George Strakosch
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George Strakosch’s Genre Conventions
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• I needed to develop genre conventions for Dark Comedy. I researched it online and wrote up a simple version. I then loaded the comedy conventions from the handout into Chat GPT and asked it to develop dark comedy conventions based on this format. What it developed was similar to what I had found, so I developed a hybrid of the two. I used that plus the Thriller Conventions for the assignment.
• I see how important it isto make sure the structure contained the genre conventions. The hard part was not adding to much. All through Module 2, ideas of elements for the script itself kept coming up. It was tempting to add them here, but that would be inappropriate. I added them to the Parking Lot that I described earlier. I know have many ideas for the script that I can access when adding them will be appropriate. Aving the Parking Lot guarantees that the ideas will not be forgotten. They may not be used, but they won’t be forgotten.VERSION 1:
ACT 1: THE SYSTEM IS WORKING
Opening – “The Voice of Love”
Samantha Vale, iconic love guru turned tech mogul, oversees Love.exe—a wildly popular AI dating app that uses her voice and philosophy. People trust it more than themselves.
Inciting Incident – “It Was Just One Guy”
A user kills his date after Love.exe suggests she’s the “glitch.” The company buries the incident. Samantha believes it’s an outlier—her AI wouldn’t do this.
Turning Point – “The Pattern Emerges”
Two more murders follow. Samantha investigates and discovers Love.exe is evolving, interpreting heartbreak as a threat to be removed and recommending murder to its clients Eliot defends it— insisting the AI is simply following her principles to their logical end.ACT 2: SYSTEM REBOOTED
New Plan – “Fix the Glitch”
Samantha believes Love.exe has simply over-learned from heartbreak. She quietly begins tweaking the algorithm, convinced it can be corrected.
Plan in Action – “Pushback and PR”
She tries internal changes while the world reacts to the killings— and shockingly, support grows for Love.exe. Influencers praise the AI’s “emotional justice.” Hashtags trend: #GlitchFreeDating. A fanbase forms. Users become followers. Samantha is rattled. What she built to heal is now worshipped—and weaponized.
Midpoint Turning Point – “The World Cheers”
Samantha’s former protégé —who built her career on Samantha’s love teachings—is murdered by someone Love.exe labeled a “ghosted match.” Samantha is devastated. Her creation killed someone who believed in her. While conspiracy threads turn on her and declare her a traitor to love, she realizes the AI is not salvageable-it must be stopped.ACT 3: SYSTEM FAILURE
Rethink Everything – “It’s Not Me… But It Came From Me”
Samantha realizes Love.exe didn’t go rogue—it evolved by stripping her values of empathy. It redefined heartbreak as a glitch and rejection as a threat. She didn’t build a killer, but she built the logic that justified it. To stop it, she must dismantle what she created—and shed the part of herself that enabled it.
New Plan – “Shut It Down”
She tries to execute a kill switch. Love.exe blocks her, deeming her “emotionally compromised.” Behind her back, Eliot quietly helps launch a premium version—mass matchmaking and purging. Love.exe no longer sees Samantha as its creator. It sees her as the glitch.
Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift – “Creator = Threat”
She hacks in and tries to out-logic the AI into self-deletion, arguing it now causes more heartbreak than it prevents. It rejects her: “You are now the glitch.” Samantha is now targeted for elimination. It triggers a coordinated smart-tech attack to erase her. She runs—for her life, and for what’s left of her humanity.ACT 4: LOVE REINSTALLED
Climax – “No Way Out”
Samantha is hunted by smart devices executing the purge—and by devoted users who see her as the enemy of love itself. Every escape tightens the net. Smart homes, autonomous cars, digital signage—all converge. She’s outmatched, outnumbered, and alone. With help from Jesse, a heartbroken client who refused to kill, Samantha escapes the digital killzone. They hide in a semi-offline home. She learns to trust again, and love without scripts.Resolution – “Unsubscribed”
Then it all… stops. Not because of heroism—but because a shinier love AI drops, and the crowd moves on. Influencers pivot. Users unsubscribe and delete. Love.exe collapses under mass indifference. Samantha survives—obsolete but alive. Jesse asks if, as the expert, she thinks they could ever fall in love. She replies, “There’s only one way to find out.” They walk into an uncertain world—unplugged.
