• Thriller 31

  Lesson 7

  Posted by cheryl croasmun on June 10, 2024 at 7:03 pm

  Reply to post your assignment.

  Chris Wood replied 11 months, 1 week ago 5 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Andre

  Member

  June 24, 2024 at 2:15 pm

  Andre’s Life-Threatening Sequence.

  Create my Life-Threatening Sequence
  1. What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
  The Villain’s plan is to divide and conquer. To create enemies, even when there are none.
  Soundtrack request: “How Villains are made” by Madalen Duke.

  Our Hero is a promising prodigy with potential in private applications of space technology with significant levels of commercial and economic potential for growth.
  And they want to make sure they keep him close, particularly in the US.

  2. What other potential dangers could my Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
  • Associating Hero with terrorist organization.
  • Law enforcement as partisan political law-fare.
  • Sycophants with medical degrees on payroll and back pocket of corrupted politicians.
  • Blood is not thicker than a fat wallet. The compromised sister.
  • Surveillance telecommunications outside.
  • Construction crews conveniently around neighborhood where dog is walked.
  • Different managers at work that are suspicious and distrusting.
  • Closed bank accounts.
  • Crooked tax professionals that force audits.
  • Computer dies. Files corrupted.
  • Character assassination.
  • Loss of income adversely affecting livelihood then thus credit. Bankruptcy.
  • Work compromised possibly nearly causing death of those around.
  • Father is killed.
  • Mother is hospitalized.
  • Friends distance themselves.
  • The fake friend who fucks and impregnates his girlfriend.

  3. From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
  • Associating Hero with terrorist organization.
  • Law enforcement as partisan political law-fare.
  • Sycophants with medical degrees on payroll and back pocket of corrupted politicians.
  • Blood is not thicker than a fat wallet. The compromised sister and brother.
  • Surveillance telecommunications outside.
  • Construction crews conveniently around neighborhood where dog is walked.
  • Different managers at work that are suspicious and distrusting.
  • Closed bank accounts.
  • Agents of change. Crooked tax professionals that force audits.
  • Computer dies. Files corrupted.
  • Character assassination.
  • Loss of income adversely affecting livelihood then thus credit. Bankruptcy.
  • Work compromised possibly nearly causing death of those around.
  • Father is killed.
  • Mother is hospitalized.
  • Friends distance themselves.
  • The fake-friend who fucks and impregnates his girlfriend, who turns out to be a for-hire bimbo.

  4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one Hal did for Basic Instinct.
  1. Establish his prodigy.
  2. Establish him living in an apartment 28.
  3. Establish his wealth, old money, not new and wasteful.
  4. During research in AI, he identifies a file labeled APT28.
  5. Strange things begin to happen.
  6. Enter agents of change enter.
  7. Character assassination.
  8. Blood is not thicker than a fat wallet. The compromised family.
  9. Microchipping his pet.
  10. Associating Hero with terrorist organization.
  11. Law enforcement as lawfare.
  12. Sycophants with medical degrees on payroll and
  13. Corrupted politicians.
  14. Loss of income adversely affecting credit.
  15. Bankruptcy.
  16. Tax problems, agents with guns.
  17. Vehicle kill-switch.
  18. Father is killed.
  19. Mother is hospitalized.
  20. Friends distance themselves.
  21. The fake friend who fucks and impregnates his girlfriend,
  who turns out to be a for-hire bimbo.
  22. The charismatic Indian banker who steals from him,
  then ghosts him.
  23. He moves away from apartment 28,
  only to have his items ransacked by corrupted agents.
  24. They want him to create a space weapon.
  25. He focuses applying his genius to,
  “peaceful uses of outer space, to be of great value and to offer benefits to ALL mankind (1) section 50901”.

  5. What I learned is…
  Be wary of whom to trust.

  My job is to get the audience’s heart beating. Put them on the edge of their seats. Cause them to worry. The easiest way to do that is to raise the stakes.
  When the stakes are high, even small mistake and small decisions are stressful. When the stakes are really high, a small mistake can get the character killed. The highest stakes are a person’s life or the lives of those they care about.

  The Life-Threatening Sequence provides a good portion of the suspense in my story. This is worth playing with to discover ways to put my Hero in danger. Once I have a large list of dangerous situations, I can go through it to determine which of the dangers will create the highest quality experience for the audience.

