Day 4 Assignments

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment is: how much story and conflict can emerge simply by adding depth to the characters. After doing this exercise, I have a much better grasp of the potential for story and conflicts just by the reveals of each layer for my characters. I also have a much better idea of who these characters are and how they might develop not just through the contained model as we progress through this class, but through the thriller model and profound model I’ve learned from other screenwritingu classes. Can’t wait to continue building this story!

PROFILES:

D’QUAN:

Motivation:

Want (external goal): To prove himself innocent of his brother’s murder

Need (internal goal): To make his brother’s death mean something—to affect social change.

Secret: He did commit a crime—sold opioids on the street to his brother, a known addict.

Wound: Brother was shot by police

Subtext: Concealing his location from Robert and Markway, who are hunting him

Layers: Appears to be a criminal; revealed to be an MD; a drug pusher

Conflict: Needs to get Robert to help him, but can only do so by holding Robert’s victim hostage and eluding Robert and Markway

Intrigue: Recover incriminating evidence that reveals he sold opioids to his brother – has to find and delete a prescription he made to a fake patient to obtain the opioids

Dilemma: Let the victim die and remain hidden or take him to a hospital and be revealed

ROBERT:

Motivation:

Want: To ensure the man he shot lives

Need: To get out of the closed mindset of copaganda and hero worship of Markway to see the truth

Secret: He shot a man

Subtext: Hiding from Markway that he’s in contact with D’Quan; hiding that he shot the guy – is claiming he took the shot and missed

Hidden Agenda: Re-investigating the case for D’Quan under Markway’s nose

Conspiracy: Working with D’Quan to keep the victim alive and to investigate his case

Dilemma: Come clean and face charges or stay quiet and be as corrupt as Markway

MARKWAY:

Motivation:

Want: To arrest or kill D’Quan before his secret is found out.

Need: To be the good-guy cop he has the reputation of being

Secret: He killed D’Quan’s brother because he found out Markway has been paid by a land development conglomerate to create a heroin epidemic in the neighborhood to clear the way for gentrification.

Wound: His father was a cop who was killed trying to stop a convenience store holdup.

Subtext: Concealing his scheme and his intention to kill D’Quan rather than arrest him.

Layers: Stern cop; good guy antiracist cop; inter-racial relations foundation runner/community bigwig; associate of drug kingpin; on the take from real estate conglomerate; murderer

Conflict: Hunting D’Quan to kill him before he can discover the truth that Markway killed his brother; steering Robert in the same direction, but Robert is pushing back; trying to find out what Robert is really up to.

Intrigue/Hidden Agenda: Trying to find the proof D’Quan’s brother has on him – his phone recording when he bought drugs and overheard Markway admitting everything.

Conspiracy: He is working for the Board of a real estate conglomerate looking to make the neighborhood so crime and poverty-ridden that they can buy it up cheap and gentrify it. He has stolen a huge shipment of seized heroin from the police evidence locker and distributed it among the neighborhood drug dealers.

STANDISH:

Motivation:

Want: To get the proof D’Quan’s brother had – his cell

Need: To create trust between the Black residents and the police

Wound: His parents and siblings disowned him when he joined the police force

Subtext: He’s hiding that he’s police, acting like he’s just a member of the Black community and an innocent bystander shot by a White cop

Layers: An ordinary citizen; angry at D’Quan for not just saving his life – begging for help as D’Quan lets his injuries get worse; an undercover cop; an IA cop; investigating Markway for D’Quan’s brother’s murder – and his unreported track record of shooting unarmed Black men

Conflict: Has to get D’Quan to help him stop the bleeding, remove the bullet, close the wound, disinfect it… before he dies. But D’Quan is using his ailing health as motivation for Robert to investigate.

Hidden Agenda: Investigating the case as it unfolds – as things he didn’t know about Markway start coming to light

Intrigue: He’s not who he says – not an innocent bystander, but also not a regular cop or Robert would know who he is

Dilemma: Robert illegally discharged his weapon at him – guilty of a career-ending criminal mistake; but it was an accident, spurred on by Markway. Does he nail Robert or help him get the goods on Markway?

Secret Identity: He’s an IA detective investigating Markway for the shooting of D’Quan’s brother

[David Harper]

David’s Character Depth

What I learned doing this assignment is that the more I think through the story the more it changes. This is a good thing, because the more it changes the better it gets. Hopefully it will, at some point, coalesce into a solid story. Also I learned that with one of the changes it makes sense to switch names.

PROFILES:

THE PATIENT

External Motivation: To escape the rehab facility

Need: To make amends with his daughter

Secret: He cheated on his wife, which is what caused the divorce, the distance from his daughter when she was little, and in his mind resulted in the tragic life his daughter has lived

Wound: Seeing his daughter living on the streets, addicted to drugs

Layers: He’s always run away from things when they got hard

Conflict: He wants to leave the facility, but the doctor won’t allow it

DR. MARA

External Motivation: To keep the patient in the facility

Secret: If he let’s the patient escape, he will die

Conflict: The patient keeps trying to escape, and allying other patients to his cause

Secret Identity: He is the patients ego-self, carried over into purgatory. The patient has to kill him to escape

LUZ

Motivation: To help the patient escape

Conflict: The patient keeps giving up too easily. Luz knows the way out, but she can’t tell him or do it for him. She can only provide clues and hope he will do it himself

Secret Identity: Luz is actually his daughter, who has already passed to the other side