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Post Your Lesson 14 Assignment here
Post Your Lesson 14 Assignment here
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3 Replies
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Pre-Action
Anxiety. The Picts are coming to take the women as slaves.
Need for action: The group must flee or fight.
Change: Marcus wants to plan a way of killing Picts. Mary Elizabeth will only agree to stop them, not kill them or the women will flee instead of fight. Marcus must change his tactics.
Unique action: The women plant “lilies” with Marcus while Shannon mixes a herbal concoction.
Surprise: The Picts have arrived! No time to plan.
Fear. No time to plan or flee – they must fight or be killed. Bronagh hides.
Plan: Women will stop the Picts without killing them.
Question: Will the women be captured?
Action
Unique action: Ten of the 20 Picts are stopped by the “lilies”. Marcus attacks three more Picts with his sword and catches an arrow aimed at Mary Elizabeth.
Shock: The Picts have broken through the “lilies” and Marcus can’t fight them all. They have reached the women! Marcus is engaged with the Pict leader and can’t help.
Suspense: Four Picts have surrounded Mary Elizabeth. She begins an Irish dance.
Excitement: Mary Elizabeth is an amazing dancer. The warriors stop to watch. Marcus defeats the Pict leader and for Mary Elizabeth’s sake, knocks him out rather than kills him.
Unique action: Shannon offers two Picts a sip of water. Both fall immediately, succumbing to the sleeping draught.
New Threat/Unexpected support: A Pict grabs Orla. Nessa confronts him with her angry Irish tongue. When the Pict laughs, she falls him with a powerful left hook.
Test a relationship: Will Marcus trust Mary Elizabeth’s way of doing things?
Danger (Plan Fails): The Picts become bored with the dancing – step forward to capture Mary Elizabeth.
Test a relationship: Will Marcus trust Mary Elizabeth’s way of doing things? Marcus wants to intervene but Mary Elizabeth gives him a “wait” look.
Adrenaline (Plan succeeds): Mary Elizabeth’s dance becomes frenzied – her successive kicks are powerful and fell the four Picts.
Post Action
The women are safe!
Reveals the attraction between Mary Elizabeth and Marcus – Marcus runs to Mary Elizabeth when the Picts are felled and they embrace.
Reveals they still have an enemy: A Pict tells them that the Roman unit is coming.
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What I learned doing this assignment is…. That there is more to just an action sequences. I love it.
SET UP: Unknown male talks to small town Cop/Hero on 2-way radio. Cop’s ex-wife/villain tried to kill him, but one twin daughter was killed instead. She is sending men to kill him again. Cop doesn’t know when these men will attack him. It’s a test of defense.
PRE-ACTION: Cop walks into hallway above parking structure. His hand touches gun and takes in the news about his ex-wife. Who is this unknown male who called him?
ACTION:
Surprise – Cop ambushed by 1st killer. Hand-to-hand combat. Cop is beaten, but kills male with gun. / 2nd killer and cop have gunfight in hallway. / Killer runs to parking lot door. Punches in code. Door slams shut.
Shock – A security guard friend opens door. Cop stands back. / Killer crashes door with truck killing guard. / Cop falls back. Aims gun at back truck tire and blows it out. / Truck slams into car.
Suspense – Killer runs to other cars trying to hot wire one. / Cop runs to police vehicle. Grabs sniper rifle. Loads bullets. / Killer hot wires car and speeds off. / Cop shoots out windows. / Cop chases killer in car down parking levels. / Cop bumps back-end and killer crashes.
Danger – 3rd killer drives truck straight him. / Cop puts car in reverse and is chased backward up parking lot levels. / Cop slams into wall on top level. His forehead bleeds. / Killer rams car and tries to force it over edge. / Cop reloads gun and kills the male. / Car’s right wheel hangs over the edge.
POST-ACTION: Cop has passed the test of self defense. The unknown male talks to him again on 2-way radio. Cop has to wait for ex-wife’s next move. His twin daughter was murdered.
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Madeleine’s Great Action Set Piece!
What I learned doing this assignment is the more passes I make the wilder the action scenes and the more unique the story becomes. I’m loving the fun of it.
