I've started doing bits and pieces of research trying to seek inspiration. I've begun reading Writing the Short Film (Cooper & Dancyger) and was intrigued by one of their examples of journey structure. Going to Work in the Morning (Messina) is about a man who doesn't want to go to work and the events that happen to him along his travels; it's the kind of archetypal journey that is strongly character driven. I find that I am very imaginative with character building and crating a sense of realism within my dialogue, so this type of story may work to my strengths.
I struggled to come up with an interesting idea for the brief. I talked to my Mum (but she waffles and her stories never really go anywhere) and friends but nothing but the usaul mundane stories were told to me. So I widened my viewpoint to my house-mates and hit gold (well romantic comedy gold anyway). One of them had a friend (or maybe she was talking about herself?) who double booked herself with two different dates in one night. This girl apparently had to swing back and forth between the guys who never realised. How much of this is true is debatable but there is an intriguing premise and watching the comedy unfold would be enjoyable with the right set up. After writing the pitch I lacked a punchy title so checked out http://www.urbandictionary.com/ and found the word Clockrupt which means "Having more time commitments than one actually has time for".
Clockrupt - by Tom Stock
20 year old Taylor receives a text from a guy she fancies called Rich in which he asks her out for a drink that night. She accepts his offer and he arranges that they meet at the local pub at 8pm. She then looks at a photo in a frame of her kissing a guy and then places the photo inside a draw. Later that same day she gets a call from Mike her ex-boyfriend. He tells her that he is missing her and wants to talk. Finding this unexpected she tells him that she looked at a photo of them together earlier that day. He says he’ll meet her that night outside the local pub at 8pm, she says yes without thinking but after realising she’s double booked herself, suggests another pub. Her phone then runs out of battery and she discovers her charger is broken. It’s 8pm and Taylor meets Rich first. They chat and get on very well. After 10 minutes she pretends her Mum is calling her and says to Rich she won’t be long. Taylor runs up the road, meets Mike and they are soon acting like old times. She then makes the same excuse with Mike and goes back to Rich. As the night continues she gets tipsy and starts calling both guys by the wrong name. In the street between pubs she bumps into Mike (who’s looking for her) and Rich (who’s followed her). They are visibly hurt and emotional by her deception and leave her alone in the street. She begins to walk home upset but then realises her bag is in the first pub and coat in the second. After going back to get them she walks past a restaurant and sees both Rich and Mike, back to back, sharing desserts with their dates.
In the lecture David H brought up some interesting ideas from Robert Mcgee regarding story structure and the three levels of story types - the intra-personal, the inter-personal and the extra-personal and that a good story should work on all three of those levels. I intend to use Mcgee's ideas in developing my ideas over the next few weeks.
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Brief for Week 3
Think of a person in your life whom you find interesting, and who isn’t known to others in the class. Write a character biography of this person. This should include name, age, family, where they live, how they survive, what do they most want in life, what do they most fear? Bring to class next week. Maximum length: 300 word