Mary Sawyer
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Mary’s Mystery Sequence
What I learned is… this simple exercise has my brain whirling. lol. I’m completely confused. But I’ve god to move forward and hopefully it will all become clear.
ASSIGNMENT6
Create your mystery sequence. Give us the answer to these questions.
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
He’s been plotting his revenge for a long long time and now it will all be revealed!
- How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
His plan to destroy the world how and why?
Use others
Mislead everyone
Create distraction
Increase threat
Secret hiding place (his lair)
Misdirection
Brick man doing his dirty work
The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it. Sg must save her granddaughter, and she has a certain amount of time to stop praxis’ plan – an impossible choice.
Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.
Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
Who is doing all this climate damage?
Climate damage is thought to be due to global warming (reality)
What does it have to do with SG
SG has nothing to do with it (reality)
Does SG have what she needs to battle fix it? (We see her weaknesses (reality)
Is her family being dragged into the middle? They think she’s crazy. (Reality?)
If so, why? By whom? She starts to look legit (reality)
Will sg get the kid to her side? Kids thinks she’s cray cray (reality)
Will the mom and sg heal?
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Mary’s Villain Has a Great Plan!
What I learned is that I think this clarity will to help a lot and save a lot of time trying to figure stuff out in rewrites!
- What is the end goal? The end goal is to destroy the world and his sister’s legacy.
- How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way? Take away her home. Turn her daughter against her turn her grand daughter against her. Turn her agency against her. Kidnap his granddaughter kidnap the grandson cause climate disasters get her locked up at the acme home
- How can they cover it up? Make his sister look guilty as tho she is causing some of the disasters.make her look crazy and out of control. Use a mini me as the fall guy. Control the daughter to work his plan for him in some ways
- Note daughter needs to com around and Join at the end.
Sequence it to make it as intriguing as possible
- Granddaughter’s award. SG meets brick man
- Train the granddaughter
- Natural disasters look like climate change
- Have minions show up at the oddest of times. Or whenever she is close to finding things
- Have the minions build in power and scare factor what are these things?? An ongoing question
- Kidnapping looks innocent
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Mary’s SOTL stacking assignment
What I learned: I got to work the muscle that was demonstrated in the BI exercise.
Keep<font face=”inherit”> questions in</font><font face=”inherit”> every scene. </font>
<font face=”inherit”>Keep the audience afraid and worried most of the time. </font>
Give a small rest after intense scenes.
Give the audience reasons to sympathize with the villain also… e.g. we all find Chilton unlikable.
Layering is a great tool!
Let us know the characters vulnerabilities
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Mary’s BII assignment
What I learned from watching BI with this chart was … wow
There can be so many levels in a scene, and I kinda want to add more levels to this chart that k Clyde the old fahh ch prices like characters wants and things like that.
BUT thinking about every scene I. Terms of how can it be thrilling and layering the MIS does take it to another level.
I have always li es this movie. And only tonight was I wondering g why the heck they make him go to therapy with his ex girlfriend. Lol but that’s there so…
I also am struggling with the concept of intrigue. But I’ll keep watching and asking.
I also never thought of Catherine as the red herring before. But of course! I think i always thought red herrings were shorter arched characters. Eye opening!
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Mary’s World and Characters
What I learned doing this assignment is…
I keep making my choices more specific.
1) Reminder: The Concept and the Big MIS of my story:
Concept: Aging Superhero vs Mutant villain
Mystery: What is the main mystery of the story that will keep the audience wondering throughout the story?
Who is this bad guy and why is he so hell bent on distruction?
Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded part that will live under the surface for most of the movie? Jennifer is dastardly.
Big Suspense: What is the main danger to the Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the story? Will SG get the villain before he gets her.
2) What is the Intriguing World for this story? Jennifer will do ANYTHING to keep her seat? Get her budget cuts? WHY? Who is actually running the show?
3) For the top 2-3 characters, what role do they play and a) what is the mystery of the character? What is the suspense of the character? What is the intrigue of the character?
SG: The Hero
Mystery: Will she win over her granddaughter?
