Riding The Bus Part 2

Last night we cracked open the rough outline we wrote at the last writing retreat and began beating out scene after scene. Basically saying what happens in each scene, dialogue is usually the last thing you write in screenplays, but not so with us. As scenes are beat out they come to life and a half-thought turns into a fully living scene with depth and jokes in moments. I'm partial to movies, to screenplays so I'm heavily biased when I say that this is the best thing we've ever written. We burned through act one, setting up what an Alderman is, what they do, and who the main characters are. The opening montage of Ed doing the Aldermanic duty is ridiculous. The setup of Jason Challenger (still a dorm R.A. at twenty-five) consists of him continuously getting shoved into the recycling center sending aluminum cans cascading over him into the hallway. Physical humor, list humor, quiet humor, verbal humor, so far it really runs the gamut and the story is told fast & furious.

The work we did last night led us up to act 2 in which a whole new set of characters is set up, the opposition, Dinnerbansky & Ross, Gretchen Ross-Stephenson, Ted, Skip, Skip Jr., Gillian, Vaughn Bach, and more. The moment we have this small potatoes family in the small potatoes neighborhood and their small potatoes life completely set up we cut to a world 180 degrees from where we just came from, cut to the enormous D&R Building with "Lapdance" by N*E*R*D* (just like when you cut to the Fisk building in Daredevil and that song kicks in) and Ted walks down the hall booming up from his feet to see this corporate monster and all he controls. And then, my favorite thing to write in the world - Ted jokes.

We'll never be able to afford Lapdance, but the sentiment is right on.

See you tomorrow.