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Lesson 1 Assignments
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What I learned doing this assignment is to hone in on will hook whomever reads it that it is a high concept story told in a unique and original world.
Jack Young’s Intriguing Concept and World for “STREAM”
ASSIGNMENT:
Concept:
A foreclosure specialist and cheating husband dying from terminal cancer must enter an energy Stream that leads to another world to save mankind.
World of this show:
The mystical world of Astral traveling where souls are being kidnapped into an energy Stream where Michael must die to enter and stop the no-birth crisis.
Previously unexplored: A world where souls are re-skinned by an evil entity and the “Ocean of Souls” a reality like Heaven where souls are kept until needed.
The unknown: A brand new world that is a mix of aliens, humans, and skins whose only purpose is the removal of 6 gigantic sacred seals that are beneath the city of seals.
The unseen: What’s on the other end of the Stream?.
Unheard of Dangers: Evil forces already mounting to stop him.
Reason to explore it: Will save the world and mankind.
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Madeleine Vessel’s Intriguing Concept and World
What I learned doing this assignment is to create a TV Pitch Bible, I first need to define my story’s concept and the world in which it takes place. I also learned how important finding hooks are to writing these definitions
A young art history professor embarks on a dangerous adventure when she unwittingly competes with a ruthless Russian art thief to find a cache of masterpieces stolen during the Bolshevik Revolution.
A young art history professor steps into danger when she unwittingly becomes the pawn of a ruthless Russian art thief pursuing a cache of masterpieces stolen during the Bolshevik Revolution.
My Concept:
A. A risk averse art history professor competes with a ruthless Russian art thief to find a cache of masterpieces stolen during the Bolshevik Revolution …
B. …when she learns that a violent attack on her father and the killing of his fiancée was perpetrated by an art thief, seeking Old Russian Masters missing since the Bolshevik Revolution…
C. …discovering her true brave and heroic nature…
D. …as she slowly grows from a quiet-living art history professor, focused on keeping secret her true identity as a Russian defector, into a daring, globetrotting art crime investigator.
My Story’s World:
Unique Sub-World: The violent underworld of Russian art thieves, beginning with Lenin during the Bolshevik Revolution.
Previously unexplored: How to keep safe her secret identity as a Russian defector sought after by the FSB while investigating theft and murder.
The unknown: Will the FSB learn who she and her father really are?
The unseen: Russian police investigation; Art thief’s plan to use heroine to find more Old Russian Masters, stolen during the Bolshevik Revolution.
Unheard of Dangers: The FSB ruthlessly eliminates enemies of the state. Art thieves will kill to obtain paintings of great price.
Reason to explore it: Accepting an opportunity to work for the Tretyakov Gallery gives the heroine access to Moscow archives and the descendants of the Russian nobles who were victimized by Lenin during the Bolshevik Revolution, some of whom became thieves themselves.
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Cathryn Atkinson’s Intriguing Concept and World for RUN ANGELITA
What I learned doing this assignment is that my unwieldy project is getting tighter and easier to see.
Present your concept and world.
Concept.
A. Angelita, an indulged, protected El Salvador teen,…
B. …becomes a migrant escapee after witnessing her brother’s cartel murder,…
C. …then discovering she carries access codes to $500 million of their money,…
D. …she becomes “a migrant Robin Hood”, determined to give it all away to those in need.
World of this show.
• Unique Sub-World: The dangerous, frightening world of migrants fleeing violence to an uncertain reception…
• Previously unexplored:
Staying free and surviving as she searches for her long-lost mother…
• The unknown:
How the cartel will come after them…
• The unseen:
The FBI, border agents/ICE, Minute Men/vigilantes, untrustworthy people
• Unheard of Dangers:
Ruthless killers, opportunistic vigilante attackers, and law enforcement that treats her like an enemy
• Reason to explore it:
Building a new life, with the help of $500m, when the whole world seems to be after you
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Eric Humble’s Intriguing Concept and World
What I learned doing this assignment is: I had some huge breakthroughs on this lesson. Noticeably, my second concept has completely changed based on examining the essence of the world and the hook I was originally going for. On re-examining the concept, I realized what I had wasn’t quite strong enough to be truly unique… but on brainstorming the world and subworld, I came up with something much stronger that still fulfills the essence of my original idea but takes things to a more interesting extreme. For my first concept, I realized I didn’t quite have the format correct for this model, so I did some brainstorming on the various elements and created a stronger, more workable version.
Concept One:
A Big Pharma cancer researcher uncovers a conspiracy to exterminate a group of people whose DNA holds the key to curing cancer, changing from company man to renegade as he infiltrates a centuries-old cabal of powerful execs trying to control sickness in order to make healthcare profitable.
The World of This Show:
World: Drug research
Unique Sub-World: The Big Business of healthcare as an ancient cabal
Previously Unexplored: High-powered Pharma execs in the present day and “medicine men” throughout history
The unknown: Controlling cures and illnesses to shape society
The unseen:
Cabal
Genetic research
Unheard of Dangers:
Unregulated clinical drug trials
Finding out a cure they don’t want you to know about
Reason to explore it:
Wife dying of cancer
Another pandemic on the horizon
CONCEPT TWO: A by-the-books FBI Agent goes into the arms-smuggling trade when the gangster he’s been after unexpectedly ascends to the throne of a third-world monarchy. The gangster grows from criminal to king when faced with the responsibility of building a nation, while the FBI agent discovers his own ruthlessness when unfettered from law as he stages a revolution to take the gangster down.
Unique Subworld:
-Gun-running
-Establishing infrastructure in a developing nation
Previously unexplored:
-A monarch using drug lord tactics to make his nation strong on the world stage.
