Donna Rankin
Forum Replies Created
-
Lesson 22 Act Four Climax
What Learned doing this assignment:
My character have to loses everything to win this battle.
Key Scene 3:
Int: Jackson House – Day
Kendra arrives at Jackson’s house. The house looks like it been through a war but it is still standing. Kendra walks through the empty house. She finds Jackson in the backyard. They have a long embracing hug . Jackson tells Kendra they need to leave for the safe house. Suddenly Jackson’s house comes under attack from the Aliens. Kendra and Jackson fight an epic battle. They win the battle but not the war. Kendra tells Jackson she is staying to fight with the military. She tells him she is no longer hiding her true nature. They embrace one more time and Jackson leaves, and Kendra leads the next fight.
-
Lesson 21
What I learned doing this assignment:
This is the is the set up for the end of the story.
Outline Key Scene 1 and 2
Key Scene 1: Reaction to 3<sup>rd</sup> Act Turning Point:
Kendra confronts her mother over the past. She also feels betrayed by her brother who did not tell her their mother was alive. Kendra’s mother tells her she left the island to get medical treatment. While in the hospital she was detained and arrested by the FBI. Kendra only had one question for her mother after she relayed the story. Why didn’t she come forward and claim her children? She tells Kendra she wanted her and her brother to have a normal life.
Key scene 2:
The aliens are advancing on the safe house. Kendra wants to finish the journey to find Jackson. Her mother tells her it is too dangerous the city has fallen to the aliens. Kendra tells her she is not hiding anymore, and she will fight to keep what is left of her family together. Her mother insist that the little girl go up north with her. Kendra agrees and she leaves to find her brother.
-
Lesson 18
What I learned from this assignment:
This assignment helped me determine Michael’s role in the story.
Outline Key Scenes
Ext: Patterson NJ Street- Day
Kendra fights a losing battle with a military unit in Patterson NJ.
Ext: Poconos Safe House-Day
Jackson makes it to the safe house in the Poconos.
Key Scenes Makes a new plan:
Ext: Patterson NJ -Day
Kendra is trapped on a street in Patterson with a Military Unit. The group is about to give up when a large armored vehicle drives up and begins shooting the aliens. The aliens fall back, and the group celebrates a victory. The truck door opens, and Michael jumps out.
Things go well until: Jackson goes back to his house in philadelphia and his wife is gone.
-
Lesson 17
What I learned for this Assignment:
I want to highlight the character relationships and also keep the story moving.
Act Three Key Scenes.
Ext: Jackson House- Day
Jackson waits next to his packed truck. He is worried that is wife is still refusing to leave even after they have been told by the military to evacuate.
Ext: Downtown Philadelphia-Day
The army is fighting the aliens.There is a large explosion and city hall falls. The soldiers fall back, and the population begins to evacuate the city.
Ext: George Washington Bridge Bus station -Day
The bus station has been transformed into a large evacuation center. Kendra leaves Michael and the little girl in the care of the military. She crosses the bridge and enters New jersey.
Key Scenes:
Int: Jackson House-Day
Jackson sits across from his wife pleading with her to leave with him. She keeps insisting that the military is going to take care of the aliens. Jackson tells her he has to get the children to safety.
Ext: George Washington Bridge-Day
Michael learns from the Army Sergeant that Kendra has crossed the bridge into New jersey. Michael and the little girl decide to go after Kendra.
-
Lesson 16 Finish Act 2:
What I learned doing this Assignment:
Act two must end with a big bang and all my main character must be in some type of jeopardy.
Scene 1
Int: Warehouse-Day:
Kendra plan to rescue the little girl goes badly. The girl’s mother is killed, and Michael is injured.
Scene2: Warehouse-Day
The ex-husband capture Kendra and Michel. He begins to torture them. The little girl intervenes, and Kendra kills the ex-husband.
Scene 3: Lower Eastside New York- Day.
The military is moving thousand of people by using all types of transport. The hovering Alien ship begins to move towards the waiting crowed. The massive explosion turns the group into a stampeding mob that overruns the military.
Scene 4: Ext Yardley airport- Day
Jackson is negotiating with Albert and thirty something party guy. Albert is convinced there is nothing to worry about.
