Short, live-action film for web/festivals
20 minutes
Visual Look: Bright, saturated colors that enhance the bright colors of a swimming pool. Deep blues, bright reds, dark greens, and blinding whites all convey the sunny, hot world of a pool. The camera movement would be slow and smooth, to emphasis the tedium of being a lifeguard.
Story Statement: An extra lifeguard is brought in to work at a pool. He hates his job, and works very hard at not working at all. He also ropes in the original lifeguard to being lazy. Eventually, he is fired by the pool manager.
Narrative Outline: Tim works at his local pool as a lifeguard. He has few ambitions, and just uses the job as a way to kill time between semesters of college. The pool manager decides to hire an extra lifeguard, and she hires Matt. Matt hates being a lifeguard, but he needs the money. At first Matt thinks he can get away with being lazy; he sleeps on the job, takes long breaks, etc. However, he never gets caught, because he always looks like he is working when the pool manager shows up. Matt teaches Tim his strategies of lazyness, and at first, Tim rejects them. Eventually, however, the boredom of the job starts to get to Tim, and he gives in. In response to complaints by customers, the pool manager begins implementing stricter rules. Matt blatantly refuses to follow the rules, and eventually the pool manager sees him doing this and confronts him. Matt explains loudly and in great detail how much he hates the job, and how they keep taking away everything that makes the job tolerable. Matt is fired and replaced, and Tim continues to work at the pool, following the new rules.
Most of the movie would be little events, such as Matt asking a lap swimmer to leave the pool and her refusing, or Matt making fun of the swimmers to Tim, which don’t advance the story so much as they convey what it is like to be a lifeguard. It also would incorporate several fantasy sequences as Matt and Tim daydream while they're staring at the water.
Why an Audience Can Share in This: Every one can relate to having a sucky job that they hate and finding ways to deal with the suckiness.
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