BWTV-AI Module 3 – Lesson 2: Pilot As Incredible Inciting Incident!

[Michael Jones]

Mike’s Amazing Inciting Incident

I learned to look at a Pilot as a means to set up the entire series, to bring audience interest from the first episode and to want to see what happens to these characters. That said, I also realize I have much work to improve these ideas to actually make it possible for such a thing to occur.

Inciting Incident:

ELUSIVE ARTIFACT: Atticus must uncover what the artifact is, and then protect it from the competing factions that seek to use it for global power.

MAIN BEATS

• Intriguing Concept: Atticus will go from a mundane life to become entwined in a bout for global power and control through the possession of an historical artifact.

• Act 1: Atticus an outstanding volunteer on the archaeological dig and a respected leader, but that’s not why he’s there. it’s a cover to find the mysterious artifact. Flashbacks of his mundane life: behind on bills, sparse eating, and near depression, along with mental anguish over his missing brother. To get him out of his situation, his cousin, Kieran Hawthorne, hires him to take part in an excavation as a cover for locating a certain treasure sought by his investors.

• Midpoint: With modern torch in some sort of underground labyrinth, fellow volunteer and bookstore proprietor, Morrigan, discovers Atticus and threatens exposure unless he helps Morrigan and his society find the artifact with the goal of global improvement.

• Locked In: Atticus has to involve Morrigan or be exposed, fail in his job, and go back to the life he had before. He learns there are several clandestine attempts for various groups to obtain the artifact once discovered and that his missing brother was involved in some way. Atticus won’t go back to the life he had, despite the danger he doesn’t fully realize is around him.

[Jerry Robbins]

The assignment would not post as it should, so I had to hit this reply.

What I learned doing this assignment is that the pilot is the inciting incident for the first season and maybe the whole series. This is usually the combination of the Midpoint and the lockin. A surface layer is the opposite of these two.

1. What is the Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?
In opposition to the human race is a new type of entity called the “robob” which is a robot with a biological brain.

2. Give us the main beats of that inciting incident.

Intriguing concept – like Planet Of The Apes, it is humans against a competing species, or at least hinting that this may happen.

Act 1. Lexia is a young woman who has come to town to find some hint as to what happened to her famous scientist father. That is her inner motive, but as a practical action, she has to go to her new job working for Nathan (Nat) Chambers, head of a magazine that focuses on conspiracy theories. He sends her on her first assignment: to trace down a tip about a riot being organized int the city.

Midpoint: Lexia visits several places on her list, with no luck. Someone tells her to go to the “underbelly” of the city, to the Haven. If anyone would know about it, it would be them. As she heads into a shadowy place beneath the surface of the city, she notices someone following her. At the Haven, she is told about the Enclave, a place where malfunctioning robots hide.

Lock In: As Lexia starts to leave, the person following her grabs Lexia and she struggles with them. Stepping out of the shadows, another figure pulls them apart. This is Cypher. The attacker drops what she is carrying and hurries away. Later, Lexia will pick up the box the girl is carrying and find some “old style” holograms which will help her find out what happened to her father. She will also find out more about the Enclave, and the plot brewing that will go from a riot to a revolution, as “robobs” like Cypher fight for their rights.

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• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Jerry Robbins.

[Sylvia Krawczyk]

My reply again not posting so, here ya go.

BWTV-AI Module 3 – Lesson 2: Pilot As Incredible Inciting Incident!

Sylvia’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment is the power of this type of pilot.

1. The “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully:

Emily, a wealthy socialite, organizes glamourous charity galas for a pediatric hospital, but her life takes a strange turn when she discovers children healing overnight with ghostly guardians in the pediatric ward. As these guardians turn lethal when upset, a secret society links Emily with the ghosts. The Hospital Board bans Emily from entering the pediatric ward fearing she is a part of murdering the disappearing children.

2. The main beats of that Inciting Incident:

· Intriguing Concept: Charity galas and romantic mishaps intertwine with hospital paranormal healing and disappearing mysteries.

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[Jeff Chase]

Jeffrey Alan Chase’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment is I have refined my inciting incident down and believe my pilot will serve as the inciting incident for the entire series.

