Cogs In The Machine
by Rich Johnston

Proposal:

A holistic drama, set around the lives of eight young people living in London. Three share a house, the others are friends or friends of friends. Their lives converge at a party and from this first collective meeting, their lives and those they affect have begin to reshape the world around them. Reverse astrology, the minutia of their daily events have a grandiose impact on reality itself. None of them are especially successful at anything, each have unattainable dreams, they all want more than they have, and they basically only put up with each other because- what else is there? Normal people who drink, smoke, swear and fall over in the street on occasion. Who could hold the future of reality in their hands, but who would much prefer to hold a large party. And when it ends, they will never know even the tiniest part of the truth

Imagine Friends crossed with Big Numbers. Then throw it in the bin and read Cogs In The Machine instead.

The characters you will see:

Steve. Ex-Scot. Used to be a raver but now he's putting on a gut. Lives with Daniel and Libby. Works in a local pub, plays football at the weekends. Had a homosexual experience when he was seventeen that he still thinks about.

Libby. Insecure, neurotic, which she compensates for in her dress style and in her ÒhardÓ attitude to men. Puts off more people than she realises. Works as an Assistant manager in a bank. Has been thinking about dumping her boyfriend for the last five weeks.

Daniel: Long haired lout. Vaguely successful with women, but unsuccessful in everything else that matters. Adopted. A complete television junkie, who quotes lines from any media at the drop of a hat. Works as a very junior copywriter for a small healthcare advertising agency, in the West End. Crap lifestyle but can name drop forever.

Jason: Sensible, witty, charming, balding, bloater. Resigned to the fact that he won't make anything of his life, so he acts as a guru to others. Fancies almost every woman he meets, but they all just want to be his friend. Frustration in a pressure cooker.

Jennifer: "Oh god, does she have to do that? No we've seen her tattoo every day, put it away! Did you see that loaf she was dating last week? I mean, doesn't she know that everyone's looking at her? Probably. I wonder if she'd ever do that with me?"- most men.

Nine panel grid. The first panel is obscured and the second and fourth are partially obscured by the white silouhette of a cog wheel, cutting into the pages. the panel lines cut around the cog outline, while the cog remains invisible. The cutting cog will be a repetitive visual device, used for narration. This will be repeated in other forms, a street lamp's glow will cut out scenes, for example.

Panel 1:

COGS IN THE MACHINE

PART ONE: PARTY ANIMALS

BY RICH JOHNSTON

Panel 2: We are in a room in a house share. The place has been tidied... there's about to be a party. Usual twenty-something digs, net curtains, picture of sunflowers on a wall, stereo system, collection of vinyl records, slowly being outnumbered by the CD/cassette piles. Small but cosy. We can't see ANY of this in Panel 2, because it's obscured by the cog. Steve and Daniel are talking to each other. Steve is slightly portly, blond hair, frizzed but flattened over his head. He's wearing a shirt and black jeans, holding a can of lager. Daniel is long haired, and angular faced, black Pulp Fiction T-shirt, jeans and a can of lager.

Steve (text is obscured by the cog too): ..UST BECAUSE ..OT SOME... PIERCINGS. ...NO WAY ...BSESSION

Daniel: ...THAT IS NO...GUMENT AND... KNOW THAT!

Panel 3: We see Steve properly for the first time. Yay! He's looking a bit blasé but annoyed, holding his can at a cheeky angle. Behind him, we see a window.

Steve: I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION.

Steve: STILL.

Panel 4: Obscured by that damn cog. Close up of Daniel's face, but we can only really see a mouth and an ear.

Richard: OH, I DON'T KNOW.

Richard: I'VE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE "WHO'S YOUR FAVOURITE SPICE GIRL" LAST ALL NIGHT.

Panel 5: First pause of the evening. Steve ands Daniel stand facing each other and both looking down slightly. Behind them we see the stereo. The are silent, thinking.

Panel 6: Same view as 5, they both knock back their drinks.

Steve: GINGER

Daniel: SPORTY.

Panel 7: It's Libby. Sweeping shortish hair, scarfed up , with a black top and tight mini, she's quite hard and abrasive. She's obsessively tidy, which makes up for Steve and Daniel. This panel focuses on her face. She's a tad disapproving.

Libby: HEY, YOU TWO!

Libby: PEOPLE WILL BE HERE SOON!

Libby: STOP DRINKING ALL THE BEER.

Libby: FIND SOMETHING USEFUL TO DO.

Panel 8: Shot from below. We can see Libby's body arc from the bottom left to her arm at the top right. She is shouting at Steve and Daniel, who are both standing to attention.

Libby: AND PLEASE CHANGE THE CONVERSATION!