  For this assignment, worry not about perfection. In the next lesson, I will intertwine all three of these sequences and the story will start to flow the way I want it.
  This assignment is a brainstorm session that will allow me to discover many ways to have audience worry about my Hero. I may use some or all of the answers I come up with, but doing this assignment will give me many different ways to keep my audience on the edge of their seat!
  Where could danger come from? Primarily, danger comes from the Villain’s plan and the Villain’s need to keep the mystery a secret. So, with every part of the story, I want to ask three questions:
  1. How does the Villain’s plan put the Hero in danger?
  2. What will the Villain do to protect the mystery?
  3. How do the Hero’s actions raise the stakes and increase the danger to him or her?

  Keep asking myself this question:
  Question: What would have an audience feel that my hero is in danger?
  Answer: Being targeted by power-hungry narcissists, who have given themselves and their operatives immunity from prosecution.

  Somewhere in the first 10-pages, the danger begins and it never stops until the very last scene.

  End Andre’s Life-Threatening Sequence.

  • This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by  Andre Howard. Reason: 22. The charismatic Indian banker who steals from him, then ghosts him
  • This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by  Andre Howard. Reason: Soundtrack request: “How Villains are made” by Madalen Duke
• 

  David Harper

  Member

  June 26, 2024 at 10:15 pm

  David’s Life-Threatening Sequence

  What I learned is that there are a lot of moving parts here that I have to stay on top of.

  What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
  First of all, the villain is the head of a Baltimore mob organization, and he is in hot water with his bosses in New York. He needs to bring the hero back to Baltimore.
  What he doesn’t realize is that the hero he is coming after isn’t the guy who double-crossed them and went state’s evidence. This is his twin brother. Both boys were given up for adoption at birth and ended up getting separated. Neither knows about the other. (This is different from the original concept, but makes it more of a true thriller because the hero doesn’t have any idea who is after him or why).
  The hero is a high-school English teacher, but also retired military. So he is somewhat able to handle himself.

  What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain? Sequence them in order.

  1. He notices someone is tailing him
  2. Evidence that he is being stalked
  3. His girlfriend is confronted by a couple of guys who are asking questions about him.
  4. He is being chased, when the FBI shows up out of the blue to save him. They cart him off to a safe house but won’t tell him what’s going on.
  5. One of the FBI agents is corrupt and tries to kill him.
  6. His girlfriend is kidnapped
  7. He sneaks away to Baltimore to find her and deal with whoever is after him.
  8. He asks the Baltimore cops to help, and they agree, but then turn on him because they are in the villain’s pocket.

  That’s all I have so far. I need to let it roll around in my brain a little more.
• 

  Matteo Ribaudo

  Member

  June 27, 2024 at 11:10 pm

  Day 7 Life Threatening Sequence

  “What I learned is once the mystery, the secrets , and cover ups are realized, the dangerous action or consequences are easier to plot out and there’s plenty of material to throw in front of our hero.”

  What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?

  Our villain's plan to feed her daughter fresh blood to survive her condition, puts our hero in danger by leading him into the fierce Jungle so he gets lost. As things in the jungle may kill him, he’s actually protected by our villain, or she would lose her daughters fuel source.

  What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?

  His best friend also wants to see him falter. HE has a vendetta that unfolds as he eggs the hero on to dangerous activities so he can get physically hurt. He tells him to jump off a cliff into crocodile infested water. He dares him to climb a steep terrain. Eat a scorpion. He eats a euphoric toad’s legs for dinner.

  Other dangers:
  Lost in the jungle without water, the danger of hydration and potential death.

  Snakes and pumas, and deadly spiders are everywhere in the jungle and the dark cavern.

  A maze in the cavern leads them to Lilith’s chamber where she waits to feed.

  The mother uses a rusty IV to transfuse blood from their arms to feed Lilith.

  The mother decides to kill the best friend as he’s drained dry of blood, which means our hero is next.

  The daughter is planning a grand feast of the hero but may have second thoughts as she feels a connection to our hero. His false hope is dangerous as Lilith will need to feed again.

  The mother decides to kill the hero because he is getting too close to her daughter.

  The hero escapes the mother as she falls to her death. The hero is forced to deal with Lilith’s hunger now.

  These dangers I think could be developed more but I think it's a good outline. Doing some RD on jungle and its habitat will help develop this in more detail.

