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Lois’ Intriguing Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is…I have more to learn about my characters.
ASSIGNMENT 1:
1. Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes.
Locke walks now, but he was in a wheelchair before the crash.
Locke has a knife collection, and he wanted to go on a walkabout.
Locke is able to kill and haul a 250 lb boar by himself, with only a knife
Locke knows how to whittle a dog whistle.
Jack is a do-gooder doctor, who refuses to participate in a group memorial.
Sayed was in the Republican Army in Iraq.
Kate killed her father.
Charlie is a drug addict who can catch fish with a spear.
Rose KNOWS her husband and the folks in the tail end of the plane are still alive.
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
Character Name: Meff
Role: new were-skunk
Hidden agendas: He wants to know what’s going on in the cave where the bullies hang out
Competition: bullies, the skunk-eating owl, his sisters
Conspiracies: He wants to sneak into the new pharma labs to see what is going on
Secrets: His favorite hat is missing
Deception: Lies to non-family members about where and how he disappears (when he’s a skunk)
Wound: His family kept their skunk-heritage a secret from him and his sisters.
Secret Identity: He’s a were-skunk
Character Name: Ramon
Role: Meff’s best friend
Hidden agendas: He wants to be adventurous and thinks hanging around Meff will get him there.
Competition: He is entering a skunk in the skunk beauty pageant
Conspiracies:
Secrets: He got sprayed with villain’s Hair-Grow Spray and terrorized the town as a monster.
Deception: He is deceived. He NEVER sees Meff morph.
Wound:
Secret Identity:
Character Name: Howland Mann
Role: villain
Hidden agendas: he wants the meteorite rock that is only on Meff’s family skunk farm.
competition: Meff’s dad, who would kill an owl that threatens his skunks, even if that owl is an endangered species.
Conspiracies: He has the mayor in his pocket. Also the Animal Control man. He gets that Animal Control man to lie and claim that Meff’s family skunks have rabies, as an excuse to kill them. He has made a spray that makes people motionless.
Secrets: He has made a drug that lets him become an owl. As an owl, he kills and eats skunks.
Deception: He pretends to love skunks.
Wound: He resents his impoverished upbringing
Secret Identity: he is an owl (when he takes his drug)
Character Name: Kamali Parker
Role: Works for the villain, buys Meff when he’s a skunk
Hidden agendas:
Competition: She is entering Meff in the skunk beauty contest
Conspiracies:
Secrets:
Deception: She lies to Villain about her skunks
Wound:
Secret Identity:
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Brenda Clarke RIVERDALE
This series is full of intrigue, it’s making me more aware how as a writer you can add depth to your characters and not make dull/ordinary characters but textured with deeper layers.
Assignment 1. INTRIGUE #4 The Last Picture Show
Secret Identity: Music teacher didn’t exist 12 months ago, something darker going on?
Secret: Archie has desperately trying to keep his affair with the music teacher under wraps.
Hermoine, Veronica’s mother also has secrets of her own, why is she seeing some guy from the “South Side Gang”. REVEAL to her daughter that her father is a business man and is paying off South Side for services rendered. He operates even whilst in jail. Veronica surprised to find out that her father perhaps has a large criminal side to him.
Kevin makes out with one of the South Side Gang at the Drive In, they both decide to keep it a secret (Kevin from his Sherif Dad & gang boy to his gang)
Hidden Agenda’s: Jughead wants to save the Drive In from being closed, reveal that he has been living there and bigger reveal towards end of episode his father seems to be the leader of the “South Side Gang”. Could also be Secret Identity?
Conspiracy: Betty does some sleuthing to find out that the music teacher didn’t exist 12 months ago, breaks into her car (with Veronica) and finds an old id “Jennifer Gibson” and a gun.
Deception: Music teacher reveals why she changed her name and didn’t tell Archie the truth about her background/domestic violence. But Was it the truth?
Hermoine, Veronica’s mum has also deceived her daughter by not telling her the truth about her and her ex husbands connections with the criminal world and South Side Gang.
Wound: Betty’s mother has been holding a grudge and being overprotective of her daughter because of something that went on with her oldest daughter Polly and Jason Blossom.
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Brenda Clarke
Assignment 2. Intriguing Character Layers
This assignment has started me off in the right direction of finding true depth to my characters and start me thinking of all the layers I need to add to make them intriguing and keep the audience hooked to watch the next episode. Baby Steps!
Character Name: Harriet Wright
Role: Heroine, will do anything to find her maid
Hidden Agenda’s: Wants to prove to her mother she is capable of running a business and doesn’t need to marry a man in order to have a “normal/happy life”.
Competition: perhaps she is hard on herself? tries to be the best she can, rather than competing with others.
Conspiracies: She seeks out petty criminals in order to find the whereabouts of Tilly (maids older sister) and has do to some favours in return for them to help her.
Secrets: Harriet hasn’t spoken about her true feelings she has for the same sex with her mother. She is quite a loner and doesn’t have many friends.
Deceptions: She gets involved with the criminal world and needs to keep their secrets. When she can be trusted they include her as one of them, giving her the 5 dot tattoo between the thumb and forefinger. (perhaps later adding skull & cross bone as a “leader not to be messed with”).
