-
Lesson 3
Reply to post your assignment.
-
19 Replies
-
BWTV Lesson 3 Engaging Main Characters
Breaking Bad
Walt
Lead character
Unique Purpose – to raise enough money to provide for his family after his expectedly soon death from cancer
Intrigue – Is he committed enough to that purpose to cross whatever legal or moral impediment he encounters
Moral Issue – the making of meth itself first off, then the killing of two men as a result, the disposition of the bodies, lying to his wife
Unpredictable – we don’t know what he will do next, only that he will do what he sees necessary to preserve his goal and forward the action toward it. We see there seems to be no limit to what he will do to that end, thus making his behavior/actions almost entirely unpredictable
Empathetic: why do we care? We care because we have come to believe in him as a fundamentally good man, a man of character, who through no fault of his own is presented with a series of life challenges that, owing to his fundamentally good nature, which we identify with, lead him to cross a line in order to fulfill his obligations to his family, which leads us to hope that he can escape the threats he encounters from the DEA and from other players in the drug world
-
What I learned from this assignment… seeing characters from their motivations leads to more interesting interactions than just playing off their personality quirks.
Riverdale: Betty/Veronica
A. Role in the show:
Betty: The naïve, small-town girl poised for friendship to turn to romance w/best friend
Veronica: Sophisticated new girl in town who befriends BettyB. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Betty: Knows the town and everyone’s small town details.
Veronica: In contrast to Betty, she is worldly and has a mean girl past to teach Betty thingsC. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Betty: Appears innocent but has motive to kill Jason
Veronica: Father’s crimes help give her an instant reputation as a bad girl.D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Betty: Lying to protect her friends and defy her parents.
Veronica: Does she abandoned her vow to change her life?
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Betty: How far is she willing to go to avenge Jason hurting Polly?
Veronica: Will protecting her family secrets win out over needs of new friends?F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Betty: Her mom is conniving and controlling.
Veronica: She is struggling with the fall-out from her parents’ decisions.My P.S.: Lizzy
A. Role in the show:
Lizzy: She’s on a journey to create a new life in a strange town.
Sean: Represents all the people Lizzy judges without knowing them.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Lizzy: She has to build a life before the witness protection money runs out. She comes in with positive attitude and vulnerability of starting over.
Sean: Knows what it’s like to be different, to live a lie but his purpose is to contrast Lizzy’s judgements by simply being himself.C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Lizzy: Living the witness protection program story is like living a lie.
Sean: He figures out Lizzy is lying, but holds the secret without even telling her.D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Lizzy: Is she a fraud, a victim or both?
Sean: How do you build a friendship on a lie?
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Lizzy: Will she blow her cover to help her connect with new friends?
Sean: Is Sean the one who ends up being the more judgmental of the two?F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Lizzy: She’s dropped into a completely unfamiliar community and is frightened.
Sean: He’s incredibly kind to Lizzy because he understands her journey. -
What I learned from this assignment… This in-depth charting of your lead characters allow the writer to really keep them intriguing and interesting and map out their first year and beyond as well.
Lloyd Shellenberger Module 1 Lesson 3 Engaging main Characters
Assignment 1:
Breaking Bad: Walter White Lead
A. Role in the show: Walter White is the Lead Character of Breaking Bad
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Walter is a genius when it comes to chemistry a passion no one else shares in the show Breaking Bad. Because he is a genius he creates the most pure meth on the marker every drug dealer wants.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Walter has cancer and he is a man who has nothing to lose. Prior to the diagnoses he has never taken risks and as a result never really lived. The more he takes risks the more he becomes addicted to it.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Walter is a moral man who normally would never commit murder or harm anyone. As Walter is exposed to the drug world he is forced to commit murder, exhortation and drug dealing. By the end of the Pilot he has murdered two people, now he can never go back.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
The violent and murderous nature of the drug trade will not allow Walter to go back to his cozy quite life. There are dangers around every corner.
F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Walter made meth to provide money for his family after his death. in his normal life he is a man that is disrespected. His personalty is dull and uneventful but he is a God when it comes to cooking Meth. We watch as Walter finds a way to come up with the money he needs for his cancer treatment. He is also trying to leave a nest egg behind for his family when he passes. We can identify with his desperation and extreme motivation.
Assignment 2:
Benjamin Greene: Lead character Colonel Benjamin E. Greene
A. Role in the show:
Col Greene is a career Army officer who commands a Special Operations unit out of Fort Bragg.
Lt. Brian Greene is the son of Col. Greene and more importantly the conscience that whispers in his ear and gives him a sense of humanity he badly needs.B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Col Greene has been deployed to the middle east and has extensive combat experience. He also understands the world of Special Operations better than anybody and how to succeed in it.
Lt. Brian Greene: Genuinely loves his father but he is in a tough spot as his father is also his unit commander. He has grown up around the military and understands the culture inside and out.C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Col Greene appears to be even headed but can be unpredictable and even a murderer. He can be ruthless and pathologically committed to successfully completing a mission.
Brian Greene: While Brian does not have his father’s drive and ruthlessness he is empathetic and sees the other side of the coin his father often misses. In so doing he is his father’s keeper.D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Col. Greene: He will lie, murder and manipulate to protect the Army and his unit. These attributes often put him at odds with his son whom he loves very much. Lt. Brian Greene: Will he compromise his values and turn a blind eye to his father’s methods regardless of the mission or will he step in and try to stop him. He is not a murdered or a lier. During the first year Lt. Greene is forced to kill and lie against his nature.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Col. Greene: He is a master at reading the room and tailoring a response to fit the circumstances so each new situation requires him to adapt and overcome.
