Day 3 Assignment

[Mark Hawk]

Mark Hawk’s Right Characters!

What I learned doing this assignment is that identifying the possible conflicts between characters up front helps to maintain the hook and story. I haven’t figured out the character’s genders or names yet, but it doesn’t matter at this point.

Here are the characters I’m considering for this story:

A. A very wealthy Eco-Patron who is always in control. This person is always looking for ways to take advantage of any situation and doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. A very competitive individual, they must always be in charge.

B. The lead scientist who is very over-protective of their work and doesn’t like to be micro-managed. This individual is an anti-commercialist and believes that discoveries should be shared with all of humanity.

C. A crypto billionaire who is just looking for a good time. They are looking for ways to take advantage of old-school money and will do anything to embarrass them.

D. An up-and-coming scientist who knows how to get their projects funded. Will do whatever it takes to take over projects after they have already started and run into difficulties.

E. A true ecotourist who is only there for the experience. They believe that the price they paid for the excursion is going to fund the research they are visiting. Very naive.

F. The maintenance lead who thinks there is nothing they can’t fix. Feels very uncomfortable around people who have money and looks for any reason to avoid them. Likes to be told what the problem is without any advice on how to fix it.

G. The maintenance subordinate is an all-around nice person and always has a smile on their face. Will do or agree with anything that the maintenance lead says.

H. The young grad student who is secretly working for the military and sends weekly reports to a clandestine center. Always curious and never really offers any ideas.

These characters are being placed into a situation where a new discovery causes almost immediate friction and conflict, only made worse when accidents start happening. This may evolve further, but I like where this is leading me.

[Monica Arisman]

Subject: Monica’s Right Characters!

What I learned doing this assignment is this is a different
way to look at creating character and this concept came out of nowhere .<div>

1. Compare your concept to your lead characters to find unique ways for them to fulfill the concept.

2. Think about your Concept Hook
and Contained Setting.

Concept Hook: The night a new Pope is chosen, he gets a text from someone telling him he has an illegitimate daughter and she’s the second coming of Christ.

Contained Setting: The Vatican.

3. With each of your main
characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?

Pope:

· White, middle-aged, misogynistic, patriarchal, needs to see to believe, will do anything to preserve the Church’s corrupt teachings.

Mother:

· An ex-nun who gave birth to a daughter. Like Mary Magdalene she believed without question. Worries for her daughter as the world has not moved on since the first coming of Christ.

Daughter:

· Was identified as the second coming of Christ by the Dali Lama when he was summoned to the Tibetan monastery where her and her mother took refuge.

Thinking about the conflict
that hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that
conflict?

· The Pope is committed to bringing the Church’s people in line so his past must be buried at all costs. His temporal ego is at odds with his spirituality.

· The mother is supportive of her daughter because this has been revealed to her by God.

· The daughter walks with God but lives in the world. When she confronts her father she is interrogated a la Inquisition style until an Angel of God rescues her. She is the undoing of the Catholic and Christian churches.

4. Tell us what makes these
characters the “right ones” for this story?

· The Pope is supposed to be the representative of God on Earth and he acts anything but God-like.

· The mother will do anything to protect her daughter including if necessary the destruction of the Papacy.

· The daughter escapes the papacy. But she’s filmed it all and uses social media to bring the people back to God without the need for the Church or any of its sister organizations.

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[Hope McPherson]

Hope’s right characters

What I learned: Having the hook in front of me helped as I thought about ways the main characters can impact the story. In every case, the characters are different than what I at first thought they’d be. This feels like the first step in creating them, and I look forward to more.

Main characters: Ruby, Clash (kidnapper), Hugh (kidnapper), Roger (custodian)

Ruby Doe/Countess Rowena Louisa Margarite of Von Doeburgen

· A hacker who convinced the university she’s a wealthy heiress.

· She aged out of the foster system and has no real family.

· She has no attachments.

4. Ruby is right for this story, because she never belonged anywhere and, as a foster kid, had to be self-sufficient from an early age. If anyone can get out of this, she will.

