Lesson 4

[William Whiteford]

Assignment 4/1
William Whiteford
BI Stacking Suspense
In completing this assignment, I learned the following:
• Almost every scene in a thriller involves the application of genre-specific rules, such as Mystery, Intrigue, Suspense (MIS), character MIS, and, at times, the stakes.
• By balancing these elements and intensifying them toward the movie's climax, the audience is kept on the edge of their seats.
• The Big Mystery is typically not resolved until the final scene.
• Even then, a suspicious character often remains a potential villain, leading to an open ending.
• A suspect character, or "Red Herring," often plays a central role, weaving a complex web of relationships with other, sometimes equally suspicious, characters. Meanwhile, the true villain is usually a respectable figure who remains in the shadows.
• Thrillers often delve into the darker aspects of the human psyche, with characters sometimes acting out of control.
• The introduction of new information, reveals, twists, and increasing stakes keeps the audience engaged and enthralled.
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• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  William Whiteford.

[William Peed]

Mike's Thriller

What I Learned From This Assignment:

I loved the way that every scene in this movies has me asking at least one, if not more questions. It kept me guessing, which kept me involved in the movie.

On a related note, I was really impressed by how they used the turning points.

– The first one, the Break Into the Second Act, she literally tells him exactly what the Second Act is going to be. She tells him her next book about a detective who falles in love with the wrong woman, and she kills him.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  William Peed.

[Antonia Roman]

Antonia Roman-B1 Stacking Suspense

I learned in this assignment the following:

Every scene had the AMISS and MIS components that gave us a beginning, middle, and end to connect us to the build-up in the story.

The secret that was being covered up was a reality upfront.

The villain’s plan was put in motion a long time ago.

The Hero was eventually able to solve the case/mystery.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  Antonia Roman. Reason: It's all clumped together when I post it

[William Whiteford]

Assignment 4/2
William Whiteford
SOTL: Stacking Suspense
Lessons Learned for Writing Stronger Thrillers:
•Character Development Through MIS: I learned the importance of building characters by interweaving mystery, intrigue, and suspense (MIS), which forms the backbone of a thriller.
•Sharpening MIS Awareness: It’s crucial to track MIS elements throughout the story and understand their criteria to maintain tension.
•Hero and Villain Uniqueness: Both the hero(ine) and villain(s) must be unique, with strong positive or destructive capabilities that define their roles in the story.
•Creating a Likeable Hero(ine): A well-rounded hero(ine) should display not only strength and perfection but also vulnerability and setbacks, making them relatable and engaging.
• Building a Thrilling World: Crafting a world filled with suspects, ominous locations, and symbolic elements enhances the suspense and keeps the audience engaged.
•Captivating the Audience: Keeping the audience captivated involves stacking MIS, maintaining a mesmerizing throughline, incorporating unexpected twists, escalating stakes, and depicting the rival’s scheming leading to conflict.
•Constructing a Thriller Plot: Understanding how to structure a compelling thriller plot is key to driving the narrative forward.
•Depicting Dramatic Events: Showcasing the hero(ine)’s dramatic life events and their perilous yet enriching journey adds depth to the story.
•Writing Concise Dialogues: Constructing concise, to-the-point dialogues helps maintain the pacing and keeps the story tight.
•Delivering a Cathartic Experience: Providing the audience with a cathartic experience is essential. The Silence of the Lambs includes also the extraordinary solution: there is the secret agreement between the villain Hannibal and FBI cadet Starling. Hannibal escapes and blends into the crowd, despite the law prevailing in the end.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  William Whiteford.

[Ann Jordan]

Ann Jordan’s BI Stacking Suspense

What I learned about Thrillers:

What I learned by watching Basic Instinct and checking Hal’s Stacking Suspense chart as I watched was that there are literally layers to a well-made thriller. There’s the Mystery layer (what’s going on? Why did that event just happen?). Then there’s the Intrigue layer (what’s the backstory here? What are these characters trying to put over on each other? How are they covering up past history and also what they’re doing now?). Then there’s the Suspense layer (becoming more and more concerned for the characters, and becoming riveted to the scenes as we watch breathlessly to find out what happens next).

