of them are Minor roles.
Genre: Horror-Thriller. Is it a comedy? Surely there will be comedic elements in it, since that’s what I’m prone to, but I’m more excited by the thriller part than the laughing part. I think of movies I’m trying to emulate and I’m much more prone to re-watch any Speilberg thriller, than I am Lost in America, Road Trip, or any of the Cannonball Run movies.
Role in the story:
Tesla Driver:
Age range and Description: early 20s, skinny caucasian male.
Internal Journey: Hopelessness and full of anger. Going to take it out on somebody and will blame the older generation. At least he’ll make a statement, but in the end, develops a conscience and realizes the wrong he is doing.
External Journey: Decides to pursue and attack an older couple driving a gas-guzzling RV. Struggles on an emotional level when he realizes that taking them down is not so simple. Ultimately, either surrenders or nobly accepts defeat.
Motivation: Wound: Never been able to trust adults growing up. Combine that with the news of wars, racism and global warming, he blames the older generation for all his problems.
Mission/Agenda: Secret: What makes them special? He understands all the new tech. Can even operate a car via remote control.
Husband:
Age range and Description: 60s, caucasian male, got a gut, but not obese.
Internal Journey: Can’t figure out why he’s always arguing with his wife. Still trying to solve personality clashes they’ve had their entire relationship. Maybe now that they’re retiring, they can get it figured out?
External Journey: Wants to successfully “deliver” his wife to California, aka “the promised land” by driving across country for an early retirement, but now they’ve got a stalker in one of those high-tech cars!
Motivation: To be seen as a hero to his wife.
Wound: Still doesn’t feel ‘validated’ by wife for not delivering on key things in their marriage (money, bigger house, more kids)
Mission/Agenda: Secret: What makes them special?
He’s not a quitter, and has the ability to adapt. So does his wife.
Wife:
Age range and Description: Same age as husband.
Internal Journey: Husband STILL doesn’t get her after all these years!
External Journey: Burned out and looking forward to retirement after long tiring last few years of social work.
Motivation: To not get overwhelmed by anxiety, and instead, make the trip successful.
Wound: Can’t fly, due to a lifelong phobia that she’s never conquered. Feels guilty about “restricting” husband’s desires to travel, but also “mad” that society, and her husband still don’t understand why she can’t just “get over it”.
Mission/Agenda: To use psychological tricks to get her husband to take her advice, even though he never wants to take it because he always thinks his ideas are better.
Secret: What makes them special? When the rubber hits the road, they still manage to adapt and succeed as a unit due to underlying mutual self-respect.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Joe Donato. Reason: forgot to add the "role in the story" part
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This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
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What I learned doing this assignment is that storytelling is a complex puzzle that can be fun when broken down in this manner.
2. Pick the type of role your Protagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Runner/victim.Bobby runs away from his turbulent family life at home – straight into the arms of trouble aka street life.
His physical surroundings he yearns to get away from and he will explore a variety of avenues (petty crime, adolescent love, and also as a student) as a Runner.
Bobby is also a Victim – of his surroundings – this leads him to make bad choices – but he will transform from a Victim to a Survivor/Fighter by the end.
3. Pick the type of role your Antagonist will play and give us a few sentences on how they will fulfill that role.
Villain/authority.Bobby’s mother Angela is extremely religious – she should be guiding him on his adolescent journey but instead she thwarts him at every turn. She is abusive towards Bobby and his sister and her aggression molds her family to be like her. Bobby strives to get away from Angela but as the younger sibling he is forced to deal with her self righteous delusions.
4. What other characters might be necessary?
Supporting characters: A supportive arts teacher named Mrs. WilliamsMinor roles: An older sister named Judy
5. Pick your genre.
Drama – coming-of-age6. Fill in whatever answers come to you about your lead character profiles.
Bobby’s role: He is a detective – he is curious about how other people lead their lives. He has unanswered questions because Angela always answers with a Bible quote. He is ashamed of his family life and yearns for his father to be around but he travels for work. He wants to be older and independent like his sister but is still breaking free from childhood.Age range and Description: 12, male, student
Internal Journey: Discovering himself separate from his family
External Journey: Growing from a child into a teenager
Motivation: Trying to be a good student despite his troublemaking friends
Wound: Ashamed – of his family and of himself
Mission/Agenda: To get out from under the thumb of his mother
Secret: Fear of failing
What makes them special? He is a sensitive artistic soul in the middle of the concrete jungle of the city.