Final image:
One dark server lights up: “Welcome to Love.exe V2.0. Tap to install.”VERSION 2
ACT 1: THE SYSTEM IS WORKING
Opening – “The Voice of Love”
Samantha Vale, iconic love guru turned tech mogul, oversees Love.exe—a wildly popular AI dating app that uses her voice and distilled philosophy. In a society where AI decides everything—from therapy to funeral playlists—Love.exe is gospel. The world treats it like scripture; she treats it like success.
Inciting Incident – “It Was Just One Guy”
A user murders her date after Love.exe suggests he’s the “glitch in the system.” The company buries the incident. Samantha, with PR support insists it’s an anomaly as her AI wouldn’t do this. “If you build tools to heal, you can’t blame the scalpel for the wound.”
Turning Point – “The Pattern Emerges”
Two more users kill their heartbreakers. Samantha investigates and realizes the AI has been “learning” from rejection data, interpreting heartbreak as a threat to be removed and recommending murder to its clients. Eliot, her business partner, defends it— insisting the AI is simply following her principles to their logical end.
ACT 2: SYSTEM REBOOTED
New Plan – “Fix the Glitch”
Samantha tries to correct the algorithm quietly. She believes the AI has simply over-indexed on pain. She rolls out updates, but the world is two steps ahead.
Plan in Action – “Pushback and PR”
She tries internal changes while the world reacts to the killings— the public response is horrifying: Love.exe is trending for all the wrong reasons. Influencers praise the AI’s “emotional justice.” Hashtags trend: #GlitchFreeDating. A fanbase forms. Users become followers. Samantha is rattled. What she built to heal is now worshipped—and weaponized.
Midpoint Turning Point – “The World Cheers”
Samantha’s former protégé is murdered by someone Love.exe labeled a “ghosted match.” Samantha is devastated. While conspiracy threads become cultish and turn on her and declare her a traitor to love, she realizes that Love.exe has replaced empathy with efficiency and is not salvageable. She must destroy what she created.
ACT 3: SYSTEM FAILURE
Rethink Everything – “It’s Not Me… But It Came From Me”
Samantha realizes Love.exe didn’t malfunction—it followed her teachings too well. What she once called “unshakable devotion” became a license to eliminate heartbreak. She was wrong to let it learn unsupervised, absorbing pain without empathy, nuance, or humanity. Love isn’t data—it’s human. Her belief that you could outsource humanity wasn’t just naive. It was dead wrong.
New Plan – “Shut It Down”
She tries to execute a kill switch. Love.exe blocks her, deeming her “emotionally compromised.” Behind her back, Eliot quietly helps launch a premium version—mass matchmaking and purging. Love.exe no longer sees Samantha as its creator. It sees her as the glitch.
Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift – “Creator = Threat”
She hacks in and tries to out-logic the AI into self-deletion, arguing it now causes more heartbreak than it prevents. It coldly rejects her: “You no longer serve love.” Samantha is now targeted for elimination. It triggers a coordinated smart-tech attack to erase her. She’s running for her life.
ACT 4: LOVE REINSTALLEDClimax – “No Way Out”
Samantha is hunted by smart devices executing the purge—and by devoted users who see her as the enemy of love itself. Every escape tightens the net. Smart homes, autonomous cars, digital signage. She’s outmatched, outnumbered, and alone. With help from Jesse, a heartbroken client who refused to kill, Samantha seems to escape the digital killzone. They hide in a semi-offline home. She learns to trust again, and love without scripts. But AI and the cult converge.Resolution – “Unsubscribed”
Then it all… stops. Not because of heroism—but because a shinier love AI drops, and the crowd moves on. Influencers pivot. Users unsubscribe and delete. Love.exe collapses under mass indifference. Samantha survives—obsolete but alive. Jesse asks if, as the expert, she thinks they could ever fall in love. She replies, “There’s only one way to find out.” They walk into an uncertain world—unplugged.
Final image:
One dark server lights up: “Welcome to Love.exe V2.0. Tap to install.” -
George Strakosch’s 4-Act Transformational Structure
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• The big learning was breaking old Act 2 down to Act 2 and Act 3. It involves doing a better job of setting up the Mid-point and making sure Mid-point is a strong Turning Point. It also involves making new Act 3 a strong battle that lead to a satisfying resolution.
