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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:54:55 GMT -5
Okay, I've been working on plots that I think are pretty good. I would like for everyone to read them and tell me what they think. Here are the titles and basic plot outline:
Hellbent on Believing (about the Tacoma Narrows collapse and a random incident a few years later)
Chernobyl (about the Chernobyl incident)
Pushing Daisies: The Ice Cream Caper (about a guy who owns an ice cream shop sabotaging The Pie Hole)
Just Breathe (a personal story about my grandmother's tragic death)
The Mouse Factory (about the 1941 Disney strike) _____________________________________
I would like for EVERYONE to read all 5, so I'm posting each one in a separate post in this thread. If you could, and I really would appreciate it if you took the time to read, because it will help me decide what to use for something, please number them from 1-5, 1 being my best written one and 5 being my worst written. Thanks!
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:55:54 GMT -5
HELLBENT ON BELIEVINGThis is the second version of the film. Please pm me for the original, more sad draft. Setting: Tacoma Narrows Bridge, November 7, 1940. A camera abruptly turns on. We soon realize that a person is filming the Tacoma Narrows bridge. While a car is at a stop light, he films as much as he can of the view he sees before the light turns green. He looks at the clock in his shop. The time: 10:52 AM. As the car continues traveling, the shop owner begins to notice that the bridge begins quivering. After a few minutes, the bridge starts getting more and more wobbly, due to the increase in wind speed. Vertical undulations began in appearing in swift modulations. After losing control of his car, the driver quickly puts on his brakes, gets out of his car, and goes off to the side. Due to the extremely violent winds, the guy falls on his face. We see this sequence happen head on from the shop owner's camera. A few minutes later, the shop owner looks at the clock again. The time: 10:58 AM. The shop owner continues to film this strange phenomenon. We see the driver crawling with blood all over his knees, hands, and just all over his body. The shop owner grabs his camera and manages to hit record in the nick of the time. The clock, as he presses record, turns to 11:00 AM PST, which is the exact moment when the bridge collapses. This driver, who we soon find out is named Leo, barely manages to escape and the shop owner, who we soon find out is named Barney, is somehow able to capture the entire bridge collapse on film. The footage, though wobbly and very amateurly made, is very disturbing. ( Here's a snapshot.) After traveling many yards, Leo sees Barney's shop. Leo slowly struggles to reach Barney's shop, located quite close to the bridge. He enters asking for help. Barney tells Leo about him filming the entire incident on camera and filming Leo escaping from his car with mighty courage. Leo then turns Barney's camera around and points it so that we can see the utter shock on his face. Slowly, he begins to cry. His daughter's dog becomes the only casualty of the day, falling to death while stuck in Leo's car, which he earlier abandoned. Then, as we see Leo crying, he slowly pans around to show the destruction of what has just happened. Then, he records himself saying: "Just as I drove past the towers, the bridge began to sway violently from side to side. Before I realized it, the tilt became so violent that I lost control of my car. I jammed on the brakes and got out, only to be thrown onto my face against the curb. Around me I could hear concrete cracking. The car itself began to slide from side to side of the roadway. On hands and knees most of the time, I crawled 500 yards or more to the towers and my breath was coming in gasps. My knees were raw and bleeding, my hands bruised and swollen from gripping the concrete curb. Toward the last, I risked rising to my feet and running a few yards at a time. Safely back at the toll plaza, I saw the bridge in its final collapse. And I saw my car plunge into the Narrows." Then, as another tear streams down Leo's face, he shuts off the camera. The screen goes black for a second, then the camera turns back on and Leo is being interviewed for the local news station after Barney sent the footage in to the news station. Barney had already been interviewed. Now, however, Barney is filming Leo with his camera, in a similar fashion to the recorded incident. It is still very amateurly made. Nonetheless, however, Leo manages to tell the news reporter, Harry, his story and how he felt during this tragic event. As Harry and Leo continue on with the interview, rambling on like interviewers and interviewees always do, the camera slowly zooms out and fades black. The screen then shows the words "July 2007" written in broken white letters over a black screen, representing the significance of the Tacoma Narrows collapse. The words and letters show symbolism. Setting: July 19, 2007 Just four days after the eastbound bridge was revamped and finished, a young girl is seen driving in a nice, bright red lambourghini and talking on her cell phone. She is also holding a brand new driver's license and has a side ponytail, 80s workout clothes, and bubblegum popping in her mouth. Her hair is strawberry blond and she just turned 16 on July 15. She took her driver's test, passed, and is now on the road driving on her own for the first time. From her driver's license, it looks like her name is Zoe. Directly behind her in a blue and silver porsche boxster is an old, grungy looking man with a roped young girl in the backseat. The assumption is that he is, in fact, a kidnapper and is possibly out the murder this young girl. The guy is tall, slender, short brown hair, blue eyes, a holey red shirt, and tight black jeans with black boots. The young girl is short and somewhat chubby with blonde hair, blue eyes, a