American Brothers Reunite for Korean Block-buster Reprisal

WASHINGTON D.C. – PYUNG YANG DISTRICT

The largest organized function the Pyung Yang District has seen yet, “Shane and Oliver Town: 2008!” is what they’re calling the festival-like events scheduled for July 5-14 honoring the much celebrated American-twins-turned-Korean-movie-stars Barrette and Marshal Green.

“Shane and Oliver Town” first aired throughout South Korea during the summer of 1994. The children’s television program intended for beginning English learners quickly became a hit and was later expanded into a series of films known for their cameos by some of Korea’s biggest stars.

The Green Brothers’ time in the spotlight was cut short just after the premiere of their sixth film “Shane and Oliver Town: Up and Down the Street” when the boys’ father, General Peter Green, was re-stationed to Washington D.C..

Over ten years after the duo’s last public appearance together, the recently booming Korean population in D.C. has planned for the occasion a parade, multiple autograph sessions, a photo shoot, as well as a ceremony in which the guests of honor will be presented with an honorary diploma from Pusan University.

Neither of the Green brothers were available to comment but it is reported that Barrette is a part-time English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and Marshal is currently doing work as a bank teller.

rough cut

Here is a very basic (just using imovie) scrapped together product of some of the footage I took last weekend. I want to re-shoot a lot of this, but this should give the pacing/feeling I’m going for. and…I think I want to use that song. tell me what you think…keep in mind this is supposed to be very rough. and I’m just using a crappy home camcorder….

Three Thirty

Wide shot of the fronts of three houses at night. Extremely slow zoom and pan to the house on the right, an old two-story structure, vine-draped and sleeping. Faint blue moonlight mixes with the imposing street lights. Crickets are heard chirping. They get louder and louder, drowning out all other sound until they turn into an alarm clock’s buzzer.

Cut to inside Sharon’s room. She sleepily turns off the alarm which reads 3:30 and lies in bed for a bit more. Cue This Is Not the End by Laura Gibson. The camera follows in front of her as she rises, navigates blindly to the kitchen and turns on the light. Just as the light flips on, the left two-thirds of the frame switches to an outside shot in which we get a view of the left side of the house. From the (upstairs) kitchen window falls light that’s almost too yellow and we glimpse Sharon’s silhouette, which is in synchronized movement with the right third. Sharon is seen (in the right third of the frame) opening cupboards until she locates the sugar which she places on the counter and then walks into the bathroom. The camera, presumably out of shyness, does not enter with her. Door open, Sharon starts to pull down her pants and the right third blinks into place with the rest of the frame revealing the driveway to the right. After about 10 seconds, a toilet flush is heard and the Title appears – “Three Thirty”

A car pulls into the driveway. Jane steps out, walks to the front door and takes out her keys.

Cut to inside kitchen extension room. An unfocused close-up on Sharon’s torso as she mixes batter in a large bowl. An in-focus Jane walks up the stairs behind her. Sharon turns her head.

S: Hey stranger!

J: (genuinely glad to see her) Hey Mom! Haven’t seen you in weeks – how’s it goin’?

Sharon walks off-screen right, taking the bowl with her. Jane pulls up a stool and sits where Sharon was standing. She pulls out her cell phone and fiddles.

S: (off screen) Good. How was the party?

Jane, momentarily engrossed by her cell phone screen, doesn’t respond.

S: I’ll let you go to sleep.

J: (finishing a text message) What? Oh, no Mom I can stay up for a bit. I want to. Are you outa here, though?

S: (as she walks on screen, puts a plate down in front of Jane, and walks back off) They’ve got me doing this darn orientation again… So, anyway, I thought I’d make breakfast – you know, before I go tell a bunch of pre-meds how to undo-the process I might as well soak some flour in oil and (back on screen, plopping a pancake on Jane’s plate) put it in me.

J: Mmmmmm.

S: Oh, here… fructose.

Jane leaps up and puts a soft hand on Sharon’s shoulder.

J: I got it. You flip.

Jane gets the syrup and they return to their previous positions.

J: (cont.) The party? The gathering? Um, it was… as fun as those things get I suppose.

Cut to medium shot from Jane’s left allowing audience to see them both.

S: How’s Jill? Is she still… you know…

J: Adorably dysfunctional?

S: Well I was gonna say going out with that boy but…

J: Yeah – same thing. Um, I don’t know, she wasn’t there tonight.

Sharon joins Jane at the table with a stack. Cut to medium shot of both of them from the front.

They eat in comfortable silence for two whole minutes.

