[Chris Wood]

Chris Wood’s Thriller Plot!

What I learned doing this assignment was how much the MIS sequences are so tightly wound together, sometimes I can’t even recognize if something is mystery, the villain’s plan, life threatening, or all three! Also learned that not all of my ideas are going to make it into the thriller – let go of the stuff that’s not fitting in, or save it for later.

OPENING: Lure us into the story and introduce the lead character in action.

Samantha Hamlilton’s roommate Betsie Wherley has a psychotic episode, or is it actually a prophetic vision?
Life Threatening: Dr. Marquis Allen chloroforms Johnny Anderson and kidnaps Holly Taylor in Johnny’s van.
Life Threatening: A cop pulls the van over, and Dr. Allen shoots the police officer with a pistol outfitted with a silencer.
Life Threatening: Samantha Hamlilton’s roommate Betsie Wherley has a psychotic episode and is evacuated from Rayburn University.
Mystery: Why did Samantha’s new roommate Betsie have a psychotic break?
Mystery: Why was Betsie spending so much time in the psych labs?

INCITING INCIDENT: An event that propels the Hero on the Journey.

Dr. Allen comes looking to take Betsie’s personal effects, and warns Samantha not to get involved

Mystery: Who is the Navy Lieutenant collecting Betsie’s things? [herring]

Mystery: Why did the government show up?

Mystery: What was Betsie journaling about? Did something happen at the psych lab?

Mystery: Why does Samantha suddenly wake up with ESP?

Villain’s Plan: Samantha aces the Zener card test.

Mystery: How come David doesn’t seem to have any thoughts?

Life Threatening: Samantha’s dad’s secret will get out, and her scholarship will be taken away.

Life Threatening: Samantha is being watched by an unknown set of binoculars.

Villain’s Plan: Dr. Forsythe seduces Samantha and they have rough, passionate sex.

Mystery: Samantha steals Megan’s new boyfriend David. Is she a liar?

Life Threatening: Samantha experiences a psychic overload

Villain’s Plan: Forsythe breaks up with Samantha and encourages her to follow David out West.

Life Threatening: After eloping to the mountain cabin with David, Samantha feels uncomfortable, and a roommate seems to be paying too much attention to her.

TURNING POINT 1: A major twist that locks the hero into the conflict. Point of no return.

Samantha is seduced into a California drug cult, where she becomes the target of the FBI and a player and pawn in the Parallax Project
Life Threatening: Samantha and David move west, but are ambushed on the way by a biker gang.
Villain’s Plan: Things get deadly, and then Samantha turns on the gift.
Mystery | Life Threatening: : Who is the girl stalking Samantha at the Good Life Cafe? It’s Holly!
Mystery: Why is Holly stealing Samantha’s letters?
Villains Plan: What is the cult and why are they stealing banks and storing weapons?
Mystery | Villan’s Plan: Samantha is lured into the Good Life Cult, and is warned by crazy crazerkins to watch her back
Life Threatening: Crazy Crazerkins is expelled from the cult [and actually put into re-cognition]
Mystery: Is Elijah Kahn an ESP prophet?
Life THreatening: Why are people being kidnapped into Rapture?

Life Threatening: Why are people DISAPPEARING from Rapture?
Mystery | Villain’s Plan: A landowner and his thugs appear on horseback. Why do they tolerate the cult and what is at the top of the mountain?
Villain’s Plan: Who continues to watch Samantha through binoculars?
MIDPOINT: A major revelation. The opposition is 10 times worse than thought.

The Drug Cult is actually a front for a secret eugenics experiment involving ESP, and now Samantha is wanted by federal agents.

Mystery: What is in the building at the top of the mountain.

Life Threatening: The building is guarded by the landowner’s armed thugs!

Mystery: Why is there a photo of Forsythe with Dr. Allen? What were they doing in the Korean War?

Life Threatening: Elijah Kahn manipulates Samantha into a bank robbery where she is to be killed [really just a test].

Villain’s Plan: The robbery goes awry, but Samantha focuses her ESP into telekinesis to escape with her life AND the loot.

Life Threatening: Naval Intelligence [red herring] gets the camera footage, comes looking for Samantha and answers at Forsythe’s university office.

Mystery | Villains Plan: Why does Foresythe deny knowing where Samantha is or what PP is all about?

