The Idea

 When I found out our next project was to devise a film opening, an idea almost instantly built in my head.  A one take near the Cinemark Paradise 24 that would be a slow building scene leading up to a violent beating. Then I heard that we should avoid making the scene feel like the end of something, so that idea was kind of thrown out, but the idea of a building thriller was one I was pretty passionate about following viewings of films from the Safdie brothers along with Soft & Quiet, Josephine, and Lurker. Veronica then proposed doing a band scene, but the idea was vague. I then thought of one my favorite recent movies, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a comedy following a really bad two-man band (Which I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend). I thought to make that band instead really bad, and then the thriller idea would merge in, having it build up and become chaotic. We ended up liking the idea and really fleshing it out, with three scenes to open: a short practice, their performance, and a quick aftermath. Between the terrible band and the music theme, we developed the name "A Major Flat," a play on music terminology. We also developed characteristics which we would convey within the scene for each character, and we developed a document surrounding the plan. The following is what we have written in relation to the idea:

All-guy highschool-dropout band: The Treblemakers 

Frontman (Florence): Daniel Catarino 

• Asshole, self-centered leader of the band 

• Driver 

• Why are they in the band?: Wants to be famous, prosperous, etc. 

• Frontman entices the boys to join by promising 

• Owns guitar, bass, and drumset (cheated a guy to get hem and gets slimed out) 

• Was in the same music class as Keyboardist 

• got jealous of Keyboardist and convinced him to drop out and join the band 

 

Drummer: Daniel Schmidt 

• Messes up second 

• Lazy 

• Laid back parents 

• Seeks attention due to his parents being neglectful 

• Craves this attention but is too lazy to try and find it 

• Why are they in the band?: Frontman promises fame, so the drummer wants to do anything that will give him that attention and picks up drumming for this reason. 

• Drummer goes with the flow and is low effort  

 

Bassist: Juan Palma 

• Messes up first 

• Genuinely wants to be great and important 

• Which is why he chose bassist (backbone of band) 

• Diff. From the frontman in which he isn’t in over his head 

• Bites off more than he can chew 

• Supportive rich parents 

• Gay for Florence 

• Motivated by his queer ass to impress the frontman 

• Byler is canon 

• Eventually comes out to keyboardist (supportive) & drummer (doesn’t gaf). 

• Good friendship with keyboardist 

• Why are they in the band?: Gay for frontman 

• He knows the frontman from school, basically a hallway crush. He heard about the band through the keyboardist and picked up bass just so he could join and have a chance to talk to the frontman. 

 

Keyboardist: Juan Aguinaga, Fernando Arosemena,  

• Best actual musician, skills ignored by band 

• Uses a crutch 

• One of his legs is damaged because of the band? 

• Probably uses a forearm crutch 

• Timid and quiet 

• Introverted 

• Why are they in the band?: Frontman pities him and gives him the “opportunity” to be in this band. Wants to be recognized, desperate. 

• The band is holding him back from being actually prosperous. 

• Abusive relationship: the band 

• Owns his own keyboard 

 

 

Score: 

Distorted guitar, synth, anxiety-inducing music 

 

 

Scene Details: 

Audience wears indie/experimental band tees 

Band plays in afternoon 

Walk home a bit before sunset 

Bassist holds keyboardist’s keyboard 

Notes for the blog:

The opening will only reveal Florence's name as a showing of his self-centered ness.

The guy Florence wronged for the instruments beats Florence up at the end of the performance scene.

The crass language is directly taken from our document, which is informal.