This MIS can and should be applied to every single scene in a thriller. Each scene should contain at least one MIS element and preferably all three. In addition, as we apply the MIS model to important characters, we dig deeper into them and find out their secrets, one by one.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Ann Jordan.

[Ann Jordan]

Ann Jordan’s BOURNE IDENTITY Stacking Suspense (Assignment 4/2)

With permission, I chose to analyze “The Bourne Identity” instead of SOTL because I’m really not into horror at all. It turns out that Bourne was an excellent choice for this exercise. This was the third time I’ve seen this movie, and even though I remembered the basic plot points, I STILL got sucked in emotionally because it’s so well-constructed. Here’s what I learned from doing this exercise.

1. Although, as the audience, we experience films in a flowing state that creates a cohesive mind experience, as writers, we build the audience’s future experience block by block, scene by scene. By also analyzing a film scene by scene, it helps us understand how the screenwriter chose to arrange the available information, not only to create an intellectual experience of the mystery, but also to create a state of mind that draws us further and further into the emotional life of the main characters, thereby creating a “thrilling” experience through the film.

2. Looking at the “stack” in each scene – the Action, Mystery, Intrigue, Suspense, the Stakes, and the MIS of the character/s – points out that all of these components are necessary to build a totally engaging and thrilling story, with characters we care about and a relentless feeling of “What’s next?!”

I intend to use this method going forward as I write pretty much any script, I think, because it translates so well into different genres. A Jane Austen story has the same sort of stacked questions, just with different stakes. Instead of whether characters will live or die, you’re looking at the suspense of whether characters will manage to marry well enough that they can afford to live at least as middle class, whether it will be a love match or not, whether they’re going to shame themselves, perhaps permanently, by doing or saying the wrong thing in public, and finally, whether the guy that the gal wants to propose to her will EVER say anything, because in that social milieu and time period, she could only hint around. It’s a different set of stakes, but they do exist – if the author is doing their job.

So this Thriller method is probably not universal but I do think it’s widely applicable.

3. I learned that you need to actually do the work of analyzing each scene individually, on paper or in a document, and not just mentally run through it and then move on. And it truly is work, if you do it that way. I confess, I only did the scene-by-scene analysis to about the 1:05:00 mark in Bourne because it really is time-consuming. But I also think it’s really beneficial for the writer to do this with their own work, especially.

[Antonia Roman]

Antonia Roman SOTL Stacking Suspense

What I learned from this assignment is the following:

1. It is a process of preparing the format for each scene and how a beginning, middle, and end connects us to the next scene to build the story.
2. This format allows us to identify character arcs.
3. How to involve twists and turns to engage an audience even more.
4. It helps us build the plot line sequence of events.
5. The pausing for each scene made me focus on the details of every scene and how good dialogue and character actions are critical.
6. I also realized that sometimes not every scene will have all the components of the Stacking Suspense Chart.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Antonia Roman. Reason: It's all clumped together when I post it

[Diane Caldwell]

Subject: Stacking Suspense Model
What I learned doing this assignment is utilized throughout a Thriller, in scenes and with characters. The Hero’s and Victim’s plans sometimes complement each other in unique ways. The Hero, Villain and sometimes Red Herring all help build the unique world of the Thriller. Showing even a hint of each one’s character journey increases the MIS of them and of the story. Stacking the suspense in a Thriller keeps the audience intrigued, wanting to solve the mystery on its own. Analyzing each scene as you write it, by making notes and not actually rewriting the scenes just yet, helps you continue to move forward with the story, with feedback to utilize later on the rewrite.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  Diane Caldwell.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by  Diane Caldwell.