Lots of things have happened:
I finally got my movie magic screenwriter up and working, so I've got a few pages of my opening sequence.
More importantly Tanith has finally taken a real shape and direction in my head. I'm going to juxtapose her constant movement with Virgil's stagnant lurking in his manor. That being said I'm going to formulate a confrontation before Tanith leaves the estate that establishes an unsavory connection between the two. They share a common desire to overcome what they perceive as burdens on their minds; for Tanith, its her sensitivity, and for Virgil, its his guilt. This might sound too introspective but its really just a way for me to motivate their actions. I will make everything as externally available as I can.
One thing I do know is that I don't want to make Virgil a caricature villain, I want him to have as much dimension as possible without turning the story into a bore.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Update
I e-mailed the movie magic people about getting my serial number yesterday. I'm still waiting for a response. Meanwhile I'm formulating the opening sequence in my head. Plus I've got midterms so they're kind of invading my creative bubble.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Movie Magic
My movie magic screenwriter is on an external hard drive after my old computer crashed and I have to try to successfully slide it over to this computer. Lets hope this works.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Updated Biographies
Tanith Garret
Childhood:
Tanith was born to Fergus Garret and Eileen Flaherty, a seamstress. Fergus was the well-respected Marshal to Lord Virgil Thorburn’s horses. Tanith was born out of wedlock, and under some strained circumstances ended up living with only her father on the Thorburn estate. Fergus raised her as he would one of his horses, if a bit more clumsily, because she was obviously a creature he was not used to rearing.
By age 10 Tanith had finished any sort of schooling she would receive at the hands of the manor’s clergyman. She could read some and write her name, recite the Lord’s Prayer, and sew. These skills seemed completely useless to Tanith, however, and as far as she was concerned their conclusion just opened up three extra hours of the day to spend on her real education in the stable yard. Fergus took on his daughter as his full-time apprentice, and her deftness with the animals was undeniable. She even established a few new training techniques that Fergus incorporated into his routine. For example, employing vocal commands as well as leg pressure to direct the animal. It was with this addition that Fergus became indispensible for his training skills.
An indispensable aspect of Tanith was her light weight, which allowed her to start breaking in horses via riding before they reached their full size without injuring them. This boon hastened the overall training period of each mount, saving Lord Thorburn a lot of money in the long run. A poor diet and a natural inclination to wiriness kept Tanith from filling out as most young women do, so her duties never had to be abandoned.
Lord Thorburn would never allow a woman to ascend to the rank of Marshal for his estate, but he allowed Tanith to work because as a child she did not require a salary.
Throughout her adolescence she became painfully aware of the fact that when her father retired the position would go to one of the less talented stable-hands. More and more she would be asked to dismount during training to allow more time for the squires. It was a bone of contention that gave Tanith a chip on her shoulder as adolescence set in, but the alternative to obedience was no contact with the horses at all, which was impossible for her to deal with. So she put up with it insofar as she did not make any obvious attempts at sabotage.
Personality: Tanith is smart, but she has a volatile temper that has its outlet in destructive behavior. Her back is striped with long lash scars from the multitude of times her father has disciplined her throughout her childhood. The painful consequences of her tantrums have forced a sort of pseudo-maturity. She can withhold her fury for extended periods of time, but it boils within her and she has tunnel vision until she can find a way to seek revenge. The art of trickery is a skill she has honed, and her fellow serfs regard her as a nuisance and constant source of anxiety. Where Tanith goes, trouble follows.
Tanith is:
Angry
Skinny
Sneaky
Dirty
Clever
Single-minded
Lord Virgil Thorburn
History:
Virgil was the fifth child, fourth boy born to the fertile Lord Lionel Thorburn. At that time the Thorburns only owned a modest landholding in Southern Ireland. They grew crops and barely came up with enough profit to keep their serfs. The soil in the rocky area was not conducive to harvest, but Lionel had no interest in bettering his situation or doing much of anything. After his wife died in her last (Virgil’s) birth, he lost his motivation. It was not that they were particularly in love, just that she was the only one who could ever spur him into action. Virgil’s earliest memories of his father were of a richly outfitted form lying, unmoving, in a great pile of pillows in his sitting room. When he was 13 his father finally died. The man lay cold in his pillows an entire day before anyone took notice.