Wound: Secretly hates her father for leaving them when she was a small girl, saw the struggles and sacrifices her mother made to make ends meet. She is determined to be successful.
Secret Identity: haven’t thought this out fully but perhaps she could have some sort of disguise when doing a “job” for the criminal gang? She could be quite good at this?
Character Name: Elliot Edwards
Role: Reluctant Hero, want to reconnect with his sailor lover
Hidden Agenda: Prove to his snobbish father, that he is a good and decent person
Competition: not sure about this one yet?
Conspiracies: He conspires with Harriet to have a fake marriage (when they meet up at the Old Bailey when trying to find their lovers)?
Secrets: he too hides his homosexuality, but eventually reveals it to his sister.
Deceptions: fake marriage?
Wound: His father was very cruel to him when he was younger? Whipped him?
Secret Identity: he really lives a double life, he is from an aristocratic family, yet he falls for a common sailor. two sides to him. (He can be very feminine (the bottom) and Richard the masculine one (the top) in the relationship.
Character Name: Rosie Cotton
Role: Maid/lover to Harriet innocently caught in crime and transported to Australia
Hidden Agenda: have to think about this one as her character is very honest and open
Competition: her sister Tilly is the one that perhaps is trying to compete with her younger sister Rosie?
Conspiracies: have to think on this, perhaps Harriet has asked her not to tell her mother about them?
Secrets: to keep her and Harriet’s love for each other a secret from Harriet’s mother. Perhaps when she was a child she used to be a pick pocket?
Deception: perhaps she makes up a “fake boyfriend” and tells Mrs. Wright fanciful stories about her adventures/love with this unknown young man.
Wound: Her and older sister lived on the streets (after their parents died) did what they could to survive. Hates her past and just wants to live for today.
Secret Identity: perhaps this could be her poor past, being a child pick pocket?
Character Name: Richard Smith
Role: a sailor who is convicted for 7 years transportation for “crimes of an unnatural act”.
Hidden Agenda: not sure about this?
Competition: always trying to prove his masculinity to his mates, over compensating for his homosexuality
Conspiracies: not sure if he has anything in this area, will have to give it more thought
Secrets: his homosexuality
Deceptions: he over compensates his masculinity when with his heterosexual sailor friends
Wound: perhaps he really didn’t like being a son of a sailor and being brought up in the navy. He misses his mother as she died when he was young.
Secret Identity: he hides his homosexuality from his mates, but also has a circle of gay friends. (he is the one who takes Elliot to the “Molly house” to spend the night with him)
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Lesson 4: Griff’s Intriguing Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment: As I go through the Intriguing Characters Model the characters reveal themselves just in the process of asking the questions.
Assignment 1
Stranger Things – Layers of Character Intrigue
There is intrigue in Stranger Things almost from the first scenes of the first episode. By the third episode nearly everyone is hiding something or trying to find out something that is hidden from them.
Mike, Justin, and Lucas are hiding Eleven.
Nancy is lying to her mother about dating Steve.
Chief Hopper continues to get stonewalled in his investigation of Will’s disappearance.
Joyce is convinced Will is alive and is driven to extremes to prove it.
Jonathan thinks Joyce is coming unhinged and wants her to stop her weird behavior.
Barb disappears and Nancy lies about it.
Eleven is clearly wounded and knows a lot more about the lab than she wants to let on.
Chief Hopper, Joyce, and Jonathan are all clearly dealing with deep wounds.
Something really fishy is going on: the “Staties” intervene in the investigation after Will’s “body” is found in the quarry.
Assignment 2
THE LAST STRAW – Layers of Character intrigue
Randy Sherwood
Role: Outraged, exasperated sibling.
Hidden Agenda: To prove his athletic prowess and best his betters.
Competition: Pretty much everybody with a pulse but especially brother Todd.
Conspiracy: Tells school counselor things about life at home which are not entirely true.
Secrets: He has been writing to his father for years, but has never revealed any response.
Deception: He steals money from his mother.
Wound: Abandonment issues.
Secret Identity: Jock. He really is, but nobody pays any attention. Only Marcey across the street has noticed.
Todd Sherwood
Role: Randy’s suffering younger brother.
Hidden Agenda: Todd is going to be the one who “fixes” everything.
Competition: Todd refuses to compete with Randy for his mother’s attention.
Conspiracy: Todd thinks his mother is to blame for their father’s absence.
Secrets: Todd seeks a surrogate father relationship with Brad across the street.
Deception: Todd accepts survival arts and firearms training from Brad.
Wound: Father abandoned the family.
Secret Identity: Survivalist Ninja.
Stephanie Sherwood
Role: Randy and Todd’s exhausted and harassed single mother.
Hidden Agenda: Out to prove she can do more with her writing career.
Competition: Other staff writers who get better assignments.
Conspiracy: She is onto a story that could turn everything around for her.
Secrets: She has remained in touch with her Ex. Also, there is some unspoken connection between she and Marcey across the street.
Deception: The boys father didn’t really abandon them, and Stephanie knows that.