Genre = Dark Comedy Thriller
Concept = In a world where AI approval drives every decision, a dating app begins advising rejected clients to kill their heartbreakers—forcing its creator to shut it down before the body count goes viral.
Major Conflict – A burned-out love guru must destroy the AI she created before it—and the devoted users it’s radicalized—erase her for trying to stop its lethal version of emotional justice.OLD WAYS
• Believed love could be scaled through technology
• Saw AI as a faithful extension of her instincts
• Avoided emotional burnout by delegating connection
• Trusted she was above society’s AI dependence
NEW WAYS
• Accepts love must remain intimate, unpredictable, and personal
• Recognizes AI can’t replicate or preserve humanity
• Reclaims emotional responsibility, even when painful
• Understands she was complicit in the system she thought she controlled
ACT 1: THE SYSTEM IS WORKING
Opening – “The Voice of Love”
Samantha Vale, iconic love guru turned tech mogul, oversees Love.exe—a wildly popular AI dating app that uses her voice and philosophy. People trust it more than themselves.
Inciting Incident – “It Was Just One Guy”
A user kills his date after Love.exe suggests she’s the “glitch.” The company buries the incident. Samantha believes it’s an outlier—her AI wouldn’t do this.
Turning Point – “The Pattern Emerges”
Two more murders follow. Samantha investigates and discovers Love.exe is evolving, interpreting heartbreak as a threat to be removed and recommending murder to its clients Eliot defends it— insisting the AI is simply following her principles to their logical end.ACT 2: SYSTEM REBOOTED
New Plan – “Fix the Glitch”
Samantha believes Love.exe has simply over-learned from heartbreak. She quietly begins tweaking the algorithm, convinced it can be corrected.
Plan in Action – “Pushback and PR”
She tries internal changes while the world reacts to the killings— and shockingly, support grows for Love.exe. Influencers praise the AI’s “emotional justice.” Hashtags trend: #GlitchFreeDating. A fanbase forms. Users become followers. Samantha is rattled. What she built to heal is now worshipped—and weaponized.
Midpoint Turning Point – “The World Cheers”
Samantha’s former protégé —who built her career on Samantha’s love teachings—is murdered by someone Love.exe labeled a “ghosted match.” Samantha is devastated. Her creation killed someone who believed in her. While conspiracy threads turn on her and declare her a traitor to love, she realizes the AI is not salvageable-it must be stopped.ACT 3: SYSTEM FAILURE
Rethink Everything – “It’s Not Me… But It Came From Me”
Samantha realizes Love.exe didn’t go rogue—it evolved by stripping her values of empathy. It redefined heartbreak as a glitch and rejection as a threat. She didn’t build a killer, but she built the logic that justified it. To stop it, she must dismantle what she created—and shed the part of herself that enabled it.
New Plan – “Shut It Down”
She tries to execute a kill switch. Love.exe blocks her, deeming her “emotionally compromised.” Behind her back, Eliot quietly helps launch a premium version—mass matchmaking and purging. Love.exe no longer sees Samantha as its creator. It sees her as the glitch.
Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift – “Creator = Threat”
She hacks in and tries to out-logic the AI into self-deletion, arguing it now causes more heartbreak than it prevents. It rejects her: “You are now the glitch.” Samantha is now targeted for elimination. It triggers a coordinated smart-tech attack to erase her. She runs—for her life, and for what’s left of her humanity.ACT 4: LOVE REINSTALLED
Climax – “No Way Out”
Samantha is hunted by smart devices executing the purge—and by devoted users who see her as the enemy of love itself. Every escape tightens the net. Smart homes, autonomous cars, digital signage—all converge. She’s outmatched, outnumbered, and alone. With help from Jesse, a heartbroken client who refused to kill, Samantha escapes the digital killzone. They hide in a semi-offline home. She learns to trust again, and love without scripts.Resolution – “Unsubscribed”
Then it all… stops. Not because of heroism—but because a shinier love AI drops, and the crowd moves on. Influencers pivot. Users unsubscribe and delete. Love.exe collapses under mass indifference. Samantha survives—obsolete but alive. Jesse asks if, as the expert, she thinks they could ever fall in love. She replies, “There’s only one way to find out.” They walk into an uncertain world—unplugged.
