Jules is on a 6 month sabbatical. She's a civil servant who was asked to take six months unpaid to help balance the books.
She's doing this part of her trip on her own. Started off seeing some friends in the USA and then went to Peru and the Galapagos with these friends. Then she went to Australia where one of her best friends was getting married. She was there for about a month with her mates and now finally she's on her own with six weeks in South East Asia.
It's the first time she's ever travelled on her own. She did languages at university and spent a year in Chile doing Spanish but never went anywhere without her friends. In fact she's not used to doing much on her own.
She has a very tight knit group of friends- a gang of five girls. She's not totally comfortable in all male company. Not quite a girly girl but certainly more herself in female company when we're talking about groups.
That one of her gang is getting married in Australia is significant. It's beginning of the end of the gang. She's suddenly found that all the gang are in love apart from her. She presumed that she'd be able to get one of the gang to join her after the wedding for a bit of travel. But she discovered that they couldn't. Not because they couldn't take the time off work but because they wanted to use their holiday time to go off with their boyfriends rather than with her.
By contract Jules hasn't been in love since she was 18. Had a few relationships but nothing that stuck.
In the right environment, when she feels comfortable, she's great fun. Funny, flirty, filthy. But travelling on her own is a long way from her comfort zone. She flew from Oz to Bali and on to Kuta beach. And she really hated it. Didn't know how she was going to cope if travelling on your own was all going to be like this. She met someone who recommended she fly out to Flores and see Kelimuta and the Komodo dragons. This was a good call- she'd enjoyed Kelimutu and actually meeting more normal Indonesians. She was really enjoying the bus ride as it made her feel 'authentic' for want of a better word. Hence her annoyance when she meets Sean.
Monday, 28 December 2009
Sean bio (TJ)
Sean is on holiday in Indonesia. He's not there for that long- slightly under three weeks. He has a friend working in an NGO in Flores. His friend, a very devout Catholic, is working and can't get away to join him so he just spends a few days with him. This is why he's in the random village when the bus comes with Jules in it.
He works for Tesco's back in England. Doing quite well. He's always very interested in markets and commerce wherever they travel. He used to work for VSO in Bangladesh for two years (that's where he met his friend working in Flores) so Tesco's been quite a change. He doesn't fit in socially there. Most of his friends work in the public or charity sectors.
He's a middle child with an older brother and a younger sister. He is relationships most of the time but hasn't been in a serious one for a number of years. He'd been going out with his current girlfriend for about six months when he goes off on holiday. She'd thrown him a surprise going away party. Apart from the embarrassment of people coming to wave him off for just three weeks, he realised something: she really cares about him, went to quite a lot of trouble, is upset at the idea of not seeing him for three weeks; but he doesn't really care. He'd never have done anything similar. Hadn't even thought that it would be a big deal to not see for three weeks. And that gap makes him realise he needs to end it.
But he can't do it then. She's made all this effort. She's staying at his. He's too cowardly. He resolves he'll do it straight away when he comes back. He's not planning to cheat on her though. A) because you never really hook up when you're travelling and b) he feels he owes her that much.
He's a natural gadfly. Has lots of friends, works a party room well. Doesn't have that many good friends though. Apart from one guy, who actually he doesn't see that much, he doesn't know who he'd go to if he needed help.
He's done a bit of travelling (Bangladesh obviously but also after university he went to South America, Loved it. Especially the Galapapgos islands.
He's pretty smart. Studied Maths at Nottingham. He used to be quite political (Lib Dem) but has drifted somewhat.
He works for Tesco's back in England. Doing quite well. He's always very interested in markets and commerce wherever they travel. He used to work for VSO in Bangladesh for two years (that's where he met his friend working in Flores) so Tesco's been quite a change. He doesn't fit in socially there. Most of his friends work in the public or charity sectors.
He's a middle child with an older brother and a younger sister. He is relationships most of the time but hasn't been in a serious one for a number of years. He'd been going out with his current girlfriend for about six months when he goes off on holiday. She'd thrown him a surprise going away party. Apart from the embarrassment of people coming to wave him off for just three weeks, he realised something: she really cares about him, went to quite a lot of trouble, is upset at the idea of not seeing him for three weeks; but he doesn't really care. He'd never have done anything similar. Hadn't even thought that it would be a big deal to not see for three weeks. And that gap makes him realise he needs to end it.
But he can't do it then. She's made all this effort. She's staying at his. He's too cowardly. He resolves he'll do it straight away when he comes back. He's not planning to cheat on her though. A) because you never really hook up when you're travelling and b) he feels he owes her that much.
He's a natural gadfly. Has lots of friends, works a party room well. Doesn't have that many good friends though. Apart from one guy, who actually he doesn't see that much, he doesn't know who he'd go to if he needed help.
He's done a bit of travelling (Bangladesh obviously but also after university he went to South America, Loved it. Especially the Galapapgos islands.
He's pretty smart. Studied Maths at Nottingham. He used to be quite political (Lib Dem) but has drifted somewhat.
In the Tsunami (Towards Java)
This story is also based on truth but then dramatised. The true story is that a friend of my parents went to Thailand at the time of the Tsunami and realising that the waves were about to come in had to grab both of his young children and took one in each arm and raced to safety. He later confessed to my Dad that he shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if he'd had another child to pick up. He's not sure he could have and safely escaped.
And so the story is based on the Tsunami. And putting it to where it was at its most devastating: Aceh. I imagine a man, a stepfather to three children. A good man. Taking on the responsibility of looking after a woman with three young children. They have their difficulties and they live in a horribly stressful place, divided by civil war. But on Boxing Day 2004 he is happily playing in the surf with his three step children. When it comes he has to act instinctively. He takes the two smallest and tells the eldest to run. But the eldest tries and tries but lags behind and can't get high enough to safety. He looks for him for days but there's no sign of him. And his wife can't forgive him. Eventually he has to leave and that is where we find him. Shuttling boats to and from Komodo. Broken. Quiet. Scared of children. We get an insight into his biography as the boat travels. See Y Tu Mama Tambien for the style. I can't decide whether it should be filmed or just narrated.
And so the story is based on the Tsunami. And putting it to where it was at its most devastating: Aceh. I imagine a man, a stepfather to three children. A good man. Taking on the responsibility of looking after a woman with three young children. They have their difficulties and they live in a horribly stressful place, divided by civil war. But on Boxing Day 2004 he is happily playing in the surf with his three step children. When it comes he has to act instinctively. He takes the two smallest and tells the eldest to run. But the eldest tries and tries but lags behind and can't get high enough to safety. He looks for him for days but there's no sign of him. And his wife can't forgive him. Eventually he has to leave and that is where we find him. Shuttling boats to and from Komodo. Broken. Quiet. Scared of children. We get an insight into his biography as the boat travels. See Y Tu Mama Tambien for the style. I can't decide whether it should be filmed or just narrated.
The story of the man who ruled a village (TJ)
This is the idea I'm hoping to bring into Towards Java. I want it foreshadowed early and make it one of the reason's Sean is heading where is he. It's based on a true story.
This man is a Brit, a Scot. He worked as an engineer for 30 years in South East Asia. When he retired he realised he had no reason to go home. No real home to go to. Certainly not back in Britain.
So he spent 4 months on the coast of Bali just soaking up sun and gin but realised that there was no way he could do this until he died. He's not great with people but he is good at work and he'd rather do that. So he needs a project.