Life Threatening: Megan betrays Forsythe and Samantha, leads US Naval Intelligence agents toward Rapture.

TURNING POINT 2: Major setback. The lowest of the low.

After trying to escape, Samantha is brainwashed and prepared for recognition into Project Parralax.

Mystery: Why does Samantha take the spiritual hallucinogen and allow herself to be baptized into the Cult?

Life Threatening: Elijah Kahn lets Holly be kidnapped to the mountain top

Life Threatening: When Samantha tries to rescue and escape with Holly, they realize they’ve been double-crossed, and Boom Boom will pay the ultimate price.
Mystery: What is Forsythe doing in Rapture?
Villain’s Plan: Forsythe seduces | brainwashes Samantha back into the program, and then attempts to brainwash her.
Mystery: Why is Naval Intelligence after Forsythe?
Mystery: What are the experiments happening at the top of the mountain? [see on topo map, Witch mountain is not far off, in same range]

CLIMAX: The ultimate expression of the main conflict.

Can Boom Boom, Holly, and Elijah reach Samantha before it’s too late?
Mystery: What is the purpose of the secret eugenics program Project Parallax?
Mystery: Who’s side is Dr. Allen on>
Life Threatening: Forsythe looks to drug Samantha, but is shot by Elijah Kahn | Dr. Allen.
Mystery: Samantha discovers the secret to Rapture and Project Parallax, but has a secret of her own: she’s pregnant. WHo is the father?
Life Threatening: Battle on the mountain
RESOLUTION: The end of the journey in an emotionally satisfying way.

The Rainbow Child is born, and the true nature of Rapture is revealed.
Mystery: The government agents are gone, but Samantha is trapped in the lab at the top of the mountain. She’s also the de facto Cult Leader.
Villain’s Plan: Samantha contemplates a self-induced abortion, but instead gives birth to the Rainbow Child, who’s father is ________ as ________ and _________ and ______ watch on.
Mystery: Samantha gives birth to the Rainbow Child. Did anyone REALLY DIE?

Villain’s Plan: IS RAPTURE just that? And the Rainbow Child [i.e. dominion over psychic energy] is the ultimate escape plan?

[Chris Wood]

Subject Line: Chris Wood’s Life Threatening Sequence

What I learned doing this assignment was that it was WAY EASIER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE. I gotta admit, the Mystery assignment was a crusher, but I feel like it really opened up the pandoras box of possibilities and I’m beginning to really see the map now.

What is the Villain's plan and how does that put the Hero in danger?
Dr. Forsythe has restarted the Project Parallax eugenics program and is manipulating [and at times forcing] the relocation of ESP-inclined individuals to Rapture, California for evaluation and re-cognition. Although she doesn’t know it yet, Samantha Hamilton is one of those individuals.

What other potential dangers could your Hero experience as they try to solve the mystery and confront the Villain?
Kidnapping
Medical experiments
Drug overdose | drugged interrogation
Psychic overload
Danger to unborn child
Arrested for bank robbery
Betrayed by Megan | Betrayed by Holly
Brainwashing

From the list of potential dangers, choose the ones that work for this story.
People around them die or are injured. Betsie – Dad
Surveillance / watched. Marquis Allen
Closeness to the villain – In bed with Dr. Forsythe
The chance that a relationship could end. Megan – Dr. Forsythe
Surveillance / watched – Creeped out at the cabin, weird roomate
Chased – bikers
Stalked – Holly
Lured into a dangerous situation [cult] – Elijah Kahn
Presence of weapons or thugs – bank robberies | landowners
Betrayal from someone close. Megan | Holly
The threat that their own secret could be revealed. She’s pregnant

