Subtext & Choice

Decision #1
Set Up:
The situation is that Morty first hears about Natalie's frustration with Bobby in his car, and how she wishes he "would die".

Objective:
Morty wants nothing more than to do anything to make Natalie happy.

Options:
Morty can both take what Natalie is saying with a grain of salt and ignore it, or he could take matters into his own hands and go after Bobby.

Decision:
He makes the choice to go ahead a kill Bobby.

Motivation:
His growing obsession with Natalie.

Result:
This is the beginning of the end for Morty and the battle he will have between fantasy and reality.

Decision # 2

Set Up:
The situation is that Morty is not sure if he should talk to Natalie specifically about what he wants to do to Bobby.

Objective: Morty wants to do whatever possible to make Natalie happy, but feels that maybe by not telling her, or even speaking to her at all, the murder will be a lot more discrete.

Options:
He can both go to Natalie and tell her what his plans are, or go ahead with his plans and surprise her in the end with this "gift" to end her troubles.

Decision:
He decides not to tell Natalie about his plans.

Motivation:
He makes this choice because he wants to surprise Natalie, and also because he doesn't want to do anything to harm her reputation.

Result:
Morty begins to have a psychological battle between what he believes his relationship is with Natalie. This is when he begins to convince himself that Natalie's subtle movements around him in school are definite signals of approval on her part.

Decision #3

Set Up:
The situation is that Morty finally ends up killing Bobby.

Objective:
Morty wants to fulfill Natalie's "wish" by killing off her boyfriend, as he believes she wanted him to do.

Options:
The choices he has is to keep this to himself, or finally reveal it to Natalie.

Decision:
He goes to Natalie and tells her what he did anticipating her gratitude.

Motivation:
He believes that this is what Natalie really wanted all along.

Result:
Natalie breaks down from the news, Morty realizes that all the "signs" from Natalie of approval were all is his head, and Natalie has him put away.

Bobby

So I am running into a lot of problems when it comes to figuring out the character of Natalie's boyfriend. I know I do have him as the ideal jock, but he also has a soft spot for Natalie. By doing this, I want him to have a close background with his mother. I want something to have happened to her that would make him respect women so much. I think I want it to be the difficulty of maybe his mother's and father's marriage. I don't want his relationship to be tainted with his father, but I want his father to not be a great husband. In other words Bobby will recognize that his father is an amazing Dad, just a shitty husband that broke his mother's heart by leaving her for someone younger. When this happens, he is about 11 years old; young enough that it will really hurt, but old enough that he understands. He gets really close to his mother and this point, and decides that he will never be like his dad in that aspect, and will give the respect women need. At about 14 years old, he meet Natalie, and falls head over heels in love. They do have their quarrels, but all Bobby wants to do is love Natalie. The only issue they really have, is that Natalie is EXTREMELY high maintenance, and LOVES to fight and cause drama for attention. What leads up to her stating that she want him dead to Morty, is when they get into one of their fights about Bobby being 20 min. late from picking her up from cheerleading practice. Fed up with the screaming, he speeds off and leaves her at school where she would need to find another ride. Morty, then leaving his Chess Meeting, and Natalie knowing how much Morty likes her, ask him is he can take her home. He agrees, and this is where we lead to the conversation that leads to Bobby inevitable demise. Wow, ok, so there is his background!

Dialog Assignment.....

Morty sits alone is his room thinking about all the events that had just happened between him and Natalie.
"I need to ask you a question", says Natalie.
"What is it that you want?"
"I really would like you to kill my boyfriend."
VO by Morty, "I couldn't understand what she was telling me; why did she want me of all people to do this for her?"
"I don't understand."
"My boyfriend has been driving me crazy, and I just think it would be so much easier if he would just go away!"
VO by Morty, "I would do anything for you! I thought."
"I think that could be arranged", he said.
Morty sat there and looked Natalie in the eye as if to show her his determination on doing this for her.
Natalie say this intensity and looked quickly away.
"Okay, well I guess it is time for my cheerleading practice, see you later, ummmmm, Michael?"
"It's Morty."
"Right, that's what I thought."
"Alright I'll tell you when there is progress."
"What?"
"Nothing, I'll just talk to you later."
Natalie looks at him in an uneasy way, but doesn't take him seriously, and walks away.
As Natalie walks away, Morty stares at her the whole way with a menacing look of obsession. He knows this is his goal; the only way to win his loves heart. He will have to kill Bobby.

