I digress. As previously mentioned, The Great Gatsby episode for me seems to be writing itself. The other night some inspiration struck and I wrote a scene for this episode, kind of commenting on that thin line between reality and critique, crap versus crap-on-purpose, in other, smaller words. My colleague, Laurie to my Fry, if you will (unless you'd prefer to be Fry. I'm not picky) and his concept of Cheap was just such a perfect location to explore this idea. Not only that, but the kind of people that have been making their way about our town seemed to fall under this idea as well. I call them scenesters. Do NOT get Hey Scenesters by the Cribs get into your head, by the way. It might never get out. Very dangerous.
If you want to get really pretentious about it I suppose it's an exporation of Baudrillard's Simulacra - the idea of objective reality being essentially a nonexistent thing, that we exist only in the realm of the image. I think modern culture could be seen as an example of this, but anyway. I'll stop lest I cross the line from being pretentious to misinformed. Warhol references entirely welcome. But I'll let Laurie go into more detail about that particular tidbit.
So I've written a couple of scenes for this episode and in the spirit of throwing my creative output into the void, I thought I would share them with you, John Q Public. Oh, and other people can read it, too. See what I did there?
Please to enjoy, copied and pasted almost directly from Celtx itself, or in other words - this is why the format is shite and I gave up trying to format it and everything is aligned to the left even though that's not standard...oh, just read it and shut me up.
INT. CHEAP. NIGHT
Samantha is stuck between three male scenesters drinking red wine. They are all wearing the same black glasses. Samantha is staring at one of them. SCENESTER 1 is making some sort of statement.
SCENESTER 1
I mean, there really is this idea that this underground arts scene is merely a group of children with no deeper understanding of popular culture than what is operating purely on the level of image. Which is just...so...disingenuous?
He turns to Samantha.
SCENESTER 1
What are your thoughts.
Sam stops staring at his glasses.
SAMANTHA
My thoughts?
She says nothing for a while, appearing to struggle with the topic.
SAMANTHA
I think that...I have to go to the bathroom. For a while.
She walks away.
EXT. CHEAP - BATHROOM. NIGHT
Samantha sees Daniel fowllowing her into the bathroom.
SAMANTHA
What are you doing?
DANIEL
Oh, apparently gender is arbitrary, so the bathrooms don't have signs on the door. You choose which one you feel comfortable using.
SAMANTHA
Oh, Jesus.
They walk in.
INT. CHEAP - BATHROOM. NIGHT.
Samantha and Daniel continue their conversation within their respective cubicles, while we wait outside.
DANIEL
So I've heard five times now that this place is a 'venue with a sense of humour, and it's a biting comment on society's concept of worth.'
SAMANTHA
Oh, I thought it was a biting comment on the concept of wanker.
DANIEL
How has your experience been tonight, Samantha?
SAMANTHA
Well, I've heard several regulars in the Sydney social pages talking about throwing up their ridiculously overpriced meal. And I just had to listen to scenesters talking about how they've been wrongly labelled as a group believing they are the self-appointed cultural elite obssessed when in reality they appear to have no deeper understanding of popular culture than the image, or some bullshit like that. God, I swear none of the people wearing glasses out there have lenses in them.
Toilets flush and Samantha leaves the cubicle, only to be confronted by Scenester 1. He doesn't look impressed.
SAMANTHA
Bathroom's free.
She moves around him, going to wash her hands in the trough. Daniel walks out.
SAMANTHA
I'd call them pretentious hipsters, but surely to be pretentious you have to know what you're talking about. You can't pretend to know, then google it later on your iPhone when the smarter person you've been talking to walks away. Or liking Jack Kerouac's On The Road on Facebook and never cracking the cover.
DANIEL
But you've never read On The Road.
SAMANTHA
Yes, but it's on my Visual Bookshelf as 'Want to read.' There's a difference, Dan.
DANIEL
Hmm.
Oliver walks in and looks confused.
OLIVER
What are you doing in here?
SAMANTHA
Oh, gender is a construct, Ol. It's arbitrary. You can use whatever bathroom you like.
OLIVER
Uh, no, the sign's just fallen off.
He points to where Samantha and Daniel are standing.
OLIVER
That's not a washbasin.
They stare at it, and realise it's a urinal, much like the boy's bathroom in a public school.
SAMANTHA
Oh.
So I know this is a very rough draft and I'm using character names that aren't set in stone yet and etc. VERY FIRST DRAFT. Blanket approval to be slightly crap.
The only thing I'm not certain about is - I have a scenester voicing perhaps a criticique of his own scene in quite an intelligent way and Samantha, in relating the conversation back to Daniel essentially just echoes his argument to ridicule him, but it seems like an interesting point for him to make. I guess that could possibly be explained by him quoting an online news article word for word, checking it every now and then on his iPhone, or Blackberry or similar?
Also, it's undeniably modern, which is something I think we'll be playing with in the future and again I must defer to my colleague on this point. So I guess the direction I'm heading has the potential to date our series and the writing quite severely. Then again, if done well it can be film as archive rather than something dated and irrelevant and still speak to the modern age even if it is a pronounced snapshot of a particular era in time...much like The Great Gatsby itself...oh, Mylanta I'm so clever!
So anyway, speaking of undiscovered genius, I think Australians have been sorely underexposed to a pop phenomenon the United Kingdom has been enjoying and keeping to itself for far too long. But all that's about to change. May I present to you...
JEDWARD
I know what you're thinking. But they're not just a treat for your eyes, they're also a treat for your ears. Fully endorsed by the intellectual elite among my friends. Start gettin' acquainted, Australia.
- S
