Michelle Farias
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Michelle Farias’ Engaging Main Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is that I need to create layered, engaging, complex characters who will sell the show. Otherwise why tune in?
A Pro on a mission in a bigger world
Dr. Amy Kupp is out to once and for all prove which dynamic creates a serial killer: Is it nature or nurture?
Amy begins the season as a hyper successful forensic psychiatrist who is the top in her field of research on serial killers, but by the end of season one, she questions everything about her work and her sanity when her own DNA ties her to the very crime she is working on solving.
2. Who are the main characters that will sell your show?
Dr. Amy Kupp – A forensic psychiatrist at the top of her gain who helps law enforcement and FBI track down serial killers.
Annie Black – A brilliant serial killer who is always many moves ahead of her foes, she uses and abuses men (and woman) just for fun and doesn’t fit the mold of a serial killer.
3. Answer these questions for each of those characters.
A. Role in the show:
DR. Amy Kupp – Serial Killer Tracker extraordinaire. She’s out to solve the long debated nature vs nurture question in human psychology.
Annie Black – Serial Killer extraordinaire – uses and kills men and women at will
With seemingly no rhyme or reason.
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise:
Amy – Expertise – Super ability to get in the mind of a serial killer and “see” their secrets. Purpose – To solve the debate of nature vs nurture while tracking and studying serial killers.
Annie – expertise – to charm manipulate and kill. Purpose – Survival and revenge on the world.
C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Amy – Will seduce sociopaths and psychopaths to learn their secrets. Also struggles with her own mental health and self-medicates to hide it from all.
Annie- Is a serial killer but wasn’t born that way. She was severely abused and cut off emotionally to survive. Her anger is all that she can feel.
D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they crossing?
Amy – Intimacy with killers yet rebuffs her husbands advances. Self medicates to control her own mental health issues.
Annie – manipulation, extortion, abuse, and killing.
E. Unpredictable: What will they do next?
Amy – a top psychiatrist who self-medicates, has panic attacks, uses people to get what she wants
Annie – Loves one person (her girlfriend – Jude), is tender with animals, hates people indiscriminately
F. Empathetic: Why do we care?
Amy – She loves her daughter and teaches her to be empathetic and resilient. Amy is a woman in a man’s world who overcomes a lot of crap. She wants to do something good for humanity by locking up serial killers and figuring out why they kill to begin with to figure out how to prevent it.
Annie – We see her back story of severe abuse, her vulnerability as a wounded person, her love for her girlfriend, and tenderness toward animals. We don’t blame her for being angry and wanting revenge.
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What I learned doing this assignment is that great characters have many layers both good and bad. As a writer I have to be willing to let my characters have a balance of a bad side and also an empathetic good side.
1. Think about your Example Show. Make a list of the places you’ve already seen Character Intrigue in the previous episodes.
Russian spy posing as an American couple with two children. Their children don’t even know about the coverup. They are both worried about what will happen to their children if they are discovered or killed.
2. Watch the next episode and see how Character Intrigue is being used to create the need to see more episodes.
Character Name: Elizabeth Jenning and
Role: Posing as an american wife and mother
Hidden agendas:
Competition: She is a rule follower and feels they need to do everything the general orders regardless of danger, her husband, Philip Jennings, is more analytical and sees the possible outcomes
Conspiracies: She and her husband are getting nuclear information for the Russians
Secrets: They both will do anything to get information including sleeping with other people and pretending to be in love with them
Deception: She had a love affair with a African American Russian loyalist
Wound: Was sent to live in America with a stranger and was forced to pose as his wife
Secret Identity: Russian spy
Deadline: 24 hours
ASSIGNMENT 2
1. For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.
Character Name: Dr. Amy Krupp
Role: A forensic psychiatrist who helps law enforcement and FBI to track down serial killers
Hidden agendas: She is using the information that she is gathering to hel[pp prove the much sough out answer in psychological circles: is it nature or nurture that creates a serial killer?
Competition: She is in competition with other top psychiatrists in her field
Conspiracies: She is leaning towards Nurture in her research because of a gift she discovered that allows her to see how a person would have turned out if they had been nurtured.
Secrets: On the outside she appears put together but she has panic attacks and self-medicates to get through her days
Deception: She knows with certainty that it is nurture that creates a serial killer but she doesn’t tell the investor so she can continue to get funding
Wound: She was torn away from her twin sister as a baby. She has flashbacks that are unclear about this incident.
Secret Identity: She is helping a wealthy investor to prove that nature (DNA) is what creates a serial killer
Character name: Annie Black
Role: A brilliant serial killer who is always many moves ahead of her foes. She uses and abuses men just for fun and doesn’t fit the mold of a serial killer
Hidden agendas: Kill perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Competition: She is in competition with other serial killers. She collects newspaper articles.
Conspiracies: (3 possibilities)
She secretly communicates with one other serial killer and they are both trying to kill sexual abuse perpetrators
She communicates with Dr. Krupp to help prove the nurture theory.
