We also looked at high and low status:
- Who holds the power in the world of the story or in the relationship
- Position of the character in the social dynamics
- Controls the scene or transaction
Status in dialogue
- Help inject subtext in dialogue
- Helps to highlight the social dynamics
Status changes --> can help force plot points
High Status
alpha
Low Status
beta
INT. MAX'S CAB - MAX 86
in shock. Back in purgatory...eternally in his cab's front
seat. As the lone yellow cab drives east...
SINGLE: VINCENT
VINCENT
What a clusterfuck. Only thing didn't
show up was the Polish cavalry.
Max's life, controlled by Vincent, is a nightmare, perpetual and
eternal...
VINCENT (CONT'D)
You don't wanna talk, tell me to fuck
off...
MAX
(inaudible)
...fuck off.
Vincent's attention is out the window at the streams of
emergency vehicles...at the earpiece, filled with LAPD and news
helicopters.
86A EXT. STREET - FRONTAL: THE ANONYMOUS YELLOW CAB 86A
heads east. All other traffic races to the debacle left
behind...
VINCENT (O.S.)
...blood, bodily fluid and death get
to you? Try deep breathing. Or
remember, we all die anyway...
MAX (O.S.)
You had to kill Fanning?!
(CONTINUED)
9/29/03 MM revs. (salmon) 89.
86A CONTINUED: 86A
VINCENT (O.S.)
(blasé)
Who's Fanning?
86B INT. CAB 86B
MAX
That cop!
(beat)
Why'd you have to do that? You
couldn't wound him? The guy had a
family, maybe parents, kids who gotta
grow up without a dad, he was a good
guy, and he believed me...
VINCENT
I shoulda saved him 'cause he believed
you...?
MAX
No, not just that.
VINCENT
Yeah, that...
MAX
Yeah, so, what's wrong with that?
VINCENT
It's what I do for a living...
MAX
Some living.
VINCENT
Head downtown...
MAX
What's downtown?
VINCENT
How are you at math? I was hired for
five hits. I did four.
MAX
(grim)
One more.
VINCENT
There you go...!
MAX
Whyn't you kill me and find another
cab.
(CONTINUED)
9/27/03 MM revs. (buff) 90.
86B CONTINUED: 86B
VINCENT
'Cause you're good.
(shrugs)
We're in this together. You
know...fates intertwined. Cosmic
coincidence. All that crap...
MAX
You're full of shit.
VINCENT
I'm full of shit?
(beat)
You're a monument of it. You even
bullshitted yourself, all I am is
taking out the garbage. Bad guys
killing bad guys...
MAX
'Cause that's what you said...
VINCENT
And you believe me...?
MAX
What'd they do?
VINCENT
How do I know?
(beat)
But, they all got that "witness for
the prosecution" look to me. It's
probably some major federal indictment
against somebody who majorly does not
want to get indicted... I dunno.
MAX
That's the reason?
VINCENT
That's the "why." There is no reason.
(beat)
No good reason; no bad reason. To
live or to die.
MAX
Then what are you?
VINCENT
(looks up)
...indifferent.
Vincent hesitates, then back out the window...
(CONTINUED)
9/30/03 MM revs. (cherry) 91.
86B CONTINUED: (2) 86B
VINCENT (CONT'D)
Get with it. Get over it.
...millions of galaxies of hundreds of
millions of stars and a speck on one
in a blink...that's us. Lost in
space. The universe don't care (about
you).
(beat)
The cop, you, me? Who notices?
MAX
What's with you...?
VINCENT
As in...?
MAX
Man, if someone had a gun to your head
and said: "You gotta tell me what's
goin' on with that person across the
street, there, what they think, who
they are, how they feel, or I will
kill you"...they'd have to kill
you...wouldn't they...?
(beat)
'Cause you don't have a
clue...about...anyone.
(struggling for the words)
...I don't think you, you have a clue,
period. Did anyone "do" for you in
your life...? Ever? When you draw
breath in the morning? Open your eyes
in the a.m.? You
anticipate...anything? Want anything?
Expect anything? I don't think so...
(beat)
'Cause you are low, my brother, way
low... and some standard parts that are
supposed to be there?...with you,
aren't. So what happened to you, man?
What happened to you?
