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Lesson 7
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David Wickenden Open Looks and Mysteries
What did I learn from this assignment?
It is easy to identify the mysteries and open loops and I had already had a fair number in my BWF.
Teaser Main Mystery: Who is the girl who finds the other who has committed suicide?
Sub-Mysteries: Why would Janice search her own apartment with a gun drawn?
Main Open Looks: Will Janice be able to capture Laura?
Sub-Open Loops: Will Janice be able to save Ryan?
Teaser
The teaser is a setup for further in the season. Another girl (Intrigue Mystery – who is the girl)(wound) finds her and tries to save her sister after she commits suicide because of sexual assault.
M: Who is the young girl that is trying to save the other?
OL: What happens to her?
OL: How does it affect her?
Act 1
We see a woman (Intrigue – who is the woman and why is she so skilled.) run through a tactical shooter’s training course with fantastic skill. Laura is that she is a doctor who specializes in PTSD, very caring.
M: Who is the woman and where did she get the skills?
OL: What does a psychiatrist need these types of skill for?
A young teen (Intrigue – Who is the girl and why) is abducted off the street. Janice is an undercover police officer, and she beats the hell out of the perv.
OL: Who is the child?
OL: Why is the man grabbing her and what does he want?
Act 2
Intrigue – secret wound – Janice searches her own home with a gun. She hides her wound by being a work acholic.
M: Why is searching her home for?
Intrigue World – Finds a child, Ryan, who has 90 days left to live, posted on the dark web.
M: Who has the kid?
OL: What are they doing to him?
OL: Will Janice be able to save him>
Intrigue – hidden Layer Both women are friends.
OL: What drew these women to become friends?
Act 2 TP – Laura’s patient commits suicide.
M: Why did he commit suicide?
OL: How will it affect Laura?
Act 3
Intrigue Accusation – Widow blames Laura for not helping her husband.
Intrigue Wound. Laura breaks down, but then
Intrigue secret – she opens a closet full of weapons.
M: Why does she have all the weapons?
What will she do with them?
Act 3 TP– Laura plans on taking the law into her own hands.
Act 4
Intrigue: Mystery – A man is being released from prison.
M: Who is the man and why is he in prison?
Intrigue: secret – The death threat came with information of secret tapes of his victims.
OL: Who has sent the death threat and why?
OL: What secret tapes?
Intrigue: forced behavior – Because of the threat, they flew the prisoner to the nearest airport where he plans on escaping the country before police can charge him on new charges.
Intrigue mystery – Laura is waiting for him
M: how did she know that he would be flown to the airport?
ACT 4 TP – Laura assassinates him.
Act 5
Intrigue: Secret identity – Laura is the vigilante
M: Why?
Intrigue: hidden agenda – Laura plans on continuing her crusade
Act 5 TP-Janice is assigned to hunt the vigilante.
OL: Will Laura be able to continue her crusade?
OL: Will Janice catch her?
OL: Will Laura be killed or arrested?
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David Thompson’s Open Loops and Mysteries
What I learned doing this assignment is how to establish events, introducing loops and mysteries, in such a way as to draw an audience in. This is what I’ve done thus far – more will occur as I work deeper into the outline.
(OL – Open Loop)
(M- Mystery)
Teaser
M – Who are these women?
Act 1
M – Who did Dan see?
OL – Why is Megaera try to kill that guy?
OL – Gaia knows more than she lets on – so what does she know?
M – Alecto and why she kills.
Act 2
M – Who kidnapped Brianna?
M – How is Dan able to see specters and mythological people?
OL – Who is this killer?
OL – Why is Megaera so over-the-top angry?
Act 3
M – Gaia is concerned about the marks on Brianna’s corpse. What does she know?
OL – Brianna now an earthbound spirit, but why?
OL – Brianna’s ghost carries those odd markings. What do they mean?
OL – How do the Furies help such murder victims?
Act 4
M – Duke Bune, what is he planning? Civil War?
OL – Why is Hades missing?
OL – What demon possesses the serial killer?
OL – Who will the demon possessed man kill next?
Act 5
M – Civil War in the Underworld, why?
OL – Megaera decides to not kill Dan, but make him her lover?
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AG’s Mysteries & Open Loops (Mod 3, Lesson 7)
What I learned: Brainstorming opens up new possibilities to build intrigue with mysteries from the past and open loops looming over the future.
Teaser/Act 1
After Sgt. Roger Gibson chats at the police watering hole with a woman officer, he arrives home and threatens his family.