Sequence those dangers in order and make a list like the one I did for Basic Instinct above.
Dr. Marquis Allen chloroforms Johnny Anderson and kidnaps Holly Taylor in Johnny’s van.
A cop pulls the van over, and Dr. Allen shoots the police officer with a pistol outfitted with a silencer.
Samantha Hamlilton’s roommate Betsie Wherley has a psychotic episode and is evacuated from Rayburn University.
Dr. Allen comes looking to take Betsie’s personal effects, and warns Samantha not to get involved, or her’s dad secret will get out, and her scholarship will be taken away, she can stay in the room, etc.
Samantha is being watched by an unknown set of binoculars.
After acing the Zener Cards, Dr. Forsythe seduces Samantha and they have rough, passionate sex.
Megan introduces her new friend David to Samantha, and sparks fly, Would Samantha steal Megan’s beau? What will Forsythe think?
Samantha experiences a psychic overload and leaves the program with Forsythe’s permission. They break up.
After eloping to the mountain cabin with David, Samantha feels uncomfortable, and a roommate seems to be paying too much attention to her.
Samantha and David move west, but are ambushed on the way by a biker gang. Things get deadly, and then Samantha turns on the gift.
Samantha is bored in Ukiah, spends her time at the Good Life Cafe, where Holly Taylor is stalking her. Holly?!?!?
Samantha is lured into the Good Life Cult, and is warned by crazy crazerkins to watch her back Crazy Crazerkins is turned away [and actually put into re-cognition]
A landowner and his thugs appear on horseback. Why do they tolerate the cult and what is at the top of the mountain?
Elijah Kahn manipulates Samantha into a bank robbery where she is to be killed [really just a test]. The robbery goes awry, but Samantha focuses her ESP into telekinesis to escape with her life AND the loot.
Naval Intelligence gets the camera footage, comes looking for ESP expert Forsythe, who is desperate to hide PP. They threaten him but he denies knowing where Samantha is or what PP is all about.
Megan betrays Forsythe and Samantha, leads US Naval Intelligence agents toward Rapture.
Samantha takes the spiritual hallucinogen, is baptized into the Cult, and sets her sights on Elijah Kahn
Forsythe races to Rapture and tries to seduce Samantha back into the program, and then attempts to brainwash her.
Samantha discovers the secret to Rapture and Project Parallax, but has a secret of her own: she’s pregnant.
Forsythe looks to drug Samantha, but is shot by Elijah Kahn | Dr. Allen.
The government agents are gone, but Samantha is trapped in the lab at the top of the mountain. She’s also the de facto Cult Leader.
Samantha contemplates a self-induced abortion, but instead gives birth to the Rainbow Child, who’s father is ________ as ________ and _________ and ______ watch on.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

Chris Wood’s Mystery Sequence

What I learned doing this assignment was, well… a whole lot of structure and layers to my original concept that I would not have probably imagined without working within the MIS framework. Also to continue to let the process take the idea forward. I’ve changed a lot and let go of a lot since my original concept.

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
He has restarted Project Parallax, a secret eugenics experiment designed to breed and harness the power of ESP superhumans.

How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
By seducing Samantha into the ESP program at Rayburn.
By distancing himself from Allen and saying the government spooks are no good.
By letting Samantha go with David to Rapture.
By seducing Megan as an ally against Samantha.
By leading the FBI to Rapture and coming along for the ride to make sure that everyone turns themselves over peacefully.
By tricking the academic and military intelligence communities that he is a good guy, just a maverick researcher, but one who could be a valuable resource and ally.
By using his persuasiveness to build a small but loyal agency of well placed operatives, including Dr. Marquis Allen. Assorted evil nurses and loner geniuses. He looks for the same prey as Eliajah Kahn.
By tracking down all of the Rainbow Children and excising them to the Western US, where they can be more closely monitored, studied, and evaluated for re-congition into Project Parallax.

The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Why did Samantha’s new roommate Betsie have a psychotic break?

Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.

Why did Samantha’s new roommate Betsie have a psychotic break?
She was a reclusive transfer student
Samantha kept getting “bad vibes from her”
She spent a lot of her time in the psych labs
Could the psych labs hold the answer?

Who is the Navy Lieutenant collecting Betsie’s things? [herring]
Why did the government show up?
What was Betsie journaling about?
Why does Meg know about Allen [he snoops in the past, in the department]
Why does Dr. Allen want Samantha to leave the University?

Why does Samantha suddenly wake up with ESP?
Did something happen at the psych lab?
How does she ace the Zener card experiment?
How come David doesn’t seem to have any thoughts?
Why is Dr. Forsythe so confused?

Who is the girl stalking Samantha at the cafe? [herring]
Why is Holly stealing Samantha’s letters?
What is the Cult?
Why are they robbing banks and storing weapons?
Is Elijah Kahn a prophet?
Why are people being kidnapped into Rapture?