Scene 5: Ext New York city street-Day
Kendra helps the injured Michael along with the little girl. People are running in the street trying to flee the Alien ships. The trio make it to the safe house. Kendra notices the aliens have landed and are walking the streets of New York.
-
Lesson 13 Act 2 Begins
Act II Beat Sheet Key Scene 1.
What I learned from doing this assignment:
I have to keep the story moving and the beat sheet helps me plan the scene.
Int: Kendra Apt-Day: Kendra and Michael arrive at her apartment. The front door is open, and the apartment has been ransacked. Kendra gathers her things and leaves the apt.
Int: Apt Hallway-Day: Kenda’s neighbor Alice aged forty approaches Kendra and Michael as they leave the apartment. Alice tells Kendra her apt was ransacked by her ex-husband who was looking for guns. Alice also tells Kendra her husband took her daughter. Alice asks Kendra and for help. Michael tells Kendra they should Alice.
Ext: Jackson’s house day. Jackson packs up his truck. Jackson’s wife is not helping.
Int Apt Hallway-Day: Michael tells Kendra he isn’t leaving her and that he knows all about her past and he still want to be with her. Michael tells Kendra he is going to help Alice get her daughter.
Ext City Street-Day: Michael and Alice walk towards uptown and Kendra walks in the opposite direction.
Ext: Run down Building-Day Michel and Alice wait
outside -
Lesson 10 Act 1 Inciting incident
What I learned doing this assignment
A strong inciting incident is key to the story.
Act 1 Scene 2 Key Scene:
1.The mars base is destroyed by an unknown alien force.
2.Jackson is convinced a large invasion is imminent.
3.Kendra is still not convinced there will be an attack
Act 1. Key Scene three:
1. The military begins to prepare for an attack.
2. Kendra cannot get rid of her one-night stand.
3. Jackson starts to prepare for the attack.
Inciting Incident:
Beginning: Kendra notices a pattern in all of the recent UFO sighting.
Middle:
Jackson tells Kendra she is not safe in New York and tells her to make the trip to his house before it is too late. Kendra is still not convinced it is an alien attack.
End: The aliens destroy the mars base and begin their journey to earth.
I
Inciting incident Reaction
Beginning: Jackson starts to put his escape plan in action.
Middle: Kendra begins to hear the truth in what Jackson is saying about an attack.
End: The global communication system goes down, and Kendra decides she must make the one-hundred-mile trip to her family.
-
Lesson 9 Act one Opening and Character Introductions
What I learned doing this assignment. This is a great next step to the beat sheet. This is a great starting point for writing the script.
Opening Scene Kendra:
Int: Subway-Day Kendra stands on a crowed subway across from Michael a handsome man in his mid-thirties and her current one-night stand. Michael rubs Kendra’s hand and she quickly pulls it away. The phone in Kendra’s pocket beeps. She pulls it out and looks at the message on the screen and puts it back in her pocket.
Michael
My friend is opening his restaurant tonight. I thought we could go.
Kendra
No thanks.
Opening Scene Jackson Kendra Older Brother
Int: Garage- Day Jackson on a cell phone.
Jackson late thirties dials his cell phone repeatedly. After a few moments Jackson throws the cell phone on the floor of the garage. He quickly picks of the phone and redials the number again. Jackson’s wife Ann early thirties walks into the garage.
Ann
Jackson give it up she does not want to talk to you.
Jackson
I have to keep trying.
-
What I learned from this assignment: Writing is hard.
Yes, I will use the high speed writing rules.
Lesson 7 High Speed Beat Sheet
100 Miles
Act 1 Opening Sequence beat sheet
Ext: Red Island off the coast of Alaska. A barren place with rolling green hills. The island is hidden from the world by a low puffy cloud bank. A small log cabin is nestled in a small valley.
Ext: Small cabin- Day
A man in his late forties plays with two children in front of the cabin. He goes and the cabin and brings out weapons. The children begin training.
INT: Small cabin -night the children do their lesson and eat their dinner. The man puts the children to bed.
EXT small cabin -Night. A helicopter hovers over the cabin. A binding spotlight Shines on the cabin.
The man wakes his children and grabs his gun. The man goes outside and fires his weapon at the helicopter. The ground forces approach the cabin. They fire at the man who retreats into the cabin.
Ext: small cabin -night. The ground troops approach the cabin several explosions go off causing the soldiers to retreat.
