Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
The Bullets in my Brain, a rough bulleted story for my narrative
• Oliver comes home from work to ally apartment
• Its a normal night in the ally
• Oliver goes to work
• Oliver gets off work and heads home
• Oliver notices the family in front of the tv
• Oliver continues home
• Oliver goes about a normal night until he is finished with his bills, but he notices an error in his favor that will give him a little extra money this month
• Oliver sits back and day dreams of having a TV again
• Quick flashback to Oliver’s life before. We first come to him in the kitchen getting a snack, and we track him to where he sits to enjoy his TV shortly after sitting down there is a knock at the and we see Oliver receive an eviction notice, we cut to him leaving the house with two pairs of work clothes and a piece of luggage
• Oliver goes back to work.
• On lunch we see Oliver go to cash a paycheck and go back to work
• We see Oliver travel home the same route as always and go through the same night routine
• Day Off, Oliver wakes up, puts on his bum clothes, gathers his bills and his work clothes back in the dry-cleaning bags
• He leaves the apartment, grabs his shopping cart, drops off his dry-cleaning, runs to pay some bills, then goes “shopping” (dumpster diving). He collects things to make a new entertainment center
• That night he goes through his normal routine a little bit faster
• After dinner he quickly balances his checkbook then begins building his new entertainment center
• We see him go to bed with a smile on his face
• Oliver gets up the next day, finds a Sunday paper in the trash and relaxes
• Part way through the day, Oliver notices the hole in his entertainment center and begins to get bored
• Oliver goes out on an adventure and finds that happy family still in front of the TV while the rest of the neighborhood is enjoying the nice weather
• He gets his fill and heads home
• The next morning we see him get up and head back into work.
• We do a montage of all the different to-go boxes he has for lunch through the week until Friday
• On lunch, he goes to cash his paycheck (he got a bonus too)
• On his way he sits his lunch down to get his something out of his briefcase and leaves his lunch behind
• Oliver gets to the bank and realizes he forgot his lunch, the bank seems empty so he decides to go back for it
• Someone has thrown his lunch away, this wouldn’t be a problem but Oliver sees a coworker watching him
• He ditches his lunch and runs back to the bank to cash his paycheck but now there’s a line out the doors so he waits
• Oliver doesn’t have a chance to get his check cashed
• After work, Oliver runs back to the bank to try and cash his check, but only the drive through lanes are open
• He starts to walk home after that disappointed
• Oliver on a different path home for once passes by a store that is going out of business. They have a TV on sale that is just within his budget, but he still doesn’t have the cash
• Oliver sits on a bench looking and feeling defeated
• A man sits next to him and asks what’s wrong
• Oliver explains that he was just really hoping to get this TV to help improve his quality of life at home and the events that made it possible but the dilemma with the bank so also how he hasn’t eaten
• The man offers to lend him the money if he swears to pay him back so much a month for the next few months
• Oliver is hesitant but accepts the offer
• Oliver takes the TV home and hooks it up before he even gets his food, all the trash from the box makes the apartment look like a garbage filled ally
• Oliver immediately turns on the TV and spends the rest of the night basking in the strange blue glow
• This goes on for a few more nights
• Oliver stops back by the happy household with cable and you can see his frustration
• On his way home, Oliver makes a phone call to his lender and asks for more money and a longer contract and gets what he asks for
• The next day we see Oliver put on his work clothes and hurry down to the electronics to make his new purchase (Blu-ray player)
• Oliver runs home with his new purchases
• When he arrives home, Oliver sits down to catch his breathe, looks down and realizes he has sweat through his clothing and remembers that the dry cleaners close soon
• When he looks up to locate his other outfit, a small yellow mustard stain catches his attention
• Oliver changes his clothes quickly and runs back down to the dry cleaners barely making it in time
• While waiting on his dry cleaning Oliver goes and tries to rent a movie to enjoy his new set up
• Looking the way he does, a clerk at the video store recognizes him from dumpster diving and doesn’t believe he has an address or residence so shoos him out of the store
• Beaten and embarrassed, he tries to hit up a Red Box equivalent and doesn’t have a credit card to make the purchase
• Oliver gives up, picks up his dry cleaning and heads home
• Tonight, he simply hooks up the player and tries to enjoy himself flipping through the menus but he keeps thinking about a movie and looks at his check book and due to his banking error the previous week, he thinks he has enough money to go buy a new movie
• The next day on his lunch break Oliver goes and buys a new movie
• During the latter half of lunch, Oliver sits down next to the building the movie falls out of his pocket and a co-worker picks it up for him and comments on how much she love’s the movie
• This sparks the first real conversation Oliver has had in a long time but lunch ends quickly after it begins
• After work you see Oliver walk speedily out of sight of his building, then he removes his shirt and tie and runs his ass home
• Once home Oliver scrounges for whatever he has to eat and sits down and watches his movie and watches his movie and watches his movie
• The next day at work Oliver runs into that same co-worker again and she stops him and asks what he thought of the movie. Another conversation!
