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Mark

Member

November 26, 2024 at 11:21 pm in reply to: Lesson 4

Subject line: Mark K.’s Lead Characters

Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
What I learned is that having a model can introduce new ideas that you might not have thought of, which can add more tension, emotion, and entertainment value to your story.

Tell us your transformational journey logline.
A disillusioned private investigator must confront her buried ideals while uncovering a conspiracy, transforming from a cynical loner to a passionate advocate for justice and unity.

Tell us who you think might be your Change Agent and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role. Also, include: - Their vision: - Their past experience that fits that vision:
My Change Agent is a secret informant named “Shallow Gulp” who has infiltrated the powerful Cabal of the rich and powerful who are perpetrating the conspiracy against the American people, spreading misinformation and targeting activists to disillusion them and become apathetic. Shallow Gulp has seen the horrors that the powerful elite are capable of and, and she is looking for people who have the incentive to expose the Cabal and take them down. Her vision is to get Big Money out of politics and return the power to the people.

Shallow Gulp is the granddaughter of Deep Throat, and witnessed first-hand her grandfather’s takedown of the Nixon administration.

Tell us who you think might be your Transformable Character(s) and give a few sentences about how that character or characters fit the role.
Alice and Bob are the Transformable Characters. They are both self-employed private investigators, though they don’t meat until after the story starts. They were both active in politics and social causes when they were in college (at different schools), but Bob was a conservative and Alice was a liberal. Each had some very experiences with their activism that caused them to be disillusioned and drop their causes, retreating into jaded, cynical, solitary lives, increasingly feeling that there is not hope for politics or social change to make the lives of average citizens better, or even tolerable.

Tell us who or what you think might be The Oppression and give a few sentences about how The Oppression works in your story.
The Oppression is the secret Cabal run by the rich and powerful, who keep the nation misinformed, disillusioned, and fighting each other, instead of the real enemy of the people–the Cabal itself. They go out of their way to do anything they can to target promising young activists to knock them out of the game.

Tell us who you think might be your Betraying Character and give a few sentences about how that character fits the role.
The Betraying Character is a long-time chum of Bob named Foster who fell into the same path of being hopeless and cynical. Foster has helped Bob with his PI business over the years, doing somewhat shady things for him and is very tech-savvy and a life hacker. Foster is all in with taking down the Cabal in the beginning, but as the pressure from their minions grows, and starts to resemble the events that caused him to drop out of politics altogether when in college, the Cabal finally gets to Foster and pressures him to betray Bob and Alice.

Mark

Member

November 24, 2024 at 2:41 am in reply to: Lesson 3

Subject line: Mark K.’s Transformational Journey

Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
Writing a Transformational Logline can be an important tool for staying focused on the main throughline of the story. Everything should revolve around this.

Tell us your logline for the transformational journey.
A disillusioned private investigator must confront her buried ideals while uncovering a conspiracy, transforming from a cynical loner to a passionate advocate for justice and unity.

Tell us what you see as the Old Ways.
Being suspicious of others, judgmental about others’ views, especially political. Avoiding people with different views. Feeling hopeless about progress and change. Blind to the real cause of the chaos in the country.

Tell us what you see as the New Ways.
Focusing on what we all have in common, rather than our differences. Hopeful and active in advocating for social change. Cognizant of the ways the country is being controlled by the rich and powerful to further their own means.

Mark

Member

November 24, 2024 at 1:11 am in reply to: Lesson 2

Subject line: Mark K.'s First Three Decisions

“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
That starting with the Profound Truth of my story, and the change I want to see in the audience is a great foundation upon which to build the rest of my story.

What is your profound truth?
Focusing on what we have in common gives us connections and strength, while paying attention to our differences only divides us.

What is the change your movie will cause with an audience?
To have renewed hope and take action, working with others, despite our differences, to make a change in the world.

What is your Entertainment Vehicle that you will tell this story through?
Pick a World–The current political climate and social ills of the US.

