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Lesson 2
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11 Replies
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Zachary Hunchar’s Big M.I.S.
What I learned doing this assignment is that I need to understand what my characters want as a way to build M.I.S. Plot isn’t enough.
Logline – A scientist and her friends travel to a ski resort to cut loose and get into a lot of trouble. Their debauchery is interrupted by an unstoppable killer, and their fight for survival mirrors a potential path to a dark future.
1. What are the conventions of your story?
• Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Ellie Bishop is a relativistic astrophysicist who is far too cautious about her career and life, preventing her from enjoying her life. When she stops trying to be perfect, she can finally live.
• Dangerous Villain: April Wagner is an unsuccessful PR/Marketing who is jealous of everyone she’s close to and tries to sabotage them. As an unstoppable killing machine (Slash) rampages through her vacation, she’ll do anything possible to survive, including putting her friends in danger.
• High stakes: The world’s future is at stake if Slash fails to find the correct target.
• Life and death situations: If the hero fails to figure out Slash’s goal and stop him, she and her friends might die.
• This story is thrilling because? Slash is a virtually unstoppable threat, and nothing seems to be slowing him down, no matter what they throw at him.
2. Tell us the Big M.I.S. of your story?
• Big Mystery: What is the main mystery of your story that will keep us wondering throughout the story? Why is Slash stalking and killing members of the group?
• Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie? April manipulates others for her enjoyment and then puts them in harm’s way so she doesn’t get hurt.
• Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script? Ellie relies on April to help her stop Slash, but April is working against her.
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Rebecca’s Big M.I.S.
What I learned from doing this assignment is that it takes a lot of thought to create a thriller. Now that I’ve answered theses questions, I need to find answers to the new ones I created.
Perfect Pitch
A reclusive security systems expert finds a young singing sensation hiding in his garden and offers her refuge from an abusive manager, unaware that his help includes evading detection from bounty hunters, government agents, and hired assassins in a nationwide search to find her.
1. What are the conventions of your story?
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: security systems expert
Dangerous Villain: someone high up on the power chain
High stakes: The villain must get the girl back at all costs.
Life and death situations: His minions will kill anyone who gets in their way
This story is thrilling because? We don’t know why the singing star is so important to the antagonist. How long can the protagonist continue to outwit the singer’s pursuers? Will he learn the identity of the man in charge and be able to expose his diabolical plan without killing him?2. Tell us the Big M.I.S. of your story?
Big Mystery: What is the main mystery of your story that will keep us wondering throughout the story? Why is the girl so important to those looking for her?
Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie? The many attempts from bounty hunters, covert government agents, and hired assassins to capture the girl and kill anyone who helps her.
Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script? He continues to protect the girl and outwits experts who hunt them down and must be eliminated on capture in case he guessed the identity of Mr. Big and his diabolical master plan.
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What I learned doing this assignment: I need to introduce some spectre/hint of the Villain earlier than is currently in the script, using it to create some additional early intrigue.
Logline for ‘The Maze’: A woman learns she is about to become the collateral damage of her husband’s secret criminal past – a past she knew nothing about.
Thriller conventions in The Maze:
Unwitting but resourceful Hero: Laura Slater, an entrepreneur with a successful market garden business on the rural acreage where she lives with her husband Richard, a successful high-end insurance investigator.
Dangerous Villain: A Russian mobster who believes he was double-crossed by Richard more than a decade earlier during the days of freewheeling black-market capitalism following the collapse of the Soviet empire in the early 90s.
High Stakes: A just-released con insinuates himself into Laura’s life, playing on her good will and naivete when he comes looking for odd job work after her husband leaves her. To her shock she eventually learns Steve Garrett is actually her husband’s best friend, sent by Richard to protect her from danger while he’s in Europe trying to pre-empt the threat of the Russian mobster who is coming for them.
Life and Death situations: The Russian sends a minion to kidnap Laura but he is killed by Steve. Richard gets into trouble in Europe and Steve, believing that Laura is now safe, leaves to rescue him. Soon after Steve leaves, the Russian mobster himself arrives at the house and Laura must defend herself alone.