• When he heads home we get a montage that is a lot like the night before, the montage carries through the full next day and that night continues the same
• Finally this montage/time lapse ends with another conversation with the coworker. She asks to borrow the movie because she wants to show it to a friend
• Oliver reluctantly agrees
• He goes home that night and begins obsessing about what to do without his movie
• On lunch the next day he goes and tries to buy a new one but discovers his check bounced due to that banking error and they will not allow him to buy a new movie
• His coworker finds him after and asks if he brought the movie (after already spotting it his coat pocket). An awkward moment happens when she catches him lying and Oliver hands over the movie
• Oliver gets off work and before he gets very far from the office, his boss calls. He talks to him about how his performance has fallen off that week, his productivity is down and he seems ill rested and distracted. He asks that next week Oliver comes to work more prepared
• On Oliver’s walk home he is freaking out, his job is in jeopardy, he doesn’t have his movie for the entire weekend and his bank account is over drawn
• Just when Oliver is about to blow, Oliver is splashed by a passing car in the nasty weather he is traveling home in
• This weekend doesn’t go so well. Oliver cannot afford his dry cleaning and his clothes are wrecked
• The first night Oliver turns on the TV and wallows in the blue glow
• The next night, Oliver begins to freak out a little and begins to imagine the movie with himself in it. He freaks out and rips his pajama top off in a fit of rage. That night, a cold snap comes through the ally and Oliver begins to get sick
• With his pajamas ruined, the weather getting cold, and Oliver not having any money, he goes dumpster diving again for new PJs. The only thing he finds that will fit is a pink moo moo but at least he finds a matching pair of fuzzy slippers
• Monday again and Oliver is back to work, wearing a week-dirty shirt, he is getting sick and has been sleeping to poorly again. Oliver again works his way through the week. His last pair of clothes gets grimy from the city.
• Middle of the week, Oliver finds the coworker with his movie and she apologizes for being so forgetful but will return the movie soon. Oliver is developing a definite tick.
• Friday, Oliver rushes for work, desperate to get paid, clothes filthy and his mind is fried from stress by now. Lunch, Oliver gets his check and just outside the door and tears his check open. He rushes to the bank to deposit his check. He exits with a deposit slip with a note that account balance $3.48.
• When Oliver gets back to the office, the loan shark is there waiting for him. Oliver tries to explain but loan shark does not care. Oliver gets in a fight outside of the office until a security guard runs the loan shark off.
• Soon we see Oliver emerge again. With his head down he starts to shuffle home.
• On his way he sees the family through the window again around the TV. He politely shouts a big “Fuck You!” having a mildly “Falling Down” moment.
• When Oliver arrives back at the apartment, he finds two thugs trashing his place
• The loan shark explains to Oliver that he is going to leave the TV just to remind him that he still owes him money and that he expects it back in two weeks. He also makes a smart ass remark about the moo moo and Oliver’s mother.
• Oliver spends that night in the ally exposed to the world, wearing the moo-moo, with the blue light revealing everything he lost.
