WIM+AI – Module 2 -Lesson 3: The Transformational Journey

[Frank Gaide]

FRANK’S TRANSFORMATIOAL JOURNEY

I can see myself writing two great, marketable screenplays every year going forward and teaming up with a manager/friend. Short term, I imagine a very difficult but valuable and rewarding six months going balls to the wall in this class.

Completing this assignment, I discovered, or I should state I am discovering, that throughout these lessons the marriage of AI and my creative process is growing with familiarity and reliance. But I am also recognizing that lots of AI information, seemingly endless, is unusable. But for my needs, it brilliantly helps me brainstorm and consider alternative ways of seeing my story progress. For example, in this lesson I had a rock-solid idea of the hero’s elements, but after running it through AI, I decided to add one or two fresh thoughts. Although my input to the AI model was brief in text and perhaps lacked information/explanation, I like how the AI output inserted my brief words into more complex, expanded statements. Bravo. Very helpful. Like a brainstorming session.

LUCY

Arc Beginning: Cowering bride-to-be.
Arc Ending: Confident married bride.

Internal Journey: Afraid, insecure, and kind to positive, confident, and tough.
External Journey: From an insecure, happy bride-to-be planning her perfect green wedding but cowering to her intimidating bossy parents’ behavior to a confident married bride who makes the tough decision to kill her parents and complete her wedding day on a positive note.

Old Ways:
– Pleased everyone but herself.
– Afraid of authority.
– Subservient. Insecure about speaking her mind.
– Would let everyone go in front of her.
– Never protected what she cared about most.
– Perfectionist.
New Ways:
– Fearless to protect her green wedding plans.
– Stands up to her controlling parents.
– Defends herself and her groom/husband.
– Confident to make the tough decision killing her parents.
– Perfectionist.

[Brian Bull]

BRIAN BULL – The Transformational Journey

My Vision: I’m a writer that producers want to work with and can’t wait for my next script!

“What I learned from doing this assignment is…?” I spend too much time trying to perfect it, thinking it will help me in the long run, but all it does – as HAL has said a thousand times – it just prevents you from moving forward.

ASSIGNMENT

Tell us the Character Arc / Journey / Ways for your Protagonist:

TOM WALKER

ARC
Arc Beginning: Introverted, OCD, timid Prop Master
Arc Ending: Confident, Capable of mastering anything on the spot.

JOURNEY

Internal Journey: From hesitant and worried to confident and rest assured
External Journey: From an insecure Prop Master for the movies to a “MacGyver” that takes down a Mexican cartel / From a husband who’s absent to an attentive husband.

WAYS

Old Ways:
Full of doubt
Shy around others
Stresses over the simplest tasks
Marriage in jeopardy

New Ways:
Protective husband
Confident
Capable of anything
A leader

• This reply was modified 7 months ago by  Brian Bull.

[Frank Gaide]

LESSON 4 !!!!!

FRANK’S SUBTEXT PLOT

I can see myself writing two great, marketable screenplays every year going forward and teaming up with a manager/friend. Short term, I imagine a very difficult but valuable and rewarding six months going balls to the wall in this class.
Completing this assignment, I discovered a solid foundation for creating subtext plots to support the central storyline. The lesson forced me to really dig deep, searching for and understanding how the hero connects with other characters who become integral in her progression while exploring multiple themes. AI element supported my original ideas and offered more creative decisions to consider.
My Subtext Plots:
1. Superior Position: Heavy on dramatic irony, the audience (is privy to) follows the Hero, Lucy’s, step by step plan to have her unsuspecting parents’ use their mutual hatred to kill each other.
2. Scheme and Investigation: The story of the murder at the wedding ceremony is told to a detective on the scene by the groom, Gerald. As the storyline drifts between the past and the present, Gerald jockeys with the detective over conjecture and unproven allegations to protect his new wife, Lucy.
3. Competitive Agendas: The main storyline involves the bride, Lucy, struggling to keep control of her green wedding against her domineering parents who are slowly hijacking her plans. The warring parents compete on a purely basic level of hatred with simple jabs; but the feud eventually gets out of hand when the innocent jabs turn into out-of-mind, dangerous pranks to outdo each other. Lucy is unable to compete with the attention her parents are drawing and decides to help them kill each other.

[Demethress Davis]

Demethress’ Transformational Journey

MY VISION: I am a EGOT writer who is very successful and revered by the industry for writing amazing stories that will live on in history.

What I learned from doing this assignment is again doing the empowering exercise gives me more confidence to apply my creativity to my writing. Doing this exercise I felt unencumbered and found it interesting that AI presented me with some of the same ideas I had written down. Love this!

Arc Beginning: Character starts out broken, dejected, weak and low self-esteem, shameful, hiding his true Black heritage, isolated.

Arc Ending: Character ends up strong-willed, confident, purposeful, unafraid, bold and embracing his true identity.

Internal Journey: From feeling unworthy, guilty and helpless to strong and able.

External Journey: From losing a good job as top accountant, not loving who he is and choosing to be homeless to acknowledging his true self , confronting his fears accepting his true identity and exposing the true heritage of a White Supremacist.