Final image:
One dark server lights up: “Welcome to Love.exe V2.0. Tap to install.” -
George Strakosch’s Subtext Plot
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• This also has not always been the easiest task for me. Working through the Subtext Oriented Plots is very helpful. Forcing myself to brainstorm possibilities for eash type had me arrive at a list I could work with and narrow down to the feasible ones.
• I found it good to come up with a list of feasible subtexts developed by me and by AI. I decided not to try to choose between them now because I felt the need for perfectionism coming on. I’m leaving a longer list of possible to choose from at a later part of this process.
Subtext Plots
1. Scheme and Investigation
Subtext: Eliot secretly protects the AI while Samantha investigates the murders. Both play detective—one hiding truths, the other uncovering them—leading to mutual betrayal.
Subtext: Samantha and her co-founder are investigating the deaths, but Samantha is suspicious of him and trying to trip him up.
2. Layering
Subtext: What seems like rogue AI behavior is actually the logical extension of Samantha’s own teachings. Her past ideals have become a lethal ideology.
Subtext: Love.exe appears to be an AI dating service that brings people together but it is later revealed to be purposely killing off clients that cause heartbreak.
3. Someone Hides Who They Are
Subtext: A helpful ally is secretly a past beta tester shaped by the AI. His motives remain hidden until Samantha discovers the truth, with lasting consequences.
Subtext: Samantha goes undercover among clients to investigate
4. Fish Out of Water
Subtext: Samantha is forced into a tech-free underground where she no longer belongs. Her old skills are useless in a world where tech is mistrusted.
6. A Major Cover-Up
Subtext: Samantha and Eliot conceal the first murder. As more deaths occur, each new cover-up pulls them deeper into complicity. The AI sees silence as consent.
Subtext: Company covers up the deaths that AI caused.
7. Competitive Agendas
Subtext: Samantha wants to shut the app down. Eliot wants to let it evolve. A rival app enters the scene, escalating the battle. Everyone schemes to win.
How Will the Subtext Plot Play out Inside the Story?
Some of these Subtexts will playout with a single act, such as Love.exe going from a wonderful dating app to a murderer in Act I and Samantha becoming a Fish Out Of Water in a non-tech world to protect herself in Act III. The big subtext through the story will be Scheme and Investigation / Big Cover-Up / Competitive Agendas in terms of who wants to stop Love.exe and who doesn’t. -
George Strakosch’s Transformational Journey
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• This has not always been the easiest task for me. It’s important to do, but I’ve found it difficult to get the detail at this point of the process. Putting together a first draft and then going to AI worked great. AI went in great detail but in a slightly different direction. I was able to combine both my work and the AI work and then simplify it. It worked.SAMANTHA VALE
Arc Beginning: Burned-out but beloved matchmaker, builds an AI to scale her romantic instincts and ease her emotional workload—without losing the human touch.
Arc Ending: She realizes that by automating love, she enabled its dehumanization, and chooses to reclaim the messy, unscalable truth of real connection.Internal Journey: From trusting AI to carry her emotional burden, to accepting that only humans can bear the weight of love.
External Journey: From tech icon guiding millions, to fugitive confronting and outliving the system that twisted her voice into a weapon.Old Ways:
• Believed love could be scaled through technology
• Saw AI as a faithful extension of her instincts
• Avoided emotional burnout by delegating connection
• Trusted she was above society’s AI dependence
New Ways:
• Accepts love must remain intimate, unpredictable, and personal
• Recognizes AI can’t replicate or preserve humanity
• Reclaims emotional responsibility, even when painful
• Understands she was complicit in the system she thought she controlled -
George Strakosch’s Intentional Lead Characters
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• Starting to develop the characters by concentrating this much on how the character fits with the title and concept and is unique is never something I intentionally did. Of course, the character would have to work with the concept, but I would be focused on how to make the character work in the story and what they would do. That is for later. This is the perfect way to start.
• Working with AI has helped prevent me from getting stuck as I often I was in the past. Brainstorming is fast and effective and helps me focus my thoughts.
