-
Day 1 Assignments
Reply to post your assignment.
-
21 Replies
-
Danielle’s Conventions !
HIGHLY SKILLED HERO: The President of the United States.
DEMAND FOR ACTION: He has been forced to sign a document for starting a war in a friendly country after being drugged with a timing poison.
MISSION: Avoid the delivering of the document he has been forced to sign before the timing poison takes effect.
ANTAGONIST: The secret agents of the belligerent country.
ESCALATING ACTION: He has to hide the truth to his family ,collaborators and even outwit his bodyguards’ s watch.
What I learned doing this assignement is transforming a conventional situation into an extraordinary one.
Thank you for that Hal !
-
Patrick Malone Conventions!
What I learned were the five conventions of action films. I was inspired to come up with a concept.
High Concept: To prevent him from being banned from racing for life, a Formula 1 driver must transport a Mob boss to various locations to collect secret information
• Highly Skilled Hero: Formula 1 race driver, former military explosives expert. <div>
• Mission: Drive Mob Boss to three locations to collect secret information.
• Demand for Action: He must succeed or be banned from racing for life.
• Antagonist: Rival mobsters
• Escalating Action: He must protect Mob boss and information from killers.
</div>
-
TOM’S CONVENTIONS
What I learned doing this assignment is to be sure to include the critical components of a successful Action picture.
THE DAMASCUS INCIDENT
Concept: In 1980, a clumsy Air Force technician in a Titan II missile silo in Arkansas drops a socket which punctures the missile, leaking propellant. Another highly skilled tech must enter the silo, assess the damage, try to stop the leak and/or disarm the warhead before the missile, armed with a 9 megaton hydrogen warhead capable of destroying Southeastern America, explodes.
Conventions
– Hero: Fearless PTS Air Force Specialist Sgt. Jeff Kennedy
– Demand For Action: Somehow stop the leak before the missile explodes
– Mission: Risk his life to enter the silo, filled with toxic and caustic fuel, to patch the leak and diffuse the bomb
– Antagonist: SAC Commander Col. Charles Morris, proud WW2 pilot who knows nothing about Nukes
– Escalating Action: Jeff must use every trick in the book, such jumping aboard a moving truck, donning a REFCO suit (which melts when airborne propellant becomes dense enough), sneaking in and getting a vapor reading (it’s over the top) trying to patch the leak, rescuing an airman assistant, who passes out in the silo due to a leak in his suit, and even breaking into the silo after the Colonel orders it sealed off to try to disarm the warhead.
-
hello
where are you 8:03 pm. in socal it is on1:19 pm???
-
-
Hi cheryl
looks like I am a bit lost. Have not had an assignment yet – I think class one is in my email. is that what I am to reply to, class one??
-
The lesson’s structure helped me to breakdown the concept into the respective components which helped me to identity the gaps in the concept, characters, and plot as well as test their originality.
High Concept
An elite CIA sniper must risk her life while rooting out CIA corruption involving her father.
• Highly Skilled Hero: elite CIA sniper.
• Demand for Action: if she doesn’t stop the group completing their mission there’s another pandemic even more deadly and disruptive than covid.
• Mission: 24 hours to stop bespoke untested viruses being unleashed on their targets.
• Antagonist: the owner of a start up company that develops innovative healthcare solutions is a cover for a company that is developing bespoke viruses.
• Escalating Action: the interruption of an intelligence meeting pits daughter against father as they compete to stop the release of a deadly virus in a series of car and helicopter chases.
-
Sunil Pappu’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment is… to use the creative process of filling in the blanks and then elevating by asking the question: “having to do with this component, what haven’t we seen before?” I also learned to keep the question open as I strengthen the conventions as we go along.
Concept: A female CIA sleeper agent escapes the Russian prison and is hunted down by the KGB and soviet military as she is activated to stop Russia from launching a tactical nuclear weapon to win the war on Ukraine.
Conventions:
Highly Skilled Hero: A female CIA sleeper agent who is an excellent marksman
Demand for Action: escapes Russian prison with the Russian military and KGB agents hunting her down
Mission: to stop Russia from launching a tactical nuclear weapon (Satan 2 missile)
Antagonist: The Russsian KGB commander leading the hunt (who trained her before she deflected to CIA)
Escalating Action: the escape, the hunt and sniper gamesmanship on the move with formidable rivals and agents, including her own teacher
-
Laura Woodworth’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment is to open my mind to other ways I can elevate my story. I’m still having a hard time with wording the concept/logline in a way that will grab attention.