pink shirt, a green barrette, purple and red polka-dotted pants, and white buckle-up shoes. She looks to be crying. He looks to be smiling menacingly and brandishing some sharp, metal object of which we assume is a weapon. Their names appear to be Jim and Mariah, respectively. Following behind that car is a 20-something year old who looks to be in his early 20s, perhaps 23 or 24. He seems disgruntled. He has shaggy hair, looks pretty scruffy, and looks unkept. He has long, shaggy, curly brown hair, brown eyes, dirty nails, and a growing beard that looks partially shaved. He has musty looking vintage clothes on and he seems to be burning incense. His car is faded red, utterly beat up, and so on. We see one interesting thing, however; he is holding a knife to his throat, though he doesn't kill himself. We then see him slowly come to a stop on the end of the road. He gets out of his car, puts the knife down, and climbs up on the edge of the Tacoma Narrows bridge and stands there. We soon realize he wants to commit suicide but is filled with too much cowardice to actually go through with it. His shirt has his name written on the back of it: Stewart. These threes cars feature different people with different stories revolving around the Tacoma Narrows. Interwoven and from three different perspectives, they all will tell their story of the Tacoma Narrows on this day. The camera then goes to black for a split second after seeing Stewart get up on the bridge. The camera cuts to Zoe driving in her car, still talking on her phone. Zoe, talking on her cell, states, "Hey, yeah, I just got my driver's license the other day and my parents FINALLY let me go out driving by myself. I'm on way over. I'm on the Narrows right now and I should be over to your house in like an hour, okay? K, cool. I'll talk to you later, k? K, bye, sweetie. I love you." She hangs up and smiles. Her boyfriend, who whe assume is on the phone, since she says sweetie, is just waiting for her. Then, the camera zooms into the next car as the kidnapper is slapping the crying baby. Jim, pissed off, babbles to Mariah, "Shut the f*** up, kid. You're such a G-damn little brat. Do you understand me? Sheesh, I should've never taken your f****** ass. Your'e just another piece of shit that should be dealt with." He holds up gun up to Mariah's head and she immediately shuts up. We soon realize that's what the metal object was he was brandishing earlier. He looks distraught. Then, suddenly, the camera zooms out and pans back over to Stewart, who is still standing on the ledge of the Narrows, pondering whether or not to commit suicide. He seems to be talking to himself, though we can't make out what he's saying. Then, after a minute or two of awkward silence and murmurs, we pan back over to Jim, who is fed up with the constant crying. Jim says, "Why the f*** did you start crying again, you little piece of shit? Just stop. I’m warning you." Mariah again stops crying. "That's more like it." Then, he quickly stops dead in his tracks. He sees Stewart walking on the ledge. He gets out of the car and goes to see what's going on. They two chat about how depressing their lives are. While they're talking, Jim didn't realize he's leaving Mariah in the scorching heat of July all alone with the windows up and doors locked. Not that Jim cares, but he could accidentally kill her. His intention is probably only to scare her and not to kill her. Still, he doesn't realize what's happening. Mariah begins to scratch the door and scream and cry for help. Jim, fed up with the constant screeching and clawing, shoots the door of his car, forgetting that Mariah was in there. He suddenly hears loud yelling, screaming, and crying, and fears that he just shot this little girl. He goes over to his car, abruptly interrupting Stewart, who is now sitting on the ledge, debating whether or not to jump. Jim realizes it is a false alarm and that the bullet shot only scared Mariah. He then returns over to Stewart who seems to be upset that Jim just abruptly walked off, in the middle of Stewart's sentence, to check on Mariah. Jim apologizes and they continue talking. Then, the camera pans back over to Zoe. As Zoe is traveling in her car, she hears the echoed gunshot, which vibrates throughout her car, almost shattering her window. She makes a quick stop and makes a U-turn to see what is going on. She travels quite a few miles. She calls her boyfriend and tells him she'll be much later because she heard a gunshot and wanted to know what was going on. He tells her to be careful. Zoe sees the so-called scene of the crime. She sees two guys standing, talking to each other. One is standing on the ledge and the other isn't. She then looks inside the cars and sees Mariah in the backseat and starts to freak out. She's roped by her feet and torso. She realizes that these guys are up to no good, or at least one of them is anyways. She slowly approaches them and both guys turn and look at her. Stewart stares in shock while Jim approaches her with a sly grin on his face. She knows something is wrong, so she whips out her cell phone and Jim stops in his tracks. "Please," he says. "Don't call the cops. I'll take the girl back to where she belongs. Just please don't call the cops." Zoe promises not to call the cops if Jim takes the girl back immediately. This small incident of threatening to call the cops freaks Stewart out and with all the stress bottled up inside him, he jumps. Both Jim and Zoe try to catch him, but all we see is him falling stories down below into the river. This is very disturbing, because we see Stewart actually fall all the way down into the river with Zoe and Jim freaking out overhead. However, it turns out that Stewart is both an actor and a stunt double and this whole time he was actually filming a documentary about how oversensitive people can be. Zoe is relieved and Jim is upset that his plan to rape Zoe is foiled. Suddenly, Zoe feels a slight vibration of the Narrows and