The story is thrilling because of Steve’s initial duplicity and our uncertainty as to whether Laura should trust him at all; Richard’s duplicity (he has Laura believing he left her for another woman so that she won’t initiate a search for him); the revelation of Richard’s illicit past which he had kept hidden from Laura; Laura’s naivete which makes her too trusting; her growing reliance on her own intuition; the physical threats posed by the Russians who arrive at the house.
Big Mystery: Should Laura Slater trust the stranger who reveals her husband’s secret criminal history to her and claims he is tasked with protecting her from the imminent danger arising from it?
Big Intrigue: A Russian mobster blames Richard Slater for the prison sentence he served in a Latvian jail and is now out for revenge.
Big Suspense: Will Laura evade the mobster’s attempt to kidnap and kill her?
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@RebeccaSulke That sounds cool! Sort of like a thriller version of The Bodyguard! I bet your soundtrack will rock.
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@LizJansen Do you see your title having a double meaning with some show-down in a hedge-maze given he business?
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Spot on, Zachary! Yes. Laura is not only caught in a psychological maze, but she has an actual maze she built on her property which she ultimately lures the killer into to kill him.
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What I learned doing this assignment: The importance of M.I.S. in a thriller. Creating a solid M.I.S. takes much thought. What I thought was solid was not.
Logline: After a failed engagement, a self-proclaimed sleuth conspires with her estranged fiancé to capture a killer and expose a Russian crime syndicate.
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Jilted Nora travels to Europe to grieve Peter’s loss with best friend Beth. After witnessing Beth’s murder, Nora turns to Peter for help finding a killer. As details emerge, Peter’s blood ties to the killer are revealed.
Dangerous Villain: The Elegant Man leverages wealth and connections for personal gain. To circumvent the law, he employs covert tactics to erase crimes and their accusers.
• High stakes: War overspill into NATO member countries.
• Life and death situations:
Penthouse: Peter wants to kill the Other Woman, Leo beats the Other Woman
Hotel: The Elegant Man kills Beth
Bar: Leo drugs Nora
Apartment Cellar: Leo tries to kill Nora, Building Super tries to kill Nora
Forest House tunnel: Leo tries to kill Nora
Apartment: Someone kills(?) Nora
• This story is thrilling because? As the truth unfolds and dots connect, we wonder how one decision will impact the outcome of another as characters seek their own truth.
Big M.I.S.
• Big Mystery: Who killed Nora’s best friend?
• Big Intrigue: The killer’s clandestine scheme to fund Russian separatists and his relationship to Peter.
• Big Suspense: Nora’s increasing chances of becoming a victim as she closes in on the killer.
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Karen Christine´s Assignment – my own project THE BUG
What I learned doing this assignment is that I started with a single picture in mind, and the questions led me to a whole story. Love it! And look forward to developing this in depth throughout the next days.
My logline: Lawyer Tessa has to witness that her kids are being kidnapped at a rest stop on the highway. Their disappearance is the beginning of a series of vanished children, teenagers and adults. Together with her best friend who might be a target for the kidnapper as well she starts the prosecution.
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Tessa, 42, divorced, mother of 2 little kids. She used to be an advocate for family affairs. Her help in this case is not welcomed by the police, because she is a passionate, emotional and impatient woman.
Dangerous Villain: a young serial killer with a trauma from his past, wants to take revenge in a big way
High stakes: since the victims that appear are from all different ages there´s no sign how to escape from this killer
Life and death situations: After Tessa is interviewed by journalists and shown on TV she receives threats and the bloodstained necklace of her daughter (7). Her car is being rammed, and somebody is following her. The police refuse to give her protection since she used to have delusions during her marriage.
This story is thrilling because we see how a mother struggles to save her children before it´s too late, and before other people vanish and die. The story itself is about decisions and the impacts of decisions on other people´s lifes. Everybody whose decision influenced the life of the killer in his childhood is in danger. It takes a lot of cleverness and empathy for Tessa to find the connection between the victims – while the clock is ticking.
Big Mystery: Who kills former strangers and puts them together as a family?
