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.

Concept Worksheet 4 - Midnight Coffee

Short Film – 20 minutes – for festivals

Story Statement: After driving for hours to visit his dying mother, Tim stops for a cup of coffee and finds himself trying to drive a pregnant woman to the hospital without passing out.

Visual Style: Dark, with a lot of fantasy sequences/hallucinations.

Story: An older, grizzled mountain man has been driving his Camaro across the desert for almost 20 hours straight. His mother is on her deathbed, and he is trying to get to her before she goes. It is late at night, and the strain is beginning to get to him. He starts having trouble staying awake, so he decides to pull into a fast-food place to get some coffee. He goes through the drive-thru line, but when he pulls up to the speaker something is wrong. He hears the sound of some sort of fight through the speaker. Suddenly a pregnant woman runs out of the restaurant, screaming. She runs down the road. Then several police cars pull up, and the police run into the building. He drives away, still very tired.

As he drives down the road, he sees the pregnant woman. He drives past her. He watches her in his rearview mirror. She suddenly clutches her stomach and collapses. The man stops his car, then reverses it to the pregnant woman. He opens the door, and asks if she needs any help. She is Hispanic, and does not speak much English, but he understands the words hospital and baby. He helps her in the backseat, and drives off.

Unfortunately for him and her, the hospital is across town. He struggles to stay awake as the woman screams and yells at him. He eventually begins to hallucinate, and almost falls asleep at the wheel. After almost crashing his car, he decides that he needs some coffee in order to make it to the hospital. Against the protests of the young woman, he pulls into a parking lot and runs into the coffee shop.

Inside the coffee shop the employees are all closing down the store. The man orders the strongest coffee they have, but the barista refuses to make it for him. They argue for a bit, and eventually the man pulls a gun on the barista. Under threats of death, the barista quickly makes a cup of coffee for the man. The man takes and chugs it in one gulp, throws away the cup, then pays the barista. Refreshed, he runs back into the car where the young woman is struggling with her baby. They drive off.

They make it to the hospital with seconds to spare. The woman goes into the emergency room, and the man collapses into a chair and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he learns his mother passed away, and that the young woman successfully had a healthy baby.

Audience Appeal: Will be both funny and thrilling. Everyone can relate to being really tired while also having to do something.

Fresh Eyes: The Power of an Audience

When coming up with an idea for a movie, and then making that movie, I think it is important to remember that I am not unique. There are many other people with life experiences that are very similar to mine, and therefore they probably have similar tastes as me. I make movies that I think I would like to watch. At the same time, one of the great things about film is that it is a collaborative medium, and movies rarely conform to only one person's viewpoints.

Instant Story - Midnight Coffee

An older, grizzled mountain man has been driving his Camaro across the desert for almost 20 hours straight. His mother is on her deathbed, and he is trying to get to her before she goes. It is late at night, and the strain is beginning to get to him. He starts having trouble staying awake, so he decides to pull into a fast-food place to get some coffee. He goes through the drive-thru line, but when he pulls up to the speaker something is wrong. He hears the sound of some sort of fight through the speaker. Suddenly a pregnant woman runs out of the restaurant, screaming. She runs down the road. Then several police cars pull up, and the police run into the building. He drives away, still very tired.

As he drives down the road, he sees the pregnant woman. He drives past her. He watches her in his rearview mirror. She suddenly clutches her stomach and collapses. The man stops his car, then reverses it to the pregnant woman. He opens the door, and asks if she needs any help. She is Hispanic, and does not speak much English, but he understands the words hospital and baby. He helps her in the backseat, and drives off.

Unfortunately for him and her, the hospital is across town. He struggles to stay awake as the woman screams and yells at him. He eventually begins to hallucinate, and almost falls asleep at the wheel. After almost crashing his car, he decides that he needs some coffee in order to make it to the hospital. Against the protests of the young woman, he pulls into a parking lot and runs into the coffee shop.

Inside the coffee shop the employees are all closing down the store. The man orders the strongest coffee they have, but the barista refuses to make it for him. They argue for a bit, and eventually the man pulls a gun on the barista. Under threats of death, the barista quickly makes a cup of coffee for the man. The man takes and chugs it in one gulp, throws away the cup, then pays the barista. Refreshed, he runs back into the car where the young woman is struggling with her baby. They drive off.


They make it to the hospital with seconds to spare. The woman goes into the emergency room, and the man collapses into a chair and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he learns his mother passed away, and that the young woman successfully had a healthy baby.