realizes that Jim did too, so she and him, despite their differences, begin to work together to figure out what is going on. As she and him are running, they feels the moderate undulation and twisting of the Narrows road and wonders what's happening. As she wasn't born in 1940, she has no idea about the incident that occurred. Jim, however, was. He tells her all about it. He quickly draws out his camera and begins to film the bending of the road, much like that of the 1940 incident. Freaked out, Zoe keeps running. Jim keeps running and following her. Zoe runs and runs. Jim runs and runs. Then, all of a sudden, we hear a crash. The Tacoma Narrows slowly begins to collapse yet again and is slowly mocking the pattern of the way in which Zoe and Jim are running, otherwise known as collapsing in the direction in which Jim and Zoe are running. All of a sudden, the collapsing bridge catches up to Jim. Zoe looks behind, over her shoulder, and sees Jim caught up in the collapsing Narrows and, in disbelief, keeps running to save herself from the Narrows. However, a few seconds later, the bridge stops collapsing but it stops on a tilt. Jim is hanging for dear life and asks for help. Zoe realizes that this guy, Jim, who had kidnapped a young girl and hinted that he wanted to rape her, was in dire need of help. Zoe thinks about, realizing that he did let the little girl go and didn't rape her, so she decides to help him. However, Zoe is slowly sliding backwards, so, in order to save herself, she has to really run to avoid becoming caught up in the Narrows collapse, too. She needs to help Jim, too, though. We see an intense sequence shot of Zoe running all the way down to the end of the collapsed ledge in order o help Jim up. Once Jim has been saved, he thanks Zoe, and then runs back to his house. Zoe, having helped Jim up with all of her might, manages to escape from the Narrows opening. As she makes it out of the tilt and up the hill to safe ground, she, herself, collapses. She collapsed from the pressure she had to use to help Jim up and the pressure she uses while running. She is breathing heavily, but is still, barely, conscious. A few moments later, she stops breathing. The camera stays zoomed in on her body for about thrity seconds before fading out to nothing. Then, a black screen comes up with the white broken lettering pattern again, this time reading: "R.I.P. Zoe Johnson, 1991-2007." Then, the camera quickly pans back to Zoe's dead body and we see Mariah, with a stethoscope, listening to Zoe's hearbeat. Credits roll. The original song, "Breaking, Bending, Believing," plays over the credits.
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:56:53 GMT -5
CHERNOBYL
Setting: April 25, 1986. 9:17 AM.
The work has just started and the camera pans around as we see a large view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union near Ukraine. Suddenly, we see five large, buff men coming out of the plant, one by one, carrying large blocks and wrapped packages. They begin talking in Russian about where to go for lunch. We make out that their names are Boris, Dimitri, Vlad, Kyan, and Harold. We soon find out, from their conversations, that they are moving storage boxes and items from the reactor four area of the plant, which is scheduled to be shut down for maintenance. We see the workers in elapsed time, as it now shows 11:25 AM on the worker's watch by looking closely.
Then, a few minutes later, after they have finished loading the boxes and packages and loose items onto a truck, we hear a buzzer go off. It is now 11:30 AM. Lunchtime. All five guys grab their lunchboxes and head over to some benches to sit down, eat their lunch, and chat. They have to start working again at 12:15 PM.
The gentleman started eating lunch. As they were eating lunch (and spewing food all over), they began to talk in some language that is a mix between Russian and Ukranian. Anyway, they all began to discuss why they were taking everything out of the reactor four testing area of the plant. Boris mentioned that an experiment and testing operation is going on that night and that he is chosen to work on it, along with Vlad and Harold, who both nod in agreement with Boris. Then, Kyan and Dimitri ask if they can come along as well. Boris replied in Russian that they would have to ask David, their boss, first. Kyan and Dimitri proceed to the boss' desk and ask him if they can help test the reactor that night in the plant. He replied, "Sure." with a Ukranian dialect. Dimitri and Kyan were excited.
Then, as soon as the boss allowed them to join their buddies that night, that same buzzer sound went off. It was 12:15 PM. It was time to get back to work. The five guys, led by Boris, began sweeping and cleaning the part of the plant in which the reactor four is to be tested that night. Yet again, elapsed time is shown, but this time, the time is shown directly on the screen: "8:07 PM." The workers get off at nine, which means they have a twelve hour workday. Anyway, Boris and the gang continue to clean until the clock strike nine. At that point, they are released from the factory and head home to change, eat dinner, and everything of the sort.
Setting: April 25, 1986. 11:59 PM.
The guys have all finally arrived at the factory and they all settle down at the lab. They are preparing the reactor four substance for its experiment. While they are getting everything prepared, again time elapses. The clock on the wall now says 12:57 AM. All five guys are now completely finished getting the place ready for the experiment---no dust, dirt, or unwanted particles. As they all sit down and prep for the experiment, the time is 1:22:30 AM. Then, the clock suddenly show 1:22:55. At this point, Boris yells, in the Russian language, "On the count of three! One, two, three!" He presses some button and the experiment begins. The unstable state of the reactor was not reflected to the workers, nor did they sense any danger while doing this experiment.
