Concept Worksheet 8 - Blacktop Vigilante

Short film - 10 min - for festivals, as basis for a feature film

Story Statement: A rogue vigilante in a one-of-a-kind car goes head to head with the driver of an oil tanker for an evil oil company.

Visual Style: Big, open expanse contrasted with the speed of two objects hurtling toward each other.

Plot: The desert is empty, desolate, save for the single dilapidated two-lane road that stretches across it. Dark clouds rise from an oil refinery off in the distance. A lone tanker truck heads away from the clouds, the words OIL CO. emblazoned on its side. The truck is heavily armored, some of it obviously just hastily welded-on scrap metal. The driver is eating a large sandwich and listening to ‘70s rock and roll. Suddenly, a voice comes in over the CB radio, but it is unintelligible. The driver turns off his music. “Can you repeat that?” He says. The voice comes in clearer now. “Drop your cargo and drive away,” it says.

            “Who is this?” asks the driver.

            “You know who this is,” says the voice.

            “You…” the driver says quietly. He nervously tightens his grip on the wheel.

            “Drop your cargo and drive away,” the voice says again.

            “You know damn well I can’t do that,” says the driver.

            “That gasoline isn’t making it to the border. It’s up to you whether you do.”

            “These new trucks are more heavily armored than most tanks,” the driver responds. “I’d like to see you try-“

            The voice cuts him off. “I see you’ve already made your choice.” 

The driver is visibly shaken. He scans the horizon. He sees something in the road ahead of him, off in the distance. He squints, then realizes what it is. It looks exactly like he’d heard from the few survivors. It looks like an extravagant Motorama show car from the 1950s, only covered in makeshift scrap metal armor. He can hear its engine, too. Not the roar of a normal combustion engine, but instead a strange, menacing hum. The car is barreling towards the tanker truck at great speed. The truck driver stares, astonished. He hesitates, then presses a red button on his dashboard. A metal plate with a small slit swings down in front of the windshield; large spikes come out of the front. The driver floors the gas pedal. The two vehicles hurtle towards each other. The tanker truck driver struggles to control his vehicle at such high speed. The Motorama car almost floats over the bumpy road. The two vehicles are just a few hundred meters apart. The tanker truck driver closes his eyes. The Motorama car driver pulls a lever; a panel under his car opens, and a group of spiked metal balls spill out onto the road. He then expertly maneuvers around the tanker truck, pulls his emergency brake, and skids to a stop. The tanker truck runs over the spiked balls, which explode, destroying the tires. The truck driver loses control. The truck jackknifes, flips on its side, and skids to a halt. The door flips open, and the broken, battered truck driver climbs out. A panel opens on the Motorama car, and a rocket shoots out. It hits the truck in its weak underbelly, igniting the gas inside. The truck driver jumps out of the way as the truck explodes. The Motorama car turns and drives off the road into the desert, leaving the truck driver alone.

Audience Connection: Should be an exciting, thrilling movie that connects with an important issue of out time.

Concept Worksheet 7 - Vengeance of the Geisha

Short - 30 minutes

Story Statement: A man is brought before a crime lord to be executed for failure to pay his debts, but he is saved at the last minute by an unlikely source.

Visual Style: Dark, saturated colors, and complicated camera movements

Plot: A man is brought before a crime lord in the crime lord's lavish, Asian themed apartment. He is accused of not paying off his debts, and the crime lord makes it clear that he is going to be killed. Before this happens, the crime lord asks for food to be brought to him. A young Asian girl dressed as a geisha brings out a plate of food, but she accidentally spills a drink on the crime lord. She is quickly removed from the room, but the man notices a peculiar look in her eye. Then he looks at the crime lord's plate of food, and notices what looks like a bomb hidden underneath it. The crime lord also notices this, and flings the plate of food at a wall just as the bomb goes off. In the ensuing chaos, most of the crime lord's guards take their opportunity and try to kill the crime lord. The man is able to grab a gun from a dead guard, but he is pinned down behind a pillar. Meanwhile, the crime lord is taking out each one of his guards. The man gets an opportunity to shoot the crime lord, but he looses his resolve and doesn't. However he is able to escape the room and the building.