• The next day Oliver wakes up, puts on his bum attire picks his luggage back up, puts it in the shopping cart and disappears down the road
• Its a normal night in the ally
• Oliver goes to work
• Oliver gets off work and heads home
• Oliver notices the family in front of the tv
• Oliver continues home
• Oliver goes about a normal night until he is finished with his bills, but he notices an error in his favor that will give him a little extra money this month
• Oliver sits back and day dreams of having a TV again
• Quick flashback to Oliver’s life before. We first come to him in the kitchen getting a snack, and we track him to where he sits to enjoy his TV shortly after sitting down there is a knock at the and we see Oliver receive an eviction notice, we cut to him leaving the house with two pairs of work clothes and a piece of luggage
• Oliver goes back to work.
• On lunch we see Oliver go to cash a paycheck and go back to work
• We see Oliver travel home the same route as always and go through the same night routine
• Day Off, Oliver wakes up, puts on his bum clothes, gathers his bills and his work clothes back in the dry-cleaning bags
• He leaves the apartment, grabs his shopping cart, drops off his dry-cleaning, runs to pay some bills, then goes “shopping” (dumpster diving). He collects things to make a new entertainment center
• That night he goes through his normal routine a little bit faster
• After dinner he quickly balances his checkbook then begins building his new entertainment center
• We see him go to bed with a smile on his face
• Oliver gets up the next day, finds a Sunday paper in the trash and relaxes
• Part way through the day, Oliver notices the hole in his entertainment center and begins to get bored
• Oliver goes out on an adventure and finds that happy family still in front of the TV while the rest of the neighborhood is enjoying the nice weather
• He gets his fill and heads home
• The next morning we see him get up and head back into work.
• We do a montage of all the different to-go boxes he has for lunch through the week until Friday
• On lunch, he goes to cash his paycheck (he got a bonus too)
• On his way he sits his lunch down to get his something out of his briefcase and leaves his lunch behind
• Oliver gets to the bank and realizes he forgot his lunch, the bank seems empty so he decides to go back for it
• Someone has thrown his lunch away, this wouldn’t be a problem but Oliver sees a coworker watching him
• He ditches his lunch and runs back to the bank to cash his paycheck but now there’s a line out the doors so he waits
• Oliver doesn’t have a chance to get his check cashed
• After work, Oliver runs back to the bank to try and cash his check, but only the drive through lanes are open
• He starts to walk home after that disappointed
• Oliver on a different path home for once passes by a store that is going out of business. They have a TV on sale that is just within his budget, but he still doesn’t have the cash
• Oliver sits on a bench looking and feeling defeated
• A man sits next to him and asks what’s wrong
• Oliver explains that he was just really hoping to get this TV to help improve his quality of life at home and the events that made it possible but the dilemma with the bank so also how he hasn’t eaten
• The man offers to lend him the money if he swears to pay him back so much a month for the next few months
• Oliver is hesitant but accepts the offer
• Oliver takes the TV home and hooks it up before he even gets his food, all the trash from the box makes the apartment look like a garbage filled ally
• Oliver immediately turns on the TV and spends the rest of the night basking in the strange blue glow
• This goes on for a few more nights
• Oliver stops back by the happy household with cable and you can see his frustration
• On his way home, Oliver makes a phone call to his lender and asks for more money and a longer contract and gets what he asks for
• The next day we see Oliver put on his work clothes and hurry down to the electronics to make his new purchase (Blu-ray player)
• Oliver runs home with his new purchases
• When he arrives home, Oliver sits down to catch his breathe, looks down and realizes he has sweat through his clothing and remembers that the dry cleaners close soon
• When he looks up to locate his other outfit, a small yellow mustard stain catches his attention
• Oliver changes his clothes quickly and runs back down to the dry cleaners barely making it in time
• While waiting on his dry cleaning Oliver goes and tries to rent a movie to enjoy his new set up
• Looking the way he does, a clerk at the video store recognizes him from dumpster diving and doesn’t believe he has an address or residence so shoos him out of the store
• Beaten and embarrassed, he tries to hit up a Red Box equivalent and doesn’t have a credit card to make the purchase
• Oliver gives up, picks up his dry cleaning and heads home
• Tonight, he simply hooks up the player and tries to enjoy himself flipping through the menus but he keeps thinking about a movie and looks at his check book and due to his banking error the previous week, he thinks he has enough money to go buy a new movie
• The next day on his lunch break Oliver goes and buys a new movie
• During the latter half of lunch, Oliver sits down next to the building the movie falls out of his pocket and a co-worker picks it up for him and comments on how much she love’s the movie
• This sparks the first real conversation Oliver has had in a long time but lunch ends quickly after it begins
• After work you see Oliver walk speedily out of sight of his building, then he removes his shirt and tie and runs his ass home
• Once home Oliver scrounges for whatever he has to eat and sits down and watches his movie and watches his movie and watches his movie
• The next day at work Oliver runs into that same co-worker again and she stops him and asks what he thought of the movie. Another conversation!
