Synopsis/Details
This is EP 8 of my original series - The Madman's Daily Unequivocal Comedy, which is my take on shows like Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone.
This story took a few weeks to get out, which is different than the other episodes, as I just started writing with not much of an outline or blueprint for this story or characters. I think it is a unique episode in this series and reads like a fever dream.
I was interested in writing a play like Waiting for Godot, after reading that play and reading some other screenplays that focused on minimalism in terms of characters and setting.
I wanted to experiment with only one setting at first. The entire screenplay was going to feature one character driving in a car, speaking to himself the entire time, as he runs some simple daily errands.
The story did not turn out this way, but I am still happy with the general themes. It is a ton of dialogue and not really much action, at least in the typical sense.
I wanted to challenge myself to write dialogue that isn't preachy, and I hope I succeeded in that venture. There is way too much politics in entertainment. I know this was always the case, but I guess it is just more noticeable these days.
Other notes ----
When I got stuck writing this story, I turned to music again. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime kind of guided the pace of this story. Even some of the settings, dialogue and themes became influenced by that song. The original title was simply going to be "Wednesday" but I soon realized that I had to change it to pay respect to that great song.
Music is the most important tool when I write anything, but it was especially important in this screenplay, as I didn't know if I could get this story to 50 pages at first. I didn't even know what this story was at first, as the original outline kind of got discarded as more characters entered into my head.
I don't want to give anything away, but I guess this is the most absurd screenplay I have written for this series idea. Maybe close to a David Lynch type experience.
I wanted absurdity and mental health to be some of the main themes of the series, and I think I was successful in this vision so far. Of course, religion and politics will inevitably be a part of stories like this, but I think I constantly tried to present things as abstractly and absurdly as possible.
This type of dialogue is still new to me. I struggled keeping things flowing at times and edited the dialogue many times over. I am sure I will continue to do so as I read this again and get feedback from others.
Probably the most difficult screenplay I have written for this series so far.
