The Plan

Premise, Logline and Beats

Overview

# Overview

Curriculum.Units

Planning a film trailer in writing before any image is generated. Students write a logline and a six-beat structure, then use a model to expand and refine story ideas by hand into a text-only plan.

# Objectives

Curriculum.Units
  • 01 By the end, you can Write a one-sentence logline in the fixed form and a six-beat outline that escalates.
  • 02 By the end, you can Ask a model for many story ideas, then choose and shape the strongest by hand.
  • 03 By the end, you can Lock the trailer’s structure and rhythm in writing before generating a single image.
  • 04 By the end, you can Combine both into a text-only plan that reads cold and is shown beside the finished film.

# Sessions

Curriculum.Sessions
  1. How Trailers Are Built
    Applied craft
    • Discussion Count The Beats Teams watch three trailers twice, first for the story then to count the structure beats out loud.
    • Game Cut The Teaser Teams put shuffled clips of a movie teaser back in order, then check against the real cut.
  2. How Film Studios Ideate
    Applied craft
    • Game The Collision Teams combine one thing from their own culture with one from the host culture and pitch quick film ideas.
    • Game Three-Card Logline Teams draw genre, character, and stake cards and race to build one film pitch sentence in thirty seconds.
  3. Writing the Logline and Beat Sheet
    Applied craft
    • Discussion Read The Plan Cold Teams read another team's plan with no pictures and describe the film, spotting whatever is missing.
  4. Working With a Model to Generate Ideas
    AI concepts
    • Demo Ask, Pick, Shape Teacher shows a live idea-writing loop with the AI on screen, then teams try it on their own story.

Applied · Film

# Knowledge & Skills

ACA-Applied
K Knowledge · what you know
The story idea puts two cultures against each other so that both matter to the story. A culture used only as a location is background detail with no real weight, called set dressing.
The logline follows one form: a main character must take an action before an event, but a problem stands in the way.
The plan is a text-only version of the trailer and is shown next to the finished film.
The four concept images (a moodboard, the main character, the location, and an action shot) are early sketches, called concept art. They are not the final trailer pictures.
The trailer's structure and pace are fixed in writing before any pictures are created. point w2d1-s2-p1
A trailer follows a six-part pattern: a cold open (the opening scene before any titles), the world (showing the setting), escalation (raising the stakes), a turn (a twist), a title card (a screen showing the film's title), and a button or stinger (a short final beat that ends the trailer or teases more).
S Skills · what you can do
Write the logline as one sentence in a fixed form: a main character must act before something happens, but something is in the way. point w2d1-s1-p1; evidence w2d1-e3
Build a moodboard (a set of reference pictures) and four promotional images from the plan. point w2d1-s3-p1; evidence w2d1-e5
Deliver a text-only first version that is shown next to the finished film. point w2d1-s2-p2; evidence w2d1-e4
Fix the trailer's structure and pace in writing before creating any pictures. from objectives
T Techniques · named subskills
Logline Formula [Protagonist] must [action] before [event], but [issue] stands in the way.
Plan Before Pixels The plan is a complete text-only version of the trailer, screened alongside the finished film.
Read-It-Cold Test If a team can't describe the film from the beat sheet alone, with no images, the plan is missing something.
Seven-Beat Trailer Skeleton Cold open, setup, escalation, turn, climax tease, title card, call to action.
Two-Culture Collision The premise sets two cultures against each other so both are load-bearing, not just backdrop.

AI

# AI Concepts

ACA-AI.Concepts
Aligned with AI4K12 · Five Big Ideas in AI View framework →
AI4K12 · Five Big Ideas in AI

Ask, Pick, Shape

Writing a story outline with a model follows one repeated step: ask for many ideas, choose the best one, then shape it by hand into a structure.

# AI Competencies

ACA-AI.Competencies
Aligned with UNESCO · AI Competency Framework for Students View framework →
AI Techniques and Applications
4.3.3

Creating AI Tools

Developing advanced technical creativity to design, build, and innovate with AI tools and methods.

# AI Skills

ACA-Tools.Skills
Aligned with Derived from course activity
Derived from course activity

Prompt Engineering for AI Agents

Iterating a prompt/system instruction until an AI agent's responses stop sounding generic and actually reflect the specific product or context. Evidence: "Does this information sound generic? Or does it sound actually tailored to the website?" (app-development, w3d3).

# Competency Goals

ACA-AI.Goals
Aligned with UNESCO · AI Competency Framework for Students View framework →
UNESCO · AI Competency Framework for Students

Compress to One Logline

Turn a story idea into one logline sentence using a fixed pattern: main character, goal, obstacle, and what is at stake.

UNESCO · AI Competency Framework for Students

Run Ask, Pick, Shape

Ask a model (a computer program that produces text) for many ideas, choose the best one, and shape it by hand into a structure.

Deliverable

# The Plan

Projects.Briefs

Fix the trailer's logline and six-beat structure in writing before any pictures are created. A text-only plan: one logline sentence, plus a sheet listing the six beats.

Transfers to: Locking structure before touching a generative tool.

See past cohorts ship this in the Showcase →

# Assessed toward these aims

Projects.Rubrics

This deliverable is where students demonstrate

  1. A Plan a trailer: premise, logline and beat structure, in writing
    Look out for
    • Logline: One sentence in the fixed form. The main character, the action, the event and the obstacle are all clear.
    • Beat structure: All six beats are present and in the right order. The escalation, the rise in stakes, can be followed from the text alone.
    • Two-culture story idea: Both cultures carry weight in the story. Neither one is just a location or background detail.
    • Reads cold: Another team can describe the film from the text alone, with nothing important missing.
    • Shaped by hand: The plan shows that ideas were chosen and shaped by hand, not just copied from the model.