As he runs out of the building, he notices the geisha girl also running away. Then he sees the crime lord burst out of the front door. The crime lord grabs the geisha girl and leads her away into the woods. The man follows them to a small creek. He aims his gun at the crime lord, but he is unable to pull the trigger. Just then, the crime lord pulls his own gun at the geisha girl. Without thinking, the man pulls the trigger and shoots the crime lord in the head. The geish girl notices him. They lock eyes.

Audience Connection: Everyone can relate to the desire for revenge, though the film is about how revenge is usually more complicated than we think. Also, the film should be suspenseful and thrilling.

Concept Worksheet 6 - The Church that Exploded

Short Film - 5 minutes - for the web

Story Statement: A young man finds a mysterious object in an abandoned church and learns an important lesson

Visual Style: Bright, unrealistic colors, and long, slow camera movements

Plot:   A young man was walking down a country road. His car was in the shop, so he had to walk to and from work every day. It was getting late, and he was very tired. He spotted a small church by the side of the road. It was very small, and obviously very old. Also, it was glowing. Curious, the young man ventured inside. Inside, the church was as small and old as it looked on the outside. The source of the glow was a ball of energy floating in the middle of the room. The young man approached the ball. Suddenly, the ball spoke. “Answer me this question, and I will grant you three wishes,” the ball said. “Uh, okay,” said the man. “Which is most important: money or power?” asked the ball. The man thought about it for a minute. “Neither. Love is what’s most important,” replied the man. “WRONG. SELF-DESTRUCT INITIATED,” said the ball, as it began to pulse and glow brighter. Frightened, the man ran out of the church. Just as he reached the outside, the church exploded into a giant fireball, and the glowing ball of energy shot into space, never to return. To this day, the ruins of the church remain, forever reminding the man what happens when you over-think the answers to questions.

Audience Connection: The story is a recognizable parody of the classic style of fables.

The Kid from Beaver

Though his part in each film changes, most noticeably between the first and second, the filmmaker obviously sees himself as a character in the story. Even in the first film, where he is operating the camera, there is the little bit where he reads the letter from Don as he drives to the town. Clearly he sees himself as more than an impartial observer. In many ways, he is the reason the story happens. In the second two films, it is implied that the reason the show is put on at all is because Don thinks he is going to be on television. Throughout the second and third films you can see the filmmaker develop this idea, as he makes himself a literal character in the film. He has almost become an impartial observer this way. While the first film is filmed live, essentially bringing the filmmaker into the story, in the second two the actual filmmaker is unseen and his doppelganger is on camera, with a prop camera of his own.

As for Don himself, his "character" changes quite a bit throughout the three films. In the first film, he's not a character at all, he's an actual, strange person. The second film brings out his supposed sense of isolation from the community and his fear that people will not accept him, which is not very present in the first film. Don's character in the third film is very different from the first. The real Don seems like a normal, masculine guy, and you would never guess that he likes to dress up like Olivia Newton John unless he told you (which he probably would). Crispin Glover's Don, on the other hand, is very effeminate, and is definitely sort of the person who you would think would dress as a woman. I thought that this change, while not bad outright, did get rid of some of the more interesting parts of the original Don's character.

