Saturday, January 25, 2014

***Alex Bartlett - Step 4

TITLE: Clumsy                 WRITER: Alex Bartlett               LENGTH: 5-7 min           

“Clumsy” is a story focused on the natural connection people have to other people. This short presents a comical outlook on how physical interactions between people could become a lost art, and that the imperfection of real communication is a beautiful thing. The short will be a blend of real video and cg added elements that interact with the characters and scenes. The style will feel realistic, as if this short could happen to me (well light, bright, fun, mostly positive colors).

In the first scene, we see a “bully looking” guy as he steps out of the car pulling up in front of the school (a wide shot getting all of the school and the car in front of it). He will then walk inside and as he walks by Tyler (main character) he’ll bump into Tyler’s shoulder where Tyler will then drop his papers clumsily. The camera focus suddenly shifts from following the bully to following him. He will walk into a classroom and sit somewhat near the back towards the middle column of seats.

We will then be introduced to the brain-chip called a Telenano and the students interact with it, such as sending pranks to each other’s paper, playing games, or throwing notes to each other (think of the paper as a literal paper thin iPad). You’ll get a shot of behind Tyler’s ear where it sits, right after a shot of Tyler sitting at his desk. Tyler will flick a digital paper football to his friend and miss, and the camera will follow to a girl and she will get annoyed and get up, ready to move on the boy, when she will suddenly bump into Becca who is walking past her. This is when the camera focuses on her face in slow motion, signifying her beauty and gorgeousness. The camera will immediately shoot to Tyler’s face, which will look as if He has just seen an angel. The girl will promptly sit down directly a desk away to the right of him, one desk forward. The teacher will then walk in and promptly begin class.

Tyler will be so distracted with this girl that he will almost instinctively try to send her a note through the digital paper, using the Telenano. The camera will focus on the paper which will show the note he tries to flick to her being rejected, which will anger him and he will attempt to send the note many more times (quick comically). The camera will then shoot to him looking at the back of Becca’s head, where he’ll realize that she doesn’t have a Telenano like everyone else has, and he will realize that all of the ways he knows how to talk to girls is through the chip, he is now literally on his own.

The shots will then transition through 5 or 6 different scenes of Tyler trying different ways to get her attention during class, such as throwing his pen at her head (and missing, hitting the girl from before), trying to move his desk closer to hers (only to fall over still stuck in his seat), and so on. All the while he will think that she doesn’t notice any of these attempts, when she actually does.

The ending of the film will see Tyler so frustrated with failing to get Becca’s attention through a non-digital way that he seems to be giving up. When all of the sudden he sees a girl next to Becca lean over and whisper to her, and Tyler remembers that He could always try actually talking to her. Class ends and he runs up to her (music will capture this as the seeming epic moment of victory), taps her on the shoulder, and, trying to say “Hey, I’m Tyler” will just speak gibberish. Naturally, she will look confused. He’ll then blush and awkwardly stick out his hand saying “Hi.” She’ll pause, smile, and take the handshake, saying “Hi.” Camera zooms out and movie fades to black.

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