He became determined to find the most impoverished village in Indonesia. He searched practically all the islands only to find the poorest place was on Bali itself, way up in the mountains in the middle of the island. He went to the village elders and made an offer: I can improve the life of all the village, take everyone out of poverty but you'll have to do what I say. The elders went away for three days and then came back. They said yes.
And he's true to his word, he puts his engineering skills to good use creating proper water flows and setting up a school. The village is clean, ordered and the kids all get to go to school in the morning. The children are now numerate and literate to a reasonable degree and so help their parents at market.
The old people seem really happy with what has happened and so are easily deferrent to their dear leader. However a number of young people are feeling very rebellious, although some are extremely sycophantic.
I wonder if this is a sensible sidetrack. What I might do instead, is have a longish pause in the story to tell this story through someone they come into contact with. Two brothers who run away together after the younger one is offered to the benign despot as a thank-you. Makes it a bit harsher and Slumdoggy (and is also I should probably stress not something I'm aware of happening in the real case). It's one of a number I want to add. See next post for another example.
This man is a Brit, a Scot. He worked as an engineer for 30 years in South East Asia. When he retired he realised he had no reason to go home. No real home to go to. Certainly not back in Britain.
So he spent 4 months on the coast of Bali just soaking up sun and gin but realised that there was no way he could do this until he died. He's not great with people but he is good at work and he'd rather do that. So he needs a project.
He became determined to find the most impoverished village in Indonesia. He searched practically all the islands only to find the poorest place was on Bali itself, way up in the mountains in the middle of the island. He went to the village elders and made an offer: I can improve the life of all the village, take everyone out of poverty but you'll have to do what I say. The elders went away for three days and then came back. They said yes.
And he's true to his word, he puts his engineering skills to good use creating proper water flows and setting up a school. The village is clean, ordered and the kids all get to go to school in the morning. The children are now numerate and literate to a reasonable degree and so help their parents at market.
The old people seem really happy with what has happened and so are easily deferrent to their dear leader. However a number of young people are feeling very rebellious, although some are extremely sycophantic.
I wonder if this is a sensible sidetrack. What I might do instead, is have a longish pause in the story to tell this story through someone they come into contact with. Two brothers who run away together after the younger one is offered to the benign despot as a thank-you. Makes it a bit harsher and Slumdoggy (and is also I should probably stress not something I'm aware of happening in the real case). It's one of a number I want to add. See next post for another example.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Key beats of Towards Java
Here's what I'm currently thinking in terms of beats for Towards Java
Prologue (well actually it sets the story up as a flashback)
1st act:
Get on the same bus
Talk at the roadside restaurant. Not a total success
Get to Labuanbajo and Sean gives up his room to Jules and goes to find another
They find themselves on the same boat to Komodo. Jules to begin with would rather talk to the other passengers but in the end starts talking to Sean.
They agree to eat at the same place and have enough fun to decide to travel together to the Gilis.
2nd Act:
The trip to the Gilis is long and draining. They get ripped off and sent in the wrong direction. Then Jules gets ill and they have to miss a bus and stay in a strange little town for a night.
Eventually they make it to the paradise of Gili Meno. A large bond has been formed and the attraction is impossible to miss. They accidentally get given a double bed rather than twins but don't complain too much. Go for dinner and then are walking back along the beach to their hut when suddenly Sean reveals he has a girlfriend in England. He'd decided to dump her before he went to travelling but didn't have the balls to do it on the last night so is going to have to do it when he gets home.
Jules flips out. Sean spends the night sleeping outside on the porch.
Turning point
The next morning Jules finds Sean has left and paid for the room. She goes to Gili Trawangan but is short on funds. She gets a dorm room and hangs out with some fun if seriously brash Australians. She bumps into Sean and tries to pay her share but Sean won't hear of it. He knows she's running short on cash. He proposes that if they bump into each other on Bali she can pay him back then. Seeing Jules flirting with the Australians is too much for Sean and he gets a boat of the island that very night.
The next day he heads off to Bali where he hears a story about a western man who runs a village up in the mountains. That night he goes to a Balinese monkey dance and sees Jules. At the end Jules comes up to him and wordlessly gives him his money.
Sean goes biking with some people he's met to go meet this western man and see his weird position as essentially a chief. He spends most of the day there and a minivan appears bringing a bunch of people including Jules. He pretends not to see her. And bikes back on his own. On the way back he crashes into a ditch and concusses himself. He's struggling to stand up and there's no way he can bike back to Ubud.
3rd Act
The minivan with Jules drives past and picks him up. Jules takes care of him and takes him back to his hotel.
That night she comes to see how he's doing and they go to get something to eat. They have a great night, playing with the family who own the restaurant and everything is perfect. But they agree that nothing can happen now and that it would just ruin everything if they saw each other back in England.
The next morning Sean wakes up and realises it's a stupid idea. He has to see her, he runs to her hotel room but the taxi taking her to the airport has already gone.
Epilogue: Sean is sitting in a nice, trendy brunch place in East london with mates but can't concentrate. Suddenly he realises that this date is the date Jules is meant to be coming back from all her travels. He sits there for ages, pondering if he should go. Eventually he tells his friends he has to leave.
Prologue (well actually it sets the story up as a flashback)
1st act:
Get on the same bus
Talk at the roadside restaurant. Not a total success
Get to Labuanbajo and Sean gives up his room to Jules and goes to find another
They find themselves on the same boat to Komodo. Jules to begin with would rather talk to the other passengers but in the end starts talking to Sean.
They agree to eat at the same place and have enough fun to decide to travel together to the Gilis.
2nd Act:
The trip to the Gilis is long and draining. They get ripped off and sent in the wrong direction. Then Jules gets ill and they have to miss a bus and stay in a strange little town for a night.
Eventually they make it to the paradise of Gili Meno. A large bond has been formed and the attraction is impossible to miss. They accidentally get given a double bed rather than twins but don't complain too much. Go for dinner and then are walking back along the beach to their hut when suddenly Sean reveals he has a girlfriend in England. He'd decided to dump her before he went to travelling but didn't have the balls to do it on the last night so is going to have to do it when he gets home.
Jules flips out. Sean spends the night sleeping outside on the porch.
Turning point
The next morning Jules finds Sean has left and paid for the room. She goes to Gili Trawangan but is short on funds. She gets a dorm room and hangs out with some fun if seriously brash Australians. She bumps into Sean and tries to pay her share but Sean won't hear of it. He knows she's running short on cash. He proposes that if they bump into each other on Bali she can pay him back then. Seeing Jules flirting with the Australians is too much for Sean and he gets a boat of the island that very night.
The next day he heads off to Bali where he hears a story about a western man who runs a village up in the mountains. That night he goes to a Balinese monkey dance and sees Jules. At the end Jules comes up to him and wordlessly gives him his money.
Sean goes biking with some people he's met to go meet this western man and see his weird position as essentially a chief. He spends most of the day there and a minivan appears bringing a bunch of people including Jules. He pretends not to see her. And bikes back on his own. On the way back he crashes into a ditch and concusses himself. He's struggling to stand up and there's no way he can bike back to Ubud.
3rd Act
The minivan with Jules drives past and picks him up. Jules takes care of him and takes him back to his hotel.
That night she comes to see how he's doing and they go to get something to eat. They have a great night, playing with the family who own the restaurant and everything is perfect. But they agree that nothing can happen now and that it would just ruin everything if they saw each other back in England.
The next morning Sean wakes up and realises it's a stupid idea. He has to see her, he runs to her hotel room but the taxi taking her to the airport has already gone.
