Lesson 6 Assignments

[Jack Young]

What I learned doing this assignment is how to summarize the important elements of a season.

Jack Young’s Show Summary for STREAM

STREAM

One Hour Sci-Fi

Foreclosure Specialist, Michael Walker, wants to be a good husband. This would be true except for the fact that he can’t seem to end an affair with a secretary at work, and has just lost the family savings in an illegal inside-trader stock deal. Oh, and his business partner who supplied the insider trading info just flipped on him at the local FBI headquarters office. If this isn’t enough, his brother’s death haunts him with his father blaming him for his death. As he tries to find his way through his personal problems, a no-birth epidemic looms over everyone on the planet as his terrible migraines get worse and worse. But as if things seem they can’t get any worse, he’ll soon discover that he may be mankind’s only hope to end the current no-birth epidemic. But it will cost him his life!

Why will it cost him his life? Because it’s been his destiny his whole life.

Michael, as a young boy would have drowned in a pool if his older brother had not been there. Michael died that day…only for a short time. But long enough to have a fantastical vision of him floating in an ocean of souls. Above him in the sky formed a mammoth disk with ancient scribes and symbols on it. When he reached out to touch it, his brother revived him. As Michael discovers that the source of his migraines is terminal brain cancer, supernatural events lead him towards a man that has the answers…what is causing the epidemic and why Michael must die to stop it. Professor Darlington theorizes that an anomaly in the astral plane (an energy stream) is stealing all of the souls from our planet. Shunned by the scientific community as a lunatic, the Professor has put together a team and has developed a method to send a man (Michael) into the energy stream.

But Michael’s wife, Diane, is not going for it. She wants to see the Stream herself. After some beginner training in Astral Projection, the Professor’s young team of Astral travelers guide Michael and Diane into the Astral plane to see firsthand the Stream that is stealing souls. Although warned about getting too close to the Stream, Diane, hypnotized by its magnitude, is pulled into the Stream. The team quickly goes into action to pull her from the raging energy stream as new and old souls pass them by, reinforcing the Professor’s theory that it is indeed stealing souls.

The night before Michael is to make his voyage into the Stream, his health deteriorates even more as he and his wife reflect on the events that have lead up to Michael’s last day on Earth. Both confess their infidelities and regrets.

Thomas, a MIT engineer and close friend of the Professor, designed the preservation pod that will keep Michael’s body at the precise temperature to prevent cellular damage while Michael is on his journey.

How does a man who lost his faith years ago willingly lay inside a chamber and have his heart stopped so he can be projected into an energy stream that goes who knows where? And how does he do this knowing that he may never see his wife or son ever again? Michael knows the answer…..it’s his destiny..

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by  Jack Young.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by  Jack Young.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by  Jack Young.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Show Summary

What I learned doing this assignment is: how following the steps one at a time I’ve been able to create compelling show summaries. This assignment was surprisingly easy. Since I’ve been behind, I set a time limit to do this one as quickly as I could, and taking it step-by-step allowed me to work fast and come up with interesting summaries for both my concepts in just about a half hour total. They’re far from perfect, but I think each will serve as a good foundation to elevate from. This was a fun assignment, and I’m unexpectedly pleased with the results.

CONCEPT ONE:

Jude is a celebrated cancer researcher, specializing in genetics. He lives a comfortable life financed by a pharmaceutical company and is in a loving marriage with Catherine… until she’s diagnosed with inoperable cancer.

Obsessed with solving the unsolvable, Jude pushes his research to the limit… and appears to find a cure for cancer! But the key element is embedded in the DNA of Dres, a con artist who dwells in the seedy underbelly of the city. Jude’s search for Dres leads him into some dangerous corners…

…but none as dangerous as the secret army of assassins trying to kill her.

To understand what he’s up against, Jude infiltrates a Big Pharma conglomerate making billions off the “business of cancer.” But this masks an esoteric cabal dedicated to eradicating people of certain genetic lineages… people who have walked the earth for centuries. People like Dres.

Jude has stumbled into an age-old war – between a race of immortals with healing powers… and the powerful people intent on using disease to shape the course of human history. And the only reason Jude is alive is because they want him to help track down these people using his genetic research.

But this cabal murdered Dres’s immortal mother half a century ago… and now that she’s got a line on them, she wants Jude’s help to get revenge. Taking on a cabal that has toppled empires is a risky play, and Jude needs to keep her safe long enough to cure the world or, at least, his wife.

But what he doesn’t know is, Catherine is also one of the immortals. She shouldn’t be able to get sick, so why is she dying? And why does the cabal insist that that makes her more dangerous alive than dead?

CONCEPT TWO:

Darren is a by-the-books FBI Agent, an incorruptible “boy scout.” Scoleri is the most feared mob boss you’ve never heard of–because he rules from the shadows and if you know who he is, it’s because he’s about to kill you. Darren has been on Scoleri’s trail for years, and is finally about to close in for the biggest organized crime bust in FBI history…

…when he’s ordered to stand down. Reporters swarm Scoleri with a flutter of questions… because someone has entered him into the race for President of the United States!

