Lesson 1

[Mark Lynch]

My Vision: Win the Nicholl Fellowship and receive a 10 rating on the Blacklist.

What I learned: Starting with a general outlay of the outline gives me the best place to see what works. I can also put in details later.

WIM Module 4 – Lesson 1

Marc’s Character Structure

Andy Beal – Protagonist

Beginning:

Andy Beal, an A-type personality Billionaire, is having a mid-life crisis
and needs to challenge himself to “High Risk” stimulating endeavors.

Inciting
Incident:

Andy, an amateur poker player, loses a low-stakes poker game to
a member of the Corporation, a group of Las Vegas professional poker players.

Turning
Point 1:

Humiliated, with a need to recoup his losses, he challenges the
leader of the Corporation, Dole Brunson, to a series of high-stakes poker
games. The games last over a period of six years.

Act 2:

Andy, a “fish out of water” realizes he is no match for the Corporation
and gets his son, to create a computer program algorithm to give him an
advantage.

Turning
Point 2 / Midpoint:

Andy starts winning and gets very “cocky.” Dole is
forced to recruit more players into the Corporation and pool their money
to keep the challenge going.

Act 3:

Dole’s recruits are losing to Andy and dropping out, one by one.

Turning
Point 3:

Dole calls up and recruits Phil Ivey, the best poker player in
the world, for a one-on-one challenge with Andy Beal.

Act 4
Climax:

Phil Ivey beats Andy Beal and recoups the Corporation’s winnings.

Resolution:

Andy returns home to Dallas, Texas. He researches and finds a new “High”
risk challenge.

Dole Brunson – Antagonist

Beginning:

Dole Brunson, cruises the
Casino looking at the new prospects.

Inciting
Incident:

Dole’s son tells him about a new prospect, Andy Beal, he just beat and is sure they can take
all of his money.

Turning
Point 1:

Dole accepts Andy’s challenge and one by one gathers players and resources to
start the game.

Act 2:

Dole and the Corporation recruits beat Andy. Andy leaves Las Vegas to regroup.

Turning
Point 2 / Midpoint:

Andy returns with new strengths from his computer algorithm and starts winning. Dole humiliated
and almost broke, regroups with a new plan.

Act 3:

Dole’s new recruits are dropping out and exhausted.

Turning
Point 3:

Dole consults with Phil Ivey and negotiates a new challenge with Phil
and Andy.

Act 4
Climax:

The Corporation and the entire Casino watch Phil Ivey beat Andy
Beal.

Resolution:

Dole pays out the winnings to the Corporation and looks for new poker tables to play.

[Cameron Martin]

Cameron Martin’s Character Structure

Vision: Write a movie that connects with audiences on a deep spiritual level, regardless of background, while prioritizing quality time with my family.

What I learned doing this assignment is…An effective way of brainstorming your plot structure for a protagonist vs. antagonist story. Though there’re certain ideas that feel like they jive with your core concept, there’re plenty of other directions to take your story, especially as it relates to your antagonist’s arch.

…

Null

Beginning: Null wakes up in purgatory and with no memory.

Inciting Incident: A mechanical arm attempts to put Null back to sleep, but Null escapes. She’s on the loose in the purgatory.

Turning Point 1: Calvex introduces Null to a copy of her, Janice. Null wakes up her copy.

Act 2: Null and Janice fight their way out of the purgatory maze

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Janice betrays Null and tries to kill her, but Null sacrifices her body to possess Janice

Act 3: Null fights through Janice’s mind and uncovers the truth.

Turning Point 3: Null gains control of Janice’s body.

Act 4 Climax: Null and Janice fight for control during Janice’s raid on her former accomplices.

Resolution: Null wins and declares war on Calvex.

Janice

Beginning: She worked as a courier.

Inciting Incident: She’s assaulted and left for dead

Turning Point 1: She devises a plan to use the Afterlife Protocol to come back stronger and seek revenge.

Act 2: She works to come up with the savings to afford her afterlife until she has enough and…

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: She kills herself and is reborn, according to her plan. However, a second version of her was created as well, a version she’s told she must defeat in order to earn her second shot at life.

Act 3: Janice works to manipulate and weaken Null. She tries to crush her will to live at every point.

Turning Point 3: Null possesses Janice and shares her body and mind with her. Janice destroys Null’s body and escapes the test.

Act 4 Climax: Janice goes on the warpath against the man who assaulted her and his gang.

Resolution: Janice defeats the gang. Null assimilates with her?

or?…

Beginning: She worked with a team of mercenaries, filling in the role of a runner and tech specialist…

Inciting Incident: Until her squad betrays her. Until she betrays her squad after witnessing them commit war crimes

Turning Point 1: She robs them and uses the funds to be reborn through the afterlife protocol after killing herself. She robs a family or village and “…”

Act 2: She’s reborn into a techno purgatory where she must battle with a direct copy of herself.

Act 4 Climax: Janice and Null battle her former squad. Janice and Null battle each other in Janice’s mind. Janice and Null battle each other, still in purgatory, to the death.

Resolution: Janice is dead. Janice is assimilated. Janice wins. Janice and Null declare war on Calvex. Janice declares war on her former agency.

