Sean Lawrence

Week Two: Discussion Board - "Researching Your Character" (Due: Aug 15 Status: Not Completed) Discussion Board Goal: Over the next few weeks, we’ll be taking your story from logline to basic outline. In order to chart the journey of your protagonist, you need to understand how he or she would respond in any given circumstance. Understanding what obstacles to give your character requires knowing their background, lifestyle, location, current situation, and how all those factors affect their responses to situations, impact their motivations and, therefore, how believable they'll be. If you let your idea for the story dictate character rather than the other way around, you’ll run into scenarios where you’ll end up with contrived characters, scenes and dialogue, and an audience that can’t connect to your story. This discussion is intended for you to better get to know your characters. Instructions: 1. From the story you have chosen for your final thesis proje...

In a dream, I see myself floating over stuff…stuff that doesn’t matter to anyone but me. I float… but you... sit in it, and utterly love it, sitting in it, the same shit I float over. Face it you are clueless. The reality of the session is you are still dreaming and you haven’t woke up to the reality of this dream, you only hope to dream a difference and no difference has been made, no change has occurred and know, know in this moment you want things to be different.

1.8 New and Alternative Genres ( Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed) 1.8 New and Alternative Genres 1. Computer and video games are a young medium in a media continuing to undergo rapid technological change. Atari’s home Pong System was released in 1975, and the Apple II home computer in 1977. About 35 years. Movies had been around for at least thirty years by the time of The Jazz Singer (the first widely successful sound film), and it would be about another decade before Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and The Wizard of Oz, two definitive early color movies. 2. Sound film was around before The Jazz Singer, and color film had been around for over twenty years by the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and The Wizard of Oz. In short, it often takes a while for people to take full advantage of new technology. So, even if computer technology comes grinding to a halt tomorrow, people will probably keep coming up with new things to do with it for centuries – at least. ...

(Due: Sep 5 Status: Not Completed) Goal: The purpose of this assignment is to aid you in developing your protagonist in particular and characters in general, using personality “seeds” from a variety of traditional systems of thought. Instructions: 1. Choose, for your protagonist, which personality archetype would suit them best from each of the four following systems: the four humors, the Western Zodiac, the Eastern (Chinese) Zodiac, and the Japanese system of personality by blood type. You do not have to stick with what your character’s signs “should” be based on the birth date and blood type on their fact sheet. 2. For each system, write your choice on a line by itself, then write a 1-2 paragraphs (200-400 words) on why you chose that type, as well as whether it was difficult to make a choice (and why), and what ideas for further developing the character it has given you. Those ideas can be about the character’s personality, but they can also be about other characters...

Creative Writing Portfolio II - Online :: Activity 1.7 Discussion 1: Who Needs Structure? ( Due: Sun, 08 May | Status: Not Completed ) :: Objective: To evaluate and debate the entertainment industry’s focus on standardized story structure, particularly 3-act structure. :: Reading and Resources: • http://www.blakesnyder.com/2010/08/13/why-story-structure-matters-even-if-you-don’t-want-it-to/ • http://www.createyourscreenplay.com/structure.htm • http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/filmmaking/screenplay-tips-three-act-structure.html • On game story structure: http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/190407.html :: Instructions: Please follow the detailed 1.7.1 Discussion Board 1 Instructions in the Assets box to the right. :: Deliverables: • Submission: Minimum 1 Initial Post and 1 Response Post • Format: Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 12, single-spaced • Length/Amount: Please refer to the detailed 1.7.1 Discussion Board 1 Instructions in the Assets box to th...

( Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed) 1.6 Intro to Game Writing 1. I want to take a moment to address two possible concerns of those in the class who aren’t working on games-related projects. a. Will I be able to work on my Thesis Project? That’s easy – yes. In fact, every week, in addition to a relatively-short game writing related Assignment, you will have a “Progress Assignment.” For those Assignments, you will be turning in your work-in-progress on your Thesis Projects (pages of script for Act 2 of your film, finishing your TV pilot, etc.). b. Why can’t I just work on my Thesis? The short answer is because the goal of this program is to prepare you to write for and find work in a number of different media. The very short answer is that neither you nor I can see the future. By that, I mean that games are a large and growing industry, with both major corporate and indie job opportunities. The number and (meaningful) diversity of games are only going to keep increasing....

( Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed) 1.4 Games History 1. Play is a phenomenon older than humankind: it is something we share with most other mammals and arguably with a much wider circle of life. Organized gameplay, with defined rules, is present in every human society we know of. Solitary and team-based athletic competitions; board games such as chess, mancala, and go; and card and dice games all have ancient roots. There may be a connection between traditions of gameplay and storytelling, as some games are connected to fortune-telling or religious rituals, and any instance of gameplay can be retold as a narrative, be it “Queen to Bishop’s 4th” or “he shoots, he scores.” Nonetheless, most traditional games are “non-narrative” or abstract: they don’t tell a story. 2. Activity 1.5 “Games and Narrative” considers the relationship between games and narrative in detail. For the moment, it’s enough to note that most board and card games, and sports, aren’t “storytelling” media...

( Due: Oct 3 Status: Not Completed) Overview on the History of Film Theory I just want to point out that because we’re linking to and thus reading scripts off of different websites, you might notice various formatting discrepancies in the assortment of scripts. Please ignore these, as we can’t control the formatting of the scripts posted. 1. Watch SAC_CO Video (Welcome Video) under the Assets, if you haven't already watched it in instruction 1.1 2. Watch Keynote 1.4.3 Keynote QT (Course Overview) under the Assets. 3. Read Bordwell’s Studying Cinema . 4. Consider the following questions as you read the overview: a. What questions do film theorists hope to answer? b. Why might it be important for screenwriters to be able to know film theory? c. What do you look at when you analyze film – what are the components you study to answer for yourself the question of whether a film succeeds or not? 5. Read The Sweet Hereafter script. This film was made in 1...

( Due: Sun, 16 Jan | Status: Not Completed ) 1. Read the Preface to and Chapter 1 of Heroes & Villains (p. ix-22) 2. Consider the following: a. What is the role of myth, according to Alsford? b. Alsford cites a number of philosophers in Chapter 1 – do you feel that you understand him, and them? If you’re confused, look these thinkers up online (Wikipedia is fine for this). c. What is Alsford’s view of heroes and villains? How does who he is (a professor, a philosopher, a Christian theologian) effect this? 3. Read Honeybadger’s post about myth and fantasy: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=654400&postcount=122 4. Consider these questions: a. In what points does Honeybadger’s claim about the nature of myth agree with Campbell? With Alsford? Where does he differ? b. What are the advantages of myth? Of fantasy? (as he defines them) c. Honeybadger is versed in African mythology – does this influence his definition of the term? d. Would you ...