Suddenly, the steam to the turbines shut off and the water flow rate decreased, resulting in a decrease in neutron absorption of the coolant. The turbine was powerfully disconnected from the reactor, increasing the level of steam in the reactor core. As the coolant heated, pockets of steam formed voids in the coolant lines. Due to the RBMK reactor-type's large positive void coefficient, the steam bubbles increased the power of the reactor. As soon as the reactor power increased, the positive feedback that had acted to drive reactor power down now acted to increase it further. As power increased, the Xe-135 poison began to be burned faster than it was being produced by I-135 decay, which increased power, resulting in a faster Xe-135 burn, and so on. With the manual and automatic control rods removed, nothing prevented a runaway reaction.
And at that instant, the operaters pressed the AZ-5 button, a rapid emergency button, that ordered a shutdown of the reactor, fully inserting all control rods. Soon thereafter, an energy spike occurred, thus fracturing many fuel rods. Fragments of the fuel rods ended up in the control rod columns. At this point, the rods became stuck and there was no way to stop the disaster. Quickly, the fuel rods began to melt and, as the steam pressue rapidly increased, it caused a large steam explosion. Rupturing coolant tubes, generated steam blew the lid of the reactor, causing part of the roof to blow off. At this point, the inrush of oxygen, combined with sweltering temeratures of the reactor fuel and graphite moderator, started a graphite fire. This fire exploded and contributed to the spread of radioactive material and the contamination of outling areas. While this is going on, all five guys try to escape, but only two get out unscathed. Vlad is blown up in the fire since he was too close to the graphite moderator at the time, trying to fix it. Boris and Kyan suffer from fractured limbs, greenstalks, lung smoke, etc. Dimitri and Harold rush them to the hospital, but the explosion is so big that debris is still falling and they have to dodge many flying particles.
As they reach the hospital, Boris begins to cough uncontrollably and says to Dimitri, carrying him in, "I can't go on like this. Please, leave me here to die. I really can't do this anymore." Of course, this is said in Russian, but with subtitles. Anyway, Dimitri begins to refuse while Boris insists. Dimitri doesn't decline, so, as a tear streams down Dimitri's face, he drops Boris on the ground. At that instant, Boris is hit by a sharp rod that flew out of the sky, from the plant, that was debris flying around. He dies instantly as Dimitri sees the entire incident.
Dimitri then breaks down crying in the hospital. Kyan, after sending Vlad into the emergency room, comforts Dimitri. Dimitri begins to cry and tells Kyan about Boris' death, but then quickly switches to the thought of losing Vlad. They both sit, awaiting the news. A few hours go by and then we see the doctor walk out to where the boys are sitting. He comes over to them and says, in a Ukranian dialect, "I'm coming to you regarding your friend, Vlad. When he came to us, he had a few broken bones and some smoke in his lungs. However, he is still breathing and will be fine again in no time." Dimitri and Kyan breathe a sigh of relief simultaneously. The two see Vlad in the distance and, as the hospital doors open to Vlad's room, Dimitri and Kyan smile, as does Vlad, who sees them smiling. They all have a nice conversation and try to forget about the tragic event which just occurred.
Credits roll.
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:57:32 GMT -5
PUSHING DAISIES: THE ICE CREAM CAPER
The Goals of Each Character:
Ned wants to learn more tricks of the trade in his pie factory in order to garner more business. However, the evil ice cream man across the street is holding back his ever-expanding business.
Olive wants to show Ned that she has fallen head over heels for him. The only problem: he still likes Chuck. Olive weighs the option of just confessing her love for Ned to Ned and to just see what happens or to leave her love bottled up inside for the rest of her love without Ned ever knowing.
Emerson wants Ned to be happy with Chuck. He’s Ned’s sidekick in a sense and wants what’s best for Ned and Chuck. Well, he really wants to stay a true friend of Ned’s and help him solve problems like they normally do.
Chuck wants to help out Ned as much as she can without ever touching him. Due to Ned’s power and Chuck’s death, one touch of Ned could kill Chuck forever, and neither wants to take that risk.
Jim, the Ice Cream Man, wants to sabotage Ned by doing anything he possibly can to destroy Ned’s career and The Pie Hole, Ned’s restaurant. _______________________________________________________________________
Vivian & Lily, Chuck’s aunts, want to see Chuck and Ned get married. However, they’re still oblivious to the fact that Chuck is actually dead and the slightest touch from Ned would cause her to die forever.
Still, they try to convince Olive to tell Ned and Chuck to get married, which relates back to Olive’s love for Ned. With Chuck’s aunts telling Olive to mention to Ned about marrying Chuck, Olive becomes much more enraged and, thus, becomes jealous.
While all of this is going on, Ned notices that somebody broke into Jim’s shop and the cash register was missing a lot of money. Ned realizes that he is being sabotaged by Jim. Jim tells the police that he thinks the workers at The Pie Hole could not stand the competition next door and wanted to sabotage his company, though all of this is a lie, as it’s the other way around.
