Day 4 Assignments

[Matthew Frendo]

Matthew Frendo’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment was how to add depth to characters. I also learned how to do this, and make sure it is strong, before starting the writing process.

PROTAGONIST PROFILE

Motivation: WANT – to be forgotten by the world, NEED – to have purpose again

Secret: killed own platoon mate / fiance on accident and was dishonorably discharged and hated by platoon and herself afterward

Layers: good with explosives and stealth, can’t help but save people when they need it

Hidden Agenda: to use explosives and stealth to hunt them back

Conspiracy: deal with initiate who turns against gang after being unable to kill someone

Dilemma: Save herself or let herself die?

Secret Identity: really ex-SEAL, highly trained killer masked as helpless homeless person

ANTAGONIST PROFILE

Secret: secret deal with corrupt police

Wound: parents killed by army or cops when he was young. Lived as a youth friendless and powerless in the streets

Layers: has brother who he’s trying to keep out of gang, but who gets involved anyway

Hidden Agenda: plan with cops to take over city, to frame the murders as a problem and then cracking down on competition due to it

Conspiracy: working with corrupt cops to take over city, became cop to further his criminal career

Intrigue: working against his own gang with cops for his own power

Secret Identity: criminal acting as cop, gang leader but is really betrayer

[Diana Ceres]

Diana’s Character Depth

What I learned during this assignment: Using this formula to create character depth makes characters much more interesting. This is something I have been wanting to learn, so I’m excited to be able to create more unique/interesting characters.

1. With each of your characters, go through all of these questions to see which might fit for your story.

Internal Character Depth: Best Friend

Motivation: Get her friend to leave her boyfriend alone <div>

Secret: Sets her up on a blind date with a creepy guy she
found on Tinder by creating a fake profile
Wound: Mad at friend for sleeping with her boyfriend;
adopted: every relationship crumbles because she fears rejection

Subtext: Wants her friend to suffer; friend doesn’t
know she knows about the affair

Layers: Petty, duplicitous, devious, passive-aggressive

Character to character

Conflict: Angry at best friend

Hidden Agenda: To make friend suffer

Conspiracy: Sets her best friend up with creepiest guy
she can find

Intrigue: Betrayed her best friend who betrayed her (twice)

Character Situation

Dilemma: Forgive best friend or seek revenge
Secret Identity: Duplicitous bitch; sets up her friend on
blind date from hell

Internal Character Depth: Woman on Date

Motivation: To go on a date and forget about the other
guy
Secret: Cannibal
Wound: Sexually abused as a child; fears losing control

Subtext: Psychopath/Cannibal; slept with her best
friend’s boyfriend; is planning to eat her best friend
Layers: Navy Seal, intelligent, sly, lethal

Character to character

Conflict: Slept with best friend’s boyfriend; on date
with man who wants to eat her
Hidden Agenda: To eat her date
Conspiracy: She and Tinder date conspire to eat her
best friend
Intrigue: Victim becomes the victor

Character Situation

Dilemma: Trapped on boat with man who wants to eat her
Secret Identity: Cannibal, dishonorably discharged from
Navy Seal Team

Internal Character Depth: Creepy Tinder Date

Motivation: To find his next victim
Secret: Cannibal
Wound: Physically abused as a child; feels powerless
Subtext: Plans to eat his date
Layers: Army Ranger on leave, intelligent, charming,
devious

Character to character

Conflict: Date is not an easy target
Hidden Agenda: To eat his date
Conspiracy: To eat his date’s best friend with date
Intrigue: Cannibal in the Army

Character Situation

Dilemma: eat or be eaten

Secret Identity: Cannibal
</div>

[Renee Miller]

Renee’s Character Depth

What I learned doing this assignment is how to build better characters that jump off the page and engage the audience

Protagonist: Constance is a confident mechanical engineer who is the only one on board who has the knowledge and skills to fix the ship and get them back to Earth

• Motivation: she wants to prove her worth, she needs to earn respect.

• Wound: She has an acceptance wound and constantly feels she is being rejected by her peers.

• Subtext: she’s agreeable on the outside, resentful on the inside.

• Conflict: she is at constant odds with the antagonist about her ability to help

• Secret Identity:

Antagonist: Parker is the pompous, billionaire who funded the trip into space and is trying to protect his investment.

Internal Character Depth

• Motivation: he wants people to worship him, he needs people to love him

• Secret: he funded the mission through a Ponzi scheme

• Wound: he spent several years during his childhood living in the car with his single mother.

