[Sean Gagnon]

Sean Gagnon “I agree to the terms of this release form.”

[Sean Gagnon]

I agree to the terms of the Confidentiality Agreement.

Sean Gagnon

[Sean Gagnon]

Stranger Things Five Star Model

What I learned is the world you create for the characters to inhabit is extremely important in creating a binge worthy show. It makes the audience want to keep coming back and “live” there for awhile.

Assignment one, Task 1

Chyron one: November 6, 1983, Hawkins Indiana

Chyron Two: Hawkins National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy

A monster on the loose in a secret underground government lab kills a government scientist.

Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin play Dungeons and Dragons until Mike’s mom tells them to go home for the night.

A monster chases Will home and abducts him in a back shed behind the family home.

Chyron three: Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers

A man wakes up on a couch and gets ready for work. The filthy living room and his apparent bad habits reveal he has no self care. He is revealed to be the Sheriff.

Will’s family discovers he’s missing.

Steve’s pursues Nancy romantically.

Will’s mom opens missing persons report with Sheriff

An investigation begins at the government lab to determine what happened to let the monster out.

A young girl with an 11 tattoo who has been hiding in the woods shows up at diner and gets caught stealing food.

Will Byer’s friends get interrogated by the sheriff.

Will’s family looks around the neighborhood woods for him.

The 11 tattoo girl shows she has telepathic powers. The diner oner calls Social Services hotline to report her as a missing child after she won’t answer his questions.

Sheriff finds Will Byer’s BMX bike in the woods near the family home, brings it to family, and investigates family home and back shed. Will Byers not found but Sheriff creeped out in shed where Will Byer’s was abducted.

Family doesn’t allow kids out of house due to disappearance.

Kids see connection in their Dungeons and Dragons role playing game to Will’s disappearance.

Diner owner murdered by government spook and 11 gets away using telepathic powers.

Steve’s pursues Nancy romantically in her bedroom while Will’s friends and Sheriff look around woods for him.

The Sheriff lies and says his daughter lives with her mother and then it is revealed his daughter is actually dead.

Spooky static on phone call to Will’s mom.

Wills friends find 11 in the woods.

Task 2 – Five Star Model

Big
Picture Hooks
What is the big hook of this show?

Science Fiction monster stealing human beings

Amazing
and Intriguing Character
Ask this: What makes these main characters intriguing and interesting?

Will: Tiny, Polite, Weakling, Poor, Gamer

Mike: Self Assured, Thinker, Gamer

Lucas: Self Assured, Thinker, Gamer

Dustin: Self Assured, Thinker, Gamer, Has abnormal teeth causing a lisp so he’s bullied at school.

Sheriff Hopper: Starts off careless and just wants his workday to be over and suddenly grabs a hold of a missing child case as he can relate to losing a child.

Jonathan: Hard worker, poor

Joyce: Hard working, single mom, poor

Eleven: She’s a mystery with strong telepathic powers.

Dr. Brenner:

Empathy
/ Distress
Ask this: What situation causes us to feel both empathy and distress for
this character?

Will Byers is pressured into a dilemma to make the correct decision in Dungeons and Dragons

Will Byers is chased and kidnapped.

Joyce’s son is kidnapped.

Jonathan’s brother is kidnapped.

Layers
/ Open Loops
Ask this: What questions are created by this first episode that can only
be answered by watching the entire season?

What is the underground experiment the government is working on? What is causing the light bulbs to flicker?

Inviting
Obsession
Ask this: How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode?

Will Will Byers be rescued from the monster? Who or what is Eleven? Why is her head shaved/hair short?

Task 3 – 2^nd Watch

Big
Picture Hooks
Ask this: What is the big hook of this show?

The 1980s is a like a big character itself in the show. BMX bike riding with your friends. Talking on the phone instead of texting. Smoking cigarettes inside buildings. Ham radio. Audio/Visual student club. Rotary dial telephone. Makeshift cell phones using walkie talkies.

There’s an actual literal real underworld beneath us where an experimental underground containment of a monster and it’s world by Government spooks takes place.

The innocence of experimentation and the guilt of experimentation happening at the same time.

Amazing
and Intriguing Character
Ask this: What makes these main characters intriguing and interesting?

Will: Has nightmares

Mike: Inquisitive, Unafraid, Proactive

Lucas: Inquisitive, Unafraid, Proactive

Dustin: Inquisitive, Unafraid, Proactive, Has superpower with his “arm trick” to stop him being bullied at school.

Sheriff Hopper: Is now on a mission to do real police/detective work.

Jonathan: Unselfish, Caring

Joyce: Put upon, Caring

Eleven: Mystery

The Monster: Shapeshifter

Dr. Brenner: Says very few words in his pursuit to contain the mess and capture Eleven yet has a menacing presence throughout.

Empathy
/ Distress
Ask this: What situation causes us to feel both empathy and distress for
this character?

Sheriff Hopper is scared in the back shed looking for Will

Sheriff Hopper lies about his daughter being alive when she is dead.

Joyce has a mother’s intuition that her son Will is close by.

Joyce hears her son Will breathing during a phone call but no other response is given when she cries out to him.

Dr. Brenner is silently frantic to contain the situation. This could be a bigger problem for humanity if not stopped now.

Eleven is being pursued for capture.

Layers
/ Open Loops
Ask this: What questions are created by this first episode that can only
be answered by watching the entire season?

This show is loaded with them. Will they find and save Will Byers? Will the underground mess be contained by the Government spooks? Will the monster be stopped/killed? Will the government Spooks catch Eleven and make her disappear back to the experimental underground world? Who is calling on the telephone from the underworld? Who will have fall in love with who? Why does Eleven have an eleven tattooed on her? Why can’t Sheriff Hopper hear his deputy calling him from outside the back shed?

Inviting
Obsession
Ask this: How does this pilot create the need to see every single episode?

I lived in the 1980s and would love to back and live in that time again, my childhood. It was fun. This show sucks me in to do that. The production value and music makes me want more. This show lets you go back to the 1980s. It gives you a mixture of fear and fun which can’t happen at the same time but does in this show.

This show also brings you back to life in middle school which was when life was coming of age.

It shows you innocence and guilt in humanity’s pursuit of science.

[Sean Gagnon]

1. Sean Gagnon

2. 2 scripts written

3. To use the material to prepare myself and my scripts to be at a pro level for when I enter the TV market with four different pilot scripts.

4. I used to be a day player actor. Here’s a link to my IMDB page under my acting name Sean O’Brian.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1694574/

[Sean Gagnon]

Sean Gagnon

I agree to the terms of this release form.

Sean Gagnon