Epilogue: Sean is sitting in a nice, trendy brunch place in East london with mates but can't concentrate. Suddenly he realises that this date is the date Jules is meant to be coming back from all her travels. He sits there for ages, pondering if he should go. Eventually he tells his friends he has to leave.
Prologue (Towards Java)
We see darkness. Not pitch black but not far off. We hear the crunch of people making their way slowly up a path. A stone slips and you hear it roll down hill.
Sean (o.s.): Everyone still here?
There's a chorus of voices. They're all Northern European: Danish, Dutch, German. Only one of them is female.
German voice: It's getting lighter. (Laughs). I mean, for sure, we still need a torch. But it's definitely getting lighter.
It is indeed getting lighter and as they come out of some tree cover the beginning of dawn helps them to see as well as feel their way along. The sounds of dawn begin, although they're the sounds of dawn in an infertile landscape. Then another, more mechanical sound comes into earshot.
Danish (female) voice: I think I hear a car.
Sure enough there is one coming and it's just as well they heard it becuase they turn a corner to find themselves joining up to a road as the car goes past. For the first time we can really see all of the walkers.
Danish woman (to partner, in Danish, not happy): We could have got a car to the top?
Her boyfriend looks sheepish. They start to walk up the tarmacked road being regularly overtaken by jeeps full of well-to-do Indonesian tourists laughing at the crazy Westerners.
And then they're suddenly at the top. They march past the stalls, brandishing their quarter full water bottles as proof they don't need anything.
They arrive at the viewing platform to find that all the tourists who weren't stupid enough to try and walk it in the darks have taken the best viewing spots.
German man: We should have left earlier.
Sean: True, or we could have got a ride.
The German guy laughs.
German: Yeah, or at least a torch with long lasting batteries.
Sean: Well it got us most of the way.
They look over at the Danish couple who are having an argument. Eventually the girl comes over to Sean.
Girl: Hi, Sean? (as if she's not sure she's got it right)
Sean: Yeah.
Girl: Our camera's battery has not been recharged. You have a digital camera, yeah?
Sean nods: Do you want me to take some photos and email them to you?
Girl (pleased not to have to ask): Yes. That would be great. I'll give you our email address.
They pose and he takes a picture.
Sean: Wait, let me take a couple more.
Suddenly the sun starts to rise over the valley below. Everyone makes sounds of awe.
Girl: Quick, you have to take photos of this.
And Sean does. Captures it all. The sky, the valley, the people around him. And then he remembers something.
Insert: A woman (Jules) and Sean are on a boat in the beautiful blue sea chugging between islands.
Jules: The thing about taking photos is they'll never capture what you're seeing. They just stop you looking up and really engaging with the beauty around you.
Sean: But if you don't take a photo you might end up forgetting all about it.
Jules: So take one as a reminder and then put the camera down.
Sean puts his camera down and soaks it all in in. The Danish couple come back up to him.
Danish girl: Can we see the photos?
Sean shows them all the photos.
Girl: Great. Great photos. You better send to us.
Sean: Promise.
Sean flicks on through the photos. There are ones of a card game with everyone who walked. A ferry. Lots from a bus. Then there's one of him with the girl from the flashback. They're smiling, bug genuine smiles and their heads are tipped together. He looks back out. Memories mist his gaze.
Cut to Sean at the bus stop at the beginning of the story.
Sean (o.s.): Everyone still here?
There's a chorus of voices. They're all Northern European: Danish, Dutch, German. Only one of them is female.
German voice: It's getting lighter. (Laughs). I mean, for sure, we still need a torch. But it's definitely getting lighter.
It is indeed getting lighter and as they come out of some tree cover the beginning of dawn helps them to see as well as feel their way along. The sounds of dawn begin, although they're the sounds of dawn in an infertile landscape. Then another, more mechanical sound comes into earshot.
Danish (female) voice: I think I hear a car.
Sure enough there is one coming and it's just as well they heard it becuase they turn a corner to find themselves joining up to a road as the car goes past. For the first time we can really see all of the walkers.
Danish woman (to partner, in Danish, not happy): We could have got a car to the top?
Her boyfriend looks sheepish. They start to walk up the tarmacked road being regularly overtaken by jeeps full of well-to-do Indonesian tourists laughing at the crazy Westerners.
And then they're suddenly at the top. They march past the stalls, brandishing their quarter full water bottles as proof they don't need anything.
They arrive at the viewing platform to find that all the tourists who weren't stupid enough to try and walk it in the darks have taken the best viewing spots.
German man: We should have left earlier.
Sean: True, or we could have got a ride.
The German guy laughs.
German: Yeah, or at least a torch with long lasting batteries.
Sean: Well it got us most of the way.
They look over at the Danish couple who are having an argument. Eventually the girl comes over to Sean.
Girl: Hi, Sean? (as if she's not sure she's got it right)
Sean: Yeah.
Girl: Our camera's battery has not been recharged. You have a digital camera, yeah?
Sean nods: Do you want me to take some photos and email them to you?
Girl (pleased not to have to ask): Yes. That would be great. I'll give you our email address.
They pose and he takes a picture.
Sean: Wait, let me take a couple more.
Suddenly the sun starts to rise over the valley below. Everyone makes sounds of awe.
Girl: Quick, you have to take photos of this.
And Sean does. Captures it all. The sky, the valley, the people around him. And then he remembers something.
Insert: A woman (Jules) and Sean are on a boat in the beautiful blue sea chugging between islands.
Jules: The thing about taking photos is they'll never capture what you're seeing. They just stop you looking up and really engaging with the beauty around you.
Sean: But if you don't take a photo you might end up forgetting all about it.
Jules: So take one as a reminder and then put the camera down.
Sean puts his camera down and soaks it all in in. The Danish couple come back up to him.
Danish girl: Can we see the photos?
Sean shows them all the photos.
Girl: Great. Great photos. You better send to us.
Sean: Promise.
Sean flicks on through the photos. There are ones of a card game with everyone who walked. A ferry. Lots from a bus. Then there's one of him with the girl from the flashback. They're smiling, bug genuine smiles and their heads are tipped together. He looks back out. Memories mist his gaze.
Cut to Sean at the bus stop at the beginning of the story.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Toby and Lois (Advanced Fun)
Toby and Lois are the protagonists of Advanced Fun. They are a couple struggling with their new mortgage and decided to take in a lodger to help for a bit. That lodger is Lois's cousin Mark. A guy who's just recovered from illness and is only now at 27 for the first time able to get out and actually enjoy life.
Toby and Lois on the other hand are staring at the precipice of leaving all that behind. Lois just hit 30, Toby's not far behind. One of Lois's best friends has a kid, most of them are married. Although another couple who were engaged has just split up. They feel a bit caught in limbo: babies to the left of them, parties to the right.
They've been together for 3 years. Not forever but it's been serious from the get go. They met on a blind date, set up by Toby's good friend Seb (this is basically the same Jack from The Thing about Jack).
Although the first date was a disaster he managed to persuade her to go for a second and from then on all went well. Within six months they were de facto living together and they moved in officially after a year. They've just bought due to Toby coming into some inheritance. It's somewhere suburban. It says, we could raise a family here. But they still feel uncomfortable. When we first meet them they're having the first people round who have kids and they say what a great place it will be for the kids. Lois and Toby are insistent that it's good for parties too. But when they have a housewarming that night everyone leaves at 11 o'clock citing being so far out but to be honest it's just not a kicking party.
