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Post Day 10 Assignment Here
Reply to post assignment.
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8 Replies
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Brenda Clarke Creating Layers
I have realised that by creating a tv show that has great intrigue, I need to continually keep questioning my characters and plots by adding multiple layers and that one or two are not sufficient either for the audience or from a producers point of view. Keep an open mind and keep exploring the possibilities. I am only scratching the surface to date.
Assignment #1 Riverdale #10 The Lost Weekend
The over all arc is trying to find out who killed Jason Blossom, Why and what do they have to gain from this? This is the first layer. Many layers are slowly unfolding by revealing possible characters that may have a motive. For example we now know that the Blossoms were the ones who got Veronica’s father arrested, which may give him the motive to murder their son.
character reveals / secrets eg: Jughead’s Dad confronts Betty’s mum, Alice says that she really is a girl from his side of the tracks – does she have a dark side to her?
Archie’s mother turns up in episode 10 makes the audience wonder, where the family dynamics will go now that she comes back home.
Betty reveals to Jughead she has a deeper/darker side to herself, that she really didn’t want people to find out about herself. Perhaps they have more in common than they realise. Which is also a relationship angle, we want to see where these two will go and what will happen.
The return of a character, Chuck who reunites with Cheryl and they crash Jughead’s birthday party. Also the undercover relationship with Kevin’s boyfriend and the secret meeting with Jughead’s dad. Will Alice uncover what he is up to? (as she was spying on them the night of the party).
Veronica is suspicious now about both parents, who can she trust, great example of an OPEN LOOP, we don’t know the answer to this yet, so WATCH THE NEXT EPISODE!
Assignment #2 Convicts
Plot Surface:
Layer 1: Hidden Story: Elliot arrives home early one morning, injured and out of sorts. Why? What happened to him that night? Why is he drinking and locked himself in his room?
Layer 2:Major Event: Harriet wakes up to find that her maid Rosie hasn’t returned from her day off. Where is she? What has happened to her?
Layer 3: Hidden History: Both Elliot/Harriet are hiding their homosexuality
Layer 4: Hidden Plan: Elliot/Harriet meet by chance, discover they have common ground and together hatch out a plan to solve both their problems
Character Surface:
Layer 1: Wealthy gentleman who has it all. Elliot seems to be bothered and hits the bottle
Layer 2: Hidden Character History: Elliot / Harriet cover up their homosexuality. Why this sudden change in behaviour? What’s happened to them?
Layer 3: Character Intrigue: Harriet seems on the surface to be an in control, hardworking, moral woman. Something else is going on, what depths will so go to, to get what she wants.
Layer 4: Hidden relationships: Harriet secretly in love with her maid Rosie. Elliot in love with a handsome sailor. Both want to keep it a secret from their respective families.
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Griff’s Plot and Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment: Plot layers continue to suggest Character layers and vice versa.
Assignment 1
Stranger Things Plot Layers
Surface: Hawkins is just a typical small town
Layer 1: Experiments at Hawkins Research Lab are causing bizarre physical anomalies in the area.
Layer 2: One of the residents claims her daughter was abducted and held at the Hawkins facility. She has since had some kind of “stroke” that has rendered her unable to communicate.
Layer 3: Chief Hopper has a murky past that seems to involve antagonism with Hawkins Labs.
Layer 4: Joyce is raising her two boys by herself and there is some difficult history with Lonnie, her Ex.
Stranger Things Character Layers
Surface: The town’s people seem like a typical cross-section of small town folks with the usual foibles.
Layer 1: Hopper has a history with Joyce (high school sweethearts?) and has a suspicion of Lonnie.
Layer 2: Nancy is dating the school BMOC, Steve, but is uncomfortable with his tendency to be a bully.
Layer 3: The four boys (Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will) are the school science nerds, always being picked on by the “jocks.”
Layer 4: Nancy has the “good girl” reputation, A student, etc. When she begins to date Steve she has to start lying to her parents, and she is uncomfortable with this.
