[Brandyn Cross]

Sure. I’m down.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Fascinating Scene Outlines!

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of tweaking literally any element or detail in a scene to increase the impact of it… some of which may conceivably completely alter the direction the story takes from that point.

ACT 1

1) EXT. GRAVEYARD – NIGHT

Beginning: (Internal Dilemma) Alex sits alone at a grave, drinking as snow falls.

Middle: (Suspense) Starting to gain confidence and defiance. What’s he going to do?

Ending: (Uncertainty) Makes decision to kill himself, gets up and leaves.

2) EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Beginning: (Uncertainty) Alex drives his car in the snow while drinking.

Middle: (Surprise) He floors the accelerator.

Ending: (Cliffhanger) Crashes into an overpass pylon at high speed.

3) INT. HOSPITAL – DAY

Beginning: (Mislead) Alex awakens in a hospital bed.

Middle: (Misinterpretation) He realizes where he is, and is surprised to discover he survived his suicide attempt.

Ending: (Internal Dilemma) Feels no better about his life, and wishes he had succeeded in killing himself.

4) INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT

Beginning: (Intrigue) Alex thinks he sees a figure moving around in his room.

Middle: (Uncertainty) He dismisses this as imagination.

Ending: (Surprise) He clearly sees a dark figure in his room that shouldn’t be there.

5) EXT. PARK – DAY

Beginning: (Mislead) Alex is alone in the park, sitting in a wheelchair.

Middle: (Uncomfortable Moment) A 10-year-old boy approaches Alex, introducing himself as Sandy.

Ending: (Intrigue) Alex rejects the boy, telling him to get lost.

6) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Beginning: (Suspense) Alex sits in his apartment, alone in his wheelchair.

Middle: (Surprise) Sandy suddenly appears to Alex, inside his apartment.

Ending: (Major Twist) Sandy confirms to Alex that he is a ghost.

7) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Beginning: (Uncertainty) Sandy tries to convince Alex that he can use his ability to see ghosts to help other ghost children.

Middle: (External Dilemma) Alex doesn’t want Sandy, or any other ghosts, bothering him.

Ending: (Reveal) Alex says if he were going to help any ghost children, it would be his own son who had passed away.

ACT 2

8) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Beginning: (Major Twist) Sandy introduces Alex to Rorie, a ghost child that Sandy says needs Alex’s help.

Middle: (Uncertainty) Alex again refuses.

Ending: (Intrigue) Despite Alex’s refusals, he starts being taken in by the angelic and friendly ghost children.

9) EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Beginning: (More Interesting Setting) Sandy introduces Alex to Angel, his heavenly mentor.

Middle: (Uncomfortable Moment) Angel shows Alex his car accident from an observer POV. Alex is enraged and says it’s no one’s business.

Ending: (Surprise) As Alex watches, he sees a boy get out of a car and run into the road, making him realize his solitary act may have affected other people.

10) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Beginning: (Uncomfortable Moment / Intrigue) Sandy makes another appeal to Alex to write Rorie’s story.

Middle: (Uncertainty) Alex again refuses Sandy.

Ending: (Suspense) Sandy’s implication that Alex owes it to Rorie convinces him to write the book, even though he doesn’t know exactly what connection they may have to one another.

11) INT. RORIE’S HOUSE – DAY

Beginning: (Uncertainty / Suspense) Alex goes with Sandy and Rorie to deliver Rorie’s book to his parents.

Middle: (Major Twist / Uncomfortable Moment) Rorie’s parents reject Alex as crazy, and refuse to accept the book.

Ending: (Internal Dilemma) Alex, and even Sandy, begin to doubt whether they can succeed in bringing the ghost children and their families together.

12) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Beginning: (Uncertainty / Mislead) Alex is perfectly happy to just forget about writing the ghost children’s stories, despite Sandy’s insistence that they have to find a way to get through to Rorie’s parents.

Middle: (Surprise) Alex realizes he has forgotten some of his recently acquired memories of his son.

Ending: (Reveal) He realizes that his memories of his son are directly tied to his working on the ghost children’s stories.

13) EXT. GRAVEYARD – DAY

Beginning: (Uncertainty) Alex ponders how to get through to Rorie’s parents.

Middle: (Mystery) As Alex devotes his thoughts to Rorie and his family, he regains some memories of his son.

Ending: (Misinterpretation) As Alex regains these memories, Sandy becomes convinced that he, too, will be reunited in heaven with his father.

14) INT. RORIE’S HOUSE – DAY

Beginning: (More Interesting Setting) Alex, Sandy and Rorie convince Rorie’s parents to accept his book.

Middle: (Reveal) As they accept the book, they are able to see Rorie, and they can all say ‘goodbye’ properly, and gain closure over Rorie’s death.

Ending: (Character Changes Radically) Seeing the monumental difference his book made, Alex has a real change of heart, and wants to help more children and families gain that kind of closure. He’s now all in.

ACT 3

15) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Beginning: (Suspense / Mislead) Alex is anxious to get to work with another ghost child on their book.

Middle: (Uncertainty) He accepts that his own reunion with his son may be delayed by his work with other ghost children, but accepts that price now.

Ending: (Suspense / Mislead) With Alex’s acceptance of delaying his own father/son reunion, Sandy now becomes impatient and frustrated about this possible delay.

16) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Beginning: (Mystery) Sandy introduces Alex to Beth, the next ghost child.

Middle: (Suspense) Alex begins interviewing Beth and learning her story, so he can quickly complete her book.

Ending: (Internal Dilemma / Uncomfortable Moment) Sandy seems jealous of the attention Alex is paying to Beth, becomes short-tempered and somewhat negative about the work he and Alex are doing.

17) INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Beginning: (Intrigue) As Alex works with Beth, he becomes a bit cavalier and complacent about his extraordinary psychic connection to ghosts, and starts taking credit for his successes.

Middle: (Suspense) Sandy tries to bring Alex back down to earth.

Ending: (Betrayal) Alex rejects Sandy’s rebukes, and accuses him of being a spoiled, selfish little kid.

18) INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT

Beginning: (Uncertainty / Suspense) Alex, Sandy and Beth deliver her book to her parents, who accept it as a gift from their daughter without question.

Middle: (Major Twist / Mislead) Alex and Sandy then learn that Beth’s mother, Rose, has committed suicide.

Ending: (Misinterpretation / Betrayal) Blaming himself, Alex refuses to work on any more ghost child books, and tells Sandy not to ever talk to him again.

19) EXT. PARK – DAY

Beginning: (Betrayal) Sandy feels betrayed by Alex.

Middle: (External Dilemma) Angel tries to comfort Sandy, and convince him to keep trying to convince Alex to continue their work.

Ending: (Suspense / Cliffhanger) Sandy is too hurt and angry to talk to Alex, and refuses to contact him again.

ACT 4

20) INT. MORGUE – NIGHT

Beginning: (More Interesting Setting / Uncomfortable Moment) Angel and Beth force Alex and Sandy together for an intervention, despite their initial refusal to speak to one another.

Middle: (Major Twist / Reveal) Beth and Angel show them that Rose was eternally destined to kill herself but, without Sandy’s and Alex’s influence, she would have taken her husband and remaining kids with her.

Ending: (Mystery) Seeing that what appeared failure might have been a success, Alex and Sandy reluctantly make up, and agree to resume work with the ghost children.

21) EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Beginning: (More Interesting Setting / Intrigue) Angel introduces Kody, the next ghost child, to Alex and Sandy.

Middle: (Reveal) Alex has another flashback of his accident, and suspects he might recognize Kody as the kid who ran into the road.

Ending: (Intrigue) Alex and Sandy begin working on Kody’s story, though Alex suspects there may be more to this than meets the eye.

22) EXT. HEAVENLY CLOUD – DAY

Beginning: (Uncertainty) They finish Kody’s book, and Alex asks where to deliver it, which Kody doesn’t know.

Middle: (Mystery) Kody only then realizes he is dead, and needs to cross over, to be reunited with his family.

Ending: (Major Twist / Reveal) Angel appears and Kody now recognizes her as his mother, and they are allowed to reunite in heaven. Not even Sandy saw this one coming, and he and Alex are both shocked at the magnitude of the work they are doing.

23) EXT. HEAVENLY CLOUD – DAY

Beginning: (Surprise / Mystery) Kody and Angel thank Alex, and say they forgive him.

Middle: (Surprise / Mystery / Suspense) Rorie, Beth and Rose then appear, also thanking Alex and saying they forgive him.

Ending: (Cliffhanger / Mystery) Alex is completely confused, and then Sandy tells him all that’s left is for him to forgive himself, although he has no clue what this forgiveness is all about.

24) EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Beginning: (More Interesting Setting / Major Twist / Reveal / Character Changes Radically) Alex now remembers everything. He realizes he’s been dead since his suicide attempt, that he was responsible for the ghost children’s deaths, and he now recognizes Sandy as his son.

Middle: (Suspense) Sandy begs Alex to forgive himself for his suicide, and the deaths of the ghost children, so he and Sandy can be reunited in heaven.

Ending: (Intrigue / Uncertainty) Alex is too consumed with guilt over the ghost children to forgive himself.

25) EXT. HEAVENLY CLOUD – DAY

Beginning: (More Interesting Location / Surprise / Reveal) Angel transports Alex to Jesus, where he is told to lay his sins at the feet of Jesus.

Middle: (Major Twist / Suspense) Alex lays his sins at Jesus’ feet, and Jesus says he is forgiven.

Ending: (Character Changes Radically / Reveal) His guilt lifted from him, Alex can begin to forgive himself.

26) EXT. HEAVENLY GATE – DAY

Beginning: (Suspense) Alex and Sandy stand at the heavenly gates, hoping for acceptance.

Middle: (Reveal) They are accepted into heaven, and are reunited as father and son.

Ending: (Reveal) Alex and Sandy enter heaven to begin their eternity together as a family.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Scene Requirements

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to understand each scene of the outline more deeply.

ACT 1

EXT. GRAVEYARD – NIGHT

Alex drinks at a gravesite as snow falls.

Scene Arc: As Alex drinks more at the grave, he gains more and more courage to kill himself.

Essence: Showing Alex’s desperation, and that it is related to the loss of someone close.

Conflict: In visiting the grave of someone dearly departed, he is essentially pretending to get their permission to commit an atrocious act.

Subtext: Alex is deciding whether or not to kill himself, using alcohol and the grave to talk himself into it.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will be okay. We fear something bad will happen to him, given it is snowing and he his drunk in a cemetery.

EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Alex intentionally drives his car full speed into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt.

Scene Arc: Alex starts out contemplating suicide, and ends with him making a serious attempt.

Essence: We see Alex so desperate that he intentionally runs his car into a concrete pylon at high speed. He is at a point where being dead seems a better option than being alive.

Conflict: Alex is fighting himself over the classic Shakespearean dilemma, “To be or not to be.”

Subtext: Is Alex seriously wanting to die, and how is that related to the grave?

Hope/Fear: We hope he survives unhurt. We fear he may not survive.

INT. HOSPITAL – DAY

As Alex recovers, he is despondent and negative over a series of misfortunes which have befallen him.

Scene Arc: Begins with Alex allegedly having survived the crash, but we end up seeing that the issues that drove him to attempt suicide are still present within him.

Essence: We see that Alex is very fragile and conflicted even after his suicide attempt.

Conflict: Alex wants to leave the hospital to dive into his work, but is frustrated at how slow the recovery process is.

Subtext: He wants to revive his career, but still doesn’t want to live because his problems have only increased.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will overcome his depression, but fear he will attempt suicide again.

INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT

Alex starts having psychic experiences and ghostly visitations, something he has never experienced before. It’s not something he is happy about.

Scene Arc: Alex begins seeing things that seem impossible, but ends up with him realizing he is seeing ghosts for real.

Essence: We discover that Alex has gained the ability to communicate with ghosts following his accident.

Conflict: Alex is seeing ghosts, but doesn’t want to.

Subtext: Alex is being drawn into a world of ghostly encounters that will certainly change his life.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex’s psychic powers will give him a reason to live, but we fear that either the ghosts will kill him, or he will kill himself in fright.

EXT. PARK – DAY

10-year-old Sandy tries to befriend Alex, but he rejects the boy.

Scene Arc: Alex may reject Sandy’s overtures of friendship, but at least he finally talks to another person.

Essence: Though he doesn’t know it, meeting Sandy puts him on a journey that will change his eternal future.

Conflict: Sandy is very kind-hearted and offers Alex his friendship, but Alex is still too self-absorbed in feeding his negativity that he doesn’t want a friend.

Subtext: Sandy didn’t arrive in Alex’s life accidentally, and is destined to change Alex on a fundamental, emotional level.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will accept Sandy’s friendship, but we fear he will hurt both himself and Sandy by refusing it.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Sandy reveals himself to Alex as a ghost.

Scene Arc: We begin realizing Alex has been released from the hospital, though permanently disabled and wheelchair-bound, and end up realizing that Sandy is a ghost, and that Alex can communicate with him.

Essence: Alex is introduced directly to the ghostly world and, with his new psychic powers, is now a part of it.

Conflict: Alex’s only concern is getting to work and reviving his career, but is being bothered by ghosts who want his help.

Subtext: Sandy isn’t targeting Alex randomly, and has a specific mission he needs to complete for Alex’s own sake, which will involve a much deeper interaction with several ghosts.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will find a way to regain happiness, but we fear he will refuse to communicate with Sandy after learning he is a ghost.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

As Sandy tries to convince Alex to use his new psychic powers to help ghost children, Alex refuses. He says if he were to connect with a ghost child, it would be with his own deceased son, not with some ghost stranger.

Scene Arc: We begin reinforcing our belief that Alex is just a negative, unpleasant person, and then find out that he has experienced real tragedy in the loss of his only son.

Essence: We see how accepting his ability to communicate with ghosts may help Alex overcome the tragedies that have robbed him of happiness and the desire to live.

Conflict: Alex accepts that he can communicate with ghosts, and that he could use that power to help the ghost children and their families, but feels he is being cheated if he isn’t allowed to use his powers to see his own deceased son again.

Subtext: Whether he admits it or not, Alex accepts his ability to communicate with ghosts. He just wants to direct that ability toward something that benefits him, rather than others.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex can see his deceased son again and gain a reason to live, but we fear he will refuse to help the ghost children if that demand is refused.

ACT 2

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Despite Alex’s attempts to ignore Sandy and Rorie, deep down he is taken by the ghost children and wants to help them.

Scene Arc: Alex begins by reinforcing his negative attitude toward Sandy and the ghost children, such as Rorie, that he is being introduced to. At the end, Alex is being won over by the kindness and friendly nature of these ghost children, and their genuine need for help that only Alex can provide.

Essence: Alex begins having a change of heart, and contemplating for the first time helping Rorie give his parents closure about Rorie’s death.

Conflict: Alex still wants to devote his time to reviving his career, and still considers being constantly interrupted by ghosts a bother, but has begun softening and developing a genuine concern for the well being of the ghost children.

Subtext: Alex keeps up his gruff persona for Sandy and Rorie but, inside, is starting to care for them and wanting to help them.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will soften up and help the ghost children, but are afraid he can’t break through the negative barriers he has erected around his inner self.

EXT. FREEWAY – NIGHT

Angel helps Alex see more detail about his accident. He sees a boy get out of one of the cars that had stopped to help, and run across the road, stopping midway, with a terrified expression.

Scene Arc: Alex starts with his continued insistence that his suicide attempt is no one else’s business, but realizes with horror that what he considered a solitary act may have had direct repercussions on others.

Essence: Demonstrates that Alex’s suicide attempt may be related to his ability to now see ghosts.

Conflict: Alex feels a need to help the ghost children, but is now afraid of what truths may await him at the end of the road.

Subtext: We begin to wonder if the presence of a young boy at Alex’s accident scene may mean that something very bad happened to the boy.

Hope/Fear: We hope the boy will be okay, but we fear Alex’s suicide attempt may have gotten the little boy killed.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Sandy convinces Alex to write Rorie’s book.

Scene Arc: Alex’s heart going out to Rorie, and with the realization that he may have somehow harmed him, Alex agrees to write the boy’s book for his parents.

Essence: Alex now begins working with the ghost children to bring closure to their families.

Conflict: Alex wants to help the ghost children, but is afraid of what dark secrets he may uncover in doing so.

Subtext: Alex is entering into completely uncharted territory in the history of humanity by taking a mortal role in helping the ghosts of children cross over into heaven.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex can help Rorie’s family make peace with his death, and help Rorie cross over into heaven. We fear he may fail, or perhaps even inadvertently make things worse.

INT. RORIE’S HOUSE – DAY

Rorie’s parents reject Alex and Rorie’s book.

Scene Arc: Alex goes from being casually optimistic that each ghost will easily gain closure, to realizing it may be a difficult, or even impossible, task.

Essence: Alex learns that bringing the ghost children and their families will be a much more difficult and complicated task than he initially thought.

Conflict: Alex questions whether it’s worth the effort to write the child children’s stories, while Sandy and Rorie are adamant that they must convince Rorie’s parents to accept contact from him.

Subtext: Alex thinks he’s found a loophole that will rid him of responsibility over the ghost children, and wants to wash his hands of the whole affair.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex can succeed in helping Rorie, but fear he will walk away from the entire prospect.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Sandy is determined to convince Rorie’s parents, but Alex doesn’t care, until he realizes that without their acceptance, his memories of his son are fading. He then becomes obsessed with convincing Rorie’s parents to believe him.

Scene Arc: Alex begins happily disposed to forgetting the entire ghost child scenario, and ends with him firmly resolved to get Rorie’s parents to believe him and accept Rorie’s story.

Essence: When Alex realizes helping the ghost children has a personal benefit to him, he decides to continue working with them.

Conflict: Alex would rather forget the whole ghost children affair, but can’t, because the closer he works with these children, the closer his connection to the ghost of his own son.

Subtext: Alex realizes the key to getting what he most wants is to help resolve the ghost children’s problems.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will change his mind and start helping Rorie again, while we fear he will abandon the ghost children, and return to his old dark, self-centered ways.

EXT. GRAVEYARD – DAY

As Alex remembers more about the grave, Sandy becomes convinced that Alex will regain total recall, and fulfill Sandy’s wish to be reunited in heaven with his dad.

Scene Arc: Sandy starts out cautiously optimistic that Alex will continue with Sandy’s mission, and ends being perhaps overly optimistic that the finish line is in sight.

Essence: We see a glimpse into the reality that there is more connecting Sandy to Alex than we have been led to believe.

Conflict: Alex is still a bit reluctant to bring the ghost children’s unresolved issues to a successful conclusion, while Sandy is nearly desperate for them to succeed because of the personal stake he has in the outcome.

Subtext: Sandy is desperate for Alex to succeed in convincing Rorie’s parents to accept his story, because Sandy’s own eternal fate lies rests on that success.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex and Sandy can convince Rorie’s parents that their son has contacted them from beyond, but, because of Sandy’s investment in the outcome, we fear there may be detrimental consequences we are unaware of should they fail.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

As Alex and Sandy succeed in helping Rorie and his family gain closure relating to Rorie’s death, Alex has a genuine change of heart, and becomes obsessed with helping the ghost children and their families.

Scene Arc: Alex goes from somewhat reluctant participant, to a converted messenger for children from the other side.

Essence: Alex has a transformational moment, in which he is now more concerned with the ghost children’s well being than with his own.

Conflict: Alex wants to help the ghost children, but must still fight against the negative influences that have long plagued his state of mind.

Subtext: Alex is overcoming the negatively oriented person he was, and becoming the good and positive person Sandy hoped he would be.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex can help a lot more ghost children, but fear he may still revert into the dark recesses of his isolation.

ACT 3

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Alex feels true peace of mind in helping the ghost children and their families, and even accepts the chance that a heavenly reunion with his own son may have to wait. Meanwhile Sandy, who had led Alex to this point, is more conflicted, now becoming the impatient one regarding this reunion.

Scene Arc: As Sandy succeeds in convincing Alex to help the ghost children, he becomes conflicted and impatient to have his own reunion with his father.

Essence: Sandy has his own stake in Alex’s journey, and he now comes across as the 10-year-old boy that he is.

Conflict: Alex has progressed to where Sandy led him, but Sandy now fears it may cost him everything.

Subtext: Sandy’s greatest concern is his heavenly reunion with his father, which he fears may be in danger by Alex having become so committed to the other ghost children.

Hope/Fear: We fear Alex and Sandy both get what they want, but fear their relationship could be in danger.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

When Alex is introduced to Beth, he is impatient to write her book and get another fill of pure joy. His new obsession with selfless service replaces the obsession he previously had with the self-centered revival of his career.

Scene Arc: Alex begins reveling in his success with Rorie’s, and jumps at the chance to start working with the next ghost child, and repeat that success.

Essence: Alex is converted to serving the ghost children, believing he is quickly learning how to succeed in helping them.

Conflict: Alex is anxious to get started on Beth’s book, while Sandy still worries that the more committed Alex is to the other children, the more Sandy’s own happy ending could be jeopardized.

Subtext: As Sandy knows Alex is his father, he worries that he is taking a back seat to the other ghost children in his father’s eyes.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will help Beth’s family gain closure about her death, but we fear things may be going too well, and a shoe is about to drop.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Alex becomes overconfident and egotistical as he glories in taking credit for the benefits of his psychic abilities. This blinds him to red flags signaling serious problems within the families of the ghost children.

Scene Arc: Alex is too cavalier about working with the ghost children, as Sandy tries to bring him down a little more to earth.

Essence: We see Alex getting a very big head, and becoming boastful over gifts from heaven, and taking credit for accomplishments in which he was merely in instrument in God’s hands.

Conflict: In failing to give glory to God for what He has allowed Alex to accomplish, he jeopardizes his ability to access these powers.

Subtext: Alex’s growing ego threatens his mission and blinds him to developing problems with the families of the ghost children.

Hope/Fear: We hope things will work out well for Beth and her family, but we fear Alex is headed for trouble.

INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT

Alex is devastated upon learning that Rose has committed suicide after receiving Beth’s book. He refuses to use his powers anymore for the ghost children, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

Scene Arc: Alex blames himself for Rose’s suicide and, after reflecting on it, decides the only way he can make things right is to not endanger anyone else, so refuses to work with Sandy or the ghost children any longer.

Essence: We learn the magnitude of the stakes when dealing with heavenly power and matters of eternal significance.

Conflict: Alex decides the risks are too great to trust himself with the awesome power of God, while Sandy is desperate for him to press forward, as Sandy’s on eternal journey is directly tied to the completion of Alex’s mission.

Subtext: Angel knows that what Alex views as a failure was, in fact, a great success, but Alex isn’t in a position to be receptive of that message.

Hope/Fear: We hope that Alex can recover from this setback, but fear he will completely revert to the person he was.

EXT. PARK – DAY

Sandy is crushed by Alex’s rejection of him and tells Angel he can’t do this anymore. He refuses her suggestion to try to encourage Alex to keep going.

Scene Arc: Sandy feels betrayed by Alex to the extent that, when Angel reassures him and tries to coax him into resuming their work, Sandy refuses and becomes lost in self-pity.

Essence: We see Sandy as an innocent little boy with fragile feelings who can, when pushed far enough, pout and refuse to talk to someone he is angry with.

Conflict: Alex has shut down his work with the ghost children, while Sandy refuses to change his mind, as he is pissed enough at Alex that he doesn’t want to work with him either.

Subtext: Alex has no idea of the real agenda in what he is being led to do, while Sandy’s feelings were hurt by his father, whom he feels is ignoring him and doesn’t love him anymore.

Hope/Fear: We hope Angel will talk Sandy into reasoning with Alex, but we fear Sandy may be so hurt that he refuses to work with Alex again

ACT 4

EXT. PARK – DAY

Beth and Angel show Sandy and Alex that Rose was destined to commit suicide no matter what happened but, without their intervention, it would have been much worse. Alex and Sandy were forced into a no-win situation because, without them, she would also have killed her husband and kids.

Scene Arc: Initially, Sandy and Alex don’t want to talk to each other but, as they are made to listen to Angel and Beth, realize they didn’t screw up like they thought they did, and both warm up to each other, each taking the first step toward reconciliation.

Essence: Sandy and Alex learn that God does indeed work in mysterious ways, as what they viewed as a failure had in fact been a success, and accomplished the intended plan of God for Beth’s family.

Conflict: Alex and Sandy are out of step with each other, and are collectively out of step with Angel and Beth, requiring those two to stage an intervention for Alex and Sandy.

Subtext: Beth’s family needed a completely different closure than either Sandy or Alex realized. They were given information on a ‘need to know’ basis, leading them to successfully complete their task with Beth’s family, despite having no idea what actually needed to happen. Had they known, they may not have completed the mission successfully, as they would have obsessed only with trying to keep Rose from committing suicide, which may have caused a catastrophic failure.

Hope/Fear: We hope Sandy and Alex patch things up, but fear they may still be too gun shy to work effectively with other ghost children.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Alex and Sandy agree to resume working with the ghost children, and are introduced to Kody. Alex remembers more about his accident, and thinks he recognizes Kody as the kid in the road.

Scene Arc: Alex meets Kody with some trepidation but, when he thinks he recognizes him from the accident, he fears there might be a lot more to Kody than he realizes.

Essence: We get a glimpse of the connection between Alex and the ghost children, far beyond randomly being asked to write their stories.

