christopher Cochran
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Christopher Cochran
What I learned is that: the HIghest Concept conquers all others.
PART 1:
The world’s richest man must stave off terrorists in his penthouse, which is located on top of the tallest building in NYC.
PART 2:
TITLE: Pretty Woman
AS THEY DID IT:
A. Locations. Streets, hotel, polo club, apartment building, restaurants, ect
B. People. Too many to name
C. Stunts Climbing up a fire escape
D. Extras. Tons
E. Wardrobe. High Fashion
CONTAINED VERSION:
A. Locations: Hotel
B. People. Guy and hooker
C. Stunts. none
D. Extras. Hotel guests
E. Wardrobe. High fashion is for a limited number of people.
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I agree to the terms.
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Christopher Cochran
3 scripts
Fine-tune High Concept and structure.
I remodel Historic Homes in New Orleans. -
Chris Cochrans Horror Plot
I learned to start with the skeleton, and then move forward with the flesh.
ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR
Atmosphere of Evil established: Ray(A doctor at Johns Hopkins) frantically works on a patient (her son) that is coughing up blood then lays back choking on blood as blood pours out of his ears and eyeballs and he spasms until death. Ray steps back with blood all over her face shield and looks down the hall of the hospital to hundreds of bodies and pools of blood all over the floor.
Connect with the characters: The group of survivors stops their van on a deserted highway at a vacant gas station that miraculously has power from solar panels and backup batteries. They raid the coolers and down the cold drinks. They laugh it up.
The characters are warned not to do it: The group makes it to the ferry landing at The Infectious Disease Insitute. There is a shack nearby with a dying middle-aged man. He is babbling about that there is no cure. He has seen the doctor and there is no cure.
Denial of Horror: The group procures a boat and makes it to the Island. Everything is pristine, but there are only a few people there. They too have a solar generator. The head doctor says he is close to a cure.
Safety taken away: They are locked inside the building and their guns are taken away.
Monster: The nature of the beast. The beast hunts them for food with an insatiable appetite.
ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN
Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: They are trapped on the island with a Nor’easter blowing through.
One of us killed: One is killed when they venture outside to try to get the electricity working.
MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!
Full pursuit by the killer: The beast enters the building and continues the hunt.
Terrorized: Everyone now knows a beast is hunting them.
ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR
Fight to the death: The institute is a Labyrinth they cannot escape. The beast constantly keeps appearing and picking them off one by one.
Hysteria: Three remain and they get separated from each other.
The thrilling escape from death: They trap the beast in the “Clean Room” and inject it with poison.
Death returns to take one or more: The beast awakens, breaks out of the Clean room, and kills Chase.
Resolution: Beast is killed by its weakness(TBD), but the Doctor of the Institue has plans to create another beast. -
Chris Cochran’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment: You need to maximize the dynamics in your characters to make them memorable and push the story through their differences.
After a plague has decimated the world, a group of scientists and doctors trek weeks to a remote rocky coast where they seek out the remaining scientists of the Infections Disease Institute. Once they reach the island a creature hunts them down for food. They all die except for one.
Leader: Ray(45)- she is a fierce and brilliant doctor. She knows the Institute is close to a cure and they need to get there to complete the work.
Innocent: Violet(65) Grandmother who lost everyone. She was picked up by the group on their way up the coast.
Complainer: Martin(52) Scientist, highly intelligent, and loathes the lower standard of living after the plague.
Out of Control: Delaney(28). Snarky intern to Ray, lacks fear due to suicidal tendencies.
Rescuer: Winston (70). Doomsday prepper. Tons of survival knowledge. In better shape than anyone else.
The Moral One: Chase. (45). Zoologist. Firm believer in Darwin. Able to sacrifice for the greater good of the group.
Monster Bait: Bruce (German Shepard). Monster kills him first.
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Chris Cochran’s Translucent beast the size of a bear with eyes that reflect light and a thousand needle-like teeth.
What I learned. There are a limited amount of tropes in the Horror genre. Pick the one that interests you the most and try to improve upon it to make it your unique take on that trope.
Their Terror: Silently hunts and eats its prey alive with unbelievable stealth because it is almost invisible.
Their Mystery: Able to blend into almost any surrounding and disappear in an instant.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: It quietly meals on a member of the crew while they are asleep. Another member of the crew catches a glimpse of the monster with a flashlight exposing the needle teeth covered in blood and when the light hits the beast’s eye, it blinds the crew member with the reflection.
Their Rules: It hunts only one prey at a time. The heart and brain are not fully translucent and can be seen in certain circumstances
Their Mythology: Result of an experiment gone bad or good. -
I learned at each piece of the puzzle needs to be solved for a successful Horror story.
Title / Concept: Longlegs / Satanic killings
Terrorize The Characters: Families are killing each other.
Isolation: Suburban
Death: Fathers killing whole families, suicide, gun deaths.
Monster/Villain: Satanic follower called Longlegs
High Tension: What family will be killed next.
Departure from Reality: Satan controls the dolls that tell people to commit murder.
Moral Statement: Do not make a deal with the devil.Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
Slow burn with great cinematography.
Concept: Scientist preforms extreme experiments looking for a cure to the plague
Terrorize The Characters: A group of survivors of the plague are hunted and captured
Isolation: Rocky, desolate coastline.
Death: Dismemberment, injections, shootings.
Monster/Villain: Mad scientist
High Tension: Surviving the experiments and escaping
Departure from Reality: “the Plague” is a grueling flesh-eating disease
Moral Statement: The needs of the few vs the many.Chris
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Christopher Cochran
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. -
1. Christopher Cochran
2. 3
3. A straightforward approach to writing Horror.
4. I drive an ancient pickup truck by choice.