Day 6 Assignments

[Arial Burnz]

Subject: Arial Burnz’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is…that there is a tangible structure to the progression of the character. I LOVE THIS! I knew the character had to grow, but these transformational and transitional events finally help me put it into an easy way to brainstorm them and see the transformation with purpose and meaning. YAY! I’m hoping I got it, but I know some of this needs to be refined, especially toward the end.

Concept: After a young woman is betrayed by her best friend, she is imprisoned and spends fifteen years escaping and developing her skills to become a powerful sorceress and seek vengeance.

Main Conflict: Aylen’s best friend Kylantha (aka Key) wants Aylen out of the way so she can wed Dillon, and uses manipulation and her father’s connections to have Aylen thrown in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

Aylen’s Old Ways:

• Old Identity: Poor tavern girl
• Shy, meek doormat living in fear
• Cannot wield magic and ignorant of the craft

Aylen’s New Ways:

• New Identity: Wealthy sorceress with a title
• Strong independent woman
• Is a powerful yet responsible wielder of magic

Act 1:

Opening: Subjected to racial persecution (she’s a half-elf) and abuse growing up, Aylen lives under the emotional and physical protection of her friends and family, too afraid to defend or protect herself. Her hopes are to start a new life with her boyfriend, Dillon, and leave with him to travel the world, basically running from her problems and hanging her future on her beau.

Transformational Event #1: Aylen is bullied by one of her co-workers and tries to avoid the conflict, but ends up on her face with ale all over her. When her uncle asks what happened, the bully picks Aylen up and explains she tripped. Aylen allows the lie to stick because she doesn’t want trouble.

Transformational Event #2: On the way to meeting Key, her best friend, Aylen is mugged in an alley. If that wasn’t enough, the guy plans on taking other liberties with her, but Key steps in and uses magic to stop the attack and humiliate the man, saving Aylen.

Transformation Event #3: Dillon, Aylen’s boyfriend, tells her it’s time for them to tell Key they’re going to be together and he’s going to break the betrothal contract he has with Key. Aylen is afraid, but leaves the fate of their relationship in his hands.

Inciting Incident: As a response to Dillon breaking their betrothal contract, Key frames Aylen for a crime she didn’t commit to get her out of the way.

Turning Point & Transformational Event #4: When Aylen goes to Key for help, Key uses magic on Aylen to secure her, but Aylen doesn’t know magic and can’t fight back. Key turns Aylen in to the authorities, revealing she’s the one who set Aylen up. Aylen is dragged off to prison.

Act 2:

Reaction & Transitional Event #5: Aylen is sent to the Fortress of Valna – aka Anguish Island – and when she tries to proclaim her innocence to the warden and prison guard, the guard bullies her. With the threat of this hell-hole being her new home forever, Aylen sticks up for herself for the first real time in her life. But the guard gives Aylen a good sound beating and Aylen cowers, bruised and bleeding, in a corner.

New plan & Transitional Event #6: Aylen meets Syndra, an older fellow prisoner who has mistakenly dug her way into Aylen’s cell trying to escape. Syndra is well learned and Aylen makes a deal with her – educate her and she will help Syndra escape. She not only learns academics and the theory of magic, but also hand-to-hand and magical combat. The prison is warded to nullify magic, but Syndra still teaches her the motions.

Plan in action: During Aylen’s education, the two women are digging their tunnel to the outside wall, which takes years of scraping inches off dirt away each day. They are almost caught on a few occasions, but eventually dig their way free! However, the sea serpents living in the Draconian Sea surrounding the island are in the middle of mating season and have infested the waters. They must wait until their population has decreased before attempting an escape.

Midpoint Turning Point & Transformational Event #7: Their tunnel is discovered and they are confronted by the guards. Syndra takes this opportunity to allow Aylen to test her newfound skills in fighting and throws her “into the ring”. Lacking any form of entertainment, the guards allow the contest for sport. Aylen is finally able to get a little bit of retribution facing the guard who smacked her down when she first arrived and has been bullying her ever since. When Aylen wins, the two women fight and flee the other guards and, together, they’re able to escape.

At last Syndra is able to use magic now that they are no longer inside the ward of the fortress, but using magic triggers a magical booby trap planted inside her by the person who imprisoned her. Syndra is going to die.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Syndra reveals the location of a great treasure she discovered, for which she was imprisoned. Syndra makes Aylen the sole heir to her estate and title before the magical trap claims her life.

New plan & Transitional Event #8: Aylen is off to the Lyceum of Magical Arts & Sciences in Havencrest to earn her degree in magic, as was Syndra’s last wish. Once she obtains her degree, she returns to her home city of Radario to catch up on what’s happened since she was imprisoned so she can discover her enemies weaknesses and lay down her traps.

New insights: Aylen discovers that the man who had Syndra imprisoned was the Baron of Elion…Kylantha’s father! Aylen’s revenge upon this family is not just for her, now. She will avenge Syndra as well as herself.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – Although Syndra learns her final life’s lesson upon her deathbed – vengeance cannot change the past – and although she tries to pass this lesson on to Aylen, this new information about the baron only serves to fuel Aylen’s anger and quest for justice. She is going to destroy the von Abels for what they’ve done.