This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by Mark Kelton. Reason: Editor is horrible

Mark

Member

November 21, 2024 at 2:36 am in reply to: Lesson 1

Mark Kelton’s Analysis of Groundhog Day

We are looking at this movie from the perspective of the change that occurs for the lead character and the audience.

What is the CHANGE this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?
Phil Connors goes from being self-centered, cynical, sarcastic, braggart who only cares about himself to being a kind, authentic, compassionate man who finds the real connections he makes with people in a small town to be the most satisfying thing in lie.

Lead characters:
Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?
Phil Connors thinks about no one but himself, and thinks the best day in his life is when he had a one-night stand with a model on a beach.

Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey?
Rita Hanson is honest, genuine, kind, and personable. She lives the kind of life Phil needs to learn to appreciate and value.

What is the Oppression?
The Oppression is the time loop that Phil gets stuck in, living Groundhog Day over and over again.

How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story?
We can all identify with having to do things for work that we don’t want to do, although Phil is just complaining way too much. We also identify with Rita in someone who has to deal with a difficult person in a work setting. She is charming and professional, and we empathize with her having to put up with Phil.

Looking at the character(s) who are changed the most, what is the profound journey? From “old ways” to “new way of being.” Identify their old way: Identify their new way at the conclusion.
Phil’s old ways are being selfish, treating people poorly, complaining, being sarcastic to people, bragging, and not caring about the people around him, only himself.
His new ways are to be kind to people and go out of his way to help them. To treat people with respect, to look out for their needs, and do what he can to better their lives and make them happy.

What is the gradient of the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?
At first, being caught in the Time Loop seems to make Phil take all his old ways and make them even worse. He tricks women into thinking he knows them. He robs a bank to buy an expensive car to impress people. Then he sets his sights on Rita, and goes to enormous lengths to try to get into ben with her.
Then he becomes even worse, driving recklessly, evading the cop. There’s a whole series of getting slapped by Rida on many different days. He’s really not getting it!
And finally he goes through a series of days where he just keeps killing himself, in all the ways he can think of.
After he has a really nice day with Rita, really caring about her and opening up to her as she falls asleep–but he wakes up and she is gone, the next thing we see is that Phil gives some money to the old homeless man.
The he comes to their shoot about the groundhog, and Phil shows up with coffee and pastries, and is very considerate of Rita and Larry. Even Larry is kinder to Phil in return.
Phil is inspired by some piano music and finds a piano teacher to give him lessons.
When the old man dies, Phil is determined to be nicer to him the next time and takes the man out for a nice meal.
After the old man dies again, Phil’s next broadcast contains a quote from Chekhov. Many people from the town have gathered around to hear Phil’s talk, and he answers Chekhov with his own quote about winter, “I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and blusterous winter.”
Phil continues to grow, saving people lives, and helping them out in difficult situations.

How is the “old way” challenged? What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change?
Phil learns that trying to pretend to be everything Rita wants is getting him nowhere. It always ends with some gaffe or Rita figuring out that Phil is not being genuine. His tricks end up with several slaps from Rita on different days.
Just being in the loop itself shows Phil that his life is stagnant. The Time Loop is a metaphor for Phil’s life. Even before the Time Loop, he was living the same day over and over, and would continue to do so until her learned to change.

What are the most profound moments of the movie?
When the old man dies and Phil decides he is going to make things better for the man, but he dies again on another day. Phil learns that he can’t fix everything.
When Phil is talking to a couple of the local jus he’s hanging out with and he says, “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
One of the guy says, “That about sums it up for me.”
When Phil spends a day with Rita just being honest and caring about her, she finally says, “It’s been a really nice day. And maybe we could do it again sometime.:
And at the end, when Rita spends the night with Phil, and when he wakes up the next morning and finds that Rita is still there and the curse is broken.

What are the most profound lines of the movie?
Not dialogue, but the lyrics of the song, “I Got You Babe.” Starting every day, haunting, taunting Phil, that he doesn’t have someone and maybe never will.

