Untitled Document

THE DIET FILM SCRIPT SAMPLE

Here are several pages of the beginning of the script to give you an idea of what it is like. This is the 4-19 draft. A complete script can be downloaded by contacting Max Reid.

1. INTRO

EXT STREET - FLASHBACK -- JULIE AND FRIEND

We open in the “future” and see Julie after she has lost a lot of weight. She’s drinking water like a fish while she strides along the sidewalk with a friend.

Julie admits that it sounds nutty that it’s water that helped her to lose weight--- that and exercise. She’s an exercise fanatic now— she’s got to be.

2. I WASN’T ALWAYS FAT

2a. INT OFFICE -- JULIE -- OFFICE GROUP

Julie, normal weight, walks around the office, talking to people, getting things done. “I wasn’t always fat. Eight or ten years ago I was normal. I ate what I wanted, though I tended to get a little fleshy- guess it’s my genes.

I got this cool job. The hours and the stress were crazy, but the people were really cool.

2b. INT RESTAURANT -- JULIE -- OFFICE GROUP

We’d always go out to lunch together—and guess what? I started eating like a normal person—for meals a day and snacks.

CUT TO-- Julie in the same restaurant-- much fatter.

2c. INT. OFFICE -- JULIE -- OFFICE GROUP

Julie waddling around the office as before, doing almost the same things as above, but she’s 70 lbs. heavier.

2d. INT JULIE’S BEDROOM -- JULIE

Julie is looking at herself in the mirror. We see the following action, dissolving from size to size and outfit to outfit.

OPTICAL EFFECT: Julie getting fatter and fatter .

I really didn’t notice it. I had to keep buying new cloths, and there were some realizations there. A size 8 was okay, and when those got tight, a size 10. I didn’t even own a scale then.

Then I got to the point where I only had one outfit that looked okay on me. The others were tight, bulged in the wrong places.

My jeans were to the point where there were only two “loose cut” pair that I could get into. And I had to use baby powder and lay down to zip them up. I was so worried about them bursting at the seams and exposing my big butt to the public, that I kept a black leotard in my bag, just in case.

The only corrective action I could think of was to put a block of wood behind the mirror so it would bow a bit and make me look skinny.

We watch Julie adjust her degree of skinniness in the mirror. It’s pretty silly.

3. HOW TO TRY NOT TO LOOK FAT

EXT AND INT LOCATIONS JULIE -- VARIOUS PORTLY CHARACTERS

For the longest time I was in denial. I was really clever, at least in my opinion I was clever.

I could have written he book on how to be fat. I had excuses for everything. I told myself I knew how to avoid looking 75 pounds overweight. You might know some of this stuff already, but just in case, here’s a recap--

Julie, and sometimes her friends in different little comic situations, illustrate the following ways to avoid looking fat.

Un-tucked shirts -- avoids bulging waistlines

Wear black

Oversized clothes

Beard or goatee hides double chin for guys

Longer hair hides “fat face”

Hang out with fat people

Always pretend you’re on a diet when out with others.

Eat real skimpy but when no one looking you scarf down everything except the fridge.

4. HOW TO PUT OFF A DIET

EXT AND INT VARIOUS LOCATIONS -- JULIE -- VARIOUS PORTLY CHARACTERS

My other great skill was putting off being on a diet.

My successful strategies for putting off starting a diet.

Keep saying-- “next week, next month, or pretty soon”

As soon as the pressure at work is over.

When the holidays are over

Can’t decide which diet—so many kinds--

In the spring—then I can eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

5. OUT OF CONTROL

INT HOUSE -- JULIE VARIOUS FRIENDS

Julie is sitting around a dining room table with rowdy friends. There are heaps of food everywhere. Like everyone else, Julie is drinking vodka and stuffing her face.

Julie—talking to the camera-- 3 shots of vodka have 200 calories 200 vodka calories quickly lead to out of control eating and a thousand extra calories

6. THE LAST MEAL BEFORE THE DIET

INT HOUSE CONTINUE ACTION JULIE -- VARIOUS FRIENDS

Julie is gobbling away at the noisy party.

On an impulse, she raises her glass calls everyone to attention and announces-- This is the last supper before my diet. You thought I would never start a diet?

The others respond with wisecracks—hell, I’ve started a diet hundreds of times—lots of luck—lots of skeptical remarks. We watch her continue to chow down.

She tells her friends she needs to “bulk up” for her diet.

