[Leslie Magee]

Thrillers 33: Lesson 2
Leslie Magee’s Big M.I.S.

What I learned doing this assignment is I’m trying to trust the process and realize that I don’t need everything figured out in the beginning.

Logline: Someone keeps killing people who order food deliveries in New York City.

The conventions of my story

Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: a NYPD detective

Dangerous Villain: the murderer

High Stakes: find the killer before more deaths occur; panic throughout NYC amongst delivery customers, delivery persons, delivery companies, and restaurants

Life and death situations: the murders of the customers, detective’s life threatened

This story is thrilling because food delivery is everywhere, and it would be really scary if this happened in real life.

The Big M.I.S. of my story

Big Mystery: who is doing the killing and why?

Big Intrigue: killer may be using these deaths to cover up a particular murder

Big Suspense: will the detective be able to find the killer and stop them before being killed him/herself?

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by  Leslie Magee.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by  Leslie Magee.

[Leslie Magee]

Thrillers: Lesson 1 Conventions of a Thriller

What I learned from this assignment is that a comedy thriller can be well written if it follows the conventions of a thriller while throwing in some comedic elements.

The thriller: The ‘Burbs (1989)

Unwitting but resourceful hero: Ray, who’s on vacation from week and refuses his wife’s idea to go to their cabin instead of staying home. Along for the ride are Ray’s neighbors, Rumsfield, a military vet who still acts like he’s on active duty, and Art, who’s just gung-ho about investigating the new neighbors.

Dangerous villain: the Klopeks, the 3 strange new neighbors on the block

High stakes: Walter, the older neighbor with the beloved dog and very obvious toupee, disappears leaving behind the dog and the toupee. Did the Klopeks kidnap him and kill him? Also, would the Klopeks kill other neighbors on the block?

Life and death situations: The swarm of bees that pours out of the Klopeks’ house and attacks Ray and Art. Ray’s dog digs up a femur bone from under the fence that divides Ray’s backyard from the Klopeks’. Art electrocutes himself turning off the power for the Klopeks’ alarm system. Ray hits a gas pipe while digging in the Klopeks’ basement and the house blows up with Ray inside. Dr. Klopek tries to stab Ray with a needle while Ray is in the ambulance. Hans Klopek steals the ambulance into Art’s house.

The movie is thrilling because more and more clues emerge that the Klopeks are up to no good but you want to know exactly what it is that they’re doing.

Big Mystery: Are Ray’s new next door neighbors, the Klopeks, Satanic ritual killers? And what happened to previous owners of the Klopeks’ house?

Big Intrigue: The Klopeks killed the previous occupants of the house, moved in, and built a powerful cremation system in the basement.

Big Suspense: Will Ray figure out what the Klopeks are up to and also save Walter?

Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great thriller? There’s kind of a false ending where we discover Dr. Klopek is a well-regarded pathologist and perhaps just eccentric. Then, Dr. Klopek tries to kill Ray and the police discover Dr. Klopek has a car trunk full of human skulls and other bones. Also, the music, camera angles, and jump shots contributed to the suspense.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Leslie Magee. Reason: trying to fix spacing

[Leslie Magee]

1. Leslie Magee
2. I’ve written one feature length script and one short film, but nothing sold.
3. I don’t particularly like horror films but I appreciate the genre, especially when it is well done. I do love psychological thrillers and have always wondered how to write a good one.
4. When I was 2, my mother taught me how to spell my name using the theme song to The Mickey Mouse Club.

[Leslie Magee]

1. Leslie Magee
2. I agree to the terms of this 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.