The Oafish Standard Lamp

The Mysterious Antique Shop Arson Narrative Development

3/13/2012 CG Arts & Animation UCA Rochester David John Vandepeer (Stitch)

The Oafish Lamp Idea 6: The mysterious antique shop arson Premise A mystery that can only be explained through true stupidity. Log Line An antique shop can be seen on fire with a broken lamp lying on the street outside. In the form of a recorded flashback the shops demise is shown to be the workings of an accident prone standard lamp. 3 Act Structure (End, Beginning, Middle, End) Act 3: Security camera footage shows an antique shop on fire with a broken lamp lying on the street outside, the footage is rewound causing the camera to zoom toward the broken lamp instigating a flashback to the beginning (Act 1). Act 1: An old lamp with a flickering bulb awakens & shakes the dust from its head, the lamp turns & hops over to the other lamps on display, the lamp forgets that its cord is plugged in which causes it to trip over its own wire & fall into the other lamps. The old lamp rises to its foot & panics. Act 2: The lamp tries to hide the broken bodies of its display fellows; in doing so the lamp trips over its own wire again which aggravates it. The old lamp tugs hard on its wire this time ripping the socket from the wall which begins to emit sparks; the carpet is set on fire despite the lamps efforts to refit the socket. The lamp exits the shop unplugged with diminishing energy. The lamps bulb flickers one last time before it collapses cracking its bulb, taking us back to what we saw in the beginning (Act 3). The end credits show the security camera footage stopped, which is then systematically erased by an unknown party, the mystery lives on. Treatment A mysterious fire has broken out in an antique shop across the street; its anyones guess as to why it happened. As it turns out one camera recorded the carnage, we are made privy to its first and only showing The mystery of the antique shop arson.

An old standard lamp awakens from its slumber in an antique shop; the shop owner is back in 5 minutes according to the door sign. Upon waking the first thing the lamp wants to do is play with its display fellows. The lamps enthusiasm gets the better of it and it trips over its own cord (which is plugged in) knocking down one lamp after another in a domino effect. When the lamp awakens from its dazed state it notices the carnage it has created, the lamp tries to communicate with the broken lamps but fails to get a response. The lamp then attempts to hide the bodies which causes it to trip once again on his cord, the lamp gets aggravated & tugs on the wire which rips the plug socket from the wall. The sparks from the wall socket ignite the floor & before the lamp realises it the shop is on fire. The old lamp attempts to put the fire out but nearly sets itself on fire, in the nick of time its plug & wire melt allowing it to escape the store. When out on the exterior of the shop the lamp takes a glance at its wire, the lamps bulb then flickers as it begins to lose its final embers of power. The lamp falls to the floor and cracks its bulb at the door entrance. The viewer is then once again taken to the opening security camera view; the video is then stopped and deleted by an unknown party never to be seen by anyone else. Step Outline ACT 3 (END) SCENE 1 EXT. ANTIQUE LAMP SHOP DAY 3:15PM DIP FROM BLACK A security camera shows a huge fire emitting from an antique shop across the street, an old broken lamp can be seen lying on the street outside, a curios question for many. The video footage is suddenly rewound which causes the camera to zoom toward the broken lamp & revert to a flashback earlier in the day. DIP TO WHITE

ACT 1 (BEGINNING) INT. ANTIQUE LAMP SHOP DAY SCENE 2 2:13PM An extravagant antique shop can be seen, quiet and still. The camera is alerted to the flickering bulb of an old dust ridden lamp; all of a sudden the bulb cuts out... and remerges bright as day. The old lamp begins to move as if waking from a sleep, shaking the dust from its hat. The old lamp looks around & then playfully dashes over to its static antique friends, the lamp forgets of his wire & trips hurtling head first into the light displays. DIP TO BLACK ACT 2 (MIDDLE) SCENE 3 The old lamp awakes, rising to its foot only to panic when surveying its broken allies. The lamp tries to hide the broken bodies of his antique friends; in doing so it trips over its wire again which aggravates it. The old lamp pulls hard on its wire which gradually rips the socket from the wall, sparks begin to emit from the open socket. The old lamp turns to notice the carpet on fire which it attempts to stomp out, failing miserably. EXT. ANTIQUE LAMP SHOP DAY SCENE 4

The lamp backs out of the shop entrance just before it fills with flames, the old lamps energy begins diminishing at an alarming rate. The lamps bulb flickers one last time before it collapses, ultimately cracking its bulb. DIP TO WHITE ACT 3 (END RETURN) The end credits show the security camera footage stopped & then systematically erased by an unknown party, with the mystery living on indefinitely. DIP TO BLACK END