Olive tries to gather up the courage to tell Ned about her secret love for him but it seems that he pushes her away every time she tries to tell him. Also, she is still too shy to let him know her true feelings.
Ned knows what’s going on and tries to figure a way out of this situation. As he does this, the police arrive. They ask if he’s the owner of the restaurant. “Yes, I am,” Ned replies. The police inform him of the robbery and crime that was committed the night before at the ice cream shop. They also regard him as the #1 suspect and they tell him so. Then, after the police leave, Ned calls Olive, Chuck, and Emerson to a meeting where they must discuss what to do about Jim’s big, fat lie and the whole situation itself. Emerson suggests that Ned flees the country but Ned retorts back that The Pie Hole would begin to dissolve without him, in a metaphorical way, of course. Olive suggests that Ned goes to the police and tell them the truth about the situation and that Jim framed Ned to get rid of the competition. Ned replies back that they’ll just think he’s hiding something and keep a closer eye on him. Chuck suggests that Ned changes his identity. He should become a new person. Chuck offers to help him.
Ned mentions that all three ideas are pretty lame, but he ultimately decides that the best idea is Chuck’s. He asks for Chuck’s advice. Chuck suggests that his name and character should be completely and ridiculously opposite from that of his own. Ned is stuck on what to do, so he calls for Chuck. Chuck says, “How about this? Change your name to Jennifer O’ Leary. Then, we can work from there.” “You want me to be a woman?” Ned replies. Ned eventually and hesitantly agrees with Chuck that becoming a woman was, perhaps, the best idea.
So, Ned sets off to a wig shop to find the perfect wig. He and Chuck together find the most beautiful long blonde hair, similar to that of Jessica Simpson’s. Next, it’s off to the salon. Chuck makes Ned get a manicure, a pedicure, and a waxing. After Ned has been waxed and polished, it’s time to pick out his outfits for a little while. He goes over to Chuck’s place and she picks out some outfits for him to wear. He just does whatever she says, as he doesn’t want to test her, since she’s dead after all.
After all the laughs Ned and Chuck had together for the day, it quickly became midnight. Both go to sleep, though in separate beds. Ned doesn’t want to touch Chuck again, or she’ll die forever, remember?
Ned’s New Identity: Day #1. A new day begins and Ned gets ready as he normally does, except this time, he gets lessons from Chuck on how to act like a woman. He gets dressed in a nice skimpy red dress and his heels and heads off to work at the pie shop. At the pie shop, he goes to put on an apron, and Olive asks if she worked there. “It’s me, Ned,” he replies. “Oh,” states Olive in a state of disgust, “you look terrible.” Then, slowly she begins to chuckle, which turns into uproarious laughter.
A few seconds later, the police come in and ask if the owner is anywhere to be found. “No,” replies Ned in the voice of Jennifer. The police just wanted to let the owner know that the perpetrator was caught. It turns out that it was, in fact, Jim, the Ice Cream Man, himself. Jennifer/Ned asks, “How did you catch him?” “He just didn’t want to sabotage a fellow company member,” the police chief said. Ned thought about this for a minute.
Then, it struck him. When Ned’s father used to own The Pie Hole, a worker there, named Jim, was always in charge of serving ice cream. Unbeknownst to Ned, Jim had worked for Ned’s father. Unbeknownst to Jim, Ned was the son of Richard, Ned’s father. Jim could not possibly frame a son of a fellow co-worker and boss, so he turned himself in. Realizing his change in gender, Ned became upset at the fact that he got embarrassed and let Chuck do all of this to him before hearing more about the incident. Ned thought he would have to be dressed as a woman for days, but he is relived that he does not.
After hearing this delightful news, Ned takes the whole gang out to celebrate at none other than “McFlurry’s Ice Cream Shop,” Jim’s ice cream restaurant. Here, they serve the best and most original flavors of ice cream in the world. The camera quickly pans over and zooms in on Jim in the jail cell, drawing a map of The Pie Hole. Though upset that he framed a co-worker’s son, he still wanted his revenge. He begins to plot an attack on The Pie Hole as soon as he gets out of jail. Since he used to work there, he knows where every nook and cranny leads. “Ned,” he says, “as soon as I get out of this joint, you’re in for a real tough time.”
We then pan back to The Pie Hole after a long night of celebrating. Ned begins to lock up when, suddenly, Olive appears. “You gave me a scare for a minute there,” Ned says. “Sorry,” Olive replies, “I just wanted to tell you something.” Then, if the scare wasn’t bad enough, bad timing just walked in the door. Chuck enters The Pie Hole to tell Ned goodnight. “Goodnight,” screams Chuck. “Goodnight,” Ned says. “Yes, Olive?” he asks. “Ah, never mind, it can wait until tomorrow,” she says with a hint of disappointment and assumed rejection. “Are you sure?” Ned asks. Olive reluctantly smiles and says, “I’m positive.” The camera then fades to black.
