I know these scripts are still in flux as we continue to develop the concept, so I just wanted to touch on a couple of things that I hope can act as our North Star as we continue to write and refine our approach.
I know there was talk about the "baton handoff" concept. While I think it's an excellent device for scene transitions, one thing I might gently nudge on is that if we want to sell these as real people, we need to only ever see them behaving as such.
Where I worry a device like this might fail us is that it breaks the immersion we're so carefully constructing. While, in a more traditional commercial, this type of scene stitching would be fantastic, it's not something that would feel diegetic to the true-to-life documentary world we're creating. I do, however, love the charm of connecting scenes, and I think I know where we could achieve that. It's difficult to write, but it would become a very intentional part of our shooting process...
It's in breaking the fourth wall of the filmmaking process.
Take, for example, The Golden Spurtle trailer. The first frame is the woman asking us if the filmmakers want her to start mowing. It's hilarious, it's human, and it immediately clues us into the irreverence of the piece. We could absolutely do something similar in our film—small moments that charm within the scenes while naturally acting as transitions, making our real people feel even more human.
Maybe it's one of our teachers missing her centre mark, and we ask her to move over two steps. A laugh is shared. An awkward shuffle. We see the super. Cut. Suddenly we're with a new teacher, who looks up as the boom mic gets a little too close for comfort before we launch into the scene and VO.
Really fun.
One other element, which I know we touched on briefly, is letting our casting process guide the scripts. I'd love for us to stay open to discovering ideas through the people we're looking to work with. It gives us permission to let the creative evolve alongside the casting.
Maybe we discover someone whose story has a hidden layer. Maybe one particular person naturally leads us to an interesting location. Maybe one conversation opens the door to someone we never would have found otherwise.
I want to leave room for those discoveries because they're often the moments that make a film like this that much richer.
Food for thought!