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Post Your Lesson 1 Assignment here
Reply to this topic to post your assignment here.
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23 Replies
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Cheryl’s Concept & Conventions:
This is a brand new idea because when I looked at my other story options, I realized they were more comedies with some action, so this should be interesting, brainstorming as I go. 🙂
Concept: A bodyguard who needs to redeem herself, is injected with nanobots that connect to her client’s nanobots and if she dies, he dies.
Hero: A female bodyguard, ex-military, who unintentionally led her team into an ambush where everyone died except her and now she’s got a death wish in how she protects her clients.
Demand for Action: After blowing up the lab, the only technology on the nanobots is in their bodies, so they need to keep away from the bad guys until the nanobots degrade in their systems and can’t be harvested.
Mission: Keep the nanobot technology away from the bad guys.
Antagonist: The Board of Directors on the company who will do anything to save the billion-dollar technology that this scientist has created, not caring who buys their technology and what it is used for.
Escalating
Action: With unlimited resources, the board
continues to send contract killer after contract killer after them, since they realized they don’t need them alive to harvest the nanobots. -
My first action screenplay is simple. I hope to build it more in this class.
Who is your hero? What makes them highly skilled? / Stephan. Small town cop / Former military sniper.
What is the demand for the action? / Drug distribution crosses state lines into this small town.
What’s the mission the hero is on? / Fighting drug dealers and his ex-wife Marcia.
Who is the antagonist? / Ex-wife Marcia who sells drugs.
How will the action escalate? / Marcia wants to kill ex-husband too after losing custody of daughter to him.
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Brian’s Concept & Conventions:
Concept: A UFC that was trained to fight in the arena, but now has to fight for his and his family to survive from a scum crime boss.
Hero: Conor Smith is a good UFC fighter who can’t get the big fights because he refuse to take dives, but since a boy fighting was the only thing he was good at besides being a jokester.
Demand: When Conor can’t keep up on his bills his wife has to go back to work after just having 3<sup>rd</sup> kid, and the pressure of bills on his mind. He then tries to take a dive for a big pay day, but the mob boss decides to send Conor to shake down professional athletes that is not connected to any mob members.
Antagonist: New Jersey mob boss that is connected to the Luciano family is after him and his family. Some of the athletes street friends that he tried to shake down is after him also.
Escalation: When Conor meets many of these athletes and gets a change of heart, but the mob boss gives him 30 days to convince 10 athletes or he’s dead.
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Concept:
A streetwise hacker who practices eskrima (Philippine stick/sword fighting) takes a job to help his family but ends up being hunted for a mysterious file he uncovers.
Demand:
He is relentlessly hunted by a squad of assassins armed with the latest stealth tech designed to kill him. He must use his martial art abilities as well as his computer savviness to survive.
Mission:
He must find out why he is being hunted to survive.
Antagonist:
The leader of a hit squad hired to kill our hero.
Escalating Action:
He is sent to the gauntlet of tech and trained killers. For every fight won, something scarier comes.
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Margaret’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment: I learned the conventions for action movies.
Title: THE CROSS & THE SWORD
Concept: When the pope sends the army to kill Irish Christians, a letter from a Bishop turns a Roman soldier’s allegiance from church and country to subvert his own elite unit. Inspired by St. Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus.
Conventions
Hero: A Roman Soldier highly skilled
in fighting arts (Plumbata, staff sling…)Mission: To save Irish Christians
from the elite military unit sent to kill them.Demand for Action: Must subvert
his own unit’s mission to kill Christians and avoid discovery
Antagonist: Coroticus – The Commander
of the unit, the agent of church and stateEscalating Action: Secretly
saving while his unit is killing while escaping traps set for him -
Mike’s Conventions
Concept: A US intelligence agent must stop a plot by the head of the Hungarian National Bank to steal the country’s entire foreign exchange reserves.
Conventions
Hero: US intelligence agent that is the world’s expert in financial crimes
Mission: Prevent a plot to bankrupt and destroy the economy of an entire nation
Demand For Action: The plotters will kill anyone who tries to stop them
Antagonist: Corrupt government official with connections to security services and the mob
Escalating Action: Security services and mafia will kill anyone or destroy anything to hide their plot
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First, very cool to read everyone’s concepts. Some very well thought out ideas that were very interesting. I did development for a film company and got log lines all the time. I would’ve asked to see everyone of these scripts. I’m looking forward to seeing these in the theaters.
