86 to the City

Brief Synopsis

         A 16/17-year-old boy, observing the uneventful life of a suburban community, finds himself totally bored of the monotonous existence. He tries to find someone to share his thoughts with, but all of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood are the same simple people who drift from day to day through life, enjoying and indulging in repetition and routine.
         One day he meets a girl at school, who has been totally rejected by her peers for being ‘unusual’. He finds her quirky interests entertaining, and decides to befriend her. Rather than developing into a love story, the screenplay would follow the friendship of the two characters as the continually seek to find new ways of rendering life in their neighbourhood more interesting.
         After trying repeatedly, they discover that in such a stagnant place, even being different and original gets stale - the individualist identity itself gets tiring. The two decide to plan their escape from the community and the boundaries of formal education and ‘nuclear family’ life, gathering their belongings and hopping a bus to the city to stay with the girl’s irresponsible aunt who made a similar escape.
         The adventures they encounter in the city are far from enjoyable, and they must learn that independence comes with time, and that at least some familiarity is often more valuable that it might seem.


INT: A dark bedroom of a teenager. There are cluttered ornaments on the shelves, loose clothes on the floor and open books on the desk; the usual mess.
Accompanying several different shots of the room of varying objects, (a panning shot from the corner of the room, a close ip of a bookcase tracking sideward, a tilting shot over the desk, tracking shot past the window, etc…):

VOICE OVER
(Voice of a 16/17-year-old teenage boy)
This is my room. It’s nothing special, but I suppose the mess and the clutter; the um, disorder- I guess it serves as a break from the dull monotony of life outside of here.
But monotony is contagious- everything becomes stale eventually, once everything around it becomes flat, nothing can prevent it. This room for now is my, well, refuge – my fort. I’m putting up a defence, but boredom is sinking in and there’s nowhere to turn once I abandon this stronghold…

(Background music stops)
(Alarm clock beeps)

…That for one, I’m getting really tired of.

CU: The alarm clock.
A hand comes from off-screen and strikes it.

CU: The boys eyes, as he rubs them tiredly. (Music resumes for a few seconds before:
Jump cut- to the boy slumping into his seat at the breakfast table.

INT: The Kitchen, early morning. The table is displayed with exaggerated amounts of toast. The kitchen is bland, with a total lack of colour excluding black and white. The boy is wearing a blue t-shirt, standing out from his mother, sister and two brothers who are sat around the table in white, black or grey clothes.

VOICE OVER
(As the rest of the family snatch up the toast eagerly, the boy (centre frame) slowly and reluctantly takes a piece)
I am so sick of toast you wouldn’t believe. Seriously. It’s become like that taste you have when there’s nothing in your mouth. You know? …Nothing?

Several short similar shots (Same angle) of the same short routine, he takes a slow bite as his family eat theirs eagerly, showing different days, the only differences being the characters’ hair styles being bed-worn differently, and only the boy’s (main character’s) clothes should change.

VOICE OVER
Yep, It’s always the same.

Continuous, slow motion, accompanied by undecided acoustic song, the main character walks down the hall of the house (in the direction of the camera), pulling on his rucksack. His 7-year-old brother runs past him and climbs the stairs to his right, his dog (a black Labrador) approaches (from the direction of the camera) and he strokes the dog distractedly as it passes. He turns to a mirror and checks his hair while still walking, with a frown. All such action should be choreographed loosely to the music.
Track backwards out of the door (still same continuous shot) to display a dull day, patched brown grass and a poorly painted house (Still with character centre-frame). He continues, and camera tracks out of the gate. A ball flies past, narrowly missing the character however he is unfazed. As he exits the gate, camera tracks sideward alongside him as he walks down the pavement. In the background, the boy who kicked the ball shouts (inaudible under the music) and puts up his finger at the character. Resume normal timing as he opens the door of the car parked on the corner of the street. The song finishes.

INT: The back seat of a car. The boy sits next to his sister (14 years). Both look out of their windows as the engine starts, the radio static starts, and then a voice is heard.

VOICE OVER
Oh no…not this…every day I am subjected to it…
This…f**king…jingle

(An irritating jingle is head, and the boy grimaces)

Seriously. Every day. Find it irritating?
Try this…

(Like at the breakfast table, repeated shots of him and his sister sat in the same positions (again only his clothes changing, as well as the weather in the back window) accompanied by the jingle, repeated several times increasing in volume. The penultimate time, with each beat of the jingle, the camera jumps zooming in closer to his face, which displays his irritation.
The final time the jingle plays, perspective shot (the boy’s), he looks across at his sister, who smiles and nods along, and then forward at his mother, who taps the wheel in time and bobs her head side to side to the music of the jingle.

MOTHER
I love this show!

(Boy groans)

RADIO HOST
OK time to play: What am I trying to say? (Cheers) I will fill my face with cake, and try to say a famous movie quote. Try to identify –which- film quote.
Sandra on line 1, are you ready?

(A distorted scream of joy/excitement amid radio static)
(The muffled sound of the host force-feeding himself cake and the unclear words- “I’ll be back” as in ‘Terminator’)

The mother and sister burst into hysterical laughter. Amid the laughter is heard ‘Sandra’’s “Uhh, umm is it… ‘I’ll be back’? Like the uh, Termitor, I mean, termination guy, oh…Terminator!” and the host congratulating her. The sound fades to allow for the voice over.

VOICE OVER
Every day the same moronic game, the same moronic host.
The –same- -goddamn- -jingle-.
(The jingle kicks in again, but cut to black and silence before it is through)


Fade in: INT: A school classroom, as bland as the kitchen. Children are all sat around tables, talking amongst themselves (unintelligible dialogue)

MS: The character sits at a table with 5 other boys.

MAIN CHARACTER:
So…what did you guys do last night?

BOY #1:
Football

BOY #2:
Football

BOY #3:
Played football

BOY #4:
Footb…

MAIN CHARACTER:
Yeah, I get it…Football (Groans)

Perspective shot: Surveys the room, observing each near-identical student. Scans the lifeless wall displays and passes the boring, mid-life crisis-suffering teacher, and comes to stop on one girl in the corner who is dressed in wild colours, scribbling pictures in her notebook instead of working. Fixed shot for several seconds until interrupted by school bell ringing.