Screenplay Update #1

Hey everyone! I am sure this will be the first update post of many when it comes to changes being made in the script, but nevertheless, I have some news.

First up, the beginning of the short film has been drafted. Oliver took the writing he did for the fictional coming of age script I shared in my last blog post and expanded upon it in terms of the context of the short film. This means that he included the shot of the physical script on the table flipping open and as well added the narrator in the scene. The narrator reads the scene descriptions for this script and the protagonist acts and performs his lines accurately until the scene reaches its turning point. Once the protagonist has to say the line “I'm late. Crap!”, they refuse to do so as the line was cheesy
to them. This is where the short film first becomes meta and reveals itself to be about the narrator and the protagonist arguing about the narrative. To hammer this in, the scene ends with the main character running away after saying that he is going to “make some changes” and the narrator yelling at him to stop it.

After Oliver put the introduction together, he began typing up the ending. Even though this is completely out of order, it was a good way to begin imagining how the short film will end and ensure that it will be as impactful as possible. This final scene begins with the narrator teleporting the protagonist to the middle of nowhere, which as of now we were thinking either being a void or somewhere in the wilderness. Here the physical embodiment of the narrator, AKA “the suited man”, hands the protagonist a script that has every event written down up to the moment of their meeting. This is where the narrator hands the protagonist the script to his life and allows him to take control of the narrative. I especially like how the film ends with the protagonist writing into the screenplay as it effectively communicates the transition of power between the two.

Next up comes everything in between. We still need to brainstorm and write a couple more scenes of the protagonist and the narrator bashing at each other during this upcoming week. This will consist with diverse changes in genre, as we decided to instead focus on a variety of cliche scenarios we can have fun with in the production instead of just a coming of age film. Expect more info soon!