Big Intrigue: A young former paralegal whose aim is to take revenge for a trauma in his past.
Big Suspense: Will Tessa find and stop this psychotic guy? Will she save her children in time? Will she be killed by him? Will the life of her best friend who helps her be affected, too?
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Big MIS. I learned there has to be high stakes to move the plot. Logline- Christy, a stable girl at a top racehorse barn, can read horses’ minds. She keeps this a secret. She learns from the horses there of a plot by the barn owner, to destroy a Kentucky Derby racehorse winner. Christy’s goal to save the horse is in jeopardy when the vicious owner learns of her secret talent. Hero-Christy, an animal lover with a secret past, Villain- Jacki, vicious trainer and owner of the barn,. High stakes: Save the famous racehorse from being killed. Life and death situations: The horse is in danger of being killed, Christy’s plot to save the horse is discovered by Jacki, who plans to kill Christy. The story is thrilling because Christy has to save the horse from being killed and stopping Jacki. What is Christy’s secret past? Why does she want to keep her mind reading talent a secret?
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What I learned doing this assignment is that I had to make several adjustments and changes to sections to make the story work as a psychological thriller.
Subject Line: Big M.I.S.of my story
Mystery: Helen Roberts, missing wife.
Intrigue: Mike Deans (father-in-law’s) role in his daughters disappearance.
Big Suspense: John Roberts, the husband accused of murdering his wife.
Log line: A man with a very violent childhood is accused of murdering his wife by a powerful father-in-law who hates him when his wife, his daughter, suddenly disappears.
1. Conventions of my Story:
•Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: (husband)
•Dangerous Villain: (powerful father-in-law that hates his son-in-law)
•High Stakes: What happened to the missing wife.
•Life and Death Situations:
Missing wife;
Husband only one accused;
Powerful father-in-law says son-in-law did it.
•This story is thrilling because:
We do not know what happened to man’s missing wife.
Chief of Police believe the father-in-law’s version of what happened to his beloved daughter.
2. Big Mystery: Where did Helen Roberts go or what happened to her?
Big Intrigue: Why is Mike Dean’s (father-in-law) and the Chief of Police so quick to charge the husband, John Roberts for her murder?
Big Suspense: Is John Roberts guilty for his wife’s disappearance and will he be convicted and jailed for her murder?
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Carmen’s Big M.I.S
What have I learned from this assignment? I’ve learned how complicated it is to create so many layers while sticking to a clear plot. But I’ve also discovered again how much fun it is – this idea is in its infancy and I’m excited to see where it takes me (or what I can use instead of the trope-y encrypted drive).
Logline: A struggling actress and her screenwriter best friend are hired for a one-off gig to help out the CIA, but as a result they find themselves in the deadly crosshairs of spies and assassins.
1. What are the conventions of your story?
Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Laney is a talented, but unsuccessful actor, who can transform herself into any character, and former stuntwoman turned screenwriter “One Take” Jake can think through a dozen scenarios at the flip of a dime – skills that got them lured into the job but also the only thing that can save them.
Dangerous Villain: Turner, a CIA man who’s run more black ops than he can remember, is going to retrieve the encrypted drive our heroines helped acquire, and kill anyone to do with it.
High stakes: Haley and “One Take” must figure out what they’ve stumbled into and deliver both their employer, a desk officer with no field experience, and the drive to the one man who can read the data for them, without being killed first.
Life and death situations: Our heroines are forced to go on the run, with Turner after them. They’re shot at, trapped in a crowd, and finally cornered in a seemingly hopeless situation.
This story is thrilling because? Two people with no intelligence experience or real life fighting skills must outwit a ruthless professional who knows every page of the playbook, and they also have to keep their employer alive, who is more damsel in distress than smooth operator.
2. Tell us the Big M.I.S. of your story?
Big Mystery: What is on the encrypted drive and why is it worth killing for?
Big Intrigue: Who set Haley and One Take’s employer up – is Turner really pulling the strings?
Big Suspense: Can our heroes stay alive long enough to deliver the encrypted drive?
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