• When he heads home we get a montage that is a lot like the night before, the montage carries through the full next day and that night continues the same
• Finally this montage/time lapse ends with another conversation with the coworker. She asks to borrow the movie because she wants to show it to a friend
• Oliver reluctantly agrees
• He goes home that night and begins obsessing about what to do without his movie
• On lunch the next day he goes and tries to buy a new one but discovers his check bounced due to that banking error and they will not allow him to buy a new movie
• His coworker finds him after and asks if he brought the movie (after already spotting it his coat pocket). An awkward moment happens when she catches him lying and Oliver hands over the movie
• Oliver gets off work and before he gets very far from the office, his boss calls. He talks to him about how his performance has fallen off that week, his productivity is down and he seems ill rested and distracted. He asks that next week Oliver comes to work more prepared
• On Oliver’s walk home he is freaking out, his job is in jeopardy, he doesn’t have his movie for the entire weekend and his bank account is over drawn
• Just when Oliver is about to blow, Oliver is splashed by a passing car in the nasty weather he is traveling home in
• This weekend doesn’t go so well. Oliver cannot afford his dry cleaning and his clothes are wrecked
• The first night Oliver turns on the TV and wallows in the blue glow
• The next night, Oliver begins to freak out a little and begins to imagine the movie with himself in it. He freaks out and rips his pajama top off in a fit of rage. That night, a cold snap comes through the ally and Oliver begins to get sick
• With his pajamas ruined, the weather getting cold, and Oliver not having any money, he goes dumpster diving again for new PJs. The only thing he finds that will fit is a pink moo moo but at least he finds a matching pair of fuzzy slippers
• Monday again and Oliver is back to work, wearing a week-dirty shirt, he is getting sick and has been sleeping to poorly again. Oliver again works his way through the week. His last pair of clothes gets grimy from the city.
• Middle of the week, Oliver finds the coworker with his movie and she apologizes for being so forgetful but will return the movie soon. Oliver is developing a definite tick.
• Friday, Oliver rushes for work, desperate to get paid, clothes filthy and his mind is fried from stress by now. Lunch, Oliver gets his check and just outside the door and tears his check open. He rushes to the bank to deposit his check. He exits with a deposit slip with a note that account balance $3.48.
• When Oliver gets back to the office, the loan shark is there waiting for him. Oliver tries to explain but loan shark does not care. Oliver gets in a fight outside of the office until a security guard runs the loan shark off.
• Soon we see Oliver emerge again. With his head down he starts to shuffle home.
• On his way he sees the family through the window again around the TV. He politely shouts a big “Fuck You!” having a mildly “Falling Down” moment.
• When Oliver arrives back at the apartment, he finds two thugs trashing his place
• The loan shark explains to Oliver that he is going to leave the TV just to remind him that he still owes him money and that he expects it back in two weeks. He also makes a smart ass remark about the moo moo and Oliver’s mother.
