At this point, I think we have a lot of solid moving pieces. We've pretty much nailed down Characters, we have some great Story Points, a Set Piece or three, and some solid Tech Tricks. I think we're close to being able to start piecing them together into a rudimentary, very skeletal plot outline.
But first...
Let's put together a sentence or two thumbnail description for each of the players. Just a little something to keep them/us focused and, maybe, inspire a few more collateral ideas. I'll toss in a sentence here and there, and you can feel free to add.
Jordi -- The spirit of an anarchist but, at the outset, too meek to be noticed. She's wicked smart, gifted in all things techie, but has spent her life trying to assimilate, with very poor results. When she goes on the run, she becomes the person she always wanted to be.
Jordi's mom. Not long for this world.
Jordi's dad. Long ago went missing. I'm thinking institutionalized for his paranoia, which it turns out was completely founded, since he thought that people were being watched from the sky.
NSA Guy. Betrayer and then the source of help and the person Jordi has to learn to trust.
Conglomerate CEO -- A decent man used. Misguided, but also too trusting.
Rovian kingmaker -- Pasty, soft, pulls the strings of power because he never had any. Yeah, I know, that's on-the-nose Rove. I trust you'll make him look less sweaty.
BAKK(s)
Field Generals -- How about three different heads of the individual companies that have major contracts with the DOD and whose products are used to come after Jordi. These are the guys who serve as the pyramid of evil that she climbs, and each of their demises/comeuppances could reflect their business/commodity in a Se7en-like way.
And I'm thinking maybe the CEO's wife. I think we need an audience surrogate (besides the conglomerate's board of directors) where we can get some exposition to inform the bad guys' POV. Or maybe not.
Labels: 4GW, Blackwater, NSA
Stumble It!
The table is straining under the weight of everything Russ just brought to it. Well struck, lad. Russ dished out a lot of great ideas that are sure to become major story points, so I want to chime in with a quick roll call.
* The kingmaker/Rove dude being the ultimate bad dude. Check
* The misdirect, finding out that the person we thought was the ultimate evil is just a puppet for the real bad dude. Check.
* Power for power's sake being the motivating factor. Check.
* Rice dick. Check.
* Knocking the second tier bad guys down one at a time on her climb up the evil pyramid. Check. Although, I'm not sure how much time we'll have to devote to establishing full-on personalities for these field generals. We can play around with how in depth we go with these guys.
* Boots-on-the-ground bad guys. I agree with you, they're bad ass kitten killers (BAKK). Check.
* The BAKK -- which could be a team or an individual -- is the one who kills the ultimate bad dude. Check. We could do it so that they receive their directives online. Or, we could paint them as total mercenaries. So one of the final viral counter-assaults Jordi or the Unexpected Military Ally Dude (UMAD) unleash is some proxy/mirror site that can't be traced that is taking pay-pal donations... to outbid the BAKK. Perhaps the growing army of the Media Enlightened all contribute $10, to the point where they hire the BAKK away from the corporate kingmaker. Except, the problem with that is the kingmaker would just hire someone else. So maybe the BAKK do receive an unexpected online directive to take out the kingmaker, and the author of that directive is the bad dude for the sequel.
* Heavy hitter who learns the ends don't justify the means. Check.
* What if we combine this Heavy Hitter Who Learns The Lesson idea with the person we initially think is the big bad dude. And it's when he learns this lesson that he's no longer useful to the kingmaker, so the kingmaker takes him out. This is how we learn that the person we thought was the ultimate bad dude was really a puppet. I can see this happening right about at the middle of our story, pulling the rug out from under the audience's feet, and ratcheting up the stakes. And maybe it's at this moment that the kingmaker adds the bounty to what had up to this point only been accusations of Jordi being a domestic terrorist.
* Ambitious Military Guy (AMG) starts down the road to his penance by starting the New Media counter-assault. Check. What is this viral assault? Here's a thought -- what if he uses his official capacity to get some dirt or tap a call or get an incriminating surveillance photo of one influencial yet hypocritical Old Media pundit. Maybe the video is edited together with the pundit telling on-camera lies. And I like the fade-out tag line for this video being, "Consider The Source". And that tag line could become a recurring rallying cry.
* The division between old and new media, the old and young, and the status-quo vs. the search for change. This is a very interesting idea that I think we need to clarify a bit. Or at least firm up how we articulate it. I'm not sure old vs. young is entirely accurate. And I'm not sure it's old media vs. new media, because there are plenty of internet sites controlled by the established information brokers. Maybe it's more media enlightened vs. media unenlightened. Or perhaps it's more centralized media vs. decentralized media. Let's marinate a little on this.
Labels: 4GW, Bill O'Reilly, Blackwater, Carl Rove, youtube
Stumble It!
