[Jennifer Thym]

Producer: I’ve worked as producer and I get it. Every word I write isn’t sacred. I’m not looking to be that person. I’m looking to grow O’AHU 2080 with you: a shared vision that will tell be the start of a fantastic universe that we can both play in for years to come.

Manager: I am a fast and imaginative writer who has worked as a producer and an investment banker – I fully understand the idea that scripts are meant to be selling tools. It’s my job to turn stories that are important to me into something that someone else can see envisage as being sellable. Authenticity plus practicality.

What I learned today: As a writer, I am part of a team. When people take the time to give me comments, I should look at them in light of who they are and what their goals are. There may be multiple ways to accomplish those goals; I want to both make the product better and make the team feel good about the process.

[Jennifer Thym]

posted in wrong thread, sorry!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jennifer Thym.

[Jennifer Thym]

What I learned doing this assignment is plan out an idea, market test with people, plan, test, plan, test, don’t get caught up in writing in that shiny tempting world until it’s passed several back to back plans & tests!

Current Logline: When her family mysteriously disappears down a toilet drain, a wannabe pilot and her rag-tag friends hunt down clues which embroil them in a battle with the newly-sentient monster garbage strangling the city.

Marketability:

– unique – sentient monster garbage

– should brainstorm alternate titles with more common words

– adapted from a graphic novel – still in the works

– timely – putting a face on the climate change enemy

How to Elevate:

The problem with climate change as an enemy? You can’t see it. But you can see the disasters that arise and the people that are displaced. O’AHU 2080 takes that disaster to a new extreme – forget a novel coronavirus, this is a novel sentient being! And if you can see one monster… that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

[Jennifer Thym]

1. Title / Concept: SQUID GAME. Hundreds of players desperate for money opt-in to a series of deadly children’s games. The catch is only one player will walk away alive … but also mind-bogglingly rich.

2. Terrorize The Characters: People who are desperate for money either from their own vices (gambling, poor choices) or their circumstances (North Korean defector, cancer) are put in a situation where what they are willing to do for a huge cash prize is tested to the max. They already thought they were in a terrible situation before they started the game; inside the game, it’s much, much worse.

3. Isolation: The players are taken blindfolded and unconscious to a remote island with poor cellular reception.

4. Death: 454 players die, including people that we are incredibly attached to. That was key to me – even though we knew they were going to die, I was surprised by how sad I was when the inevitable happened. Guessing it’s because one, the writer spent the time to make me care about the character and that the characters largely stayed true to themselves until the end.

5. Monster/Villain: The Front Man. He administered all aspects of the deadly game with precision and no leniency. The irony is that the “enemy” starts as the Front Man but becomes the players themselves.

6. High Tension: Games are timed. Failure to finish / win = death. Breaking rules = death. Your being alive = obstacle to someone else winning the game.

7. Departure from Reality: Not sure that even extremely wealthy people can really get away with a private death game of this scale for so man years.

8. Moral Statement: There are some things that money can’t buy or fix; stay true to yourself.

Why this is great: The premise is beyond simple – this concept is something we have seen hundreds of times already. What makes this amazing are the memorable and vastly different characters.

***

1. My Title / Concept: SPITE HOUSE. An immigrant family with a precocious teenage daughter move into the only house they can afford: the infamous Spite House, wedged on a narrow strip of land between a slaughterhouse and a book bindery. It’s 3 stories tall but only 10 feet wide. And it’s haunted.

2. Terrorize The Characters: Being new to a town sucks. Being new to a town with a hostile house sucks even more!

3. Isolation: An extremely narrow house wedged between two industrial buildings. The family is socially ostracized from the rest of the town.

4. Death: Every plant they bring home blossoms wildly and then dies. And what’s weirder – friends they invite start growing weird protrusions – horns, extra fingers…

5. Monster/Villain: The ghost trapped inside the Spite House can confer starfish-like growth properties on things, but hasn’t managed to transfer himself into any of the growths… at least not yet.

High Tension: They can’t afford to move anywhere else. It’s them or the ghost.

Departure from Reality: Yes, spite houses are real. The ghosts inhabiting them are probably not real.

Moral Statement: You have to own your idiosyncrasies. Peer pressure kills. Assimilate and die.

[Jennifer Thym]

Hi, I’m Jen Thym!

Produced scripts: 1 web-series, 1 horror short

Unproduced scripts: 3 pilots, 3 features

Would love to improve my writing planning process, especially how to improve bits that don’t work. Also looking to enhance my ability to put audiences on an emotional rollercoaster.

Something odd: Every time I drive through an intersection I can hear cars t-boning. I know it’s not real, but it’s that weird feeling that I can’t shake. I wish it was only just intersections.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jennifer Thym.

[Jennifer Thym]

Jennifer Thym. OʻAHU 2080. Teens (direct audience) and then Producers.

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction.

Title: OʻAHU 2080.

Comps: Top Gun meets Stranger Things, underwater.

Logline: When her family mysteriously disappears down a toilet drain, a wannabe pilot and her rag-tag friends hunt down clues which embroil them in a battle with the newly-sentient monster garbage strangling the city.

What makes this cool: Planes, pipe guns, and sea monsters… all set in a dizzyingly neon, crystal-encased Hawaiʻi.

I am targeting the teen audience with a Webtoons comic named *OʻAHU 2080: lovetree*, followed by a graphic novel set in the same world. I am bringing the TV Pilot adaptation of the graphic novel to Stowe Story Labs this October. Next step is finding a producing partner or production company to shop the pilot to streamers.

What I learned today is “less is more.” I am prone to sharing too many details and I will practice at keeping it short & sweet!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jennifer Thym.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jennifer Thym.

[Jennifer Thym]

AGREE

Name: Jennifer Thym.

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 reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jennifer Thym.

[Jennifer Thym]

Nice to meet all of you! Iʻm Jen Thym, a writer/director/producer who relocated to Hawaiʻi this summer, so aloha kāua Tom! Iʻve made web series, shorts, and a feature (JASMINE starring Jason Tobin who is in WARRIOR). Iʻm a Sundance Episodic Lab Second Rounder and my scripts have earned rankings in Screencraft, PAGE, Stage 32, and the Coverfly Red List. I have three TV pilots Iʻm marketing at the moment.

I would love to meet like-minded creatives and collaborate! This is my first class with Screenwriting U but it came highly recommended to me by a writer/director friend. Iʻm also taking the horror class if anyone is in there!

Quirky: I coached a girls robotics team that ranked third in their division at VEX Worlds.