Concept: A prophetic intercessor made aware of terrorist attacks planned against the U.S. takes action to stop the evil before it happens, outwitting the Syrian army.
Conventions:
Highly skilled Hero: Rachel – skilled in spiritual warfare and the prophetic
Demand for Action: God makes her aware of the wicked plot aimed against the U.S.
Mission: To stop the evil that God reveals to her and save lives.
Antagonist: Pharoan, the Muslim leader of Syrian forces
Escalating Action: Pharoan’s attacks on America increase as he tries to outwit the “mole” who is outwitting him and his plan to bring America to her knees
-
Nick’s Conventions!
What I learned: There is always room for improvement. Figuring out the conventions defines the basis for the screenplay, also provides help in creating a succinct logline.
Concept: After he and his Latino friends are captured by cannibalistic skinheads during a campout in rural Georgia, a military war hero with PTSD and no legs manages to escape, but must stay and find a way to save his friends or they will be eaten before dawn.
Conventions:
Hero: A Latino military hero comes home with PTSD and no legs. <div>
Demand For Action: He must save his captured Latino friends from being eaten by cannibalistic skinheads.
Mission: To weaponize his prosthetic legs and save his friends.
Antagonist: Mankill and his troop of white, racist skinheads who love eating “dark” human meat.
Escalating Action: The skinheads are relentless in their search for our escaped hero, who must dispatch them one at a time.
</div>
-
Sorry I am late on this- work got in the way.
Lesson learned: I need to keep it simple. Answer the questions and stop trying to work it all out at this stage.
TITLE: THE FOUNDLINGS
HIGH CONCEPT:
In the aftermath of Order 66, an old smuggler who met his goal to retire from “the life”. He lives on a remote planet with his wife and is approached by a stranger (a proxy) with a job, deliver cargo before the Empire’s bounty hunters catch up. He must be covert about it and hires on a group of Mandalorian Foundlings as his hired hands.
HIGHLY SKILLED HERO:
13-year-old, Din Djarin, is tormented by the loss of his parents. He needs to stop straddling the line between the past and embrace where and who he is now- He is Mandalorian and like it or not, he is a natural-born leader.
All of the Foundlings have a form of this PTSD from being orphaned during war.
DEMAND FOR (incredible) ACTION:
Shipwrecked on a planet with nothing- Din Djarin takes charge and leads the other Foundlings to recover the cargo- First, they go trek to a nearby spaceport- sneak onboard and steal a spaceship so they can follow after the stolen cargo-
(impossible) MISSION:
Left with no adults or leadership, Din Djarin leads The Foundlings into the Cloning Factory on Kamino, employing their kid skills- the only skills they have- hide and seek and capture the flag to recover the stolen property and escape to honorably make the delivery as promised.
ANTAGONIST:
Asa Dern, an Imperial Bounty Hunter who leads a cadre of henchmen and Assassin Droids, and the Kamino Cloners.
ESCALATING ACTION:
Their cargo ship is followed by Imperial Bounty Hunters and shot down -escaping from the wreckage- the Foundlings and Smuggler run into the Bounty Hunters, who taunt the Smuggler and the Foundlings as his henchmen take the cargo into their ship- the Smuggler picks a fight with the Bounty Hunter when he starts taunting the Foundlings- The smuggler is killed (essentially) stabbed in the back- The Bounty Hunters leave the Foundlings with nothing- the Foundlings bury the Smuggler, their surrogate father- They sneak into a nearby town- steal a ship and go after the Bounty Hunters to recover the stolen property from the Cloners on Kamino- The Foundlings have to make their way into the Cloning Facility undetected- search for the stolen cargo- recover it and escape before they are caught and captured- Some Foundlings challenge Din’s leadership- casting doubt on Din’s ability and idea to pull off this grand plan-
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Jeff Bassetti.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
-
What I learned doing this assignment is to boil things down to the very simplest elements to see if the concept works.
TITLE: ???
HIGHLY SKILLED HERO: Janine Henderson, an ambitious, highly intelligent and capable student journalist vacations on spring break in an Eastern European country.
DEMAND FOR ACTION: A coup takes place. Martial law is imposed. People are trapped in the country and all outside communication is blocked. A brutal genocide begins against the minority Muslim population.
MISSION: While evading capture, Janine works to get evidence of the genocide out to the world in order to prompt them to take action and stop the carnage.
