Day 3 Assignments

[Brigitte Timmerman]

Mod 3 lesson3

What I learned from this assignment is setting up the essence whole having a turning point in every act creates intrigue for audiences to want to find out what happens next.

Teaser:

Essence: Family forced on the road with the goal to find their nephew Isaac’s Native American Family to seek refuge.
Turning Point: They come upon what they think is a community road block but they are bandits attempting to raid them.

Act 1:

Essence: 7 years ago Irene and Jessie find out their niece dies of a drug overdose and they have a nephew.
Turning Point: They meet with the social worker who to go though the options of fostering or adopting Isaac and informs them he is Native American and strongly advises they find his family so they will be taken in and live in safety. They agree to find his family.

Act 2:

Essence: 7 years ago Irene and Jessie make a concerned effort to find Isaac’s family but it more difficult than they thought
Turning Point/Midpoint: The burden of traveling is too much to bare finding Isaac’s family.

Act 3:

Essence: They are relieved to find an investigative agency that will find Aissa’s family. They supply security escorts to go on the road.
Turning Point: They find out the investigative company is really a front to traffic Native children they receive premium dollar for.

Act 4:

Essence:The family decides to return to their community with Isaac where there is food and safety.
Turning Point: Although the community is safe for now there is constant threats of bandits and rivalry.

Act 5:

Essence: 7 years later they adopt d Isaac and are a happy family. Isaac grows up with Irene’s best friends daughter Mira.
Lock In: Community is rated by a militant group most of the people flee or are killed. Irene, Jessie, Issac flee to their bus they find Mira’s parents killed and take her. Grandpa Frank waits at the bus ready to go. They are the only known survivors. They head out with the bus to the unknown for safety.

[Brigitte Timmerman]

Mod 3 lesson3

What I learned from this assignment is setting up the essence whole having a turning point in every act creates intrigue for audiences to want to find out what happens next.

Teaser:

Essence: Family forced on the road with the goal to find their nephew Isaac’s Native American Family to seek refuge.
Turning Point: They come upon what they think is a community road block but they are bandits attempting to raid them.

Act 1:

Essence: 7 years ago Irene and Jessie find out their niece dies of a drug overdose and they have a nephew.
Turning Point: They meet with the social worker who to go though the options of fostering or adopting Isaac and informs them he is Native American and strongly advises they find his family so they will be taken in and live in safety. They agree to find his family.

Act 2:

Essence: 7 years ago Irene and Jessie make a concerned effort to find Isaac’s family but it more difficult than they thought
Turning Point/Midpoint: The burden of traveling is too much to bare finding Isaac’s family.

Act 3:

Essence: They are relieved to find an investigative agency that will find Aissa’s family. They supply security escorts to go on the road.
Turning Point: They find out the investigative company is really a front to traffic Native children they receive premium dollar for.

Act 4:

Essence:The family decides to return to their community with Isaac where there is food and safety.
Turning Point: Although the community is safe for now there is constant threats of bandits and rivalry.

Act 5:

Essence: 7 years later they adopt d Isaac and are a happy family. Isaac grows up with Irene’s best friends daughter Mira.
Lock In: Community is rated by a militant group most of the people flee or are killed. Irene, Jessie, Issac flee to their bus they find Mira’s parents killed and take her. Grandpa Frank waits at the bus ready to go. They are the only known survivors. They head out with the bus to the unknown for safety.

[Phyllis Strong]

Phyllis’ Pilot Structure

I learned from this assignment that I have a lot of elevating to do with my turning points, and more brainstorming on the dramatic essence of my scenes. In other words, this is a first pass.

Lesson 3: Creating Your Pilot Structure

Teaser:

· Essence: A family protects its home from a threatening wildfire and then settles down to dinner.

· Turning Point: A large reptilian head, eye and jaws prominent, appears at the window. After a beat, the door bursts inward, and we see the startled faces of the family members.

Act 1:

· Essence: Sasha is a superstar at the EPA, about to take down a major oil company. No friends to celebrate with—only a friend with benefits. Billionaire Duncan is supports climate science by day, obsessed with suspicious deaths from extreme climate events by night. No practical skills—must rely on others.

· Turning Point: Sasha learns the oil company is settling with the Department of Justice—thanks to her friend with benefits. Duncan finds out his private investigator is betraying him to his sister, Delia.

