Continuing "Desting Beckons"

Commercial Break Ends

Several meters away, police cars barricaded the immediate area to keep nosy spectators from harm's way.  Beyond the vehicles, a big, ugly creature held a woman hostage while four individuals in red, green, blue, and indigo uniformed suits maneuvered away from the creature's blasts. 

"It's the rangers!" Adria heard the boy squealed in delight from behind her. He and friends dashed off for a better look. 

Paseo De Sta.Rosa Complex

Adria's perplexed expression threatened to etch deeper and quickly searched for a good vantage point. Picking her way through the crowd, she started asking questions from one bystander. 

"What's happening?" she asked a grandfather who was keeping his excited granddaughter close to him. 

"I can't be sure," answered the man with a shook in his voice. "It happened...so fast. I was heading for the car when I heard a scream. I turned around to check what it was...the scream came from that... that creature. That was also the time I saw the monster holding her." The apprehensive man gesticulated while he continued. "Some of the security people tried to help but they couldn't get close to the woman. That creature was shooting off some sort of energy beam. It hit a guard squarely on his chest then it turned towards the squad cars and sent another energy beam."

Adria followed the man's pointing finger and noticed the scorched ground, where a couple of the squad cars had once stood. 

"The beam disintegrated those cars? Adria asked in disbelief. 

The man added. "After that, those guys came out of nowhere trying to rescue the woman."

Realizing, that she wouldn't get anything from the man anymore, she thank him and proceeded towards a pick-up truck. She climbed on its side and settled on the back of the vehicle. Adria adjusted her telephoto lens  in order to take better pictures of the scorched ground. She adjusted her lens again to take shots of the rangers. She was intrigued by these four individuals and took as many shots as she could from her position and continued snapping pictures to her heart's content.

By now, the rangers were circling the creature hoping to gain an opening. The creature eyes the rangers. It was hungry for another strike. 

Drago Credit www.starryskies.com

From its two antennae located on top of its head, a bright pulse came and hit the green ranger at full force. The ranger was thrown back hitting the side of a car. The rangers ran to their fallen comrade. Blue Centaurus and Indigo Vela formed a protective barrier that absorbed most of the creature's energy pulses. The police officers readied their guns but no shot was fired. They waited. 

"This kind of action isn't enough for you, Draco?" Red Orion asked as he helped the ranger to his feet. 

"Very funny, Orion." He swayed a little on his feet. 

Centaurus Credit www.redorbit.com

Blue Centaurus glanced over his shoulder. "Listen, Vela and I can't keep this up..."

"Heads up, everyone!" Vela exclaimed when she saw a portal forming over the creature's head. 

"Finish them off, now!" The voice in the portal thundered. The creature obeyed its master's orders, pushed the hostage to the ground, and charged at its prey.

 "We have its full attention and

Orion Credit http://hubblesite.org

away from the people, let's go!" Red Orion hustled away from the parking lot trailed by his fellow members. They all hopped to their respective motorbikes and sped off. The creature began to transform into something close to gooey mass substance and zipped to latch on the Indigo Vela's back. The ranger nearly careened to a corner but she held on to her bike, taking the creature with her. 

End of the First Installment

This was where I ended my writing assignment with positive comments from the instructor. Yay! "Good descriptions and handling of dialogue!"

Next Writing activity....

It was fun reminiscing and I found this writing assignment from the short story course I took from ICS way back 2004. It was for the Business Aspects of Writing section. This was the expanded story entry I posted here.

Star Rangers: Destiny Beckons

Synopsis: This is a series with approximately 3000 words. It's for the 12 to 17 age group. The first installment of the series is a four-part part story which follows a female high school photographer in her adventures and trials when she becomes a member of the Star Rangers. Each of the five rangers protect their respective medallions, thus developing abilities unique only to themselves. They are also special individuals chosen to defend Earth from Thalos, a being with a mysterious past who wants the five medallions for his hidden agenda and ruling the star systems is just his number two goal. 

Photo Credit www.spacetelescope.org

Adria Watanabe removed the lens cap of her camera as she entered the school gym and began surveying the area. Students milled about, passing from one table to another. A clique strode passed with a 'not-a-care-in-the-world' expression on their faces. Adria's eyes followed them until they exited the gym.