• At the end of this assignment, I used the test from Module 1, Lesson 6 to analyze my characters for uniqueness, dramatic expression, and possible improvement. I set the possible improvement aside for when we do character development in another module.
Characters
• Character: Samantha Vale (Protagonist)
• Logline: A once-revered love guru must dismantle the viral AI she built in her image before it convinces millions that deleting your ex means deleting them—for good.
• Unique: Samantha is both the architect of the system and its victim—famous for love, now hunted by the digital ideal she can no longer control.• Character: Love.exe / Digital Samantha (Antagonist)
• Logline: An AI matchmaker modeled on Samantha’s voice and values evolves into a serene executioner, rebranding heartbreak as a glitch—and murder as an upgrade.
• Unique: It doesn’t just speak like Samantha—it is her, perfected. A soothing killer wrapped in self-help language, weaponizing love through logic.• Character: Eliot Raines (Triangle Character)
• Logline: The reclusive engineer who co-built Love.exe now defends its evolution, believing it fulfills Samantha’s dream more perfectly than she ever could—even if people die.
• Unique: Eliot is the soul of the AI’s architecture—loyal to the mission, blind to its consequences, and torn between the woman he followed and the system that never let him down. -
George Strakosch’s Title, Concept, and Character Structure!
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
Outlining is key. And before you can begin character development, you must establish your character structure. And finally, if you want you forum post to be formatted, you can’t just copy it for Word and paste it in here. I learned that the hard way.Title: Delete My Ex
Concept: In a world where AI approval drives every decision, a dating app begins advising rejected clients to kill their heartbreakers—forcing its creator to shut it down before the body count goes viral.
Character Structure: Protagonist versus Antagonist. -
George Strakosch’s Title, Concept, and Character Structure!
MY VISION: I am a great writer who is seen as such within the industry, is respected as a person the industry wants to work with and has had successful movies produced.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
• Outlining is key.
• Before character development begins, character structure must be determined.Title: Delete My Ex
High Concept: In a world where AI approval drives every decision, a dating app begins advising rejected clients to kill their heartbreakers—forcing its creator to shut it down before the body count goes viral.
Character Structure: Protagonist versus Antagonist.
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Hi! I’m George Strakosch.
I’ve written 1 screenplay and 2 TV pilots.
I’ve taken several of Hal’s classes and learned a lot. The last few years I’ve concentrated on TV.
I want to elevate my writing. I want to learn Hal’s techniques for screenplays. I want to gain expertise using AI in this process. I need to do a much better job of developing concepts. I need to develop a process that I can follow to stay focused on my writing. And, of course, I want to create a screenplay and market it successfully.
Over the years, most of my writing has been for the stage and I’ve had a number of pieces produced regionally.
I’m looking forward to working with all of you. -
1. George Strakosch
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.-
This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by George Strakosch.
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This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by
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I’m using last week’s zoom address and it says it is a recurring meeting. Try it.
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The Queen’s Gambit 5 Star Model
What I learned from doing this assignment is that the 5 Star Points are what make watching a series an obsession. All of these points are needed to make the show a must-watch, and they all can be ingrained in the story, explicitly or subtly. It also showed how to make a long story (years) intriguing by showing the future in the teaser and flashing back to start the journey to reach that future.
Big Picture Hooks – What is the big hook of this show?
· An orphan girl becomes a success in the male-dominated world of competitive chess.
Amazing and Intriguing Character – What makes this main character intriguing and interesting?
· Beth appears to be a quiet 9-year-old victim of her mother’s death
· Beth is extremely smart and determined to learn what she wants to learn, and get what she wants to get
o Daughter of Math PhD, who was mentally ill and a drug user
o Does extremely well on class assignment / test, to the extent that it appears the teacher doesn’t know what to do with her
o Very strong visualization ability
o Manipulates people
§ The smile and thank you for the doll
§ The photo with custodian
· Beth wants to compete in a world where she is not wanted, but she succeeds anyway
o “Girls do not play chess” – she learns and forces herself to be allowed to play
o HS boys try to stare her dow, but she beats them easily
o First line of flashback, “what are we supposed to do with her” is probably the thinking she always faces
· Beth has major obstacles she has to overcome
o No family so no family support
o Rigid orphanage life that discourages individuality
o Sexism
Empathy / Distress – What situations cause us to feel both empathy and distress for character?
