Module 2 -Lesson 4: What’s Beneath the Surface?

[William Whelan]

William Whelan – Subtext Plot

Vision: To write a screenplay which will become a successful movie.

What I learned from doing this assignment is to develop subtext in my screenplay.

4. Fish Out of Water: Professor Shaw, on sabbatical from Cambridge, is exposed to the mafia underworld through a student Liza Valente.

6. A Major Cover Up: After Liza kills Vito, a mafia underboss, during a rape attempt she enlists Professor Shaw to help her dispose of his body and coverup the killing since Vito is a made man.

[Pamela Rice]

PAM’S SUBTEXT PLOTS

One-Sentence Vision: I will turn my ideas into produced, hit movies and live a happy, successful life as a writer and industry professional.

What I learned from doing this assignment: the importance of building in subtext plots early on in my script’s planning process.
– – – – – –

COLD-BLOODED BEAUTY (Horror/Comedy)
A middle-aged artist tests an amazing new anti-aging night cream, unaware that its secret ingredient — reptile stem cells — is transforming herself and her neighbors into reptilian predators while they sleep.

Superior Position:
Starting with a few hints, the audience will soon be made fully aware of the dangers of LeZarde Cosmetics’ anti-aging night cream, long before the customers themselves discover it. This should cause the audience to worry about the protagonist, and her friends who use the product, from the get-go.

Major Cover Up:
– LeZarde Cosmetics’ founder, Jessica LeZarde, is aware of her night cream’s potentially dangerous side effects. But she plans to make millions from it, getting users hooked so that they won’t stop using it, even after they discover the ugly truth.
– Customers who use the product despite knowledge of the dangers become part of a secondary cover-up. Can you blame them? C’mon, they look FANTASTIC! They wouldn’t want a few “pesky nocturnal side effects” to get their fountain-of-youth taken off the market.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Pamela Rice.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Pamela Rice.

[Vernall Ritchey]

Vision: I want to write a smart, well-written, and blockbuster script which I can then produce and direct.

What I learned from doing this assignment is the many facets of Subtext Plot

Subject Line: WIM – Vernall Ritchey – Subtext Plot

Concept 1: An attentive caregiver and soon-to-be nun attempts to exorcise a demon in a bedridden priest, but the exorcism fails as it becomes clear that the real battle lies not in his exorcism but in hers. She is the true demonic entity.

Subtext Plot: Layering

Throughout the story, the audience is led to believe that Father Gill, the bedridden priest is possessed by a demon, but in actuality, it is Kyla who is possessed by the demon (as revealed in Act III).

[Andre]

Subject Line: Andre’s Subtext Plot.

1. From this program, my one-sentence vision for my success from this program is:

a. To learn how to write the best script(s) of my life, so far, by dramatically improving the quality of my writing in the genres of Action, Erotica, and Horror; while having both the Financial and Time resources to travel the world doing so, with colleagues / friends /peers, (the few that I have).

b. What I learned from doing this assignment are the Subtext Plots are…

1. Scheme and Investigation.

a. One character is scheming and another is investigating. Everything has more meaning than its surface text/action. As the investigator asks questions and snoops around, he is trying to catch or trick the other person. Behind every question is the underlying desire to catch the one scheming. And, or course, every answer given carries intrigue, deception, or other forms of deeper meaning.

2. Layering.

a. Layers allow a story to change completely, giving everything that has happened before a different meaning. Usually, this happens by doing a convincing job of presenting one layer while having clues to the deeper layer that is exposed later in the script.

3. Someone Hides Who They Are.

a. When the plot is about a person who is hiding, subtext opportunities are everywhere.

4. The Fish Out of Water.

a. While this is comedy plot, it can also be used for other genres. Put the lead character in a place they don’t belong and watch the subtext brew.

5. Superior Position.

a. The audience knows something that one or more of the characters don’t know. This gives us two-experiences at the same time. We get to live the life of the character who knows and the life of the character who doesn’t know. Of course, any Superior Position plot will soon bring us to the point where the other players will discover the deception and react in their own unique and interesting ways.