J: Do you remember what we used to call these?

S: You mean Flap Janes? I remember.

J: I would have sworn they were my favorite food. Then I ate too many and yarfed and that was the end of that obsession.

S: I remember I couldn’t have gotten you to eat another one if it was sprinkled with cocaine.

J: (only half joking) Well, I wasn’t too into to cocaine yet at age six.

S: (also half joking) Oh that’s right. That came later.

Semi-awkward pause.

S: (thinking out loud) Well look at us now…

Sharon looks off into space thinking for another beat then stands up and gathers the plates.

J: Thanks mom.

S: You’re very welcome My Dear.

J: No, I mean – thank you, really.

Sharon takes the dishes to the sink.

S: Oh, don’t mention it. It was interesting to say the least. I here boys make a better only child.

J: You ever wish you could have made Flap Jakes?

S: Goodness no. They may be better but they’re… boring.

J: We should hang out more.

S: Yeah… How?

They ponder on this for a second and Sharon’s beeper goes off.

S: (looking at the device, face tightening) Gotta go.

J: (As Sharon walks away) See ya. Thanks for the cakes.

Jane picks up her plate of almost untouched pancakes and scrapes them into the trash. The camera follows as she goes into Sharon’s room, changes into a large t-shirt and goes to sleep in her mom’s unmade bed.

The right third of the frame cuts to a shot of the house from outside revealing Sharon pulling out of the driveway as Jane slumbers in the left two-thirds.

After Sharon has driven away, the left two-thirds blinks into place with the right third, going to a wide shot of the house. Extremely slow zoom out as chirping crickets are again heard.

Fade to black.

Acne Brought Them Together

Acne brought them together. Their greasy snow-capped flesh mountains glistened under the flourencent public-school lights. Their embarrasment melted away into relieved jokes of cottage cheese and volcanoes.

Parker Family Christmas Tradition

So it occurred to me this will be the first Christmas that the entire Parker family will spend together. I think a cool tradition to institute would be a 12 Days To Christmas Movie Marathon. Here’s my proposal for the line-up:

December 13th The Nightmare Before Christmas

14th Home Alone (every other year Home Alone 2)

15th The Family Man

16th A Muppet Christmas Carol

17th Elf

18th The Grinch

19th The Polar Express

20th The Santa Clause

21st A Christmas Story

22nd It’s A Wonderful Life

23rd How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Mr. Krueger’s Christmas

24th The Nativity Story

Comments? Suggestions?

Short Film Outline

Here’s the rough outline I have so far. Any ideas/insight appreciated…

Scene 1

OPENING: Open with black screen for a few seconds, then you can hear the clicking noise of a slide projector shifting slides. You hear once, twice, then the image blinks on.

SHOT 1: camera starts in a darkened closet then the closet door is opened. After a few seconds of rustling a GIRL comes into view. She has climbed onto one of the lower shelves of the closet and is peering at a higher one (where the camera is).
She shifts a few objects, pulls them off the shelves. After a moment of rustling through the items it seems like she hasn’t found what she wants. She begins to put the items back, but hesitates as she peers thoughtfully into an old plastic shopping bag. She replaces all the items but the bag and shuts the door.

SHOT 2: A broken flashlight can be seen on the ground (top off, batteries falling out). Feet enter the frame and exit, followed by a lamp trailing a cord down the hallway.

SHOT 3: A moment later camera follows cord down the hallway and it can be seen snaking into a darkened bedroom.

SHOT 4: Wider shot of darkened and cluttered room with an elaborate blanket fort inside. Rustling is heard, then a soft click and the fort lights up.

SHOT 5: Close up of hand holding the tiny slides and fingers tracing the cardboard edges.

**Montage of holding slides up to the lamp light, and sorting them into piles**

I don’t know how to make it flow into this next part!!! Any ideas??

Scene 2

GIRL somehow obtains a slide projector. I am having second thoughts about having her pick it up at Good Will. Actually I just can’t clearly envision this scene so I’m going to bypass it for now. Maybe in the beginning she just finds the slides AND the projector??

Scene 3

SHOT 1: girl pulls from a storage closet a big box of cords. She lifts them up in a tangled knot.

SHOT 2: presumably later on she sits on the ground with the cords and is plugging them one by one into the wall to test them. She tries 3 or 4 that don’t work. Finally one does and the slide projector blinks on.

Scene 4: Many sheets and towels and other laundry are hanging on an outdoor clothesline to dry. The girl walks through them casually, then tiptoes to undo the clothespins on a white sheet and yanks it from the line, dashing away.