She works with a group to put sexual abuse offenders in jail for life but kills them at night.iSecrets: She is nurturing to the girls and Jude and she kills men at night
Deception: She lives a “normal’ domestic life with Jude, her lesbian lover. She works in a group home with girls who have been sexually abused so she is able to kill the perpetrators at night and go home to Jude in the morning
Wound: She was torn away from her twin sister as a baby. She has flashbacks that are unclear about this incident. She was sexually abused by her adoptive father and his brother. He adoptive mother knew and allowed the abuse and also abused her
Secret Identity: sociopath
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Subject line: Michelle Farias Three Circles of Characters
ASSIGNMENT 1:
Watch the next episode of your Example Show to see how the characters fit into these three circles:
A. Main Characters Circle: Elizabeth Jenning and Philip Jennings, Stan Beeman and the General
B. Connected Circle: (Daughter) Paige Jennings, (Son) Henry Jennings, Beeman’s wife
C. Environment Circle:FBI agents, Police, Political figures, neighbors
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Subject line: (Michelle Farias) Three Circles of Characters ASSIGNMENT 2:
1. Create the three circles of characters for your show.
A. Main Characters Circle: Dr. Amy Kupp, her husband Dr. Jake Kupp, Serial Killer Annie Black, Head of FBI, Police Chief
B. Connected Circle: Wife of Head of FBI, Wife of Police Chief
C. Environment Circle: Police, Serial killers, FBI agents, Neighbors, friends
2. Give us a one sentence description of each of the Main Characters.
Dr. Amy Kupp is a forensic psychiatrist who is very analytic and wants to prove that serial killers are born with a propensity to kill.
Annie Black is a serial killer who has suffered extreme abuse in her life.
3. Answer the question, What I learned doing this assignment is that as a writer it is important to be aware of the three circles of characters and that all the characters in the main circle have depth and are engaging.
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Subject line: Breaking Bad 5 Star Model
What I learned doing this assignment is that hooks, amazing characters, empathy/distress, layers, and obsession to see every episode need to be well thought out and built into every scene. Every scene and every episode should have all of this.
1. Pick a Binge Worthy EXAMPLE SHOW from our list below and watch the first episode, making a light outline of the episode. Just the beats and anything that seems important to you.
Opening – A pair of men’s khaki pants fly through the air. A frantic man drives an RV through the desert. He only has on a gas mask, white underwear and his shoes. There is a man dead or passed out also with a gas mask in the passenger seat. He runs the RV into a ditch. He stumbles out along with a pool of unknown liquid. He tears off the mask. Ganging and breathing hard. Sirens in the background.
He puts on a shirt, enters the RV, grabs a gun off a dead man, his wallet and a video camera. He begins to make a goodbye message to his family. He leaves the message and his wallet on the ground. He takes the gun and points it at the oncoming emergency vehicles. The scene ends with the opening titles.
Cut to: Same man, Walter White arising from bed, working out in a dark room, baby stuff lying around, a framed award on the wall showing he has one the Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry. At breakfast we find out its his 50 th birthday.
We meet his pregnant wife who is controlling and his feisty teenage child who has cerebral palsy. W. W. has a nasty cough.
He and his son get out at the high school where his son attends and he is a chemistry teacher. He’s over qualified and teaching to uninterested, rude students.
We see him at his second job working as a car wash attendant, he’s working two jobs to keep his family afloat. His boss tells him he has to wipe the cars down if someone called in sick. His rude students see him and make fun of him.
HIs car is falling apart. He enters the house for a surprise party. We meet his hyper masculine brother in law who is handling a gun, boasting about his manhood and pride in his being a DEA agent getting meth off the streets.
W.W. is intrigued by the piles of cash seized.
His wife gives him a hand job all the while shes looking at the computer and making small talk totally not engaging intimately with W.W. She nags him about painting. Teases him for not having an erection.
More demoralizing work at the car wash, more bad cough. Pases out and an ambulance was called. He’s in denial.”i’m fine.” EMT shows concern upon checking his lungs. Cut to MRI – meets with DR. He gets the news – lung cancer and seems completely detached if not relieved.Wife confronts Walt about using the wrong credit card. He doesn’t tell her about lung cancer. The lies begin.Back. at work, his boss pushes him too far and W.W. quits in an agry, highly dramatic way.
Sits in disheveled, unkempt backyard. Depressed. Calls brother in law to go on a ride along.
They’re busting a meth lab they believe to be a dealers called “Capn Cook”.
He observes the DEA take down of the meth lab.. W.W. I want to see the meth lab.
He sees an ex-student sneak away from the raid. They make eye contact. It’s Jesse Pinkman.
He tracks Jesse down and goes to his house. Confronts him about being Cap’n Cook. Asks a lot of questions. Jesse rebuffs him. W.W. makes him an offer.
“You know the business. I know chemistry. You and I can partner up.” Jesse laughs. W.W. manipulates. Partner with me or I turn you in.
W.W. raids his high school chemistry closet for all the tools to make meth. Take the stuff to Jesse’s. He starts to give Jesse a chemistry lesson. There is a lot of animosity. Jesse is angry, Walter is condescending. They argue about the details of cooking meth.