6. A Major Cover Up.

a. A set of strategies are put in place to cover up a crime, scandal, conspiracy or history of illegal or disturbing actions. The subtext comes from the planning, schemes, lies, and every action they take to do the cover-up.

7. Competitive Agendas.

Two people or groups
fighting against each other to get their own way. They could be polite
(character subtext) or very aggressive in their way of competing. The
opportunities for subtext often show up in the minor characters when the two
leads go at it.

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

Tell my Concept and my choice of Subtext Plot.

a. APT28.

Concept: A computer-science student locates a file titled Apt28. The intriguing thing is, he lives in Apt28.

Out of curiosity, opening the file, he identifies code linked to a Threat Group attributed to Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate GRU 85 Main Special Service Center military unit 26165, also known as “APT28”.

Subtext Plot: Superior Position.

b. ΩmegaMan.

Concept: Did Apollo 14’s Edgar D. Mitchell the sixth-man who (supposedly) walked on the Moon, conduct a secret experiment into human-consciousness while travelling to the Moon?

Subtext Plot: Fish out of water.

c. The Planetary Prince.

Concept: Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen meets The Devil’s Advocate. What would power do to remain in power? Align itself with evil!

After 500,000 years of freewill experimentation, humanity is judged on its collective actions.

With Lucifer on trial, Gabriel vs. Lucifer, and annihilation from existence as his potential judgment, Lucifer conducts his final act to perfect the imperfection of his earthly assignment-humanity.

Using human freewill as evidence, from abortions, scientific-experiments, and consistent warfare, Lucifer proves humanity is sinfully-evil, and his actions were to correct their Original Sin of Adam and Eve.

Major Story Hook: Either Big Intrigue or Major Dilemma. Utilizing particle acceleration technology to merge anti-matter, aka dark-matter, with aborted fetus’ inside of a barren woman’s womb, to create the Anti-Christ. The purpose, to take his seat of the all-powerful position of President of the US. Perfecting Imperfection.

Subtext Plot: Layering.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Give a few sentences on how my Subtext Plot will
play out inside this story.

ΩmegaMan.

On the Surface, Edgar D. Mitchell (EDM) is…

Test Pilot, Aviator, Astronaut, Engineer, Husband.

In February 1971, EDM had the privilege of walking on the moon as a member of the Apollo 14 lunar expedition.

Consciousness-was altered profoundly. EDM came to feel a moral responsibility to pass on the transformative experience of seeing earth from the larger perspective.

But further, the rational man in him had to recognize the validity of the non-rational cognitive process.

But there was another aspect to EDM’s experience during Apollo 14, and it contradicted the “pragmatic engineer” attitude. It began with the breathtaking experience of seeing planet Earth floating in the vastness of Space.

“My thoughts turn to daily life on the planet. With that, my sense’ of wonderment gradually turned into something close to anguish. Because I realized that at the very moment when I was so privileged to view the planet from 240,000 miles in Space, people of Earth were fighting wars; committing murder and other crimes; lying, cheating, and struggling for power and status; abusing the environment by polluting the water and air, wasting natural resources, and ravaging the land, acting out of lust and greed; and hurting others through intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, and all the things that add up to”-EDM.

In the study of consciousness, the techniques and technology of science are being combined with the higher insights of mind from both East and West to provide a new methodology for scholarly inquiry.

Omega (Ω) symbol for consciousness and Noetics.

Paraphysics, a new field within Noetics that extends the laws and methods of physics in an attempt to explain some paranormal phenomena.

a. Some of the factors that paraphysics has found necessary to consider are:

i. Effects of Geomagnetism,

ii. Phases of the moon, and,

iii. Solar radiation on living systems.

Exobiology-the study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The evidence of exobiology leads some scientists to wonder: If life has existed elsewhere in the universe for periods significantly longer than has Homo sapiens, how much more evolved in consciousness might such life form be?

“The first thing that came to mind as EDM looked at Earth was its incredible beauty. Even the spectacular photographs do not do it justice. It was a majestic sight-a splendid blue and white jewel suspended against a velvet black sky. How peacefully, how harmoniously, how marvelously it seemed to fit into the evolutionary pattern by which the universe is maintained.