Intriguing Concept: When he finds a battered backpack, a homeless veteran’s life takes a spiritual turn as the supernatural contents of it alter both his destiny and the lives of people in crisis he encounters.

Act 1: Introduce Noah and his normal life on the street and on the run from false charges of War Crimes, as he finds a battered backpack in an abandoned warehouse.

Midpoint: Noah inadvertently uses a small item in the backpack to save the life of a suicidal woman and realizes that the backpack has powerful and unknown spiritual properties.

Lock In: Noah is hooked to discover who created the backpack and why.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Amazing Inciting Incident

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to create the midpoint first as the big mystery for my intriguing concept and then think of a coverup for Act 1 and a reveal as the Lock-in”

Inciting Incident of Season 1: Priya and the heist team retrieve only a piece of the puzzle to locate the ledger that contains not just financial transactions and political secrets but is the key to revolutionising illicit finance and crashing the current financial world order. But why is her father’s name on the partial list?

• Intriguing Concept: A rookie RAW agent joins a crew of international thieves to penetrate an underground banking network to retrieve a ledger that can crash the financial world.

• Act 1: Priya is a dutiful daughter who balances caring for her ailing father and attending university where she has a scholarship. She is a genius student for her pattern recognition and cryptanalysis and aces her final real-life simulation test.

• Midpoint: Her professor, a former disgraced RAW agent recruits her. She joins the heist team he’s put together of international thieves to infiltrate a Hawala operation. She helps stop a terror attack and discovers coded messages. The coded messages point to a ghost ledger. Her father’s financial scandal comes to light and makes her a suspected mole when her father’s name is on the partial list they recover.

• Lock In: She loses her father and must now clear her father’s name as RAW agents hunt her down. She needs the heist team to retrieve the ghost ledger which is the key to bringing down the Hawala operations and discovering the truth about her legacy.

[Denice Lewis]

Denice’s Amazing Inciting Incident
What I learned from this assignment is that it makes you decide on the most exciting actions to include in the pilot after the “before picture.”

Intriguing Concept: Maya, rebellious, but insecure, doesn’t know the dangers of becoming the first female Dreamweaver in the unpredictable world of dreams when she goes there to save her father.

Act 1: Maya lives a protected, privileged life in a private school. She’s motherless and spoiled by her beloved father, Blake, the foundation of her world. Maya resents the visit from his mother, and escapes to secretly take dance-fighting classes instead of ballet.

Midpoint: Storming into her father’s study, Maya discovers him arguing with a monster in a portal of fire that opens into the dream realm. The monster seizes Blake and the portal closes. Her grandmother gives her ten minutes to pack. She gives Maya a new identity, moves her to a new house, enrolls her in public school, and expects unquestioning obedience.

Lock In: Maya discovers another dream world portal when her invisible birthmark appears and opens it. Determined to find her father, she steps across the threshold to be immersed in an electrical storm.

[Bob Creager]

Mod 3 Lesson 2

Bob’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned: It’s interesting to see how my idea of the pilot changed when I was forced to identify the twists first and build around them.

1. What is the “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?

When Leisa’s brother is believed to be kidnapped by terrorists, she defies the U.S. military’s refusal to act by assembling a team of retired military operatives for her own rescue mission.

Intriguing Concept: A skilled Navy Corpsman leads a renegade covert team to rescue her brother only to be forced by her Marine commanding officer to execute future secret missions on his behalf.

Act 1: Serves as a Navy Corpsman, assigned to a Marine combat unit. Her missions fail because of her physical short comings and personal distractions with an engaged ex-boyfriend.

Midpoint: We learn that Leisa became an enlisted corpsman because as an officer nurse, she was not allowed to go on combat missions. Her request to participate in the rescue of her father who was held hostage by the Taliban was denied. Leisa forms a team of retired Marine’s and Sailors whose purpose is to launch a rescue of her brother.

Lock In: Leisa was manipulated to form her team and commit them to a rescue effort that gained worldwide publicity. If she continues to run her team, her Marine commanding officer will protect her secret. Failure to do so leads to court martial, jail, and expulsion from the Navy.