• Subtext: confident on the outside, self-conscious on the inside.

• Conflict: he is dismissive of the protagonist and her abilities simply because she is a woman.

• Secret Identity: the con man

[AUGUSTE DINOTO]

Auguste’s Character Depth!

LESSON FOUR – After finishing the assignment I feel like I have enough material to get a very good outline of my script.

Character One

1. She is determined not want to go to a mental institution even though she knows she is insane.

2. She set the house on fire and killed her mother.

3. Her father loved her twin sister, but not her.

4. The mad girl is hiding her true identity, from the social worker and the psychiatrist.

5. The father was ashamed of the mad daughter, favored her sister, and constantly told her to be like her twin sister.

6. She uses her sister to impersonate her when she must visit the psychiatrist.

7. She fights with her sister who does not want to pretend to be her.

8. She plans on killing her sister once she gets out of the hospital.

Character Two

1. She is frightened, has no memory, and is desperate to find out who she is, and what happened at the fire that burned her home down.

2. Her sister tells her what to say each time she goes to the psychiatrist in her place.

3. She knows her mother was killed in the fire. But what happened to Daddy? Why doesn’t he come to visit her?

4. Her sister knows everything that happened but will not tell her no matter how many times she asks her.

5. She gets angry and refuses to go to the psychiatrist and pretend to be her sister.

[Heather Esancy]

Heather’s Character Depth

What I learned is that I think my main character is protagonist and antagonist, in a duel role against herself. There are 3 other defined support characters and 2 OS characters that create tension without dialogue, just sounds.

Main Character: Clara is a retired widow who is riding out the first 2 weeks of COVID quarantine, alone.

Secret: she is a very talented artist

Wound: severe mental illness, undiagnosed her whole life

Motivation: to be loved

Hidden Agenda: Germaphobe. Nobody is as clean as she is.

Dilemma: the perception that covid is seeping through the walls of her apartment.

Conspiracy: Clara has a step-daughter 10 years her senior, who used to be her cousin.

Clara has a personality shift from protagonist to antagonist as her illness grows stronger during quarantine.

Support Character 1 – creates further tension in the way Clara perceives her – which creates Clara’s internal tailspin.

Support Character 2 – a friend to Clara who realizes 2 main truths about her, but does not have an agenda other than to see Clara succeed/heal/do well.

Support Character 3 – The step-daughter. Appears via Zoom only. We learn the twisted family dynamics though Zoom call. Hidden agenda & tension is present, but not an active catalyst to the story.

[Sean Benson]

Sean’s Character Depth!

I learned more about my character which also created new scenes and situations.

Internal Character Depth

Motivation: Want = to help others. Need = to redeem herself for a misinterpretation that led to a death.Secret: She doesn’t want others to know that she misinterpreted a 911 call that caused someone to die.Wound: Seeing someone killed again triggers her to relive the guilt.Subtext: She’s hiding her failure for causing someone to die.Layers: We find out while she mentors another caller how to interpret the same call she failed at. Only her and her supervisor knows.

Character to character

Conflict: The killer tries to guilt her, blames her for the death he caused, but she finally forgives herself and doesn’t blame herself anymore. Hold the killer responsible.Hidden Agenda: The killer knows the police aren’t coming to find him. He’s not worried and is just biding his time for the local police to find the operator.Conspiracy: Dirty cops and the killer (the killer is a sex trafficker and the police let him do business for kick backs)Intrigue: Police are slow to respond to her help.

Character Situation

Dilemma: She must stay on the call with the killer or he’ll kill someone else, how does she get help?Secret Identity: She’s a mother, her 6 year old daughter walks in office during the call, now the killer threatens to find them both.

[Jason Nave]

Jason’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment is I’m still feeling out my characters. I came into this class with zero preconceived notion of the story to tell, so everything is coming from scratch. Thus, I haven’t given my characters names yet – it just feels way too early for where I am with their development. This exercise is helping me think through the characters and their motivations. This is a start anyway.

Wife

Motivation: To live her own life (and, of course, to survive this moment).

Secret: She didn’t want to marry her husband.

Wound: Her husband has cheated on her.

Subtext: She wishes she wasn’t on this honeymoon with her husband.

Conflict: Fight between her and her husband boils to the surface under the stressful confinement.

Conspiracy: She and her husband naturally team up to try to survive.

Dilemma: As the situation comes to its most dire head, can she save another person or risk dying herself.