What I learned: Really appreciated the idea that first drafts are supposed to be bad. That if we keep going, we’ll find the solution to our writing/dramatic problems. Having confidence that if we don’t quit and keep brain storming, we’ll find something extraordinary.
Highly Skilled Hero: Hunter, former Army, speaks Spanish
Demand for Action: Has to rescue his granddaughter from human traffickers
Mission: Go to Mexico, rescue granddaughter from traffickers before they sell her
Antagonist: Cartel leader, Epstein-type overlord
Escalating Action: Becomes more desperate as the clock ticks, as he gets closer, the cartel leader sends more and more thugs at him, kidnaps wife, forces him to choose
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Here are some of my thought on this assignment:
Highly Skilled Hero: DA who is skilled in shooting and
hunting and adept at sword fightingDemand for Action: If the DA does not outsmart the Cartel
and take them out, then her daughter diesMission: To kill
the head of the Cartel making way for her to take over and do good with
her moneyAntagonist: Juan
Diaz, head of the Cartel and corrupt DEA AgentEscalating Action:
The escape, hunt and capture.
Multiple people attacking the hero. Starts out friendly and ends up
in a sword fight after she does what they wanted, but they don’t give back
her daughter. -
The Russian Teacher Conventions.
What I learned doing this assignment is that working with a defined model for the conventions helps to clearly focus and define your thinking.
Concept: An American woman Russian teacher visiting St. Petersburg suddenly finds herself with the famous missing Romanoff Ruby worn by Anastasia when the girl was executed in 1918, and now the leader of a Russian Mob family will kill to get it. Also a woman.
Conventions
Hero: A “fish-out-of water” but specially skilled woman Russian Teacher
Demand For Action: A Russian mob will kill her to get the Romanoff Ruby
Mission: Because The Russian Teacher learns there is reward for the Ruby by Romanoff decedents living in America, she must get out of Russia alive with the Ruby.
Antagonist: “The Panther,” the dangerous woman leader of a Russian Mob family.
Escalating Action: The hunt by the mob, betrayals, torture and the battle with The Panther.
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Concept: A self-centered woman must join forces with her rival sister to save the family “wine” business, only to discover it’s a cover for a hit-for-hire operation and her sister’s life is on the line.
Hero: A damaged, self-centered woman (attorney/FBI agent/CIA agent – still deciding) who’s highly intuitive, and tenacious who stops at nothing to get what she wants
Demand For Action: Reina must assassinate a target to pay a debt or her sister will die.
Mission: To pay off her sister’s debt to save the family legacy and her sister.
Antagonist: Head of the French mob.
Escalating Action: attack/fire to their vines, attack by thugs sent by mob head, car chases, a standoff with the mob head himself
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teset 1
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ASSIGNMENT 1: ACTION CLASS
Subject line: Alfred Dunham’s Conventions!
What I learned from this assignment is:
1. Every Genre has its conventions, but I didn’t know what they were for the Action Genre. Now I do.
2. I learned how to create a concept in an Action script by working from the conventions.
3. I learned the principle of starting simple and building by elevation via skill sets
4. I learned to think of Hero vs. Villain character and characteristics
Concept:
Having grown up virtually invisible to the world around him, the Hero goes to university and proves himself to be a remarkable student, especially in the sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics. But when his discoveries prove problematical to the goals of the academic community, his future is systematically destroyed.
Years later, and still a threat, he is given orders to “conform or die.” And when that doesn’t work, his family become included in the orders, so he must use every skill he has ever learned to discredit the growing fascist leader by his own words and beliefs – while running for his life.
Conventions:
Hero
Highly capable high school science teacher, who is skilled at thinking outside the box in both the science lab and in the wilderness, he grew up in. He is also highly disciplined and moral in both thoughts and actions, but pushed too far, he knows how to push back in unexpected ways. And he has a volatile background that he is not generally know or appreciated.
Demand for Action
The Hero is resistant to personal demands and threats, but when those threats are extended to his family, he is ready and loaded for bear. And he has more than just a reason to get even.
Mission
The Villain has turned suggestion (with threat) to demand, and his demands are frightening. If he is allowed to win, there will be a complete breakdown of society and freedoms, something the Hero cannot allow. However, if the Hero loses, the Villain will have nothing left to restrain him; if the Hero kills the Villain, the Villain will become a martyr to the “cause” and nothing will be gained. The Mission of the Hero, therefore, is to completely discredit the Villain in the eyes of his own followers.
