Lesson 20

[Rita Roberts]

Rita’s Character Relationships
I’m not sure if this is how the assignment was meant to be completed but it was useful.
What I learned:
– My love interest had boring traits so in a rewrite, the story will change to some degree, making him more engaging for her as well as the audience. I might take it even further.
– I can see this being even more effective as one of the first plans before writing a first draft.

CHARACTERS:
DAWN – Intelligent, kind-hearted, determined, but also insecure.
TOM – Charismatic, ambitious, judgmental, but also sincere.
ZAK – Sensitive, honest, generous, self-sabotaging
STEVENS – Humble, shy, observant, underachiever

DAWN & TOM
Rapport: Dawn’s determination with Tom’s ambition makes them work toward the same goals.

Conflict: Tom’s judgment paired with Dawn’s insecurity creates extreme behaviors from each of them.

Contrast: Where Dawn is kind, Tom is judgmental.

Competition: Dawn’s Intelligence competes with Tom’s strait-laced sincerity.

Subtext: Dawn twists the truth to keep things positive while Tom always wants reliable, straight answers.

CHANGED TRAIT:
DAWN – Impulsive, kind-hearted, determined, but also dishonest.
TOM – Suspicious, ambitious, judgmental, but also sincere.

Rapport: Dawn’s sharp witted responses make him curious but it’s fueled by his suspicious trait.

Conflict: Dawn’s dishonesty raises Tom’s suspicion and judgments.

Contrast: Dawn’s kind heartedness allows people to have flaws but Tom’s judgments don’t.

Competition: She’s determined to succeed at the painting business she invented. His ambition is to never make a mistake or give his dad reason to criticize or doubt him.

Subtext: They actually have similar qualities which, if harnessed and used maturely, could make them a good team.

CHANGED TRAIT:
DAWN – Impulsive, kind-hearted, determined, but also dishonest.
ZAK – Sensitive, honest, sensation-seeking, self-sabotaging

Rapport: Dawn’s impulsivity works with Zak’s sensation-seeking — she makes up a whole business on the fly and Zak runs with it in full support. She’s kind so his sensitive side is
Drawn to that.

Conflict: Dawn’s determination wears thin to bring Zak to a breaking point, sabotaging his own safety and the business.

Contrast: He’s honest, she’s not.

Competition: Her determination pushes his sensation seeking to make things happen, even if it’s risky. They both take the risk.

Subtext: Dawn wants the best for Zak but her own dishonesty triggers his tendency to put himself at risk. Zak wants the best for everybody but his sensitivity and self-sabotage
take over to potentially put everyone out of a job.

CHANGED TRAIT:
DAWN – Impulsive, kind-hearted, determined, but also dishonest.
STEVENS – Humble, neurotic, observant, risk-averse.

Rapport: Stevens sees Dawn kind-hearted determination

Conflict: Dawn’s impulsive behaviors interfere with Stevens’ risk aversion and neurotic nature.

Contrast: Stevens observes, takes a back seat, Dawn jumps ahead

Competition: Stevens’s humble, observant traits are effective for him but puts him at odds with Dawn’s determined, impulsivity.

Subtext: Stevens is a stabilizing force making Dawn’s ways more effective. Dawn’s more active approaches bring out Stevens’s masculine strengths and make him a good match for Dawn.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by  Rita Roberts.

[Jeremy Kirk]

Title Jeremy Character Relationships
What I learned from this is: Characters can interact with one another at any point in the script. Changing a trait could lead to a better outcome from what you originally wrote.

1. Vasili Vanya: Loner, Tormented, Determined, Hunter
2. Yuri Popov: Low-life, Greedy, Opportunistic, Deceiving
3. Lt. Raeger: Organized, Determined, Single-Minded, Callous
4. Khaber: Cruel, Brutal, Efficient, Sly

• Vasili and Yuri
• Rapport: Vasili being a loner is more direct in his speech. Yuri is shadier by the fact that he is greedy, a low-life and deceiving.
• Conflict: The conflict between the two would be over Yuri’s deceitfulness. What ever secrets he’s keeping could get Vasili into trouble.
• Contrast: Yuri tends to let Vasili do the heavy lifting and bathe in the reward after. Vasili knowing his friend cannot do, what he can do just goes along.
• Competition: Vasili is hesitant about using his werewolf powers; however, it is Yuri who pushes him into it. But Yuri is doing it for the money.
• Subtext: Yuri has his nature written all over his face. It’s been bashed in by debt collectors. While Vasili is strong and upright from living in the Alaskan wilderness.

