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Day 6 Assignments
Reply to post your assignment.
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7 Replies
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Megan’s Show Summary
What I learned doing this assignment is…that I’ve already identified most of these elements previously, so pulling together a summary was much simpler than I expected. Currently, the summary feels a bit superficial and basic, though. In future drafts I also want to infuse some humor into the summary to make my genre and voice evident even in the TV Pitch Bible.
DEAR FUTURE SELF
30-Minute Comedy
Freshman Lexie Abbott could disappear and few people would notice. Overshadowed by a genius older sister and a socially superior younger brother, Lexie feels so unnoticed at home that she’s on the verge of running away. The situation isn’t much better at school but at least she has her childhood best friend Betsy to commiserate with.
Then an uninspired English assignment yields a surprise: her email sent to her future self comes back with a response! A cool, confident and successful professional living in Chicago, Alexis is everything socially awkward Lexie someday hopes to become. And apparently she does! Finally, Lexie has something no one else has, something to make her special: a way to communicate with her future self.
But who is Alexis really? And how is this communication possible? Can Lexie trust everything Alexis tells her?
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Tom’s Show Summary
This summary came together fairly easily after spending an abundance of time working on the episodes. I am still struggling with the format of the series as the characters were designed for comedy, but the plot is feeling very dramatic (and ridiculous). Hopefully this on-going concern will resolve itself in future lessons.
GROUP
30 Minute Comedy?
Florida Man, a lone wolf, Conspiratorial Theorist, is drawn to a political protest because of a possible false flag operation. Arriving to the event, it’s like a powder keg awaiting a spark. Cultural divide. Whose lives matter? Politics in the name of God. Guns and babies. And then it happens, the protest goes from two sides standing off to people running for their lives. Active shooter.
Three months earlier: Nine people who will attend the protest come together for a support group to help those struggling with loss during the pandemic. Facilitated by two post-doc students, Eddie and Trish, they are committed to helping the group see a cosmic thread that binds them, despite having seemingly nothing in common other than their attendance at an upcoming protest that will turn deadly.
As the weekly group support sessions continue, the participants learn more about one another and demons they possess. Eddie and Trish, struggle to keep them civil, let alone focused, but hide the true nature of their experiment. Each session, the mental health of Florida Man continues to decline as he goes from paranoia to hallucinations, believing that he is the victim of mind control. When Poe and Brenda, the leaders of two opposing political interest groups, discover who one another are, a divide occurs in the room, pulling the group apart.
As the group threatens to disband, Florida Man has an epiphany, realizing that not only has he been abducted by aliens in the past, but that he and the group, are currently being abducted, and the world they are experiencing is all an illusion.
Reluctantly, Eddie and Trish pull back the curtain showing the group that Florida Man is correct and they are aboard an alien vessel. As the group struggles to accept this reality, the alien hosts explain the true nature of their experiment, indicating the upcoming political protest marks the defining moment in humanity that will start a domino effect leading to the collapse of democracy and ultimately the extinction of the human race, unless this group can come together and alter the events that will happen at the protest. To drive the point home, they foretell that Jenny, the kindest most innocent member of the group, will die at the protest.
The group struggles to accept this news, and they turn on Florida Man. As past memories continue to rush back to him of past abductions, and the weight of mankind’s problems pin down his shoulders, Florida Man finally snaps and has a nervous breakdown.
On the verge of collapse, the chaos silences, and the ultimate truth is revealed, Florida Man has been alone the entire time. The Janitor, an ominous figure who remains silent yet in the background throughout the story, emerges as the architect of the experiment. The Janitor explains to Florida Man that the other eight people do really exist and he must find them in order to stop the deadly event that hasn’t happened yet. Florida Man learns that he has been groomed his entire life for this moment, through a lifetime of abductions, and that he has the tools to inspire the revolution to change the course of earth’s history.
Returning to earth on the day of the protest with his memories intact, Florida Man scrambles to locate the other eight members of the group. Realizing that they have never met him, but that he knows all about their personalities, secrets, strengths and weaknesses, he concocts a plan. Florida Man finds a way to bring the group together and save Jenny, but the violence still erupts in a different way than it did originally. Watching from afar, Eddie, Tiffany and the Janitor are left in wonder.
