Lesson 2

[Mark]

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
The main characters need to be suited to the concept to bring the story to its highest potential.

Character: Protagonist
Logline: Bart is a socially-awkward college freshman who learns to stop escaping into daydreams of being a spy and face difficult situations head-on.
Unique: Bart buckles under social and mental pressure, but excels at extreme sports.

Character: Antagonist
Logline: Dr. Sometimes is an evil scientist (who might or might not be imaginary) with a plan to broadcast dream jamming signals that will prevent people from dreaming unless they buy into the Dr.’s drug subscription program.
Unique: His incompetence at being an evil madman is only rivaled by the ineptitude of his henchmen.

[Heather Hood]

Heather’s Intentional
Lead Characters

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

What
I learned from doing this assignment is… the clearer you are with your character’s primary traits, the easier it is to envision them.

Give us a logline (one sentence answer) for your protagonist, antagonist, and triangle character (if you have one) to the question, “What makes this character fit my concept and title powerfully?”

Protagonist: A mother who’s a perfectionist.

Antagonist: A racist Sheriff who sets his sights on an Indigenous drifter.

Triangle: A homeless Sto:lo Native looking for work.

3. Tell us what makes each of these characters unique.

-Character: Protagonist –
determined, will stop at nothing to find her daughter. <div>

-Logline: “If I try hard enough,
no one will notice my failures.”

– Unique: Will go to the ends of
the earth for her family.

· Character: Antagonist – One devious S.O.B. who comes in layers.

· Logline: “No one’s going to stand in my way”.

· Unique: No moral compass

· Character: Sto:lo First Nation’s hunter looking for work

· Logline: “The world has a balance we have to respect”.

· Unique: Doesn’t say much but when he does you better listen.

</div>

[Mark]

I like how you laid out the character traits. They are very well delineated.

[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 – Importance of keeping character unique, possibly flawed, but still capable of carrying out their role in the story.

Protagonist:

• Character: Christina (Chris) Wentworth
• Logline: Living a sheltered life, an unknowing college student learns she is a descendent of Zeus and must embrace her new destiny and save the world.
• Unique: Brilliant, Martial Arts Expert, Brave, Caring, Optimistic, Honest, Empathetic, Introverted, Socially Awkward, Shy, Naive

Antagonist:

• Character: Ronin
• Logline: The ambitious and dangerous descendant of Fujin, The Japanese God of the Wind, declares war on all the Descendants in an attempt to take over the world.
• Unique: Machiavellian, Arrogant, Narcissist, Manipulative, Billionaire, Super “Human” Powers, Warrior, lacks empathy, Patronizing, Arrogant

[Mark]

Great characters, Jeffrey. I can see this film is going to have a really big scope!

[Cameron Martin]

Cameron Martin’s Intentional Lead Characters

Vision: To write a story 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…Keep it short and focused. It’s a busier than normal weak, so I’ll try to keep this brief. These tend to be long because I’m “looking for the breakthrough” and this is the only way I know how, so far. My concept is especially complicated, like INSIDE OUT meets THE MATRIX. I can easily get lost in the details if I’m not careful. However, keeping the description of logline and what makes my characters unique short and focused on the most important and powerful parts should help me to write these characters more honestly and consistently. It also helps that this step serves as either an affirmation or a opportunity to check if your characters are really all that unique and purposeful to the story you’re wanting to tell.

Protagonist:

Janus – (name pending) an android made in the image of her AI Computer creator

Logline – Janus commits herself to raising someone she killed from the dead.

Unique – An AI human made by another AI. Is the image of something that calls itself a god. Goes on a mythical quest to right a wrong that she’s responsible for.

Antagonist:

Copy – (name pending) a copy of Janus, created from when Janus unintentionally killed her friend.

Logline – Copy wants to convince Janus to off herself so that she can take the place of the original.

Unique – A copy/alternate ego that is in rebellion with the original. A visual representation of intrusive/toxic self-talk.

