OBSERVATION 10 – THE ONE WHERE THEY SPEAK
The train interaction between two people on two sides in their own two worlds. A girl drops her lanyard, too distracted by her phone to notice. A woman interrupts her boyfriends whispered comments and points the fallen object out to the girl across from her. The girl picks it up, says thank you, and then continues to look at her phone.
Starts off as a small observational piece. Establishing shots of different people you can encounter on a late night train. A couple whispering sweet nothings to each other. A lone girl on her phone, texting a friend. A man in a yellow reflective jacket and construction boots struggling to stay awake. A young man trying to whisper apologies to his partner over the phone. 3 men trying to sneakily drink alcohol in the corner of the carriage.
After we establish these little vignette moments observing these people who take the 12:30 train, which is the last train of the night we come back to the first two worlds. The couple is established to be sitting directly across from the girl on her phone. Neither party has acknowledged each other throughout the entire train ride.
The girl then shifts in her seat, and a small item falls out, without he noticing. The woman in the couple notices it and breaks away from her partner. She sits up and points across very abruptly, disturbing the almost quiet in the carriage.
“Hey, you dropped your lanyard/keys.”
The girl on her phone breaks out of her mobile world. Unsure how to proceed from being talked to and looks down at the object the woman is pointing to. She quickly leans down and picks it up, and mumbles a quiet “Oh, thanks.”
The woman replies with, “No worries.” and continues to dote on her partner. The girl shoves her item into her pocket more tightly now, and then pulls out her phone again. Neither person acknowledges each other again.
I want this to be re-staged more purposely than what I observed. I want to make it start off feeling like we are an omniscient observer in this train carriage, and the people in it are too. There should be multiple angles of the different people, from the perspective of the other people in the carriage. So that when the audience thinks this is an establishing shot, it’s actually a point of view shot, which forces us to break the fourth way and connect the character to us.