7. HOW TO SUBVERT A DIET IN PROGRESS

EXT AND INT VARIOUS LOCATIONS -- JULIE VARIOUS PORTLY CHARACTERS

There are lots of ways to subvert your diet--

--Take a class in gourmet desserts.

--Start a hectic travel schedule for work— with meals on the company.

--Move into an apartment next to an Italian Restaurant.

--Develop sudden amnesia while shopping—buy nothing but fattening foods.

--Go wild with a craving— chocolate for instance.

-- Refuse to exercise

8. HOW TO AVOID EXERCISING

INT JULIE’S APARTMENT -- JULIE

Julie is doing crunches to an exercise tape on her TV.

Julie emphasizes-- Skipping exercise is the leading cause of subversion. And you can exercise anywhere, anytime. No excuses.

But in case you need them, here are some excuses. She rants on a seemingly endless list--

Always exhausted—not enough time

The gym is too weird—full of perverts

My exercise clothes don’t fit.

I have to start gradually.

My knee hurts.

It’s too cold out.

It’s too hot out.

It’s too dark.

I’ll do it tomorrow.

I’ll do it later.

My dog ate my shoe.

My cat barffed in my shoe.

I don’t have any shoes.

9. CHOCOLATE SINGS

INT MARKET -- JULIE

Julie is in the market cruising around with a basket— as she walks by the candy section, we hear a song. It’s a happy song—“Cho-co-late, oh Julie you love me, I am your chocolate…” It’s a sincere, high-pitched, maybe a speeded up voice, like squirrels singing. Julie looks angrily at the chocolate, scolds it— “It’s over— move on-- got it?”

SPECIAL EFFECT: The chocolate flies off the shelf and into her cart. “No you don’t—“ She snarls at the chocolate—“No more of your old tricks” She grabs it and slams it back on the shelf, storms off, checking to make sure no one is watching.

10. FAT HUMILIATION

INT VARIOUS LOCATIONS -- JULIE VARIOUS PORTLY CHARACTERS

Julie and her more rotund friends illustrate the following

Not only do you look fat, but certain problems present themselves to the “gravity challenged.“

--If you have a problem getting off the couch get on hands and knees, then get up.

--If you experience exhaustion while climbing stairs, try stopping to “admire the view”.

--In a home or restaurant-- Do not sit in narrow chairs they can stick to you.

--Avoid visual feedback— one glance at a mirror can make you depressed all day. So cover all mirrors.

--You always seem fatter in a snapshot. Tell yourself it’s an illusion.

11. SUPPORT— MY BUDDY

INT OFFICE -- OFFICE GROUP

A support system is essential when you’re dieting. Find a buddy-- someone else starting a diet or anyone who is supportive and has been through it..

And a lot of people tell me not to make that buddy a boyfriend— doesn’t bother me because I don’t have one. But the point is-- a boyfriend doesn’t want to hear your neurotic rants—save him for something else. Your buddy has to be capable of putting up with your neurotic inclinations.

Julie is talking with Kate at work. They joke with each other—easy rapport. I have a friend at work. Kate. She’s older than me. She moans about her weight and about how life was so much better back then. But she’s really together, and she’s starting a diet too.

We made the pledge to support each other. It better work.

12. WHY I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT

EXT STREET, INT COFFEE SHOP -- JULIE -- MOTHER

We see Julie and her MOTHER out in public somewhere. Her mom is gabbing—

“I don’t want to give the impression that I do everything my mom tells me but— she’s dead on about some things. She keeps telling me that it’s been so long since I’ve had a guy around. What can I say? Wish she wouldn’t keep harping on it.

Then her mother is worries aloud—‘how your ever going to get married?’ Julie gets mad.

I know things be so much hotter if I lost weight, but until now, I’ve tried not to think about it. She drinks water, listens to her mom drone on.

“My life wasn’t always this boring.”

13. MY TRADAGY—FROM SIZE 6 TO A SIZE 16

OLD GRANNY VIDEOS are NARRATED BY JULIE.

A few years ago I lead a debouched life in Seattle. My friends were all at some trendy business— becoming millionaires. That was a boom time and I figured it would get to me too. Five years. I worked my but off, but also ran around with some pretty high rollers.

I went to clubs, debouched all the night, got up in the morning and went to the office till 6 or 7 then, if I wasn’t gallivanting around, spent the evening at the gym doing a massive workout. I swear all I ate was chocolate and french fries. I fit into a size 6.

Then the bubble popped, I was suddenly jobless, I moved back here- to make my mom happy I guess. I got a less glamorous job, an apartment, and a fish. I should have gotten a scale.