....

So I have decided to make Morty not attempt to kill Natalie's boyfriend until the very end where he succeeds. I thought that having him try and try again and again with fail, would put it back into the comedic way in which it started which is not what I am looking for anymore. I want to focus on his characteristics, and why he is so crazy. I want to show how obsession takes him over and make him so disconnected from reality. I want the audience to really get the sense that everything he is picturing in his head is truly happening until the very end. Every time Natalie passes by, there will be a VO on what he exactly think it means when she glances his way, or brushes his shoulder, I want it to drive him absolutely insane. I want the audience to see how he plans the murder, how he follows her boyfriend everywhere he can for the 2 weeks of planning. I do not have a name for the boyfriend yet, but since he is going to be a Jock, I was thinking something like Bobby. I do not want his character to be kind of on the tough side when it comes to appearance, but be an all around nice guy in school.

EXCITED!!

So I am really excited to go forward with my new idea for my script about Morty just basically being a lunatic. By doing the script this way, it will be a lot more original in the sense that it won't be another "Teeny Bopper" movie, and will have some edge. I do want Morty to indefinitely kill off Natalie's boyfriend, and for her to freak out when this happens. I am also thinking that since he has always had it in his mind that she "wanted him to do all of this", when she send him to jail, I want him to say to himself how this is also part of the plan. How he needed to go to jail so that the crime would be solved, but that "she would be back". You then see him in his jail cell, with her picture, (that he stole from locker) repeating over and over, she will be back. By leaving it this way it almost would leave the audience feeling very uneasy and not sure what would happen to this lost soul.
I also the script to have internal dialog that will narrative all of the acts Morty will commit. It will describe all of the interactions between him and Natalie,and all of the "signs" she gives him to get him to kill her boyfriend. Once he does kill him, I want there to be flashbacks of all these interactions between Natalie and Morty to show what they did in fact mean, and how crazy he really is. I want it to have a sort of "Donnie Darko" type of feel to it, at least the character that will play Morty.

My pitches....

So I have been trying to do the 3-minute pitches and it has been a lot harder than I thought. Being able to fill in enough description without going over the minutes in a bit of a challenge, but it is going good. I also have found out how I want the attempts of killings to go along in the movie. I do not want Morty to be by himself in this task. I want him to have an alliance of nerds to help him, but will not know all the details of what is going on. They will think that they are helping Morty, hurt or humiliate Natalie's boyfriend, not kill him. They will help him find out his schedule, what he is allergic to, what his fears are, etc. Then Morty will use this to his advantage when plotting his revenge. By having this change of events, we will see how Morty will starts beginning to take the image of Natalie. He will be using people that he feels will look up to him in order to do his dirty deeds as Natalie is doig to him. With this we will begin to see the rise and fall of both characters as their betrayal come back to haunt them as Natalie's boyfriend starts to catch wind of what is happening. He know that Natalie is behind it, but as Morty gets closer and closer to him and is usually around, Natalie's boyfriend grows fond of the nerd and wants Morty's help to take out Natalie.

More on my script...

I believe writing a comedy was much harder than I expected it to be. As much as I envision these characters and the ways in which I would like to portray their personalities, it is hard to get them all to come together. I know how I want Morty and Natalie to meet. I see how the situation with Natalie and her head coach is going to happen, and how her boyfriend is going to react, but nothing after that. But I guess that is a beginning. When it comes to Natalie, and her head coach. I want it to be over the top and silly. I want them to be on a trip somewhere for a competition and end up getting belligerently drunk with each other because of then getting drunk. Her head coach will not be the best looking person in the world, would preferably look like the coach from Clueless, but will look like a hot male in Natalie's eyes. You will get a POV shot from Natalie of her coach blurred into a celebrity such a Brad Pitt, and she has her relations with her. While this is happening, you will see her boyfriend outside of their window with a bouquet of flowers and a balloon saying "Maybe Next Time". He will leave heart broken and that is where I am stuck. I hopefully will have more to say tomorrow....