Notes From Underground on Libya
Why, look around you: blood is flowing in rivers, and in such a jolly way besides, like champagne.
Note #1 script, NFU
This is part of a larger open-source movie project. If you want to perform this and post it, great. Feedback, mockery, interpretive dance, movie clips, photos, all are welcome. Just tag any posts notes from underground and I’ll find it. Just don’t take the text and pass it off as your own. Copyright © Hue Rhodes, 2011. All rights reserved.
INT. WEBCAM VIDEO - DAY
Our HERO talks right into the camera.
HERO
I am sick. In the head. Sorry,
but it's true. I trust my doctor
enough to believe him. That's why
I won't see him. Understand? No?
Well, who's problem is that?
(beat)
Mine, I guess.
The footage jumps, as though a section has been edited.
HERO
I worked for the post office.
Worked, not work. I was terrible.
(chuckles)
You probably don't think that's
funny. I could just edit it out.
Beat.
HERO
(smirks)
Yeah, if you came to my window...
He snaps his teeth at the camera, like a piranha. It's close
enough to the lense that anyone watching will shrink back.
HERO
See?
(sneers with disdain)
Customers.
(beat)
Even cops...
(as though talking to one)
Put that gun away!
(taunt)
I thought so.
Pause.
HERO
Yeah. I'm pretty pathetic.
(self-depricating)
Watch out, I'm a postal worker!
Don't infringe on my lunch our.
Someone ate all the donuts in the
break room - I'm mad now!
Pause.
HERO
I never threatened any cops.
That's a lie. I just, you
know...messed with people. On the
one hand, you want to be nice. On
the other hand, those motherfuckers
with their God Damn entitlement!
(beat)
I never had the guts to...
(beat)
I wanted to. I did. I wanted
to...do those things.
BLACK.
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
An HR MANAGER, holding a clipboard, sits across from our
Hero. The two have been watching the video on a computer.
HR MANAGER
What things?
HERO
I'm already fired, right?
(smirks)
Things.
The HR Manager starts the video again.
INT. WEBCAM VIDEO - DAY
HERO
Keeping it down made me what I am
today. Which is, sick and nothing.
And now here I am.
The hero gestures to the wall behind him.
HERO
Talking to myself on a computer.
(Dana Carvey "Church Lady"
immitation)
Isn't that special?
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
HR MANAGER
Why did you say you were nothing?
You can be anything you want to be.
HERO
That's a double helping of
stupidity. A simplistic view of
the world topped with a naive sense
of control.
HR MANAGER
Maybe stupid isn't so bad.
HERO
You're wearing that cheap suit
because you want to be an underpaid
bureaucrat?
The HR Manager checks a box on the clipboard form.
HERO
What's that?
HR MANAGER
Bureaucracy.
The video starts again.
INT. WEBCAM VIDEO - DAY
HERO
Here's my forty-years-old epiphany.
You should kill me.
INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY
The HR Manager gives our Hero a probing look.
HR MANAGER
How long have you had these
feelings?
HERO
You mean the way I feel right now?
HR MANAGER
"You should kill me."
HERO
Oh, because it sounds like suicide.
No, I meant forty is the median
age. I'm forty. Physically,
mentally, all of my energy from
here on out will be to take from
those younger than me.
Everyone over forty is a predator,
trying one way or another to live
forever. And in the end, the lucky
ones can afford a full-time
orderly, to wipe them.
(beat)
You think that's funny?
HR MANAGER
(a little)
No.
HERO
You hate this, don't you. I know,
you gotta eat. Fortunately I don't
need your fucking job. Yeah, I've
got money. New York is expensive,
but if you know how to live...
HR MANAGER
I love my job. I get to help
people.
HERO
You're firing me.
HR MANAGER
You were fired before I sat down.
This is an exit interview.
HERO
You're watching my personal videos.
HR MANAGER
Company computer, company webcam,
company internet.
HERO
And this helps me?
HR MANAGER
Fair enough.
(dropping the fake
empathy)
Let's talk.
HERO
About?
HR MANAGER
You.
HERO
My favorite subject.
Copyright © Hue Rhodes, 2011. All rights reserved.
Updated Notes From Underground Holiday Video
Open on empty frame of blizzard. Hold long enough to establish authority and demonstrate confidence.
Peter steps into frame. Drags on cigarette.
PETER You know those holiday letters, where people tell you how great their year has been? Here goes:
I have no spouse. I have no kids.