(TP) His family sneaks out while he sleeps.
Amandla begins singing a prayerful worship song in her bedroom as her husband, Erroll, plays guitar and harmonizes with her. They talk about her decision as a “divine appointment.” She is Black; he is white.
· Main Mystery: Who are Amandla and Erroll, and what is their story?
· Sub-Mysteries: What decision has she made?
Main Open Loop: Will Sgt Gibson’s family escape his violence?Sub-Open Loops: Is he in another romantic relationship? Where is his family going?
Act 2
The next morning, 9-year-old Rickie Gibson sits in the shelter dining room with other children and women. He notices bruises on some of the mothers. A woman named Ruth tells him about the drumming lesson planned for children while their mothers meet that morning. Rickie worries about his dog, who needs a scoop of kibbles every morning. Ruth explains the dog is staying with a very nice volunteer who loves animals.
Amandla’s dreadlocked brother, Jordan, a sociology professor, rings a doorbell, and his 13-year-old daughter, Hope, answers, still in her pajamas. She happily hugs him, exclaiming, “Daddy!”
(M) Why is he ringing the doorbell to his own family’s home?
His wife, Sara, comes, and Jordan asks if Hope can go with him to give a drumming lesson to children at the shelter. As Hope gets ready, her parents speak privately in the kitchen.
(M) Jordan’s wife, Sara, cannot understand the changes in him. He is not the man she married. Their spiritual faith was always central to their life, but he no longer goes to church with her and Hope. She respects his work with other volunteers to start the shelter for battered women and children, but she does not want their daughter to grow up in a broken home. Jordan says he loves Sara and Hope. So he cannot lie to her or pretend to believe what he once did. He reminds her: she wanted him to leave. She needed space to think. He would love to come home, and they could figure it out together.
· Main Mystery: Will their family reunite?
Sub-Mysteries: What’s the issue between Jordan and Sara? <div>
Main Open Loop: Can Sara and Jordan stay together if they no longer share the same beliefs?
Sub-Open Loops: Will Hope feel torn apart by her parents?
Act 3
Amandla attends the Council Against Domestic Violence (CADV) and discovers that several shelter directors are not eager to have a new shelter open that will compete for turf and funds.
(M) Why would they oppose this effort to help women in the capital city, with its larger population, ethnic diversity, and poverty?
Some directors are leery about her clergy credentials. One quizzes her on her commitment to equal rights, gay rights, and reproductive rights.
(OL) Will she support all these issues as she claims?
Main Mystery: Why do expected allies distrust Amandla? </div><div>
Sub-Mysteries:
Main Open Loop: Is Amandla ready to lead the shelter, a world she does not fully understand?Sub-Open Loops:
Sgt. Roger Gibson goes to chief judge’s home on Saturday and meets a deputy sheriff working on his lawn irrigation system.
(TP) Roger tells chief judge his wife assaulted him and he needs a restraining order against her. Chief asks if she does drugs. Gibson must find her in order to serve a subpoena.
Main Mystery: Did the judge believe she assaulted him?</div><div>
Sub-Mysteries: Does the sergeant’s wife use drugs?
Main Open Loop: Will Roger Gibson win custody of their children?
Sub-Open Loops: Who will help him? What is the deputy sheriff’s side-hustle at the chief’s house?
Act 4
At the shelter, Jordan and Hope show the children how to express their feelings by using boxes or cans like drums.
(TP) Rickie tells Hope he is worried about his dog Lizzie. Hope tells her father.
Main Mystery: </div><div>
Sub-Mysteries:
Main Open Loop: Are Jordan and Hope getting too involved in this case?
Sub-Open Loops:
Act 5
Jordan and Hope visit the volunteer’s home. She knows Jordan from their work starting the shelter, and she alerts him to the mob’s interest in the shelter. The mob claims they can provide better protection than the police. She lets Jordan and Hope take Lizzie to the dog park nearby.
Passing the dog park in his cruiser, Sgt. Gibson recognizes Lizzie, and does a U-turn as Jordan and Hope get back into their car with Lizzie. Gibson switches on his siren and lights and chases Jordan’s car in his cruiser as he calls for backup: “A Black guy has my dog!”
(TP) Jordan pulls over, gets out, and Gibson pushes him spread-eagle against the car, frisks him. Hope opens her door, and Lizzie runs away. Gibson shoots at the dog, but appears to miss.
Main Mystery: Why is the mob interested in the shelter? </div>
Sub-Mysteries:
Main Open Loop: What will happen to Jordan, Hope, and Lizzie?
