Tag: Comic

Nicola’s Leather Book (Script/pilot)

Nicola’s Leather Book

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Recurring characters:

Nicola

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Episode 1 synopsis:

Nicola’s riding on a train. The narration is describing the day and the scenery. As things develop a little, Nicola’s plan to rob a man in one of the cars becomes clear. The man is in possession of an experimental retinal device that plugs his eyes into the interscape. Messy job. She bides her time and gets to know a man who is traveling along to go visit someplace. That’s her alibi and her getaway. She excuses herself from the man saying she’ll be back in a minute. She sees the target walking along with a briefcase. She approaches him and asks for some help opening a train window, struggling with it herself. As he tries to help the attractive woman with the task, she wraps his head with a clear polymer that shuts on his head like a vacuum sealed plastic bag. “Can’t have any blood, now.” She removes the eyes and there is very little mess. She then dumps the body out of the train window and returns to her friend. She seduces him and leaves the train with him.

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PAGE 1

PANEL 1 (large)

We see a long passenger car going through a mountain pass.

NARRATION: NICOLA: I remembered this day for a strange reason. I slept in after I couldn’t sleep all night and missed all my alarms. I was going through some kind of funk and just dragging myself through life. I barely cared what would happen with my job that day. In some ways it’s lucky that I am alive still, so I feel like I am gambling with the house’s money.

PANEL 2

View of Nicola sitting on the train. Dark hair, pale skin, and clothes that stand out as trying to blend in with the expensive looking rail-car.

NARRATION: NICOLA: The job was simple. Get the retinal-computer from the man’s head and get out. I needed a good alibi and I needed to get out of my funk. This is more than just a hangover.

PANEL 3

Nicola stands at the door of a private car. There’s a man sitting by himself.

NICOLA: SPEECH: Are you here by yourself? Do you mind if I sit down?

PANEL 4

MAN: (nervously) Sure.

PANEL 5

Nicola is sitting across from the man and her foot is rubbing against his ankle, just above his shoes.

NICOLA: You looked lonely in here by yourself. I think I forgot something, will you give me a moment?

PAGE 2

PANEL 1 (small)

Nicola holds open a door between two railcars and looks forward.

PANEL 2

Nicola sees a main in a suit and a briefcase. One of his eyes is a different color and has wires instead of veins.

PANEL 3

Nicola tries to open a train window nearby, pretending to struggle and dramatizing.

NICOLA:SPEECH: Can anybody help?

PANEL 4 (small)

The main in the suit is alarmed and gets up

PANEL 5

The man tries to open the window. Nicola is behind him.

PANEL 6

Nicola throws what looks like a shimmering plastic bag over his head. It instantly closes like it is being vacuum sealed.

PANEL 7 (small)

Closeup of the man’s face inside the vacuum-sealed polymer. He looks shocked and pained and you can clearly see the wired eye.

PAGE 3

PANEL 1

Nicola, from a knee, removes the eyes.

NARRATION: NICOLA: I was feeling a little bit more awake already. It felt sort of like those halloween haunted houses where you’d stick your hand into a bowl of olives and they’d say it was eye balls, but these weren’t olives. Not that I’ve ever been squeamish.

PANEL 2

NARRATION:NICOLA: Nothing like a fresh mountain breeze when you’re feeling under the weather.

Nicola pushes the man’s body out of the open window on the moving train. We can see the train is up on some mountain somewhere.

PANEL 3 (small)

Nicola walks back through the train, brushing herself off.

PANEL 4

Nicola is back in the man’s private train room.

NICOLA: SPEECH: Sorry that took so long. Where were we?

PANEL 5

The man hurriedly unbuttons his dress shirt like this opportunity is about to run away.

PANEL 6

NARRATION:NICOLA: I was starting to feel like myself again.

Silhouette picture of Nicola riding the man with her stands stiffly holding him down at the chest and some views out the train window.

PAGE 4

PANEL 1

Nicola and the man step off

PANEL 2

The smiley man looks dumbfounded when they cross a corner out of the train station and he finds himself to be alone again. There is a smear of blood on his briefcase.

PANEL 3

In a dark bar, over a glass of beer, Nicola is examining the eye piece, like something out of science fiction.

PANEL 4 (small)

A man enters the bar.

