-
Day 4 Assignment
Post your Day 4 Assignment here.
-
12 Replies
-
What I learned from doing this assignment: My first impressions on my characters are okay but the brainstorming process opened me up to new possibilities
Marc Lynch: Discovering Character Depth
Helen’s Profile:
After their hot air balloon crashes in the New Mexico Wilderness, alone, Helen has to find medical assistance for her injured Father.INTERNAL: Helen
Motivation: To prove she can make the transition from a “bratty” teenager to an introspective and responsible young woman.
Secret: She lied to her parents about all of her “delinquent” antics at her school, which subsequently got her expelled.
Wound: The divorce of her parents and her mother unfairly blaming Helen for the divorce.
Subtext: Helen has difficulty distinguishing between the truth and reality.
Layers: While walking and searching in the wildness, Helen “talks” to the elements: cactus, birds, etc, etc, (Magical Realism) exposing her internal conflict about herself in relation to her family.
Character to Character
Helen and Fatu
Conflict: What is the best way to go down the mountain into the valley back to the balloon crash and how to do it if “El Lion” appears.
Hidden Agenda: Helen needs to save her father to prove to him and her family that she has finally grown up. Fatu secretly wants to kill “El Lion” because of the death of her favorite dog and her left arm is paralyzed due to a previous battle with “El Lion.”
Conspiracy: Helen and Fatu plan a strategy and agree to go back into the valley where at the crash site.
Intrigue: Fatu goes through the motions to help Helen but she really wants revenge on “El Lion.
SITUATION
Dilemma: Helen has to decide to go with Fatu’s plan or continue to wonder the wilderness leaving her father in jeopardy.
Secret Identity:
Fatu’s Profile
Fatu, a naturalist finds Helen passed out on a mountainside. She agrees to help Helen rescue her father at the crash site, in exchange for her help to kill “El Lion.”
Fatu Internal:
Motivation: To help Helen and to kill El Lion
Secret: She was once in the Military but got a dishonorable discharge.
Wound: She caught her ex-husband in bed with another woman and swore off men forever.
Subtext: El Lion is a symbol to her of all the evil in her life
Layers: Fatu’s trama that leads up to her dishonorable discharge.
Character to Character
Conflict: The best plan to rescue Helen’s father from the crash site.
Hidden Agenda: Fatu will help Helen but really is waiting to kill El Lion.
Conspiracy: Fatu agrees with Helen to go back down the mountain to rescue her injured
father.Intrigue: Fatu really needs Helen’s help in killing El Lion and changes her agreement once El Lion is spotted.
Situation:
Dilemma: Fatu needs Helen to help kill “El Lion” But she has to agree to rescue Helen’s Father first.
Secret Identity: Fatu was in the military and knows how to pursue prey and use weapons.
-
Mark Hawk’s Character Depth!
What I learned doing this assignment is that creating the character profiles first allows the conflict to be ready built-in and can be easily used to let the story evolve in a natural way.
CHARACTER PROFILES
Character A (female):
A very wealthy Eco-Patron who is always looking for ways to take advantage of any situation and doesn’t take `no’ for an answer.
Motivation: Must always be in charge of any given situation.
Wound: Father never thought she would amount to anything because she is not male.
Subtext: She has never been involved on a personal level with anyone for very long.
Dilemma: Allowing her to enjoy her feelings versus always having to be in control.
Character B:
The lead scientist who is 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.
Motivation: To make a discovery that could benefit all of humanity.
Wound: Was betrayed by a past colleague on ownership of a joint discovery.
Subtext: Does not trust easily, and definitely does not trust rich people.
Dilemma: Deciding on how to work with patrons who can fund the research projects could lead to self-sabotage.
Character C (male):
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.
Motivation: To make as much money as possible without having to do the work.
Secret: Wants to financially destroy Character A.
Wound: Was fired from a company that Character A was CEO.
Layers: Always verbally trying to joust with Character A and overwhelms anyone around him. He sucks all the oxygen out of any room he is in.
Intrigue: Tries to undermine anything he sees Character A becoming involved in.
Character 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.
Motivation: Will do anything and everything to further their career.
Secret: Has already worked out a deal to undermine Character B to take over the project.
Layers: Reluctantly took the assignment on the project after losing out on a different project.
