Short Story Ideas for my Short Film

Rebecca Stockley (www.improvlady.com) held an improv workshop for AnimationMentor Class 5 students this week and it was just what I needed! She taught us lots of games to help get our creative juices flowing. I had been experiencing horrible writer's block because I was frantically trying to come up with incredibly witty and funny and smart stories for my short film, but all that was coming out was boring, predictable, flat, and only mildly amusing at best.

So, yeah, i starting writing at around midnight, i think and didn't finish til 2 am (way past my bedtime), but i had these chicken burritos for dinner tonight and cooked them in the microwave, and "ding" - the seed of a story popped into my head. So instead of letting the fire die out, I started playing the games she taught us, just by myself (Reincorporation, Betty Plum, and Story Spine) to develop it and it kind of took on a life of its own. I felt like I was just along for the ride! And before I knew it, it was 2 o'clock in the morning. I was having so much fun, I totally lost track of time.

How bizarre that so much richness can come from making associations with the obvious (instead of trying to bang down Genius' door...)

So, without further a do, here are the fruits of my labors, using all three games Rebecca taught us TOGETHER (I know, I'm getting crazy here!!) I came up with:

“Microhell!”

by Kenshi Westover

v.2 - 4.14.06 (changes from this afternoon: made Charley just a priest instead of a superstitious priest, changed the dog's name from Kibbles to Moses – thanks Rachel Ito!, and tried a new ending as per Taylor Mahony, Rachel Ito, and Rosie Varela's input after pitching the story to them, also thanks Rachel for the tail idea...)

3 Images (Reincorporation): A burrito, a microwave, and a priest.

“Betty Plum” game: Charley Melton – a 35 year old Catholic priest, loves routine, lives a very simple modest life, always wears his priest garb to remind him of what is important in life, he's never been married, has never had a girl(or boy)friend, his dog Moses is his best (and only) friend, his favorite thing to watch on TV is the Lawrence Welk Show and I Love Lucy, he lives in the past, he's too opinionated and a little self-righteous so he never gets invited over for Scrabble, he's never had a spiritual experience but wants to have one really bad, loves Mexican food, especially frozen burritos because they are cheap and he only likes eating hot and salty foods, he became a priest because he wasn't very good at math, he loves puns and he snorts when he laughs too hard, he lost his parents at a young age and has a hard time letting people into his life because he's afraid of losing them – dogs are a different story.

Story Spine:

Once upon a time there was a priest named Charley.

Every morning he took his trusty dog Moses (who jingled along with a cross dangling from his collar) for a walk down their street in the hills, and once they got home, fried a frozen burrito for breakfast, giving exactly a fourth of the burrito to Moses, who didn't much care for frozen burritos, but he ate it anyway.

But one day as Charley was going for his morning walk, he heard a sound in the bushes. Upon closer inspection, it was a white microwave. What made the sound, Charley had no idea, and didn't really care. He scooped the microwave up in his arms and walked back home with Moses in tow.

Because of that, he now had a microwave to heat up his frozen burritos with and Moses liked the “ding” sound the microwave made when it was finished “cooking”. But after Charley pulled the cooked burrito out and turned around to get silverware, the microwave shuddered a bit. Charley didn't notice, but Moses sure did and barked, but Charley just shushed him. What do dogs know anyway?

Until finally, the next morning, when Charley heard the ding of the microwave and went to take his daily burrito out, there was nothing inside the microwave. With a furrowed brow, he turned away from the microwave to confront Moses about the missing burrito as if he would tell him even if he HAD taken it.

Then a sound like someone preparing to hawk a loogie came from behind Charley and a burrito shot out of the microwave like a bullet, hitting Charley in the seat of his pants, causing him to jump 3 feet in the air. Then, suddenly, the microwave started rattling and shaking. Charley and Moses looked wide-eyed at each other, and then back to the microwave which was emitting a strange light and then there was the sound of laughter getting louder and louder.

Charley didn't know what else to do, so he made a cross with his index fingers trying to ward off the appliance, but it just kept laughing and shaking even louder and harder!

Amid all this chaos, Moses quite casually trotted towards the microwave and went behind it. Charley was certain poor Moses would meet his untimely death and covered his eyes. But Moses just grabbed the electric cord of the microwave with his teeth and yanked it out of the wall, and the silly thing stopped making all that ruckus.

To prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again, Charley hucked the microwave out of the window. It rolled down the hill a bit and landed in almost the very spot it was where Charley had found it.

Not more than a few moments passed when a passerby going on HIS morning walk saw the microwave, picked it up, put it under his arm and continued on down the street.

The three prong electric plug on the end of the dangling black cord suddenly turns into the pointed end of a devil's tail.

The End.

The moral of the story is? Your thoughts? Please comment with ideas!

Thanks!