Conflict: Alex wants to help Kody but, after the experience with Beth, is nervous that there is more to Kody than he realizes, and can’t help second guessing himself.

Subtext: Alex is now being let in on the secret of the ghost children, and the connection he has with them.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex and Sandy will solve Kody’s issues, but fear Alex may be held back by his fears that he will hurt Kody and his family more than help them.

EXT. HEAVENLY CLOUD – DAY

As Alex finishes Kody’s book, he and Sandy realize that Angel is Kody’s mother, and the book was necessary to help Kody cross over and be reunited with her. Only then do they realize the magnitude of the work they’ve been doing with the ghost children.

Scene Arc: Alex and Sandy are initially simply relieved to have Kody’s book finished but, when they realize that, in this case, it was Kody who needed to come to terms with his own death, and the relationship between Angel and Kody, they are stunned by how connected and profound the work they’ve been doing really is.

Essence: We’re seeing how connected everyone in Alex’s story is with each other, and how all the individual pieces fit together in divine fashion.

Conflict: Sandy’s mentor, Angel, actually had a huge stake in the outcome, so couldn’t even tell Sandy everything she knew, particularly about Kody. Sandy and Alex have been forced by circumstances to blindly trust the other heavenly entities, as they have not been able to share all the pertinent truths with them.

Subtext: The heavenly plan is being fulfilled piece by piece, but seldom if ever in the way Sandy and Alex are led to understand the goal.

Hope/Fear: We hope Kody and Angel can finally be reunited, but fear something may still go wrong when we realize how significantly Alex and even Sandy misunderstand the true goals they are working toward.

EXT. HEAVENLY CLOUD – DAY

Kody and Angel thank Alex, and say they forgive him. Rorie, Beth and Rose then appear, also saying they forgive Alex, at which point Sandy reveals to Alex that this has all been a journey of forgiveness, and all that’s left is for Alex to forgive himself.

Scene Arc: Alex is initially confused when Angel and Kody say they forgive him, leading to even greater confusion as Sandy revels this whole journey has been about Alex being forgiven.

Essence: Though not everything is revealed, we now understand that those involved in the journey need to forgive Alex, and that he needs to forgive himself, in order to be prepared for entry into heaven. Although as yet, he has no real idea for what.

Conflict: Although he has no clue what, Alex has done something to the ghost children and their families that he is in need of forgiveness for, and discovers he needs to forgive himself as well.

Subtext: We are finding out here that there is far more to the story between Alex, the ghost children and their families than we were aware, now leaving us wanting to learn the rest.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will receive the forgiveness he needs, including from himself, while fearing he may have done something too horrible to receive this forgiveness.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Alex now remembers everything. He realizes he has been dead the whole time, and that he was responsible for the ghost children’s deaths. Sandy begs him to accept everyone’s forgiveness, and forgive himself, so they can be reunited in heaven, but Alex is too consumed with guilt to do it.

Scene Arc: Alex is overwhelmed to remember everything, including that he has been dead since his suicide. But upon realizing he was responsible for the deaths of all the ghost children, he is overcome with guilt, and refuses to forgive himself.

Essence: All the secrets are revealed; that Alex is dead, Sandy is his son, and that Alex caused the deaths of the ghost children. The whole journey has been to prepare Alex to enter heaven and be reunited with his son, Sandy.

Conflict: Upon total recall, Alex is unable to forgive himself for causing the deaths of the ghost children, despite it being a necessary step to his reunion with Sandy.

Subtext: From Sandy’s perspective, this has all been about Alex learning what he needed, and forgiving himself, so Sandy could finally be reunited with his father.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex and Sandy can be reunited, but fear Alex won’t be able to forgive himself.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Angel places Alex face to face with Jesus and tells him to lay his sins at His feet, and accepts His forgiveness. Alex does and, with the weight of his guilt relieved, he is able to begin forgiving himself, and accepting the forgiveness of those he had wronged, including Sandy.

Scene Arc: When Alex is sent to meet Jesus, he is too consumed with guilt to forgive himself. After he lays his sins at the feet of Jesus, and receives His forgiveness, he is able to forgive himself.

Essence: Alex fulfills the last step of his redemption, forgiving himself.

Conflict: Alex must accept Christ’s forgiveness before he can forgive himself.

Subtext: Alex is set up to reunite with Sandy in heaven, and learns that this can only be done by the grace of God through Jesus.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex will forgive himself, but fear he won’t accept the forgiveness of Jesus as a prerequisite to that.

EXT. HEAVENLY GATE – DAY

Sandy is finally allowed to reunite with Alex as father and son, and are able to enter Heaven together.

Scene Arc: Alex and Sandy stand at the gates of heaven, hopeful they will be accepted within. At the end, they are accepted into heaven and begin their eternity together.

Essence: We see Alex and Sandy accepted in to heaven to receive their eternal happily ever after.

Conflict: Despite having completed the prerequisites, Alex and Sandy have their doubts before officially being welcomed through the heavenly gates.

Subtext: Sandy and Alex have completed their journey, and helped some other deserving people along the way, and can now enter heaven, and partake of whatever that entails.

Hope/Fear: We hope Alex and Sandy will be welcomed into heaven but, before they officially are, there is always that nagging fear that they will be rejected.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Intriguing Moments

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is building onto the dramatic moments of the story to find deeper meanings to them, turning them into not just emotional drama, but psychological intrigue.

ACT 1

Intrigue: Alex intentionally drives his car full speed into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. Why?

Secret: Alex is despondent and negative over misfortunes in his life, much of which he has no clear memory of.

Intrigue: Alex develops psychic abilities and experiences ghostly visitations after his accident.

Covert Agenda / Hidden Identity: Sandy, a 10-year-old boy, tries to befriend Alex, but he rejects the boy. Sandy then reveals to Alex that he is a ghost.

Covert Agenda / Mystery: Sandy tries to convince Alex to use his new psychic powers to help ghost children. Why?

ACT 2

Mystery: Alex tries to ignore ghost children Sandy and Rorie but, deep down, feels an unexplainable need to help them.

Intrigue / Mystery: Angel helps Alex see more detail about his accident, in which he sees a boy get out of one of the cars that had stopped to help, and run across the road, stopping midway, with a terrified expression.

Covert Agenda: Alex doesn’t really care when Rorie’s family rejects his book about Rorie, but Sandy is almost desperate to convince them.

Hidden Identity / Mystery: When Alex remembers more about the grave, Sandy is convinced he will soon be reunited in heaven with his dad.

Mystery: As Alex succeeds in helping Rorie’s family gain closure about his death, he has a change of heart, and becomes obsessed with helping the ghost children.

ACT 3

Covert Agenda / Mystery: As Alex finds peace of mind in helping the ghost children, Sandy becomes impatient that Alex’s reunion with his son might be delayed.

Conspiracy: Rose commits suicide after receiving Beth’s book.

Intrigue: Alex refuses to use his powers anymore for the ghost children, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

Hidden Identity: Sandy is crushed by Alex’s rejection of him, and frustrated at being forbidden to reveal his identity to Alex.

ACT 4

Intrigue / Conspiracy: Beth and Angel acknowledge they put Sandy and Alex into a no-win situation, since Rose would have committed suicide regardless what Sandy and Alex did.

Mystery: Alex and Sandy are introduced to the third ghost child, Kody, after they agree to resume working with the ghost children.

Hidden Identity / Mystery: As Alex finishes Kody’s book, they discover that Angel is Kody’s mom, and the book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death, and cross over to be reunited with his mom.

Covert Agenda: The ghost children, Rose and Angel all tell Alex they forgive him, but he isn’t told yet what it is they’re forgiving him for.

Intrigue / Secret / Covert Agenda / Hidden Identity / Conspiracy / Mystery: Alex remembers everything, now realizing not only that he is actually dead, but that Sandy is his son, and that Alex is responsible for the deaths of the ghost children, and that the whole journey has been to bring about his forgiveness and redemption.

Mystery: Alex is taken face to face with Jesus, where he lays his sins at the feet of Jesus so he can forgive himself, and gain access to heaven, where he and Sandy can finally be reunited.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Emotional Moments.

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of putting the characters through experiences that elicit emotional reactions from the audience based upon their life experiences.

ACT 1

Distress / Shock: Alex intentionally drives his car full speed into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt.

Wounds: As Alex recovers, he is despondent and negative over a series of misfortunes which have befallen him.

Emotional Dilemma: Alex starts having psychic experiences and ghostly visitations, something he has never experienced before. It’s not something he is happy about.

Betrayal: 10-year-old Sandy tries to befriend Alex, but he rejects the boy.

Wound: As Sandy tries to convince Alex to use his new psychic powers to help ghost children, Alex refuses. He says if he were to connect with a ghost child, it would be with his own deceased son, not with some ghost stranger.

ACT 2

Bonding: Despite Alex’s attempts to ignore Sandy and Rorie, deep down he is taken by the ghost children and wants to help them.

Distress: Angel helps Alex see more detail about his accident. He sees a boy get out of one of the cars that had stopped to help, and run across the road, stopping midway, with a terrified expression.

Moral Issue: Sandy convinces Alex to write Rorie’s book, but his family rejects it. Sandy is determined to convince them, but Alex doesn’t care, until he realizes that without their acceptance, his memories of his son are fading. He then becomes obsessed with convincing Rorie’s family to believe him.

Success/Winning: As Alex remembers more about the grave, Sandy becomes convinced that Alex will regain total recall, and fulfill Sandy’s wish to be reunited in heaven with his dad.

Love: As Alex and Sandy succeed in helping Rorie and his family gain closure relating to Rorie’s death, Alex has a genuine change of heart, and becomes obsessed with helping the ghost children and their families.

ACT 3

Breakthrough: Alex feels true peace of mind in helping the ghost children and their families, and even accepts the chance that a heavenly reunion with his own son may have to wait. Meanwhile Sandy, who had led Alex to this point, is more conflicted, now becoming the impatient one regarding this reunion.

Excitement: When Alex is introduced to Beth, he is impatient to write her book and get another fill of pure joy. His new obsession with selfless service replaces the obsession he previously had with the self-centered revival of his career.

Hidden Weakness: Alex becomes over confident and egotistical as he glories in taking credit for the benefits of his psychic abilities. This blinds him to red flags signaling serious problems within the families of the ghost children.

Moral Issue / Distress / Shock: Alex is devastated upon learning that Rose has committed suicide after receiving Beth’s book. He refuses to use his powers anymore for the ghost children, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

Betrayal / Wounds: Sandy is crushed by Alex’s rejection of him and tells Angel he can’t do this anymore. He refuses her suggestion to try to encourage Alex to keep going.

ACT 4

Sacrifice: Beth and Angel show Sandy and Alex that Rose was destined to commit suicide no matter what happened but, without their intervention, it would have been much worse. Alex and Sandy were forced into a no-win situation because, without them, she would also have killed her husband and kids.

Courage: Alex and Sandy agree to resume working with the ghost children, and are introduced to Kody. Alex remembers more about his accident, and thinks he recognizes Kody as the kid in the road.

Surprise / Love: As Alex finishes Kody’s book, he and Sandy realize that Angel is Kody’s mother, and the book was necessary to help Kody cross over and be reunited with her. Only then do they realize the magnitude of the work they’ve been doing with the ghost children.

Surprise / Bonding: Kody and Angel thank Alex, and say they forgive him. Rorie, Beth and Rose then appear, also saying they forgive Alex, at which point Sandy reveals to Alex that this has all been a journey of forgiveness, and all that’s left is for Alex to forgive himself.

Surprise / Distress: Alex now remembers everything. He realizes he has been dead the whole time, and that he was responsible for the ghost childrens’ deaths. Sandy begs him to accept everyone’s forgiveness, and forgive himself, so they can be reunited in heaven, but Alex is too consumed with guilt to do it.

Wounds / Love: Angel places Alex face to face with Jesus and tells him to lay his sins at His feet, and accepts His forgiveness. Alex does and, with the weight of his guilt relieved, he is able to begin forgiving himself, and accepting the forgiveness of those he had wronged, including Sandy.

Love / Success/Winning: Sandy is finally allowed to reunite with Alex as father and son, and are able to enter Heaven together.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Reveals!

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is the elusive secrets to the timing of reveals and their accompanying setups.

Module 2

Lesson 4: What’s Beneath the Surface?

1) Alex has been dead throughout the story, but isn’t aware of it.

2) Alex can communicate with ghosts. Specifically the ghost of a young boy named Sandy.

3) Sandy introduces Alex to the ghosts of other children.

4) Alex needs to write the ghost children’s stories to bring their families closure.

5) The books are from the ghost childrens’ perspectives, and designed to comfort their families, while helping the ghost children to cross over as well.

6) Alex can connect with Sandy because Sandy is the ghost of Alex’s own son.

7) Alex can connect with the three other ghost children because they are connected to him as well, as Alex is indirectly responsible for these childrens’ deaths.

8) The entire exercise Sandy takes Alex on is primarily for Alex’s benefit, as he needs to undergo a redemption before he can enter heaven. He has to learn empathy, and earn the forgiveness of the ghost children for the role he played in their deaths. Then, he has to learn to forgive himself.

9) As Sandy connects Alex to the ghosts of other children, Alex is initially bitter that he isn’t allowed to connect with his own son, not realizing that Sandy is, in fact, his son.

10) Alex’s memory of his son is clouded to where he can’t recognize Sandy. Yet, he doesn’t consider that strange, and doesn’t question why he can’t remember any details about his son.

11) As Alex goes on the journey, he remembers more about his life as he learns selflessness.

12) Ultimately, Alex remembers his own suicide, the deaths of the ghost children it caused, and that Sandy is his son.

13) What Sandy has been doing all along is preparing Alex to come to terms with the decisions of his life, and become ready to enter heaven.

Lesson 5: 4-Act Structure / Turning Points:

1) Alex initially wants to connect with his departed son, but his new psychic abilities won’t allow that.

2) Alex doesn’t care about Rorie’s family’s dismissal of him. He doesn’t care about the results, just about making a token effort. Then he discovers that in writing Rorie’s story, he remembers more about his son. With their rejection, that newfound recollection starts to disappear. Now he has a vested interest in succeeding in bringing the ghost children and their families together.

3) Rose commits suicide. Alex feels responsible and refuses to write any more stories.

4) Angel shows Sandy and Alex that Rose’s suicide was inevitable and, without Beth’s book, would have been far more devastating and destructive, as it would have been a murder/suicide. Alex agrees to resume his work.

Module 3

Lesson 3: Characters for Subtext:

1) Alex is single-minded in reviving his career, but is inconveniently interrupted by psychic abilities connecting him to ghosts following his accident.

2) The ghosts seek Alex’s help, but he is not interested. At the same time, he senses there are aspects of his life that he has no memory of, and engaging with the ghosts helps unveil these secrets, so he can’t help but interact with them.

3) Over time, Alex develops more and more empathy for these ghost children, while also tormented by the nature of his re-emerging memories.

4) Sandy knows all the truths Alex is struggling to remember, but isn’t allowed to reveal them.

5) Sandy has to navigate Alex along his own journey to discover his own secrets.

6) On the surface, the relationships Sandy helps Alex forge with the ghost children and their families appear to be their own goal but, in reality, they are Sandy’s means of helping Alex complete his own eternal journey.

Lesson 4: Character Intrigue:

1) Alex has some deep secrets, but he’s not the one who’s keeping the secrets. Rather, they’re being kept from him, and it’s Sandy who knows the truth.

2) Alex is deceiving himself by denying the realities of his life- and death. Also by trying to deny the psychic abilities he has developed since his accident/death.

3) Alex doesn’t remember anything about his personal life; he’s consumed with his work. Yet, the scars from his personal life eat at him, even though he doesn’t recognize what’s at the heart of the problem.

4) Sandy has a hidden agenda to get Alex to remember his family, and his death and its collateral consequences, to prepare him to cross over to heaven.

5) Sandy is commissioned by God, through an angel named Angel, to help Alex face the realities of who he is, and his actions. But, since he has to arrive at these realizations by himself, neither Sandy nor the other ghost children are allowed to reveal to Alex the connection they have to him.

6) Sandy is Alex’s son, though Alex doesn’t know it.

7) Alex is indirectly responsible for the deaths of the child ghosts he is introduced to.

8) Sandy leads Alex to believe he has simply developed psychic abilities, but doesn’t tell him the significance of it. Alex has to figure that out on his own.

9) Sandy feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

10) Sandy is harboring a secret identity, as he is the ghost of Alex’s son, but can’t tell Alex that. It’s something Alex has to realize on his own.

Lesson 6: Character Profiles:

1) Alex is a struggling children’s book author who develops the ability to communicate with dead children following a disabling accident.

2) On the surface, we experience the character’s transformation from self-absorbed to selfless. Additionally, his ability to communicate with ghosts is very unique. Below the surface, neither the character nor the viewer is aware that he, in fact, died in the accident, and his transformation is a necessary evolution to prepare him for entrance to heaven.

3) Alex is a struggling writer who has let the frustration over his flailing career overtake every other aspect of his life. After a disabling accident, he develops psychic abilities that allow him to connect the ghosts of dead children with their surviving families. Over time, he becomes selfless as he engages himself in service to these families, rather than being obsessed with his own problems.

4) Alex is Bitter and career-obsessed. He doesn’t recall specific details of his life prior to his accident.

5) Alex’s wants and needs: Want: To revive his career. Need: To come to terms with the traumas in his life.

6) Alex’s wound: His son died, which his mind has blocked.

7) Alex’s likability: Alex isn’t an antagonist in the sense of hurting others. Rather, he has a self-loathing that keeps him from helping himself, or accepting help from others such as Sandy. We can see he is a good person at heart, but is simply struggling against his own failings. Against his desire to distance himself from others, we can see that he really wants to help the ghost children.

8) Alex’s relatability: He is dedicated to his dream, and his work, which gets in the way of his other relationships, such as with his family. Slowly, he reassesses his priorities, and rediscovers the importance of family.

9) Alex’s empathy: He begins to bond with Sandy, which brings him out of his shell, and eases him into a more selfless perspective, where he starts putting the welfare of the ghost children and their families over his own insecurities and ambitions.

10) Sandy is the ghost of a young dead boy, who helps connect Alex to the ghosts of other dead children.

11) Sandy feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

12) Sandy is an attractive character for an actor because he is a ghost. Additionally, he is a child character who is something of a mentor to an adult, giving him a position of authority over the adult.

13) Alex is kind of the triangle character. He is a child ghost who is assigned with preparing Alex to enter heaven. To do so, he must orchestrate Alex’s transformation from self-centered to selfless, but can’t reveal to Alex any of the truths Sandy knows about him. Rather, Alex must come to these realizations himself. This also makes him a bit of the antagonist.

14) Sandy is a 10-year-old child ghost. He is naturally angelic, with a nature that would melt anyone’s heart.

15) Sandy is kind and selfless, yet resentful of Alex’s failure to recognize him.

16) Sandy’s wants and needs: Want: To prepare Alex to enter heaven. Need: For Alex to recognize him and love him as a father to a son.

17) Sandy’s wound is that he feels rejected by his father because of his inability to remember him.

18) Sandy’s likability: He has a sense of duty. Even though Alex doesn’t yet know who Sandy is, Sandy is devoted to him, because he knows Alex is actually his father.

19) Sandy’s relatability: He is trying to help his dad. He is trying to bring his family together.

20) Sandy’s empathy: He genuinely wants to help the other ghost children. You can see his love for his dad, and how crushed he is when Alex rejects his attempts to help him.

Question 1: What Will You Reveal?

a) Alex has developed psychic abilities after his accident.

b) Sandy is a ghost.

c) Alex is connected to each of the ghost children because he is indirectly responsible for their deaths.

d) The ghost childrens’ parents are those who tried to rescue him at his accident

e) Angel is the ghost of Kody’s mother.

f) Alex has been dead since his accident, as his suicide attempt was successful.

g) The headstone Alex has been seeing belongs to his son, Sandy.

h) Sandy is the ghost of Alex’s dead son, and has been anxiously waiting to be reunited with his father.

i) The whole journey has been primarily for Alex’s benefit, because he needs to forgive himself to enter heaven. Sandy, Angel and the child ghosts, along with their families, are collateral beneficiaries of Alex’s journey.

j) Alex’s book helps Rorie’s family say goodbye to him, and receive closure, and helps Rorie cross over into heaven. So we see how the books help the ghost children and their families.

k) It is an eternal law that guilt creates its own prison.

Question 2: When Will the Reveal Show Up in the Story?

a) Act 1: Opening

b) Act 1: Inciting Incident

c) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

d) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

e) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

f) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

g) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

h) Act 4: Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

i) Act 4: Resolution

j) Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint

k) Act 3: Turning Point 3: Huge Failure / Major Shift

Question 3: What Setups Need to Be in Place to Have Each Reveal Work?

a) 1) Alex sees a nonexistent hospital roommate given CPR, and sees his ghost. 2) Patient and medical staff disappear.

b) 1) Sandy first meets Alex.

c) 1) Cars pull over to help at Alex’s accident. 2) A news report at the hospital reports the accident, and multiple fatalities. 3) Sandy tells Alex his powers can help other ghost children. 4) Alex can’t shake his connection to Rorie. 5) Alex’s connection to Rorie grows stronger. 6) Alex sees Kody get out of the car and run into the road. And throughout.

d) 1) Cars pull over to help at Alex’s accident. 2) Alex has an out-of-body vision of rescuers trying to save him. 3) Sandy meets Rorie.

e) 1) Angel explains to Sandy that Alex needs Rorie’s forgiveness. 2) Angel shows Alex the accident as Kody runs in front of the truck. 3) Angel reassures Sandy after Rose’s suicide. 4) Angel scolds Sandy and has Beth explain about Rose’s suicide. 5) Angel introduces Sandy and Alex to Kody.

f) 1) Alex intentionally crashes into an overpass. 2) Alex is allegedly left disabled. 3) A news report at the hospital reports the accident, and multiple fatalities. 4) Alex has an out-of-body vision of rescuers trying to save him. 5) Alex sees a nonexistent hospital roommate given CPR, and sees his ghost. 6) Sandy first meets Alex. And throughout.

g) 1) Alex drinks at Sandy’s grave. 2) Alex can’t stop thinking about the grave. 3) Alex sees more of the headstone, which connects him emotionally to Rorie’s family. 4) Sandy is affected by Alex’s connection to his grave. 5) Alex connects more with Sandy’s grave after writing Rorie’s story.

h) 1) Sandy first meets Alex. 2) Sandy is dejected by Alex’s rejection of him. 3) Angel reassures Sandy and reminds him entrance to heaven is based on forgiveness. 4) Alex refuses to work with Rorie instead of his son, which saddens Sandy because Alex doesn’t recognize him. 5) Alex again rejects Sandy, saddening him. 6) Alex takes his frustrations out on Sandy. And throughout.

i) 1) Angel reassures Sandy and reminds him entrance to heaven is based on forgiveness. 2) Sandy meets Rorie. 3) Alex begins to understand that all life is connected.

j) 1) Sandy introduces Alex to Rorie. 2) Alex senses the grief Rorie’s family feels over him. 3) Alex feels a greater need to help Rorie and his family. 4) Alex agrees to write Rorie’s book. 5) Rorie’s family completely rejects Alex, thinking he’s crazy.

k) 1) We see Alex as negative, depressed and self-centered. 2) Alex is introduced to Beth. 3) Alex is obsessed with writing Beth’s story. 4) Beth’s family readily accepts Beth’s book. 5) Rose commits suicide. 6) Alex is in jail.

Question 4: Where in the Story Do These Setups Belong?

a) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Opening.

b) 1) Act 1: Opening.

c) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Opening. 3) Act 1: Inciting Incident. 4) Act 1: Turning Point. 5: Act 2. 6) Act 2.

d) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Opening. 3) Act 1: Turning Point.

e) 1) Act 1: Turning Point. 2) Act 2. 3) Act 3: Turning Point 3: Huge Failure / Major Shift. 4) Act 4. 5) Act 4.

f) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Opening. 3) Act 1: Opening. 4) Act 1: Opening. 5) Act 1: Opening. 6) Act 1: Opening.

g) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Turning Point. 3) Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint. 4) Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint. 5) Act 3.

h) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 1: Inciting Incident. 3) Act 1: Inciting Incident. 4) Act 1: Turning Point. 5) Act 1: Turning Point. 6) Act 1: Turning Point.

i) 1) Act 1: Inciting Incident. 2) Act 1: Turning Point. 3) Act 3.

j) 1) Act 1: Turning Point. 2) Act 1: Turning Point. 3) Act 2. 4) Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint. 5: Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint.

k) 1) Act 1: Opening. 2) Act 2: Turning Point 2 / Midpoint. 3) Act 3. 4) Act 3. 5) Act 3: Turning Point 3: Huge Failure / Major Shift. 6) Act 3: Turning Point 3: Huge Failure / Major Shift.

ACT 1

OPENING

(3g1)Alex drinks at a grave during a snow storm, shown from the side, so we don’t see a name on the headstone.

(3c1) (3d1) (3f1) Alex then drives in the snow. Despondent over his failing career, he intentionally crashes his car into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. A few cars pull over, the drivers rushing to help.

(3f2) We believe Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. Yet, from this point onward, in The Sixth Sense fashion, Alex never directly interacts with anyone but ghosts and their families.

(3c2) (3f3) As Alex awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is oblivious to the report.

(3d2) (3f4) However, during the news report, Alex has a very brief out-of-body experience, where he sees the drivers fighting to rescue him, from the POV of an observer.

