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.