[jeffrey jeff glatz glatz]

My Vision: To create commercial studio size films that move people. To create characters that can live forever and bring electrifying memories to those that have watched one of my films.

What I learned from doing this assignment – To put as much effort into the Antagonist arc as the Protagonist.

Protagonist Character Journey Structure:

Christiana (Chris) Wentworth

• Beginning/Opening: Chris enjoys life as a normal college student
• Inciting Incident: Chris’ father is killed, and her mother wounded in in attempt to kidnap her and take a Key from her.
• Turning Point 1: Chris and her new found “Protector” James escape an attack by the Protagonist.
• Act 2: Chris starts a journey to learn more about herself and the role she plays in the world of the Descendants of Gods
• Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: 1) Chris learns where the “lock” for the “key” is located and how it could be used and vows to defend it with her life. 2) Chris loses key to Protagonist, Ronin.
• Act 3: Chris visits her mother in the hospital and accepts her destiny and launches an offensive to recover the key.
• Turning Point 3: James is killed.
• Act 4 Climax: Battle of all battles of Chris against Ronin.
• Resolution: Ronin is killed. The world is saved.

Antagonist Character Journey Structure:

Ronin

• Beginning/Opening: Ronin is a King within the Wind tribes and he desires to be more and be King/Leader of all the Descendant and control the world.
• Inciting Incident: He attacks and kills Chris’ birth mother (Queen of a Wind Tribe) in the Amazon looking for a “key.” Chris as a child is whisked away safely.
• Turning Point 1: Ronin sends his son, Ando, to kidnap Chris (now twenty years later).
• Act 2: Chris has escaped so he must double his efforts to find her.
• Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: 1) Ronin has found Chris and sends his son again. 2) His son is killed.
• Act 3: Ronin captures the key and heads to the “lock.”
• Turning Point 3: Ronin killed a member of the Water Tribe and has now declared war on all Descendants.
• Act 4 Climax: He has found the lock and is attacked.
• Resolution: He is killed.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by  jeffrey jeff glatz glatz.

[Pam Ewing]

Pam Ewing’s Character Structure

My Vision: Professional. Produced. Prolific. Popular.

What I learned: That my battles are more against me (the “why bother” of my upbringing) than some lessons.

Protag – Natalie

Beginning: Wallflower indulged
by her mother and hiding from reality – mother’s necklace scratches her
Inciting Incident: Mother dies
leaving her broke but with a bequest she is reluctant to pursue – meek and
powerless and feeling alone. In frustration something mundane happens that
she (and we) later realizes is the start of her powers
Turning Point 1: She sets off to
claim her inheritance must deal with husband – increasing her feelings of
powerlessness but now faking it too keep him inline. She feels in tune to
life in Transylvania
Act 2: she decides to follow
Vlad and leans on him casting away her better reason but he awakens some
desires in her. A fortune teller warns her off Vlad and tries to confirm if
she is a true valid error in the Transylvania power line but it appears
that Natalie is not it
Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Discovers
she needs to step up to claim her inheritance or be dead – confront Vlad
or succumb to him which she certainly would do if her husband wasn’t a
constant annoyance. She keeps redirecting Vlad to help her and is somehow
able to manage him which is a surprise to him.
Act 3: While still trusting Vlad
she must defend her pesky husband who is trying to “rescue” her. Her
powers keep growing but she doesn’t realize that she’s the cause of the
things happening until her husband points it out.
Turning Point 3: She tests her
powers and realizes Vlad is her enemy for the inheritance and has designs
to kill her
Act 4 Climax: Overcomes enemy
and her worst fears culminate in the possibility of losing her husband
Resolution: Accepts ex-husband with
new boundaries and personality while testing new energy and power

Antag/romantic interest – Ex Husband – Jeff:

Beginning: Distracted with
business. He thinks he should just cut the cord with his wife – from
anchor to millstone
Inciting Incident: Mother dies
and his efforts to comfort his wife are rebuffed. He is insulted that she
thinks he’s just after the money (but does anyone believe that he isn’t?)
Turning Point 1: Decides he
needs to protect his wimpy wife and then he can divorce with a clear conscience
Act 2: Fighting with wife
frustrates him but protection is renewed when he sees Vlad wooing her
Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Husband
learns that she’s not pursuing her inheritance the way she should and now
he’s really worried about his life being threatened
Act 3: He makes a plea to
Natalie who doesn’t believe him. He starts putting together the pieces
about Natalie’s new powers and Vlad’s interest in her – He considers his
claim on her stronger
Turning Point 3: He follows
Natalie and they fall into an old dry well where they talk and seem to be
honest for once, then she disappears and Vlad’s henchmen take him hostage
Act 4 Climax: Natalie fights
Vlad and frees husband who recalculates his role as Natalie’s protector
from the real world which is much harsher that she’s ever expected
Resolution: He seems to have
revered to a focus on his business interests but he is just baiting
Natalie to make the first move to renew their relationship

Antag/villain – VLAD

Beginning: could such an
intelligent, handsome, wealthy, ageless creature be so bored
Inciting Incident: he is warned
that his empire is in danger and laughs it off
Turning Point 1: shrugs off a
foreboding shiver
Act 2: encounters Natalie who
intrigues him and he can’t explain it but he doesn’t see her as a threat
Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: He
decides he must control/have/possess Natalie until he is bored again
Act 3: He notices Natalie’s
power and the husband’s connection so he decides to have them kidnapped
Turning Point 3: His henchmen
fail to get Natalie so he tortures husband for information and evil
enjoyment
Act 4 Climax: Defeated but alive
he tests out his new mortality and plots

Resolution: often rejected but not bored

[Heather Hood]

Please excuse the lateness of these posts. The forums seemed to be unclear having been mixed up with Module 2. So now I’m posting everything at once.