Lt. Brian Green: Lt. Green has picked up his father’s traits and learned well from him, so he can command his space fairly well like his father. Being in the Special Operations Command, missions from the Puzzle Factory are dangerous and unpredictable by their very nature.F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Col Greene: We see that he truly is a patriot trying to do the Army and US Governments bidding and as a result he is often put in impossible situations and forced to make tough decisions.
Lt. Brian Greene: Lt. Brian Greene truly is a good man who honors his mother’s memory and is forced into responses that go completely against his core nature. It puts an incredible strain on his moral bearings to the point that we as an audience wonder how much more can he take? -
Assignment 1: Mr. Robot’s Engaging Main Characters:
1. Tell us the journey of your show.
Elliot goes from gifted cyber security expert to hacker-vigilante determined to take down a global cabal led by Evil Corp’s Tyrell.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show? Elliot/Mr. Robot and his nemesis Tyrell
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
A. Role in the show:
Elliot/Mr. Robot: main character/hero, we follow him on his journey as he fights mental health issues (dissociative identity disorder) and learns the terrible truth of himself: that he’s the very hacker he’s been fighting but didn’t know about because the hacker takes on the personae of Mr. Robot who is in reality, his dead father
Tyrell: nemesis/antagonist, although not on screen much in the first episode, he becomes an increasingly intriguing character as he first woos then pursues Elliot using a variety of malicious manipulations
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Elliot: cyber genius despite his obvious mental health issues
Tyrell: almost as smart as Elliot but without his mental issues so is readily accepted in corporate society as their “golden boy”
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Elliot: Mr. Robot, the hacker he’s pursuing is actually Elliot himself, an alternative personality manifesting as Elliot’s father
Tyrell: is a sociopath with no boundaries
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Elliot: self medicates with drugs, uses his cyber skills to punish people he deems as “bad”
Tyrell: sociopath, BDSM relationship with wife
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Elliot: when Mr. Robot is in charge not only does Elliot have no idea what Mr. Robot might do, the audience is also totally in the dark, anticipating the next crazy twist in the hacker’s plan
Tyrell: random acts of cruelty interspersed with well-rehearsed manipulations
F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Elliot: definite underdog who’s never caught a break (we learn that his father was abusive yet Mr. Robot seems to walk a fine line between abuse, coercion, and genuine fatherly love—at least how Elliot’s mind interprets that)
Tyrell: we want him to lose yet can’t help but be impressed by how he wins
-
Jerry’s Engaging Main Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is the more you flesh out your characters the more likely it is that they will take on a life of their own”.
ASSIGNMENT M1_A#3.1
GoT s1e1: Ned Stark
A. Role in the show: The good man, pillar of nobility.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: His purpose is the defend the King – both in war, which he is good at, and in peace at which he is less good at.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? The heir and successor to the King. Who will rule after Robert?
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? For all his fine words he finds himself drawn into intrigue over the King’s bastard son.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? What will Ned do as he’s drawn more and more into the world of court politics? Who will he listen to? Ally with?
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? he is a good man and true to his oath but slightly naive as to the ways at court.ASSIGNMENT M1_A#3.2
“Running Towards The Light” s1
Journey: From housewife in backstreet Belfast to the real power in the City.
Characters that sell: Linda & Wee Henry
LINDA, 38 yo, is determined to reintroduce God to the heathens and put a moral backbone back into the City.
A. Role in the show:The little person beating her so-called betters
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:She knows people. She’s had to convince others to do what she wants without them realizing.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Linda balls up her anger, her hate into a small little ball and keeps it nice and safe, until she needs it.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? People will get hurt, will lose everything but Linda will do her best to ensure they, in her eyes, deserve it.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Whatever it takes to revenge the little people.
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? She’s spent her life being looked down to, being talked down to. Her and her class are the new helots in Neo-liberal Belfast and it’s their time to be in the sun.WEE HENRY, 35yo, small time property developer and Linda’s guide into a new world.
A. Role in the show:Linda’s lover, maybe, but her guide to the brown envelopes, the back-door deals that grease the city.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: A dirty little mover and shaker with the emphasis on little. Scorned by the big guys he’ll show Linda how to take her revenge.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? He loves Linda but if it comes to a choice between her and the cash the money wins.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? Any and all – as long as he doesn’t get caught then anything’s on.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? He could betray anyone including Linda. Wee Henry comes first and only first and he’s had a lifetime scrabbling for crumbs from tables he’s not invited to.
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Because we hate those he hates, we envy those he envies. Think of Better Call Saul. -
Binge Worthy Module 1 Lesson 3
Engaging Main Characters That Sell Your Show
ASSIGNMENT 1:
Watch the next episode of your Example Show to see any places the lead characters might fit this model.
Tell us the name and Engaging Profile answers for at least one character from your example show.
Breaking Bad
Walter White, Walt
Role: Protagonist chemistry teacher turned meth cooker
Intrigue: Has stage 3 lung cancer and wants to earn money for his family for after he is gone.
Has superior meth cooking chemistry skills. Purist product on the market.
Moral issue: It’s against the law to cook meth and sell it. It is against the law to murder people. It’s bad to help people poison themselves with illegal drugs. He’s making his fortune on the shoulders of addicts and the competition that he has to kill.
