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Lesson 3
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Student Name: H. Vince
Contained – 2023
Lesson 3: Who Are The Right Characters
What I learned from doing this assignment is…
I have to create a character or characters that are so trusting and basically have amnesia of past emergencies happening and place them in a setting where they need help from someone they usually dislike and see what happens.
With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?
· One person wasn’t as prepared as they should have been in a remote area.
· One podcaster goes along with trends but could possibly be swayed.
· The guest is opposite of the two podcasters and the other two took a chance inviting this person to their podcast.
Thinking about the conflict that hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?
· One podcaster: strongly set in their ways of trust such as trusting the government, the media and usually runs aways from opposite views or situations.
· The second podcaster usually goes along with the first one in tough times and decisions.
· The guest is also a podcaster with their own podcast with different experiences and skills.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
They must rely on each other in a difficult, possibly life or death situation. This guest has skills that can help them survive and can create unity to help them eventually escape.
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Ramsey’s Right Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment is… the characters should fit together like a puzzle and (I’m adding) they should have opposing views on the Central Question.
2)
The two main brothers differ on: Is physically fighting ok?
Hero loves to fight. Brother hates it.
The villain creates fight to the death matches. Hero is not ok with crossing that line.
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Seth (Big bad) creates the fight to the death matches. Drew (Hero) and his brother (Felix) must survive in alternating fights, while also working out their own personal issues with each other.
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Drew always settled his problems by jumping into a fight. He joined the Army to join the biggest fight he could find, which inadvertently shaped his perspective of the importance of life; so if he’s pushed into a corner to fight he will win, while also not trying to kill the other person.
A la BATMAN’s Rule #1 – no killing.
Felix, Drew’s younger brother, is the peacemaker and isn’t physically fit, nor ever won a fight.
Seth, the villain, is a champion MMA fighter that turned a trucking company into a fighting to the death criminal enterprise with elite streamers gambling on the fights.
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Just compare concept & conflict to your characters:
Marries couple
She is diagnosed corona and she is pregnant.
They are closed in separate room for two weeks
Her mother gets hospitalized
But who actually have a corona virus at the end?
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Jodi’s Right Characters!
What I learned: Each character should have a different history with and relationship to the antagonist and each other. I also learned that I’m not sure yet what kind of supernatural powers the antagonist will have. Maybe the ghost of Jewish granny can paralyze people with guilt, like literally?! Maybe she can make them quiet down, too?
With
each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?Hook is dead granny shows up to family seder (instead of Elijah) and won’t let her surviving family leave till they figure out how to settle gran’s estate fairly.
Bubbe/Nana – it’s her house but owning a house isn’t the same as owning your family. You can’t control family with things. You can try to force them to do what you want. Ultimately it fails or leaves you feeling lonely or angry or disappointed. Maybe you get some moments of joy and communion. But being omnipotent? Not so fun. And not possible.
“Good girl” Daughter – a rule follower who’s never really questioned her place or choices in life. Is it a big revelation to learn that her sainted selfless mother in death is manipulative and scary about it?
“Black Sheep” Daughter/Son(?) – To suddenly feel vindicated by some measure. Never had as much of the rose-colored glasses on about mom. But still terrifying to think that there is an afterlife. Supernatural. – Didn’t go to family events for a while. Now he’s at the family event from hell. He can’t leave. Not easily.
Unhappily Married Couple – with kid(?) see how it could be for their kid if they got divorced. How forcing some identity onto kids is harmful. Maybe even soul crushing sometimes.
Mercenary Showoffy “successful” Son/Daughter—a chastening. Sure you can buy and sell everyone. You could outbid everyone and lord it over them forever. But that won’t make them want to spend time with you. That won’t make you lovable. Maybe it makes you destined to be bitter in perpetuity.