(3k1) Alex wants to get out of the hospital, is rebellious and pushes back against doctor’s orders. As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim. He works at rehab to get out of the hospital, not over a genuine concern with the rehab.

(3a1) (3f5) Alex is awakened in the night by a commotion in his room. He sees medical staff giving a roommate we haven’t seen before CPR, and trying to revive them. They say they’re losing the patient and, right then, the patient is standing beside Alex. The patient bids Alex goodbye and disappears, at which point the doctor pronounces the patient dead.

(3a2) Alex looks back to the bed, but the patient and medical staff are gone. Alex shakes it off as imagination.

(1a) As he continues rehab, Alex has a couple more weird sightings. He comes to realize he has developed psychic abilities following the accident enabling him, among other things, to connect with ghosts. He fights against this, trying to deny his abilities, as he doesn’t want them.

(3b1) (3f6) (3h1) A 10-year-old boy named Sandy approaches Alex and tries to befriend him, but Alex isn’t interested, as he doesn’t want to waste his time with a bothersome little kid. Sandy keeps trying to engage with Alex, but Alex doesn’t want to at all.

INCITING INCIDENT

(1b) Sandy tells Alex that he’s a ghost but, of course, Alex doesn’t believe him. Sandy is then forced by circumstances to prove it. Alex then wants even less to do with Sandy.

(3c3) But Sandy is persistent, insisting that Alex has the power to help grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity. Alex intentionally ignores Sandy, not wanting to be bothered by distractions like ghosts haunting him.

(3h2) Sandy remains persistent, even with Alex refusing to so much as acknowledge him. Sandy is dejected by this, but still engages with Alex to no avail.

(3h3) (3i1) Sandy is despondent about Alex rejecting him. He complains to his mentor, an angel named Angel, that he wants to be reunited with his family. Angel reminds him that no one can enter heaven until they are ready, and have mastered forgiveness, especially forgiving oneself. Sandy says he knows that, but he misses his father and wants to be with him. Angel encourages Sandy, saying that sometime his father will be ready to experience heaven, and they can be reunited. In the meantime, Sandy can help some other families be together.

TURNING POINT

(3d3) (3e1) (3i2) (3j1) Angel introduces Sandy to a ghost child named Rorie. She explains that Alex needs Rorie’s forgiveness to bring about his own redemption. While Angel gives this information to Sandy, he is forbidden to reveal any of it to Alex. As Sandy is 10 years old, despite being a ghost, he is uncomfortable having to be duplicitous.

(3h4) Alex is initially not interested in having anything to do with Rorie. He is adamant that if he is going to connect with ghost children, he wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection. Sandy seems a bit hurt by this, but we don’t know why.

Sandy tells Alex he can’t connect with his son, which pisses him off. He therefore refuses to help Sandy by connecting with Rorie. Alex is pretty short-tempered with Sandy about that, and tells Sandy he doesn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore either.

(3h5) Sandy is now even more hurt, and turns to Angel for comfort and support.

Meanwhile, Alex dedicates his efforts to reviving his career, ignoring his psychic connections. But, despite his resolve, he is haunted by his abilities and feels compelled to do something about them, even if he doesn’t want to feel that way.

(3g2) Alex’s hazy memories of the grave and his accident, and strange memories of his son and family, ‘haunt’ him continually. He wants to ignore them but can’t. On top of that, he can’t shake his paranormal connection to the ghosts of Sandy and Rorie.

(3c4) (3j2) As Sandy and Rorie weigh more heavily on him, Alex’s connection to Rorie gets stronger, to where he now also sees Rorie’s family, and feels the grief they feel for their little boy. As frustrated as Alex feels over the distraction of these ghostly hauntings, he also notices that the stronger his connection to Rorie and his family, the stronger his connection to his own son feels as well.

(3h6) As Alex notices this, in a sense his frustration would grow even stronger, since this would get in the way of his writing, and since he is still not able to use these growing powers to connect with his son. He would take some of this frustration out on Sandy, who would also feel growing frustration over Alex’s inability, or refusal, to connect with Sandy himself. And especially since Sandy is harboring a very monumental secret regarding himself and Alex.

ACT 2

Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist any ghost children, and generally still tries to ignore these powers. Although now, Alex also has to deal with his ever-stronger psychic connection to Rorie as well as Sandy.

(3c5) (3j3) As Sandy tries to convince Alex to help Rorie, Alex discovers he is more and more unable to suppress his powers, and is unable to ignore a strange internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure. This realization makes Alex want to resist even more, yet he knows at the same time that resistance is futile.

Sandy is by this point almost desperate to convince Alex to do this, seemingly more invested in it than he should be. This builds a stronger sense that Sandy is hiding something important from Alex, and we build upon that suspense to determine whether Sandy is really what he claims to be, or if there’s something more to him. In reality, Sandy is hiding a secret from Alex because Sandy isn’t allowed to reveal his secret.

Yet, Alex still refuses, so Sandy pushes back even stronger and more desperately. At this, Alex gets so frustrated and pissed that he literally threatens to assault Sandy which, of course, wouldn’t be terribly effective on a ghost. But it nonetheless hurts Sandy emotionally.

Sandy pleads with Angel to be relieved of his assignment, feeling it futile but, even more so, being so hurt by Alex’s cruelty toward Sandy. Angel, however, encourages Sandy to press on.

(3c6) (3e2) Angel then intercedes and helps Alex see more of his accident. He sees a kid get out of one of the cars at the scene. He starts running across the highway, but stops cold, looking down the road, terrified. Alex doesn’t want to see this, but is also affected by it to some extent, softening his attitude toward Sandy.

TURNING POINT 2 / MIDPOINT

(3j4) After a lot of effort, and with Alex unable to suppress his psychic powers, Sandy convinces him to write the book for Rorie. Both Rorie and Sandy help him to write it, tutoring him on what parts of Rorie’s story would be most meaningful for his family. So Alex spends some quality time with Rorie, getting to know him better and building a caring relationship with him.

Yet, since Alex still doesn’t really want to do this, he is somewhat gruff with Rorie, as well as Sandy. But, at the same time, Alex realizes that, in making the effort to help Rorie, he is gaining some lost memory of his own son, which helps him relate to Rorie’s dilemma.

(3j5) Alex finishes Rorie’s story, and contacts his family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are of course skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex.

Alex is a bit like Whoopi in Ghost, making the obligatory contact, but not really caring if they accept it or not. From his perspective, success or failure isn’t the point. Rather, just making the effort is all he cares about. As far as he’s concerned, he can make a small effort, they can reject it, and he’s done his job, so all the ghosts can now leave him alone.

Alex shrugs off their dismissal of him, rationalizing that he did what he could and it’s not his fault if they won’t listen to him. Sandy is nearly desperate to get Alex to press them to accept the book and not accept ‘no’ for an answer. Alex is argumentative with Sandy, insisting that if the family won’t believe him, there’s nothing he can do about it. Plus, he doesn’t want to waste any more time with it.

Alex listens to Sandy at all only because he realizes that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son.

But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection, and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing Rorie and his family together. So Alex relents to Sandy’s insistence and pushes back to the family, but only because it benefits him.

With that, Alex comes across as even more crazy to Rorie’s family than he did initially. But this time, he takes their rejections personally, and pushes back even harder.

(3g3) Alex remembers being at the grave again, the view now a little more to the front. This connects him more strongly to the feelings Rorie’s family feels. This gives him his answer, leading him to the realization of what he needs to do go get them to believe him.

(3g4) Meanwhile, Sandy is emotionally affected by Alex’s connection to the grave, giving Sandy some real hope for the first time. Since we still don’t know the truth, that Sandy is Alex’s deceased son, and the grave is Sandy’s, this provides further mystery into Sandy, further emphasizing that there is more to Sandy than meets the eye.

(1j) These greater psychic insights into Rorie’s family are successful, and Alex convinces them to accept the book. In learning Rorie’s story, Alex brings Rorie and his family together. They are able to say a proper ‘goodbye’ to Rorie, and achieve closure, and Rorie is able to move on into heaven and await his eventual eternal reunion with his family.

At this point, Alex starts having a genuine change of heart, as he experiences the change he’s able to make for both the ghost Rorie and his family. He now genuinely wants to help the ghost children, and excitedly pushes Sandy to connect him to someone else so he can do it again.

Sandy is ecstatic, and is now very optimistic about the chance of success for the ghost children in need of Alex’s help, and for what that means for Sandy’s reunification with his own dad.

(3k2) At this point, Angel has Sandy introduce Alex to another ghost child, Beth, and shows them her family. Alex is now very excited to get started on her story.

ACT 3

(3i3) With the emotion of helping Rorie and his family gain closure, and his eagerness to provide that for Beth and her family, Alex’s longing to get that same closure with his own son grows even stronger. Yet, he can accept having to wait on that, as he begins to understand on some level that all life is connected, and that he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the grief process if he wants to experience that same sense of peace regarding his son.

Alex feels a sense of peace greater than he’s ever felt before, and is happier than he’s ever been. He’s pretty much become converted to the eternal process and, right now, it appears to Sandy that everything is finally on track. He believes that so strongly that he sets himself a little too strongly in the belief that they’ve all but succeeded at this point. Angel warns him to not set his hopes too high, but he won’t listen. He’s too happy and blinded by his optimism.

(3g5) With Alex’s conversion and success with Rorie’s story, Alex remembers a little more of the grave he sees in his visions. He can now see further, and see the front of the headstone, but is still unable to see the name. This begins a small nagging at Alex, leaving him with an uneasy feeling that maybe something is still wrong, although he can’t put his finger on it.

Things have flipped a bit as Sandy is now getting a little impatient and anxious to get this process all behind them, and get on to his own closure. Alex, on the other hand, is now more accepting of the situation, enjoying the process and no longer feeling impatient to get beyond it.

Alex is now dedicated to convincing other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children, not knowing for sure, but suspecting, that his own salvation may lie in the balance. Sandy knows this is true, that Alex’s salvation is at stake as well as his own, but is frustrated with the time the process requires. Ghost or not, he is simply a 10-year-old little boy and wants the reward now, not later.

Alex is now unwilling to accept failure, and completely invested in helping other families move beyond their paralyzing grief. Though it doesn’t directly occur to him, in losing himself in the selfless service of others, he forgets entirely about reviving his career, as that no longer seems important. Alex is becoming overly zealous at this point, and Sandy is encouraging it because he needs so badly for Alex to succeed that he is blind to the potential problems.

(3k3) All Alex cares about now is writing Beth’s story. Sandy and Beth help Alex create her story, and Alex is super-confident in presenting the book to Beth’s family, including her mother, Rose, and her father, Tony. Alex is now as obsessed with writing Beth’s story, and getting her family to accept it, as he had been before about reviving his career.

(3k4) When Alex confronts Beth’s family with her book, Tony accepts Alex’s insistence of being in contact with the ghost of Beth without question. He encourages Rose to accept it as well, telling her it is a message from their daughter that she is safe in the arms of heaven.

In reality, it seems easier than it should have been to convince them, but Alex has become so overconfident and egotistical over his success that he pats himself on the back for it. And Sandy doesn’t help either, as he is so anxious for everything to work out that he is blind to any red flags. Angel tries to temper Sandy’s hope, but he still won’t listen to her.

TURNING POINT 3; HUGE FAILURE / MAJOR SHIFT

(3k5) Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Beth’s mother, Rose, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family.

(3k6) Next thing we see is Sandy appearing to Alex in a jail cell, where Alex is completely despondent over their failure with Beth. Alex tells Sandy that he is charged with inciting Beth’s mom to kill herself. Yet, we didn’t see Alex arrested, or charged, nor do we see anyone else at the jail. Even though Sandy is as despondent over the situation as Alex, he is nonetheless a little confused about Alex being in jail, and his claims he was arrested.

(3e3) (1k) Angel takes Sandy aside and tries to reassure him that he and Alex can still make things right, and help those in need of their assistance. Sandy asks about Alex being in jail, and Angel cryptically tells him that Alex blames himself for what happened, and that guilt is its own prison. Sandy seems to understand.

With no explanation for having been in jail, or for now no longer being in jail, Sandy appears to Alex at his home office, where they usually connect with each other. Sandy tells Alex they need to get back to work because Beth and her family still need them. Alex can’t believe Sandy is even suggesting that.

Alex insists that he is doing more harm than good by meddling in the grief of these families, and that he’s done with it. He refuses to continue working on any other books, or to talk with Beth or her family again. Sandy tries to argue, but Alex becomes furious, and tells Sandy to leave him alone, saying he wants nothing more to do with Sandy or these other kids.

Sandy is brokenhearted but leaves. He is crushed over Alex’s rejection of him, and anger toward him. Angel encourages him to keep trying to convince Alex, but Sandy refuses. Not only has Alex become bitter and lost his confidence, but so has Sandy. And Sandy is pissed at Alex for being so cruel to him and tells Angel that he doesn’t care if he ever even sees Alex again. Angel tries to tell him he really doesn’t mean that, but Sandy gets pissed and yells at her, saying he does mean it, and he doesn’t want to do any of this anymore.

ACT 4

Beth comes to Sandy as he sits alone, brokenhearted and crying. Sandy doesn’t want to talk to her, both because he is so sad and angry, but also because he feels as guilty over Rose’s suicide as Alex does.

(3e4) Angel then appears and scolds Sandy, telling him to stop feeling sorry for himself and being so selfish. Sandy is half shamed by that, and half angry. But Angel doesn’t back down and tells Sandy to listen to Beth. Sandy is still pissed off, and pouting, but listens to Beth begrudgingly.

Beth, with Angel’s help, shows Sandy what Rose would have done without the intervention of Alex and Sandy. We don’t see what they show him but, when they’re finished, Sandy is shocked. He asks if that’s really true, and they both insist that it is.

Sandy then returns to Alex, who is as stubborn as Sandy had been, telling Sandy that he doesn’t want to talk to him, and ordering him to leave him alone. Sandy basically tells him ‘tough shit, I’m going to show you this, and you’re going to listen.’ Alex is too stunned at a 10-year-old little boy taking charge over him so forcefully like that, that he is too speechless to object.

Sandy then shows Alex what Beth and Angel showed him. As it turns out, Rose committed suicide over the hope of being reunited with Beth. Without Alex’s book, she would have still committed suicide but, in that case, would have done so out of hopelessness, feeling that Beth was gone from her forever. It would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope. In that state of mind, it would have been a murder/suicide, as she would have also taken Tony and their other kids with her. Either way, she was eternally destined to kill herself but, without Alex’s and Sandy’s help, it would have been far more devastating and tragic.

Sandy and Beth convince Alex to speak with Tony, who confirms that Rose’s suicide was probably unavoidable but that, before receiving Beth’s book, he had been unable to reach her at all. He thanks Alex for bringing Beth back to them for even just one more moment, and assures Alex that Beth’s book was the greatest gift they could ever have received.

(3e5) With Angel’s help, both Sandy and Alex agree to resume their work, and Angel introduces them to Kody, the next ghost child in need of help.

In further remembering his crash, Alex sees the child in the street, paralyzed in fear as a truck goes out of control as it approaches the crash scene. This time, though, he sees the face of the child, who looks a lot like Kody, although still a little too cloudy to be certain.

CLIMAX / ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE CONFLICT

In fleshing out Kody’s story, Alex and Sandy realize that, unlike the other ghost children, Kody is the one in need of resolution and closure, rather than his earthbound family left behind, as had been the case with the other ghost children.

(1e) As they finish Kody’s book, Alex and Sandy realize that his book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his own death, so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier, and had been waiting for her eventual reunion with Kody. We learn that even Angel, Sandy’s heavenly mentor, had a stake of eternal proportions in this journey.

As Alex and Sandy see the heavenly reunion of Kody and Angel, they are struck with wonder at the magnitude of what they’ve actually been doing, without even knowing they were doing it. They realize how much farther this reaches that just the two of them, and that all life is far more connected that either of them imagined. Even as a ghost, this comes as a shock to Sandy.

Kody and Angel express their gratitude to Alex and Sandy, and tell Alex that they forgive him for Kody’s death.

Alex is confused and, at that moment, Rorie, Beth and Rose also appear and thank Sandy and Alex. They also tell Alex that they forgive him, and now he’s beyond confused.

Alex asks Sandy what they meant, and Sandy is in tears. Sandy tells Alex that’s what this was all about, that he forgives him too, and that now Alex just needs to forgive himself.

At that moment, with his redemption nearly complete, Alex recalls everything. Alex is in shock as all the missing elements of his life are revealed to him, and he realizes what this has all been about, and how it all connects back to him. This becomes stronger and stronger as each new piece of the puzzle is revealed.

Sandy also reacts as he knows the moment of his dad’s reclamation is at hand.

(1d) Alex sees the accident scene clearly. He sees himself in his car as the rescuers- the parents of the ghost children- realize that Alex is dead.

(1c) Just then, the truck plows through the cars that had stopped to help. Horrified, Alex watches in tears as he sees Beth and Rorie in two of the cars as the truck runs through them, and as it strikes Kody as he runs across the road, all of whom are instantly and grotesquely killed.

(1f) Alex is beyond consolable, not only realizing that he is dead, but that in killing himself, he also caused the deaths of Rorie, Beth and Kody. At this point, Alex is devastated.

Sandy tells him that the kids and their families have forgiven him, and that now he has to forgive himself. But he can’t. He tells Sandy that what he did is unforgivable, and that he deserves to burn in hell forever, and hopes he does.

Sandy tells him that this is part of the required process of his redemption. Everyone must go through their own purgatory before receiving forgiveness and moving on.

Sandy insists again that Alex has to forgive himself. Alex can’t do it, but Sandy is desperate. He insists that God has forgiven him, and that Rorie, Beth and Kody, along with their families, have as well, and that it’s imperative that he forgive himself.

Alex repeats that he deserves to burn in hell and that, at this point, he wants to. Sandy is in tears, begging Alex to accept everyone’s forgiveness, and forgive himself. He tells Alex he’s just beginning to learn of all the good he has done for others. Alex asks what’s the point, emotionally desperate and overcome with guilt and shame.

Sandy is in tears, desperate and dejected. He asks Alex, ‘don’t you still love me?’ Alex is stunned, and asks, ‘what are you talking about?’ Sandy says, ‘We can’t be together if you don’t. That’s the point.’

(1g) At that moment, Alex sees himself directly in front of the grave, where he now sees the name Alexander “Sandy” on the headstone.

(1h) Suddenly, flashes of memory run through Alex’s mind, moments with Sandy and him together before Sandy’s death. Alex is stunned and speechless.

Alex sees more memories, including Sandy’s death and how, afterward, he had lost interest in living and isolated himself from the world.

RESOLUTION

(1i) Alex completely realizes that he has been dead throughout the story and this whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son, Sandy, in the eternities.

Right now, though Alex recognizes what he has to do, he isn’t sure he can emotionally go there. He still feels like he needs to pay an eternal price for what he’s done.

At this point, Angel brings Alex into direct mind-to-mind connection with Jesus. She tells him to lay his sins at the feet of Jesus. He does, and through the power of his sins being taken from him, he is able to accept forgiveness, and forgive himself.

Alex takes Sandy in his arms and asks Sandy if he can forgive him for the fool that he has been. Sandy just hugs him. With Sandy’s blessing, Alex is able to at least begin to forgive himself. He comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven. Alex feels at peace with himself for the first time, and Sandy is now finally happy.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Character Action Tracks!

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to augment the character’s personalities through specific actions vs. just dialogue, what emphasize who they are, and the process they’re going through.

ACT 1

OPENING

Alex drinks at a grave during a snow storm, shown from the side, so we don’t see a name on the headstone.

Alex is then driving in the snow. Despondent over his failing career, Alex intentionally crashes his car into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. A few cars pull over, and a few men run to help.

We are led to believe that Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. As he awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is seemingly oblivious to the report. Alex would want to get out of the hospital. He would be rebellious and refuse doctor’s orders.

As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim. We would see Alex working at rehabilitation, although out of a sense of wanting to get out of the hospital, rather than a genuine concern with the rehab. He has however developed psychic abilities following the accident enabling him, among other things, to connect with ghosts. We would see Alex as this psychic phenomena manifests, and he sees the ghosts. He would certainly fight against that, and try to deny it is really happening. The first ghost he would connect with is Sandy, as Sandy would come to Alex. Sandy would want to engage with Alex, but Alex wouldn’t want to at all.

INCITING INCIDENT

Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity. Alex would not welcome this, and would probably intentionally ignore Sandy at first, not wanting to be bothered by a distraction like a ghost haunting him. Sandy, on the other hand, would be kind but persistent, refusing to so much as acknowledge Sandy. Sandy would be dejected by this, but still try to engage with Alex.

Not known to Alex, Sandy died and has been waiting to be reunited with his father when his time comes. We see Sandy’s mentor, an angel named Angel, who gives Sandy his assignment and encourages him along the way. Angel would give Sandy instructions and encouragement, as Alex’s unwillingness to engage with him would leave him both despondent and confused.

Sandy learns that his father has never gotten over Sandy’s death, and his life has spiraled downhill, culminating in his suicide. Because of all this baggage he still carries, he is not able to join Sandy in heaven.

TURNING POINT

Sandy is told that his father can join him if he is redeemed by helping some other ghosts who are in turmoil, and in need of closure.

Three other ghost children are assigned to Sandy as those whom Alex must help, and Sandy understands that these ghosts are some kids whose forgiveness Alex needs to bring about his own redemption. Angel would give this information to Sandy, but Sandy can’t reveal any of that to Alex. Sandy, being 10 years old despite being a ghost, would be unsure what to do.

Alex is initially not interested. He is adamant that if he is going to connect with ghost children, he wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection. This would leave Sandy conflicted and a bit hurt since, in reality, Alex is connecting with his son. But Sandy can’t tell him that.

When told he can’t do that, Alex is a little pissed and not interested. He would therefore, at least initially, refuse to help Sandy. And Alex would be pretty short-tempered with Sandy, and would tell him flat out that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Sandy. This would really hurt Sandy’s feelings, in addition to jeopardizing Sandy’s mission. Rather, Alex dedicates his efforts to trying to revive his career, and ignores his psychic connections. But, no matter how hard he tries to ignore them, he is haunted by his abilities and feels a compulsion toward them. This would be in no small part to Sandy continuing to contact Alex.

Alex is unable to work because he is haunted by the ghosts, and by strange memories. He remembers being at a grave, showing a little more of the headstone, but still no name.

He also remembers being at the crash as the drivers who pulled over fight to get him out of the car. Alex’s connection to Sandy, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, is largely responsible for him regaining these memories, which Sandy needs to prey on to get Alex to agree to fulfill his destiny.

From there, he is able to psychically see Rorie, the first ghost child Sandy introduces him to, and his family, who are grieving over Rorie’s death. Alex would be frustrated by the distraction even more as it interfered more with his work. Again, Alex would take this frustration out on Sandy, since he’s the only one available to vent to, which would further hurt Sandy’s feelings, and make Sandy more frustrated over his inability to get Alex to connect with him, much less acknowledge him.

ACT 2

Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers. Although now, Alex is also having to deal with being in psychic contact with Rorie as well as Sandy. He would, at this point, get frustrated to the extent of probably threatening Sandy.

As Sandy tries to convince Alex to help Rorie, Alex discovers he is unable to suppress his powers, and is unable to ignore an internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure. We should see some sign of Alex starting to break down, which would make him want to resist even more, despite knowing it’s a futile fight.

Sandy is almost desperate to convince Alex to do so, seemingly more invested in this than makes sense. As Sandy is not allowed to reveal his true identity to Alex, he has to guard the secret of their relationship, and that this is what Alex needs to do so he and Sandy can be reunited.

Yet, Alex still refuses. At this, Alex may get so frustrated and pissed that he literally tries to assault Sandy which, of course, wouldn’t be terribly effective on a ghost. Yet, at the same time, it would certainly hurt Sandy emotionally. At this point, Sandy would probably plead with Angel to be relieved of his assignment, feeling it futile but, even more so, being so hurt by his dad’s cruelty toward Sandy.

Sandy is despondent, but is encouraged by Angel.

Then, in another vision of his accident, arranged by Angel, Alex sees a kid get out of one of the cars at the scene. He starts running across the highway, but stops cold, looking down the road, terrified. Alex wouldn’t want to see this more clearly, but would also be affected by it to some extent.

TURNING POINT 2 / MIDPOINT

After a lot of effort and with Alex unable to suppress his psychic powers, Sandy convinces Alex to write the book for Rorie, both Rorie and Sandy helping him to do so. Alex would then begin writing Rorie’s story. He would have to spend some time with Rorie to learn his story, but he would probably still be pretty gruff with Rorie, since he really doesn’t want to do this. At the same time, while writing this story, Alex realizes he’s gaining some lost memory of his son.

Alex then contacts Rorie’s family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex. Alex would be a bit like Whoopi in Ghost, making the obligatory contact, but not really caring if they accept it or not. From his perspective, success or failure isn’t the point. Rather, just making the effort. He would believe he could make the effort, they could reject it, and he’s done his job, so all the ghosts can now leave him alone.

Initially, Alex shrugs off their dismissal of him, rationalizing that he has done everything he can and it’s not his fault if they won’t listen to him. Sandy is nearly desperate to get Alex to press them and not accept ‘no’ for an answer. Alex would be argumentative with Sandy, insisting that if the family won’t believe him, there’s nothing he can do about it. Plus, he doesn’t want to waste any more time with it.