Sub-Open Loops:
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Moses Quainoo
MOD 3 – LESSON MYSTERIES AND OPEN
LOOPS 7:“What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
ASSIGNMENT
1. Look through your current outline and find opportunities for at least 5 Open Loops and 5 Mysteries in the plot or about the characters.
List them like this:
Main Mystery: What are the scouts looking for? What do they see in Brader HEW that warrants them to capture the fight?
Sub-Mysteries:
Does HEW know the scouts?
Do the scouts know HEW?
Does he have something to do with them?
What are the scouts looking for?
Why are the scouts capturing the fight covertly?
What is it about HEW that interest the scouts?
Why did they come to the Center?
How did they come to the Center?
When did they come to the Center?
What are the scouts see that we don’t?
How did HEW pique the interest of the scouts?
Main Open Loop:
What will they do with the recording/film?
Sub-Open Loops:
What interested the scouts?
Did HEW know he was being recorded?
What will the scouts do next?
2. Look through your outline to see if you can build in at least one mystery and open loop into each Act of your outline.
3. Add those to the Outline.
OUTLINE
THE DO WELLS – DRAFT 3
(H) stands for BRADER HEW
(I) stands for ISHEY GARFUNK
(L) stands for LOVEDAY SEBASTIAN
(AC) stands for AC
(F) stands for FRANK
Act 1:
BEGIN:
BRADER HEW, a flour loader, handles his extended family.
MIDDLE:
Before sunrise, he enters his family house and finds a final warning sticker asking the HEWS to pay property tax or face an auction.
MYSTERY:
Why is he worried about the tax?
DILEMMA:
His Aunt asks for his and his grandmother’s share of the tax. What of his four female cousins who are still in middle school? Who pays for them? And his sixteen-year-old male cousin, a student cadet at the Military’s Bad Boys Company?
OPEN LOOP:
How will he get the money to cover the family members?
HEW promises to pay when he returns from the Center.
END:
His mother barges into the yard to say grandmother’s malaria is worsening.
TURNING POINT:
The need for money is even greater.
(Strong Turning Point: HEW and the eldest Aunt are the only breadwinners in the family. His grandmother’s malaria threatens to stop him from going to look for work. He needs to charter a taxi to the hospital, and HEW has no cash. No family member has the cash to send their grandmother to the hospital or buy anti-malaria drugs at the chemist. HEW has no bank account or girlfriend to borrow money from.)
(ISHEY-OPENING): A school leaver who wants to pursue a career and start an adult and family life. He asks HEW for a job.
(ISHEY TURNING POINT):
Act 2:
BEGIN:
(MYSTERY): Two female riders hitch their horses behind the Center.
(OPEN LOOP): Why are they at the Center?
HEW meets Ishey in the vast car park and enters the Center.
MIDDLE:
The riders enter through the back gates. They walk amidst a large gathering of men in the street forward. An A-signboard on Kerbing proclaims Loaders for Hire.
HEW and Ishey get to the Coop offices, where the Manager hires men to offload flour in the open. With a referee’s whistle dangling around the neck, the Manager asks for a workforce and no paper qualifications. He has few jobs for the many on ten lengthy vehicles sleeping two hundred yards distant. To meet the cut, job seekers must rush to occupy six spots on each vehicle.
The Manager has a referee’s whistle around his neck. Everybody looks to ascertain when the whistle will go for the race to start. The shrill comes from the supervisor’s whistle.
HEW joins the hot race, hops onto the vehicle, and connects with another aspirant for the sixth position.
DILEMMA:
Give up the position? Return home empty-handed and face his sick grandmother or clash with the person standing before him for the chance.
END:
He contends, and his opponent strikes first.
TURNING POINT: HEW fights to keep the spot.
MIDPOINT: The two riders capture the fight on cameras built into the crest of each riding hat.
(OPEN-LOOP): What are they going to do with the recording?
(ISHEY – TURNING POINT 1):
Present the Impossible Goal: Win the six-million-dollar BOXER contest.
HEW begins the journey to becoming a successful Master spy in Africa.
Act 3:
HEW is pressured to win the fight and climbs aboard the departing vehicle. The scouts are under pressure to trace HEW’s steps. With the uncertainty and fears, let us see the deeper layers of the characters, weaknesses, and strengths of HEW, Loveday, and AC.
IMPOSSIBLE GOAL: Introduce/ Present the Impossible Goal
(LOVEDAY – OPEN LOOP): Why is she tracing HEW’S steps?
