JUSTINE DIDOMENICO
Forum Replies Created
-
Justine’s Act 2 Midpoint
INT. NICE RESTAURANT – NIGHT
Beginning: Jenn and Annie walk in together and are seated at their table. Jenn asks Annie why she’s been so out of it, she hasn’t been herself. Annie describes an intrusive negative voice that’s been the loudest since her birthday. She describes the Inner Critic and the negative things that the Inner Critic has been saying to her but doesn’t fully describe the hallucination.
Middle: Jenn listens patiently then tells Annie she’s always acted as though she has a voice telling her the things, she doesn’t like about herself. This voice is HER, not something else. She’s been listening to this voice since she was a kid, that’s why she’s never finished anything she started or tried anything new. She’s been holding herself back this entire time.
End: Jenn states that everyone has this Inner Critic, it’s not just Annie. The main difference is that Annie has been spending her whole life AGREEING with her Inner Critic instead of trying to prove her wrong. Annie finally understands that the Inner Critic is HER, trying to keep her from failure, and that Annie needs to DISAGREE and prove the Inner Critic wrong if she’s going to be successful.
-
Justine’s Act 2 Middle Scenes
I learned that the empowerment video is KEY when starting on an assignment. It’s been helping me stay unstuck.
Key Scene 2
INT. DOCTOR’S EXAM ROOM – DAY
Beginning: Annie sits on the doctor’s examination table, feet swinging. She explains, reluctantly to the doctor that she’s been hearing a ‘sound’ since the other night and describes this sound as harsh and nagging. While explaining this, the Inner Critic paces the room, unseen by the doctor.
Inner Critic (annoyed)
You’re wasting your time. Even if there was something wrong, you’d never follow up on it.
Middle: Annie goes through the MRI machine, the doctor looking for anything that would indicate a non-stop, intrusive sound. Over the rumbling and chugging of the machine, Annie can’t hear anything. She looks down towards her feet through the opening of the tube and sees the Inner Critic standing there, looking perturbed. Waiting.
End: The doctor explains that Annie’s MRI is ‘perfect’. He says that it sounds like the stress of turning 30 based on Annie’s ‘sedentary’ lifestyle may be partially to blame for what he calls “idiopathic tinnitus”. He suggests she see a counselor. The Inner Critic laughs harshly. Annie looks comfortable. The doctor says if she won’t see someone, the least she can do is change her lifestyle, meditate, maybe engage in some physical activity outdoors. At the very least, it may provide a nice distraction. Annie listens intently and reluctantly agrees. She’ll try that.
Key Scene 3
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Annie takes out the gym-shoes she has and has never worn. She puts them on, doing some stretches. The Inner Critic is sitting on the couch, listing times that Annie has attempted to workout and failed. Remember the time Annie swimming labs and nearly drowned? People have died from running cramps! Annie shakes her head, walks out the apartment door.
EXT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Annie starts to run, slowly. The Inner Critic jogs next to her. She states if Annie is going to try this, she may as well run a little faster. Annie starts to speed up and momentarily feels great, the Inner Critic does too! After about a block, the Inner Critic starts to fall behind, complaining loudly about a side cramp. She stops running and yells after Annie “This is too hard!! You’re going to die!”. Annie stops running, leans against a tree to catch her breath, struggling to breath. The Inner Critic calls from back where she is standing, gasping for air “I told you you can’t run!”
Key Scene 4
INT. EDITOR’S OFFICE – DAY
Beginning: Annie sits at her desk, staring at a blank document on her computer. The Inner Critic sits with her legs crossed next to Annie’s monitor. Annie has two post-its on her monitor. One reads “Man whose superpower is to inhabit anyone temporarily gets trapped in someone’s body and has to deal with the consequences” while the other reads “World War II love story?”
Middle: Annie has a whispered, quiet argument with Inner Critic about which story to write when Jenn enters cubicle. Jenn asks if Annie has come up with an idea for the writing contest and Annie says she’s stuck between the two. Jenn suggests the Superhero movie after discussing the intricacies of having to suffer the consequences, when the man usually doesn’t. Annie says it’s too ‘out there’, which is something the Inner Critic had been insisting. When Annie asks Jenn about her story idea, Jenn shrugs it off, nothing yet.