Layer 5: Joyce is excitable, and her older son Jonathan is a social outlier at school. When her son Will disappears, she is not taken seriously at first.
Layer 6: When Eleven turns up she is virtually mute, but learns to communicate with Mike and the boys very quickly. She is clearly “different.”
Assignment 2
THE LAST STRAW Character and Plot Layers
Plot Layers
Surface: Stephanie and Brad are neighbors, both single parents, and their kids are giving them fits.
Layer 1: Stephanie is having difficulty holding home life together as she pursues a writing career.
Layer 2: Brad keeps a low profile as a music teacher but his daughter, Marcey, disappears into the desert for days at a time with her friend Harmony. Brad assumes this is self-destructive behavior.
Layer 3: Stephanie’s boys, Randy and Todd, regularly get in trouble, and Stephanie is struggling to keep Social Services at bay.
Layer 4: Stephanie thinks there is more to Marcey’s unexplained disappearances in the desert than can be explained by the Party Girl image she projects.
Character Layers:
Stephanie:
Surface: Struggling single mom who writes a syndicated parenting advice column for a regional newspaper.
Layer 1: Stephanie is a qualified investigative journalist who is looking to break a big story.
Layer 2: Stephanie and the boys’ father are separated by mutual agreement, not divorced.
Layer 3: The separation is for the protection of the family.
Secret Identity: Investigative Journalist
Randy:
Surface: He is a typical angry teen who is frustrated that his younger brother is bigger than him.
Layer 1: Randy is a good athlete who does not get team opportunities because of his small stature.
Layer 2: Randy and Todd’s sibling rivalry is exacerbated by the absence of a father in the home.
Layer 3: Randy feels like his mother neglects her parenting responsibilities.
Layer 4: Randy has a crush on neighbor Marcey, and she is the only one aware of his athletic abilities.
Secret Identity: Jock
Todd:
Surface: Todd is a gentle and smart kid who is big for his age.
Layer 1: Todd is not interested in sports but keeps getting recruited for teams because of his size.
Layer 2: Todd feels the absence of his father more keenly than Randy and blames his mother for driving Dad away.
Layer 3: Todd has secretly been coached in self-defense by neighbor Brad.
Secret Identity: Ninja
Brad:
Surface: Reclusive music teacher dealing with a worrisome young adult daughter.
Layer 1: Brad carries guilt for his ex-wife’s death from a drug overdose.
Layer 2: Brad is a former rock star who is making amends for his previous lifestyle by caring for his daughter.
Layer 3: Brad badly wants to get the old band back together.
Secret Identity: Rock Star
Marcey:
Surface: Marcey lives at home with Brad but regularly disappears for days into the desert for what are assumed by Brad to be drug parties.
Layer 1: Marcey is involved with a group that gives aid to migrants crossing into the US via the desert. She keeps up the Party Girl persona to protect Brad.
Layer 2: Marcey’s mission is personal, as she identifies with her mother’s Hispanic heritage.
Layer 3: Marcey has agreed to share information with Stephanie that may lead to a big story.
Secret Identity: Human Rights Activist
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What I learned doing this assignment is: I found this exercise fun and thought provoking. Once again, a simple yet effective way to enrich the idea and bring it up to the next level. When creating one layer, it always seems to lead me to the next one! Pretty cool huh?
Assignment 1
“INVASION” – APPLE +
PLOT LAYERS
PLOT SURFACE: Aliens have arrived and are beginning to invade Earth. We see this unfolding through the perspectives of an apparently random cross section of people throughout the world.
LAYER 1: The alien drones/beings are seeking out Caspar to kill/capture him due to his psychic abilities that could possibly affect/stop them.
LAYER 2: The aliens are attempting to terraform Earth for their own habitation.
LAYER 3: They represent life as we absolutely don’t know it.
LAYER 4: They are not dead & are coming back with great strength and numbers.
CHARACTER LAYERS:
SURFACE: “IKURO MURAI” – Hinata’s father.
LAYER 1: Retired JASA engineer.
LAYER 2: Specialist in radio/audio, can help make contact/signal lock with alien ship.
