Blog - A movie script - Opening scene

Blog

A Blog Script by Bloggers

FADE IN:

Angry Chimp Productions

1. Ext. Space – Looking down on the Earth, spinning slowly in an airless void.

(Silence)

ALICE
In the beginning, there was a word,

And then there were more words, and before long coherent sentences were formed with people asking; ‘What time is it?’, ‘Why did you hit me?’, ‘Does that come with Cheese?’, ‘Sorry I missed that, what did you say?’.

And for a time that was great, but soon some folk wanted what they had been saying to be remembered, even after they were dead, so they wrote the things they said down, and some things they had just been thinking about.

And for a time that was great, but soon some folk got pissed off with no one paying them any attention so they had what they wrote published and got other folk to buy their words and thoughts.

Making some people rich, mostly the publishers.

And for a time that was great.

(The Earth starts to spin more quickly)

But then the internet was born.

(Hundreds of shining lines form around the Earth, interconnecting, expanding and straddling from one side of the Planet to another.)

And everyone could write down their thoughts and have them instantly read by hundreds of strangers from all corners of the planet.

And no one had to pay any publishers a thing. Which made everyone very happy.

Everyone but the publishers, who moaned about this new revolution in publishing on their own little Internet diaries, or web logs as they became known.

(Now strings of words can be seen forming along the lines that criss-cross the Earth, and as the words form so do the voices, speaking along with words. Not many at first, but as they touch an overlapping line they spawn new strings of words and voices with them – young voices, old voices, men, women, children. Voices and languages from every corner of the planet getting louder as more and more voices are added. Each overlapping the other)

VOICE 1
July 3rd. Woke this morning with a slight headache, must have been all the tequila slammers I had last night…

VOICE 2
Tuesday 27th March. She hit me again last night. I swore I’d leave if it happened again but I feel this terrible compulsion to stay with her, it’s like a sickness…

VOICE 3
Monday. The bombing continued until the late hours. East Comer was hit, I fear for all those souls that huddle together their each night for shelter…

VOICE 4
Friday 6th June. Why do all the old buggers decided to go for a drive during rush hour? I know for them it’s like midday, but for goodness sake, they should be banned…

VOICE 5
September 27th. Tuesday morning. I write this with a great weight on my heart. Alas dear readers Amy finally told me why she has been so off with me...

VOICE 6
Thursday. I hate my job. I cannot stand it any longer; I am taking a gun into work with me tomorrow…

VOICE 7
14th April 2006. Whom does the PM think he’s kidding. It was only sixth months ago that he stated precise the opposite and now he’s trying to sell this nonsense as a frame work for a positive step forward…

VOICE 8
Day 8. Buggaboo are the best new indie group around. I saw them down at the Garage and Crow and they totally tore through their set hyperactive energy…

VOICE 9
Saturday 30th Feb. The scars from the operation are now fading, but I still cannot face let him touch me there. Is that weird? I just feel that part of me is missing…

(over the disembodied voices the main title card appears)

MAIN TITLE CARD:

Blog

(The voices are so many now no single voice is distinguishable. Gradually one voice becomes clearer as all other voices fade away. This is the voice of Alice, a woman in her early Forties, divorced with two teenage children. She has the accent of a woman from the Midlands, Northampton to be precise).

ALICE
So, I celebrate my 365th entry today. One-year blogging and what have I achieved? Finally got the official nod that me and Darren are no longer a functioning family unit. Could have told them that years ago. Lizzie is no longer my sweet little girl, but a petulant foul mouthed little madam, although her schoolwork is good. As for Dan, the less said about him the better.

One year on and what have I achieved?

(We pull away from the Earth with incredibly speed, the darkness of space being taken up by huge letters, quickly forming the desk top of a generic blogging tool. The Earth is now in the top right hand corner, spinning round to inform the user they are on line. We can see all that Alice has just said as typed prose. The arrow hovers over the publish icon.

And then more words are added, Alice reading as she types).

In fact, why did I start this blog lark in the first place?

(The arrow hovers back to the publish icon and becomes a little hand which punches down on the icon sending Alice's thoughts out for the World to read).

2.

NEXT: Tina's turn.

(There are no rules here, the story can go in any direction you like - have fun).