-An FBI agent using law enforcement tactics to stage a coup
The unknown:
-How the monarch will respond when his military is trained like an army of ruthless criminals
The unseen:
-Politics and infrastructure-building in a developing nation
-The seeding of a grassroots revolution
Unheard of Dangers:
-How a gangster will act as ruler of a developing nation
-How an expert on criminology can circumvent the law
Reason to explore it:
-Can a ruthless criminal embrace the culture he abandoned long ago? Can he empower a people when given the level of power he’s always craved?
-Violent revolution is the only way to take down the most ruthless criminal in America
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David Quinn’s Intriguing Concept and World
What I learned doing this assignment is that this discipline has elevated the layers and intrigue… but I still seek the title that distills the concept into two words!
1. Present your Concept.
Title: Blythe: Nightvision (CHANGE Title to Distill Concept into Two Words!)
Format/Genre: Dark Fantasy
By: David Quinn
Concept
A. Obsessed with violence, struggling with memory loss, Blythe alone sees hidden monsters…
B. Strange, powerful shape-shifters that hunt the human herd…
C. Sucked into their underworld, she hunts them ruthlessly till she is forced to collide with the realization that she is one of them, and…
D. An old wound: the man who created all the creatures, including Blythe herself, through a sexually transmitted genetic virus…
E. He’s still alive, one hundred years later, and has just begun the final phase his nightmare experiment
World
Unique Sub-World: 100 years of urban night life dominated by exotic, shapeshifting killers
Previously unexplored: A sisterhood of sexy night stalkers hunt the human herd; Blythe is the only one who sees the sisters as they really are
The unknown: Blythe is obsessed with the shape-shifting creatures – she’s still traumatized by blurred, incomplete memories of them killing her former lover Ian long ago – and she alone has the vision, power and ruthlessness to kill them before they kill her
The unseen: Blythe uncovers the truth – her lover is alive, and hiding, manipulating her, the creatures and a human shaman, Alice James, in the deadly game
Unheard of Dangers: No one knows how many creatures there are – they are everywhere, in every shape and form and ability. Alice James – another lover of Blythe from another time – betrays Blythe, secretly and Ian’s could still be alive
Reason to explore it: Blythe may kill creatures… but what will she do when her war on them forces her to confront the truth: Ian seeded their transformation of all the creatures through a sexually transmitted virus, Blythe was the first, and his work continues
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George Petersen- Intriguing Concept and World
What I learned from this assignment is the importance of the world of the story
Present your concept and world.
Present your Concept.
THE RED BALLOT
Kate Warne — the first female detective — young, inexperienced, idealistic and recently widowed…
…tasked with delivering President-Elect Lincoln safely to his inauguration…
…discovers her gritty nature as she struggles to create an impenetrable veil of secrecy around the President…
…while a secret society and bloodthirsty street gangs compete to assassinate him as he passes through Baltimore.
Tell us the World of this show.
Intriguing World
A. The treacherous, traitorous underworld that gives birth to the Confederacy…
B. …seen through the eyes of Union spies
C. …who risk being strung up by a bloodthirsty, rebel mob in order to save the President
Unique Sub-World: The world of violent street gangs and Secret Societies of 1860 Baltimore
Previously unexplored: The existence of political violence in an earlier time
The unknown: Violent mobs are totally unpredictable
The unseen: Political passions are subterranean and smoldering
Unheard of Dangers: High tensions and political uncertainty can lead to violent death
Reason to explore it: Hoping for a better understanding of political violence
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Rafal’s Intriguing Concept and World
What I learned doing this assignment is shortening the concept sentence, looking for more interesting solution on the opposite side of the original intention, being more free and precise on the concept level.
ASSIGNMENT:
1. Present your Concept.
Cordial grandma on her deathbed at her family’s hospital discovers life endangering aggression disorder of her beloved granddaughter and challenges the medical patterns to regain her live energy to investigate and punish those responsible, including medics, her granddaughter schoolmates, family members and… herself.
2. Tell us the World of this show.
Unique Sub-World: a corrupt world of competition for the market in the back rooms of doctor’s offices
Previously unexplored: drug sellers corrupting doctors, doctors drowning out their conscience?
The unknown: How the medical treatments influences social life of teenagers and family relations?The unseen: grandma investigating teenagers
Unheard of Dangers: alternative cures are not safe and piss off powerful people of the industry
Reason to explore it: Bring her granddaughter back to normal life and punish all those who make her suffer -
NO MAN’S LAND – Eloise Healey
Plot line – An innocent on a mission in a strange world.
A. Engaging and highly proactive hero…
Relatable: An ex-convict woman who lacks agency in her life
Motivation: Had enough of being controlled by menB. …up against a major external and internal conflict…
External: Tries to set up a female-only settlement in colonial Australia
Internal: To achieve her external goal she must embody the characteristics of the domineering men she wants to escapeC. …goes on unique transformational journey…
Start: Ex-convict woman wants to forge a new life away from the dominance of men.
Challenge: Setting up an illegal female-only settlement
Finish: Becomes like the men she wished to avoid in order to achieve her goal
Unique: Feminist perspective on the male-dominated white colonial narrative.D. …into an intriguing world.
Sub-World designed to explore this conflict/transformational journey: Colonial Australia in the early 1800s when white settlement along the southern coast was illegal under British law. This era is almost always seen through the eyes of men. No Man’s Land is a feminist revisionist take on this period of history.
SHORT PITCH
After gaining her ticket-of-leave in 1832 Australia, an emotionally scarred ex-convict woman leads a mission to establish a female-only settlement but, when their fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of an escaped male convict, she must become exactly like the men she reviles in order to protect her dream.
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