Wound: Seen only as Mom and Homemaker.
Secret Identity: Investigative Journalist.
Brad Collins
Role: Eccentric neighbor. Nerdy music teacher.
Hidden Agenda: Making the best life he can for daughter Marcey.
Competition: Marcey’s “desert friends.”
Conspiracy: He controls the licensing to his old band’s music.
Secrets: He is teaching Todd survivalist things that he’s pretty sure Stephanie would not approve of.
Deception: Pretending he is not a famous has-been rocker.
Wound: Blames himself for the death of Marcey’s mother.
Secret Identity: Famous ‘90s rock star.
Marcey Collins
Role: Brad’s daughter and Randy’s sex obsession.
Hidden Agenda: Lets Brad assume she is a party girl while she leaves water in the desert for migrants.
Competition: Border patrol trying to thwart her efforts to help migrants.
Conspiracy: See above.
Secrets: Friend Harmony is her lover.
Deception: She is not a drugged-out slacker, but lets people think that to deflect her real mission.
Wound: Loss of mother to drugs.
Secret Identity: Human rights activist.
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Frank’s Intriguing Character Layers
What I learned from doing this assignment is…
What I learned is that by designing characters with lots of depth, it allows the story to unfold in a way that is constantly surprising yet always feels truthful – even when, paradoxically, the characters are lying and deceiving others and the audience. It’s authentic lying. Or at least, it’s a way to create characters who feel authentic because even their self-interests align with their overall personalities and motivations. And the exciting dramatic parts come about because these characters have schemes that butt up against other characters’ schemes, or some of the scheming characters form conspiracies and make alliances with others.
Assignment 1: Character Intrigue in Jessica Jones
1. Where have I noticed character intrigue so far?
a. Lots of character intrigue with Jessica Jones. Her hidden agenda is to find Killgrave’s weakness (powerful opiates), steal them from a hospital by throwing her drug addict friend under the bus, and use it to track down Killgrave and neutralize his mind-control powers. Jessica is in a conspiracy with her friend Trish to provoke Killgrave by publicly airing an interview with Killgrave’s victim, Hope. Jessica’s secret that she’s been harboring from Luke Cage is that she killed Luke’s wife while under the control of Killgrave. Jessica must hide this fact from Luke every time they are together. Her wound is that she was mind-controlled and raped by Killgrave repeatedly for many months. She also was the unwitting patsy for Killgrave’s machinations that led to the situation where Hope murdered her parents.
b. Audrey Eastman hires Jessica Jones to get evidence that her husband is cheating on her. Her hidden agenda is to hunt down, entrap, and kill “specials” like Jessica Jones. She is in a conspiracy with her husband to do this.
c. Hogath, Jessica’s lawyer friend, is always trying to find a way to come out on top, even if it means stepping on innocent people. This includes the very people she is supposed to be representing as an attorney. Hogarth is willing to make Hope seem delusional to the public in order to have a better chance at winning the impending murder trial, even if this means Hope must be declared not guilty by reason of insanity. Hogarth is in competition with her soon-to-be ex-wife to secure all their old hangouts as the domain of her and her new girlfriend. Hogarth deceives nearly everyone around her: Jessica Jones, the soon-to-be ex, her new girlfriend, Hope, and even the previous victims of Killgrave.
d. Even Jessica’s drug addict neighbor, who seems like a good-yet-misguided soul, turns out to have a hidden agenda. He’s been working for Killgrave by spying on Jessica and taking surveillance pictures of her – mostly likely under the influence of Killgrave’s mind-control powers, but still, it’s a huge blow to Jessica’s already fragile sense of trust.
2. How is the character intrigue being used to create the need to see more episodes? The showrunners are using these hidden agendas to craft characters who do one thing, yet have a secret motivation or agenda. By doing this, they are constantly pulling the rug out from underneath the audience, so that the audience is never sure who to trust. This could be a turn-off but because the motivations are authentic and/or logical given what has already been setup before, we keep wanting to know what will happen next. It never feels like cheating because the setups are so well setup and the payoffs propel the story forward into more and more interesting territory.
Assignment 2: Character Intrigue in The West Moon Chronicle
Character Name: Jae-Sun Baek
· Role: A modern-day warrior desperately needing a 2<sup>nd</sup> chance at fatherhood.
· Hidden Agendas: get his grandfather to sell the old family home so he can get a percentage of the sale money and use it to get out of debt from a local gangster in Houston.
· Competition: against his grandfather to earn money off the sale of the house, against Sunny to reach the higher dimensional realm of the Sky Wyld, against Dor to save his baby daughter.
· Conspiracies: in a conspiracy with Sunny to convince Joon-Ho to sell the house.
· Secrets: he’s in trouble with a gang for not paying back a loan, he’s had to beat up people before as hired muscle, he was rendered impotent after he abandoned Maddy.
· Deception: deceiving his grandfather, deceiving every woman who meets who might feel something for him, deceiving himself into thinking he’s okay when he’s not.
