Lesson 6

[William Whiteford]

Assignment 5
William Whiteford Mystery Sequence

In this assignment, I learned how to create a Mystery Sequence that drives the plot of a thriller. The key to this is starting with the Big Villain’s Secret, which leads to several Main Secrets. Each of these secrets forms a Mystery Chain, a series of mysterious events designed to conceal the Villain’s truth. Typically, every villain’s secret requires a cover-up, pulling the audience deeper into a web of intrigue and deception. This keeps them actively engaged, speculating about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who is responsible. To heighten suspense, the Hero becomes drawn into solving the first Main Mystery, which propels the story forward.
1. What is the Big Secret the Villain is hiding?
Who is behind a series of brutal animal killings?
2. How many ways can the Villain cover up this secret? These become the mysteries.
There are at least seven ways the Villain can obscure the truth:
• Disguising himself as a fugitive war veteran and Hero, “G.,” a writer.
• Falsely reporting events to the police.
• Manipulating the Hero’s neighbor.
• Supplying corrupt eyewitnesses.
• Presenting falsified evidence.
• Orchestrating a manipulated TV interview.
• Expressing fake public outrage to throw suspicion off himself.

3. The First Mystery: How does it engage the Hero?
The Hero is drawn into the mystery when he begins tracking a war veteran who escaped from a clinic. The same clinic where Jack, the Hero’s secretary, once worked part-time.

4. Sequencing the Mysteries: How do they lead to each other?
Each mystery should seamlessly transition into the next, maintaining tension throughout the story. Here’s the sequence, along with a Red Herring to throw the audience off track:
• Who killed the Hero’s wife’s cat? Could it have been the veteran? (Red Herring)
• Is the Hero’s secretary, Jack, involved? (Red Herring)
• Did the Hero’s brother, Dan, commit the animal killings? (Red Herring)
• Will the Hero finally uncover and stop the true culprit, Rico—the Villain and animal killer?

5. Creating a Mystery Chain for Each Main Mystery:
1. Who killed the Hero’s wife’s cat? (Red Herrin)
• A TV news report mentions a shooting in a nearby park.
• The Hero spots someone with a rifle in the park, raising suspicion that this could be the cat’s killer.
2. Is secretary Jack involved? (Red Herring)
• Jack is revealed to have ties to both Dan (the Hero’s brother) and Rico (the Villain).
• After the Hero, “G.,” burns his manuscript, Jack swears revenge, making him look suspicious.
3. Did the Hero’s brother, Dan, kill the animals? (Red Herring)
• The Hero refuses to let Dan open a motel on his property, leading to a fierce sibling rivalry.
• Dan’s persistence suggests he’s willing to go to any length—even murder—to get what he wants.
4. Will the Hero discover and catch Rico, the true Villain?
• A series of mysterious animal killings terrorizes the local community.
• The Villain, Rico, uses false reports, planted evidence, and bribed eyewitnesses to mislead investigators.
• A manipulated TV interview shifts public attention away from Rico.
• Rico’s hidden alliances with the Hero’s secretary, Jack, and his brother, Dan, complicate matters.
• In a final twist, it’s revealed that Rico was conspiring with the Hero’s wife, Grace, all along. She betrays everyone and flees abroad alone.
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[William Peed]

1. What Is The Big Mystery The Villain Is Hiding?

He wants to get married so bad because he The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire won’t have an unmarried man as his Grand Vizier

2. How can he cover this up? These become the mysteries.

These need to be emotional. Miguel needs to be a detective in the house of love.

3. The First Mystery: How Does It Engage The Hero?

The first mystery is why did Pasha Hassan allow him to live?

[CHRISTOPHER WEBB]

What I learned is: it’s important to lay your mysteries out like a connected/connective maze that your hero must muddle through

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
– That the mayor (unseen villain) is the leader and funder of a criminal organization that operates at his enforcement arm across the world.
How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
He funds an insurance company and has each one of his syndicate covered under the guise of being clients of their insurance company. This allows them to communicate with each other without suspicion.
The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
He’s drawn into the mystery of his neighbor across the hall, Ciella, who he suspects killed someone and just so happens to work at his new job.
Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.
Why is someone breaking into his neighbors house and who is he?
How does the man later end up dead and who killed him?
A police officer dies in a traffic accident — it is later found out that he and the breaker and enterer know each other. How are they connected?
Our hero (Martin), his sister is a copy investigating the death of the other officer. How is his sister involved
Martin gets a job at a local insurance Company, where Ciella, his mysterious neighbor works.
Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
Mystery 1 – Is his neighbor a cold blooded killer.
Ciella lives across the hall of his apartment but he’s never seen her before
A stranger, (woman) stops him and in the hallway and asks if he’s seen her. She’s clearly worried
He catches a man breaking into her apartment
He calls the police but nothing comes of it.
He later finds out that the man is dead.
He calls the police officer investigating the case to provide info but is rebuffed.
The police officer investigating the case later dies in a car accident.
The police officer worked off the books as an insurance investigator for the insurance company where Martin is employed.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by  CHRISTOPHER WEBB.

[Diane Caldwell]

Subject: Diane's Mystery Sequence

1. What I learned doing this assignment is MIS is best developed when building it both for the mystery and the main characters simultaneously.

2. What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up? Villain was severely abused growing up in a satanic ritual abuse (SRA) family.

3. How many ways can they cover that secret? (Those become the mysteries):
–Lie about their personal and professional histories
–Hide their true motives behind each goal and ways to achieve each goal
–Stay isolated.

4. The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
First mystery: Who could kill in such a horrific way and then share that killing?

5. Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.
Red Herring Mystery: A strange sound engineer has unique ways of hitting on women he’s interested in romantically while working on the set.

6. Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
–Who could kill and then share that killing in such a horrific way?
–Is the stalker/killer somehow associated with the Quirks and Circumstances show?
–Can the producer and LAPD homicide detective actually help each other to find the killer?
–Breakdown of first two suspects.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by  Diane Caldwell.
• This reply was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by  Diane Caldwell.

[Antonia Roman]

Antonia Roman's Mystery Sequence

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up? That he killed his mother in revenge because she let him sit in prison.

How many ways can they cover that secret?
Implicating his brother by embellezing money from his mother’s investment accounts.
Falsifying a letter from his mother saying she feared for her life from Jonathan.

Mystery 1
Jonathan has to find out who killed his mother and why?
Why do things seem to be falling apart at his job when he has done it ethically?
What made his mother write such a letter when they had a good relationship.

Mystery 2
Jonathan learns someone is logging into his accounts at various times.
He thinks someone in his office is betraying him.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by  Antonia Roman. Reason: It's all clumped together when I post it