Toby is quite loud. Not desperate to dominate but never going to be in the background. He can be a little touchy, a little unsure about new people he meets- can definitely take to someone quickly but has a very low tolerance of pretension.
He's a primary school teacher. A really great one. Boys at the slightly rough school he's at really respond to him. He's large, athletic but rather sweet looking. Someone who looked terribly pretty at 18 and his face hasn't been really sure what to do since. The upshot of this is he has a LOT of girl friends and is not remotely scared of having kids. Although at the same time, they're not there yet.
He was definitely looking for someone serious when he met Lois. He's been going out with a teacher from school for a long time. It wasn't right, they weren't really making each other happy yet he kept pushing for it to get more serious, for them to move in together.
She called it off because he didn't have the guts to do it himself. She loved him way more than he ever did.
He's sporty- and sport time is his time. There's a school team and a his own sunday football team and with both of them Lois is distinctly not invited. He hates people watching him- hated it as a kid, hates it now.
The other his time, despite the fact that he was the one who introduced him to Lois, is Seb. Seb is his best mate from school and is always around. Seb is impossibly trendy and always seems to be busy, off somewhere doing something cool. But he's always got time for Toby.
Lois knew how to have fun. First it was booze and boys. Then it was drugs and men. She was never out of control- she underperformed academically but she got away with it and now works as a commissioner of the slightly higher brow of reality television. She's lived off the buzz of making them for ages but just switched to commissioning. She's coming down and while she knew that she needed to stop, she's still adjusting to the loss of adrenaline. While she was frenetic the calm, sweet humour of Toby was exactly what she needed but now she's calmer she's started to think. She doesn't want to lose Toby. He's the one. She knows that. But she's become scared. That much stability means he's not letting stuff out. He's never had fun like she has. And she's becoming increasingly convinced that if he doesn't get it out of his system then he'll have a midlife crisis.
So when Mark proposes it she suddenly gets very excited. This is what they need. This is what Toby needs. Not that she ever says any of this to Toby or checks how he feels about it. She's not totally wrong but she's going about it the whole wrong way. And she's going to push him far further away than she's ready to do.
Toby and Lois on the other hand are staring at the precipice of leaving all that behind. Lois just hit 30, Toby's not far behind. One of Lois's best friends has a kid, most of them are married. Although another couple who were engaged has just split up. They feel a bit caught in limbo: babies to the left of them, parties to the right.
They've been together for 3 years. Not forever but it's been serious from the get go. They met on a blind date, set up by Toby's good friend Seb (this is basically the same Jack from The Thing about Jack).
Although the first date was a disaster he managed to persuade her to go for a second and from then on all went well. Within six months they were de facto living together and they moved in officially after a year. They've just bought due to Toby coming into some inheritance. It's somewhere suburban. It says, we could raise a family here. But they still feel uncomfortable. When we first meet them they're having the first people round who have kids and they say what a great place it will be for the kids. Lois and Toby are insistent that it's good for parties too. But when they have a housewarming that night everyone leaves at 11 o'clock citing being so far out but to be honest it's just not a kicking party.
Toby is quite loud. Not desperate to dominate but never going to be in the background. He can be a little touchy, a little unsure about new people he meets- can definitely take to someone quickly but has a very low tolerance of pretension.
He's a primary school teacher. A really great one. Boys at the slightly rough school he's at really respond to him. He's large, athletic but rather sweet looking. Someone who looked terribly pretty at 18 and his face hasn't been really sure what to do since. The upshot of this is he has a LOT of girl friends and is not remotely scared of having kids. Although at the same time, they're not there yet.
He was definitely looking for someone serious when he met Lois. He's been going out with a teacher from school for a long time. It wasn't right, they weren't really making each other happy yet he kept pushing for it to get more serious, for them to move in together.
She called it off because he didn't have the guts to do it himself. She loved him way more than he ever did.
He's sporty- and sport time is his time. There's a school team and a his own sunday football team and with both of them Lois is distinctly not invited. He hates people watching him- hated it as a kid, hates it now.
The other his time, despite the fact that he was the one who introduced him to Lois, is Seb. Seb is his best mate from school and is always around. Seb is impossibly trendy and always seems to be busy, off somewhere doing something cool. But he's always got time for Toby.
Lois knew how to have fun. First it was booze and boys. Then it was drugs and men. She was never out of control- she underperformed academically but she got away with it and now works as a commissioner of the slightly higher brow of reality television. She's lived off the buzz of making them for ages but just switched to commissioning. She's coming down and while she knew that she needed to stop, she's still adjusting to the loss of adrenaline. While she was frenetic the calm, sweet humour of Toby was exactly what she needed but now she's calmer she's started to think. She doesn't want to lose Toby. He's the one. She knows that. But she's become scared. That much stability means he's not letting stuff out. He's never had fun like she has. And she's becoming increasingly convinced that if he doesn't get it out of his system then he'll have a midlife crisis.
So when Mark proposes it she suddenly gets very excited. This is what they need. This is what Toby needs. Not that she ever says any of this to Toby or checks how he feels about it. She's not totally wrong but she's going about it the whole wrong way. And she's going to push him far further away than she's ready to do.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Mark (Advanced Fun)
Typing up the conversation between Mark and Toby has made me realise how hard it is going to be get Mark right as a character.
Before I go on I should probably emphasise that I was being inaccurate in my last post when I described Mark as the protagonist. He's not. Advanced Fun is a story about Toby and Lois a couple questioning whether they've lost the ability to have fun and be young and whether they've chosen to settle too soon. Mark is just the catalyst.
But he needs to be a very real human being and it can be easy to make him come across as little bit autistic or alien in a 'what crazy rituals you earthlings have' type way.
I do want to use him to reflect on what people in their 20s do for entertainment but he needs to feel real.
The key things to understand about Mark are this:
He's been ill a long time and while he is to all intensive purposes better he's still building up his stamina so is likely to fade as the night goes on.
He's perfectly emotionally adept. He's a good listener and has surprisingly good antennae for how people are feeling. This goes out the window when he's drunk because he's still mastering it to a certain extent but he's not in anyway socially difficult.
However, he's not good in group situations, finds it hard to be noticed and to contribute. He doesn't say anything inappropriate but doesn't really say anything and gets pissed off at his inability.
He's good one on one. Sharp, observant and all that time he's spent in bed has meant that he is extremely well read, watched a lot of films and just thought about things. It takes him a little time to warm up but actually Toby and Lois realise that in reality they don't have to take care of him. He's alright.
One of the upshots of all the contemplation he has done is that he's not embarassed about his situation. He knows it's unusual. He knows he has to talk about it a lot but so be it. In particular I want to push this notion that he's quite happy to admit he's a virgin, indeed to proffer it as information when he can tell someone want to ask the question but feels bad asking it. Yeah, he'd rather not be but it's not his fault he hasn't had the opportunity and while it's something he's looking to remedy he's not embarassed by it. Think Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland.
So yeah the point has to be that actually Mark is alright. Life dealt him a bum hand for a long time but that's basically behind him and now he's getting to enjoy life and while it may have it's moments of embarassment and failure, it's all worth it. It's Toby and Lois who are less sure of themselves and where they're headed.
Before I go on I should probably emphasise that I was being inaccurate in my last post when I described Mark as the protagonist. He's not. Advanced Fun is a story about Toby and Lois a couple questioning whether they've lost the ability to have fun and be young and whether they've chosen to settle too soon. Mark is just the catalyst.