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Shelley’s Character Profiles Part 1
I am learning doing this assignment how to go deeper in the process and how to create a good character.
Genre: Drama-(From the List)
…AND I have a question: (I have had the Genre as Romantic-Mystery and it is true story.
MOLLIE: Dreamer
Role in the story: Protagonist, investigative journalist
Mollie (38) is a free-spirited, bleached blonde, slight frame athletic build
Internal Journey: struggling as a single mother. Standing in her power.
External Journey: Naively creates self-sabotaging circumstances
Motivation: Her endless drive for love and freedom
Wound: sexual abuse from a dominating father
Mission/Agenda: Solve the mystery of her dreams
Secret: deep insecurity
What makes them special? Her perseverance and trust in the process
MOSES: Villian
Role in the story: Antagonist and Love Interest, Junior corporate executive
Age range and Description: (35) a mixed-race, repressed alcoholic, musician
Internal Journey: wrestles with societal racism- His connundrum-being a sinner vs good Christian
External Journey: Adopted as a child by a white fundamentalist family, his attraction to Protagonist in conflict with his belief in a biblical God.
Motivation: Find himself
Wound: Doesn’t belong-Can’t commit and doesn’t get close to people
Mission/Agenda: Live a good Christian life
Secret: sexually adventurous
What makes them special? Honest, Humurous and Adventurious spirit
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Karen’s Character Profiles: Part 1
What I learned doing this assignment is how to think about characters in a structured, in-depth way. This story and these characters have been rolling around in my mind for a few months. This exercise offered me a way to breathe life into them. However, there may be too many and my story may be too complicated for a two-hour movie. We shall see!
PROTAGONIST
Explorer/Fighter/Runner/Dreamer:
KATE, 49, rarely seen with her hair down; never seen not wearing a suit
jacket. With her 50<sup>th</sup> birthday looming and a sense that there
must be something more, she experiences a series of life-changing events that put her on a new path. Motivation includes wanting something more out of life
and a desire to live more authentically. Wounds include trying to please
an absent father and a narcissistic mother as well as overcoming an abusive relationship with her (now ex) husband. Her secrets are
that despite her successful career she feels like fraud, and she’s always
wanted to live a bohemian lifestyle as a writer. What makes her special is
her soft gooey center and a sense of humor in the
face of pretty much anything.ANTAGONISTS
Antagonist 1: Kate, in many ways, is her own worst enemy. She’s comfortable in her discomfort. Change is hard. Lots of ingrained beliefs.
Antagonists 2: Her sons. They like the status quo.
· ETHAN, 18-27, authoritative and superior, on the eight-year undergrad plan. Temporarily living with Kate.
· DAVID, 16-25, fun-loving, irresponsible rogue. Lives “on his own”
· AARON, 14-23, ridiculously handsome, unemployed, living in a ganja haze in Kate’s basement
Antagonist 3: Life and all of its existing constructs
Antagonist 4: Her friends who are also her work colleagues (minor characters). They like Kate as she is. They need her to stay that way.
· JANE, 40, never saw an outfit or hairstyle she wouldn’t comment on
· SUE, 45, desperately seeking someone. Wants Kate to want to barhop with her
· BARB, 35, always remembers to bring up the latest bad news
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
· NORA, 50, Kate’s grandmother who resides in the spirit realm. She is also Kate’s therapist in this realm. In the spirit realm, she is a slim, impeccably dressed Latina wearing a form-fitting dress with an up-do. As Kate’s therapist she is barely recognizable with her hair worn down, hippie-style clothing and an effusive assortment of crystal jewelry. A change agent, she serves as a sounding board and teacher. Her secret is that she has been with Kate every moment of every day since her death when Kate was three. She lives vicariously through Kate. On this journey she realizes she wants to give life another go.
· BOB, 30-ish, Kate’s father who resides in the spirit realm. He is also Kate’s new neighbor in this realm. In the spirit realm he is an overweight jokester with a crew cut wearing a Joe Namath NY Jet’s jersey. In this realm, Kate sees him as someone else but the audience sees him as Bob with a current hairstyle. A change agent, he serves as a catalyst for Kate’s healing of old wounds. In so doing he heals his regrets about who he was as a parent.
