First of all, this weekend I had the opportunity to take part in the 4th Annual 24 Hour Theater Project at Lynn University. I had a great time writing a ten-minute, one act play (all in one very, very, very, very, VERY long night) and got to work with a fabulous group that really brought the script to life for the performance. Overall an incredible, extremely positive experience!
Alright, well with 24 hour theater taking place Friday-Saturday and the scheduled deadline for this script set for Sunday, it soon became quite clear that the theme for this weekend was (dramatic drum roll) WRITING. Now that the weekend is drawing to a close, I am pleased to report that the script, while not quite finished, is close enough to completion for us to begin pre-production on schedule (which means tomorrow). We had another two-hour-long group meeting tonight to assess our progress and work on the script, and we managed to arrange all of our mini-episodes in order to form a sort of skeletal structure, which I will elaborate upon in this post. However, I've just been looking through the old posts, and realized that I never updated our progress on the mini-episodes, or even really wrote about who our characters are, etc. So I'm going to rectify that oversight here:
As stated before, the film is based upon a series of mini-episodes that take place within a 24 hour period. Each of the mini-episodes revolves around a central character, and they are each linked together in a sort of fluid, arbitrary manner (similar to a network narrative) rather than through any direct relationships to one another. For now we are looking at 5 main characters in 5 mini-episodes. Here's a brief description of each:
1. Mike the 'anxious guy': A character written by Grant, Mike is a college student who is, frankly, very anxious. Balancing work, school, friends, and a girlfriend stresses him out, and he is constantly talking on the phone and drinking down coffee like it's air (which might be contributing to his nervous, jittery personality. Didn't think about that, did you Mike?) Anyway, Mike's segment will feature Mike and his complicated, nerve shattering morning routine as he prepares for another whopping headache of a day. Mike's constant use of his cell phone will be used as a narrative device during this episode, with one-sided phone conversations linking the action together with a steady stream of frazzled whining, indignant complaints, and severe stress delivered in a type of quasi-narration through Mike's phone conversations.
2. Jessie, the 'budding writer': Next up is Jessie, a character that I developed. Jessie has just graduated from college, and is stuck in that awkward phase of being optimistic (perhaps a bit idealistic) about the future while remaining completely insecure and indecisive in the present. Having just graduated from college, Jessie is trying to establish herself as an author, but is at a complete loss as to how to begin living in the real world. To top it all off, she's been struck with a case of writers block! Jessie's episode takes place in a coffee shop as she tries to come up with ideas for her first novel, and features some exciting filmmaking techniques involving changing perspective, time lapse, and use of the steadicam!
3. Rob, aka '5:00': Rob is Adam's character, and let's just say that any possible instance of alcohol use in the film will be piled onto him. Basically, Rob is a guy in his late 20s who's stuck in a dead-end job and turns to alcohol to escape his worries. He is the embodiment of 'times in a bad economy,' having lost all hope in his dreams following his many failures in the job market. Rob's scene is still in-progress, but will involve more than a few bars and some very cheesy pick-up lines. (NOTE: at some point, Rob 'bumps into' Mike, Grant's character. As of now, they are the only characters in the film that ever meet one another.)
4. Bob, 'Radio Host': Another one of my characters, Bob is a radio host for a late-night radio program. Hmm, late night radio... Much dark humor ensues. Planning to film this episode in a sort of updated film-noir style.
5. Evan, 'Late Night Philosopher': Also mine, Evan is one of those pessimistic, absurdist, ironic, and bitingly sarcastic young adults. He has an opinion about everything and isn't afraid to share it. This is the last episode, and is still mostly a treatment. Basically revolves around a rather long monologue, probably in the form of a voice over, and perhaps with some instances of breaking the fourth wall, but that's still to be seen.
Ok, so those are the 5 episodes, and that's the order they will be in in the final script. There's also the plan for an opening/introduction to the film that is semi-experimental in nature, but that's still in the works and will probably be filmed last (or who knows, maybe it will be first if we get it done soon.) For now we need to finish up the scripts for Rob, Bob, and Evan, and then polish up the project as a whole. In the meantime, preproduction starts tomorrow, so we'll be balancing more writing with location scouting and casting for the episodes that are finished.
More updates soon!
-Stephanie
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