LOVE the idea of Jordi being accused of being some sort of domestic terrorist. Perhaps the bad dudes can photoshop her into some still photos from a surveillance camera that seem to implicate her in something -- and these photos get splashed across every news wire and cable station.
And while I'm clearly deferring to you on her look, I will toss this out for consideration -- what if she starts out as a wallflower science nerd loner who uses her hacking skills to intercept text messages regarding parties she's not invited to. Then, when the conglomerate plays hardball and ups the stakes by accusing her of being a terrorist, that's when she's forced to go on the run and change her look. Maybe this is the moment that she starts to look like the alter ego she always wanted to be. Her changing her look -- however that might be -- could be this transformative moment that signals "look out -- she means business".
But it could still be humanizing and funny to have her get all fierce and punked out and then realize that she still needs her dorky glasses.
Also, somewhat along those lines, how about ratcheting up to her being implicated as a terrorist. Maybe, initially, when the conglomerate becomes aware that she's responsible for the satellite disruption (or, more precisely, aware that she has information that threatens billions of dollars from their revenue stream) they send a team to clean her up. But what if -- they accidentally kill her mom instead. This would: 1) Obviously, make everything more personal, 2) Make her search for -- and ultimate location of -- her father more integral, and 3) allow us to have her go on the run without explaining why there isn't a parent at home freaking the heck out.
By the way, didn't we at one time have a name for the conglomerate? I'm not asking for those brain cells back, as long as you still have yours.
Labels: Blackwater, Carlyle Group, hacking, Run Lola Run
Stumble It!
I warned you of imminent spewing (I'll try not to splatter your beautiful flowers). But your Why and How for the inciting incident are cool, and it got me percolating. So, in no particular order or priority, here are some of the things rolling around in my head.
Evasive Maneuvers
At some point Jordi is going to be on the run and being tracked by the arsenal of tools the defense contractors have at their disposal. Essentially, one teenage girl going up against a private army. She she's going to need some smart moves to get out of situations.
- I can see her pinned down in a truck stop parking lot. There's a car hauler loaded with new cars. If she could hack into (or maybe she knows someone who works there, although she is a loner) an OnStar type network, key in a VIN for one of the cars, and have it unlocked from above. She could crawl in the back seat and stow away when the truck pulls out past the bad guys.
- If she has a reclusive genius father, I'm picturing him in the West Virginia mountains, or somewhere where she could utilize mine shafts to dodge satellite surveillance.
- I can also see her trapped in a Home Depot or Lowes after hours. She's hiding, climbing on the tops of the massive shelving units, as a couple guys look for her. And I can see her assembling a makeshift fertilizer bomb that allows her to thwart her pursuers and ignite the lumber section, causing plumes of smoke that obscure her from satellite surveillance.
- Sewer systems are nice for evading surveillance.
Cool tech tricks
She's also going to need to take charge and fight back. Some random things she could do are:
- Phone phreaking. Using administrator passwords found online, she could go into phone systems and change internal settings on individual phones. For example, she could remotely toggle a speaker function from off to on, effectively turning a speaker enabled phone in an office into a bug. She could do the same to someone's cell phone, turning it into an open wire.
- She could also combine turning someone's cell phone into a wire with broadcasting it via ham radio.
- Copying SIM cards and cloning phones.
- Off-the-shelf antennas and scanners patched into laptop to snag text messages.
- Sending a service SMS to a phone and reprogram its SIM card.
- Using a transmitter at different frequencies to open garage doors or change stop lights.
- Using a scanner tuned to the frequency of baby monitors to listen inside someone's house.
Labels: amateur satellite, cell phone hacking, hacking, ham radio, intercepting text massages, phone phreaking
Stumble It!
The first, biggest, most important thing to figure out is... The How. And, I'll admit, I still don't have my finger completely on it. I still haven't cracked exactly what she does that sets the wheels in motion. Yeah, I know, it's just the minor detail on which the entire story hinges.
I want it to be clean. I want it to be simple. We don't want to lay a ton of pipe to set up this premise.
I've played with it a number of different ways, and I thought I'd finally settled on this: She's attempting to hack a satellite transmission (maybe some cool band doing a rain forest benefit concert, whatever). And she targets the wrong satellite and messes with what turns out to be the Venezualen defense satellite. They blame the U.S. government, and the dominoes start falling.
Problem is (actually just one of the problems) is that it needs to be technologically plausible. For her to actually affect the satellite, she'd need to be doing a lot more than just intercepting a transmission -- she'd need to be transmitting. So, is it plausible for her to be transmitting to a given satellite? And if all she's trying to do is intercept information, why would she be transmitting?
Quick aside -- it is possible for her to be attempting to transmit on her own.
So, one approach could be that she needs to reposition the satellite so that she's in its footprint? Then she would be doing some transmitting (attempting to send command prompts), and she might accidentally overload an on-board amplifier, damaging the satellite. But, again, that's one more link in the chain of exposition.
Or am I over-thinking it?
The other obvious way to look at it (if all she's doing is receiving) is what if she accidentally downloads something she shouldn't. That's the Enemy of the State model (person ends up in possession of dangerous information). But I'd really been leaning toward the cleanness of the War Games model (kid accidentally sets global wheels in motion).
Russ, what does your enormous cranium think? Labels: Enemy of the State, hacking, satellite, War Games, web strip
Stumble It!
As Russ mentioned, one of our goals here is to develop a web strip. Online, in public, for anyone who wants to watch the nuts and bolts and sheep entrails of the development process.
The story is based on an idea I've been kicking around for a couple years. I've worked and reworked a couple screenplays tackling the idea from different directions, but I just wasn't able to crack it.
Flash forward or backward or whatever -- last summer, I was having one of those restless nights, sort of half dreaming and watching the clock and focusing on my eyes swelling closed. Then, somehow, the Idea bubbled up through all the other brain noise, only this time it was illustrated. And if my eyes hadn't been swollen shut from lack of sleep, they would have popped open.
Because now The Idea made sense. This is how it needed to be told. With Russ doing all the hard work.
Here's the concept:
A teenage hacker, Jordi Cross, is attempting to tap into a satellite feed when she accidentally alters the orbit of a Chinese made, Venezualen operated defense satellite. International accusations are made. Threats are issued. Armies are mobilized and ramped up. We're roaring towards WWIII. And only can Jordi can prove she was the accidental culprit, rather than the US government.
Except, the threat of war is a nice boost to the bottom line for the largest holding group of independent defense and intelligence contractors. When Jordi attempts to go public with her knowledge, they bring down the hammer and come after her. On the run, she has to use her skills to defeat a web of private companies with state of the art capabilities in surveillance, communications, and mobilization. With nothing but her garage sale gear and hacking skills, she has to stay alive long enough to stave off World War III.
That's our foundation. We know generally where we want to start. We know generally where we want to go. And we know generally how it's going to end. Let the hand-cranked sausage grinding begin.
Over the coming weeks, Russ and I will be breaking down the components of the story development and fleshing out Theme, Characters, Arc, Structure, Plot, and Key Visuals.
-- Dave Labels: concept, hacking, movies, satellite
Stumble It!