But he needs to be a very real human being and it can be easy to make him come across as little bit autistic or alien in a 'what crazy rituals you earthlings have' type way.
I do want to use him to reflect on what people in their 20s do for entertainment but he needs to feel real.
The key things to understand about Mark are this:
He's been ill a long time and while he is to all intensive purposes better he's still building up his stamina so is likely to fade as the night goes on.
He's perfectly emotionally adept. He's a good listener and has surprisingly good antennae for how people are feeling. This goes out the window when he's drunk because he's still mastering it to a certain extent but he's not in anyway socially difficult.
However, he's not good in group situations, finds it hard to be noticed and to contribute. He doesn't say anything inappropriate but doesn't really say anything and gets pissed off at his inability.
He's good one on one. Sharp, observant and all that time he's spent in bed has meant that he is extremely well read, watched a lot of films and just thought about things. It takes him a little time to warm up but actually Toby and Lois realise that in reality they don't have to take care of him. He's alright.
One of the upshots of all the contemplation he has done is that he's not embarassed about his situation. He knows it's unusual. He knows he has to talk about it a lot but so be it. In particular I want to push this notion that he's quite happy to admit he's a virgin, indeed to proffer it as information when he can tell someone want to ask the question but feels bad asking it. Yeah, he'd rather not be but it's not his fault he hasn't had the opportunity and while it's something he's looking to remedy he's not embarassed by it. Think Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland.
So yeah the point has to be that actually Mark is alright. Life dealt him a bum hand for a long time but that's basically behind him and now he's getting to enjoy life and while it may have it's moments of embarassment and failure, it's all worth it. It's Toby and Lois who are less sure of themselves and where they're headed.
AF: A first conversation
I'm going to be bad again and put up a conversation I wrote rather than some plot points but hopefully it will give you some ideas. Just to be clear Mark is the protagonist having suffered from ME type illnesses all his life finds himself more or less better but somewhat unsocialised. He's moved in with his cousin Lois and her boyfriend Toby who have just bought a place in a suburban bit of London they'd never have thought of visiting before they started thinking mortgages and the like.
In this scene Mark has already asked for help in learning to have fun and Lois has enthusiastically agreed. Toby is less certain but is going along with it. They've agreed to go to a party they were going to bump on Saturday and Mark is nervous as this will be the first real party he's been to. He talks to Toby about it a day or so before it happens.
Mark: The caveat I'm about to give applies to pretty much everything I'm going to say over the next month or so, so I'm going to give it you once and we'll just take it as an unspoken prologue to every question I ask. Ok?: I know this sounds ridiculous but... what exactly do people do at parties?
Toby: Drink mostly.
Mark: I figured that would be a big feature. But I presume they don't just stand in silence constantly drinking.
Toby: Well they do more or less for the first couple of hours while they warm up.
Mark: And then what?
Toby: See if there's anyone fit they could cop off with and when that fails drink even more. Then you'll soon be drunk enough to start singing along to Madonna, then hug some people you know vaguely and say how much you love them and how we never get a chance to hang out. Then finally fall asleep in the corner while people take comedy photos of you.
Mark: But if you don't want to cop off with someone?
Toby: Look on with amusement while your mate tries it on. Then join in with the Madonna rendition and get your camera ready for the snoozer.
Mark: So there's singing?
Toby: Well it's a generous term but yeah often some people stretch the old vocal chords.
Mark: And there's dancing.
Toby: Yeah
Mark: But not at the beginning?
Toby: Nope. Drink first then dancing.
Mark: So what do you do when you're not drinking.
Toby: How do you mean?
Mark: I mean, do you play games or anything?
Toby laughs: Well, pass the parcel is a bit out of fashion these days.
Mark: Adult games.
Toby: That requires the copping off.
Mark smiles at the joke but Toby realises that he does actually want an answer.
Toby: People often do drinking games.
Mark: Ok, could you teach me the rules.
Toby: Well, to be honest half the fun is if you don't really get them. But I'd be really surprised if we played them on Saturday. We haven't done that kind of thing in years.
Mark: So what do you do?
Toby: Well, we just kind of talk.
Mark: Until you start singing and dancing?
Toby: Generally, yes.
Mark: How long does it take?
Toby: I don't know, at least until midnight.
Mark: So there's normally about four or five hours of just drinking and talking?
Toby: Yeah.
Mark considers this.
Mark: I think I'd better practice my conversation.
Toby: It might help.
In this scene Mark has already asked for help in learning to have fun and Lois has enthusiastically agreed. Toby is less certain but is going along with it. They've agreed to go to a party they were going to bump on Saturday and Mark is nervous as this will be the first real party he's been to. He talks to Toby about it a day or so before it happens.
Mark: The caveat I'm about to give applies to pretty much everything I'm going to say over the next month or so, so I'm going to give it you once and we'll just take it as an unspoken prologue to every question I ask. Ok?: I know this sounds ridiculous but... what exactly do people do at parties?
Toby: Drink mostly.
Mark: I figured that would be a big feature. But I presume they don't just stand in silence constantly drinking.
Toby: Well they do more or less for the first couple of hours while they warm up.
Mark: And then what?
Toby: See if there's anyone fit they could cop off with and when that fails drink even more. Then you'll soon be drunk enough to start singing along to Madonna, then hug some people you know vaguely and say how much you love them and how we never get a chance to hang out. Then finally fall asleep in the corner while people take comedy photos of you.
Mark: But if you don't want to cop off with someone?
Toby: Look on with amusement while your mate tries it on. Then join in with the Madonna rendition and get your camera ready for the snoozer.
Mark: So there's singing?
Toby: Well it's a generous term but yeah often some people stretch the old vocal chords.
Mark: And there's dancing.
Toby: Yeah
Mark: But not at the beginning?
Toby: Nope. Drink first then dancing.
Mark: So what do you do when you're not drinking.
Toby: How do you mean?
Mark: I mean, do you play games or anything?
Toby laughs: Well, pass the parcel is a bit out of fashion these days.
Mark: Adult games.
Toby: That requires the copping off.
Mark smiles at the joke but Toby realises that he does actually want an answer.
Toby: People often do drinking games.
Mark: Ok, could you teach me the rules.
Toby: Well, to be honest half the fun is if you don't really get them. But I'd be really surprised if we played them on Saturday. We haven't done that kind of thing in years.
Mark: So what do you do?
Toby: Well, we just kind of talk.
Mark: Until you start singing and dancing?
Toby: Generally, yes.
Mark: How long does it take?
Toby: I don't know, at least until midnight.
Mark: So there's normally about four or five hours of just drinking and talking?
Toby: Yeah.
Mark considers this.
Mark: I think I'd better practice my conversation.
Toby: It might help.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
A first conversation (TJ)
I've written various things for both ideas and so most of the posts of the next two weeks or so will be out of order of when they were made and might make little sense on their own but bear with me. Hopefully it will start to take shape.
I'm just starting with a first conversation between Jules and Sean (no longer Simon).
The basic premise is that Jules is on a bus across Flores (an island east of Bali). She's the only westerner on the bus and is enjoying staring out at the dry, rugged hills that the bus keep circling.
They stop off at a small village. Various people get on and off. Those getting one include Sean. Sean gives Jules a smile as he gets to the free seat at the back. Jules looks annoyed at this presumed connection. This makes Sean smile more but he doesn't say anything.