End: Annie settles on the safe, almost cliché World War II romance story. The Inner Critic is pleased.
-
Justine’s Act 3 Reaction to turning point 1
What I learned in this assignment is that I don’t know what I’m doing, but at least I’m doing something. Even if it’s wrong.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Beginning: Annie enters her apartment after the grocery store and looks around, assessing the mess. The Inner Critic appears again, this time Annie is less startled. The Inner Critic comments on Annie’s inability to finish what she’s started.
Middle: Annie accepts that she can’t run avoid the Inner Critic and listens to what she says. Annie starts to tidy-up and Inner Critic comments that Annie never finishes what she starts.
End: Annie agrees, stops cleaning, and sits down on the couch to watch TV instead.
-
Justine’s Finished Act 1
In this assignment I learned it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to BE. Getting started was really hard but once I got rolling, there it was! This is basically an outline that I’ll building upon later with solid dialogue but I’m happy with where I’m at!
INT. GROCERY STORY – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie is walking through a grocery store, buying ice cream, and talking on the phone about her upcoming 30<sup>th</sup> birthday, to Jenn. (Annie is clean but frumpy, in sweats)
Middle: Annie surveys the ice cream, choosing three, then stacking them under her chin to walk towards the checkout. As Annie nears the register, she sees an old woman drops her wallet and doesn’t notice. While continuing her phone call, Annie hands the woman her wallet and winks at her when the woman thanks her and continues on to the self-checkout.
End: While Annie scans her items and continues her conversation, she looks at the checkout camera, at her own reflection. Her reflection leans towards the screen of her own volition and says “Did you really need three pints?”. Annie, startled, looks around to see if anyone saw. “No, I’m still here.” To Jenn, pays and leaves.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie listens to a voicemail from her mother reminding her about their dinner.
Middle: Annie walks around her very messy apartment, surveying all the dead plants, the calendar her mom bought her that she never hung up and piles of clothes she hasn’t put away. Annie’s fridge has a whiteboard on it that reads a list of positive things like “Drink more water!” and “Move your body every day!”. We see a pair of gym-shoes thrown in the corner, with the tag still attached. (Illustrating she doesn’t start what she’s finishes. She walks through the living room past a half-painted picture leaning against the wall.
End: The voicemail from her mom expresses disappointment in Annie that makes her feel disheartened. She stops watering her plants, grabs a pint of ice-cream and sits down on the couch to watch T.V.
INT. EDITOR’S OFFICE – DAY
Beginning: Annie and Jenn are delivering mail in the isles of cubicles, discussing the contest at work that has just been announced. The prize is outlined as some sort of publishing credit or a short story contract. Maybe an apprenticeship of some kind?
Middle: While eating lunch in the breakroom, Annie eating a cheeseburger and Jenn eating a sensible salad, Annie discusses her writer’s block and lack of confidence since college. Jenn expresses frustration with Annie, as she feels she has genuine, natural talent as a writer and an amazing imagination. Jenn wishes she had the same. She encourages Annie to face her negative Inner Critic and write for the contest. Annie acknowledges that she’s never finished what she’s started.
End: Annie tells Jenn that she will consider writing for the contest, states that she has some ideas.
INT. FANCY RESTAURANT – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie meets with her mother at the restaurant.
Middle: Her mother talks about how excited she is to be going to Greece and asks Annie to come. When Annie says she can’t because of her job, her mother is visibly annoyed, she got Annie that job at the editor to launch her writing career, not have her in a dead-end mail job forever. Annie brings up the contest, her mother airs her doubts about Annie completing anything she starts. She talks about Annie’s natural talent and wild imagination but doubts her self-confidence and lack of empowerment.
End: Annie leaves the dinner incredibly agitated and ready to rage at the bar with Jenn.
INT. BAR – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie has taken a party drug and is taking copious shots with Jenn while complaining about her mother, turning 30 and how badly she wishes she could ditch the Inner Critic and just do what she wants.
