[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Create your Life-Threatening Sequence.

What I learned is I have a lot to figure out.

What is the Villain’s plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
1. Iz became a flight attendant to befriend Sam and get brought in to the inner circle.
2. Iz is killing off family and friends around Sam. She has sent “threatening” messages via a hired hand.
3. Sam and her family can’t figure out who is hurting her family. They haven’t been able to find any evidence that gives them any hints or ideas on who is threatening them.

What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
1. Sam could be killed, or her family secret could be revealed.
2. Other family members could be in danger.
3. Without knowing who the threat is, it makes it hard to do anything. They are pausing on anything illegal and going along as business as usual with their legal jobs.
4. They’ve had to bring on protection for the family members who aren’t trained, which makes life challenging.
5. Sam has to stay on high alert and watch her back when she’s working as a flight attendant. Everyone travels with another person. Safety in numbers.

From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
• Threats
• Physical danger
• Surveillance / watched
• Chased
• Closeness to the villain
• Trapped / Abducted / Arrested
• Danger to someone they know
• People around them die or are injured.
• Stalked
• Thugs or professionals hired to hurt them.
• Presence of weapons or thugs
• The unknown

But the danger could also come from other areas:
• Something that damages their reputation
• The chance that a relationship could end.
• The threat that their own secret could be revealed.
• Public humiliation.
• Loss of a job or career.
• Betrayal from someone close.
• Someone operating covertly around them.
• Other parties who want the Villain dead.
4. Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
• Opens with a body falling out of the back of a trash truck.
• Sam goes to work and does a hit in Vegas, it’s clean and flawless.
• While having a party at Sam’s parents her uncle is gunned down in front of the family bakery and when it happens
Sam’s on the phone with him.
• Sam’s uncle tells her he didn’t recognize who shot him before he dies.
• Sam goes back to work and is almost caught during the hit.
• The family is being watched and followed. Is it the person hurting their family, the cops, or the FBI.
• At Uncle’s funeral there are undercover LAPD offers watching from a distance. Are they worried about more blood on
the streets or watching who attends the funeral.
• 2 LAPD officers come into the pizzeria. Is it coincidental or are they looking for something?
• Someone is watching Pa’s house. They deliver flowers with a threating note. Sam’s cousin questions him but he was
hired to watch the house and deliver the flowers.
• Tyler catches JJ coming out of Sam’s room (that’s supposed to be locked.). She questions him and it feels innocent
enough.
• Sam goes out with her co-workers. Iz is inviting herself to Sam’s this weekend. It feels a bit off but they’ve known each
other a long time so Sam invites her.
• Sam’s ex-boyfriend is at a party Tyler is throwing. Sam and Tyler question the timing. Is he involved with all that’s
happened.
• Pa dies in his sleep. Is it foul play or stress and hold age?
• On the way to Sam’s parents an SUV tries to run them off the road. Is it LA drivers or someone trying to kill them.
• Sam reinforces they should “shut it down” before anyone else gets hurt or worse.
• Sam flies to Vegas and has to stay away from her lair. She doesn’t want to cause any unnecessary problems.
• Tyler goes home and JJ is in the house and has a surprise romantic dinner set up. But how did he get in and what has
he been doing?

This is where I get stuck I’m not sure where to go from here. I have spots of ideas but nothing worth writing down at this point.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

What I learned is that if you work at the Mystery Chain you can answer a lot of questions that need answering. It help write the story.

Create your mystery sequence. Give us the answer to these questions.

1. What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
Sam’s dad killed Iz’s parents.

2. Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.

Mystery 1: Sam’s cousin (Jordan) is found in a trash truck, who killed him?
• A rival family has threatened them
• What does this mean to the family?
• The police question the family and suspect they know who did it.
• The police worry there will be more blood on the streets.

Mystery 2: Who bugged Sam and Tyler’s house?
• Is it the same person who killed Jordan?
• What are they trying to learn?
• Is it the police or a 3-letter agency?
• How did they get in and past their security?

Mystery 3: Could JJ be the killer?
• He was caught in the house when nobody was home and he Tyler wasn’t expecting him.
• Tyler saw him leaving Sam’s room which is locked all the time.
• He questioned Tyler about Sam’s door being locked.
• He keeps asking Tyler questions about Sam and her family.
•
Mystery 4: Are JJ and Iz having an affair?
• Why were they talking quietly on the balcony? What were they talking about?
• Why is Iz calling JJ?
• Why does Iz have JJ’s phone number in her phone?
• Did Sam see JJ at the hotel where her and Iz were staying?
• When Sam asks Tyler if JJ was with her the night, she thought she saw him at the hotel, Tyler said he was working.
• Sam asks Bobby if he was working that same night. He says yes and was working solo since JJ called in sick.

Mystery 5: Who killed Sam’s Uncle Mikey?
• He’s killed a lot of people over the years, who got revenge?
• Could it be the new family trying to make a name for themselves?
• Could it be the guy that Mikey called the cops on the week before?

