Synopsis and Script

"The manifestations of an artist's creations fight over his attention as he neglects them for other projects in a blend of 2D animation and live action."

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Ideas (Working title) 2nd Draft (16-11-2010) Mark Haldane FADE IN INT. MARK’S ROOM (DAY) [Live action] The camera pans slowly across Mark’s room. There are drawings and notes on the walls and on all surfaces. Drawings and comics of Elwood are abundant. The camera pans past Mark, who is sitting at his desk either drawing on paper or doing something on his computer. He twiddles his pen and shifts in his seat in a frustrated way. Cut to a close up shot of an Elwood comic on the desk. Elwood [Animation] walks into shot in the empty space in the background and the focus shifts to him. He is black and white, as he appears in the comics. He wipes his mouth with his paw, burps and then pats his stomach in a satisfied way. He walks over to the desk and gets up on his hind legs with his front paws on the edge of the desk to see what Mark is doing. His smile fades when he sees a page of near-empty comic panels left on the desk as Mark scribbles notes on a new piece of paper in his sketchpad. He also sees some doodles of other cartoon characters. He looks a little concerned. The sound of a ball bouncing begins, and Elwood turns round to see Trooper [Animation] lying on Mark’s bed, bouncing a ball off the wall and catching it repeatedly. Unlike Elwood, she is in full colour. Elwood walks over with suspicion, puts his front paws on the edge of the bed and looks at her questioningly. Trooper glances over slightly and nods her head backwards slightly as if to say ‘hi’, not even bothering to wave. Elwood gets a bit miffed and points to her and shrugs his shoulders, as if to say ‘who are you?’, to which she points to Mark and then herself, smiling smugly. Elwood looks confused, glances at Mark briefly and then waves his paws to say ‘no, no, no,’ and points to himself, then Mark. Trooper’s smile fades to a slight frown and she shakes her head and points to herself with more emphasis this time. Elwood then does the same. During this, in the background, Mark can be seen walking out of the room. TROOPER Pfft! Trooper makes a dismissive hand gesture. Elwood gets angry and marches over to the desk and grabs a pile of Elwood comics Mark has drawn and makes a theatrical hand gesture to emphasise that it is him in the comics. He then points his finger in the air as he suddenly gets an idea, and quickly loads up the Elwood website on Mark’s computer. He crosses his arms and looks smug as Trooper looks at the website. Trooper then shakes her hands dismissively. TROOPER Nuh-uh! She then opens a Vimeo-like website and plays (or scrubs through) her animated film while Elwood watches. He’s clearly a bit shocked, but then regains his confident stance that he is the better creation as he opens a ring binder full of comics back dated to 2004. Trooper looks at it but isn’t swayed. TROOPER Ha! She produces a walking stick from behind her back, points at Elwood and in a Scooby-Doo way mimes a rickety old age pensioner (with a good deal of cartoon transformation). She then points to herself with her thumb and makes a dynamic pose as colourful graphics suddenly appear behind her like a Japanese commercial and a rotating star with the words ‘new and improved’ appears in the corner. ELWOOD Grrr! Elwood pounces on Trooper. They struggle and wrestle briefly before both giving up, panting. Elwood then gestures with his finger as if to say ‘right, hang on’. He wants to settle this once and for all so he takes Mark’s sketchpad off the desk. They both look at it and see notes doodles of other characters, under the title ‘New ideas’. They look at each other nervously. They flick through the sketchpad but see no drawings of each other. Mark walks back in and sits down at his desk. Elwood and Trooper run up to the desk, standing either side of Mark, and try to get his attention. Elwood tugs on Mark’s shirt sleeve. Mark turns round to see Elwood pointing at the empty comic frames. Mark waves his hand dismissively. Trooper then pulls his other shirt sleeve and points to herself. Mark responds the same way he did to Elwood. He then looks around and finds his sketchpad on the floor. He goes to pick it up but Elwood and Trooper grab it at the same time. After a brief tug-of-war, Mark snatches it out of their hands and glares at them. Elwood and Trooper look at each other, then both run up and attack Mark, pulling his arms and thumping him with fists. EXT. HALLWAY (DAY) Elwood and Trooper sit on the floor outside a door marked ‘Mark’s Room’, looking dejected. Elwood puts his ear against the door and hears busy typing and flicking of paper. After a short while of sitting, the door opens and Mark walks out, putting his jacket on as he leaves. Elwood and Trooper take this opportunity to go back into the room, where they both run up to the computer. Trooper sits in the chair as Elwood puts his front paws on the edge of the desk again. They see a blog post entitled “Project finished”. Nervously, Trooper clicks ‘play’ on the video embedded in the blog post. The video starts off exactly as this film started off. There will be cuts from the film to Trooper and Elwood as they watch to pass time as we skip through the film the audience has been watching. The final shot is of Elwood and Trooper, watching the film within the film in an infinite tunnel of screens. They turn to each other, high-five in celebration. TROOPER & ELWOOD Woo! CREDITS Elwood and Trooper both hear the sound of a guitar, and see a new pair of cartoon characters in Mark’s room, one of them playing a guitar. They look like some of the doodles seen earlier. Elwood and Trooper both exchange nervous glances.