Thinking
about the conflict that hook creates, how does each main character enhance
or cause that conflict?In thinking about doing what will make Nana happy, the characters each have to reflect on what they owe to “tradition” and “family” and their “legacy.” Is it our job to honor our parents by imitating them? Reflecting them back to themselves—or maybe reflecting them back “better?” Or is it more important to forge your own way. Be as different as you want to be. As different as you can be to “improve” on the original stock. What do we owe our parents and grandparents?
Tell
us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?If the house—and Nana—are forcing the kids and grandkids to think about their relationships to each other and their relationship to their ancestors, then everybody should have their own differing relationships to both.
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Tom’s Right Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment is how to make my scripts more organic.
How can my main characters fit with the Hook?
Gus is a merchant ship deckhand who knows how to handle boats
Alfredo accompanies his company’s grain shipments to their customers
Elaine is the daughter of a cargo shipping company CEO.
How does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?
Gus thinks he should be in charge
Alfredo is paranoid the other two will discover his shipment is gold not grain
Elaine should be in charge because she grew up in the shipping business
What makes these characters the right ones for this story?
Gus is a merchant ship deckhand who can keep them afloat
Alfredo accompanies his company’s shipments to their customers
Elaine knows more about what’s happening than the other two
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Tom Wilson.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
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I’ve learned that I could make every player in my series be a variant of an Insurrectionist.
Main Characters of Insurrection:
Theophilus- prides himself on being a loyalist, but is guilty, compromised by his secret racial identity. A battle hardened Centurion, talented in military strategy, he is naïve about political conspiracies.
Philip-an openly rebellious slave, who naïvely covets a life of significance. Ironically, he finds meaning and wealth in serving others.
Hannah- outwardly and overbearingly she presents as a loyal slave, although she is the mistress of manipulation. Ironically she finds herself manipulated by fear into betraying her master.
Jael-a refugee fleeing from the murder of her parents, she appears defenseless, silent and complicit. Her weapon is surprise attack , as she is intuitive, prophetic and can fight like a wildcat. She secretly kills a “relative” attempting to enslave her.
Supporting:
Luke: -a young Greek who rebels against the father that financed him through medical school, conspires to spy for a price for all takers on the guests who visit the hostel at the Villa in Capernaum.
Saul: – a zealously religious scholar, who seeks not to really know God and His Will but worships an image of God he created in his own mind, willfully doing everything his own way.
Villains:
Sejanus: dissatisfied with just being Emperor Tiberius’s right hand man, he plots to take the throne.
Marcus Julius Agrippa: grandson of Herod the Great, and also descended from the Hasmonean dynasty, as a child miraculously survives Herod’s killing sprees in which his grandmother, mother, and father were murdered, but now as an adult wants to be great, just like Herod, and despite being lazy & profligate will do whatever it takes, including attacking close relatives, to become ruler of the old Herodian kingdom.
Jacob Bar Abbas: a Levite, who masks him as a wealthy Temple merchant, is secretly a violent thief, and rebel agitator, who is very persuasive and popular with the crowd.
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Gustavo’s Right Characters
What I learned from doing this assignment is: it was an interesting exercise, it took my current ideas and pushed me to form a story based on characters alone. I had to build their backstory and try to tangle them together so it made sense.
Hook: What would happen if you gave superpowers to people that had to leave their homes and loved ones?
Contained setting: 3 immigrants are held together in a room where they get superpowers tested on them
With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?
- Steve wants to get out no matter what is desperate and has anxiety attacks.
- Sebastian is the most empathic and calm, tries to unite the group and find solutions
- Rich is depressed and is convinced they got trapped by the official migration officers.
Thinking about the conflict that Hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?
After they find out they have already met before in conflicting scenarios, they start to fight. After they almost kill each other, tensions back down and start figuring out how to get out, and what this place is.
- Steve discovers Rich was part of the police raid that took down his company. He attended a protest Rich beat him up.
- Sebastian finds out Steve didn’t give him a job in his company and Rich beat him up in a protest he attended.
