Knock Knocks are for creative development. It's a no holds, no bars, hell in a cell of Knock Knocks. Creative dumps while I'm working on other projects and in between other posts where I can play around with formats, tone, genre, and styling. Some stories continue, some don't. Some are random characters I wanted to explore. Some are exercises, some are quick reviews, some are jokes, and some are poorly constructed jokes. Knock Knock.
Operation
"Dress-a'
compress-a
pootie tang' stereo
bulltshit talkin' rip it ready go, oh no
Fletcher says "Ru-Roh!"
Baby says let me know"
Target Practice
"Focus on the sights." said Old Man Bill as he observed Ryan take aim at a two-liter soda bottle filled with water. "Stop worrying so much about your stance. It's a .45, but it's still a handgun. The recoil isn't that bad. So why don't you stop bitching and just hit the target?"
"Pretty easy for you to say." said Ryan as he tried aligning the sights of a Colt 1911.
Thirty yards away the target rested on a wooden stump whose front side had been decimated from repeated barrages of bullets off track. Ryan left his trigger finger pointed towards the target. His hands began to shake while he adjusted the gun and squeezed tight against the grooves on the grip.
"Relax." said Bill.
Ryan lowered his weapon and took a long exhale to ready himself. Re-positioning the pistol, he took one last breath before gently pulling the trigger. The bang of the gun echoed into the empty valley and was met with the explosion of plastic as water seeped onto the ground.
"Good job. Now pick it up and do it again."
Open Mic
Death's terrible. It's tragic you know. Dying sucks, ugh there's so much death. A lot of people you know die of old age and you know it's a slow and sometimes painful experience as they drift off to sleep. And then you have all the Oh They Were Taken Too Soon. These tragic deaths, I mean they die in so many ways. So many in fact SpikeTV was like "yeah...yeah. We got it boys. They're gonna keep dying. I mean we got seasons baby."
So, you have your various ones. Somebody falls and they break every bone in their body. Somebody like drowns in a pool. Then you just have people sticking their dicks in everything. Just like *blegh
But, when you die there's always an investigation, like oh, could someone have stepped up and heroically saved this person's life. And in a lot of cases, it's "no... they're too far gone. " Just so sad. So. Very. Sad.
I picture something like there's this kid Timmy, and he's just such a rascal. And while he's running around, he trips and falls into a rushing, raging, river that's connected to a paper mill where the logs are floating down into these buzzsaws ripping everything apart. Oh my God just...Timmy it's gonna be gruesome I'm not gonna lie to you.
Then you have all these townfolk and they're running and they're just like "oh we'll save you Timmy we'll save you. Don't worry Timmy we've got this branch. Just don't worry Timmy."
And they stick out the branch and Timmy's rushing down and he reaches out he's like "oh I'm gonna get the branch." (Imitate to the crowd) Then the people are like "Oh he's gotta get the branch." And then he just barely misses the branch and "oh fuck he didn't get it."
Now, everybody looks at each other and they're weighing what their next move is. The situation has progressed, it's more dangerous now. If they try to go save Timmy there's not much time.
And one guy just kind of steps up and he's like "*sigh Timmy's gonna die I think we all know that he's dead that's just a fact. Could we go after him. Yes. Is life precious? Sure, why not."
"But...if...we know Timmy's gonna die we also know we're gonna be really sad. And if we know we're gonna be sad. If one of us goes after we'd probably die too. And then we'd be double sad. And I don't wanna be double sad... so all we can say is good luck bud."
(Margo at the bar)
The rest of the townsfolk nod their head in agreement and Timmy dies. Oh it's awful. Ripped to shreds. The News reporters come out and ask 'em "What could you have done to save him."
"We-well you know we tried. We had that branch. He was... Ya know, weak. He couldn't swim. He wasn't a good swimmer in the first place. And he misses and uhgh, I mean, the opus is sorta on him, but not to go there, it's a tragic story. Ah... but we tried this branch and after that we knew we had to make a choice, and you know, he was just too far at that point and we lost track of him and oh it was just horrible and oh it was awful. It was so sad. It was just so incredibly sad, and ya know, I just wish... that maybe... the good lord would've taken me first."
Thanks.
Thunder Road
Originally a short film, Thunder Road expands upon the original idea by creating a dark comedy relying on uncomfortably intimate scenes to explore the breakdown of a single man in the wake of his life's collapse around him. From the death of his mother to the messy divorce he's currently undertaking, Thunder Road uses the backdrop of issues afflicting America's heartland to examine personal relationships. While comedic intention is present, the movie itself feels like it was filmed as a drama with long, continuous shots establishing the seriousness of the subject matter. It creates for cringe inducing scenes you can't help but laugh at as you squirm.
Whether intended or not, the lower budget of an independent movie does offer an absence in ability that can lead to creative depiction. Boundaries are, surprisingly, a wonderful thing helping to fuel innovation in storytelling by forcing the creator to maximize the potential of what's available.
Music is a big component of filmmaking. It helps set the mood we're supposed to recognize with the shot, and without it, the audience can feel unsure about their place within the production. Thunder Road is aptly named after the Bruce Springsteen song, and in honor of his mother's passing, officer Jim Arnaud performs a dance to the song. Except, they clearly couldn't afford the rights to the song, so he performs this dance without any music. Scenes continue to play out this way with even minimal instrumentation to establish the level of intimacy needed to make this film work.
Combined with these one-take, slow, close-ups; the minimalist soundtrack ensures you're witnessing the private conversations of a fractured man nearing the edge. It can be agonizing watching the desperate attempts of connection and growth as Jim looks for some hope in the world collapsing around him, but it's at these moments the comedic component shines the brightest. The absurdist take to look at all the pain afflicting us and to laugh in the face of how uncomfortable it can be to unravel.
It's these moments of hope pushing you through the depressing points of the film. It's the similar message of hope that wrongs can be righted, and making the commitment to at least try, even in failure, is a worthwhile endeavor.
Chaco
Chaco time means it's taco time
MayMay
"Squack" goes the bird.
"You dumb mother fucker." goes the Dad.
MayMay#2
tumbleweed like wash wash window