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:58:21 GMT -5
JUST BREATHE
Note: This is based on my own life story. The character Sam represents me.
Setting: 2001.
Sam was diagnosed with Coats’ Disease by his doctor after the doctor had repeatedly tried to reattach Sam’s retina. He had two surgeries in 2001: one on February 16, 2001 and one on March 16, 2001. Yes, exactly one month apart. Having been scraped with a scalpel to get rid of Sam’s scar tissue, Sam was feeling intense pain when awoke from his 4-hour operation on February 16. On March 16, the calcium buildup in his eye was so strong that they had to go in and remove it. They accomplished that task during his second surgery, lasting about 2 hours. A few months later, on May 29, 2001, a tragic event occurred that shook up Sam’s life forever. [screen goes black and then cuts to a nice neighborhood and house]
Setting: May 29, 2001: Nice, 2-Story High Middle Class House
A young, ten year old boy (Sam) and his mother (Mary) head off to see Lisa, Sam's grandmother and Mary's mother.
Setting: May 29, 2001: Small, Yet Luxurious Retirement Home (Alterra)
Sam and Mary wander around the building, heading toward Lisa's room. When they finally arrive to her room, Lisa answers the door. "Hi, come on in." she says, speaking like the 76 year old she is. Both Sam and Mary enter and have a nice little chat with Lisa. Then, after a nice, approximately 20-30 minute conversation, Mary needs to go get something for some unknown reason. "Sam, stay with your grandmother and don't leave her alone," she said. "Okay," Sam replies. Then, Mary leaves the room for a few minutes and then comes back.
And then it happened.
Lisa just fell over on the bed without saying a word. "Yiayia?" (Yiayia is a Greek term used for grandmother.) No response. "Mom," Sam mentioned, "I think Yiayia stopped breathing." All of a sudden, Mary's eyes widened. "Umm, okay, go get Anita [the Alterra worker they loved so much] and tell her to come quick. Tell her what happened." So, Sam ran through the building to Anita's office.
"Sam, are you alright?" asked Anita. "No, come quick! My grandma just stopped breathing." "WHAT?" screamed Anita. "We're coming. We're coming as fast as we can." "Okay," Sam replied. Anita began to panic. She called 911 and they were on their way. She went to Lisa's room to speak with Mary and Sam. "Alright," Anita spoke, "the ambulance is on its way. We are praying for you and hope everything turns out alright." "Thank you," Mary mentioned.
[camera goes black for a short second, then an abrupt scene change into a hospital room/waiting area]
"Sam, it'll be okay," Mary said as she tried to comfort Sam. He was very upset and was very shocked that this happened. "I hope so, Mom," Sam tried to utter through his tears. He was all choked up and could barely manage speaking. Then, the doctor approached the family with a look of despair on his face. This could not be good. Before the doctor could speak, Sam began to cry again, expecting the worst news for his grandmother's fate.
The doctor took a few deep breaths, then proceeded to speak. "I regret to inform you that there is no pulse and no circulation anywhere in or on the body of your mother and his grandmother." Basically, he was speaking to Mary, so that way Sam wouldn't get as upset. "We are doing everything we can. Just be patient. We'll give you the final results soon."
Hours flew by. Then, after a few hours, the doctor came back. He still looked the same as before, probably even a little disheveled. He yet again approached them. "I'm sorry." The doctor said. "Your relative has passed. Again, I'm sorry. We did everything we could." Both began to tear up, but Sam began to bawl. After all, he was 10. Mary called Gordy, the father, and told him what happened. After that call, both grasped and held onto each other (Sam and Mary) and cried. The camera slowly zooms out.
[camera goes black for a short second, then an abrupt scene change to the family's house]
Sam is still crying, while Gordy and Mary contemplate whether to tell everyone else in the family or not. They figure it's only fair to let the other relatives know. So, they call up Lisa's son, Jordan, to tell him the news. After that, they have to decide on funeral arrangements. All three, Sam, Mary, and Gordy, go to the funeral home choose a casket for their deceased relative. The camera slowly zooms in on the road to the funeral home.
[camera goes black for a short second, then an abrupt scene change to the funeral procession]
We see the immdiate and intermediate family all gathered together to mourn the loss of the deceased Lisa. They are all sobbing, bawling, crying, whatever you want to call it. Sniffles are heard from miles away. Then, as the viewing begins, Sam begins to feel upset and scared and he notices that his parents are, too, which makes him even more uncomfortable.
One by one, every person at the funeral began to come up and pay respects to Lisa, the one who lost her life after she suddenly stopped breathing. As Sam's turn approached, he had gotten more nervous and fidgeted like there was no tomorrow.
This whole death experience was new to Sam. After all, one of his grandfathers died when he was very young. Still, he started to realize life's flaws and began to help his parents in their grieving. Then, after a little bit of sorrow and tears streaming from the immediate family's faces and bodies, we hear Sam's true thoughts for the first time in the movie. As he walks up to the casket, he stares at his grandmother.
