The Adventures of the Commune
Started: 2003-08-11 17:25:35
Submitted: 2003-08-11 19:07:27
Visibility: World-readable
Sometime this weekend, inspiration struck for the opening scenes of The Adventures of the Commune, one of my favorite anime-style movies I keep thinking about making. (Next time I locate it, I'll have to type up the treatment I wrote three years ago.) Here's the screenplay fragment:
| 1 | CLOSE-UP: CLOCK | 1 | ||
|
A wall-mounted analog clock fills the screen, displaying the time 1:42.
The second hand ticks five seconds.
| ||||
| 2 | LECTURE HALL | 2 | ||
|
We see a large college lecture hall, filled with organic chemistry
students. Most are sleeping or trying not to in the warm early-afternoon
lecture. Some students take notes; others doodle, pass notes, play games
on gameboys, listen to music, or surf on their wirelessly-equipped Palms.
Pan slowly
across the lecture hall to see a DWARFISH PROFESSOR with wild hair
droning on in front of a crowded black board. He turns to the black
board with the intent of writing something but sees that the only
available board space is just out of reach, just above the vertical
half-way point on the blackboard. He climbs a conveniently-located step
stool, draws the chemical structure of caffeine, and proceeds to write
the official organic chemistry name: 1,3,7-trimethyl xanthine. Halfway
through the name, he extends the reach of his perch, climbs down from
the step stool, carries it a step to the right, and climbs back up to
finish the name.
Opening credits start to show up on various surfaces around the classroom -- written on the blackboard, on students' notes and video games. During various cuts around the classroom, we see PROLIFIC PROCRASTINATOR thoroughly engrossed in a first-person shooter on some arbitrary handheld computing device. When the credits finish, the wall clock, mounted above the blackboard, has nudged towards 1:49. The dwarfish professor notices the time, halts his sentence mid-stream, and indicates the lengthy homework assignment indicated along the top of the board. | ||||
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I would like to call your attention to Monday's homework indicated on the board. Pay special attention to problems thirty-three, forty-two, and sixty-nine; seventy-five percent of the class missed these simple problems on the last test. Have a good weekend. You are dismissed. | ||||
|
Some students jump up immediately, having already packed their
backpacks. Those who were awake pack their stuff and calmly head to the
door. Those who were sleeping wake up or are nudged by their classmates.
Prolific Procrastinator continues playing his first-person shooter until
most of the class has left. He jumps up, tosses his stuff in his
satchel, and joins the remainder of his class leaving the room for
| ||||
| 3 | EXT CHEMISTRY BUILDING | 3 | ||
|
Recently-dismissed chemistry students stream out the building's front
door onto a classic college campus -- lush grass, trees everywhere,
elegant academic architecture. Students fan out in small groups or
alone; some hop on bikes. No one follows a sidewalk unless it's going
where they're going. Move closer to Prolific Procrastinator and follow
him in a continuous tracking shot as he hops on a skateboard and weaves
through clumps of students and buildings, jumping some anti-skateboard
barriers, until he reaches a high-rise dorm. He skates to an exterior
stair and climbs. As the camera rises along the building, following him
up, we glimpse snatches of life in the dorm room windows to either side
of the stairs. At the appropriate floor, he enters the door, and the
camera spins around the building, catching an occasional glimpse of him
through a window, finally closing in on the room he enters: the Commune,
around which this Adventure will take place. The camera passes through
the blinds and enters the room, which contains none of the beds of a
standard dorm room, only copious quantities of computers, various
electronics equipment, books, DVDs, cds, and junk food. Prolific
Procrastinator drops his satchel on the floor next to a meter-high stack
of Wall Street Journals, grabs a two-liter of some arbitrary soda
from the fridge next to his desk, and settles into his Aeron chair. The
camera spins slowly around front of him (through the wild wall) and
settles so we can see, out of focus, INTERN BOY welding something. The
focus shifts as Prolific Procrastinator gradually becomes aware of his
roommate's presence. Intern Boy, wearing a lab coat in place of his
usual black nylon overcoat, has put down his dorm-sized
oxy-acetelyne torch and waves some fancy-looking sensor in the upright
refrigerator-sized box he stands in front of. Odd-sounding popping,
fizzing, and squealing comes from the box the sensor is plugged into,
precariously balanced on top of the refrigerator. Intern Boy adjusts
some dials and the noises change. Satisfied, he puts down the sensor,
takes off his welding mask (he already raised it so he could see), and
notices Prolific Procrastinator at last.
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The point is that one should never assume that sucky, disgusting software
is written by first year comp sci majors. There are enough professional
programmers out there to cause a far bigger disaster.
- Randseed (132501) on Slashdot, 08 June 2003
is written by first year comp sci majors. There are enough professional
programmers out there to cause a far bigger disaster.
- Randseed (132501) on Slashdot, 08 June 2003