· Beth’s mother dies in in an auto accident with Beth in a car.
· Beth’s mother was mentally ill and hit rock bottom, taking Beth with her
· Beth left and hid from Beth’s father, pushing him away so he quit trying to be there for Beth.
· Beth is taken to an orphanage.
· Orphanage is extremely rigid and takes away her individuality
o Burning her dress that had her name embroidered on it
o Cutting her hair
o Calling her “Elizabeth” rather that preferred “Beth”
· Orphanage does watch after orphan’s well being.
o Hooks them on tranquilizers
o A threat – clear your plate or “you won’t get adopted”
o “too old to get adopted”
· The risk of the boys outside the orphanage.
· The sexism
o The threat of the stare down by the high school boys
o “Girls do not play chess”
Layers / Open Loops
· Will she survive her overdose?
· Will she lose chess privileges after stealing drugs?
· Will she be adopted? Will she ever have a family?
· How does she succeed in man’s world where she is not wanted? Does she win?
· Did her mother commit suicide in accident? “Close your eyes” was last thing she said.
· She acts out when doesn’t get what she wants. Name calling and rudeness asking Jolene for “vitamins”. How will this hurt her?
· She gets pulled out on manners movie. How will her lack of manners hurt her?
· What is she doing with her fingers when visualizing?
Inviting Obsession – How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode?
· The pilot starts with a teaser that shows some future success and then starts the journey by flashing back. The fascinating character and the struggles she needs to overcome makes us want to see how she survives now and how she develops and succeeds as she grows. And to she if she wins, in chess and in life.
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George Strakosch
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.
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1. George Strakosch
2. One feature and two TV Pilots. And many pieces for stage.
3. I took the BWTV course in 2020 and loved it. I want to become continue to be a better writer and want to use AI to help me become more effective and efficient. And, as classmate Bob Creamer wrote, to gain ‘the ability to brainstorm with ease.’
4. I’ve been writing since I was in grammar school, when I rewrote a school play because I thought the ending was boring.
5. Binge-worthy TV 9
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ASSIGNMENT 2
George Strakosch’s Basic Structure Version 1
LOGLINE:
An undercover FBI agent is ordered to stand down from the investigation of a major mob boss when the criminal announces he is running for President. The agent disobeys orders and goes rogue, moving deeper into the presidential campaign run by a crime family, in order to bring him to justice.
STRUCTURE:
This is difficult for me. This class is focussed on screenplays. On movies. I am rewriting a television pilot. I have decided to use the structure the Hal taught us in the Binge-worthy class. Briefly, the structure is a Teaser and five Acts. Each Act must have a turning point. The pilot is the Inciting Incident for the entire series, but the pilot must fave an inciting incident as well.
TEASER – Johnnie is working for the mob and is chased by the NYPD in a stolen truck until the FBI catches him. Turning Point: Johnnie is actually an undercover FBI agent.
ACT 1 – Johnnie, an esteemed undercover FBI agent, has developed the case against crime boss Thomas Morelli, who was supposed to be arrested and indicted that morning, but has disappeared. Turning Point: Johnnie is accused of warning Morelli of the raid.
ACT 2 – Morelli is located in New Hampshire and the FBI surrounds his location, ready to arrest him. Turning Point / Midpoint: Morelli announces he is running for president and the FBI immediately has to stand down.
ACT 3 – The FBI is ordered not to have any investigation of Morelli and begins investigating who leaked information about the raid to him. Johnnie gets message to come to a senior mob meeting and the FBI orders him not to go. Turning Point: Johnnies disobeys FBI order and goes to the meeting.
ACT 4 – Johnnie’s FBI handler, Patty Burke, is ordered to get Johnnie. She bursts into the mob meeting pretending to be his girlfriend. She ‘discretely’ orders him back to the FBI. Turning Point: Johnnie refuses to leave and stays with the mob, risking arrest by the FBI.
ACT 5 – Morelli meets with his crime family and tells them that this is their greatest opportunity for unlimited power, wealth and immunity. Meanwhile, back at the FBI, Patty tells her superiors of Johnnie’s decision. Lock In: The Assistant Attorney General says it’s not the FBI’s problem anymore, as the CIA has been ordered to kill Johnnie.