- Rich, finds out he has beaten up both of these guys and was partly involved in their decision to leave the country.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
It has an arc, they are different but ended up in the same situation. They figure out that if they work together they might get out of this situation.
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Assignment 3
Subject line: Tom’s Right Characters!
Compare your concept to your lead characters to find unique ways for them to fulfill the concept.
“What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of building character depth through brainstorming, understanding my concept took and how each character reacts to the conflict that fits the hook. I also learned that the more brainstorming that I did with both characters, the better each character delivered on the hook.
Think about your Concept Hook and Contained Setting.<div>
Complying to a mandatory hospital call-in, Alex and Kris are trapped in their “dead” electric SUV in a generational blinding blizzard, without working cell phones.
With each of your main characters, how can they uniquely fit with the Hook?
ALEX
Alex, a young ER physician at the hospital, is a hero driven adrenaline junkie.
Alex is also impulsive and critical; he does things his own way.
Alex has a deep sense of duty, which is unrelenting.
Alex wants too measure up to his father, a distinguished physician.
KRIS
Kris, a young ER PA at the hospital, and longs for more autonomy in her job.
Kris is rational and logical and tries to think through a problem to reach a logical solution.
Kris is not afraid to speak her mind, even if it gets her in trouble.
Kris is also a diabetic and is low on her insulin.
Thinking about the conflict that hook creates, how does each main character enhance or cause that conflict?
Alex:
Goes through all of his options and is not afraid of trying risky activities to achieve his goal of getting to the hospital as quickly as possible. Alex causes the conflict by immediately attempting to get out of the vehicle to obtain the flare in the back. Alex blames Kris for not bringing enough insulin. When Alex finally retrieves the flare, it fizzles out.
Kris:
Defends her position with logical reasoning to escalate the conflict, Kris explains that she always carries energy bars in her own car and is mad at Alex for not carrying them in his glove box.
She warns Alex not to go outside in the blizzard, she feels that their best chance of survival is to stay in the vehicle and wait to be rescued. Kris enhances the conflict of telling Alex that he’s wrong, despite the fact that Alex is Kris’ boss in the ER.
Tell us what makes these characters the “right ones” for this story?
Alex is used to solving problems very quickly in the ER and is used to being in control.
Despite the failure of the flare, Alex believes that the solution is leaving the vehicle to follow a light that he believes he sees in the distance.
Kris believes that their only chance of survival is to stay inside the vehicle and wait for a rescue.
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Bent’s Right Characters!!!!
what I learned doing this assignment is this………… All of my characters fit a need to progress the story and create conflict. Whether it be about money as many are greedy or trying to survive. Some are hungry and this is the only food they will get.
Set in a 5 star 5 diamond hotel
characters
Bellman Michael – older man, he wants to retire but has not enough money for that. He threatens to quit sometimes and that will leave the rest of his crew inconvenienced
Bellman Ron – looking for love. Last thing he wants is to be a bellman. He wants to be a back up dancer in Hollywood.
Betsy – boss of the bellmen. Like a mother hen. Always covering for her staff when they mess up because they do the work regardless. She watches out for them.
General Manager Mr Afters – he doesn’t give a shit for the staff. Just show up and do the job. If they are lucky he will give them a turkey on thanksgiving.
Resident Manager Scott – he will do anything to save money so his bonus is fat. Even if it is at the expense of the staff.
There is conflict in that they all want to survive and there are not enough tips to go around in order for that to happen.
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Bob’s Right Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is… whether each character is needed. Usually, I do this during the rewrite process, but by doing this up front strengthens the first draft.
Contained Characters:
The Bartender: He’s a typical
bartender – listens to everyone’s tale of woe and knows everyone’s dirty
laundry.The Cook: older, military vet,
PTST, anger issues, likes to be left alone so having a bar full of people
when the island should be empty is irritating. His secret – his role in a
Mỹ Lai-type massacre.The Sheriff: She’s new on the
job and the only person on the island she really knows is the bartender –
they have a relationship dating back to before she moved to the island,
possible “Bonnie & Clyde” type past.The Priest: He knows the secret
past of the Bartender and the Sheriff. His secret – an affair with the Barfly.
