Opening

From Rom Com

Current revision as of 02:11, 25 June 2007

LOCATIONS: Cemetery, apartments, Alex's hangout, "Dylan's house" (Laura's house)
CHARACTERS: All.

The beginning takes place in the Forest Hills cemetery. The six main characters are sitting on tombstones in the middle of a game of Sincerity. Nick is new to the group, and at some point this becomes explicit. In addition, all six are wearing ornate (black-and-white?) clothing. At this point in the storyline, Hallie and Dylan are dating, but Hallie mentions jokingly that she is attracted to Nick. This is not merely a joke, however, as the camera work reinforces her words and the feelings are presumably shared. At the beginning, everyone is being very clever and interesting but not necessarily expository.

WE NEED TO ESTABLISH KATI AND ALEX'S RIVALRY, VERY SERIOUSLY. They need to be the sort of people who will make anything into a competition or a bet, and we need to either implicitly reference past bets or something... We also need to make it very clear that Nick and Dylan are friends, perhaps involving them playing the "two things" game briefly as they leave.

INT. APARTMENT. DAY
Close-up. Kati's hand on a violin string. She is playing Boccherini (? I like Boccherini. Any ideas? Mozart?)I can do Boccherini. The music continues over the entire intro
INT. FOYER. DAY
Medium shot. A young man, nervous and slight, is standing in front of a mirror. He is DYLAN. He is practicing a lie, inspecting his face. He repeats the second phrase over and over, trying various interpretations.

The doorbell rings. A young woman is standing on the doorstep. She is HALLIE, honest, amiable and emotional.

Medium shot of HALLIE.

Music: Nervous crescendo. Piano to forte.

Over black. TITLE CARD.

INT. APARTMENT. DAY
Medium shot. The camera pans from the left to a young woman, playing the violin. She is KATI: analytical, calculating, guarded.

INT. APARTMENT. DAY
Far shot. Camera pans from left to a young woman sits on the couch, watching television, with a cell phone to her ear, and drinking a ridiculous bubble-tea-type drink. She is AIMEE.

Far shot. She hurriedly attempts to gather her belongings.

INT. LECTURE HALL. DAY (or bowling alley or whatever)
Far shot. Camera pans from left to ALEX reading.
INT. HALLWAY. DAY
Far shot. Camera pans from left to Kati leaving her apartment. About seven seconds later, Aimee leaves out of the adjacent door.

INT. ELEVATOR. DAY
Aimee and Kati in the elevator together.

CUT TO
EXT. City. Evening.
A young man, wearing a white dress shirt and corduoroy pants, speeding down a hill on his bicycle. His tie flaps behind him. He is NICK. Camera follows him up to the edge of the cemetery gates, where he dismounts his bicycle. CUT TO

EXT. Cemetery--Evening

Establishing shot. Six people (AIMEE, ALEX, DYLAN, HALLIE, KATI, NICK) are on the sidewalk outside Forest Hills Cemetery. They are closely grouped together. Some are laughing, perhaps one shoves another in a friendly manner. They are all dressed nicely and semi-ornately: suits, dresses, ties. They go in the gate.

Long shot. They are walking inside the cemetery. They are incredibly vibrant.

Mid shot. The camera pans briefly over the six players from the front.

Mid shot. AIMEE and KATI lean towards each other. This is almost theatrical.

Mid shot of DYLAN and HALLIE. They are turned slightly away from the camera, talking soundlessly about something. Hallie is laughing. They are sitting close to each other but not touching. It is obvious that they are together.

Alex and Kati. Probably something really really ridiculous. Haven't thought of what yet though.

Close-to-medium shot of NICK. Profile. He looks pensive and slightly nervous.

Far shot. From above, the six of them sitting. The camera withdraws.

Over-the-shoulder shot. The camera comes up from behind AIMEE. She turns around and says the last line directly into the camera.

Proceed to improv but with prepared statements (not in this order): 1. Hallie's statement about Nick's attractiveness. 2. Alex's HUGE metastatement 3. Dylan's pre-prepared statement 4. Aimee's statement about pop culture 5. Kati=unknown 6. Nick=unknown

Next: Alex and Kati's Bet