Last night's movie was "Operation Ivy"(1952), a documentary about the Ivy Mike detonations on Enewatak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. At the time, it was the largest thermonuclear explosion in history, later eclipsed by Castle Bravo and the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomba. It's very good, especially if you are interested in the science behind hydrogen bombs. Reed Hadley narrates on site. Two Gigantic Thumbs Up.
Now, let's pretend we are writing a scene for our own movie:
The setting is a ground-floor studio apartment in a large complex in Reseda in the San Fernando Valley. A young man, 29 years of age, is lying on his back on the floor. We aren't yet sure how he got there. Perhaps he was drugged or otherwise forcibly knocked down. He has been "caught in a trap", shall we say. A line of dialogue is heard: "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." Another young man, the tenant, says to the man on the floor, "You've had your fun. Now it's time to face the music."
Previously, it had been dark in the unit, which consists of one main room, no bigger than 400 sq. ft, which serves as a combination living room/sleeping area, with a bed near the small front window. A couch is against the south wall, across from a TV set and entertainment center (stereo, etc.). This main room also contains the unit's small kitchen, with a counter that separates the kitchen from the living area. Further back, on the south side extending from the living area past the kitchen, is a short, narrow corridor that leads to the bathroom, which is offset at a 90% angle.
It had been dark in the unit, or dim, but now we see the lights flash on as others enter through the front door. Perhaps just one man at first, with a camera. We aren't sure if he's there, or alone at first, so before we shoot this scene we should have a roundtable discussion because we are striving for historical accuracy. We don't wanna wind up like Ridley Scott and be accused of fudging details. But for now, let's just say that the lights flash on (in the unit that had been dark or dim), and that line of dialogue is heard: "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." And let's say that the first person to enter the unit after this happens is a man, also young, holding a camera. Did they have home video cameras in 1989? That's when our movie takes place.
Anyhow, we don't have a lot of dialogue yet. We're going to write it as we go along. But we have our developing scenario. It appears that the young man on the floor has been entrapped; filmed, videotaped, what have you. And now it is time for him to "face the music", in the words of the unit's tenant.
The man on the floor feels drugged. Or does he? This part we aren't yet sure of. Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Remember, we're striving for historical accuracy. There is a lot we still have to fill in, but after it is explained to the man how he has been entrapped, others enter the apartment. Is the man on the floor then degraded? We aren't sure yet, but we think so. We'll roundtable all this stuff. If he is degraded, it'll probably be pretty bad. Yes, it could be very bad indeed, because the people degrading him (all those in the room) want him to know they don't like him. In addition to terrorizing him, they want to let him know he's been caught, and entrapped, and they want to humiliate him, too, but that's not all, because after they degrade him, if they do (and we think they do), now they are going to threaten him.
And now, we have a little more material for our scene, stuff we can add with confidence, knowing it is historically accurate. The man on the floor, terrorized, entrapped and degraded, is now stunned to see the arrival of a man he knows as his girlfriend's father. He's only met the man two or three times in their 9 year relationship (which serves as the larger context for this scene), and perhaps he doesn't instantly recognize him, or better yet, perhaps he does, but it's so shocking that it takes a second to register. How can this man be here? He's a professional man, a soft spoken man of intelligence, in his 60s. He's a Dad, for crying out loud. How in the world can he be here? That is what's going through the mind of the man on the floor as his girlfriend's father now looms over him. All of a sudden, he's not the Teddy Bear of a Dad who's shaped like Yogi Bear (tall and pear shaped, short white hair, slightly balding, sometimes wears a watch cap.) This time, he's scary as hell. He still has the same soft spoken voice, but he now leans over the young man - his daughter's erstwhile boyfriend - and explains who he really is. And wow. Just wow. The man on the floor can hardly believe it, but there's no doubt it's true. He knows this by the ice in the man's eyes. And the cold blood in the threats he is making. He tells the young man that it's over between him and his daughter. Then, he pulls a knife to emphasize this point, holding it to the young man's throat.
The young man is scared to death, but we don't yet have dialogue for this part.
Now, two other characters enter the scene. They may have already been in the room. We don't know yet. The two are sisters, daughters of this man who is threatening the man on the floor. One daughter is against what he is doing, in fact, very much against it. The other daughter (the younger sister) is the erstwhile girlfriend of the man on the floor, who has been entrapped, filmed, degraded, humiliated, and is now having his life threatened by her father. This daughter (the girlfriend) doesn't seem as concerned about her boyfriend on the floor. In fact, a big part of this entrapment/assault is to let him know "she's not your girlfriend any more, got it?" This daughter is getting panicky. She doesn't want to be there because she's just completed college, which took her seven years. She doesn't want it all to have been for nothing.
And now, we come to the part of the scene, almost the climax, where the dialogue is indeed accurate. We've verified it, it's written in stone (so to speak) in our script. You can picture it: The father is still looming over the man on the floor, threatening him, making sure he understands the potential consequences, and his daughter, perhaps wearing her green-and-black jacket, is getting more and more agitated. She says:
"Daddy, let's go."
"Daddy! Let's go!"
"Daddy! Let's go! I don't wanna be here if the cops come!"
Meanwhile, the older daughter excoriates their father, trying and failing to separate her sister from the situation.
The man on the floor watches, in terror and shock, as this girl, this young woman whom he thought he knew but didn't, storms out, saying: "Daddy, I'm going to wait in the car!"
Fade to black, or simply cut, until we have more for our scene. Two Huge Thumbs Up so far. ////
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