[Tasha McLeod]

Subject Line: Tasha’s Three Circles of Characters

What I learned doing this assignment is that it takes a leap of faith to believe that screenwriting is something everyday people can learn. “Trust the process” isn’t just a cliché; it can actually produce results.

ASSIGNMENT 1:

The Walking Dead, Season 1, Episode 2

Main Characters Circle:

Rick, Glenn, Shane

Connected Circle:

City: Andrea, Morales, Jacqui, T-Dog, and Merle

Camp: Lori, Carl, Dale, Amy, Jim

Environment Circle:

The Walkers

ASSIGNMENT 2:

Defeated in the last great battle following centuries of warfare, the sole heiress to the remnants of an enchanted realm must sacrifice her freedom to rescue her people from their Mortal enemies.

1. Create the three circles of characters for your show.

A. Main Characters Circle:

Ruba’i, Eben, Unnamed Mortal

B. Connected Circle:

Fae Folk : Al’bandicca, Jespir, Lonicera, Nepeta,

Mortals: unnamed

C. Environment Circle:

Fae Folk: Faeries, Elves, Giants, Mermaids, etc.

Mortals: Students, Staff, Politicians, Witches, Commoners, etc.

2. Give us a one sentence description of each of the Main Characters.

Ruba’i – heiress to the enchanted realm, who travels into the Mortal world to attend College

Eben – student at the College, who is part goblin but raised as a Mortal

Unnamed Mortal – student at the College, heir to the Crown

[Tasha McLeod]

What I learned doing this assignment is that unless I feel emotionally attached to characters, I’m not interested in what happens to them. The plot or premise isn’t enough to keep me engaged.

WALKING DEAD

Opening scene:

– Sheriff’s car driving through town, cars overturned & burnt

– Walks to fill jerry can at gas station

– baby toys, dead bodies – looks like some type of camp?

– NO GAS sign at station

– sees young girl walking in sleepwear holding a stuffed bunny

– she turns around – she’s a zombie

– Sheriff shoots her in the head

Scene 2:

– Two cops having lunch in cruiser talking about women

– Sheriff from Opening Scene having problems with his wife

– Call comes in – they race off

Scene 3:

– Two cruisers racing to scene, one lays spike belt across the road

– Pull back, guns drawn

– Sheriff reminds one of the rookies to stay focused, chamber his weapon, turn off the safety

– Car headed their way being chased by two more cruisers

– Lead car hits spike belt and rolls

– Suspect starts shooting – gets shot

– Sheriff gets shot

– Gun fight ensues with other passengers from crashed car – they get shot dead

– Sheriff was hit in vest – seems okay

– Another suspect shoots him again – injured this time

Scene 4:

– Partner visits Sheriff in hospital – brings flowers

– Sheriff is delirious

– Wakes asking for his partner, Shane

– Notices flowers are dead and dry – wall clock has stopped

– Tries to get out of bed – falls down

– Calls for help – no one comes

– Finds a sink and drinks from tap – thirsty

– Leaves room – finds hospital abandoned

– Phones don’t work – finds matches

– Sees dead body in the hall – mutilated

– Bullet holes and blood all over the walls

– Exit doors pad-locked from inside – spray painted “DON’T OPEN, DEAD OUTSIDE”

– Sees fingers reaching through crack between doors

– Goes to elevators but they don’t work

– Stairwell is pitch black- lights matches to see

– Makes his way outside – blinded by the light

– Sees rows of bodies wrapped and covered

– Goes into shock – sees abandoned trucks loaded with bodies

– Climbs grassy hill still barefoot and in hospital gown

– Sees military helicopter, tents, and trucks – all abandoned

– Finds a bicycle – sees a zombie with no legs

Scene 5:

– Rides to his house and goes inside

– Calls for his wife Laurie and son Carl

– House is empty

– He cries, curls up on the floor

– Starts panicking, asking if this is real – thinks he’s dreaming

– Smacks himself in the head

– Goes back outside and sits on step

– Sees someone walking up the street and starts to wave

– Someone approaches him from behind and hits him in the face with a shovel

– Father and son – gun pointed at him

– Sheriff passes out

Scene 6:

– Sheriff wakes up tied to a bed

– The Father asks him questions about his wound, “Did you get bit?”

– Checks his temperature

– Sheriff explains that he was shot, not bit – was in hospital recovering

– The Father cuts him loose and invites him to join them in the other room

– Sees supplies piled around, windows covered with blankets, they’re using candles and burners to cook

– Sheriff says to the Father “You shot that man in the street”

– The Father tells him it was a “Walker”

– They say grace before eating then tell him about the dead people “The Walkers”

– Sheriff didn’t know

– Father explains to stay quiet, warns him not to get bit – “Bites kill, fever burns you out, then you come back”

– They go to bed on mattresses in the living room

– Father asks the Sheriff who Carl is, and where is he, and how did he get shot

– Sheriff says he’s a Deputy

– Car alarm goes off, they turn down lamps, look outside and see Walkers wandering the street