Unpredictable: Burns asshole’s car up by arcing the windshield wiper across the car battery which causes an immediate fire.
Empathetic: Walt is pretty sick with the cough that causes him to spit up blood. You empathize with that and his goal to leave some wealth behind.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
What I learned doing this assignment is that to make the characters intriguing, it helps to have at least one of them have an intense moral flexibility which keeps the action interesting.
Now, do the process with your show.
1. Tell us the journey of your show.
Married couple who open competing bars in the same downtown of a nice suburb.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show?
Lynn and Jack leave the corporate world to start these competing bars. They are hyper competitive and want to beat each other to see who can make the most money.
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
Unique: Jack opens Japanese style tiny room hotel across the parking lot from his bar to help people avoid driving home drunk. Lynn believes this is not fair because they only supposed to run one business, a hotel equals two businesses. He believes it doesn’t, it touches into the parking lot of the bar and is part of the bar in that sense but it is just the edge of the parking lot.
Intrigue: Will Lynn or Jack break the law to grow their bars? Will they buy liquor with no tax stamps on it? Will they sell to minors? Will they allow smoking or only on the roof where there is a vent which is good because it is outdoors. Will they cook the books a little? Cook them a lot which sets up a conflict with tax authorities. Maybe get a fine. Maybe sleep with an agent to avoid a fine.
Maybe this prompts one of them to want a lie detector on their spouse.
Moral Issue: Law breaker, illegal liquor. Selling to minors. Win at any cost as the journey evolves.
Unpredictable: have Jack do some construction work on his bar that Lynn did not know he knew how to do. Will he pull permit or view it as an annoyance which foreshadows cutting corners on no tax stamp liquor on selling to minors etc.
Empathetic: Lynn works hard to make her bar have a homey ambience. So does Jack. Maybe one lost their corporate job and the other couldn’t stand it anymore. Anyhow they both saved up a million and put it into the bars.
-
ASSIGNMENT 2:
CJ’s Engaging Main Characters for Patient X:
What I learned from this lesson: importance of drilling down on a few specific and uniquely engaging qualities to make characters memorable and compelling.
1. Tell us the journey of your show.
An ER doctor who suddenly gains the ability to communicate with comatose/dying patients is commanded by a dying nun to “save the girl.” With the help of the girl’s father and a police detective, she saves the girl from a serial killer, despite her new abilities being caused by a lethal disease destroying her brain, Fatal Insomnia.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show?
*Dr. Angela Rossi–while the other characters will hopefully also be intriguing and compelling, the show centers around Rossi’s unique predicament, although this exercise made me realize that I will need to spend more time working on her antagonist
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
A. Role in the show:
*Rossi: main character, it’s her journey the story follows
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
*While her skills as an ER doctor come into play what’s unique about her is that she’s suffering from Fatal Insomnia, a prion disease that while slowly destroying her brain has also gifted her with new psychic powers.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
*Her secrets are: hiding her disease from people who would label her insane and want to hospitalize her and not knowing her own family origins, which become essential as she learns she’s a pawn in a much larger conspiracy led by her biological mother
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
*At first, she denies her symptoms, continuing to practice medicine, until she realizes she’s endangering lives; then during her search for the missing girl she breaks rules, laws, and even medical ethics as she becomes desperate to save the girl
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
*Her disease makes her behavior erratic but also, once she’s accepted that she’s dying she becomes more willing to take wild risks with her own life
F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
*She’s a good doctor, fiercely passionate and protective of her patients, and brings that same attitude to her fight to save the girl; she’s also an innocent victim herself, suffering from a terrible, devastating disease for which there is no cure, heroically facing her own impending descent into madness and eventual death
-
Lesson Three, Part Two
Hilton Garrett, Engaging Main Characters
What I learned – I learned to see my characters much more clearly.
Journey of the Show :
Although successful in his career, Will Calhoun is at a low point in his life, orphaned at a young age, facing divorce, locked out of a job he thought would be his and left only with his work as a stabilizing presence. The work leads him inexorably to the place of his greatest life trauma – his parents’ death – where he confronts and faces down the evil and greed that set him on a life course of loss and frustration.
Characters that sell the show:
Will Calhoun – Lead
A. Frustrated investigative reporter who is obsessed with uncovering the facts of every story
B. He has a talent for getting information that sometimes involves crossing a line
C. He has a burning desire to bring down Byron Rountree
D. He seeks information in possibly illegal ways
E. While seemingly respectful and appropriate, Will won’t hesitate to follow a lead even if it violates laws and manners
F. Will is facing divorce, has been denied the promotion he was promised, lost his family as a child and was denied the life he started out to have. He has had to make it on his own
Byron Rountree Jr. – Antagonist
A. A politician and small-town banker now running for governor
B. Charismatic, and capable of garnering support despite his nefarious ways
C. He has killed and covered up his crime; he is in business with the Mob
D. He crosses many boundaries, ethical and legal, and works to appear to be above all that
E. Juggling ambition and guilt, he will do what is necessary to maintain his public image
F. He’s a good man gone bad
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by hilton Garrett.