What is the purpose of the secret eugenics program Project Parallax?
How is the Cult involved?
Why does the landowner look the other way?
What was Forsythe doing in the Korean War?
What is the connection between Allen and Forsythe?
Is Samantha pregnant?
Why does the FBI answer to Forsythe?
What’s in the secret building at the top of the mountain?

Who is the Rainbow Child?
Back to Korea
Samantha gives birth

• This reply was modified 10 months, 1 week ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

Chris Wood’s Villan Has a Great Plan!

What I learned doing this assignment was a completely new take and new levels and directions for my story, all revealed to me when I finally got in the head of my villain and built the core of the framework around their plan! This assignment took me a while, but it was worth it!

What is the end goal?
Dominion over psychic energy on Earth

How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way?
By tricking the academic and military intelligence communities that he is a good guy, just a maverick researcher, but one who could be a valuable resource and ally.
By secretly restarting the Parallax Program originally exploring eugenics as a way to breed humans with higher psionic energies.
By using his persuasiveness to build a small but loyal agency of well placed operatives, including Dr. Marquis Allen. Assorted evil nurses and loner geniuses. He looks for the same prey as Eliajah Kahn.
By tracking down all of the Rainbow Children and excising them to the Western US, where they can be more closely monitored, studied, and evaluated for re-congition into Project Parallax.

How can they cover it up?
By taking advantage of the veiled politics and bureaucratic secrecy of the military and academia societies to keep research a secret, or to work in secret.
By using his position as a recognized expert in the paranormal to influence the motions and motivations of nonexperts.
By using ESP.
By using untested, rudimentary, and physically and psychologically traumatic psionic weapons in both a lab and clandestine public way [aural weaponry] to silence his enemies, or those on his trail.
By killing Marquis Allen and anyone else who dare oppose his diabolical plan.

Sequence it to make it as intriguing as possible.

When he takes unreasonable risks that lead to drastic consequences during a secret Korean War eugenics program, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Forsythe is shipped back to the United States, where the government believes it has successfully wiped his memory clean of the events of Project Parallax. But Forsythe hasn’t forgotten anything.
Bent on getting back into a lab and completing the experiments that could turn psychic energy into a physical weapon, Forsythe rapidly charms his way up the academic ladder as a maverick researcher with a volatile personality. And his undergrad students love him.
He’s been slowly building a small but loyal agency of secret operatives to locate and excise the last remaining Rainbow Children from the lab in Korea to the Western U.S., where they can be more easily monitored and evaluated for re-cognition into the Parallax Project.
When the radical framework of his experiment is leaked to Duke University administrators, he bargains for a cover-up demotion to Remington University, where Dr. Marquis Allen has already positively IDd a rainbow child, the college co-ed Samantha Hamilton.
Forsythe manipulates his way to the Remington College campus and faculty and seduces Samantha.
He allows her to ultimately flee with David, because getting her out to Rapture, California couldn’t come soon enough.
Forsythe exploits the intelligence community to help locate and threaten Samantha.
When Allen threatens to reveal the wider plan, Forsythe kills him with a psyonic ray [or does he?].
Elijah Kahn, Boom Boom, and Samantha team up to take down Forsythe, Elijah Kahn makes the ultimate sacrifice and a pregnant Samantha gives birth to the Rainbow Child.

[Chris Wood]

DAMN, this class is [thankfully] intense! [starts Basic Instinct]

[Chris Wood]

I did learn quite a bit in this assignment. I’ve been a fan of BI for a long time and very familiar with the movie, but by examining the stacking suspense model I really began to understand WHY it was so gripping, thrilling, and so satisfying to watch. I really began to understand how each scene is stacked with the MIS model, both for individual characters, and also for the movement of action and the plot. Really enjoyed this exercise and plan to revisit when I have some ample time to dedicate to REALLY studying how BI excels at the thriller model. Felt a little rushed and overwhelmed to do this and the SOTL assignments. I wish I was a bit more prepared ahead of time to be able to commit the hours necessary to make these a priority.

[Chris Wood]

Subject line: Chris Wood’s World and Characters!

What I learned doing this assignment: I feel like all of my characters need MORE levels of MIS. They feel flat and cliche. I want to layer and relayer and get them complex and provocative and nuanced in an ORIGINAL way. This was a tough assignment, I almost felt like I needed a lot more discovery, but I went with the directive and just FILLED IN THE BLANKS!