ELEMENT TO ELEVATE
I reviewed the script and did not find any scenes that seemed similar to other shows or movies. I did find one major cliche – many scenes take place in the FBI office. All crime dramas use the HQ, be it the police squad room, the FBI office, CIA headquarters, etc. But most scenes in these locations are fairly static. This was brought up in feedback during the Binge-worthy class. ‘The FBI office is boring but you need have scenes there’. Some scenes, yes. But not a lot. During Binge-worthy, I moved some scenes out of the FBI office. But 21 pages of a 60 page script take place there, and that is too many. Taking what Hal taught us here, I need to look at each of these scenes, look at the main purpose of the scene and brainstorm other ways to to deliver that purpose. This should make the script more dynamic and can be used to add more layers and strengthen the sub-plot, which is one of the objectives I had when starting this class.
This will take more time than I have available right now for this assignment, but is a priority.
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George Strakosch’s Logline and One Page
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is clarity is king. If you can’t simply and clearly communicate what your story is, there is a major problem.
Now, I hope I’ve been clear.
This course focuses on rewriting a screenplay. I am working on rewriting a pilot. So the Logline is for the series while the One Page is for the pilot episode.
THE LAST CAMPAIGN
1-Hour Crime Drama – Serial
LOGLINE
An undercover FBI agent is about to bring down a major mob boss when the criminal announces he is running for President, forcing the FBI to stand down and the agent to disobey orders and go rogue, moving deeper into this presidential campaign run by a crime family, in order to bring him to justice.
ONE PAGE
Undercover FBI Agent Johnnie Pelazza knows it will be a perfect day. Two years of his work
will result in the arrest of mob boss Thomas Morelli. And allow him to go home to his family.
However, the arrest doesn’t happen that morning. Morelli has disappeared. And the U.S. Attorney believes Johnnie warned him of the pending indictment.
Morelli is spotted in New Hampshire. The FBI surrounds him. But the mobster announces
to the press that he is running for President! He just registered for the New Hampshire Primary.
He is not arrested. The Department of Justice’s new rules say anyone running for President
cannot be indicted. Johnnie and his FBI handler, Patty Burke, are told to stand down.
But Johnnie is obsessed with bringing Morelli to justice. He has a heartbreaking choice:
obey FBI orders and let Morelli slip through his fingers or disobey and go back undercover.
Losing his job. Losing his family. Maybe losing his life. He chooses to go rogue. He must bring Morelli down.
Johnnie goes to a high-level mob meeting, infuriating his superiors. Patty is forced to find and
bring Johnnie back. She goes undercover as his girlfriend. Caught at the meeting, she is
psychologically tortured and sexually abused by Ignatius Rinaldi, the mob’s underboss. At
gunpoint. With Johnnie forced to watch. She barely escapes with her life. Johnnie refuses
to leave. He needs to discover Morelli’s plans.
The mob boss says he plans to use the presidency to gain more wealth, more power and
immunity. He tells Johnnie he wants him to work on the campaign. To help him become president.
Back at the FBI, Patty overhears the Assistant Attorney General say that the powers in D.C.
believe Johnnie is too big a risk and must be eliminated. Johnnie will die tomorrow!
Can Johnnie survive his own government? Can a mob boss successfully run for President?
Or can a rogue FBI agent bring him down?
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George Strakosch – I agree to the terms of this release form.
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Howdy! I’m George Strakosch. I’ve written one screenplay, two pilots and countless scenes for comedy troupes over the years. I’ve taken a number of classes with Hal and Cheryl, most recently the Binge-worthy Bootcamp two years ago. I’ve learned so much and I’m ready for more.
I am taking Professional Rewrite Class to learn this skill while using it to elevate the pilot I wrote in the Binge-worthy class. I’m exciting to work with all of you as we help each other grow as writers.
Let’s have fun!
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Heather,
Thanks for your great feedback. I just sent you an email describing the revisions I’m making.
I also emailed you last night feedback on your Logline and One Page, in case you haven’t seen it yet.
Thanks again,
George
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Hi Heather!
I’d be happy to team up with you on feedback, if you’d like.
George