LAYER 3: Has psychic abilities as well. Contacts Caspar mentally and possibly possesses the ability to make contact with the aliens as Caspar does.
LAYER 4: Could possibly be the key (or part of the key) in defeating the aliens for good.
Assignment 2
“THE EMM TRIANGLE”
PLOT LAYERS
PLOT SURFACE: Alien ruins have been discovered on both the dark side of the Moon and Mars. Dr. Xingguang “SHING” Liliang has been recruited by OWSA (Off World Space Administration) to bring her unique expertise to the projects.
LAYER 1: The initial translations/interpretation of what’s been found describes vast amounts of precious metals and other valuable resources.
LAYER 2: There is a discovery of another sort of puzzle that’s apparently the key to unlocking a devastatingly powerful weapon.
LAYER 3: Even though OWSA countries are supposedly working together, in reality, each are attempting to solve/steal the alien riddle and gain sole control of the “weapon”. Each are using covert-military espionage to achieve this goal.
LAYER 4: Gigantic worldwide corporations are also vying for control, sending spies to get ahead of the competition and be the first to capitalize on the vast untapped resources and will use or do anything within their wealth and power to get it.
LAYER 5: There is a secret waiting to be revealed that is far more important than wealth or military might and Shing might be the “chosen one” to discover it.
CHARACTER LAYERS
“SHING”
CHARACTER SURFACE: Respected professor of Archeology and Ancient Linguistics.
LAYER 1: A childhood multiple alien abductee/survivor with psychic abilities, a gift from “them.”
LAYER 2: An avid animal lover.
LAYER 3: Suffers from claustrophobia.
LAYER 4: Likes Thrash Metal music.
LAYER 5: Black belt in Karate.
LAYER 6: Has visions/dreams that can lead to deciphering the alien enigma.
LAYER 7: Can communicate with the “them.”
JonCCC
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Lisa’s Plot and Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is that my show already has layers built into it, so it gives me hope that my writing will flow into something beautiful and intriguing once I get started.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Example Show
Vampire Diaries:
Plot Layers:
Layer 1: Stefan falls in love with Elaina
Layer 2: Stefan is a vampire and he has to resist his urge to kill Elaina and other people, since He doen’t feel like it’s ethical.
Layer 3: Damon is jealous of Stefan and wants to make his life hell, so he tries to get him caught.
Layer 4: Damon actually does have some humanity when faced with a common enemy, so he kills Stefan’s best friend to cover for him so he can stay.
Layer 5; Stafan decides it’s best he leave town so more death and destruction doesn’t continue to follow him, but there’s another vampire turning people
Layer 6: A vampire hunter turns up and kills logan, so we can’t know who turned him in the first place.
Character Layers:
Layer 1: Elaina is a sad high school student trying to have a normal life
Layer two: She falls in love with Stefan, but he’s a vampire.
Layer three: Damon turns ELaina’s brother’s girlfriend, and she inevitably has to be killed. She wants to forget Stefan, because of the pain that followed him, but doesn’t want to lose the love she has for him.
Layer four: Elaina loves Stefan anyway. They break up since Stefan is leaving.
Layer five: Now Stefan isn’t leaving because there’s another vampire turning people. They get back together but Elaina finds out she looks just like Katherine, so she leaves her vervain necklace behind and goes on a drive, but hits an unknown vampire.
<hr>ASSIGNMENT 2: Your Show
Discover the layers that could exist for your show.
1. Brainstorm a list of possible PLOT layers.
O.C. Vampires seem to control everything
O.C. Vampires have people farms
Hidden history between Marc and Lucy (they used to date. Lucy turned him because she was in love, but Marc fell in love with someone else. Lucy controlled Marc’s lover’s mind and caused her to commit suicide.)
Lucy is jealous of Jane. Will she kill her too?
Vampires are keeping the city “clean” of vagrants and any “undesirables” by having the farms.
2. Brainstorm a list of possible CHARACTER layers.
CHARACTER LAYERS – identity beneath the identity.