1. Remind us of your CONCEPT and the Big M.I.S. of your story.

RAINBOW CHILD: A college co-ed discovers a deep well of psychic abilities when she’s lured into a hippie-drug cult that’s robbing banks and being watched by a secret agency bent on turning ESP into a physical weapon of mass destruction.

Big Mystery: Who is the real Rainbow Child prophesied to reveal ESP as a real, practical [and practically devastating] sixth sense?

Big Intrigue: Dr. Richard Forsythe’s underhanded plan to exploit the academic and intelligence communities for sole dominion over psychic energy on earth.

Big Suspense: Will Samantha learn to control the agathokakological psychic forces within her in time to save her unborn child from a drug cult, a government conspiracy, and a renegade psychiatrist?

2. Tell us the Intriguing World you have selected for this story.
The world of mind- and aura-reading psychic misfit bank robbers hiding in plain sight as a late 1970s hippie commune

3. With your top 2 or 3 characters, tell us the role they play and then answer these three questions:

HERO: Samantha Hamilton
A. What is the mystery of this character? Does Samantha really have ESP? Is SHE the Rainbow Child?
B. What is the suspense of this character? Will Samantha be brainwashed by the drug cult, destroyed by Forsythe, or disappeared by the government?
C. What is the intrigue of this character? Samantha is ambivalent, and is attracted to any intense forms of energy, good or evil.

VILLAIN: Dr. Richard Forsythe
A. What is the mystery of this character? How can Forsythe turn Samantha’s ESP into the ultimate psionic weapon of mass destruction?
B. What is the suspense of this character? Unhinged, desperate, conniving, and brilliant.
C. What is the intrigue of this character? Why was Forsythe expelled from the Duke paranormal research program and what is his real connection to the Parallax Project?

RED HERRING: Dr. Marquis Allen
A. What is the mystery of this character? What is Allen’s connection to the Parallax Project?
B. What is the suspense of this character? Everytime Allen makes a decision, people die.
C. What is the intrigue of this character? Where does Allen land on the moral question of eugenics and the release of ESP as a psionic weapon?

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

Chris Wood’s BiG M.I.S.

What I learned doing this assignment was – abandon all ideas of what you thought you were going to write about. My treatment has already taken two left turns, a right turn, and another left turn, but it’s still holding true to my original concept, just in totally new directions. Psyched.

Logline:

RAINBOW CHILD
A college co-ed discovers a deep well of psychic abilities when she’s lured into a hippie-drug cult that’s robbing banks and being watched by a secret agency bent on turning ESP into a physical weapon of mass destruction.

1. What are the conventions of your story?

Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Samantha Hamilton spent her four years at Rayburn University splitting time between psych labs and judo intramurals. She loves people but is becoming increasingly bored and dissatisfied with their predictability until she meets the charismatic members of a hippy commune in Rapture, California.

Dangerous Villain: Dr. Richard Forsythe is a maverick outcast from the Duke University Paranormal Research program thirsting for fame, recognition, and manipulative dominion over the world by way of psychic powers that can be focused into physical energy strong enough to destroy the planet.

High stakes: Samantha’s life, the life of her unborn child, destruction of the planet.

Life and death situations:
Van kidnappings, blunt force trauma torture, forced drug overdoses, government assassins, backwoods hillbilly rapists, brainwashing, psychic brain pressure, egomaniacal cult leaders and cult initiations, bank robberies

This story is thrilling because?
Samantha is both pawn and player in a drug-fueled, cult-soaked, bank-robbing, thought-reading, mind-bending journey to discover who the real Rainbow Child is.

2. Tell us the Big M.I.S. of your story?

Big Mystery: Who is the real Rainbow Child prophesied to reveal ESP as a real, practical [and practically devastating] sixth sense?

Big Intrigue: Dr. Richard Forsythe’s underhanded plan to exploit the academic and intelligence communities to gain control of Samantha and sole dominion over psychic energy on earth.

Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script? Will Samantha learn to control the agathokakological psychic forces within her in time to save her unborn child from a drug cult, a government conspiracy, and a renegade psychiatrist?

• This reply was modified 11 months ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

CAPRICORN ONE Thriller Conventions [hulu]

Watch the movie and as you do, note the conventions of THIS story.

Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Run of the mill investigative TV reporter Robert Caulfield stumbles upon a government conspiracy to fake a NASA landing on Mars when his friend, a low level NASA telemetry nerd, suddenly disappears.