Clash and Hugh

· Are desperate for money: Clash to pay for his daughter’s surgery, Hugh to pay off a loan shark.

· Clash is a conspiracy theorist who read about the princess online.

· Hugh has a gambling addiction and he’ll bet on anything.

· They are cousins and optimists for no reason whatsoever, given their luck.

4. Clash and Hugh are hapless criminals. Nothing goes right for them, but that doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying. This will be a sure bet, they think.

Roger

· Crotchety, with little patience.

· Has worked for the college for 25 years. He knows the entire campus.

· He has a bad heart; must take medications every day.

· Recently widowed, he is estranged from his only child, a daughter.

4. If anyone can make a connection with Ruby, it would be Roger. If he can get out of his own way. He’s had a lot of loss in his life, too, and his job at the campus is the only thing giving him a reason to get up in the morning.

[Madeleine Vessel]

What I learned doing this assignment is that all my main characters suffer from some form of mental illness. A paranoid schizophrenic, off his medication, triggers the story when he takes an emotionally vulnerable woman hostage. How the story ends depends upon how successfully the police officer, battling PTSD, negotiates the hostage situation.

My story has three main characters:

A young man with recently diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. He is right for this story because he is the hostage taker, not for criminal reasons, but because he is afraid. His fear is what triggers the story.

A woman, who is depressed after being betrayed by her fiancé on nationwide television. She is right for this story because although she’s had a major life setback, she is intrinsically approachable, empathetic, perceptive, and impartial. She will try to mediate between her hostage-taker and the police officer, who is trying to resolve the situation.

A policeman struggling with PTSD flashbacks. He is the right for this story because he is logical. He prefers to appeal to reason before threatening force, violation, and intimidation. The problem he has is judging when reason has failed, and force is necessary. A month earlier, faced with a similar situation, he waited too long to act. As a result, he was shot, the hostage was shot, and the hostage-taker was shot. It was a disaster. Now, he is experiencing disturbing flashbacks as a result of it.

[Micah Delhauer]

MICAH’S RIGHT CHARACTERS!

What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of Rolodexing through each character to make sure they’re the most fitted to the story/conflict/hook.

Characters: Cheating Wife, Pimp, Neighbor, Husband

Why are they perfect for the hook?

Wife
Deeply in love with her husband, unwilling to let the marriage fail
Highly emotional, easily flustered
High, and therefore disadvantaged in all of her efforts

Pimp
Greedy; will exploit the situation to the best of his abilities
Experienced in criminal dealings
Ruthless and unafraid to ruin Wife’s marriage
Unhinged; could escalate to violence

Neighbor
Nosy as hell, constantly asking questions
Eager to help (possibly lonely), tries to force himself into Wife’s business
Talks forever; doesn’t know how to take a hint

Husband
The absolute perfect husband; it would be a shame to lose him
Loves wife so much; it would break his heart to find her cheating
Trusts wife implicitly; it would be terrible to betray that trust

[Michael Masurkevitch]

Michael Masurkevitch’s Right Characters

What I learned:

Is that creating a character is an impossible task of choosing from endless possibilities, but having a legit starting point is better than just pulling it out of the air, and choosing the starting point of “what serves the hook” helps make atleast somewhat more informed choices on how to best tell the story you want to tell.

Setting:
Ashram: so the less spiritual they are, the mouthier and dirtier and angrier and less-open-minded, the funnier.

Characters fit with hook:
Each is struggling with trauma, addiction, of some kind.
– Captain is a killer and can’t live with himself, grew up rough and was raised into violence.

Specialist is addictions and high-functionning, a nerd who got tired of the system and figured out how to make more money. But the money doesn’t bring happiness, does drugs for the angst and ennuis.

Demolitions girl is fighting demons of anger, privilege, violence, and an abused or abusive mother.
But also

2.b) – Captain is an atheist whose hippie brother super frustrates him, hates hearing about this stuff, brings him pain

Demolitions-girl is secretly devout Catholic but believes she is going to hell and her soul isn’t worth saving

Techie is agnostic, likes to poke at things but also is struck with wonder at them, also does more drugs which plays with his sense of reality.