Jane:
Secret identity: Vampire
Character intrigue: has to go against her ethics being vegan and having to consume human blood
Hidden relationships and conspiracies: Hides her relationship with Marc from her professor
Hidden Character history: Hides her lifestyle while maintaining her activism
Marc:
Secret identity: Vampire
Character intrigue: doesn’t agree with the human farms, but also has to consume blood to survive.
Hidden relationships and conspiracies: Hides relationship past with Lucy. He feels dead inside. He can’t connect with humans since he has to eat them.
Hidden Character history: History with Lucy, previous life as a mortal.
Dr. Berkwood:
Secret identity: She’s a witch
Character intrigue: She’s just coming into her power
Hidden relationships and conspiracies: She wants to destroy the vampires.
Hidden Character history: She started the curse of the vampires in a past life. Can she fix what she started?
3. Organize them each into a possible sequence of reveals.
Plot Surface:
Layer 1: Jane’s a vegan activist, taking care of her mom
Layer 2: Marc has a spark for Jane, but Lucy is jealous
Layer 3:The O.C. Vampires control everything and Jane wants to know why. Marc keeps it hidden from her to protect her, but Jane finds out and her trust in him is betrayed.
Layer 4: The O.C. vampires have human farms that parallel factory farms and “humane” farms. Jane doesn’t agree with it, but they try to convince her that they are ethical, too.
Layer 5: Marc agrees that the human farms are unethical. He has started to see the truth. How far does it go and how can they stop these inhumane practices?
Character Surface:
Layer 1: Jane is a vegan activist who is taking care of her sick mother while in school for her PhD
Layer 2: Jane is a vampire who has to control her cravings for blood or find an ethical way to consume it.
Layer 3: Jane goes on a downward spiral trying to keep up appearances adn not lose her career
Layer 4: Jane learns about the farms and it becomes her mission to destroy them.
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Luc’s Plot and Character layers
What I learned about this assignment is that following the lists of questions given in the lesson, like a shopping list, is a great way to improve your show, step by step. Helps to ask yourself the right questions without being crushed by the mountain of work ahead. It gives depth every where: plot, characters, meanings.
ASSIGNMENT 1: The Americans
At the start of this new episode, Philip (KGB agent undercover in the US) is abducted by a team of US secret agents and tortured to get the names of his contacts. It looks like he is irremediably discovered and the only choice left for him is to become a double agent. This would give a new depth to the series, where he would have to lie to Elisabeth (his wife and co-agent).
But then Elisabeth is also abducted and tortured (although only psychologically). So now it seems that both of them have no other choice then to turn against the KGB. It would still bring new layer to the plot, although a bit less interesting (because they can still team, instead of lie to each other).
And then, as neither of them submit, but say they’d rather die than talk, we realise along with them that their torturers are Russians, trying to make sure Philip and Elisabeth are not the mole they’re looking for. So it looks like there is no new layer after all. Still, Elisabeth’s violent reaction against her KGB contact who organised the abduction (she beats her almost to death) is in itself a new shift (I don’t know if I can call it a new layer) because now she has lost her faith and trust into KGB, with is a major shift in her psychology and which should bring her closer to Philip who has no illusions about them. But Philip realises that all this happened because of something Elisabeth must have told them about him. She confesses that a long time ago she told the KGB that Philip was enjoying too much his life in the US. Because of that, there is new turn on their relationship, a reversal, where Philip is not after Elisabeth anymore, now she is after him.ASSIGNMENT 2: my show « Limbo »
Recap of show concept:
Jaqueline and her teenaged grand daughter commit suicide together. They end up in coma inside an intensive care service. During an Near Death Experience, the grand daughter finds herself in an alternate reality where other patients, going through their own NDE, can socialize. Most are trying to reach to the nursing team who can’t see them.Brainstorming.
1. IDENTIFY YOUR SOURCE MATERIAL
• Reveal a Moral Issue. (Lesson 3)
⁃ Is it alright to have your lover believe you are only 13, when in fact you are 80?
⁃ Is it alright to conduct experiments on your own son in a coma, not knowing his real desire to live or die?
