hey guys,
soo im 17 and i have been making alot of shorts..most of them look really bad but i dont care because im having alot of fun...sooo
i wanna do another one.
see i have a poker room in my house and i have 2 male actors 17 and 18 who are pretty good(they respond to direction). i wanna do a 1 scene short about 2 people playing a game of poker and having a conversation. this will be more of a character develpment/ working with actors workshop for me. i wanna see if i can get past result directing and really give playable direction on a constant basis. i wanna really get some complex characters going.
any ideas where this little idea could go??
Two characters plus an extra without any lines.
First character, we'll call him Gilligan. He's bluffing. He doesn't have the money to lose and has bet himself into a problem. So he'll talk big trying to look good for his girlfriend and hoping to bluff the other character into folding.
Second charcter, we'll call him Skipper. He can afford it, but doesn't want to humiliate his friend and is trying to get the guy to back down because he knows he has the better hand.
Third character is Gilligan's girlfriend Mary-Anne who has the eyes for Skipper. He's not interested and is afraid that if he wins he wont' be able to get rid of her and he'll lose his friend. She has no speaking lines but does flash her eyes at Skipper a lot, distracting him.
So the entire scene plays out as the two try to bluff each other and delay the inevitable laying down of cards that they know will screw up things.
To make it work they need to talk about something other than the hand. Teasing each other a football game they played long ago. Hinting as they go how the other one was humiliated or whatnot. Looking over at Mary-Anne to see her opinion.
The scene ends when they finall call and put their cards down. I don't know the result though. That's up to you and your theme.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
i really like that.....im going to try and make the poker game stand for something else....i think they should be wadgering something besides money....in the grand scale of like money isint all that important any way....what if it was a wadger on the world....i donno i just got the idea after cleaning of the poker table a few hours ago i have alot more to think about ya know.
You could have them playing strip poker and the one character is losing and betting his girlfriends clothes. The other one is very conflicted about that since she's giving him the eyes and seems to want to take it off but he knows it'll hurt his friendship with his buddy. So instead of money it's her honor plus their friendship although only one player sees it that way.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
You could have a scene where their playing poker, all talking and joking around. But continually cut to one of the charcters cheating. Emphasise the other charcters frustration at continually losing by using close ups etc. I know its not really what you was thinking of but you could also add a fight scene when they find out he's cheating, just to liven the scene up. Otherwise who's going to want to watch a short of 2 people sitting down talking while playing poker. Cleary.
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The cheating adds a nice element, especially if the other players knows about the cheating and is trying not to say anything. Also if the cheating is not helping the cheater win despite all of the attempts.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
what if its a game of bet your life poker. like if you loose you get killed by the 2nd lowest chip leader. it could start with only man 1 in the room and you hear someone getting beaten to death out side the room. then man 2 comes in sweating and scared. he sits down and thay play one of them loose and the other stands up as if hes going to kill the other....
i donno,
any other ideas?
Now that's a dark twist. Why would anyone sign up to join such a game? You'd have to have an incredible pot, or a gun to someone's head (Dearhunter). If, say the folks running the game were threatning one of the players wives what is in it for them? Just sick people? Are they showing it on the web? You introduce a lot of questions.
Of course if its revealed that the group were all callers to a suicide hotline and the guy running the game runs the suicide hotline you could have a dark, sick twist. I imagine the guy running the show badgering them, come on, two days ago you wanted to eat a gun, now you're afraid? You never were serious. Then at the end you find out that the guys who lose aren't killed after all, but the real threat of death sort of cures them of their suicidal tendencies.
I would think you'd need more than two actors but alot of them wouldn't have to speak. Just lay down their cards and be dragged off through a door.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