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
-
Lesson 3 – Assignment One <div> PRISON BREAK: </div><div>
</div><div> A. Role in the show: Michael Scofield gets himself committed to prison to help his innocent brother escape. </div><div>
</div><div> B. Unique Purpose / Expertise Knows the prison system as he was one of the engineers that helped design it and has the layout tattooed on his body. </div><div>
</div><div> C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Michael Scofield has his body covered in tattoos, which shows the layout of the prison </div><div>
</div><div> D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? Michael will be helping a convicted murderer escape and people may die in the process. </div><div>
</div><div> E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Michael will stop at nothing to free his brother, even if it means having his toes cut off. </div><div>
</div><div> F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Michael will go to any lengths to see that his brother is put to death for something he didn’t do.
</div> -
C A Holmes Engaging Main Characters Eddie, Ginny, Mariah
THE ENGAGING CHARACTER MODEL
BREAKING BAD ASSIGNMENT 1:
What makes a lead characters engaging on multiple levels?
A. Role: Walter is the lead in the show, he is in a terrible situation facing his own death. After being so mild mannered all his life he suddenly becomes a new hidden part of himself, a chemistry maven and drug lord.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise He wants to provide for his family after he is dead, and though his Chemistry teacher career has been a flop, his actual chemistry skills soon make him the god of crystal meth:
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? He is still pretending to be his old self, even to his DEA brother in law who could catch him and put him in jail and ruin everything.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? The moment he goes down this path he is no longer a middle class guy with ordinary values. He is now a criminal mastermind and living completly outside the law after a lifetime of conformity.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? We wonder will he survive in this tough situation. Will he be successful in getting a nest egg for his family, and finally we wonder if what he has done is really about destroying his family instead of contributing to it. It is like he thinks that money can buy their happiness and his own self respect before he dies.
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Despite all his evil actions, his kindness and gentleness with those he cares about is truly amazing. He is so gentle with his new daughter and with his son.
It is the conflicting modes of being that is the diamond. To be so gentle and to kill others which he does do, is very conflicting. He is a criminal and just like every other mafioso or gang leader he can still can have a very “nice” affect. In fact it is one of the things that people who deal with criminals must learn, a real criminal can be very charming and appear so “nice.” It is part of the criminal character to be able to do these two things simultaneously.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Now on to my show.
THE CRUX BY C A HOLMES
1. Tell us the journey of your show. Eddie, an orphaned boy who has been raised as a foster child with a rich family, is suddenly thrown out into the street when he does things which anger his foster father. He is penniless and really does not know how to live on his own yet, still he struggles to do what he really wants to do with his life, despite all the odds.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show? Eddie and Ginny his girlfriend and later wife fall deeply in love and have a happy relationship but soon Ginny will be dead. Her Mother Mariah keeps them going when Eddie can’t find work. She has a deep secret that her daughter has a family illness, which they all fear, as it is a kind of curse. Only Mariah is realistic, both Ginny and Eddie live in a fantasy world most of the time about all this. She knows this will never work out really but tries to not destroy their happiness prematurely.
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
A. Role in the show:
Eddie is a genius writer who overcomes all odds to become a very creative writer, well known and incredibly famous.
Ginny, his wife, is so young that she doesn’t even realize her life is almost over, before it has hardly begun. She is a dreamy romantic, almost like someone from another planet. Eddie uses her as a muse for his work sometimes, but as death beckons their entire relationship is destroyed, and then goes beyond everything to a completely different level.
Mariah knows that this is a tragedy from the beginning, but because the two young people truly love each other, she allows them to marry and helps support them, even though she knows it will all end in death and disaster.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Eddie is a great writer and thinks that being a success is the biggest issue he has to deal with, he is so unaware of what is about to happen.
Ginny plays the piano and sings, but in the end she just wants to love and be loved. Death comes too soon for her to do anything else with her life.
Mariah keeps the little family going in the most practical down to earth way. She has already lost so many people in her family to early death that she has the muscle to survive more, but she does not have the heart to watch the two lovers as they struggle against death itself.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Death is at the door from the very beginning.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? Eddie does not believe in religion, god, or common moral precepts, though he is well trained as an upper class gentleman due to his foster parents. He sometimes writes about horrible moral predicaments and becomes world famous because of it.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Will Ginny be able to overcome the illness?
Will Eddie be a success if he is unable to continue to live without her?
What will happen to Mariah if both of them die???
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? This is a tight knit little family sort of standing up agains the world. It is an impossible feat what Eddie is doing but he does it in the wake of Ginny’s illness. Mariah is very powerful but even she may not be able to deal with her broken heart because of what she knows.
“What I learned doing this assignment is…that all characters have secrets, and are at the very edge of what they are capable of dealing with, even when they plan “a very ordinary and settled life?”
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by C Holmes.
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
-
BRIAN BULL – Engaging Main Characters
“What I learned from doing this assignment is…
There are many layers to creating a character for a binge worthy TV show and we are just getting started.ASSIGNMENT 1
RIVERDALE
MAIN CHARACTER
Archie AndrewsRole In The Show: A High School sophomore dealing with various issues teenagers may face whiling attending school.
Unique Purpose / Expertise: Archie is pursuing his music and will do whatever he has to to make it better.
Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Makes bad decisions from time-to-time. Goes against the grain. A good kid that will do the wrong thing to get what he wants. Dates a teacher, gets into fights, breaks curfew by sneaking out when grounded, will lie to the police to protect someone else (Miss Grundy/teacher).
Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? Likes the Music Teacher, Miss Grundy, but knows it’s taboo and wrong but does it anyways. Struggles with doing the right thing by telling the truth to the police and then when he does he lies in order to protect their secret.
Unpredictable: What will they do next? Makes the wrong decision from time-to-time and then has to do the right thing later on. Lies to police to protect the music teacher, sneaks out at night when ground to work on his music.
Empathetic: Why do we care? People lie all the time to protect something they want to conceal. It’s easier to lie than it is to face the truth but sometimes those lies are exposed and the truth comes out and then you are left with having to deal with both lying and the truth. This is something everyone has faced before in their lifetime.
ASSIGNMENT 2
FORESIGHT
Journey: Knowing where to draw the line when you have the ability to see other people’s future while pursuing the girl of your dreams.
Characters that sell this show: Jim Brown (Optometrist) and Gloria (Psychic / girl of his dreams)
Role In The Show:
Jim: Lonely optometrist pursuing the girl of his dreams
Gloria: Psychic who Jim falls in love with
Unique Purpose / Expertise:Jim: Expertise: The finest/best optometrist in LA who creates psychic glasses from a crystal ball.
Purpose: Jim “sees” the girl of his dreams and tries to figure out how to win her over.
Irony: Jim didn’t believe in horoscopes, fortune cookies, crystal balls, tarot cards or any other psychic abilities and now he has a pair of psychic glasses.
Gloria: Expertise: She has the ability to read Tarot Cards.
Purpose: The girl that Jim desires but will never have.
Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Jim: Jim’s psychic glasses which he tries to use to land Gloria, spies on his mother and fails miserably by misreading what he sees, interferes with other people’s lives by telling them things they don’t want to hear or know.
Gloria: She wants the crystal ball for herself but doesn’t know that Jim turned it into a pair of glasses.
Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?Jim: Invading the privacy of others by looking through the glasses and seeing their future.
Gloria: She is pretending to be an angel, friend and a naive sister in order to acquire the crystal ball which she will kill anyone to get.
Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Jim: He sees other people’s futures and tells them with mixed responses.
Gloria: Will do whatever it takes to acquire the crystal ball so long as she won’t get caught.
Empathetic: Why do we care?
Jim: Often he misinterprets the glasses vision and this gets him into trouble – means well but turns out bad – no good deed goes unpunished.
Gloria: She wants what she thinks is rightfully hers.
-
Subject line: C A Holmes Engaging Main Characters What I learned from doing this assignment is that sometimes though it looks like being a drug dealer is enough of a problem, going up agains the cartel pushes this entire scenario into the pits of hell, so the stakes are unbelievable high. In reality both Jessie and Walter are kind of ordinary middle class people pushed to the edge, this is what makes them engaging. Probably many of us know someone like these two people but could never imagine them doing what they are doing.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Breaking Bad
Walter and Jessies have the most engaging Roles in the show.
Walter becomes the god of crystal meth, but he starts out as a kind of Middle aged milk toast high school chemistry teacher, which he openly admits. He has never really done anything with his life, his talents, or in his relationships. Nor does he allow himself to truly express what he feels or thinks.
He is a Chemist so that is his unique expertise which allows him to consider a final purpose for his life, where he makes 2M for his family before he dies. By making crystal meth he is also inadvertently becoming a god on the street but does not seem to care.
Then Intrigue, because he has just been diagnosed with cancer Walter thinks he’s going to die, and suddenly he goes beyond all milk toast ways to act completely different, which then
Causes many moral issues to arise. Breaking the law, killing people, blowing up things.
Walter now orders Jessie around dominating the kid and forcing him to do what he wants. This would have been unthinkable before. I love how Jessie keeps calling him Mr. White and being surprised as in he can’t believe Walter wants to create meth, or kill people. Why is Walter running off the rails and why do we care?
Empathy. Because he has cancer and he is going to die, and he does not tell anyone, so that is the mystery which causes even more empathy.
Meanwhile Jessie’s Role is being forced to get it together and be a tough guy but he really isn’t . He’s a softy. A sensitive guy, an addict, but one who does not want to crush a bug.
But he is a salesman, unique Purpose/Expertise, and though he tries to get legitimate work he does not fit in there, so he returns to his low life scramble, but in sort of a middle class way which we see him struggle with due to his own family upbringing. He is not a big time dealer, he is a small fry just making enough money to have a “nice” middle class druggie life. He even has a sense of nobility and his own moral code, which though he admits later does not save him from being a bad guy, does keep his rep on the street in a strange way.
Intrigue, then Walter suddenly appears, an older and more dominant figure. Jessie is just an addict who sells to his crowd,
Unexpected, but now he is going in a completely new direction because of Walter. Will he blow it? Will he give it all up? Will he survive?
Moral Issue: Watching this 20 year old struggle to get it together would be completely ordinary if he was just growing up and getting his first job, but Jessie is going up against the Mexican cartel and knows it, so he is completely messed up in more ways than one.
Empathy: Jessie is interesting to watch because he does not really have the character at all to do any of this. His failings are legal and ethical, but not because he is trying to dominate the meth market. He is just trying to sell product in his own little world and is suddenly thrust into another bigger wilder world world because of Walter. -
ASSIGNMENT 2: C A Holmes: Engaging Main Characters “What I learned doing this assignment is all my characters are very different from the rest of the people they are surrounded by, they do not fit in at all, though they try, it just does not happen.”
1. Tell us the journey of your show. The two young people Eddie and Ginny are about to marry even though everyone in their world is against it except Mariah. This relationship is the defining one for their entire lives, but they both do not know how short their relationship will be. Ginny will be dead in only a few years but as they marry they imagine they will live forever.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show? Eddie, a genius writer and Ginny a singer and musician so soon to die.
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
A. Role in the show: Eddie is a writer. Ginny is a singer and musician.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Eddie is a true genius, ahead of his time, unbelievably smart, but penniless and has beenrejected by “society.”. Ginny is a bit too young to really even consider marriage, she has a very romantic almost childlike view of what it will mean. She is deliriously happy but also unrealistic. Without Mariah, they both would be alone in the world and also unable to take care of themselves.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Ginny has a family disease that will soon kill her. Her Mother Maria suspects this early but is afraid to tell either her daughter or Eddie. She is the secret keeper.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing? Although the law does not prohibit it at this time, Ginny is really too young to marry. She is only 13 but they put 21 on the marriage certificate. We may suspect Eddie of being a child molester, but he actually waits till she is fifteen to have sex with her, per his agreement with Mariah, so all of the is on the hush hush, but we the audience know all the background about it.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? They all move to Virginia where Eddie grew up, it is the center of the slave trade at the time. Maryland was a free state. It does not mean there was not slavery it just means that some blacks were allowed to be free. It had the largest population of free blacks in the US. With this move Eddie begins to write and edit a famous magazine and begins to be famous, at the same time he is completely dissatisfied.
F. Empathetic: Why do we care? They are a strange group of rebellious and cautious social rejects who will be famous soon. So this is that strange time right before fame rises to take them all into a different world. Meanwhile Eddie is beginning to write his strange stories, critique others writing, and lead the magazine industry in a new direction. Both Ginny and Mariah are keeping house but Ginny is also beginning to sing and make music. Mariah is trying to rise in society and provide a safe place for her family but she is awkward and very aware of their poverty and differences. -
C A Holmes, Layers of Character Intrigue, Module 1, Lesson 4
What I learned by doing this assignment is that everyone is mysterious and secretive.
ASSIGNMENT 1:
1. Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes. When ever Walter or Jessie go way beyond the norm of what they can do and who they have been. Killing, creating bigger and bigger drug amounts, cracking the code of the Drug Lords.
2. Watch the next episode and see how Character Intrigue is being used to create the need to see more episodes.
Deadline: 24 hours
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
Character Names: Eddie and Ginny
Role: Genius Writer, lovely singer and musician but undeveloped and because she is sick she has hardly the energy to follow her dreams
Hidden agendas: To become the most famous writer in America, Ginny to simply survive or the most secretive, to die so she can be out of pain
Competition: Eddie’s nemesis is trying to be the most famous as well, Ginny is being torments by a woman poet who wants her husband for herself
Conspiracies: The woman poet is psychologically unstable, she has a heavy duty crush on Eddie, refuses to deal with the fact that he does not even find her interesting, when she doesn’t get her way she wants to destroy him and Ginny and does not care that she is tormenting a dying woman, she just refuses to believe that Eddie will not soon be hers by helping to murder Ginny, at first Ginny is jealous but then Ginny gives Eddie permission to remarry when she dies.
Secrets: Eddie when he finds that his wife is sick and could die, goes crazy, drugs and alcohol follow to block everything out, his writing falls into a deep dark scary place that sells
Deception: Eddies Male nemesis slanders him and is in cahoots with the unstable women poet
Wound: Eddies parents died of his wife’s illness, he is absolutely terrified that he will lose her too
Secret Identity: He walks the night going to desperate neighborhoods and getting alcohol and drugs and then writing about the people he finds there -
C A Holmes, Layers of Character Intrigue, Module 1, Lesson 4
What I learned by doing this assignment is that everyone is mysterious and secretive.
ASSIGNMENT 1:
1. Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes. Each program of breaking bad is like sinking into a lower and lower level of hell, meanwhile Walter and Jessie have to pretend everything is normal. Geal is murdered and they are about to be executed themselves but become very valuable again by selling their abilities as chemistry geniuses in order just to defend themselves. The other guy who was going to take over their jobs is killed right in front of them, their alive but not off the hook.
2. Watch the next episode and see how Character Intrigue is being used to create the need to see more episodes. Walter goes back to his wife’s house and when she asks him how he is, he replies he is fine, that everything is good. It is the most horrifying lie of all, after the violence and cruelty that he and Jessie have just seen.
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
Character Names: Eddie and Ginny
Role: Genius Writer and lovely singer/musician, but she will never develop because she is sick, she hardly has the energy to breath or eat much less follow her dreams
Hidden agendas: Eddie, To become the most famous writer in America, Ginny to simply survive or the most secretive of all desires, to die so she can be out of pain
Competition: Eddie’s nemesis is trying to be the most famous as well, Ginny is being torments by a woman poet who wants her husband for herself
Conspiracies: The woman poet is psychologically unstable, she has a heavy duty crush on Eddie, refuses to deal with the fact that he does not even find her interesting, when she doesn’t get her way she wants to destroy him and Ginny and does not care that she is tormenting a dying woman, she just refuses to believe Eddie will not soon be hers by helping to “murder” Ginny of grief, at first Ginny is jealous in a normal human way but as her disease progresses Ginny gives Eddie permission to remarry when she dies. It is the most horrible gift he can ever receive, he writes about it to get it out of his system.
Secrets: Eddie when he finds his wife so sick she could die, goes crazy, drugs and alcohol follow him everywhere to block everything out, his writing falls into a deep dark scary place, but then it also sells.
Deception: Eddies Male nemesis slanders him and in cahoots with the unstable women poet they together slander him and cause him great losses.