Middle: While in the bathroom at the bar, Annie is washing her hands and hears two girls talking. One girl says to the other “You are beautiful! If you had a friend who put you down the way you put yourself down, would you keep hanging out with her?!” Annie laughs to herself as she dries her hands, then leaves the bathroom to reconvene with Jenn.
End: She does more and more shots, gets more and more impaired and eventually blacks out.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Beginning: Annie sits up in bed, incredibly disheveled in the clothes from the night before. Her apartment is very sunny, and she has a hard time making out the person standing at the foot of her bed. She clears her eyes and notices that a woman is standing here, with her arms crossed, looking extremely disappointed. The woman says “You are a real piece of work. What the hell were you trying to do last night?” When Annie demands to know who she is and jumps out of bed, the woman disappears.
Middle: Annie stands in the kitchen drinking water when Jenn calls on her cell phone. “We made plans for yoga, remember?”
End: Annie hurriedly yet painfully gets dressed and runs out the door quickly to meet Jenn for yoga.
INT. YOGA STUDIO – DAY
Beginning: While waiting for the class to start, Annie lays on her mat next to Jenn. Jenn asks Annie if she’s on some wild path of destruction, expressing concern about how much Annie drank the night before. Annie starts to mention that she woke up with a woman in her apartment, but the yoga instructor starts class.
Middle: As Annie is in down-dog, she sees a woman walk up behind her, upside-down, and only see the woman’s feet. Annie turns and the woman from that morning is standing behind her and loudly says “So you do yoga now, like it’s going to undo a lifetime of not taking care of yourself?”. Annie looks around, it appears no one else notices this woman.
End: Annie quickly gathers her belongings, apologizes to Jenn and hurriedly leaves the yoga studio, visibly shaken.
EXT. YOGA STUDIO – DAY
As Annie makers her way to her car and woman is seen leaning against the drivers’ side door. When Annie approaches, she straightens up and asks Annie “You can’t even finish a yoga class”. Annie pushes past the woman and gets into her car, peeling out of the parking lot.
INT. GROCERY STORE – DAY
Annie is frantically rushing through the aisles, seeing the woman more and more and she runs through the store. She buys a bottle of wine. Every time she sees the woman appear in an aisle; she ducks down into a different one. Like magic the woman pops up, everywhere she goes. Annie quickly checks out, again in the self-checkout. As she does, a store attendant approaches, stating she needs to ID Annie. As the looks at Annie’s license, she says to Annie “It’s your birthday today! Happy Birthday!”. As she says this, Annie looks at the checkout camera again, her reflection leans towards the camera like the night before as her reflection says, “Too old for this shit”.
-
Justine’s Act 1 Turning Point
This is getting harder, and positive self talk and self-empowerment is KEY. When I got stuck on what I was going to do in this part and how I was going to flesh out this turning point, I had to take a big step back, give myself a mental hug and say “This is good, this is where the rubber meets the road. It will come to you. Don’t freak the eff out.” I started writing, and it came. I am reassured by this. It is SO hard not to be critical of myself and not beat myself down. The empowerment video is REALLY helpful too. That’s what I learned this week.
ACT 1 TURNING POINT
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Beginning: Annie awakens the morning after her birthday to find that she is not alone; her Inner Critic is here, in the flesh, saying things, out loud, that Annie would normally say to herself.
Middle: Annie gets dressed quickly while the Inner Critic yells are her about her bad decisions the night before.
End: Annie runs out of the apartment, having to turn back for her keys and gets into her car, speeding away from her apartment in fear.
INT. YOGA STUDIO – DAY
Beginning: Annie is visibly shaken as she meets Jenn for yoga but lies to Jenn that nothing is the matter.
Middle: While attempting to do yoga, the Inner Critic shows up and starts criticizing Annie, asking why she’s even trying to do yoga.
End: Annie makes a lame excuse to Jenn and leaves yoga early.
INT. GROCERY STORE – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie looks around nervously as she tries to do her grocery shopping.
Middle: As she turns down isles to look at junk food, the Inner Critic keeps appearing in front of her, putting down her choices in food and inability to make healthy choices.
End: Annie becomes frustrated, ditches her cart and runs to the bathroom to hide.
