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Week 3 Day 3: Turning Points – THE MATRIX
Posted by cheryl croasmun on May 18, 2022 at 6:37 pm1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights/breakthroughs into what makes this character great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of any insights/breakthroughs you like.
3. Rethink or create a scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite that scene/character.
Zev Ledman replied 1 year, 12 months ago 5 Members · 6 Replies -
6 Replies
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How does this Turning Point cause the following:
Part of the character’s journey.
– he’s destined to learn the truth about himself
Changes the character’s life forever.
– Neo is forever changed after taking the red pill
Requires them to up their game NOW.
– he’s about to be used.
What makes these characters engaging?
– Neo has no idea he’s being used?
How are they expressing their profile?
– He resists.
Where do you see character depth in this scene?
– When he resists
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This is a tough one for me, but I see some kind of recognition in Neo when he sees the mirror image of himself just before being transported to the ‘real world’. The character depth I see is his fear and yet a determined resolve in place at the same time.
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I too found this one particularly challenging. As a turning point for Neo, it couldn’t be any more of a drastic change. It ses visually like a complete rebirth into a different sort of existence altogether.
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Wow, that’s a great insight… that he undergoes a rebirth of some kind.
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Week 3 Day 3: Turning Points – THE MATRIX
How does this Turning Point cause the following:
· Part of the character’s journey.
Neo is looking for the truth and takes the red pill believing it will help him find it.
· Changes the character’s life forever
The reality Neo finds is terrifying.
· Requires them to up their game NOW.
Neo discovers the truth about what’s happening to mankind, including himself, and realizes that if he doesn’t want to be enslaved by the robots forever, he must find a way to escape and save himself and the rest of mankind.
1. What makes these characters engaging?
Neo is a reluctant hero. He never asked to be put in this position, but now that he’s there and seems to be the only one who can make effective change, he steps up his game to fight back. Morpheus has been using Neo all along and intentionally shows him reality knowing he will grow into the position of hero and save the day.
2. How are they expressing their profile?
Neo really doesn’t have a choice but to fulfill his character’s profile. He knows, and once he knows, he can never go back to not knowing. In the amazing words of Doggett in Orange is the New Black, “Toasts can never be bread again…” Morpheus must express his profile in order to put Neo on his path.
3. Where do you see character depth in this scene?
Neo could easily have turned on his heels and run away from the whole situation, but instead, he swallowed his horror to finding out the truth and rose above his fear.
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1. Provide your insights/breakthroughs into what makes this character great from a writing perspective.
Neo initially comes off as a quiet, unassuming, anti-establishment, counter-culture person who’s trying to solve the puzzle of what is the Matrix. But, his desire to know the answer makes him willing to take risks. It is this intent to know the truth that makes him take the red pill, changing his world as he knew it, forever.
That is one of the many qualities that make this character stand out. He knows there’s something not right in his world. And, he’s willing to throw caution to the wind in order to know the truth. Most people would have taken the blue pill and lived in ignorant bliss.
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