Use this template to plan a 60-episode thriller and make episode 1 with AI. You get the series plan, a beat sheet (the story's turning points, episode by episode), a full episode 1 script and a shot list.
The premise
On a Wednesday night, the desk phone rings at Harrow Point police station. A soft voice confesses to murdering Detective Nora Quinn on Friday. Nora is the one holding the phone.
The caller hangs up before she can point out it's only Wednesday. By midnight she's standing in a motel room she never rented. She's looking at her own raincoat, still dripping.
Thrillers are the one genre where a shorter run often works better. Sixty episodes gives you three days of story time and one clue per episode. There's no room for filler.
What viewers expect from a thriller
- A clock. Here it's literal: the murder is set for Friday. Put the countdown on screen as a title card every few episodes.
- One clue per episode. Each episode hands the viewer a new piece and takes one away. The engine is simple: every answer leads somewhere worse.
- A suspect you want to trust. Eli Mercer is gentle and precise. He's wrong about almost everything, except the one thing that matters.
- Twist the clichés: skip the hero cop who breaks every rule. Nora follows the rules exactly, and someone is using them against her. The killer knows the procedure manual.
The series at a glance
Aim for episodes of 60–80 seconds. Thrillers live on small cliffhangers: a sound, a missing object, a name on a list. Save the big reveals for the end of each block (a run of episodes with one job).
| Block | Episodes | What happens | Ends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 1–3 | The early confession; the motel room; the caller is identified as Eli Mercer | Eli turns himself in, smiling |
| Escalation | 4–9 | Interrogation. Eli knows details of Nora's life no stranger could | He names the hour of her death: 11:52 p.m. Friday |
| Paywall beat | 10 | Nora's partner pulls her off the case. Her badge is used to sign Eli out of custody | Eli's cell is empty |
| Thursday | 11–28 | Nora hunts Eli alone; the lighthouse ticket; Eli's dead sister | Eli calls again: "I'm trying to stop it" |
| Midpoint reversal | 29–35 | Eli isn't the killer. He's the only witness to a murder that already happened once, three years ago | The first victim was also a detective |
| Friday | 36–52 | Nora and Eli run; the department turns; the procedure manual as a map | Her partner has the same raincoat |
| Dark moment | 53–56 | 11:30 p.m. at the lighthouse. Eli is shot. Nora is alone | Her own phone rings with her own number |
| Finale | 57–60 | The killer's plan used her habits. She breaks one. 11:52 passes | Saturday morning, a new call: someone else's name |
The countdown is built into the blocks: Thursday, then Friday, then the 11:52 deadline. Viewers always know how much time Nora has left.
Episode 10 is the paywall beat, the big turn that lands where viewers have to start paying. Here it's an empty cell.
Beat sheet
- Ep 1 The confession call. The motel room and the dripping raincoat.
- Ep 2 The motel clerk says she checked in herself at 9 p.m. Security footage shows her face, or close enough.
- Ep 3 Eli Mercer walks into the station and confesses in person. He's smiling because he's relieved.
- Ep 4–6 Interrogation. Eli knows her coffee order, her mother's maiden name, the scar on her knee.
- Ep 7–9 He predicts the exact minute. Her partner, Detective Ray Dunn, laughs it off a little too fast.
- Ep 10 (paywall beat) Nora is pulled off the case. Hours later, her badge number signs Eli out, and his cell is empty.
- Ep 11–20 Thursday. There's a lighthouse ticket in the raincoat pocket, and Eli's sister drowned near that lighthouse.
- Ep 21–28 Eli calls from a payphone. He's trying to stop a killing, not commit one.
- Ep 29–35 Three years ago, a detective named Ana Ruiz died at 11:52 on a Friday. Eli was the witness nobody believed.
- Ep 36–45 Nora and Eli figure out the killer's method. He copies the victim's routines and uses them like a script.
- Ep 46–52 Ray owns the same raincoat. And the station keys.
- Ep 53–56 The lighthouse. Eli takes a bullet meant for her.
- Ep 57–60 She does the one thing her routine says she never would. 11:52 passes and Ray is arrested. Saturday's call names a new victim.