Act 4:

New Plan: Aylen learns what really happened in the conspiracy to put her in prison, why it happened, and exactly who was responsible, and it wasn’t just Key. But she also learns her mother died shortly after Aylen was arrested, Dillon only married Key because he thought Aylen was dead, and her uncle and aunt passed away sick and homeless. As Aylen ensnares each person who wronged her and those she loves, she reveals to them who she really is and justice is served.

Climax & Transitional Event #9: The last person she must face is Kylantha, but her friend has become a powerful mage herself and has had many years of practice, where Aylen has only had a few. The two duel and it appears Kylantha will win, but Aylen will pull upon her final lesson from Syndra (still need to refine this) and triumph over Kylantha. (There will be a single magical relic/item the baron was after from Syndra, and I want that item to be the key to Kylantha’s undoing, but I also want Aylen’s abilities to contribute to her victory. The personal lesson learned, which will give her the ability to triumph.)

Resolution: Aylen is reunited with Dillon and she takes her place as Aylen Ara’Elcaryn, the Sorceress of Amon Fae with him at her side and they set off to travel around the world and have a family of their own.

[Bob Rowen]

Bob Rowen’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is a way of organizing my thoughts regarding the role of my protagonist and some possible ways to structure the storyline.

Character Arc:

· Virgil goes from being naïve and trusting to aware and confrontational

· Virgil goes from believing nuclear power is safe, clean, and economical to realizing it isn’t and becomes a whistleblower.

Old Ways:

· Virgil has blind faith in the Powers That Be (government and corporate America)

· Virgil is naïve to the willingness of the Powers That Be to engage in Machiavellian behavior

· Virgil is a black and white thinker

· Virgil is a headstrong, patriotic former Marine trapped in his own mindset

· Virgil believes PGE’s Big Lie that nuclear power is safe, clean, and economical

New Ways:

· Virgil does not trust of the Powers That Be

· Virgil views the world for the shades of grey that make it up

· Virgil he is aware of corporate and political self-serving motives

· Virgil recognizes that people are willing to do anything to get ahead

· Virgil sheds his old way of viewing the world and confronts the Powers That Be

List of 6-8 changes or steps Virgil goes through from who he was in the beginning to who he is now:

· Virgil goes from believing nuclear power is safe, clean, and economical to realizing none of this is true

· Virgil goes from rejecting Forrest’s view of nuclear power to accepting it

· Virgil goes from being arbitrary to a willingness to consider other points of view

· Virgil goes from having a patriotic belief in government’s role of doing the right thing to realizing this often isn’t true

· Virgil goes from believing PGE is trustworthy to completely rejecting that notion

· Virgil goes from trusting his fellow workers to realizing most of them cannot be relied upon

· Virgil goes from outright discounting Kathryn’s concerns to a willingness of considering them

Sequence the steps from easiest to most difficult for the journey that Virgil takes:

1. Virgil goes from rejecting Forrest’s view to accepting it

2. Virgil goes from outright discounting Kathryn’s concerns to a genuine willingness of considering them

3. Virgil goes from believing PGE is trustworthy to completely rejecting that notion

4. Virgil goes from trusting his fellow workers to realizing most of them cannot be relied upon

5. Virgil goes from having a patriotic belief in government’s role of doing the right thing to realizing this often isn’t true

6. Virgil goes from believing nuclear power is safe, clean, and economical to realizing none of this is true

Brainstorm dramatic events or tests that could cause those changes for Virgil and add these transformational events to my four act structure:

Act 1

• Virgil finds blatant lies in PGE’s radiation protection training manual that supports Forrest’s conclusions
• Virgil is called out to the nuclear plant in the middle of the night and witnesses and illegal shipment of nuclear waste
• After much heated arguments regarding numerous plant issues, Kathryn changes Virgil’s view of nuclear energy’s future

Act 2

• Virgil discovers radioactively contaminated scrap iron was intentionally sold to a scrap iron dealer and is covered up after Virgil’s discovery of what happened
• Virgil is ordered to sign false shipping documents for a highly contaminated spent fuel shipping cask
• Virgil and another employee is drenched with reactor water and reactor crud while working under the reactor flushing in-cores

Act 3

• Virgil becomes embroiled as a witness in a police brutality incident
• Virgil discovers extremely hot particles management claims is from Chinese fallout from atomic bomb testing
• Virgil locks horns with the Nuclear Plant Engineer over the removal of the key air sample monitor at the elementary school downwind from the nuclear facility

Act 4

• Virgil discovers a false police report designed to make him a national security risk that has a connection to the police brutality incident
• Virgil testifies before the grand jury exposing the Atomic Energy Commission’s mishandling of PGE’s numerous violations of radiation safety and their cover-ups.

[Robert Springfield]

Rob Springfield’s 4 Act Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is how the transformational events gradually add layers to the screenplay outline.

Concept: A 14-year-old troublemaker acquires an extraordinary app and uses it to protect his family from a host of villains.

Main Conflict: Mark has to safely get a billion dollar app into the right hands, but his old teacher is determined to seize control of it even if it kills Mark…and his family.