Later the bus stops for half an hour for lunch. Jules sits at a table with some soup and a coke. Sean comes up to her.
Sean: Do you mind if I join you?
Jules: Why me?
Sean: I'm sorry?
Jules: Why me. There are lots of people sitting alone at tables here. Why did you choose me?
Sean: Because you're white.
He sits down.
Jules: I didn't say you could join me.
Sean: I know but I have a feeling you've got something you want to say to me and I'd rather be sitting down for the onslaught.
Jules: I have nothing to say to you
Sean: Really, there's nothing about my behaviour that's upset you? You looked really upset when I smiled at you on the bus and my smile was only very mildly lecherous so I don't think it was that.
Jules: But it was mildly lecherous?
Sean: You're an attractive woman. I'm a straight man. A thought crossed my mind. It might have come through but I wouldn't read anything into it.
Jules: I'm not the only attractive woman on the bus.
Sean: True.
Jules: But I'm the one you smiled at.
Sean: I'm not hitting on you. I'm just hoping for conversation.
Jules: Why don't you talk to the locals.
Sean: Your English is better than theirs.
Jules: You didn't know that when you smiled.
Sean: It was a reasonable guess.
Jules: Do you not find it ridiculous that people come all the way across the world and then just talk to people just like them.
Sean: So you're just like me?
Jules: Superficially yes.
Sean: But the difference is that you have an genuine interest in the country you're in and its people etc.
Jules: Is this an argument you've been looking to have?
Sean laughs and smiles in a strangely ingenuous way.
Sean: Yeah, alright. Busted. Sorry. I've just spend five days in a small Indonesian village gaving somewhat inane conversation about how many brothers and sisters I have and why I'm not married yet. I was really looking forward to talking to someone about random shit but I knew I was bound to end up having this conversation.
Jules: Why's that?
Sean: I don't know. Backpackers have a bit of a self-hate thing going on. They're not willing to admit they're just on holiday.
Jules: Do you really think that's true.
Sean: I don't mean it as an insult. If you get a chance to take a six month holiday in your life then I can't think of a better way to spend it. But there's no point pretending it's some life changing event.
Jules: You're not expecting this trip to change your life?
Sean: No, but it's only three weeks so I think it's asking a little much. How about you?
Jules: I'm travelling for six months. And I'm not expecting it to change my life. I'm sure my life will be more or less as I left it when I get back. But I'm hoping it might change me.
Sean: And what about yourself are you hoping to get changed.
Jules: That's a rather personal question to ask someone whose name you don't know.
Sean: If I did know your name, if I knew about your life, knew your friends, would in anyway come in contact with you again then I'd be more nervous about such a question but I'm a total stranger. What does it matter what you tell me?
Jules: Are you seriously saying that if you know my name you'd be less interested in my great personal problems.
Sean: Not less interested. Just more cautious about asking about them.
Jules: My name's Jules.
Sean smiles.
Sena: Sean.
Jules: Nice to meet you Sean. Unfortunately I feel we know each other too well now to have any good conversation so I'm going to continue with my book.
Jules smiles. Sean smiles. Sean is about to say something but Jules has her face very ostentatiously in her book. The book is Labyrinths by Borges in the original spanish.
Sean: Borges?
Jules: Now you know I read Spanish. I'm afraid you know far too much about me for us to have any conversation whatsoever.
Sean takes out his book 'The Year of Living Dangerously'.
The bus driver honks his horn and they both get on. They take their seats and Jules puts her earphones in. Sean watches her and smiles. He sees a guy shyly trying to make eye contact with him. He avoids him for a bit but then relents and turns to the guy.
Sean: 'Selamet Sieng'
The man is hugely excited.
Man: Selamet Sieng. Do you speak Indonesian.
Sean: No.
Man: Ok. Where you from?
I'm just starting with a first conversation between Jules and Sean (no longer Simon).
The basic premise is that Jules is on a bus across Flores (an island east of Bali). She's the only westerner on the bus and is enjoying staring out at the dry, rugged hills that the bus keep circling.
They stop off at a small village. Various people get on and off. Those getting one include Sean. Sean gives Jules a smile as he gets to the free seat at the back. Jules looks annoyed at this presumed connection. This makes Sean smile more but he doesn't say anything.
Later the bus stops for half an hour for lunch. Jules sits at a table with some soup and a coke. Sean comes up to her.
Sean: Do you mind if I join you?
Jules: Why me?
Sean: I'm sorry?
Jules: Why me. There are lots of people sitting alone at tables here. Why did you choose me?
Sean: Because you're white.
He sits down.
Jules: I didn't say you could join me.
Sean: I know but I have a feeling you've got something you want to say to me and I'd rather be sitting down for the onslaught.
Jules: I have nothing to say to you
Sean: Really, there's nothing about my behaviour that's upset you? You looked really upset when I smiled at you on the bus and my smile was only very mildly lecherous so I don't think it was that.
Jules: But it was mildly lecherous?
Sean: You're an attractive woman. I'm a straight man. A thought crossed my mind. It might have come through but I wouldn't read anything into it.
Jules: I'm not the only attractive woman on the bus.
Sean: True.
Jules: But I'm the one you smiled at.
Sean: I'm not hitting on you. I'm just hoping for conversation.
Jules: Why don't you talk to the locals.
Sean: Your English is better than theirs.
Jules: You didn't know that when you smiled.
Sean: It was a reasonable guess.
Jules: Do you not find it ridiculous that people come all the way across the world and then just talk to people just like them.
Sean: So you're just like me?
Jules: Superficially yes.
Sean: But the difference is that you have an genuine interest in the country you're in and its people etc.
Jules: Is this an argument you've been looking to have?
Sean laughs and smiles in a strangely ingenuous way.
Sean: Yeah, alright. Busted. Sorry. I've just spend five days in a small Indonesian village gaving somewhat inane conversation about how many brothers and sisters I have and why I'm not married yet. I was really looking forward to talking to someone about random shit but I knew I was bound to end up having this conversation.
Jules: Why's that?
Sean: I don't know. Backpackers have a bit of a self-hate thing going on. They're not willing to admit they're just on holiday.
Jules: Do you really think that's true.
Sean: I don't mean it as an insult. If you get a chance to take a six month holiday in your life then I can't think of a better way to spend it. But there's no point pretending it's some life changing event.
Jules: You're not expecting this trip to change your life?
Sean: No, but it's only three weeks so I think it's asking a little much. How about you?
Jules: I'm travelling for six months. And I'm not expecting it to change my life. I'm sure my life will be more or less as I left it when I get back. But I'm hoping it might change me.
Sean: And what about yourself are you hoping to get changed.
Jules: That's a rather personal question to ask someone whose name you don't know.
Sean: If I did know your name, if I knew about your life, knew your friends, would in anyway come in contact with you again then I'd be more nervous about such a question but I'm a total stranger. What does it matter what you tell me?
Jules: Are you seriously saying that if you know my name you'd be less interested in my great personal problems.
Sean: Not less interested. Just more cautious about asking about them.
Jules: My name's Jules.
Sean smiles.
Sena: Sean.
Jules: Nice to meet you Sean. Unfortunately I feel we know each other too well now to have any good conversation so I'm going to continue with my book.
Jules smiles. Sean smiles. Sean is about to say something but Jules has her face very ostentatiously in her book. The book is Labyrinths by Borges in the original spanish.
Sean: Borges?
Jules: Now you know I read Spanish. I'm afraid you know far too much about me for us to have any conversation whatsoever.
