Lesson 4

[Lynn Vincentnathan]

Lynn’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment is that this makes me come up with character depth ideas I never would have without it. I didn’t fill out all the things, and did more for the main protag Lew and antag Roz. I’m keeping this open to add more. And I might not use all these things, but it did get me to come up with a lot of ideas.

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DOOMER

– HOOK: “How can an old man survive when the world is out to kill the elderly?”

– CONTAINED SETTING: a house in the year 2108 with a hiding room and a place where the bad guys plot their moves.

– THEME: ?? You can’t hide from yourself.

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With each of your characters, go through all of these questions to see which might fit for your story:

LEW (age 87, protag) resourceful, smart, scholar who did urban combat (secret – he participated in the earlier geronticide), but feeble, somewhat suicidal

Internal Character Depth

–MOTIVATION: wants to survive, wants to atone with his “mound cave garden experiments,” wants to finish his memoirs (true history); want to protect grandson & pregnant grand-daughter-in-law

–SECRET: he participated in the earlier geronticide, killed a top climate activist bec he didn’t know…. Later made it a point to study history and learn the facts. He is actually Randoph Greg, the original leader of the 49s (elder killers), purveyor of their ideology, but has since done a 180 and denounced it.

–WOUND: his first wife died in a heatwave & he blamed the “doomers” (the elderly people who had caused the problem); he took revenge during the geronticide and is sorely sorry for that.

–SUBTEXT: he speaks of regret, etc for his secret past, but only to the point of Josh thinking he’s referring to something else, something noble action failure. He speaks of dying to Josh… as a way to get Josh

–LAYERS: became bad as a teen (killing doomers), repented, did good,

Character to character

–CONFLICT: Josh tries to cheer him up, dissuade him from his death wish (but is also worried about wife and baby on the way)

–HIDDEN AGENDA: in addition to atoning for his secret sin by helping food production, he’d also like to help end the cycles of geronticide

–CONSPIRACY: ?? between him and Josh to convince Megan he has value alive

–INTRIGUE: he’s contacting someone in Josh’s name re ending geronticides

Character Situation

–DILEMMA: wants to survive and make right v. he wants to die

–SECRET IDENTITY: he is a 49er leader (part of the mob that participated in the geronticide) – he is idolized by Roz as a hero for that, but she doesn’t know it’s him (he changed his name, etc).

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JOSH (Lew’s grandson, supporting) loving (wife & grandfather), provider, torn between past (grandfather) and future (wife and expected baby), indecisive

Internal Character Depth

–MOTIVATION: provide for and protect Lew, his grandfather, and his pregnant wife, Megan

–WOUND: his father (full of hate, who hated Lew & knew about him) disowned him, and Lew took him under wing

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MEGAN (Josh’s wife, supporting) strong, practical/pragmatic (willing to sacrifice Lew, if necessary), focused on her expected baby

Internal Character Depth

–MOTIVATION: to protect her expected baby

–WOUND: her mother tried to protect her grandmother as the expense of letting her baby sister die

–SUBTEXT: “future of humanity” implies killing off elderly or letting them die so the young can survive.

Character to character

–CONFLICT: with Josh over whether they should continue to protect Lew, since their rations are low and the baby is coming.

–CONSPIRACY: she has tipped off the 49ers about Lew

Character Situation

–DILEMMA: brief one in the beginning about whether or not to tip 49ers off about Lew. Then Lew does or says something that makes her decide to tip them off.

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ROZ (antag) steady, determined, ideological, pathological, focused on the bigger “pathological” worldview; daughter of the powerful autocrat

Internal Character Depth

–MOTIVATION: to take over an important leadership role, promote her ideology of ruthless oppression, thru divide and conquer;

–SECRET: she killed her brother and made it look like an accident; she revealed her father’s hiding place during the

–WOUND: her father favored her weaker brother in his attempt to establish patriarchy

–SUBTEXT: she hints at what she wants and her accolades get it and follow thru

–LAYERS: uses Hillard as a lover and to do dirty deeds, and to scare others

Character to character

–CONFLICT: with Hillard to get him not to flub, but to be effective in helping her get ahead; with those who try to hide their elders (O.S., backstory); with Lew & maybe with Josh who’s trying to protect him

–HIDDEN AGENDA: to become the leader of the county ?? or cell ??

–CONSPIRACY: with some O.S. others to oust O.S. competitors ??, with Hillard to root out Lew and kill him.

–INTRIGUE: ?? maybe she comes with Hillard to Josh’s cave home and acts as a tax collector or something… to scope out Josh’s home (on a tip… from Megan) that there’s an elder hidden there.

Character Situation

–DILEMMA: once she finds out Lew is actually Randoph Greg, whom she idolizes, she has doubts about killing him or herself hiding him.

–SECRET IDENTITY: acts as a tax collector, when she’s actually a 49er (killer of elderly).

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HILLARD (antag, supporting) angry, out for blood, hot-headed, passionate (for Roz), influenced by Roz

Internal Character Depth

–MOTIVATION: to kill, joy of destroying

–SECRET: he killed someone and got by with it

–WOUND: orphaned, brutalized by others

Character to character

–CONFLICT: with Roz (wants to rampage, rather than be sneaky and scope things out, as Roz wants); with Lew, Josh, and Megan, ready to kill them all.

[Susan Willard]

Writing a Contained Movie Script

Day 4 Lesson 4 Build your Characters Depth

Susan Willard’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment is that the more I reviewed and used the Character Depth process, the more I could refine and update with more layers of depth. I originally hated the exercise, but once it was completed, it was worth it. I certainly will keep this Character Depth exercise in mind whenever I am writing.