Alex listens to Sandy only when he realizes that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together. Alex would push back to the family, but only because it benefits him. With that, he would come across as even more crazy to Rorie’s family than he did initially. But this time, he would take their rejections personally, and push back even harder.

He then remembers being at the grave again, camera a little more to the front. This connects him to the feelings this family feels, and leads him to the realization of what he needs to do go get Rorie’s family to believe him. This ‘vision’ ignites a stronger connection with Alex to Rorie’s family, and to Rorie, and he discovers how to get the family to believe him, and accept him. At the same time, Sandy would be emotionally affected by Alex’s connection to Sandy’s grave.

These psychic insights into Rorie’s family are successful, and he is able to bring Rorie and his family together, where they achieve closure, and Rorie is able to move on into heaven. Alex would, at this point, start having a change of heart, as he sees the change he’s able to make with Rorie and his family. He starts genuinely wanting to help them, and excitedly pushes Sandy to connecting him to someone else so he can do it again. Sandy would now, for the first time really, start becoming very optimistic about the chances of success, and his reunification with his dad.

At this point, Sandy introduces Alex to Beth and Kody, two other child ghosts, and shows them their families as well. Alex would be excited to get started on the next story. Sandy would be even more elated.

ACT 3

Alex feels connected to the grief of Rorie’s family and their resulting relief upon being able to say goodbye to Rorie. Sandy would feel a genuine connection there as well, partly because of his genuine concern for Rorie and his family, but mostly because it brings him close to achieving his own closure.

Alex’s longing to feel that for his own son grows even stronger, as Alex begins to understand on some level that all life is connected, and that he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the grief process if he wants to experience that same sense of peace regarding his son. Alex would start feeling a peace he can’t ever remember feeling. He’s pretty much converted and, right now, it appears everything is now on track. Sandy believes this too, and sets himself a little too strongly in the belief that they’ve all but succeeded at this point.

In further remembering his crash, Alex sees the child in the street, paralyzed in fear as a truck goes out of control as it approaches the crash scene. This time, though, he sees the face of the child, who looks somewhat similar to Kody, although still a little too cloudy to actually recognize him.

Alex remembers more of being at the grave, even further to the front of the headstone, but is still unable to see the name. This would begin a small nagging at Alex, an uneasy feeling that maybe something is still wrong, although he wouldn’t be able to put his finger on it. Sandy will start getting a little impatient and anxious to get this process all behind them.

Alex now believes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children, not knowing for sure, but suspecting, that his own salvation may lie in the balance. This kind of zeal, and personal investment, could create problems in their own right. If any of the families reject Alex, they could have harassment charges brought against him or something. I’m thinking Beth’s mom might do that. Or at least Alex may believe that has happened.

Alex is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief. In losing himself in the selfless service of others, he forgets entirely about reviving his career, as that no longer seems important. Alex is becoming overly zealous at this point, and Sandy isn’t stopping him because he needs so badly for Alex to succeed, so he is blind to the potential problems as well.

Sandy and Beth help Alex create Beth’s story, and he is super-confident in presenting her book to Beth’s family, including her mother and father. Alex is now as obsessed with writing Beth’s story as he had been before about reviving his career. And Sandy is 100% behind Alex, maybe to the point of ignoring warning signs that they would be looking for.

Beth’s father accepts Alex’s story without question, encouraging his wife to accept it as a message from their daughter that she is safe in the arms of heaven. In some ways, it seems easier than it should have been, but Alex becomes almost so overconfident and egotistical over the success that he pats himself on the back for it.

Sandy is brimming with hope, but Angel tries to keep his hopes a little tempered. But he is so enamored with positive glare that he won’t really listen any more than Alex initially listened to Sandy.

TURNING POINT 3; HUGE FAILURE / MAJOR SHIFT

Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Beth’s mother, Rose, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family. First, before killing herself, Rose files a harassment report against Alex. So, when she commits suicide, Alex is arrested and blamed for causing her death. Or, at least Alex believes this happened. In reality, she really couldn’t have actually filed a report since Alex is dead and only ghosts and their families can interact with him. But, she could certainly have told him she would do that, putting the thought into Alex’s mind, so that he believes she has done that, and he mentally constructs a reality in which he is in jail.

Alex insists to Sandy that he is doing more harm than good by meddling in the grief of these families and that he’s done with it. He refuses to continue working on any other books, and tells Sandy to leave him alone, saying he wants nothing more to do with Sandy or these other kids. Alex would get out on bail, and with these new troubles, and bothered by Rose’s death, he rejects Sandy entirely and refuses to work with any more ghosts. We need to think this through a little though, because if Alex is dead, and only the ghosts and their families can interact with him, he couldn’t really be arrested… however, that doesn’t mean he can’t THINK that he is. What if he just ends up in a jail cell, but no one else is there, and he just kind of ‘ends up’ out of jail, where he confronts Sandy and says ‘no more?’

Sandy is now consumed with despair. Angel encourages him to keep trying to convince Alex, but he refuses. Not only has Alex become bitter and lost his confidence, but so has Sandy.

ACT 4

Beth intercedes and, with Angel’s help, shows Sandy what Beth’s mother would have done without the intervention of Alex and Sandy.

Sandy then shows Alex. As it turns out, her suicide was out of the hope of being reunited with Beth. Without Alex’s book, she would still have committed suicide but, in that case, would have been out of the hopelessness of feeling that Beth was gone from her forever. It would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope. In that state of mind, she would have also taken her husband and other kids with her.

Sandy and Beth convince Alex to speak with Beth’s dad, who confirms that his wife’s suicide was probably unavoidable but that, before receiving Beth’s book, he had been unable to reach her. He thanks Alex for bringing Beth back to them for even just one more moment.

With Angel’s help, both Sandy and Alex decide to resume their work, and help Kody by writing his book.

CLIMAX / ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE CONFLICT

In fleshing out Kody’s story, Alex and Sandy realize that, unlike the other stories, Kody is the one in need of resolution and closure. Alex discovers that Kody’s book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier and had been waiting for her reunion with Kody.

We then learn that even Sandy’s heavenly mentor had a stake in this of eternal proportions. Alex and Sandy are able to see the heavenly reunion of Kody and Angel. Alex and Sandy would both be struck with wonder at the magnitude of what they’re doing, and how much farther it reaches that just the two of them. Even as a ghost, this comes as a wondrous shock to even Sandy. Alex would become resolute on finishing Kody’s book.

Kody and Angel express their gratitude to Alex and Sandy, and tell Alex that they forgive him for Kody’s death. He is confused and, at that moment, Rorie, Beth and Rose also appear and thank Sandy and Alex. They also tell Alex that they forgive him, and now he’s beyond confused.

Alex asks Sandy what they meant, and Sandy is in tears. Sandy tells Alex that’s what this was all about, and that now Alex just needs to forgive himself.

At that moment, with his redemption complete, Alex recalls everything. He sees the accident scene clearly. He sees himself in his car as the rescuers- the parents of the ghost children- realize that Alex is dead. Alex would be in complete shock as all the missing elements of his life are now revealed to him, and he realizes what this has all been about. This would become stronger and stronger with each new realization. Sandy would also react, as the moment of his dad’s reclamation is at hand.

Just then, the truck plows through the cars that had stopped to help. Alex watches in tears as the truck plows through the cars containing Beth and Rorie, and strikes Kody as he runs across the road, all of whom are instantly killed.

Alex is beyond consolable, not only realizing that he is dead, but that in selfishly killing himself, he also caused the deaths of Rorie, Beth and Kody. At this point, Alex would be devastated. He would not yet be in a position to forgive himself. He would think right now he deserves to burn in hell forever, which is really part of the required process of his redemption. Everyone must go through their own purgatory before receiving forgiveness and moving on.

Sandy insists again that Alex has to forgive himself. Alex can’t do it, but Sandy is desperate. He insists that God has forgiven him, and that Rorie, Beth and Kody, along with their families, have as well, and that it’s imperative that he forgive himself.

Alex insists that he deserves to burn in hell and that, at this point, wants to. Sandy is in tears, begging Alex to accept everyone’s forgiveness, and forgive himself. He tells Alex he’s just beginning to learn of all the good he has done for others. Alex asks what’s the point. Alex would be emotionally desperate right now, overcome with guilt and shame.

At that moment, Alex sees himself directly in front of the grave, where the name Alexander “Sandy” is on the headstone. He realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, who had died previously and led to his isolation and loss of interest in living. We would see glimpses of Sandy’s death, and how it affected Alex and drove him into despair and isolation. Alex would now be an emotional wreck, torn between his shame and guilt, and his desire to accept forgiveness and be reunited with his son.

RESOLUTION

Alex completely realizes that he has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son, Sandy, in the eternities. Right now, though Alex recognizes what he has to do, he isn’t sure he can emotionally go there. He still feels like he needs to pay for what he’s done. At this point, either through Angel or directly, Alex needs to be brought mind-to-mind in connection with Jesus, where he is able to accept forgiveness, and forgive himself, when he feels the power of his sins taken from him and placed at the feet of Jesus.

Alex takes Sandy in his arms and asks Sandy if he can forgive him for the fool that he has been. Sandy just hugs him. With Sandy’s blessing, Alex is able to at least begin to forgive himself. He comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven. Alex would be filled with relief, and be at peace with himself for the first time ever. And Sandy would now finally be happy.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ New Outline Beats!

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to start plotting beats throughout the outline.

ACT 1

OPENING

Alex drinks at a grave during a snow storm, shown from the side, so we don’t see a name on the headstone.

Alex is then driving in the snow. Despondent over his failing career, Alex intentionally crashes his car into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. A few cars pull over, and a few men run to help.

We are led to believe that Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. As he awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is seemingly oblivious to the report.

As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim. He has however developed psychic abilities following the accident enabling him, among other things, to connect with ghosts.

INCITING INCIDENT

Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

Not known to Alex, Sandy died and has been waiting to be reunited with his father when his time comes. We see Sandy’s mentor, an angel named Angel, who gives Sandy his assignment and encourages him along the way.

Sandy learns that his father has never gotten over Sandy’s death, and his life has spiraled downhill, culminating in his suicide. Because of all this baggage he still carries, he is not able to join Sandy in heaven.

TURNING POINT

Sandy is told that his father can join him if he is redeemed by helping some other ghosts who are in turmoil, and in need of closure.

Three other ghost children are assigned to Sandy as those whom Alex must help, and Sandy understands that these ghosts are some kids whose forgiveness Alex needs to bring about his own redemption.

Alex is initially not interested. He is adamant that if he is going to connect with ghost children, he wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection.

When told he can’t do that, Alex is a little pissed and not interested. Rather, he dedicates his efforts to trying to revive his career, and ignores his psychic connections. But, no matter how hard he tries to ignore them, he is haunted by his abilities and feels a compulsion toward them.

Alex is unable to work because he is haunted by the ghosts, and by strange memories. He remembers being at a grave, showing a little more of the headstone, but still no name.

He also remembers being at the crash as the drivers who pulled over fight to get him out of the car.

From there, he is able to psychically see Rorie, the first ghost child Sandy introduces him to, and his family, who are grieving over Rorie’s death.

ACT 2

Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers.

As Sandy tries to convince Alex to help Rorie, Alex discovers he is unable to suppress his powers, and is unable to ignore an internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure.

Sandy is almost desperate to convince Alex to do so, seemingly more invested in this than make sense. As Sandy is not allowed to reveal his true identity to Alex, he has to guard the secret of their relationship, and that this is what Alex needs to do so he and Sandy can be reunited.

Yet, Alex still refuses.

Sandy is despondent, but is encouraged by Angel.

Then, in another vision of his accident, arranged by Angel, Alex sees a kid get out of one of the cars at the scene. He starts running across the highway, but stops cold, looking down the road, terrified.

TURNING POINT 2 / MIDPOINT

After a lot of effort and with Alex unable to suppress his psychic powers, Sandy convinces Alex to write the book for Rorie, both Rorie and Sandy helping him to do so.

Alex then contacts Rorie’s family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex.

Initially, Alex shrugs off their dismissal of him, rationalizing that he has done everything he can and it’s not his fault if they won’t listen to him. Sandy is nearly desperate to get Alex to press them and not accept ‘no’ for an answer.

Alex listens to Sandy only when he realizes that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together.

He then remembers being at the grave again, camera a little more to the front. This connects him to the feelings this family feels, and leads him to the realization of what he needs to do go get Rorie’s family to believe him.

These psychic insights into Rorie’s family are successful, and he is able to bring Rorie and his family together, where they achieve closure, and Rorie is able to move on into heaven.

At this point, Sandy introduces Alex to Beth and Kody, two other child ghosts, and shows them their families as well.

ACT 3

Alex feels connected to the grief of Rorie’s family and their resulting relief upon being able to say goodbye to Rorie.

Alex’s longing to feel that for his own son grows even stronger, as Alex begins to understand on some level 0that all life is connected, and that he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the grief process if he wants to experience that same sense of peace regarding his son.

In further remembering his crash, he sees the child in the street, paralyzed in fear as a truck goes out of control as it approaches the crash scene. This time, though, he sees the face of the child, who looks very similar to Rorie.

He remembers more of being at the grave, even further to the front of the headstone, but is still unable to see the name.

Alex now believes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children, now knowing for sure, but suspecting, that his own salvation may lie in the balance.

He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief. In losing himself in the selfless service of others, he forgets entirely about reviving his career, as that no longer seems important.

Sandy and Beth help Alex create Beth’s story, and he is super-confident in presenting her book to Beth’s family, including her mother and father.

Beth’s father accepts Alex’s story without question, encouraging his wife to accept it as a message from their daughter that she is safe in the arms of heaven. In some ways, it seems easier than it should have been, but Alex becomes almost overconfident and egotistical over the success that he pats himself on the back for.

Sandy is brimming with hope, but Angel tries to keep his hopes a little tempered.

TURNING POINT 3; HUGE FAILURE / MAJOR SHIFT

Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Beth’s mother, Rose, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family.

Alex insists to Sandy that he is doing more harm than good by meddling in the grief of these families and that he’s done with it. He refuses to continue working on any other books, and tells Sandy to leave him alone, saying he wants nothing more to do with this kids.

Sandy is now consumed with despair. Angel encourages him to keep trying to convince Alex, but he refuses. Not only has Alex become bitter and lost his confidence, but so has Sandy.

ACT 4

Beth intercedes and, with Angel’s help, shows Sandy what Beth’s mother would have done without the intervention of Alex and Sandy.

Sandy then shows Alex. As it turns out, her suicide was out of the hope of being reunited with Beth. Without Alex’s book, she would still have committed suicide but, in that case, would have been out of the hopelessness of feeling that Beth was gone from her forever. It would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope. In that state of mind, she would have also taken her husband and other kids with her.

Sandy and Beth convince Alex to speak with Beth’s dad, who confirms that his wife’s suicide was probably unavoidable but that, before receiving Beth’s book, he had been unable to reach her. He thanks Alex for bringing Beth back to them for even just one more moment.

With Angel’s help, both Sandy and Alex decide to resume their work, and help Kody by writing his book.

CLIMAX / ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE CONFLICT

In fleshing out Kody’s story, Alex and Sandy realize that, unlike the other stories, Kody is the one in need of resolution and closure. Alex discovers that Kody’s book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier and had been waiting for her reunion with Kody.

We then learn that even Sandy’s heavenly mentor had a stake in this of eternal proportions. Alex and Sandy are able to see the heavenly reunion of Kody and Angel.

They express their gratitude to Alex and Sandy, and tell Alex that they forgive him. He is confused and, at that moment, Rorie, Beth and Rose also appear and thank Sandy and Alex. They also tell Alex that they forgive him, and now he’s beyond confused.

Alex asks Sandy what they meant, and Sandy is in tears. Sandy tells Alex that’s what this was all about, and that now Alex just needs to forgive himself.

At that moment, with his redemption complete, Alex recalls everything. He sees the accident scene clearly. He sees himself in his car as the rescuers- the parents of the ghost children- realize that Alex is dead.

Just then, the truck plows through the cars that had stopped to help. He watches in tears as the truck plows through the cars containing Beth and Kody, and strikes Rorie as he runs across the road, all of whom are instantly killed.

Alex is beyond consolable, not only realizing that he is dead, but that in selfishly killing himself, he also caused the deaths of Rorie, Beth and Kody.

Sandy insists again that Alex has to forgive himself. Alex can’t do it, but Sandy is desperate. He insists that God has forgiven him, and that Rorie, Beth and Kody, along with their families, have as well, and that it’s imperative that he forgive himself.

Alex insists that he deserves to burn in hell and that, at this point, wants to. Sandy is in tears, begging Alex to accept everyone’s forgiveness, and forgive himself. He tells Alex he’s just beginning to learn of all the good he has done for others. Alex asks what’s the point.

At that moment, Alex sees himself directly in front of the grave, where the name Alexander “Sandy” is on the headstone. He realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, who had died previously and led to his isolation and loss of interest in living.

RESOLUTION

Alex completely realizes that he has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son, Sandy, in the eternities.

He takes Sandy in his arms and asks Sandy if he can forgive him for the fool that he has been. Sandy just hugs him. With Sandy’s blessing, Alex is able to at least begin to forgive himself. He comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Beat Sheet: Draft 1

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is the beginning of the story’s organizational structure.

ACT 1

Opening: Alex drinks at a grave during a snow storm, shown from the side, so we don’t see a name on the headstone. Alex is then driving in the snow. Despondent over his failing career, Alex intentionally crashes his car into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. A few cars pull over, and a few men run to help. We are led to believe that Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. As he awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is seemingly oblivious to the report. As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim.

AJ Beginning: Sandy died and has been waiting to be reunited with his father when his time comes.

AJ Inciting Incident: He learns that his father has never gotten over Sandy’s death, and his life has spiraled downhill, culminating in his suicide. Because of all this baggage he still carries, he is not able to join Sandy in heaven.

Inciting Incident: Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help other grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

AJ Turning Point 1: Sandy is told that his father can join him if he is able to be redeemed by helping some other ghosts who are in turmoil, and in need of closure. Not unrelated is that these ghosts are some kids whose forgiveness Alex needs to bring about his own redemption.

Turning Point: Alex is initially not interested, more absorbed with reviving his career, and ignores his psychic connections, but is haunted by his abilities, which he can’t get out of his mind.

Turning Point 1: Alex initially wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection, but discovers his psychic abilities only allow him to connect with the ghosts of other departed children.

Alex remembers being at a grave, showing a little more of the headstone, but still no name. He also remembers being at the crash as the drivers who pulled over fight to get him out of the car. From there, he is able to psychically see the first ghost child Sandy told him about, and his family, who are grieving over his death.

ACT 2

AJ Act 2: Sandy contacts Alex to convince him to do what he needs to do so he and Sandy can be reunited, but Alex refuses. Sandy is not allowed to reveal his true identity to Alex.

New Plan: Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers. But he discovers he is unable to suppress these powers, and is unable to ignore an internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure. Alex sees a kid gets out of one of the cars at his accident scene. He starts running across the highway, but stops cold, looking down the road, terrified.

Plan in Action: Alex writes a book about the first child Sandy connected him with. He then contacts the child’s family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex.

AJ Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: After a lot of effort, Sandy convinces Alex to write books for the ghost children Sandy has introduced him to.

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Unable to suppress his psychic powers, Alex writes Rorie’s story, but the family isn’t responsive to him. Alex discovers that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together.

Midpoint Turning Point: Initially Alex doesn’t care about the family’s dismissal of him and his claims, feeling he can chalk it off to having done everything he can, and then forget about it. He then remembers being at the grave again, camera a little more to the front. This connects him to the feelings this family feels, and he decides he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together. At this point, Sandy introduces him to other child ghosts, and shows them their families as well.

ACT 3

Rethink Everything: Somehow, Alex feels connected to the grief of the family as if he, himself, has lost a child himself. He begins to understand that all life is connected, and that he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the grief process.

In further remember his crash, he sees the child in the street, paralyzed in fear as a truck goes out of control as it approaches the crash scene. He remembers more of being at the grave, even further to the front of the headstone, but still unable to see the name.

New Plan: Alex now realizes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children. He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief.

AJ Act 3: Sandy helps Alex writes Rorie’s story. They are initially unreceptive, but Sandy helps Alex convince them. It ultimately works out, and Sandy is optimistic that this is going to work, and he will be able to be reunited with his father properly in heaven.

Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift: The mother of one of these other departed kids commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child, even with the assurance of gaining closure. Instead, she is resolute on joining her child in the afterlife. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so. At this point, Alex sees the truck crash through the cars pulled over to help at his accident, further convincing him he wants nothing to do with this.

AJ Turning Point 3: Beth’s mother commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child even with the assurance of gaining closure. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so.

AJ Turning Point 3: Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Rose, the mother of Beth, the second ghost child, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family. Alex refuses to continue working on any other books, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

ACT 4

Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: Sandy shows Alex that this woman’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her, including her other kids. Alex is convinced to continue to bring the remaining departed kids together with their families to bring them all to a point of acceptance and closure.

AJ Act 4 Climax: Sandy shows Alex that Rose’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her.

AJ Act 4 Climax: Sandy and Beth’s dad, Tony, help Alex realize that Rose’s suicide was inevitable and that, without his help, things would have turned out much worse. This convinces him to continue his work, and he writes Kody’s book.

AJ Resolution: Alex discovers that Kody’s book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier and had been waiting for her reunion with Kody. With his redemption completed, Alex recalls and comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven.

Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, he sees himself full at the grave, where the name Alexander “Sandy” is on the headstone. He realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, who had died previously and led to his isolation and loss of interest in living. He also sees the accident scene clearly. He then sees himself in his car as the rescuers realize that he is dead. Just then, the truck plows through the cars, he sees the ghosts of the children Sandy showed him in the cars, with the other being the kid in the street, all of whom are killed in the crash.

Alex realizes that he has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son in the eternities. He also realizes that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide. As he has helped connect the child ghosts and their families, and helping all of them come to terms, they forgive him and, more importantly, he is able to forgive himself. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over himself, and join Sandy in the afterlife.

AJ Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, his recollections of his son and suicide attempt improve, and he realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, and that Alex himself had died, and has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join Sandy in the eternities. He also discovers that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide. Several cars had stopped to assist in the crash, and a truck had accidentally plowed through a few of the cars, killing 3 kids left in the cars as their parents tried to save Alex. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over and join Sandy in the afterlife.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Deeper Layer!

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is the affirmation that the deeper layer is the story actually being told, though camouflaged under the surface layer for much of the story.

Ghost Writer

Surface Layer: Sandy, the ghost of a child, seeks the assistance of Alex, a children’s book author, to help ghost children and their families gain closure after their deaths.

Deeper Layer: Alex is dead but doesn’t realize it, and Sandy is his deceased son. Assisting these other ghost children is actually an exercise necessary for Alex to gain entrance to heaven and be reunited with Sandy.

Major Reveal: The more Alex helps the other ghost children, the more of his own past is revealed to him. Once he helps them, he realizes he is dead, and that he is Sandy’s father.

Influences Surface Story: Sandy knows the truth all along, so he feels a greater connection to ensuring Alex’s success than an ‘outsider’ would. He takes Alex’s dismissals and lack of commitment personally.

Hints: How personally Sandy takes the process. He connects deeply with Alex, and we see him wanting to reveal something to Alex, but stopping himself. Each ghost child’s story connects dots to Alex’s story.

Changes Reality: Once we realize what the point of the exercise has been, we see that it has been not only a life and death situation for the ghost children, but even more so for both Alex and Sandy. That it has ultimately been about bringing closure to Alex and Sandy.

Protagonist: Alex (I’ve been struggling on just who is really the protagonist, who is the antagonist, and who is the triangle. At the moment, I’m proceeding under the assumption Alex is the protagonist, Sandy is the antagonist- even through Alex is the more disagreeable character, while Sandy is a good person trying to help Alex- and that the dark entity is not the antagonist but, rather, the triangle character. This is because, even though Sandy is working for Alex’s own good, he must make Alex do things he does not want to do.)

Beginning: A formerly successful writer and family man, Alex’s career has taken a turn for the worse, and he has lost his family. This has left him bitter and alone, caring only for revitalizing his career. He is completely self-absorbed.

Inciting Incident: Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help other grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

Turning Point 1: Alex initially wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection, but discovers his psychic abilities only allow him to connect with the ghosts of other departed children.

Act 2: Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers.

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Unable to suppress his psychic powers, Alex writes Rorie’s story, but the family isn’t responsive to him. Alex discovers that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together.

Act 3: Alex now realizes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children. He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief.

Turning Point 3: Beth’s mother commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child even with the assurance of gaining closure. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so.

Act 4 Climax: Sandy shows Alex that Rose’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her.

Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, his recollections of his son and suicide attempt improve, and he realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, and that Alex himself had died, and has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join Sandy in the eternities. He also discovers that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide. Several cars had stopped to assist in the crash, and a truck had accidentally plowed through a few of the cars, killing 3 kids left in the cars as their parents tried to save Alex. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over and join Sandy in the afterlife.

Antagonist: Sandy

Beginning: Sandy died and has been waiting to be reunited with his father when his time comes.

Inciting Incident: He learns that his father has never gotten over Sandy’s death, and his life has spiraled downhill, culminating in his suicide. Because of all this baggage he still carries, he is not able to join Sandy in heaven.

