Shooting the Opening Scene
M. Francis Enright is co-creator with John Brancaccio of The Working Experience. He is also a filmmaker and published author. Listen to full episodes on iTunes and Spotify and visit our website: theworkingexperience.com for videos, merchandise and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, and Twitter.
We were shooting in downtown Brockton, a gritty city, bit dangerous. Lots of homeless people around. Some were mildly curious; most were lost in their own shit. A few were completely deranged.
There were flocks of young teenagers zipping around on four-wheel ATVs, which seems to be a trend in urban areas.
The atmosphere was tense, potentially unstable, which lent to the mood of the film. We were getting a lot of production value without having to pay for it.
One of the teens paused briefly to watch us setting up for the opening shot and was evidently unimpressed.
“Y’all ain’t about shit!” he yelled before roaring off.
If that was a commentary on my directing, he had a point.
EXT. STREET-DAY
MARCUS JONES, A LATE TWENTY SOMETHING AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN, stands on the street corner. His shirt is dirty, ragged sneakers, disheveled, unkempt hair and beard. He sells drugs so he can use them.
He suddenly spots something and bolts. Two plain clothed cops chase him, badges swinging from the chains around their necks. The three of them disappear around the corner.
EXT. STREET-DAY
The cops have Marcus against a wall They are searching him and come up with a baggie. A close up on Marcus shows that he is banged up; he has scratches on his face from where he may have fallen and from older incidents.
KEITH
Damn this dude can run!
TIM (HOLDING MARCUS)
Hey, my man, you becoming a frequent flier. Usin’ now too, huh? (Holds up the baggie.) Mmmm, not smart.
MARCUS
Come on, man!
TIM
Come on, what? Jesus, you fuckin’ stink!
KEITH (INTO HIS RADIO)
Yeah, we’re around the corner on Smith. Just one. (To Marcus) Man, you got fucked up. You steal someone’s shit?
Tim tightens the cuffs.
MARCUS
Yo, what the fuck! Come on, man!
TIM
Come on, what?
Tim aggressively yanks Marcus to a vehicle, as Keith finishes with his radio report.
***
In the opening scene, Marcus Jones is a crack addict. He has reached the point, as many addicts do, where he is selling drugs for someone else to support his habit. He is then arrested by some undercover police.
The opening scene is a misdirection. Marcus is an aspiring actor playing the role of Sincere Williams in a short film in which he has been cast as a crack addict. In reality, Marcus Jones is a recovering alcoholic who is a struggling actor. In the following scene he is actually Marcus Jones, cleaned up and delivering for Door Dash.
As with all screenplays, this one has gone through many drafts, ten in total. In the original versions of the script there was no movie within a movie; Marcus had actually been a crack addict.
Drugs have never been part of my story, certainly not crack. which is why Rui and Miguel, the owners of Anawan Street Productions with whom I wanted to make the film, weren’t buying my script. They, and other people they had read the script, couldn’t see a crack addict who had fallen so far having this remarkable recovery in only a year or so and now wanting to pursue an acting career. It just didn’t ring true. It was not authentic.
I rarely talk about my recovery outside of meetings and I am not even all that comfortable talking about it in AA meetings. I’ve certainly never wanted to write a script or a novel or a memoir about being a recovering alcoholic; the genre has been beaten to death. And I really didn’t want to tell Louis and Marcel that I am a recovering alcoholic. I consider them friends and colleagues and I didn’t want them to think less of me. But if I wanted to film an authentic movie, I had to. So I did. And we rewrote the script, dropping the probation officer and the beating with Marcus as a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for a year or so and is trying to be an actor.
That is a story I do know.
***
The camera starts in a big wide shot of Marcus standing on the street. I wanted the audience to get a sense of his environment and also make him seem somewhat small and vulnerable.
A car rolls up and he hands the driver a baggie, taking some money.
We cut to a tight close up on Marcus’s face. We can see the scrapes and bruises on his face. The make-up artist did a great job making them look authentic. Some were fresh while others were older, indicating that the character lives a rough life. He may have been beaten up stealing someone’s stash. That’s what happens to addicts who try to straddle the line between dealing and using.
Marcus looks to his left and his eyes widen; he takes off. Two figures fly by the camera lens. We cut to a wide of Marcus running at the camera with the cops on his tail. They split up, one following him into an alley and other heading in another direction to cut off Marcus.
We debated about the ethnicity of the two detectives who chase Marcus down. I couldn’t decide if they should be black or white or Hispanic or Asian. I felt that it didn’t really matter; we just needed actors who were believable as cops. However, Rui, the DP, had the solution which was that the cops should be white. This would be another piece of misdirection. The audience would think that the movie had to do with race with two cops chasing down a black when race has nothing to do with the script.
I found out that, when there isn’t money for stunts and special effects, it is better to keep things simple. We divided the sequence into small, simple shots, using close-ups of the actors’ feet to ramp up the urgency of the actions. For one shot, we put the camera tight to the wall at the corner and had the actors’ blast past it. That one should get a reaction.
We end with a tight shot on Marcus’s face pressed against the wall with Scott holding his neck while Alex taunts him about his face. Scot tells Marcus, “You stink!” to humiliate him further.
I humiliated myself plenty of times when I was a drunk; I know that story.
