WIM+AI – Module 3 – Lesson 4: Character Intrigue

[Frank Gaide]

FRANK’S CHARACTER INTRIGUE

I 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 continue to have doubts about my original concept. I love this tool: adding intrigue. I discovered more depth in my characters that can be used to create setups and payoffs and twists. But I have to find time to reevaluate the original concept and add or subtract elements to make this idea stronger.

TITLE: THE BRIDE KILLED THE CAKE

ROLE: Lily – bride (to be) – protagonist

INTRIGUE ITEMS(S):

HIDDEN AGENDAS: Her eco-wedding is more than an environmental statement; it’s a tool to fan her parents’ bitterness to the point of mutual destruction. Beneath her eco-friendly gestures is a cunning scheme to push her parents into taking each other down.
CONSPIRACIES: In cahoots with groom to cause her parents to murder each other.
UNBROKEN WOUNDS: Embarrassed and dominated by her parents’ feud.

HOW LILY’S CHARACTER SUBTEXT MIGHT SHOW UP:

She exploits her parents’ criticisms and ruthlessness to make them appear guilty: she is trying to help them resolve differences but secretly sabotaging their every action to hurt themselves.

ROLE: Izzy (Isabel) – bitterly divorced mom of the bride – antagonist

INTRIGUE ITEMS(S):

COMPETITION: She feuds with Frankie (her ex), Attempts to change Lily’s green wedding plans.
SECRETS: She feels like a failure and blames Frankie who she punishes by staging covert pranks on him.
HIDDEN AGENDAS: Izzy hides her real goal—to wrestle control of Nico’s pizza empire—under the guise of wanting the best for her daughter’s wedding.

HOW IZZY’S CHARACTER SUBTEXT MIGHT SHOW UP:

She dismisses Lily’s wishes and designs everything needed for a wedding at the Ritz: she attempts to bring it all outside at the campground to replace Lily’s eco plans: she goes out of her way to embarrass and harass Frankie, her ex, at every opportunity: she turns maniacal and evil by staging dangerous pranks that could maim or kill Frankie.

ROLE: Frankie – divorced father of the bride – antagonist

INTRIGUE ITEMS(S):

COMPETITION: Frankie feuds with Izzy for his daughter’s affection.
SECRETS: He’s a failure in life and lies about his work and status out of embarrassment.
UNSPOKEN WOUNDS: He wants to take revenge on his ex-father-in-law, Nico, for the way Nico mistreated him and drove a stake through his marriage. He feels deep guilt over abandoning Lily but buries this beneath a tough exterior, projecting blame outward.

HOW FRANKIE’S CHARACTER SUBTEXT MIGHT SHOW UP:

He robs a couple small banks to help pay for Lily’s wedding: he attempts to help set up eco decorations for the wedding but fails badly ( or is it his ex, Izzy, who is sabotaging his efforts in front of Lily): he lies to everyone about his present situation, especially Izzy and Nico: he plants accusations about Nico in people’s minds: believing Izzy is sabotaging his help with Lily, he escalates dangerous pranks with Izzy until there’s no knowing who is really responsible, and he doesn’t care, as long as Izzy’s out of the picture.

ROLE: Coop(er) – groom/husband – romantic partner

INTRIGUE ITEMS(S):

HIDDEN AGENDAS: There’s something off about Coop and it’s difficult to gage his true intentions. Coop’s affection for Lily masks his true intent—to use her family’s wealth and influence for his own gain.

DECEPTION: He skirts most questions with questions.
SECRET IDENDITY: He has no family and few friends, a blank past. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, posing as the supportive groom while orchestrating a plan to inherit Nico’s wealth through his marriage.

HOW COOP’S CHARACTER SUBTEXT MIGHT SHOW UP:

He always has a tear-jerking answer about loss of family and friends: he befriends Izzy, Frankie, and Nico to appear impartial whenever Lily retaliates against them: he tricks Lily into causing Frankie and Izzy to kill each other. Not to mention his shady friends.

NAME: Nico – rich grandfather and Izzy’s dad – mentor

HIDDEN AGENDA: Nico is orchestrating a subtle succession plan for his empire, testing who among his family is strong or savvy enough to inherit.
UNSPOKEN WOUND: Decades of disappointment with his daughter and son-in-law left him disillusioned, and he secretly views Lily as his last hope for redemption.

[Demethress Davis]

Deme’s Character Intrigue

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 those empowering exercises are amazing and truly inspire me to believe in myself and my ability to create meaningful, noteworthy, amazing, intriguing A-List grabbing actor characters! LOL!

