There’s a lot of lifestyle imagery out there, and the last thing we want is to get lost in the shuffle of sun soaked twenty-somethings. No. Like you said on the call, your demographic has a well tuned radar for bullshit. The quickest way to make the Bullshit Lightbulb go off is to show Generic Scenes of Generic Friends doing Generic Summertime Fun. We have to do these great scripts justice, and that means answering the big question:

How do we make this group of friends worth watching?

We get specific. There are rituals to friendships—inside jokes, beats that we all fall into when we’re participating in a relationship of any kind. It’s subconscious, learned behavior that happens when a group operates as a singular organism for a while. The designated DJ and designated volume lower-er. The mooch and the over-packer. The bill-payer and the person who covers whatever’s left. When people can rely on one another, they strike a natural balance, unique to each friend group.

We’re giving audiences a window into a day. Every glimpse they get, big or small, should contain a specific beat that’s unique to the dynamic of the group. Something that feels authentic and interesting, like we’re observing a really special group of people. We want our audience to recognize their own friendships, finding the universal in the particular.

Authenticity means showing everything, even the kind of shitty stuff. Luckily because of the whole “global pandemic” thing, I think we all miss all of it. I miss people so much, I even miss my arch nemesis, [redacted]. I’d love to see him again, give him a big hug, and probably talk shit about him in a breakaway group a few times throughout the day. I’m tearing up just thinking about it (only kind of kidding). We should capture a few of these moments too— Maybe the Grill Master opens the cooler only to find out the Sausage Guy forgot the sausage at home. He had one job! One! Little beats of low stakes conflict will help with pacing and intrigue. Oh, and keeping the Bullshit Lightbulb firmly off.

These are fundamentally intimate moments, and I’d like to think of these scenes as being captured by a filmmaker amongst them. Someone they trust, that they don’t think twice about being themselves around. Still elegantly filmed, but there’s a sense that the cameraman is every bit a part of the group. The camera should feel handheld without ever looking shaky, just a light, natural floating. Maybe the footage is slowed down just a touch, taking the edge off reality. It’d add an air of sophistication to the handheld, making it feel more like a documentary or a music video.

To pull all this off, we’ll need to assemble a top notch cast and crew that works well on the fly. I’ve already got some killer DPs in mind— people that are game to throw together an impromptu setup to capture something that totally charms us day-of. We’re all writers here, and we should write together, hashing out exactly what small moments we want to be sure we capture and then prioritizing what’s written down. But it’d be nice to have a team that can leap into action should we find a little wiggle room for improvisation, especially the moments of intimacy and mystery that pop up on set that will leave our viewers wanting to see more. We’ll shoot, and then overshoot, and show up to the edit with a wealth of options that we can shape into multiple stories. Go team.

I love the Coen Brothers as a reference here. No character is too small to have a backstory, and I want to flesh out each one with you guys. Glimpses of characters should feel full in a short amount of time. We’ll look for talented, textured, diverse actors who deliver grounded performances and maybe even surprise us with their takes. Because there’s no dialogue, we’ll focus on finding nuance— slight looks of victory, confusion, condescension—rather than big expressions. The goal is to have every aspect of the production working towards evoking an emotion so it doesn’t rely solely on the performer to emote. Instead, the whole shot tells a story, with our characters completely oblivious to the fact that they’re players in it.

Ideally, we’d let our casting sessions inform the characters, tailoring the wardrobe and story to match the actors. Our characters should be foils for each other in as many ways as possible, and it’ll be fun to play around in casting and see what contrasts come up. Here are just some examples of personalities we could explore:

FATHER-IN-LAW

Right off the bat, it’s clear: this guy has put together his fair share of furniture. And not just IKEA “put these three wooden pegs together and you’ve got a stool” furniture either— he knows his way around a circular saw at the least. He’s in his weekend-workshop clothes, maybe a paint-splattered Workmans jumpsuit tied around the waist, maybe it’s just weathered jeans and a beat-up tool belt he got from his dad. He’s well put together: a perfectionist in craft and also stubble length. He’s not the kind of guy that drinks beer while building, it’s about concentrating on the work at hand, especially when it’s a favor to his only daughter. You could say his love language is “fixing stuff up”, and he has a hard time relating to men who are more firmly in the “communication” camp.

