”Aren’t they lovely, the figments of the mind?” ~Mel
Nicknames
Melody was, in childhood, known as Mellie to her friends. In high school she tried to go by “Rae” to be “cool” and doesn’t let anyone call her that anymore. If you’re a friend of hers, you can call her “Mel”; otherwise it has to be “Melody”. She makes exceptions for her music students, however; many of the younger ones have taken to calling her “Auntie Mel” or “Aunt Mellie”.
Age
Twenty-Three
Gender
Female
Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual
Occupation
Composer
Appearance
Mel seems to have inherited an equal smattering of traits from both parents: her mother’s blue-gray eyes and curly dark brown hair, which she usually pulls into a bun, and her father’s golden complexion and general bone structure. She’s rather short, about 5’1, another trait that she inherited from her mother. She usually has a fairly distracted expression on her face, her eyes unfocused and staring off into the distance; usually she can be found distractedly tapping the table or desk with a pencil or pen and mumbling under her breath.
Fashion-wise, Mel tends to go simple and comfortable. She favors pale colors and generally conservative styles. Her go-to outfits are button-up shirts and long skirts. She generally hates any look that draws attention to her, such as the monstrous glasses that she got when she was in high school and still trying to “stand out” (but she never can remember to trade them out when she goes to the eye doctor.) She wears very little makeup, usually only when there’s some formal event she needs to go to.
"Nothing like a bit of dissonance in the morning to make us want to tear out our eardrums, eh?"
Personality
Scatterbrained, Distant, Quiet, Fidgety.
Mel is the stereotypical composer. Always distracted by her work (and from her work), without great time-management skills. She’s often seen frantically rushing around the set looking for her in-progress score; she’ll often set things down without knowing and then entirely forget about them, until she suddenly has an epiphany and needs to write it down in her notes.
When it comes to interacting with people, Mel prefers to not. She’s a kind soul but she very much dislikes interacting with people in a casual sense. She does fine in a professional sense, in that she’s able to interact with fellow composers and musicians in the workplace and keep her orchestra (fairly) happy, healthy, and sane, even during concert season. But when it comes to being an actual friend… well, she has issues.
The one bit of human interaction that she actually does enjoy is her music classes. She offers private lessons for clarinet and has quite a few students, typically elementary and middle schoolers who want to learn but are intimidated by other instructors they’ve tried.
Likes
Perfect fifths
Clarinet
Romance novels
Her clarinet students
Fruit smoothies
Watching people from afar
Gustav Holst’s compositions
Dislikes
Forced social interaction
Deadlines
Students who destroy their music
Dissonance
Working with people who aren’t her students
JS Bach. See Dislike 4.
Fears
Ironically, she fears being feared. She doesn’t ever want anyone to distrust her or be afraid of her. Breaking her clarinet. It happened to her once before, in middle school, and it was the most horrible thing she ever experienced.
"Once more, with FEELING!"
Strengths
good with children
good mediator
A good team leader
Open and honest
Weaknesses
Underestimating her own capabilities
Emotional sensitivity
Social anxiety
Is likely to crack under stress
History
Mel has always been “destined” for music. Born and raised in Philadelphia, her parents met in middle school band; a shared love of the clarinet brought them together and they raised their only daughter with a healthy dose of it in her life. Even in kindergarten she played on a scaled-down version of a clarinet. Music has kind of been her life ever since she was little.
She’s been fortunate to have a pretty uneventful life, if an intense one. She was always pushed by both parents into being the best at whatever activity she was involved in at the time: At school she was expected to get straight A’s; she did, even being allowed to skip sixth grade on account of how rapidly she was learning. This, in addition to her favored wardrobe (comfort, rather than fashionability) led to petty mistreatment at the hands of her classmates. She didn’t take it well; for her eighth and ninth grade years she switched to a homeschooling program. Before tenth grade she decided to try to go back to the public school. She cut her hair, got new glasses, changed her wardrobe to be more fashionable. For a while it worked well. She got into the popular crowd and felt good and confident.
And then came the friend incident.