⁃ Is it alright to deny access Limbo to your grand daughter, because it would endanger your last love story before you die?
• Reveal a Character Intrigue or Hidden Plan. (Lesson 4)
⁃ What is the real reason for the reporter to go in Limbo? (Love? Revenge? Research?)
⁃ Has someone been conducting hidden experiments on Rocker all these years ?
⁃ What is the real reason for the Lousy Student’s Father to put his son in Dr Levi’s service?
• Reveal an unknown relationship history. (Lesson 6)
⁃ How about if Dr Levi was Rocker’s secret father?
⁃ He is making experiments on his son, while the mother disapproves, but takes part in it so that her son can live. She still hopes he can wake up one day.
• Create mysteries and reveal clues for deeper layers. (Lesson 8)
⁃ Could Dr Levi be keeping his son in a coma just for the sake of his research, although he could have waken him up all this time?
⁃ What is really doing Dr Levi?2. ASK QUESTIONS TO DISCOVER LAYERS
• Could there be a deeper mystery?
⁃ What if there was a second Limbo in parallel? (Closer to the Light?)
• How could there be a completely different meaning to what we’ve discovered so far?
⁃ In Dr Levi’s service, NDE’s are drug induced.
⁃ Some are, some aren’t.
• What conspiracy could exist that changes everything?
⁃ There is a conspiracy to take over the reins of Dr Levi’s service (by another doctor? By some private firm who needs to make experiments on real people in coma? Because they are also researching NDE, but not for philosophical reasons, because there is huge opportunity to make profits out of it (it could be a bigger business than drugs, alcohol, entertainment, etc…)PLOT LAYERS – Story beneath the story.
• Major scheme revealed
⁃ Dr Levi has been conducting experiments on his secret son Rocker, kept secretly in a coma in the hospital cellar, for ten years now.
⁃ The LousyStudent’s father wants his son to investigate about potential dysfunctions in the intensive care service. This is the real reason why he pulled strings to have him training there. There is conspiracy lurking, trying to overtake Dr Levi’s function from head of the intensive care service.
• Mystery revealed
⁃ Why did Jaqueline’s grand daughter try to commit suicide? I don’t know yet, and I’m opened to anything.
⁃ What is it exactly that Dr Levi is trying to achieve with his experiments? I don’t know yet. And specially, I don’t know how much he knows about the Limbo. Is he aware of it’s existence? Does he think it is rubbish? I think that if he knew about Limbo (and that his son is actually conscious) he wouldn’t do those experiments (but maybe he’s not that nice), so it might be a good idea to keep this a mystery too: does he know about Limbo and only pretends it is rubbish?
• Thought the story was one thing, but it is another
⁃ We think the story is about a love story in Limbo between a virgin teenage girl and a forgotten rockstar. Should he resist her, because of their difference in age? When actually the girl is not a teenager, she is the grandmother. So the story is about an old woman trying to live a last love story like it was the first one. She is the one taking advantage of his youth.
• Major shift in Meaning
⁃ The story looks like it is about life after death, but actually it doesn’t say what happens to a character when they go for the light (death). So the story is more about Carpe Diem, and how to prepare yourself to die. It’s also about who decides (and how), that someone’s time has come to an end. Those are all first level story consideration.
⁃ The conspiration around the intensive care service is a turn in the story, but I don’t want it to become something shallow and worn like private interests taking over welfare (or some sort). I need a deeper philosophical twist, which I haven’t found yet.
• Hidden history
⁃ How about a massacre perpetuated in the premisses during the St Barthelemy? With spirits still wandering around, disrupting communications between the Limbo and regular world? It has a « Shining » aftertaste with makes it a bit overworked. But it could still work as some kind of ironic obstacle, as long as the whole story predicament doesn’t rely on it too much.
• Hidden plan
⁃ Administration of the hospital has a hidden agenda, which could be connected to the actual Covid pandemic, but I still have to document myself to find something believable and meaningful.
