Lesson 3

[Jo Ann (Jodie) Randisi]

What I learned: Fleshing out characters in this fashion will definitely lead me to a bunch of comedic situations. Doing this as a preliminary exercise is now a prerequisite and a tool in my scriptwriting tool belt.
Genre: Female buddy comedy
Title: Pamperus Island
Concept: Two rival real estate agents join forces despite being women of opposite personalities and backgrounds based on the advice of a scheming industrial psychologist.
Lead Character: Real estate agent Elizabeth Rutherford Jones,
Role: Lead character who is paired with her exact opposite for a staged partnership
Traits: Self-absorbed, dramatic, and excessively demanding, she lives and breathes high society
Motivation: Elizabeth struggles with the pressures of maintaining her image, which makes her life feel more like a full-time performance rather than a fulfilling career, and that includes selling more than her partner to maintain appearances
Wound: Ignored by family, so she spends her way to happiness and into debt
What makes Elizabeth funny: Outrageous expectations lead to bizarre requests, dramatic outbursts and sarcastic quips, revealing just how clueless she is about “common” folk
Lead Character: Real estate agent Lovie (not the coach) Smith
Role: Lead character partnered with her exact opposite for a staged partnership
Traits: down-to-earth and refreshingly candid, street-smart realtor comes from humble beginnings, has a knack for understanding the “regular folks” because of her deep connection with the community. Her casual, laid-back demeanor makes her approachable.
Motivation: Inventive, humorous, with a penchant for street slang, comes across as brash, but her heart is in the right place and she genuinely cares for clients. Can’t stand pretentious people, especially her partner.
Wound: Married too young to an abusive man that led to her arrest for domestic abuse when it should have been him
What makes Lovie funny: Her antics clash with Elizabeth’s high standards, her creative, sometimes dubious tactic make sales that lead to hilarious misunderstandings.
Straight Guy: Mrs. Murray (Wild Card)
Role: Self-appointed office manager at Pamerus Island Realty and accomplice to Dr. Deller’s psychological experiments
Traits: Feisty, brash, shameless, sharp-tongued, organized
Motivation: Elizabeth’s longtime housekeeper seeking to elevate her status as well as her income
Wound: Severely underappreciated and over managed by Elizabeth
What makes Mrs. Murray funny: Caustic humor appreciated and celebrated by everyone except Elizabeth now that she manages the real estate office, has a knack for observational humor, especially regarding ridiculous demands made by obnoxious or weirdo clients
Conflict Character: Dr. Kirk Deller
Role: Industrial psychologist, pairs two opposite professionals so he can observe human behavior
Traits: Eccentric, scheming, overly confident, exudes an Indian Jones metrosexual persona, fiercely competitve
Motivation: He’s writing a book about his unconventional experiments, is delirious for fame, he has to orchestrate ridiculous stunts to outshine his competition
Wound: His rival’s book has turned into a reality television show, he lives to prove he’s the best although he’s clearly not
What makes Dr. Deller funny: He twists situations, purposely creating awkward situations disguised as unconventional experiments resulting in comedic chaos

• This reply was modified 1 day, 15 hours ago by  Jo Ann (Jodie) Randisi.

[Ian Patrick Williams]

What I learned doing this assignment is to make all the characters three dimensional, all the better to play off of each other.
Genre: comedy
Title: Unaccountable
Concept: A mild-mannered accountant must navigate a corrupt hip hop world when a gangsta rapper/ music mogul forcibly recruits him to cook the books of his criminal empire before an upcoming audit.
Straight guy: Jerry Wheeler
Lead comedy character: MC Slaughter
Supporting comedy characters: Klamidia; Emily
Conflict characters: Pretty Boi & Busta Nutt
JERRY
Role in the story: An accountant strong-armed into cooking the books for a music mogul
Traits: Law abiding, naïve, nervous, would-be poet
Motivation: to somehow please MC without being convicted of a crime
Wound: self-doubt; ignored most of his life; believes standing up for himself leads to conflict or rejection
What makes them funny: his misunderstanding of everything in MC’s world; overly formal way of speaking; physical awkwardness.
MC SLAUGHTER
Role in the story: A rapper turned entrepreneur who has built a small empire on shady deals
Traits: boisterous, intimidating, impatient, amoral.
Motivation: to keep his empire; fear of losing street cred; avoid jail time by failing an IRS audit
Wound: paranoid about losing his rappers to better labels
What makes them funny: his brashness and obliviousness to any sense of ethics; can’t understand why accounting can’t be done like the music business
KLAMIDIA (Claudia)
Role in the story: she runs MC’s private club
Traits: street smart, failed singer, presents tough but has a heart
Motivation: stay on MC’s good side while secretly cutting people a break
Wound: a life of mistreatment; uses sexuality to hide vulnerability
What makes them funny: behind MC’s back, she’s constantly dissing him
EMILY
Role in the story: a member of Jerry’s writing group
Traits: smart, shy; has a crush on Jerry
Motivation: to get Jerry to ask her out; to get published
Wound: lack of self-esteem
What makes them funny: she inadvertently keeps intruding on Jerry’s interactions with Slaughter
PRETTY BOI & BUSTA NUT
Role in the story: bodyguards/gofers for MC
Traits: not terribly bright; act tougher than they really are
Motivation: to keep MC happy and not wind up back on the street
Wound: they know they have nowhere else to go
What makes them funny: they’ll act like pit-bulls or lap dogs depending on MC’s mood; language filled with malaprops and misunderstanding