• Lt. Raeger and Kahber
• Rapport: Lt. Raeger is right to the point being a military man, while Khaber, also having been in the military is direct, but in a more threatening way. Violence cuts through a lot of red tape.
• Conflict: The conflict would be over how to handle Vasili’s capture. Raeger wants to handle it quick and clean, no fuss. While Kahber wants it messy and doesn’t care if civilians get in the way.
• Contrast: Raeger wants things done by the book and only if he is pressed will consider hiring “outside” help. Khaber on the other hand is running a kidnapping ring, so thinking out of the box is how he makes his living.
• Competition: Raeger is hesitant about using Khaber to do his dirty work, but he’s so off reservation that it doesn’t matter. Khaber is happy to test his skills.
• Subtext: Raeger just wants his specimen Vasili and in the end will get him any way he can. Khaber does not know exactly what he’s hunting, but he’s about to find out.

• Vasili and Khaber

• Rapport: Vasili is Russian and Khaber is Croatian, so in that regard they speak the same language. But these are two opposites. As Vasili may use violence to get what he wants, he uses is sparingly. Khaber on the other hand makes a business from cruelty by kidnapping individuals and holding them for ransom.
• Conflict: Khaber is sent to capture Vasili so there is conflict about the two.
• Contrast: Vasili just wants to be left alone, left forgotten. Khaber destroys this by attacking him and thus the battle between the two begins.
• Competition: Which one will make it out alive. Or in this case, unchanged?
• Subtext: All Vasili is to Khaber is something else to hunt, something else to get paid for. Vasili is learning that his power can help someone. Unleash the beast.

• Raeger and Yuri

• Rapport: Yuri is standoffish toward the military man. While Raeger is directly to the point. Yuri has the information that the Lieutenant wants.
• Conflict: The conflict between the two would be how to extract the information from Yuri. Raeger soon finds out that Yuri’s greed is something he can pressure and offers him a large sum of money for the information. Yuri agrees, but holds back vital info due to his deceitfulness.
• Contrast: Yuri just wants to make money the easiest way possible, while Raeger needs the information of the location of his intended target.
• Competition: Is Yuri smarter than Raegar, can he out-fox him? While Raeger feels in control of the situation, especially when he gets the coordinates from Yuri.
• Subtext: Yuri knows what the lieutenant wants but he also knows how to make money from it. Raeger thinks he’s in control and by way of information, perhaps he is. But Yuri always has something up his sleeve.

5. Vasili Vanya: Loner, Tormented, Heroic, Hunter
6. Yuri Popov: Loyal, Greedy, Opportunistic, Deceiving
7. Lt. Raeger: Organized, Determined, Under pressure, Callous
8. Kahber: Cruel, Revenge filled, Efficient, Sly

[Mary Albanese]

Assignment 20

What I learned: A small change of one trait for each of your 4 main characters can make a big difference to make their interactions more dynamic.
Characters:
Elsa: determined, loving, gullible, superstitious. Subtext: Riddled with guilt over her baby sister’s death, she’s afraid of a superstitious curse and will do anything to prevent it. Let’s change her gullible trait to insecure.

Jared: charming, manipulative, cowardly, feels like he’s a victim. His subtext: he is able to manipulate Elsa’s gullibility. Let’s change his victim-feeling status to insecurity, and switch his victimhood to secretly ruthless. Then he can relate to Elsa and vice versa via their insecurity. This gives him a more natural way to bond with her in her inner core, so he can deceive her in his manipulative way.

Lily: Logical, loyal, supportive, bossy. Her subtext: she used to date Elsa’s husband Mike. Let’s up her traits to logical, loyal, bossy, and secretive. Let’s up her subtext to: she’s still in love with Mike. So who is she loyal to? The only man she ever loved or her best friend? That introduces some nice conflict beneath the surface.

Mike, Elsa’s husband. He’s charming loving, needy, and honest. Right now, he has no subtext, he is more of a character for Elsa to react off. Ugh. Let’s up his traits to charming, needy, loving, and inflexible. His subtext: he knows Lily is still in love with him but ignores it. He doesn’t tell Elsa and if she asks about it, he just brushes it off as if it doesn’t matter. Because if it doesn’t fit HIS needs, he’s too inflexible to even consider it as any kind of problem. Now he’s got some bite. This can push Elsa a little towards Jared. Give Mike some culpability in that. Much more twisty.

Now each of the four have one area of rapport with each other (except lily and Jared who never meet), a contrast, a conflict, a degree of competitiveness, and clear subtext.

• This reply was modified 11 hours, 47 minutes ago by  Mary Albanese.
• This reply was modified 11 hours, 45 minutes ago by  Mary Albanese.