• Major betrayal
⁃ Jaqueline could betray her grand daughter (when she also appears in Limbo) to save her own love story.
⁃ Need to think about bigger betrayals.CHARACTER LAYERS – identity beneath the identity.
• JAQUELINE
⁃ Surface: A teenager is flirting with a forgotten « rockstar to be » in Limbo.
⁃ Layer 1: Secret Identity: The teenager is actually her grandmother Jaqueline, who is 80 and who experiences her NDE in the body of her teens, that looks like her grand daughter.
⁃ Layer 2: Hidden Agenda: Jaqueline wants to live a final love story, as if she was a teen.
⁃ Layer 3: Hidden Character History: Jaqueline had a love story when she was a teen and she tries to relive it.
⁃ Layer 4: Wound: Her old love story ended with the suicide of her lover because of something she did. She wants to undo this symbolically.
⁃ Layer 5: Revenge: On whatever made her do what she did that brought her lover to kill himself.
• Other characters:
⁃ I need to know more about my other characters to give them layers.0 -
Lois’ Plot and Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is…my plot doesn’t really lend itself to layers. Neither did LOST. The key example was Sixth Sense, which was a movie – not a series. The plot was much more simple than what you are explaining here.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Lost
Watch the next episode of your Example Show and notice how layers show up in this show — both in this episode and throughout the episodes you’ve already seen.
Tell us the layers you have discovered in the Example Show.
Claire is pregnant. A psychic put her on the plane that crashed so she couldn’t give her son up for adoption. We thought she was going to LA to meet the adopting family, but she was intended to crash on the island, and keep her child.
Sawyer carries a letter he claims was written to him, accusing him of evil deeds, but he wrote it to the man who hurt his family, the man he has tried unsuccessfully to emulate.
Deadline: 1 day
ASSIGNMENT 2: Your Show
Discover the layers that could exist for your show.
1. Brainstorm a list of possible PLOT layers.
PLOT LAYERS – Story beneath the story.
Major scheme revealed: Mann runs a chemistry lab. He can make custom medicines for townsfolk. Meff’s family wants a supply of a drug that could keep were-skunks from morphing.
Mystery revealed: Mann really wants the asteroid, which is only on the skunk farm, and which is a key ingredient in both the anti-morphing drug, and in his nefarious drugs.
Thought the story was one thing, but it is another:
Major shift in Meaning
Hidden history
Hidden plan
Major betrayal
2. Brainstorm a list of possible CHARACTER layers.
CHARACTER LAYERS – identity beneath the identity.
Secret identity: Meff, his aunt, and his dad are were-skunks
Character intrigue: We thought Aunt Abigail was just a mean skunk who sprayed Meff to irritate him. She was actually trying to make him morph into a skunk.
Hidden relationships and conspiracies
Hidden Character history:
3. Organize them each into a possible sequence of reveals.
Plot Surface:
Layer 1: Parker enters Meff in the Skunk Beauty Contest
Layer 2: Parker believes in her skunk so much that she helps him destroy the contest
Layer 3: Mann appears to be funding the skunk beauty contest
Layer 4: He is using the contest to get everybody in town away from the Skunk Farm so he can steal truckloads of asteroid
Etc.
Character Surface:
Layer 1: Mann appears to be a greedy businessman
Layer 2: He is a were-owl, if he gets his asteroid-based drug.
Layer 3: Polly is selling home-made jewelry made from asteroid
Layer 4: Mann buys it to get asteroid.
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Frank’s Example Show Plot and Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is…
What I learned from my example show is how the plot and character layers lead to amazing twists and turns in the story. After watching episode 8 of JESSICA JONES, which ends in a crazy twist that floored me, I realize now that the twist works so well because it is in alignment with how the writers have setup Jessica Jones’ character. In the previous 7 episodes, we’ve seen how Jessica’s self-destructive attitude, her emotional wounds, all the things she’s endured, have caused her to be someone who won’t give up easily. She’s extremely tenacious. So when she ambushes Killgrave during the final dinner scene, it is shocking and surprising, but totally congruent with who she has been established as a main character. This kind of plotting didn’t happen with the writers thinking off the cuff and free writing. They had to build in these layers through deep brainstorming and plotting.