Mark’s Old Ways:

1. Argumentative with family members just to be difficult because he doesn’t feel loved.

2. Always uses his throwing ability to annoy people or in a malicious manner.

3. Constantly doing things just to annoy his family members because he never receives praise.

4. Never having any constructive interests, since he goofs off frequently.

5. Represses his true feelings around his dad.

6. Uses apps/technology in a silly manner/ to pull off pranks on people.

Mark’s New Ways:

1. Wants to make sure his family stays safe at all times.

2. Starts behaving maturely and focused because he wants his father/family to be proud of him.

3. His focus is on designing and coding state of the art apps.

4. Mark develops a fearless demeanor when dealing with the killers.

5. Able to manipulate or outsmart his enemies through psychology

6. Uses his throwing abilities to free his family.

Sequence the steps from easiest to most difficult for the journey that Mark takes:

#1. Dr. Green gives Mark positive reinforcement by commenting on his work the first day he met him in the classroom.

#2. Dr. Green allows Mark to help code to add to the apps functionalities.

#3. Mark sees the killers take his sister and Mom to torture them.

#4. Mark feels good when his family thanks him and sees that he can save them, he matures more.

#5. Mark forgives his dad.

#6. Mark uses psychology to manipulate the killers to bet on his throwing arm.

#7. Mark does not back down to the killers but adopts a fearless attitude.

ACT 1:

Opening: (3 years prior) at a baseball game, Mark’s drunken father, Jeff, humiliates an 11-year-old Mark. He makes him do push-ups on the pitcher’s mound in front of a crowd of people because he did not pitch a shutout during the game. Jeff’s boss finally steps forward to make him stop. Next, fast forward to 3 years later, Mark is constantly getting into trouble at school, at home, in the neighborhood. He’s repeatedly throwing objects at school and everywhere else just to annoy people or to get attention. He constantly argues with his dad and/or the entire family. His only interest seems to be goofing around with apps to follow his dad or pull pranks for kicks. Transformational Event #1. Mark’s soon to be mentor, Dr. Green gives him positive reinforcement by commenting on his work the first day he met him in the classroom. (old way) Argumentative with family members just to be difficult because he doesn’t feel loved.

Inciting Incident: Mark breaks a car windshield and winds up doing community service at a software laboratory where he meets his mentor. Transformational Event #2. Dr. Green allows Mark to help code to add to the apps functionalities.(old way) Never having any constructive interests, since he goofs off frequently.

Turning Point: Mark falls into possession of a billion dollar app before his mentor’s enemies can steal it by force. They know Mark has it and makes plans to kill to get it. Just in the nick of time Mark and his family dodge gunfire and torture from a slew of killers.

ACT 2:

New Plan: To dodge the killers, Mark and his family board a train headed out west. Mark wants to keep the app safe and get it into the right hands, his dad Jeff feels that if they go to Vegas he can win some money that owes to some dangerous hustlers. On the train the family argues the whole time and constantly slams Mark about every little thing as usual.

Plan in Action: In the meantime, Mark learns more about how to use the app to defend his family. He starts to have fun with it and annoy others on the train. All seems calm and safe.

Midpoint Turning Point: The killers find out their location and board the train. As soon as they board, Mark and Jeff discover it instantly. Transformational Event #3. Mark sees the killers take his sister and Mom to torture them. (old way) Mark develops a fearless demeanor when dealing with the killers. They try to make Jeff siphon money from an account. However, Mark and Jeff craftily rescue Julie and Ann and elude the killers. Mark uses the app and they barely escape from the train. Next, they slip on a plane unnoticed or so they think. But, the killers are already waiting for them. They capture all of them and take them to a lower cabin for torture, Jeff gets stabbed. They are about to finish him. But Mark uses the app and they escape the torture and the force the pilot to land the plane. Now the family knows that Mark is their “go to,” and sees him in a different light. Transformational Event #4. Mark feels good when his family thanks him for saving them, he matures some. (old way) Constantly doing things just to annoy his family members because he never receives praise.

ACT: 3

Rethink everything: Immediately they see motorcycles, and take off to Vegas, with the killers on their heels. After dodging bullets and wrecks, they make it to the casino strip. Mark comes up with a good idea in the hotel to avoid the killers.

New plan: Mark will use his mom and sister as a distraction to the killers by use of the app. What’s more, Jeff can gamble and win the money that he owes and Mark can make plans to get the app in the right hands. Jeff starts to win big, he is close to winning all the money everything seems okay.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major Shift: The killers devise a slick way to flush Mark and his family out so they can seize them without making a scene. Mark continues to use the app changing identities like crazy as his dad reaches his payback amount. Due to constant bickering about he and Mark they get their wires crossed and mistakenly expose their whereabouts. The killers capture the family. The killers steal the money that Jeff has won leaving him to have to give in to their demands of embezzling money from his job, 50 million dollars. The killers find a way to hack Mark’s phone, download the app and delete it from his phone. Mark tries one last attempt to get the money and app back, but nothing seems to work. The killers hold all the cards, it’s lights out for Mark and his family. Mark confronts his dad about the past and Jeff apologizes. Transformational Event #5. Mark forgives his dad. (old way) Represses his true feelings around his dad. The killers plan to sneak the family out of the casino to a remote place to whack and bury them alive.

