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Honors Theses Belmont Honors Program
Spring 5-20-2020
Developing The Screenwriter’s Notebook and Its Implementation Developing The Screenwriter’s Notebook and Its Implementation
of the Adapted Comic Book Origin Story of Solstice of the Adapted Comic Book Origin Story of Solstice
Mohansingh Udhwani Jr.
Belmont University
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.belmont.edu/honors_theses
Part of the Fiction Commons, and the Screenwriting Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Udhwani, Mohansingh Jr., "Developing The Screenwriter’s Notebook and Its Implementation of the
Adapted Comic Book Origin Story of Solstice" (2020).
Honors Theses
. 29.
https://repository.belmont.edu/honors_theses/29
This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Belmont Honors Program at Belmont Digital
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Udhwani 1
DEVELOPING THE SCREENWRITER’S NOTEBOOK AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION OF
THE ADAPTED COMIC BOOK ORIGIN STORY OF SOLSTICE
Mohansingh Udhwani Jr.
A Senior Honors Thesis project submitted to the Honors Program
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree:
Bachelor of Business Administration, Entertainment Business with Music Entrepreneurship
Emphasis; Theatre Production Minor
Belmont University Honors Program
Graduating May 2nd, 2020
____________________________ Date: 4/20/2020
Mr. Stephen Hauser, Thesis Director
___________________________ Date: 4/20/2020
Dr. Devon Boan, Committee Member
___________________________ Date: 4/20/2020
Dr. Joe Byrne, Committee Member
Accepted for the Honors Council and Honors Program:
_________________________ Date: 4/20/2020
Dr. Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, Director
The Honors Program
Udhwani 2
Table of Contents
The Screenwriter’s Notebook Template………………………………………………..…………3
The Screenwriter’s Notebook: Solstice……………………………………………………..……20
Reflection Paper…………………………………………………………………………….……44
Udhwani 3
The Screenwriter’s Notebook:
Template
By: [Insert Your Name Here]
Udhwani 4
Table of Contents
Modified Thematic “Bone” Structure………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Antagonism Matrix…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Modified Character Modelling…………………………………………………………………………………………………………......
Transformation Arc Descriptions…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Scenic Modelling…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Udhwani 5
Note to the User
Greetings! And thanks for using The Screenwriter’s Notebook! Before you get started, I just want to say a few things. First of all, this
is a template above all else! Everyone’s story is different. So please modify this template to suit your needs. That is its purpose after
all. To help screenwriters (and other storytellers), write better stories faster! Finally, this template is a tool to aid the storyteller. If you
want the “science” behind the template, I encourage you to read Dara Marks’ Inside Story, Robert McKee’s Story, and John Vorhaus’
The Comic Toolbox. I extracted the core from these models to make it “family-friendly”, but if you want to enhance your knowledge
in storytelling theory, these books are worth their weight in gold.
That’s all I got! Break a leg! ;)
Udhwani 6
Theme is not just an ethereal abstraction created by scholars to sound intellectual. It is a permeating force that threads itself through
every word, beat, scene and act of your story. The presence and application of theme is what separates the memorable movies from
popcorn fuel. Below is a modified process originally developed by Dara Marks to utilize theme as a starting point for developing the
“Bone Structure” of the story.
Step 1: Follow the instructions and be concise, all of these should be short phrases unless stated otherwise. The order is left to right,
top to bottom. Stop at Context and go do Step 2. It all starts with one word. Good luck! You got this!
Step 3: Now that you have filled out the Antagonism Matrix, use those words to fill out the remainder of the Thematic Structure.
Modified Thematic “Bone” Structure
Subject
(The core story value you want your story to be
about (one word))
Thematic Point of View
(The stance the screenwriter takes on the
Subject)
Plot A
(External Thematic Goal)
Sub-Plot C
(Relational Thematic Goal)
Sub-Plot B
(Internal Thematic Goal)
(What is the most important, critical action one must take
in order to embody the Thematic Point of View. List a
few to start with and narrow it down)
(What is the most important, mentality, mindset, or belief one
must hold in order to act on the External Thematic Goal?)
(What is the most important relationship between one and
somebody or something in order for one to achieve the
External Thematic Goal.)
Obstacle
(Invert the External Thematic Goal to its exact opposite.
This statement embodies how the antagonistic characters
and forces of the story interact with the protagonist.)
Fatal Flaw
(Invert the internal thematic Goal to its exact opposite.
This statement is the protagonist’s outdated survival
system in their life and what they will be struggling to
overcome throughout the story.)
Broken Bridge
(Connect the Fatal Flaw to the Obstacle in one sentence.
If the relationship in the Relational Thematic Goal is
mentioned, the thematic structure works out so far! This
statement is the relationship that must be repaired over
the course of the story.)
Context
(Adjectives that describe the atmosphere and zeitgeist of
the world the protagonist lives in.)
Character Traits
(Adjectives that describe the character at the beginning
of the story. These qualities should all be inverted by the
end of the story.)
Aesthetics
(Adjectives that describe what the broken bridge feels
like. Use a combination of Character Traits and Context.)
Udhwani 7
Robert Mckee created this fascinating idea of “antagonisms” whereby analyzing one story value, one can extract 3 negative values of
various intensities to oppose the Positive, (protagonist aligned story value). This diagram has been expanded into a matrix to help the
screenwriter develop the antagonistic world of their story. The dotted lines show how all the words relate to each other.
Step 2: Be sure to follow the order and descriptions as they are intuitively connected. Start with #1 and go from there, or just follow
the purple arrows. Replace the text in parenthesis with the appropriate word and adjust the text box so it is as neat as you desire.
Antagonism Matrix
12:Ancillary
(The second most dominant
trait after the Centrality at
the end of the story)
11:Subsidiary
(Pre-requisite to have the Centrality,
stronger than the Positive.)
13:Auxiliary
(Dialed back from the Ancillary,
related to Subsidiary,
atmospheric in nature)
3:Contrary
(A middle ground between the
Positive and Contradictory)
2:Contradictory
(The central idea for your
Fatal Flaw)
4:Negation of
the Negation
(The Contradictory taken
to its painful extreme)
1:Positive
(The central word you want to describe
your Thematic Point of View)
5:Negation
3
(Negation of the Negation taken to an even
farther extreme. The absolute “nightmare”
emotion your protagonist could feel.
Atmospheric in nature)
6:Complimentary
(The Contrary to the
extreme, but not as powerful
as Negation
3
)
15:Annex
(A pre-requisite for the character to have the
Centrality trait. A result of the Accessory)
14:Accessory
(A pre-requisite of the
Annex)
7:Causality
(Causes the Supplementary, a
character trait of the Contrary)
8:Supplementary
(Something that could cause
the Corollary, and be an
effect of the Causality)
9:Corollary
(Related to the Contradictory,
dialed back from the
Complimentary, atmospheric in
nature, effect of Supplementary)
10:Centrality
(A stronger version of the Positive as a
character trait. Dominating trait, you want
the protagonist to have at the end of the story)
Character
Triumphs
Character
Traits
Context
Reverse
Context
Udhwani 8
John Vorhaus has an excellent model for creating comic characters. This model has been modified and expanded on to accommodate
dramatic characters as well as synergize with the other models used in the Screenwriter’s Notebook.
Step 4: Fill this out for all your main and supporting characters. Please duplicate the model for as many characters as you have. Just
remember to keep these concise and short, so they are easy to reference for future steps. Feel free to delete the description text in the
first one once you understand what to put in for each line!
Modified Character Modelling
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective: What is this specific characters take
(perspective) on the thematic point of view? This is a good place to
include antagonisms. Remember, characters don’t have to state their
perspective in the story, but it is their lens for how they view the world.
Internally based.
Flaws: Weaknesses that a character may have that drive some of their
decisions to support or hinder the protagonist. Be careful to not create
another fatal flaw for a side character, you will confuse your audience.
Two or three should suffice.
Humanity: Universal qualities that “save” your characters and, make
them likeable to the audience. For the protagonist, make sure these
qualities aren’t in the Antagonism matrix. For all other characters, feel
free to include them. Again, two or three qualities.
Triumphs: The character flaws that will be flipped/reversed by the end
of the story. It is important to make sure all of these are flipped by the
end to resolve all parts of the story.
Dramatic Exaggeration: The character’s relationship to the external
goal/conflict of the story. How much are they struggling to achieve or
prevent or achieve the goal. The more they struggle, the more dramatic
tension gets produced.
Relational Perspective: How the characters are connected to the
relationship conflict of the story. Are helping the protagonist build the
bridge or break it? How?
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Udhwani 9
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Character Name:
Dramatic Perspective:
Flaws:
Humanity:
Triumphs:
Dramatic Exaggeration:
Relational Perspective:
Udhwani 10
Now that you have the thematic structure, antagonisms, and the characters modeled, it’s time to develop key story events. The
Transformation Story Arc was developed by Dara Marks. The Screenwriter’s Notebook uses a simplified version. The Notebook also
provides a “derivative” transformational arc based on the original arc.
Step 5: Fill in the description text with your own content for these transformational arc moments. Observe both when reading the
following descriptions.
Transformational Arc Story Moment Descriptions
Inciting Incident: A story event that kickstarts a chain reaction to trigger the external conflict of Plot A. The Protagonist does not have to be
aware nor involved in the conflict yet.
Call to Action: The Protagonist is clearly and blatantly roped into the external conflict of the world. Plot A has officially started.
Defining Moment: A piece of dialogue where a supporting character states the protagonists fatal flaw, thus igniting Subplots B and C.
1
st
Turning Point: An escalation of conflict for Plot A, where the story takes an unexpected turn, and the stakes substantially and permanently rise
for the protagonist.
Awakening: Occurs within the same or adjacent scene to the 1
st
Turning Point. Subplots B and C escalate as the protagonists experiences a
glimmer of self-realization of their fatal flaw, and the relationship conflict they must overcome, yet they still hold on to the fatal flaw.
Moment of Enlightenment: The story event where the protagonists become fully self-aware of their fatal flaw and their relationship conflict that
they must overcome. They start to make changes from here on out to attempt to resolve their relationship conflict and thus the fatal flaw. This is
also the scene where the built-up dramatic tension is released.
Death Experience: The story event in which the situation is so terrible, the protagonist must abandon the fatal flaw in order to survive and move
on with life. This is a moment of irreversible change for the protagonist.
2
nd
Turning Point: The external action of no return. The absolute worst-case scenario to cause the literal “death” of the fatal flaw.
Transformational moment: The Climax of Subplot B and C. This is where the protagonist makes an intentional decision to shift internally and
completely abandon the fatal flaw.