Act 2:

· Essence: A furious Sasha tries to upend the settlement by accusing her “friend” and Delia, CEO of oil company of collusion. Can’t prove it. Duncan tries investigating incident from teaser on his own and he’s a disaster.

· Turning Point/Midpoint: Delia has Sasha framed and fired. Duncan tries to use contacts and money to gain access, and he’s arrested for interfering with an investigation.

Act 3:

· Essence: Sasha discovers she’s unemployable. Her dream of protecting the planet, for a living, is destroyed. Duncan, stymied in his mission, is plagued by nightmares of his dead teenaged daughter.

· Turning Point: Sasha is forced to move in with her mother because she can’t afford rent. Their relationship is toxic and opens Sasha’s childhood wound. Delia lets Duncan know she’ll compromise any investigator he tries to hire.

Act 4:

· Essence: Sasha is a mess when she discovers her “friend” is getting a promotion after colluding with Delia. Duncan needs an investigator who will never betray him to his sister—Sasha fits the bill. He approaches her about joining him in his work and at first, she’s thrilled.

· Turning Point: Sasha learns Duncan is delusional and hesitates about taking the job, while Duncan’s plan to enlist Sasha, and continue his dream of fighting these creatures, is about to fall apart.

Act 5:

· Essence: Duncan sweetens the deal, promising to fund a foundation for Sasha after three years’ time. Sasha takes a leap of faith (a first) and signs on. Sasha bluffs her way into the investigation of the incident in the Teaser, has Duncan arrange for a special autopsy.

· Lock-in: Sasha and Duncan discover that the bodies were cooked from the inside out and the inside of the house was slightly charred, but not the outside. The temperature had to have quickly risen to 200 degrees to kill those people as they ate dinner. That just doesn’t happen. Also, the outside of the busted door had an unidentifiable scorch mark, that Duncan believes was made by a creature. Where do they go from here?

[Marcus Wolf]

Lesson 3

Marcus’ Pilot Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is the structure of a TV episode and a pilot in particular. Accomplishing this will also cause me to have to rewrite parts of my Pitch Bible.

Teaser:

<div>
Essence:
After an exhaustive battery of medical tests in a hospital, Cassandra’s
doctor tells her she has late-stage cancer and should already be dead.
Cassandra calls Beatrix to her home to cure her with magic.</div><div>

</div><div>

Turning
Point: Beatrix confirms the disease but can’t cure it magically. During
her magical examination, Beatrix also finds that Cassandra’s weakening
state has caused one of her old spells to weaken – a spell which suppresses
the magical power of an old enemy, Trabeus. Trabeus was supposed to be
dead, but now Cassandra knows he’s alive and active somewhere.

</div><div>

</div>

Act 1:

<div>
Essence: Trabeus
is a kindly old man, beloved in his neighborhood. He’s also in witness
protection. His case officer complains about his association with a
suspected criminal, Marius. Trabeus asks to leave the program, despite the
dangerous criminals that are hunting him.</div><div>

</div><div>

Turning
Point: Trabeus and Marius are called to a local gang leader they do independent
jobs for. Trabeus is working from the inside to protect his neighborhood
from the gangster. The job assignment is to find and get information from
a rival gang member. Unbeknownst to anyone but Marius, Trabeus is magical
and casts a location spell to find the rival gangster.

</div><div>

</div>

Act 2:

<div>
Essence: The old
spell that Cassandra had used on Trabeus connects them and might be used
to locate Trabeus if another spell is cast along with it. Cassandra desperately
wants to kill him before she dies. She does her locating spell wrong, inadvertently
causing Trabeus’ locating spell to go wrong which then leads him to the
wrong man.</div><div>

</div><div>

Turning
Point/Midpoint: Trabeus tortures and murders an innocent man because of
Cassandra’s botched spell.

</div><div>

</div>

Act 3:

<div>
Essence:
Trabeus, with Marius’ help, finally realizes he killed the wrong guy. He
also realizes Cassandra is to blame, she knows he’s alive and she will
start hunting him. His gangster boss is furious about his failure. Trabeus
is forced to accelerate his plans and murders the gang leader. He is promptly
replaced by someone worse. And he has latent magical abilities he’s as yet
unaware of.</div><div>

</div><div>

Turning
Point: Trabeus reveals to Marius that he had once loved Beatrix. If he
finds her before Cassandra finds him, she will help him. But Trabeus can’t
try to magically connect with Beatrix without alerting Cassandra to his
whereabouts. So, he orders Marius to lay some clues for Beatrix on the
internet – something Trabeus is not capable of doing.