ACT: 4

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: To save the family from death and knowing the head killer will bet on anything. Transformational Event #6. Mark uses psychology to manipulate the killers to bet on his throwing arm. (old way) Always uses his throwing ability to annoy people or in a malicious manner. They challenge him in front of his woman and others that Mark can hit any target from any distance. This bet is only for them not to be killed, not to get back the app.

Resolution: Transformational Event #7. Mark does not back down to the killers but shows a fearless attitude. (old way) Uses apps/technology in a silly manner/ to pull off pranks on people. If Mark can hit a bullseye from fifty feet out, the killers will let his family go free. No one believes Mark can do it. It catches the attention of some of the big high rollers of Vegas who can’t resist and bet big bucks on Mark’s behalf. He draws back and…BAM…he hits the target with ease. Suddenly, Mark remembers that his mentor put in 24-hour safeguarding mechanism on the app against hackers that will erase it from all devices it wasn’t originally loaded on. Mark also discovers that the mentor hid the app on his smart watch in an email attachment. The app is put in the right hands and Mark’s dad is able to pay off the debt.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by  Robert Springfield.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by  Robert Springfield.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by  Robert Springfield.

[Keri Lee]

What I learned from this exercise: I thought this assignment was going to be really hard when I first read it, but getting the broadstroke transformative event ideas down was pretty easy. Now the trick will be to make each one unique, surprising, creative. Oh, that.

Hero/Character Arc: Internal Journey: From someone who sees a lot, but pretends/hides knowledge in order to be safe … to someone who steps into the spotlight, owns her power & takes down the bad guy & his accomplice External Journey: From “invisible” trophy wife to avenging firebrand.

Protagonist’s Old Ways: Obedient observer: she watches events passively, but with increasing suspicion; role player: content to follow the rules (for the most part) and live in her husband’s shadow in exchange for material comfort; hides her rebellions, which are small … but increasingly empowering.

Protagonist’s New Ways: Actor: she takes control of her fate; risks everything to break free—then sees to be truly free she’ll have to return and take him down; truth seeker/teller: finds the truth and speaks out, taking him down and standing up for those w/o a voice

Act 1

Opening: We’re in the middle of a TV news show interview with the Reverend Jesse Jonas (RJ2; antagonist) and his wife, Mrs. RJ2 (as yet-unnamed protagonist) and she tells a shy, sanitized, holy “story” about their first meeting … her narrative plays over a flashback where we see what really went down.

TransformEvent #1: She’s at Best Buy and catches a bit of the Oprah-like show on the wall of TVs. She stops to watch.

Inciting Incident: During her now daily escape to Best Buy to watch the Oprah-esqe show, she hears some girls talking and sees that one is the spitting image of the ragged, sorrowful cover girl for her husband’s orphanage brochure.

TransformEvent #2: She musters the courage to ask the girl about it & the girl is like: Seriously, what!? You ever heard of modeling? And they laugh at her/she’s humiliated.

TransformEvent #3: She carefully asks RJ2 about the brochure; he charmingly shuts her down, and then issues a not so veiled threat for her to stay sweet & know her place.

Turning Point: The next day, she investigates… and finds out: the orphanage is a scam. A very lucrative one.

Act 2

Reaction: She is trying not to be bugged by this… it must be a misunderstanding as she’s finally “safe” in this luxe world & doesn’t want to lose it. RJ2 is suddenly a bit more attentive; he gives her a $5,000 online shopping spree and hints that maybe her own car is next.

New Plan: All this sounds good, so she plays along… but also can’t help but investigate when he’s not around and also try to change the situation through subtle suggestions, which he routinely shuts down in a condescending way.

TranformEvent #4: She gets angry and drives off, planning to escape. She’s the RJ2 billboard & turns around.

Plan in Action: The magazine article comes out and it turns out: people LOVE her. RJ2 capitalizes on this by bringing her into the ministry, where he convinces her to use her own rags-to-riches story to “inspire” people (i.e., in his plan: get them to donate even more money).

TranformEvent #5: she is on stage for the first time; the spotlight blinds her. but people applaud. she feels powerful, then RJ2 hands her the mic and she freaks and runs off stage

Turning Point 2: She’s at Best Buy, at an all-time low. But her show inspires her to do something big. She’s determined. TransformEvent #6: She is getting in her car when RJ2 calls & she speaks her mind to him for the first time. he eviscerates her. she is terrified and hangs up and impulsively climbs into the van next to her car and hides; then the driver arrives and drives away.

Act 3

TransformEvent #7: At Van Man’s house, she sees RJ2 on the news, using her supposed “kidnapping” to benefit himself and she FREAKS OUT and SCREAMS and BREAKS SHIT and releases a lifetime of repressed anger.

New Plan: She hatches a plan with VAN MAN to take RJ2 down. She returns to the “parsonage” (a megamansion) takes her place in the RJ2 world and “plays along” while assembling team, making a take-down plan, executing on it.

TransformEvent #8: she is on stage again for the first time since she ran off it; she powers through it, emboldened by her new plan; she stays mostly on script but also subtly SUBVERTS RJ2. He watches her, suspiciously and somewhat in disbelief.

