After viewing the video this week, I thought that the “Design an Invoice” assignment would be perfect for the work that Julia James does for women who are verbally abused by their degrading husbands. She has to get paid for her services, so an invoice is crucial. The prompt states: Create an invoice for a transaction that … Continue reading Give Me Your Money! Seriously…Here’s an Invoice.

For this design assignment I had to create an invoice for someone else and I decided to do mine using Amanda Layton’s character Sylvia Stone. I based it off my character helping ruin a mans life for Sylvia since she does not really do all that killing business. I seduced the man and went to dinner and put special injections into his food to make him start feeling weird and have weird side effects that will stay with him for the rest of his life. Side note: this guy was not in either of our characters stories, I just used the basics of both of our characters to come up with something that could relate to both characters.

I made this invoice by going onto Word and finding a template for invoices. From there I edited the information at the top right to make it my characters and then I just input the details in the invoice to finish it off.

Out on Assignment . . .

Assignments, Assignments, Assignments!!!!

We had to complete 10 Stars this week in the Assignment Bank . . . what made this even more fun was that we could choose our own and collaborate with another to complete them.

Brenda and I decided to collaborate together with George and Red our characters and we even tied the assignments to our radio show Noir We There Yet!

After working on the radio show George seems smitten by “Red” and her work .  . he has his eyes on her – let Vinny D have Cecilia! Since she is beginning to mean so much to George he wants her protected and protected well! Not to sure how Brenda Levoy and “Red” feel about this but he invoiced her for the first month of services:

(Assignment 1 – 3 Stars)

He is just so smitten he thought he would make “Red” his valentine this year! And since he can use her “connections” to the press wanted to make certain she knew he believed in “Freedom of the Press”! What he hopes to be a way to her heart!

(Assignment 2 – 3 Stars)

Way too much focus on “Red” – let’s get off that subject and the final assignment is on George himself. A wallpaper he wants to use on buses and billboard signs. Big ideas for the times he was in but he always things BIG!

(Assignment 3 – 4 Stars)

Design an Invoice (3 stars)

Create an invoice for a transaction that has happened in a film, TV series, etc. For example, Boba fett’s invoice to Jabba the Hutt for capturing Han Solo. http://www.geek-tastic.com/page/tag/boba-fett

Story Behind the Story

This assignment was dedicated to my character Stella Vaughn. With this invoice, I wanted it to have a dual purpose. It could either be construed as someone who is a do-it-yourselfer (DIY) or someone planning manipulative and potentially harmful crimes. Half way through completing this invoice I almost expected to get a phone call from someone monitoring suspicious activity on the internet. I was googling wire strippers and key molding kits to find realistic prices for the payment. This class is going to get me in trouble with all of the background research I am doing for this character (my emergency contact list is taped to the refrigerator just in case).

Anyway, after my sketchy history had been deleted, I started to piece together what each of these items meant individually and as a whole. I figured my store could be a typical hardware store mixed with Lowes. It would have all sorts of material needed for home projects. The title Duct & Cover is a play on words. “Duct” is supposed to come from Duct Tape but morphed with “cover,” it is supposed to sound like Duck and Cover. This is not only an illusion to the hardware stores inventory but also a hint at Stella’s true intentions in purchasing these materials.

Wire Stripper: Stella could play this off as a purchase for her husband who likes to fix any electrical problems in the house instead of trusting a stranger to do it. However, the real reason is for her use; she would use this as a way to mess with the lights and phone line during one of her mentally disarming attacks on her clients.

Hedge Clippers: While Stella finds gardening soothing, she also needs something a little stronger for when she is breaking through chains and padlocks. However, walking by her home, her bushes and flower beds are perfectly trimmed, so no one would suspect the need for hedge clippers.

Key Mold Kit: As we learning in the What’s in your bag assignment, Stella has a pretty wealthy set of keys in her purse. You didn’t think those were all original copies did you? Each time she has a new client, Stella has her secretary give them a tour of their office and take down any pertinent information such as emergency contact, phone number, closest friend/relative etcetera. While this is taking place, Stella creates a mold of all of her clients keys and makes a copy for herself once they are gone. BUT to an ordinary person, Stella’s reasoning for a key mold kit is that she is forgetful of her keys so she always makes copies to give to her husband, so she figured she would just buy a kit instead of going all the way to the store to have them made.

Two Pairs of Gardening Gloves: One of these gloves is actually used for gardening. SHOCKING! I know. Everyone has their escape. The other pair is to ensure that her fingerprints never leave her sight.

Work Itself

Narrate the Process

I attempted to think of somewhat casual do it yourself projects that people could have and then tried to think of a movie with a villain and what kinds of tools would be present. It was a lot of balancing. I wanted each item to be justified in an ordinary situation. While I have rarely heard of someone doing their own electrical work, I figured a little bit of a stretch was acceptable.

I found a template online, and then added in the items. I tried to be realistic in price. It is amazing how something as simple as creating a fake invoice turns into this elaborate plan with all of these hidden meanings. The process that went into each item was intricately thought out.