Antagonist
The Villain has no scruples, having climbed the ladder of infamy within a quasi-religious community that has gone from corrupt to clearly malicious and evil, except in the eyes of a well-manipulated following that is growing rapidly in strength and numbers.
Escalating Action
The Antagonist offers peace, with a price, but the Hero’s morality and ethics will not permit him to stoop to such dishonesty and lies. The Villain turns ugly as smooth talk turns to threats, and threats, to physical harm. The Hero understands “touching coup” and has a plan, but it is virtually doomed from the beginning. Once entrenched, there will be no way to get that close to the Villain, now surrounded by True Believers who revere him as a god.
BRAINSTORMING:
I’ve already changed directions as I’ve thought of them. I still, however, still have no idea of how this is actually going to play out.
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Bob DeCarli’s Conventions!
What I Learned: The process of using the conventions of a genre to create a concept, in order to insure that the concept conforms to the genre’s conventions (and viewers’ expectations).
CONCEPT: A cop who has sworn off violence can stop a terrorist attack by time traveling. The catch? He must murder someone each time he travels back in time.
Highly Skilled Hero: Once a skilled police sniper (and before that, a member of the special forces), he gave up not only killing, but violence of any kind, after mistakenly killing an innocent.
Demand for Action: An impending terrorist attack.
Mission: Stop the attack by going back in time to prevent it.
Antagonist: A Bill-Gates-type environmentalist who wants to save the environment by depopulating the Earth.
Escalating
Action: More and more people attacking him by traveling back into the past to
block his efforts to thwart the attack. -
Madeleine’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment is: I don’t need to be locked into what I’ve come up with so far. If I want to change something down the road, I can. How freeing is that!
Concept: In Rome, a young FBI Agent’s plan to confess her sins to a priest at St. Peter’s Basilica is thwarted when seconds after she enters the confessional, the church is overtaken by a group of merciless mercenaries, led by a rogue member of the Swiss Guard. With the help of her intended confessor, she sets out to rescue the frightened hostages, save the Basilica from being blown to smithereens, and bring down the bad guys.
Conventions:
Hero: An FBI Agent assigned to the U. S. Embassy in Rome.<div>
Demand For Action: If she doesn’t take down a group of merciless mercenaries, St. Peter’s Basilica and its occupants will be blown to smithereens.
<div>
Mission: Take down mercenaries who have taken St. Peter’s Basilica hostage
Antagonist: A rogue member of the Swiss Guard
Escalating Action: Saturday afternoon confessions turn into a hostage situation and a fight against a group of merciless mercenaries.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Madeleine Vessel.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by
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Patricia Brown CONVENTIONS#1
WHAT I LEARNED…transformational character can be the oppressor…harder to express the stakes succinctly…worried that I won’t be able to elevate the average action, or will turn my rom-com into an action film
CONCEPT: Book-worm blond lookout must be the first woman to graduate from Fire Academy in 10-days to avenge her firefighter dad’s death
DEMAND FOR ACTION: Keeping up with her 35 male classmates or risk flunking out
MISSION: Graduate from Fire Academy to avenge her dad’s death and save the lookout
ESCALATING ACTION: From hostile instructors/classmates in hydraulics class, driving doglegs, flipping an engine, driving night roads, fee-wheeling engines, final exam, heart attack, fire!
ANTAGONISTS: The “sexist” system; skeptical, even hostile instructors and classmates
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Concept: A team hunts down the team member who betrayed the team.
My first action screenplay is simple. I hope to build it more in this class.
Who is your hero? What makes them highly skilled? /Dr. Miller. Epidemiologist / CIA agent/ sniper.
What is the demand for the action? / Revenge.
What’s the mission the hero is on? / Track down team member and take revenge.
Who is the antagonist? / Everyone else in the team competing to get the bad guy.
How will the action escalate? / Dr Miller, the most experienced team member, dies and everyone else has to step it up.
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Madeleine’s Conventions!
What I learned doing this assignment is: I don’t need to be locked into what I’ve come up with so far. If I want to change something down the road, I can. How freeing is that!
Concept: In Rome, a young FBI Agent’s plan to confess her sins to a priest at St. Peter’s Basilica is thwarted when seconds after she enters the confessional, the church is overtaken by a group of merciless mercenaries, led by a rogue member of the Swiss Guard. With the help of her intended confessor, she sets out to rescue the frightened hostages, save the Basilica from being blown to smithereens, and bring down the bad guys.