Turning Point 1: Sandy is told that his father can join him if he is able to be redeemed by helping some other ghosts who are in turmoil, and in need of closure. Not unrelated is that these ghosts are some kids whose forgiveness Alex needs to bring about his own redemption.

Act 2: Sandy contacts Alex to convince him to do what he needs to do so he and Sandy can be reunited, but Alex refuses. Sandy is not allowed to reveal his true identity to Alex.

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: After a lot of effort, Sandy convinces Alex to write books for the ghost children Sandy has introduced him to.

Act 3: Sandy helps Alex writes Rorie’s story. They are initially unreceptive, but Sandy helps Alex convince them. It ultimately works out, and Sandy is optimistic that this is going to work, and he will be able to be reunited with his father properly in heaven.

Turning Point 3: Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Rose, the mother of Beth, the second ghost child, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family. Alex refuses to continue working on any other books, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

Act 4 Climax: Sandy and Beth’s dad, Tony, help Alex realize that Rose’s suicide was inevitable and that, without his help, things would have turned out much worse. This convinces him to continue his work, and he writes Kody’s book.

Resolution: Alex discovers that Kody’s book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier and had been waiting for her reunion with Kody. With his redemption completed, Alex recalls and comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Character Structure

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is that the characters have their own 4-act structure apart from that of the overall film.

Protagonist: Alex (I’ve been struggling on just who is really the protagonist, who is the antagonist, and who is the triangle. At the moment, I’m proceeding under the assumption Alex is the protagonist, Sandy is the antagonist- even through Alex is the more disagreeable character, while Sandy is a good person trying to help Alex- and that the dark entity is not the antagonist but, rather, the triangle character. This is because, even though Sandy is working for Alex’s own good, he must make Alex do things he does not want to do.)

Beginning: A formerly successful writer and family man, Alex’s career has taken a turn for the worse, and he has lost his family. This has left him bitter and alone, caring only for revitalizing his career. He is completely self-absorbed.

Inciting Incident: Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help other grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

Turning Point 1: Alex initially wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection, but discovers his psychic abilities only allow him to connect with the ghosts of other departed children.

Act 2: Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers.

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: Unable to suppress his psychic powers, Alex writes Rorie’s story, but the family isn’t responsive to him. Alex discovers that, in writing Rorie’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together.

Act 3: Alex now realizes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children. He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief.

Turning Point 3: Beth’s mother commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child even with the assurance of gaining closure. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so.

Act 4 Climax: Sandy shows Alex that Rose’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her.

Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, his recollections of his son and suicide attempt improve, and he realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, and that Alex himself had died, and has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join Sandy in the eternities. He also discovers that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide. Several cars had stopped to assist in the crash, and a truck had accidentally plowed through a few of the cars, killing 3 kids left in the cars as their parents tried to save Alex. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over and join Sandy in the afterlife.

Antagonist: Sandy

Beginning: Sandy died and has been waiting to be reunited with his father when his time comes.

Inciting Incident: He learns that his father has never gotten over Sandy’s death, and his life has spiraled downhill, culminating in his suicide. Because of all this baggage he still carries, he is not able to join Sandy in heaven.

Turning Point 1: Sandy is told that his father can join him if he is able to be redeemed by helping some other ghosts who are in turmoil, and in need of closure. Not unrelated is that these ghosts are some kids whose forgiveness Alex needs to bring about his own redemption.

Act 2: Sandy contacts Alex to convince him to do what he needs to do so he and Sandy can be reunited, but Alex refuses. Sandy is not allowed to reveal his true identity to Alex.

Turning Point 2 / Midpoint: After a lot of effort, Sandy convinces Alex to write books for the ghost children Sandy has introduced him to.

Act 3: Sandy helps Alex writes Rorie’s story. They are initially unreceptive, but Sandy helps Alex convince them. It ultimately works out, and Sandy is optimistic that this is going to work, and he will be able to be reunited with his father properly in heaven.

Turning Point 3: Sandy’s hopes are dashed when Rose, the mother of Beth, the second ghost child, commits suicide after Alex delivers Beth’s book to the family. Alex refuses to continue working on any other books, and tells Sandy to leave him alone.

Act 4 Climax: Sandy and Beth’s dad, Tony, help Alex realize that Rose’s suicide was inevitable and that, without his help, things would have turned out much worse. This convinces him to continue his work, and he writes Kody’s book.

Resolution: Alex discovers that Kody’s book was necessary to help Kody come to terms with his death so he could cross over and be reunited with his mother, Angel, who had died earlier and had been waiting for her reunion with Kody. With his redemption completed, Alex recalls and comes to terms with his suicide, and is able to recognize Sandy for who he is, at which point they are reunited in heaven.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Supporting Characters

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of creating supporting characters that are necessary and relevant to the story and the protagonist.

Supporting Characters:

Supporting 1

Name: Rorie

Role: Ghost Child #1

Main Purpose: Wants his family to know he is at peace, and it’s okay for them to move on.

Value: Gets Alex to accept his destiny, and write a book about Rorie for his family, and recognize that this puts the ghost children at peace, helping them cross over.

Supporting 2

Name: Frank

Role: Rorie’s Dad

Main Purpose: Trying to get over the loss of his son.

Value: Shows Alex that the work Sandy is trying to get him to do helps the families accept their loss.

Supporting 3

Name: Beth

Role: Ghost Child #2

Main Purpose: Senses the hopelessness her parents feel about her passing, and needs to help them cope.

Value: Pushes Alex to a feeling of despair, thinking he is doing more harm than good for the ghost children and their families.

Supporting 4

Name: Tony

Role: Beth’s Dad

Main Purpose: Trying to get his hopelessly grief-stricken wife over the loss of their daughter, while trying to cope with his own sense of loss.

Value: Helps Alex realize that, despite what might seem a failure, he has actually been of help. He lets Alex know that, were it not for his help, she would have killed herself earlier out of despair, rather than the hope of being with Beth again.

Supporting 5

Name: Kody

Role: Ghost Child #3

Main Purpose: Wants not only to get Alex’s help in comforting his family, but to help Alex as well, by remembering who he is, and to know that he is forgiven for the ghost childrens’ deaths.

Value: He helps Alex remember who Sandy is, and his own suicide, resulting in the deaths of the ghost children.

Supporting 6

Name: Angel

Role: Kody’s Mom

Main Purpose: Kody’s deceased mother, who needs Kody to come to terms with his death so he can cross over, and they can be reunited. Mentors Sandy, encouraging him to persist in the face of Alex’s rejection.

Value: Comforts Sandy in his despair over the rejection he receives from his father. Helps him persist in motivating Alex to fulfill his destiny, so the ghost children and their families can find peace.

Background 1

Name: Desiree

Role: Alex’s Publisher

Main Purpose: Tries to help Alex accept that his career is at a standstill, and he either needs to adapt to a new market or give up.

Value: Helps Alex become open to thinking outside the box, leading him to agree to write a book about a deceased child, only intended for the child’s family.

Background 2

Name: Rose

Role: Beth’s Mom

Main Purpose: So grief-stricken over the loss of her daughter that, despite Alex’s book about Beth, she commits suicide out of a desire to be reunited with Beth.

Value: Brings Alex to the ‘all hope is lost’ moment, where he rejects his destiny and quits writing the books. Eventually this helps Alex realize that, in spite of appearances, his work is beneficial, even if it doesn’t lead to a happy ending.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Character Profiles Part 2

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of getting to know the motivations of my principal characters a little more deeply.

Alex

High Concept: Alex is a struggling children’s book author who develops the ability to communicate with dead children following a disabling accident.

The Character’s Journey: On the surface, we experience the character’s transformation from self-absorbed to selfless. Additionally, his ability to communicate with ghosts is very unique. Below the surface, neither the character nor the viewer is aware that he, in fact, died in the accident, and his transformation is a necessary evolution to prepare him for entrance to heaven.

The Actor Attractors for the Character: He is a struggling writer who has let the frustration over his flailing career overtake every other aspect of his life. After a disabling accident, he develops psychic abilities that allow him to connect the ghosts of dead children with their surviving families. Over time, he becomes selfless as he engages himself if service to these family, rather than being obsessed with his own problems.

Role in the Story: Protagonist. A children’s book author whose career has stagnated. He is obsesses with reviving his career and is entirely self-centric.

Age Range and Description: 40s. He has suffered a debilitating accident, leaving him disabled and bitter.

Core Traits: Bitter. Career-obsessed. Doesn’t recall specific details of his life prior to his accident.

Motivation: Want/Need: Want: To revive his career. Need: To come to terms with the traumas in his life.

Wound: His son died, which his mind has blocked.

Likeability / Relatability / Empathy:

Likability: Alex isn’t an antagonist in the sense of hurting others. Rather, he has a self-loathing that keeps him from helping himself, or accepting help from others such as Sandy. We can see he is a good person at heart, but is simply struggling against his own failings. Against his desire to distance himself from others, we can see that he really wants to help the ghost children.

Relatability: He is dedicated to his dream, and his work, which gets in the way of his other relationships, such as with his family. Slowly, he reassesses his priorities, and rediscovers the importance of family.

Empathy: He begins to bond with Sandy, which brings him out of his shell, and eases him into a more selfless perspective, where he starts putting the welfare of the ghost children and their families over his own insecurities and ambitions.

Character Subtext: Obsessed with reviving his career despite knowing there are significant personal relationships lacking in his life.

Character Intrigue: He doesn’t remember anything about his personal life; he’s consumed with his work. Yet, the scars from his personal life eat at him, even though he doesn’t recognize what’s at the heart of the problem.

Flaw: His refusal to acknowledge the deep personal wounds that are the heart of his issues. He attempts to compensate for that loss by his obsession with work.

Values: Duty to his career, which has replaced his sense of duty to his family.

Character Internal Dilemma: Obsession with his career and self, despite wanting to help others.

Sandy

High Concept: Sandy is the ghost of a young dead boy, who helps connect Alex to the ghosts of other dead children.

The Character’s Journey: He feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

The Actor Attractors for the Character: He is a ghost. Additionally, he is a child character who is something of a mentor to an adult, giving him a position of authority over the adult.

Role in the Story: Triangle. He is a child ghost who is assigned with preparing Alex to enter heaven. To do so, he must orchestrate Alex’s transformation from self-centered to selfless, but can’t reveal to Alex any of the truths Sandy knows about him. Rather, Alex must come to these realizations himself.

Age Range and Description: 10. A child ghost. Naturally angelic, with a nature that would melt anyone’s heart.

Core Traits: Kind. Selfless. Resentful of Alex’s failure to recognize him.

Motivation: Want/Need: To prepare Alex to enter heaven. Need: For Alex to recognize him and love him as a father to a son.

Wound: Feels rejected by his father because of his inability to remember him.

Likeability / Relatability / Empathy:

Likability: He has a sense of duty. Even though Alex doesn’t yet know who Sandy is, Sandy is devoted to him, because he knows Alex is actually his father.

Relatability: He is trying to help his dad. He is trying to bring his family together.

Empathy: He genuinely wants to help the other ghost children. You can see his love for his dad, and how crushed he is when Alex rejects his attempts to help him.

Character Subtext: Desperately craves the love of his father but is forbidden to reveal their relationship.

Character Intrigue: He feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

Flaw: His resentment toward his father, blaming him for his own death. At the same time, he desperately craves his father’s love, which threatens to interfere with his assignment.

Values: Devotion to family, leading him to help his father despite the personal pain it causes him.

Character Internal Dilemma: Wanting to help his father vs. wanting his father to know who he really is.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Character Profiles Part 1

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of getting to know my principal characters intimately enough to define their actions and dialogue.

Alex

High Concept: Alex is a struggling children’s book author who develops the ability to communicate with dead children following a disabling accident.

The Character’s Journey: On the surface, we experience the character’s transformation from self-absorbed to selfless. Additionally, his ability to communicate with ghosts is very unique. Below the surface, neither the character nor the viewer is aware that he, in fact, died in the accident, and his transformation is a necessary evolution to prepare him for entrance to heaven.

The Actor Attractors for the Character: He is a struggling writer who has let the frustration over his flailing career overtake every other aspect of his life. After a disabling accident, he develops psychic abilities that allow him to connect the ghosts of dead children with their surviving families. Over time, he becomes selfless as he engages himself if service to these family, rather than being obsessed with his own problems.

Role in the Story: Protagonist. A children’s book author whose career has stagnated. He is obsesses with reviving his career and is entirely self-centric.

Age Range and Description: 40s. He has suffered a debilitating accident, leaving him disabled and bitter.

Core Traits: Bitter. Career-obsessed. Doesn’t recall specific details of his life prior to his accident.

Motivation: Want/Need: Want: To revive his career. Need: To come to terms with the traumas in his life.

Wound: His son died, which his mind has blocked.

Likeability / Relatability / Empathy:

Likability: Alex isn’t an antagonist in the sense of hurting others. Rather, he has a self-loathing that keeps him from helping himself, or accepting help from others such as Sandy. We can see he is a good person at heart, but is simply struggling against his own failings. Against his desire to distance himself from others, we can see that he really wants to help the ghost children.

Relatability: He is dedicated to his dream, and his work, which gets in the way of his other relationships, such as with his family. Slowly, he reassesses his priorities, and rediscovers the importance of family.

Empathy: He begins to bond with Sandy, which brings him out of his shell, and eases him into a more selfless perspective, where he starts putting the welfare of the ghost children and their families over his own insecurities and ambitions.

Sandy

High Concept: Sandy is the ghost of a young dead boy, who helps connect Alex to the ghosts of other dead children.

The Character’s Journey: He feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

The Actor Attractors for the Character: He is a ghost. Additionally, he is a child character who is something of a mentor to an adult, giving him a position of authority over the adult.

Role in the Story: Triangle. He is a child ghost who is assigned with preparing Alex to enter heaven. To do so, he must orchestrate Alex’s transformation from self-centered to selfless, but can’t reveal to Alex any of the truths Sandy knows about him. Rather, Alex must come to these realizations himself.

Age Range and Description: 10. A child ghost. Naturally angelic, with a nature that would melt anyone’s heart.

Core Traits: Kind. Selfless. Resentful of Alex’s failure to recognize him.

Motivation: Want/Need: To prepare Alex to enter heaven. Need: For Alex to recognize him and love him as a father to a son.

Wound: Feels rejected by his father because of his inability to remember him.

Likeability / Relatability / Empathy:

Likability: He has a sense of duty. Even though Alex doesn’t yet know who Sandy is, Sandy is devoted to him, because he knows Alex is actually his father.

Relatability: He is trying to help his dad. He is trying to bring his family together.

Empathy: He genuinely wants to help the other ghost children. You can see his love for his dad, and how crushed he is when Alex rejects his attempts to help him.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Likability / Relatability / Empathy

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to connect the principal characters to the audience.

Protagonist: Sandy

Likability: He has a sense of duty. Even though Alex doesn’t yet know who Sandy is, Sandy is devoted to him, because he knows Alex is actually his father.

Relatability: He is trying to help his dad. He is trying to bring his family together.

Empathy: He genuinely wants to help the other ghost children. You can see his love for his dad, and how crushed he is when Alex rejects his attempts to help him.

Antagonist: Alex

Likability: Alex isn’t an antagonist in the sense of hurting others. Rather, he has a self-loathing that keeps him from helping himself, or accepting help from others such as Sandy. We can see he is a good person at heart, but is simply struggling against his own failings. Against his desire to distance himself from others, we can see that he really wants to help the ghost children.

Relatability: He is dedicated to his dream, and his work, which gets in the way of his other relationships, such as with his family. Slowly, he reassesses his priorities, and rediscovers the importance of family.

Empathy: He begins to bond with Sandy, which brings him out of his shell, and eases him into a more selfless perspective, where he starts putting the welfare of the ghost children and their families over his own insecurities and ambitions.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Character Intrigue

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a further means of developing much deeper layers into the principal characters.

Role: Alex

Secrets: He has some deep secrets, but he’s not the one who’s keeping the secrets. Rather, they’re being kept from him, and it’s Sandy who knows the truth.

Deception: He is deceiving himself, by denying the realities of his life- and death. Also by trying to deny the psychic abilities he has developed since his accident/death.

Unspoken Wound: He doesn’t remember anything about his personal life; he’s consumed with his work. Yet, the scars from his personal life eat at him, even though he doesn’t recognize what’s at the heart of the problem.

Role: Sandy

Hidden Agendas: To get Alex to remember his family, and his death and its collateral consequences, to prepare him to cross over to heaven.

Conspiracies: He is commissioned by God to help Alex face the realities of who he is, and his actions. But, since he has to arrive at these realizations by himself, neither Sandy nor the other ghost children are allowed to reveal to Alex the connection they have to him.

Secrets: Sandy is Alex’s son. Alex is indirectly responsible for the deaths of the child ghosts he is introduced to.

Deception: He leads Alex to believe he has simply developed psychic abilities

Unspoken Wound: He feels a resentment toward Alex for both his own death, and for Alex having committed suicide. Yet, until he is assigned to prepare Alex for entry into heaven, he hadn’t fully realized that. So, it’s no accident that God assigned Sandy to work with Alex, because it’s also intended to help Sandy come to terms with his feelings toward his father.

Secret Identity: Sandy is the ghost of Alex’s son, but can’t tell Alex that. It’s something Alex has to realize on his own.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Subtext Characters

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a means of developing much deeper layers into the principal characters.

Example Movie

Movie Title: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)

Character Name: The Earl of Dorincourt

Subtext Identity: Grandfather to Cedric, a young boy he has never met.

Subtext Traits: Cold-hearted. Matter of fact, business-minded.

Subtext Logline: The aging and cold-hearted Earl of Dorincourt attempts to model his innocent young grandchild in an image of himself.

Possible Areas of Subtext: Has Cedric observe his authoritarian interactions with the townspeople and tenants to learn the responsibilities he will experience when he becomes the Earl.

Ghost Writer

Character Name: Alex

Subtext Identity: A struggling children’s book author who is disabled in an accident.

Subtext Trait: Despondent, negative, little empathy or concern for others.

Subtext Logline: Alex is a struggling children’s book author obsessed only with reviving his flailing career.

Possible Areas of Subtext: Single-minded in reviving his career, but is inconveniently interrupted by psychic abilities connecting him to ghosts following his accident. The ghosts seek his help, but he is not interested. At the same time, he senses there are aspects of his life that he has no memory of, and engaging with the ghosts helps unveil these secrets, so he can’t help but interact with them. Over time, he develops more and more empathy for these ghost children, while also tormented by the nature of his re-emerging memories.

Character Name: Sandy

Subtext Identity: A child ghost who connects Alex to other ghost children in need of help.

Subtext Trait: An engaging child intent on convincing Alex to help ghost children, and their families, obtain closure in the untimely deaths of their children.

Subtext Logline: Sandy is an engaging child ghost intent on convincing Alex to help other ghost children, and their families, obtain closure in the untimely deaths of their children.

Possible Areas of Subtext: He knows all the truths Alex is struggling to remember, but isn’t allowed to reveal them. He has to navigate Alex along his own journey to discover his own secrets. On the surface, the relationships he helps Alex forge with the ghost children and their families appear to be their own goal but, in reality, they are Sandy’s means of helping Alex complete his own eternal journey.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Actor Attractors

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is creating character attractions for actors specifically for my project vs. merely identifying those from an existing film.

Lead Character Name: Alex (struggling children’s book author)

1. What about this role would cause an actor to want to be known for it?

He is a struggling writer who has let the frustration over his flailing career overtake every other aspect of his life. After a disabling accident, he develops psychic abilities that allow him to connect the ghosts of dead children with their surviving families. Over time, he becomes selfless as he engages himself if service to these family, rather than being obsessed with his own problems.

2. What makes this character one of the most interesting characters in your story?

On the surface, we experience the character’s transformation from self-absorbed to selfless. Additionally, his ability to communicate with ghosts is very unique. Below the surface, neither the character nor the viewer is aware that he, in fact, died in the accident, and his transformation is a necessary evolution to prepare him for entrance to heaven.

3. What are the most interesting actions the Lead could take in the script?

Communicating with ghosts. A suicide at the beginning of the film. Writing children’s books.

4. How can you introduce this role in a way that could sell it to an actor?

The film opens with him drinking at a gravesite in a snowstorm. He next drives his car full speed into an overpass pylon.

5. What could be this character’s emotional range?

From despondent and suicidal, to questioning his sanity upon realizing he can commune with ghosts, to selflessness as he becomes engrossed in helping the ghosts and their families achieve closure regarding their childrens’ deaths.

6. What subtext can the actor play?

Throughout the story, the character is actually dead, but doesn’t realize it. Nor does he remember he had a young son who had died. As the story progresses, he regains more and more memory of his son. There would be subtle clues given by the actor throughout regarding both of these secrets.

7. What’s the most interesting relationships this character can have?

The relationship with the ghost child, Sandy, who is a sort of mentor. While, in reality, Sandy is the ghost of his son. His relationships with the other ghost children, and their families, are also very dynamic.

8. How will this character’s unique voice be presented?

Initially, he is negative and in a permanent pity party. Yet, throughout, there is the deeply buried sense of peace and tranquility that inspired him to bet into writing children’s books in the first place. As time goes on, this inner self becomes ever stronger.

9. What could make this character special and unique?

At first that he is able to communicate with ghosts, and then the discovery that he is a ghost himself.

Lead Character Name: Sandy (ghost child)

1. What about this role would cause an actor to want to be known for it?

He is a ghost. Additionally, he is a child character who is something of a mentor to an adult, giving him a position of authority over the adult.

2. What makes this character one of the most interesting characters in your story?

Pretty much the same as above. He is a child ghost, who is in a superior position to the adult lead in the film.

3. What are the most interesting actions the Lead could take in the script?

Sandy exposes Alex to the ‘other side,’ introducing him to other child ghosts, while leading him on a personal journey of self-discovery, which is what the story is really about.

4. How can you introduce this role in a way that could sell it to an actor?

He appears to Alex in an unlikely manner, and it becomes apparent that Sandy is actually a ghost.

5. What could be this character’s emotional range

Sandy is hiding some big secrets, so he is initially pretty aloof. He knows, but can’t initially reveal to Alex, that he is the ghost of Alex’s son, the relationships between Alex and the other ghosts, and that Alex is a ghost himself. Little by little, he must reveal to Alex his relationship to the other ghost children. Finally, we have a very emotional reunion, with full recognition, between Alex and Sandy as father and son.

6. What subtext can the actor play?

That Sandy is a ghost, that he is Alex’s son, that Alex is a ghost, and the relationship between Alex and the other child ghosts. He is hiding many very big secrets, all of which would be presented as subtext.

7. What’s the most interesting relationships this character can have?

He is tasked by God with preparing Alex, his father, for entry into heaven. But he must go through a major transformation before then. So this is a long and detailed journey. Also Sandy’s relationships with the other child ghosts, and their families.

8. How will this character’s unique voice be presented?

He is a mentor of the adult character, so he has to be firm and convincing. All the while, he also must keep some very big secrets, and lead Alex on a journey of self-discovery. Though Sandy knows all the answers from the beginning, it would ruin the objective if he simply gave Alex the answers. Alex has to discover them on his own, in his own time, and Sandy must skillfully lead him to his own discoveries.

9. What could make this character special and unique?

He is a child ghost, entrusted by God to lead the ghost of his father on the journey necessary to prepare him to enter heaven.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Actor Attractors for Ghost Writer

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to present lead characters in a way that satisfies the unique priorities of A-List actors.

Movie Title: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) Alec Guiness, Ricky Schroder

Lead Character Name: Cedric aka Lord Fauntleroy (Ricky Schroder)

1. Why would an actor WANT to be known for this role?

Lord Fauntleroy is an iconic character from classic literature. The character is also played in circumstances ranging from a child of poverty to an extremely wealthy heir to the British aristocracy.

2. What makes this character one of the most interesting characters in the movie?

He doesn’t undergo the typical internal journey, which changes the character in a fundamental way. Rather, he is goodhearted from the outset, and remains so despite being thrown into circumstances under which a lesser person could be corrupted by power and avarice. As such, he is the catalyst of change for all the adults surrounding him, all of whom have become jaded to varying degrees. Through his influence, they all regain a semblance of the innocence personified by Lord Fauntleroy.

3. What are the most interesting actions the Lead takes in the movie?

Cedric unwittingly forces the most jaded adults around him to perform acts of kindness that they don’t really want to do. This is because Cedric commits them to these acts, and to then refuse to follow through would reflect very poorly on these adults.

4. How is this character introduced that could sell it to an actor?

Cedric is introduced as a street urchin on New York City’s Hester Street. He is precocious yet kind-hearted, relating more comfortably with adult merchants rather than other kids his age. Being taken seriously by adults, as an equal, should be appealing to a 10-year-old actor.

5. What is this character’s emotional range?

Cedric is almost always happy and kind. He is, however, shown occasionally questioning the motives of his grandfather, the Earl of Dorincouert, regarding Cedric’s mother. He is also downcast at times due to missing his mother, who is not allowed to live with him at the castle.

6. What subtext can the actor play?

Cedric wants to be a normal kid, rather than Lord Fauntleroy, heir to a British fortune. He is not only unimpressed with the opulent surroundings in which he finds himself, but openly dislikes them. He is torn between his love for his grandfather and his antipathy toward his new life of elitism and privilege. Over time, though, he comes to recognize the ways in which a life of power and riches could be used to help those around him, and improve the lives of his impoverished friends and tenants.