Climax: The protagonist’s final confrontation with the obstacle of the story. The protagonist achieves the way to resolve the climax of Plot A that
they would not have been able to execute at the beginning of the story.
Resolution: A window into what the transformed protagonist will look and how they interact with life.
Udhwani 11
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Marks Transformation Arc
Resolution
Call to Action
Inciting Incident(s)
1
st
Turning
Point
Awakening
Moment of
Enlightenment
Death
Experience
Transformational Moment
2
nd
Turning
point
Climax
Defining
Moment
Inciting
Incident(s
)
Call to Action
Defining
Moment
1
st
Turning Point/Awakening
Moment of
Enlightenment
Death Experience/
2
nd
Turning Point
Transformational
Moment
Climax
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Marks Derivative Transformation Arc
Udhwani 12
Step 6: The final step to completing the Screenwriter’s Notebook, is to conduct Scenic Modelling below. There you will map out the
contents of each scene of your screenplay. The template is set to 51 scenes assuming 2-3 pages per scene for the average 120-page
screenplay. For “Description”, fill out a short sentence, describing what will happen in the scene. The “Arc Stage/Moments” is to clue
the screenwriter in on what kinds of scenes, one should be writing as well as the Transformational Arc moments. Refer to the Glossary
of definitions of these terms. Finally, the “Scene Diagram, is a visual representation for how the emotional trajectory of the scene
should go. For a big picture view, look at the entire scenic diagram below. Remember, this is only a template, so modify # of scenes
etc., to suit your needs based on your project. Zoom in and out of the Word doc to see the Scene Diagram below as a reference.
Scenic Modeling
Scene
#
Scene Title
Description
Arc
Stage/Moments
Scene
Diagram
1
Exposition
2
Exposition
3
Exposition
4
Exposition:
Inciting Incident
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
1
5
1
6
1
7
1
8
1
9
2
0
2
1
2
2
2
3
2
4
2
5
2
6
2
7
2
8
2
9
3
0
3
1
3
2
3
3
3
4
3
5
3
6
3
7
3
8
3
9
4
0
4
1
4
2
4
3
4
4
4
5
4
6
4
7
4
8
4
9
5
0
5
1
Udhwani 13
5
Exposition: Call
to Action
6
Exposition:
Defining Moment
7
Exposition
8
Exposition
9
Exposition:
Awakening/1
st
Turning point
10
Exhaustion
11
Exhaustion
12
Exhaustion
13
Exhaustion
14
Exhaustion
Udhwani 14
15
Exhaustion
16
Exhaustion
17
Exhaustion
18
Exhaustion
19
Exhaustion
20
Exhaustion
21
Exhaustion
22
Exhaustion
23
Exhaustion
24
Exhaustion
Udhwani 15
25
Exhaustion
26
Grace: Moment of
Enlightenment
27
Grace
28
Grace
29
Grace
30
Grace
31
Grace
32
Grace
33
Grace
Udhwani 16
34
Fall
35
Fall
`
36
Fall
37
Fall
38
Fall
39
Fall
40
Fall
41
Fall
42
Fall
Udhwani 17
43
Descent: Death
Experience/2
nd
Turning Point
44
Descent
45
Descent
46
Descent
47
Transformational
Moment
48
Climax
49
Resolution
50
Resolution
51
Resolution
Udhwani 18
Glossary
Antagonism: Story values that embody a force to directly oppose the protagonist in some way.
Descent: Scenes full of pain, disappointment, and unhappiness that should reveal to the protagonist, what their life will look like, if
they refuse to change, and grow (aka abandon their Fatal Flaw and repair their Broken Bridge)
Exhaustion: scenes where the protagonist is constantly fighting an uphill battle using their fatal flaw as a crutch and its draining their
resistance to change, allowing new revelations and realizations in later scenes.
Exposition: Scenes containing the unknown for the audience and for the protagonist. New information is being given to two both
parties to fully understand and comprehend the plot, and the external conflict at stake.
Fall: Scenes where relationships, ambitions, aspirations, and achievements plummet into a decline or tailspin. Any half-truths, white-
lies, miscommunications, misjudgments that occurred previously, bear fruit here with bad timing, advice and/or planning.
Grace: Scenes of renewed vigor strength and resolve, where the protagonist utilizes the new idea, understanding or perspective to
tackle the challenges they are facing with gusto.
Story Event: A meaningful experience that elicits relevant change in a character.
Story Value: Universal qualities of human nature that can flip their positive negative polarity one moment to another (ex: life/death)
Transformational Arc: A type of story arc, extensively researched and discussed by Dara Marks. The arc is set up to where the ideal
state (or story values) of the world and the protagonist are flipped negative at the beginning of the story to guarantee dynamic, and
transformational growth throughout the story
Udhwani 19
Epilogue: Note to the User
Congrats on finishing and getting to the end! If you intend on using this to pitch to production executives, there are some stylistic
choices I would further recommend, to tidy it up a bit. Such as making sure the two Transformation arc pages are facing each other.
Probably the same for the Thematic Structure and the Antagonism Matrix. If the pages overflow, no worries, to keep those four pages
facing each other, add an extra page, with artwork and pictures that draw inspiration for what kind of story you want to write. A
picture is worth 1000 words, right? Oh, that’s also why I left the page numbers off the table contents. When you’re done, add them on.
And go ahead and delete the “Steps” instructions, if you want. It will probably look cleaner if you show this off to any industry
professionals outside of you. That’s it! Good luck on all your artistic endeavors!
Udhwani 20
The Screenwriter’s Notebook:
Solstice
By: Mohansingh (Mo) Udhwani Jr.
Udhwani 21
Table of Contents
Modified Thematic “Bone” Structure……………………………………………………………………………………………….……3
Antagonism Matrix……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
Modified Character Modelling…………………………………………………………………………………………...……………….5
Reference Notes……..……………………………………………………………………………………………………...................….7
Transformation Arc Descriptions……………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..8
Scenic Modelling………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………..10
Udhwani 22
Modified Thematic “Bone” Structure
Subject
Fear
Thematic Point of View
Only through understanding/empathy, can
we completely conquer our fears
Plot A
(External Thematic Goal)
Sub-Plot C
(Relational Thematic Goal)
Sub-Plot B
(Internal Thematic Goal)
Question the “why” behind the fears.
Fear must be embraced to be conquered
The relationship between one and their one’s system for
dealing with fear
Obstacle
Become enslaved by the “why” behind the fears
Fatal Flaw
We must run away from our fears
Broken Bridge
Running away from our fears, enslaves us to our fears.
Context
Absolute Terror
Dread
Despair
Suspicion
Character Traits
Anxious
Timid
Suppressed
Afraid
Anguish
Aesthetics
Suspicious
Depressed
Suppressed
Udhwani 23
Antagonism Matrix
12:Ancillary
Confidence
11:Subsidiary
Awareness
13:Auxiliary
Calmness
3:Contrary
Anxiety
2:Contradictory
Fear
4:Negation of
the Negation
Anguish
1:Positive
Understanding
5:Negation
3
Absolute Terror: fear
mixed with a scary
atmosphere
6:Complimentary
Dread: lingering fear
15:Annex
Perspective
14:Accessory
Appreciation
7:Causality
Timidness
8:Supplementary
Suppressed
9:Corollary
Despair: lingering negativity
10:Centrality
Empathy
Character
Triumphs
Character
Traits
Context
Reverse
Context
Udhwani 24
Modified Character Modelling
*underlined words or phrases mean that’s the main arc of that character in this story
Character Name: Kiran Singh/Solstice (Protagonist)
Dramatic perspective: To start with, we must run away from our fears.
Flaws: Anxious, timid, suppressed, afraid, anguish.
Humanity: Caring, intelligent, strong sense of right/wrong, warm,
daring/risk-taking.
Triumphs: Positive, confident, aware, empathetic/ understanding,
Appreciative
Dramatic Exaggeration: She fears embracing the world, but only
through embracing can she understand the world she fears.
Relational Perspective: Has to repair the bridge between how she
handles her fear, and herself.
Character Name: Harvest (Antagonist)
Dramatic Perspective: I will let my fears enslave me and draw strength
from it.
Flaws: Believes he is doing the right thing, one-track mind, distrustful
Humanity: Caring in his own way, cool, intellectual, powerful.
Triumphs: Trusts the next generation
Dramatic Exaggeration: Embodiment of the Obstacle, working directly
against the external goal.
Relational Perspective: commits and embraces the Broken Bridge
Character Name: Deathstroke (Supporting Character)
Dramatic Perspective: I have conquered my fears by eliminating the
sources of fear, (except for Rose), so I try to have my cake and eat it too.
Flaws: Distrustful completely, conflicting moral code
Humanity: Epically cool, master of occupation, cares about daughter.
Triumphs: lets someone help, (conflicting moral code/parenting is
another story).
Dramatic Exaggeration: Struggles with the duality of caring vs fearing
for his daughter.
Relational Perspective: refuses to understand fear, yet refuses to be
enslaved through sheer willpower.
Character Name: Rose Wilson (Supporting Character)
Dramatic Perspective: Our fears can be conquered through denying its
existence
Flaws: No confidence in abilities, closed off, abrasive (socially inept)
Humanity: Honest, protective, powerful, strategically/ tactically smart.
Triumphs: A little higher EQ, confident in abilities, more open.
Dramatic Exaggeration: Not even aware to the idea of asking
questions. Solstice will show her the way.
Relational Perspective: Walks side by side with Solstice in repairing the
Bridge through valuing confidence in the face of fear, even though Rose
still denies fear herself.
Static Characters (Other Named Characters)
Jocelyn Lure (Neutral) Windstrom (Impeding) Damanjeet Singh (Supporting)
Warblade (Impeding) Misbelief (Impeding) Rani Singh (Supporting)
Artemis (Supporting) Music Meister (Neutral) Tanveer Singh (Supporting)
Udhwani 25
Character Name: Bunker (Supporting Character)
Dramatic Perspective: God will conquer my fears for me
Flaws: Cocky, untested, unfamiliar with his powers, doesn’t know when
to be serious.
Humanity: Witty/funny, upbeat/positive, nonchalant, faith oriented
Triumphs: Get a better grasp on powers
Dramatic Exaggeration: Hides behind God/faith when it comes to fear
but is still afraid.
Relational Perspective: Helps repair the bridge through the “Calming
notion” of believing in a God/higher power when coping with fear.
Character Name: Leash (Impeding Character)
Dramatic Perspective: Since, I cannot conquer my fear, I give into it to
help others from experiencing it in the future.