Setting: Early 2007. The Family's 2-Story House.
Sam is much more grown up; he is sixteen years old now. Thinking back on that tragic event and year itself, in which multitudinous tragic events occurred, which included: 2 grandparent deaths, 2 eye surgeries, and 9/11, among other events, and that was a lot for a ten year old to handle. Anyway, Sam sits up in his room, staring at the trunk in which he puts clothes. He imagines (in retrospect) the trunk as the casket on that dreaded day in which the funeral happened. Then, slowly, he begins to breathe and as we see a shot of him just staring at the casket, he narrates the last, most pivotal moment of the film: the ending speech. The shot is of him staring at the trunk while we hear narration saying:
"Grandma, can you still hear me? Well, I hope you can, because I never got a chance to tell you how I really felt that dreaded day. We were having a nice conversation, and then you just toppled over. I mean, I know you couldn't help it, but could you not tell that I was helpless, too? I was just a young ten year old boy who had never even experienced anything like that ever before. I almost couldn't dismiss your death as reality, until I knew for certain that it was, in fact, true. I'm sure you would've told me goodbye and that you loved me, too. I'm sure you would have. But, now, though, I'll never get to hear it again and I'll never know for sure if you really wanted to say goodbye, though I'm sure you did. I just thought I'd let you know, though, that your sudden death, without saying goodbye, has been bothering me for the last few years, and I've never been able to cope with the fact that you're actually gone. There's always that small piece in my heart that's been empty for several years, and it was because of you and the guilt I've felt. I have a confession. Though I was 10 years old, I realize now that I feel like I could've done more to help you stay alive. I feel guilty for your death. I truly do. In some aspect. I mean, it was hard enough for me to just watch you die like that. Still, I never knew you would just fall over and die. Had I known something was wrong, I would've done my best to help you, I truly would have. Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me and I hope you still love me. I hope you've been watching me from above and I hope you saw how much I cried for you. All the tears. All the misery. I loved you, though, Grandma. It was worth it. I just wish I could've said goodbye to you one more time---just to tell you that I love you."
[We see one tear stream down Sam's face.]
[Sam's head slowly falls as he begins to cry. Screen goes black. Credits roll. “How to Save a Life” is played during the credits.]
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 1:59:07 GMT -5
THE MOUSE FACTORY
Darkness. All of a sudden, we see people in shock and a state of panic. The Stock Market just crashed. It is now Black Tuesday. October 29, 1929.
The camera quickly goes black again.
The camera pans around places all across the world of people during the beginning of The Great Depression (1929). People are dancing, singing, eating, sleeping, and just about everything (cheap) you could possibly imagine. Then, the camera quickly zooms in on the Disney Animation Studio in Hollywood, California.
[The title card, "THE MOUSE FACTORY," looking very Disney-esque, comes up at this point in complete silence.]
Another quick pan of America is seen as a narrator talks about the 1930s becoming the rise of labor unions in many industries, especially the motion picture industry. The narrator, Julie Andrews, discusses The Screen Cartoonists' Guild, among many other labor unions. Then, the camera quickly fades to black and a title card with the numbers "1935" appears with white letters over a black background. We suddenly realize this is the Walt Disney Studios labor union.
Setting: Mid-1935.
We see a small group of people sitting around discussing artwork, film prints, film cels, etc. It seems to be a group of animators working on Disney's first ever feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in order to release it to theaters in the near future. Many of the employees had given Disney free overtime during the drive to complete this feature film. Walt Disney then walks in and thanks the workers for working so hard. He also says something. "In return for your hard work and free overtime, I promise to give you all bonuses upon the success of this film."
This elates all of Disney's employees and co-workers. So, they begin to work even harder on this film. Since they are promised raises, they really want this film to be a huge box office success. The more the film succeeds, the bigger the raise. Walt Disney, at this point, abruptly exits, leaving us a shot of the workers hard at work.
Then, the camera slowly fades to black. A title card reads "TWO YEARS LATER."
Setting: December 21, 1937
We see the cast and crew of the "Snow White" film, and Disney himself, at the opening night premiere of the film at the Carthay Circle Theater. They are all anxious to hear audience reviews and comments. There seems to be a full crowd.
The movie begins. We hear some soft chatter, which turns into a quiet mumble, then everything falls completely silent. We hear laughter every so often and we see smiles and tears on audience member's faces. At the end of the film, the audience claps and gives a standing ovation.
As we see audience members chatting outside and commenting on their walk back to their cars, we see the cast and crew smile in joyous elation as they quickly hope in anticipation that the film does really well at the box office, due to the opening night crowd and good word of mouth.
Stars in the audience include: Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Carole Lombard, and Marlene Deitrich, just to name a few. They all seem very receptive and seem as if they have enjoyed the film.
We then see everyone in the cast and crew head back to the Studios for a big opening night celebration. It's a very traditional celebration, with confetti, champagne, and cake (the three essential C's). Everyone is laughing, having a blast, and chatting about the (hopeful) success of the film.
Another title card reads "December 27, 1937."