Intrigue: The secret society to which she belongs and her daughter rejects
Suspense: Are her weaknesses overriding her strengths?
Praxis: the villain (hmm or is he actually the scape goat?)
M: what is he and who is he and what does he want?
I: His weird world.
S: Will he put an end to SG?
Jaqueline (SG’s Daughter): villain or at least internal antagonist
M: Are her politics more important than her family?
I: Her politics
S: Do her politics leads to her mother’s end?
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Mary’s Big MIS
What I learning doing this assignment was:
I learned that I want to strengthen all of my MISes, but what I have for right now is fine. Lots of opportunity for growth in the story now.
Logline: An aging superhero fights to initiate her granddaughter before a powerful mutant genius destroys the world.
1. What are the (Thriller) conventions of your story? (keep your answers short: the essence)
Unwitting, but Resourceful Hero: SG. Very resourceful, but not aware of her daughter’s involvement in the dark side.
Dangerous Villain: Praxis… and Brickman – taking over the world. Jennifer (SG daughter)…
High States: Praxis will take over the world (why?)
Life and death situations: SG’s life is threatened, Daughter’s life (appears to be) threatened, Granddaughter’s life is also at stake.
This story is thrilling because? At every moment, we are worried, or questioning, or hoping.
2. The Big M.I.S of the story
Big Mystery: What is the main mystery of my story that will keep the audience wondering throughout the story? (The secret, question or puzzle that must be solved by the Hero, often to save their life or someone else’s. It shows up early. It lures the Hero into threatening situations. Must FORCE the Hero into solving it; it is the result of some serious ACTION. Who/what is causing all of these natural disasters and why?
Big Intrigue: What is the covert, clandestine, underhanded plot that will live under the surface for most of the movie? What makes this movie intriguing?
The secret crew that is helping Praxis operate in the real world. And what does Jennifer have to do with it?
Big Suspense: What is the main danger to the Hero that will continue to escalate throughout the script? Stakes must be HIGH. Audiences needs to worry that the Hero or their loved one won’t survive. Make it life threatening.
Will SG be able to initiate her granddaughter before Praxis can get to her?
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Thriller conventions
Assignment one
What I learning doing this assignment is … I looked a little more closely at how the Thriller is put together, saw some suspense tools in use that worked (i.e. dramatic irony when the audience knows the guy has the passcode to the house all along, suspense knowing her friend is going to ‘get it’ for protecting her, ).
Unwitting but resourceful hero: Reese Witherspoon. Young girl of divorced parents. Innocent, ‘good’, but rebelling against her dad and his new wife. A cute boy likes her and he’s kind of a bad boy – = makes her vulnerable.
Dangerous villain: Mark Walhberg. cute, slightly older guy. He seems so sweet. Save the cat moment at the beginning when he saves her at the bar. (It looks like it just happened…but did it? Or did his friends help set it up? Which would be better?) He’s dangerous because he is super sweet…until he is not. He just wants her to love him back!!
High stakes. Her safety, Her friend’s safety, her friend (guy) is beat up almost immediatly, then later killed, her dad is threatened, then the entire family could be killed when it comes to the final battle.
Life and death situations: Her friend is raped, her other friend is beaten, then killed, her dad is threatened, then the entire family could be killed when it comes to the final battle. The villain and his dangerous friends break into the ultra-safe house.
This moving is thrilling because…It’s called ‘Fear’… but the guy is soooo nice at first, you’re like…when’s the fear coming? (suspense) and once you know what to fear, the question is…how bad is it going to get? Can she get rid of him before he kills her family?
What is the big
Mystery: Is the cute guy really bad?
Intrigue: The villain will do whatever he can to make this girl his…all his!
Suspense of the story: Can she get rid of him before it’s too late?
Anything else to say? This was a good movie that held my attention, but it was also predictable. I wonder if this film would have been better if the audience could have seen how shitty a guy the villain was before the hero did? As it is, we learn at the same time she does. Not sure which is better or what that depends on.
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Mary Sawyer
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