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Day 3 Assignments
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8 Replies
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M.M.’s Right Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is to examine each character in light of the Hook and Contained Setting to make sure they are the right ones for the story.
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Leigh, FBI investigator, is used to solving murders independently, so is the perfect one to run a parallel investigation.
Rob, her fiancé runs the investigation and is the perfect one as the DC Bureau Chief.
Justice Theodore “Teddy” O’Donnell, Leigh’s estranged father, has written a politically explosive majority opinion and ends up murdered. He’s the perfect character because he made a lot of enemies by his opinions on the bench, which increases the mystery and intrigue level of the story.
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Dalisia’s Right Characters
I learned to start with the hook and consider the contained setting when building my characters—before filling out the details on them. I used to simply think of unique features to add, but the way they deliver on the hook is everything.
Mom: A reluctantly retired spy who once overturned a foreign mercenary organization. When her daughter brings home a fiancé, she uses her old skills in an attempt to sabotage the wedding.
Dad: Also a retired spy, but totally over all of that. Now he just wants peace—and to bake the perfect cake for his daughter’s wedding. Mom’s antics threaten to derail his ideal Father/Daughter day.
Daughter: She grew up thinking her parents were teachers overseas. When the family secrets (including hers) come spilling out, she’ll end up competing with Mom over who the bad guys are actually trying to kill.
Fiancé: He works for a three letter agency too—UPS! When he finds out the truth about the family he’s marrying into, he’ll realize he’s in for a wild ride. But how long can he hold on?
Brother: He is nothing like his sister or his mom. He’s secure in his identity as a writer and “just a regular guy.” He’s the only one who knows all the secrets–and is carefully fictionalizing them for his new book.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
None of them really “fit in” with regular society. None of them is comfortable in his/her own skin totally except the brother. He’s pretty happy watching the dumpster fire. Everyone has secrets–but they’re all driven out of love for one another. The brother is everyone’s confidant and secretly writing all of these situations into his newest fiction novel.
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Andre’s Right Characters!
1. Think about my concept hook and contained setting. Thinking…
2. With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the hook?
Still developing these.
3. Thinking about conflict that hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?
With their actions, with their words.
4. Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
They align/fit with the scene and hook.
5. What I learned from this assignment is …
I learned; I am not someone who likes to create
conflict in general. Within the framework of writing screenplays, it is a
necessity. That necessity could be life in general, and the correlative relationship
I have that perhaps my audience has. But creating conflict in general does not
come easy to me, it is a challenge. -
Right Characters.
My characters not only have a deep relationship with each other but also with their setting – a place where the movie is taking place.
What I learned from this assignment is when I remembered that you said they can’t be in any movie. So, it made me think about characters that specifically fit the setting. It helped me narrow down the character even more.
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<div>Larry’s Right Characters</div>
What I learned doing this assignment is to find a unique relationship that provides sufficient motives for the protagonist to want to seek revenge against the antagonist. By providing multiple motives, the story gains depth and sustains the mystery as to why the antagonist has been targeted.
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With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?
With consideration of the setting, there are two main characters; a greedy billionaire (antagonist) and a revenge-seeking psychopath (protagonist) who happens to be a brilliant, but bent, car inventor. The uniqueness lies in that the psycho has trapped the billionaire in a car rigged by the psycho that provides no escape for the billionaire. The billionaire is taken on a ride, the car being driven by an android. The inventor has full control of the car and wants the billionaire to confess to past sins. The inventor sees himself as a “green avenger” who wants to punish those who violate the environment. But wait, there’s more!
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 characters are “right” for this story. The greedy, ruthless billionaire has a past with a multitude of sins, but has kept them well-hidden. The psycho wants the billionaire to face them. What is later revealed is that the billionaire is actually the inventor is a bastard child of the billionaire, who wronged the psycho’s mother
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Assignment
Mary’s Right Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is…this helped me to flesh out more traits and some layers of my characters. It also helps me brainstorm the situations/conflicts they would get in by themselves and with each other.
What makes these characters the right ones for the story? I’m giving a general idea of the hook/concept and am thinking of this as a Comedy. The characters are, in many ways opposite of each other.
Working Hook/concept
A high-profile perfumer loses her super-powered smell ability and fakes her disappearance, as she tries to regain her sense of smell.
Protag: As a perfumer/scientist she has an amazing vocabulary for scent and chemistry
Famous, high-powered, uptight city person
Has gotten by on her looks and social graces
disconnected from the natural world
has a façade of confidence but hides her inadequacies
she has faked other things
Antag: A down to earth country person who is close to the land, sells natural products and essential oils
Uses her intuition/feeling, doesn’t care much for science
Was never part of a “popular” crowd
Prepper: Easily suspicious
Blunt, sarcastic and foul-mouthed.
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What I learned doing this assignment – is how your story structure drives the characters. I always wrote, character, conflict, story. Now I understand why my producer really worked my story structure with me and told me to just “go for it” in the first draft.
I’m working with a true story. A single mother undertakes an improbable/maybe impossible challenge. She is driven, but her goals are not that much about her. She wants things for others. Two husbands are involved. Spouse #1 initiates the project but he personally has no sense of purpose, passive aggressive. Spouse #2 is all in, just at the point when she couldn’t go on. He clarifies the purpose for her. The little boy is “all in” and his naivete brings the absolute truth to all involved.
A question I have: Your examples focus very heavily on “the unknown adversary.” These characters are isolated – alone in space, aliens, etc. Humans don’t really operate alone. We are pack animals that operate in communities. I’d love to look at more examples dealing with human conflict in limited situations.
THIS LESSON GAVE ME A LOT OF HELP IN HOW I WANT TO REVISE ACT 1 OF MY DRAFT SCREENPLAY. I need to up the stakes and conflicts for the main characters right off the bat. I sort of meandered into my first draft of Act 1.
Thanks,
Connie Hood
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Lesson 3: Erin Ziccarelli’s Right Characters!
What I learned from doing this assignment is: the three questions needed to make sure your
characters deliver on the hook, bring unique conflict that fits the hook, and cause problems for
other characters
Think about your Concept Hook and Contained
Setting.Concept Hook: How do you guide a ship to safety in the middle of the storm and with a dangerous stranger in your lighthouse?
Contained setting: lighthouse
With each of your main characters,
how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?Claire: she’s a “lighthouse” – isolated, depressed, scared, and grief-ridden. Struggles to keep up with her demanding job. Deathly afraid of another shipwreck after what happened to her husband’s ship. In desperate need of money to modernize her lighthouse.
Gabe: stranger with a gunshot wound. Claire gets a radio message that the bank was robbed. There was a shootout. Gabe enters and exits her life mysteriously. He’s secretive, helpful, and oddly similar to her husband. She needs his help to accept her husband’s death.
Captain Brendan Maris: (V.O.) demanding, needy, desperate for Claire’s help.
Christopher: coast guard officer staying in town.
Thinking about the conflict that
hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?Claire: could turn Gabe in at any time via radio.
Gabe: could harm Claire at any point. Presses her about her husband. Forces her to confront her guilt and grief.
Captain Brendan Maris: demanding Claire’s help. Triggers her grief. Pushes her to her breaking point.
Tell us what makes these characters
the “right ones” for this story?Claire is isolated and depressed. Her previous wound makes her the right one to have to guide the ship to safety.
Gabe is the spirit of Claire’s husband, helping to empower her and help her move on.
Captain Maris is desperate for help, pushing Claire towards redemption.
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