Phil: “Rita, I’m re-living the same day over and over ..”

Rita: “I thought you hated this town.”
Phil: “No, it’s beginning to grow on me.”

Rita: “I could never love someone like you, Phil, because you’ll never love anyone but yourself.”
Phil: “That’s not true. I don’t even like myself.”

Phil: “No matter what happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now. Because I love you.”
Rita: “I’m happy too.”

Rita: “Why weren’t you like this last night. You fell asleep.”
Phil: “It was the end of a very long day.”

How does the ending payoff the setups of this movie?
The setup of “I Got You” babe is paid off when Phil ends up with Rita in the end.
The setup of how much Phil hates Punxsutawney, doesn’t like small town people, and thinks people are morons is paid off when Phil decides to live in Punxsutawney with Rita.
Many setups were about living the same day over and over, or “If you only had one day to live …” were all paid off when Phil was able to make his transformative change and break the Time Loop. Showing that if you are stuck in your life, you can grow and change and break free of that rut.

What is the Profound Truth of this movie?
The Profound Truth of this movie is that being a kind, thoughtful, authentic person who cares about others and puts their happiness ahead of your own, brings happiness through genuine connections to others in your community.

I had two insights:
For all the movies we’ve seen over the years about how men can be better men and treat women with respect, and as equals, it just seems to be getting worse these days. This only inspires me more to write profound movies and to help other writes do the same.

I know that in an early draft of the script they had an explanation for how Phil got into the Time Loop–it was literally a curse put on him by a woman.
Maybe the movie is fine without that explanation. The reason he was put into the loop is because he needed to learn to change. He didn’t know that, and he didn’t want that. Even at the end, I don’t know that he realizes the meaning of his own story.
In contrast, in the movie “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things,” (SPOILER ALERT) the two main characters were in a Time Loop. At the end of the move we find out that the woman’s mother was dying and the Time Loop began because the woman did not want to have to face her mother’s death. She just didn’t think she could handle it. At the end we learn this, and the 2 characters figure it out, and how they got out of the loop. To me, it was a much more profound ending than “Groundhog Day.” Although “Groundhog Day was a much broader comedy–maybe less serious. (TMOTPT is a rom-com too.) Anyway, something to think about.

This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by Mark Kelton.

Mark

Member

November 19, 2024 at 3:19 am in reply to: Lesson 1

The Most Profound Moment in Movie History?

I found this video on YouTube I thought was worth watching. It’s 22 mins.

I don’t know if I can post a link, but you can search YouTube for the title above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75PSfkcGHY0

Mark

Member

November 19, 2024 at 3:10 am in reply to: Confidentiality Agreement

Mark Kelton
I agree to the terms of this release form
GROUP RELEASE FORM
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 class 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, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class 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.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
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 class.

This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by Mark Kelton.

Mark

Member

November 19, 2024 at 3:07 am in reply to: Introduce yourself to the class.

I am Mark Kelton.
I have written more than 10 scripts.
I want to learn to write movies that are entertaining, memorable, emotionally engaging, and profound.
I was born on Halloween.

Mark

Member

March 24, 2023 at 7:48 pm in reply to: Lesson 6

Mark’s Genre Conventions

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
Amplifying the 4-Act Structure outline by making sure it relies on Genre Conventions to tell the story makes the story stronger and insures we are providing a story that will satisfy fans of the genre.

Title: LICENSE TO DREAM
Concept: What if a socially awkward college freshman’s daydreams of being an international spy turned out to be real?
Genre: Spy Comedy

Genre Conventions

Comedy
Incongruence
Mechanics of Comedy
Comedic Protagonist(s)
Strong Story

Spy Movie
Fascinating Protagonist
Friends and Frenemies
Convincing Antagonists
Gadgets/Weapons
Car Chases/Explosions
Intimate Relationships
Spy/Criminal Organizations

Four-Act Structure with Genre Conventions

Act 1:
Opening: Bart is barely coping with college life. His technological skills are highly advanced, but he is socially awkward, especially with women, and buckles under academic pressures, like exams and papers. He escapes from reality by daydreaming about being an international spy, where he is only in training but gaining in confidence. Bart regularly sees a psychiatrist, Simone, who is also his spy handler in his dream life.