· Wound: when he was 18, his grandfather was accused of murdering civilians during the Vietnam War and was taken into custody by the FBI. This left Jae-Sun feeling scared and betrayed, and then shortly thereafter, he learned that Maddy was pregnant. He entered into fight-or-flight mode and skipped town, abandoning her and their unborn baby. A year later, Maddy and the baby disappeared and were eventually presumed deceased. Since then, he’s been unable to have sexual relations with anyone else and has led a disaffected and bitter life.
· Secret Identity: in the streets of Houston, he’s known as the “Sugarland Kid” and is widely respected for his fighting prowess.
Character Name: Madison Green
· Role: Young mother trying to save her baby.
· Hidden Agendas: following a plan to rescue her daughter.
· Competition: against Sunny, who wants to stop Maddy and gain possession of Hanseng’s Pearl of Wisdom.
· Conspiracies: with Hanseng the Water Dragon. Together, they have formed a plan to capture Dor and infiltrate his fortress to rescue Autumn Dawn.
· Secrets: she is so mad at Jae-Sun that at one point she considered killing him.
· Deception: lying to her family because she knows they won’t understand the time dilation effect she went through in the Sky Wyld that only aged her 7 months to her parents’ 18 years. Deceiving Dor in order to rescue her baby.
· Wound: in the moment when she was most vulnerable, her boyfriend abandoned her when he discovered that she was pregnant.
· Secret Identity: Maddy had to hide the fact that she became a martial arts student under the tutelage of Joon-Ho from her parents and family.
Character Name: Joon-Ho Rhee
· Role: A Taoist sage who doesn’t want to sell his home.
· Hidden Agendas: he will risk his life to distract the guardian at the Lotus Gate in order for his grandson and Maddy to stop Dor.
· Competition: against Sunny in order to acquire the Pearl of Wisdom. Against the bull-dokkaebi guardian to distract Dor long enough for Jae-Sun and Maddy to succeed in their plan.
· Conspiracies: plotting with Jae-Sun and Maddy to stop Sunny and Dor and help the young couple rescue their baby.
· Secrets: while serving in Vietnam, he had an affair with a Vietnamese woman and they had a daughter together: Pamela. Later, he brought Pamela back to South Korea with him at great cost and raised her by himself.
· Deception: he kept his shady past in Vietnam hidden from Jae-Sun until the past finally caught up to him when Jae-Sun was 18. Even then, it would be another 17 years before Jae-Sun would understand that he is one-quarter Vietnamese.
· Wound: he couldn’t stop his platoon from murdering innocent civilians and had to settle for helping Pamela and Pamela’s mother escape from the village before the onslaught. Even then, Pamela’s mother died a short while later and he had to kill one of his platoon-mates in self-defense.
· Secret Identity: he is considered a traitor by some of his former squad-mates.
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Lesson 4: Layers fo the Character Intrigue
Assignment 1
1) List places you’ve already seen character intrigue.
(I think I took this literally to mean ‘places’, i.e locations)
Each characters home, front of school, coffee shop, children b’day party, ocean shore line, on phone while driving, work out studio
2)Big Little Lies S1-E4 “Push Comes to Shove” 51 mins
Watch episode and see how Character intrigue is being used to create the need to see more episodes.
Flash back (or forward) to Jane running to the very edge of a cliff before she stops; also she jumps (dream or in her mind?)
Showing Celeste looking and her view holding on a knife block
Jane talks about moving back to her mom’s
“We all have baggage”
Is someone hurting little Annabella…and is it Ziggy?
(And the music selection that plays in the episodes gives ‘hints’)
Assignment 2
“What I learned doing this assignment is:”
That your inner circle characters would do well having most or all of the ‘intrigue items’ and of handled well, would not get in the way’ but would add depth to each character.
Character Name ..Madeline Jane Celeste Renata
Role ‘lead’ mom mystery mom best friend mimesis
Hidden Agenda trying to stay top gun practice return to law wants to be liked
Competition Renata the town husband Madeline
Conspiracies besting people hidden life living own life bettering Madeline
Secrets ‘may be losing self’ dangerous son unhappy not into sex
Deception affair is she normal hiding bruises not being happy
Wound abandoned by father raped-child husband not liked
Secret Identity Not a good mom murderer? power lawyer corp not enough
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ASSIGNMENT 1:
What I learned doing this assignment: I can totally see these qualities and characteristics in almost all of the Scandal characters. I’m not feeling very creative about my own characters yet. What seems to be hanging me up still is that I want this to be comedic and not too dark (more Arsenic and Old Lace rather than The Black List). I’m not yet tuning into the funnier hidden agendas, conspiracies, wounds, etc.
My Example show is Scandal:
1, Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes. Yikes! All of the episodes and almost all of the characters are filled with character intrigue! So, I’ll just name a few…
Olivia:
· Hidden agendas: Wants to protect the President but can’t if he’s guilty
· Competition: Competing with President’s wife and his Chief of Staff (Cyrus) for President’s soul
· Conspiracies: She conspires with her team constantly to find the “win” in their cases
· Secrets: That she’s in love with the president
· Deception: She presents a tough exterior but is very emotional
· Wound: She doesn’t know if the president just used her
· Secret Identity: Flawed heroine
Quinn:
· Hidden agendas: To become the next Olivia Pope
· Competition: The others on the team who are more experienced
· Conspiracies: She forms an alliance with the reporter
· Secrets: Not known; she apparently didn’t exist before college (or law school?)