SON-IN-LAW

If you ask him, his hobby is rock climbing. In reality, it’s a solid 4-6 hours of gaming on the weekend, but who can hold it against him? The graphics have gotten really good in the last few years. His father-in-law found out he hired a TaskRabbit to put together the kitchen island last year and has never forgiven him for it, and now the stakes are even higher with babies on the way. He can’t have grandpa running laps around his masculinity. As much as he wants to prove himself, he doesn’t even have a convincing outfit—his only work shoes are some Nikes, and his weekend clothes usually consist of basketball shorts and a t shirt.

FLASHY DAD

The self proclaimed Alpha-Dad of the neighborhood, this is his race. Every year. For 8 years straight. At this point his kid just watches from the window, that’s how little it’s about him anymore. The Alpha-Dad doesn’t take well to strangers, especially not ones that don’t know their place— an asphalt cowboy vs a timid lone ranger. He’s got on the same fit he wears every year: a hawaiian shirt, maybe a denim jacket with patches from past victories (all homemade of course).

HERO DAD

He just relocated to this neighborhood for work, and he’s not sure what the approach should be with his new neighbors— they don’t seem like the welcome wagon type, at least not this aggressive one. He’s a lover, not a fighter, but will stick up for himself when necessary— he’s done the whole Taxi Driver “are you lookin at me?” A few times in anticipation. And today it’s necessary. There’s been some tension bubbling beneath the surface for a few weeks now— squabbles about the height of hedges, moving vans coming and going, noise from the construction. He doesn’t need to be The Alpha, per se, but it’d be nice to not be treated like such a beta all the time. He picked up these batteries (and a fun shirt, you know how they say loud shirts give you confidence? Maybe it’ll work) hoping they’d give him a bit of a leg up, but that’ll remain to be seen…

There’s lots of other fun details I could throw in here, but I want to explore our options in casting and collaborate with a stylist before going too deep on anything. Just know that my priority would be on creating fully realized personalities that enrich the world around them, and a world that does the same for them. Sounds like a blast, to be honest.

Everybody wants to win. It feels good. Usually you have to push that good feeling deep down into your gut due to “polite society” and “not hurting the kids’ feelings.” You high five with your daughter even though mentally you’re shaking your ass in some Brooklyn warehouse covered in foam (sorry, how do you celebrate?). But with this campaign, we get to bring that feeling to life. Bawdy, bass-driven, a celebration that’s visceral and contagious. People will feel it in their bones— their funny bones! That’s the extent of witticisms I can bring to this job, by the way.

So, thanks for sending me these. I’m always on the lookout for smart, fun scripts that remind me there are plenty of people out there as delusional as I am.

TITLE CARD: KICK IT

This script is basically joy incarnate, and as written it’s already completely delightful. There’s something so special about a bond between a mother and her children, like when she pelvic thrusts in their sad little loser faces. You’ve managed to capture that beautifully here. Kudos.

I love this mom. I like to think that she’s always been like this— LL Cool J and her go way back, like all the way back to when she kept cardboard in her trunk in case of a breakdancing emergency. Now, yeah, she spends more time packing lunches for Zoom school than tearing it up in Whataburger parking lots, but that fire is always in her. You just wouldn’t know it from her sensible sweater and low-maintenance haircut.

As I said on the call, this story feels a little bit like a feminist statement— not explicitly and we won’t be bashing anyone over the head with it— but it’s centered on this person that’s a mother and wife and she’s asserting herself to be seen. “I’m fucking here.” Maybe she’s full time housewife, maybe she’s a high powered lawyer, it doesn’t matter. She’s making herself un-ignorable. It’s a celebration of her.

TITLE CARD: SO LET’S PARTY

The comedic beating heart of this campaign is in that delicious moment of bravado spilling out uncontrollably from the character you least expect. It’s fun, it’s kind of goofily cool, and it’s extremely watchable. But we want this to feel like a story, not just a collection of jokes. Each beat should feel fresh every time, each one building on the last, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny all over again.

That first moment of explosion is the big one, and we should make it as memorable as possible. It’d be nice to set up the family a little right at the beginning, before she blows up. We open on her and her son, who is playing NBA 2021, ignoring her. Invisible in her own home. Then when she busts out, it’s sets up delicious expectations.

A lot of the comedy here lies in the juxtaposition of Mom and her bad ass alter ego. We want to explore that contrast through little moments, deepening the narrative in a way that heightens the sense of the unexpected and makes her celebration even more vindicated. Maybe she’s been looked over a little in the house, constantly cleaning and folding and unloading with nary a “thank you mom” or a “we recognize how much you do for us, mom” in sight. Who’s putting the glasses in the dishwasher, some kind little glasses fairy? I don’t think so. But now she’s kicking some ass. Just takes their shit and starts owning them.