Husband

Motivation: To save his marriage after being found out.

Secret: He cheated on his wife, and also hit on the Deaf Girl once they arrived at the resort.

Subtext: He will never be ready to settle down, but he loves his wife.

Conflict: Fight between her and her husband boils to the surface under the stressful confinement.

Hidden Agenda: He doesn’t want his wife to find out he hit on the Deaf Girl who is trapped with them.

Conspiracy: He and his wife naturally team up to try to survive.

Prepper

Motivation: To be the last one standing.

Wound: He was abandoned by a loved one and can never trust anyone.

Subtext: He plays games with people’s minds.

Conflict: Butts heads with everyone, seemingly on purpose.

Hidden Agenda: He wants people to think he could be the killer.

Secret Identity: He’s the obvious candidate for the killer, but its not him.

<b style=””>Deaf Girl

Motivation: To steal; to get out of this situation alive and not caught.

Secret: She is a thief and was working with the dead man.

Wound: She has never felt normal and steals to get even with society.

Subtext: She is a sociopath, only cares about herself.

Layers: Comes across as sweet, innocent, and vulnerable. Ends up revealed as a thief.

Conflict: Avoids conflict to keep attention off herself, but refuses to engage, which causes turmoil.

Hidden Agenda: To not be discovered for what she is.

Intrigue: Why does she act the way she does?

Secret Identity: A thief and partner of the dead man.

Inheritance Girl

Motivation: To enjoy her vacation.

Secret: She’s not wealthy, but she received an inheritance when her mother died (not really an active secret, but will be revealed among the stress of the situation).

Wound: Her mother died and they had planned to go on this vacation together.

Conflict: Her traveling companion (Jeopardy Guy) wants to be in a romantic relationship with him but she has friend-zoned him.

Secret Identity: A regular person, not the upper-crust persona she radiates.

Jeopardy Man

Motivation: To get closer to Inheritance Girl.

Secret: He’s in love with Inheritance Girl.

Wound: He has never been accepted as a romantic partner in his life.

Conflict: Inheritance Girl doesn’t like him romantically and it drives him crazy. She even assumed he was gay because he took interest in everything she did.

Hidden Agenda: To win over Inheritance Girl.

[Barbara Gilmore]

What I learned is that I really enjoyed using the simple structure provided in Lesson 4. I’m still building my character profiles but so far the two of the main character group are

Mother (tourist family):

Internal

Character Role/Profession: CEO and co-owner of a Mining Conglomerate.

Age: late 40s.

Traits: Risk taker; Successful; Entitled; Occasional acts of Kindness

Motivation: Is trying to overcome her fear while helping the ghosts.

Secret: She ignored safety violations at several of her family’s mines and many workers have died a fact she’s been able to keep a secret.

Wound: She had a friend who was a ghost when she was young but her parents didn’t believe her.

Subtext: Afraid of the dark.

Mother’s Situation:

Dilemma: She’s afraid of what he might see but wants to help the ghosts pass over.

Father:

Character Role/Profession: A Doctor.

Age: early 50s.

Traits: Egotistical; Saves lives; Calm; OCD

Motivation: Curiosity and wants to support his wife.

Secret: One of his patients over dosed on medication they didn’t really need. He’s covering for a fellow Doctor who he had an affair with.

Wound: He was bullied at school, but eventually stood up for himself.

Subtext: Losing control.

Conspiracy: He was chased out of a previous practice after the patient over dosed so knows what it’s like and is likely to form an affiliation with Lady Mary (one of the ghosts).

[Don Ammon]

Don’s character depth

Lora

MOTIVATION: To get closure from her college friends

SECRET: She planned the outing in order to confront her “friends”.

WOUND: She feels betrayed by Jeremy, Cassie and Donovan

SUBTEXT: She betrays her friends

LAYERS: Zen yogi but below the surface is a vengeful spirit

Jeremy

MOTIVATION: To reunite with college friends

SECRET: He’s not as successful as he pretends to be.

WOUND: Feels physically inferior to Donovan

SUBTEXT: Hollow man

LAYERS: Below his successful investment banker exterior, he feels incomplete and unhappy.

Donovan

MOTIVATION: Hang out with old friends for good time.

