Mar'08
20

Script Ideas

I like Vishal’s “24″ idea. “24″ is a great action/spy/adventure show and I think it’ll translate quite well to our ideas. However, though this may be hard to implement, I would like to integrate some of the cinematography from Lost in Translation.

The director, Coppola, minimized the amount of dialogue in “Lost in Translation” and emphasized the visual, I suppose, even visceral nature of Tokyo. In our case, we have a lot of material to draw on since the MTA system is huge. (On a sidenote, one scene that I can already imagine is the Staten Island bus stop; it would be empty, desolated, and deserted. One person would walk onto the bus station looking ill at ease being the only person there.)
Though I think character introduction is important, I think it’d be fun to push character information to the middle or end of the movie. The movie should cut back and forth between characters like Vishal said, but I think we shouldn’t reveal what we’re doing until the middle of the movie. Destination, origins, and goals should be left to the viewers imagination.

Since I was not in class I’m not sure what I am limited to in terms of ideas. I loved the comedy television show, “Arrested Development”. In “Arrested Development” there is a narrator that facilitates scene transactions and lets the viewer in on some of the jokes. Some of the humor is very dry. The show also feels like a documentary. The show “Office” has a similar down to earth feel.

Watch Arrested Development.

The URL above is the pilot episode of Arrested Development. That style, I think, would would work well with our video.

The script:

Starts out with some kind of peppy energetic theme music.

Scene with some kind of celebration commending the winner of 1st Annual MTA Transit Race. We come in dressed in different clothing styles. We all have different personalites. Some don’t care we lost. Some care we did, etc.

Transition to week before when our “Professor” makes us attend the race to raise awareness for the aging cash strapped MTA system. Groans and moans, and of course excitement are our responses. We all choose different starting locations.

We have different people talking about their game plan for success to each other. The narrator will reveal that everybody’s lying and trying to trick each other.

Transition to our real game plans. The competitive person will of course come up with something elaborate. Others will cheat. The narrator will reveal that one of us has a phobia for buses but is required to take a bus. (The person who has the phobia will love dwell because he dosen’t have to board the bus so quickly - resembles the character Buster from Arrested Development).

Shenanigans and adventures ensue.

Back to the celebration, the narrator will talk about how someone cheated by driving and avoiding the MTA because of its unreliable nature.

Of course, this idea needs more polish and would need input from the class.

Hope this script idea is interesting and helpful.

Last 5 posts by Hsi Chan

Replying is good.