Sample episode 1
Screen time: about 1:25.
EPISODE 1 - "WEDNESDAY"
[0:00–0:03 HOOK]
INT. HARROW POINT POLICE STATION - NIGHT
Close on a desk phone. DETECTIVE NORA QUINN (34, short black
hair, olive raincoat, tired eyes) picks up.
VOICE (V.O.)
(soft, calm)
I killed Detective Nora Quinn on Friday.
[0:03–0:25]
Nora freezes. Rain hammers the window behind her.
NORA
(carefully)
It's Wednesday.
VOICE (V.O.)
I know. I'm sorry. I just wanted
someone to know first.
Click. Dial tone.
Nora stares at the receiver. The CALLER ID panel reads:
SEA VIEW MOTEL, ROOM 6.
[0:25–0:55]
EXT. SEA VIEW MOTEL - NIGHT
Neon sign buzzing, half the letters dead. Rain. Nora's car
pulls in. She checks her sidearm and walks to Room 6.
The door is ajar. It swings open by itself.
INT. SEA VIEW MOTEL - ROOM 6 - CONTINUOUS
Empty. Bed made. A single lamp on.
Hanging on the back of the bathroom door: an olive raincoat.
Identical to hers. Water dripping from the hem onto the tile.
Nora looks down at her own coat. Then at the dripping one.
[0:55–1:10]
She checks the pockets with a gloved hand.
INSERT - A PAPER TICKET
"HARROW LIGHTHOUSE - ONE ADULT - FRIDAY."
NORA
(to herself)
Okay. Okay.
[1:10–1:25 CLIFFHANGER]
Her phone buzzes. A text from an unknown number.
INSERT - PHONE SCREEN
"You left your coat."
Behind her, through the motel window, a figure in a gray
cardigan stands in the parking lot, in the rain, watching.
She spins. The lot is empty.
SMASH CUT TO BLACK.
Only one speaking character is on screen. The voice is off-camera, which makes the episode cheap to generate and easier to keep consistent.
Making it with AI video
Plan on about 12 generations (separate clips), most of them without dialogue. That's good news. Silent shots are usually easier to get right, and you can add the phone voice later as its own audio track.
| # | Shot | Length | What happens | Dialogue | Try |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | insert | 2s | Desk phone, Nora's hand picks it up | no | Hailuo |
| 2 | close-up | 6s | Nora listening, rain on the window behind | yes (V.O.) | Veo |
| 3 | close-up | 4s | "It's Wednesday." | yes | Seedance |
| 4 | insert | 3s | Caller ID: SEA VIEW MOTEL, ROOM 6 | no | Wan |
| 5 | establishing | 4s | Buzzing half-dead neon motel sign in rain | no | Wan |
| 6 | tracking | 6s | Nora walks along the motel doors toward Room 6 | no | Kling |
| 7 | wide | 4s | The door swings open on the empty room | no | Kling |
| 8 | medium | 5s | The identical raincoat dripping on the bathroom door | no | Hailuo |
| 9 | insert | 3s | The lighthouse ticket | no | Wan |
| 10 | insert | 3s | Phone screen: "You left your coat." | no | Wan |
| 11 | over-the-shoulder | 5s | Over Nora's shoulder, a figure in the lot through the window | no | Kling |
| 12 | wide | 3s | She spins, the lot is empty | no | Seedance |
Only two shots have speech: Nora listening and Nora answering. The other ten can come from any model, even one that makes no sound.
Make these references first. A reference is an image you give the model so it copies that face or place.
- Nora's face and the olive raincoat, from the front and the back. The coat is a plot object, so it has to look identical on her and on the bathroom door.
- Eli in silhouette only, for now: gray cardigan, wire-rimmed glasses catching the light. Don't show his face until episode 3.
- The motel exterior in rain as one 9:16 still, neon sign included. Reuse it for every visit, because the story keeps coming back here.
- Phone screens, the caller ID and the ticket as clean stills. Lay them over the video in your editor.
Prompts to start from: Veo thriller prompts, Kling thriller prompts, Wan thriller prompts.
Related guides: Writing a micro drama script · Storyboarding with AI · Character consistency · How to make an AI micro drama