SECRET: He’s not good enough

WOUND: hurt by smarter college friends

SUBTEXT: Unstable

LAYERS: Although he’s strong and handsome, he’s fragile and damaged

Cassie

MOTIVATION: To rekindle her romance with Jeremy

SECRET: She slept wither friend’s boyfriend

WOUND: Jeremy rejected her for Lora

SUBTEXT: Envious

LAYERS: The “got it together” trainer is unfulfilled and scheming

Character to Character

JEREMY vs Cassie

CONFLICT: After a brief secret affair, he returned to Lora

HIDDEN AGENDA: Rekindle their romance.

CONSPIRACY:

INTRIGUE:

JEREMY vs Donovan

CONFLICT: He envies Donovan

HIDDEN AGENDA: To belittle Donovan ad keep him down

CONSPIRACY: With Donovan to keep their secret

INTRIGUE:

JEREMY vs Lora

CONFLICT: He cheated on her with her friend and did not protect her from Donovan

HIDDEN AGENDA: He wants to make amends

CONSPIRACY

INTRIGUE

Donovan vs Jeremy

CONFLICT: Donovan feels intellectually inferior

HIDDEN AGENDA: Beat Jeremy, win Lora

CONSPIRACY: with Jeremy

INTRIGUE: He is unaware that the others want to punish him

Donovan vs Lora

CONFLICT: He doesn’t realize their night of passion was assault

HIDDEN AGENDA: He still loves Lora

CONSPIRACY:

INTRIGUE:

Donovan vs Cassie

CONFLICT: They want Jeremy’s approval

HIDDEN AGENDA

CONSPIRACY

INTRIGUE

CASSIE vs Lora

CONFLICT: She slept with Lora’s boyfriend

HIDDEN AGENDA: She still wants Jeremy

CONSPIRACY: women vs. men

INTRIGUE

CASSIE vs JEREMY

CONFLICT: She wants to be his #1

HIDDEN AGENDA

CONSPIRACY: They betrayed Lora

INTRIGUE:

CASSIE vs DONOVAN

CONFLICT: She never liked him

HIDDEN AGENDA: To humiliate him

CONSPIRACY

INTRIGUE

Character Situation:

Dilemma: Each has a different version of their past

Secret Identity

Create a simple profile

Jeremy: 27 y/o investment banker and weekend warrior. Losing his hair and appeal, he strivs to stay active and vital, afraid he’s slipping. His financial success came at a cost.

Cassie: 27 y/o trainer. In college she slept worth her roommate’s boyfriend. While she appears to be a strong, independent woman, she feels incomplete and unhappy with her life.

Donovan: Handsome, lucky and sliding through life on charm, he feels inferior to everyone around him and compensates by being “a dude”. Mr. Happy-go-lucky is full of low self-esteem and resentment.

Lora: The yogi tries to be at peace with the world but has no inner peace.

Compare profiles and look for conflicts.

What I learned doing the assignment is:

I learned to build conflict and relationships in theory. Again, I’m struggling with knowing things about my characters before I actually write them. I’m sure everything will change once I start writing the first draft. I have a lot of gaps in my answers above.

[Bevo Beaven]

Bevo Beaven’s Character Depth

What I learned doing this assignment is that the more digging you do via these kinds of exercises with individual characters, you do find relationships and conflicts between them and within them, and most exciting: your story is carried by what’s happening with and between the characters. This is not a story that you populate with characters. The characters are driving the story.

[Russell Phillips]

Russ’s Character Depth

What I learned doing this assignment is to better connect my Character with the concept. At present, I don’t know that there is more than one on-screen character, as it’s a man alone in a newly purchased house with a history, psychological horror story. So the conflict will need to be largely internal (or external representations of it). But some intriguing new ideas/avenues to explore about how to warp this guy to make him more compelling as a loner.

[Wendell Yacur]

Jay’s Character Depth

What I learner doing this assignment is that there are specific ways/methods to help mine character depth.

Character: Eliza (Protag)

Secret: To find answers
in the cosmos – is there a God? <div>

Wound: Her mother died
was she was young.

Motivation: Want – establish
a colony on Mars; Need – find her way back to faith.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Layers. She gave up on
God when her mother died. While this hurt her father, her has forgiven
her. She hasn’t forgiven herself.<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Conflict. She is a woman
of science.<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Dilemma: She can give herself
to Mateo to ensure the propagation of the human race or don’t do it and
have to live with the fact that the human race ended with her.

Character: Mateo (Antag)

Secret: That he has
been selected by God to ensure the propagation of the human race.
Motivation: Want – establish
a colony on Mars; be the one all can confide in and heal their emotional
wounds; Need – to be successful at something. </div>

Subtext. The desolation
and loneliness of Mars is getting to him; he is losing his mind.
Layers. He sends
messages to his brother. A brother who is dead. A brother he could not
help heal emotionally.

