Jun 7, 2008

Temporary Insanity

The Revolution begins anew

Writing to do’s

A scene outline:

1st act general guidelines: introduce Chris, Gabe, Mr. Godfrey, Constance, Janice and Dr. Liberty Trung. Incite with the “terrorist” act. Conclude with the acceptance of a date.
1. Chris has a conversation with Mr. Godfrey, trying to break to him that he's getting a temp as a personal assistant
2. Gabe rides in on his motorcycle, sees the protestors in animal suits. A security team that looks like a futuristic riot squad uncorks a fire hose and mow down the protestors. The costumed carnage escapes into the storm drain.
3. Constance views from the window, sipping coffee. She tells Chris that he’d better get Gabe before security does.
4. Gabe is seized by security and ushered in to Liberty Ho’s office/torture chamber. She gives him a very invasive medical check-up.
5. Chris rescues Gabe from security. Gabe will be his personal assistant. Chris begins the tour.
6. “Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.” Gabe sees two-headed Kirby in the labs. Gabe trips over the main power cable and gets a stern talking to from Mr. Godfrey.
7. Left alone at his desk for the first time, Gabe stares around at the blank, ugly confines of his walls. Zombie-like co-workers refuse small-talk, demanding only coffee.
8. Gabe runs around frenetically bringing everyone coffee. Constance shows mercy and hides him in her office and then fetches him a cup of coffee. Gabe spends the next hour retching in the toilet.
9. The day ends: Chris is the last one in the building, until he's surprised to see Gabe exit the women's restroom. Before Gabe can hustle out the excuses, Chris enlists him in planning Constance's surprise birthday party.


10. The surprise is ruined by Janice, as she runs screaming from the bathroom.


11. Chris calms everyone down, seeks out Godfrey, finds out he's unplugged.


12. Chris goes before the board, takes the blame. Gabe is outside, confessing to Constance that he kicked it out and if that means its the end of him. Constance reassures him: Chris always takes the fall for his employees.


13. Gabe brings Constance coffee, but offers to take her to a better place.


14. Chris descends, haggard from a brutal cross-examination from the board. His party goes pffft when he realizes that Constance is gone, an early exit, with Gabe, the guy he just took a bullet for.


15. Gabe convinces Constance to play hookie for the rest of the day.


16. Chris, his relentless energy sapped, has to fight off Mr. Godfrey from firing Constance. Depressed, he hits the bottle of highly experimental serum from the lab. This begins to make him delusional (he talks to Kirby, sees Mr. Godfrey everywhere and becomes increasingly erratic in his behaviour.)


17. Gabe and Constance break into a zoo and free a few animals.





I'm at a loss for what comes after this. I'm in need of a reason for Gabe to be hired. A personal assistant? Why not Constance? A fresh new face? Wouldn't that be admitting that the workplace is oppressive and bleak? Maybe that's what peeves Godfrey. The company needs something more sinister. They are a cosmetics company. They're cloning faces and heads to put on very rich ugly people. Everyone at Cosmetech is good-looking and young. They all think they've been hired for their excellent resumes. The security people are all masked. Liberty Ho is ugly.



Maybe Constance could get thrashed by a tiger at the zoo and be in danger of being disposed of at the company. This would put Constance in an anti-animal/adventure mood and force Chris into being the savior. Nice little midpoint. Constance returns to Chris. Gabe is suspicious, breaks into the lab. Comes across the evil Liberty Ho again. Injects him with a serum that makes him go a little crazy, a la Gibson in Conspiracy Theory.



So Gabe is the protagonist. He comes to the evil corporation to overthrow it and unleash the animals and people. But he's distracted by his infatuation with Constance. He leaves off his investigation to visit her. He risks his job and the respect of his father to take her out. Then it backfires. She rejects him for the safer man, and their whole operation is placed in danger. Worse yet she puts herself in danger of becoming like everyone else with the facial cream. Now he must get to the bottom of their operation and foil their plans before its too late.

Of course for this to work I need an active antagonist. Constance is a reactive antagonist, a catalyst for Gabe uber-idealism. Chris is a more dangerous antagonist. His wilful ignorance makes him the perfect pawn. So it's a domino effect. Gabe gets Constance, Constance gets Chris and Chris gets Godfrey and Ho. Or maybe just Constance. Gabe gets Constance, who plays off of Chris's obsession to save Gabe and then free the coworkers.

So what is Chris/Godfrey's evil plan? To use Gabe as a decoy to capture the rest of the activists might be a cool homage to Robin Hood. One man is dangerous, but not as dangerous as a whole army.