Lesson 2

[Avi K]

Module 5 Lessons-Killer

1. Tell us your current logline.

Venture capital tycoon Viktor Brazhinsky and his wife Maya plot the downfall of a rival who plans to expose Viktor’s chilling secret — he’s a serial killer who’s never been caught…

2. Look through the 10 Components of Marketability and pick one or two that have the most potential for selling this script.

• A. Unique. Serial killer set in the finance world.

• B. Great Title. Killer.

• C. True.

• D. Timely — connected to some major trend or event.

• E. It’s a first.

• F. Ultimate.

• G. Wide audience appeal.

• H. Adapted from a popular book.

• I. Similarity to a box-office success. Billions, Dexter, You.

• J. A great role for a bankable actor.

Viktor: very physical, serial killer, tycoon, traumatic past.

Maya: complex, dark past, serial killer.

Jacob: traumatic past, tycoon, vengeful.

3. Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.

Killer is a show with a unique twist on the serial killer/revenge genres: it is set in the worlds of finance and BDSM with complex, larger-than-life roles for actors who love physically and emotionally challenging characters.

Example: If you say your script has a great role, in one or two sentences, tell us how you can emphasize that role as you pitch your concept.

4. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and post it at the top of your work.

What I learned doing this assignment is: thinking of a pitch from the marketing perspective is challenging. I keep lapsing into the creative explanation (like a logline) and then refresh the fact that I need to elevate differently.

[Timothy Barley]

Tim Barley’s Marketable Components

What<font face=”inherit”> I learned from this assignment is that I’m more confident in what I’ve written that I was in the </font>interim between modules.

Current logline: “Descendence” follows Alex, a descendant of 1000s of generations of ancient magic and super science practitioners, as he navigates the dangerous, hidden world of rival factions vying for the ultimate power, while he struggles to harness his growing inherited abilities and uncover the truth about his lineage.

Two possible marketable components:

Great title

Great role(s)

(possible 3rd or 4th) Wide appeal/Ultimate

Marketing Elevation

The title is solid and I can’t see any new work needing to be done. Three of the four main roles are solid, fun and creative with so many options where they could go which should draw interest from up-and-coming actors in their late 20s/early 30s.

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• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Timothy Barley.

[Elizabeth Dickinson]

Elizabeth Dickinson’s Marketable Components

What I learned doing this exercise is that I have more than 2 marketable components. I’m not entirely clear what the two most compelling components are for my piece.

Lesson 2: The 10 Components of Marketability

No Angels Need Apply – Current logline

A Soul who wants to end human reincarnation must re-live 5 key past lives and purge regrets from its lives as a gladiator, an abbess, a torturer, a freedom fighter, and an artist-to achieve its heart’s desire of becoming an angel.

Unique

History and fantasy combine for a high contrast drama with a simple, profound message. No lives – and few decisions – are wasted, except for regrets of things left undone.

Title

To become the angel it longs to be, a soul must temporarily forget its divinity (ironically) in order to embrace all the messy contradictions and emotions of being fully human across multiple lifetimes.

Inspired by a true story

All lifetimes were chosen based on the author’s hypnotic regression.

Timely

Capitalizes on current interest in movies like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” which covers past lives and how they influence a current life.

[Wendy Weising]

Wendy Weising’s Marketable Components

What I learned doing this assignment is that my story is relevant for today’s post coronavirus society.

1. Logline

After being hit by a car, waking up in a hospital on the planet of Cerebros, and discovering that aliens are consuming the human patients for a needed chemical, a woman must escape and defeat the Old Regime aliens who control the planet before humans cease to exist.

2. Marketability

D. Timely/F. Ultimate.

Our planet has been through a major event involving many people being hospitalized and even dying. Many were powerless to make things better for themselves and their family members. We had no idea how many people would die or if we’d ever find a way to stop it. We did! Here is a story about a woman trapped in a hospital who breaks free, finds the courage to fight back, and wins, not only for herself but all of humankind. Because if she doesn’t, that’s the end of us all.

J. A great role for a bankable actor.

There are several strong women’s roles.

3. I combined two categories to make it stronger—Timely and ultimate.

Before the pandemic, we didn’t know that a virus would come and kills thousands and that we wouldn’t know how to stop it. We fought it hard and then found the answer. Jane faces another threat to humanity that is more vicious. It has arms and legs and looks just like us—aliens. They need a nutrient found in our brains for their survival. They want to live too. She is every mother who wants to protect her children. She is every being who wants to survive and is willing to fight for it.

Actors are looking for strong women’s roles that are intriguing and interesting. Four of these women dominate the screen in this film. Jane has to save her kids from death by alien consumption. Then finding out that she is an alien who must eat human brain tissue to survive, she must eat it and give it to her kids—she makes the hard decisions and fights with everything she’s got, just like mothers do. Polly is a super intelligent human who is also socially awkward. Even though she has a phobia of leaving the hospital and her hoarders’ paradise, she if forced to escape to save her brain and ultimately, her life. Ava it a human teenager in a dark world. She becomes addicted to drugs to escape the pain of prostitution. She must leave the only place that can support her drug habit. Then we have the super antagonist, Dr. Jones, an OCD dictator, who wants to be looked up to while committing heinous crimes. She uses threats and punishment to get other people to do what she wants.

[P.G. Sundling]

My series has a lot of selling points that I sometimes forget about all of them. It’s such a unique show that it takes these exercises to figure out ways to describe it.

1. Tell us your current logline.

To survive a series of apocalypses, the planet’s fate rests on two childhood friends. From their rise to power to intergalactic wars over secrets of the Big Bang, any misstep could lead to a doomed timeline. When James Wong becomes None of the Above and runs for president, why does his destiny matter so much, and what price will he pay?

2. Look through the 10 Components of Marketability and pick one or two that have the most potential for selling this script.

A. Unique.

The level of escalation, the way it takes the zeitgeist, and moves it beyond light speed into a world going through radical change, just like our world will.

B. Great Title

None of the Above is an iconic title that has been used for many small things but not something major like this. It’s a perfect title for an unconventional series like this.

C. True.

D. Timely — connected to some major trend or event.

Dysfunctional politics, AI, and a cold war with China/Russia are the trends of the day.

E. It’s a first.

First Asian president. First female Hispanic president.

F. Ultimate.

Not just one, but a series of apocalypses faced during the series. It escalates all the way from the national level to the entire multiverse with increased stakes.

G. Wide audience appeal.

This series has something for everyone, packed with action and humor with lots of twists and the unexpected. A complicated romance, memorable characters, scenes, and dialogue.

H. Adapted from a popular book.

This has the possibility to take off once the first three books are done.

I. Similarity to a box-office success.

J. A great role for a bankable actor.

With the success of Everything Everywhere All at Once, the world is ready for a major series with an Asian lead.

None of the Above is able to save the world multiple times with just his brain. MJ provides the brawn for battles. By the end of the series they’ve both gone through so much and evolved past being human.

3. Do a quick brainstorm session about ways to elevate those two components for this script and tell us how you might pitch the script through the two components.

Example: If you say your script has a great role, in one or two sentences, tell us how you can emphasize that role as you pitch your concept.

Great Title is a big selling point. This series is very “now” with the escalation that represents the real inflection point our society faces as technology moves ever faster.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  P.G. Sundling.