INT: Small Cabin-Night. The man opens a panel in the floor of the cabin. He helps the children down the small set of steps to the lower basement. The man and the children huddle in the small basement. The ground forces fire tear gas in to cabin it immediately feels with smoke. The man hugs his children and pushes them into a small tunnel that leads to the woods.
INT: Small Cabin -night. The man grabs a mask and leaves the basement. The man grabs a sub machine gun and heads toward the front door of the cabin.
EXT: Small Cabin -Night. The man opens the front door of the cabin and fires at the agents. Two of the agents are shot. The man is shot by the agents but is still standing. He goes back inside of the cabin and close the door The agents move in.
INT: Small Cabin-Night. The lies dying on the floor. The agents move in they turn over the man and with his last breath he pushes the plunger on an explosive device that blows up the cabin and all the men inside.
Ext: Woods- Night: The two children walk slowly through the brush. The boy leads the way his sister flows closely. Suddenly the ground shakes and a bright fire ball can be seen the night sky. The children know the significances of the explosion’s girl begins to cry and the boy wipes away her tears. The girl pushes the boy away and turns toward the cabin. She does not see the large bear until it is too late. The brother tells her not to move. The bear growls roars. The girl screams.
Twenty Years Later.
Int: New York City Subway-Day. Kendra a pretty woman in her early thirties stands in a packaged train heading downtown. Kendra gets a text message on her phone. She ignores it. The train rumbles to a stop and Kendra gets off.
-
Lesson 6 Transformation Events
What I learned from doing this assignment: I do not want to over analyze my characters journey. The journey is not complicated. The complication comes from the world around her.
Kendra; Old ways
Avoids connection with others.
Hides her true nature.
Fights alone
Unable to love.
New Ways
Helps people
Accepts her place in the world.
Unleashes her true nature.
Finds love
List of Changes:
Never helps anyone.
Keeps a low profile.
Feels everyone is the enemy.
Keeps her past hidden.
Helps her neighbor find her missing child
Works with authority
Reveals her past life to others.
Fights for a cause
Reconciles with her family.
-
Four Act Transformational Structure
What I learned from this assignment:
This assignment showed me what I have to work on within my story.
100 Miles
Kendra must travel one hundred miles to reunite with her family before a global alien invasion.
Act I
Opening: An impending alien attack causes a global panic.
Inciting Incident:
With her survival in jeopardy Kendra decides to leave New York city and go to her brother house in Philadelphia. Kendra’s brothers tell her he will wait for twenty-four hours any longer he will be putting his family in danger.
Kendra tries to leave the city, but she is detained by the police. While in detention Kendra is visited by and Army General. He tells her that the army is recruiting her for the fight yet to come.
Turning point
Kendra escapes from the army and starts her journey to her family.
Act 2
Reaction.
Since Kendra cannot leave the city by normal means. She must rely on her hidden resources. She makes preparation to go to her safe house when her neighbor tells her ex-husband broke into their building and kidnapped her daughter and Kendra’s dog. The neighbor has an ideal where her ex is going, Kendra has no other choice but to go after the ex-husband.
The Plan:
Kendra and her neighbor head uptown to find the dog and the girl. The neighbor tells Kendra that her husband is a notorious drug dealer.
Old Ways:
Kendra would have taken this mission alone.
New ways:
Kendra let’s her neighbor see how dangerous side.
Act three
The neighbor and Kendra find the men who kidnapped the child and the dog. After a bloody battle that leave Kendra injured and her neighbor dead. Kendra gets back her dog and rescues that little girl.
Injured Kendra takes the little girl to the bus station, but the army is there, and Kendra has to keep the little girl with her. The two of them make their way to Kendra’s co-worker house.
Kendra’s friend gives her medical attention, and the alien invasion begins.
Act 4:
Kendra’s brother sends his family away and decides to stay behind and wait for Kendra.
Kendra battles her way through New Jersey and ends up at her new jersey safe house. The owner of the house is Kendra’s mother.
Climax:
Kendra fights with the rough army officer for the last time. She wins the battle but loses the war her mother is killed by the aliens. Kendra kills one of the aliens. For the first time in an along time Kendra feels a sense of hope for the future.