She’d gotten into the cool group, gotten to be pretty popular. That was when she got her acceptance letter to the Juilliard School. Her dream. Unthinkingly she told all of her “friends” about it, within two minutes shattering the cool-girl reputation she’d built up over the last year. Her friends were… nonplussed to say the least. “Wait, what? Where are you going?” “Oh, isn’t that the one super-nerdy school?” “God, Rae, we thought you were actually cool. Not some closet band geek.”
She vowed to take the lesson to heart. Unfortunately, it might have been the wrong lesson. "Trust no one except for music; music will never break your heart.”
She threw herself into her studies. Having graduated high school at the age of almost-seventeen, she was done with her master’s degree in musical composition by the age of 21, having overloaded her schedule somewhat to allow herself to finish school early.
All throughout college she worked as a composer for middle-and high-school-level concert bands, earning a fairly decent reputation. She had one fairly ambitious work, the one she did for her master’s thesis. An orchestral suite vaguely inspired by her idol, Gustav Holst, but on an even grander scale. Entitled simply, “Galaxia”. She thought she’d overestimated herself, but apparently it was an enormous success. The Philadelphia Orchestra picked up her piece and played it on her 22nd birthday. Then the London Symphony picked it up too, shooting her to stardom—whatever stardom can be associated with contemporary orchestral composers.
She was asked if her piece could be used in an up-and-coming sci-fi film. She agreed. Not a week later she was asked if she could come on-set to look over the script and the storyboards and write a score specifically for the movie.
She didn’t want to uproot from her home, but…this was the music career she’d been looking for. So she went. She spent much of the time there listening to the orchestra’s renditions of her work, and they weren’t satisfactory: she asked to take over conducting, since it was *her* music, after all.
Six months later, when the music was finally as perfect as she could get it and she could find no fault in the final recording, she prepared to leave to go back to Philadelphia. Her orchestra, as she came to think of them, would have none of it. The conductor that she’d replaced just grinned at her and told her that he’d been looking to retire anyway, and he might as well leave the orchestra in her hands. He jokingly told her that “Composers always make the best conductors and I never was a composer. I didn’t stand a chance.”
So she stayed. She kept up her composing work and her own clarinet practice when she wasn’t conducting. She needed something else to fill the time. Well, word got around the orchestra that she was a pretty good clarinetist, and before long one of the orchestra members brought along a young cousin of his, a scared little girl who had managed to be frightened by all of her previous private instructors. He asked if Mel wouldn’t mind trying to teach the girl, because she really needed a challenge.
Before too long, the girl brought her friends, who told their other friends, and now Mel also teaches private clarinet lessons to a group of students from ages 6-13.
About two months ago, a talent agent for this movie approached her after one of her orchestra’s performances and asked if she would be able to write and conduct a score, completely from scratch, for an enormous cinematic production.
Of course she said yes.
Favorite memory
Mel has a lot of favorite memories. One of them is from when she was six or seven and got to play a clarinet sonata as the soloist with her local high school’s band. Another is when she opened the gold-leafed envelope from Juilliard. Or when she went to the orchestra on her birthday and wound up almost fainting when she realized they were playing her symphony. Or just a few months ago, when she took all of her students to a state music festival and their ensemble wound up taking first place.
Least favorite memory
When she was in seventh grade, a group of kids cornered her when she was walking home from school. They systematically destroyed her clarinet, by jumping on it, banging it against the brick wall, etc, and breaking all of her reeds by smashing them into the ground. She collected all of the pieces of it, and has all the keys on a necklace that she used to wear every day and still keeps for memorabilia’s sake
Why did you decide to work for this movie?
You’ve got to be kidding. A blockbuster movie for a twenty-three-year-old composer? Resume fodder, anyone? Also, she’s getting bored with just the standard, already-written pieces and needs to get her creative juices flowing
"See, sweetie? Don’t cry. It’s just a loose screw. Totally fixable. Clarinets don’t like to be broken, you see, and neither do clarinetists. Never let a little thing like a loose screw get you down, sweetheart, alright?"