Heather’s Character Structure

Vision statement: I want to see my scripts optioned this year and turned into movies that the audience will remember long after they leave the theatre.

What I learned from doing this assignment: When I go back through all the modules, I can already see the outline and beats of the screenplay taking shape. I have enough to start putting them into the beat board in Final Draft, which I can start incorporating into a script. I’m not going to do that yet, but I’m getting a real feel for the characters, how they are different from each other and what sets them apart.

Beginning:

Showing the norm: Sarah Fields doing laundry while the girls play in the kitchen. Sarah, trying to do three things at once: wash, iron and feed breakfast. She gives her youngest (Lila) her morning dose of phenobarbital. (Antiseizure med) Kids being whiny brats. Her oldest (Becky) wants to paint. “Can’t you see how busy I am? You have to take care of your sister”. Major sulk fest. The doorbell rings.

Joe Green, looking to get money for his next bottle, has a cooler, going door to door, selling salmon. Sarah buys one.

Officer Harper reads a memo at the office. He’s been passed over for a promotion. Again. Furious he heads out on patrol to wind down.

Officer Harper cruising by, arrests Joe (because he doesn’t like him and has a history with him, and 1^st Nations aren’t allowed to sell off the reserve).

Inciting
Incident: Sarah returns to the kitchen
to find Becky has pulled out the paints and spilled them all over the
freshly laundered sheets and clothing. Sarah has a meltdown. She shoves
the kids outside and tells them to stay in the backyard.

Turning
Point 1: Becky takes Lila into the
forest to see her secret place where she is abducted by the “Shadow Man”.

· Joe’s mother says she thinks he should get right with the Creator. Maybe he should stop drinking and talk to his father.

Harper decides to poach some bear. He heads out into the bush with guns and traps. Something shadowy tracks him from the trees.

Act
2: Officer Harper doesn’t seem
too eager to help Sarah search for Lila. He’s pretty condescending.
Sarah’s desperate. She rallies the neighbors, and they search the nearby
forest but turn up nothing. The clock is ticking down to Lila’s next
medication dose.

Becky finally tells her mother the “Shadow Man” took Lila. The neighbors think it might be a Sasquatch that legend says lives in the Forbidden Pass. Sarah has had enough of fairy tales.

Officer Harper says not to worry her pretty little head, there’s no such thing as sasquatches. He has bills to pay and looking for a missing child is taking time away from trapping. He’ll do it, but only if it lies in the same direction.

Turning
Point 2 / Midpoint: Even
though she’s terrified of the forest, Sarah heads out into the bush alone
and unprepared.

Joe hears about Sarah’s daughter. He knows who took her and knows he has to do something about it. He empties the rest of his bottle in the gutter.

Act
3: Joe startles Sarah that night, cold,
afraid and hungry, and begins to win her trust. He teaches her how to see
the forest in a different way, where to find things to eat and how to find
tracks. The two begin a friendship. Sarah confesses she always wanted to
be a witch living alone in the middle of the forest but could never get
over her fear.

Turning
Point 3: Harper finds them he
tries to kill Joe.

Something comes out of the forest and attacks Harper pushing him into a bear trap.

Joe and Sarah escape into the Forbidden Pass.

Act
4 Climax: Joe and Sarah track the Shadow
Man to a cave. It isn’t a Sasquatch at all. It’s Joe’s father, a powerful medicine
man the tribal elders have been protecting for years. He’s chosen Lila as
his successor because she has epilepsy, just like him and will have the
same visions.

Joe and his father try and reconcile – Joe’s flaw – he didn’t think he had his father’s gift and so he chose a walkabout until he was ready.

The mushroom Joe’s father takes has really messed with his mind, so the persuasion isn’t going well…

BUT THEN… Harper drags his bloody carcass into the mouth of the cave and shoots the Shadow Man.

Joe pummels Harper into the ground, in a fit of grief and rage.

Sarah tries to shield Lila from the sight.

However, Lila’s under the effect of the mushroom, and no one sees that. Or the knife by her hand. As soon as it grows quiet and Sarah lets down her guard, Lila squeals and slashes Sarah’s throat.

Joe springs to her aid and saves her.

But it’s pretty obvious Lila won’t be going back to civilization.

· Resolution: Sarah, who no longer cares if everything is perfect, lives in a little cottage in the middle of the woods tending her small garden. Becky who used to be belligerent around her mother and is now utterly terrified of her.