Virgil’s oldest brother, Boris, assumed the Lordship and began to pick up the pieces of the broken manor. 5 years later he had nearly resuscitated it to the point of complete rehabilitation when he was called to battle by a higher lord. He and the second oldest, Carlisle, answered the order and were promptly slaughtered within a month by the French. Until this time Virgil had lain in wait, glowering in his position as fourth-eldest. But this windfall provided a way to escape the inevitable life of priesthood that seemed to await him. Of course Virgil would never risk doing the deed himself, so he convinced his sister, who had always been heavily under his influence, to poison him.
As the new master of the Thorburn land, Virgil began to make revisions immediately. He married his doting sister off to a distant earl in exchange for a selection of horses. Virgil decided that horse-breeding was a more lucrative enterprise than simply farming. And he was right; the Thorburn estate has been flourishing ever since.
Recently business has dropped off a bit as other lords in the area are catching on to the horse-trade, so Thorburn has concocted a scam to double his profits. He has his Marshal take the horses to market and sends his hired sword Bran tail them. Bran observes who the Marshal sells the horses to- usually only one client will buy most if not all of them- and then promptly thieves the animals from right under the new owner’s nose. The thieves then ferry them quickly to a waiting foreign buyer who takes them out of the country. It is a foolproof swindle that has increased Virgil’s wealth tenfold, and no one except the lord, Bran, and Bran’s men know about it.
Personality:
Virgil is consumed by an intense greed tapered only by his fear of getting his hands dirty. This has driven him to murder, theft, and unprecedented success, however only the last one is attributed to him. Most of the time Virgil’s work is done through another person’s effort. His forte is verbal persuasion. Virgil could talk the leaves off a tree. He holes up inside his massive estate and shoots out orders like arrows to his minions.
With all that talking comes a lot of thinking, and with thinking comes anxiety. Virgil spends endless amounts of time pacing, worrying, plotting. He knows he is playing with fire in this crime operation but he can’t see how the extra money isn’t worth it.
Virgil is:
Manipulative
Anxious
Well-prepared
Selfish
Tidy
Ghoulish
(Conri Carey bio coming soon..)
Childhood:
Tanith was born to Fergus Garret and Eileen Flaherty, a seamstress. Fergus was the well-respected Marshal to Lord Virgil Thorburn’s horses. Tanith was born out of wedlock, and under some strained circumstances ended up living with only her father on the Thorburn estate. Fergus raised her as he would one of his horses, if a bit more clumsily, because she was obviously a creature he was not used to rearing.
By age 10 Tanith had finished any sort of schooling she would receive at the hands of the manor’s clergyman. She could read some and write her name, recite the Lord’s Prayer, and sew. These skills seemed completely useless to Tanith, however, and as far as she was concerned their conclusion just opened up three extra hours of the day to spend on her real education in the stable yard. Fergus took on his daughter as his full-time apprentice, and her deftness with the animals was undeniable. She even established a few new training techniques that Fergus incorporated into his routine. For example, employing vocal commands as well as leg pressure to direct the animal. It was with this addition that Fergus became indispensible for his training skills.
An indispensable aspect of Tanith was her light weight, which allowed her to start breaking in horses via riding before they reached their full size without injuring them. This boon hastened the overall training period of each mount, saving Lord Thorburn a lot of money in the long run. A poor diet and a natural inclination to wiriness kept Tanith from filling out as most young women do, so her duties never had to be abandoned.
Lord Thorburn would never allow a woman to ascend to the rank of Marshal for his estate, but he allowed Tanith to work because as a child she did not require a salary.
Throughout her adolescence she became painfully aware of the fact that when her father retired the position would go to one of the less talented stable-hands. More and more she would be asked to dismount during training to allow more time for the squires. It was a bone of contention that gave Tanith a chip on her shoulder as adolescence set in, but the alternative to obedience was no contact with the horses at all, which was impossible for her to deal with. So she put up with it insofar as she did not make any obvious attempts at sabotage.
Personality: Tanith is smart, but she has a volatile temper that has its outlet in destructive behavior. Her back is striped with long lash scars from the multitude of times her father has disciplined her throughout her childhood. The painful consequences of her tantrums have forced a sort of pseudo-maturity. She can withhold her fury for extended periods of time, but it boils within her and she has tunnel vision until she can find a way to seek revenge. The art of trickery is a skill she has honed, and her fellow serfs regard her as a nuisance and constant source of anxiety. Where Tanith goes, trouble follows.
