[Lilliana Cabal]

ASSIGNMENT 2:

A. Main Characters

Kalina – late 40’s, she’s a mother of two kids under 10 and an imperfect hero. She tends to be “successful” but not necessarily true to herself, others and her path. She goes back to the field for the money.

Kalina 20 years ago – a more innocent adventurer, attractive and gets the job done. Is successful but suffers the unethical job along the way. She’s a bit of a perfectionist and has to lead a team in projects in different countries. A people pleaser and finds it difficult to set proper limits.

Mackenzie her sister – beautiful, sensual, confident. She works for the same agency and sees the job for what it is. She doesn’t get bogged down by the details and knows how to enjoy the perks of her work. She is very successful and charismatic and sometimes gets carried away .

Astrid (her boss 20 years ago) – comes across at first as understanding but ends up being quite hard and undermining. She started out young in the company and got beaten down. She learned the hard way and became what she used to criticize.

B.

PRESENT – Thiago Kalina’s husband or ex, Molly (head of projects), Nadia (friend on the field)

Lana (24 year old rival in the business)

PAST – Hugo (partner in crime), Damen (Astrid’s boss), Candice (Rival on the field)

Alberto (partner in crime)

Carlota – (Mackenzie’s boss and friend)

C.

Politicians, businessmen and women, Tyler and Celeste (Kalina’s kids – boy and a girl)

Kalina’s parents, boyfriends,

[Lilliana Cabal]

MODULE 1 LESSON 2 ASSIGNMENT

Big Little Lies

CHARACTERS

Madeline MacKenzie

Ed

Daughters – Abagail and Chloe

Celeste Wright

Perry

Sons – Josh and Max

Jane Chapman

Ziggy

Renata Klein

Gordon

Daughter – Amabella

Nathan Carlson

Bonnie

Daughter – Skye

Detective Adrienne Quinlan

Harper Stimson

Principal Warren Nippal

ASSIGNMENT 1:

Watch the next episode of your Example Show to see how the characters fit into these three circles:

BIG LITTLE LIES

A. Main Characters Circle:

Madeline

Celeste

Jane

Renata

B. Connected Circle:

Husbands and kids

Nathan and Bonnie

Harper Stimson (Renata’s team)

Principal Warren Nippal

Detective Adrienne Quinlan

C. Environment Circle:

School teacher

Tom at the café

Joseph community theatre guy who was the mystery person in first episode.

People who work with the police

People who work at the school

People who work in the shops

Give us a quick list for each circle.

[Lilliana Cabal]

Introducing Myself

1. Lilliana Cabal

2. I’ve never written a script before, so this is very new and daunting to me.

3. I’ve had this tv series in mind for about 18 years now and was looking for a way to finally get it on paper within some orderly and engaging way. I was looking for something that would take me step by step in the process as I’ve never written a script before. I’d met with someone who took me through the steps of getting a bible together and felt terribly overwhelmed afterwards. So my hope is to have a central operating system and an easy to follow program in order to create a substantial outline and have a pilot written out. I would then like to pitch it and get professional writers to clean it up properly.

4. I’m an American actress now living in Barcelona. I took a break from acting to rethink what and how I wanted to do things. I ended up traveling around the world with a life and work experience which introduced me to a whole new industry which pushed many ethical boundaries and had me deal with a sub world of international politics and corruption. It changed my perspective of how global politics and business operate. It also invited me to reflect on the roles and power that we have as women in our day-to-day and as professionals and how that has changed in the past 20 years and how some things seem like they’ve changed when in reality they are quite the same. This forms a significant part of the story I would like to share.

[Lilliana Cabal]

ASSIGNMENT 1:

Watch the next episode of your Example Show to see how the characters fit into these three circles:

BIG LITTLE LIES

A. Main Characters Circle:

Madeline

Celeste

Jane

Renata

B. Connected Circle:

Husbands and kids

Nathan and Bonnie

Harper Stimson (Renata’s team)

Principal Warren Nippal

Detective Adrienne Quinlan

C. Environment Circle:

School teacher

Tom at the café

Joseph community theatre guy who was the mystery person in first episode.

People who work with the police

People who work at the school

People who work in the shops

ASSIGNMENT 2:

What I learned doing this assignment is that I still need to develop more a lot things, especially who the connected circle characters are and how much they will be in the journey. Lots of decisions to be made but will let it ride for now to see if I figure it out more along the way. Don’t to get too hung up about it.

A. Main Characters

Kalina – late 40’s, she’s a mother of two kids under 10 and an imperfect hero. She tends to be “successful” but not necessarily true to herself, others and her path. She goes back to the field for the money.

Kalina 20 years ago – a more innocent adventurer, attractive and gets the job done. Is successful but suffers the unethical job along the way.

Mackenzie (Kalina’s sister) – beautiful, sensual, confident. She works for the same agency and sees the job for what it is. She doesn’t get bogged down by the details and knows how to enjoy the perks of her work. She is very successful and charismatic.