Six days later, Walt Disney and his seven magical dwarfs appear on the cover of TIME magazine. We see the whole photo shooting process as well as the way in which the dwarfs become animated onto the TIME magazine cover.
Then, a title card reads "FEBRUARY 4, 1938."
The film has its opening night this night. The audience files in to hear what the critics have been talking about and to see the next big thing to come from Disney. The film begins and there's a little more chatter than at the premiere, but that's to be expected. Then, after the film is over, the audience's reception is great. There's yet again a standing ovation and outrageous applause. Everyone seems to be enjoying the film. Disney and his crew hear about this great reaction and are still hoping for the best at the box office.
Then, a few days later, they found out the results of the box office. "Snow White," Disney's first-ever animated full-length feature film, with a budget of $1,499,000, has grossed more than its budget and it has become a commercial success in just a few days. In fact, over the next few weeks, the film goes on to be the highest grossing film of 1938 and the highest grossing film of all time, until Gone With the Wind took its spot at the top in 1939.
Due to this success, Disney's co-workers and employees remembered what Disney said about their paychecks and they were all looking forward to a huge raise, due to the extreme and sudden success of the feature film.
Yet another title card appears on screen at this point. This time, it says, "May 26, 1941."
Although Disney artists were the best paid and worked under the best conditions in the industry, there was discontent. Instead of getting the bonuses they were vaguely promised, they were instead faced with a string of layoffs. The structure of the salary remained crazy-quilt. The only general wage increase Disney granted at this time was self-serving. He brought quite a few people over the fourty-dollar-a-week level. At this point, under the Wagner Labor Relations Act, they ceased being entitled to time-and-a-half overtime.
We see many artists struggling to deal with the fact that they did not receive the raise they were promised. We also see Guild members and animators chatting about these happenings.
However, due to Disney having the biggest and most successful animation studio, he was an obvious target for the Screen Cartoonists' Guild regardless. Some layoffs began to target members of the Guild selectively. Disney soon thereafter fired animator Art Babbitt, whom Disney called a troublemaker. After this event occurred, things had reached a boiling point.
One final title card reads "THREE DAYS LATER."
On May 29, 1941, three days after Art Babbitt was fired, the Disney strike begins. Herb Sorrell is the instigator. He is described as a "tough left-winger." We also see Sorrell asking sluggers, outside people, to help in the picket lines. The ongoing strike is happening during the animated feature film creation of Dumbo. In the feature, a number of strikers are characterized as clowns who try to "hit the big boss for a raise."
We see the strike for about five to six minutes. People are protesting, standing around, holding picket signs, and everything most strikers do. They have rhyming chants, not so rhyming chants, and everything.
To wrap things up, the strike lasted five weeks. Toward the end, Disney accepted a suggestion by Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller, Latin American affairs head, asked him to come to Latin America as a goodwill amabassador. Once in Latin America, we see Disney and Rockefeller shake hands and talk.
Disney's removal from the scene enabled passions to cool, and in his absence the strike was settled with the help of a federal mediator, who found in the Guild's favor on every issue. The Disney studio signed a contract and has been a union shop ever since. Irreparable damage to the psychology and mood of the studio had, nevertheless, been done.
We see the resolving strike and the damage done as aftermath. We then see a guy who begins quoting Disney.
Schickel quotes a letter in which Disney said that "it cleaned house at our studio" and got rid of "the chip-on-the-shoulder boys and the world-owes-me-a-living lads". Those that left, however, included such notables as Walt Kelly and Virgil Partch. The departures also included Zack Schwartz, Dave Hilberman, and John Hubley, who all went on to form a new animation studio known as United Productions of America, or UPA. UPA's innovative work took artistic leadership of the animated cartoon field away from Disney during the early 1950s. Afterwards, Disney was no longer seen as a practitioner of an American art form, but merely as a motion-picture manufacturer who stamped out high-quality product in a glossy but formulaic house style.
Ironically, an unfair labor practices suit brought by Art Babbitt worked its way through the courts while Babbitt was serving in the Armed Forces, and Disney was forced to rehire him when he returned at the end of the war. The most notable animators to leave Disney included, in addition to the UPA founders, Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson, Preston Blair, Ed Love, Walter Clinton, Grant Simmons, Jack Bradbury, Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, and Howard Swift. These people contribute significant animation for later MGM, Warner Bros., and Screen Gems cartoons.
During this last part of the movie, when discussing the workers who left, the screen is black and shows little white drawings representing the people who worked then. As each person's name is said, a little white picture disappears. Then, at the very end, only one little white picture is left on screen. It represents Disney.
We then see silent clips of "Snow White" and actual footage from the 1941 Disney strike playing over the credits while instrumental music plays in the background.
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Post by MSTV on Apr 4, 2008 7:19:36 GMT -5
I started to tear up during just breathe.
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Post by spencer101f on Apr 4, 2008 23:02:27 GMT -5
Thanks. I was going for that. I tear up everytime I read it, since it was, in fact, based on a true story of my own life.
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