[Ethan Cvitanic]

Hey everyone! I’d love your thoughts on my work 🙂

What I learned doing this assignment: With having multiple characters that are famous, I need to find a way to link them to these murders they aren’t actually committing. (Unless y’all think an A-List actor could secretly kill an escort and cover it up themselves?) I think having a “helper” character is good for mystery (who are they?) but I feel like it has limitations.

Big Mystery: Who killed Hayden’s best friend/ fellow escort (Jack)?

Big Intrigue: Will Donovan be able to cover up of the series of murders he is responsible for and more importantly what he is hiding? (To Hayden – why would someone want to kill gay escorts?)

Big Suspense: As Hayden gets closer to discovering Donovan and ruining his reputation, will Hayden get murdered for asking too many questions?

World: Underground gay prostitution in Hollywood. You may be able to buy you whomever you desire, BUT all the money in the world can’t buy silence.

HERO: Hayden Miller

Mystery: How does he find the person who killed his friend Jack?

Intrigue: Hayden uses his skills as an escort to investigate the trail of men that he knows Jack had contact with.

Suspense: Is Hayden getting too close to revealing something that someone would kill him over?

RED HERRING: Colby Collins

Mystery: Did he kill Jack because he’s afraid of being exposed as gay?

Intrigue: He’s an incredible actor and he can convince Hayden of anything – that he is alright with the fact that Hayden told Jack that he is gay. He also has resources to hire people to follow Hayden and what not.

Suspense: Will Colby kill Hayden too?

VILLAIN: Donovan

Mystery: What is his relationship with Colby? Is Colby his protege?

Intrigue: He will kill each and every person that HE THINKS knows about the tape exposing him. He thinks of gay escorts as disposable.

Suspense: Is his “helper” going to catch Hayden (and kill him) before Hayden finds the missing pieces he needs?

[Ethan Cvitanic]

Ethan Cvitanic Big M.I.S.

What I learned doing this assignment is: If my hero and Villain know each other at the beginning of the movie, I need to come up with a lot of misdirects in order to stall my hero from even considering the villain to be the villain all while giving the audience time to get to know the villain so they can be as shocked as my hero.

Logline: A gay Hollywood escort investigates the death of his best friend, while pursuing a secret relationship with one of Hollywood’s leading men.

1. What are the conventions of your story?

Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Hayden Miller moved to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming an actor, but quickly turned to prostitution to earn good money and mingle with the elites of this Hollywood. He will have to become

Dangerous Villain: Donovan Jones, veteran actor.
High stakes: A slew of questionable suicides, overdoses and car accidents

Life and death situations: Running around Hollywood, being pursued by SUV’s, being threatened at gunpoint for asking too many questions and constantly seeing guys he knows end up in body bags.

This story is thrilling because: Hayden is constantly hooking up with new men, who have the opportunity to hurt him very easily, but he has to in order to figure out who is killing all these escorts and why. You don’t know who is going to hurt him and who is in cahoots with who.

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

Big Mystery: Who killed Hayden’s best friend/ fellow escort (Jack)?

Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie? Donovan’s cover up of the murder, and more importantly what he is hiding?

Big Suspense: What is the main danger to your Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script? As Hayden gets closer to exposing Donovan and ruining his thriving career, will he get murdered for asking too many questions?

[Ethan Cvitanic]

I, Ethan Cvitanic, agree to the terms of this release.

[Ethan Cvitanic]

I picked Abduction (2011) and I learned that you really need to know your ending/twists from the beginning so that you can plant in Act 1 – which is a lot of exposition.

Our Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: Nathan (18) has rage issues, but his father has trained him extensively in martial arts. He has a recurring dream that he sees a woman getting beat up. (this turns out to be his Mom)

Dangerous Villain: Nikola, an British assassin (known to be extremely dangerous) finds out that Nathan is alive and is coming to capture him and will kill anyone who gets in the way.

High stakes: Stakes are raised when two Men Show up from the “Bridgewater Juvenile Police Dept” (actually hired guns of Nikola) and kill Nathan’s parents. Nathan escapes with the girl he’s had a crush on for years. Nathan kills the men, but a bomb explodes the house and they’re forced to flee.

Life and death situations: The two assassins that killed his parents are trying to kill him and Karen (his crush). New assassins show up at the hospital when he makes a 911 call from a payphone there.

This movie is thrilling because: The murder of his parents and bomb explosion is being written off as a gas explosion with no deaths because “the family was out of town.” – AKA – We don’t know who to trust.

Big Mystery: Jacob sees a photo of him as a child on a missing persons website and he wonders if his parents are even his parents – essentially “who is he?”

Big Intrigue: His therapist shows up and explains that he needs to hide, and that she was a friend of his father’s.

Big Suspense: Nikola, the Villain, wants to capture Nathan as a bargaining chip because Nathan’s father works for the CIA and has access to state secrets. Who will capture him first – the CIA or Nikola?

What made this movie a great thriller: They keep adding to the suspense because they get rid of each person who can tell Nathan about his past, including his mother, so he has no clue as to who he really is and we want him to know.

“What I learned doing this assignment is you always need to keep the villain right on their toes so tension is always at an all time high – even when our hero is relaxed and doesn’t know the killer is on their toes.

[Ethan Cvitanic]

Hey everyone!

My name is Ethan Cvitanic and I’ve written 11 scripts. I hope to learn every single aspect of writing thrillers – especially for thrillers that have a tragic ending. Growing up I had a pet chicken I named Beef. I taught him how to swim and I would push him down the slide of our pool. When he got older he attacked me several times and we had to give him to a farm.