Observed Moments in Photographs - Geisha Vengeance

Observational Notebook - Two People Makin' Out

We are at a party.
Everyone is sitting around talking, drinking.
Except for two people.
Two people, a guy and a girl, are dancing in the corner.
What they are doing can only be called dirty dancing.
(No one else is dancing, by the way)
It's really awkward,
but most are too drunk to notice.

Concept Worksheet 3 - Geisha Vengeance

Feature-Length: 60-90 minutes

Story Statement: A young woman attempts to kill a gang leader responsible for the death of her lover. It does not go as planned.

Visual Look: High contrast, dark saturated colors; complicated camera movements

Narrative Outline: We begin the film in a lavish room in a large and heavily guarded complex. A gang leader is sitting at a table, surrounded by guards. A man is kneeling before him, a gun to his head. He is about to be executed for failure to pay back debts. As he pleads for his life, the gang leader orders his dinner be brought to him. A young girl dressed in a geisha outfit brings out a large platter of food. As she sets it down, though, she accidentally spills the leader's drink. He slaps her, and one of his guards takes her out of the room.

The guard leads her through the hallways of the complex. Suddenly, when they are out of site, she pulls out a knife she had swiped earlier from the tray, and she slashes the guards throat. Then she pulls out a small device hidden inside her dress. She activates it.

Back in the lavish room, the gang boss begins to dig into his chicken. He realizes that there is a bomb inside the chicken.

The girl runs through the halls. An explosion rocks the building. Gunfire can be heard erupting from the room. The girl manages to avoid the guards as they all run towards the central room. She escapes out a back door. The gunfire stops. She is almost away, when the main doors to the complex fly open. The gang leader is standing there, disfigured, covered in blood, but still standing. He chases her down and grabs her, leading her off into the woods.

They walk through the woods. The gang leader explains that just before the bomb went off, he was able to dive behind a wall, saving him from most of the blast. However, in the ensuing confusion, all of his guards turned on him, and tried to kill him. His only loyal guards were killed in the gunfight, but he was able to escape. He apologizes for hitting her, and laughs as he says that she is the only person he can trust, because she is the only person in the organization that he hasn't wronged in a meaningful way.

They stop at a creek so he can wash the blood off his face. He sets his gun down next to him. The girl tries to take the gun, but the gang leader picks it up again before she can. As he turns around to look at her, he realizes that her makeup has been started to come off because of all the sweat from her running. We now see that there is a large scar across her cheek.

Flashback to several years before. The gang leader is torturing a young boy who had wronged him. The girl is hiding in a closet, watching. The leader kills the boy, then notices the girl. He tries to kill her too, but she is able to escape. However, the leader cuts a large gash into her cheek.

Present day: the girl realizes that her scar is showing. The gang leader puts it all together in his mind. He points the gun at the girl's head. There is a loud bang, and a hole appears in the gang leader's head. He slumps to the ground. Behind him is standing the man who was going to be executed, holding a smoking gun.

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 2 - Danger in the Air

Short live-action film for festivals/web, to be used as basis for feature

20 minutes

Visual Look: Claustrophobic, dark, interspersed with sprawling beautiful wide aerial shots.

Story Statement: A pilot for a skydiving service realizes his passengers are terrorists planning on dropping a weapon on a large city, and he is the only one who can stop them. Die Hard on a plane.

Narrative Outline: Tim, a former navy pilot, is hired by a group of seemingly wealthy thrill-seekers to fly them over LA so that they can skydive into the city center. Tim needs the money, so he agrees to do it. The group acts odd though, and Tim suspects that something is up. After he has taken off, he gets a call over the radio. It is the FBI, and they suspect that the group is made up of terrorists planning on dropping a bomb into LA. They tell Tim to try to land at a nearby airstrip. Tim attempts to change course without the terrorists noticing. They catch on, and threaten him with death if he does not return to the original course. He is able to use his navy training to subdue all but one of them. The final terrorist reveals that they were not going to drop an actual bomb on the city; instead, they were going to infect themselves with a deadly and highly contagious virus and drop themselves into the city. Then he sticks a syringe into his arm and falls out of the plane into a small town below.

Audience Connection: If done right, it should be a thrilling, suspenseful 20 minutes. Also, most people can relate with having an important task that must be done quickly, and having no idea how to do that task.

