AustinvilleStorylineCollisions

"A Fine Day in Austinville"

Storyline Collisions

In this section, we list the ways that we can weave the above storylines together.

Storyline collisions give us a stronger sense that these characters exist in the same universe. It also allows us more character re-use, which is always satisfying to audiences.

(Note that this is where I need lots of help, I'm afraid.)

Types of Collisions

• Characters from one thread encounter characters from another.
• Events from one thread occur in the background of another.
• A story thread has long-term effects which are seen in the other threads.
• 'Branches' -- take a side element introduced in one sketch, and explore it further in another sketch.

List of Possible Collisions

• A character overhears a disturbance at the haunted house, and investigates.

  • The LARPers investigate, and try to fight the evil spirit.
  • Ted braves the house 'because it's there'.
  • Mike guesses that it's a haunted house, and lectures about the prevalence of hauntings in Austin.

  • Jesus comes in and exorcises the evil spirit.

    • ... or perhaps communicates with it?

• A character gets involved in Ted's office robbery.

  • The LARPers see the crime in progress, and intervene.
  • Or they run into the office thieves, earlier in the day.
• Mike espies another character during the tour, and offers a description.
• Tiffany buys exorcism supplies from one of the LARPers.

List of Possible Branches

Just some ancillary elements that might merit further sketches.

• What does Mike's boss do during the day that keeps him from giving the tour?
• Where does the goth couple work?
• What other events happen at the Realtor's Guild meeting?
• What outside force causes Ted's near-death experience?
• Who else does the fundie protestor encounter?

One Big Collision: The Office Break-In

At around 9pm, two thieves try to retrieve an incriminating videotape from their boss's office. Ted (the night watchman) encourages them to steal a large sum of money from another office.

This is one of the strongest "collision" possibilities, both because we have the LARPers doing their crimefighting spree and because we want Jesus to wind up in jail.

Some possibilities:

• Mike's boss's office is in the same complex.

  • When the crime happens, he's coming to the end of a very long day.
  • Maybe he has to 'explain away' the robbery to the businessman?
• Jesus eludes the angels and hides out in the office complex.

• The LARPers see trouble brewing, and decide to intervene.

  • This could give us our 'cops convince the LARPers to stop with the crimefighting' scene.

One thing we have to consider: this might just be a bad story idea. Yes, it's a big event and it can involve lots of characters... but Ted's motivation is strained at best, and we're not really sure how any of this turns out.

It would help if Ted took his job seriously. Ted encouraging the thieves to do something huge makes for one (1) funny scene, but I don't think it's tenable, character-wise.

Footnotes