Because of all the pressures in his life, Chance wishes he lived in a simpler time.
We see his fantasy in black-and-white, as he finds himself in the '50s.
He learns that things were no simpler then.
Blog it and break it.
And have fun.
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So the points we have so far are:
Chance - Cab - customer offers him a job of a lifetime ($$$, 401k, insurance, fame, fortune, etc etc...)
-----THE ANSWER TO HIS LIFE-----
Some suggestions were:-
Foreign Language
Bank
Fantasy Element:-
Simpler times not so simple
HUAC - McCarthyism
Chance before Committee - Newsreel footage
Asked to name names - Morgan a communist sympathizer, Jimmy a victim (cause Morgan hangs out there)
Chance blacklisted - won't name names
Proves his patriotism by ENLISTING
Chance goes to WAR
KILLED in combat
stands at his grave - Arlington
Snaps out of his fantasy
Did I miss anything?
So I did miss something, haha
Chance - Cab - customer offers him a job of a lifetime ($$$, 401k, insurance, fame, fortune, etc etc...)
-----THE ANSWER TO HIS LIFE-----
Some suggestions were:-
Foreign Language
Bank
He loses the job somehow, and wishes for simpler times
-----------------------------------
I was saying in class that he should be taking a foreign language. I don't know if you guys saw "The Bucket List". Jack Nicholson has this Assistant person who seems to know everything! And he was paid handsomely, similarly, Chance could be offered a job like that. And on the first day of his job, meets the only obstacle he has never learned. ---Maybe gardening---
Also, I kinda like the mirroring of the two eras, and I think this is the perfect time to show how similar times are.
McCarthyism/ Bushism
"For us, or against us."
Communist Watch List/Terrorist Watch List
Restrictions on immigration/travelling
Communism/Terrorism
Root in Capitalism
So I am thinking that Chance in present time should experience something similar to think that it is really hard in the new millenium.
So that would be the Korean War yeah? We can have a Mash spoof. Chance should be killed by something like friendly fire, he never actually gets into the shit.
Eff, my last post didn't work!
Since we're comparing McCarthyism and Bushism, and everything else, can anyone think of a job that could tie the 1950s to now?
More students should be blogging.
This story should be fully worked out and ready to be put on the board on Monday night.
We also want to break another story during Monday's class.
The goal is to have two stories ready to go to script by the end of Monday's class.
The stories should be in good enough shape for the assigned writer(s) to be able to deliver TWO DRAFTS by Sunday of next week.
The original idea states, "Because of pressures in his life, Chance wishes he could go back to a simpler time."
I think his job needs to overwhelm him, like being blindsided. The P.A. job isn't a bad idea. It sounds glamorous and managable, but the reality is likely a far cry from the "fantasy" of it (pardon the pun).
I can see him having to juggle so many tasks for his boss, and then something like getting the coffee at Starbucks just pushes him over the edge. In fact, he could be in line wishing he was back at the Nowhere, where everything is familliar to him. That leads him to wish he was in a simpler time in general, not just in that moment of the coffee debacle. Then, he can go into his fantasy.
I hope this doesn't conflict with what we've set up so far. I don't believe we were clear on exactly what thrusts him into the fantasy, were we?
If it's taking place in the 50's perhaps we should address what was going on in San Francisco at that time. Sorry my history is vague at best. But I can totally see Morgan as a full on Beatnik.
To add to last comment, perhaps Chance could be your local boy in blue, beat cop.
The basic structure...
1. The problem that causes Chance to wish he lived in a simpler time.
2. The fantasy of a simpler time... But it isn't what he expected.
3. As a result of the fantasy, Chance gains some understanding that helps him deal with what made him wish for a simpler time in the first place.
The more I think about it, the terrorist watch list sounds like a perfect parallel to the world of McCarthyism. And it's totally plausable. Plus, we can have a location shoot at SFO (or OAK).