Conflict: Has competed with Character A on different projects in the past. There is very little trust between Character D and Character B.
Hidden Agenda: Will falsify project data to get Character B fired.
Character 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.
Motivation: To experience both science and nature in one setting.
Secret: Won a very large lottery drawing.
Wound: Ashamed about not having money until recently.
Character 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.
Motivation: To be able to fix anything.
Secret: He is bluffing his way through life by using aggression and intimidation.
Wound: Is ashamed that he doesn’t have the money or education that everyone else has.
Dilemma: He feels that if he admits he can’t figure something out he will be immediately removed and has nothing to fall back on.
Character 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 but is actually the smartest person in any room.
Motivation: To learn as much as there is to learn without causing conflict.
Wound: Was humiliated during the verbal portion of his dissertation by a professor who had had some of his published work brought into question by Character G.
Subtext: Will remove themself from any intellectual discussion even when they could add a different or confirming opinion.
Secret Identity: Has a PhD in Applied Physics from Caltech.
Character 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.
Motivation: Must successfully complete her assignment to be promoted.
Secret: She is a spy working for the military.
Subtext: Always nice and disarming to avoid attention.
Hidden Agenda: Any discovery of biological or unknown origins are to be immediately reported and the station to be isolated.
Dilemma: If she is discovered she will no longer have a career.
-
What I learned doing this assignment, was that you find that your own story becomes more intriguing to you, as a writer, as it and the characters within the story are broken down into viable pieces of the whole, to be examined like a puzzle and then once the discovery is made of where all the pieces fit together, you have a correct path in putting together a masterpiece that the audience will love to watch. This really helped me to see my stories in a more diverse form of creativity.
Discovering Character Depth:
Ezekiel’s Profile:
INTERNAL CHARACTER DEPTH:
- Motivation – There is a need to right a wrong, help his daughter escape from a wrongfully imprisoned fate, feel vindicated, and help her to reclaim what was taken.
- Secret – The ones that Ezekiel hides from Apolyta, that he is her father and the Dark Prince of Hell is her uncle, that Ezekiel’s place in Hell is for a reason and serves a purpose, for defying the king and to Guard the others in Hell.
- Wound – Betrayal by a brother, a trust broken.
- Subtext – Unable to express the true love he carries as a father for his daughter and the need to feel the love that a father should from his daughter.
- Layers – The complexities of the roles he played as being the first angel created to guard the gates of heaven. The fear of discovery, of his role in the cause of the great fall, which is revealed as Apolyta reaches a mid-way point in her journey, and is granted the gift of insight into what has confused her since awakening in Hell.
Character to Character:
- Conflict – He struggles more with the darkness that has consumed him as he wanders through Hell, and in his wandering, his lust for blood and carnage forces him to kill others to satisfy his hunger.
- Hidden Agenda – For the time being he has tried to keep Apolyta from trying to change her current situation, in fear for her life, that on a journey alone she would be killed by the things that lurk in Hell. But he knows that there are lessons she needs to learn and he cannot teach her anymore, what must be learned has to be accomplished in her journey.
- Conspiracy – The lies that are weaved and told to him by his brother, once confronted, to convert others to his side and overthrow the true King.
- Intrigue – Ezekiel hopes that this journey will help Apolyta, for she is an Arc Angel, who cares nothing for the lives of others and all she wants is to return to heaven, but it is Ezekiel’s hope that she will grow and manifest a change within by helping those in need along the way of her journey.
CHARACTER SITUATION:
- Dilemma – He knows that her journey will lead to her death for she lacks the power to defeat the enemies that lie before her in the path she will take. He offers advice on who to trust and gives the very thing that has sustained his malevolent powers since arriving in hell. He bequeaths the very sword that created Hell, Naymere, to her so that she now has the power to stand against those that would threaten her life and the journey she has partaken in, but at the same time, it has doomed him to the manipulating forces of darkness that dwell in this black pit of torment.
- Secret Identity – Ezekiel made a king and protectorate in Hell and has now reclaimed the honor that was lost in the great fall, all has been revealed to Apolyta as she has forged a new destiny for herself and those that follow.
Discovering Character Depth:
Apolyta’s Profile:
INTERNAL CHARACTER DEPTH:
- Motivation – A need to escape from Hell and find answers to the question she has, to be vindicated and her honor restored, to return and rescue her mentor and the others that were wrongfully imprisoned here.
- Secret – The only one is carried when she discovers that the adolescent child that has tagged along with her on the journey is her nephew and a child of an Angel which in the case of angels having children has created another puzzle for it was thought that this was impossible.
- wound – A previous battle still haunts her and she is unsure of her powers and strength to make it through but encouragement is given from Ezekiel and she regains her courage.
- Subtext – She is reluctant to tell Ezekiel how she feels, she doubts her instinct and has lost a little of herself but wishes to find the lost part of herself in the journey ahead.
- <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Layers – What and who she is, will be revealed to her and the honor she thought she had lost shall be reclaimed once she has crossed the gates of the Elysian Fields. It is here that Gaybriell will divulge the truth to her, the truth of her true origins that she thought were the same as everyone else’s.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>CHARACTER TO CHARACTER:
- Conflict – There is none between the characters but there is an immense struggle that this journey will take physically from her as she fights a myriad of demons to make it to the Elysian Fields to seek answers to her questions. Having to fight the Dark Prince at the gates of the Elysian Fields.
- <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;” class=””>Hidden Agenda – The return and possible rescue of the other fallen and to save Ezekiel her father.
- Conspiracy – It is made known to Apolyta of the lies told by her uncle the Dark Princes that caused the great fall and that which turned the mind of his followers against the great King
- Intrigue – Now fully aware of the Dark Princes’s agenda her true mission is to see he is sent a message.
CHARACTER SITUATION:
- Dilemma – The return is made possible but upon searching for her father at the place they once occupied, she now finds a great demon and combat ensues, followed by death to the demon, a final end, but a complication is discovered, for the demon was her father who had fallen to the swaying forces of darkness that dwell within Hell.
- Secret Identity – All is brought to light, no more secrets, a dying father reveals himself to his daughter, Apolyta reveals all to Thielen, and The Dark Prince is confronted with the truth and a day of reckoning is at hand as she forges a new destiny for herself and all that follows.
DISCOVERING CHARACTER DEPTH:<div>
Thielen’s Profile
Internal Character Depth:
- Motivation – To escape his bonds, find the family that was lost to him, and regain his true form.
- Secret: – He is unaware of the secret that Apolyta carries and knows nothing of his relationship with her and has none of his own for he is just an adolescent that only wants to find his mother, father, and little sister.
- Wound – He is haunted by the memory of his inability to work magic efficiently as his mother taught him and feels deeply responsible for his family’s capture and separation.
- Subtext – He is reluctant to reveal that he is capable of wielding magic but he can’t afford to fail now when freedom is given at the hands of Apolyta and now he must work with her to save his family, but convincing her to help him will be a problem since she has a mission of her own and does not want to deviate from it.
- Layers – He becomes a warrior and fights to protect those he cares about and in the process is granted ascension to heaven but declines in hope that he may use his power to serve those on earth.
CHARACTER TO CHARACTER:
- Conflict – There is a struggle of trust and the conflicts between Apolyta and Thielen are tolerable at best but she is persuaded to help him find his family and in return, he promises to teach her magic and aid her in her journey to return to the Kingdom of light.
- Hidden Agenda – Thielen is capable of seeing into Apolyta’s heart and she needs help in the realization that trust and love are things that strengthen you and open doors to powers that can be helpful in her journey ahead. So as they travel together he becomes her conscious, in doing the right thing and helping others, which in turn strengthens her magic abilities, for magic is more controlled through emotions and the intent of the wielder.
- Conspiracy – As time passes Apolyta finds more of a connection with Thielen and reveals that they are related and that as they journey together, it is disturbingly obvious that they must right the wrongs even in Hell and together they help those in need.
- Intrigue – At one point in this story the Dark Prince convinces Thielen to betray Apolyta by giving him the sword Naymere so that she will have no defense against him and can be captured easily but as he attempts to do so, he takes the wrong sword and before he could finalize the betrayal he has a change of heart and returns the sword, of which Apolyta knew for Naymere cast a spell over Thielen and it was all a dream.
CHARACTER SITUATION:
- Dilemma – As a battle eventually ensues with the Dark Prince in his Demon form Thielen is forced to make a life or death situation by sacrificing his own life to save his family and many others who live along with Apolyta. The right decision is made and he is dead but all is not lost for life is made new again and he is reborn.
- Secret Identity – None are forthcoming in Thielen’s case for he searches for his family and at the end of this journey, finds them.
</div>
-
MICAH’S GREAT CHARACTER DEPTH!
What I learned doing this assignment is the value of breaking down the characters in a way that inevitably leads to more interesting conflict and relationships, as well as reveals a slew of new story possibilities.
JENNIFER (wife)
Motivation: Protect her marriage
Secret: She is a prostitute (whose client has just been accidentally killed)
Layers: Never met a man who didn’t just want to use her sexually
Conflict: Fears Pimp will reveal her secret to her husband
Hidden Agenda: dispose of dead body
Dilemma: pay Pimp / continue to hook, or reveal her secret to her husbandPIMP
Motivation: Greed
Subtext: Promises this will be Jennifer’s last job, but never intends to let her go
Conflict: threatens to reveal Jennifer’s secret unless she obeys him
Hidden Agenda: Blackmail JenniferNEIGHBOR
Secret: in love with Jennifer
Conflict: Keeps nosing in on Jennifer’s business, keeping her from disposing of the body
Hidden Agenda: sleep with Jennifer-
This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Micah Delhauer.
-
This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
-
“What I learned doing this assignment is by brainstorming with the ScreenwritingU criteria, I’ve been able to get a better feel for my characters, their motivations, their secrets, and there struggles. Now, I know which story I’ll be going forward with…finally!
1. With each of your characters, go through all of these questions to see which might fit for your story.
Internal Character Depth – Dory
Motivation: She wants to live.Secret: She’s the fiancé of a famous baseball player.Wound: The baseball player has cheated on her. Subtext:Layers:<div>
Character to character – Dory
Conflict: Conflict with Tristan, who took her captive. Previous conflict with Duncan with whom she had differences during a questioning. Hidden Agenda: She wants to disappear. She may even have a death wish.Conspiracy: She conspires with Duncan to negotiate the hostage situation.Intrigue (underhanded activity hidden under the surface). Tristan wants her to take him to the hospital. She says she will, but she doesn’t mean it. She’s really afraid of him.</div><div>
Character Situation – Dory
Dilemma: Does she just do what Tristan tells her to do or does she act on her own initiative?Secret Identity: She’s a famous baseball player’s fiancé.</div><div>
Internal Character Depth – Tristan
Motivation: He wants to get his injection before he hurts someone.Secret: He has paranoid schizophreniaWound: He developed the disease midway through college and could not finish his education. There is nothing he can do.Subtext: He is hiding from his mother and sister who always get mad at him.Layers:</div><div>
Character to character
Conflict: He’s in conflict with his sister and mother and with the cops. He’s had a bad experience with them before.Hidden Agenda: He doesn’t want to go to an insane asylum.Conspiracy: He thinks he’s conspiring with Dory. He tells her not to trust anyone with blue eyes.</div>
<div>
Intrigue:
Character Situation
Dilemma: He must choose to trust Dory to make the right decision for both of them or continue the stand-off on his own until he’s shot.Secret Identity:</div><div>
Internal Character Depth – Duncan
Motivation: Duncan needs to defuse the hostage situation; he wants to hide his PTSDSecret: He has PTSD.Wound: He feels guilty about losing two people in a previous hostage situation.</div><div>
Subtext: He’s trying to hide his PTSD.Layers:
Character to character
Conflict: He’s in conflict with Con, who suspects he’s unwell.Xthe baseball player betrayal.</div><div>
Conspiracy: He conspires with Lilith, but she betrays him.Intrigue: Lilith wants to use him to kill Tristan.
Character Situation
Dilemma: He must decide to either step down and call for someone else to take over or to see this hostage negotiation through.</div><div>
Secret Identity:
Internal Character Depth – Con
Wound: When Tristan was well, he hurt Con.Secret: He grew up with Tristan and knew him before he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.</div>
Subtext: Tristan doesn’t recognize him.
<div>
Layers:
Character to character
Conflict: Battling a conflict with Tristan.Hidden Agenda: He wants to save Dory because he likes her.Conspiracy: He conspires with Duncan to resolve the situation.Intrigue: He bears a grudge against Tristan.</div><div>
Character Situation
Dilemma: Whether to let Tristan be arrested or try to help get him to the hospital.Secret Identity: He was once a friend of Tristan before they had a falling out.
2. With each character, create a simple profile.
Character: Dory (Gift from God) Quintrell (horn or headland)
· Secret: She’s wearing an engagement ring only because she can’t get it off her finger.
· Wound: She saw her fiancé on nationwide TV with another woman.
· Motivation: She wants to live.
· Hidden Agenda:
· Dilemma: Should she fight to save her life, which really sucks right now, or give up completely.
· Conspiracy: She conspires with Duncan to convince Tristan to get into a police unit.
Character: Tristan (Sad) Holmes (Island)
· Secret: He has paranoid schizophrenia
· Wound: He had to drop of college before earning his degree in forestry.
· Motivation: He wants to get back on his medicine, so he won’t hurt anyone.
· Hidden Agenda:
· Dilemma: Trust Dora and the policeman and surrender or resist surrendering.
· Conspiracy: He conspires with Dora to save her and himself.
Character: Lilith (night monster) Holmes (Island) Tristan’s younger sister.
· Secret: She wants Tristan out of her life.
· Wound: Tristan gets all of her mother’s attention because he’s sick.
· Motivation: Embarrassment, poverty
· Hidden Agenda: She wants Tristan dead.
· Dilemma: Try to convince Tristan to let go of Dory or convince him to hang on to Dory until he gets shot.
· Conspiracy: She pretends to conspire with police officer to help rescue Dory.
Character: Duncan (Dark Warrior) Lewis (Leader)
· Secret: He has PTSD
· Wound: He was in a previous hostage situation where everything went wrong. Everyone died except him.
· Motivation: He’s motivated to keep his job and to get past his PTSD. The only way he can do that is succeed with this hostage negotiation.
· Hidden Agenda:
Dilemma: Wait for another police officer to take over for him and risk losing Dory or act and lose everyone because of his flashbacks.Conspiracy:</div><div>
Character: Con (Hero) Armstrong (man with strong arms)
· Secret: He knows Duncan’s history.
· Wound: He knew Tristan before he developed the disease. Once they were friends then they had a falling out. He can relate to Lilith.
· Motivation: He wants to save Dory. He could care less about Tristan.
· Hidden Agenda:
Dilemma: Does he call for another policeman and risk Dory and Tristan’s lives, or does he give Duncan the chance to prove himself?</div><div>
Conspiracy: He conspires with Duncan about how to save both Dory and Tristan.
Conflicts that can emerge from these characters:
· Duncan and Con will be at odds over how to approach the situation.
· Duncan and Lilith will be at odds over how to approach Tristan.
· Dory will have an issue with Duncan for allowing Lilith on the scene.
· Dory will have an issue with Tristan because he’s taken her hostage.
</div>
-
Dan’s Character Depth!
What I learned doing this assignment is how much fun it can be just crafting character and playing with backstory! I also learned that personally, a lot of my ideas stem from what kinds of characters I want to write about, as opposed to the ideas themselves. In other words, I end up using the characters to comment on the themes, instead of using the story to do so.
I’ve basically wound up with something like this:
On the anniversary of her family’s murder, Marsha, a paraplegic medium, returns to the apartment building they died in.
Motivation: Contact her family and help them move on to the next life
Secret: She was able to pull a gun on the attacker. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize the murderer was holding her baby in his arms. When she fired on him, the bullet went through him and killed the child.
Hidden Agenda: She plans to commit suicide so she may join them
Wound: Trauma of the murder itself. She wasn’t always wheelchair bound. The person who killed her family did a number on her and left her for dead. Also, the psychological trauma of such an event.
Subtext: The guilt of killing her only child, even accidentally.
Dilemma: The ghost of the murderer also haunts the building, and wants to finish what it started with her.
Layers: Medium and exorcism is the family business. Her father was a medium/exorcist, as well. She worked for him, but this is her first attempt at an exorcism without him.
Also, her mother was unfortunately mentally unstable. There is familial trauma due to their relationship.
Secret Identity: Her mother was the murderer.
-
Hope’s character depth
What I learned: Searching for the depth in the character uncovered a lot of possibilities, not such for them but it also opened up avenues to take the script as I build an outline soon. Without this step, I think the whole story would have devolved into predictable blah.
Main characters: Ruby, Clash (kidnapper), Hugh (kidnapper), Roger (custodian)
Ruby is a college student who impersonates an heiress, is kidnapped, and held for ransom.
· Wound: A foster kid who aged out of the system.
· Hidden agenda: Escape and then disappear again.
· Conspiracy: She and Roger work together to survive the kidnappers.
· Intrigue: If Ruby can get to a computer once the power returns, she can hack into a bank and steal the ransom – and keep her secret safe.
Clash and Hugh kidnap an “heiress,” but before they get her off the campus, the city is shut down in a snowstorm.
· Secret: Clash is a family man, who’ll do anything for his daughter, recently diagnosed with diabetes. Hugh lost his family (wife and two kids) to his gambling addiction.
· Wound: Clash was recently fired from a job at the USPS, losing his and his family’s health insurance. Hugh is a high school dropout, always looking for his big payday.
· Layers: Clash begins to suspect Ruby isn’t who she says she is.
· Conspiracy: Kidnap an heiress and demand $5 million in ransom.
· Secret identity: Does Hugh make a deal with the police to turn in Clash?
Roger is a university custodian who helps Ruby escape/defeat the kidnappers.
· Secret: He is being forcibly retired at the end of the year.
· Wound: He blames himself for the deaths of his wife and daughter.
· Conflict: Deeply offended when he learns the truth about Ruby.
· Hidden agenda: Get to a satellite radio in the facilities building to call the cops.
· Conspiracy: He and Ruby work together to save themselves.
· Dilemma: Roger loses his heat medication and can’t exert himself safely.
-
Subject line: Monica Character Depth!
What I learned doing this assignment is to always keep in mind the limited number of characters and locations which changes how the story is envisioned.
1. With each of your characters, go through all of these questions to see which might fit for your story.
2. With each character, create a simple profile like the example above for LOCKE.
Character 1: Mother
Internal Character Depth
Motivation: Knows her child is a child of God.
Secret: Had a child out of wedlock because she was a nun.
Wound: Her religion is unforgiving and she learns it does
not follow the teachings of Jesus.
Subtext: Her child is the second coming of Christ.
Layers: Who’s the father of the child? How can a WOMAN be
the second coming of Christ; is she prepared to lose it all?Character to character
Conflict: With the father of her child.
Hidden Agenda: How to introduce her child to
the world, how to get the world to listen
Conspiracy: Between Mother and her spiritual
advisor
Intrigue: To what lengths will she go to
try to save the worldCharacter Situation
Dilemma: New pope and their history together vs
doing what’s right to save the world
Secret Identity: The secret identity of the
father – is the Pope.Character 2: Daughter
Internal Character Depth
Motivation: Wants to lead a productive and
purposeful life.
Secret: Doesn’t believe she’s the second coming of
anything.
Wound: Growing up without a father in an alternative faith
community from Christianity
Subtext: Out to prove she’s not the second coming.
Layers:Character to character
Conflict: With her mother; discovering who
her father is.
Hidden Agenda: To get away and lead a normal
life.
Conspiracy: Against her mother and her
delusions
Intrigue: How does she get out this
situationCharacter Situation
Dilemma: What if the pope is her real father?
Secret Identity:Character 3: Pope
Internal Character Depth
Motivation: Doesn’t want anything to ruin his
papacy.
Secret: Will deny he ever had relations with the Mother
even if it’s a lie
Wound: Was abandoned as a child and grew up in an
orphanage
Subtext: Is afraid
Layers:Character to character
Conflict: Between mother and pope
Hidden Agenda: To ruin the mother and get rid
of the daughter
Conspiracy: Between pope and daughter
Intrigue: Things that go bump in the
night that has him face his existential crisisCharacter Situation
Dilemma: Ego/power vs spirituality
· Secret Identity:
-
Michael’s Character Depth
What I learned: is that finding depth for your characters just takes spending the time to ask the right questions. If you know what to ask, and you spend time on the questions, your characters will deepen as a natural consequence, its awesome.