Triangle Character:

Adam – an AI computer program and Janus’ creator

Logline – Adam wants to stop Janus from resurrecting her friend so that he can maintain the status quo of the world he’s made for himself.

Unique – A computer program that created his own biblical world. Creates life. Creates copies of himself and destroys them (killing the weakness he perceives in himself). Is a mirror of Janus and visually carries out negative, self-destructive therapy.

[Mark]

Very interesting, Cameron!

[Cameron Martin]

(Revised)

Protagonist:

No One or Null. She is a copy of the original woman, but has no memory of her past life, or why she’s in Umbral.

Logline – Null must find the reason she’s in Umbral, a techno-purgatory, and escape so she can return to life.

Unique – She is the copy of a young woman that was assaulted in her past life, and killed herself to come back “better” so she can have revenge against her assailant. As the copy, she has no memory of this, no knowledge that her only purpose is to test the original

Antagonist:

Janice, a young woman that woke up in purgatory, shocked and holding onto a dark secret of her past. She has all the memories that Null is missing.

Logline – Janice must escape her techno-purgatory, kill her copy to show she’s the best version, and exact vengeance on her assailants in her past life.

Unique – She is the victim of horrific actions, but takes the final step herself in ending her life, so that she can come back stronger and lethal enough to take vengeance on her wrong doers.

Triangle Character:

Calvex, an AI program that runs the Afterlife Protocol, fulfilling people’s request to be reborn per their choosing.

Logline – To ensure the success of fulfilling Janice’s request to come back stronger and better so she can claim vengeance, Calvex must be sure that Janice is strong enough to succeed in her endeavors by shepherding her and her copy and testing them to make sure only the strongest version survives.

Unique – Calvex is like Siri but taken to an extreme with immortal consequences. Like a video game where you can just “start over as a new character” in the future, people can return to life after dying, and either pick up where they left off or just take on a new body and persona.

[Pam Ewing]

My Vision: Professional. Produced. Prolific. Popular.

What I learned: I like the idea of plug things in and building up to dialogue.

Film Logline: Natalie hops off to Transylvania to claim some mystery birthright and is furious that her soon-to-be ex-husband, Jeff, shows up — until she meets the imposing Vlad, who controls the birthright.

Character 1: Natalie

· Character 1 Logline: Rich girl faces losing it all if she can’t claim some mysterious foreign birthright

· Character 1 Unique: entitled, naïve, optimistic, timid, unskilled but loves to watch survivalist training

Character 2: Jeff

· Character 2 Logline: If the heiress divorces him, she better pony up some money, needs excitement

· Character 2 Unique: Good-time type that has always wanted to make something of himself, if only he weren’t so lazy, easier just to manipulate some wealthy wife

Character 3: Vlad

· Character 3 Logline: Being the king of all I see can get boring, that’s what makes cruelty so much fun

· Character 3 Unique: Under the pressure of centuries of tradition and modern change make him irritable, lack of peers has created a great hole in his heart that he can’t accept

[Mark]

This is a rom-com, right? So, a married couple that needs to revive their relationship?

I like that in these few sentences you’ve set up a lot of atmosphere and clearly outlined the conflicts between the characters.

[Sara]

My Vision: I live a wonderfully happy life writing, collaborating and producing multiple Oscar and BAFTA-winning movies with more than enough money for two light and bright homes, each with its own indoor lap pool (heated using eco-friendly technology).

What I learned from doing this assignment is it’s helpful to breakdown the character creation into manageable steps to build interesting characters over a number of iterations.

Character: Mike

Logline: A reclusive, brooding man whose memory was wiped in an accident so he has to piece together his memories and life.

Unique: His mind a tabula rasa.

Character: Shelley

Logline: A quiet, virtually invisible, cleaner who wants to tidy people’s lives as well as their homes – in Mike’s case this means a total refurbishment!

Unique: Her hobby of amateur dramatics enables her to adopt different personas and roles.