INT. GROCERY STORE BATHROOM – NIGHT
Beginning: Annie is hunched up on the toilet in the stall, hiding from the Inner Critic.
Middle: Inner Critic appears in the stall with Annie, chiding her for hiding in the bathroom.
End: Annie realizes that
the Inner Critic isn’t going anywhere and she’s going to have to face her. It
also sinks in that this Inner Critic is not a real person and isn’t escapable. -
Justine’s Beat Sheet Draft 2
In this assignment I learned that it’s easy to get caught up in the Protagonists story, looking at them as the main character and not considering the arc of the Antagonist. This assignment helped me acknowledge that side of the storyline.
INT. GROCERY STORY – NIGHT
Opening: Annie is walking through a grocery store, buying ice cream, and talking on the phone about her upcoming 30<sup>th</sup> birthday.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie gets voicemail from mom? Annie assesses dire houseplant situation and something else that illustrates that Annie doesn’t finish the things she starts?
PLACEHOLDER: Annie’s job is established as her and Jenn walk around the office handing out mail while having a conversation about Annie’s birthday.
INT. EDITING FIRM – DAY
TE 1: While at work there is an announcement of a contest at work, prompting Jenn and Annie to discuss Annie’s lack of motivation to write.
INT. FANCY RESTAURANT – NIGHT
Inciting Incident: Annie has dinner with her mother who expresses her disappointment in Annie and invites her to come to Greece with her.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie’s apartment, her and Jenn are getting ready as Annie is upset about her dinner with her mom. Annie’s reflection puts her down as she’s trying to get ready.
PLACEHOLDER: Uber ride to bar?
INT. BAR – NIGHT
TE 2: Annie and Jenn go to the bar to ‘celebrate’ Annie turning 30 the next day, where Annie drinks too much and blacks out.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Opening: Annie wakes up to someone in her apartment, the hallucination of her inner critic who has been blocking her creativity.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie has a conversation with the inner critic, establishing who she is. Inner Critic is very annoyed by Annie.
INT. YOGA STUDIO – DAY
TE 3: Annie goes to yoga with Jenn, while her inner critic comes with her, discouraging Annie from making positive change. Inner critic finds Annie’s attempts to improve her life futile and tries to convince her it’s too hard.
INT. JUICE BAR – DAY
Inciting Incident: Annie talks to Jenn about the contest and why she doesn’t want to participate, while Annie is keeping the secret that she is hallucinating her inner critic. Annie discusses two possible ideas for a story with Jenn.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie tries to workout, jogging outside, but inner critic complains the whole time?
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
TE 4: Annie decides to write for the contest but due to influence from the inner critic, chooses the safer story of the two. The Inner Critic insists Annie goes with the easier one, stating she isn’t as creative as she was in college, she needs to stay with safer options.
INT. BREAK ROOM – DAY
Opening: Annie is having lunch with Jenn and they discuss Annie’s inner critic, vaguely. Jenn tells Annie that she doesn’t need to listen to the inner critic. The Inner Critic finds this absurd, if she weren’t there, who would be looking out for Annie’s best interest?
PLACEHOLDER: Annie attempts another positive change that’s held obscured by the inner critic?
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
TE 5: Annie starts to become comfortable writing again and starts to question things the inner critic is telling her. She asks the Inner Critic at one point, why can’t she do hard things? Why isn’t she capable of improving? The Inner Critic explains that it’s because the risk of failure is too great.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie successfully jogs around the block, ignoring the inner critic and feeling good about herself. At this point she’s starting to gain more confidence in herself and take the Inner Critic less seriously.
INT. EDITOR’S OFFICE – NIGHT
Inciting Incident: Jenn has won the contest using the more unique creative story idea that Annie didn’t use but should have, leading to a fight between Annie and Jenn where Jenn tells Annie how she really feels about her and their friendship.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie getting ready to go to the bar and has a negative interaction with the inner critic? Annie blames the Inner Critic for the story choice and holding her back her entire life. Maybe she realizes she doesn’t need the Inner Critic and expresses that?