  • This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by  Matteo Ribaudo.
• 

  Chris Wood

  Member

  July 11, 2024 at 6:12 am

  Subject Line: Chris Wood’s Life Threatening Sequence

  What I learned doing this assignment was that it was WAY EASIER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE. I gotta admit, the Mystery assignment was a crusher, but I feel like it really opened up the pandoras box of possibilities and I’m beginning to really see the map now.

  What is the Villain's plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
  Dr. Forsythe has restarted the Project Parallax eugenics program and is manipulating [and at times forcing] the relocation of ESP-inclined individuals to Rapture, California for evaluation and re-cognition. Although she doesn’t know it yet, Samantha Hamilton is one of those individuals.

  What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
  Kidnapping
  Medical experiments
  Drug overdose | drugged interrogation
  Psychic overload
  Danger to unborn child
  Arrested for bank robbery
  Betrayed by Megan | Betrayed by Holly
  Brainwashing

  From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
  People around them die or are injured. Betsie – Dad
  Surveillance / watched. Marquis Allen
  Closeness to the villain – In bed with Dr. Forsythe
  The chance that a relationship could end. Megan – Dr. Forsythe
  Surveillance / watched – Creeped out at the cabin, weird roomate
  Chased – bikers
  Stalked – Holly
  Lured into a dangerous situation [cult] – Elijah Kahn
  Presence of weapons or thugs – bank robberies | landowners
  Betrayal from someone close. Megan | Holly
  The threat that their own secret could be revealed. She’s pregnant

  Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
  Dr. Marquis Allen chloroforms Johnny Anderson and kidnaps Holly Taylor in Johnny’s van.
  A cop pulls the van over, and Dr. Allen shoots the police officer with a pistol outfitted with a silencer.
  Samantha Hamlilton’s roommate Betsie Wherley has a psychotic episode and is evacuated from Rayburn University.
  Dr. Allen comes looking to take Betsie’s personal effects, and warns Samantha not to get involved, or her’s dad secret will get out, and her scholarship will be taken away, she can stay in the room, etc.
  Samantha is being watched by an unknown set of binoculars.
  After acing the Zener Cards, Dr. Forsythe seduces Samantha and they have rough, passionate sex.
  Megan introduces her new friend David to Samantha, and sparks fly, Would Samantha steal Megan’s beau? What will Forsythe think?
  Samantha experiences a psychic overload and leaves the program with Forsythe’s permission. They break up.
  After eloping to the mountain cabin with David, Samantha feels uncomfortable, and a roommate seems to be paying too much attention to her.
  Samantha and David move west, but are ambushed on the way by a biker gang. Things get deadly, and then Samantha turns on the gift.
  Samantha is bored in Ukiah, spends her time at the Good Life Cafe, where Holly Taylor is stalking her. Holly?!?!?
  Samantha is lured into the Good Life Cult, and is warned by crazy crazerkins to watch her back Crazy Crazerkins is turned away [and actually put into re-cognition]
  A landowner and his thugs appear on horseback. Why do they tolerate the cult and what is at the top of the mountain?
  Elijah Kahn manipulates Samantha into a bank robbery where she is to be killed [really just a test]. The robbery goes awry, but Samantha focuses her ESP into telekinesis to escape with her life AND the loot.
  Naval Intelligence gets the camera footage, comes looking for ESP expert Forsythe, who is desperate to hide PP. They threaten him but he denies knowing where Samantha is or what PP is all about.
  Megan betrays Forsythe and Samantha, leads US Naval Intelligence agents toward Rapture.
  Samantha takes the spiritual hallucinogen, is baptized into the Cult, and sets her sights on Elijah Kahn
  Forsythe races to Rapture and tries to seduce Samantha back into the program, and then attempts to brainwash her.
  Samantha discovers the secret to Rapture and Project Parallax, but has a secret of her own: she’s pregnant.
  Forsythe looks to drug Samantha, but is shot by Elijah Kahn | Dr. Allen.
  The government agents are gone, but Samantha is trapped in the lab at the top of the mountain. She’s also the de facto Cult Leader.
  Samantha contemplates a self-induced abortion, but instead gives birth to the Rainbow Child, who’s father is ________ as ________ and _________ and ______ watch on.

  • This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by  Chris Wood.

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