Flaws: Jerk, follows blindly/obedient
Humanity: Pretty open about thoughts and feelings.
Triumphs: None, he stays the same by the end of this story.
Dramatic Exaggeration: Fear of his own power, drives him too fear
fellow metahumans
Relational Perspective: Breaks the bridge by instigating more fear
Character Name: Aiba (Impeding Character)
Dramatic Perspective: If they won’t try to understand me, I’ll make them fear
me.
Flaws: Immature, quirky, easily confused
Humanity: Happy go lucky (on outside)
Triumphs: Confident in her moral compass
Dramatic Exaggeration: Couldn’t find a “why” for all her fears with the bullying
so she decides to embrace what makes others fear her.
Relational Perspective: The final test, validating the repaired Bridge is sturdy.
Character Name: Lightning (Supporting Character)
Dramatic Perspective: Fear can’t be conquered but can be mitigated
through banding together with the collective of loved ones
Flaws: Too comfortable with powers/fixed mindset, somewhat
complacent mentality
Humanity: Loyal, confident
Triumphs: Growth mindset oriented
Dramatic Exaggeration: Understands her brother’s fear of his powers
hurting her but not her own fear.
Relational Perspective: Helps repair the bridge through showing the
importance of perspective in dealing with fear
Character Name: Dr. Caitlan Fairchild (Neutral Character)
Dramatic Perspective: Fear is an important part of growth.
Flaws: Too trusting, head is in the sand of work, unwaveringly herself.
Humanity: cares about the growth of the kids, compassionate, high EQ.
Triumphs: narrows her focus, sees the big picture and how she can help.
Dramatic Exaggeration: She believes in necessity of fear that she
doesn’t account for if others can handle it, and it cripples her progress.
Relational Perspective: helps repair the bridge through the lesson of
awareness but breaks the bridge by forcing fear early on.
Character Name: Thunder (Supporting Character)
Dramatic Perspective: Fear can’t be conquered but can be cancelled but
only through fighting it with the collective of loved ones.
Flaws: Complacent, confused on his powers
Humanity: Confident and chill. Goes with the flow
Triumphs: Growth mindset oriented.
Dramatic Exaggeration: Understands his sister’s fear of letting her
powers control her, but not his own
Relational Perspective: Helps repair the bridge through showing the
importance of perspective in dealing with fear.
Udhwani 26
Reference Notes
Some things that aren’t explained in future sections are explained here to clear up any confusion in understanding the story, magic system or
characters. All of these will be explained via dialogue or visual cues, in the film.
Ethnicity/ Meta Powers:
Kiran/Solstice: Punjabi descent, meta power is she able to emit light, shape it and use it to fly. The longer she uses her power, the more potent it
gets. Part of her character arc is understanding how her powers work.
Bunker: Mexican, meta power is the control of psionic bricks. Thunder: Russian, meta power is to emit large and potent sound waves
Lightning: Russian, meta power is emit and control electricity. Artemis: American, has no meta power, just a skilled fighter.
Misbelief: British, her power is she can take on anyone’s appearance. Windstrom: American, meta power is he can create gusts of wind.
Leash: Australian, meta power is he is able to emit purple strings to fight, emit electromagnetic shocks, and trigger someone to become really
angry.
Music Meister: American, meta power, is he can control anyone who hears his singing voice
Warblade: American, his meta power turned him permanently into a robot with various claws and blades.
Other information:
Deathstroke is a master assassin and Rose is his daughter.
N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is an organization that Harvest built to conduct “The Culling”. The Culling is an event where “treated” meta humans’ teens battle
each other and the strongest survive and become “Ravagers”. Ravagers are The Culling’s champions. The Old Ravagers include: Misbelief,
Windstrom, Leash, and Warblade. The Colony is the arena and the living space for the teens selected to participate in the next Culling.
Whenever the Sceneic Modelling Descriptions talk about Kiran “feeling anguish” or something of the like, visually she lets out a sharp breath of
air between her teeth. That’s how she expresses it.
Udhwani 27
Transformational Arc Story Moment Descriptions
Inciting Incident: Kiran, looking all sad, and just depressed, scrolls through her phone to see a number of headlines on her notification including:
the Queen of Zandia is missing, another meta killed 13 people, then click on a press conference of Jocelyn Lure (Famous anti-meta human Interpol
detective) discuses Over 200 global meta disappearances etc. She clicks the “clear all” button on her phone and rolls out of bed. Brushes teeth etc.
Call to Action: Solstice defends Cassie from an unsuspecting Lady Zand attack and they take her down together.
Defining Moment: “Kiran, this fearful world has scared you so much, you are afraid of even yourself. You must understand your fears if you are
to conquer them.” -Tanveer Singh (Kiran’s Grandfather)
1
st
Turning Point: Kiran is kidnapped by Leash and taken to the N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s facility “The Colony”. She receives an orientation from
Harvest that she perceives as VERY frightening. And then thrown into The Colony with the other metahuman teens.
Awakening: She is so afraid of where she is put in that Rose hits her, so she snaps out of it and says something that makes her realize that she
needs to stop fearing everything.
Moment of Enlightenment: Solstice survives the first round of the Culling and she flies for the first time, realizing her powers are something she
does not have to be afraid of, and can be understood.
Death Experience: Solstice is brought in and “treated” on by Harvest turning her skin black, her flames blue, making her power more potent and
sent back out immediately for the New Ravagers to fight the Old Ravagers.
2
nd
Turning Point: Solstice accidentally fatally harms Lightning, and if she doesn’t gain control of her powers, she will kill or hurt more people.
Transformational moment: Solstice is confronted with Harvest on equal footing and instead of striking him down with her powers, she sits on
the floor and asks him questions trying to understand his perspective.
Climax: Deathstroke breaks in to fight Harvest and Solstice subdues Deathstroke and Harvest with Rose utilizing her powers in a way she would
not have been able to before.
Resolution: Solstice stops Aiba from using her powers to blow up their school, using her confidence, calming personality, and her understanding
and empathetic nature, to not only inspire Aiba but those around her that the world will be ok, and metahumans are nothing to be feared.
Udhwani 28
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Marks Transformation Arc
Resolution
Call to Action
Inciting Incident(s)
1
st
Turning
Point
Awakening
Moment of
Enlightenment
Death
Experience
Transformational Moment
2
nd
Turning
point
Climax
Defining
Moment
Inciting
Incident(s)
Call to Action
Defining
Moment
1
st
Turning Point/Awakening
Moment of
Enlightenment
Death Experience/
2
nd
Turning Point
Transformational
Moment
Climax
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Marks Derivative Transformation Arc
Udhwani 29
Scenic Modeling
Scene
#
Scene Title
Description
Arc
Stage/Moments
Scene
Diagram
1
Setting the
Atmosphere
The film opens with a sequence of news articles and news reporters expressing
how terrible the world is and how metahumans (metas) are a danger to
themselves and society. We see two ideologically polarizing parties discussing
how metas should be treated, one of which is led by Lex Luther. The flashing
video and audio sequences slowly merges and blends together turning into an
alarm clock sound waking up Kiran.
Exposition
2
Setting Kiran
Kiran, looking all sad, and just depressed, scrolls through her phone to see a
number of headlines on her notification including: the Queen of Zandia is
missing, another meta killed 13 people, and a Jocelyn Lure Press Conference.
She clicks on the press conference link and Jocelyn Lure (Famous anti-meta
human Interpol detective) discuses the over 200 global meta disappearances
etc. She clicks the “clear all” button on her phone and rolls out of bed. Brushes
teeth etc.
Exposition
3
Setting the Magic
System
Kiran is typing out a paper on the “History of Metas” that describes how in the
past 3000 years people of “great power” were worshipped as Gods and kings. It
then talks about the WWII nuclear bomb as activating a lot of dormant “meta-
powers” due to the radiation awakening the gene. An entire branch of science
has been created to study this “meta-gene”. Over the last 100 years, Metas have
becoming more and more common especially with the recent mysterious
Hypertraxis Virus that has been plaguing some countries, as that seems to
activate dormant meta powers too. The paper concludes with how the media
and people view metas considering them not human and some considering
Exposition
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
0
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
1
5
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6
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7
1
8
1
9
2
0
2
1
2
2
2
3
2
4
2
5
2
6
2
7
2
8
2
9
3
0
3
1
3
2
3
3
3
4
3
5
3
6
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7
3
8
3
9
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1
Udhwani 30
them “the next step”. Visually a sequence of books, online articles and her
typed paper is being shown. She emails the paper as her mom calls her down.
4
The Inciting
Incident
Kiran comes downstairs to her family watching the Jocelyn Lure’s press
conference who says “metas are urged to stay home as they are danger to our
society and themselves” Rani Singh (Kiran’s mom) reminds her no powers
today. They head out to the archeological conference.
Exposition:
Inciting Incident
5
First Contact
Kiran and her mom are about to walk into the conference room when her mom
is called behind her. They turn around and see Helena and Cassie. The two
moms exchange words and tell the kids to hang out while the moms attend the
conference. Solstice and Cassie talk and get to know each other. Then Lady
Zand (Queen of Zandia and metahuman) attacks claiming an artifact on display
is her people’s. She summons earth elementals to wreck the hall, of which
Cassie fights off and is evacuating civilians. Solstice defends Cassie from an
unsuspecting Lady Zand attack when she is caught off guard and they take her
down together.
Exposition: Call
to Action
6
Kiran Exposed
The media rushes in and accuses the two of them for the destruction. The
police break up the media. Rani is furious with Kiran and they walk home early
the conference being cancelled due to the attack. Kiran says “bye” to Cassie
quickly and they leave. Later that day, Kiran’s Grandfather calls her and says
lets go for a walk. During the walk, he tells her. “Kiran, this fearful world has
scared you so much, you are afraid of even yourself. You must understand your
fears if you are to conquer them.” -Tanveer Singh (Kiran’s Grandfather). Just
then, They see a Muslim girl getting bullied and beaten up by two teenage
guys. Kiran is so torn whether to so something due to fear but the grandfather
rushes in scares the kids off. The girl (Aiba) thanks them, looks at Kiran all
gleamy eyed, and thanks them and runs back home.
Exposition:
Defining
Moment
7
Aiba’s (Non)-
Affirmation
Kiran goes to school next day, and to say she is bullied is an understatement,
she is pushed around by the guys, and the girls are snickering at her and some
guys threaten to kill her before she kills them. Just then Aiba intervenes
screaming at them and the teachers come in and break it up. Aiba looks to
Kiran for affirmation and Kiran in just sheer anguish and dread, runs away.
Aiba took Kiran’s glare the wrong way.