Assignment 1: JESSICA JONES, up to s01e08 – “AKA WWJD?”
Tell us the layers you have discovered in the Example Show.
PLOT LAYERS – JESSICA JONES
- Major scheme revealed: Hogarth has taken genetic samples of Killgrave’s and Hope’s fetus for some ulterior motive that will probably benefit no one except Hogarth. Jessica seems like she might choose to stay with Killgrave and try to turn him into a force for good, but then reveals that she has an entirely different plan to kidnap him and knock him out using fentanyl. Meanwhile, Killgrave had planted a command in the nosy neighbor’s head to bomb Will Simpson should he ever show up again at the house.
- Mystery revealed: Reva had some knowledge that involved her with Jessica and Killgrave for some length of time before she was killed. What’s on that USB drive? Turns out the USB drive holds multiple video files of Killgrave as a ten-year-old boy who is being experimented on (painfully) by his own parents.
- Thought the story was one thing, but it is another: thought the journey would only be about proving Hope’s innocence, but there are other conspiracies and forces at work like how Killgrave was made into a powerful psychic by his parents.
- Major shift in Meaning: Killgrave is unafraid to mind-control an entire police precinct; they’ll remember him after he’s control fades.
- Hidden history: Jessica Jones was orphaned as a young girl. Somewhere along the way, she developed super-strength. Killgrave was experimented on by his parents and those experiments enhanced his latent psychic abilities and gave him mind-control powers.
- Hidden plan: Jessica and her allies are trying to capture Killgrave alive and neutralize his powers. Killgrave, meanwhile, has setup an elaborate trap for Jessica to enact his twisted fantasies of a family with her in her childhood home.
- Major betrayal: Hogarth’s secret sampling of the fetal remains. Jessica’s reveal to Luke Cage that she was the one responsible for killing his wife.
CHARACTER LAYERS – JESSICA JONES and other characters
- Secret identity: Malcolm was really a spy for Killgrave for the first five or so episodes.
- Character Intrigues: Wound – Jessica Jones was orphaned at a young age; Wound – Trish Walker’s mother was psychologically and physically abusive to both her and Jessica; Deception – practiced at various times by nearly all the characters, especially Killgrave; Competition – after trying to be a hero and save Jessica, Will realizes he can’t compete on the level of enhanced humans and urges Trish to stay out of Killgrave’s and Jessica’s ways so that normal humans like her and him don’t get hurt; Dilemma – Jessica realizes that she might be the only person capable of harnessing Killgrave’s powers for good but that would mean she would have to willingly live with him and sacrifice her freedom.
- Hidden relationships and conspiracies: Hogarth has been having an affair with her secretary and this has now initiated acrimonious divorce proceedings with Hogarth’s wife.
- Hidden Character history: Jessica Jones had a “normal” life in suburbia until her parents and brother were killed in a car accident that Jessica blames herself for causing. Kevin Killgrave was experimented on as a child, by his own parents who were neuroscientists in England. His mind-control powers are a result of these very painful experiments that were conducted on him by his parents.
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Frank’s Show Plot and Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is…
What I learned from doing this assignment for my TV show is that this structure helps me to brainstorm ways that the story can twist and turn in a way that makes sense and also generates interest. It feels almost like I’m outlining the pilot episode in more detail than previously, while also outlining the first season in very broad terms.
Assignment 2: Frank’s Show
Discover the layers that could exist for your show.
1.) Brainstorm a list of possible PLOT layers.
PLOT LAYERS – Story beneath the story.
- Major scheme revealed: an oil company is stealing land from locals in a Gulf Coast community. A young woman is murdered for discovering this plot.
- Mystery revealed: Marjorie dreams about a family that is not the same family as the one she lives with. In these lucid dreams, she learns science and tech that is advanced beyond what her society is currently capable of.
