Writing Vol. 1

 If you've read the title, spoiler alert I haven't finished the script. I have though made significate progress, so this is what the blog is about.

One of the biggest challenges I've noticed with this script has been writing mulit-purpose dialogue. As a way to show Eric mimicking Trent Marley, I'm having Eric literally repeat him. While I'm not going to have all of Eric's dialogue be repeated, it serves as one of the ways that the viewer can see following what he watches. The film opens with a monologue from Marley as most talk shows do, so he's has no one, except the audience, to bounce off of. Eric though has to be shown interacting with someone else, so I decided to have Marley start off his show with a simple story of getting recognized at a coffee shop. While on the show the story is played for laughs, when Eric frames the story as his own, it makes it seem like a unusual yet notable story to tell some else.

Example of poorly planned
urban design

I also needed a place where Eric would interact with someone else where it would make sense to interact as well as make sure they are able to cross paths again. The idea of the two waiting for some form of public transit came to head. I first thought of a bus stop, but at least the ones near me are examples of poorly planned urban design. They're either in really impractical places or by very busy roads meaning audio would be a pain. I then thought about a train station I visited about a year ago that was fairly baren when I went there around 8 in the morning on a Saturday, so audio would be manageable and the infostructure of a train station is more inviting to people than a sign on a pole next to road where people driver 45+ mph. With the idea of the train station in mind, I thought it'd be a good idea to use it as another aspect of Marley that Eric is copying. Many talk show hosts like Stephan Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel often make their political views and opinions part of the show, providing commentary for a variety of topics. I came up with the idea that Marley would comment on some kind of push towards rail transit that he would be in support of, so that Eric could also show his support And with that planning I basically had two scene done, the monologue and the scene with Eric experiences positive reinforcement for his behavior.

I then moved on to a similar writing challenge in the 3rd scene of the film, when Eric would be having a one-sided conversation with Marley as he's speaking with a guest on the show. Dialogue isn't being repeated, but I had to think up what both Eric and the guest would say that would prompt the same response from Marley. I first went about writing what Eric would say because the focus would more so be on him than the guest start. I then wrote how Marley would respond followed by the guest star.

The scene is meant to show Eric reflecting on the interaction he had earlier in the day. The previous scene ends with the two saying bye since they'd be going on different trains, so in this scene Eric is shown to be confused about why the other person went on a different train than the one that Marley had recommended the night earlier. Now Marley doesn't explicit say the name of any one train in the written out monologue, but there could either be a graphic shown as part of the show or it could be implied that Marley had talked about it later in his show than what was seen in the first scene. Having Eric question the actions of other people shows that he isn't opened minded and strictly believe what he sees. 

At the beginning of this scene I also wrote a setup for Eric to buy a new remote control and for the storm that cuts the power at the end of the scene. I have the scene start with Eric trying to raise the volume of the TV to overpower the sound of rain, but the remote doesn't work so he movies closer to the TV. I like that I get to kill two birds with one stone with that part of the scene.

And finally that brings us to this blog post. I'm splitting my writing in two because I feel the last scenes are going to be more thoughtful thinking and may affect previous scenes, so I'm leaving you all with this and I'm taking a break. For those curious below are the pages of the script I've written.: