Not really heading anywhere. Just a bit of a joke about managers playing games to decide important things
Screenplay / Downsizing
INT. MEETING ROOM – MORNING
The view is obscured by JAMES’s hand.
James’s face comes into view. He is looking into the camera and adjusting its position.
Correct position achieved, James heads towards the door of the meeting room.
RICK enters the room.
RICK
Angle looks good.
JAMES
Cool
FADE TO:
INT. Meeting Room – Later
PETER enters the room, followed by GREG, GEOFF, KEITH and BARRY. They are all 30-40 and wearing suits.
They take seats at the meeting room table and chat amongst themselves.
ADAM comes into the room, the others sit up slightly and look attentive.
Adam looks outside the door of the mmeting room and then shuts it behind him.
Adam takes a seat at the head of the table.
ADAM
Hello everyone. OK, we all know what this is about. The company’ feeling a bit of a squeeze and we’ve been told to downsize. (BEAT) We are going to have to lose 10% of the team.
Mutterings from around the table.
ADAM
(continued)
I know you all came prepared for this. So gentlemen if you’d like to take out your dice we’ll begin.
Adam gets papers out of his leather covered folder. He stands this folder up to shield his papers from the view of the others.
The others all pull out polyhedral dice and cards with employee pictures and statistics on them.
Adam clears his throat.
ADAM
OK. A customer has found a bug in our software. Here’s a copy of the problem report that reaches Geoff’s service team.
Adam passes a sheet of paper to Geoff.
ADAM
(continued)
This customer has been passed from pillar to post by our local support staff. The bug is causing them to lose a million dollars a day – and it’s already been four days. (BEAT) They are not happy.
GEOFF
OK. I’m going to play Andrew Phillips from the service team to liaise with the customer.
Geoff puts forward a card into the centre of the table.
GEOFF
(continued)
He has a high charisma score so should be able to placate them a little. Also I’m going to ask Barry to provide a programmer from his team to help with diagnosis. From first glance this looks like it might be a problem in his team’s component.
BARRY
(sotto voce)
Thanks, man.
ADAM
Geoff – make a charisma roll. Barry?
Barry grabs the problem report and glances over it.
Geoff rolls a handful of dice.
BARRY
I’m going to play Jane Turnball.
Barry places a card from his pack in the centre of the table.
ADAM
OK. Make a Java Skills roll.
Barry reaches for his dice.
ADAM
Geoff – how did you do?
FADE TO:
INT. MEETING ROOM – LATER
All eyes expectantly on Adam.
ADAM
The problem has been diagnosed. A fix has been delivered to the customer. That fix (BEAT) crashes the customer’s production system.
Groans from around the table.
ADAM
(continued)
The customer is not happy. I’m afraid that the developer who wrote the fix is going to have to go on the pile.
Keith throws a card onto a pile near Adam.
ADAM
(continued)
As is the tester who let that fix get through quality assurance.
Peter adds a card to the same pile.
PETER
One bad dice roll!
Adam gathers the pile and shuffles through it.
ADAM
That’s eight. That’s all the cuts we need for now.
The managers start collecting their dice and documents.
ADAM
(continued)
Those of you who have redundancies to make need to get the paperwork done by the end of the week.
They all rise and begin to move towards the door.
Greg catches Adam before he opens the door.
GREG
It might be easier to do Mike Simms as an early retirement rather than redundancy.
ADAM
Good thought, Greg.
They file out of the room.
FADE TO BLACK.
FADE IN CAPTION.
The managers came out of their meeting to find an empty office…
FADE IN CAPTION – CONTINUING BENEATH EXISTING
And this note…
FADE TO:
STILL SHOT
A computer monitor showing the view into the meeting room with all the managers sitting around the table.
Next to the monitor is a large note saying:
“Gone to the pub. We’re on strike. Video is on YouTube.”
FADE TO BLACK.
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Reviews
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Mishima reviewed Version 1 -
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It’s a nice idea, but I didn’t laugh. The middle section needs some work. Maybe make the meeting a little dorkier. ”One bad dice roll” was a good line. I’d put more D&D jokes in there. Some ideas:
1) Instead of just “OK. Make a Java Skills roll”, you might augment it with a bunch of complex modifiers in both directions (+2 for this, -4 for that).
2) Have one of the guys be reading a rulebook trying to one-up the boss with some obscure rule.
3) Have someone’s die roll off the table, landing on a high number. The others insist that he has to reroll.
4) After they have the pile of 8 cards, have two of the managers “roll-off” to see who gets to claim the loot (a to-be-fired employee’s coffee mug or something like that).
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10pfrw06 reviewed Version 1 -
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I believe your overall plot had really good potential, but somehow the storyline needed a little more substance. I was not quite sure where you were heading with the plot.
astral206 reviewed Version 1 -
Read 67% of the Item
Oh man, this has alot of potential. Clarity issues need to be fixed, as well as going even deeper into abilities listed on the cards, especially if you plan to make this 5 minutes long. Great idea, now add even more ideas, and clean it up.
dukelemoyne reviewed Version 1 -
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It seems to be formatted fairly well, and I could picture the setting, so that part of the screenplay works well.
I think this is supposed to be satiric, but the humor is lost on me, as I am not a gamer, and I think the portion of your audience who are not gamers are going to have a hard time following the dialogue.
Good luck with the writing.
Keith reviewed Version 1 -
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Works as good or better than many companies downsizing schemes. As a U-tube piece this one is entirely dependent on the individual finesse and nuance of gesture established by the players. Also…. a bit more of a set up establishing Adam as a traditional corporate hack would enhance the humor as the skit unfolds.
ramsrock37 reviewed Version 1 -
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Great idea. It’s funny the rolling of the dice and putting “their cards” on the table. It felt like it needed more action – maybe more agitation from the men.
milesave reviewed Version 1 -
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Perhaps with some more direction for the players is this short, it would be capable of grabbing some attention. Seems a little grainy already.
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