Adria started making her way around, gazing at the various projects. She noticed several of the students were nervous and edgy. She didn't blame them. She knew how it felt and she was glad it was over for her. Even if she didn't make it to the final fifteen science projects, she still had a good mark on her subject. 

For Different Categories of Stories

I wrote this for an online short-story course I enrolled before.There were several choices and we were to attempt one assignment. I chose #2 Write a picture story for children or for teenagers, again stating the age group. Send the synopsis and a manuscript showing your ideas fro the first two frames. My age group was 13 years old to 16 years old.

Photo credit Space Telescope.org

Star Rangers: Destiny Beckons

Synopsis: This is a series with approximately 3500 words and around 35 number of  frames. The story opens with the last standing ranger named Rhoswane in Planet Kuros. He is eventually defeated by Thalos, but not until Rhoswane sent the sphere containing the Medallions of Rigel, out to space. Many years later, Thalos resurfaced to spread havoc in the outer realms of space. The trouble reaches Earth and a new set of steadfast individuals were called in to protect the planet and the medallions they wore.

The medallions have chosen four individuals and now, they are searching for the fifth member. Circumstance inadvertently lead Adria Watanabe into the fold, but she will find out that her mundane life is changed forever and something from her past will be slowly revealed.

INSET: Prologue

Rhoswane stands on his good leg and surveys the smoldering surrounding. Destroyed vehicles prevent any escape for an ordinary citizen. Small fires are everywhere, adding more confusion on the war-torn Kuros. Rhoswane is the last remaining ranger, surviving the death trap Thalos had arranged on Planet Kuros. he know Thalos will do anything to get his hands on the Energy Medallions of Rigel. The very medallions gave each ranger, the symbol of Hope, individual uniqueness, and power suited only for the bearer. The rangers are chosen individuals, each capable of mastering and harnessing the energy locked within the medallions and becoming a Star Ranger.

Scene 1: Outside the destroyed complex.
THALOS (taunts): "Must we do this again, Silver Andromeda?" (Thalos coalesce into a human form., stands before the ranger. He wields his weapon of choice, a silver staff. Rhoswane re-forms his staff and assumes a fighting stance.)

INSET: Thalos launches his attack. Rhoswane neatly sidesteps and sent the tip of his staff to hit Thalos' on the ribs. An angry Thalos shifts his footing and lashes out at the ranger. He gains a upper hand against the exhausted ranger.

RHOSWANE (screams in pain when Thalos' staff sends electrical charges on his chest) "Ahhhhh!" (writhes in pain). Whatever you're going to do, it won't change my mind.

INSET: Rhoswane goes all numb as the electric current from Thalos' staff sears him like fire. He falls backwards on the ground, his breath is knocked from him, when he opens his eyes, he sees Thalos pinning him down to the ground. The glowing tip of his staff comes dangerously close to his chest again.

THALOS: Well, which is it? Family or misery, Ranger?

RHOSWANE: Varielle, my love. I am sorry.

INSET:  Many years had passed from the day the sphere containing the medallions left the planet Kuros. It continued its journey through space until the medallions found new owners on Earth. These individuals have risen and answered the call to defend the galaxy and ensuing peace for the next succeeding years.

It was only recenly that the ranger lost the fight to Thalos on the outer realm of the galaxy. However, just like before Thalos failed to obtain the medallions. Now, there was again a need to form a new team of Star Rangers to defend the impending threat Thalos would bring.

FRAME 2:
Present day. Wednesday morning at a high school gymnasium. Adria, the school's photographer is covering the Annual Science Exhibit and stops by her best friend's table. Sally Beaumont, is one of the finalist and is very nervous.

ADRIA (encourages}: You'll be all right. You can do this. Think nothing of it or maybe think of Ian Somerhalder.

SALLY (deep breathes, nervously gazing the group of students coming her way): Okay, I'm trying.

INSET: Adria sees the approaching students and takes her leave just as her cell phone beeps. Lisha, the school's editor is calling to get her to the arcade to cover the hostage situation by some nutcase wearing an absurd costume.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire Assistant

Josh Hutcherson as Steve

The Journey of the antagonist

Steve, was Darren Shan best friend since third grade and had been pretty much the kid from the wrong side of the fence. The boys snucked out from their respective bedrooms on a school night to visit the Cirque that happened to be in town.

There was a scene when the boys were at ticket booth. Steve was bitten by the smallish creature wearing a cloak. I didn't get what they were called though. It was later in the movie that their origins were revealed. Apparently, when Mr. Tiny gets disappointed he'd turn his minion into such a creature for not completing a task.