• Oliver spends that night in the ally exposed to the world, wearing the moo-moo, with the blue light revealing everything he lost.
• The next day Oliver wakes up, puts on his bum attire picks his luggage back up, puts it in the shopping cart and disappears down the road
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Ideas and Themes on Thesis Narrative
Pajama Theme
“Normalcy” Theme
Status Theme
Going full circle
• Pajamas are the first none work clothes you see the character in
• The begin ragged and holey
• Once Oliver is in debt from the TV, the weather begins to get cold and his pj’s just won’t cut it anymore
• He can’t afford to go buy new ones so has to rely on dumpster diving and can only find a dirty old pink moo-moo but does find some fuzzy slippers with it
• Oliver in the pink moo-moo and slippers will be the outfit he is beat down in and is at his lowest point
“Normalcy” Theme
• Oliver has decked out this alley with all the amenities
o Running water and sink
• A two-hose garden hose system out of the rain gutter
• One hose is clamped with a red clamp and one with blue giving the illusion of hot and cold
• Sink is made of a five gallon bucket counter sunk into an old crate mimicking a basin sink
• The water flows out of the apartment back into the alley
o Self-stocking kitchen
• Old, ratty kitchen cabinets with the back torn off.
• When you reach deep enough you end up in the dumpster on the other side of the wall
• Oliver’s alley is outside of a resturant so there is a self regenerating source of “fresh” food
o Comfortable Bed
• Made from stacks of couch cushions bungee-strapped together
o Bathroom
• There is a man-hole that Oliver removes the cover to and has a rig he pulls over the hole that stands in for a toilet
• I don’t really think this is needed besides a prop to fill space
• Oliver has created a version of an apartment to build a comfort zone that he was once upon a time used to. He has everything a house should, but is missing the TV to make it a real “American” home
• His after work routine is the same it would be in any lifestyle
• On days off, Oliver still has to run errandso Remove things from the day, ie briefcase, coat, hat, shoes
o Get food, eat
o Figure bills
o Relax
o Bed
o He only has 2 work outfits (they are the same outfit). At the end of every work week, he has to take then for dry-cleaning
o He also has a cell phone to receive calls from work
Status Theme
• Oliver tries to keep a certain level of status to help him feel normal in a world that has turned upside down on him
• He does this with a number of different actions in his day to day life
o Taking his lunch to work in different to go containers he pulls out of the trash so people don’t know that he eats out of the garbage• Oliver also has a need to consume to feel normal
o The only clothes he kept with him were dry clean only clothes that he wears to work to fit in and not break dress code so he has to go to the dry cleaners every week to keep up his appearance
o Oliver moved far out of the city to keep his coworkers from spotting him as he leaves his dwelling every morning and returns every night
o Oliver lives a lonely life• Oliver feeling the pressures of a more normal life
o One day on the walk home he sees a family around the TV and associated this with his own loneliness
o He gets the TV but has nothing to watch on it so he has to buy a DVD/Blu-ray player and a movie to watch
o A co-worker notices Oliver’s new movie in his briefcase during lunch and they have a conversation
o Oliver can’t afford any new movies so he watches the one over and over again
o Eventually the co-worker that Oliver talked to about the movie asks to borrow it so a friend can see it but Oliver is hesitant to bring it but eventually does
o As Oliver is working to pay off his new TV and Blu-ray player he starts staying up later enjoying the fruits of his labor and he gets a warning at work
o After Oliver comes up short on his first payment and it takes the rest of his money, on the way home one day and with the weather becoming nastier, Oliver gets splashed and his clothes are filthy and cannot afford the dry cleaning one week
o Oliver ends up losing his job and gets beaten and his apartment gets trashed
o Eventually Oliver loses everything and ends up worse of than he originally was
Going full circle
• Early in the story a shoebox will be introduced full of pieces of nostalgia
• The shoebox will be shown as the only thing he has besides his clothes
• At the end Oliver walks off and just starts moving but still has the pieces of nostalgia
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