What glamorous job doesn't entail some travel? He is settled in the job, and it seems to be going well. Then he gets to the airport for his first business trip (I'll never forget my first - very exciting), and he is pulled aside at security. His name McFarland matches some guy (perhaps Charles McFarland) in the IRA, or some other Irish terrorist group, and he can't fly. This ruins his eligibility for this job. He sits in the security office waiting for more interrogation, and wishing for a simpler time. That's his opportunity to go into the fantasy.
He can't even get his fantasy right, because the life in "simpler times" leads him right to being interrogated in the McCarthy era.
He snaps back from the fantasy, and they tell him he is not going to be able to fly. He leaves the security office to meet back up with his boss, breaks the news, and loses that job on the spot.
He has learned that he needs to make things in this life as simple as possible, so he quits this job. It wasn't perfect at all. All that glitters is not gold. He's back on his quest to find himself. Like always...
Just a thought you may want to bounce around...
In the fantasy, give Chance a moment of thinking it really IS a simpler time.
For example:
The Nowhere is now a malt shop (or a diner). Chance is at the counter. Jimmy is at the fountain, serving a milk shake to Chance, (who just got a great new job and just bought a new car and is looking to buy his first house -- and all the girls in the malt shop think he's dreamy and that he'd make a great husband)...when Morgan enters, holding a stack of "un-American" flyers.
She distributes them, then asks Chance to hold them (either while she goes to the bathroom or anywhere that takes her out of the scene for a moment). That's when two cops come in for a malt and see Chance holding the stack of flyers.
CUT TO: Chance testifies at the McCarthy hearings. He won't name names. And now things get worse for him.
These are just thoughts, not set in stone. If it helps, great. If you have other ideas, great.
Keep on blogging.
Well I'm blogging right now but
I don't know what to say. I think if I had a specific request. Let me think......
Well first of all I think we need to get some general facts about the Koran War so as not to shoot ideas from the hip. Veterans and people in the military, or people with military family take war stories seriously.
I’m not going to do if for everyone unless you want me to.
I think if Chance escapes into this fictional war based on some kind of hard moral decision, he should have another while in his fictional world. As a suggestion maybe if he got into a situation where he witnessed of a rape of a civilian by a fellow soldier. Now he has to decide weather to turn in this man and betray a fellow comrade, or do the hard decision and turn him in, possibly at the determent of his own life.
I suggest this because this happened a bunch and plus it’s not like WWII where there’s a ton of battles. Plus even if there were it’s not like we have the budget for it.
So far... I really like Evan's idea so far. I can totally see that whole security thing going on, and he goes into a fantasy just waiting there.
This is not the 2nd episode I am gathering, because Morgan is now a 'friend' of Chance, or not. She can be that random person walking into that malt shop and handing Chance a stack of flyers (and then she disappears, almost like a cameo) propelling Chance into that whole McCarthyism thing.
I feel like Chance needs to get shipped off to the wars, but before he even reaches the war zone, he should 'die' in a freak accident.
So maybe it goes something like.
1. Chance gets a dream job as a travelling PA.
2. He arrives at the airport to meet with his boss, and as he is about to get through immigration, his name ties in with one in the terrorist watch list.
3. He is sitting in an interrogation room (with a single lamp on the desk), and he is wishing he is back in the Nowhere. and wishing for simpler times.
--Fantasy--
4. Chance sips a malt in the Somewhere Pops diner.
5. Morgan scampers into the diner and falls onto Chance. He grabs her and her stack of flyers. She juds off and forgets his flyers.
6. 2 cops enters and sees Chance with the flyers, they accuse him of being an accomplice and nabs him.
7. He is in an interrogation room again. In front of 3 stoic generals. Chance declares he will enlist, to show his patriotism.