“If we review the history of mankind’s attempt to perceive, cognize, and interpret his environment, we find that in the last four centuries, as a result of the growth of scientific methodology, a formalized dichotomy has arisen between proponents of the (2) two modes of knowing:

a. Objective Observation (followed by deductive reasoning) and Direct Cognitive processes.

i. Science vs Religion.

ii. Reason versus Intuition.

iii. Rationality vs non-Rationality.

iv. Objective Knowledge vs Subjective Experience.

Beneath the Surface, EDM…

During the voyage EDM made a test in Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP), attempting to send information telepathically to four receivers on earth.

The rational man in EDM had to recognize the validity of the non-rational cognitive process. That familiarity and confidence, though, there were moments during the flight when EDM felt an amazed and profound respect for the rational abilities of the human intellect-that it could find ways to guide a tiny capsule of metal through a half million miles of space with such precision and accuracy.”

Meditation research. Meditation produces qualitative and beneficial shifts in psycho-physiological condition.

a. Two physiological correlates found for psychological stages of meditation, along with changes in breathing, heartbeat rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and various other metabolic correlates.

i. Alpha brain wave.

ii. Theta brain wave.

b. Result in mediator include release of stress and tension, increased intellectual capacity, greater self-control and self-direction, a feeling of deep rest and relaxation, improved social relations, a decrease in use of prescribed and nonprescribed drugs, and other significant changes.

Because of the experiences on THIS mission, EDM gained a new perspective of life on our planet—a perspective that eventually led him to engage in his present efforts to explore the potential of the “inner space” of the human consciousness, and to thereby find better ways to increase mankind’s sense of personal fulfillment and global unity.

Noetics– “is the discipline that is arising from this confluence of outer- and inner-space research. It is the ultimate frontier in man’s attempt to understand himself and the nature of the universe.

Clearly, the universe had meaning and direction. It was not perceptible by the sensory organs, but it was there nevertheless-an unseen dimension behind the visible creation that gives it an intelligent design and that gives life purpose.”

“My (EDM) real interest
is-and has been for many years-to understand the nature of consciousness and
the relationship of body to mind.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————–.

The Planetary Prince.

On the Surface, INDIGO is a human.

During a near fatal vehicle accident, he had an experience in which changed his life-literally.

Handicapped with undefined medical issues resulting from the accident, western medicine has no answers other than mental health treatment. This treatment stigmatizes him to family and friends. Many vacate their relationship with him.

Western medicine does not acknowledge the existence of a soul. But eastern medicine does.

He juggles from survival job to survival job, with little long-term success.

To those unaware of his internal injuries resulting from the accident, he comes across as highly intelligent, but a ship without a rudder, aimless drift.

Beneath the Surface, INDIGO is…

Was abandoned by his father at birth. The absentee father is one of the reasons for his guardian angel saving his life, in addition to his talent in writing.

After the accident, our protagonist-human is forced to participate in limited western “mental health” programs, which only work against him. Incorporating eastern medicine and philosophy of Body, Mind, and Soul, he begins to ascend from the perilous plight of prescription drugs and a medical system only focused on science and sick-care, not healthcare.

Unknowingly fathers a child that is aborted without his awareness and permission. He is forever haunted and tormented by an unknown awareness, that his unborn child is dead, was murdered, before birth,

a. AND the person who did it was the woman he loved,

b. AND the doctor Asclepius (our Antagonist human), that destroyed his career, all covered up by the employer. For science, was it? Surely it wasn’t personal.

Ever since his near fatal accident, he experiences glimpses of The Veil, the cross-over between this world and the other. His guardian angel, Lucifer, for purposes to be revealed during climatic ending, saved his life (Lucifer’s Ace in the hole).

His aimless drift in
reality is a course to prepare him for his final destination-the court
stenographer-scribe for the case of Lucifer vs. Gabriel.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–.

APT28

On the Surface, ALGO INFORMATO is…

…A gifted-talented computer-science student.

…Lives in Apt 28.

Beneath the Surface, ALGO is…

…Online Profile Alias- Vaginal Moisture.

…Uncovers a file with label/title Apt28.

