Episode description[edit | edit source]
[Culture and Politics Forum, full name and link redacted for privacy, “Movies and Television” sub-forum. All usernames changed. Accessed for this description 12.29.2019.]
User1 Makes me sick. They really think they can throw out some movies “from the vault” or whatever and we’ll forget about the strike?
User2 People on this forum always act like the studios are thinking of them. I bet if you asked some guy on the street about the BCS strike he wouldn’t know about it or else he’d talk about how excited he was about these three releases.
Mod User2 has been warned: “People on this forum” is unhelpful and adds nothing.
User3 Are we okay to link trailers or do we not do that here I’m new.
User2 Go ahead
User1 Go for it, I won’t be giving them clicks but suit yourself.
User3 [Redacted link to teaser trailer for BCS release 1]
User4 Looks great.
User3 Looks GREAT
User1 Looks great actually
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
It was the eve of the turn of the century when I first saw the second shore, and I was but a child... though I do suspect that such a transit would infantilize even the most veteran of travellers. My father, a newspaperman, and a vocal proponent of the restorative properties of the seaside spas that then dotted this beach town, brought me, at only age 10, along on his holiday. At the time I was eager, interpreting my accompaniment as an example of his turn in mood from indifferent father to... doting dad.
With the benefit of wisdom, I now believe it was simply a matter of budget. My grandfather had by then cut him off from his endowment, and as a widower, child-rearing comes with a price tag. And so it ought not to have been a surprise that my desire for recreation would butt up against his for requiescence... which is why, day after day, he sequestered me in that mansion while he walked the boards in search of relief and, a certain sort of quiet, available only under the sound of gulls.
Now, 20-odd years later, I find myself grateful for his daily abandonment. Only through this uniquely familial disservice did I discover the machine, locked in a room below the undercroft of my grandfather’s terrible manse, and waiting for me to uncover its impossible geometries. And what sights it showed me! Moving pictures so real that soon enough they contained me in them. I celebrated the centennial by subsuming myself in a second world, and a decade later, I would find a third. Each disproportionate to reality, singular in their vicissitudinal character, each a well worth tapping.
But what, Diary, I saw last night terrifies me. It was not a constitutional to another world, but a premonition of my own. And for the first time in my life, I fear what is to come.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
Eve Whitaker drives down to Blufftington Beach on a cloudy Wednesday morning before (American) Thanksgiving to see her family, and Caitlyn Paul and Bartholomew “Dr Bart” Jimmy Asher encourage her to come visit them at Bluff City Studios while she’s in town, promising her a set tour.
Caitlyn arrives early enough to work in the morning to avoid most of the protestors from the Studio’s writer’s strike, with Bart arriving later via the employee bus. He is seated next to Deshaun Williams, who says that the strikes have him thinking about quitting, and he wants to asks Bart for his advice. Bart deferred, saying that he will meet up with Deshaun later to talk it through.
Bart enters the studio where I’m AM, Are You?, the morning talk show he’s on, is filmed to shoot his daily segment (today’s is Coconut Aminos, a soy sauce replacement). He receives the usual knock at the door of his dressing room to warn him that his segment coming up, but then is startled by the sound of a rifle being shot from outside the room. He looks out the window into the marshland outside and can see Gary, the head of security for Bluff City Studios and another security staff member with a rifle slung over his shoulder heading in the marshland and, behind them, the movement of whatever they shot in the marshland. Gary directs other security staff to follow the movement into the marshland.
Bart, concerned, heads out to help whatever or whoever the injured party is. On the way he is stopped by Taber Laurence, a producer at Bluff City Studios, as Bart’s segment is coming up next. Bart discusses with him about the gunshot, although Taber is dismissive of his concerns. Bart leaves anyway, promising to return in time to go on.
Meanwhile, Caitlyn is in her office, writing out stuff for her blog longhand on a notepad. She has a moment of writer’s block, and heads out to the on-campus cafe to get a coffee. She is a little surprised to see a line, as many people at the Studio have taken time off leading into the Thanksgiving break. A woman, Angie, joins the line behind her, also expressing surprise at the line up and she and Caitlyn make small talk as they wait.
Angie asks if Caitlyn knows anything about the night shoots, as she is interested in film making and excited that the studio is filming stuff again, but Caitlyn doesn’t know anything about it (to Angie’s disappointment).
By the time Eve arrives at the Studios, there is a large crowd of people protesting the strike outside. Although she had been warned about it, she didn’t have enough details to really expect it and the crowd startles her dog Peaches. She makes her way past the protestors, heading towards the welcome centre.
Deshaun greets her, getting her signed in and is excited to hear that she is a cousin of Bart. He takes her phone and disables her camera, as is the Studio policy, and calls both Bart and Caitlyn to let them know she has arrived. However, both of them are away from their phones and miss the call.
Meanwhile out in the marsh, Bart approaches the security officers jump back in at the sign of movement in the marsh. One of the security officers shoots again, and the movement stops. Bart pauses at the door, watching them through his zoomed-in phone camera and spotting movement in the grass behind the security offices.
Gary turns towards him, telling him to put his phone down. Bart drops his phone, pointing out the movement to Gary. Michael, another security team, manages to dive out of the way of the movement. A lion leaps into the air to where Michael had been standing before disappearing back into the tall grass of the marshland.