INT. BAR – NIGHT
TE 6: Annie goes back out to the bar, falling back her old ways of coping, ignoring the inner critic, and throwing away the positive progress she’d made. The Inner Critic is with her, trying to criticize her for throwing away everything she’s accomplished during this time and criticizes Annie for having written the easier, less creative story.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Opening: Annie awakens the next morning, alone, without the inner critic.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
TE 7: She makes a list of the things the inner critic would say to her and puts it on the wall with a calendar her mom gave her.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie cleans up her apartment and goes for a jog? Calls her mom to discuss her difficulties?
INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL – DAY
Inciting Incident: She goes to the airport, flying to Greece to meet her mother.
INT. LARGE AUDITORIUM – NIGHT
TE 8: She releases her book about how to get past your inner critic and gives a TED talk.
-
Justine’s High Speed Beat Sheet
What I learned doing this assignment was that I need to not wait two days between assignments, even if work is killing me! I lost my line on the story and had to struggle to get my focus back. I’m worried that I’m changing parts of my story every time I accomplish an assignment because my main job keeps me from doing much use during my off time. I need to make the commitment to writing EVERY. DAY. Even if I’m exhausted.
INT. GROCERY STORY – NIGHT
Opening: Annie is walking through a grocery store, buying ice cream, and talking on the phone about her upcoming 30<sup>th</sup> birthday.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie gets voicemail from mom? Annie assess dire houseplant situation and something else that illustrates that Annie doesn’t finish the things she starts?
PLACEHOLDER: Annie’s job is established as her and Jenn walk around the office handing out mail while having a conversation about Annie’s birthday.
INT. EDITING FIRM – DAY
TE 1: While at work there is an announcement of a contest at work, prompting Jenn and Annie to discuss Annie’s lack of motivation to write.
INT. FANCY RESTAURANT – NIGHT
Inciting Incident: Annie has dinner with her mother who expresses her disappointment in Annie and invites her to come to Greece with her.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie’s apartment, her and Jenn are getting ready as Annie is upset about her dinner with her mom. Annie’s reflection puts her down as she’s trying to get ready.
PLACEHOLDER: Uber ride to bar?
INT. BAR – NIGHT
TE 2: Annie and Jenn go to the bar to ‘celebrate’ Annie turning 30 the next day, where Annie drinks too much and blacks out.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Opening: Annie wakes up to someone in her apartment, the hallucination of her inner critic who has been blocking her creativity.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie has a conversation with the inner critic, establishing who she is.
INT. YOGA STUDIO – DAY
TE 3: Annie goes to yoga with Jenn, while her inner critic comes with her, discouraging Annie from making positive change.
INT. JUICE BAR – DAY
Inciting Incident: Annie talks to Jenn about the contest and why she doesn’t want to participate, while Annie is keeping the secret that she is hallucinating her inner critic. Annie discusses two possible ideas for a story with Jenn.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie tries to workout, jogging outside, but inner critic complains the whole time?
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
TE 4: Annie decides to write for the contest but due to influence from the inner critic, chooses the safer story of the two.
INT. BREAK ROOM – DAY
Opening: Annie is having lunch with Jenn and they discuss Annie’s inner critic, vaguely. Jenn tells Annie that she doesn’t need to listen to the inner critic.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie attempts another positive change that’s held obscured by the inner critic?
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
TE 5: Annie starts to become comfortable writing again and starts to question things the inner critic is telling her.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie successfully jogs around the block, ignoring the inner critic and feeling good about herself.
INT. EDITOR’S OFFICE – NIGHT
Inciting Incident: Jenn has won the contest using the more unique creative story idea that Annie didn’t use but should have, leading to a fight between Annie and Jenn where Jenn tells Annie how she really feels about her and their friendship.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie getting ready to go to the bar and has a negative interaction with the inner critic?
INT. BAR – NIGHT
TE 6: Annie goes back out to the bar, falling back her old ways of coping, ignoring the inner critic, and throwing away the positive progress she’d made.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
Opening: Annie awakens the next morning, alone, without the inner critic.
INT. ANNIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
TE 7: She makes a list of the things the inner critic would say to her and puts it on the wall with a calendar her mom gave her.