ANTAGONIST: A brutal nationalist and his henchman who will try to wipe out a people to consolidate power.
ESCALATING ACTION: Janine struggles to stay one step ahead of the coup forces who are pursuing her. The death toll in the genocide mounts. Janine works frantically to find a way to send her proof out to the world.
-
Alan’s Conventions!
Title: Extradition
Concept: 10 years ago, a scientist and a botanist, made a discovery that would revolutionize the fuel industry. Soon after, they were targets of a corporate assassination—one of them died, the other fled the country and went into hiding. The scientist was framed for the murder of his research partner… Present day, the scientist has been found living in Southeast Asia. The DOJ wants him extradited to the U.S. and his old company still wants him dead.
Highly-skilled hero: Scientist (with the ability to science his way out of problems)
Demand for action: A manhunt for our hero
Mission: Our hero, the scientist needs to clear his name before he is captured or killed.
Antagonist: The company that wants him dead.
Escalating action: The DOJ wants him brought to justice. The company wants him dead. But another company wants what he knows.
What I learned doing this assignment is… to delay perfection.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Alan Reyes.
-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
-
I learned that even if pondering to fill the blank only shortly I become already clear to reduce to what my- newborn – idea is about.
Concept : Waking up after a wild night with an involuntarily inked tattoo that speaks energetically to her, an ex SWAT white hat must find the other two people with parts of the tattoo within 10 days before it will dissolve itself and kill her while being hunted by D.A.R.K a pharmaceutical manufacturer who wants to unite all three tattoos to become immortal.
Highly skilled heroine: Kitty an ex SWAT who left police and turned an IT specialist aka white hat.
Demand : Solve the riddle before before being killed by the tattoo and escape D.A.R.K who hunts her to peel it off her alive;
Misson: Find the two people being tattooed by the same artist before he got killed the same night and unite the three parts for the good of mankind;
Antagonist: D.A.R.K is a Bulgarian manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and billionaire who got hold of an ancient book about tattoos and the last artists of this art alive. He wants the three pieces peeled off his prey alive and transplanted to his which will give him the ultimate immortality and the sole ability to produce scalable longevity for the rich world wide.
Escalating Action: When D.A.R.K learns that Kitty has ten days of time before the tattoo will kill her, he sends more and more people to find her as he has only the same amount of time to find all three pieces. Being hunted and hunting same time Kitty uses her IT and SWAT education while she learns to talk to her lizard tattoo to be faster and smarter what drive DARK mad.
-
Liz’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment was the Fill in the Blanks technique. It really made the process easier to answer the questions and get the story straight in my head.
Highly Skilled Hero: Retired Police officer now a consultant for his local Precinct
Mission: Identify and Stop a killer
Demand For Action: Bodies are piling up around town
Antagonist: Angry citizen feels everyone is against him
Escalating Action: The killer kidnaps our hero’s partner and the threat of retribution or revenge if he is hindered in his goal in any way will be to assassinate the partner
Looking forward to the fun to come!
-
What I learned doing this assignment is…open up to creative process with lots of ideas, bad ideas make room for good ideas. Don’t get stuck being a perfectionist!
Concept:Terminal Timeline
Grandson of a Looking Glass Scientist gets pulled into Elite End time scenarios when probabilities collapse and all desperate measures to survive are unleashed on the world. Elites will do anything to maintain power.
Conventions
Hero: Intelligence Officer, who turns out to be an Alien Hybrid.
Demand For Action: Multiple Agencies want to control the timeline, even creating chaos for more possible outcomes.Mission: Remove tyrants in a worldwide sweep with the least amount of collateral damage. Avoid nuclear war.
Antagonist: Archons and Evil Elites who want to continue enslavement and energy extraction.
Escalating Action: 5 big tyrants, their henchmen, and a major betrayal back home.
-
Texas Travelers:
Texas Travelers:
What did I learn
Look to the past to find the future.
Conventions
Hero: Dementia Puri-teen. Dementia lives in Lubbock, Texas.
Demand for Action: There are famous people out of their time and place living in her disappeared father’s junk yard.
Mission: Return them to their proper time and place
Antagonist: Aliens who appear like government agents. They were unwilling time travelers from the future when they planned to nvade us. Aliens are from Area 51 in nearby Rosewell, New Mexico. They want this time technology to return to their place and time. These aliens were snatched out of their future time here on Earth. Sure, they had time travel and space travel, but these guys are soldiers. They don’t know the technology. (How many humans can start a fire, no less design an airplane.)Aliens are human-like. Kind of screwed up aliens, but still dangerous. A dramedy comic tone here.
