[Chris Hollo]

What I learned doing this assignment is that ex-military is too easy and I need to come up with a better backstory for my hero.

Clear Mission: To save a man from being tortured to death

Motivation: A possible payday at first then to keep the accountant alive while not repeating her past.

Inciting Incident: Defending accountant from local hit men in city park

First Action: Cartel invades her apartment where she was hiding the accountant. They take the accountant and her fathers matching pistol set.

Obstacle: Figuring out where he was taken

Escalation: Crossing the border to retrieve the accountant Overwhelming Odds: Invading the well fortified home of the cartel boss

New Plan: She crosses the border into Mexico to go after the cartel boss.

Full out Attack: Night time assault on the cartel compound

Success: She kills the cartel boss and returns to the US with the accountant

—

Impossible Mission: Infiltrate a Mexican cartel and rescue the accountant before he is tortured to death by the cartel boss.

A) What is it about this Hero that will have them go straight into the face of overwhelming odds – She is desperate to not fail and let the accountant be killed by the cartel boss. She retired from the military because someone she was in charge of protecting was taken and killed.

B) What is the mission that would be an impossible goal – to get into Mexico, find the cartel and rescue the accountant before he is tortured to death by the cartel boss.

C1) What strong internal motivation could drive the hero – Failure is not an option. She wants to protect this person unlike the person she let die in the military.

C2) What strong external motivation could drive the hero – To put an end to the cartel trying to kill her.

D) What could naturally happen if the hero went on this mission against the villain – Surviving attacks from the cartel, crossing the border into Mexico, evading the local police who are owned by the cartel, heat, dehydration crossing desert, language barriers.

[Chris Hollo]

What I learned doing this assignment is how to give hero and villain their motivations

Concept:

Hero Morally Right: Saving the cartel accountant from capture/torture.

Villain Morally Wrong: Bringing massive amounts of drugs into the US.

Hero

A. Unique Skill Set: Elite military training.

B. Motivation: Protect someone from a grizzly death and take out the cartel.

C. Secret or Wound: Released from military for exposing corruption.

Villain

A. Unbeatable: Has seemingly unlimited henchmen at his disposal.

B. Plan/Goal: Capture and kill the accountant to keep him from going to DEA.

C. What they lose if Hero survives: Loss of his entire drug trade.

Impossible Mission

A. Puts Hero in Action: Sees accountant’s murder-for-hire listing on Craigslist

B. Demands They Go Beyond Their Best: Protecting the accountant and getting close enough to the cartel boss to take him out.

C. Destroy the Villain: Has to kill the cartel boss and anyone in her way

Improved Answers:

The Hero initially wants to protect the accountant but then has to go on the offensive to kill the cartel boss.

The accountant places an ad on Craigslist for someone to murder him quickly so that he won’t be tortured to death by the cartel boss because he is unable to commit suicide.

[Chris Hollo]

Chris Hollo’s conventions:

What I learned from this assignment is how to elevate the concept.

Hero: Former female US Army Ranger who struggles with readjusting to civilian life.

Demand for action: If she doesn’t keep a cartel accountant alive, he will be tortured to death.

Mission: Keep a cartel accountant from being slowly killed.

Antagonist: Cartel boss who is planning on skinning accountant alive for skimming money.

Escalating Action: Running only works for so long and she has to go on the offensive.

[Chris Hollo]

My name is Chris Hollo and I’ve written and shot lots of short scripts and have a feature that I’ve been working on for a couple of years. I’m happy with the first and second acts but am still trying to get the action in the third act where it needs to be.

I’ve been a filmmaker and commercial photographer for over 30 years and have never really had a day job. I’m in post production on a feature I shot right now.

[Chris Hollo]

Chris Hollo

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.