Act 4:

Essence: Beatrix,
knowing that Trabeus isn’t dead, searches for her old love online. Cassandra
senses the atrocity Trabeus has committed and tells Beatrix. That gives
Beatrix the first clue to finding Trabeus (the crime made local news). Then
she finds other clues (planted by Marius). Cassandra wants her to find
Trabeus and she wants to find Trabeus, but for different reasons.</div><div>

</div><div>

Turning
Point: Marius, unhappy with Trabeus, decides to lead Beatrix directly to
himself and use her as a hostage to gain his freedom from Trabeus. He is
clever with the clues he feeds her. She lies to Cassandra about her
progress seeking Trabeus.

</div><div>

Act 5:

Essence:
Cassandra knows she must reunite her old coven and needs to find them.</div><div>

</div><div>

Lock In: Trabeus
must find a way to defend himself against Cassandra, who he knows will
come for him, and this new gang leader, who could become seriously
dangerous.

</div>

[Kimberly Gore]

Kim’s Pilot Structure

What I learned from doing this assignment is that this feels like the most organic way to create a succession of events, piece by piece. And omg I can’t wait to start writing it!

1. Present the first draft of your pilot Acts.

Teaser: Natalie stares at ice cubes in a glass of water, shakes it. Tells Linnie, “A human will only last about ten minutes in freezing water.” She places a Barbie Doll into the water as Linnie watches.

• Essence: Natalie is reliving her past life as a girl who drowned in freezing water, but does not know this right now.

• Turning Point: Linnie is bothered and grabs the doll and runs off, Natalie chasing after her in an impromptu game of tag. They are laughing and acting like two kids, and Eric comes into the room, intervening, upset. Then Danielle, Linnie’s mom, rings the doorbell.

Act 1:

• Essence: Eric asks Natalie to go to another room, but she refuses, still in little kid mode. He turns on her, demands she leave, and she slinks off, pouting.

• Turning Point: Danielle enters, she heard him yelling at Natalie, saw the ruckus through the side pane windows, expresses annoyance at Nat’s childish behavior. But Natalie walks into the room as if nothing odd has happened.

Act 2:

• Essence: We learn Natalie is on medication, but she hasn’t taken it lately. This upsets Eric.

• Turning Point/Midpoint: We learn that not only is Natalie married to Eric, but she was, and still is, his psychiatric patient.

Act 3:

• Essence: Eric is on the phone with someone, talking in a low voice, mentioning he only has a little bit of time, his wife is grocery shopping. There’s a sexually charged discussion, he’s obviously having an extramarital fling.

• Turning Point: He hears a noise behind him, turns, and drops his phone as he’s attacked by a knife. The phone slides away, and he moans into the floor and passes out.

Act 4:

• Essence: Natalie returns home from grocery shopping. Finds a bloody knife in the sink. Picks it up and looks at it. Drops it and runs around the house searching for Eric. He finds him in the hall, where he’s crawled from the bedroom.

• Turning Point: She calls 911 and an ambulance and two police cars arrive, and she’s immediately questioned by police. They take her away for more questioning at the station.

Act 5:

• Essence: After a grueling question and answer session and realizing they took the knife she touched as evidence, she comes home and hears Eric’s phone ringing. She finds it under the bed, but when she answers it, the person hangs up. The number is unfamiliar.

• Lock In: She makes up a steamy, hot bath. Cries, pulls herself together. When she gets out of the tub, written in the condensation on the mirror is the sentence: “You did that to him.” Frightened, she rubs it out.

[Mary Andrews]

Module 3 – Lesson 3: LESSON 3 PILOT STRUCTURE.

What I learned from this class: what I’ve got feels light.

The Fireborn Chronicles:
season one :THINGS CHANGE
episode 1)TALLY-HO part 1?

Teaser Essence:
a) intro: Earth is gone montage while ship lands. CAPT. RAEL POINTE is on bridge, gets call from planetary agents…shows compu-link ability

b) character intros/interactions: go to meet with agents at loading bay exit

c) Nemesis team is attacked by planetary agents supposedly returning the Universal Government Ambassador whose mind has been psychically hi-jacked

d) Each team member shows his competence/abilities, readily.