They discuss where to cook. Jesse suggests an RV. Is that the RV we saw in the opening? They decide to buy an RV, turn it into a meth lab and cook in the “boonies”.
W.W. comes up with money for RV.Jesse “Why are you doing this? Jesse presses him because he wants to know W.W. motive for breaking bad at 50. Aha There it is…the show concept and title. W.W. “I am awake”
Walter Jr. tries on clothes. A group of teenage boys make fun of Walter Jr. W.W. gets angry and physically attacks the leader of the bullies. He is empowered, no longer a coward.
Jesse and Walt find a place in the desert to cook with the RV. Walt strips down to his underwear. He takes off the khaki pants and green shirt from the opening. He doesn’t want to smell like a meth lab. They cook. Like pros.
Walt cooks glass grade meth. “This is art.” says Jesse. He’s excited. Walt doesn’t want Jesse to try the product.
Jesse takes the product to a dealer, Crazy 8. The cousin of Emilio who used to cook with Jesse. The dealer accuses Jesse of turning Emilio in. Emilio walks in. Crazy 8 asks “Where did you get this?”
Cut to: Emilo and Crazy 8 and Jesse drive up to the place in the desert where Walt and Jesse cook.
Emilio recognizes Walt and thinks hes with the DEA. Crazy 8 and Emilio pull guns on Walt and Jesse, Walts about to be shot.
He says “I’ll teach me my recipe.” They like his meth so this intrigues them. He invites them into an RV to show them how to cook. In an attempt to save his and Hesse’s life.
RV. He holds the door so the two can’t escape the deadly chemicals. They pass out or are dead.
There is a frie ragin next to the RV Walt cant put it out. Jesse hits his head on a rock and is passed out.
Walt puts on a mask and puts one on Jesse and drives the RV away from the fire frantically. We see the images from the opening scene. We now know it’s Jesse in the passenger seat.
The two dead guys are the criminals who tried to kill Walt and jesse.
We have come full circle to the opening scene. We see Walt with the gun and what happens next. He freaks out, accidentally shoots the gun in the ground. He is ready to surrender. The emergency vehicles are fire trucks, not police. They drive right past Walt to put out the fire that Emilio started with his cigarette.
Walt can’t believe his luck.
Jesse comes to and stumbles out of RV Walt admits to Jesse he poisoned E. and Crazy 8 with phosphine gas.
Walt dries the money he got from the criminals in a dryer
Walt and Skyler in bed. She confronts him. “Where were you Don’t shut me out. That’s the worst thing you can do”. Walt found his erection.
2. From that, make a list of the 5 Star Points for that show.
Big Picture Hooks
Ask this: What is the big hook of this show?An upstanding, nobel prize, high school chemistry teacher finds out he has terminal lung cancer. He “wakes up” from his safe and humdrum life and decides to cook meth to make a lot of money for his family before he dies.
2. Amazing and Intriguing Character
Ask this: What makes these main characters intriguing and interesting?
Walt was an emasculated, powerless high school chemistry teacher who becomes a Meth cook and enters a world of criminals. He goes from good guy to bad guy.
Jesse is his ex student who failed chemistry. He hates Walter and Walter hates him. They make a good team though, Jesse knows the drug world on the streets and Walter knows the chemistry to make the best meth ever created in a lab.
Skyler is his loving yet controlling wife who is pregnant at 40 and raising a 16 year old son with cerebral palsy.
Walt happens to be a DEA officer and locks up guys like Walt.
3. Empathy / Distress
Ask this: What situation causes us to feel both empathy and distress for this character?
Empathize;
We empathize with Walts diagnosis.
Walts crappy jobs
Walts emasculation
His vulnerable family
Distressed:
We are distressed when he finds out he has cancer but doesn’t tell Skyler.
Walt blackmails Jesse to become his meth dealing partner.
Walt treats Jesse badly and puts him down.
Crazy 8 and Emilio (with Jesse) come to the desert location and threatens Walt with a gun.
4. Layers / Open Loops
Ask this: What questions are created by this first episode that can only be answered by watching the entire season?
Will Jesse and Walt become successful drug dealers?
Will they get caught by the DEA?
Will they be killed by other bad guys?
Will Walt’s wife find out?
Will Walt be disgraced and go to jail?
WHat happens to the two bad guys who lie dead in the RV?
How do they get the RV and themselves out of the desert?
5. Inviting Obsession
Ask this: How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode?
As the audience we can relate to Walt’s dilemma and choices. We live out our own disillusionment of life with Walt. We fantasize about breaking bad with him, but happy to see him do it and not us. We wonder if he will get away with it. He’s killed a man or men now. By the end of episode one he’s already in deep. There’s no turning back now.
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1. Name: Michelle Farias
2. How many scripts you’ve written? I completed one script with a partner
3. What you hope to get out of the class? I hope to learn as much as I can about binge worthy TV shows and create one.
4. Something unique, special, strange or unusual about you? I’m a therapist and a teacher.
We look forward to working with you all!
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Michelle Farias
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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.