7. What’s the most interesting relationships this character has?

Though Cedric is only 10 years old, his best friends are a grocer and a bootblack, who are adult merchants on Hester Street in New York. He is devoted to both his mother and his grandfather, who are separated by mutual dislike for one another, which causes Cedric to question his grandfather’s motives. He resists being treated as an elite by his servants, whom he would much rather have as friends and social equals.

8. How is this character’s unique voice presented?

Cedric is unusually goodhearted. He leads all the adults surrounding him to changes for the better by his own ability to keep extraordinary power, nobility and wealth from making him self-absorbed or jaded.

9. What makes this character special and unique?

Cedric is a very ordinary boy- in fact, a less than ordinary boy given his impoverished life- who is suddenly thrown into extraordinary circumstances of wealth and position, the likes of which would be the average person’s dream come true. Yet, he is entirely unaffected by it and, truth be told, would much rather have this honor lifted from him.

10. (Fill in a scene that shows the character fulfilling much of the Actor Attractor model.)

On Christmas Eve, Cedric is despondent about his mother not being with him on Christmas. He looks through a window at the snow falling, and sadly questions whether his mother might be watching the snow fall right then as well. His grandfather overhears him and realizes how his feud with Cedric’s mother is negatively affecting his grandson. This is the crescendo of changes that Cedric has brought upon his grandfather, and he sends for Cedric’s mother to be brought to the castle, completing the Earl’s transformation.

Lead Character Name: The Earl of Dorincourt (Alec Guiness)

1. Why would an actor WANT to be known for this role?

The Earl of Dorincourt is an iconic character from classic literature. The character undergoes a far-ranging character arc, from a cold-hearted tyrant to a kind-hearted person who rediscovers the value of family and the feeling of unconditional love.

2. What makes this character one of the most interesting characters in the movie?

First, the character is the principal authority figure in the story, which is almost always the most interesting character in a story. The Earl is of a stature that distances him from the other, ‘common’ characters, which has robbed him of basic humanity. Then, as he becomes endeared to his grandson, he rediscovers his humanity, providing him the first real human relationship he has had in decades. This warms his heart to where it overlaps all of his relationships, which must be played without undermining the authority he must maintain in the management of his business affairs.

3. What are the most interesting actions the Lead takes in the movie?

In need of the only heir to his title and estate, the Earl of Dorincourt enlists his right hand man to find Cedric Errol, his grandson, whom the Earl has never met. He then undertakes the duty of training Cedric to succeed him as the future Earl of Dorincourt, thinking it will be a one way street, with him modeling the young boy in his image. It ends up being the opposite, with Cedric restoring in his grandfather a sense of humanity, love and caring. In the end, the Earl is inspired by Cedric’s example to become a better person, and make up for the wrongs he has done to others over his life.

4. How is this character introduced that could sell it to an actor?

The Earl is first seen sitting in a grand room in his gigantic, opulent castle, where he is clearly in charge of everyone and everything in his world. It is the point where he first meets his grandson, whom he has never laid eyes on. Yet, he is cold and matter-of-fact, not showing the least sign of sentimentality at meeting the boy who is, essentially, the only remaining family the Earl has. His wife and all three of his sons have passed on, yet he has no emotional sense of family. His interest in his grandson extends no further than his role as heir to the Earl’s position. The scene portrays him as utterly devoid of sentimentality or emotional attachment to family, but without it coming across as mean or evil.

5. What is this character’s emotional range?

The Earl is at first all business, managing his countless servants and tenants, all of whom he considers ‘underlings.’ As such, he cares little- if at all- about them as human beings. This includes his grandson in initially as well but, over time, he is unable to resist Cedric’s charm and genuine goodness, in part because the boy is so like his father, the Earl’s late ‘favorite’ son. As the Earl lowers his guard and comes to love Cedric, he warms up to everyone else around him as well, in a classic “Ebenezer Scrooge” fashion, and learns to love life, and family and friends, again.

6. What subtext can the actor play?

From the outset, the Earl has a strong set of ethics. He embodies that in his utter devotion to his duty as the manager of his estate. He also expects the same sense of duty from those he oversees, which he feels justified in. As such, he sees himself as the ‘good guy’ and, technically speaking, there is nothing wrong with his sense of ethics. As such, he is not overtly mean, he’s just all business. As Cedric reawakens love and caring within him, he starts seeing those around him in through a lens of humanity, rather than strictly through a lens of business and duty.

7. What’s the most interesting relationships this character has?

The obvious choice is the relationship with his grandson, but I find a couple others more interesting. First is the Earl’s relationship with Cedric’s mother. He resents her for marrying his son, since he did not consider a ‘common American’ worthy of him. When she and Cedric move from New York to England, he refuses to so much as see her. Over time, as he recognizes what a wonderful, loving child she has raised Cedric to be, and how devoted Cedric is to her, he overcomes his prejudices and accepts her as family. The other is his right hand man. Though it is without question a master / servant relationship, the Earl’s view toward him is nevertheless different from any other, as there is a sense of friendship beneath the surface.

8. How is this character’s unique voice presented?

He has sole authority and responsibility for maintaining his vast estate which, in the British system of aristocracy, makes him responsible for the vocational viability of every person within the towns and farms under his jurisdiction. It is a position of nobility into which he was born, and to which he has been groomed his whole life to fulfill. His shoulders carry a burden of responsibility far beyond the average person’s comprehension, and one he takes very seriously. As such, he is very business-like in his demeanor. And though he is looked upon by everyone under his charge as cold and unfeeling, he is nonetheless never mean-spirited. Because of this, you always sense a spark of good inside.

9. What makes this character special and unique?

He is a major figure in the British aristocracy, born into nobility. As such, he lives a life of opulence and responsibility that very few ever experience or can truly understand. Conversely, he has never known a life of manual labor, nor the insecurity of having to provide for one’s family without the means of doing so.

10. (Fill in a scene that shows the character fulfilling much of the Actor Attractor model.)

Cedric and the Earl ride horses through Earl’s Lane- where the servants on the Earl’s estate live- which the Earl claims to have not visited in 20 years. They find a subhuman condition of run down houses, misery and extreme poverty. The usually hardhearted Earl is shamed in front of his grandson for his apathy and negligence toward his servants, and tells Cedric to vow to be more responsible than he has been. This marks a pivotal change in the Earl.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Genre Conventions

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to lock in the chosen genre by building in all the elements of the genre expected by audiences and producers.

Title: Ghost Writer

Concept: A struggling children’s book author mourning the loss of his son develops psychic abilities, enabling him to communicate with dead children, following a disabling accident in which his own son was killed.

Genre: Drama

GENRE CONVENTIONS

Purpose

Character-Driven Journey

High Stakes Come From Within

Emotionally Resonates

Challenging, Emotionally-Charged Situations

Real-Life Situations

Additions on Bold

ACT 1

Opening: Alex drinks at a grave during a snow storm, shown from the side, so we don’t see a name on the headstone. Alex is then driving in the snow. Despondent over his failing career, Alex intentionally crashes his car into an overpass pylon in a suicide attempt. A few cars pull over, and a few men run to help. We are led to believe that Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. As he awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is seemingly oblivious to the report. As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim.

Inciting Incident: Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help other grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

Turning Point: Alex is initially not interested, more absorbed with reviving his career, and ignores his psychic connections, but is haunted by his abilities, which he can’t get out of his mind.

Alex remembers being at a grave, showing a little more of the headstone, but still no name. He also remembers being at the crash as the drivers who pulled over fight to get him out of the car. From there, he is able to psychically see the first ghost child Sandy told him about, and his family, who are grieving over his death.

ACT 2

New Plan: Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers. But he discovers he is unable to suppress these powers, and is unable to ignore an internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure. Alex sees a kid gets out of one of the cars at his accident scene. He starts running across the highway, but stops cold, looking down the road, terrified.

Plan in Action: Alex writes a book about the first child Sandy connected him with. He then contacts the child’s family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex.

Midpoint Turning Point: Initially Alex doesn’t care about the family’s dismissal of him and his claims, feeling he can chalk it off to having done everything he can, and then forget about it. He then remembers being at the grave again, camera a little more to the front. This connects him to the feelings this family feels, and he decides he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together. At this point, Sandy introduces him to other child ghosts, and shows them their families as well.

ACT 3

Rethink Everything: Somehow, Alex feels connected to the grief of the family as if he, himself, has lost a child himself. He begins to understand that all life is connected, and that he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the grief process.

In further remember his crash, he sees the child in the street, paralyzed in fear as a truck goes out of control as it approaches the crash scene. He remembers more of being at the grave, even further to the front of the headstone, but still unable to see the name.

New Plan: Alex now realizes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children. He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief.

Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift: The mother of one of these other departed kids commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child, even with the assurance of gaining closure. Instead, she is resolute on joining her child in the afterlife. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so. At this point, Alex sees the truck crash through the cars pulled over to help at his accident, further convincing him he wants nothing to do with this.

ACT 4

Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: Sandy shows Alex that this woman’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her, including her other kids. Alex is convinced to continue to bring the remaining departed kids together with their families to bring them all to a point of acceptance and closure.

Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, he sees himself full at the grave, where the name Alexander “Sandy” is on the headstone. He realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, who had died previously and led to his isolation and loss of interest in living. He also sees the accident scene clearly. He then sees himself in his car as the rescuers realize that he is dead. Just then, the truck plows through the cars, he sees the ghosts of the children Sandy showed him in the cars, with the other being the kid in the street, all of whom are killed in the crash.

Alex realizes that he has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son in the eternities. He also realizes that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide. As he has helped connect the child ghosts and their families, and helping all of them come to terms, they forgive him and, more importantly, he is able to forgive himself. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over himself, and join Sandy in the afterlife.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ 4 Act Transformational Structure

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to structure the inciting events / turning points to maintain escalating tension and forge the protagonist’s journey and transformation. I am getting really stoked on this. Honestly, I could stop the course at this point already, and my screenplays would be twice as strong as they have been. This is awesome! That said, I have no intention of doing that, and look forward to upcoming improvements to my writing as we proceed.

Concept: A struggling children’s book author mourning the loss of his son develops psychic abilities, enabling him to communicate with dead children, following a disabling accident in which his own son was killed.

Main Conflict: The author is self-absorbed and wants to use his newfound psychic powers to help himself, but reluctantly finds he is unable to do so, but is able to use these abilities to help other parents dealing with the loss of their own children, which he has no real interest in doing.

Old Ways: Self-centered, concerned only with his grief, and building his flailing career.

New Ways: Empathetic, embracing his psychic abilities to bring others the peace of mind he, himself, is unable to find in his own life.

ACT 1

Opening: Despondent over his failing career, Alex intentionally crashes his car in a suicide attempt. As the car crashes, we are given a hint that he has a child in the car with him. We are led to believe that Alex survived the crash, but is left disabled. As he awakens in hospital, a news report in the background reports on the crash, claiming it involved several vehicles and that there were multiple fatalities, but he is seemingly oblivious to the report. As Alex rehabilitates, we see him as depressed, despondent and self-absorbed, filled with negativity and concerned only with how his misfortunes have made him a perpetual victim.

Inciting Incident: Alex is visited by Sandy, a child ghost, who tells him he has the power to help other grieving parents, and help their departed children cross over to eternity.

Turning Point: Alex initially wants to connect with his own departed son, the details about whom he has very little recollection, but discovers his psychic abilities only allow him to connect with the ghosts of other departed children.

ACT 2

New Plan: Alex still has no interest in using his powers to assist others rather than himself, and tries to ignore these powers. But he discovers he is unable to suppress these powers, and is unable to ignore an internal need to bring these dead children and their parents together to help them achieve closure.

Plan in Action: Alex writes a book about the first child Sandy connected him with. He then contacts the child’s family to get the book to them, insisting their departed child compelled him to write it. They are skeptical and want nothing to do with Alex.

Midpoint Turning Point: Initially Alex doesn’t care about the family’s dismissal of him and his claims, feeling he can chalk it off to having done everything he can, and then forget about it. Then he discovers that, in writing the child’s story, he has gained a greater recollection of his own son. But, with the family’s rejection of him, he begins losing that newfound recollection and realizes that, for his own sake, he must succeed in bringing the family and their departed child together.

ACT 3

Rethink Everything: Alex realizes that his grief over the loss of his own son is connected to the grief of others who have lost their children. He begins to understand that all life is connected, and that for him to progress in dealing with the loss of his son, he must develop an honest empathy for others going through the same grief process.

New Plan: Alex now realizes he must succeed in getting these other families to believe in his ability to connect them with their departed children. He is now unwilling to accept failure, and becomes absorbed in helping these other families to move beyond their paralyzing grief.

Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift: The mother of one of these other departed kids commits suicide, unable to continue in life without her child even with the assurance of gaining closure. Instead, she is resolute on joining her child in the afterlife. Devastated and now believing his is doing more harm than good in connecting these departed kids with their families, Alex tells Sandy he wants nothing more to do with these kids, and will no longer use his connection to these kids to do so.

ACT 4

Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: Sandy shows Alex that this woman’s suicide was unavoidable but, without Alex’s intervention in connecting her with her departed child, her suicide would have been an act of despair rather than a misguided act of hope, and would have taken the rest of her family with her. Alex is convinced to continue to bring the remaining departed kids together with their families to bring them all to a point of acceptance and closure.

Resolution: As Alex accomplishes the task, his recollections of his son and suicide attempt improve, and he realizes that Sandy is, in fact, his son, who died in the crash, and that
Alex himself had also died, and has been dead throughout the story. This whole journey has, in reality, been about his own reclamation and redemption, which he must undergo before being allowed to join his son in the eternities. He also discovers that the children he has connected with are kids who died as an indirect result of his own suicide attempt. Several cars had stopped to assist in the crash, and a truck had accidentally plowed through a few of the cars, killing 3 kids left in the cars as their parents tried to save Alex and Sandy. His redemption complete, he is allowed to cross over himself, and join Sandy in the afterlife.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Subtext Plot

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is how to deepen the story in a fairly easy way to explore the motivations of characters below the surface.

Concept: A struggling children’s book author mourning the loss of his son develops psychic abilities, enabling him to communicate with dead children, following a disabling accident in which his own son was killed.

Subtext Plot 1: Layering: After children’s book author Alex’s accident, he develops psychic abilities which enable him to communicate with the ghost of a young boy named Sandy. Sandy connects Alex to the ghosts of other children who can’t ‘cross over’ until their families come to terms with their passing and learn to let them go. Alex writes these children’s stories from their own points of view, designed to convince the families that their kids are okay in the arms of a loving God, enabling them to let to, and have one last moment to say goodbye to their departed child. Ultimately, Alex discovers the unknown connection he had with each of these kids, and the unwitting role he played in their deaths. It’s ultimately Alex who needs to come to terms with these deaths even more than the families of these kids.

Subtext Plot 2: Someone Hides Who They Are: As the ghost of Sandy connects Alex to the ghosts of other departed children, Alex is initially bitter that Sandy doesn’t connect him with his own departed son. Yet in the beginning, although Alex knows he had- and lost- a son, his memory of him is distorted. He’s fuzzy on his son’s name and how he looked but, for an unexplainable reason, doesn’t question his incomplete recollections. It seems somehow normal to him. As Sandy takes Alex further along his journey, Alex recalls more and more until eventually realizing that Sandy is, in fact, the ghost of his son, and that Alex died in his accident. What Sandy has been doing all along is preparing Alex to come to terms with his own death, and become ready to enter heaven.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Transformational Journey

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is an amazingly easy and quick means of tracking a character’s journey, by identifying the beginning point and ending point, and then filling in the incremental steps along the way.

Arc Beginning: Introverted struggling children’s book author whose own son has died.

Arc Ending: Learns to use his talents to bringing closure to families who have lost a child.

Internal Journey: From depressed, discouraged and negative to selfless and empathetic.

External Journey: From selfish, struggling writer to using his abilities to benefit others.

Old Ways: Self-absorbed, victim personality, mourning the death of his son.

New Ways: Helps others get over their own loss and grief.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Intentional Lead Characters

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a fairly simple means of directing each character’s unique traits and motivations toward the unique concept of the story.

Character: Protagonist

Logline: Alex is a struggling children’s book author who develops the ability to communicate with dead children following a disabling accident.

Unique: As a children’s book author, Alex is uniquely suited to connecting children to their parents and families which, after developing psychic abilities, uses his talents to connect the ghosts of dead children to their parents, enabling both the children and their families to derive some closure.

Character: Antagonist

Logline: This is a dark entity that tries to keep Alex from connecting the ghosts of dead children from their families, and freeing them to cross over.

Unique: This entity has the ability to place barriers against Alex’s ability to connect child ghosts in limbo with their families.

Character: Triangle Character

Logline: Sandy is the ghost of a young dead boy, who helps connect Alex to the ghosts of other dead children.

Unique: This ghost has the inside info on child ghosts in need of connecting with their families so that both ghost child, and parents, can move on.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Title, Concept and Character Structure

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a pretty cool means of determining the overall structure of the story. I’m actually pretty stoked about this because determining how to present the story is always a huge struggle. Yet this method made what could be an endless internal debate an easy decision over about a 2 minute debate.

Title: Ghost Writer

Concept: : A struggling children’s book author develops psychic abilities, enabling him to communicate with dead children, following a disabling accident in which his own son was killed.

Character Structure: Dramatic Triangle

(as a note, finding this page required a series of trial and error, as almost every available option kept taking me to the previous class from a few months ago)

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Title, Concept and Character Structure

My vision for success in this program is to develop and hone my skills to the extent that my screenplays will be produced and widely viewed.

What I learned from this assignment is a pretty cool means of determining the overall structure of the story. I’m actually pretty stoked about this because determining how to present the story is always a huge struggle. Yet this method made what could be an endless internal debate an easy decision over about a 2 minute debate.

Title: Ghost Writer

Concept: : A struggling children’s book author develops psychic abilities, enabling him to communicate with dead children, following a disabling accident in which his own son was killed.

Character Structure: Dramatic Triangle

[Brandyn Cross]

I agree to all

[Brandyn Cross]

1) Hi I’m Brandyn Cross.

2) I’ve written around 20 or so feature screenplays, but I’ve written over 100 produced TV episodes. There’s definitely a big difference between the two formats.

3) I hope to become MUCH sharper in the intricate details of a feature script. I want to get my skills in delving into the second, third, etc. layers of character and plot development, so every element of the script is deep and engaging, to the highest level possible.

4) Well, let’s see. I’m autistic and an amputee. I’m a singer/songwriter and recently had a song spend over 6 months on the charts. I guess all that’s unique, strange and weird enough.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Scares, Releases and Creepy Moments!

What I learned in this lesson is the ‘science’ behind the manipulation of the audience’s emotions.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa stands outside the house, examining it. She slowly goes to the front door and pushes it open.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa enters to find the house dark and obviously abandoned. She slowly goes further inside. She tries the light switch, but nothing happens. She then goes into the darkened livingroom.

A loud bang rings out behind her. She wheels around, but sees nothing.

The chandelier in the entry hall turns on, slowly growing from dark to a dim light. In the dim glow of the light, an eerie silhouette appears in the entry hall, menacing and looking like some kind of entity.

Alyssa gasps, momentarily taken back. She meekly calls out Charlotte’s name, asking if that’s her. There is no response, and the figure in the entry hall remains motionless.

As the moments pass with no further noises or movement, Alyssa regains some courage. She cautiously approaches the figure, glancing around her for any sign of disturbance. As she nears the figure, she sees that whatever is underneath is covered with a dingy, white sheet.

She stares at the figure a moment, then rips the sheet away, revealing an ornate Victorian, high-back chair underneath. Alyssa sighs in relief and chuckles to herself.

The chandelier light then begins flickering, alternating from a dim glow to dark. She looks at the chandelier, and it begins slightly swaying. Just then, the house begins echoing with creaks, groans, and eerie moans. She calls out Charlotte’s name, but hears only the same strange noises in response.

She looks back to the chair, the flickering chandelier light switching the chair from dim light to pitch black, almost like a strobe light. In one of the flashes of dim light, there is a charred, skeletal corpse sitting in the chair.

A that moment, she hears what sounds like a scream, and then a gunshot, echoing from upstairs. In the next flash of light, the corpse is gone.

Alyssa screams and runs away.

[Brandyn Cross]

Brandyn Cross’ Level 3 Horror Emotion Scene

What I learned in this lesson was a step by step arch to escalate and utilize a graduated system of emotional manipulation in extreme scenes of violence and terror.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

The three kids go to Charlotte’s house to confront her.

Charlotte appears in her fully evil and paranormal splendor. She tells Alyssa that all she had to do was be her friend and everything would have been okay. Alyssa accuses Charlotte of killing Kodi and Laura, and says she’s going to kill her for it.

Charlotte disapparates and all hell breaks loose in the house. The kids freak and try to find Charlotte, who can appear and disappear at will, and can kinetically control physical objects and threaten the kids with them.

Katie ends up in the attic, yelling for Charlotte to face her. Alyssa and Devin watch helpless as Charlotte appears, confronting Katie. Yet they are held back, helpless, unable to assist.

As they watch in horror, Charlotte conjures up a growing flame, and flings it at Katie. She dodges the flames, giving the kids hope of victory and escape. Alyssa and Devin yell to Katie to run, but she can’t get past the growing flames surrounding Charlotte, which are getting ever closer to Katie.

Katie sees an window of escape and tries to run but, just as she does, Charlotte kinetically escalates and moves the flames into Katie’s avenue of escape as she runs past. The flames engulf Katie. Alyssa and Devin watch, horrified and helpless as Katie is burned alive, screaming and thrashing about helplessly. She wanders about, completely engulfed in the flames, into the bathroom, where she falls dead into the tub, filled with water, her charred body floating in the water.

The kinetic manipulation of Katie and the flames drains Charlotte of energy, freeing Alyssa and Devin from the paralyzing force holding them back. They are clearly at a disadvantage against Charlotte’s other-worldly, evil powers, but no longer care. They rush her but, just as they are about to attack her, Charlotte disapparates, leaving Alyssa and Devin seething in rage, but powerless for the moment against her.

[Brandyn Cross]

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Brandyn Cross’ Level 2 Horror Emotion Scene

What I learned was how to structure the scene to specifically target intended emotional responses, rather than just write a scene containing events, with no specific target audience reaction.

Charlotte suddenly appears in the house as Laura, Alyssa and her friends finish dinner and put a movie on. As they do, the house becomes cold, and an uncomfortable sensation overtakes them. Immediately, a loud bang is heard from another room. They realize that someone may be in the house.

They all look at each other, but no one makes a move to do anything. Alyssa’s best friend wonders aloud if it’s Laura doing something, or if Charlotte might have snuck into the house. Just then, Laura comes in and asks what they were doing in there, as she has heard the sound as well. That leaves Charlotte as the most likely culprit.

Alyssa has had enough of Charlotte’s inappropriate intrusions into her life just as another bang is heard. She says she’s going to put an end to this, and volunteers to check it out. She slowly, deliberately goes down the hall toward where the sound came from.

Back in the family room, the others hear Alyssa scream. The all freeze for a moment, not sure what to do. Laura then follows Alyssa. Her best friend, and boyfriend, cautiously follow her, all careful and wary of what may have infiltrated the house, and of where it may be.

As they round a corner, Alyssa is held, suspended against the hall wall by an unseen force. Laura runs to her, but is thrown to the ground by the same unseen force. She fights against the force and pulls Alyssa down from the wall.

Charlotte launches a paranormal attack, not visible to the others, in which Laura is killed when debris falls onto her, as Alyssa tries desperately to save her. As Laura dies, eerie laughter echoes through the house.

[Brandyn Cross]

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Alyssa arrives at school and immediately sees the teenage girls, surrounded by their clique. They see her, whisper to their friends, and they all laugh as Alyssa passes by.

During school, Charlotte approaches Alyssa and introduces herself, seemingly anxious to make friends with her. Alyssa is polite, but feels uneasy about her.

As Charlotte leaves, the clique girls approach Alyssa. Alyssa asks them about Charlotte, but they look at her blankly, laugh at her, and say they have no idea what or who she’s talking about. They joke amongst themselves that Alyssa is crazy, and seeing things.

They leave, and Alyssa looks dubious. She looks around for Charlotte, but doesn’t see her anywhere.

Alyssa shrugs it off, and heads off to class. As she rounds a corner, she finds herself face to face with Charlotte. Alyssa screams, then composes herself. Charlotte stares at her coldly, a freaky, menacing look on her face.

Alyssa feebly asks why the other girls didn’t know who she was, and Charlotte says, somewhat emotionless, that they don’t see anyone outside of their own, private little group. Alyssa nods, seeming to accept that as a logical explanation.

Alyssa then says she needs to get to class, and walks around Charlotte, who doesn’t move out of the way. As Alyssa leaves, Charlotte stares at her, a serious, cold look on her face.

The clique of girls enters the science class, filled with lab tables with Bunson burners on each table. Charlotte stands at the back of the class, staring coldly at the girls as they take their table, but no one pays her any attention. Charlotte’s expression intensifies as the girls settle in at their lab table.

As the girls sit, the Bunson burner at their table explodes, setting the girls’ clothes on fire. They scream in terror, trying to put the flames out. The teacher grabs the fire extinguisher and puts out the fire. The girls aren’t seriously injured, but are terrorized. All the students surround them, horrified, as chaos erupts. At the back of the class, Charlotte is now gone.