Old Ways:
* Self-doubt
* Evasive
* Not identifying as a Black man
* Self-loathing
* Shame
* Feeling Guilty

New Ways:
* Unafraid
* Embracing his Blackness
* Exposing the heritage of a White Supremacist
* Believing he is worthy and able to accomplish anything he puts his mind to.
* Forgiving himself
* Courageous

• This reply was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by  Demethress Davis.

[Patti Wall]

My Vision: I am living my best life and having fun because I’m a talented screenwriter of hugely successful, impactful movies.

What I learned from this assignment: It doesn’t have to be perfect. I got too caught up in the 3 act structure that I actually became hesitant to move forward. Then I realized that Chat GPT won’t criticize me.

• Arc Beginning: an insecure, technophobic kindergarten teacher that avoids using modern technology. Living in the modern technology driven world makes her dependent on her oppressive, demeaning husband, and others to help her.

• Arc Ending: An empowered, self-reliant woman that is not afraid to try new things, take-on technology, able to stand up for herself, and fight for her life, and children.

3. Give us their Internal/External Journey.

Internal Journey: A woman who moves from self-doubt and fear to resilience and assertiveness. She realizes her value as a caring/nurturing human being and learns she can do anything and does not rely on others.

• External Journey: She goes from a woman who reacts hostilely toward technology and those who force her to use it to a woman who uses her natural nurturing skills to “tame” and creatively reprogram an AI system with a childlike approach.

4. Tell us their Old Ways at the beginning of the movie and their New Ways at the end.

• Old Ways:
Accepts her limitations and lack of knowledge.
She is hostile when she doesn’t understand technology and resents those who
force it on her.
She believes her husband and kids think she is pretty worthless and ignorant. She distrusts the technology in her life.

• New Ways:
She feels empowered and capable of learning anything.
She is vindicated that her loving approach to others, even technology gives her a unique perspective that others don’t see.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by  Patti Wall.

[Matthew Frendo]

Matt's Transformational Journey

I want to be a fantastic writer who creates highly successful movies that are seen as thought-provoking, original and entertaining.

What I learned doing this assignment is how to tailor a transformation to perfectly fit a concept. I also learned how important it is to have both an internal and external transformation.

Arc beginning: Eve is a social media addict who worships influencers
Arc Ending: Eve is a blank influencer with no real personality or substance

Internal journey: happy and naive to blank and soulless
External journey: social media addict who worships influencers to blank, soulless influencer

Old ways:
-social media addict
-caring
-happy
-naive

New ways:
-blank slate
-materialistic
-soulless
-amoral and uncaring

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Matthew Frendo.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Matthew Frendo.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Matthew Frendo.

[Matthew Frendo]

Matt’s Subtext Plot

I want to be a fantastic writer who creates highly successful movies that are seen as thought-provoking, original and entertaining.

What I learned doing this assignment is how to create a deeper meaning to a story. I had to think long and hard (and even ask for help) figuring out the best one for this concept and realized how much more impactful a subtext is in the process.

Concept: An aspiring social media enthusiast joins a prestigious influencer academy only to discover it’s a twisted cult, draining followers’ personalities.

I am choosing layering. I will layer different mysterious elements throughout the script, revealing more and more of the cult’s true agenda as I do.

I will also use someone hides who they are with the triangle character, as she’s acting like she’s perfect while slowly going insane in private.

[David Mailman]

Mailman’s Transformational Journey
PROTAGONIST: Plato, a slave bought as a child to be the companion and protector of the Greenvale Plantation owners’ young son, Leon, is freed after the Civil War. He returns to Greenvale decades later to resolve secret issues between them.

ANTAGONIST: Leon, now owner of the failing Greenvale plantation, resents Plato’s success but needs him to save the plantation. That resentment of Plato drives Leon insane.

TRIANGLE CHARACTER: Sybelle , a voodoo priestess, is raped by Leon and Plato as teenagers. to reaffirm their feelings of manhood after they became lovers.

Plato Old Ways:
1. Plato begins life as a frightened child slave.
2. Raised with Leon, his master’s on, he takes on a master’s outlook, creating internal conflicts.
3. He becomes Leon’s lover. Conflicted with his homosexuality, he participates in Sybelle’s rape.
4. Leon’s sister seduces him. He is castrated.
5. He is freed at the end of the Civil War.
Plato New Ways:
1. Plato goes to DC and becomes successful and an activist.
2. Plato returns to Greenvale to help Leon and resolve the issues between them. He brings his pregnant wife. Alternate: Leon’s wife is pregnant.
3. Plato becomes the target of Leon’s insanity and is forced to defend himself.

Leon Old Ways
1. Is raised as a Master.
2. Is weaker than Plato but acts stronger
3. Is a racist.

Leon New Ways:
1. Frightened as his world collapses.
2. Resents help, especially from Plato.
3. Still racist and arrogant.

Sybelle Old Ways:
1. Raised innocent, wild, free, and proud.

Sybelle New Ways
1. Outraged, vengeful, implacable.