#obspec prep

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OBspec: The Key Story Chart 

If you’ve been following along with our OBspec Prep posts, you’ve probably realized that we here on Team OBspec love charts. Like, with an intense, obsessive love that spans continents, languages, time, space, and maybe galaxies. 

After our Character Chart and Arc Chart were complete, we had some fun in the Key Story Chart above (Episode 10′s been cut out for spoilers. Nice try!). This one helped us transcribe the full stories we developed in the Arc Chart and break them down to figure out what would be happening for each character in each episode. 

There are a couple of things in here that got discarded along the way (i.e. Helena’s story in Episode 7, Miller’s name was originally Styles, we had a bit more planned for Cal, Rachel had a sub-plot where she bugged Cosima’s lab), but this is the one where things really started to take shape for the season as a whole, and the story started to become one tightly woven cohesive unit. 

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OBspec Episode 9: Hitting the Wall 

After figuring out what each character needed to be doing in each episode of OBspec, it was time to hit the wall. 

We broke each story into scenes and then placed them accordingly based on whose story was driving the episode. In Episode 9, shown above, Sarah and Rachel’s stories converge into the A story, which is why the act outs are all blue (Sarah) and purple (Rachel). Cosima and Alison share the B plot (green and pink) and Felix takes the C (he’s in blue or pink, depending on who he’s in a scene with). 

Episode breakdowns like this one are just a bare bones skeleton for what will eventually be a written episode. The final Episode 9 didn’t change too much from the breakdown above. However, if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that the scene with Mark and Mrs. S doesn’t appear here, nor does the scene between Harrison and the Colonel. Those were added later on to round out those secondary characters’ storylines, and we couldn’t be happier with their inclusion. Those are two of our favorite scenes from this episode! We learned that it definitely pays to be flexible. Breakdowns and outlines may be invaluable, but the magic really happens when you let the story tell you what it needs to make it awesome. 

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OBspec Draft Gems: Sarah Manning Edition 

Sarah Manning, you little shit. 

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OBspec Episode 8: The Castor Clone Problem

As three female writers with a negative total of military experience, developing the Castor clone military plot line was no easy feat. Enter our lovely friend Al, a lieutenant in the Air Force and one of Jacq’s very first inductees into Clone Club. 

(You’d all love Al. He sniffed out and started shipping Cophine the very first time those two even looked at each other). 

Al helped us with a TON of stuff for OBspec, including the ranks of all of our characters, the backstories of all of our dead monitors, what the exteriors and interiors of a military base might look like, and, most importantly, why military Castor clones might be significant at all. 

Super soldiers was an easy jump, but when presented with that idea (as shown above) Al didn’t seem quite on board. Hand to hand combat went out of style years ago. Why would you invest so much money and science and secrecy into developing a human prototype that won’t even be useful? 

So, that threw a wrench in our plot plans. If our military guy wasn’t cool with Castor clones being super soldiers, what other options did we have? And thus, the idea of disposable soldiers was born. We decided that our Castor clones were created to be less than, to be the ones that go on the suicide missions, to be the ones that don’t require a visit to their families when they kick it. It’s cruel, but it’s also much more cut and dry. No repercussions or people to answer to. No guilty conscience. And, sure, super soldiers are scary. But the idea that these men were created to be purposefully discarded? That’s even scarier. 

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OBspec Draft Gems: Castor Clone Edition

First drafts are....interesting. 

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Good job, happyjacq. 

#OBspec Episode 4 thanks you for your service. 

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#OfficialOBspecPrepLingo

So, yeah. Rachel has a Voldemort streak to her. At the end of Season 2, Rachel had no power. ZERO. But, what's a Rachel Duncan without a good power play? Nothing, that's what. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and bionic eye and work with what you got, Duncan! 

With Leekie's death leaving a gaping vacancy in the DYAD power structure, we decided very early on that, for our story, a micro-managing Rachel was the best way to fill the hole. 

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#OBspec Prep: The Character Chart 

One of the very first things we did in preparation for OBspec was make this handy dandy character chart. It was immensely helpful in figuring out how the relationships between characters are structured and where new characters needed to be introduced in order to fill in the spaces. 

The Colonel was one of the first characters to emerge as a direct result of this chart. Once we put all the existing characters on the wall, it became clear that the power structure of the military was basically non-existent. Just a big blank gap in the chart with no one linking Paul to Project Castor. No one was in charge, and Paul needed a boss, so we gave him one (and then tied that scary boss to Beth as well). Then, we added in Harrison to make the connection between the boss and the project a bit more personal. 

Everybody has to be connected to somebody, which is why character charts like this one can be really valuable when figuring out where new characters belong and where existing characters have the opportunity to move throughout the season. Looking at everyone's role within the overall story in a visual way makes brainstorming possible connections really fun and easy. Scott and Sarah Stubbs! Kassov and Duncan! Gracie and Rachel! Rebecca and Helena! Then, add in a teenage hacker, some untrustworthy neighbors, 5 new members of Topside, two moms, a dad, and a brother? The possibilities are endless.