Conventions:
Hero: An FBI Agent assigned to the U. S. Embassy in Rome
Demand For Action: If she doesn’t take down a group of merciless mercenaries, St. Peter’s Basilica and its occupants will be blown to smithereens.
Mission: Take down mercenaries who have taken St. Peter’s Basilica hostage
Antagonist: A rogue member of the Swiss Guard
Escalating Action: Saturday afternoon confessions turn into a hostage situation and a fight against a group of merciless mercenaries.
Conventions:
Hero: A movie stuntwoman who is a pacifist.Demand For Action: If she doesn’t get a top-secret message from Winston Churchill to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the U. S. will be compromised by the Nazis.Mission: To safely transport a top-secret message to the president of the U. S.Antagonist: A Nazi spy intent on stopping the message from being delivered.Escalating Action: A clandestine flight to London from Berlin turns into a plane chase,
Concept:
A sports-loving, East Asia history scholar risks her life and promising academic career to help the FBI foil a Chinese Ministry of State Security spy operation.
Conventions:
Highly Skilled Hero: East Asia history scholar who has witnessed her mentor’s murder by a Chinese assassin.Demand For Action: If she doesn’t take her mentor’s place as an FBI operational asset, her mentor’s death will have been in vain.Mission: Uncover an MSS spy operation on a college campus.Antagonist: The ambitious wife of an American traitor on the verge of becoming an important agent of influence for China.Escalating Action: The mysterious death of a Chinese student on WSU campus leads to the heroine’s bogus arrest, her nearly being blown up in her car, and a face fight with the killer.
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Hi everyone!
I am my biggest critic and often get stuck in my perfectionist’s brain so what I’ve learned so far is to just let the thoughts flow and let whatever wants to come out just come out and edit later.
Ashley Jade Wacker’s Conventions and Concept.
Concept: An hacker fights for her life, unaware that she is a virus in a human host with an unrelenting target on her back!
Conventions
Hero: Highly-skilled hacker that can commandeer tech and reprogram it.
Demand For Action: Her entire world is either being destroyed or turning against her now she’s on the run to find out why before she is killed.
Mission: To survive.
Antagonist: The host and arsenal of antidotes being used to treat the “virus” that manifest themselves as a vast array of assassins in her world.
Escalating Action: She narrowly survives the annihilation of her city and loses her family and allies and must go the rest of the way alone.
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Denice’s Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is to just do it without overthinking the ideas.
Concept: A telekinetic girl breaks away from her isolation to become a teenaged James Bond.
Conventions:
Hero: Headstrong teenage girl, test-tube experiment, trained in ways to protect herself, isolated from the world.
Demand for action: Her famous pianist mother is kidnapped.
Mission: To break away from Daddy’s overbearance and save her mother.
Antagonist: Her unknown half-brother, a discarded test-tube baby, with a grudge and delusions of ruling the world.
Escalating Action: Finding her mother while being attacked by villain’s killers, capture, escape, defeating villain’s plans of killing family and overtaking the world’s silver industry.
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Leo’s Conventions!
What I learned from doing this assignment is that the genre is more complex than I thought.
Concept: A movie star needs a kidney transplant and discovers his only hope is his hermit father and must fight his way up a mountain to break through to him or they both are doomed.
Conventions
Hero: World famous action movie star with kidney failure.
Demand For Action: Get his father to give him a kidney transplant or die.
Mission: Break into recluse, survivalist father’s mountain stronghold.
Antagonist: Old enemy of his father who subverts his mission.
Escalating Action: Must fight both his father and his father’s old enemy.
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Subject Line Anna Harper’s conventions
What I learned from this assignment was method works better than a random approach.
Concept Maggie a single unemployed mother anxiously takes a job in the northern bush as a means to provided for her son. She encounters a drug dealing doctor who is destroying young lives in the community. Maggie takes him down in an ambush using her archery skills.
Hero Maggie has no choice but to take action; take a risky job in a foreign environment. She feels compelled to stop the drug dealer after the death of a local boy.
Antagonist. Dr. Teddy is a sociopath with links to the Hells Angels who are his distributors. He knows they will kill him if he leaks any of their information or fails to deliver.
Escalating; After the local boy dies, Dr. Teddy tries to leave town. The locals set up an ambush at his house. Maggie’s stealth allows her to shoot him.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by anna harper.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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