The proper paperwork has been filed, fees paid, and a campaign fund has millions more in its coffers than the competition. He’s suddenly a major contender. Scoleri has no idea who has done this, or why.

But a newly-minted law prohibits federal investigations into people running for or serving in federal office. So Scoleri is immune from arrest… so long as he wins.

But he’s a mob boss, not a politician. His brutal tactics put him out of place in the conniving world of backstabbing politicos. On the campaign trail, he finds himself drawn to the corners of American society he’s long ignored… and comes to see this as more than a get-out-of-jail-free card… perhaps it’s a noble calling.

Meanwhile, Darren is still on his trail… and enters the political arena himself to bring him down, along with the architect of the law that’s protecting him–the sitting President! And the higher Darren rises, the more he’s starting to enjoy the freedom of a world where the more rules you break, the more power you get.

Can a brutal gangster become a fit leader of the free world? Or will the “boy scout” learn to fight dirty enough to bring him down? As this grudge match plays out against a national scale, a question still lingers: who set this in motion… and why?

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Show Summary

What I learned doing this assignment is summarizing the pilot as an inciting incident is relatively easy when you follow the prescribed outline and incorporate the key Binge Worthy components that elevate intrigue. This draft still is rough, but I’m feeling more and more confident.

PILOT AS INCITING INCIDENT

Outline:

1. Set up — Character’s normal situation.

Art history professor and portrait painter (expertise) Sophie Wolf teaches on the Lone Mountain Campus of the University of San Francisco. She lives an intentionally quiet life with her father Zhora Volkov, a Russian translator, and their cat, Koshechka. All this changes when Zhora and his fiancée, Falisa, are gunned down by Russians in front of Falisa’s house. (Undeserved Misfortune/Shocking Event).

2. Twist/Hook – Zhora believes the Russians who shot him and killed Falisa are enemies from the FSB past he and Sophie escaped twenty years earlier when they defected to the United States and entered witness protection (secret identities) (intriguing world).

3. Real situation – Major Empathy / Distress – At the hospital Sophie meets FBI Agent Bill Hillman and learns that Zhora was not leading the quiet life she supposed. His job as a Russian translator was a cover for his job as an informant for the FBI. Bill is his handler. She’s at once angry and scared. If Zhora’s shenanigans alerted the FSB to their true identities, they will have to change their names again and start all over somewhere else. (Empathy/Distress)<div>

4. Twist/Hook: After her hospital visit, Sophie comes home to find intruders there before her. She comes face-to-face with one of them before they get away. When Bill arrives and goes through the house to determine what the intruders were after, he discovers two things: One, there’s nothing in the house that would interest FSB. And, two, they seemed to be more interested in Sophie’s paintings than anything else. The mention of paintings suggests to Sophie a different reason for the Russians’ attack on Zhora and Falisa. They may have been there for Falisa’s oil paintings, which Sophie suspects are Old Russian Masterpieces.

5. Impossible to solve conflict or major mystery. To determine the true motive for the attack on Zhora and Falisa, Sophie insists Bill take her to Falisa’s house, which is still a crime scene find out if Falisa’s paintings are still there. He agrees. There, they find Falisa’s paintings missing. The Russians are not FSB. They’re art thieves. (Layer uncovered)

Final Hook into the Series – Extreme Dramatic Question – Sophie concludes her home invaders were after another of Falisa’s paintings, the one Sophie has been cleaning in her faculty office at Lone Mountain, the one she suspects is by Ivan Aivazovsky, one of the most brilliant seascape painters of all time.

The question now is how far will the Russian art thieves go to find the missing Aivazovsky painting which is worth upwards of $5 million.

ROUGH DRAFT OF SUMMARY

Art history professor and portrait painter Sophie Wolf teaches on the Lone Mountain Campus of the University of San Francisco. She lives an intentionally quiet life with her father Zhora Volkov, a Russian translator, and their cat, Koshechka. All this changes when Zhora and his fiancée, Falisa, are gunned down by Russians in front of Falisa’s house.

Before Zhora is transported to the hospital, he tells San Francisco Police Detective, Dave Sharp that he believes the Russians who shot him and killed Falisa are enemies from his past. Unbeknownst to Dave, Zhora and Sophie defected from Russia to the United States twenty years before and are living in witness protection.

At the hospital visiting critically injured Zhora, Sophie meets FBI Agent Bill Hillman and learns that Zhora was not leading the quiet life she supposed. His job as a Russian translator was a cover for his actual job as an FBI informant. She’s at once scared and angry. If Zhora’s shenanigans alerted the FSB to their true identities, they will be forced to change their names again and start all over somewhere else.

After her hospital visit, Sophie comes home to find intruders there before her. She reacts in terror when she comes face-to-face with one of them before they get away.

When Bill arrives and goes through the house to determine what the intruders were after, he discovers that there’s nothing in the house that would interest FSB and that they seemed to be more interested in Sophie’s paintings than anything else.