PANEL 5

Next to Nicola, the man orders a shot of whiskey.

PANEL 6

Nicola drops the eye in the shot.

PAGE 5

PANEL 1

Closeup of the eye in the shot glass of whiskey.

PANEL 2

The man takes the shot of whiskey.

PANEL 3 (small)

The man laughs.

PANEL 4

We see Nicola with an open leather book. Inside, there is a comic panel like what we are reading. She has a pen and is working on it.

The book needs to be large enough to see, so it can be over the shoulder or over-head on to a table where Nicola is working.

Station 17 (Comic Script)

Pilot/Sample Page

Station 17 Radio

Characters:

JAMES: Age 8-10 year old boy. Looks smart but not too nerdy. He is mischievous. Does not have to look a specific way.

JAMES’ MOM: Preoccupied with her own life more than James’.

Graffiti Gang: Lanky, tattooed, pierced and drugged. These guys are scary.

6 FRAMES

PAGE 1

FRAME 0

Close-up of James. This is our main character. He is clever, frustrated and tortured with his current life. Age 8-10.

TEXT:THOUGHT:JAMES: Tuesday. They said it’s my last chance to turn in my final project today.

FRAME 1

James is pretending to be sick. He is in his bedroom with a thermometer in his mouth.

His home is quaint and through the window you can see that the neighborhood is a sprawling slum. His room has some posters and graffiti on the wall.

TEXT: THOUGHT: JAMES: I can’t believe this keeps working.

SPEECH: MOM: If you’re sick again don’t go to school. I don’t want you spreading germs.

FRAME 2

SPEECH: MOM: I’m going to work. There’s food for you in the kitchen.

JAMES flies out of bed as his mom leaves.

FRAME 3

TEXT: NARRATION: This is my second sick day this week. There’s got to be another way to get out of school.

James is wandering into a subway full of graffiti, shaking a spray paint canister on the way. Aboveground there is a lot of rubble and hobbles as well as quaint suburban looking houses.

TEXT: JAMES:

FRAME  4

TEXT:THOUGHT:JAMES: Stupid gangs.

James is painting on the walls when a gang of lanky druggy looking graffiti artists see him and start running towards him. One of them has a laser guide on his glasses and another is flying a drone with his watch.

FRAME 5

James slips into a maintenance room in the subway after passing a corner to get away from the graffitis. We should see a sign for “Station 17 Nearby”

FRAME 6

James sees a radio broadcast console (like a desk for a DJ) and puts the headphones on over his head.

TEXT: JAMES: Woah. No way.

PAGE 2

FRAME 1 (small)

James flips a switch

FRAME 2 (small)

We see some movement and static on an old receiver.

FRAME 3

TEXT:THOUGHT:JAMES: I’ve heard this on the radio.

James grabs a record

FRAME 4 (small)

James puts the needle on the record.

FRAME 5

SPEECH:JAMES: I wonder if this works…

FRAME 6

The sun is setting.

PAGE 3

FRAME 1

James is back home, in bed, with a thermometer in his mouth. Music is playing on the radio. The number “17” can be seen on the radio.

TEXT:NARRATION: Later…

JAMES:THOUGHT: Holy crap… it works!

FRAME 2 (small)

James’ mother is going upstairs.

FRAME 3

James’ mother puts her hand on James’ forehead.

MOTHER:SPEECH: Are you pulling my leg again? You don’t have any kind of temperature.

FRAME 4 (small)

Closeup of James’ face as his mom’s hand slaps him.

MOTHER:SPEECH: Your father would roll in his grave if he knew what a mess you were! All he wanted was for you to make something of yourself!

FRAME 5

SPEECH:JAMES: Dad… did they kill him?

FRAME 6 (small)

Closeup of James’ face with his mother’s finger pointing at him

SPEECH:MOTHER: Keep your mouth shut! Never talk about those things.

PAGE 4

FRAME 1

James’ mother is reading a book in the bath while drinking some heavy looking liquor.

FRAME 2 (small)

Closeup of James crying while under his blankets and looking up at the ceiling.

FRAME 3

From outside the house, we see James sliding down a pipe beside his bedroom window that leads to the ground. There is a lot of rubble and strange signage around.