PLACEHOLDER: Annie cleans up her apartment and goes for a jog? Calls her mom to discuss her difficulties?
INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL – DAY
Inciting Incident: She goes to the airport, flying to Greece to meet her mother.
INT. LARGE AUDITORIUM – NIGHT
TE 8: She releases her book about how to get past your inner critic and gives a TED talk.
-
Justine’s transformational events
What I learned doing this assignment is that there should be two big changes per act. I had no idea! That definitely changed the way I viewed each act.
Character Arc: Annie goes from a girl afraid to turn 30, who doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life and has horrible self-esteem to a successful author with a best selling self-help book, giving TED talks, totally empowered and taking full accountability for herself.
Old Ways: quits easily, doesn’t take care of herself, no self-esteem or self-confidence, no motivation or drive, not empowered, unhealthy
New Ways: empowered, accountable for self, successful author, healthy, motivated
Steps that need to occur for Annie’s transformation
Finding out about writing
contest at work
Serious talk with
mom about how she’s disappointed
Blacks out the
night before birthday
Begins hallucinating
negative Block that’s been holding her back
Serious talk with Jenn
where she considers not listening to the Block
Begins to write a
story/make positive change
Finds out that
Jenn has stolen her story/argument with Jenn leading to a blackout night
and disappearance of Block
Realization that
the block is there to help and changes her perspectiveACT 1: The initial flashback of being accused of cheating in a creative writing class in college for Annie is the first traumatic blow to her self-confidence and creativity, and is the birth of the Block to begin with. The birthday dinner with Mom is upsetting for Annie because it’s the first time mom has expressed disappointment in her. It’s this dinner that causes her to party so hard later that night. The original blackout event the night before her birthday is traumatic because she wakes up with a horrible hangover and a great sense of disappointment in herself, plus now a mean presence is following her around saying all of the mean things to her that she normally thinks about herself.
ACT 2: When she’s getting dressed, attempting yoga with Jenn, trying to jog or quit smoking, the Block is contradicting her, mirroring her own inner doubt that she can do hard things. Each time it’s incredibly frustrating for Annie which causes her to reach out to Jenn. She tells Jenn about her loud, obnoxious inner critic that’s blocking her creative thought, not explaining that she can SEE the Block. Jenn says she doesn’t HAVE to listen to the Block and suggests Annie prove the Block wrong, by writing for this contest. Annie and Jenn discuss two story ideas that Annie could write, one is VERY unique and the other is safe. Jenn insists that Annie write the unique one, but the Block insists Annie stick with what’s safe, after all she isn’t THAT creative, and probably won’t finish anyway. Annie then writes the easy, safe story, but disagrees with and ignores the block about some of the details.
ACT 3: When Annie submits the story, she’s starting to feel more accountable and empowered, she CAN finish things. When the winner is announced, it’s JENN, not Annie. Jenn won writing the story that was Annie’s unique and ultra-creative idea. Annie and Jenn have it out, Jenn tells Annie she’s sick of wallowing with her, watching Annie waste her amazing talents. She KNEW Annie would never write that story and chose to do so instead, after all, creative ideas will always find a way to be born. Annie is devastated, she thought she was getting better, but she knows Jenn is right in a way. She goes out, copes in the unhealthy way of getting blackout drunk and comes home to pass out.
ACT 4: In the morning, she’s alone. The Block is not longer a hallucinated being around her, she’s alone. She feels horrible about the night before, and realizes that she doesn’t need to cope that way anymore. She CAN do hard things. She makes a list of the things the Block said she CAN’T do. She starts to cross out CAN’T and write CAN. She realizes that if she believes she can, SHE CAN. She goes to Greece to meet her mother and start living the empowered life she’s always wanted.
-
Justine’s Character Profile Part 2
What I learned doing this assignment is that molding my characters has helped me better direct my vision for the arc of the characters’ stories. Because the Block is a hallucination, I wasn’t thinking of her as a full character before, but she is. She’s just as much a flesh-and-blood character as Annie is, even if her conception is a night spent partying too hard and making awful life choices in the fear of aging.