In the opening scene, Bart takes his seat in a lecture hall where they are about to have a pop quiz. An attractive woman sits next to him, tries to get his attention, and awaits his first move. Under both the academic pressure and social awkwardness, Bart’s phone vibrates with a message from Simone saying they are launching an important spy mission, and he flees the lecture hall.

Inciting Incident: Evil madman Dr. Sometimes escapes from prison and his cellmate reveals to the spy agency the Doctor’s plan to send jamming signals around the world to stop people from dreaming. Bart’s knowledge of signal jamming technologies is especially needed.

Dr. Sometimes’ henchpeople are immensely incompetent, but through a series of bumbling mishaps manage to break him out of prison. Simone and her team chase after Dr. Sometimes, but in the end find that they were fooled by a decoy and Dr. Sometimes took a different path.

Bart is knocked unconscious in the prison break and receives a big gash on his forearm. Simone patches him up with futuristic gadgets that make his wounds disappear, thus preserving Bart’s belief that this spy life is just a daydream.

Turning Point: Simone goes through elaborate charades to keep Bart believing his life as a spy is just daydreaming. But she needs him to commit to the mission to stop Dr. Sometimes.

Simone tells Bart that she can’t help him with his daydreaming. Whatever is causing his need to escape from reality is in his dream world, and he needs to find out what it is before he can return to normality.

Act 2:
New plan: Bart throws himself wholly into his spy dream fantasy life, ignoring his classes and schoolwork and works with Simone and her spy team to try to track down Dr. Sometimes.

Bart undergoes some training to help improve his miserable physical skills, which will be needed when the team attempt to breach Dr. Sometimes’ secret lair and take him down. Bart’s training is, at best, slapstick, and, at worst, a horrible foretelling of how this mission is going to go.

Plan in action: The team narrows in on the madman’s location, while Bart works on a theory of exactly how Dr. Sometimes is going to implement this dream jamming weapon. Bart pays infrequent visits to Simone in her psychiatrist role to keep grounded.

Pursuing a lead on Dr. Sometimes, the team engages in a car chase that seems to be more a version of Whack-A-Mole, with both Simone’s team and the evildoers all disguising themselves as passersby, famous people, inanimate objects, and each other. Like a dazzling exhibit of spycraft, but as if Mardi Gras collided with a Gay Pride Parade.

Midpoint Turning Point: Planning to see Simone in her psychiatrist’s office, Bart finds that his health insurance benefits have run out and he can no longer see her. There’s an explosion in Simone’s office. Bart rushes in to see the outside wall of Simone’s office has been demolished, and Dr. Sometimes and his armed henchpeople are hauling Simone outside and up to a helicopter hovering overhead. Simone tells Bart that his daydreams are real. He really is a spy and his college life is just a cover.

Act 3:
Rethink everything: His mentor now gone, Bart learns that he is part of a team that is so secret that they didn’t even want him to know about it. They recruited him because of his knowledge of high tech, but have been gaslighting him all along so he thought his spy life was just daydreams.

New plan: Bart and the team focus on rescuing Simone, hoping this will lead them to Dr. Sometimes and give them an opportunity to foil the Doctor’s dream jamming plot.

Bart invents a new detector that works over the worldwide network of cell towers and can detect any tests that Dr. Sometimes does of his new jamming technology.

Turning Point–Huge failure/Major shift: In an attempt to rescue Simone from the Doctor’s secret launch facility, the rocket that is supposed to take the jamming satellites to orbit explodes on the launch pad, demolishing a few of the surrounding buildings. Dr. Sometimes tells Bart that Simone was in one of those buildings and is presumed dead.

Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Bart and his team discover that the rocket was just a decoy and Dr. Sometimes has a second rocket at another location.

Bart is chosen to impersonate one of Dr. Sometimes’ female assistants and scam his way into the madman’s facilities to shut down the security system and let the rest of the team in. It turns out to be the female assistant’s birthday and so Bart has to continue the masquerade longer than he wanted and has to endure a performance for the birthday woman by a male stripper.

Bart’s team converges on this new site and take Dr. Sometimes and his henchpeople down.

Resolution: Simone is discovered to be alive at the second launch site. Bart decides that the spy life is not for him and he wants to rededicate himself to his college studies.

Mark

Member

March 22, 2023 at 1:50 am in reply to: Lesson 5

Mark’s 4-Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
Focusing on the transformation of the character makes it easier to create the major plot beats and turning points. Better to make sure the plot works in the bigger picture view before adding a lot of details.

Concept: What if a socially awkward college freshman’s daydreams of being an international spy turned out to be real?

Main Conflict: Bart needs to break out of being lost in daydreams to stop an evil madman who plans to set up a satellite system around the globe to send jamming signals that stop people from dreaming.

Old Ways:
Lacks self-confidence.
Easily pushed around.
Escapes reality into daydreams.
Can’t handle any social or academic pressure.

New Ways:
Confident in his abilities.
Assertive. Doesn’t let others control him.
Lives wholly in reality.
Accepts all challenges head-on.

Four-Act Transformational Structure
Act 1:
Opening: Bart is barely coping with college life. His technological skills are highly advanced, but he is socially awkward, especially with women, and buckles under academic pressures, like exams and papers. He escapes from reality by daydreaming about being an international spy, where he is only in training but gaining in confidence. Bart regularly sees a psychiatrist, Simone, who is also his spy handler in his dream life.

Inciting Incident: Evil madman Dr. Sometimes escapes from prison and his cellmate reveals to the spy agency the Doctor’s plan to send jamming signals around the world to stop people from dreaming. Bart’s knowledge of signal jamming technologies is especially needed.

Turning Point: Simone tells Bart that she can’t help him with his daydreaming. Whatever is causing his need to escape from reality is in his dream world, and he needs to find out what it is before he can return to normality.

Act 2:
New plan: Bart throws himself wholly into his spy dream fantasy life, ignoring his classes and schoolwork and works with Simone and her spy team to try to track down Dr. Sometimes.

Plan in action: The team narrows in on the madman’s location, while Bart works on a theory of exactly how Dr. Sometimes is going to implement this dream jamming weapon. Bart pays infrequent visits to Simone in her psychiatrist role to keep grounded.

Midpoint Turning Point: Planning to see Simone in her psychiatrist’s office, Bart finds that his health insurance benefits have run out and he can no longer see her. There’s an explosion in Simone’s office. Bart rushes in to see the outside wall of Simone’s office has been demolished, and Dr. Sometimes and his armed henchpeople are hauling Simone outside and up to a helicopter hovering overhead. Simone tells Bart that his daydreams are real. He really is a spy and his college life is just a cover.

Act 3:
Rethink everything: His mentor now gone, Bart learns that he is part of a team that is so secret that they didn’t even want him to know about it. They recruited him because of his knowledge of high tech, but have been gaslighting him all along so he thought his spy life was just daydreams.

New plan: Bart and the team focus on rescuing Simone, hoping this will lead them to Dr. Sometimes and give them an opportunity to foil the Doctor’s dream jamming plot.

Turning Point–Huge failure/Major shift: In an attempt to rescue Simone from the Doctor’s secret launch facility, the rocket that is supposed to take the jamming satellites to orbit explodes on the launch pad, demolishing a few of the surrounding buildings. Dr. Sometimes tells Bart that Simone was in one of those buildings and is presumed dead.

Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Bart and his team discover that the rocket was just a decoy and Dr. Sometimes has a second rocket at another location. Bart and his team converge on this new site and take Dr. Sometimes and his henchpeople down.

Resolution: Simone is discovered to be alive at the second launch site. Bart decides that the spy life is not for him and he wants to rededicate himself to his college studies.

Mark

Member

March 18, 2023 at 10:22 pm in reply to: Lesson 4

Subject: Mark’s Subtext Plots

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
What I described as the two Subtext Plots below, I had in my head already before we started this lesson, only I didn’t know exactly what they were. They were just nebulous ideas in my story. Putting labels on these ideas and describing them explicitly gives me a more clear picture of what is going on and will help me write a better story.

Concept: What if a socially awkward college freshman’s daydreams of being an international spy turned out to be real?

Subtext Plot 1: Scheme and Investigation
In Bart’s (MC) fantasy life, Dr. Sometimes is scheming to set up a global satellite system to jam people’s brains so no one can dream anymore. Bart and his spy handler, Simone, are investigating how Dr. Sometimes is going to accomplish this so they can stop him.

Subtext Plot 2: Someone Hides Who They Are
In his real life, Bart thinks Simone is his psychiatrist who is helping him deal with his timidity, social awkwardness, and his penchant for escaping reality into fantasies of being a spy. But Simone really is his spy handler, who, along with her receptionist Penny, are trying to keep Bart believing that his spy life is just a fantasy. The whole spy organization is so secret, they don’t even want Bart to know about it.

Mark

Member

March 18, 2023 at 3:06 pm in reply to: Lesson 3

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
Planning out the character’s arc and beginning and ending states gives a blueprint to follow when building a plot.

Arc Beginning: Timid college freshman who is socially awkward and buckles under pressure.

Arc Ending: Heroic international superspy.

Internal Journey: From timid and fearful to assertive and courageous.

External Journey: From wallflower college freshman to being an international superspy who can save the world from a madman’s evil plot.

Old Ways:
Lacks self-confidence.
Easily pushed around.
Escapes reality into daydreams.
Can’t handle any social or academic pressure.

New Ways:
Confident in his abilities.
Assertive. Doesn’t let others control him.
Lives wholly in reality.
Accepts all challenges head-on.

Mark

Member

March 11, 2023 at 4:45 pm in reply to: Lesson 2

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:
The main characters need to be suited to the concept to bring the story to its highest potential.

Character: Protagonist
Logline: Bart is a socially-awkward college freshman who learns to stop escaping into daydreams of being a spy and face difficult situations head-on.
Unique: Bart buckles under social and mental pressure, but excels at extreme sports.

Character: Antagonist
Logline: Dr. Sometimes is an evil scientist (who might or might not be imaginary) with a plan to broadcast dream jamming signals that will prevent people from dreaming unless they buy into the Dr.’s drug subscription program.
Unique: His incompetence at being an evil madman is only rivaled by the ineptitude of his henchmen.

Mark

Member

March 11, 2023 at 1:36 am in reply to: Lesson 1

My Vision: I am going to work as hard as I can to be a writer who is sought-after for both spec scripts and writing assignments, because people in the industry know the scripts I write will be entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:

That the first step in creating an outline is to choose the Character Structure, which is basically how the main characters relate to each other and determines the type of story that is going to be told.

The script I’m going to write for this class is:

Concept: What if a socially awkward college freshman’s daydreams of being an international spy turned out to be real?

Title: LICENSE TO DREAM

The Character Structure I have chosen is Protagonist versus Antagonist.

Mark

Member

February 21, 2023 at 1:15 am in reply to: What did you learn from the opening audio?

Lots.

I liked the quote: “It’s not the ones who have the answers who succeed. It’s the ones who can learn and elevate who they are.”

That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by educator/author John Holt: “Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.”

I think the Opening Audio impressed upon me that we are going to learn a lot of new particular skills. And the more tools we have in our toolbox, the more likely we will be able to know what to do when we don’t know what to do.