· Deception: That she’s sleeping with the enemy (the reporter)
· Wound: Not known yet
· Secret Identity: She’s a gladiator who hasn’t found her armor
Cyrus:
· Hidden agendas: Get the policies and laws he wants passed no matter what
· Competition: He’s competing against the President’s humanity
· Conspiracies: Against Olivia and her team
· Secrets: He has people killed to protect his agenda
· Deception: That he cares about the President
· Wound: He’s a gay man who cannot be President himself
· Secret Identity: A King maker
Amanda (okay, she died in this episode, but they still gave her all the character intrigue!)
· Hidden agendas: For an unknown reason, she wants to take the President down
· Competition: With Olivia and her agenda?
· Conspiracies: With someone on the other end of the phone that she tells “I can’t do this anymore”
· Secrets: Whose baby she’s carrying
· Deception: That she’s an innocent victim
· Wound: On the surface, that the President won’t even talk to her now
· Secret Identity: Shill set up to take the President down
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
· Role: Leader of the pack
· Hidden agendas: Once they’ve begun, she doesn’t want to stop with just “old white guys in power”
· Competition: Competing with Rose for the “moral high ground”
· Conspiracies: Conspiring with the group to do the murders
· Secrets: She was the power behind the throne when her husband was alive—and he never acknowledged it
· Deception: She plays the Washington power game but they can’t see that she’s trying to destroy them
· Wound: That she was never acknowledged (elected) despite her intelligence, savvy, and skills
· Secret Identity: Senator Abigail XXX
Character
Name: Rose· Role: Conscience of the group
· Hidden agendas: To get payback for being shunned when her husband was elected
· Competition: With Abigail for the “moral high ground”
· Conspiracies: Conspiring with group to off old white guys in power
· Secrets: She wants her sone to take the place of a Senator on the hit list
· Deception: She’s not as opposed to the assassinations as she claims
· Wound: Washington society didn’t accept her when her husband was elected; husband died after losing an election to an old white guy
· Secret Identity: Avenging Angel
Character
Name: Wali· Role: Detective tracking them down
· Hidden agendas: She wants to prove herself and get promoted
· Competition: With her patronizing counterpart—and every other male colleague—to be recognized
· Conspiracies: She goes against department directive and keeps working on the case
· Secrets: She’s in love with someone her family would never accept
· Deception: She’s actually rooting for the assassins as she’s trying to catch them
· Wound: Her family doesn’t accept her occupation
· Secret Identity: Genius detective (aka Sherlock Holmes)
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Kathleen’s Intriguing Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is that characters need have intriguing layers to make the audience want more.
The Young Pope
Character Name: Lenny/Pope Pius XIII
Role: The Pope
Hidden Agendas: He’s going to work alone. He has a different way of doing things. He isn’t going to follow the previous Pope.
Competition: A Cardinal who is his mentor wanted to be Pope. The Cardinals resent him and open up an investigation on him.
Conspiracy: He is changing the Catholic Church. He asks people personal questions making them expose personal things.
Secrets: The Pope has people expose things. The Cardinals opened up an investigation on him about his past. His parents abandoned him in an orphanage. He is changing the Catholic Church.
Deception: He makes people think he wants their help and advice but really he doesn’t.
Wound: He was abandoned by his parents at the age of 7. He wants to know why.
Secret Identity: He doesn’t want to be seen. He feels Jesus is the only one who should have images of him.
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Luc’s Intriguing Character Layers
What I learned doing this assignment is that thinking in terms of character intrigue made my previous characters become more interesting giving them ambivalence and moral dilemma.
LIMBO — JAQUELINE
• Role: An old woman who wants to live an ultimate love story in limbo before she is unplugged.
• Hidden agendas: Seduce NICK, who is 50 years younger, because she wants to enjoy the love affair she never had when she was young.
• Competition: For Nick’s attention with Girl Next Room, who has a crush on Nick, which might be reciprocal.
• Conspiracies: With Medical student to take GNR out of her way.
• Secrets: Hide her real age from NICK, so it doesn’t disgust him to date an old woman, but also from other limbos so they don’t judge her.
• Deception: Deceiving everybody by taking the identity of her grand-daughter. Deceiving her grand-daughter when she steps into limbo, by making her hide from the others.
• Wound: Bullied by her twin sister when they were young. Her sister died in an accident, and everybody held Jaqueline responsible for it, without actually saying it. This is what made it impossible for her to pursue her love interest who was also her sister’s crush.
• Secret Identity: Profound bitterness.LIMBO — Medical Student
• Role: A lousy student who is in intensive care only because this trainee-ship will give him better grades. He wants to be an ophthalmologist, which is a “clean” medicine (unlike intensive care) and pays very well, but needs him to have better grades than what he can do.
• Hidden agendas: steal any credits he can, so it looks good on his academic record.
• Competition: with other students to get Head of Service’s attention.