Tanith is:
Angry
Skinny
Sneaky
Dirty
Clever
Single-minded
Lord Virgil Thorburn
History:
Virgil was the fifth child, fourth boy born to the fertile Lord Lionel Thorburn. At that time the Thorburns only owned a modest landholding in Southern Ireland. They grew crops and barely came up with enough profit to keep their serfs. The soil in the rocky area was not conducive to harvest, but Lionel had no interest in bettering his situation or doing much of anything. After his wife died in her last (Virgil’s) birth, he lost his motivation. It was not that they were particularly in love, just that she was the only one who could ever spur him into action. Virgil’s earliest memories of his father were of a richly outfitted form lying, unmoving, in a great pile of pillows in his sitting room. When he was 13 his father finally died. The man lay cold in his pillows an entire day before anyone took notice.
Virgil’s oldest brother, Boris, assumed the Lordship and began to pick up the pieces of the broken manor. 5 years later he had nearly resuscitated it to the point of complete rehabilitation when he was called to battle by a higher lord. He and the second oldest, Carlisle, answered the order and were promptly slaughtered within a month by the French. Until this time Virgil had lain in wait, glowering in his position as fourth-eldest. But this windfall provided a way to escape the inevitable life of priesthood that seemed to await him. Of course Virgil would never risk doing the deed himself, so he convinced his sister, who had always been heavily under his influence, to poison him.
As the new master of the Thorburn land, Virgil began to make revisions immediately. He married his doting sister off to a distant earl in exchange for a selection of horses. Virgil decided that horse-breeding was a more lucrative enterprise than simply farming. And he was right; the Thorburn estate has been flourishing ever since.
Recently business has dropped off a bit as other lords in the area are catching on to the horse-trade, so Thorburn has concocted a scam to double his profits. He has his Marshal take the horses to market and sends his hired sword Bran tail them. Bran observes who the Marshal sells the horses to- usually only one client will buy most if not all of them- and then promptly thieves the animals from right under the new owner’s nose. The thieves then ferry them quickly to a waiting foreign buyer who takes them out of the country. It is a foolproof swindle that has increased Virgil’s wealth tenfold, and no one except the lord, Bran, and Bran’s men know about it.
Personality:
Virgil is consumed by an intense greed tapered only by his fear of getting his hands dirty. This has driven him to murder, theft, and unprecedented success, however only the last one is attributed to him. Most of the time Virgil’s work is done through another person’s effort. His forte is verbal persuasion. Virgil could talk the leaves off a tree. He holes up inside his massive estate and shoots out orders like arrows to his minions.
With all that talking comes a lot of thinking, and with thinking comes anxiety. Virgil spends endless amounts of time pacing, worrying, plotting. He knows he is playing with fire in this crime operation but he can’t see how the extra money isn’t worth it.
Virgil is:
Manipulative
Anxious
Well-prepared
Selfish
Tidy
Ghoulish
(Conri Carey bio coming soon..)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A couple updates
I've got the treatment mostly done in my head but of course the real chore is finding the time to put it down. Starting tomorrow afternoon I should have some free time. I've also come to realize that the inspiration for the story, the Black Death, is really taking quite a back seat and I will be surprised if it will be in it much at all. I've been told it's a hard topic to write a story around and that statement has definitely been proven correct.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Beginning of treatment
Very rough first section of my treatment. I've been a bit distracted with the holiday weekend.
1. Dawn is breaking, TANITH, a scraggly young woman of about 18, rides a large stallion deftly around a sprawling field littered with small obstacles. FERGUS, her lanky father, 48, about rides on another mount. They carry wooden swords and clash every so often. MICHAEL, 15, looks on sleepily, holding the reigns of a small mare.
2. Torches can be seen through the trees. Fergus calls to Tanith who swiftly dismounts and switches places with Michael. LORD VIRGIL THORBURN, 42, arrives with his men, specifically two red-haired brutes and BRAN, 28, a lion of a man with a stature that dwarfs Lord Virgil. Tanith uses a long lead and proceeds to trot the mare in a wide circle.
3. Lord Virgil is under the impression that Michael is Fergus’s apprentice as he doesn’t approve of a girl assuming the role of marshal for his horses. He talks to Fergus about the horses that are going to market the following day.
4. Later in the day Tanith is training some horses and some farmhands give her a hard time. She loses her temper and charges at them with her horse. Fergus sees this and reprimands her, sympathizing with her but emphasizing that she must control her anger.
5. The next morning Tanith prepares the horses for travel, including the stallion she rode the other day. Her father sets off with a half-dozen horses, Michael and a few others.