[Renee Miller]

Renee’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment was how to look at the pilot as the inciting incident for the show. Taking the time to discover the different beats that will leave the audience wanting more is something that I had never thought of before.

Intriguing Concept: A journalist is plunged into the shadowy world of a malevolent cult and their quest to awaken a long forgotten deity and discovers she is the key to fulfilling a centuries old prophecy to awaken the deity.

First Act: Veronica is thrown in jail for breaking the law in order to get the story. Father Malachi bails her out and he reminds her about her dead mother and how she would be disappointed in Veronica. She brushes him off and completes her story before heading to her mother’s grave.

Midpoint: Veronica discovers a cryptic symbol on her mother’s grave and seeks the help of Dr. Stone, an archeologist know to be a cult expert and she finds out it is linked to an ancient deity.

Lock In: Veronica starts to investigate the cult and reexamine her mother’s murder when a broken and battered Samuel is thrown from a car in front of Father Malachi’s house with another cryptic symbol branded into his skin and a dire warning for Veronica.

[Barbe LaPierre]

Barbe’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment is that the whole Pilot is the Inciting Incident. It sets up all the questions and all the mysteries. The more layers and open loops the better. Woohoo!

Inciting Incident of Season 1: The discovery and decoding of an ancient artifact sends Noren Amsala and Nika Krilan on a galaxy-spanning quest to solve the mystery of the whereabouts of Noren’s son.

Intriguing Concept: An ancient artifact reveals a star map that leads to the location of an individual with great powers.

Act 1: Nika is invited to explore the ruins of Lumor. The discovery of an ancient artifact triggers an attempt on Nika’s life.

Midpoint: A mysterious stranger rescues Nika from the cave-in.

Lock In: Although adamant about not tampering with ancient sites, the artifact that Nika finds forces her to betray her own code of ethics. Nika believes she has found an ancient star map which reveals a prophecy – in which Noren plays a part.

[Kimbal Thompson]

Kimbal Thompson BWAI M2 L2 Assignment Pilot As Incredible Inciting Incident
What I learned doing this assignment is the necessity for the Pilot to act as the exciting
incident for Season One and the entire series.
1. What is the “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver
powerfully? There is a lot more than the DEA agent pursuing Kai as a suspected drug
dealer.
2. Give us the main beats of that Inciting Incident:
 Intriguing Concept: DEA agent Slate believes architect Kai to be a drug dealer and
requests agency permission to tail him.
 Act 1: Architect makes presentation for a prize commission and on his arrival to
the driveway into his home, a DEA agent suspects him of being a drug dealer.
 Midpoint: The architect is invited to India. The DEA agent requests permission to
tail the architect and is turned down
 Lock In: Something occurs in DC and the DEA agent is given permission.

[Margaret]

Margaret’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned: the components of a Pilot

Intriguing Concept = A man who hates prophets and detests conflict becomes a prophet and leader for the Donek people.

Act 1= Jack has a father who is a tele-evangelist and fleeces his congregation. Jack can’t stand him. His girlfriend rejects his proposal because of Jack’s lack of direction and ambition. He loves history and bores everyone around him with his knowledge.

Ø Connection: Sympathy for him being rejected by his girlfriend

Ø Set up: He hates his father, who brags about his cons, getting people to send him money

Ø Cover Up: He is presented as an historian which will give himself the credibility and answers he agonizes over when he sees the visions, making him a reluctant prophet.

Midpoint=During a seismic event, Jack falls into a crevasse and portal that transports him to a parallel universe where he sees visions of the historic Masada. He realizes it foretells the Donek’s future and is forced to take action.

Lock In= Jack accepts that he is a prophet and leads the people to safety on Mesa, reminiscent of the historic Masada, wondering if he is leading them to a chilling conclusion, death by suicide. He has no choice in leading them to the Mesa because staying where they are will mean annihilation for the Donek.

[Janeen Johnson]

Janeen’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing the assignment is that I already knew how the structure of my pilot was going to play out as far as these big beats after going over them so many time in my bible.

1. The inciting incident is a car accident that leaves one character with no income, a disabled husband, and three kids and another character, a guy with the reputation of being a screwup, running his parents’ corporation while two men drop into the funeral to tell him that his parents’ death may have been a hit.