Astrid (Kalina’s boss 20 years ago) – comes across at first as understanding but ends up being quite hard and undermining. She started out young in the company and got beaten down. She learned the hard way and became what she used to criticize.

B.

PRESENT – Thiago (Kalina’s husband or ex), Molly (head of projects), Nadia (friend on the field)

Lana (24 year old rival in the business)

PAST – Hugo (partner in crime), Damen (Astrid’s boss), Candice (Rival on the field)

Alberto (partner in crime)

C.

Politicians, businessmen and women, Tyler and Celeste (Kalina’s kids – boy and a girl)

Kalina’s parents, Kalina’s past boyfriends

[Lilliana Cabal]

FIRST ASSIGNMENT

BIG LITTLE LIES

OUTLINE BREAKDOWN BIG LITTLE LIES

What I learned from this assignment… every single scene gives a new pieces of information to keep the story moving forward. Flashes of dialogue and music give us clues as to what going on or what’s going to happen. We get the essence of each main character very quickly and their relationships with other people.

Conflicts are also introduced quickly with the murder to start and then the conflict at school as key triggers.

5 STAR MODEL

What I learned doing this assignment…is that it’s important to consider in advance how to keep an audience hooked. My story is composed of vignettes, so I will really need to make sure there is a strong through line with questions that will keep viewers wanting more. Not sure what that is yet…

1. Big Picture Hooks

Ask this: What is the big hook of this show?

There’s more than meets the eye with a group of upper class moms in a town of Monterey California. During a fundraising party a man turns up dead, indicating murder. There are many suspects in the town, one being his ex-wife Madeline.

2. Amazing and Intriguing Character
Ask this: What makes these main characters intriguing and interesting?

There are different 4 women each with their own struggle and mystery.

3. Empathy / Distress
Ask this: What situation causes us to feel both empathy and distress for this character?

Madeline is struggling to come to terms with her role and identity as a mother with her 2 daughters growing up. Celeste, beautiful with beautiful kids, and seemingly beautiful husband and life but her husband shows an obsessive, controlling side. Jane a newcomer to town whose son may have been falsely accused of strangling a girl in his class. She seems to be haunted by something and so does her young son. Renata is a successful, competitive woman who is very protective of her daughter and has a need for justice.

4. Layers / Open Loops
Ask this: What questions are created by this first episode that can only be answered by watching the entire season?

Most likely we won’t find out until the end who killed Nathan and why.

What’s happened between Madeline and Nathan?

What happened to Celeste and why is she with a man like her young obsessive husband?

Why did Jane move to Monterey? What happened to her before? What is up with her in the flashes with the blue dress? Why does she have a gun a sleep with it under her pillow at night?

What’s going on with Renata and her husband?

5. Inviting Obsession
Ask this: How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode?

Not sure yet, as although I’m curious about what happens next, I don’t feel the urge to binge watch the show. The closest I can get to answering the question is that it does give the impression that we are going to go on a ride, most likely a twisted journey.

[Lilliana Cabal]

AGREE, in which case, you hit “Reply to this topic” and include three things at the top of the page:

1. Lilliana Cabal
2. “I agree to the terms of this release form.”
3. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>GROUP RELEASE FORM FOR “BINGE WORTHY TV” CLASS

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the Binge Worthy TV class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, teaching a class, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the Binge Worthy TV available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

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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 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. The easiest solution if you have similar ideas is to either not look at each other’s work or to agree to take your shows in different directions.

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.

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6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for the Binge Worthy TV class.

[Lilliana Cabal]

Hi Everyone,

I’m waaay behind here and trying to catch up. We’ll see if I can do it sooner rather than later.

1. Lilliana Cabal

2. I’ve never written a script before, so this is very new to me.

3. I’ve had this tv series in mind for about 18 years now and was looking for a way to finally get it on paper in some orderly and engaging way. I was looking for something that would take me step by step in the process as I’ve never written a script before. I’d met with someone who took me through the steps of getting a bible together and felt terribly overwhelmed afterwards. So my hope is to have a central operating system and an easy to follow program in order to create a substantial outline and have a pilot written out. I would then like to pitch it and get professional writers to clean it up properly.

4. I’m an American actress now living in Barcelona. I took a break from acting to rethink what and how I wanted to do things. I ended up traveling around the world with a life and work experience which introduced me to a whole new industry which pushed many ethical boundaries and had me deal with a sub world of international politics and corruption. It changed my perspective of how global politics and business operate. It also invited me to reflect on the roles and power that we have as women in our day-to-day and as professionals and how that has changed in the past 20 years. This forms a significant part of the story I would like to share.

I’m already fascinated at the process you are sharing with us and am delighted to form a part of this group, made-up of folks who are experienced writers, certainly there’s a lot to learn from. Hopefully I can offer another perspective and support in return.

Cheers!

Lilliana