Turning point: IRA HAZE (early 20’s) retrieves the Ambassador and attempts to free his mind from a terrorist’s control, only to discover the mind-jacker, still present, is being tortured as well (sonic disruptors). Ira barely manages to escape himself and collapses onto the sickbay floor.

Act 1:
Essence:
a) sick bay; Ira awakens. Laynald is waiting for him there. Ambassador is unconscious on gurney. They join up in Commons Room to eat and debrief. Ira is upset. when he discovers that the psi-jacker is being tortured as well as the ambassador. Rael has searched local area by compu-link. They decide to retrace ambassador’s sightings from street cam feeds.

Turning Point: Ira identifies with slave training…wants to save psi-jacker as well as Ambassador.

Act 2: Ext streets of Tanivol
Essence: Team sets out. Look out of place in festival atmosphere.

Turning Point: Suddenly, Tristen (early 20’s) appears before Rael. She is surreal and enticing and lures him to rush ahead of the others. Laynald closes in on him and pulls him into an alleyway between buildings. He motions for Ira to approach. Ira speaks to Rael to no avail. Finally, Ira removes his glove and makes physical contact. Rael is confused. Ira brings him back to reality–barely. Team decides to follow her lead if they can find her…Rael has a chit from The Palace which points the way. Laynald takes it, and Ira releases Rael, who takes off with them behind him.

MIDPOINT:
Essence: the team tracks Rael and Tristen through the Pleasure Palace with no problems. Nothing about it makes sense. Laynald believes they are being toyed with.

Turning Point Finally they catch up with them and Ira punches Rael in the jaw to break her spell over him. The backlash brings her to the floor. Laynald darts her and they take her with them through the lower level exit. Rael is barely lucid. She has him under her control. They return to the Nemesis and lift off.

Act 3: Nemesis bridge…sickbay
Essence: Rael is undone. Tristen has him entranced and unable to function. He is miserable. Finally, Laynald calls him to sickbay where he’s taken Tristen (unconscious) to examine her. Ira is already there. Rael can barely control himself. Laynald reports what he’s discovered. Ira cannot help but feel Rael’s condition.

Turning Point: Ira steps in and tells Rael he will make this right. Laynald escorts Rael away and places 3 small magnetic sonic disruptors around the sickbay in case Ira loses control of her. Ira rewrites Tristen

Act 4: Nemesis sickbay
Essence: Group reassembles in sickbay. Ira has impressed Tristen to believe she is now Rael’s slave. He has come full circle, now forcing his will upon her to benefit his captain. It does not sit well with him but when Tristen sees Rael she releases him immediately. Rael will name her Tristen here

Turning Point: and she will respond to his questions about her background by showing them all what her past was like. introducing the Oracle World and claiming to be a Chosen One.

Act 5: Nemesis: Common Room
Essence: Rael has Tristen summon the Ambassador and release him after they seek out what happened to him by deep searching his memories. The plan works and they discover the slavers were searching for information about Rael. Tristen’s mind is scalded during working with Rael. Ira erases her memory and puts her to sleep. He does not like seeing her confined like she is.

Turning Point: Ambassador calls Gov control and they want to speak to Rael to speak to them. His adopted mother, head of dark ops is dying and wanting to see him asap. He sets course on the spot

[Marie Jordan]

Marie’s Pilot Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is to create a pilot structure. I loved this exercise but I’m not sure I have mastered it. I know it’s only a first draft!.

TEASER:

Essence: VO about the meaning of celestial connection. Every human has a Guardian Angel and the role of the Guardian Angels is particularly difficult with teenagers.

Images of Rose when she has a risky behaviour and gets killed (Mystery) while Skyler, her Guardian Angel is trying everything to save her.

Turning Point: The VO is the voice of an archangel teaching a class of Guardian Angels at the School of Angels in Heaven about teenager’s behaviour and their attraction to danger.

ACT 1

Essence: Skyler, despite his dyslexia, ADHD and fear of flying, guides Rose (13), a Cyber Prodigy, just as she is invited to train in a Government Cyber Security Agency. She hears Skyler’s guidance as her own voice. Her mum and 2 smaller siblings move with her to another part of the country. Rose loves her family and helps her mum. She sees herself holding the Nobel Prize. She wants to help humanity and maintain Peace. Skyler adores her.

Turning Point: Skyler is suddenly disconnected from Rose.