-
Donna Rankin
2. The words “I agree to the terms of this release form.”
3. Please leave the entire text below to confirm what you agree to.OR
NOT AGREE, in which case, you hit “Reply to this topic” and type in the
words “I’ll do the 30 Day Screenplay privately.”If you agree to the terms of the release form, then you can send your assignments into the group and you’ll get feedback on them.
Also, if you don’t agree to this group confidentiality agreement, you’ll still need to sign an agreement that says you will keep the 30 Day Screenplay model confidential.
GROUP RELEASE FORM FOR “THE 30 DAY SCREENPLAY”
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, communications, lessons, and models of the 30 Day Screenplay available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
-
What did I learn doing this assignment.
I found a bunch a new thing about my character by doing this assignment.Protagonist Questions: Kendra profile 4
Tell me about yourself.
I do not talk about myself. It boring and not productive.
Why do you think you were called to this journey? Why you.
I had a very unusual childhood. I am an unknown element no one knows what I can do.
You are up against. What is it about them that makes this journey even more difficult for you?
The enemy we fight is from another planet. We do not know anything about them. All we know is that they are a danger to our existence.
In order to survive or accomplish this, you are going to have to step way outside of your box. What changes do you expect to make and which of them will be the most difficult?
Not everyone is going to survive this. It is important that we realize that many people ae going to die. I worry that I might have to choose what members of my family will live or die. I do not know if I can do that.
What fears, insecurities and wounds have you held back.
I have never told anyone that I love them.
What skills, background or expertise makes you well-suited to face this conflict or antagonist?
My father was a navy seal. He trained me well. So, I hope the skills I have will keep me alive.
What are you hiding from other characters? What don’t you want them to know?
I do not like to show my vulnerable side. I think it makes we weak.
What do you Think of?
I think the world might end if we lose.
Tell me your side of this whole conflict.
I spent half of my life running from the government. They locked me up for two years for no reason except they feared what I might do. So now the world is on the brink of an attack, and they want my help.
What does it do for your life if you succeed here?
I might get the chance to have a child.
-
Donna Rankin
Three Scripts
A deeper understading of the craft of screenwriting and some tips on outling.
I worked for MTV in the 90’s. I have a dog that watches television.
Happy writing everyone.
D.Rankin.
-
Character Kendra Profile Part 2
What I learned doing this assignment:
I have a deeper understanding of the character of Kendra. I now have a list of want and needs for her character and this information can be woven into the story.
Traits:
Brave, Smart, Fearless, loyal, a leader
Subtext:
Kendra is a direct person who keeps her emotions in check.
Flaw:
Lack of Empathy
Values:
Justice, Retribution
Irony:
Kendra was an accused enemy of the people is now one of the saviors of humanity.
What makes this the right character for the role.
Kendra is willing to die for the cause.
-
What I have learned from this lesson:
The character profiles are helpful because once they are completed you have so much character information.
Character Profile Kendra
Role in the story: protagonist/Hero
Kendra is waiting for something to happen. She is a reporter working for an internet newspaper in New York city.
Age Range and Description:
Kendra is early thirties an avid sports person in excellent condition.
Internal Journey:
Deep down inside Kendra wants to be like everyone else but because of her past she knows that is impossible.
External Journey:
At the end of her journey Kendra will begin to see that they may be chance for her to find love and happiness.
Wound:
Kendra blames herself for her father’s death.
Mission Agenda:
To survive the journey and reunite with her family.
Secret:
Kendra and her brother were raised on a small island by their survivalist father.
What makes her special:
Kendra is a weapons master.
-
What I have learned doing this assignment; The inner life journey breathes life into your character. It also gives relevance to why they do the things they do in the story.
Character: Kendra
Internal Journey
Kendra is a person who is hiding in plain sight. She lives alone and has a few relationships. Her biggest fear is that someone will find out her identity. Deep down inside she wants to change but fear keeps her in hiding.
External Journey
At the end of her journey, she realizes that she is strong and capable and does not need to be recued by anyone. Once she reveals her true self the fear disappears, and a fearless fighter is born.
Old Ways.
Guilt over past events.
Refuses to help anyone.
Afraid.
Unwilling to Love
New Ways
Tells her family what she did in the past and ask forgiveness.
Dedicates herself to helping other people.
Finds love and excepts love.
Strength