- Thought the story was one thing, but it is another: the audience at first believes they are watching a murder-mystery/noir set in the 1960s Deep South. But it’s actually a science-fiction saga about a family living across three different universes. In the young Marjorie storyline, she thinks she’s solving a case of corporate greed and murder but she discovers there are “alien” forces at work in her community as well. One of these aliens is influencing an oil company exec.
- Major shift in Meaning: Marjorie isn’t living in 1960s Deep South. She’s actually inhabiting an alternate history version of the Deep South and her family is spread across three different realities. She was sent to this reality in order to avoid a totalitarian regime that wants to dissect her and her brother’s brains.
- Hidden history: Marjorie and her brother were forced into a portal to another universe when they were younger. During transit, the portal was destroyed by government forces and the mishap caused the children to end up in two different universes with amnesia.
- Hidden plan: their true parents are in communication with their children through their dreams. They are training their children to stay one step ahead of their pursuers. An oil company wants to take control of some land along the coast in order to plunder it for its natural resources.
- Major betrayal: Nelson Davis betrays Marjorie twice – first he cheats on her when they are dating in college, and then later he betrays their values by leading an anti-democracy nationalist conspiracy to take power in the Free Peoples Nation.
2.) Brainstorm a list of possible CHARACTER layers.
CHARACTER LAYERS – identity beneath the identity.
- Secret identity: Marjorie is not from this world. An oil company executive is being influenced by an alien force that has entered this world in order to find and capture Marjorie.
- Character intrigue: Hidden Agenda – an oil company is trying to take people’s land. Conspiracy – they are being aided by people high up in the government. Deception – Marjorie hides her dreams from her waking family. Secret – her adoptive parents haven’t revealed the truth to Marjorie about how they found her years ago, alone in the bayou. Wound – Marjorie has always felt alone and out-of-place in this world but she doesn’t know why.
- Hidden relationships and conspiracies: Nelson’s family is involved in the oil company’s schemes in some way. Marjorie befriends an old fisherman with a mysterious past and hidden insights/wisdom.
- Hidden character history: the true nature of Marjorie’s origins and her true family, including her brother who ended up in another universe. The old fisherman was the one who first found Marjorie alone in the bayou, when she was still unconscious. He took her to the people who would eventually adopt Marjorie.
3.) Organize them each into a possible sequence of reveals.
Plot Surface: a young woman is found dead or goes missing in a Gulf Coast community.
- Layer 1: Marjorie Jackson discovers clues that lead her into an investigation. She discovers an oil company is trying to take land from people in order to exploit natural resources.
- Layer 2: Marjorie and her new friends, including Nelson and the fisherman, are able to recover the missing young woman or bring her murderer to justice, thereby implicating the oil company. However, they discover that Nelson’s parents had a role in the criminal conspiracy.
- Layer 3: Marjorie realizes that one of the oil company execs is actually being manipulated by an alien entity. This entity knows about Marjorie is trying to capture her and take her back to Earth Prime.
- Layer 4: Marjorie uses the knowledge she gains from dreaming with her parents to build Salter’s Ducks – devices that use the motion of ocean waves to generate clean electricity for the inhabitants of the Gulf Coast community.
Character Surface: Marjorie Jackson is a bright young girl who seems somewhat out of place in her community. People like her but she doesn’t have any close friends.
- Layer 1: Marjorie dreams at night about a different family that she belongs to. They tell her secrets about the world and about technology that are far advanced beyond anything in her world.
- Layer 2: Marjorie befriends an old fisherman who seems to know there is something more to her than meets the eye. Eventually, he reveals that he found her alone in the bayou, unconscious, a few years ago. He took her to the people who would become her adoptive parents and helped them to adopt her without making anyone else in the community suspicious.
- Layer 3: As an adult, Marjorie and her best friend Nelson become lovers while attending college. But he cheats on her and they breakup. Marjorie has a hard time trusting people after this.
- Layer 4: Marjorie learns the truth about her origin from another universe. She learns her parents are locked up in a maximum security prison for political dissidents on Earth Prime, and her real brother is a soldier facing danger in the Tribal Nations army of a third universe.
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