48HFP practice session 3

48HFP writing practice #3, written on Sept. 12, 2010.

Character:
Random word moderate becomes Lucy Moderatz (from While You Were Sleeping) - changed to Luke/Lucy for gender
Random word spy becomes spy

Prop:
Random word rag

Line of dialogue:
Random word insult becomes, "This is a deliberate insult against me and my people." (from Dexter, The Lion Sleeps Tonight)

Genre: RANDOM (1-22)
Time Travel Movie or Doppelganger Movie

Set-up work:
Take several pictures of an actor. Print them out. Put them in a "studio" type setting on the walls for reference. Use makeup and prosthetics to make the actor look fairly different from the person in the pictures (themselves).

SCENE: PRELIMINARY WORK
In the background of the scene are several PICTURES of a person from different angles including some close-ups. In the scene is Luke/Lucy (herein referred to as LUCY), sitting in a chair, nude but covered with a DRESSING GOWN. Working on her is PATRICK, a cosmetic surgeon. He is marking Lucy's face up with a (washable) MARKER. Standing next to Lucy is PHILLIP, a handler. He is giving Lucy her next mission. While Patrick works, Phillip tries to remain at Lucy's side, and as he perceives he is in Phillip's way, he moves around Lucy, but never goes far from her.

PHILLIP
Do you understand your mission?

LUCY
I am to infiltrate the building as Michael/Michelle Davinport, the person in these pictures. I will go first to the security office on the second floor and enter the code Zulu 18 Mike to disable monitoring of the 18th floor. I will then go to the 18th floor and Ms. Davinport's her office, disable her with a tranquilizer dart and secure her passkey. I will stow her in a closet and secure it.

PHILLIP
And if she's not alone?

LUCY
Tranquilize her and take out anyone else that's in the room.

PHILLIP
Non-lethal where possible.

LUCY
Of course.

PHILLIP
And then?

LUCY
Make my appearance.

SCENE: CHANGE IN APPEARANCE
There could be a scene that looks surgical in some way where the actor's appearance is brought back to that of herself without prosthetics/SFX.

SCENE: EXECUTING THE PLAN
(This is actually a combination of several scenes on the way in.)
Things will go basically according to plan at first. She gets to the building, gets into security and disables the system for the 18th floor. Then gets to the 18th floor and sees the office where she needs to go. Ms. Davinport is in her office, standing behind her desk. Lucy shoots the dart at her.

[Securing with a tranquilizer: Can we take a blowgun and do a fast pan shot from the actor to herself in two parts that are later recombined. As long as we can do a quick cut between them so that the same actor is shooter and victim, it should be fine.]

After shooting the dart, Ms. Davinport (same actress) gives an "oh, my" and collapses back into her office chair. That's when Lucy notices a young (20-something) assistant and a very young (10-teen) child staring in horror at her. For all they know, the other person in the room was just assassinated by herself!

Lucy isn't sure quite how to proceed due to the child being present. After a moment's pause, she springs into action and takes out the assistant. She then turns to the child and says, "I don't suppose I could buy your silence with some ice cream later?"

The child begins to scream and swing a plastic three-ring binder at her, but Lucy cuts off the scream by putting a hand over his/her mouth. She drags the child into a closet and secures him there with some duct tape over the mouth and around the wrists and ankles. She checks her watch and realizes her time is short. She doesn't notice, however, that the child's binder cut her cheek. In fact, she thinks she's perspiring and wipes at it absently with the back of her hand. She puts Ms. Davinport into the closet also.

She enters a security code on Ms. Davinport's computer and turns on a webcam/skype-like program, with which she makes a call. On the screen we see a person in a suit. She talks with him, declaring her outrage at having taken [company | state] secrets. "This is a deliberate insult against me and my people." When she allows the other person to get a word in edgewise, he tells her he notices the cut on her face and the smear of blood. "You must have already dealt with the assassin I heard was coming for you. Congratulations. Lucy displays a moment of confusion but immediately covers it up. "We are cutting ties now." She hangs up.

She thinks for a moment, then makes another call. As the number dials, she says, "this is risky, but..." Another person in a suit appears on the screen. "Secure the building," she orders. "There is about to be an assassination attempt." They begin to ask about her face, but she hangs up immediately.

For a moment, the room is quiet. Lucy collects herself, wipes the blood from her cheek and sits at the desk quietly. A moment passes. The door bursts open and an assassin enters the room, gun (or some weapon) in front of her. He shoots and she is hit. She falls back into her chair and then down onto the floor behind the desk. The assassin immediately leaves. We hear a struggle in the hallway. Shots are fired and the assassin is hit. He falls back through the doorway and into the room. Security people enter the room and find Lucy's body, thinking it's Ms. Davinport.

One of the guards checks the hallway. "Is she alive?"

The other guard peers around the desk at Lucy. "I don't think so."

"Hot damn. For a minute there I thought we were going to have to kill her ourselves. How did she know about the assassin?"

Show the real Ms. Davinport in the closet just coming around, listening to the guards talking. Her eyes widen when she realizes they think she's dead and that they were actually going to try to kill her.

The guard turns to look at his buddy. "I don't know, but you're right. That was a close one." Lucy sits up quickly from behind the desk and shoots a dart at the guard standing watch at the door. The guard by the desk doesn't know what just happened and begins to move towards him until he spots the dart sticking out of his back. He turns just in time to see Lucy shooting another dart at him. He's down.

Lucy writes a note: "Merry Christmas." She then leaves the room and heads down the stairs as another security guy heads towards the office. They barely miss each other. Fade to black. Roll credits.

Several times I had to restrain myself from 1) adding too many actors, 2) turning it into an arrest scenario as the last practice ended and 3) keeping the story going. It had to end somewhere.

In looking back at what I wrote, I realize I didn't work in the prop at all. It wouldn't be too hard to do at all. For example, there could have been a rag available for Lucy to wipe the blood off onto. I also need to make sure the dialog in the setup says the character's name. For example, Phillip could start off by saying, "Today, you are not Lucy Moderatz. Instead, you are...", prompting Lucy to say Ms. Davinport's name. From there, the dialogue can continue as given.

I was conscious, this time, of incorporating some prosthetics work and fake blood work, since the person we work with for special effects is good at that sort of thing, and really didn't have anything to do at this year's session.

Because of interruptions and timing, I didn't actually use the whole hour for this session, but I think the basic storyline is there. It could be worked into a script with some better dialogue in a couple hours and shooting could start as soon as we had a location to use. Of course, that's always the trick. You wouldn't think securing an "office" setting would be so hard, but this year's 48HFP taught us otherwise.