• Conspiracies: I don’t know yet.
• Secrets: cheated on his first year medical examination.
• Deception: I don’t know yet.
• Wound: I don’t know yet
• Secret Identity: I don’t know yet -
What I learned doing this assignment is: That the more layers of intrigue you place on your characters the more they become alive and interesting to watch, especially in my own mind.
Assignment 1
EXAMPLE SHOW: INVASION – APPLE +
ANEESHA –Wronged housewife, Highly protective mother. Intelligent -went through medical school.Discovered an alien artifact/part. Does she really hold one of the keys to defeating the aliens? Will she?
MITSUKI – Deeply In love with Hinata. Highly trained JASA technician/Astronaut. Won’t give up trying to reach Hinata. Will she be the only one able to get her back alive? Can she help save Earth?
HINATA -Loves Mitsuki . Highly trained JASA Astronaut. Is Hinata still alive in the clutches of the aliens? Will she make it? Could she possibly help to defeat them?
CASPAR – Loner, loves his mother, stands up to bullies. Psychic abilities, can connect with the alien hive mind. Is he really dead? Has his mind combined with the aliens? Is he still the key to defeating them?
JAMILA – Tough chick, loves Caspar, fights for what she believes in. Can she still help Caspar? Is she some sort of conduit needed by him to connect with aliens?
In the final episode of the first season, the alien ship has been nuked in orbit and crashes to Earth. Upon closer inspection we see that are signs of life. Is the craft itself alive? Are the alien invaders still a threat?
Assignment 2
“THE EMM TRIANGLE”
Character Name: DR. XINGGUANG LILIANG nickname: – “SHING”
Role: Archeologist/Linguist, OWSA Astronaut.
Hidden Agendas: Seeks revenge for the death of her parents. Is sworn to secrecy, but wants to reveal the greatest secret humanity has ever stumbled upon.
Competition: Some of her fellow OWSA astronauts (who are actually MSS agents of the Chinese Government)
Secrets: Has extreme claustrophobia, childhood alien abductee, Could have possibly saved her parents, Knows the men responsible. Can understand & communicate with aliens. Beginning to understand the greatest secret of the universe.
Deception: Ready to give up all the secrets to the public. Acts like a “team player” but is ready to become a suicide bomber.
Wound: Her parents murdered and she could have saved them.
Secret Identity: A frightened little girl, an Avenging Angel
Character Name: COMMANDER RAYMOND BEECHAM – nickname: “RAYBEAM”
Role: Veteran pilot/Starship Commander
Hidden agendas: Wants to retire rich, eyes & ears of OWSA, wants to write a “tell all” novel.
Competition: Younger hotshot pilot who goes by the book, Guy who’s dating his ex-wife, OWSA General/Ground Control
Conspiracies: Wants to embarrass guy
Secrets: His vision is going, Still in love with ex-wife, Overhears something big.
Deception: Puts on an act like he’s a country bumpkin, but is extremely intelligent.
Wound: Screwed up his marriage, Lost the love of his life. Thinks making more money will win her back.
Secret Identity: Secretly contemplating selling information to Chinese/Russians for big $$$
JONCCC
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ASSIGNMENT 1:
What I learned doing this assignment is that adding layers makes your show more intriguing.
1. Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes.
Elaina:
Role: she wants to be happy.
Secrets: She has a diary
wound: is her loss of parents.
Stephen:
Secret: he’s a vampire and he writes in a diary
Secret identity: Vampire
Role: to control his urge to drink human blood, but is constantly tempted by Elaina.
Hidden Agenda: To be with Elaina
Wound: lost his parents and Katherine
Damon:
Role: to make life hell for Stephen
Secrets: He’s stalking Elaina
Secret identity: vampire
Hidden agenda: To take Elaina from Stephen
Conspiracy: Pretends to like Elaina’s friend, but uses her to his own advantage
Wound: He lost Katherine
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
Character Name: Jane
Role: main character, vegan who gets turned into vampire
Hidden agendas: To make people vegan to save the planet and the animals, and also find a way to make vampires not need cruelty
Competition: Orange county vampires
Conspiracies: People farms
Secrets: She’s a vampire
Deception: She’s vegan
Wound: Her mother is sick and she can’t do anything about it. She hates harming living things
Secret Identity: She’s a vampire
Character Name: Marc
Role: supporting, He is intrigued by Jane and wants her, but also wants to protect her.
Hidden agendas: He doesn’t support the human farms, and wants to stop them
Competition: Orange county vampires, especially Lucy
Conspiracies: People farms
Secrets: he’s a vampire
Deception: He’s a vampire
Wound: love of his life died in the 1950’s. He’s lost many people he loved because he outlived them
Secret Identity: a vampire pretending to be a PHd student
Character Name: Lucy
Role: villian
Hidden agendas: to maintain the status quo, keeping vampires hidden. She doesn’t want Marc to be happy.
Competition: Marc, and Jane
Conspiracies: People farms
Secrets: she’s a vampire
Deception: she’s a vampire, but also a narcissist. She wants control.