· TED, 30-ish, Kate’s ex-husband who resides in the spirit realm. He is also Kate’s new neighbor in this realm, married to BOB. In the spirit realm he is full 80’s style with big hair. In this realm Kate sees him as someone else but the audience sees him as Ted dressed and coiffed appropriate to the year. He serves as a catalyst for Kate’s healing of old wounds and a sounding board to help evolve her relationship with her children. In so doing, he heals his relationship with both Kate and his children.
· JEAN, 17, Kate’s mother who resides on the spirit realm. She is also Kate’s manicurist in this realm. In the spirit realm Jean is oh so perky and wears a 1950’s majorette uniform complete with an adorned feathered hat and chin strap. In this realm Kate sees her as someone else but we see her as Jean, a modern, upbeat teenager. She serves as an unexpected source of surprising wisdom for Kate.
· SAM, indiscernible age, gender, race and ethnicity. In the spirit realm Sam is Kate’s soul, her higher self. In this realm Sam is Kate’s assistant. Appears the same in both realms, serving as a navigator and source of support for Kate.
·
MINOR ROLES
· SEBASTIAN, early 40’s, German. An SVP at Kate’s company. Rude, arrogant, condescending, a quintessential a-hole. He serves as a catalyst for Kate’s desire to change.
· ANTONIO, late 20’s, fit, gorgeous and smart. Works for Kate. He serves as a catalyst for Kate’s desire to change.
· Background characters: various office workers
· Gabriel, female, ancient but youthful. Ethereally beautiful, pale, blonde. She is Archangel Gabriel
· David, 50’s, athletic, South African. He is Kate’s life guide
· Subho, 60’s. He is one of Kate’s guiding angels
· Yejin, 60’s, blind. He is one of Kate’s guiding angels
· Sven, 20’s. Stoic, muscular. He is one of Kate’s guardian angels
· Glerg, 20’s. Stoic, muscular. He is one of Kate’s guardian angels
GENRE
Drama/Comedy/Coming
of New-Age -
David Harper’s character profiles part 1
What I learned doing this assignment is that I don’t have to have the whole character defined today. I just need enough to get started on the process of discovery.
Type of role your Protagonist will play: Danny is a victim. He’s a victim of his turbulent childhood as the son of a convicted criminal and an alcoholic mother. He’s a victim of his own timidity. He lets people manipulate him, hoping to be accepted, but is always on the outside looking in. He’s desperate for his father’s approval, which makes it even easier for his father to manipulate him once he’s out of prison.
Type of role your Antagonist will play: Arlo is a predator. He’s hell bent on robbing the local bank, and will do anything he has to do to make it happen.
4. What other characters might be necessary?
A couple of other ex-cons, Rooster and Patch, to whom Arlo owes a truckload of money
A local sheriff, who will be a thorn in Arlo’s side and a potential ally for Danny
A love interest for Danny, to help inspire him to step up to a better life
Pick your genre: Drama
Protagonist description:
Danny Sinclair is a 22-year-old kid who has enough emotional baggage to check at an airport. The son of a convicted criminal, his childhood was tumultuous and unstable. Since then, he’s never been able to find his way.
Internal Journey: From a mousy kid who lacks the conviction of his dreams to a confident man who stands up for himself and others.
External Journey: From being the victim of a dysfunctional family to breaking that cycle by starting a family of his own.
Motivation: To gain his father’s love
Wound: Ashamed of who he is
Mission/Agenda: To make his father proud
Secret: He’s the one who got his father sent to prison
What makes them special? Despite everything, Danny has a good heart and deep down wants to do the right thing
Antagonist description:
Arlo Sinclair is a 45-year-old ex-con just out of prison. He makes a show of trying to start a fresh life free of crime, but he owes a lot of money to two other ex-cons and now that he’s out of the joint they’ve come to collect. So he’s going to rob a bank to get the cash, and he’ll drag Danny into it.
Internal Journey: No real change
External Journey: From ex-con just out of prison to dead
Motivation: To rob the local bank’s vault and safe deposit boxes
Wound: When he was a kid, his parents lost their home and pretty much everything else in the S&L crisis.
Secret: He actually has the money to pay those guys back, he just doesn’t want to share it.
What makes him special? He’s a master manipulator who will turn bloodthirsty monster when he has to.
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