SHANE BOTWIN

Tri-Dimensional Character Bone Structure. 

Shane from Weeds on Showtime.

Physiology

1.     Sex – Male

2.     Age  - Ages throughout series 10 – 18

3.     Height and Weight – Shorter than average currently 5’7’’ and average weight.

4.     Brown Hair, Brown Eyes, and light skin.

5.     Posture – Straight

6.     Appearance – clean, bright-eyed,

7.     Defects – Asthma

8.     Heredity – Mother’s hair and eyes

Sociology

1.     Class – Middle-upper California suburbia as a child. Then his family struggled and moved throughout series.  They briefly lived in upper class Mexico, traveled to Canada and lived out of a hotel, and were part of the working class in Denmark.  Lastly lived in an apartment in New York City before finally settling in a middle-class home in Connecticut.

2.     Occupation – Briefly held a job as a marionette in Copenhagen, Denmark.

3.     Education – Public school for elementary and middle. Self-taught after Middle school.

4.     Home Life – Lives with Mother, Nancy. Father died of a heart attack. Nancy has bad habit of spending all her time and energy on making business and money affairs.  Her mental development on Shane has been negative and neglectful.  She is good-hearted but has forgotten who she is as a mother.  Shane is not married.

5.     Religion – Jewish on his father’s side.

6.     Race – White

7.     Place in Community – Made fun of throughout elementary school.  Played soccer and was in Tae Kwon Do as a child.  In middle school he stuck up for himself more and became very independent and reclusive.  As he aged he tried influencing the family and being the responsible adult, but was usually still pushed to the side by the family.

8.     Political Affiliations – None.

9.     Amusements, hobbies – He is very tech. savvy, and into constructing things.

Psychology

1.     Sex life and moral standards – You really see his character grow and develop throughout his adolescence.  His uncle taught him about masturbation, masturbated to a nude photo of his mother, and lost his virginity to two gothic girls in middle school, which he received a yeast infection from.  As much as he love’s his mother, not in sexual way, Shane’s morals never developed properly thus making him immoral.  He lies endlessly, cheats, murdered someone, the list goes on and on.

2.     Personal Premise, ambition – He has driven to help his mother because he realizes all her struggle ultimately has been for him and his brothers.  He has little ambition, but is interested in law enforcement.

3.     Frustrations, Chief Disappointments – He is always over looked by his Nancy who always goes to his older brother.  Having no proper father figure.  He is very intelligent but is always pushed off as being a kid.

4.     Temperament – unbalanced.  Angry at many times.

5.     Attitude Toward Life – A no-one trying to find his place.

6.     Complexes – obsessed with getting his mother’s attention and approval.  At one point as a child he ignores everyone around him and talks to his father who isn’t there.

7.     Introvert

8.     Abilities – Tech savvy, very street smart.

9.     Qualities – Independent, intelligent, mentally strong, supportive, straight-forward, generous, loyal, brave.

10.  I.Q. – Very high

Character Arc

On the website Elements of Cinema, character arc is defined as "the notion that characters must evolve, grow, learn, or change as the plot unfolds. The audience in general expects a character to finish the movie in a higher position than that in which he started."  Christopher Vogler asserts that all stories must have this element in order for it to be compelling.  I completely with agree with this statement.  In every story the main character has some kind of flaws that are inhibiting them from attaining what they desire.  The flaws direct the character to evolve and develop throughout the story.  The "...character develop(ment) from condition A to condition Z through a series of steps," (Vogler, 33) is the character arc.

A character arc also does not need to be on just the protagonist, it could be presented through other characters in the story which means that a character arc is still necessary.  Vogler uses an example from Beverly Hills Cop.  The main character is fully developed at the beginning of the story and has little or no change by the stories end.  However, the change happens to his friends in the story. (Vogler, 37)

The character arc does not have a specific formula so it can be either a positive one or a negative one.  An up-hill arc is the most common and is usually the happy-ending in most stories.  The guys wins the girl, the lost gets found, someone gets wealthier, etc.  Good defeats evil.  For example in Erin Brockovich, Julia Robert’s character goes from jobless and a single-mother to having a successful job and boyfriend.  In the beginning viewers see her as trashy and not serious about herself.  The conclusion shows her as a very serious, well kept, and professional woman.  However in a down-hill  character arc the outcome is usually the sad, dark and or serious ending.  These characters almost develop backwards.  In the movie Seven, Brad Pitt’s character is very jump-the-gun and acts on instinct without thinking things over.  His character develops in the film very little and if anything he becomes more and more careless.  In the end his flaws are what gets the best of him and he is thus defeated by the antagonist.

Based on Vogler’s breakdown of the character arc, it could be argued that the character arc is another representation of the hero’s journey.  Vogler presents a side-by-side 12-step character arc that mimics the 12 steps of the hero’s journey.  He does the same thing with breaking it down into acts and as a repeating cycle much like the ones seen for the hero’s journey.  This representation of a character arc makes it seem necessary in every story because ultimately it is the story. 

Black Bean Soup Vs. Smoothie

So, for the last two weeks we partook in listening to oral stories told in 3 minutes or less.  There were a lot of good ones as well as a few that could use some improvement.  We listened to adventurous tales, good times, and upsetting moments.  Some of the stories were straight up reminiscent memories, a few were more elaborated and applied more story effort rather than just a memory.  There were so many stories that I personally enjoyed listening to.  When the class was told our blog post was going to be based on one of the stories, the first one that came to mind for me was Logan Ryan's story about his adventure in trying black bean soup for the first time at Panera Bread.

Honestly, at first I couldn't think of why this story stood out to me.  After thinking about it for a little bit I realized that there is connection with the audience or relate-ability.  First off, almost everyone has had Panera at one time or another.  Secondly, we have all wanted something we consider to be our "regular" and then change our mind, and immediately regret it.  Next, I realized what made me remember Logan's story so well was because of it's humor and how it made everyone laugh, yet it was such a simple story.

I really can see this being a short film, so short in fact that I think it can be successfully laid out in about a minute, almost commercial-like.  One thing Logan might need to find a way of developing for the screen is how his character loves smoothies so much.  I suppose this could be simply done as a "thoughtful" voiceover.  Another aspect that needs to be fleshed out better is that his character and his friend regularly go out for lunch and that this is just another day getting lunch and that his smoothie is his regular order.  If we try to apply the hero's journey, I wasn't clear about who the villain was... was it himself, the employee who suggested the black bean soup, or the soup itself.  Personally I think it was his own character for deciding to ask the employee what they think he may want to try.

As I stated before I think this story would make a great commercial kind of short.  It is short, funny, and memorable.  P.s. I love the black bean soup unlike Logan. As a side note, he mentioned how little his baguette was and how it was done in basically two bites, I just wanted to say you can ask them for more bread.  ;-)