This is a SCREENWRITING exercise that will give you practice collaborating.  The end result is not expected to be a completely logical script but it will be lots of fun to both write and read.

It is based on the following concept:

You’ve been invited to a party on a boat.  Everybody who’s anybody is there, but one of the people on board is not who they seem.  One of them is a blood thirsty killer and before the voyage is over everyone, except for them will be dead.  

Here’s how it works:

A CAST is decided upon.   In our case people will sign up on this thread.  You can sign up on this thread until about a week before our start date.   One of these cast members will be the killer.

Each cast member will have two turns.  They will be notified that it is their turn via PM or email.  They will have no indication of when their turn is before that notification. During a turn a cast member will be expected to write a scene in screenplay format based on the instructions given.  The scene can be no longer than one post in a forum thread.

The first scene will be used to set up the cast member’s character.  How they interact with the other cast members. Since anyone of the cast members can be the murderer, this scene should establish why this particular cast member might want to murder everyone on the boat.

The second scene will always portray the murder of a remaining cast member.   Though the killer is never visible until the last murder, this scene should implicate another remaining cast member as the killer.

Eventually all the cast members will be murdered in the story.  By process of elimination the last man or woman standing is the killer.  Everyone gets to pick the killer by which cast member they choose to murder in their scene.  

A cast member still gets their writing turns even if they are murdered in the story.

Any questions?

Sign up in this thread now and we can start this after the OWC reads die down, have some Halloween fun.

Cheers,

Michael  


Cast so far

Yohn Yohnson
Nik
me
Mr. Ripley
stebrown
GM
Sandra E
Alffy
Blakkwolfe
Dreamscale
MBCgirl
orangelikechaos
Bert

Quoted from mcornetto Everyone who is interested signs up.

To sign up, reply to this thread.  Michael will be running this.

Don

Yep.  Don is 100% correct.  Sign up on this thread.

Sounds good. Count me in!

Consider me in.

Even thought, i'm not 100% sure how it will work.

Hey Yohn, Nik,

Welcome aboard the S.S. Craven.

I'll take this time to try and explain a bit more about the game.

Killer is a traditional party game where you have a group of people and you pick a bunch of cards.  One of the cards indicates that the person who picked it is the killer.  What that person must do is kill everyone in the room before they are caught.   They do this by winking at the person.  If someone sees the killer winking then the killer is caught.  

What we are going to do is take that party game and twist it around a bit and make it a screenwriting exercise.  What will happen is that once we have everyone that is participating, I will choose the killer.  Then I will make a murder list and a turn list. Everyone will have a turn to write at least one (probably two scenes).  You're first scene will likely be a scene to establish your own character.  Your second scene will be a scene where you write about the murder of one of the other characters (I will tell you which character from the murder list).  During this scene you will also point the finger of suspicion at one of the remaining characters (You get to choose which character - this could be thought of as your guess).  

I will let you know when it is your turn by IM or email.   No one will know when they will die or when their next turn is.  No one, not even the murderer, will know who the killer is.

Hope that helps.    

I love a good party, boats and blood thirsty killers.
I'd like to sail along on this cruise.
I'd like a big balcony in my cabin though. Is that a possibility?
You should make Wes the captain...  

Countess Zadora,

Welcome aboard our humble ship. Your first class accommodations await. I hope they are to your liking. I will keep my eye out for this mysterious Captain Wes that you mention and will inform you of his arrival.    

Countess Zadora!!!!  Oooooh, I like that!
Who would ever thunk someone from the slums of Sweden would end up playing a Countess on a message board for writers. I've come a long baby!!  

I like to be a part of this. Been absent for a quite a bit, but I'm close to returning back to this community of screenwriters with a lot of reads to give. .  

Gabe

Welcome back Gabe and welcome aboard.  Mind that first step though, it's a killer.

I'll give this a go too Michael. As long as the boat has a bar.

Cornetto, my friend, I'd go on board with all thesse celebrities, but I'm get sick inside a boat. Sorry, maybe I whould if it was a type of Orient Expres train! Huugouhhhh! Sorry! I have to go, now! Huugoohhh!

Mr. Brown Welcome aboard. I hope you find the S.S. Craven a peaceful place to recover from your, uh, drinking problem.  In addition to every alcoholic beverage know to man, the open bar is stocked with a complete line of non-alcoholic beverages, be sure to check it out.

Helio, Brazillian novelist extraordinaire,  no need to cancel the trip.  Our ships doctor has a fresh supply of extra strength Dramamine - guaranteed to cure even the worst cases of sea sickness.  Though I would be careful not to overdose as it can cause peculiar side-effects, black-outs for instance.  I do hope you'll reconsider and join us on this journey.  

Count me in, I'll probably join Stephen at the bar. I'll bring the mint and we can have Mojitos.