Wound: Eddies parents died of his wife’s illness, he’s absolutely terrified he will lose her too
Secret Identity: He walks the night going to desperate neighborhoods and getting alcohol and drugs and then writing about the people he finds there, then comes home in the morning wasted and weary but he can no longer sleep. -
What I learned doing this assignment is: I need to quit trying to be so damn perfect with everything I do. I need to step back, relax, and go through the<br type=”_moz”>
process.
Ace Chapman’s Engaging Main Characters
1. Tell us the journey of your show:
A brilliant neurologist
A neurologist whose wife is diagnosed with the onset of dementia has developed a microchip that captures your memories, dreams when implanted.
This microchip has been labeled, The Mark of the Beast and is currently in the investigative and testing stage. Financed by several financial backers with
unlimited resources.2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show?
Harry Kletcher, Pam Kletcher, Samantha Blackburn
Answer these questions for each of those characters.
Harry Kletcher
A. Role in the show: Neurologist, inventor, psychologist, loving husband and father.B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: proving his microchip does in fact capture memories.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Harry has already been testing his microchip on a coma patient, his wife, a potential serial killer and anyone else that appears in his wife’s memories.
D. Moral Issue: how far and how deep will he go? Highly intrusive, invasion of privacy in any memory that he captures he compares to his memory as well as others associated with it.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Any memory that he captures that he dislikes or disagrees with, he eliminates or alters that memory. Harry will
destroy any memory at any given moment and/or implant someone else’s memory/memories in anyone he so chooses.F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Harry’s microchip does work, and he discovers his wife has had an affair and the life that he thought he lived that was full of happiness is full of misconceptions, questions, and a life he doesn’t remember.
Pam:
A. Role in the show:Loving mother, wife. Her memories contain the identities of a potential serial killer, a man she’s had an affair with and a life that she has lived
that her husband did not know existed. Her dementia is the reason the microchip is/was invented to preserve and capture as many memories as possible before
dementia takes her memories away forever. But I ask this does she really have dementia or has Harry taken away those memories?B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
One of the top criminal psychologists in the country. She has studied and counseled serial killers, the families of serial killers, the victims` families
as well as law enforcement officers and detectives that deal with murder and serial killers. Her best-selling books are often referenced in court, in life
and in counseling.C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
The reality was that she was not a faithful wife. The man she had an affair with was the son of someone who was murdered. It turns out he was the serial killer, and his first victim was his mother. But despite her unfaithfulness she remained married to Harry. Each memory captured reveals a secret. She has
always been intrigued by serial killers, the power they possess, the control they have and the secret lives they’ve hidden from the world-it’s no secret
they kill, what’s revealed thus far is their victims. Pam wants to discover all of this and to be implanted with the microchip is the start.D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Pam knows what will be revealed once her memories have been captured. With each memory that Harry erases Pam loses control of who she
really is. Her memories of self-control are slowly stripped. The power of a serial
killer is the biggest turn on for Pam. A woman with good morals is being tested to her limits when she discovers Harry is altering and erasing her memories.E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Once Pam learns or believes Harry is stealing her memories how does she avoid the memories that will ruin their marriage, their life what will this
trigger?As Harry enters her dreams he triggers her memories with other memories, which reveals Harry wasn’t as caring, affectionate or that good of a
husband/Father as she recalled.F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
All Pam wants to do is to be perceived as a loving mother and wife. Her beauty is fading, the best years behind her and now all her memories are slowly
being forgotten due to her advanced dementia.Pam has always been admired by her friends, peers and family members.
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by James Ace Chapman. Reason: cleaned it up
-
This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
-
John Duvall – Engaging Main Characters
“What I learned doing this assignment is” to look deeper into my characters inner conflicts and outer obstacles, to make them more rounded characters, but also to add layers of complications to their stories.
ASSIGNMENT 1:
Watch the next episode of your Example Show to see any places the lead characters might fit this model. Tell us the name and Engaging Profile answers for at least one character from your example show.
Offred/June is the main character. The action is mostly seen through her eyes. Her central purpose is simply to survive, to avoid offending anyone who could pose a threat to her, while secretly maintaining her authenticity. The internal conflict between these purposes is the prime source of intrigue for her. She tries to speak the truth without compromising her own safety or that of others, which leads to constant moral choices – and also makes the navigation of her challenges very unpredictable. All these things taken together create great empathy for her in the audience, because she is so sincere and so vulnerable.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
Now, do the process with your show. 1. Tell us the journey of your show.
Our three adult female protagonists, coming from different cultural and religious backgrounds, must navigate the domestic challenges posed by a world war, in the process overcoming their own prejudices while working together to support the war on the home front.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show?
Carolyn Woolf – Upper middle class Jewish housewife and mother, whose husband works for the Ford Motor Company building the Willow Run bomber plant
Mabel Walker – African American maid to the Woolf household, whose husband is disabled. Brought to Detroit as a child as part of the Great Migration.
Rose Combs – Fundamentalist Appalachian farm wife displaced to Detroit in search of wartime work after her husband entered military service.
