Character - Rocket Scientist
Prop - Roller Skates
I have a few initial ideas for possible scenarios;
Similar to the introduction of Lost (TV series)
In Lost, a plane containing over 300 people crashes on a desert island. The survivors must then try to escape the island, encountering abnormalities along the way.
My character, the Rocket Scientist, could be a passenger of a either plane (passenger) or a space shuttle (observer/overseer) and has crash landed onto the desert island. Being the only survivor of the crash, he salvages the crash in an attempt to escape from the island. Among the crash site, he finds a pair of roller skates. These roller skates belonged to his son who, was either was on the plane or is back home and initiates the tension through the "ticking clock".
On the basis of his son being on the plane, he struggles to cope with his son's passing. This, however leads to the irrelevance of the father's occupation. Though, to counter that, the Rocket Scientist, created a space shuttle and took his son, including crew, for a journey that no more than a hand full of people will ever witness. The scientist holds that regret, and builds a memorial for son, placing his son's roller skates at the site. The story would be told through flashbacks, jumping from present to past. A possible, very dark and gloomy way to end this particular idea, would be similar to that of a scene in CSI: New York.
In the scene, a teenager who had committed murder, un-knowing and un-willing, killed himself upon finding out the truth. He believed it was his father that killed them, and upon hearing the truth from his father's friend, the teenager drove to the beach. Having sat and stared at the empty sea, he stood up, took off his shoes and began to walk slowly into the sea. The guilt was too much for him to bear, thus relating back to my idea. Though, in addition to the roller skates, a toy rocket would be at the memorial too.
On a brighter note, with the basis of his son at home, the scientist devises of a way at getting back home. With a bit of comedy to this telling, the scientist attempts to build rafts, boats, S.O.S signs, catapults, slingshots, digging tunnels and to no avail has either worked. Through searching the island for an idea, he stumbles upon a pair of roller skates. He then took them back to his makeshift office, consisting of branches, vines and logs, to devise his next idea. His idea was to take the necessary components, to make a pair of rocket powered skates, similar to that of Dead Rising 2's workbench combo system, that would take him home.
Of the ideas, I'm more compelled to the first as I prefer a more mature story, than a comic one.
Hi Jake - Jackie here....I am supporting Tom. Please can you drop by on his blog and have a look at his script ideas - I will direct him to yours! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jake - I think the 'Lost' thing is haunting your ideas too much - likewise the imposition of a mood onto your objects, as opposed to allowing new and original sources to spark from your 3 objects. The doom and gloom of your first idea feels like a 'comfort zone' in action to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Rocket scientist character is obviously key - and maybe you need to think more creatively about his motivations; for example, if you were to make this 'character vs character', you could set up two rocket scientists in a sort of space race (they could be American vs Soviet, for quick set-up of rivalry). The point about 'character vs character' is that pride/arrogance/conceit etc. is often punished - for comic effect; for example, imagine that that 2 rival rocket scientists are in a race to the moon; lots of comic sabotage occurs on their respective launch pads, including, perhaps an incident with some roller-skates; the act 3 'reveal' could be that the 'winning' rocket scientist arrives on 'the moon' only to find out that his rocket has landed on a desert island of rocks in the middle of nowhere - so not on the moon, and now trapped - hah! serves him right, etc.
I think it would help you if the desert island was an environment arrived at - you don't need to start there. Remember, stories come from character, so I'd start there - and introducing additional characters to create some additional sparks is also fine. Give it some more thought - and keep more ideas in play - and don't impose a mood - let the mood of your story 'happen' - regardless of your own existing preference for 'sorts' of stories.
I like the idea of the rocket scientist salvaging through the plane wreck and finding roller skates. Perhaps he could find numerous objects to create life raft and the wheels of the skates could act as a clockwork mechanism to power it.
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