8. Chance is in a war plane. He jumps out of the plane, and his parachute doesn't open. Uh-oh. He falls out of frame.
9. A grave stone, and Chance is staring at it. He shudders.
--Reality--
10. He shudders, and he is back in the interrogation room. A cop come in and tells him he is cleared and can leave.
11. His boss meets him, and says something quite unpatriotic, beckons him to board the plane. And Chance decides that he doesn't need the job.
typo errors
5. Morgan scampers into the diner and falls onto Chance. He grabs her and her stack of flyers. She darts out and forgets her flyers.
I don't see why Morgan can't just leave the flyers on the counter when she goes off to powder her nose. Then when the cops come up on Chance, he won't have any clue what hit him.
I don't quite see how we're getting to the fantasy if we used the airport entrance point. Would he just be dreaming of a 50's diner as his first thought of a "simpler time"? OK, so that does seem to work, doesn't it?
Then he can be snapped out of the fantasy when the TSA guy returns. Perhaps by then (after living out his fantasy), someone much higher ranking in federal government (ideas anyone?), comes along. We have to come up with a nice link between what's going on at his grave site at Arlington and the airport security office when he awakens.
Will think more about it...
I think Priscilla and Evan are getting close to an outline that will fit our short format webisodes. It seems, at least initially, to be a stretch to go from job opportunity to airport security to fifties diner to war zones and death. I know we aren’t required to write these shoes in order, but something that concerns me is the grave nature of having Chance die so early in the series, even if only in fantasy. This is a big choice and should be treated as such. I think the best way to pull it off would be in a later episode, when we have at least half a season to build audience empathy, so that when he does die it has some impact to the audience as well as Chance’s character arc. That being said, I understand this episode could fit in a later slot in the season and still be developed in the present.
As far as Morgan coming in with flyers, it seems a bit of a stretch, even in fantasy. It would make more sense for Morgan to convince Change to sign a petition of some sort. And in fantasy, him being the only one in trouble provides humor all its own. Morgan is swaying Chance to make a commitment to her ideals, “Take a risk, be brave, stand up for what you believe in.” Chance, making this signed commitment then can bite him and we’d be exploring themes of government versus freedom of ideals, as opposed to just getting in trouble for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
All of this said and done, I keep finding myself wanting to suggest we split this into two episodes: one in the fifties “simpler times versus personal freedom/expression” and a second for the warfare/death adventure: “Patriotism versus reckless government.” While it seems you guys are putting the pieces together seamlessly, I worry that the arc will be so large for a single episode that each issue and step won’t get enough screen time to really saturate the audience in entertainment and provocation. At the same time if both issues can be crammed into this single episode, the gigantic arc is courageous and could pay great complement to both writers and producer’s ability to expand the scope of a somewhat indie-show idea into a more commercial, expansive piece.
Spencer Berry
Ok, I like a lot of the ideas that have been mentioned already, I'm just going to focus on a couple of them.
I agree that in order to get Chance back into the 50's we need more than just a wish for simpler times that automatically takes him there. Something needs to provoke that fantasy visually. In the original idea it was an old b&w TV show that he saw. I still think that could work and would be a seamless way to move from real life to fantasy.
I don't know if the airport idea is something we can depend on. I know I shouldn't think about the filming limitations, but the odds that we'll be able to get a film crew into an airport seems slim to me (I could be wrong.)
I like the idea of 50's Chance signing a petition that 50's Morgan shows him, rather than just being handed a stack of fliers. It gives Chance a chance (heh) to make a decision or take a stand that then backfires on him later. Then it's not just Chance getting into trouble by accident, but it's him doing something he believes in and being punished for it.
I'm not too worried about having Chance killed off so soon. I think it will be done in such a way that the audience won't be sad for Chance, but get a good laugh out of it.
Another benefit is that we are showing we will not hold any punches during a fantasy. Anything and everything could happen to Chance in a fantasy.
I understand where Justine is coming from with the airport situation, but I wouldn't worry about that at the moment. I think that could be a very funny scene and we should stick with it until we are told we absolutely can't do it.
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