Sean takes out his book 'The Year of Living Dangerously'.
The bus driver honks his horn and they both get on. They take their seats and Jules puts her earphones in. Sean watches her and smiles. He sees a guy shyly trying to make eye contact with him. He avoids him for a bit but then relents and turns to the guy.
Sean: 'Selamet Sieng'
The man is hugely excited.
Man: Selamet Sieng. Do you speak Indonesian.
Sean: No.
Man: Ok. Where you from?
The other ideas
For the record, these were the other ideas on the shortlist. I'm confident we've picked the right two but if anyone is particularly interested in the others let me know.
Invincible Dave
Dave lives in Godalming, Surrey. As he has his entire life except for 3 years at uni, in Reading.
Dave is not one for adventure. Nor is he really one for giving back to the community. So it is arguable if you were to pick anyone on this planet to discover that they’re completely invincible Dave would not be it.
And indeed when he does discover it he does not see why this should in anyway change his life. But his mate Harry thinks this is his way out of Godalming. If only he can persuade Dave to act like a superhero. It’s important to note that Dave has no other superpowers. He’s not fast or strong or able shoot bolts of lightning from his eyes. It’s just you can’t kill him. You can make him hurt but he doesn’t get cut or burnt or broken. It just brushes off him. Still hurts a lot though so he’s not that keen on going into burning buildings etc.
This could go big in terms of actually foiling big criminals etc. or it could never leave Surrey. I think I prefer the latter. Certainly there should be no other invincible people or supervillains or anything like that. It’s just another of my something weird happens to one person in an otherwise perfectly normal world.
If you ask nicely
Tom is passionate, idealistic and frustrated at his failure to make a difference to the world. He feels powerless when he wishes to make such a difference.
Fate changes when he discovers that his young niece can get anyone to agree to any request as she says please. (This doesn’t work when you know it but if you don’t then you’ll end up doing it to your own bemusement).
Tom believes that all he needs is to get his niece to talk to powerful people and change can be made. And with a big G20 conference coming up this is his chance to commit powerful people to making real change. He just somehow needs to get his niece to meet these people.
Rom-Com Rules
I’m struggling to piece this together but I really want to find a way to do ‘Scream’ for rom-coms. I.e. to make a rom-com about a couple who are obsessed by rom-coms and know all the rules but end of falling in love in that way despite it.
Getting My Vote
Toby comes from a very politically active Labour voting family but couldn’t begin to give a fuck personally. When a crucial by-election happens back in his hometown they urge him to get involved but he has no intention of doing so.
However he meets a pretty girl and determined to win her attention end up volunteering with the Conservatives, desperately trying to keep it secret from his parents.
I’ve done quite a lot of work on this, treatments, bits of script etc if you’d like to have a look.
The Backy
I don’t really have a structure behind this but basically it has this beginning:
A guy who needs to get across London in 10 minutes when the tubes are fucked and the traffice is gridlocked. So he hails down a courier and asks for a backy. It turns out that the girl courier is someone he’d been in love with when he was 16.
He wants to start a relationship and has projected onto her the role of the ‘kook’ who will break him free from his uptight shackles with her free wheeling spark and joie de vivre. The problem is she isn’t really that sparky and more imporatantly he isn’t that uptight. This is a story about a guy who discovers, that for him personally, he’s much happier in his not very sexy job, not being a slightly exciting/unstable individual and doesn’t need some outside influence to make him blossom. He’s actually blossomed and he just needs to realise it.
It’s kind of a response to Garden State, and to a certain extent, 500 Days of Summer. But I want it to be funny. And I want it to be upbeat. Probably not romantic in the traditional sense because on one level it’s saying that he doesn’t need someone else to make him comfortable in who he is. Although I still quite want to give him someone, just not the courier who he obsesses over.
Love Capital Flow
A journalist discovers that there is a ‘Love exchange’ where people buy stocks and shares in other people’s relationships. It started off by being about celebrity relationships but now people are on there betting on whether friends will hook up, break up or get married. She discovers that there is one guy on there who people meet and presume will soon be with someone so put money on but always get burnt as he never seals the deal. She decides to do a report on him and discover where he seems to be going so wrong.
This came to me in a sleep deprived haze last night after a friend of mine in publishing said she and her boyfriend had come up with a title but no story. I’m not sure it’s totally coherent yet but I quite like this idea of a facebook geek making shit loads of money on people’s gossip back and forth and people discovering what friends think their chances of being with someone are.
Student Life Assistant
A graduate has come straight out of Oxbridge into a high pressured business environment. He was so ready to leave for about two years thinking only of his job, of success and entering the grown up world. He didn’t really enjoy uni. Hadn’t really given it much of a chance.
He’s called into the Boss’s office just three months in and is overwhelmed with excitement that he’s already been earmarked for a specific job. He’s somewhat underwhelmed to discover that the boss wants him to be essentially a PA to his young daughter, the first member of his family to go to uni, who is going to his old college next week. He’s there to make sure she gets the most out of her time. To attend the lectures she misses, makes sure she goes to all the right parties, signs up to the right extracurricular activities and generally make sure her life goes smoothly. Mortified as he is by this task he accepts it because of the big dangling carrot of a serious promotion after he’s done one year of it.
So he finds himself back at the place he ran from, having to pretend to be doing a masters and picking up the pieces of the scatty, feckless and rather beautiful daddy’s girl who’s starting at uni.
Korean gangsters in Suburbia
I have this vague idea of having this guy obsessed with all those kind of hyper tough Korean films like Old Boy who starts dating a british Korean girl who lives in New Malden (which is half highly British suburb, half little Seoul) and becomes convinced that her slightly menacing dad is indeed one of the tough guy gangsters from the film.
Invincible Dave
Dave lives in Godalming, Surrey. As he has his entire life except for 3 years at uni, in Reading.
Dave is not one for adventure. Nor is he really one for giving back to the community. So it is arguable if you were to pick anyone on this planet to discover that they’re completely invincible Dave would not be it.
And indeed when he does discover it he does not see why this should in anyway change his life. But his mate Harry thinks this is his way out of Godalming. If only he can persuade Dave to act like a superhero. It’s important to note that Dave has no other superpowers. He’s not fast or strong or able shoot bolts of lightning from his eyes. It’s just you can’t kill him. You can make him hurt but he doesn’t get cut or burnt or broken. It just brushes off him. Still hurts a lot though so he’s not that keen on going into burning buildings etc.
This could go big in terms of actually foiling big criminals etc. or it could never leave Surrey. I think I prefer the latter. Certainly there should be no other invincible people or supervillains or anything like that. It’s just another of my something weird happens to one person in an otherwise perfectly normal world.
If you ask nicely
Tom is passionate, idealistic and frustrated at his failure to make a difference to the world. He feels powerless when he wishes to make such a difference.
Fate changes when he discovers that his young niece can get anyone to agree to any request as she says please. (This doesn’t work when you know it but if you don’t then you’ll end up doing it to your own bemusement).
Tom believes that all he needs is to get his niece to talk to powerful people and change can be made. And with a big G20 conference coming up this is his chance to commit powerful people to making real change. He just somehow needs to get his niece to meet these people.
Rom-Com Rules
I’m struggling to piece this together but I really want to find a way to do ‘Scream’ for rom-coms. I.e. to make a rom-com about a couple who are obsessed by rom-coms and know all the rules but end of falling in love in that way despite it.
