It's very important to establish the tone of the show - especially since comedy can take us in so many different directions. To help us all get on the same page, I've provided an outline that should help us break other stories faster.
PILOT
WARDEN B.B. WARREN, running for governor, stands in front of a sea of American flags during the filming of a campaign ad.
SUPERIMPOSE: Warden B.B. Warren
Off-camera, the PRODUCER asks, “Would you run the state like you run this prison?”
BB talks about how tough he is.
BB: I run a tight ship here. I meet challenges head-on. You’ll never see me passing the buck. People have to take pride in their work, take responsibility for their actions, and hold themselves accountable when things go wrong. And when I’m governor…
Sirens blare, interrupting the governor.
DAISY rushes in and immediately gets smothered by the material from all the flags, not expecting to see them there. She accidentally knocks over the flags, revealing the warden’s office – filled with signage from corporate sponsors.
She tells BB that Charlie escaped.
Realizing he’s still on camera, BB immediately goes into political rationalization mode, saying if he were governor this would have never happened.
Producer (off-camera): This happened on your watch, warden. What happened to being accountable?
BB goes ballistic.
BB: Turn that camera off! Turn that fucking thing off!
Producer (off-camera): It’s off.
But they’re still rolling.
BB wants the footage. The crew won’t hand it over. He bribes them, offering them a position in his administration when he’s elected – which, of course, they have on film. Still, they won’t give it up.
Producer (to Daisy): What can you tell me about Charlie?
Daisy: Well, put it this way: She was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List and People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People at the same time.
The crew interviews an INMATE who’s pissed that Charlie escaped because Charlie was going to get her a Faberge egg. The inmate explains to the producer that Charlie can get the inmates anything. She’s the “go-to chick” in the contraband pipeline. She’s completely connected to the outside.
CUT TO: People on the outside who were victimized by Charlie. Through interviews, we build the legend of Charlie. For example:
VICTIM: She passed herself off as a math tutor, stole my identity, then bilked me for $80,000. Although she did help my kid ace trigonometry.
SUPERIMPOSE: 3 WEEKS LATER
We see the glow from the TV as we HEAR the newscaster say, with each day that’s passed since Charlie’s escape, BB’s poll numbers have gone down.
BB is upset. Feet up on his desk and holding a deck of cards, he tosses them, one card at a time, trying to get them into a hat, missing every time…when Daisy enters with a delivery. It’s BB’s campaign bumper stickers. They read: “BB Warden: The Next Best Choice”.
BB goes ballistic, yelling at Daisy that they were supposed to read: “The Best Next Choice”.
In his fury, he throws the rest of the deck at the hat and yells that he specifically told her exactly how the bumper stickers were supposed to read, and she fucked it up.
While berating Daisy, the phone rings. BB is told that Charlie’s been captured.
BB is so thrilled about the news that she plants a huge kiss on Daisy, who gets weak in the knees, then moves her out of the way, like she were a bag of golf clubs, and heads out the door.
CUT TO: Interviews with people who are pissed that Charlie got caught. For example:
GROUPIE (who was in the courtroom gallery every day of the trial and sends daily love letters to Charlie): I love her, and I’m gonna marry her. And that son-of-a-bitch warden takes her off the market? You think I’m gonna vote for that home wrecker? That sick bastard. He’s the one who should be doing time.
Back at the warden’s office…BB learns in a TV report that after news of Charlie’s capture, BB’s poll numbers went down again. BB is stunned. He can’t figure out how his poll numbers can go down when she escapes, and go lower when she’s caught.
(STOCK FOOTAGE) Streets are blocked off as a police escort leads Charlie back to prison in an unmarked van. “CHARLIE FANS” line the streets, watching the van go by, cheering her on. Police helicopters fly overhead, making sure there are no incidents along the route.
The van arrives at the prison. The film crew is there to capture the moment.
As Charlie steps out of the van, we see her for the first time – gorgeous, sexy, and shackled.
The INMATES step to either side, forming a path from Charlie to the warden.
As Charlie, escorted by Daisy, makes the walk to the warden, Charlie hands an inmate the Faberge egg she asked for.
Charlie and the warden stand face-to-face. BB tells Daisy to take her to “the hole”. Charlie gets 30 days in solitary confinement.
The film crew interviews Charlie through the slot in the door of solitary confinement.
Producer: Was it worth it?
Charlie: If my 30 days save you from four years of that clown being governor, how would you answer that?
Producer: With a “thank you”.
Charlie’s hand comes through the slot, holding an empty champagne flute.
Charlie: You want to hit me up again?
A GUARD pours champagne into the glass as we…FADE OUT.
So this is meant to be an example correct? Not the final outline? There were a lot of details in there I thought we had discussed that were different. For example, since when is there a producer? I thought we had the camera gal and the sound guy? Also we said we didn't want to show Charlie until the end of the episode.
ReplyDeleteThe camera gal is the producer/director.
ReplyDeleteAs far as things being different, the story is always going to change on certain levels. We're just looking to tell the best stories. If this outline inspires you to come up with new elements, great. Add your thoughts to the outline.
I really like how you infused Charlie with a sense of purpose toward the end and also with a twinge of mystery. It helps that we are able to get a sense of some character with simply 2 lines and hopefully could snowball that throughout the course of the series.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious as to the tone that we could take with Warren: I know throughout class we've almost established him as an ambitious, almost Michael Scott type boss, but this example offers a sense of actual menace to him. I can see how it logically makes more sense as to not make the warden of a maximum security prison come off as incompetent, but are we clearly going to make his character a definite villain that we'd like to see Charlie triumph over? Or will we he stuck along with Daisy and Charlie in the prison, working off the metaphor that everyone in the institution are all confined, one way or another? Just musing, hopefully we can figure this out during class while breaking more stories.
“Would you run the state like you run this prison?”
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great line of Dialog to start the show.
"BB wants the footage. The crew won’t hand it over. He bribes them, offering them a position in his administration when he’s elected – which, of course, they have on film. Still, they won’t give it up."
ReplyDeleteIs the motivation for the producer more cash or personal virtue?
I feel like Warren is the only person with character flaws. Personally I tend to favor shows where all the characters have major flaws just like in real life.
Since this is primarily Charlies and the Warren's episode it's understandable we're not geting alot of character flaws from the secondary and tertiary characters.
What if there is disagreement between the Producer and the other member(s) of the the crew as to what to do with the tape?