Character: Dad:

Internal Character Depth

· Motivation: He started this entire story by deciding to move to live in his childhood home.

· Secret: Dad is torn about moving back to the home he grew up in. He is haunted by his childhood.

· Wound: Dad has spent his life running from his childhood remembrances.

· Subtext: Dad hides his emotions, partial memories, and his insecurity in leading the family.

· Layers: Dad has a degree in business management. He has trouble holding jobs for a long time.

Character to Character

Conflicts:

· Dad is conflicted internally, by his childhood, but he doesn’t know why.

Hidden Agenda:

· Dad wants to get to the bottom of what really happened in his childhood.

Conspiracy:

· Dad asked mom to help him figure out the truth about his childhood.

Intrigue:

· Dad against his childhood. Is he mentally unstable or is his mind making things up?

Character Situation

Dilemma:

· Dad: Should he decide that they will live at his childhood home permanently?

· Dad: Can he trust his thinking and perception of his past?

Secret Identity:

· Dad is a mentally insecure father, who has trouble with stability in his life.

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Character: Mom:

Internal Character Depth

· Motivation: Mom feels responsibility is to keep the family together and happy.

· Secret: Mom has been communicating with Dad’s Aunt, secretly.

· Wound: Mom has an emptiness in her heart because she has never had a family of her own.

· Subtext: Mom is hiding the fact that she has never had a family, pretending to know what to do as a mom.

· Layers: Mom poured her life into an education of all types of scientific fields. She had her own plant nursery business before marrying.

Character to Character

Conflicts:

· Mom didn’t want to move.

Hidden Agenda:

· Mom wants to have her first family ever, close, loving, caring and happy, forever.

· Mom talks with dad’s aunt and agrees to get him to hold a backyard BBQ their first night in the house.

Conspiracy:

· Mom conspires with dad’s aunt to have a backyard BBQ their first night in the house.

Intrigue:

· Mom has set up a family BBQ on the first night in the dad’s childhood home. Is it a mistake?

Dilemma:

· Mom: Can she trust Dad’s aunt?

· Mom: Agreed to help have a backyard BBQ. Was the decision a good one?

Secret Identity:

· Mom is an overeducated scientist, who loves to learn about anything living.

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Character: Daughter:

Internal Character Depth

· Motivation: Daughter’s anger and emotional sadness from moving far away from her school and friends is driving her to distance herself from her family.

· Secret: Daughter has a secret boyfriend and online selling business.

· Wound: Daughter’s wound is new; having to leave her secret boyfriend and business behind.

· Subtext: Daughter is hiding her secret boyfriend, her secret website and online business.

· Layers: She is actively running an online business selling clothing accessories, and it is stopping her from making the accessories, selling them, and advancing her business. She may be losing customers while she can’t run her business.

Character to Character

Conflicts:

· Their daughter didn’t want to move, because she is popular at her old school, secret boyfriend, and business.

Hidden Agenda:

· Their daughter plans to go back to her secret boyfriend, and she wants to continue her secret online business.

Conspiracy:

· Daughter conspires to run away and get back with her boyfriend.

Intrigue:

· Will their daughter run away to be with her secret boyfriend? Will she start up her business again and tell the family about it?

Dilemma:

· Daughter: Stay with family or run away? Start the business over in the new home or wait and see what happens?

Secret Identity:

· Their daughter is an online business owner.

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Character: Son:

Internal Character Depth

· Motivation: He is excited about the change of moving.

· Secret: He has secretly been hacking the daughter’s computer. He knows all her secrets, even where she gets her money.

· Wound: He has interior and exterior pain from feet disability from birth, surgeries until last year when both feet were amputated.

· Subtext: He is secretly hiding his hacking his sister’s computer and applications.

· Layers: Son spent his growing up so far by watching TV and movies, and on the computer.

Character to Character

Conflicts:

· Son knows her secret of her secret boyfriend and online business.

Hidden Agenda:

· He is secretly pushing himself to become better with his prosthetics so that he can do other things that people with feet can do.

Conspiracy:

· Son conspires with his sister for what he wants, or he’ll tell mom and dad about her secrets.

Intrigue:

· Will their son tell his mom and dad about his sister’s secret boyfriend and business?

Dilemma:

· Keep quiet about his sister’s secrets, use the information, and blackmail his sister, or just out right tell on his sister?

Secret Identity:

Their son is a double foot amputee trying to find his niche in “real life”.

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Character: Elderly Aunt:

Internal Character Depth

· Motivation: Aunt will hand over the family heritage and estate to Dad, as soon as possible.

· Secret: She was his secret babysitter, for him, as he grew up, when his parents were gone, and they were gone often.

· Wound: She is a neutral identity and has no emotional or physical wounds.

· Subtext: She is hiding what she really is. She isn’t human.

· Layers: She is dad’s childhood babysitter, educator, and protector while his parents were gone. She has never let go of that job and has been on duty for all of Dad’s life.

Character to Character

Conflicts:

· Aunt knows, (and controls), all that happens at dad’s childhood home.

Hidden Agenda:

· Aunt has a secret mission, to pass the family secrets on to Dad before she expires, and she’s on a timeline.

Conspiracy:

· Dad’s aunt conspired with dad, when he was young, not to tell anyone about their fun times together until he is a grown up with his own family.

Intrigue:

· What is their aunt’s big welcoming home surprise for dad, at the BBQ?

Character Situation

Dilemma:

· Aunt: No dilemma for her personally, but her actions may cause dilemmas for others.

Secret Identity:

· Dad’s Aunt is not a human.

· Dad’s Aunt was his babysitter.