Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cybernetic Amputee Revenge Notes

Page 1
Panel 1
Close up of a support group sign with letters pressed into a board. Metahuman Victim Support Group.

Panel 2
A woman missing her right arm and left leg, (a noticeable prostetic leg) struggling as she enters the room on a crutch. She's clearly having a hard time as she walks in. Otherwise she's an attractive young woman.

Panel 3
She plops herself into a chair, a few others around her, an older man with an eyepatch, a younger guy with burns and bandages over most of the upper part of his body on the other side.

Panel 4
Someone hands her a styrofoam cup with coffee and she smiles up at them.

Panel 5
Close up of her. She's looking right out at us.

N: My name is Carol Young, and I hate superhumans.

Page 2
Panel 1
Carol, in a business skirt and her body fully intact, as she stands just off the curb in the city, her arm out to hail a cab.

Panel 2
Worm's eye view from behind her as we see an energy blast shoot forth towards us, eradicating her extended arm into ashes in a heartbeat. We can just make out the source of the blast, two figures in the sky in bright costumes.

Panel 3
Arial view of a superhero and supervillain as the grapple each other plummeting towards the pavement, Carol is thrashing about in pain below as passerbys run and scream.

Panel 4
They hit the ground and smash through the ground, rubble thrown all around, Carol is off balance and screaming as her missing limb is in focus for us. Cars and other pedestrians are on fire and running off.

Panel 5
Carol falls into the pit created by the hero/villain, screaming and helpless in a world of utter turmoil.

Panel 6
Carol lies below, a chunk of pavement crushing her opposite leg, blood flowing with burst water pipes and fire all about. Straight down shot, she is utterly helpless and in Hell on Earth.

Page 3
Split panel page.
Panel 1
Carol's upper half of her body. She's lying in bed, in a state of shock, staring straight up at us, tears streaming from her eyes. She's wearing a slinky black tank top. A cut off panel showing her stump on the right side and an obvious emptiness there, showing the disconnect from her missing limb.

N: [Dialogue about missing limbs and life after]

Panel 2
Carol's lower half. She's wearing skimpy underwear and it'd be sexy if not for the other cut off panel on the lower left showing her absence of her left leg. The stump there is really ugly and horrific. The cut off panels should remove us from the sexy image of a girl lying in bed in a tank top and panties.

Page 4
Panel 1
POV from the arm stump up close. We see what it looks like straight on with Carol raising her head in the background looking down at it as best she can. It's a severe burn that cauterized the wound almost instantly.

Panel 2
POV from the opposite angle, as she looks down at her leg in the background and we see a surgical removal scar of her leg. It's horrific in a totally different way.

Screenplay Pitch Notes

Union Square(d): romantic comedy. Freaky Friday w/East Village rocker & West Village model. The couple body swaps and finds it's not easy making it in the big city as the opposite sex.

***

Time & Space: sci-fi/rom-com. Butterfly Effect meets Serendipity. Dorky science intern needs time and space from his long term girlfriend, breaks her heart, then loses himself in alternate dimensions, trying to fight his way back to her.

***

Montauk Project: sci-fi/horror. Pitch Black meets Blair Witch on the beach. When a monster hunting reality show rolls into the sleepy beach town following reports of a "sun-serpent" attack, a poolboy must become a hero to fight off the attack with the help of the hostess of the show, his occult loving friend, and his grandfather who knows more than he admits.

***

Rock'n'Roll Massacre: slasher/thriller. When a band on the verge of 'making it' starts to fall apart, the lead singer starts to question her sanity as one by one the band members are slaughtered.

***

Working Title: Slacker/teen comedy. When a friendless loser who's only passion is movies and the girl who runs the projector at the local movie theatre decides he needs to sell part of his cherished collection of films to fund the filming of a movie to win her over, hilarity ensues, and he finds that creating films is his true love.

Union Square(d) Notes

Boyfriend and Girlfriend have a drunken fight in Union Square. Lightning bolt strikes from giant wand and makes them swap bodies.

He's an East Village indie rocker musician, loves Thompkins Square Park, dive bars and Mud coffee.

She's a West Village model, suntans in Washington Square, and hits up swank nightclubs.

They fight about how each other doesn't know how hard it is in their industry and social circles. They both go home drunk and wake up in the wrong bodies. He's got a big show that night, she's got a runway show that night.

Her friend helps him get dressed up, teaches him to model, and tells him some more intimate details about her that he doesn't know.

His friend helps her learn guitar, enough to fake it through the show, and learns stuff about him she doesn't know.

Walk a mile in each other's shoes.

She is grossed out by the dirty bars, he's intimidated by the high class lifestyle.

They come back together afterwards at Union Square and kiss, poof, reversal of the spell.

Act 1
Montage of the date, neutral zone, having a good time, get some drinks, hints of each other's personalities. Mid-town restaurant/bar, music.

Union Square meltdown fight, fade in mid-fight, they tell each other how easy the other one has it. She says he's lazy, can roll out of bed, throw on whatever, and then play some guitar. He says she just needs to look pretty and let everyone take care of her.

SFX blast, reverse clock runs backwards, weird POV walk home/cab ride. Both collapse in bed.

Wake up, discovery of body swap, roommates. They call and meet up at Astor Place. The Cube, Starbucks, fighting and realizing their dilemma. She tells him to call her friend to get her ready, he tells her to call his friend.

Act 2
They go back to each other's apts and really immerse themselves into each other's lives. He sees how hard it is to be a girl, she sees how hard it is to be a guy.

The friends get involved and help them learn who the other person is. We see what it is to get dressed up as a model and to rock out a musician. We see that true love of looking good and rocking out.

Then things get deep and we learn more about the other person. More intimate details about their past that shows how vulnerable they are and maybe why they are a bit guarded and standoffish.

Act 3
The big show! He has to walk the runway and she's got to rock out. The agency is ready to drop her, the band is ready to replace him. Somehow they pull it off, maybe they still fuck it up, and they get in trouble, but they also stand up to the other person that each other was intimidated by.

They rendezvous in Union Square and talk about things, laughing off what they thought was so important before. They kiss, and the spell is reversed.

Endings: they don't stay together but she discovers a musical side and he gets in touch with his photographic side.

non-union asshole

non-union asshole

Monday, July 20, 2009

Human/Technology Notes

Ray Kurzweil
Human brain understanding at the same time as computers equal their processing
Singularity - 2029

Brain as last frontier.
Pioneers of neuroscience
Brain surgeon explorers

Brain electricity firing same as computer language
Locked in syndrome - paralyzed, brain okay
Hugo De Garis - artificial brains
Artificial intellects - godlike
Artillects & Gigadeath

1978 Chicago bomb, Unibomber
FC - free collective - Freedom Club
35,000 word manifesto
Ted Kazinski, Montana
Math Professor

DARPA
Funds risky projects, longshots

Quantum Computer
Cooled with liquid helium
Computing power of atoms

Quantum mechanics
Atoms can be 0/1
This/That x 1,000,000
Tapping into the fractal