Exposition
8
A Confusing talk
Kiran was leaving school when some kids again came to bully her but Cassie
sent them flying with a few choice words. Cassie offers to walk Kiran home of
which she agrees. As they are walking Kiran asks Cassie what she thinks about
Exposition
Udhwani 31
the state of the planet. Cassie says awful. Everyone is living in constant fear,
but the world needs this fear to become stronger. Kiran disagrees. They talk
more.
9
Get Pranked/ No
Turning Back
As they reach close to home, Kiran asks Cassie where she got her powers from,
and Cassie asks, how she knows. Kiran confused talks about the fight
yesterday, with Lady Zand, and Cassie exclaims in a different women’s voice
“Lady Zand broke out?!?” Kiran backs away and asks who she is, and Cassie
regrettably smirks while Leash (another Ravager) sneaks up from behind and
puts a cloth over her over her mouth and nose and the screen cuts to black.
Kiran is kidnapped by Misbelief (Ravager working for Harvest, who has meta
powers to turn into other people) masquerading as Cassie and taken to the
N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s facility “The Colony”. She receives an orientation for what
N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is, What the Colony is and what The Culling is from Harvest
that she perceives as VERY frightening. And then thrown into The Colony
with the other metahuman teens. She is knocked out again.
Exposition:
Awakening/1
st
Turning point
10
Harvest’s
Resistance
Kiran wakes up on an operating table where a red head scientist (Dr. Caitlan
Fairchild) is running various tests on her. Solstice dazed wakes up and finds
she’s wearing a white suit with yellow glowing stripes running down it. Dr.
Fairchild explains to Kiran that she will be ok for now, and Dr. Fairchild is
here to talk. Kiran asked why they are doing this, and Dr. Fairchild says to
make the metahumans stronger. When Kiran asks what for, Harvest enters
talking about an invasion coming in 20 years. The Metas and heroes were not
strong enough to stop it so humanity was enslaved. Harvest was a Colonel in
the rebel army and travelled back in time to make the metas stronger so he
could prevent the deaths prior to Earth’s enslavement. He says he has high
hopes for Kiran, asks the Dr. if all her tests are done and then knocks her out
again.
Exhaustion
11
Student’s
Resistance
Kiran wakes up in an open orange glowing arena kind of place with multiple
platforms. She looks around and everyone seems miserable. She starts
hyperventilating. She hears another girl who is screaming towards her and she
instinctively put up a barrier. The girl (Artemis) keeps pounding on it while
tears stream down Kiran’s face. Rose comes in and clocks Artemis to make her
stop. Rose taps on Kiran’s shoulder saying, “you’re okay now”, but she is a
state of terror, so Rose clocks Kiran sends her flying, so she snaps out of her
episode. Kiran apologizes saying “I let my fear take control of me again”. Rose
exclaims “That can’t happen here or you’ll die.”
Exhaustion
Udhwani 32
12
New Friends
Rose introduces herself to Kiran and introduces Miguel as well. Miguel (aka
Bunker) comes up to her and introduces himself. Artemis comes up and kind of
apologizes but says Kiran needs to toughen up. They tell Kiran that The
Culling is going to be happening soon so Kiran needs to prepare. They also talk
about their powers. Kiran compliment’s Rose’s ability to fight. Rose blushes
and asks why she is complimenting an enemy. Kiran says its hard to see
someone who wields the noble weapons of Katanas as enemy and they have a
geeky conversation about fighting theory. (there should be weapons books and
maybe Gatka medals in Kiran’s room in the beginning). Rose tells Kiran that
she needs to get ready cause they are going to train her to survive the Culling.
Exhaustion
13
Enter Deathstroke
Deathstroke in the dead of night analyzes the scene where they took Kiran and
followed them, as he put a tracker on Misbelief. He finds the entrance to The
Colony but realizes that he cannot break in by himself. He calls up a friend
hoping he can help who says, “I’m in India on vacation but for you friend, I’ll
make an exception”. As the call ends a gun is put up to his head and he turns
around to fight off the assailants. It is N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s Vanguard (security
soldiers). His earpiece part of the helmet gets damaged during the fight.
Exhaustion
14
Rose’s Dramatic
Perspective
Bunker and Rose are sparring as Solstice watches. It’s a pretty cool fight and
she praises both of them. Bunker accepts it and Rose is embarrassed by the
kind words, putting herself down. Bunker calls for a break so Solstice and Rose
spar. Rose tries to get Kiran to use her powers offensively, but Kiran just keeps
running away. Eventually Rose goes for a critical hit and out of fear, Kiran
blasts Rose with a weak beam of light. Rose, impressed tells Kiran to suppress
her fear and just use her powers, that’s how she will survive. Bunker makes a
goofy comment about letting God take care of her fears, of which Rose scoffs
at. Kiran contemplates and accepts hesitantly.
Exhaustion
15
Aiba’s Repression
We see Aiba really sad and depressed and angry and looking a little blue
(literally) as she is walking down the street towards her house. Kids are
constantly saying mean things to her and bullying her. She enters home and her
parents are yelling at her, telling her to fix the blue and make it “go away”.
Aiba goes into the bathroom and starts crying and she turns back normal, and
once she wipes her tears, she says a trigger word and she makes a stone cold,
emotionless face and she becomes blue again and clenches her fist and an
explosion comes out of it.
Exhaustion
Udhwani 33
16
Bunker’s
Relational
Perspective
Kiran wakes up abruptly in the middle of the night and hears Rose struggling,
she wakes up Bunker so they can come after Leash who is taking her. They
both run towards Leash and Leash is able to fend them off easily. Kiran still
timid and afraid is barely a threat. She fights very defensively, and Leash
overwhelms them both and tells them to go back to sleep. Warblade appears,
and threatens to kill Rose if they come attack again. And Kiran starts to
hyperventilate. Bunker taps her on the shoulder and tells her to calm down.
“This happens all the time”. Kiran asks Bunker how he can remain so upbeat
and relaxed in this place of dread and he says he has faith that there is a higher
power that put them there for a reason. So he just stays calm for the most part.
Kiran accepts that and realizes that. His hands start shaking, and he says, just
because I leave my fears in Gods hands, doesn’t mean they still aren’t there. He
tells her there is still so much he doesn’t know like how his powers work and
their full potential. Kiran says they are a lot alike in that way but they just gotta
have faith they will figure it out in time.
Exhaustion
17
Rose’s
Awakening
Bunker and Kiran wake up with a taunt from Warblade. As him and
Windstrom come down carrying Rose by the throat. As Warblade drops her the
two run to catch and they see that Rose is missing an eye to the distress of
Kiran and Miguel. Rose wakes up and remembers what happened to her. She
starts fighting both Ravagers albeit surprisingly well, and she almost beats
them but Windstrom knocks all three of them away with a giant gust of wind.
They throw Rose her swords back and leave. Kiran immediately apologize and
starts crying blaming herself, and Rose snaps at her, “Stop crying you idiot, It
was inevitable.” Bunker asks what power surfaced for her and she said
precognition and explains that through her left eye, she can see movement
around her a few seconds in the futureand in the right eye, the world normally.
She told Kiran she is probably going to be next.
Exhaustion
18
New Friends,
New Perspectives
Bunker is trying out some moves, Harvest makes an announcement, welcoming
two more “students” to The Colony. Lightning and Thunder land in. Kiran
Rose and Bunker go over to them, and they get acquainted, where are you from
who are you and all that good stuff. They are brother and sister from Russia.
Got taken by someone who looked like their father and morphed at the end.
The two are glad they are together, and just then, Point Fist (another student,
territorial) comes over and says he hasn’t met the “newbs” yet. Since Artemis
didn’t “greet” them yet, he would. Lightning envelopes herself in electricity
and discharges it at Point Fist. Some of Point Fists friends attack and Thunder
Exhaustion
Udhwani 34
blasts them away with a giant sound wave, all the way back to the platform
they were on. Kiran comments on their teamwork, and they talk about how,
they can beat any foe as a team because when you fight with people you love,
you’re unbeatable, Bunker agrees, Rose blushes, and Kiran nods.
19
Rose’s Dramatic
Exaggeration
In a dream sequence, Rose sees a mish mash, of the operating table, Dr.
Fairchild pleading to not inject the serum into her eye, but Harvest just does it
himself, and flashes to Deathstroke injecting his serum into her, then back to
Harvest claiming like father like daughter, content with himself, flashing back
to Deathstroke calling her an idiot and she is not good enough yet and him
reaching for her and she wakes up. Kiran asks Rose if she is okay, and Rose
shrugs it off. Kiran and Rose talk about their parents and talk about Rose
taking her new power well, and the fact she lost an eye. Rose admits it feels
like a crutch, handed by “Miguel’s God” because she is not good enough for
her father. Kiran consoles her, citing her incredible bravery and strength, and
makes a comment about growth, and not to rush it. Kiran also asks Rose why
she is training her, and Rose says because she would have no one else to talk
about weapons that’s not her dad. In reality, Kiran’s kind personality touched
Rose, but she would never let Kiran know that.
Exhaustion
20
N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s
talk #1
Harvest is on a conference call with the Board of Directors of N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
All we see are shadowy figures. They discuss preparations to launch the
Hypertraxis Virus bombs, and the meta nuke missiles. They ask Harvest to
create a list of detonation coordinates per his personal criteria. Harvest agrees
and then requests a Motherbox Teleportation as soon as the missiles launch so
no heroes nor assassins can interfere. They concede.
Exhaustion
21
Deathstroke’s
Dramatic
Exaggeration
Deathstroke talks to his best friend, Wintergreen on the comms while
investigating The Colony skyscraper. They talk about the business of
assassination, Deathstroke’s retirement, and what Rose means to him. They
also talk about Deathstroke’s brother Wade and if they should do something
about his underworld empire, stating how immoral they are. Deathstroke says
that would be a mess. He procures a floor plan of The Colony building and
says he has to head to see a “friend” of theirs.
Exhaustion
22
Fairchild’s Praise
We see a dream sequence of Harvest as a Colonel seeing soldiers dying from
shadowy beasts, seeing flying red lasers (that are Darkseid’s) kill people left
and right. And his best friend and wife creating the suit for him and giving him
his implants. Their base goes under attack and as the friend is fighting off the
beasts and is dying, his wife gives him a kiss, pins their wedding ring on his
Exhaustion
Udhwani 35
suit and pushes him through the portal as she gets stabbed by the red lasers. As
he lands on the ground in the dream, he wakes up. Him and Dr. Fairchild have
a brief exchange of dialogue about how Harvest truly values her presence as a
caretaker for the kids. He tells her she is the only one he could truly trust since
she is a human like he is, and not a meta. She makes sure he doesn’t take things
too far. The Dr. thanks him and retires for the night. In her room, she prays
Harvest doesn’t find out, for the kids’ sake as she changes the mass of her
entire arm, bulking it up, indicating she is a meta as well.