Panel 9: Libby dismisses them both, turning around her arm flailing. she heads out of the room towards the door, leaving bewildered men in her wake.

Libby: ANYWAY, POSH IS BETTER THAN ALL OF THEM.

SFX: BZZ

Panel 1: Top tier, long panel. We see the house. It's getting a bit dark, the streetlights are on. Streetlights shine a circle of light around them, obscuring everything behind the lamp. The number of the flat is 64, it is a small terraced flat, upstairs to a downstairs flat, with the steps to prove it. We can see glimpses of downstairs and next door. Next door lives a fairly old man, if we see him, he is watching the TV and reading the newspaper at the same time. Jason is standing on the doorstep with a bottle of spirits and a large coat. Jason is pleasantly plump and has a short frizzy haircut but he's starting to go bald. Libby welcomes him with an outstretched arm. There is a coat rack in the hall, with one coat on it

Jason: EVENING LIBBY

Libby: JASON! YOU MADE IT!

Libby: OF COURSE YOU ARE COMPLETELY UNFASHIONABLY EARLY.

Libby: BUT YOU'LL PROBABLY SAVE ME FROM SIMON AND DANIEL.

Libby: SO MOVE YOUR ARSE INSIDE!

Panel 2: Second tier, left half. Inside the hall, coat rack prominent. The rack will show the passing and going of people, so it should remain prominent where possible. Jason takes his coat off as Libby takes his bottle.

Jason: I'M THE FIRST HERE? I SHOULD BE HONOURED.

Libby: I'LL TAKE THIS OFF YOUR HANDS... THE GUYS ARE THROUGH THERE.

Panel 3: Daniel, right on the scene, leaning in Jason's direction , who looks down embarrassed and strokes his hair.

Daniel: SERIOUS HAIRCUT JASE. LAWNMOWER HIT YOU?

Jason: HMM

Panel 4: Bottom tier, left. Steve is standing next to the window, can still in hand.

Steve: NO FRET JASE. ONE DAY THE GIRLIE BASTARD'LL SAY SOMETHIN' CLEVER, WITTY AN' ORIGINAL.

Steve: ONE DAY.

Panel 5: There is a small section from a cog here, cutting off half the 6th panel and intruding a cog slightly into the 5th panel. Daniel turns round suddenly. In a foreground/middleground/background way, we see Daniel, Steve and Jason. Jason has taken a can.

SFX: BZZZ

Daniel: OOH, I HOPE THAT'S WHO I THINK IT IS.

Steve: SPORTY SPICE?

Daniel: CLOSE...

Panel 6: Jennifer and two other girls. Jennifer is, as ever, looking wild, her arms raised as she walks in the hall. Libby is also here.. she opened the door. We can see Jason's coat on the coat rack as well as the previous one. Jennifer just drops her coat behind her.

Jennifer: THE GIRLS ARE IN THE HOUSE! BRING ON THE MEN!

Inside cog: THE MOMENTOUS EVENTS CAN ONLY BE SEEN IN HINDSIGHT. SO IT IS HERE.

Panel 1: Eight panels, in a nine grid, with the eighth taking up eighth and ninth. Each panel is cut by cogs from the borders edge, except the central fifth and the final eighth. It looks like these cogs could be intersecting with each other

Cog text: HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED?

A picture of the flat from outside and above. We can see people through a window.

Panel 2:

Cog text: THEN YOU HAVE ALREADY STEPPED OUT ACROSS THE STARS.

Pull back. we are above the street. The window still shines, but is so much smaller. There are many shining windows and streetlights.

Panel 3:

Cog text: EVERYONE CAN TRAVEL ASTRALLY.

Pull back and we're over London. The Thames snakes through from left to right.

Panel 4:

Cog text: WE DO IT ALL THE TIME. WE CAN'T HELP OURSELVES..

Pull back, there's England and part of the continent.

Panel 5: Pull back. There's a planet down there. Earth.

Panel 6:

Cog text: IT'S TOO EASY TO GET DISTRACTED. TO WONDER. TO WANDER.

Pull back. The sun. The Earth is silouhetted against it.

Panel 7:

Cog text: WE HAVE TO LEARN NEW WORDS FOR THE MAJESTIES WE TAKE FOR GRANTED.

Pull back. A number of small suns, round and sparkling. There is a band of light to one side.

Panel 8: The stars are bubbles in a glass, being held by a female hand, nails painted.

Jason (off panel): WHAT'S WRONG WITH SCARY SPICE ANYWAY?

Libby, Steve, Daniel, Jennifer (off panel): SHE'S... SCARY!

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E-mail Gary Reed (Caliber), Karen Berger (Vertigo), Jim Valentino (Shadowline) or Dan Vado (Slave Labor) to tell them how great you think Cogs In The Machine is.