Mystery 6: Who sent the guy to Pa’s house to watch him?
• Why are is watching Pa?
• He tells him they don’t know who hired them.
• They were told to follow him and, on the 4th, day deliver the flowers that were pre ordered.
• The note with the flowers says “I’m watching you”
• Why is he carrying a gun?
• The flower shop says they were ordered online.

Mystery 7: Is Iz the killer?
• She tries to hard with Sam.
• She’s secretive about her past.
• Sam has seen a dark side of her with a passenger who was hitting on her.
• Iz lied about her real last name.
• Iz was adopted and didn’t tell Sam.
• What is her end game?

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

What I learned is working from the villain’s goal backwards fills in a lot of the blanks. It allowed me to make sure I was thinking of how the story started and how to bring it all together.
To create your Villain’s plan, answer these four questions:
1. What is the end goal?
1. To expose Sam and her family’s generational secret.
2. How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way?
1. Start by killing off each member of the family that took away everyone she ever loved.
2. Only allow one person in on the secret, JJ is the only one who lost as much as her and wants the same revenge.
3. Become Sam’s best friend, make her think her true best friend (Tyler) is not trustworthy.
4. Have JJ become Tyler’s boyfriend.
3. How can they cover it up?
1. By becoming the protagonist’s friend and having her brother become the protagonist’s best friends boyfriend.
4. Sequence it to make it as intriguing as possible.
1. Iz reminds Sam that it’s their friendiversary. They met while going through flight attendant training 5 years ago. This has been a very long game.
2. At the same time Tyler and JJ celebrate 2 years.
3. Sam notices that JJ and Iz are bickering on the balcony. She questions them. She knows they know each other casually but it’s interesting that they would bicker.
4. Just after their anniversary Tyler catches JJ leaving Sam’s room. His response is suspicious. Tyler wants to believe him and lets it go.
5. Iz starts to question Sam about her family. Sam gets worried. Why is she asking?
6. Tyler catches JJ at her and Sam’s house when he’s supposed to be at work. He says he was trying to surprise her, but she was supposed to be out of town. She tells Sam about both instances.
7. Sam sweeps the house and finds multiple bugs. She leaves them so JJ doesn’t know they know. The only time they talk about family business is on the beach without their phones. This makes Sam question every conversation they’ve had in the house.
8. Sam tells her dad about JJ and Iz. He has background checks done on them. He finds out they grew up in the same foster home after their parents were killed by her uncle. This makes Sam wonder if she was carful enough to keep her family safe.
9. The family starts to wonder if Sam’s right that they should close the doors to this chapter and walk away.
10. Will Iz and JJ keep coming after them? How does Sam flush them out? Will she have to kill them to end this? Is anyone else involved? All questions that need to be answered.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Assignment 1 Insights and Learning:
Basic Instinct
– I learned I have a long way to go.
– Basic Instinct had MIS in almost every scene. I didn’t realize that it was needed.
o I need to rethink my movie and it might have to be an action/drama over a thriller.
– Most of what I found was small, not in your face. It was the little things.
– A sentence in passing can give major insight.
– Action can create great intrigue. The chase scenes with Catherine and chase/chicken with Roxy keep you wondering how it’ll end. Does it end at a murderer’s house or in a car going over the edge of an overpass.
– Past actions create mystery. With other movies I always wonder if something that we’re told that happened will happen again.
– A thought I had is who will get caught in the crosshairs? I forgot Gus was killed. When he went into the building by himself that created mystery. What’s going to happen to Gus? Who’s in the building?
– I think a bit of gore is needed for a Thriller. Not horror movie gore but enough to make you cringe.

Assignment 2 Insights and Learning:
Silence of the Lambs
– At the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed while completing the chart. It seemed to take a long time. It was easy to see what was written for Basic Instinct as I played the movie but having to watch and write it was more challenging.
– About halfway through the movie I could stop referencing the Basic Instinct notes and just write. I understand why you had us do this. Once I get through my next few classes I think I’ll do this process before I sit down to write. It really made me think. Thank you!
– I learned to think outside the box.
– It’s like a magic trick, a sleight of hand. Look over here, watch what I’m doing while I do this over there. Even though we can see it all.
– Focus on building one piece of the puzzle on the other. Use this mystery to create that intrigue. All the while making it suspenseful.
– The mystery is what pulls them in, and the intrigue and suspense keep them engaged. Without one every couple of scenes the movie falls apart.
– I’ll take a reference from the movie, we want to make sure we get into the audiences head. Clarice couldn’t help herself and Lecter got in her head, but she also got into his a bit. He wanted more and had to give more than he normally would. We have to do the same. Give a little but put a lot.