Casey – Team Captain
Grew up rough, saw violence, is a hardened criminal who gets the job done.
Motivation: External: Money. (Scarcity, fear-based mindset).
Internal: will come to find things that are more important than money.
Secret: Killed their friend before they left.
Wound: Doesn’t believe their soul is worth saving/can be saved.
Subtext: a struggle for redemption they don’t know they need
Layers: under it all, they are scared, fighting for survival and number one because they don’t believe they are worth being loved by anyone else.
Character to character
Conflict: – with teammates. Then with Monks, “where is it.” finally with self
Hidden Agenda: *** is there ? Does he plan to betray teammates?
Dilemma: Money and Power, or deeper meaning
Secret Identity: Secretly really struggling with the violence of their upbringing.
Gerry – Demolitions Expert
Motivation: at first: Money. Later: being loved, accepting love
Secret: was abused / abused someone? Vs. never processed their heartbreaks?
Wound: sexual abuse, and became an abuser.
Subtext: Athiest, believes in nothing. There is only random chaos so nothing matters.
Then finds meaning, and starts to regret past actions. Finally heals.
Layers: Underneath a rough, pugnacious exterior, is a heartbroken romantic whose faith in love and trust were dashed but will be reborn.
Character to character
Conflict: External: Money and their family back home vs. save ashram and stick around versus falling in love.
Intrigue: do they know about shooting Fred, or why? Did they hide the money?
Dilemma: embrace love and risk their career, or be ruthless for the money?
George – Field Technologist
Motivation: find meaning in life and himself, because sees himself as a failure
Secret: has a daughter
Wound: is estranged from daughter because of bad decisions.
Baby-Momma, and his parents, all think he are worthless.He can’t face his worthlessness, so he gambles and does drugs and crime
Subtext: wanted to die from the bullet, isn’t enjoying being alive anymore, and wakes up angry. His Nihilism makes him want release – but when he tries to get high with his healer, the experience ends up transformative.
Layers: actually really smart and loves new knowledge. Think he would make a great dad but doesn’t believe he deserves a second chance.
Character to character
Conflict: when money is missing, he wants to just stay, screw the money – which brings conflict with the others.
Hidden Agenda: to escape his past and self-identity as a failure.
Conspiracy: Did he know about Fred? Did he hide the money?
Dilemma: help the others find the money, or just do his own thing enjoying the Ashram?
-
Assignment 1: Create character profiles
Create a character profile for each of the main characters.
Jordan Maan: a former Federal Bureau of Prison officer and ex-Army guy who is addicted to inflicting violence on others, but tries to control it by only brutalizing people who threaten the sobriety of his sponsees.
- · Secret: he was part of the extralegal law enforcement operation to arrest, torture, and interrogate Black Lives Matter activists in D.C. during the summer of 2019. This experience messed him up because he enjoyed the violence, but realized he was hurting people that didn’t deserve it. His other secret is described in his Hidden Agenda.
- · Wound: he’s addicted to inflicting physical violence on others. It started at a young age from when he was beaten by his father, progressed through his youth and into his service as an infantryman in the Army while serving in a warzone, and extended throughout his career in law enforcement.
- · Motivation: wants to save his people from addiction by any means necessary. Needs to prove to himself that he’s a good person making a positive difference in the world.
- · Hidden Agenda: he assaults drug peddlers and bad influencers at night while wearing a mask.
- · Dilemma: he preaches a message of forgiveness and acceptance in NA meetings but doesn’t believe that works in all situations and so he resorts to violence at night.
- · Conspiracy: he meets a fellow co-conspirator at the end of the movie when he is saved from a dire situation.
Cesar Machado: a drug dealer and masochist who enjoys causing pain and suffering on others.
- · Secret: he used to wet his bed up until he was a teenager.
- · Wound: he was left to take care of himself as a child by his drug-addicted parents. His younger brother died as a result of their neglect but Cesar blames himself. He despises people almost as much as he despises himself.
- · Motivation: wants to be a kingpin. Needs relief from the hell of pain and suffering that is his daily existence.
- · Hidden Agenda: to discover who this mysterious vigilante is and make an example of him.
- · Dilemma: he’s addicted to his own drugs but still has to be functional enough to sell them and keep his business growing. Failure to do so is literally a death sentence in his line of work.
