Thursday, October 11, 2012

Antagonist vs. Protagonist Script



Opening Scene: (old Italian music running in the background) camera view: table with cigar sitting in ashtray with smoke rising. Filming black and white in like an older type feel.
Introduce the “godfather”: he pick up the cigar and puffs through it a few times.
Phone is in the frame on the table. It rings and he picks it up. Camera to split screen to talking with his henchman.
Henchman “The bird has left the nest.”
Don: Feed poly his cracker
Henchman: “oh okay..wait what?”
Don: Put the turkey in the oven!
Henchman: what are you talking about?
Don: Clip the birdies wings. I don’t want em flying no more!
Henchman: boss I really don’t know what your saying.
Don: Kill him you idiot!!! Just kill him! (hangs up the phone angrily)
Henchman frowns sniffles and says “hes always so mean to me.”
Cut to a man driving in his car. Shot from passenger seat.
Cut to shot from the curbside. Car pulls up to the sidewalk.
Cut to shot from the man’s point of view. Bag covers his face (the camera as well). There’s an apparent struggle and you hear gasping for air. Two gun shots go off and you hear the body hit the ground.
Cut to the don in his office. He kicks his feet up on the table while smoking his cigar still.
Enters our protagonist; Luke Bisutti.
Luke walks in and slams the door behind him. He begins  to yell, “what do you think your doing?! You can’t solve all problems by just killing people!”
Don: I don’t know what you’re talking about Luke. You had a problem and I fixed it, what’s the problem?
Luke: It was my problem and I was gonna fix it myself. Now someone’s dead and the feds will be sniffin’.
Don: You’re pops told me to look after you and that exactly what I intend to do!
Luke: But your not my father so stay out of my life!!
Luke swings the door open. And stomps out.
Scene cuts when the door shuts. Cut to Luke walking. He wipes the tears off his face and begins to observe his surroundings (from his point of view). His breathing begins to get heavier and cuts of scenery are constant. They being to cut through at an increasing speed and the trend is followed by his breathing. (insert memories of him and his father in the mix). Cuts in between real life and memories are like blinks. Images stop suddenly and you hear an alarm ring. Luke sits up in his bed and wipes his eyes off.
Knock at the door. Luke gets up to answer.
Door opens and the Don is standing there he says “Come for a ride.”
Luke: Let me get ready real quick.
Luke exits back into his house. Cut to them driving together in silence. Don stops the car and they walk to a bridge.
Don begins, “Your father was my best friend. When we were kid you couldn’t find us apart from eachother. I got so used to it I thought we were one. And when he passed, a part of me did. Before he took his last breath he asked me to look after you. There’s no way I could let him down.”
Luke just looks at him. Almost a blank stare. He finally responds, “Have you ever just thought of ending it? Thinking if there was any chance of being with him again that you would take that chance. I dream of it every night.”
Don grabs and hugs him. And the camera pans back and up into the air. And then it fades to black.
The END

1 comment:

  1. Trevor,

    This is nicely written. The trouble is that you oscillate between comedy and drama too much. At first it's a parody of gangster movies, but then it turns into a heartfelt movie about two troubled characters uniting over tragedy.

    You also kill Luke's "problem" too soon... you should use the mob hit as a climax to build to. Luke has trouble with this guy. The Don finds out about it and orders the hit. Luke finds out. They have an argument. Luke runs out to try and stop the hit from going down. Don gets a call from the henchman. Don says take him out. Luke gets to the location of the hit but only finds the henchman. It's too late, he couldn't stop it. He walks away and you do the POV walking shots described above. The Don comes to him. They have their moment. End it the same as you ended it above. Luke asks if it's going to always be this way. The Don says yes, it's his responsibility. They hug and Luke looks out over the water... we don't know what he's thinking, but we can feel his inner debate.

    NOW THAT'S DRAMA! You set up an antagonistic relationship between the Don and Luke, you put a goal in place (save the hit list guy) and you build to a dramatic climax. There is resolution, even though things haven't been fixed.

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