May 20, 2021

Work was rough yesterday. My boss was on one and huffing and puffing over email. Sending all caps and large font and lots of punctuation????!! It's a stupid job, sadly. The work of it, I mean. Being able to work part time and then use the rest of my time to write is really nice. Although, now that I have more of a packet -- stuff that's ready to show people -- maybe it's time to get back into the industry. I guess that would be what grad school is at any rate. I'll email HR today and find out whether or not I'm eligible for the education discount. I've been putting off asking in case the answer is no. But if the answer is yes, then I should start looking into how I can put together the best applications possible. 

I'll also text my friend who got her agent and manager through the Black List. Maybe she can help give me some context for my score. 

Ugh. It sucks to suck. 

Slog Time! 

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (Pilot) 

2020

Written by: David Jenkins

Based on ideas by: David Jenkins, Taika Waititi

Management: Manage-ment (Dan Halsted) 

Production/Distribution: HBO Max

Read: 5/19/21

In the 1700s, a wealthy landowner has a mid-life crisis and chucks it all in to become a pirate. He runs his ship on good management principles, like talking things through, being open to feedback, and reading bedtime stories to his fellow crew. The crew are all actual pirates, although “they’re still the sales rack of pirates.” They plan to mutiny and murder the captain, led by Black Pete, who’s scary and people don’t really like (possibly the villain of the series). The captain delays this inevitability by arranging to attack a large ship. After it’s too late, they find out the ship is in the British Navy. They almost get blown to bits, but the naval captain sees the pirate captain and recognizes him from their school days. He used to bully him, actually. The ship pretends to receive them for tea, kills a bunch of them, and makes their mistake. In his attempt to merely stun his old school mate, the pirate captain causes the naval captain to fall and impale his face on his sword. The captain gets newfound respect from the crew. 

Right off the bat, you know the tone of this script. This is from the very beginning: 

 

That repetition of the phrase “mentally devastated.” 

    There are also a couple of visual gags that I think will be really funny. Example: 

 

    Also, I appreciate how in that last example, he just uses “FLASH” or elsewhere “JUMP” to indicate a very brief cut to something else. It’s annoying having to make a whole new slug line for that kind of thing, and I think it interrupts the read in a negative way. I’m pocketing that technique for later! 

It’s seems natural to compare this to What We Do In The Shadows. Instead of vampires it’s pirates. Tonally similar. Seems to handle the darkness in the same way – accidental death, the truly murderous impulses of the characters thwarted by their own incompetence, the seduction of the more gentler pleasures in life – but the dialogue in this isn’t as funny as WWDITS. Maybe by the time it’s produced it’ll have that specificity line-by-line that makes any given part hilarious all on its own. 

Rating: ★★★