Action Set Outline:
Take an Action Set Piece from your outline and use the steps above to turn it into an amazing experience for the reader and audience.
1. Build in the meaning.
I. Pre-Action:
FBI Agent is given the opportunity to take a legal attaché assignment in Rome. She says she’ll think about it. She’s happy working out of Flagstaff, AZ, where she and her family live.
At a cocktail party, FBI Agent meets Professor of History, interested in religious artifacts. Professor flirts with FBI Agent’s husband.
II. Action: The action starts with a helicopter flying low over a mesa on the Hopi Reservation. This drops off over a dirt road where two pickup trucks, miles apart, kick up dust as they converge on one another.
On board the helicopter is the pilot, a Hopi Policeman, and FBI Agent. She is photographing the pickup that has just left the scene of a trading post robbery during which a ceremonial mask was stolen.
The Hopi Policeman warns the FBI Agent that they will die if they even lays eyes on the Hopi mask. He’s scared. It turns out that everyone who has had the mask in their possession since it was stolen from a sacred cave, has died.
The helicopter dive-bombs the pickup truck. A rifleman in the bed of the truck, fires up at the helicopter. Bullets go wild. The helicopter dive-bombs again. This time when the rifleman shoots, the FBI Agent returns fire, sending a bullet through the truck’s back window, grazing the ear of the driver. He swerves. The truck’s front wheel hits a pothole at high speed launching the rifleman into the air. The rifleman lands in a bush. The truck rolls, coming to rest on its roof.
The helicopter lands on the road. The FBI Agent and Hopi Policeman jump out. The helicopter lifts off and returns to a safe place out of sight of the road on top of a mesa.
The FBI Agent and Hopi Policeman cautiously approach the overturned vehicle. Gun fire comes from the brush, where the rifleman is hiding. The Hopi Policeman gets low and covers the FBI Agent as she moves through the bush toward the rifleman.
Creeping along in the underbrush, FBI Agent comes across a rattlesnake, rattling its tail. It’s angry. FBI Agent doesn’t want to give her location away by firing at the snake. She looks for a way around it without blowing her cover, but can’t find one. Finally, she picks up a rock and smashes the snake’s head. One blow kills it. She steps over the snake and moves forward.
She comes up behind the rifleman lying on his stomach with his rifle pointed at the Hopi Policeman. Disarming him, she handcuffs, and pushes him in front of her back to the road, where they both take fire from inside the truck. The Hopi Policeman returns fire.
The FBI Agent leaves her prisoner with the Hopi Policeman and heads toward the truck, taking fire as she goes. A bullet grazes the FBI Agent’s side. Blood flows. The FBI Agent returns fire. The third man surrenders and climbs out of the truck and drops the ceremonial mask like it’s a hot potato.
Just as the FBI Agent takes possession of the mask, the second pickup truck arrives. She turns her back and runs toward the Hopi Policeman’s hiding place, as armed men and a woman pile out. She’s the professor we saw earlier at the cocktail party. She takes out a gun and fires on FBI Agent, who falls on her face, bleeding from her shoulder.
She plays possum, hoping the robbers will think she’s dead.
The woman goes to check the FBI Agent’s pulse, but before she can, she sees a huge scorpion crawling on the FBI Agent’s neck. She jumps back. She wants no part of the scorpion.
She kicks the FBI Agent hard in the ribs. The FBI Agent makes no response. She’s got to be dead.
She steps away from the body and orders her men to take possession of the rolled truck’s loot.
The man in the Hopi Policeman’s custody gives their location away. The professor fires and kills the Hopi Policeman then takes the policeman’s key and unhandcuffs the robber. He joins the rest of the looters.
The truck drives away in the direction from which it came.
The helicopter returns and lands. He finds only the FBI Agent still alive. He brushes away the scorpion and helps her to the helicopter. She’s still clutching the ceremonial mask. The helicopter lifts off.
III. Post Action:
On second mesa, the FBI Agent returns the ceremonial mask to Hopi religious leaders. They perform a purifying ceremony by drawing a ring of cornmeal around the FBI Agent, still carrying the mask, and performing a ritual chant.
In the hospital, FBI Agent’s husband convinces her to take the legal attaché job. He’s tired of worrying about her.
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