2. The Main Beats:

Intriguing Concept: An ambitious team in a small rural community builds a side hustle manufacturing business, but when each ingenious prototype is beaten to market by a state university’s product incubator, suspicion, financial ruin, and secrets abound.

Act 1: Adrianna accuses her husband of cheating and he leaves in a fury. Sabra and Bettina chat about Sabra’s latest idea for a product and muse about actually producing it and scoff at the idea that Zane could be helpful. Zane finishes a hacking job and is told to keep his nose clean.

Midpoint: Zane’s parents and Adrianna’s husband are in a car crash. The parents are killed and Adrianna’s husband, Roman, is in a coma in the hospital.

Lock In: Sabra sobs while looking at a picture of a baby. At the funeral, Adrianna, Sabra, Bettina, and Zane agree to start Overton Ventures because Adrianna is going to need an income. Zane’s handlers show up masquerading as relatives of his and tell him his parents’ deaths may have been a hit.

[Art Blum]

I learned the more I work on this project the more possibilities I see. It started out as a screenplay but I think the pilot is much more fleshed out and much deeper.

INTRIGUING CONCEPT: A socially awkward teen with the psychic ability to channel spirits must confront his destiny as the bridge between worlds when a sinister government agency determined to force him to submit to a perilous experiment involving channeling alien spirits into humans, sparking a desperate battle for survival and the fate of those he holds dear.

ACT I: All Ryan, aka Star Rover wants is to be a normal teen. After being home-schooled all his life, he starts his freshman high school year. Ryan’s a loner. But he tries to make friends. Ryan helps kids in math. He daydreams in class about experiences he had as a ward of Hermes. Not knowing why, he draws pictures in his scratch pad of alien civilizations. A girl, Indigo, comes to think Ryan’s a kindred spirit as she senses he has the “gift” as she does.

But the kids he helps begin to experience the same visions as Ryan, they inadvertently draw similar pictures. Their computers and phones go haywire. They wonder what’s going on. Then they learn Ryan’s been drawing these pictures before he even started school. And their phones and computers started going haywire after he helped them.

MIDPOINT: Ryan’s called to the principal’s office, except he’s not there. A bunch of kids Ryan’s helped accost him. “Who the hell, or what the hell are you?” What has he done to them? They demand to know where Ryan’s from.

Lock In: Ryan’s going to report this to his guardian so they can run when, Indigo befriends him. She doesn’t want him to run anymore. In fact, her grandmother is Madam Olga, the town psychic and she can help.

Madam Olga feels somethings coming for Ryan. The kids he “changed” will all perish. Anyone he loves or cares about or helps is infected and they will die. Ryan’s the only one who can figure out what’s going on and the only one who can stop it. Ryan’s found someone he cares about. And Indigo wants to help Ryan save the day. They both feel alive for the first time.

[Deanne]

Mod 3 Lesson 2 Deanne’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned = The incident I had planned to be the cliffhanger for the pilot needed to be moved up to the midpoint to let the series concept be introduced then. The lock-in will be a different incident that reinforces the concept.

[Gayla Betts]

Gayla Betts Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment is that though I don’t have all the answers, the more I work with the lessons, the clearer my vision becomes, and the more answers I get.

Inciting Incident: As Jess’ magical powers emerge, she also learns there are secrets about her mother that have been kept from her that put her life in danger.

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[Jerry Robbins]

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What I learned doing this assignment is that the pilot is the inciting incident for the first season and maybe the whole series. This is usually the combination of the Midpoint and the lockin. A surface layer is the opposite of these two.

1. What is the Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?
The opposition to the human race is a new form of an entity called the “robob” which is a robot with a brain.

2. Give us the main beats of that inciting incident.

Intriguing concept – like Planet Of The Apes, it is humans against a competing species, or at least hinting that this may happen.

Act 1. Lexia is a young woman who has come to town to find some hint as to what happened to her famous scientist father. That is her inner motive, but as a practical action, she has to go to her new job working for Nathan (Nat) Chambers, head of a magazine that focuses on conspiracy theories. He sends her on her first assignment: to trace down a tip about a riot being organized in the city.

Midpoint: Lexia visits several places on her list, with no luck. Someone tells her to go to the “underbelly” of the city, to the Haven. If anyone knew about it, it would be them. As she heads into a shadowy place beneath the surface of the city, she notices someone following her. At the Haven, she is told about the Enclave, a place where malfunctioning robots hide.

Lock In: As Lexia starts to leave, the person following her grabs Lexia and she struggles with them. Stepping out of the shadows, another figure pulls them apart. This is Cypher. The attacker drops what she is carrying and hurries away. Later, Lexia will pick up the box the girl is carrying and find some “old style” holograms which will help her find out what happened to her father. She will also find out more about the Enclave, and the plot brewing that will go from a riot to a revolution, as “robobs” fight for their rights.

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• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by  Jerry Robbins.

[Phyllis Strong]

Phyllis’s Amazing Inciting Incident

I learned from this assignment that covering up the concept until the midpoint gave me a lot to work with. The whole formula was helpful.

Inciting Incident Pilot Must Deliver: Four wealthy, elderly individuals have transferred their minds to young, brain-dead bodies in an experimental procedure. But nothing goes as planned.

Intriguing Concept: A scientist, a dying tech mogul, an ex-Senator and a marginalized cosmetics tycoon transfer their minds to young, brain-dead bodies, but their regained youth may not be worth the price.

Act One: We meet Diana, Peter, Mark and Suzanne in clinical settings we take for hospital rooms as each is taken off life support. Miraculously, each awakens! Their interactions with their families are strange.

Midpoint: These four young people haven’t miraculously recovered from being on life-support—they are the host bodies for four wealthy elderly individuals who transferred their minds to brain-dead young bodies.

Lock-In: The four start jumping into their second chances at life in the midst of a media circus and outrage that they paid a fortune for the privilege. Reveal one is a mole for the Pentagon, monitoring the project closely for their own purposes.

[Brian Bull]

BRIAN BULL – Amazing Inciting Incident

“What I learned from doing this assignment is…
I have an amazing story that I need to tell!!!

ASSIGNMENT
1. What is the “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?

Jim takes the two halves of the crystal ball, determines it’s irreparable, and is intrigued by the clarity of the glass; he then creates a pair of glasses, which he discovers will enable him to see the future!

2. Give us the main beats of that Inciting Incident:

Intriguing Concept: An optometrist’s life unfurls when he crafts future-seeing glasses from a crystal ball; while learning how to navigate the inexplicable Psychic Realm, he discovers his true love and “foresees” a murder he must prevent.

Act 1: Dr. Brown is a master craftsman when it comes to making eye glasses. He is very generous but is also very naive and feeble. He has a small gambling problem. He also doesn’t want to get involved with matters.

Midpoint: He sees Jezebel at Lucent Optical through the Psychic Glasses” attempting to murder Zelda at the hospital and Gloria (Who he hasn’t met yet) being threatened.

Lock In: Dr. Brown meets Gloria at the casino and “sees” the two of them in a romantic setting,

[Nat Melvin]

Natalie’s Amazing Inciting Incident

WIL: I like the way Hal presented definitions of Act 1, not just as a normal life of the character in their status quo, but a cover-up for Midpoint; Midpoint, not just some turning point out of the blue, but a representation of the intriguing concept for the whole show; and Lock-in, as the no turning back situation. Brilliant game changer. Thanks, Hal.

1. Inciting Incident:

Sola’s inability to control her newfound power unleashes an ancient curse that affects mythical gods’ ability to protect Earth from Chaos

1. Components of the Inciting Incident:

Intriguing Concept: When mysteriously disappearing artifacts of mythical gods hinder their ability to protect Earth from Chaos, a Hawaiian orphan teen must forge alliances across pantheons to avert the annihilation of divine and mortal realms.

Act 1: Sola’s inability to control her newfound power unleashes an ancient curse that awakens mythical gods Midpoint: Sola learns a closely guarded prophecy about Gods’ imminent loss of power and their feud that threatens to obliterate humanity

Lock In: Sola must find the origins of the curse, and locate stolen artifacts of feuding Gods to save humanity