[Robert Belcastro]

ASSIGNMENT:

Robert Belcastro

Hero: Mark

Villain: Yary

“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”

I got a more specific idea about creating the individual characters, individually, and how they will interact. Also, that there are probably infinite variations that can be created for ANY part of any story.

Going back through the story with these questions is key to polishing up my ideas.

Ctrl-Z can be VERY handy!

Hero Morally Right: Mark has to regain his integrity by standing up to his former boss. Being more intelligent wins!

Villain Morally Wrong: Yary, Mark’s boss, forces Mark to violate his integrity by ordering him to do something illegal. Yary is very clever but has gaps in his actions that allow for him to be taken down if these gaps are discovered, and Mark knows these gaps.

Hero

A. Unique Skill Set: Mark is Very observant – Intelligent – some degree of seeing the future outcomes of events and decisions both his and the villains’ plans and actions. Starts out as wimp who can’t hold his ground. Life events put him into positions where he has to take actions to save his own life in order to survive and bring Yary and his organization down.

B. Motivation: Mark is bullied into violating his integrity at first and losing his position in the company and losing his reputation and his fortune. He’s also forced to be on the lamb because his actions were illegal and now he is being hunted by both law enforcement who want to imprison him and by his Boss’s henchmen who want to silence him (kill him). His decision to give in to the bullying cost him his fortune, his position, his freedom and respect of his family and his friends. He’s friendless in a hostile environment. Has to survive to save his mother’s home and be able to get his girl.

C. Secret or Wound: grew up very poor. Girls laughed at him. Long-term fight to gain financial goals in order to be able to protect his aged mother’s security and to pursue the girl of his dreams. Just as he was about to achieve his long-fought-for dream, Yary pulls the rug from under him.

Villain

A. Unbeatable: Has no compassion for anyone. Sinister. Greedy beyond belief! Well-established organization. Lots of henchmen willing to unquestioningly do his evil bidding. Financial superiority over hero. Already entrenched. Owns public officials.

B. Plan/Goal: ensnare the whole city in his financial traps.

C. What they lose if Hero survives: Lose their wealth and their power and descend into the poor house class they are currently exploiting to get and maintain their dominating wealth.

Possibly go to prison!

Impossible Mission

A. Puts Hero into Action:

Keep alive and out of prison while he works to expose former Boss’s illegal operations.

Mark, at first at least, has no friends to turn to for help. He has to live solely by his wits.

B. Demands They Go Beyond Their Best: He has to come up with finance but has none himself because villain has taken it all. He doesn’t yet understand the depth of the corruption of the villain. Naïve about the corruption and its parts that interlace into their small town society. Has to fight them mentally as well as physically.

C. Destroy the Villain: Has to gain the upper hand and bring his boss down, legally, intelligently, physically and ethically. Has to learn the evil ways and learn how to protect himself as well as how to advance his standing and abilities to cope with what the villain is throwing at him. Has to set a fool-proof trap for his street-wise boss to step into. And then spring it at just the right moment that the cops are there to witness it and capture the Boss.

Tell us your improved answers: I improved the answers by getting more specific and in the process thought of other things that are happening that need to be accounted for. Also it led me to see the story developing further along than initially. Each item had these improvements.

[Robert Belcastro]

#1 Who is your hero? What makes him highly skilled?

Amos Candy. Skill – agility of body, throwing knives and other objects accurately.

#2 what is the demand for action?

He’s on his way to a meeting that he has to be there to contain what is being said there so that the bad guys don’t get control of the situation. Traffic situations are making his arrival on time near impossible. But he HAS to get there on time!

#3: what is the mission that the hero is on (implied or stated) What are they trying to do?

Amos has to stop the agreement between the the 2 factions from being implemented. These are 2 private, evil titan organizations to save the world from insidious, sinister domination. They know of him and assign a department among them to find and eliminate him at all costs. It is imperative to carrying out their plan as Amos knows their secret that will undo their evil plans.

#4 The antagonist

Jim Beam…dominates both organizations – feared by all. Very cunning and ruthless. Evil plan maker and master. He’s a former colleague of Amos and knows that Amos knows this dangerous, secret weakness inherent in the organization that can/will bring it down if Amos is not stopped in time.

#5 How will the action escalate?

From trying to get into the building that meeting is in, which antagonists locked to prevent his untimely entry, to hide and escape scenes, to hand to hand fight scenes to short but crucial gun battles. Then to the last daring, do or die, apparently kamikaze event that must work in order to save humanity!

[Robert Belcastro]

I agree to all of the terms of this release form.

3. Please leave the entire text below to confirm what you agree to.

OR

NOT AGREE, in which case, you hit “Reply to this topic” and type in the words “I’ll do the class privately.”

If you agree to the terms of the release form, then you can post your assignments into the group and your cohort can give feedback on them.

Also, if you don’t agree to this group confidentiality agreement, you’ll still need to sign an agreement that says you will keep the strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential.

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.

Sincerely,

Robert Belcastro

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by  Robert Belcastro. Reason: I didn't copy/paste the form into the reply. I thought it would be included there automatically. Since it wasn't, I had to do the edit to include it

[Robert Belcastro]

Hello, I am Robert Belcastro

I have co-written 3 scripts.

To move to the next level of professionalism as a writer.

My work status is retired. I am just starting this as my new professional career.