Homework Assignment #3 – The Luck of the Irish

Homework Assignment #3

 Deadline – 30 April 2020

For our third assignment, Kristin and I wanted to explore the concept of the Plot Twist, and given that St. Patty’s Day falls in this Assignment’s timeframe we wanted to add a special element to the challenge- a twist revolving around Luck. 

On our show, we often discuss the concept of the plot twist and how to avoid tricking your audience. No one wants to be led to believe that a character is overcoming some deep mental illness, only to discover that the true menace was aliens all along. We would rather be able to go back, watch the film a second time, and catch all of the subtle breadcrumbs that led us to the moment where Norman Bates is revealed as the real killer. That his mother’s body has been in the basement the whole time. 

The only stipulation to this challenge as far as plot is concerned, is that your Main Character’s luck must change in a serious way via some object or occurrence earlier in the film. What becomes of the coin they toss in a wishing well? What small piece of dialogue finally clicks, leading them to make the ultimate decision? We are not interested in the cliche, and ask that you challenge yourself on a creative level to concoct a truly original plot that twists us in knots and refuses to let go. Will you go from good to bad? From bad to good? From bad to worse? The choice is yours! 

As always, there is no submission fee. There is no award money. This is simply an opportunity for you as a filmmaker or writer to flex your creative muscles and come at your craft in a new way, with the intention being that we can all grow from this experience. 

Theme

– We’re looking for your take on the concept of the plot twist!

– Your plot twist must revolve around the concept of a character(s) luck, either for the better or for the worse. 

– For this assignment, participants are not allowed the use of cliché tricks to execute their twists. We need to be able to go back and rewatch your short and see the subtleties that bring us to the moment that changes the character forever. Think Saw, where the killer is in the room the entire time, rather than any number of the films we’ve reviewed in our Two Star Tuesday segments. 

– No specific genre. 

Guidelines

– Films must be between 5-15 minutes in length, including title sequence/closing credits.

– Films must be emailed to nightmareboxproductions@gmail.com with the title “HW#3 Submission – (YOUR TITLE)”.

– Any and all participants in your film MUST be credited, whether they wrote, directed, acted, or simply walked by the camera. No film ever came from one mind alone, and every person involved deserves the credit for the whole.

– Any and all equipment used for the film MUST be listed in the emailed submission. If you’ve mastered an incredible shot with an affordable camera, captured an interesting piece of audio with a cell phone rather than an audio recorder, or wrote your screenplay in Notes rather than Scrivener, we want to hear about it. 

– Have fun! This is not a competition in so much that there will ever be a verifiable winner, we simply want you to do what you can with whatever you’ve got. Think of it as guerrilla filmmaking. Don’t stress yourself with an unattainable budget or with renting expensive equipment to get the shot you know you could do without it. Focus on working with what you can in the time you can set aside, and share your journey with us.

Kristin and I will be playing along each month, and you will be able to view whatever content we create, on thenightmarebox.blog, at the end of each month. Alongside this, we will post between 3-5 listener submissions to our YouTube page. These will be ones that we feel garner further review, based on stylistic choices, story arcs, or a particular scene. These will be the films we discuss during the first podcast of each month, the same show where we will reveal that month’s assignment. 

The game is free, and the challenge is yours. We hope to see what you can do!

I love you,

  Brett