Is the fate of humanity already sealed or is there another way to save mankind from self-extinction?
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Megan’s Revised Show Summary – Draft 2
After the investigation in Mod 2, Lesson 7, I rewrote the show summary in my TV Pitch Bible. I still don’t think I’ve included enough intriguing details from all five seasons but at least now the summary focuses on both Lexie and Alexis’s transformational journeys. My only wonder is, is it too long?
Show Summary
Freshman Lexie Abbott could disappear and few people would notice. Though she loves reading about adventure and romance, nothing exciting ever seems to happen in her own life. Overshadowed by a genius older sister and an athletic younger brother, Lexie feels so unnoticed at home that she’s on the verge of running away. Then an uninspired English assignment yields a surprise: her email sent to her future self comes back with a response! A cool, confident, successful professional living in Chicago, Alexis is everything socially awkward Lexie someday hopes to become.
On the surface, Alexis seems to have life all figured out, but inwardly she is empty, alone, and miserable. A jaded workaholic, she battles one coworker who constantly undermines her in front of her boss and another who makes no secret of his strong sexual attraction to her. With little real purpose in life, Alexis decides to help transform her pathetic younger self in the hopes of improving her own current life.
As the two continue communicating, Alexis’s influence stimulates Lexie to become more courageous. She begins trying things that previously scared her: making new friends, joining a club, asking her crush out on a date, sneaking out of the house, skipping school, driving a car without a license. But how far will her risk-taking go? Who is Alexis really? And can Lexie trust everything Alexis tells her?
Lexie’s life isn’t the only one that begins changing. Alexis finds that interacting with Lexie provides a softening influence. For the first time, Alexis is noticing the things in life she’s missed out on: friends, family, pets, love, marriage, babies, holidays, vacations. Can Alexis maintain the edge she needs to excel in a competitive work environment with Lexie reminding her of all the things she’s given up?
The ultimate question, though, is how is this cross-timeline communication possible? Lexie and Alexis discover that both the government and a notorious crime syndicate are involved and that their connection extends beyond email. Lexie soon finds herself in a world of intrigue and conspiracy when everything she thought she knew about her future self disintegrates before her eyes.
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Suzanne’s Show Summary
What I learned during this assignment is just throw the spaghetti at the wall. I “finished” a first draft of the pitch bible today and that’s a big win. Loving the audios that go with this module!
I picked method B, and I also have a kinda crappy but accurate title now:
Start Over Island
1 hr science fiction/fantasy/adventure/romance
Summary:
On Day One, a New Orleans party turns into a wake when the host announces he’s taking the Gulf of Mexico hostage, an unprecedented catastrophe is coming, and he needs five more conspirators to join him on his Aisland. His PR rep Stella, makes a deal with the FBI to infiltrate his Aisland and take him out.
On Day Two, chaos envelops the city, and the hostage taker demonstrates his power when ALL communications cease for six minutes. Billions of dollars are lost.
On Day Three, martial law is instated, private navies crowd the harbor, and leaving the city becomes an act of terrorism. Stella joins with four others and they plan to escape by walking across the gulf floor to the Aisland.
On Day Four, a cargo ship crashes into the Port of Houston and disrupts shipping. The traumatized sailors scream about an “island of girls’ bodies” in the Gulf.
On Day Five, the hostage taker demands the city decide HOW it wants to become an island, where the cuts are.
On Day Six, the conspirators leave, beneath them the gulf’s floor shivers and moves, shifting the oil beds away, and cutting New Orleans into an island.
On Day Eight, they wake up on the Aisland, and each conspirator reveals his true colors. Stella is “thrown” back to NOLA as it is cut free from the mainland. She sees creatures in the water and wonders if they’re helping or harming.
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What we learned from this assignment is that it was much easier to at least get a rough draft of the opening summary done because we had all of the information. However, we still feel it’s a bit too wordy and detailed. We are hoping the process of making it intriguing will help us edit it down.