23
Lightning’s
Relational
Perspective
Rose and Solstice are sparring and Solstice is making great progress on
combat, and Rose is explaining and helping her with her powers, elaborating it
takes time for her powers to rev up, the more she uses them continuously, the
more powerful the attacks her. Rose tells her too fly and they Kiran says she
can’t and Rose says that’s B.S. Lightning chimes in and talk about how flight
with electricity works and Solstice compliments her on her knowledge of her
power and Lightning talks about perspective, just have to look at your power
from another point of view. Solstice learns to envelope herself in light to create
a battle armor for herself, allowing her to summon light tulwars and Chakras
more easily.
Exhaustion
24
Stakes Rising
Harvest comes on the comms and says, now that everyone has been “treated”
The Culling is nigh. Solstice starts hyperventilating again and feeling anguish,
but Rose snaps her out of it saying that this is it, you either live or die now.
You have to fight to protect yourself. Lightning, Thunder, Bunker, Rose and
Solstice all agree that they will form a truce and work together to protect each
other. Artemis asks to be in on that deal at the last moment as well. They see
Fist Point some of the other treated kids got “treated” and have beefed up
powers. There are two other groups of kids.
Exhaustion
25
I Understand Now
Harvest asks Leash to activate everyone and he sends his strings after everyone
to make them feral (one of his powers) 2/3 of the kids get caught by him, but
the crew does a good job evading. Solstice is playing a lot of defense, but
Lightning gets put in a tough situation and Solstice leaps in to cut the string.
She flew, she saved her friend, she forgot all about her fear, her anguish, her
terror, her dread of the world around her for a moment, and she flew for the
first time ever. And finally, Kiran understood…
Exhaustion
Udhwani 36
26
The Culling
Kiran understood that her power is by nature a power that must be used
offensively and must be continuously used in order to rev up. She learns that
by using all the knowledge she has learnt from her family and new friends she
doesn’t have to run away from her power, and she can maybe not have to tun
away from the world anymore. As long as she embraces the unknown
continuously with persistence, she will overcome it. Everything clicked! An
epic battle ensues, with very minimal casualties, Kiran survives The Culling
and she flies for the first time, realizing her powers are something she does not
have to be afraid of as she can use it to save people.
Grace: Moment
of
Enlightenment
27
The New
Ravagers
Harvest calls up Lightning, Thunder, Kiran, Bunker, Rose and Artemis. He
declares they will be his “New” Ravagers, whether they like it or not. Rose
declares she will never do that, draws her weapons and starts trying to fight
Harvest but he shuts all of them down immediately. He talks about how proud
he is of each of them and how much they have grown, and none of them
believe him that he cares. Kiran asks, what will happen to the other kids, and
Harvest says to not worry as they will, go back to the lower levels for more
training. He then sends them away.
Grace
28
Leash’s Praise
Leash walks up to Harvest and asks him how The Culling went. Harvest is
surprised he didn’t watch, and he said that he can’t bare to watch the effects of
his powers on others. Harvest points out the hypocrisy of using it but not
observing its consequences and Leash says he bares that so the future will be
less painful for others. He is given up on his own life. Harvest genuinely thanks
Leash for his service to The Culling project for being a loyal Ravager, as
without Leash, this Culling would not be as effective.
Grace
29
Enter Music
Meister
Deathstroke walks into a flamboyant and gaudy hotel room, and the Music
Meister is sitting there in a saffron bathrobe, complimenting the exotic nature
of India. Deathstroke says he needs the Music Meister’s help getting into an
inverted skyscraper and explains the mission. He’ll pay the non-discounted
price for “members”. Music Meister ponders it and says he’s not sure, and he
has to think about it. MM then breaks into song with “alright”. Deathstroke’s
helmet circuit sparks, and he hears a ringing, the world goes blurry for a sec
and then it shifts back to normal. (this indicates that Deathstroke was taken
control over by Music Meister, this is meant to be subtle but can be the premise
for a standalone Deathstroke movie if execs desire that) Music Meister
continues “I’ve made up my mind”, Deathstroke, impatient, rushes him, and he
says he will help for no payment as he says he owes Deathstroke one.
Grace
Udhwani 37
Deathstroke says “Ok”. Tomorrow Night? And the Music Meister agrees.
Deathstroke leaves.
30
Let’s Plan a
Breakout!
The 6 of them are escorted back to the Colony area and once the Old Ravagers
leave, Rose claims that Harvest is just using them and will not let them go or
let them live for much longer. Everyone agrees and Rose proposes a breakout.
She explains that she has been watching the Old Ravagers that there is a time at
night when Leash gets off his shift and Warblade takes his time getting to his
shift and that’s when they spring into action. If they all encounter Warblade,
then they 6 will just overwhelm him and keep running. By the time Harvest
reacts they’ll be gone. Positive energy is abound in this scene but it almost
feels to good to be true.
Grace
31
Understanding
Leash
The New Ravagers are doing a bit of sparring or napping in preparation for the
breakout. Solstice and Rose her sparring and Kiran almost overpower her.
Rose gets a little testy (mostly because she is frustrated at her own lack of
ability) but Solstice keeps complimenting her. Leash tells them to quiet down
and Kiran poses a rhetorical question of why Leash works for the Harvest, he
seems more considerate than the others. Rose says it doesn’t matter and
Solstice says that we should understand our enemy, then maybe they won’t be
our enemy. Rose dares her to go up and talk to Leash, so she does. Kiran flies
over to Leash and while Leash is being a bit of a jerk, answers all her questions
openly. We learn of his relational perspective and dramatic exaggeration
through the conversation. Kiran also learns how Leash’s power works.
Grace
32
N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
Talk #2
Harvest updates the board of directors on The Culling calling it a huge success.
The Board is pleased. Harvest sends them plans for where they should detonate
the bombs to avoid as many casualties as possible while still achieving
maximum meta-gene activation. The board also confirms the Motherbox
teleportation.
Grace
33
Fairchild at Risk
Dr. Fairchild is prepping the treatment for Solstice as Harvest walks in. They
engage in some high-level science talk that resulted in Harvest’s surprise that
she was able to synthesize the drug so quickly as it would have taken an
extremely strong person to do it and she said that she asked for Warblade’s
help. Harvest says he understands and re-affirms his appreciation for her
contribution.
Grace
34
Operation Go!
At night, when everyone is asleep, and Leash walks away from his post, the 6
of them spring into action and they head through the doors, they head for the
elevator and they start to ascend, taking out any and all guards. Leash tells
Fall
Udhwani 38
Harvest that they are doing exactly as he predicted, when he predicted:
initiating a breakout at night after his post. Harvest is glad as they are
becoming more tactful and growing as a team. He asks Leash if the others are
in place and he says yes. Harvest tells Leash to take his place. The elevator
stops so they bust it open and head towards the stairs, again taking out all
Vanguard soldiers. Solstice turns the corner ahead of everyone, Bunker, who is
a little behind, sees Solstice in another corner injured and he goes over too her
confused. Its actually Misbelief. As the 5 enter the stairway Windstrom sets a
gust of wind to open a door and pull Thunder and Lightning end. Rose and
Kiran try to go after them, but they realize Bunker isn’t behind them. They
froze in the stairwell Leash’s sting comes out and snatches Kiran at one of the
highest floor’s close to the surface. As Rose heads up to get her Warblade pops
out and snags Rose.
35
Rose vs Warblade
Harvest creates a telepathic link to all of them saying that this is his challenge,
if they can be the Ravagers individually, they can escape. Scenes 35-38 kind of
blend together visually. Harvest is making jeering taunts, pointing out these
character’s flaws throughout their fight. Rose and Warblade start fighting and
it’s a pretty awesome grounded, hand to hand combat fight scene. However,
Rose struggles and refuses to use her precognition to help her and is torn
whether she can beat this enemy or not, as the fight nears its climax, Harvest
tells her that one who refuses to even acknowledge all of who she is, what she
has been given and is unconfident in what she does accept, can never beat
someone as self-assured as Warblade. Warblade knocks out Rose, Harvest asks
him if Dr. Fairchild asked for his help telepathically and Warblade said no.
Fall
`
36
Bunker vs
Misbelief
Bunker and Misbelief are having an intense battle. Misbelief is an incredible,
agile hand to hand combatant and is easily evading Bunker’s psionic abilities.
Bunker starts to go on the defensive and get agitated (opposite of his calm
demeanor), hiding behind his walls as Misbelief either breaks through them or
goes around them. Harvest voice cuts telling Bunker that one who refuses to
instead walk alongside their high power of choice and understand its creation
and decision and instead hides behind, has no chance of beating Misbelief, who
has a complete mastery of her power. Misbelief knocks out Bunker.
Fall
37
Thunder and
Lightning vs
Windstrom
Meta power battle between Thunder, Lightning and Windstrom erupts. Both
Lightning and Thunder immediately use as much power as they have been
using and as Windstrom challenges them, they try to amp up their power but
Thunder tries to keep his sister from going overboard by exerting himself more
Fall
Udhwani 39
since he understands her fear, and she tries to support him. Windstrom finds
this teamwork pathetic and is overpowering them easily. Harvest chimes in: A
brother who is afraid of hurting his sister and a sister who afraid of her own
power controlling her. And as a result, your teamwork, guided by fear cannot
beat Windstrom who understand your elements all to well. They lose.
38
Solstice vs Leash
Solstice cuts free of Leash’s string and he sends an attack she has never seen
before; she starts to back down out of instinct but remembers he knows how his
powers work and cuts right through the attack and beats him rather easily.
Harvest chimes in applauding her aggressive attack but reprimands her for
running away from leash instead of defeating him. Solstice flies toward the
surface.
Fall
39
Fairchild Exposed
Dr. Fairchild finished the treatment for Solstice and Harvest walks in, asking
her if it is done. She said yes, and it must be given to her in three stage
increments in order for it to work healthily, otherwise, it might have unforeseen
consequences, physically on Kiran. Harvest just stand there in silence and says
that Warblade says he didn’t help; he then lunges at her with an attack of which
she bulks up to block and he says that he is heart broken that he misplaced his
trust in her. He says he doesn’t not blame her, but she has no right to stand
beside him while she has not proven herself in The Culling. She fights back
and the have a short fist fight but Harvest bests her last words before passing
out are “remember, three doses, don’t do it all at once”. He tosses her into The
Colony pit, grabs his scythe and flies toward the surface.
