[Virginia Tee]

Hello Cheryl,

I’m not sure how to contact you or Hal directly, but I will not be able to submit this assignment within the 24 hour deadline. I am in the middle of a move and will not have computer access until Tuesday afternoon. I will submit the assignment as soon as I am able.

Thank you.

[Virginia Tee]

Virginia’s World and Characters

“What I learned doing this assignment is?”

I learned that I need to understand my characters and their motivations better.

1. Remind us of your CONCEPT and the Big M.I.S. of your story.

Big
Mystery: The activities of
a large processing plant in Central Florida unleash a deadly force on a rural
farming community. Who
or what is responsible for the terror that the community is experiencing? <div>

Big
Intrigue: What is the
origin of the terror that the community is experiencing and how can it be overcome?

Big
Suspense: Alondra, a local dive bar
manager, has several secrets about herself, the discovery of which could implicate
her in the terror.

2. Tell us the Intriguing World you have selected for this story.

Rural Central Florida, where the natural world poses dangers to its inhabitants, and greater threats are easily imagined.

3. With your top 2 or 3 characters, tell us the role they play and then answer these three questions:

Hero: Alondra, bartender in local dive bar

A. What is the mystery of this character? She has a secret that if revealed would make her unacceptable to the community and a suspect in the terror.

B. What is the suspense of this character? She is Dreamer, who must maintain a low profile due to her undocumented status and her secret.

C. What is the intrigue of this character? She has characteristics that she has controlled so far, however, the added stress of the situation could create enough conflict that she cannot control them, and which she must protect herself and her secret to survive.

Villain: A mysterious force that is attacking and killing local residents

A. What is the mystery of this character? Who or what is it?

B. What is the suspense of this character? When and who will it attack next?

C. What is the intrigue of this character? The force can “hide in plain sight,” making its discovery unlikely.

</div>

[Virginia Tee]

Virginia’s “Untitled” Big M.I.S.

Logline: A rural farming community is rocked by horrific and inexplicable deaths.

What I learned doing this assignment:

· My story idea was not as well formulated as I initially thought.

· This process is helping me to solidify my story idea.

· I don’t know how to write a good logline.

1. What are the Conventions?

· Unwitting but Resourceful Hero: A seemingly “normal” Latina with a dark and dangerous secret.

Dangerous Villain: A large processing plant that has
released a deadly force on the local community and exploits the terror
that ensues for its own profit.
High stakes: The people of the community are in mortal,
economic and environmental danger.
Life and death situations: People of the community are
being killed. The Hero must confront the deadly force as well as the processing
plant officials, which is trying to frame her.
This story is thrilling because? The audience does not
know whether the Latina is the Villain or the Hero.

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

Big Mystery: Who is responsible
for the terror that the community is experiencing?
Big Intrigue: What is the
source of the mysterious deadly force and how are the processing plant officials
using it to its advantage?
Big Suspense: While all of the
members of the community are in danger, the Hero is specifically implicated
in the terror and must expose the company and neutralize the deadly force
in order to save the community and clear her name.

[Virginia Tee]

Mastering the Thriller Genre: Lesson 1

The assignment was to watch a movie within the “Thriller” genre that is not one of the movies listed in the course summary, and to comment on how it matches the conventions described in Lesson One. For this assignment, I watched “The Stand at Paxton County.”

What I have learned is that the “Thriller” genre is very broad and that many movies categorized as thrillers do not comply with the conventions outlined in this class. Ancillary to that, I believe that the movies that do not comply with the conventions are more difficult to watch and do not always make good movies.

The mystery in “The Last Stand” was who or what was behind the targeted harassment of local ranchers, causing them to have to forfeit their livestock, and ruining their lives. A new law that was designed to address the humane treatment of livestock animals on ranches was being used in order to drive the ranchers to ruin, suicide, and cause them to lose their livelihoods.

The hero of The Last Stand was Janna, an army medic who left her tour in Afghanistan to take care of her ailing rancher father. She soon finds herself in the middle of a seemingly inexplicable battle to save the family ranch.

The villain is a group of political and law enforcement officials who abuse the new law to drive the ranchers out of business and cause the forfeiture of their livestock. The group is then able to sell the livestock in Mexico and Canada and pocket the proceeds.

The high stakes involved the ranchers’ reputations and loss of their way of life, sometimes leading to suicide or ruin.

Suspense and intrigue ensued as the daughter and her newly hired ranch hand worked together to solve the mystery of who and why this was happening to her father, as well as the other ranchers.

Life and death situations involved a rancher’s suicide, confrontations between the daughter and some of the bad actors (one that resulted in an accidental death), and ultimately, a shootout that began between the corrupt sheriff and his deputy who had experienced a moral reckoning and ended between the daughter, the ranch hand, and the sheriff. The ultimate irony is that it is the rancher’s horse that causes the sheriff’s death.

I felt that this movie followed the conventions well; however, I was not engaged with it in the way that I would expect to be with a thriller. Therefore, I sought out another thriller that I thought I might prefer to write about for this assignment. I chose “The Stranger,” which is currently the second most popular movie on Netflix.

I was sadly disappointed. Categorized as a crime thriller, this movie did not have a clear hero or villain. It is likely that the writer intended the roles to be confusing, and possibly even juxtaposed between the undercover officer, who you would expect to be the hero, and the child abductor and killer, who you would expect to be the villain.

The only entity in the movie creating a dangerous world and plan was the Covert Law Enforcement Team, using a highly elaborate ruse to secure a confession from the suspect.

Suspense was created largely by using the hallucinations and paranoia of the undercover officer, which increased in proportion to the amount of time he spent “handling” the suspect.

Psychological elements included the suspect’s anxiety and the undercover officer’s inner struggle of seemingly befriending a child killer while he raised a child of roughly the same age as the victim.

In keeping with my prior statement, because this movie did not follow the thriller conventions clearly, I found it more difficult to follow the story. I will now watch some additional thriller movies with the conventions in mind in order to get a better understanding of the genre and what makes or does not make a good thriller.

[Virginia Tee]

Hello. My name is Virginia. I’ve written one script that won an award, and for which I received a lot of feedback that showed me that I need to spend more time on storytelling and not just the technical aspects of writing a screenplay. I hope that this class will be inspirational for me to expand my skills in storytelling.

I am a retired corporate attorney.

[Virginia Tee]

Virginia Tee, as a member of this class, I agree to the GROUP RELEASE FORM:

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.