Couple Goals
30 Minute Comedy
Liz Kane has a relationship many consider “couple goals”, but nobody knows that her secret to a happy marriage is being a swinger for over 14 years. But, she’s tired of hiding her lifestyle just like her trans dad, who is still miserably married to her mom.
This all changes when Liz’s childhood best friend, Michelle, spots her at the local swinger club where Liz reluctantly agrees to help her navigate the lifestyle to save her marriage. Liz’s husband, Eric, didn’t see Michelle so Liz asks for her silence in exchange as he is cozy in the swinger’s closet.
After helping Michelle, Liz now feels like she’s found her purpose and helps others with sex and relationship advice using her hair salon as a front.
Unfortunately, Liz’s instincts (and experience) prove right after Michelle suspects her husband is cheating with the couple Liz hooked them up with. Even after Liz devises a plan and catches him red-handed, Michelle buys her husband’s excuses. Eric, who stumbles upon Liz’s secret plan thinks she is cheating on him so Liz has to come clean, but conveniently leaves out the part about helping other swingers.
When Michelle awkwardly tries to make a 4-some happen with Liz and Eric at the club, Liz finally goes off and tells Michelle to stop because her marriage is irreparable. Michelle, crushed, tries to seduce Eric in retaliation but he refuses. Then, Michelle tells him everything Liz has been up to.
Liz and Eric have a huge fight where Liz tries to explain that she finally feels like she’s living authentically and helping others fills the void of never being able to help her dad. Eric understands but is not ready to have this out there and wants to protect them. Eric ends up leaving Liz.
How do two people move on when you can’t put the genie back in the bottle and they want completely different things? And, will it get even worse with more people finding out about their secret life?
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Sharilyn’s Show Summary
What I learned from this assignment is…put the show pieces together, fill in the blanks and just write.
1. Summary format I like best: Pilot as Inciting Incident
2. Outline
1. Set up — Character’s normal situation: bedridden, super obese, eating alone in her bedroom
2. Twist/Hook: phone camera hack embarrasses her
3. Real situation – Major Empathy / Distress: unknown biological parents, fat shame, lose child
4. Twist/Hook: porn fame entices her
5. Impossible to solve conflict or major mystery: in trying to stay hidden she goes viral
6. Final Hook into the Series – Extreme Dramatic Question: Fat shame or porn fame?
3. Rough Draft:
The 600lb. life of a bedridden millennial, Erin Stodermann, goes viral when underground XXX engineer, Walley Stank, hacks her phone camera in search of the next BIG thing on the “soft” porn internet. As Erin tucks away in her bedroom, afraid of fat shamers and Trolls, millions of Chubby Chasers fetishize her every suck, lick and swallow.
After viewing the site Walley designs, the porn press comes a’callin’. Erin freaks out to her bestys who actually encourage her to food fuck, but for their own gain. Erin thinks she’s just a fat girl with a weight loss goal…or is she? Ginormous, with teats to her kneecaps and ass for days, Erin believes that no one sees her. But the camera does.
Porn becomes progress for Erin. She doesn’t wanna return to being hosed down like a pig and wearing drab muumuus. At a glimpse, she doesn’t appear to belong in the industry. But as she discovers, pornists are regular folks with issues just like her. After all, there’s no harm in eating sexy, if that’s all she does. Right?
4. BW Components to add:
• Engaging and Intriguing Character: she’s a fat girl with goals
• Intriguing World: internet “soft” porn internet
• Empathy/Distress: lost a child due to weight; parental rejection issues
• Mystery: who da’baby daddy?
• Layers: Weight loss not the real loss for Erin
• Open Loops: what’s the reason behind Erin’s overeating? Will she lose the weight?
• Conflict: She can’t lose weight and do her brand of fat freaky porn
• Relationship Hooks: Erin’s bestys monetize her; Erin + Patty as Patricio
• Irony: Porn = progress for Erin; porn innocence = food freakiness
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I deleted this post because I placed it in the wrong Module. Sorry.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Evelyn Petros. Reason: I deleted this post because I posted the wrong assignment here
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
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