Wound: she loves Marc, but he doesn’t love her
Secret Identity: a vampire
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MICHAEL GRECO’S Intriguing Character Layers – Mod. 1 Lesson 4
What I Learned Doing this Assignment is exploring different facets of intrigue in the Characters fills out the characters in greater dimension, and creates lots of potential reveals and setups / payoffs.
Example Show: American Horror Story
Hidden
agendas Ben wanted to keep
affair with Hayden going.Violet wants family to stay in Murder House
Original Doctor murderer creates a ‘Franken[monster]-Baby’ in the basement laboratory to exhume stillborn son.
Tate and other patients of Ben seek his psychiatric counsel so they can maintain access to the Murder House.
Security guy on call competes for Vivian’s affection, intimacy and reliance / devotion.
Competition Tate competes with ghosts for
possession of Murder House.Armenian buyer wants to outbid everyone, raze Murder House. Because he can.
Moira wants to keep her position as maid of Murder House, and competes for men’s attention and lust.
Gay man wants to outdo everyone else who has inhabited the Murder House in exploiting its grandeur.
Conspiracy Violet conspires with Tate to
keep him in Murder House.Ben allies with police and neighbor Constance against Vivian to commit her to psychiatric inpatient care.
Secrets Tate and the Sharon Tate murderer pose as psychiatric patients to access the Murder House and get close to Ben.
Vivian strikes up extramarital affair with security contractor guy, gets pregnant with his child.
Deception Constance surficially comes to the aid of Ben and Vivian and seeks to poison them to cause illness and control them..
Ben goes to Boston on a false pretense declared to Vivian, where in fact Hayden demands that Ben accompany her to abort her pregnancy with him.
Wound Ben is weak, an unsuccessful psychiatrist, and gives in to lust in having affair with Hayden and later with maid Moira.
Violet is a lone wolf, lots of internal pain, cuts herself.
Secret Identity Violet drives the decision of Ben and Vivian to buy the Murder House.
Vivian is driven to protect her family, will do so at all costs.
Assignment 2 – Miles and Fritz Concept
Character
Name: MILES
Role: Eco-ActivistHidden agendas: Force / Induce all of his peaceful environmental activist volunteers to devote themselves to high-impact radical guerilla tactics
Competition: STORRS BOUTON, chemical engineer, stokes MILES as he is trying to develop environmentally friendly household cleaning products.
WINSLOW ARMHOLSTER, options trader, stokes MILES to competitive streak as he is truly successful, gives advice to MILES.
Conspiracies: MILES gets information that FRITZ is being investigated for impropriety on the job – from Fritz’ Bureau Chief, Marcella Bordelon.
Secrets: MILES in closet as gay
man, lover is oil engineer WOLF (whoalso benefits in career by keeping relationship and sexual
orientation concealed). MILES keeps secret his human
trafficking past.
Deception: Uses magnanimous, sweeping
rhetoric to mobilize allies andconceal terrorist or guerilla objectives. Presents a cooperative
activism initiative effort, governed by group consensus, to
conceal
– Wound: Abused / beaten as a child, making him feel helpless, impotent,
unable to influence the world around him much less shape in a
way that makes him feel safe.
Secret
Identity: Vengeful provocateur;
global conqueror.Character
Name: FRITZ
Role: FBI Agent trying to
rebuild reputationHidden agendas: Fritz is committed to aggressive tactics in law enforcement, wants to do everything feasible to solve his cases and apprehend the perpetrators – by any means necessary.
Competition: FRITZ competes with his chief MARCELLA to prove he is the most able and effective agent, suited to do only the most challenging cases.
FRITZ competes with Constanza to by the best, most effective federal agent and employee.
Conspiracies: FRITZ uses harassment / scare tactics to enlist Indigo Bryant and Winslow Armholster as informers against MILES.
Secrets: FRITZ is a phenomenal ballroom dancer…and tap dancer. These are things he keeps hidden to maintain the façade he has concocted of FBI agents being brutal, macho, tough-as-nails. FRITZ impregnated a woman in Czech Republic when he was galavanting around Europe during undergraduate years. He supports the child, but does not acknowledge publicly that he has a son “out of wedlock,” again assuming that is incompatible with FBI norms.
Deception: FRITZ poses as cool, poised and disciplined, able to meet the pressures of high-conflict scenarios. In fact, FRITZ is a brute who loves nothing as much as to bash in the skulls of his detractors and nemeses/ “enemies.”
Wound: FRITZ was a sensitive child, always got picked last for sports teams and always had an amiable rapport with girls and women. FRITZ feels like he is not a real man, and goes to great lengths to disabuse everyone else of that notion.
Secret
Identity: Invincible PowerMonger. -
Redoing my Character Intrigue profiles for my new concept:
Name of character: Marjorie Euri Hak-Jordan
· Role: an activist in the Free People’s Nation. A journalist primarily, but she has skills in self-defense, medicine, and electrical engineering.
· Hidden Agendas: she doesn’t tell anyone about her lucid dreams involving her biological parents and her brother. She discovers an anti-democracy conspiracy in the Free People’s Nation and is determined to stop it.