– Sees the Boy’s Mother – Boy runs to bed crying, Sheriff keeps watching

– the Mother tries to open the door

– the Father explains that when she died he wished he’d “put her down but couldn’t”

Scene 7:

– the next day they go outside – see zombie

– Sheriff beats it with a baseball bat

– Sheriff knows wife and son were alive when they left because they took photos and albums

– the Boy thinks they went to Atlanta – to the CDC

– Sheriff grabs keys and gear

– they all have hot showers at the police station – moment of joy

– the Father tells him they tried going to Atlanta but had to turn back – too much panic

– Sheriff puts on his uniform, gathers guns & ammo

– Father and Son stay behind to practice

– Boy’s name is Duane, Sheriff is Rick

– Rick sees zombie cop – guy he used to work with but didn’t like

– Shoots him in the head because he didn’t want to leave him like that

– they leave

Scene 8:

– Father boards up the house, Rick goes back to park

– Father looks at photos, Rick walks around

– Father sets up to shoot from upstairs window, starts picking off zombies

– Rick finds zombie with no legs, feels pity, apologizes, and shoots it

– Father sees his wife outside, can’t shoot her, cries / breaks down

Scene 9:

– Rick driving and broadcasting on CB – no response

– Group of people pick up and answer

– Rick’s partner Shane is part of the group – lose contact

– Shane argues with a woman about not putting up warning signs about the city

– The move the argument into a tent so her son doesn’t get upset

– The argument ends and they kiss, her son arrives and Shane leaves

– Rick looks at a picture of his wife and son on the back of his visor

– It’s the same woman and boy that his partner was with

Scene 10:

– Rick approaches a house looking for gas / supplies

– looks through windows and sees a dead couple – died by suicide

– checks their truck for keys – doesn’t find any

– sees a horse, talks to it, rides off on it

– approaches the city – road going in is empty, road going out is jammed with stalled traffic

– No people in the city – empty streets, cars & busses abandoned and burned

– Zombies start to follow him

– He hears a helicopter and starts riding in that direction

– runs into a hoard of zombies, races back on his horse, gets surrounded and pulled down, zombies eat the horse

– Rick crawls under a tank, starts shooting at the zombies, almost kills himself but sees a hatch and crawls up into the tank

– shoots a zombie inside, loses hearing, looks out the top of the tank and sees his weapons laying in the street, closes tank lid before the zombies can reach him

– checks ammo, one clip left

– voice comes over the radio, someone knows he’s there

– outside the zombies keep eating the horse and crawling over the tank

End

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?

What happened while Rick was in a coma? What started it? How did it end so badly, so quickly?

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

Rick is tough enough to kill a child-zombie, level-headed in a crises, cares about his wife, feels empathy for zombies, psychologically weakened by situation

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

He’s scared for his wife and son, he’s on his own, hurt & confused

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

Will Rick escape the tank? Who’s voice was on the radio? Will he find his family and partner? Will he find out that they’re romantically involved? Who are the other survivors? With the father and son who saved him meet him in Atlanta?

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

Will Rick or anyone survive? If so, how? Who will live and who will die?

[Tasha McLeod]

Hello Cheryl and Fellow Members

My name is Tasha McLeod and I have completed exactly zero scripts. This will be my second class with SWU; the first was The Profound Screenwriter way back in 2015, long before the apocalypse.

I hope to see at least one project through to fruition while taking this class. I am besotted by stories and bursting with ideas but lack the self-discipline and knowledge to bring one to life. Plenty of passion, precious progress.

As for something unique, unusual, special or strange about me? I spent my childhood summer days near Goodeve, Saskatchewan (population 40) climbing over straw bails and under haystacks, tearing around the family homestead with soon-to-be-boiler chickens and coyote-killing farm dogs.

And would you believe that not once during all those timeless winter nights, while I was hunkered down beneath a blanket of stars, surrounded by stacks of mail-order Reader’s Digests, hardcover Time-Life Magazines, and Simpsons-Sears Catalogues, did I imagine that I would end up spending twenty-five years writing technical reports for oil patch engineers and executives in downtown Cowtown? Not once!

I imagined a lot of things, but not that.

It is a real pleasure meeting you all. I look forward to learning with you!

Tasha

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by  Tasha McLeod.

[Tasha McLeod]

TASHA MCLEOD

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.

[Tasha McLeod]

Hi Gloria

I sense a kindred-spirit in you, although you are far further along than I am.

Happy to meet you!

[Tasha McLeod]

Nice to meet you, Deborah!

Uncle Pat sounds like quite the character! Lots of juicy material for a biography series.

I’ve never heard of D.A. being short for dumb ass. Maybe someone told him that to see if he’d repeat it and sound like one himself. You know, for the irony.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by  Tasha McLeod.

[Tasha McLeod]

Hola, David! Mucho gusto!

That’s the sad extent of my Spanish. I’m hoping to learn more soon, maybe after this course.

[Tasha McLeod]

Nice to meet you, Ron! That’s an impressive resume you have there. Dayum.

Looking forward to learning with you 🙂