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
Carolyn Woolf:
A. Role in the show: The center of the show, in the sense that her household becomes central to many story developments.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: College educated, but has sacrificed a promising career to support her husband and raise her young daughter
C. Intrigue: Her withheld emotions lead her to anger and self-destructive drinking.
D. Moral Issue: The deprivations of wartime lead to ethical compromises to obtain material needs.
E. Unpredictable: She gravitates between her obligations to others and her obligations to herself, with erratic results.
F. Empathetic: Her struggles in coming to grips with the novel demands of wartime makes her sympathetic.Melba Walker
A. Role in the show: Thrown into crisis when she loses her job as a maid, she must get in touch with her repressed desires, overcome racial prejudice, and carve out a new means of livelihood.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: She has a wonderful singing voice that opens some doors for her.
C. Intrigue: Not sure what to say about this yet.
D. Moral Issue: How will she balance her personal ambitions with her support of her husband and the war effort?
E. Unpredictable: She must constantly revise her goals and strategies to respond to her changing situation.
F. Empathetic: Her attempt to overcome the limits of racism makes her a sympathetic character.Rose Combs
A. Role in the show: A stranger in a strange land, the rural outside come to the big city in the run=up to war.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: She’s always been a hard worker, and knows how to help city folk start growing food in their Victory Gardens.
C. Intrigue: As an outsider, she feels she has to try twice as hard to overcome obstacles.
D. Moral Issue: How will she confront her racism and antisemitism in this new environment?
E. Unpredictable: She has to constantly confront setbacks in terms of housing and employment, and plumb the depths of her ingenuity.
F. Empathetic: Rose grows and changes in empowerment and self- knowledge, which makes her sympathetic. -
ASSIGNMENT 1:
Watch the next episode of your Example Show (The Diplomat) and focus on the mysteries that have been created in that show. Also, notice the difference between the big picture mysteries that are a big part of the plot across the entire season versus the smaller mysteries.
Tell us about the mysteries from this show.
The biggest mystery is why at the last minute is The Diplomat sent to Britain to be an Ambassador when she was supposed to go to Kabul. She finds out that they are prepping her to be the new Vice President.
The other mysteries are why her husband keeps setting up various inappropriate contacts politically when she does not want him to, and which is the reason she wants to divorce him. There past life of diplomatic work includes many examples of issues in this domain. Simultaneously she has to help solve the problem that Britain has when one of their war ships in the Gulf is blown up. The various political players in this drama also have their own mysteries and agendas so there is a lot going on in the area of mystery.
Subject line: C A Holmes Eddie gives his worst enemy his Estate even as he is ready for more success and then he dies mysteriously.What I learned doing this assignment is that there are so many mysteries in this story even I want to know why and how these mysteries occurred, so that makes it easier to write.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
Create two mysteries for your show — one that shows up strong in the Pilot and the other that is revealed over time.
1. Create your Shocking Event Mystery and tell us the WWWWW and H, along with the part withheld.
A. Shocking Event: The death or murder of Eddie
B. Secret: He has given his worst enemy his entire literary and financial estate. Why?
C. Investigation: The entire show is an investigation of Eddies enemies and why this happened.
Who: Eddie and His Enemies
What: Why give them the estate?
When: the moment he dies this happens.
Where: East Coast, United States.
Why: That is the big mystery
How: Mariah gives this enemy his papers, not knowing that he will betray her
Part Withheld: who are all the other people behind him and why does it take everyone else so long to even understand what has happened to Eddie.2. Create the Over Time Mystery and tell the WWWWW and H, along with the part withheld.
A. Cover up: Why it was the estate given to an enemy
B. Secret: The jealousy of the enemy and another woman who also is an enemy
C. Reveals: The two of them are in cahoots and have ruined Eddies life and his estate for those who truly loved him
Who: Eddie and his family
What: have to search to learn who the enemies are
When: following Eddies death
Where: Up and down the East Coast of the USA
Why: for money and fame and to steal Eddie’s place
How: Through lies, trickery, illusion, and even occult black magic
Part Withheld: Why he did this? Total Jealousy4. Answer the question, “What I learned doing this assignment is that there are so many mysteries in this show even I want to know why all this is happening” and put it at the top of your work.
-
From this assignment, I learnt that the intent is to captivate the viewers so they irresistibly commit to the emotional journey we set before them. We intend to manipulate their feelings concerning the characters we create so they find them enticing to the point they are reluctant to leave their seat in front of the TV.
Revenge – The series:
Emily Thorne:
Immediately, the show establishes the series journey for Emily Thorne, which will engage us on multiple levels. These are: –
1. Revenge: It soon becomes evident that the series will take us on her journey of revenge. She is covertly plotting to bring about the downfall of those responsible for her now-dead father’s suffering.
2. Empathy: We immediately engender audience empathy for Emily when we see her as a little girl in great distress when she sees her father framed for a crime he did not commit.
3. Intrigue: Her father has left behind a box containing, in effect, a record of his colleagues’ betrayal—a guide for Emily to exact revenge on those who perpetrated the crime.
4. Moral Issues: Emily will do anything to entrap her father’s criminal associates and make them pay dearly for betraying him.
Victoria Grayson:
She is a vixen of the first order, seeing herself as the Empress of the local Hampton community, wrapped in a robe of wealth. She will stop at nothing to protect her nearest and dearest, particularly when she feels they are under threat or when they are behaving in a way of which she disapproves. She is highly manipulative and has few moral boundaries. Ultimately, we pray for her hubris to be her downfall.
Conrad Grayson:
An unscrupulous multibillionaire stockbroker with a very shady past, he framed Emily’s father with colleagues and was responsible for his going to jail, where he died. He has no loyalties, few moral boundaries, and is someone we love to dislike. He is slimy with a carapace of charm.
Log in to reply.