Miscellaneous I’m fine with any plot, but Mel would have the most fun scoring for Never Have I Ever. Suspense is a lovely thing to write into music. Or “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” from ClocktowerEchos’s suggestions. Lots of mournful flute/clarinet/oboe/violin passages in there. Or Endymion from Clock’s suggestions, because again, suspense and adventure and angst.
"Music is the way the universe lets us know what it’s thinking.”
@Undine edited Grayson's CS with what we discussed, explaining that he was taken under the wing of an older agent and thusly managed to inherit some of his connections upon retirement. The agent then asked Jake to do him a favour by giving the kid a chance, after all, he might not be as big a director as he was without his agents help.
The enemy of art is the absence of limitations. -Orson Welles
Name
Michael Marshall
Nicknames
Doesn’t mind if people call him Mike or Michael. Doesn’t like it when people call him Mikey but is too nice to tell them to stop.
Age
76
Gender
Male
Sexual Orientation
Homosexual (closet)
Occupation
Screenplay Writer
Appearance
Michael is not one to focus intently on how he looks. As long as his hair isn’t too much of a mess, he isn’t going to make a big fuss over it. He’s quite modest with how he looks. He knows he’s going bald so he just lets it happen. He has a beard due to not bothering to shave it in his years of depression. He ended up taking a liking to it.. As long as it doesn’t get too long, he doesn’t really care.
Luckily his hair color hasn’t completely disappeared, he’s still got large bits of light brown hair that’s very noticeable but, you can still see the gray and white parts of his hair starting to take over the rest of it. He’s quite healthy for his age but he still has a little bit of a beer belly but nothing that you would call fat.
His clothing is anything that feels comfortable and avoids attention. It’s usually just a dark plain t-shirt or jacket and occasionally he’ll wear a scarf.
Personality
Michael is quite a timid and quiet character. He’s spent over 30 years in isolation and depression and it’s made his confidence quite low. He has trouble asking for help when he’ll need it and doesn’t really engage in conversation, usually someone else engages in conversation with him. He prefers to work alone but a small part of him yearns for a partner. Someone else he can bounce ideas off but alas, the last 30 years have repressed that yearn but, it might still be there.
He wasn’t always like that. In his younger days in the 60s/70s, he was quite an outgoing and fun character. He used to be the one that brought the fun and created a night to remember. That same man has been dead for a while but maybe he’s still there. He might just need a little push.
Likes
Creative writing on any medium
Someone to bounce ideas off of
A quiet place to work or think
His flask of whiskey
Dislikes
Stress
Aggressive people
Actors with massive egos
Clubs
Fears
Michael fears many things with this looming film production.He fears that he won’t be able to right for a more modern audience after so many years away. He fears that people will see his inexperience and treat him like some sort of liability. He also fears that his depression may get worsened by the film and it would send him even darker into the void. He also fears that too many people would find out about his true sexuality. The ghosts of his past is one of his largest fears. He hopes that he doesn’t go through what happened 30 years ago again. It would kill him.
Strengths
Has major experience with screenwriting
Can create wonderful stories with little source material
Is kind to everyone
Weaknesses
Might not have great experience with modern day culture and technology
Having a new writing partner scares him.
Will have trouble voicing his opinion to those around him. (non-writing opinions)
History
Michael came from a relatively normal home. He had no brothers and sisters and is mother is the one who raised him. When he was young, all he would do is either read books and comics or begged is mother to take him to the cinema. He was in love with all of the stories created on each of these mediums. To him, it took him places that he has never been before. One day he’ll be fighting orcs in a fantasy realm and the next, he’ll be a gangster trying to make some money. The possibilities were endless for him.
He knew his dream would be to become a writer one day, so he was intent on making it happen. He started working at a butcher in his late teens to be able to raise funds to send him to film school. When he finally got enough, he said goodbye to his mother and left home with the desire to become one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. When he got to film school, he was very shy. It was the first time that he had been away from home, so the whole place felt foreign to him. That all changed when is meeting his writing partner and future lover: Henry Kilburn. They instantly connected on ideas, characters and stories and Henry managed to help Michael come out of his shell.