Fall
40
Solstice vs
Harvest
Solstice’s power is incredible as she is getting faster and faster (the longer she
uses it the more potent it is). As she is flying she is thinking she can call for
help and save the others since she beat her opponent. As she reaches the first
floor of The Colony building, Harvest arrives and grounds her. He talks about
how proud he is that she was able to defeat Leash, but she has to defeat him
now in order to escape. Harvest fights her using his full strength and instead of
embracing the fight like she should be doing (she learnt this during her moment
of enlightenment), she starts running away playing defense, Harvest tells her
that one who fears, fear itself can never understand who they really are and
what their strengths are. He pummels her, now that she lost her potency by
going defensive instead of continuing her offensive momentum.
Fall
Udhwani 40
41
Failure and
Fortune
The Old Ravagers and Harvest drag the New Ravagers back into the Colony
and throw them in. Dr. Fairchild scolds Harvest and the others for being so
rough with them and she starts tending to their wounds. Harvest congratulates
them on their growth and exclaims they will get a chance for redemption soon.
Music Meister and Deathstroke walk towards The Colony building and they go
over the plan again, Deathstroke emphasizes no killing the kids, Music Meister
says he can’t pick and choose, of which Deathstroke claims he can since Music
Meister can. Music Meister says since he is in India, he will sing a song in
Bollywood style in honor of the country they are in. Its an eerie but epic song
and Deathstroke and Music Mistier make their way through the wreckage of
the Colony building with ease due to the lack of resistance due to Music
Meister’s powers.
Fall
42
Rush
Harvest is receiving reports of chaos and betrayal on the upper levels and
Deathstroke is being accompanied with a “singing man” who is mind
controlling some of the students. Harvest expresses discontent, and regrets
rushing the Final Culling, but summons Solstice to be given her “treatment”.
He also activates the pre-launch sequence for the Hypertraxis Virus and meta-
nuke bombs. As the 5 are waking up, glad they are all live, but they reflect on
their failure, as they do that, Harvest flies down, snatches Solstice and flies
away, as Vanguard troops power into The Colony living area.
Fall
43
You Understand
Nothing
Solstice is brought to be given a treatment by Harvest. Harvest ignores
Fairchild’s warning and injects Solstice with the full treatment, and it turns her
skin jet black, her flames blue but making her meta power way more potent. As
the treatment is happening Harvest orders the slaughter of all The Colony
students to test them for the Final Culling. Visually, scenes of the New
Ravagers defending themselves, students being slaughtered, and Solstice’s
treatment are flashing back and forth. taunts Solstice into experiencing the fear
of losing her friends. She tries to break free, but he verbally manipulates her
into finishing the treatment out of even more fear. In the midst of an anxiety
attack from these changes, fearing her new form, the fate of her friends, what
her family will think of her now etc., she is thrown back into the Colony area
immediately as Harvest announces the “Final Culling” where the New
Ravagers to fight the Old Ravagers, and those who survive, win and get set
Harvest’s Colonel’s for the upcoming invasion. Absolute Terror washes over
Kiran.
Descent: Death
Experience/2
nd
Turning Point
Udhwani 41
44
Kiran’s Requiem
Solstice is dropped into The Culling arena, now soaked in bodies of former
students, all people she wanted to save, and her friends rush to her side. The
Old Ravagers comment on how pitiful she looks, and Harvest says he is
eagerly awaiting the outcome. As the battle starts, Solstice runs away as she
doesn’t know or want to use her powers. Lightning is again put at risk and
Solstice tries to defend her instinctually but accidentally fatally harms
Lightning and knocks out Thunder. She realizes if she doesn’t understand her
new powers, she will kill or hurt more people.
Descent
45
Inner
Transformation
Dr. Fairchild instructs Rose to use her precognition powers to guide her in
closing the wound, but she says she can only see her future when she is in
direct interaction with someone else. Dr. Fairchild then says Rose must close
the wound. Rose claims she can’t due since her powers were only used to kill
and she isn’t a hero, but this is where she can prove that wrong. Dr. Fairchild
also demands Solstice sear the wound at the end (which requires control).
Solstice remembers the words of her grandfather among all the lessons she has
learnt from her friends and in the chaos, calms herself, and she reverts back to
normal. Bunker, Thunder and Dr. Fairchild are fighting off the Ravagers barely
but Solstice and Rose together, build up the confidence to save Lightning.
Descent
46
Outer
Transformation
Solstice, having complete understanding of her powers and therefore control,
launches into combat against the Ravagers and an epic fight breaks out. The
New Ravagers fight through their fears and in conquering the, they conquer the
enemy they lost to earlier. They encourage Solstice to go after Harvest. Solstice
then engages in an epic battle with Harvest with the others coming to help as
they can while fighting off the other Ravagers. Kiran realizes that the black and
blue emerge when she is facing an unknown threat or something she doesn’t
understand, making her powers more potent, but as long as she tackles her
fears head on and tries to understand them, she can control her new form. She
uses all she has learnt from Roses training, Lightning’s ideas and the
framework for figuring out an opponent’s weakness and gains the upper hand
in her battle with Harvest.
Descent
47
Understanding the
Enemy
Solstice is confronted with an opportunity to slay Harvest on equal footing and
instead of striking him down with her powers, she misses on purpose, quelling
the conflict, sits on the floor and asks him questions trying to understand where
he is coming from. They have tense talk and she begins to understand his point
of view. The talks is on generation differences and not trusting the youth to
Transformation
al Moment
Udhwani 42
grow themselves so he must do it for them. Kiran states Harvest should play
the role of supporter instead of enforcer. It’s an intense conversation as Harvest
demands they fight.
48
Solstice is Born
Deathstroke and Music Meister near The Colony floors and he says he is
dipping out, saying Deathstroke can handle it from here. Deathstroke thanks
them and the two part. Just as a truce was beginning to emerge between
Solstice and Harvest, Deathstroke breaks in to fight Harvest and Solstice
subdues Deathstroke and Harvest with Rose utilizing her powers in a way she
would not have been able to. Harvest distracts Solstice, breaks free, and
launches the Hypertraxis Virus, and nuclear meta bombs. Before the base
teleports away, he has one last quote of inspiration for Kiran, giving her
superhero name and heaves her in the air as The Colony base teleports away
and changes location.
Climax
49
The Inevitable
Shift
Solstice flies as fast she can to catch up to the bombs to stop them, but she
loses oxygen and passes out, the bombs are seen flying every and detonating all
over the planet’s atmosphere. Solstice is falling through the air, is caught by
Cassie and is brought to the Titans ship. She is flown home.
Resolution
50
Meet the Titans
Solstice wakes up, meets the Titans including Red Robin, Kid Flash, and
Artemis who was able to escape and call in the Titans. She informs them that
The Colony teleported, and they will track it and call her in when they find it.
We then enter a sequence where she bursts in home, her family embraces her,
and she is getting back to mundane life. We then see a sequence of news
articles, news reports and another press conference by Jocelyn Lure on the
effects of the bombs. The world is changing away from its fear mongering
Resolution
51
Aiba’s
Redemption
Solstice stops Aiba from using her powers to blow up their school, using her
confidence, calming personality, and her understanding and empathetic nature
She gives a speech to not only inspire Aiba but those around her that the world
will be ok, and metahumans are nothing to be feared.
Resolution
52
Set up to a
Deathstroke
Movie
Adeline Kane and Wintergreen (Ex-wife and best friend of Deathstroke) are
hiking in what seems like a jungle. Adeline questions her being on the mission
and pondering what she will do when she sees Slade. Wintergreen says, he will
punch him for putting them through all this trouble. The scene ends with them
overlooking a temple in Zandia, Africa.
Epilogue
N/A
Udhwani 43
53
Setup to a
“Continuitous”
DCEU
Various scenes from Batman v Superman, and Justice League films are playing
in a holographic like texture. We then see Darkseid looking to Steppenwolf
asking if he is glad that they ran a Mother Box simulation before leaving, even
if some of their data on Batman and Superman was inaccurate. Darkseid says
he will postpone his invasion of Earth in favor of searching for the Anti-Matter
equation first. This scene is meant to retcon any movies the DCEU wants to
remove from their Universe. (This is only a suggestion for Time Warner to
consider as they build out the DCEU)
Epilogue
N/A
Udhwani 44
Developing The Screenwriter’s Notebook and its Implementation of the Adapted Comic Book
Origin Story of Solstice
By: Mohansingh Udhwani Jr.
Artist Studio Honors Thesis Reflection Paper
Belmont University Honors Program
Faculty Committee:
Stephen Hauser, Thesis Director
Dr. Devon Boan, Committee Member
Dr. Joe Byrne, Committee Member
Udhwani 45
Note to the Reader
This Reflection Paper assumes the reader has read both “The Screenwriter’s Notebook
Template” and “The Screenwriter’s Notebook: Solstice” documents before reading this paper.
Enjoy!
Udhwani 46
Introduction
This paper is a reflection of my experience creating the Screenwriter’s Notebook
Template, and then creating the Solstice Screenwriter’s Notebook. The mission of this honors
thesis is twofold: One is creating a planning tool for screenwriters, whereby filling out this
template will give them a quality, easy to access, and concise reference point when writing their
screenplay, whether it is 12 pages or 120. The second part of this honors thesis is creating a
Screenwriter’s Notebook for an adapted comic book screenplay idea of mine. The idea is based
on Solstice aka Kiran Singh, a minor DC comic book character who I wanted to write as the first
Sikh superhero. There were many hurdles related and unrelated to the production of this thesis.
Still, in the end, I believe two quality documents came out of it, that will not only inspire myself,
but hopefully other aspiring storytellers as well, to share their stories with the word. The
following is the tale of this Belmont University honors thesis coming to fruition.
Creating The Screenwriter’s Notebook Template
Story
Story by Robert McKee is an absolute powerhouse in narrative theory as McKee lays out
his take on the structure that makes up storiesfrom beats to acts. The main idea that permeated
his whole book is the extra dimension of story values: binary story qualities that get flipped
multiple times throughout the story of a screenplay, to incite action and conflict, as well as
provide a benchmark for assessing the value of any scene.
While McKee has a bunch of great ideas, unfortunately, a lot of them are independent of
each other and it would have proven difficult to connect a lot of them in a way that would be
simple to understand for the average screenwriter. His concepts are just too high level. However,
Udhwani 47
I was able to adapt his concept of “antagonisms” to the template. The antagonism diagram is an
exercise to brainstorm what the antagonistic side of one’s story would look like in terms of story
values. I was also able to weave some of McKee’s lingo into the template to give its explanations
a richer context.