(LOVEDAY – TURNING POINT)
(ISHEY – DELIMMA)
(HEW – MIDPOINT)
(ISHEY – MIDPOINT)
(LOVEDAY – TURNING POINT 2 / HEW – TURNING POINT 2)
(ISHEY – TURNING POINT 2)
(LOVEDAY – DELIMMA)
(HEW – DELIMMA)
(ISHEY – MAJOR CONFLICT)
TURNING POINT:
Act 4:
Essence:
Major complications for HEW. The rationing of daily trips to the loading bay. Mills run short of wheat. An effort to resolve the wheat shortage worsens the situation. HEW‘s plans fail as he takes less money. AC. Loveday is making a significant change outside The Do-Wells regulation. Her life has gone in an unexpected direction. She is making mistakes. New plans lead to worse results.
(HEW – MAJOR CONFLICT)
(ISHEY – MAJOR CONFLICT)
(LOVEDAY – ENDING)
TURNING POINT 1: A Production supervisor tells HEW the Mill is running short of wheat.
TURNING POINT 2:
HEW‘s team makes diminishing trips to the loading bay and takes home less money.
MYSTERY 2: Introduce MYSTERY 2 – How will HEW and Ishey reach the goal with Hu’s unaddressed hernia? Where will they get funding?
END:
The Flour Mill runs out of wheat and stops production.
Act 5:
Essence:
Realize the current Government needs to secure funds to pay for wheat importation.
DILEMMA:
Hu must determine when and how the next wages will come from.
(HEW/ISHEY – ENDING):
The jobs dry away, and the Coop Flour Distribution Association closes offices.
LOCK IN:
The Flour Mill runs out of wheat and stops production. The Government needs Foreign Exchange to import wheat in the next six months. The Coop Flour Distribution Association closes offices. HEW and Ishey need a job to go to at the Center. HEW must cater to the family and look for work that hardly exists. Loveday will approach him cold.
(MAIN OPEN LOOP): What is HEW going to discover about the BOXER contest?
4. Tell us which Open Loops and Mysteries you’ve added and the effect on the interest level of the outline.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by Moses Quainoo.
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by
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Wayne’s Open Loops and Mysteries
What I learned doing this assignment is a solid approach to identify and create mysteries and open loops, as well as focusing them on moving the story plot(s) forward.
From outline find at least 5 Open Loops & 5 Mysteries possible in the plot or about the characters.
Teaser:
• Main Mystery:
• Sub-Mysteries:
• Main Open Loop:
• Sub-Open Loops:Act-1
• Main Mystery: Who is this distort humanoid woman, and why was her lover killed?
• Sub-Mysteries: Who is this mean Security Force Leader, arresting her?
• Main Open Loop: Mill Mike ever return to Earth to fulfill his dream of a family?
• Sub-Open Loops: What will happen to the arrested woman?Act-2
• Main Mystery: How will Mike survive crash-landing and then what?
• Sub-Mysteries: How did she have a son?
• Main Open Loop: Will Mike meet this humanoid woman, Desae?
• Sub-Open Loops: How will they react when they do?Mid Turning Point:
• Main Open Loop: How is Desae going to care for Mike?
• Sub-Open Loops: What will Mike do when he comes to.Act-3
• Main Mystery: Why is Amixmu so mean?
• Sub-Mysteries: How badly is Mike injured?
• Main Open Loop: Will Amixmu find Mike (the alien invader)?
• Sub-Open Loops: What will happen to Mike if he’s found?
Act-4
• Main Mystery: Why is Desae risking herself and her son to help an Alien?
• Sub-Mysteries: Is that “sponge” that Desae is using, cut from her head cover (humanoid hair)?
• Main Open Loop: How long will it take for Amixmu to find them?
• Sub-Open Loops: How will Mike react when he comes to?Act-5
• Main Mystery: How can they survive and not be found/
• Main Open Loop: HOOK, what will be Mike’s reaction to seeing Desae’s face?Build in at least one mystery and open loop into each Act of your outline.
Teaser: The blastoff of Mike’s 13-year mission to Earth’s nearest inhabitable planet 6.2-lightyears away. While Mike is in suspended animation halfway to that strange planet, a humanoid Security Force team, led by Amixmu, raids a secret gathering, leaving a woman, Desae, crying over a lifeless humanoid who’s head lays in her lap. Amixmu steps over the distort Desae as he arrests her, gloating, “This should get you exiled to the wilderness.”