Use 1 or 2 of the following:
* Character Name: Henry Carpenter
* Role: Protagonist
* Hidden agendas: To reveal the Black heritage of Lillian, the head of a White supremacist group.
* Competition: Competing against himself-fighting to overcome the guilt of causing his wife’s death. To stay alive- Lillian constantly threatens to kill him.
* Conspiracies: He enlists the help of others to stop the killings of those who go against the leader of the White supremacist who rules most of the town.
* Secrets: Henry poses as a White man to conceal his Blackness.
* Deception: Pretends to be loyal to Lillian in order to get close enough and discover who her true identity and then reveal it to all which will bring her to justice.
* Unspoken Wound: Henry has been rejected by his father who calls him “useless and unworthy of anything good.”
* Secret Identity: Henry is a Black man who has lost his self esteem and has fallen into depression; he allows his wounds to mold him into a fearful coward.

Give us an idea of how that character’s subtext might show up in your movie.

Competition:
When attending an AA meetings, Henry tries desperately to overcome his guilt of causing his wife’s death. He struggles to express his feelings without exposing his true feelings to the group which in turn only increases that guilt and shame he feels surrounding the accident. He doesn’t want them to know he caused her death. He is in denial and unforgiving himself.

Secret Identity:
When he has a heart to heart talk with Jewel about why he came to the town; he fights to keep his true identity a secret, not trusting that she is a person he can rely on to help him out of his funk and to assist him in digging deeper into who Lillian is and what she is up to in the town.
Lillian makes a “soul food” lunch and Henry says he not accustom to eating that kind of food.
One of Lillian’s henchmen calls Henry the “N” word and Henry struggles to hold his tongue and keep his voice monotones when he replies- luckily Lillian comes to his aide, admonishing them saying he is a White man just like them.
Henry must change his walk and his clothes to reflect that of a White man. He changes the tone of voice, how he comes his hair.

Unspoken. Wound:
Henry has nightmares of conversations with his father who constantly belittles and embarrasses him in front of family members. No matter how good a job he does, his father will not recognize the good in his son; only his insecurities.
Henry takes his anger wards his father lashes out on Jewel- insulting the way she walks- she limps. This is a way to take the focus off of him and onto someone else.

* Character Name: Lillian Whitehead
* Role: Antagonist
* Hidden agendas: To eliminate every one who goes against her, but mostly to kill as many Black people as she can.
* Competition: Lillian wants total control and power of her section of the KKK in her town and she will do anything to keep it.
* Conspiracies: Lillian enlists the help of her henchmen to spy on anyone who disobeys her and once she has them, she maims them – testing their loyalty and murders them for their disloyalty.
* Deception: Lillian poses as a “Good Samaritan, taking in homeless offering work for room and board; underneath she is the town’s Chief White supremacist who is more deadly than a rattlesnake.
* Unspoken Wound: She doesn’t know who her mother is; she was told she died giving birth to her. This makes her feel guilty. she was raised by her father, the head of the KKK in the town and a Black maid her father employed and she never had the bonding experience she saw others who had mothers enjoy.
* Secret Identity: Lillian is the head of the KKK in the small Alabama town she was raised in; she is the first woman, mentored by her father who ruled the town for 60+ years and when he died he passed his legacy over to her.

Give us an idea of how that character’s subtext might show up in your movie.

Unspoken Wound:
She treats Jewel like a daughter and chastises her whenever she disobeys her orders. She acts like a mother hen towards her henchmen who are loyal. She rewards them with money and “good times” in town; showering them with gifts she thinks her mother would have given to her, if she were alive.
While in town, when she sees young girls walking and talking with their mothers, she gets upset and fights back anger and tears; she wants that bond but will never have it.

Deception:
Lillian takes him Henry, a homeless man offering him room and board as long as he fixes things around the house; she spies on him to make sure he’s doing what she asks; she leaves the house late at night and always returns sweaty with dirt on her sneakers.
Lillian hosts a party for former lodgers who she helped get back on their feet and start new lives. Henry is at the party and notices that all of them are missing a body part: an eye, a finger, a leg, an arm.
Every time Henry strikes up a conversation about how the person lost the body part, Lillian is there to interrupt before he can learn the answer.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by  Demethress Davis.

[David Mailman]

Mailman’s Character Intrigue.

Give us an idea of how that character’s subtext might show up in your movie.