Robert McKee’s Story, while high level, and hard to understand at times, provides a rich
and multi-dimensional deconstruction of the storytelling artform. I’m glad I was able to
incorporate some his lingo and expand on the concept of antagonisms for the template. I hope
after re-reading Story and exposing myself to other perspectives on storytelling, I will procure
the knowledge to implement story values and McKee’s other concepts at a more practical level.
The Comic Toolbox
John Vorhaus’ The Comic Toolbox was an interesting choice as it is not really a narrative
theory book as it does not contain as much theory compared to the other two. This book is a
practical manual for telling comedy. I chose this book based on reviews and a desire for diversity
in my readings. This is a fantastic book for talking about the “laws” of comedy and “tools” one
can use to elicit comedy, but it didn’t provide as much universally applicable content as I thought
it would.
The book did however provide an interesting model to create comic characters. The
model delves into the “comic perspective” of how the character sees the world, what flaws they
have, what is their humanity that makes them likable and what do they exaggerate for comedic
effect. While Vorhaus intended this to be used for both oral and written comedy, I found this
model to be a great starting point for character modeling for The Screenwriter’s Notebook.
While I was hoping for a more big picture tool for storytelling based on reviews for The
Comic Toolbox, I instead found something even more crucial in Vorhaus’ model for creating
Udhwani 48
comic characters, as this allowed me to expand my template into one area I didn’t even think
about. It might true that I would have procured more comprehensive narrative theory by
choosing another book instead, but John Vorhaus’ The Comic Toolbox, shared another
perspective of storytelling that most don’t bother delving into, and I believe that alternate
perspective is incredibly valuable.
Inside Story
I was introduced to Inside Story by Dara Marks, from the Artist Studio Track in the
Belmont Honors Program. Our final class “HON 3088: Thesis Writing Workshop”, among many
things, had a section on developing good stories and Dr. Boan used this book to teach us a
narrative form. I am glad I was exposed to it then, as I found this book to be absolutely
instrumental. The center of Dara’s work is the Transformational Arc, of which her entire book is
built on. The basic premise is the storyteller selects a subject, develops a point of view on that
subject, then develops a plot and two subplots based on this point of view that represents the
story’s theme. Based on these plots and subplots, the storyteller can create a compelling
sequence of events and an internal struggle for the main character to overcome that will
guarantee permanent growth in the protagonist and a dynamic story. A fascinating notion to say
the least!
Inside Story has the most compatibility amongst its tools not to mention an overarching
big picture tool. So, from Dara’s work, I adopted her thematic “bone” structure, as well as the
Transformational Arc itself to guide narrative flow. This by nature included her emphasis on
defining the certain moments that take place along the Transformational Arc.
Through learning and analyzing the flow of the Transformational Arc I realized that there
was a “derivative” Transformational Arc invisibly hidden behind her Transformational Arc. She
Udhwani 49
defined there being four “regional stages” along the arc, dictating, for example that in the first
half of the second act, the protagonist experiences increasing exhaustion to their Fatal Flaw.
There were three other regions like this and I discovered this interesting wave-like pattern when I
expressed the four regional stages graphically. This derivative arc helped a lot when I was
working on the end of the template.
Dara Marks’ Inside Story was an absolute crucial piece of literature acting as the core for
the template, as the tools from Robert McKee and Johnathon Vorhaus were adapted to fit her
overall skeleton. Her book also provided context through which it was necessary to modify the
other two tools, so they all fit the greater purpose of the template.
Putting it all Together
After reading All three pieces of narrative theory literature, I had a basic flow set for the
template. First, the template would open with Marks’ Thematic “Bone” Structure. I like the idea
of theme being an important part of the template, as generally theme is considered this ephemeral
thing, so being able to make it a practical starting point for the template was really cool! One
change I did make to Marks’ structure was while she does have one plot and two subplots, the
subplots are put under the same branch in Marks’ book. I didn’t like this idea as it confused me
to have two things that she conveyed as different, stack on top of each other visually, so I split
them. Dr. Boan also did this in his worksheets as well, so that was reassuring. I had come up
with descriptions for the third branch as she didn’t really have those but that presented a fun
challenge to overcome.
The next tool is the “Antagonism Matrix”. Originally Robert McKee had only three
branches going off of the original word (Positive). Still, I had envisioned a “matrix” of
antagonism diagrams spilling into the positive side as well as enhancing the antagonistic. The
Udhwani 50
final “layer” of the thematic bone structure for all three plotlines are adjectives describing the
layer above. So, I implemented the Antagonism Matrix as a means to more accurately develop
those terms, along with it serve as a brainstorming exercise to understand the atmosphere at the
beginning of the story and the end of the story.
I have to admit, I did “cheat” a little bit when building out the Antagonism Matrix. My
rule to myself was that I would develop the template and then funnel my story through it, but I
knew that I wanted to add an extra three rows to the diagram, two going positive, and one going
negative. In order to do that, I used “understanding” as my test antagonism to build out the
relationships between all the new additional antagonisms. “Understanding” was the Positive for
my story. I think it worked out, because I did come up with a solid relational structure between
the base diagram antagonisms and the expanded ones, and I was able to apply the additional
layer that certain antagonisms were related to Context, Character Traits, etc. This was a useful
tool for me to develop words that were accurate to the story I wanted to tell, but I am interested
to see if this will hold true for other users as well!
Next we move on to the Modified Character Modeling based on Vorhaus’ diagram. His
model initially had four sections to fill in. I changed it by making all the comedic pieces
“dramatic” and adding two more sections to allow the model to embody the character’s growth
as well! I re-tooled almost all the definitions for each section, so they linked back up to both the
Antagonism Matrix and Thematic “Bone” Structure.
The Transformational Arc Story Moments stayed the same, for the most part. I simplified
some of the descriptions to keep within the knowledge pool of the template but beyond that no
major changes. As far as the Transformational Arc, I recreated it in Microsoft Word from
scratch, taking out a few regional labels for simplicities sake. I also created the Derivative
Udhwani 51
Transformational Arc based on Marks’ arc as another visual aid for the user, as well as maybe
conveying some of the regional concepts graphically without having to explain them.
When I came to the end, I felt like the model was missing something. I went back and
referenced the original mission for the template. I realized that in order for this template to truly
be a planning tool, it needs something that would allow the screenwriter to jump seamlessly into
writing the actual screenplay. A blueprint of sorts. This is where the idea of the Scenic Modeling
diagram came from. While I didn’t base this off of anyone’s diagram specifically, I’m sure I am
not the first one to come up with the idea of throwing descriptions of scenes into a row/column
table with a couple of extra goodies on the side.
Probably the thing that excites me the most in the whole template is the “Scene
Diagram”. The Derivative Transformational Arc represents the emotional experience scene to
scene. Even amongst the first half of Act II, while yes the protagonist is supposed to experiences
exhaustion of using their Fatal Flaw, the raising of the stakes to confront the Obstacle etc., the
story has to have some peak and trough moments, so it is not exhausting to watch the movie.
That’s what the Derivative Transformational Arc shows. So I took the curve of the derivative
arc, and overlayed it in a 1x51 table. Each column represented the scene of a screenplay and the
piece of the curve inside that particular column showed the emotional arc that scene should
embody. Some get more negative, some hit a trough point and then pick up, and some are mostly
positive then end on a negative note. The Scene Diagram isn’t a hard and fast rule as much as it
is just a visual recommendation on how to design each scene. I chose 51 as that was the average
McKee’s statement that most screenplays have between 40-60 scenes. While it is cumbersome to
add a individual scene diagram for each scene row in the Scenic Model, and if a user decides to
have a film with 41 scenes instead, those individual scene diagrams are pointless, but that is easy
Udhwani 52
to adjust on the full Scene Diagram. I thought that was a pretty cool visual interpretation of
narrative modeling.
The Search for Simplicity
It is worth mentioning in this section that I am also in a class called “ETP 4500: Venture
Planning”. This is the “capstone” entrepreneurship class in which we have a semester-long
project that is a company idea of our own choosing and run through all the theoretical
documentation needed to establish concept validation, develop a launch plan and create a
scalable model for that idea. I switched from a company idea that was not going anywhere to
monetizing the Screenwriter’s Notebook template. So, I am creating the product as my honors
thesis and going through process of figuring out how to monetize it in my entrepreneurship class.
It has been fascinating looking at this project through a holistic perspective.
If I was developing this template just for myself, simplifying it, might have not been
necessary. Although, I realized if I intend to sell this template in some form or fashion, my target
market will be a wide variety of screenwriters some of which might not have read any narrative
theory. So with this in mind, I realized I HAD to simplify the model and implement some
systems to make sure anyone could follow the template from beginning to end.
Some of the practical and low-level changes I made were, adding steps, explaining what
each tool does and indicate an order. I added numbers and order arrows to the Antagonism
Matrix. I added an introduction and “epilogue” note to the user and added a glossary for terms
that I didn’t explain elsewhere. The biggest high-level change I made was at the Thematic
“Bone” Structure. I don’t think Marks ever made any claims that “all good screenplays start with
one word” as that was not the way her book was laid out. Since my template started with the
Thematic Subject in the Thematic “Bone” Structure, I embraced the idea that “anyone with some
Udhwani 53
creativity, can generate a good quality story from one word, if they work through The
Screenwriter’s Notebook”. Which sounds like a pretty crazy claim to make, yet, I figured that
was a great guiding principle to filter the entire flow of the template through. Does the
templateflow so linearly that they could trace their whole story back to that one word in the
Thematic Subject, and does every tool in the template build off of each other, utilizing that one
word? This is what I wanted to accomplish!
This led me to retool and rephrase almost all the descriptions of the Thematic “Bone”
Structure. Marks introduced this structure in Chapter 6 of her book, so she had145 pages of
content to build off of, to explain these concepts. Since this was my starting point, I had to
simplify the language and change the wording. While the wording for a lot of it is very different,
I do believe it incorporates the zeitgeist of her original thematic structure. Marks had a triangle
where she put the A, B and C plot lines on to make sure they all work together. I created the
“Broken Bridge” and the “Aesthetics” descriptions to embody the completion of that triangle as
introducing another diagram and the concept of “external thematic goal vs external conflict”
would be too complicated and warrant another page of tool and explanation. I don’t believe at
this time, that tool has enough value to justify it’s presence in the template. I hope to incorporate
this concept as I continue to evolve the template in the future.