- · Conspiracy: he is using Roy to ambush Jordan in order to torture and kill him.
Roy Green: a young man who’s addicted to meth and trying to attain sobriety but keeps falling in with bad influences.
- · Secret: he’s fallen off the wagon yet again and ashamed to admit it to Jordan.
- · Wound: his mother never loved nor wanted him. He’s never felt like he truly mattered to anyone in the world.
- · Motivation: to find relief from the emptiness of his life by getting high or by feeling like he’s a good person during his periods of trying to get sober.
- · Hidden Agenda: he wants to please Jordan, whom he greatly admires, but he also needs to get high.
- · Dilemma: he knows he shouldn’t tell Cesar about what he knows about Jordan’s secret life, but he also needs to score meth from Cesar.
- · Conspiracy: he agrees to tell Cesar everything he knows about Jordan in order to get the drugs.
Assignment 2: What conflicts emerge from these characters?
Roy has a deep conflict with himself when he is asked to betray Jordan. When he does, his shame is overwhelming and jeopardizes any chance he has of becoming sober, whilst also jeopardizing Jordan. Jordan and Cesar are inherently enemies. They hate each other – the more so because they recognize themselves in each other, even if Jordan would never admit it out loud. Jordan and Roy’s relationship of trust is broken after Roy rats him out, and if both of them survive their ordeal in the climax of the movie, they will have to deal with the profound breaking of trust afterwards, or they’ll never talk to each other again.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
Is that my characters had some surprising traits. Cesar being a bed-wetter till he was a teenager came out of nowhere but it makes sense to me. He’s a tragic figure, in a way. If he’d had love and support from healthy parents, he could have been a business leader or financial genius. But all of his talent and energy has become corrupted and dark and he is now a master of causing pain and suffering for a profit.
I was also surprising to realize that Jordan’s internal need is to prove to himself that he’s a good person. He’s desperate to do that, which drives him to extremely bad behavior like hurting others… even if his victims might be seen to be “deserving” of that violence.
Roy is a tragic figure too. He’s got no belief in himself, no self-worth. He also tries to be a good person but fails repeatedly because deep down inside he knows that he’s bad. One of the few people that have ever believed in him is Jordan but then he betrays him and that will haunt him for a long time.
-
ASSIGNMENT No. 4
Anthea T. Piscark – Character Depth –
What I learned doing this assignment: I need to explore the character depth instead of just coming up with arbitrary backstory and motivation!
1. With each of your characters, go through all of these questions to see which might fit for your story.
Internal Character Depth
Motivation:Secret:Wound:Subtext:Layers:
Character to character
Conflict:Hidden Agenda:Conspiracy:Intrigue:
Character Situation
Dilemma:Secret Identity:
2. With each character, create a simple profile like the example above for LOCKE.
Librarian: Married with two children. One is a Marine coming home for first time in three years. She is also waiting to hear a result of a cancer test.
Author: His sales are slipping. His books are no longer best sellers. He’s disillusioned, distraught and feeling like a failure.
Killer: Life is destroyed by being implied in a true crime novel. His live-in partner leaves him with their son, and he’s no longer allowed to see him.
3. Compare the character profiles to each other to see what conflicts can emerge from them.
The only person in the threesome stuck in the library after hours is the Librarian who wants to see her son before she finds out her biopsy results. She has a strong desire to live. The other two, author and killer, are self-destructive types. The librarian knows that if the killer executes the author, she’ll be next as the witness.
4. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
5. Post your assignment in the forums at https://www.<wbr>screenwritingclasses.com/<wbr>forums/
Subject line: (Your name’s) Character Depth!
-
Bob Colley – Character Depth
What I learned doing this assignment is that is a great way to flesh characters out.
Sample profiles.
Cop: Bo Lynch
Motivation: top be a top cop like his father
Secret: gay
Wound: partner/lover killed in traffic stop
Conflict: a meaner Archie Bunker
Motorist: Dan Goodman
Motivation: a button pusher to see how others tick
Secret: has a gun in his bag
Wound: relative arrested and died in custody
Conflict: a cooler headed George Jefferson
Secret Identity: is the new police chief
Conflicts:
Race, jobs, background, demeanor.
Log in to reply.