Turning Point: RJ2 and The Publicist discover the plot and… TransformEvent #9: RJ2 catches her collecting evidence and she must literally fight for her life. She initially escapes and frees her team, but just when she thinks she is in the clear, The Publicist finds her and she & RJ2 kidnap her for real and verbally gut her & reveal their real relationship (Prince Charles & Camilla-city to her Diana) and she is in dark night of the soul land.

Act 4

Climax: She escapes in some super ingenious way and contacts her team, who pick her up and take her to the ministry, which is hosting the globally broadcast Telethon for the Orphanage. They mad-cap it to commandeer the stage and incapacitate RJ2 & The Publicist.

TransformEvent #10: She takes the stage and uses her new found voice & power to present the evidence and sway the congregation and the authorities on live tv that RJ2 and The Publicists are CROOKS. In the process, she discovers her own voice and her own brand of wild, off-beat “preaching” about empowerment – e.g., “You don’t these people. You don’t need me. Everything you need is inside you!”

Resolution: RJ2 and The Publicist are taken to jail on fraud and money-laundering charges, along with IRS violations. Our hero takes over the ministry, changing the name, changing everything. No tithing, no mediation w/higher powers. No dress code. Just: sharing, supporting, doing what they can for the broader community and having fun.

[Harley Grant]

Harley Grant’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is to go with the flow of my lead character’s personality and motivations.

Old Ways – Priyanka did not want anything to do with her family of gun smugglers. She wanted a safe, quiet life for her and her daughter after her ex-husband went to jail.

New Ways – Priyanks realizes the only way to keep her daughter safe is to become an outlaw.

Sequence of Transformational Steps from easiest to most difficult

Priyanka sees that her safe, quiet life is coming to an end.

Discover that she cannot depend on her brother.

She needs to recognize the true threat of her ex-husband.

Make the decision to give up her current life and see the world as kill or be killed.

Recognize that she has the power to protect her daughter.

Learn how to use weapons and become a skilled negotiator.

Stand up to her brother.

Kill her ex-husband.

Take control of her family and their business.

Act 1:

Opening – Priyanka and her daughter Sia attend a family wedding. Later, they go home and Priyanka puts Sia to sleep.

Transformational event 1: – Priyanka gets a voice mail saying that her ex-husbnd Rohan is getting out of jail.

As a result, Priyanka sees that her safe, quiet life is coming to an end.

Transformational event 2: Two men invade Priyanka’s home in the middle of the night.

Inciting Incident – The invaders want to take Priyanka’s daughter on behalf of her ex-husband.

As a result, Priyanka recognizes the true threat of her ex-husband.

Turning Point – While tied up in her kitchen, Priyanka slips free and grabs a gun from one of the invaders and kills both of them.

Then, Priyanka goes to her closest friend Rick’s place and leaves her daughter Sia with best friend.

Act 2:

New plan – Priyanka decides that the only way to stop Rohan is to go to her estranged brother Raj for help.

Plan in action – Priyanka meets up with Raj at the family pawnshop/gun smuggling operation. She tries to get Rohan to help her and shut down the family business.

Transformational event 3: Raj tells Priyanka that business is booming and he has been working with Rohan to get guns to newly released prisoners.

Thus, Priyanka discovers that she cannot depend on her brother.

Transformational event 4: Priyanka is now all in and make the decision to give up her current life and see the world as kill or be killed.

Midpoint Turning Point: Priyanka realizes that she has messed up by telling Raj where Sia is in hiding. Raj knocks her unconscious and leaves her in the basement.

Rohan gets out of jail and Raj picks him up.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Priyanka wakes up to her phone ringing. It’s Rick telling her that Raj came by to take Sia for lunch.

Transformational event 5: Priyanka must figure out a way to escape the basement and have the power to protect her daughter. She breaks open the gun cases and takes as many weapons that she can carry in a duffel bag. Priyanka use a shot gun to blow the lock off the basement door to gain her freedom.

New plan: Priyanka knows that instead of shutting down the gun smuggling company she must take it over.

Transformational event 6: She goes to Rick’s place and asks him to come out of retirement and train her for battle.

Turning Point: Priyanka finds Raj and Sia. They fight.

Transformational event 7: Priyanka kills Raj, but Rohan shows up. Rohan kills Ricks and mortally wounds Priyanka. Rohan leaves Priyanka for dead, takes Sia, and takes off with a truck of guns and ammo.

Act 4:

Priyanka goes to Rick’s place to get the rest of his armor and weapons.

She knows that Rohan has taken Sia to her childhood home. A place that Rohan grew up admiring. It is protected with fortified walls, armed guards, and only one entrance.

However, Priyanka’s mom taught her how to sneak out and in when her father used to get drunk and abusive.

Transformational event 8: Priyanka uses an unknown passage to enter. Shoots all of the guards. Then, it’s a one-on-one fight to the between her and Rohan.

Transformational event 9: Rohan grabs Sia as a hostage. Priyanka puts her weapon down. Just as all looks lost, Sia pretends like she is going to kiss Rohan and instead stabs him in the eye with a fork. Rohan releases her in pain, Priyanka picks up her gun and kills Rohan.

Transformational event 10: Priyanka and Sia attend a family meeting and all of her cousins give support to Priyanka as the new leader.