Getting My Vote
Toby comes from a very politically active Labour voting family but couldn’t begin to give a fuck personally. When a crucial by-election happens back in his hometown they urge him to get involved but he has no intention of doing so.
However he meets a pretty girl and determined to win her attention end up volunteering with the Conservatives, desperately trying to keep it secret from his parents.
I’ve done quite a lot of work on this, treatments, bits of script etc if you’d like to have a look.
The Backy
I don’t really have a structure behind this but basically it has this beginning:
A guy who needs to get across London in 10 minutes when the tubes are fucked and the traffice is gridlocked. So he hails down a courier and asks for a backy. It turns out that the girl courier is someone he’d been in love with when he was 16.
He wants to start a relationship and has projected onto her the role of the ‘kook’ who will break him free from his uptight shackles with her free wheeling spark and joie de vivre. The problem is she isn’t really that sparky and more imporatantly he isn’t that uptight. This is a story about a guy who discovers, that for him personally, he’s much happier in his not very sexy job, not being a slightly exciting/unstable individual and doesn’t need some outside influence to make him blossom. He’s actually blossomed and he just needs to realise it.
It’s kind of a response to Garden State, and to a certain extent, 500 Days of Summer. But I want it to be funny. And I want it to be upbeat. Probably not romantic in the traditional sense because on one level it’s saying that he doesn’t need someone else to make him comfortable in who he is. Although I still quite want to give him someone, just not the courier who he obsesses over.
Love Capital Flow
A journalist discovers that there is a ‘Love exchange’ where people buy stocks and shares in other people’s relationships. It started off by being about celebrity relationships but now people are on there betting on whether friends will hook up, break up or get married. She discovers that there is one guy on there who people meet and presume will soon be with someone so put money on but always get burnt as he never seals the deal. She decides to do a report on him and discover where he seems to be going so wrong.
This came to me in a sleep deprived haze last night after a friend of mine in publishing said she and her boyfriend had come up with a title but no story. I’m not sure it’s totally coherent yet but I quite like this idea of a facebook geek making shit loads of money on people’s gossip back and forth and people discovering what friends think their chances of being with someone are.
Student Life Assistant
A graduate has come straight out of Oxbridge into a high pressured business environment. He was so ready to leave for about two years thinking only of his job, of success and entering the grown up world. He didn’t really enjoy uni. Hadn’t really given it much of a chance.
He’s called into the Boss’s office just three months in and is overwhelmed with excitement that he’s already been earmarked for a specific job. He’s somewhat underwhelmed to discover that the boss wants him to be essentially a PA to his young daughter, the first member of his family to go to uni, who is going to his old college next week. He’s there to make sure she gets the most out of her time. To attend the lectures she misses, makes sure she goes to all the right parties, signs up to the right extracurricular activities and generally make sure her life goes smoothly. Mortified as he is by this task he accepts it because of the big dangling carrot of a serious promotion after he’s done one year of it.
So he finds himself back at the place he ran from, having to pretend to be doing a masters and picking up the pieces of the scatty, feckless and rather beautiful daddy’s girl who’s starting at uni.
Korean gangsters in Suburbia
I have this vague idea of having this guy obsessed with all those kind of hyper tough Korean films like Old Boy who starts dating a british Korean girl who lives in New Malden (which is half highly British suburb, half little Seoul) and becomes convinced that her slightly menacing dad is indeed one of the tough guy gangsters from the film.
The Experiment
My aim is to write a first draft of a screenplay by April next year. But I know what I'm like. I write myself into a corner and feel all alone and can't get anything done. So to ward this off I'm making sure I don't feel too alone by letting people I trust comment along the way. I'm going to put up pretty much all my scribbles. Bad ideas, half ideas, snippets of conversation. And I'm hoping that those who read it will feel able to openly say when something's good, when something's a terrible idea and when they have something they feel they could contribute to it. I'll be leading on the script but want it to be as collaborative as a film is. With me directing it but not doing it all by myself.
The other thing I need advice on is which script idea I'm to do. I've narrowed it down (for now) to two. Their names are currently 'Towards Java' and 'Advanced Fun'.
They were picked from a shortlist with Aaron (producer) and Nick C (director) who hopefully are going to do the project with me. This is the very brief pitch I gave them for each:
Towards Java
Jules is on a bus going through a remote Indonesia village which stops to pick up a few more passengers including a Brit, Simon. Despite an initial argument they discover they are going the same way and agree to travel together and share rooms (if not beds)
Theirs is a relationship built on loneliness and sexual tension. It’s made more difficult by the fundamentally different views they have on travelling, life back home and monogamy.
I want to go for a Before Sunrise conversation heavy charm offensive. But I also want to bring in a bit of the Y Tu Mama Tambien narrator thing where small characters get given local stories as a cutaway to give a sense of the place they are walking through often indifferently.
And this is the other one
Advanced Fun
Tom and Jo have settled into domestic bliss. They have a house, good jobs, love each other. But they worry a lot that they’ve become old too quickly.
Tom’s cousin comes to stay. He’s suffered from ME since he was 16 and has just managed to finish university at 26. He’s never been able to go out. He’s never been to a club, barely been to a party. He’s never been to a gig or on an all night bender. Never been in the presence of drugs. Never had a girl. He’s not socially inept although he is quiet and shy. But he’s suddenly feeling a lot better. He’s holding down a job and finding that doesn’t have to be all he does. He can go out. So he asks the couple to show him how to have fun. And they’re petrified they don’t know how anymore but together they try and learn how to be young, reckless and fun again.
So pretty much all other posts are going to be about one or other of these. I might put the odd one in which is just a thought about the writing process but mostly it'll be about these two. All comments welcomed, none taken as offense (apart from one's about my mother). Hope it helps.
The other thing I need advice on is which script idea I'm to do. I've narrowed it down (for now) to two. Their names are currently 'Towards Java' and 'Advanced Fun'.
They were picked from a shortlist with Aaron (producer) and Nick C (director) who hopefully are going to do the project with me. This is the very brief pitch I gave them for each:
Towards Java
Jules is on a bus going through a remote Indonesia village which stops to pick up a few more passengers including a Brit, Simon. Despite an initial argument they discover they are going the same way and agree to travel together and share rooms (if not beds)
Theirs is a relationship built on loneliness and sexual tension. It’s made more difficult by the fundamentally different views they have on travelling, life back home and monogamy.
I want to go for a Before Sunrise conversation heavy charm offensive. But I also want to bring in a bit of the Y Tu Mama Tambien narrator thing where small characters get given local stories as a cutaway to give a sense of the place they are walking through often indifferently.
And this is the other one
Advanced Fun
Tom and Jo have settled into domestic bliss. They have a house, good jobs, love each other. But they worry a lot that they’ve become old too quickly.
Tom’s cousin comes to stay. He’s suffered from ME since he was 16 and has just managed to finish university at 26. He’s never been able to go out. He’s never been to a club, barely been to a party. He’s never been to a gig or on an all night bender. Never been in the presence of drugs. Never had a girl. He’s not socially inept although he is quiet and shy. But he’s suddenly feeling a lot better. He’s holding down a job and finding that doesn’t have to be all he does. He can go out. So he asks the couple to show him how to have fun. And they’re petrified they don’t know how anymore but together they try and learn how to be young, reckless and fun again.
So pretty much all other posts are going to be about one or other of these. I might put the odd one in which is just a thought about the writing process but mostly it'll be about these two. All comments welcomed, none taken as offense (apart from one's about my mother). Hope it helps.
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