Act 1: Essence: Mike returns to Earth, greeted by his mother, sister, and her best friend, marries the beautiful friend, and has twin children, before being awakened from his dream by the ships onboard AI computer, “we are approaching the planet” that they’re on a mission to explore. Meanwhile, Desae, (from the Teaser), is farming alone, then goes home to check on her 3-year-old son.
Turning point: As she returns to her farming work, she’s tired, frustrated, and looks up to Logard (God), asks for help.Act 2: Essence: The fuel transfer valve of Mike’s ship is struck by a meteor causing the loss of fuel, forcing a crash landing and no possible return to Earth. Mike confers with “HAL” the onboard AI about his best course of action is for greatest chance of survival.
Turning Point: When Desae looks up praying to Logard, she sees Mike’s ship descending overhead and rushes to the crash site on her farm tractor.Midpoint: Turning Point: Desae carries Mike’s unconscious body to her tractor and brings him home.
Act 3: Essence: Amixmu, a stern Security Force leader arrives at the crash site, leads his men to load the empty craft onto a transport vehicle.
Turning Point: He personally begins to follow the dusted over tracts toward Desae’s farm.Act 4: Essence: Desae dresses a puncture wound in Mike’s side, rinsing it with a sponge very similar to her humanoid head covering. Nome stands by, overwhelmed in curiosity as she works carefully and diligently cleaning Mikes open wound.
Turning Point: Desae tells her son, Nome, that she believes Logard (God) has sent this alien to her because he needs her, and that she needs him.Act 5: LOCK IN As Mike begins to come to, Nome hides, as Desae stares at him in anticipation. Mike opens his eyes to see Desae’s large pale magenta humanoid face looking back.
Which Open Loops and Mysteries you’ve added & effect on the interest level of the outline.
These mysteries are intensified by all the mystery of a completely different planet with different landscape, plants, animals, humanoids, culture, language, building structure, even gravity (2/3 of Earth’s).
Nothing can be taken for granted. -
Syd’s Open Loops and Mysteries (M3_L7)
5. What I learned doing this assignment is the tension between main mysteries and main open loops vs. those of the sub-category. I need to play with perhaps milking some of the subs into the the first season and perhaps longer
1. Look through your current outline and find opportunities for at least 5 Open Loops and 5 Mysteries either in the plot or about the characters.
Main Mystery: Who is trying to get control of Golden City (and its resources / position on major trade routes)? What is their plan / end-game? Is Charita just a pawn or is there a deeper connection?
Sub-Mysteries:
Raj is an exile, but wealthy — why is he a thief?
Why is Charita intent on starting her own business / enterprise? Why is she keeping it secret?
Why does Charita go to Bhad for help (he’s the only one with business knowledge who is willing to help)?
Why is Bhad spying on Charita for the Queen?
Why is the Queen Charita’s protector? (Answer per the film — she’s Vanhi’s daughter)
Why does the queen reject all Charita’s business ideas?
Why does Charita reject all the queen’s suitors?
Why does Veer’s desire to share his secret with King Abzar piss off Anala?
Why does Vanhi reject Rajendra’s plea to return?
Anala: Why is Vanhi friends with Bhad?
Why can’t Gen Veer, shut to the security breach? Is he part of the inside job?
How did the necklace get into Charita’s room? Who put it there? (Vanhi, Anala, Veer — all want to know?)Main Open Loop:
What will happen to the infant crown prince?
Sub-Open Loops:
Will Charita end up with Jagger?
Will the queen arrange a marriage for Charita?
Will King Abzar allow Rajendra to return?
Who gifted Charita the necklace?
What are the intruders — who killed the royal guards — after?
What is the secret mission Vanhi sends Bhad to accomplish?
Will Bhad wreck Raj’s attempt to get allies?
Will Raj win back his place, reputation in Golden City?
Was the motive for the break-in and killing the guards really theft?
Charita goes on the offense, investigating the mystery of the jewelry — is she safe? She goes to a dangerous part of the city alone?
Anala’s having her followed — will she get caught?
Charita discovers that Damyanti knows about the maze (secret passages)? Who else knows?
What will happen to Charita when she’s caught in the black market with jewelry?
What will happen to Bhad when Raj turns the table on him in Shridar’s kingdom?2. Look through your outline to see if you can build in at least one mystery and open loop into each Act of your outline. Check.
3. Add those to the Outline. Added, need some refining and reordering; some of the sub-mysteries are solved and some of the sub-open loops are closed by the end of the pilot.
4. Tell us which Open Loops and Mysteries you’ve added and the effect on the interest level of the outline. All listed above — looking at some refining.
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