What draws us to this character – Annie. She is lovable in that she’s kind and funny, but she doesn’t judge others harshly. Though she’s incredible talented, she isn’t egotistical or suffer from too much hubris. She’s the type of person you’d want to remind of how amazing she is. You know she’d do the same for you.
Traits: Humble, Disorganized, Sarcastic, filled with self-doubt and disappointment in herself.
Subtext: Annie is hallucinating her inner critic and creative block as a living, breathing person. She is always pretending not to hear what the Block is saying, if she answered out loud, people would think she’s crazy. She is constantly trying to ‘play it cool’ so that others won’t discover her secret.
Flaw: Her inability to have faith in herself, her willingness to agree with her Block and allow herself to be held back by it.
Values: She values creativity and honestly. She holds non-judgement in high regards in herself and others.
Irony: She is, quite literally, the only thing standing in her way. She has all of the creativity and talent she’ll ever need but has allowed herself to be held back by her fear of failure. It is her creativity that has manifested this Block to save her from risk and failure. All she has to do, is not allow herself to hold herself back.
What makes her the right character in this role? Annie’s creative talent mixed with her low self-confidence makes her relatable and elicits empathy from the viewer. Her fears are completely normal, most people have them, but learning how to overcome them, and overcome our own inner critic is so simple, but so hard to finally do.
What draws us to this character – The Block. The Block is a negative, hysterical presence, holding Annie back. Her fears are completely irrational, which can be funny in certain situations and frustrating in others. She represents our wild, irrational insecurities and fears that keep us from taking exciting new risks.
Traits: Excessively anxious, critical, intrusive, and snarky
Subtext: Without saying so, the Block feels that she is protecting Annie without regard for her feelings or how the information will hurt her. The Block is trying to protect Annie from risk of failure and public humiliation by insisting she stay with safe choices with known and safe outcomes.
Flaw: She is incredibly negative and can be very hurtful and annoying.
Values: Safety. She is happy when Annie isn’t wearing new clothes, or writing “out there” concepts or exploring new activities, like exercise. Predictability. Staying inside one’s comfort zone. Avoiding growth.
Irony: While trying to safe Annie from those negative things, she is ensuring that Annie doesn’t achieve any kind of success of happiness, which Annie may view as worse than trying something and failing at it. The Block insists Annie stays with the safe story to write for the editor’s contest for publishing, and someone steals Annie’s intensely creative new idea. Because Annie listened to the block she lost a major opportunity AND learned that the she should have more faith in her abilities.
What makes this character right for this role? She will eventually reveal herself as a positive agent of change. Once Annie realizes that she needs to evaluate what she’s trying to tell herself with the Block as vehicle, she can use the Block to deal with her fears, evaluate them and overcome them.
-
Justine’s Character Profiles Part 1
Annie is a Victim/Dreamer. She is the victim of her hallucinated Block and dreams of a future where she is able to find her path and be successful in whatever she ends up doing. Annie has a natural gift for writing, but after a humiliating experience in college is reluctant to follow her creative voice and express her artistic thoughts and ideas.
The Block is a villain. She is the expression of Annie’s fears, literally. Annie hallucinates the Block as if she were a real person in her life. Anytime Annie has a productive idea, or becomes motivated to make progress in her life, the Block stops her by highlighting the worst-case scenario and saying demeaning, disparaging things to her.
Supporting Characters are Jenn and Mom. Jenn has been Annie’s friend since grade school and has always been there for her, but has always been envious of Annie’s natural talents, as Jenn doesn’t have the imagination and creativity that Annie does. After years of wallowing with Annie, Jenn starts to feel that Annie is holding her back, thinking Annie is lazy and wasteful of her natural gifts. Jenn is tall, very pretty and comes from a wealthy family.
Mom is disappointed in Annie because she got her the job at the editing company after college, thinking that Annie would eventually be a professional author like her. Since divorcing Annie’s father, she uses her writing talents to write extravagant romance novels about the love rendezvous she has. She takes a lover, then writes steamy novels about their escapades. She tells Annie to “write what you know” and thinks divorce was the best thing that ever happened to her. She wants Annie to come to Greece with her and start exploring and using her writing talents. She is VERY glamourous and elegant.