** and the shadowy ghost who first one, then gradually all, start to see, of the fallen comrade, helped into peace in act 3.

Conflict
– Captain is a focused hustler, who cares about himself first
– mad at the other two, but also surly and gets made at Techs’ wonder
– they are all dealing with having just killed someone who got left behind on the job.

External Conflict
– when we meet them they are in conflict about “what went wrong” but annoying each other: then they are in conflict about how long to stay at the Ashram: then, at what to do about the money: then, at what to do about the villain coming: then finally resolved.

Internal Conflict

With their issues and pain, each of them taking two steps forwards and one back towards healing.

What makes them Right:

Honestly I’m not 100% sure yet but

They have to be hardened to have more of a change from the Ashram. They need to be annoyed by “woo woo stuff” (atleast ⅔ of them) and annoyed with each other. They need to come from different demographics so that the healing of different issues can be explored.

Which one should be male/female/of what colour? Should the Captain be female and an atheist, and the weapons specialist a white christian, and the tech an athiest asian female? Or the other way around? I dont know what the right combos are, just that they need to split those qualities between them.

[Mark Lynch]

Marc Lynch’s Right Characters

What I learned doing this assignment: The main characters should be a reflection of each other and bring out the essence of the hook.

Contained setting: The New Mexico Sandia mountains wilderness.
Concept Hook: After their hot air balloon crashes in the New Mexico wilderness, how does Helen survive, alone, long enough to find medical assistance for her dying father, the balloon pilot, while a lethal mountain lion terrorizes the mountainside.
Main Characters:
Helen, the daughter of the balloon pilot.
Fatu, a naturalist, lives alone in the mountains, off the grid, away from civilization.

Enhanced Conflict:
Helen has been warned by hikers leaving the mountainside that “El Lion” is attacking everyone in sight. But she meets up with a native American Indian who also warns her about “El Lion”. He also points her in the right direction to “find Fatu.”

Fatu also knows about “El Lion” who killed her favorite dog and did damage to her right hand by chewing it off. She knows the power of “El Lion” and does not want to help Helen by leaving her mountain home and going down into the valley to help Helen revive her father.

Their conflict comes when they disagree on how to avoid “El Lion” and get back to the spot where the balloon crashed.

These characters are the right ones for this story because they are a reflection of each other in terms of temperament, personality, and interest in nature.

[Michael Davis]

What I learned doing this assignment is, that by forming a continuous connection of actions and dilemmas for the characters in the scene, you create a moving forward concept hook that captures your audience. I am finding that sometimes that is not always an easy thing to do but this lesson really helped me to think outside the box.

The Concept hook and contained setting:

1. Concept hook:

A. A warrior Arc Angel awakens in Hell and goes on a journey of truth and growth as she fights to returns to Heaven and then turns around to mount a rescue to save her mentor/father who is still trapped there.

2. The contained setting:

A. is a cave in Hell.

3. How does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?

A. Ezekiel 2nd Arc Angel of heaven the mentor and secret father to Apolyta

B. Apolyta daughter to Ezekiel but she is unaware of this fact, and Thielen the Nephilim child, Apolyta is also an Arc Angel, who seeks to leave Hell and return to Heaven and seek answers to their fall into Hell and return to rescue Ezekiel.

4. What makes these characters the “right ones” for this story, is that they are all connected by way of family and service to the higher kingdom.

A. Apolyta is the daughter of Ezekiel and the niece of the Dark King in Hell of that she is unaware as well, Thielen is her nephew of which she just recently found out for he is the son of her brother which is another Arc Angel. They are all connected and must play a part in the journey out of Hell by helping each other.

[Frank Kim]

Assignment 1

How do each of my main characters fit the hook?

Jordan Man – the protagonist. Korean-American, ex-military and ex-officer in the Federal Bureau of Prison, based in Texas. He is well-versed in using violence to get out of dangerous situations. His time in Afghanistan left him in chronic pain from war-injuries and he became addicted to opioids when he returned to civilian life. Eventually, he got sober but some of his poor life choices left him with a nihilistic worldview. He has never fully come to terms with his addiction to violence and the pleasure he gets from defeating his enemies through brute force.