FRAME 4

James approaches some shops with his hands in his pockets. The signage is neon, futuristic and also run down with grime and rubble.

FRAME 5

Inside one of the shops, James is window shopping some food behind a glass counter in a deli.

FRAME 6

James stands out as cold, hungry, alone and childlike.

DELICATESSEN: Hey, you, get the fuck out of here! You’re breathing all over my glass.

PAGE 5

James exits the store, sadly.

FRAME 2 (small)

Outside the shop, the delicatessen tosses James a wrapped sandwich.

DELICATESSEN: Hey, take this. Also, get the fuck out of here.

FRAME 3

James stands at an intersection. There are some cars flying every which way. They are futuristic, but the most run down and old of what’s new.

He looks lost.

FRAME 4

A small drone approaches James while he is standing. Various lasers scan him.

DRONE:SPEECH: identify yourself.

FRAME 5

James reacts quickly and runs. He heads towards a subway.

FRAME 6 (small)

James enters a subway through a stairway and the aboveground signage for the subway stop can be seen.

PAGE 6

FRAME 1

The drone is moving slowly through a crowd of people at a subway train stop.

FRAME 2

James has hopped down by the tracks and on to a maintenance path.

FRAME 3 (small)

The drone has floated to the tracks and it’s lasers are scanning towards James. We see a headlight in the background.

FRAME 4

A train crushes right through the drone and towards James.

FRAME 5 (small)

James crouches and reacts to the wind and noise as the train passes fiercely.

FRAME 6

James is standing and looking at a crossroads of tunnels. There is graffiti. Some of it matches what we see in James’ bedroom and has his name.

PAGE 7

FRAME 1

James goes to the familiar path where there is a STATION 17 sign above a door.

FRAME 2 (small)

James enters the door.

FRAME 3

James is at the radio broadcast booth with his hand on a radio dial and headphones on his head.

SPEECH:RADIO: Tunneling of the new high-speed subway will continue this week. The tragic accidents at tunnels 32, 39, and 60 have not slowed progress. The myth of the resistance is  becoming a distant memory.

***

James is building a bed in the Station 17 Radio room to sleep on by piling up some old cloth.

***

James is fast asleep on his haphazardly-built bed.

END OF EPISODE. TBC.

Mel (Short series, part 1)

Mel

 

“Three weeks ago, you might say I had it all. A nice car — a brand new Lincoln. A Town Car, like a truly beautiful automobile. A Lovely wife and two kids. But, I wasn’t happy. There’s some things I have always wanted to do.” Said the man with slicked back hair and suspenders.

“I drove off. I didn’t know where I was going. I just wanted to clear my head. I was sitting in my car looking out over the city and that’s when it hit. Whoom!” He said, striking a man whose arms and legs were tied so tight he felt like he was suffocating  so he left out a muffled, “Errrrmmmmm!”

“My job down at the paper. I hated it. Pushing pencils. Wearing checkered shirts. Making up dumb stories when nothing was happening. I’m sure you can relate.” The whites of the bound man’s eyes widened to show a desperate attempt to get through to the man in suspenders. “I like driving. I had always wanted to be a driver. Not like race cars. Just nice cars. For nice people.” He added.

“When I was sitting up there, in my car, I saw a flash and a mushroom cloud. Like I had seen on TV. Out of nowhere. And the whole city… practically gone. Just like that. Right before my eyes. And in a way, that is what I was hoping for. I felt responsible… still listening?“ The muffled and bound man nodded his head, clinging to life but hurting so much he began to wish the man in suspenders would just get it over with.

“Good. I appreciate it.” Said the man in suspenders, with a cold laugh. “I’m Mel. The day this city died is the day I was born. It was good to meet you. Thanks for listening.” And with a thwack, Mel cracked the bound man’s neck and threw him in the trunk of his Lincoln. Mel brushed away any prints and blood splats and kept the Lincoln spotless, ensuring that blood only dripped into the meat wagon of a trunk that could later be sterilized. Wouldn’t want a customer to get a whiff of that.

It was Mel’s third trip down Highway 130 that week. He was a chauffeur, the classiest and most reliable in the New World. And, this being his most profitable route, he had to keep it clean from the bandits and thieves and degenerates that roamed the roads looking for easy prey.

Co-written by Gavin Sinclair