[Christopher Blanchett]

Chris Blanchett’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing thus assignment is a new way of approaching character arcs/journeys: develop them organically step-by-step, then distribute them strategically throughout the script.

Character Arc

Internally, Goes from wallowing in the past, risk-averse, compliant, and victimized to embracing the future, adventurous, assertive, and self-directed. Externally, goes from being a victim of office-politics who allows others to take credit for his work to a master of the game whose insights, talents, and major contributions are recognized and appreciated.

Old
Ways

Ryan is overworked and underappreciated at work.

Allows others to take credit for his work.

Victim of office politics.

Fails to champion his ideas and insights.

Hasn’t gotten over his divorce, wallowing in the past.

New
Ways

Ryan is dynamic and valued contributor.

Gets full credit for his contributions.

Deftly handles political challenges.

Successfully champions his ideas and insights.

Focused on the present and future.

Steps Necessary for Change

1) Admit he’s unhappy with the way things are (the way he is).

2) Take baby-steps out of comfort zone.

3) Break old pattern of thinking and behaving.

4) Set a goal that causes him to expand.

5) Take action on the goal.

6) Endure and rebound from setbacks and failure.

7) Achieve a win that would have been beyond his old way self.

8) Translate the victory into a new (way) self-definition and act on it.

Events Leading to the Changes

1) Downloads self-help app

2) Goes to reunion instead of working/approaches Lindsey

3) Eats mushrooms with friends

4) Has to see Lindsey tonight

5) Hotel plot to distract her husband (Stiles)/sees Lindsey on campus

6) In face of Lindsey’s rejection he devises plan to upstage stiles

7) Against all odds, kidnaps the Lions and upstages Stiles at dedication ceremony

8) Manifests new self-definition with a big win at the office and asking girl out

Events Incorporated into Four Act Structure

Act 1:

Opening

Agency creative director takes credit for a spot Ryan created. Client wants to go in a new direction. Ryan needs to work all weekend on new approach; can’t attend high-school reunion weekend events as he had planned.

Event 1 – Downloads self-help app

Inciting
Incident

Ryan’s friends convince Ryan to forego work and attend the reunion opening night reception.

Event 2) Goes to reunion instead of working/approaches Lindsey

Turning
Point

At the reunion-reception Ryan talks with his old girlfriend Lindsey for first time since they broke up junior year. Lindsey is married to mega-tycoon Paul Stiles, Ryan’s high-school nemesis. Spark between Ryan and Lindsey still there.

Plot-point: We establish there will be a ceremony the next day where two extremely ornate and expensive handcrafted Italian urns – donated to the school by Paul Stiles – will be unveiled in their new home gracing the entranceway to the school.

Act 2:

New
plan

After the reception Ryan and friends eat mushrooms (old times sake) and Ryan has the hallucinogen-fueled revelation that achieve rapprochement with Lindsey will symbolically represent rectifying all the mistakes of his past and give him a fresh start.

Event 3) Eats mushrooms with friends

Event 4) Sets goal to see Lindsey tonight

Plot-point: We establish Lindsey cannot abide dishonesty. We learn the urns Stiles donated to the school are replacing two cast-iron Lions stolen from campus decades ago by local fraternity.

Plan
in action

Ryan and his friends go to swank hotel where Lindsey and Stiles are staying. Ryan’s friends keep Stiles occupied. Ryan surreptitiously makes plan to meet Lindsey on high school campus later.

Plot-point: Stiles learns they are on mushrooms.

Event 5) Hotel plot to distract her husband (Stiles)/sees Lindsey on campus

Midpoint
Turning Point

Ryan and Lindsey meet at high school campus and walk the athletic track as they did when dating in high school. Ryan apologizes for infidelity which caused their break-up. Lindsey forgives him. Confides that Stiles recently confessed to an affair and their marriage is in a precarious spot. Ryan is genuinely sympathetic. Lindsey Is taken by his empathy and openness, somewhat jokingly asks if he’s drunk. Ryan assures her he’s completely sincere, not drunk…doesn’t mention mushrooms. Lindsey kisses Ryan on the cheek, says she often wonders what might have been, leaves.

Act 3:

Rethink
everything

Ryan learns from one of his friends that back in high school Stiles had written the anonymous note letting Lindsey know about Ryan’s infidelity.

New
plan

Ryan knows that given Stiles’ recent affair, and Lindsey’s intolerance of duplicity, if Lindsey learned Stiles wrote the anonymous letter, it would mean the end their marriage.

Turning
Point: Huge failure / Major shift

Stiles revealed to Lindsey that Ryan and his friends were on mushrooms. Lindsey calls Ryan. The fact he was again duplicitous negates any rapprochement. They are more estranged than ever. Ryan decides if nothing else, for once he is going to best Stiles by upstaging the next day’s urn dedication ceremony. Ryan and his friends drive to the frat which stole the Lions decades ago.

Event 6) In face of Lindsey’s rejection Ryan devises plan to upstage Stiles

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate
expression of the conflict

Ryan takes charge of the situation and he and his friends distract the fraternity brothers and steal the lions. The next day the lions are unveiled in place of the urns. Alum and board members are delighted. Ryan has (finally) upstaged Stiles. Lindsey says she overreacted to mushroom news – that she has to learn to be more forgiving, referring both to Ryan and Stiles. Ryan has opportunity to let Lindsey know Stiles wrote the letter, but chooses not to. Stiles realizes the ramifications of Ryan not telling Lindsey and thanks Ryan privately.