[Brandyn Cross]

This is now the completed version.

I’m not sure how to consider what I learned, as this has largely been the format I create outlines in. So it’s largely been my step 1, but I suppose I learned how to dissect the outline into its core components and see the process itemized on how it gets to that point.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Eerie noises from a dark, creepy old house on a stormy night. Then a male voice is yelling, while a female voice is screaming.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

The house is even creepier inside. The noises, yelling and screaming continue, followed by a gunshot. At that point, the screaming ends. A woman’s bloody body lies lifeless.

A silhouette carries a gun as he cases the house.

Charlotte hides behind cover in the attic.

The silhouette lights the house on fire and is engulfed in the flames. While burning, he turns the gun on himself and kills himself.

In the attic smoke, and then the flames, traps Charlotte in the attic, with no means of escape. She is forced by the approaching flames to the window. Left with no other choice, she jumps from the window.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Charlotte’s body lies in the yard, impaled by the slats of a picket fence.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

A family moves boxes from a moving van into the house next door to the abandoned, burned out remains of Alyssa’s house. Mother, Laura, and her two children. Daughter Alyssa (16) and son Kodi (10).

While moving the boxes, Alyssa’s attention is drawn to the creepy house next door. She cautiously approaches the house, sensing evil, while hearing strange, eerie cries and moans coming from the house. For a moment, she thinks she sees a figure standing at the attic window. She takes a second look and there is no one there, but the curtains are moving.

Kodi sees her interest in the house and pauses to pay a little attention to it as well. He is very empathic and senses something very evil in the house. He tells Alyssa this, and warns her to keep clear of the house.

Laura returns Alyssa to the present, telling her to get back to work and help move everything inside. Alyssa rolls her eyes, clearly not into it. She is obviously not happy about moving in.

As Alyssa picks up a box, a couple teenage girls pass by and smugly talk to her. They ask where she moved from, and laugh among themselves in a superior manner, feeling that Alyssa is clearly not worthy of their presence, or association with them.

They warn Alyssa to stay away from the haunted house next door, then strut smugly off, laughing at Alyssa. Alyssa instantly dislikes them, and is pretty pissed off, now even more unhappy about being in this new town, and wanting to pounce on the obnoxious girls and beat the shit out of them.

Alyssa is pretty cold toward her mother, resenting her for making her move to this new town, and to leave her friends. Kodi tries to be the peacemaker, telling Alyssa to be a little more understanding of their mom. Alyssa gives Kodi a big hug, rather than getting pissed at him, showing how caring and protective she is of her little brother.

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Alyssa arrives at school and immediately sees the teenage girls, surrounded by their clique. They see her, whisper to their friends, and they all laugh as Alyssa passes by.

During school, Charlotte approaches Alyssa and introduces herself, seemingly anxious to make friends with her. Alyssa is polite, but feels uneasy about her. Alyssa doesn’t realize that, in Sixth Sense style, no one else at school acknowledges Charlotte, nor has any interaction whatsoever with her.

Charlotte keeps talking to Alyssa and is immediately rather clingy. Despite having no other friends, Alyssa isn’t anxious to become fast friends with her. Yet it seems impossible to avoid her, or to keep her at arm’s length.

EXT – RESIDENTIAL STREET – DAY

As Alyssa walks home from school, Charlotte bounds up to her, all bubbly and friendly. Alyssa can’t believe the only girl who seems to want to be friends with her is the one girl she doesn’t want to be friends with.

Charlotte insist on walking home with Alyssa. They arrive at Alyssa’s house, and she quickly tries to ‘dismiss’ Charlotte, telling her this is her house. Alyssa just smiles, and skips off. Alyssa watches her and is shocked to see her run up to the abandoned house next door and go inside. Alyssa is sure no one can actually live there, and has no idea what Charlotte is doing.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa stands outside the house, examining it. She slowly goes to the front door and pushes it open.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa enters to find the house dark and obviously abandoned. She slowly goes further inside. She tries the light switch, but nothing happens.

As she looks around, she hears creaks, groans, and eerie moans from within the house. She calls out Charlotte’s name, but hears only the same strange noises in response. She hears what sounds like a scream, and then a gunshot, echoing from upstairs. Alyssa runs away.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte walks up as Alyssa is outside playing with Kodi. She tries to get Alyssa to go somewhere with her, but Alyssa declines, saying she needs to watch Kodi, and that they have some things planned.

Charlotte acknowledges this but, as she walks away, she is clearly pissed at Alyssa’s attention being dominated by Kodi.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – EVENING

Alyssa and Kodi talk. Kodi asks Alyssa about Charlotte, and he tells her he has a really bad feeling about her. He says he feels something really dark and bad about her, and says he thinks Alyssa should be very careful about her, and not to trust her.

EXT – STREET – EVENING

Alyssa and Kodi ride bikes together as cars speed by. Suddenly, Kodi’s bike swerves into the street, directly in front of a speeding car, which hits Kodi, knocking him literally out of his shoes. Kodi’s body is thrown about 100 feet and lands in an explosive pool of blood. He is instantly killed.

Across the street, Charlotte smiles to herself, then turns and walks away.

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Alyssa sits alone, and it’s evident she’s been crying. Charlotte approaches her, says how sorry she is to hear about Kodi, and pushes herself onto Alyssa, telling her she can talk to her, and use her shoulder to cry on. Alyssa is too numb to want to do that, plus is by now even more uneasy about Charlotte. She thanks Charlotte politely, but says she would rather be alone.

Charlotte leaves, but it’s obvious to the viewer than she isn’t at all happy about being spurned like that.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte comes over as Alyssa is in the yard, and again pushes herself onto Alyssa, reminding her that she is there for her. Alyssa is about to decline again, but Laura leaves the house, and reminds Alyssa that they need to go to the mortuary to pick out Kodi’s coffin. Laura catches herself, fighting back tears, as she and Alyssa hug and cry on each other’s shoulders.

Laura asks who Charlotte is and Alyssa is pretty dismissive of her. She says she’s no one, just a girl from school.

Since Laura and Alyssa need to leave, Charlotte excuses herself but, as she walks away, she is obviously very pissed off.

Laura is immediately put off by Charlotte, and intentionally keeps her close to her and, by extension, away from Charlotte. She just senses that Charlotte would be destructive, rather than conducive, to helping Alyssa cope with their loss of Kodi. Laura has to be strong in facing the tragedy of Kodi’s death for her daughter’s sake, and puts her mind to helping her deal with it.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – EVENING

Alyssa sits alone on the porch as a car drives up. Alyssa’s best friend from her old town, and her boyfriend, get out of the car.

As Charlotte angrily watches from across the bushes between the houses, Alyssa and her friend hug each other, and Alyssa bursts into tears.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE / ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte watches from the attic as Alyssa, Laura, and Alyssa’s friends leave the house together. Charlotte angrily throws the curtains closed and turns away.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa wakes up in a cold sweat from a nightmare, in which a zombie-like Kodi tries to warn her of danger coming her way.

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Charlotte again approaches Alyssa at school, but Alyssa is getting very creeped out by her by this point. Alyssa becomes somewhat forceful in letting Charlotte know that she wants to be by herself, and doesn’t want to hang out with Charlotte. She is by now no longer caring about being polite as, clearly, Charlotte hasn’t gotten the hint.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

As Laura, Alyssa and her friends go about normal activities, Laura and Alyssa’s friends experience a few ‘near misses’ where freak, but seemingly explainable dangers present themselves, to where she could have been injured or killed.

Alyssa and her friends discuss what’s been happening. Alyssa tells them about Charlotte and how she feels very leery of her. The boyfriend wants to confront Charlotte, but Alyssa and her friend ask him what they’re supposed to say to her. None of them believe on a rational level that Charlotte could be terrorizing them because, of course, that would make no logical sense. So he backs down.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa again ventures into Charlotte’s house. She hears increasing eerie sounds and screaming but, this time, also sees quick, flashing images of fire engulfing the house. She closes her eyes and, when she opens them, the images and sounds of screaming are gone. She rushes from the house.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Charlotte suddenly appears in the house as Laura, Alyssa and her friends finish dinner and put a movie on. Charlotte launches a paranormal attack, not visible to the others, in which Laura is killed when debris falls onto her, as Alyssa tries desperately to save her. As Laura dies, eerie laughter echoes through the house.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa and her friends now believe, despite it seemingly physically impossible, that Charlotte is somehow terrorizing Alyssa’s family, and decides to go on the attack, to take the battle to Charlotte, and confront her, and get Charlotte to leave Alyssa alone. The boyfriend kind of takes charge and leads the group in an all out assault on Charlotte.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

The three kids go to Charlotte’s house to confront her. A battle to the death ensues, where Charlotte appears in her fully evil and paranormal splendor. She tells Alyssa that all she had to do was be her friend and everything would have been okay. Alyssa accuses Charlotte of killing Kodi and Laura, and says she’s going to kill her for it.

Charlotte disapparates and all hell breaks loose in the house. The kids freak and try to find Charlotte, who can appear and disappear at will, and can kinetically control physical objects and threaten the kids with them.

Alyssa’s best friend is the first to fall while battling Charlotte. Charlotte causes her to go up in flames in a case of spontaneous combustion, and she burns to death in agony, while images of Charlotte’s father burning to death flash onscreen. While burning, she falls into a tub of water, where the flames are extinguished, showing her dead, charred body floating in the water.

We see that Charlotte’s powers are much more powerful now, seemingly more powerful within her own lair. She is also demonstrating a particular cruelty, killing Alyssa’s friends in a manner that mirrors the circumstances of her own death.

The boyfriend is the next to die. Charlotte forces him to flee into the attic, where she pushes him over the stairs balcony. He falls to two stories to the main floor, where he breaks through the floor and lands on the cement basement floor with a blood-splattering thud, where is dies.

Now it’s just Alyssa and Charlotte. Alyssa now understands Charlotte a lot better and, with everyone she cares about now dead, she has nothing to lose. She has also learned somehow just how Charlotte died. She also figures that, since Charlotte died once, maybe she can again. And as Charlotte has now become almost completely physical, killing her seems possible.

So she leads Charlotte to the attic but Charlotte outmaneuvers her and gets her trapped by the window, to where it looks like Alyssa is going to die in the same manner that Charlotte did. However, just as Charlotte strikes, Alyssa is able to knock her out of the way with a weapon of convenience. Alyssa then runs from the attic, and down the stairs.

Alyssa runs down the stairs and to the front door. But just as she does, Charlotte appears at the bottom of the stairs, and kinetically piles stacks of furniture in front of the door, blocking Alyssa’s escape.

Alyssa stops and slowly turns around, facing Charlotte, who vows to kill Alyssa, and the final battle is on. Charlotte is bleeding from the wound she got in the attic, giving Alyssa a sense of confidence that she is now physical enough that she can be killed. She has also overused her powers to where, between that and her wounds, she is weakening. So attempts to throw dangers in Alyssa’s way kinetically as they fight, but is less and less able to do so.

Nevertheless, Charlotte is winning the battle. She gets Alyssa pinned and attempts to take the kill strike. As she does, Alyssa sees a shard of wood sticking out from the stairs and shoves Charlotte back toward it. The shard impales Charlotte, and traps her, as she can’t escape the large chunk of wood sticking through her body, and attached to the stairs.

In Charlotte’s now severely weakened state, she can no longer maintain her kinetic control over the physical objects around her, and the pile of furniture blocking the door falls away. Alyssa slowly walks to the door. As she approaches it, she tells Charlotte that this is for her mother, and for Kodi. She tells Charlotte to burn in hell, then lights the house on fire, then casually strolls through the front door.

The film closes with Alyssa slowly walking from the house as the fire rages behind her, completely engulfing the house, as Charlotte’s eerie, tortured screams echo in the night. We are left to believe Charlotte has been destroyed, but it is not confirmed, obviously opening up the opportunity for the sequel.

[Brandyn Cross]

I’m not sure how to consider what I learned, as this has largely been the format I create outlines in. So it’s largely been my step 1, but I suppose I learned how to dissect the outline into its core components and see the process itemized on how it gets to that point.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Eerie noises from a dark, creepy old house on a stormy night. Then a male voice is yelling, while a female voice is screaming.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

The house is even creepier inside. The noises, yelling and screaming continue, followed by a gunshot. At that point, the screaming ends. A woman’s bloody body lies lifeless.

A silhouette carries a gun as he cases the house.

Charlotte hides behind cover in the attic.

The silhouette lights the house on fire and is engulfed in the flames. While burning, he turns the gun on himself and kills himself.

In the attic smoke, and then the flames, traps Charlotte in the attic, with no means of escape. She is forced by the approaching flames to the window. Left with no other choice, she jumps from the window.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Charlotte’s body lies in the yard, impaled by the slats of a picket fence.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

A family moves boxes from a moving van into the house next door to the abandoned, burned out remains of Alyssa’s house. Mother, Laura, and her two children. Daughter Alyssa (16) and son Kodi (10).

While moving the boxes, Alyssa’s attention is drawn to the creepy house next door. She cautiously approaches the house, sensing evil, while hearing strange, eerie cries and moans coming from the house. For a moment, she thinks she sees a figure standing at the attic window. She takes a second look and there is no one there, but the curtains are moving.

Laura returns Alyssa to the present, telling her to get back to work and help move everything inside. Alyssa rolls her eyes, clearly not into it. She is obviously not happy about moving in.

As Alyssa picks up a box, a couple teenage girls pass by and smugly talk to her. They ask where she moved from, and laugh among themselves in a superior manner, feeling that Alyssa is clearly not worthy of their presence, or association with them.

They warn Alyssa to stay away from the haunted house next door, then strut smugly off, laughing at Alyssa. Alyssa instantly dislikes them, and is pretty pissed off, now even more unhappy about being in this new town, and wanting to pounce on the obnoxious girls and beat the shit out of them.

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Alyssa arrives at school and immediately sees the teenage girls, surrounded by their clique. They see her, whisper to their friends, and they all laugh as Alyssa passes by.

During school, Charlotte approaches Alyssa and introduces herself, seemingly anxious to make friends with her. Alyssa is polite, but feels uneasy about her. Alyssa doesn’t realize that, in Sixth Sense style, no one else at school acknowledges Charlotte, nor has any interaction whatsoever with her.

Charlotte keeps talking to Alyssa and is immediately rather clingy. Despite having no other friends, Alyssa isn’t anxious to become fast friends with her. Yet it seems impossible to avoid her, or to keep her at arm’s length.

EXT – RESIDENTIAL STREET – DAY

As Alyssa walks home from school, Charlotte bounds up to her, all bubbly and friendly. Alyssa can’t believe the only girl who seems to want to be friends with her is the one girl she doesn’t want to be friends with.

Charlotte insist on walking home with Alyssa. They arrive at Alyssa’s house, and she quickly tries to ‘dismiss’ Charlotte, telling her this is her house. Alyssa just smiles, and skips off. Alyssa watches her and is shocked to see her run up to the abandoned house next door and go inside. Alyssa is sure no one can actually live there, and has no idea what Charlotte is doing.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa stands outside the house, examining it. She slowly goes to the front door and pushes it open.

INT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Alyssa enters to find the house dark and obviously abandoned. She slowly goes further inside. She tries the light switch, but nothing happens.

As she looks around, she hears creaks, groans, and eerie moans from within the house. She calls out Charlotte’s name, but hears only the same strange noises in response. She hears what sounds like a scream, and then a gunshot, echoing from upstairs. Alyssa runs away.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte walks up as Alyssa is outside playing with Kodi. She tries to get Alyssa to go somewhere with her, but Alyssa declines, saying she needs to watch Kodi, and that they have some things planned.

Charlotte acknowledges this but, as she walks away, she is clearly pissed at Alyssa’s attention being dominated by Kodi.

EXT – STREET – EVENING

Alyssa and Kodi ride bikes together as cars speed by. Suddenly, Kodi’s bike swerves into the street, directly in front of a speeding car, which hits Kodi, knocking him literally out of his shoes. Kodi’s body is thrown about 100 feet and lands in an explosive pool of blood. He is instantly killed.

Across the street, Charlotte smiles to herself, then turns and walks away.

INT – SCHOOL – DAY

Alyssa sits alone, and it’s evident she’s been crying. Charlotte approaches her, says how sorry she is to hear about Kodi, and pushes herself onto Alyssa, telling her she can talk to her, and use her shoulder to cry on. Alyssa is too numb to want to do that, plus is by now even more uneasy about Charlotte. She thanks Charlotte politely, but says she would rather be alone.

Charlotte leaves, but it’s obvious to the viewer than she isn’t at all happy about being spurned like that.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte comes over as Alyssa is in the yard, and again pushes herself onto Alyssa, reminding her that she is there for her. Alyssa is about to decline again, but Laura leaves the house, and reminds Alyssa that they need to go to the mortuary to pick out Kodi’s coffin. Laura catches herself, fighting back tears, as she and Alyssa hug and cry on each other’s shoulders.

Laura asks who Charlotte is and Alyssa is pretty dismissive of her. She says she’s no one, just a girl from school.

Since Laura and Alyssa need to leave, Charlotte excuses herself but, as she walks away, she is obviously very pissed off.

EXT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – EVENING

Alyssa sits alone on the porch as a car drives up. Alyssa’s best friend from her old town, and her boyfriend, get out of the car.

As Charlotte angrily watches from across the bushes between the houses, Alyssa and her friend hug each other, and Alyssa bursts into tears.

EXT – CHARLOTTE’S HOUSE / ALYSSA’S HOUSE – DAY

Charlotte watches from the attic as Alyssa, Laura, and Alyssa’s friends leave the house together. Charlotte angrily throws the curtains closed and turns away.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

As Laura, Alyssa and her friends go about normal activities, Laura experiences a few ‘near misses’ where freak, but seemingly explainable dangers present themselves, to where she could have been injured or killed.

INT – ALYSSA’S HOUSE – NIGHT

Charlotte suddenly appears in the house as Laura, Alyssa and her friends finish dinner and put a movie on. Charlotte launches a paranormal attack, not visible to the others, in which Laura is killed when debris falls onto her.

(this is still a work in progress)

[Brandyn Cross]

What I learned was how to succinctly structure the character profile in order to best direct each character to the role I want them to fulfill in the eyes of the audience.

ALYSSA

A: Character Profile

Role: Rebel / Rule Breaker and Complainer. Survivor.

Traits: Selfish. Not happy with move to new town. Inquisitive/Curious.

Fears: More dissatisfaction than fearful. However, she does seem to fear change.

Wants/Needs: Wants to return to the town she’s familiar/comfortable with. Determined initially to dislike the new town.

Likability: Protective of her little brother and, despite her surface unhappiness with the family’s move, she is pretty close to her mother.

How They React Under Stress: Leans close to family/friends.

Relationship With Other Characters: Close to little brother and mother, but acts coldly to her mother to drive home the point that she is unhappy with having had to move and leave her friends.

B: Character Journey

Character Intro: Moving into new house. She is intrigued with the strange-looking, seemingly abandoned house next door.

Denial: Kodi’s dread of the dark emotions he senses from the house next door only serve to make her curious about it, and draw her to it, while Kodi shies away from it. Considers unexplained noises, overall creepy feeling of house next door as merely natural traits of an abandoned house.

Their Reaction at First Horror: Kodi is killed in front of her. She is traumatized and takes refuge in the familiar; her mother and best friend.

Relation to Group After First Horror: She becomes closer to the group, which further antagonizes the villain, who hoped to become the shoulder for Alyssa to cry on.

How They Fight Back: Initially, she doesn’t realize the group is being intentionally attacked. Once she does, she tries to avoid the villain.

End Point: Once she reaches her breaking point, feeling there is nothing more of value to her to lose, she goes on the attack. Ostensibly destroys the villain, and is the lone survivor.

What Insight Do Their Deaths / Survival Bring to the Others/Audience? The villain has certain physical vulnerabilities and, when one summons enough courage, it is possible to defeat paranormal evil within the physical realm.

KODI

A: Character Profile

Role: The innocent. Sacrificial Lamb.

Traits: Selfless. More inherently courageous than his big sister. He accepts the change in their lives and wants to help his family adjust.

Fears: He is more empathic than his mother or sister, and immediately senses the evil coming from the house next door.

Wants/Needs: Peacemaker. He wants to help his sister accept their new town, and ease the tension between his sister and mother, and bring his family together.

Likability: Very sympathetic character. The audience doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him.

How They React Under Stress: He wants to avoid the dark emotions he feels from the abandoned house but, more importantly, he wants to keep his family as far away from the entity he sense as possible. So he tries to bring his family closer together, and help them rely on each other more than outside influences.

Relationship With Other Characters: As Kodi senses something dark from next door, he both tries to protect his family, while at the same time craving their closeness as a refuge and protection for himself. Kind of a mix of emotions, as he is naturally protective of his family, while at the same time being an innocent little boy who doesn’t fully know how to handle such dark influences, and looks to his mother and big sister for guidance.

B: Character Journey

Character Intro: Helping his family move into their new house.

Denial: Being strongly empathic, he immediately senses a dark influence from the house next door. Rather than being inquisitive, and wanting to investigate the house like his big sister, Kodi wants to avoid it. He is naturally repulsed by the discomfort he feels toward the house.

Their Reaction at First Horror: For Kodi, his strong sense of evil from the house next door is his first horror, as he is far more sensitive to it than his sister or mother are. His reaction to that is to avoid it. For Alyssa and Laura, their first actual horror is Kodi’s tragic death.

Relation to Group After First Horror: Kodi becomes protective of his sister and mother, wanting them to avoid interacting with the house next door.

How They Fight Back: He tries to keep his sister and mother from having any interaction with the house and, by extension, the entity within it. He senses the same evil and repulsion to Charlotte when she tries to befriend Alyssa. He is openly cold to her and leery of Alyssa becoming friends with her.

End Point: Charlotte causes Kodi to be hit by a speeding car, and killed.

What Insight Do Their Deaths / Survival Bring to the Others/Audience? We discover than Charlotte isn’t just creepy and clingy, but that she is evil. We now realize her vengeance and self-serving nature may know no bounds.

LAURA

A: Character Profile

Role: Rescuer.

Traits: A caring mother, protective of her children. She wants to help Alyssa adjust to their new home, and to make new friends.

Fears: Her daughter pulling away from her and resenting her. She’s fearful Alyssa may become more overtly rebellious and start getting into trouble.

Wants/Needs: To keep her kids close while they all adjust to a very new life together.

Likability: Protective mother bear.

How They React Under Stress: She is in denial that any real danger or evil may exist within the normal world. She wants her children to avoid negative influences, or kids who may lead them in dangerous directions, but she doesn’t take the possibility that there could be any kind of paranormal danger seriously.

Relationship With Other Characters: Close with Kodi. Strained with Alyssa. She has misgivings about Charlotte, but is so intent on Alyssa making friends that she denies her inherent ‘mother bear’ alarms, and encourages Alyssa’s acceptance of Charlotte’s friendship.

B: Character Journey

Character Intro: Taking charge as her family moves into their house.

Denial: Their Reaction at First Horror: She is too busy settling her family in to their new house to pay any attention to her kids’ misgivings about the house next door. She doesn’t entertain the thought, or Alyssa’s suspicion, that Kodi’s death could be intentional. She believes it was a tragic accident, and thinks Alyssa’s suspicion of Charlotte having something to do with her brother’s death is just her way of coping with the loss of her little brother.

Relation to Group After First Horror: She pulls Alyssa closer to her, and has Alyssa’s best friend from their previous town come and stay with them, hoping she will be of comfort to Alyssa.

How They Fight Back: Laura provides herself, and Alyssa’s best friend, as Alyssa’s first line of defense in coping with Kodi’s death, unintentionally angering Charlotte, and putting a target on Laura’s back.

End Point: Charlotte kills Laura in a paranormal attack.

What Insight Do Their Deaths / Survival Bring to the Others/Audience? We see a greater kinetic power in Charlotte. We see her anger and vengeance intensify as she enters further into the physical world, and her powers over physical objects increases.

BEST FRIEND

A: Character Profile

Role: Protagonist’s support system. Perhaps a red herring of sorts, but I’m not sure if that applies.

Traits: A take-chart personality. Once she arrives on the scene, in response to Kodi’s death, she takes is upon herself to be the person Alyssa can rely on. She tries to get Alyssa to accept the tragedy of Kodi’s death, and refuses to let her withdraw from life in response.

Fears: She’s pretty fearless. She doesn’t trust Charlotte and tries to keep Alyssa away from her, as she feels Charlotte wants to coddle Alyssa and indulge her immediate sense of self pity, which this friend believes would be destructive to her and obstruct the healing she needs to get beyond the death of her little brother.

Wants/Needs: Wants to bring Alyssa back into engaging in life.

Likability: She is a strong personality which, on the surface, may put some people off. However, as we can see her strength is motivated by her concern for Alyssa’s well being, she wins us over.

How They React Under Stress: She is combative against anything she feels is acting contrary to Alyssa’s own good.

Relationship With Other Characters: She takes charge, with Laura’s blessing, in helping Alyssa to keep from withdrawing into herself, and to face the fact that Kodi is gone. She tries to get Alyssa to accept that reality, without allowing it to rule her, or destroy her future.

B: Character Journey

Character Intro: She arrives in town, along with her boyfriend, as a result of Kodi’s tragic death.