The mention of paintings suggests to Sophie a different reason for the Russians’ attack on Zhora and Falisa. They may have been there for Falisa’s oil paintings, which Sophie suspects are Old Russian Masterpieces.

To determine the true motive for the attack on Zhora and Falisa, Sophie insists Bill take her to Falisa’s house, which is still a crime scene and find out if Falisa’s paintings are still there. He agrees. There, they find Falisa’s paintings missing. The Russians are not FSB. They’re art thieves.

Sophie concludes her home invaders were after another of Falisa’s paintings, the one Sophie has been cleaning in her faculty office at Lone Mountain, the one she suspects is by Ivan Aivazovsky, one of the most brilliant seascape painters of all time.

How far will the Russian art thieves go to find the missing Aivazovsky painting which is worth upwards of $5 million? Will Bill be able to keep Sophie and Zhora safe until the thieves are apprehended?

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[David Quinn]

Nightvision

One Hour Dark Fantasy

Blythe has lost control – a wounded wanderer, she tortures herself with fragmented memories of her lover Ian, burned alive in his home many years ago.

But Blythe has an uncanny ability. Blythe alone sees creatures… masquerading as women. You and I see beautiful women, Blythe sees monsters – powerful visions she never asked for and doesn’t understand. She’s obsessed with following them by night through their urban underworld.

And doesn’t know why.

Till the night she stalks and seduces one in the bathroom of an underground club – and long-buried memories intrude, shocking her: Ian surrounded and trapped in his home by these creatures, sentenced to death for sins against the sisterhood. As she slays the siren, Blythe is promised that she too is on the creatures kill list.

Blythe must become the deadliest hunter of hunters – but answer to her she has denied to answer could save her, or destroy her.

[Eloise Healey]

Eloise Healey’s show summary

What I learned doing this assignment is to step out the various twists I have in mind to make sure it feels like the series has depth.

NO MAN’S LAND

It’s 1828, half a century into the brutal invasion of Australia’s First Nations people. Tasmania is still Van Diemen’s Land, the entire eastern mainland is New South Wales and no white settlement in what is now Victoria is allowed under British law.

Ellen Richardson is a determined but emotionally scarred convict woman who’s just been given her ticket-of-leave in Van Diemen’s Land. After decades of abuse, she dreams of a life free from the control of men. Realising there are other women who feel the same way, Ellen devises a plan to establish an illegal, female-only colony on the southern mainland. It’s a challenge to find enough money to hire sailors to transport them across the Tasman but the journey is just the beginning. On the mainland, the women must find food and shelter and negotiate their encounters with the Indigenous Gunditjmara. Just when it seems they might be able to survive despite the odds, into their camp stumbles an escaped, male prisoner. And everything changes.

The man’s presence causes a rift: some women want to help him, others want him gone, since the longer he stays, the greater the chance of their illegal camp being discovered, which will lead to imprisonment for them all yet again. Ellen’s stance is clear – men have caused them nothing but suffering; the stranger has to go. As the camp’s fragile peace breaks down like The Lord of the Flies, allegiances will be broken and lives will be lost, and Ellen will become increasingly like the domineering men they’ve all fled in order to keep control of the camp and save her dream. All dreams come at a cost – what price is Ellen prepared to pay to achieve hers?

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – SHOW SUMMARY

What I learned doing this assignment is finding the essence isn’t so easy.

“In 1835, the would-be assassin of Andrew Jackson was declared insane. It was a fluke, not to be taken seriously. Assassination, that is. And so, as 1861 unfolds, no American President had ever been assassinated. Assassinations were a thing in Europe, but not here, in America. No president had protection of any kind. They all walked the streets of Washington alone, unescorted. And no American President ever resisted protection more fiercely than Abraham Lincoln. But Baltimore was in turmoil with Southern sympathizers agitating for rebellion. And Lincoln was scheduled to pass through the city — unprotected.”

— Alan Pinkerton

It was in this powder keg environment that detectives Kate Warne and Alan Pinkerton found themselves. The rumors spreading through Baltimore of an assassination plot… were they true? Imagine Pinkerton’s surprise when Kate tells him that his barber, the one he pumps information from as he gets his beard trimmed, is the ringleader. Is everything he knows misinformation? Now it so happens that this ringleader, Ferrandini the barber, is quite taken with Miss Dixie, an attractive young Southern socialite new to the city. He loves the way she dresses in a long, flowing dress covered with Confederate flags with an umbrella to match, and the way she facetiously pleads with him to bring her Lincoln’s heart after the assassination. As his fondness for her grows, a date is set for her induction into the Wives’ Club of the Knights of the Golden Circle, but, on her insistence, it will be the day after the assassination, thereby making for a double celebration. Of course, that day will never come because, as Kate, accomplished Union spy, she will be busy finding a way to get Lincoln through Baltimore in one piece. Of course, her greatest obstacle won’t be the gangs. It won’t be the KGC. It will be Lincoln himself.