Dangerous Villain: Threatened by Congressional de-funding that will end both his career and his dreams of sending a man to Mars, NASA chief James Kelloway commands an elaborate hoax machine AND a clandestine corps of federal agents that will stop at nothing to conceal the failures of his program and the cover-up intended to keep it all secret.

High stakes: The esteem and prestige of NASA, the careers and livelihoods (and literal lives) of celebrated astronauts and their families, Caulfields career and life and the believability and trust people have in him as a journalist. The possibility of being disappeared by the government.

Life and death situations: Exploding spacecraft, runaway cars with brakes cut and gas pedal glued down to full acceleration, twitchy feds with trigger fingers and loaded firearms, unmarked CIA black helicopters with machine guns, extremely large and aggressive rattlesnakes, death of thirst and exhaustion while be pursued by said helicopters across the desert. Oh, did I mention OJ Simpson is IN THE space capsule with the astronauts? lol

This movie is thrilling because? It uses a well established conspiracy belief [faked lunar landings] as a pastiche to explore the relentless and faceless power of clandestine arms of government who myopically pursue an agenda with no regard to outcome or human life. It also plunges the hero[s] into a non-stop spiral of how-can-it-get-any-worse

3. What is the BIG Mystery, Intrigue, and Suspense of this story?

Big Mystery: What REALLY happened to the astronauts aboard the doomed Capricorn 1 Flight?

Big Intrigue: While the world watches, the Mars landings have been faked and broadcast via soundstage to cover up the failures of the program and the arrogance of its increasingly maniacal chief director.

Big Suspense: From T-minus one and counting, the astronauts and investigative reporter Robert Caulfield must navigate a gauntlet of armed, deadly, and myopically unyielding federal agents to escape captivity and reveal the conspiracy.

4. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great thriller?
It was interesting in that it had two heroes. Per the model, investigative reporter Robert Caulfield is definitely the hero that is solving the mystery, but he does it tandem with astronaut Charles Brubaker, who is in on the conspiracy, but must navigate and escape the Big Intrigue and connect with Caulfield in order to close the loop. Even at the end, they are running together in slo-mo as they make the big reveal and credits role.

5. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?”
This movie really hammered home the non-stop spiral of how-can-it-get-any-worse plot lines the hero[s] are forced through. It also showed me that the villain, as well as the hero, needs to be defined by the villains own high stakes, mystery, and intrigue.

• This reply was modified 11 months ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

Chris Wood. I agree to the terms of this 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.

• This reply was modified 11 months ago by  Chris Wood.

[Chris Wood]

Hey everybody — Chris Wood here. I’ve written a pilot and bible coming out of the Binge Worthy TV class (excellent) and have a few treatments and literally dozens of Teasers/ACT1s that I want to pull into feature length thrillers, Can’t wait to workshop through the class.

[Chris Wood]

INCREDIBLE!

[Chris Wood]

I really like the idea of a mother trying to feed her vampire daughter. It reminds me of the dual horror/pathos of the family in the basement in Night of the Living Dead, and how they try so hard to save the daughter they know is already a zombie!

[Chris Wood]

“Judas has been disguising himself as someone else” — sooooo much to unpack here, visually, subtext, and straight plot. GREAT turn.

[Chris Wood]

“His only loyal friend is his pet, but even his pet has a tracking device embedded in it.” LOVE IT!

[Chris Wood]

So cool — Even the Villain should be mysterious — this is what I pulled out of my watch, too, that the Villain needs high stakes and MIS levels. Great stuff!

[Chris Wood]

Villain — All you had to say was Jon Voight ha ha. I gotta check this one out!

[Chris Wood]

Joan — never say IMPOSSIBLE! I’m still deciding on one of two treatments to take through the class, and thought at first that neither one would work, but then I thought… stop trying to make the model fit the treatment, make the treatment fit the model! Once I did, it started opening up LOTS of new intrigue layers and ideas I have not seen yet, and now I can’t decide which treatment to do because I want to do them BOTH! I even thought of doing them both in tandem HA HA HA. Anyway, encourage you to follow sensei Hal here: let go and use your drama as source material rather than an outline you love already that you want to thrillerize. I know you can do it!

[Chris Wood]

I’m a green olive fan, too! Great to meet you Anne.