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Lesson 5
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What I learned doing this assignment is that we must have some good hooks embedded in our synopsis. I always fear I’m not conveying the essence of my stories when writing a synopsis, so I really hate them. Hopefully I’m learning how to improve my synopsis writing.
Jack Young’s Synopsis Hooks for “STREAM”
HOOKS:
1- We have a world-wide epidemic. If that’s not bad enough, the only way to stop it is to die.
2 – Michael wants to be a good husband and father but has done everything possible just the opposite.
3 – Michael has the option of dying of cancer (in a matter of days) or giving up his life willingly to try and stop the stream which is thought to cause the no-birth crisis.
“Would you die to save your family and mankind?”
Title: STREAM
Written by Jackie Young
Genre: SciFi / Fantasy
I have bad news and bad news. 1) In less than 100 years the human race will become extinct. 2) You must die to stop it.
Michael Walker wants to be a good husband. This would be true except for the fact that he just ended an affair with his secretary at work and has just lost his job and family savings in an illegal inside-trader stock deal. Oh, and his business partner who supplied the insider trading info just flipped on him at the local FBI headquarters office. Any minute now, the FBI will show up with an arrest warrant for Michael. It’s no wonder his terrible migraines have worsened
As he tries to find his way through a minefield of personal and professional problems, a no-birth epidemic looms over everyone on the planet. But as if things seem they can’t get any worse, he’ll soon discover that he may be mankind’s only hope to end the current no-birth epidemic.
Supernatural events lead him towards the Professor, a man that may have the answers to what is causing the epidemic and why Michael must die to stop it. Professor Darlington theorizes that an unusual energy stream in the astral plane is stealing all of the souls from our planet. Shunned by the scientific community as a lunatic. The Professor and his team have developed a method to send a man into the energy stream.
There are two choices for Michael — die from brain cancer in less than 3 days…OR submit to having his heart stopped to save the world.
Oh, forgot to mention, the second option hurts like Hell.
Comparisons: Think “Star Gate” meets “Flatliners”
BIO: I wrote, executive produced, and co-produced “Love Wine”, a romantic comedy released on NetFlix. Additional credits include “The Darkening”, a suspense/horror film (2012) that I wrote, executive produced, produced, directed, and distributed, which had a limited theatrical release by Rave Cinema. I have authored over forty original screenplays in all genres. I am currently managed by Hakim Mulraine of New York, NY and worked on a paid rewrite of a screenplay adaptation of the book, “The Island Calls”.
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the Pitch Bible and pilot episode.
CONTACT: Jackie Young, 1327 Drexel Street, Omaha, NE 68107, PH: 402-731-7037, EMAIL: jackyoung1981@cox.net
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Eric Humble’s High Concept/Elevator Pitch
What I learned is: that by focusing on my main hook and the areas of marketability for my project, I can come up with some strong, simple pitches that get right to the heart of what my project valuable in the industry’s eyes. This was a fun and insightful lesson that actually has me thinking through my script and pitch bible again to see if I’ve gotten across these valuable points.
Tell us your High Concept and Elevator Pitch.
1. To find your main hook, tell us what the big picture explanation of your lead character’s journey is.
A pharmaceutical chemist uncovers a secret society dedicated to suppressing cures for diseases in order to shape human history.
2. How can you tell it in the most interesting way possible?
Dilemma:
A pharmaceutical chemist discovers the cure for cancer, but to use it on his dying wife, he’ll have to help a secret society suppress cures for all other diseases as they seek to shape civilization to their own benefit.
Main Conflict
A pharmaceutical chemist discovers the cure for cancer, only to be targeted by a secret society that has shaped human history by suppressing cures.
What’s at stake?
To cure his wife’s cancer, a pharmaceutical chemist will have to infiltrate a a secret society that has shaped human history by suppressing cures.
Goal/Unique Opposition
A pharmaceutical chemist discovers the cure for cancer, but must infiltrate a secret society that has shaped human history by suppressing cures in order to protect the woman whose DNA holds the key.
3. Using the 10 Components of Marketability, what is your Elevator Pitch?
I have a one-hour thriller that answers the question: “What if Big Pharma and Big Insurance are run by a secret society that shapes human history by deciding which diseases get cured when, and which are allowed to run rampant?”
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