Sunday, October 10, 2010

An Exercise in Idea Response

Jot down (quickly) the scenes you would expect to find in a film with this premise:

Two childhood friends unexpectedly fall in love during a trip to New York.

  • Laughing and accidental touching in Central Park surrounded in fall leaves and autumn colors
  • He has a dizzying moment (he can't take his eyes off her) when she spills mustard down the front of her shirt near a hotdog stand, and then cracks up laughing. He wipes mustard off his hot dog and rubs in on his face to keep up the laughter.
  • She pulls strings to get tickets to a Broadway show he thought was sold out – the hug and he accidentally says “I love you” and she laughs and says I love you, too (but its clear she’s wondering in what way he means it…)
  • Her shower explodes and floods her whole room, but the hotel is sold out so they have to stay together in his room. (Or, they are staying together already but at check-in the hotel doesn’t have their two double beds available! They have to share a King?!?)
  • The two get really drunk at some fancy Manhattan restaurant and confess that they always wish their significant others could be more like the other one.
  • She almost walks in front of a cab, and he pulls her back and into his arms.

These were just some of my first, semi-obvious ideas. What other scenes come to mind when you think of this typical Rom-Com premise?

Prompt from Dennis Cass Wants You To Be More Awesome

1 comment:

Julie Keck said...

Fun! Let's see:
- in the old days they would have compared notes on people they went to high school with over beers or an old yearbrook; a newer version would probably have them looking at people's Facebook profiles;
- karaoke scene: she wants him to do it, he's reluctant, she's disappointed, he appears onstage singing what used to be her favorite song, she looks on chuckling and falling head over heels;
- just as things are getting good, they run into one of their exes, perhaps with a child that hasn't been brought up yet;
- gotta have the serious moment, when they confront the reason that they didn't stay in touch all those years; maybe she slept with his slightly older brother in high school; he's never forgiven his brother for it;
- something happens to remind them that they're just taking a break from the 'real world'; perhaps he's already extended his vacation once to stay with her and he's going to lose his dream job if he does it again; she says they probably wouldn't work outside of this trip (b/c she doesn't want him to lose this job); he agrees with her with a lump in his throat;
- scene at the airport/train station where he shows up at the last second, confesses his love, and says he'd give up his job for her; she says she loves him too and that he doesn't have to b/c she'd move anywhere for him
- last scene: she walks into his parents' place for Thanksgiving. His parents and brother (with new wife) are a little shocked, but then everyone falls into an old pattern of talking together like she'd been there all along.

Love love love this! Another one, please!