#sac423

Since this scene takes place in a hotel, I wanted to look at some places that fit the bill and are close by. 

This ballroom is at The Inn at St. John's in Plymouth: 

I like it because the brick gives it an old feel but the sunroof gives it a hip feel, and the balconies allow for us to get high angles. 

Here is a lower angle of the same room so you can see the sunroof. 

A place that was brought up at the producers' meeting was the Detroit Athletic Club. 

This room has a unique ceiling and the high awnings make it look classy. 

Boasting a similar feel and closer to home is the Michigan League ballroom. This might be too identifyingly Ann Arbor, but is also a nice ballroom. 

As far as a scene to pick for this week, the one that immediately came to mind was the apology scene in Mean Girls. In both this scene and our scene, women who have wronged others (and have been wronged themselves) address all of them as a whole and apologize. 

Foreground Background. Playing with space and impact of surrounding environment. World outside our characters.

So I know I'm a little behind the 8ball here in giving y'all a more specific idea for last week. But I'm here to rectify that!

With the new pages, we're looking at the opening and the meeting with Laura and the magazine scenes primarily, so we've set up a lot. I want y'all to think about different lighting and camera movement options for the different vibes in each of these scenes. 

1. The dates sets up our protag in this manipulative falsehood. How can we portray that in a way that is subtly but significantly different than when she's NOT on the job?

2. How is this exchange different? Natalie's still on the job, but on a different end of it. How does this exchange go down visually? What's meaningful here?

3. The lovebirds hiding the magazine. This is a scene where we have both a lot of playful liberty and a lot of information we have to cover. How can we have fun with this while our audience is trying to grasp what's going on?

The main events in each scene:

Natalie with the men (p.1-2): Natalie goes out with several different men and dumps them with rather sharp one-liners. Establishes the rules of her practice.

Natalie and Laura (3-4): Laura asks Natalie to dump Brad. Establishes who Brad is and what the stakes are.

Natalie, Jamie, and David (4-6): Introduction to Jamie and David, Natalie's support system. In this scene, we are introduced to Natalie's ex-boyfriend Kyle and she decides to take Laura's offer.

Natalie and Brad at the bar (7-end): The first meeting between the two. The main event comes when they sneak out the backdoor together.

Because Natalie is making the first move, Brad must react to her advances without seeming to "in the loop" about them. He knows she's playing him, so how can he make his movement seem spontaneous while still charming? At the same time, because a man is angry at Natalie, it provides Brad with the perfect opportunity to play the hero, per se, and whisk Natalie away, out of the restaurant and to safety. This kind of masculine heroism may provide Brad with a realism to the situation that returns later in his actual feelings for Natalie. 

His objective in this scene is engrained in his reactions to her. Through his reactions - questions, body language, facial expressions, tone - Brad must convey his interest while also retained his nonchalance: all to gain Natalie's initial trust. He's supposed to be "perfect," which doesn't mean flawless, just perfect in the sense that he "seems" perfect.

My scene for this week is from Friends' "The one the morning after." Ross and Rachel have taken "a break", and Ross sleeps with a girl named Chloe. He finds out there will be an unexpected visit from Rachel, and then this happens (start at 0:50): 

  In this scene, Ross' inability to keep a straight face and his hilariously awkward attempt at hiding something could be paralleled by Graham/David. Our scene won't have had a whole prior episode to set up this moment, but we still want the audience to feel a similar sense of "oh no!" when the magazine with Kyle on it is found. 

The other thing I wanted to talk about is the location for the a bar scene that happens afterwards. I am assuming we'll film this in Ann Arbor, but here are a couple Chicago bars that I think feel the vibe: 

Billy Sunday (Logan Square): 

The Punch House (Pilsen): 

Celeste (River North):