[Camera pans off Peter, to the right]
PETER VO, WHILE CAMERA PANS OVER STREETS IN BLIZZARD
There were no milestones, promotions, birthday parties or weddings in the family.
I vowed this year to follow my passion at any cost. I would turn down any job I didn’t believe in.
So I haven’t worked in a year. I am essentially homeless. I rarely have enough money for food, so I’ve lost 60 pounds. I do, however, smoke regularly. If given the choice between food and cigarettes, it’s cigarettes. I don’t have health insurance, and my liver hurts. I think it’s my liver.
CAMERA COMES TO REST.
PETER VO OVER EMPTY FRAME.
I started rolling my own cigarettes. I’m pretty good now. It’s gotten me laid at least once.
CAMERA PANS BACK TOWARDS PETER, SLOWLY.
The weight loss has been positive. I’ve gotten more auditions and I look better naked.
The work I have decided to take has been great. Casting agents are promoting me and producers are vying for my script.
I’m crashing at a friend’s place for free, which is sweet.
So what have I learned this year? Starve yourself, smoke too much, break off all relationships and live on the street.
THE CAMERA PANS ALL THE WAY BACK TO PETER, AND COMES TO REST.
Indulge your vices, refuse to be reasonable, neglect your basic needs.
PETER STARTS TO STRIP DOWN
Here I am, in a blizzard. I have nothing and I have everything. You send me a posed Christmas photo. I send you this.
PETER IS TOTALLY NAKED, ARMS SPREAD WIDE, CIGARETTE STILL LIT
Who’s had a better year?
BLACK
The inspiration for our Notes From Underground Holiday Card.
Production notes (from underground)
Mark Coatney originally described our Notes From Underground project as an “exploded diagram” of a movie. All the assets that go into a movie, decoupled and visible. And we’re generating a ton of media for this project already. While most of it is probably unusable (image quality, total randomness of subject material) it’s a great start. So the question becomes, if we’re being “open source” about this movie, and we make all this media available, how can someone possibly digest it all, and who would want to?
Then we realized that the mechanics of filmmaking would probably solve this organically. All the video sketches will culminate in a refined character performance. All the improv will result in a final script. The music sketches will become score. And then the character, the script, the score, etc. will congeal into a scene.
Our archiving process will always present the most recent filmmaking step, first. So yes, initially one will see tons of random-seeming elements. And hopefully that’s interesting to some people. More people will come later, and by that time there will be something more concrete to digest. The properly lit, scripted performance will be seen and then further exploration will yield the underlying sketches, the web cam videos, the composition sketches. Still others will come later, when the most recent step is complete scenes, then film rough cuts, then picture lock, etc.
By making all our assets available we’re embracing the “open source” spirit. But by creating digestible units at every step, by making each step the aggregate of lower-level steps, and by letting the organic demands of each level dictate our creative decisions, we’re also starting down the path towards David Alexander’s pattern languages.
This is the script for our Notes From Underground holiday card.
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
Yeah, Pete.
First Script
This is the first script section for Notes From Underground.
PETER Q
I am sick.
He taps his head, as if to say "in here."
PETER Q
Look at me. My liver hurts.
(beat)
Maybe. Maybe it's my liver. I
don't know because I won't go to
the doctor's.
(beat)
My doctor's great. Dr. Musawi.
Lots of plaques on the wall.
(beat)
That's why I won't go. Because I'm
sick.
Taps his head again.
PETER Q
You don't get it, do you. Not only
do I get it, I've got it.
Head tap.
PETER Q
And when you get it, you'll get it.
And then you won't see the doctor
either.
Video cut, as though the camera has been stopped and started.
PETER Q
I've been living with this for a
while. About fifteen years. I'm
thirty. Just turned...
(beat)
...yeah, happy birthday.
(beat)
I used to work for the government.
Not anymore. I was a sick civil
servant. Bureaucratic, slow and
rude. But hey, I wasn't corrupt.
(beat)
Not funny, eh? I could just edit
this out, what I'm saying now,
because I tried to be funny and I
wasn't. But I won't. This is who
I am.
Notes From Underground First Project
The first project for Notes From Underground is to make a blog post inspired by the first note, which we titled “Ask me my name.”
The assets at our disposal are:
Videos
Photos
Images
Prose
Poetry
Other People’s Stuff (with or without comments)
Audio
Music
Home-made visual tricks
CHARACTER NOTES
Bait people. Impress people, possibly confuse, intrigue.
ACTION WORDS
re-engage, fight back, retaliate - all imply reaction to the world’s input.
