Day 2 Assignments

[Dalisia Coppersmith]

SUBJECT: Great Hook!

A. How did this process work for you?

I enjoy brainstorming in different pieces/aspects of an idea. Generating options is not something I do enough of in order to arrive at strong concepts/hooks or character profiles. I am so into the spine of the story that I don’t put enough unique meat on the bone!

B. What did you learn doing this assignment?

The importance of that question “…what haven’t we seen before?” That’s because we think we’ve already asked that question when we came up with our idea! But if we break the idea down and ask that question over and over, it’s so much easier to mine for the gold.

I’m not sure what else we’re supposed to post here because it says “Don’t share your hook.”

[Michele Le Blanc]

M.M.’s Great Hook!

A. How did the process work? It was a good structure to use to build the foundation – the High Concept. I used the elements of a hook and learned how to interchange them to create a much more interesting one.

B. What did you learn? I learned that I can combine the 30 day screenplay info for speed writing to brainstorm the concepts and components for this class, which helped run through 5 ideas in the limited time I had.

[Andre]

Subject: Andre’s Great Hook!

High Concept- The key to selling scripts

How did this process work for me?

I am still engaged in the process, wanted to answer this question. I feel confident about the 5 scripts I have, wish I could develop the others as well, but perhaps as these complete, I can develop the others.

What did I learn doing this assignment?

-Words have meaning.

-Word salad is not an option for writers intending to be respected and paid. Also, the hook and drama are not the same.

-Drama involves emotional ups and downs of the story and or character, whereas the hook is the unique thing that instantly get our attention, creating the desire to see the movie.

Components of High Concept include:

High Concept is the Hook of the movie, that is unique in a significant way.

High Concept could be said in a single sentence that focuses on the hook.

When the High Concept Hook is said, we see the movie.

[Behee Batjargal]

A. How did this process work for you?

I liked the challenge of coming up with Hook. I really enjoy the process.

B. What did you learn doing this assignment?

The 3 criteria of Great Hook helped me the most. I went back and forth to check what I came up with against them.

[Mary Spiers]

Mary’s Great Hook assignment

A. How did this process work for you? This process is very helpful for me as it’s making me stretch on my concepts to make sure they have some unique hook. I like “What haven’t we seen before?” I brainstormed a number of things and am still working with exchanging components

B. What did you learn doing this assignment?” Stay flexible with ideas and characters at this point.

[Larry Maenpaa]

Subject: Great Hook

A. How did this process work for you? B. What did you learn doing this assignment?

I came up with five possible scenarios for a contained film. Each has merits, but I chose one that I feel has the greatest potential. The assignment forced me to really dig into the general premise to define the hook that inspired the original idea.

For me, the following helped:

Having to do with ___________, what haven’t we seen before.

Taking your 5 ideas from the Pre-Lesson, use the techniques below to brainstorm possible major hooks. I realized the best hook was creating a mystery as the key to the hook.

I learnt that I had to continually revise the hook until I got to the key that would make the hook great. The hook went through a lot of revisions until I could see exactly what would make the movie work.

[Connie Hood]

A. I like the process and the components. Brainstorming on the five ideas and generating options is fun. I did feel like the elements were more suited to Action/Adventure writing and the story I’m working so hard on isn’t like that. I’ve got something that begins as a disaster movie and ends up as a rom-com.

B. I thought I had a clear underlying theme but the Device is troublesome. In my first draft I’m setting up a heroine who accomplishes an extraordinary task. If I think about Device, What difference does it make?

[Erin Ziccarelli]

Lesson 2: Erin Ziccarelli’s Great Hook

How did this process work for you? This process is helping me to narrow my story and answer some questions. The five key components of a hook are helping me create a more intriguing story!

What did you learn doing this assignment? Breaking down the five strategies for creating high concepts. The impossible goal/unsolvable problem will help me to keep my audience in suspense.

1. Taking your 5 ideas from the Pre-Lesson, use the techniques below to brainstorm possible major hooks.

A. Intriguing Contained Setting:
remote lighthouse in the middle of a sea storm
B. Unique Device: ship in danger of
being shipwrecked – needs Claire to guide it to shore
C. Unique Monster/Villain:
Christopher – the mysterious stranger who is likely a bank robber and a
murderer
D. Mystery:

How did Claire’s
husband die? About six months ago, on a shipwreck.
Why can’t Claire
move on? She feels guilty for the shipwreck, feels inadequate in her
position as a lighthouse keeper.
How did
Christopher get shot? Sometime that night, in town.

E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable
problem: Claire must guide the ship to safety in the midst of the storm,
Claire has a dangerous man trapped in her house
F. Unique layers:

Claire’s grief
over her husband’s death – her guilt over not guiding the ship in
Christopher’s
mysterious arrival and departure – was he really there or did she imagine
him? Christopher as the “messenger” and the person who brings the gold
The gold – the
gold that was on the ship that sank, the gold that Christopher has on his
person and is left with her at the end
Claire’s mourning
and perspective on her life and her work – can she learn to love this
lighthouse, call it her own, be good at what she does?

2. Ask the High Concept Question.

Having to do with lighthouses, what
haven’t we seen before?
Having to do with grieving, what
haven’t we seen before?

3. Pick one and do the Exchanging Components process.

List the components of your current
concept: grieving widow, remote lighthouse, arrival of a mysterious
stranger, haunted guilt over her husband’s shipwreck
Brainstorm many alternatives for
each component.
Pick the most interesting and
engaging.

4. From doing those steps, make a list of all the possible concepts and select the one that you believe will make the best contained story AND will be a strong hook when you market this script.

Hook: How do you guide a ship through a treacherous storm while in fear of a bank robber taking shelter in your lighthouse?

5. Make your selection, but don’t tell us your High Concept. Keep that to yourself until you are ready to exchange feedback on the project. (On future lessons, you can post about details – characters, intrigue, scene ideas, etc., but keep your High Concept to yourself.)