VINCENT
...all the cabbies in LA, I get Max,
Sigmund Freud meets Dr. Ruth...
MAX
Answer the question.
VINCENT
Look in the mirror.
(on the attack)
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)
9/30/03 MM revs. (cherry) 92.
86B CONTINUED: (3) 86B
VINCENT (CONT'D)
...with your paper towels...a bottle
of 409...a limo company someday. How
much you got saved?
MAX
None of your business.
VINCENT
Your business "plan?" Someday?
"Someday my dream'll come..."?
(beat)
And one night you'll wake up and
discover it all flipped on you.
Suddenly you're old. And it didn't
happen. And it never will. 'Cause
you were never going to do it, anyway.
The dream on the horizon became
yesterday and got lost. Then you'll
bullshit yourself, it could never have
been, anyway. And you'll recede it
into memory...and zone out in a
Barcalounger with daytime TV on for
the rest of your life...
(beat)
Don't talk to me about killing.
You're do-in' yourself. In this
yellow-and-orange prison. Bit by bit.
Every day.
EXTREMELY CLOSE: Max is soaking up every word.
VINCENT (CONT'D)
All it ever took was a down payment on
a Lincoln Town Car. What the hell are
you still doing in a cab?
The needle on the speedometer is creeping past forty...
MAX
'Cause I never straightened-up and
looked at it, you know...?
VINCENT
Slow down.
MAX
(ignoring him)
...myself, I should have. My brothers
did...
(beat)
Tried to gamble my way out from under.
(That was) Another born-to-lose deal!
Then, "it's gotta be perfect to go!"
You know? Risk all torqued-down.
Needle pushing sixty...
(CONTINUED)
9/30/03 MM revs. (cherry) 93.
86B CONTINUED: (4) 86B
MAX (CONT'D)
But you know what? It doesn't matter.
What's it matter, anyway? 'Cause we
are...insignificant out here in this
big-ass nowhere. Twilight Zone shit.
Says the badass sociopath in my
backseat. So that's one thing I got
to thank you for, bro... Until now, I
never saw it that way...
The cab goes blasting through an intersection on a red light. A
LOS ANGELES TIMES DELIVERY TRUCK SLAM ON ITS BRAKES as Max
swerves, barely avoiding a collision.
VINCENT
That was a red light!
Max glances in the rearview.
MAX
...not until now. So what's it all
matter? It don't. Fuck it. Fix it.
Nothing to lose. Right?
Vincent's H+K's aimed at Max's head. Max almost laughs.
VINCENT
Slow the hell down!
MAX
Why? What are you gonna do? Pull the
trigger? Kill us? Go ahead, man!
Shoot...my ass.
VINCENT
Slow down!
MAX
Vincent?
Their eyes meet in the rearview mirror. Vincent is arrested by
a look in Max that he's not seen before. It's the even,
confrontational look of a man with nothing to lose.
MAX (CONT'D)
Go fuck yourself.
Max slams on the brakes and cranks the steering wheel hard
right...
9/27/03 MM revs. (buff) 93A.
A Reasonable Request:
We watched this short film in class, it serves as a really good example of clear status changes.
I am now thinking about the statuses of my characters, I think The Marine has one of the highest because of his confidence and stern nature, then The Doctor has a high status because of the power that he holds, but he also comes from a place of low status, The Schizophrenic has the lowest status in the film because of his rejection from society and issues with The Demon. The Nurse falls in a weird spot because she has a lower status than The Doctor for sure, but that changes at the end, and her interactions with the other two characters.
We then did an activity in class where we were required to come up with a situation that would see internal status changes as well as an external narrative device that results in a big status change, our idea was:
A man wakes up during surgery to find the room empty except for the surgeon himself, who is eagerly requesting him to sign a contract allowing for the removal of his kidney.
https://www.scriptmag.com/features/improvising-screenplays-using-the-concept-of-status-to-elevate-every-scene-writing
We then did an activity in class where we were required to come up with a situation that would see internal status changes as well as an external narrative device that results in a big status change, our idea was:
A man wakes up during surgery to find the room empty except for the surgeon himself, who is eagerly requesting him to sign a contract allowing for the removal of his kidney.
https://www.scriptmag.com/features/improvising-screenplays-using-the-concept-of-status-to-elevate-every-scene-writing
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