ACT 2

Essence: Just when Rose has her period, and her hormones are kicking! She turns into a real teenager, slamming doors and running away overdressed or underdressed and Skyler is unable to guide her since their connection has been cut. Skyler who cannot whisper words to her ears, protects her by using the power of energy and the power of attraction to move things and people around her to prevent her from getting hurt. Rose is in love with another trainee Logan who is not interested with her and she gets distracted, makes mistakes several times and doesn’t work enough.

Turning Point/MIDPOINT: Rose is suspected to leak important information from the government agency and expelled from the training.

ACT3

Essence: Rose is also rejected by Logan and is angry so she turns to the dark web but exposed to an unchartered world, she is suspected of working for the police, located, and killed by a Crime Lord.

Turning Point: Skyler must break the rules to save her: he uses forbidden tools: Magic and time-travelling! He goes back in time and avoids her death! He also erases the memories of the bad guys.

ACT 4

Essence: The archangels don’t punish him despite his use of forbidden magic on earth. He is told that the fallen angels have disconnected all the prodigies on earth and it’s only the first part of a bigger plan to disconnect all human beings from their celestial connections. They need everyone to be ready to fight the Fallen Angels.

Turning Point: Skyler’s best friend, Charlie, is attacked by 3 Fallen Angels who look like Guardian Angels. Charlie has no memories and his mind doesn’t belong to him but to the dark world. Now, Charlie is after Skyler.

ACT 5

Essence: Skyler and his mentor Merrill notice a change in Charlie’s behaviour.

Charlie convinces Skyler that he could be a fallen Angel. That would explain while Skyler failed his previous mission. The boy Skyler was protecting in his previous assignment, commited suicide: her dived into the see from a high cliff. Skyler’s knows that his fear of flying comes from this traumatic memory. Why does he have a memory from hearth. Guardian Angel don’t have memories.

Lock in: Charlie and 2 Fallen Angel attack Skyler the same way Charlie was attacked. Now, Skyler is a Fallen Angel.

[David Thome]

What I learned is how to outline the structure of each act.

Teaser

Essence: Joshua’s part of a big experiment that’s goes wrong

Turning point: The lab blows up.

Act 1

Essence: Joshua is bored and disgruntled and turns down covering the experiment.

Turning point: He agrees to observe the experiment because it seems to be exciting and important.

Act 2

Essence: The buildup to the experiment; hints that it could be dangerous—in several ways.

Turning point: After the explosion, Joshua’s in a different dimension

Act 3

Essence: Joshua discovers he’s in a different world, tries to negotiate it.

Turning point: In this reality, the experiment has been delayed until the next week.

Act 4

Essence: Spies introduce Joshua to what a big deal the result of the experiment is.

Turning point: Car bomb.

[Diana Ceres]

Diana’s Pilot Structure

What I learned: I didn’t have enough content in the pilot, so I had to use all of Episode 2 to fill in all the acts. I didn’t know there were so many acts to a one-hour show. I will need to go back and add additional content to flesh out the first season.

1. Present the first draft of your pilot Acts.

Teaser:

Essence: Family packing franctically to evacuate during
the biggest hurricane of the century. Friend of family/Marco makes a stop
during hurricane to pick up a suitcase filled with bricks of heroin.
Grandmother taking forever to come downstairs with her suitcase.
Turning Point: Grandmother opens closet filled with
Santeria items, including lit candles. Hurricane named after the mother/wife.

Act 1:

Essence: Jake and family having breakfast. Wife/Lupe
tries to convince him not to go out of town. A Category 6 hurricane is
predicted to touch ground later in the week.
Turning Point: Husband dismisses wife and leaves town
for business trip. Last three hurricanes turned into tropical storms. He’s
not worried.

Act 2:

Essence: During hurricane evacuation, Lupe empties all
of Jake’s bank accounts and transfers the money into offshore accounts.
Marco clears out all the furniture and places it in U-Haul.
Turning Point/Midpoint: Lupe makes several fortuitous
trades to set Jake up for $7M of insider trading.

Act 3:

Essence: Jake comes home and finds house empty, save
for his laptop.
Turning Point: Jake’s calls go to voicemail. He
continues to dial and discovers everyone’s phones outside in the bushes.

Act 4:

Essence: Lupe and family have crossed state lines and
are holed up in a posh hotel. Marco places their posessions in storage. Turning Point: They have altered appearances and new
identities.

Act 5:

Essence: Jake is distraught. He calls police to file a
missing person’s report, thinking his family is in danger.
Lock In: Feds visit Jake and inquire about his recent
trades.