As for the secondary characters, the first and second films do not really have any. The only people we see Don interacting with are the filmmaker and the woman doing his makeup, and the woman barely says anything. We also see the other performers in the variety show, but they never drive the story forward or ever interact with Don. Their purpose seems to be to give us a feel for the other occupants of Beaver. In the third film, all these characters are fleshed out, and their interactions with Don are shown. This gives us a sense of Don's isolation from the community. The woman doing the makeup is obviously weirded out; the father of some of the performers voices his displeasure with Don's act; the host of the show is shown to be the school's principal. New characters are also introduced, such as Don's best friend and the other kids at the high school, who pick on Don. These characters all serve to show us how Don does not fit in with the rest of the town, and how he seeks to escape through his impersonations. This theme is not at all apparent in the first film, which is almost entirely nothing but Don. It is interesting that, though the story is told from Don's perspective in all the films, we learn the most about him through his interactions with other characters.

Observational Notebook - Snow!

Apparently they don't salt roads in New Mexico. I already knew this because I knew that classic cars from New Mexico are usually in better condition than in other areas, because salt makes cars rust faster. What I didn't know was that this also makes it really hard to drive here when it does snow.

Concept Worksheet 5 - The Treasure of Garbanzo Pass

Feature Film – 90 minutes – for festivals, the internet

Story Statement: Three friends find a treasure hidden in the desert, and their greed slowly tears them apart.

Visual Style: It would be shot like a classic western.

Story: While walking home from a party, three friends, Nathan, Sam, and John, are almost hit by a drunk driver. The driver, Rene, tells them about a hidden Confederate treasure. They decide to set out to find the treasure.

The next day, while shopping for supplies, each friend sees something expensive that want. They each realize that they would have to scam the others out of the treasure in order to afford it.

They all set out to find the treasure. It is exactly where the drunk man said. On the way back, Nathan slips away with the treasure. He runs to the road, where he hitchhikes. He is picked up by a car full of girls. They figure out that he has a box full of treasure, so they take it and kick him out of the car. Sam and John drive up behind him and pick him up. He apologizes and they set off after the treasure.

The girls take it to an all-girls school. They each sneak into the school their own way; Nathan sneaks around, John climbs the outside of the building, and Sam just asks a group of girls nicely where they went. They find the treasure and leave.

While walking away, Sam takes the treasure and jumps into the bed of a pickup truck. John and Nathan lose him, so they return to campus. There they meet Sarah, who mentions that her Grandmother is sick and needs an expensive surgery, but John and Nathan aren’t paying attention. They get a call from Sam, who asks that they come pick him up. They drive to where he tells them, and he comes running out of the woods only in his underwear. He refuses to talk about what happened.

As they drive through the desert, John’s car runs out of gas. Nathan mentions that the town is just on the other side of the desert, so John grabs the treasure and makes a run for it. They chase him across the desert. Eventually, John tires and gives up. As they get back to their car, Sarah comes to pick them up.

They drive to a pawn shop, whose owner explains to them that the treasure is actually worth millions. He also known’s someone who would buy the treasure for that amount, but they have to be at the pawn shop the next day at 5 exactly.

Unfortunately, on the way back to campus, they get run off the road by Rene. Rene is apparently part of a Mexican drug cartel, and they want the treasure. They are attacked by Rene’s gang, and they run into a canyon. As they get chased through the canyon, Sarah is captured and the gang members get the treasure, but the three guys escape in Rene’s car.

They discover that Rene’s trunk is full of guns, so they decide to take back the treasure. They raid the gang’s headquarters and find Sarah. Rene tries to escape with the treasure, but Sarah shoots him. Nathan, John, Sam, and Sarah have a classic Western standoff over the treasure, but when they fire they realize that their guns don’t have any bullets left.

Sarah remembers that they have to get back to the pawn shop before 5. They all frantically return to the pawn shop, getting there just in time. The buyer turns out to be a former western actor. He writes them a check and then walks off into the sunset.

Audience Appeal: Should be a fun and funny adventure. Also, everyone can relate to being a goofy college student.

Observational Notebook - Old Family

I saw what was obviously a large family - there was a mom and dad and several kids - except that they all seemed to be elderly. Also none of the sons (they were all boys) seemed to be married. And they all had Beatles-style haircuts.