Hidden Agenda: He has to get
rid of one remaining male crew member.

Conflict. He is a man of faith.

[Linda Anderson]

Linda’s Character Depth

These characters are revealing more depth and layers than I anticipated.

TANJI Character Profile

Secret: He’s a young military chaplain whose fragile faith is being tested beyond his capacity

Wound: He’s estranged from his father, the minister of a large Southern Baptist church, over going to Iraq to fight Bush’s War

Motivation: He wants out of his father’s shadow and to carve out his own relationship with God and the soldiers who need him

Hidden Agenda: By taking on the impossible task of keeping his promise to fallen soldiers in only a week he’s allowed to stay on base, he wants to gain respect from his father, Major Sloan, and have self-respect

Dilemma: Staying on base after it’s been evacuated puts the interpreter, his assistant’s, and his life in danger

***

MAJOR SLOAN Character Profile

Secret: He thinks military chaplains and this one in particular aren’t worth his spit

Wound: War has moved him from a devout Christian to an atheist

Motivation: He’s trying to survive and not have anybody else killed on his base

Hidden Agenda: He wants to get Tanji out of Iraq before he can make any more soldiers soft with religious belief

Dilemma: Comfort soldiers with religion or toughen them up to the realities of war

Conspiracy: He’s trying to recruit the interpreter and chaplain’s asistant in his plan to show the chaplain is incompetent, even dangerous

***

ADIBA Character Profile

Secret: her brother in a newly recruited Iraqi insurgent

Wound: Americans accidently killed her parents when they bombed the village and destroyed her home

Motivation: She’s been told as an Iraqi interpreter, she’ll be able to emigrate to America

Hidden Agenda: If she keeps coming to the base and supplying food, the Major and chaplain will help her leave Iraq

Dilemma: Cooperation with Major Sloane to discredit Tanji or responding to her growing feelings for him

Conspiracy: Spying on Tanji to get the freedom she desperately needs

***

MARIO Character Profile

Secret: The chaplain is angering and disgusting him by having a crisis of faith

Wound: He’s a rigid rule-follower who other soldiers ridicule

Motivation: He’s there because he believes that he’s helping to avenge 9-11

Hidden Agenda: He’s convinced himself that reporting on the chaplain to the Major is the right thing to do

Dilemma: He’s starting to see and receive comfort from the chaplain now has to betray him

Conspiracy: He agrees to help the Major with his plan to get rid of the chaplain

[Jonathan Marballi]

Jon’s Character Depth!

2. Character Profiles

— HARSH (Protagonist) —

Motivation: Needs a new direction / something that re-lights his fire. / Fear that he might just be ordinary (he can see his uncle’s life)

Secret: She knows I had a crush on her, but has no idea how deep that ran (e.g. running to train to catch her)

Wound: Romance has burned him, whether it was work related or woman related.

Subtext: He hides his vulnerability with humor and turning questions around on people.

Layers: So many innocuous moments with Madeline meant so much to him. (he also repeated the gestures for other girls)

Hidden Agenda: He has decided to not let himself fall for her all over again and to just be normal because she’s married.

— MADELINE (Antagonist) —

Motivation: Wants passion, has a fire within her, just needs some tinder to burn.

Secret: She’s doubting her marriage, she’s worried she made the “safe” choie.

Wound: A distrust of romance (divorced parents?). (e.g.: with compliments, “You’re putting that on me”)

Subtext: She shies away form passion by playing things down.

Layers: She’s never thought of herself as being extraordinary at anything.

Hidden Agenda: She’s made herself open to whatever happens.

Intrigue: She is trying to assess if Harsh is actually her soulmate.

3. Possible conflicts:

-Harsh counters her negative self-talk by pointing out how exciting aspects of her life are and actually convinces her, souring her a bit on him for a bit

-Harsh convinces her she’s extraordinary in certain ways

-Madeline tips her hand at some point, revealing to Harsh what she’s up to (re: determining if they’re soulmates)

-Madeline justifies the advances she’s making given that she’s married and her and Harsh butt heads over the ethics of it

4. In doing this exercise I learned how to articulate aspects of my characters that I felt but hadn’t quite brought to the surface. It also forced me to try to justify some of the emotions that I had envisioned them exhibiting. I do think I need to refine these to be a bit simpler / more concise like the Locke example though.