This will be a buddy-movie. Annie is going to have to confront her innermost critic while she is face to face with it. In order to conquer her Block, she is going to have to confront it and pay attention to what it is really saying- that is- what she is TRULY afraid of. She’ll learn that she CAN do hard things, and she CAN make positive change. She’ll learn, over the course of the movie, that the BLOCK is there to help her identify what she’s most afraid of so she can overcome her fears of failure and embarrassment. She’ll befriend herself and learn that no one’s idea of her is as important as her own.
CHARACTER PROFILES – Annie
Role: Protagonist – Victim/Dreamer
Age Range/Description: Annie is plain, bordering frumpy. She lacks self-confidence and it shows in her appearance and she drinks/smokes too much. She’s 29, days away from 30. She is kind, disorganized, creative and funny. She’s out of shape because she doesn’t take care of herself.
Internal Journey: Annie starts with low self-esteem, almost no faith in her abilities, unable to finish whatever she starts. She ends as a confident, successful author with a strong sense of self-awareness and understands her fears and limitations.
External Journey: Annie goes from distributing mail in a prestigious editing firm to giving a TED talk and releasing a book about how to use your negative inner voice to help understand yourself better and motivate you to succeed.
Motivation: Annie is motivated by the stark realization that she’s turning 30 and it not where she thought she’d be in life.
Wound: She’s traumatized from a time in college when a jealous rival classmate lied and said that Annie’s creative novel was stolen. This caused her great public humiliation, even though it wasn’t true.
Mission/Agenda: To become a successful adult, be personal accountable for herself, take care of herself physically and emotionally. Ultimately, to get past her block.
Secret: No one knows that she is literally hallucinating her Block as if she was a real person in her life. While Jenn and Mom know that she has always struggled with negative self-talk, she hasn’t told them that her Block has now manifested into a full, real-life person as a result of partying too much the night before her birthday.
What makes her special? Annie is nothing if not relatable. We all talk to ourselves in ways we would never allow someone else to, and Annie is struggling with this on an all-too-real basis.
CHARACTER PROFILE – The Block
Role: Antagonist – Villain/Bully
Age Range: The Block is the same age as Annie and looks like her, but cleaner, better cared for, and carries herself with an air of confidence and success. Much like Annie wishes she was. The Block is very sarcastic and negative.
Internal Journey: none
External Journey: The Block pops into existence the morning of Annie’s birthday, after she’d blacked out the night before. The Block disappears after Annie has a devastating betrayal from Jenn.
Motivation: The Block’s motivation seems to be to put Annie down, when it’s actually to keep her safe by mitigating the risk of failure presented by Annie taking chances and putting herself out there and trying to succeed.
Mission/Agenda: The Block’s mission seems to make sure that Annie doesn’t leave her comfort zone, ensuring that her self-esteem and self-confidence stay as low as possible.
Secret: The Block is terrified of Annie’s failure and revisited humiliation like the one in college.
What makes them special? The Block is special because she represents a common downfall for most people and a force that people commonly need to overcome to succeed.
-
My hero is Annie. She is just about to turn 30, she is scared and unsure, unempowered and floundering in life. She wants creative freedom but doesn’t have the belief in herself to express her ideas confidently, because she is blocked by her negative inner critic, every time she attempts something new or exciting. Her negative inner critic is blocking her from growth and success.
Inner Journey: She learned to take accountability for herself by fully acknowledging and dealing with her block to process it.
External Journey: She goes from being a mail carrier in a publishing house to writing her own self help book and giving a TED talk.
Her old ways are being held back by her block, listening to the negative self talk and allowing it to hold her back. Her old ways are drinking too much and not taking care of her body, taking drugs and eating horrible food.
Her new ways are writing down and exploring her creative ideas, not ignoring the block but understanding that her inner critic is only there to help her deal with her fear. She is now able to help other people process their inner critics as well. She can now do hard things and is able to be accountable for herself.
During this assignment I learned to break the main character down to the most basic components of motivation. I learned that creating the basic arc of the character can be essential to creating a clear framework for the story. This lessons also helped me remove my anxiety about getting started because this initial process doesn’t feel so overwhelming.