It was about the early 60s when they both got out of film school. They both got a shitty apartment together in Los Angeles and they were doing everything they can for opportunities and money. All they could get were either intern positions for asshole producers at the studios or doing grunt work with the technical equipment. They learned the hard way that the film industry was a very competitive place but they weren’t willing to let that get them down. Luckily they’re big break came when the writer hired to do a major paramount picture dropped out and they needed someone to quickly rewrite the screenplay before it gets sent off to the director. Their was only a few days to rewrite and no one was willing to do it in that small space of time but Michael and Henry took that suicide mission in desperate need of an opportunity. They stayed up for over 48 hours straight trying to rewrite it. It was the most stressful and nervous experience he had ever done. From that day on, he swore not try and back himself into a corner like that again. Even among the stress and anxiety, that was the night that they had discovered their love for each other and realized who they were.They also realized that it could damage their careers before they had even started if their secret got out. They made a pact not to tell a single soul of their love for each other. They got it handed in and many months later, the studio were impressed with the critical reviews for the film. It wasn’t amazing, it was just decent reviews but for a rushed script, that was a miracle. That’s when the studio started to focus more on Michael and Henry.
The 70s had arrived and that’s when Michael and Henry started to receive critical acclaim. They had written several screenplays over the course of ten years and each one was either a critical success, box office success or both! Both Henry and Michael received two Academy awards; one for best original screenplay and one for best adapted. They were at the top of their game and it all went to their head. A rocketball mixture of drugs, alcohol and sex was all Michael and Henry did. They felt at the top of the world and that nothing could stop them but the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
The darkest year in Michael’s life. It was a dark Tuesday evening when Michael heard the news. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe it. His world had stopped and his heart felt like it was crushed to a million pieces. The moment he saw the body when he was asked to identify it. It was indeed Henry. His skin had become pale and his lips blue, like ice. He couldn’t help but look at him. He was so full of love, life and joy but now he was just an empty husk. Michael didn’t know what to do with himself. The killer shot him outside of the club they were supposed to meet at; Michael stayed behind at the studio to go over some details of a new screenplay with a producer. He kept repeating the same scenario over and over again in his head. Would things have been different if he had been there? Would they both be alive or dead? The killer turned out to be a pissed of drug dealer that Henry tried to rip off. What pisses Michael the most was that the deed was done out of business and it wasn’t personal. It would have easier somehow knowing that it was something more understandable that killed him.
For over 3 decades after that event. Michael retired from the film industry and from the public itself. For the first few years, people went crazy about where he went but by the late 80s, that hype had died down and no one cared anymore. No one cared anymore that Michael was now drinking himself to death in is home, drenched with sorrow and self-pity. That soon changed when he was reached out by a budding director named Jake Fowler. Michael was very reluctant at first but after one drink, Michael agreed to come out of his hole. What’s amazing is that this was the first time in so long that someone tried to reach out. He decided to cautiously but gracefully take the opportunity. Michael was curious to see how the film industry had changed in the time that he has been away.
Favorite memory
The moment that both Michael and Henry got their first major screenplay finished. This was the official first one has they agreed that the rushed one didn’t count. In celebration, they opened a bottle of cheap wine and ordered some Chinese food. It was modest night followed by a beautiful full moon. It was perfect. His love life and career was going places.
Least favorite memory
The moment that he saw Henry’s body at the police station. He had never felt more depressed and more empty than that moment. It felt like and entire part of him had been ripped away. The pain was so excruciating that he couldn’t even feel it. It had literally killed him inside. Nothing will ever make surpass this memory for Michael. This was indeed his darkest moment.
Why did you decide to work for this movie?
He was dragged out of retirement by Jake Fowler to help him develop is film. Michael was very reluctant and negative at first but Jake told him that he understood who he was and why he left the industry. Michael couldn’t believe that someone finally saw what he felt, let alone have someone reach out to him. He agreed to do Jake’s film but was still reluctant in doing so as it had been so long since he was back in business.
Birthday
24/04/1939
Twitter Name
Has none due to the fact he lived in recluse from society for over 30 years.