A Thriller can have action like a car chase or a game of cat and mouse in the dark. It must have a mind game aspect either way. It has to keep you guessing at every turn. If you go too long without a question of what’s going to happen next the audience will lose interest.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Subject line: Lisa’s World and Characters!
What I learned doing this assignment is that ever character has to have a point to making it on the page. What do they each bring to the story? Why are they there? Taking the time to build the backstory can help with the whole story.
1. Remind us of your CONCEPT and the Big M.I.S. of your story.
• Big Mystery: What is the main mystery of your story that will keep us wondering throughout the story?
o Who’s trying to end the Pilato reign?
• Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie?
o Is there anyone Sam can trust, even within her own family?
o Secrets have a way of getting out and they are starting to appear.
• Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script?
o Will Sam lose her family by death or writing her off for abandoning them?
2. Tell us the Intriguing World you have selected for this story.
• A seemingly normal family that owns a family bakery and pizzeria. This family is loved by the town they live in.
• The family contains 3 generations of assassins operating out of the basement of the bakery and pizzeria.
• Sam is a flight attendant so she can travel the country without suspicion. Her parents live in California, and she lives in North Carolina. She’s able to cover coast to coast.
• The cities she travels to for work as a flight attendant are also where she does her hits.
3. With your top 2 or 3 characters, tell us the role they play and then answer these three questions:
Hero: Sam
• A. What is the mystery of this character?
o Sam is a flight attendant by day and assassin by night.
• B. What is the suspense of this character?
o By all appearances she’s a normal flight attendant but we see on her first flight she can handle herself and everyone is surprised.
• C. What is the intrigue of this character?
o Everyone wants to be friends with her. She’s nice and funny but she doesn’t get close with anyone. Only a chosen few really know her. She doesn’t know who she can trust.
Villain: Isabella the flight attendant “friend”
• A. What is the mystery of this character?
o She isn’t who she seems to be. She has a secret.
• B. What is the suspense of this character?
o She doesn’t try too hard to be Sam’s friend but she’s noisy on the DL. She asks co-workers about Sam.
• C. What is the intrigue of this character?
o She has the same interests as Sam and wants to hang out with her or asks Sam to join her and friends for nights out.
Red Herring: JJ
• A. What is the mystery of this character?
o Why is JJ so interested in Sam’s life?
• B. What is the suspense of this character?
o He has been caught snooping around Sam and Tyler’s house.
• C. What is the intrigue of this character?
o He’s Tyler’s boyfriend and Bobby’s partner. What does he want with Sam?

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Subject line: Lisa’s Big M.I.S.
Logline: Secrets are meant to stay buried like the bodies that they hide.
What I learned doing this assignment is that one step builds on another. If you jump from A to Z and miss everything before it makes it tricky to work backwards.
What are the conventions of your story?
• Unwitting but Resourceful Hero:
o Sam is a flight attendant by day and follows in her father’s footsteps at night by taking out bad people for money. Does that make her a bad person?
• Dangerous Villain:
o Who has found out Sam’s secret and killing off people around her?
• High stakes:
o Sam wants out of her father’s business and wants to start a bakery and a family like her Gramma, Mom, and Aunt did. How does she leave her father?
• Life and death situations:
o Sam’s has contracts that she has to complete, or people will come after the family.
o Sam attempts to do a hit in Vegas and learns she was given wrong information.
o Will she be able to walk away without getting her family killed?
• This story is thrilling because?
o We think we know who’s out to destroy Sam and her family but with each rock that is turned over Sam is wrong and can’t trust anyone.
Tell us the Big M.I.S of your story?
• Big Mystery: What is the main mystery of your story that will keep us wondering throughout the story?
o Who’s trying to end the Pilato reign?
• Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie?
o Is there anyone Sam can trust, even her family?
o Secrets have a way of getting out and are starting to appear.
• Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script?
o Will Sam lose her family by death or writing her off for abandoning them?

• This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by  Lisa Vons Cooper.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by  Lisa Vons Cooper.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by  Lisa Vons Cooper.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Subject line: Mr. & Mrs. Smith Thriller Conventions

What I learned doing this assignment is I need to pay more attention to the details of a movie. I’ve watched this before but missed a few key elements. Once I start writing my own screenplay, I will come back to this and make sure I utilize the notes.
• Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: John & Jane Smith
• Dangerous Villain: The companies they work for
• High stakes: Life or death
• Life and death situations: Their companies find out they are married and they can’t allow them to live.
• This movie is thrilling because? First, they go after each other and realize they still love each other. It’s action packed and you don’t know if they’ll make it out alive.

What is the BIG Mystery, Intrigue, and Suspense of this story?
• Big Mystery: Who’s the true assignment?
• Big Intrigue: John and Jane thought the assignment was Benjamin “The Tank” but it turned out they were the mark.
• Big Suspense: An army of people are after them. They each have a $400,000 bounty on their head. Will they get out of it alive.

Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great thriller. They looked like a normal couple until you looked under the oven or game board. They thought their partner had a normal job until they each figured out they were in the same line of work. As the movie went on, I learned a little more. Between the action sequences and hints of what was really happening, it kept my interest.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

1. Lisa Vons Cooper
2. I agree to the terms of this group release form.
GROUP RELEASE FORM
As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

[Lisa Vons Cooper]

Hello!
My name is Lisa Vons Cooper.
I’ve written one screenplay but it wasn’t very good.
I’m hoping to get my creative mind moving in the right direction with this course.
My daughter has ridden horses and done rodeo for 11 years and I still know nothing about horses or riding. But I’m very proud of her! I played and coached softball my entire life and she wants nothing to do with it.