Event 7) Against all odds, Ryan kidnaps the Lions and upstages Stiles at dedication ceremony

Resolution

Monday at work Ryan convinces the client that the original spot is the way to go. The client is impressed with Ryan’s assertiveness and puts him in sole charge of the account. Ryan also wins new business from one of Stiles’ companies. And he pursues a new romantic interest.

Event 8) Manifests new self-definition with a big win at the office and asking girl out

[ML Palidofska]

ML Palidofska

Transformational Events – what I learned doing this assignment is how Margaret has a big epiphany about her life and how all the events of her life helped to maker her the person who had the guts to defend the man she’s in love with.

Margaret Strong

Old Ways: insecure, afraid of failure, afraid of men, wants to be known as “nice”, uses the vehicle of romance writing because she doesn’t have a life

New Ways: Sees going to the Snowbank Hotel as an adventure

-makes a point of hitting on Everett

-makes an effort to project herself as interesting, intellectual and attractive

-because of everyone’s kindness and interest in her and because of Everett’s attentions toward her, her confidence soars.

-courageous, can step out of the box comfortably without embarrassment

-because she defends Everett she has a big insight of how the events of her life prepared her for this

Dramatic Events:

Everett makes a point of following her everywhere and getting her drunk in order to figure her out and get information

-They sit in front of the fireplace after dinner. He gets her drunk and they end up in bed together.

-She learns from Anita that Everett is really a G-man investigator. Anita warns her to be careful.

-The blizzard hits and the hotel is snowed in. Margaret is holed up in her room hacking away at her book thinking of Everett.

-When the generator quits and the lights go out she goes to Everett’s room with candles to make sure he’s okay.

-Everett is being attacked in his room by the ex-con who was posing as the man to fix the generator.

-Margaret sees the gun in his suitcase, grabs it and shoots the con. She wounds him and he falls to the floor.

-The shot echoes through the hotel and Josh grabs his rifle and makes his way to Everett’s room. The con is trying to get up off the floor and attack Everett again but Josh shoots him dead.

-They are helicoptered out of the hotel (with the dead body) and Margaret offers to take care of Everett at her condo while he’s recovering (cracked ribs, possible broken nose, etc.)

[Terry Drayer]

Terry Drayer’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is that establishing the character’s transformation events brings the story into greater focus and fills some of the holes in the plot.

Start with the Character Arc and the list of Old Ways and New Ways.

· Old Ways

· Obedient child who feels she has no choice or control of her own life.

· Her compliance is based on fear.

· Desperate to be rescued but losing hope

· New Way

· Driven to escape and survive on her own.

· Learns she’s more capable than she imagined.

· Determined to survive her captors and the mountains she climbs.

Make a list of 6 – 8 changes or steps that need to happen for that character to go from who they are in the beginning (Old Ways) to who they are in the ending (New Ways).

· Acceptance of her new situation

· Disbelief that her father is not her protector.

· Obedience born out of fear of her new masters.

· Makes multiple attempts to escape, but doesn’t know how.

· Disguises her fear as compliance to gain the brothers’ trust.

· Uses her knowledge and skills to save herself.

· Ultimately gains her freedom and triumphs over her captors and the mountains.

Brainstorm dramatic events or tests that could cause those changes for the character.

Sabreena is sold into a marriage and has no choice in
the matter

She tries to enlist the help of others, but everyone is
afraid of her new “husband”

After several failed attempts at escape, her own father
threatens to kill her if she runs away again

After the failed escape attempts, Sabreena uses subservience
to hide her real intent

She convinces the brothers that she needs things for
her upcoming wedding and is allowed to venture into the mountains with another
village woman

Using her knowledge of healing plants she creates a
sleeping draught tea and escapes from the village woman.

In the mountains, Sabreena sees the younger brother
paying the men he hired to kill his father.

Meeting the climbers who agree to help her, she is
captured again when the younger brother murders one of the climbers.

She saves the older brother’s life when the younger
brother poisons him.

She knows the only way to save herself is to kill the
younger brother.

When the older brother gives her a choice in her
future, she chooses freedom over his promise of safety and protection

[robin Heid]

Robin’s Transformational Events

What I learned doing this assignment is how to structure the Transformational Journey through an escalating series of transformational events, and how critical those events are to telling the story.

Character Arc and the list of Old Ways and New Ways.

Character arc

After being kidnapped by an international criminal cartel, The Metasynthesizer is incited by Bentley Garfield’s attempt to control him or kill him to convert his small-time hacking hobby into a cyber jihad that takes out the entire cartel and saves the world from tyranny.

Old Ways:

· The Metasynthesizer is a standard hacker tweaking security and surveillance systems for fun.

· He’s doing it because he can.

· He is a serious pilot and poker player, not so serious about anything else.

New Ways

· New identity: Ubermensch

· He groks noblesse oblige in its fullness: He knows that with great power comes great responsibility.

· He takes seriously his responsibility to surpass man and save the world.