Miscellaneous My character would love to write for Soulmates or Never Have I Ever.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to withdraw; I'm having trouble creating an interesting character at the moment, my minds on too many things at once at this time. Apologies
Без труда́ не вы́тащишь и ры́бку из пруда́. -Without effort you cannot even pull a fish out of a pond -Russian Proverb
Name
Aleksandri Valora Galino
Nicknames
Aleksi: She got tired of introducing her whole name
Age
28
Gender
Female
Sexual Orientation
bisexual
Occupationl
Production Designer
Appearance
Aleksi is a fairly tall Russian/Irish girl standing at the height of 6'4" which coupled with her radiant green eyes either allure or intimidate men who try to hook up with her. Her red hair that runs down to the middle of her back seems like it is just unable to be straight and tidy unless she ties it back with a scrunchy, this most likely comes from her father's side of the gene pool.
As you can see in the photo above she has A LOT of freckles but and they cover the bridge of her nose, she is overly proud of this saying that they make her super unique.
She doesn't like to spend a lot of time on her appearance since she isn't on camera most of the time but does put on a bit of make-up.
Aleksi's body is very toned but also lithe as she works out almost daily but isn't like a fitness nut or anything it just helps her think.
Personality
Aleksandri is a two sided coin, at times she can be spontaneous and random, while at others she will be quiet, timid, and won't want to get in other people's way. These personalities benefit her job as they both are hard workers through and through but with slightly different end results.
All and all she is a pretty down to earth girl who loves almost everybody... unless you mess with her daily routine. The Timid side of her personality loves to give directions and work from far away or from up high which suits her job of visualizing the area and the objects that are needed for the movie at the time. The more boisterous side of her personality works hands on, helping the roles under her make the set and objects. Either way both are ready to help others as long as they aren't doing something at the time.
Aleksandri was born to a Russian mother and a Irish father in a town on the outer edges of Russia. Her father was a nature photographer and her mother was an art designer for a t-shirt company which led to Aleksi gaining a passion for movies and art in general.
In school Aleksi was the bright yet quiet one in class that knew the answers to questions but didn't actually answer. This continued until she was pressured into becoming more "open" with her emotions and with other people which caused her to develop her split personality. Her friends, family, and teachers did question this change but slowly learned to accept her for herself.
While she did grow up in Russia Aleksi was allowed to traveled around the world when she turned 17 and began to start a job as a staged photography agent which means that she would actually set up a scenes to take photos of. Eventually she was scouted by a Company who hired her for her ability in scene construction and prop development.
Favorite memory
Her favorite memory is when she looked out the commercial plane's window and spotting the shores of florida which to her signified the beginning of her new life in the movie buisness
Least favorite memory
Her least favorite memory is when she was visiting her father's home in Ireland on work related business and one night before a strong storm she woke up after hearing her father yell and she saw an army of spiders just marching through the house but thank god she had surrounded her bed with mothballs which kept most of them away.
Why did you decide to work for this movie?
She decided to work on this movie because she needs the money to pay for a new upscale apartment in New York city
Birthday
Jan 8, 1994
Astrological Sign
Capricorn
TWITTER
@TheRedGoldVal
MiscellaneousInto the wrong hands
Genre: Fantasy, adventure A story of unlikely heroes. The main character(s) stumbles upon a lost item only told of in legend. S/he wasn't the one supposed to find it--the renown hero was supposed to find it so s/he could gain the power to save the world! But they didn't. Now a normal person is stuck with the power and the burden. How is this going to play out?
You see, I want to touch and inspire people all around world, show them that can be better, kinder, more joyful, more giving, more loving. -Roleplayer Guild's very own Soufflegirl123
Name
Daniel Branden Griffin
Nicknames
Dan- Its quite obvious as a nickname. He doesn't feel a particular way toward it. He doesn't love the name but he has nothing against it
During University and high school his close friends would call him D-man, it still comes up as a nickname for him to those people.
Age
29
Gender
Male
Sexual Orientation
He is heterosexual when it comes to relationships, however, he'll flirt with anyone and everyone
Occupation
Stunts Coordinator
Appearance
Daniel stands at 185cm (just less than 6'1") and has quite a muscular body shape (thanks to the intense routine required to be a stuntman). He generally keeps quite a clean-shaven look despite a slight bit of stubble on his tanned face. Unless he's needed to do so for his job he doesn't spend much time getting ready. He doesn't brush his hair all that often but just smooths it out with his hands when he gets out of the shower.