After the changes above, it was just a matter of adjusting the description of
everything else to make sure it relates back to the language I used so the user wouldn’t require
any outside knowledge beyond what is in the template. And with those final adjustments, the
template is finally complete!
Udhwani 54
Creating The Solstice Screenwriter’s Notebook
The Comic Book Medium
I had not really read comic books before taking on this project. I was always enraptured
with the TV shows, movies and stories but I never really immersed myself in the original
material. The closest I ever got to reading comic books before this project was that I would go on
various wikis and fan-made sites and read about the comic book stories and various character’s
histories. I was often amazed with the sheer complexity and depth of the stories. Little did I
know that complexity came with a cost.
The main protagonist of my story is Solstice aka Kiran Singh. She had ties to Hindu
mythology in the comics, but I wrote her to be of Punjabi heritage and grow up in a Sikh family
(she did originally have the Sikh surname of “Singh” after all). I wanted to adopt “The Culling”
arc for many reasons. For one, it’s the only story arc Solstice is in and she has an emotional stake
in, in terms of the source material. This arc also occurred in the “New 52” era, a relative “dark
age” for DC Comics, so not many would know this story. Also I thought the basic premise of
kidnapping teenagers, experimenting on them, and making them fight each other to become
strong enough to fight off an alien invasion in the future held a certain tragic foundation to it and
could serve as a great breeding ground for even more drama and tragedy.
This arc was primarily related to the Teen Titans comic so when I went to a comic book
store, and when I saw “Teen Titans”, “The Culling” and “collection” all on the front and back
cover, I thought, I had everything I needed. Little did I realize that this was a “crossover” story,
so I needed to procure comic books from the “Superboy and “Legion Lost” titles as well. I also
needed an “Annual” from the Teen Titan series which is separate from normal comic books
apparently. After this frustrating discovery I turned to the digital medium to absorb my source
Udhwani 55
material. In the end, I combed through about 500 pages of comic books before I got a good
framework for the story I wanted to adapt. Some of those pages were very useful, and some were
completely irrelevant. Suffice it to say that my escapade through the world of comic books was
interesting to say the least.
The Creative Process of Adaption
Going through this process of adaption really opened my eyes to the challenges
the executives at Marvel and Time Warner face. I have a lot more respect for individuals like
Kevin Feige who is the Creative Lead over all these Marvel projects, making sure they all
connect but still retain their own identity while staying true to the zeitgeist of the original comic
book story. It is a unique challenge. While I took the spirit of “The Culling” arc in the comics, I
had to change a lot.
For one, the comic book version of the story, was not character-focused. It was
more ensemble-based and was a nice action and world-building piece. So I had to center my
story around Solstice to fit the Transformational Arc. This also meant that a lot of characters that
played pivotal roles in the comic book arc either weren’t present in my rendition or played vastly
reduced roles. Character relationships are also very different in mine such as Rose Wilson being
a supporting character here vs being an impeding character in the comic book story. The
outcome of the story was very different as well. In the comic book story the goal is to rescue all
the kidnapped kids. In my story the goal really is survive then escape.
I was honestly surprised by how much was similarity there was though. My
overall process was to not read the source material until I develop the template, because I didn’t
want to subconsciously conform the structure of the template to the story that I would be reading.
So as I was putting the template together I was thinking that based on what little I know about
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the story, I would want my rendition to be about fear, therefore ideas of what the world at large
would be like and the atmosphere etc. started popping up in my head, as well as motivations for
Harvest. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the New 52 world of fearing meta humans was
similar to the world I wanted to create, and the origin story I came up for with Harvest to make
him tragic and relatable, was VERY similar to the comic book version. This reassured me that I
was on the right track at least.
All in all, adopting the comic book story was interesting as I took the basic
structure of the story, some of the story elements and pre-existing story values and added my
own thematic point of view to it. It definitely helped that I had a basic mold to work with when
shaping my first story, as I didn’t need to create literally everything. I was able to focus more on
the narrative architecture since elements like the magic system (meta powers) and character
backstories were already laid out for me. And I got to keep what I liked and toss what I didn’t
like. Through and through the creative process was fascinating in hindsight.
Thematic “Bone” Structure
The Thematic Subject I chose was “fear” and my Thematic Point of View is “fear must
be embraced, to be conquered.” I chose fear because I knew by the end, I wanted Solstice to be a
confident, empathetic, understanding character. Just, a source of good for the world. So
according to Marks’ model, all those need to be flipped at the beginning, and fear was a good all-
encompassing word to start with. Personally, I know I have been struggling with the idea of fear
lately in a lot of areas of my life, like when it just comes to meeting deadlines, the immediate
future after graduation, and the anxiety and guilt of inaction that comes from that fear. I tell
myself that I have to understand why I am afraid to act before can remedy that fear. Still, it is a
conscious choice that we often forget to act on, and if this movie could be something of a
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manual for how to navigate fear, I feel like that is something that could be universally beneficial
while also working through that myself.
After that, everything else really fell into place. The Internal Thematic Goal is sometimes
hard to pin down because it is so abstract, but no one ever said thematic modeling would be easy.
I adjusted the wording towards the end of completing the template to reflect a slight language
shift I made in the middle of Scenic Modeling. I was really happy with the Broken Bridge
statement as that is a cool relationship to tackle in a story.
Antagonism Matrix
The Antagonism Matrix was pretty easy to develop since I had already been thinking
about the atmosphere beforehand a bit, so I just made sure the words fit the description for each
antagonism. Then I used those to fill out, the last layer of the Thematic “Bone” Structure. I also
had my perception of what Harvest would be like, and the comic book’s take on Harvest as the
main antagonist to draw some inspiration from as well.
Modified Character Modeling
So, I learned going through this exercise that I don’t like character modeling. I am not
sure why. I am not sure if it is a template problem or if it is a “me” problem. I think, it felt like it
was going into too much detail in the wrong place. I say this, but it did help me A LOT, when I
was going through the Scenic Modelling process, so whether I enjoyed the experience or not, it
was helpful. It will be interesting talking to other people who use this template and get their
thoughts on it too.
I was struggling to hit my groove when I was modeling the other New Ravagers, and
some of the other impeding characters as I thought they would get so little screen time anyways,
would it even matter. Still, I think my story evolved a bit, after modeling the supporting
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characters as it gave me another level of depth to work with. When the other characters resolve
their relational perspective, the protagonist does so as well. So, if we attach the protagonist’s
Triumphs, to a different supporting character’s Relational Perspective that can be their reason for
existing in the story. Marks believes that all other characters serve the purpose of supporting or
impeding the protagonist, so I wonder what she will think about going into that much detail with
Modified Character Modeling.
Transformational Arc Story Moments
The Transformational Arc Story Moments were somewhat easy for me as well, since I
knew the high point of the story from the comic book version and that, combined with my own
thoughts about where the story should go, made it easy to select and write out those moments. It
surprised me, how much Solstice’s understanding how her own power works, became an
important part of these moments. It makes sense considering that I always wanted her death
experience to be her gaining her black and blue form, but it was just interesting to see that layer
of the story get rippled out naturally when placed at pivotal moments in the story.
Scenic Modeling
I learned a lot from Scenic Modelling. It was easy filling out the pivotal moments in the
story with the section above but filling out the space in between then was way harder than I
thought it was going to be. I also think that making most of the movie take place inside The
Colony complex made it hard, but I kind of had to do that by nature of the overall story.
When I first envisioned how much text would be in the “Description” column I didn’t
imagine any more than three lines of text. But in reality, it ended up being a lot more than that
for almost every description box. I am not sure if that is due to a lack of conciseness on my part,
or maybe that I just had a lot of ideas for each scene that I wanted to get down, or maybe that is
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just the nature of Scenic Modelling. I’ll be interested to see what others do, when they use the
template as well.
I think it is a niche circumstance but, I created a “Reference Notes” page in response to
how much lore I was just casually mentioning without explaining in my Scenic Model. while this
would not benefit me, as I already know all of this, if I were to show this to industry executives
who might not be as familiar with the DC world, they might get confused quickly. Maybe this is
something that would be a necessary addendum for fantasy or adventure screenplays that have a
complex and diverse magic system, and that is why I didn’t add it into the template. It was an
unexpected addendum for sure though.
A big thing story-wise I struggled with is filling the “Grace” and “Fall” scenes. Because
really the film could go straight from the Moment of Enlightenment, to the Death Experience,
and it kind of did in its own way in the original material. That’s when I came up with the idea of
the escape plan and the true “narrative” battle royal took place here, not at the “first” Culling.
This is also where the Relational and Dramatic Perspectives from the Modified Character
Modeling came in handy, because I was able to use those supporting characters as devices for
Solstice to flip a lot of her flawed values, by exploring how they are dealing with their flaws. I
think this worked, But I also think this was a side effect of having a lot of complex characters.
Many screenplays, especially good ones, have a lot less characters. Spiderman into the
Spiderverse is an excellent example of this. The Protagonist, two main supporting characters and
the rest just push the plot forward. Mine is double or triple that at least. Again, I would be
interested to see how others, with smaller cast sizes in their stories, deal with scenes in their
scenic models. I also could have just reduced the number of scenes, but for the sake of the
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project I wanted to keep it at 51, even if I had to sacrifice a bit of story quality for a proof of
concept.
Conclusion: A Final Reflection
I think it is safe to say this is the hardest, and most comprehensive project I have ever
done in my life. I never thought I would be creating a template for telling stories with a
screenwriting medium emphasis and then do all the planning to start a business related to the
film industry. Especially during my Freshman Year. My original plan was to start in the music
industry and work my way up to film and eventually video games. Fascinating what God has in
store for each of us. Instead, I channeled my “right-brain”, love and value for quality storytelling,
and my “left-brain”, analytical and logical decision-making framework and created a tool that
embodies my entire skillset in something I appreciate. I can take this model with me and build on
it as I continue my journey to learn and expand my understanding in storytelling and narrative
theory. Even if I can’t monetize this, (which I hope I can so it can help other screenwriters tell
better stories, faster), I feel blessed that I was given the opportunity to create something that can
a least allow me to “go to bat” with other storytellers. Along with the template, I created a story
for a comic book character I have loved for so many years, and I told a story I have always
wanted to tell. I hope to somehow pitch Kiran’s story to the Time Warner executives as I think it
is a story that at the very least, makes a lot of practical sense for them to tell. But even if that
opportunity never comes, I know, the next stories I tell with this template will keep getting better
and better. I think the Screenwriter’s Notebook template and the Solstice Screenwriters
Notebook is indicative of something I believe about graduating college: it isn’t the end of a
chapter, but a springboard for writing another great page.