Moments in Photographs: Geisha Vengeance

We begin the film in a lavish room in a large and heavily guarded complex. A gang leader is sitting at a table, surrounded by guards. A man is kneeling before him, a gun to his head. He is about to be executed for failure to pay back debts. As he pleads for his life, the gang leader orders his dinner be brought to him. A young girl dressed in a geisha outfit brings out a large platter of food. As she sets it down, though, she accidentally spills the leader's drink. He slaps her, and one of his guards takes her out of the room.

The guard leads her through the hallways of the complex. Suddenly, when they are out of site, she pulls out a knife she had swiped earlier from the tray, and she slashes the guards throat. Then she pulls out a small device hidden inside her dress. She activates it.

Back in the lavish room, the gang boss begins to dig into his chicken. He realizes that there is a bomb inside the chicken.

The girl runs through the halls. An explosion rocks the building. Gunfire can be heard erupting from the room. The girl manages to avoid the guards as they all run towards the central room. She escapes out a back door. The gunfire stops. She is almost away, when the main doors to the complex fly open. The gang leader is standing there, disfigured, covered in blood, but still standing. He chases her down and grabs her, leading her off into the woods.

They walk through the woods. The gang leader explains that just before the bomb went off, he was able to dive behind a wall, saving him from most of the blast. However, in the ensuing confusion, all of his guards turned on him, and tried to kill him. His only loyal guards were killed in the gunfight, but he was able to escape. He apologizes for hitting her, and laughs as he says that she is the only person he can trust, because she is the only person in the organization that he hasn't wronged in a meaningful way.

They stop at a creek so he can wash the blood off his face. He sets his gun down next to him. The girl tries to take the gun, but the gang leader picks it up again before she can. As he turns around to look at her, he realizes that her makeup has been started to come off because of all the sweat from her running. We now see that there is a large scar across her cheek.

Flashback to several years before. The gang leader is torturing a young boy who had wronged him. The girl is hiding in a closet, watching. The leader kills the boy, then notices the girl. He tries to kill her too, but she is able to escape. However, the leader cuts a large gash into her cheek.

Present day: the girl realizes that her scar is showing. The gang leader puts it all together in his mind. He points the gun at the girl's head. There is a loud bang, and a hole appears in the gang leader's head. He slumps to the ground. Behind him is standing the man who was going to be executed, holding a smoking gun.

Observational Notebook: One of Those Smells

As I walked out of my apartment complex, it hit me: one of those terrible lingering smells that seem to come from nowhere. As long as I stood in that one spot, I could smell it. It was not pleasant, and reminded me of of moldy carpet crossed with something horrible and indescribable. I was reminded of New York, where similarly interesting and horrible smells hit you in the face all the time. And I mean "hit you in the face" literally. They don't drift past you, like a pleasant ocean breeze or the smell of a tasty cake; they actually run into you, forcing you to stumble and regain your balance.

Responding to Creative Differences

The hardest part of collaboration isn't usually being the director fighting for his creative vision, it's being on the opposite side: the guy who is trying to convince the director that he should be doing something differently. This is tricky, because it is often hard to tell the difference between your own creative vision and an idea that will help the director. Ideally, you want what is best for the movie.

Observational Journal - The Man More Badass Than Me

I was in the thrift store the other day, looking for props for a movie. I noticed these awesomely badass black leather trenchcoats, which were also really cheap. One had a cowboy-style pattern on the back, and another was made out of fake alligator skin. I seriously considered buying one, but I hesitated, because I was worried that I would look like a serial killer (one of the less-unfortunate effects of the Columbine shootings is that you can't wear black trenchcoats in public anymore). However, they were still really cool, so I decided to look around some more and come back to them. So I came back, but this time there was someone else checking out the jackets. He was a legitimate Mountain Man, with a long beard and weathered skin, and he was already wearing a leather jacket with cowboy boots and totally not looking ridiculous. If I had to guess, I'd say he was at least one million years old, and he probably could have killed me with a well-placed stare. I sheepishly looked at some less-badass jackets, then I decided that if anyone should be buying those trenchcoats, it should be that guy. And I am $20 richer today because of that decision.

A Life Unguarded: Concept Worksheet 1

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.

Arguments Worth Having

The most important thing you need to have in a coolaboration is trust. You have to trust your actors to do what they need to do, the actors need to trust the directors decisions, the director needs to trust that the cinematographer knows what he or she is doing, etc. This is especially difficult on super-low-budget films, because most of the time the people working for you are not being paid. This means you have to rely on them to show up on time and do the work with no incentive other than professionalism and a desire to work. A lot of the time this means that I end up doing a lot of the dirty work myself, because I don't want to ask someone else to do it for me for free.

Moral of the story: having money is nice.