Cesar Machado – the antagonist. Mexican-American, mid-level drug dealer. Also well-versed in violence. From a young age, he was exposed to the drug trade on the border and learned how to be self-sufficient after his parents abandoned him in the throes of their own addictions. Cesar has had to fight his way through life constantly. But he finds a twisted pleasure in the pain and suffering he’s experienced and inflicts pain and suffering on all of his victims too. He is addicted to methamphetamine, but is still able to run his business effectively – mainly through fear and intimidation and violence.

Roy Green – a Caucasian drug addict. He constantly strives to be a better person but continues to fall off the wagon, tempted by those around him.

Assignment 2

How does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?

Jordan and Cesar get into it because they are two similar personalities with competing agendas. Jordan wants to save Roy from drug abuse, and Cesar wants to encourage Roy’s drug habit. Cesar also sees Roy as a source of income. When that income, even though it’s miniscule compared to all the money Cesar makes from all of his other customers, is threatened, Cesar takes it as a matter of survival and goes to war against Jordan. Roy’s inability to stay sober is a cause of the conflict for Jordan. Jordan has problems letting things go and will push situations to violent extremes.

Assignment 3

What makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?

As mentioned above, each character is dealing with powerful addictions that can’t just be willed away. They are biochemically attached to the addictive behaviors. Their very sincere attempts at recovering from addiction paradoxically lead to a further worsening of the circumstances around their addiction. For example: research has shown that one of the most influential factors in reducing recidivism to addiction is a supportive social network or community. That is one of the ways 12-step programs seek to help their members. But in this case, Roy’s use of AA makes things worse because his sponsor, Jordan, becomes more and more attached to keeping Roy sober. And that exacerbates Cesar who then uses Roy to get to Jordan. All of these characters are also dealing with an addiction to outcomes. Not just the outcome called “getting high”, but also outcomes like “I’m right and you’re wrong”. Or “I will fix this” or “I will wreck this”. They are all people who are highly addicted to being right about their viewpoints.

What I learned doing this assignment is:

This is a good impetus to design characters that are multi-dimensional and interesting and have backstories that enhance the main story. By doing this assignment I got inspired to create a new Word document dedicated to designing the visual look of these characters. I even researched mask options for the main character as he evolves into a masked vigilante. This process is time-consuming but also greatly elevates the quality of my original concept.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  Frank Kim.

[Anthea Piscarik]

ASSIGNMENT

What I learned doing this assignment: Hooks are not easy but so important to capture the interest of a potential producer! They have to inform without going into plot and give an electrifying sense of what an audience can anticipate.

Compare your concept to your lead characters to find unique ways for them to fulfill the concept.

Think about your Concept Hook and Contained Setting<div>

Yes, I’ve created the contained setting thanks to the pre-lesson exercise of going through five ideas. I decided on the final one. It was a process!

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With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?

Librarian – Unanticipated victim of the killer shadowing an author that ruined his life with implicating him in a crime thriller.

Author – Callous, disillusioned writer faces death.

Killer – Retribution for his life ruined by author.

Thinking about the conflict that hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?

Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story? The librarian attempts to diffuse the tension between the author and subject of one of his books in order to saver her life. The author comes back to the library to apologize for his mean-spirited manner only now to jeopardize her life as a stalker plans to kill him.

Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
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[Deleted User]

Bob Colley Right Characters!

What I learned doing this assignment is it helps to get a foundation for a character.

Story:

Space debris raining down because of cascading satellite collisions forces a cop and a motorist to seek refuse in a storm cellar. Can two opposing racists survive this disaster together without killing one another? And who owns the head?

Hook: Two racists and a head.

Setting: storm cellar.

1) Fit the hook

Cop: Bo Lynch

– white

– good old southern boy

– bit of a red neck

– knows he’s right

Motorist: Dan Goodman

– black

– educated

– frequently stopped by cops

– knows he’s right

3) Conflict will stem from their opposite points of view and different life experiences.

4) What makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?

White cop and a black motorist happens all the time. Like to explore why that is.