Escalating Action: What where they doing in the future? Once we find out we’re not going to want to send them back. Plus, they kidnapped Dementia’s father.
-
Terry’s Conventions!
What I learned: Initially took this class to simply elevate my writing in general, but what
I am learning is exceeding my expectations of the Action Movie genre and
opening a whole new world of fun and possibilities!Concept: A scientist finds a way to use volcanic flows to build land mass in time to keep island communities from being wiped out by rising ocean levels.
Conventions:
Highly Skilled Heroine: A Volcano Scientist who wants to save her ancestral island community.
Demand For Action: Sea level rises from climate changes
and upcoming storms threaten to wipe out entire island communities.Mission: Use controlled volcanic eruptions and flows to
quickly build land mass.Antagonist: Global Mines Guild wants the volcanic
technology to force the islanders to abandon their lands and to create new
mineral sources.Escalating Action: The Heroine must defeat the Guild’s trickery,
betrayal, and leaving her to die in the volcano’s path in order to protect her
technology and islanders. -
Fleur Olivier’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this is that even though I’m working on a dramatic TV series spec, the conventions of action films can help me think in terms of plot and moving the story forward.
Concept: With the world on the brink of disaster, a band of super-humans called the Storytellers emerge to coax the planet back into balance, one human at a time.
Highly Skilled Heroes: “The Storytellers” a band of super-humans
Demand for Action: Earth’s environmental demise
Mission: To serve humanity, uplifting humans from victim consciousness to Storytellers.
Antagonist: Will Adams, a phoney Storyteller with a multi-national corporation.
Escalating Action: The Storytellers’ goal is to ignite the creative powers of humans to change the trajectory of planetary extinction.
-
#1 Who is your hero? What makes him highly skilled?
Amos Candy. Skill – agility of body, throwing knives and other objects accurately.
#2 what is the demand for action?
He’s on his way to a meeting that he has to be there to contain what is being said there so that the bad guys don’t get control of the situation. Traffic situations are making his arrival on time near impossible. But he HAS to get there on time!
#3: what is the mission that the hero is on (implied or stated) What are they trying to do?
Amos has to stop the agreement between the the 2 factions from being implemented. These are 2 private, evil titan organizations to save the world from insidious, sinister domination. They know of him and assign a department among them to find and eliminate him at all costs. It is imperative to carrying out their plan as Amos knows their secret that will undo their evil plans.
#4 The antagonist
Jim Beam…dominates both organizations – feared by all. Very cunning and ruthless. Evil plan maker and master. He’s a former colleague of Amos and knows that Amos knows this dangerous, secret weakness inherent in the organization that can/will bring it down if Amos is not stopped in time.
#5 How will the action escalate?
From trying to get into the building that meeting is in, which antagonists locked to prevent his untimely entry, to hide and escape scenes, to hand to hand fight scenes to short but crucial gun battles. Then to the last daring, do or die, apparently kamikaze event that must work in order to save humanity!
-
Hi All! I am Wendy L Locke I live in Houston, Texas but I am on work assignment in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (20 min from Netflix Studios)
I have written 4 feature scripts, one TV series. Since I have been a SurgicalAssistant for 34 years I figured that I would try my hand at a horror script and base it in the OR where I feel most at ease other than writing. I just need to learn how to spice things up with a little action. I am most excited to kill off the Anesthesia provider with their own cords HAHA!
A fun fact about me is that I have an Italian Mastiff that weighs 160 lbs and he was raised with Chihuahuas and thinks he is a lap dog.
I know that I am late in the game here but I hope to get to know y’all better and learn a lot.
Cio.
-
Wendy’s Conventions
What I learned in this lesson is that it is okay to explore different ideas and to not get married to a single thought process.
Trauma Alert: Vengeance
HC: A woman is pronounced dead in the Operating Room but she comes back to life to exact vengeance on the serial killer……her Neuro Surgeon husband!
HIGHLY SKILLED HERO: The dead wife (Sabrina) of her serial killing husband.
MISSION: To expose her husband for the serial killer he is.
DEMAND FOR ACTION: If she doesn’t stop him, he will kill again.
ANTAGONIST: The serial killer/Neuro Surgeon Dr. Christiansen.
ESCALATING ACTION: The dead wife (Sabrina) is trying to expose her Neuro Surgeon/serial killer and he keeps escaping.
Log in to reply.