6. Bran and his two toadies leave Lord Virgil’s manor shortly after Fergus, but they take a different road.
7. Fergus sells the horses in town to some local landowners. Rumors about the Black Death are discussed. The buyer of most of the horses ends up being a relative of Michael and invites Fergus and his men to spend the night at their homestead in thanks. Fergus agrees.
8. Bran watches the horses being led into the buyer’s stables from the perimeter of some woods.
9. Most of Fergus’s men sleep in the stables but Michael and he are invited in to sup with the buyer. They drink mead and stay up late laughing and talking.
10. Bran descends upon the homestead, breaking into the stables.
11. Fergus goes to relieve himself outside and spots the stable doors open. He rushes down to see the horses being snuck out the other end. He yells and one of the men turn. It’s Bran, and he locks eyes with Fergus. The two red-haired men advanced over the littered corpses of Fergus’s men towards him.
12. Fergus mounts the stallion and races off, with a shout to Michael to protect the landowner and his family.
13. A breakneck chase ensues as Fergus tries to reach Lord Virgil to seek his protection. Bran and his thugs pursue him but they are no match for his horsemanship. In the darkness Fergus gets confused.
14. Tanith is scratching a profanity with a stone on the house of one of the boys that made fun of her when she hears shouts.
15. From where Tanith stands she sees a long stretch of the road. Suddenly her father’s horse canters out of the trees with a limp figure on its back. She runs to him and finds his body cold. The three thugs, too far away to recognize, emerge down the road. Tanith slides her father’s corpse onto the road and mounts the stallion, galloping after them.
16. Tanith loses track of them and turns back. Fergus’s body is gone.
1. Dawn is breaking, TANITH, a scraggly young woman of about 18, rides a large stallion deftly around a sprawling field littered with small obstacles. FERGUS, her lanky father, 48, about rides on another mount. They carry wooden swords and clash every so often. MICHAEL, 15, looks on sleepily, holding the reigns of a small mare.
2. Torches can be seen through the trees. Fergus calls to Tanith who swiftly dismounts and switches places with Michael. LORD VIRGIL THORBURN, 42, arrives with his men, specifically two red-haired brutes and BRAN, 28, a lion of a man with a stature that dwarfs Lord Virgil. Tanith uses a long lead and proceeds to trot the mare in a wide circle.
3. Lord Virgil is under the impression that Michael is Fergus’s apprentice as he doesn’t approve of a girl assuming the role of marshal for his horses. He talks to Fergus about the horses that are going to market the following day.
4. Later in the day Tanith is training some horses and some farmhands give her a hard time. She loses her temper and charges at them with her horse. Fergus sees this and reprimands her, sympathizing with her but emphasizing that she must control her anger.
5. The next morning Tanith prepares the horses for travel, including the stallion she rode the other day. Her father sets off with a half-dozen horses, Michael and a few others.
6. Bran and his two toadies leave Lord Virgil’s manor shortly after Fergus, but they take a different road.
7. Fergus sells the horses in town to some local landowners. Rumors about the Black Death are discussed. The buyer of most of the horses ends up being a relative of Michael and invites Fergus and his men to spend the night at their homestead in thanks. Fergus agrees.
8. Bran watches the horses being led into the buyer’s stables from the perimeter of some woods.
9. Most of Fergus’s men sleep in the stables but Michael and he are invited in to sup with the buyer. They drink mead and stay up late laughing and talking.
10. Bran descends upon the homestead, breaking into the stables.
11. Fergus goes to relieve himself outside and spots the stable doors open. He rushes down to see the horses being snuck out the other end. He yells and one of the men turn. It’s Bran, and he locks eyes with Fergus. The two red-haired men advanced over the littered corpses of Fergus’s men towards him.
12. Fergus mounts the stallion and races off, with a shout to Michael to protect the landowner and his family.
13. A breakneck chase ensues as Fergus tries to reach Lord Virgil to seek his protection. Bran and his thugs pursue him but they are no match for his horsemanship. In the darkness Fergus gets confused.
14. Tanith is scratching a profanity with a stone on the house of one of the boys that made fun of her when she hears shouts.
15. From where Tanith stands she sees a long stretch of the road. Suddenly her father’s horse canters out of the trees with a limp figure on its back. She runs to him and finds his body cold. The three thugs, too far away to recognize, emerge down the road. Tanith slides her father’s corpse onto the road and mounts the stallion, galloping after them.
16. Tanith loses track of them and turns back. Fergus’s body is gone.
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