Daniel has a single stud on his left ear, although he'd take it out when performing stunts or helping the stuntmen learn their stunts and such. Although he is the stunts coordinator on this project he is also a professional stuntman and still holds that role in other projects he does. He often has multiple bruises and has fractured his wrist on many occasions. He has a few scars on the back of his neck, one on his shoulder from when he broke it on one of his first projects and a small scar down his right cheek, not from a stunt, he fell as a child and accidentally slid down where a nail was sticking out as he fell.
"Well hello there gorgeous, yes I mean you,"
Personality
Flirty and carefree, Daniel likes to live life to he fullest and loves to take risks. He, usually, is very joyful and cheery. He is quite the child at heart. Sometimes his cheeriness can get to the point of being annoying. He is quite the optimist and a bit of a dreamer. He is also quite possibly crazy but that the secret of a daredevil, right?
Daniel can get quite serious on occasions. His seriousness seem to come out when he is given a fair bit of responsibility and he can, temporarily become strict however there are times where Daniel just can't be serious when he should be. He can't seem to act in between his usual childish vibe or his occasional strict personality. He's either one or the other. On occasions he can be reckless. Once he has his mind set it's hard o change no matter how dangerous. He doesn't consider his own safety in many times. He is quite and intelligent man but for an intelligent man he can do some stupidly ridiculous things. When choosing the stunts crew for the projects he's working on he is very picky but he believes greatly in his choices, even if he doesn't show it all the time. He also has a bit of a habit of breaking things, never on purpose though.
Likes
Appreciative people
Motor cycles
Stunts, whether he's doing, watching or teaching.
Kids
Rock music
Dislikes
Spicy food
Uptight people and people who always seem grumpy
The colour pink (Just putting it out there)
Tight clothing
Fears
- Daniel has a slight fear of not living his life the way he wants too - Being buried alive
"Yeah, I may have broken that..."
Strengths
Stunts
Flirting
Cheerful... most of the time at least
Weaknesses
He can't find a neutral between strict and carefree.
Time-management, he's terrible with deadlines
He doesn't usually consider the consequences of his actions
History
Daniel was born to a young family borderlining middle class and upper class. His father was a stunts driver/rider- usually using motorbike and cars and his mother was a lawyer until she was 7 months pregnant with Daniel's younger brother. Daniel has an older brother by 2 years,a younger brother by 3 years and a younger sister by 8 years. His father had worked with a travelling show for as long as Dan could remember so his father was on the road for 8-9 months of the year. Regardless of this Daniel and his father were very close.
When Daniel was 8 his father taught him how to ride a motorbike in one of his months off. Daniel quickly got the knack of it and each time his father was home he would teach Daniel a new stunt or 2. It started off with very simple tricks but as Daniel got older and more proficient on the motorbike the more difficult they got. At 15 Daniel joined his father, travelling around the country and performing stunts, he knew that was what he wanted to do. As he's mother requested he'd have some sort of education Daniel resorted to online schooling through the day and got slightly above average marks. His mother would state he could do so much better if he actually focused in class instead of always being distracted.
After finishing school Daniel continued travelling and performing stunts despite his mother trying to push him to at least start a degree on the side he never did. After 2 years his father had an accident during training which resulted in fractured back so he had to drop out of his job. Daniel continued for 5 months when he was discovered by a former stuntsman who took up a job as a stunts coordinator. He hired Daniel for a movie and spent months helping him learning other stunts not including vehicles. Daniel soon fell in love with the job and continued as a stuntsman for movies and TV shows until he was 27 when he was promoted to stunts coordinator. He still does the occasional job as a stuntsman but generally stays within his job description.
Why did you decide to work for this movie?
His schedule was free and anywhere he's getting a job, he's in. It started when he jokingly asked the director for the job over twitter but he approached the director a month later 'offering his services' to the movie.