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Lesson 2
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Jack Young’s Amazing Inciting Incident
What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of the pilot episode. For without a compelling pilot episode, viewers won’t tune in to watch the others.
Main beats of that Inciting Incident:
Intriguing Concept: Souls are being stolen by an unknown force
Act 1: Michael’s life is starting to fall apart at work, at home.
Midpoint: Michael and Diane are taken into the astral plane to see the energy stream that is stealing souls as proof.
Lock In: Michael dies and goes into the Stream.
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Eric Humble’s Amazing Inciting Incident
What I learned doing this assignment is: It was a real breakthrough for me to see the inciting incident of the season/series as the midpoint of the pilot episode. Up until this lesson, I found structure for pilot episodes very mysterious. That one key started to give me some idea on how to write for television. I also had some breakthroughs with the idea of getting the character and the audience “locked in” to ensure we keep watching. This was a very insightful lesson. I’m excited to see how we’re going to stack the other aspects/techniques of the model on top of this.
1. What is the “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?
An omnipotent cabal is out to kill Dres, who is Jude’s only hope of curing his wife’s cancer. He needs to find out who they are and stop them in order to keep Dres safe.
2. Give us the main beats of that Inciting Incident:
Intriguing Concept: A medical researcher protects a woman whose DNA can cure cancer from a cabal of Big Pharma execs who want to keep the business of disease profitable.
Act 1:
What status quo will contrast the Midpoint and present the character and their world in an interesting way?
The city is safe. Jude is friendly with everyone around him.
Jude doesn’t venture into the “bad section” of the city.
Jude stays in his lab, lets security handle a potentially violent person trying to get in to protest the unfair prices of medicine.
Midpoint:
What is the big mystery or conflict my show is about and how do we present it in a surprising or shocking way?
A cabal with an army of assassins is trying to kill Dres.
Jude goes to confront Dres about her blood sample when he spots a sniper taking aim. He tries to stop the sniper, only to notice–too late–that everyone on the street seems to be in on the hit… and are now converging on him! But Dres saves him! She’s actually aware of them all and was trying to distract and evade them. Jude struggles with the sniper, but accidentally kills the guy in the process! The others disperse.
Lock In:
What will lock them into the change and guarantee they can’t return to their previous life?
Dres helps dispose of the body, but doesn’t help with the trail of evidence he laid out on the way there.
A police detective is looking into the hit, and has a clue that points directly to him.
He’s paranoid people are following him and converging down a street where he’s isolated.
The cabal visit him in his home at night – acting like police at first… then assaulting him and warning him off. They want the blood sample. He gives it to them, insists it’s the only one.
They blow up his lab – and his assistant inside – along with the other sample he claimed didn’t exist.
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Madeleine Vessel’s Amazing Inciting Incident
Doing this assignment, I learned that the pilot is the series’ inciting incident. I also learned how to beat out the inciting incident into intriguing concept, act 1, midpoint, and lock-in. Very exciting.
INCITING INCIDENT:
Having defected to the United States from Russia, Sophie and Zhora live their lives in fear that their true identities will be discovered by FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) and that they will be assassinated. After twenty years abiding by the rules of U. S. witness protection, they begin to breathe easily. But then, Zhora and his fiancée, Falisa are gunned down by Russian shooters in front of Falisa’s house. Likely it’s the work of FSB, but what if it’s not? With Zhora hospitalized in critical condition and Falisa in a body bag, Sophie is faced with a dilemma: Does she take Zhora’s gut feeling that the shooters are enemies from his past, and prepare herself to change her identity and career? Or does she summon the courage to conduct a private investigation?
By the end of the pilot, Sophie suspects the Russian shooters’ motive might be something other than FSB retaliation. She is on a suspenseful journey that may well lead her to her death at the hands of the FSB? We have to know if Sophie finds out why Zhora was shot without exposing her true identity.
We have to watch the entire season!
MAIN BEATS OF THE INCITING INCIDENT:
INTRIGUING CONCEPT: Sophie is going to turn detective to find out why Zhora and Falisa were shot.
ACT 1: Sophie is presented as an art history professor living a quiet life and abiding by the rules of U. S. witness protection. She cleans and restores paintings on the side.
MIDPOINT: Sophie finds out that Zhora and Falisa have been shot. Zhora has been transported to the hospital in critical condition, and Falisa has been taken to the morgue in a bodybag.
LOCK-IN: Zhora believes the shooters are enemies from his past, but are they? Sophie thinks they might be art thieves who knew about Falisa’s Old Russian Masters. How can Sophie and Zhora protect themselves if they don’t know who their real enemy is? She has to find out, even if it means exposing herself to FSB.
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George Petersen – AMAZING INCITING INCIDENT
What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of backing into Act 1. Midpoint first. Act 1 second.
1.What is the “Inciting Incident” of your series that this pilot needs to deliver powerfully?
When Kate discovers that the assassination plot is real and that Captain Ferrandini is the man behind it.
2. Give us the main beats of that Inciting Incident:
Intriguing Concept: An inexperienced woman detective discovers an assassination plot, which could split the Union in two.
Act 1:
Kate and Pinkerton investigate the “red shirts”, men in red shirts who hang out around the rail bridges that are a main artery into Baltimore. The head of the railroad has heard rumors that these men intend to burn down the bridges in order to protect the city from “invading” Yankee soldiers.
Midpoint:
Kate discovers that the assassination plot is real and that Captain Ferrandini is the man behind it.
Lock In:
Kate and Pinkerton agree to infiltrate the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society devoted to the expansion of slavery, and to infiltrate Captain Ferrandini’s meetings with the heads of the competing gangs in the city. Kate will be the Southern socialite, Miss Dixie; Pinkerton will be Mr. Hutchinson, a wealthy stockbroker heavy into arms trade. A decision that could get them both hung as Union spies.
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