zenmondo | Short film ideas

The creative juices have been flowing, and now that I have done a wee bit of editing on that AVID machine for my one-day job as a Sports Anchor, I am getting a bit more confident in my ability to actually produce a movie.

I have two ideas, that I think I want to outline here, just so I can have the notes to refer to later when (if) I get around to writing the plays.

The first story is about an old gangster -- well not too old, about 50. This guy is good at what he does -- in fact he's excellent. The thing is, he never gets credit, and has never moved up in the organization that much. Most of what he does is clean up the messes of the son of the Big Boss. Ofcourse, Daddy never hears about it. If only half of the kid's screw-ups made their way to Daddy, son would be in a world of hurt, or hell, family or not. Sometimes our main character will do the job for the kid altogether, avoiding a screw up, but recieving no credit.

Our main charcter has socked away enough money over the years to get out of the game and retire. Ofcourse,the kid can't have this. To ensure his safety, he has over the years left information with others that have sworn a solemn vow to get this information to the boss and the press. The kid finds out about this, and abducts our main character.

So then we have the whole tied-to-a-chair getting the shit beat out of him scene, and after all the nice juicy dialog, the kid points to this stack of thick, bulging manilla envelopes -- the information our main character had left with his protectors. Then he starts throwing polaroid after polaroid of grisly hits at him, they start to pile on the floor, around him, dead faces staring at him.

The kid pulls out a knife and is going to stab the guy and we get the big finale. (Character names are temporary until I decide on them later)


Uncle Rico tied to the chair looks at the polaroids pulling at his bonds, his mouth moving silently, while Kip plays with his knife

                        KIP
   Saying a prayer for your friends, Uncle Rico?
   I think I finally learned how to do this thing
   right. Thanks for the education. I don't think
   I need you anymore.

Kip stabs Uncle Rico Once

                    UNCLE RICO
   There are 20 people here Kip! Some of them Women! 
   You have learned nothing from me. There is no honor 
   in this.

Kip stabs Uncle Rico once more

                      KIP
   I have no need for Honor! I have no need of you!
   I did this. Me! No help from Uncle Rico. No one
   needing to check my work. I am my own man from
   here on out Uncle Rico. I got all twenty of your
   safties.

Kip repetedly stabs Uncle Rico, and he is clearly dying and coughing up
blood. There is no hope.  Uncle Rico begins to laugh along with his coughing
while Kip looks on confused.  He gasps out his last words.

                   UNCLE RICO
   Kip, you dumb fuck. I had twenty-two safties.

CUT TO BLACK.
CREDITS.

The other story isn't fully formed yet, as I just got the idea driving home from the grocery store.

The premise is this pussy-whipped guy is driving, with a bunch of flowers on the passenger seat. He takes out his cell phone and dials with his thumb, and as soon as he hears "Hello?" he starts profusley apologizing for some minor offense. He has dialed the wrong number and we see the person on the other end of the line, thin, short black hair, piercings, tattoos hip clothes, probably a tank-top that reveals the midriff. She says, "You don't need to apologize for that kind of shit. Whoever he or she is, they certainly don't deserve you. Call me back and let me know how things go." and hangs up. He just looks at the phone confused, presses "END" and this time dials the correct number.

The next scene, he is coming home, definatly worse for wear. He gets a tv-dinner out of the freezer, when his cell phone rings.

"So how did it go?" Its telephone girl again. We learn he first dialed the wrong number because his girlfriend has forbidden him to put her on speed-dial. Telephone girl says, "well you should have my number since I called you, you better put in on speed dial." He does with the name "Telephone Girl".

The storie continues with at first telephone girl giving him relationship advice over the phone, then moving into how things would be different if they were seeing each other, then the sharing of her fantastic sexual exploits, and her eagerness to show him a good time. Along with all this, is just a bunch of punk-rock type attitude really changing the way our hero sees the world.

It ends with him breaking up with the ball-buster, and knocking on telephone girl's door. We see Telephone girl in her punk-rock house, in her best punk-rock clothes go to open the door, and see our hero standing there. Then we reverse the angle, and see that Telephone girl is not the skinny punk-rock girl he imagined. Instead she is cute, overweight, long (blonde?) hair, and wearing a conservative dress. There might be a "What Would Jesus Do" poster in the background.

"Something wrong?" asks telephone girl in the voice of the actress that played her punk-rock persona.

"Nothing." Telephone girl extends her hand and smiles, our hero taking it and going into her house, as the door closes behind them.

Then we have the end titles, I am thinking over the song "Punk Rock Girl".