His secret – failed to report child abuse.The Blogger: A typical
20-something. Crime-of-the-week popular blogger. Ignorant of the world
but believes he knows everything. Just moved to town. Followed the
Sheriff, believes she’s actually a bank robber (and he’s right). His secret – he doesn’t truly investigate his stories and quite
often makes up evidence. Following the Sheriff is his first real stab at
journalism.The Barfly: Hangs out at the bar
24/7. The Banker is planning to ditch his wife and run away with her. Her
secret – she plans on stealing what he’s embezzled and ditching him.The Alcoholic: He’s Sufi – the only
person in the bar who figures out the reason everyone is trapped from the start. No one
listens to him since he’s the town drunk. He knows the Banker is embezzling
and planning to run away with the Barfly. His secret – he has no agenda
other than scoring another drink.The Banker: Richest person in
town. Family man, at least on the surface. Hates his wife and family.
Sees them as an anchor. Plans to escape with the Barfly. His secret – He
plans to kill the Barfly and use the hurricane as a way to cover up his
crime.The Town Karen: A living trope.
Always in everyone’s business. Angry. Her secret – she’s having an affair
with the Priest, among others.The tourist family: Mom, Dad,
two teens. They missed the last ferry to the mainland. Mom and Dad – trip
one last attempt to patch up a rocky marriage, but so far it’s an epic
fail. Once back home they plan to split up. Dad’s second secret: While looking
for an open gas station the night before taking shelter in the bar, he
met the Town Karen and they had a quickie. Mom’s secret – Dad is not the
father of their oldest daughter. His brother is the father.Satan: One of the refugees
is Satan. The puzzle they must solve is which one is Satan and how do you
destroy evil? Even Satan has a secret – He’s never killed anyone. He
doesn’t have to because Humankind is too willing to do his dirty work.
All he does is sit back and watch the show. It’s Satan who brought everybody
together. -
Contained Script 12 – Lesson 3
Subject Line: Martha’s Right Characters
What I learned from this assignment is: I am still having trouble with the High Concept Hook. Will need to work harder on this.
1. HOOK: When a store fire breaks out during a hurricane, and the ensuing robbery is a bust, will the people inside be able to evacuate… or will only some… or will any?
HOOK: Life can be a mystery to the end.
CONTAINED SETTING: Small rural country store in the middle of a hurricane
2. CHARACTERS:
STORE OWNER – MR. MARTIN: was a Marine and although elderly now, he is still prepared to fight for what he believes in or loves. He maintains a secret to protect his two favorite customers – Mrs. Arnold and her son Bobby.
ROBBER #1 MORRIS LETLOW (SLY) – 29 YEARS OLD: just escaped from prison and instigator of current robbery attempt. Because of his time in prison he has developed a type of claustrophobia. He fears dying in the store or being caught again. Doesn’t have much to live for.
ROBBER #2 TYE ROBINSON (TYE) – 18 YEARS OLD: was convicted of murder with Sly; escaped with him from Angola; follows Sly’s lead on almost everything, but still holds secrets no one knows; does not agree with Sly’s treatment of Mr. Martin or Bobby; grows close to Mrs. LaCour; is shot when Bobby thinks he is hurting his mother.
CUSTOMER #1 – MRS. MARION LACOUR: is strong-minded and a fighter, but also caring and attractive middle-aged woman; tries to keep Bobby quiet during robbery, but he is very excitable; tries to serve as arbitrator when possible.
CUSTOMER #2 – BOBBY LACOUR (MRS. LACOUR’S mentally challenged son): is easily influenced; wants to hang around robbers until he sees Mr. Martin hit on head by one; overly protective of his mother; slow in most circumstances, but is a whiz with his knowledge of the store, having spent many hours there during the summer.
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