List of 6 – 8 changes or steps that need to happen for that character to go from who they are in the beginning (Old Ways) to who they are in the ending (New Ways).

Recognize
there is a higher reality than his current experience.

The Metasynthesizer releases Escher Lord from the UNISAF pokey

See
the level of power of the antagonists and that they are his enemy.

He deep sixes himself when the takeover happens

Make
the decision to give up his current life and see the threat for what it
is.

He resists Wali simple attempt to access his files

Accept
that he can control his reality.

TBD but he confounds Wali’s more sophisticated hack at trying to access his files by rerouting the hack to an alternative dead end path.

Become
skilled at resisting the threat as a creator.

TBD but he causes passive-aggressive trouble for Bentley Garfield (as in he does something to start the “conversion” process on Wali or McCauley or both… could be a simple thing to mccauley as she takes cathy to “jail” or somewhere else in that general time frame… primary creation – proactive instead of reactive… fulfill “inside as creator”

Stand
up to the threat.

Take out darkman

Become
The One!

Orbital finale

Add these transformational events to your four act structure.

Act 1:

Opening

TE1: The Metasynthesizer passive-aggressively resists UNISAF by releasing Escher Lord from jail, though we don’t know it at the time… some may figure it out be his confession at the end.

Inciting Incident

The Metasynthesizer is playing poker with his friends when the project is seized by a hostile commando force led by General Bentley Garfield on behalf of the United Nations International Security Assistance Force (UNISAF) now occupying the USA.

Bentley Garfield demands that the Raven Project change focus and tighten its deadlines, thereby endangering the project, careers, and lives of the Raven team, including The Metasynthesizer.

TE2: It begins when Wali the Geek tries to access The Metasynthesizer’s secrets and the Metasynthesizer shuts him down, thus marking the next phase in the fight for control – and survival.

Turning Point

Cathy is physically attacked while mountain biking with Doctor An to take her out of the picture. The effort fails but when Old Raven passes the news to Escher Lord and Master Chief, they realize it’s time to go hot because this has moved past a fight to control The Metasynthesizer to a battle for survival.

Act 2:

Reaction

The Metasynthesizer and his team realize how deadly dangerous Bentley Garfield’s mission is, not just to them and to their project but to the whole world.

New plan

The Metasynthesizer and his team decide to passive-aggressively thwart Bentley Garfield’s ambitions and evil plans. Complications ensue.

TE3: TBD but he confounds Wali’s more sophisticated hack at trying to access his files by rerouting the hack to an alternative dead end path.

Turning Point/Midpoint

An explosion rips through the Raven when the laser boost system fails during an orbital flight test because the timeline was pushed too much and something got missed. The lives of Cathy and The Metasynthesizer both hang in the balance.

Act 3

New Plan

The team realizes it can’t continue with its passive-aggressive resistance or somebody’s gonna get killed They decide to confront Bentley Garfield more directly.

New Insights

Wali figures out The Metasynthesizer’s dead-end hack, which leads him to realizes that all along it was The Metasynthesizer who was the formidable hacker they were trying to find. He reports this to Garfield.

Turning Point 3

Garfield yanks Cathy from the cockpit and puts in Darkman. Cathy is taken by McCauley and put somewhere for “safe keeping.”

TE4: The Metasynthesizer acts ala Sun Tzu to “convert” McCauley and Wali… with McCauley, as she’s taking Cathy to “jail,” he calls her radio says “is this really part of your job description and warrior ethos?” To Wali, something like “do you ever remember the side your soul is on?” he whispers this to him through his laptop after he recommends termination.

Act 4:

Climax:

TE5: The Metasynthesizer terrorizes Darkman and turns him to jelly, Cathy is rescued – by McCauley! – and then she is reinstated by Bentley Garfield.

When she jumps into the Raven and goes rogue into space, Garfield takes the team hostage to get chuck to come back, banking per Wali on chucks “humanity” to protect his friends from harm even if it causes his own destruction

TR6: Then they do the scene as written BUT in the background, without Cathy even knowing, Chuck does exactly what the cover mission was gonna do – launch missiles – just to targets they weren’t planning on! launch missiles either from orbit or hack into satellites or whatever but chuck goes medieval on their asses… darkman was just a prelude… he hacks launch systems and sends missiles etc into the targets– cuts to stuff happening – EXACTLY like the final scene of the govfather… yes, chuck even quotes Corleone… all family business taken care of…

When they land, both mccauley and wali have turned, darkman is killed trying to kill cathy but he kills slammer in the process.. etc etc

Resolution

In the aftermath, The Metasynthesizer admits he is hakwerx – and reveals that he has even greater powers than anyone imagined. And as a final act, releases everyone from the jail at the beginning of the movie thereby creating the circle and a metaphor for what his cyber and kinetic actions have achieved. Comic relief with the warden… eyes bugging out at the release order…

Coyotes sing, tumbleweeds roll AWAY from the jail into the grey stone desert, raven soars

Sound of native american
drums and flute, from a long way off, growing louder, morphing first into sound
and fury of simultaneous raven starship takeoff and then into fly me to the
moon… they fly high and then Meurlen salutes and of course starship goes past
him and disappears into the moon)