———————————————————End Subtext Plots.————————————————————————.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Andre Howard. Reason: Added Planetary Prince subtext plot, and some formatting
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Andre Howard. Reason: Added Subtext Plot for Apt28. Added Major Story Hook for Planetary Prince

[Margaret Doner]

The forum will not let me reply on Lesson 3. So I am posting my lesson 3 and my lesson 4 here until that straightens itself out.

Module 2: Lesson 3 Transformational Journey

Margaret Doner

The Knowledge Keeper

My Vision: I find the time to create well-written scripts that will sell and be produced.

What I learned: Once again to break things down into small lessons to help me organize my thoughts.

Arc Beginning: Arthur Pelias

He is a member of the futuristic robot-controlled and micro-chipped “perfect” world, who is unaware of the true history of humanity.

Arc Ending: Arthur Pelias

He has become enlightened by the Knowledge Keeper and chooses to “go back in time” to experience the world of duality.

Internal Journey: He morphs from the micro-chipped “perfect man,” into a fearless leader who tries to awaken his community to the possibility of free will.

External Journey: From one of the many micro-chipped people to the one who tries to awaken the people to the truth of their existence.

OLD WAYS:

Lives without deep feeling or passion.

Does what he is told…always.

Lives within strict physical and mental boundaries.

Worships as God the computer who controls all people.

NEW WAYS:

Sneaks away from the community to visit the Knowledge Keeper.

Goes back in time through a portal and discovers war and violence.

Goes back in time and discovers true love and art and passion and free will.

Decides he needs to tell the others about what he has learned.

Mod 2: Lesson 4: What’s Beneath the Surface?

The Knowledge Keeper

My Vision: I find the time to create well-written scripts that will sell and be produced.

What I learned: To write down my sub-text before starting the script.

CONCEPT: In the future, in the attempt to wipe evil from the Earth, robots take away free will and task one man, hidden away, to record the ancient battles.

1. Someone Who Hides Who They Are

2. The Fish Out of Water

How the Sub-text Plays Out in my Story:

1. Someone Who Hides Who They Are: Arthur Pelias pretends to be a part of the “perfect micro-chipped world” while he uncovers the truth of humanity’s history. On the other side of the portal, when he goes back in time, Arthur hides that he is a time traveler from the future to the humans he encounters.

2. The Fish Out of Water: Arthur Pelias belongs no-where and becomes a fish out of water in his world when he turns on the robot-controlled world. He also feels like a fish out of water when he falls in love with a woman in the past and realizes that he cannot stay with her as he must go back to his own time.

[John P. Hallar]

Subject Line: John P. Hallar’s Subtext Plot

My vision: To be a successful, highly sought after, highly paid writer who has had multiple movies produced and optioned.

What I learned from doing this assignment is: how to add depth to the story via the subplots and subtexts.

Concept: A 62-year-old guitarist/caregiver forms a band with elderly musicians in the retirement home he works at. Little did he know that some of the patients in the retirement home were world famous musicians in their heyday and proving age can’t silence the timeless passion for music.

Subtext Plot Choice: Layering

How the Subtext Plot might play out inside this story.

1. The discovery of Melody’s past musical career and awards. Jim, the caregiver, sees albums, trophies and even pictures of Melody with other musicians.

2. Melody’s relationship with Eve. Initially it seems that Eve is selling the house for money but later we find out it’s for her daughter’s heart surgery.

3. Melody’s relationship with Groove. Later in the story we find out that Melody and Groove were an item back in the day but still have feelings for each other.

4. Jim meets Keys. He talks keys into playing at the Silver Symphony Residence. After a view performances Melody attends the shows. This leads to Keys, Jim, and Melody jamming.

5. Jim learns that several of the other residents are also past jazz greats. At first, some are hesitant to share their past but eventually do and eventually warm up to the idea of performing.

6. Melody’s granddaughter’s surgery. Initially Melody is not ok with raising money for her granddaughter via a performance due to her lung illness but eventually does the performance.

7. Living in the retirement home. Initially Melody labels it as “living in a cage” but when the opportunity comes at the end of the movie to move back to her home, she decides to stay.