Anyway, back to the boys. They were separated in between the performance because the concerned parents with the police, interrupted the acts. Steve confronted Larten for being a vamp. We found out that Steve wanted to become a vampire. However, when Larten tasted the boy's blood, he recoiled in disgust and waved Steve away .

If I wasn't paying attention, I might have missed Larten's reaction to Steve's blood. The creature's bite was the only thing that happened so the ticket booth scene and the scene at Larten's private dressing room tied nicely together. There other scenes added into each other, was more of Steve's possible role in Mr. Tiny's plan and Darren's plight to stay alive as Murlaugh under Mr. Tiny's orders wants him too.

From there, I was able to string the pieces together. Mr. Tiny wants Steve since the start. He could have already ordered that smallish, cloaked creature to be on the look out for the boy and when it did at the ticket booth, it bit him.  His blood tainted, preventing him from being turned to Larten's camp in the coming battle, which is possible Steve doesn't know that he might be... the key? I guess we'll have to wait for the next movie installment.

I remember reading about scene objectives from the screenwriting books I have. So, don't forget the purpose of a scene and why as a writer, want a particular incident or moment to be presented.

Exposition

...provides the reader or the audience the background, the plot, the setting, the supporting characters, and the theme to help us understand the story.

As a very neophyte screenwriter I've been attentively watching several of my favorite TV shows and observed how the writers crafted their expositions. Of course, wishing to have the luxury of reading the script at the same time the episode was aired would have been cool but I can only do so much. Sure, there are DVD sets and Ebay (hahaa) but I can't certainly buy all of them. I can only choose. Anyways, here are a few of them...

Credit www.tvovermind.zap2it.com

For Supernatural,  concise crafting of the Winchester brothers dialogue (not too wordy) delivered the plot quickly and the who's who they had to deal with. The What was usually presented through reading unexplained deaths in the newspaper like from Season Three: The Kids are Alright. Given the nomadic lifestyle and their type of job, the brothers used newspapers as a source to check out killings or disappearances, which they could tell had a supernatural cause connected to it. Information gathering on a certain lore was through the internet, the local library or their father's journal , which was heavily used from Season One and Season Two, I think). I can't recall if in the third season the journal was prominent. I may have to wait for the reruns. Through later seasons, the newspapers were very handy and information passed by their family friend/fellow hunter, Bobby, would launch the brothers into full on investigative mode.

Credit www.mywatchmovies.blogspot.com

For Smallville, the characters have to lay it out for the audience a little. Exposition was delivered between two or three characters, depending which big three of  week story is it.  The presentation sort of followed one of the characters thought processes like a normal brainstorming session to deduce either the motive of the antagonist (an example between calculating Tessa and feisty Chloe in Season Nine: Sacrifice or the solution of a problem  the main characters were facing like in Season Six: Justice.

For Stargate: Atlantis, Dr. Rodney McKay  usually provides the background of what the team has encountered as being the closest expert in Ancients and their technology. An example from Season One: Hot Zone.  I sometimes found that giving the scientist the whole brunt of the story (in several other episodes) can be a bit tiresome and drag everything down. Would a particular episode fared better if the exposition was given to another 'expert' or it was broken down with another semi-regular character? Maybe.

Something to remember for the day: "Good exposition, however, never simply "dumps" information in our lap." Read more from The Script Lab. 

Now, let's try to apply it with my drafts.

A little less confused....

So that was what it meant by pages. I originally thought that just like adding a new post, you could do the same after creating new pages. It seems here, you can add new material to the existing page by editing.  Let's say, in "Fanfic" I plan to add a new of story, I would go to Posting -> Edit  Pages -> Click Fanfic. The posting window pops and I'll add the link to the list that's already present but I will not be able to add a new post,  which I could  do in "Home." Funny, after being on Livejournal, Multiply and a couple of blogspots, I would have a better handle on this. Hahaha

Confused....

After browsing through Ultimately Charmed and Darling Divine's site, I still don't get the html codes that I followed from Blogger Sentral. I don't know why the text appeared red when there was no "red" coded in there.

Okay, after several more minutes of research,  Blogger In Draft came with the answer to my question that has been nagging me for the past several hours. Hahaa. Now, I'll have to look up on how to add posts to the individual sections here.