· Competition: against her ex-lover who is one of the leading conspirators. She knows she must stop him from achieving his aim of winning the presidency.
· Conspiracies: she is in league with other activists who are determined to stop the imminent coup.
· Secrets: she knows more about technology and medical science than anyone else in her world. She must use that knowledge judiciously lest she become even more of a target than she already is.
· Deception: she deceives her ex-lover into letting his guard down so that she can assassinate him. She covers up her lucid dreams from her adoptive family and her friends.
· Wound: she wants to be with her biological family but knows that it is impossible. Even though she knows her parents sent her away out of love, she also blames them for it. And after discovering her ex-lover is part of a violent conspiracy, she has deep trust issues.
· Secret Identity: she has technical knowledge no one else in her world knows. She operates as an undercover agent for the activist group that is fighting the anti-democracy conspiracy.
Name of character: Henry Tae Hak-Jordan
· Role: an astronaut, engineer, and warrior in the Tribal Nations. He is sent on a mission to terraformed Venus where he must battle against European conquistadors bent on stealing ancient alien tech from the Tribal Nations to use it against them.
· Hidden Agendas: is sent on a secret mission to Venus to aid in the defense of the alien ruins. Is not allowed to talk about it with other members of his crew. Doesn’t tell others about his lucid dreams after he learns that agents of Torquemada have infiltrated his world.
· Competition: highly competitive in sports against his other crewmates. He wants to rise up in the ranks of the space program and is willing to work hard to do so.
· Conspiracy: works with the other members of the military to keep the existence of the alien ruins a secret from most until it can no longer be kept under wraps.
· Secrets: doesn’t tell most people about his lucid dreams.
· Deception: lies to others when asked about rumors of the alien ruins. Lies to protect himself from Torquemada’s agents.
· Wound: has trust issues from having been sent into exile by his parents. Suffered a broken heart from a relationship that ended badly and now has problems with intimacy as well.
· Secret Identity: keeps his true origins a secret, also operates as an special forces agent of the Tribal Nations military.
Name of character: Barbara Hak-Jordan
· Role: medical doctor and mother of Henry and Marjorie.
· Hidden Agendas: keeps her research with her husband a secret from the government forces. After they are discovered, she does everything she can to protect her children from Torquemada.
· Competition: must assert her dominance in the brutal environment of a federal penitentiary. Uses her knowledge of human psychology and medicine to weaken and harm her opponents.
· Conspiracy: in a conspiracy with her husband and her family to keep them safe from Torquemada and his minions.
· Secrets: doesn’t reveal to anyone outside of her family the nature of her research. Later, in prison, she uses her knowledge to glean secrets from others that are advantageous to her survival.
· Deception: she hides her and her husband’s research from the authorities. She lies to Torquemada and the others that their children were killed when the portal process was interrupted.
· Wound: hates that she has been separated from her children for so many years and has missed them growing up into adults.
· Secret Identity: is committed to seeing the downfall of the oppressive government that rules her world, especially Torquemada.
Name of character: Sung Hak
· Role: applied physicist and father of Marjorie and Henry.
· Hidden Agendas: keeps his research with his wife a secret from the government forces. After they are discovered and imprisoned, he does everything he can to protect his children from Torquemada
· Competition: jockeys to be the alpha male in prison as a survival strategy. Uses his mind and body to beat his opponents.
· Conspiracy: in a conspiracy with his wife and his family to keep them safe from Torquemada and his minions.
· Secrets: doesn’t reveal to anyone outside of his family the nature of his research. Later, in prison, he uses his wits and leverage the secrets of others for his own advantage.
· Deception: he hides his and his wife’s research from the authorities. He lies to Torquemada and the others that their children were killed when the portal process was interrupted.
· Wound: is deeply wounded that his children were exiled to alternate universes without them, and has been out of their lives for so long. Longs to reunite his family.
· Secret Identity: is committed to seeing the downfall of the oppressive government that rules her world, especially Torquemada.
Name of character: Ennio Torquemada
· Role: primary antagonist to the Hak-Jordan family. Is the leader of the counter-intelligence unit of the oppressive government.
· Hidden Agendas: leads covert ops to root out insurgents and anti-government groups.
· Competition: highly competitive. Seeks to attain the presidency. Ruthless in his quest for more power.
· Conspiracy: will side with any groups that give him an advantage in climbing the ranks of office.
· Secrets: has a daughter that he loves dearly and keeps her medical infirmities a secret from all his peers and underlings. Maybe his daughter is transgender and that is a source of shame for him?
· Deception: an expert liar and manipulator. Uses deception to capture and destroy his enemies, whether those are enemies external to the state or internal.
· Wound: raised in an abusive environment, he was profoundly scarred as a child and now believes that life is always about survival. Though he may play the game of being a member of polite society, he knows that it’s always about how he can dominate and come out ahead in any situation that matters.
· Secret Identity: he’s a killer who delights in having power over everyone. There are very few people in his life that he genuinely cares about. His daughter is one of them. Maybe his wife. But everyone else in his life are pawns to him. He may not be a true sociopath, but he’s close. Under his charming and charismatic exterior, lies the cunning ferocity of a wolf.
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