Lesson 2

[Mark Wakely]

Mark Wakely’s Great Hook!

A. How did this process work for you?

It forced me to focus on creating a unique place and situation that leads to strong emotions and decisive actions by the characters.

B. What did you learn doing this assignment?

That contained scripts can keep the audience engaged by focusing on the drama of the situation and the solutions the characters come up with to solve the dilemma they find themselves in.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by  Mark Wakely.

[Paul McGregor]

Paul’s Great Hook!

6. a. How did this process work for you? I am not finding this at all easy. Having a contained setting seems to increase exponentially the demands for intrigue, improved dialogue (although I know we are not there yet) and sub-text.
b. What did I learn doing this assignment? It made me think about the non-contained scripts I have already written and I see how weak they are in terms of sub-text and intrigue. It makes me think that if I can “meet the grade” with a contained movie, it will impact positively anything else I write in the future.

1.
A. Setting: inside a House for Sale.
B. Unique device: a real-estate agent shows a couple around a house they are interested in buying, but in each room they are shown something each one has been trying to hide from their past.
C. Unique villain: well-dressed and charming real-estate agent.
D. Mystery: is this house the ante-chamber to Hell? Is there no redemption from past sins? What is the real-estate agent’s goal?
E. Impossible goal: Escaping the house without losing almost everything.
F. Unique layers: the couple finds out things about each other they had not known, and the real-estate agent has the “dirt”; on them from unknown sources.

2. What we have not seen before is the male character emerging as the least evil amongst the characters and a female character who is the equivalent of the Devil.

END

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  Paul McGregor.