Denial: As she didn’t see what Alyssa did at Kodi’s death, where he suddenly veered out in front of a speeding car for no apparent reason, and in a way that made it appear some unseen influence had taken control of his bike, she thinks Alyssa’s suspicions are paranoia at work, and her need to assign some explanation to her brother’s inexplicable death.

Their Reaction at First Horror: For Alyssa’s best friend, her first introduction to horror is what appears on the surface to a fluke accident, resulting in Laura’s death. She is now not only traumatized by that herself, but is now the only comfort and support left for Alyssa.

Relation to Group After First Horror: She needs to lean on her boyfriend, while allowing Alyssa to lean on her even more. They also now have to deal with the fact that there is no adult in charge, and everything is now up to the three kids, who are now completely on their own to take charge of their fate, and the life and death fight they are now in with the evil entity.

How They Fight Back: As the three remaining kids recognize the active attack against them, they take the fight to Charlotte, and confront her in her own lair, the creepy, abandoned house next door.

End Point: Charlotte causes her to spontaneously combust, mirroring the circumstances under which Charlotte, herself, died.

What Insight Do Their Deaths / Survival Bring to the Others/Audience? Charlotte is more powerful within her own lair, now able to attack by kinetically produce directed, spontaneous fire. We also see the level of her rage, vengeance and sick sense of justice, as she creates a mirror of her own death, by attacking Alyssa’s best friend with fire, just as her father attacked her with fire, causing her death.

BEST FRIEND’S BOYFRIEND

A: Character Profile

Role: Leader / Moral Compass.

Traits: Initially allows his girlfriend to do what she thinks is best for Alyssa, while providing more passive strength and support. But, as it becomes obvious they are under threat from the evil Charlotte, whom they can no longer deny is a real, paranormal and evil entity, his strength, leadership, and sense of ethics comes to the surface. He takes charge of the group, convinces them this is a fight of good vs. evil that must be won, and devises a plan to defeat Charlotte.

Fears: That Charlotte represents a threat to the world, as she could unleash Satan’s power, and could potentially result in the end of life on earth.

Wants/Needs: He wants to protect his friends from the evil which has directed itself at them but, on a greater scale, he feels like the fate of the world may be in their hands.

Likability: Initially, he comes across as just a nice guy. But, when there is finally no one else to count on, he becomes a badass leader, willing to sacrifice himself if necessary to save his friends, while at the same time adopting an attitude of victory, where he believes they can/will win the battle. He therefore turns into a hero character than everyone can cheer.

How They React Under Stress: As the danger becomes greater and more personable, he becomes more of a leader and determined badass. It is impossible to defeat him through threats of harm. That only makes him stronger.

Relationship With Other Characters: He takes charge and leads them in an offensive battle to end the paranormal threat against them once and for all.

B: Character Journey

Character Intro: He arrives with his girlfriend to support Alyssa after Kodi’s death.

Denial: He is a pragmatic guy, who doesn’t initially consider unnatural causes to anything within the natural world, including the death of a 10-year-old boy.

Their Reaction at First Horror: Laura’s death causes him to pragmatically consider that the physical world may be more paranormal than he ever thought before. However, he approaches even that realization through a lens of logic and pragmatism.

Relation to Group After First Horror: He takes charge and gives he girls the confidence to confront and counter-attack Charlotte.

How They Fight Back: They take the battle to Charlotte, attacking her within the house next door, which she considers her refuge.

End Point: Charlotte causes him to fall over the attic balcony, falling to, and through, the main level floor, and onto the basement floor, where he dies.

What Insight Do Their Deaths / Survival Bring to the Others/Audience? It appears now that Charlotte may be unbeatable. Her level of pure evil and vengeance is also now clear, as she kills him in a manner directly mirroring her death, in which she fell from the attic window to her death. At the same time, though, this also gives Alyssa the clue to her ultimate undoing because, in mirroring her own death in the way she kills Alyssa’s friends, she reminds Alyssa that Charlotte did, indeed, die and therefore can again. Alyssa then uses this knowledge to recreate the circumstances of the house that had caused Charlotte’s death, which enables her to destroy Charlotte once and for all. Until, of course, the sequel.

[Brandyn Cross]

What I learned was the seeming paradox that, at the same time, with each attack, in exposing the monster’s weaknesses and limitations you are also increasing the level of terror, as you are also upping the scale of violence and intensity of the attacks.

A: Who is your monster and what is their terror?

Powers: Being a ghost, the ability to apparate, and to kinetically move physical objects.

Limitations: The more intense the attack, and the more kinetic the movement of objects, the more physical the apparition.

Weaknesses: The more physical the apparition, the move subject to morality, injury and death or, in ghostly terms, the removal of its ability to interact with the physical world.

Plan/Purpose/Appetite: At the end of the day, the plan/purpose/appetite is also a weakness because, ultimately, it proves its undoing. The ghost was lonely and isolated in life and is even more so in death. The ghost longs for friendship and companionship, and will do anything, and kill anyone, she perceives as in the way of that desire.

B: Sequence the reveals.

Prologue/Opening

1: Demand: Charlotte dies in a double murder / suicide, where her father kills her mother and her, and commits suicide.

Monster Reveal: We see that Charlotte was from a highly dysfunctional family, devoid of any sense of love or belonging. And we find that Charlotte died as a teenager.

ACT 1

2: Demand: Alyssa investigates the haunted house next door, where she hears creaks and strange noises, but sees no evidence of anyone at the house.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte inhabits the house but, as yet, is not visible to the physical world.

3: Demand: Charlotte approaches Alyssa at school, but is completely ignored by all the other students.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte is able to show herself to her target, but no one else is aware of her, seemingly unable to see her.

4: Demand: Despite Charlotte trying to command Alyssa’s attention, she is wary of Charlotte, and is instead close to her mother, and even more so to her little brother, Kodi. Charlotte is visibly jealous of the attention Alyssa pays to Kodi.

5: Demand: Charlotte steers Kodi’s bike in front of a speeding car, causing him to be hit and killed by the car.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte is able to kinetically control physical objects and people. We also see the level of evil and murderous action she is capable of, and willing to take, to get what she wants.

ACT 2

6: Demand: Charlotte offers herself to Alyssa as comfort and a shoulder to cry on in the death of Kodi. But Alyssa shuns her offer, instead becoming closer to her mother, and to her best friend, who has come to town for Kodi’s funeral.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte becomes enraged at Alyssa’s continued distance. Where she had considered Kodi an inconvenience, her emotions have escalated to rage, making her even more unpredictable and dangerous.

7: Demand: Charlotte launches an attack against Alyssa’s mother, Laura, and her friends (best friend from out of town and her boyfriend, who came with her). In this initial attack, Laura is killed by falling debris.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte’s murderous rage in increasing, and she is now kinetically manipulating much heavier physical objects.

ACT 3

8: Demand: Alyssa, her best friend, and her boyfriend take the battle to Charlotte’s house, confronting her on her own turf and terms. Charlotte kills Alyssa’s best friend by setting her on fire, burning her to death.

Monster Reveal: There now seems no limits to Charlotte’s anger and revenge. She is also making her attack personal, modeling the killing of Alyssa’s best friend after the circumstances in which Charlotte, herself, died.

9: Demand: Charlotte kills the boyfriend by pushing him over the attic balcony, where he falls to the main floor, breaks through the floor, and falls to his death on the basement floor.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte is upping the personal nature of the attacks, as Charlotte herself died by falling from the attic window, to the ground.

10: Demand: Charlotte kinetically piles stacks of furniture at the front door, trapping Alyssa in the house as she tries to escape, forcing a direct, hand to hand battle to the death.

Monster Reveal: Charlotte is irrationally enrage at this point, and is almost entirely a physical entity now. Her need for vengeance is irrational to the point she is willing to risk her eternal soul in her need for revenge, allowing herself to be as physically vulnerable to ‘death’ as Alyssa.

11: Demand: Charlotte and Alyssa engage in hand to hand combat, ending with Alyssa shoving Charlotte into a shard of wood sticking from the staircase, which impales and traps Charlotte.

Monster Reveal: With Charlotte’s apparently mortal injury, her kinetic powers fade, and the stacks of furniture blocking the door fall away, allowing Alyssa to leave the house. Alyssa sets the house on fire, completing the recreation of Charlotte’s death. We are led to believe Charlotte has been destroyed, but it is left unconfirmed.

[Brandyn Cross]

What I learned was to organize the deaths, the reasons for it, and the means of death, into a cohesive outline of deaths.

Character Deaths:

Character 1: Charlotte’s Mother:

Why: To establish immediate horror and provide motivation of empathy to Charlotte, the villain.

How: Shot by her husband, and Charlotte’s father.

Occurs in Prologue/Act 1.

Character 2: Charlotte’s Father:

Why: To escalate immediate horror and provide motivation of vengeance to Charlotte.

How: Self-inflicted gunshot, burned in house fire he sets.

Occurs in Prologue/Act 1.

Character 3: Charlotte:

Why: To transform her from a mortal teenage girl to paranormal ghost set on vengeance and acceptance.

How: Impaled by a fence post when she jumps from an attic window to escape the house fire after the murder/suicide of her parents.

Occurs in Prologue/Act 1.

Character 4: Kodi:

Why: To eliminate the little brother whom Charlotte views as standing in the way of receiving Alyssa’s full attention and friendship. With Kodi’s death, Charlotte can become the shoulder Alyssa needs to cry on.

How: Charlotte causes Kodi to ride his bike in front of a speeding car, where he is hit and grotesquely killed in front of Alyssa.

Occurs in Act 2.

Character 5: Laura:

Why: Kodi’s death has brought Alyssa and her mother, Laura, together. Alyssa has turned to her mother for support, rather than Charlotte. Charlotte needs to eliminate Alyssa’s only remaining family, hoping to now leave her no viable option for support than Charlotte.

How: Crushed to death by falling debris during a paranormal attack by Charlotte.

Occurs in Act 3.

Character 6: Alyssa’s Best Friend:

Why: Alyssa, her best friend, and her friend’s boyfriend take the fight to house haunted by the ghost of Charlotte. It is no longer simply Charlotte’s attempt to dominate Alyssa. Rather, Charlotte is now under direct attack on her own turf, and now must kill to survive. Alyssa’s best friend is the weakest of the three, and the first to fall in the battle.

How: She is set on fire, then falls into a tub full of water. An unseen force holds her under the water, and she drowns.

Occurs in Act 3.

Character 7: Alyssa’s Best Friend’s Boyfriend:

Why: Fight to the death against the ghost of Charlotte. It’s either him or her, and she defeats him.

How: He makes a tactical error, and falls over the attic balcony. He falls two stories, to the first floor. The fall collapses the floor, and he continues falling, into the basement, where he is killed by the impact.

Occurs in Act 3.

Character 8: Charlotte’s Ghost / Villain:

Why: Alyssa, the main protagonist and lone survivor, defeats the paranormal entity that is Charlotte’s ghost, ostensibly sending her to the outer realm. This leaves us with the supposed destruction of the antagonist, and the victory of Alyssa, the lone survivor.

How: In the final, climactic battle, Charlotte is impaled and trapped by a shard of wood sticking out from the stairs. Alyssa then sets the house on fire, and the screams she hears from outside the house suggest Charlotte’s ghost is being excruciatingly burned in the fire.

Occurs in Act 3 / Resolution.

[Brandyn Cross]

I learned an easy means of identifying cohesive situations, and appropriate reactions, which you can easily see escalating as the story unfolds.

ACT 1: SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil Established: Dark, eerie Victorian-style house in a dark night. Screams echo from the house.

Horror Situation: Trapped: Inside, screams continue, but end with the sound of gunshots. Fire then quickly engulfs the house.

Response: Escape: Upstairs, a panicked teenage girl, whose face is never clearly seen, is forced to a window by the approaching flames. With no other options, she jumps from the window and lands on a picket fence. From outside, her dead body is impaled by a fence post. The fire dissipates, leaving the house unaffected by the fire. Just dark and creepy.

Connect With the Characters: A family consisting of a mother, Laura, teenage daughter (16) Alyssa, and preteen son (10) Kodi unload a moving truck in the house next to the mysterious house.

The Characters are Warned Not to Do It: A couple clique-ish neighborhood girls pass by as the family is moving in. They talk to Alyssa, laughing that she is moving in by the town’s haunted house. They’re dismissive of Alyssa, laughing at her as they leave.

Denial of Horror: Alyssa wanders to the allegedly haunted house, not believing the annoying girls, but wanting to get a look at the house for herself.

Horror Situation: Doing Something Forbidden; Threatened; Environment Changing Around You: Alyssa hears distant screams, while quick visions flash in her mind of the house burning.

Response: Denial: Alyssa closes her eyes. When she reopens them, the screams and visions of fire are gone. All that remains is the empty, eerie house. She shrugs the experience off, and returns to unloading the moving truck.

Horror Situation: Menacing Stranger: At school, Alyssa finds the kids are set in their cliques and have no interest in befriending the new kid in town. One girl, Charlotte, who just seems weird and strange, is the only kid interested in talking to her, but is the last person Alyssa wants for her first friend in town. Further, no one at school interacts with Charlotte at all, as thought they don’t even see her. But, to be polite, Alyssa accepts Charlotte’s friendly advances.

Charlotte invites Alyssa to walk home with her and, as it turns out, lives in the creepy house next door to Alyssa. Charlotte invites her inside, and Alyssa reluctantly accepts. The house is more eerie inside than outside, with cobwebs, and doesn’t look like it’s been lived in for years. Charlotte disappears within the house, and Alyssa hears strange noises, and just feels uncomfortable. She calls out for Charlotte, but she doesn’t respond.

Response: Escape: Alyssa is completely Freaked out, and runs from the house.

ACT 2: THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: As no kids befriend Alyssa, and none seem like they’re even aware of Charlotte, they start hanging out together. Yet, Alyssa still feels very wary of her.

Horror Situation: Unknown Motive; Helping a Good Person and Being Attacked: When Charlotte visits Alyssa’s house, she is jealous of the attention Alyssa pays to her little brother, Kodi.

Response: Alyssa: Denial: Kodi: Fight: Alyssa tries to appease Charlotte, despite her uneasiness with Charlotte. Kodi has a very empathic nature, and is completely repulsed by Charlotte, but doesn’t understand enough about why to articulate it to Alyssa. But he understands that Charlotte is a bad influence on Alyssa, and that their friendship needs to end.

One of Us is Killed; See Another Killed: Alyssa and Kodi ride bikes. Kodi swerves into the street for no apparent reason and is hit by a car, and killed.

Horror Situation: Alyssa’s little brother is killed in gruesome fashion in front of her eyes.

Response: Hysteria; Torment: She is irrationally traumatized initially. Nightmares of Kodi being killed keep her awake at night for the next few days.

Horror Situation: With Kodi no longer there to dominate Alyssa’s attention, Charlotte becomes clingy toward Alyssa in a very uncomfortable way.

Response: Hide; Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: Alyssa wants to completely break off her friendship with Charlotte, which becomes easier when Alyssa’s best friend from her former town, and her boyfriend, visit Alyssa for Kodi’s funeral, and stay to help comfort Alyssa and her mother. For Charlotte, things are worse now than they were with Kodi alive, as Alyssa’s attention is completely taken up with her best friend, and Alyssa and Laura needing each other’s comfort.

MIDPOINT: THE MONSTER IS WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT:

Horror Situation: Pursued; Tormented; Terrorized; Attacked or Chased; Mentally Tortured; Friends in Danger; Internal Conflict in the Group: Laura and Alyssa’s best friend face a few unexplained close calls.

Response: Alyssa: Hide; Denial: Boyfriend: Try to Solve It; Fight: The boyfriend wants to confront Charlotte, while Alyssa doesn’t want to provoke her, preferring to just ignore her, hoping she’ll just go away without any direct confrontation.

ACT 3: FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to Death: Feeling abandoned, Charlotte launches a no holds barred attack on Alyssa and Laura, possessing their house with Laura, Alyssa, her best friend and his boyfriend all inside.

Horror Situation: All hell breaks loose in the house as Charlotte launches an all out paranormal attack

Response: Fight: No one completely understands how they are being attacked, but try to fight back with whatever weapons of convenience they can find, learning with each attempt at defense what does or does not work against the unseen attacker.

Horror Situation: Laura is killed as all try to fight against Charlotte’s paranormal attack.

Response: Fight; Anger; Terror: Alyssa is traumatized by her mother’s death. Her best friend tries to comfort her: Her boyfriend is more pragmatic, not having the close relationship with either Alyssa or Laura that the others all have for each other. He snaps Alyssa to the present, where self-preservation overrides her grief, and they devise a plan of attack. Alyssa is now determined to avenge Kodi and Laura, and destroy Charlotte, and send her to hell where she belongs.

Horror Situation: Alyssa, her best friend and her boyfriend take their plan to Charlotte’s house, confronting the evil on its own turf.

Response: Fight: The three are determined, motivated by a desire for revenge.

Horror Situation: During the fight, Alyssa’s best friend and her boyfriend are both killed, leaving Alyssa on her own.

Response: Fight; Dogged Determination: With everyone she cares about dead, Alyssa has no more fear of death. She accepts the challenge as a fight to the death, determined to destroy the evil Charlotte, but no longer fearing her attacks, or death itself. She’s already been tortured to the point where there is nothing Charlotte can do to torment her further. She is now a machine, fueled entirely by rage and a need for vengeance.

The Thrilling Escape From Death:

Horror Situation: Charlotte appears in full, menacing physical reality as Alyssa is at the window the Charlotte fell from to her death.

Response: Fury: As it appears the only escape from Charlotte’s attack is mirroring Charlotte’s choice, and jumping from the window, she finds an unlikely weapon of convenience and attacks Charlotte, severely wounding her. She then runs down the stairs.

Death Returns to Take One or More:

Horror Situation: As Alyssa runs to the front door, it slams shut and heavy furniture spontaneously flies to the door, blocking Alyssa’s escape. She turns around to find Charlotte at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding but seething with anger.

Response: Fight: The final life or death battle begins.

Horror Situation: Charlotte is winning the battle, and is about to take the final strike against Alyssa, and kill her.

Response: Fight; Solve It: Just as Charlotte attempts the kill strike, Alyssa shoves her to the stairs, where she is impaled by a shard of wood sticking out from the stairs. In her weakened state, though not yet dead, the furniture falls away from the doorway, and the door opens.

Resolution: Alyssa slowly leaves the house. As she nears the door, she tells Charlotte, trapped by the stick impaling her, and dying, to burn in hell. She then says she’ll help her do that, and lights the house on fire. She slowly walks away from the house, engulfed in fire, Charlotte’s screams in the throes of death ringing through the night.

[Brandyn Cross]

What I learned was honestly that I’ve been setting up the plot correctly. I’ve been a firm believer in fully outlining before writing so much as a word of the draft. And, in this specific case, I had all the major plot points outlined pretty well, with one exception toward the end. Essentially the ‘survivor’ thinking he defeated the villain, only to discover that was not the case. All in all, I feel pretty good about that.

ACT 1: SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil Established. Show the haunted house, creepy and isolated. Unexplained activity takes place within it.

Connect With the Characters: A new family moves into a home near the haunted house. Single mother (Laura), teenage daughter (16) (Alyssa), and preteen son (10) (Kodi).

The Characters are Warned Not to Do It: Alyssa meets neighborhood kids, who warn her about the neighborhood haunted house. They don’t seem anxious to befriend her.

Denial of Horror: Alyssa thinks it’s a baseless urban legend, and dismisses the kids’ belief in ghosts.

Safety Taken Away: Alyssa meets Charlotte, the only girl at school who seems interested in being her friend. However, no one else at school even seems aware of her existence. Charlotte befriends Alyssa and invites her to come to her house. To Alyssa’s surprise, Charlotte lives in the house rumored to be haunted. Alyssa comes in but changes her mind, as the house is dark and creepy, and doesn’t look like any living person actually lives there.

Monster: The Nature of the Beast: Alyssa hears strange noises in the house, and Charlotte seems to have disappeared. Alyssa calls to her, but senses movement in the shadows. She freaks and runs from the house. Charlotte looks out from a curtain-covered window. With her face behind curtains, her face seems distorted and sinister.

ACT 2: THE POINT OF NO RETURN:

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: Despite feeling uneasy about her, Alyssa starts hanging out more and more with Charlotte, as she is the only kid around who seems interested in being her friend. Yet, also because no one else interacts with Charlotte (in a Sixth Sense type of way), Alyssa is isolated from interaction with any of her other peers. When she brings Charlotte to her house, Alyssa devotes more attention to Kodi than to Charlotte, as Alyssa is close to her little brother, and is protective of him. Charlotte’s expression shows she is jealous of the attention Alyssa pays to Kodi. Kodi is very wary of Charlotte. He senses something bad, but doesn’t know how to articulate it. He fears something really bad is going to happen.

One of Us Killed: Kodi and Alyssa are riding their bikes together and, as a car speeds by, Kodi’s bike inexplicably swerves into the road, and Kodi is hit directly by the speeding car. He is thrown a great distance in front of the car, which doesn’t slow down, and runs over Kodi, mangling his dead body as he is dragged under the still speeding car. Alyssa is horrified watching her beloved little brother killed in such a violent and gruesome way. Out of Alyssa’s sight, a distorbed image of Charlotte is seen watching from behind some bushes.

MIDPOINT: THE MONSTER IS WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT:

Full Pursuit By the Killer: As Alyssa and Laura try to deal with Kodi’s death, Laura becomes the victim of several ‘near misses,’ leading both Laura and Alyssa to suspect something unseen, and evil, may have killed Kodi, and may now have its sights on Laura.

Terrorized: Meanwhile, Alyssa finds Charlotte more and more creepy, and wants to distance herself from Charlotte, regretting having become her friend. As she starts avoiding Charlotte, the weird attacks on Laura increase. Alyssa decides she needs to confront Charlotte directly, and tell her point blank that she doesn’t want to be her friend anymore.

ACT 3: FULL OUT HORROR:

Fight to Death: In a last all-out attack, Laura is killed as Alyssa tries to save her. The attack then ends, and we hear an eerie laughter. Alyssa goes to the haunted house and calls for Charlotte. Charlotte appears in her full ghostly terror, angrily accusing Charlotte of abandoning her, and unfriending her for no reason. Alyssa accuses her of killing Kodi and Laura, and says she’s going to kill Charlotte for it.

Hysteria: Charlotte then disappears and all hell breaks loose in the house. Alyssa freaks, trying to find Charlotte, who can vanish and reappear at will. Finally, Charlotte gets Alyssa trapped in the attic, where the only escape seems to be jumping to her death from the only window in the attic.

The Thrilling Escape From Death: Charlotte materializes physically, fully, to push Alyssa out the window, to her death. But Alyssa is able to grab a weapon of convenience from among the vast artifacts in the attic. She stabs Charlotte, then runs from the attic as Charlotte collapses, bleeding heavily from her wounds.

Death Returns to Take One or More: Alyssa bounds down the stairs, and to the front door, to escape the house. As she does, the door slams, and furniture is invisibly thrown in front of the door, creating a formidable barricade to the door. At that moment, Charlotte appears at the bottom of the stairs, wounded and bleeding, and insanely angry, vowing to kill Alyssa. As no one is left to kill, the return is simply the threat against Alyssa, and the final life or death battle begins.

Resolution: Just as it looks like Alyssa is going to lose the battle, she sees a sharp shard of wood sticking out from the stairs, and shoves Charlotte back, where she is impaled on the shard. She is still barely alive, but delirious, and can’t free herself from the shard of wood sticking clear through her body. In Charlotte’s weakened state, the furniture blocking the front door falls away on its own, clearing a path to the door. Alyssa tells Charlotte that this is for her mother, and her little brother Kodi, and that she should burn in hell. She says she’ll help her burn. Alyssa slowly walks away, casually setting fire to the house as she walks out the front door. The film closes with Alyssa slowly walking from the house as the fire rages behind her, completely engulfing the house, as Charlotte’s eerie, tortured screams echo in the night.

[Brandyn Cross]

I agree to all aspects of confidentiality.

[Brandyn Cross]

What I learned was a more cohesive plan for character development, to the extent of their deaths defining the type of character, and character journey for each character.

Social group: Family

Dying Pattern: Pattern A: They experience the terror together, and are killed off one by one.

Characters:

Daughter: Rebel / Rule Breaker and Complainer. 16YO, resents being moved to a new town against her will. Also the carrier.

Mother: Rescuer. Tries to help her kids adjust to a strange environment, but also attributes her daughter’s concerns about the town to teen angst.

Little Brother: 10YO. Daughter is protective of him, but is innocence and her protective nature makes him an attractive target for the evil entity. It uses him to terrorize the daughter.

Daughter’s Best Friend From Previous Town: Red Herring, perhaps? Along with ‘Daughter,’ the lone survivors.

Best Friend’s Boyfriend: Leader / Moral One: Takes charge in attempting to solve the mystery and save the group. However, this makes him a bit impetuous, leading him headlong to his death.

[Brandyn Cross]

I didn’t receive the email for lesson 2, and the online link doesn’t open. Kind of a problem there.

[Brandyn Cross]

I’m Brandyn Cross

I’ve written around 20 screenplays and over 100 TV episodes.

i am hoping to refine my knowledge of the horror genre specifically because it’s a bit outside of my standard areas of focus.

Strange or unusual, huh? Well, I’m a recording artist / songwriter and recently had a #1 song on the Worldwide Independent Hot 100.

[Brandyn Cross]

Thank you. That’s very kind.