OFF SCRIPT
Season 1, Episode 2: "The Table Read"
INT. BLACKRIDGE STUDIOS - CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING
Long table. Bottled waters. Pastries nobody’s touching. The
cast sits with scripts.
Harry enters carrying coffee and a laptop bag.
HARRY: Morning, everyone.
Weak greetings.
Zoey flips through her script. Stops. Frowns. She flips
faster now.
ZOEY: No.
Nobody reacts. This happens often.
ZOEY: No, seriously. No.
Harry sits beside her.
HARRY: What?
Zoey points at a page.
ZOEY: This isn’t what I
wrote.
Harry looks.
HARRY: Page… forty-two?
ZOEY: The whole third act.
Harry flips ahead. More pages.
HARRY: …Oh.
Aaron looks up.
AARON: Wait, we got new
pages?
CLAY: Again?
LEAH: I had just memorized
the old ones.
Maya enters quickly.
MAYA: Okay. Tiny thing
before we start. Please throw away the blue revision pages from your scripts.
Everyone looks down.
Half the scripts are blue.
NICK: These blue pages?
MAYA: Yes.
NICK: That’s half the
script…
MAYA: Yes.
Silence.
ZOEY: I’m sorry, but what
the actual…
TITLE CARD: OFF
SCRIPT
INT. TALKING HEAD ROOM - MORNING
ZOEY - TALKING HEAD
ZOEY: There are different
colored script pages in film production because revisions happen constantly. Usually
because someone had an idea. Or because an executive got creative in a hotel
room at midnight.
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - LATER
The table read begins.
Maxwell sits at the end of the table smiling like a
politician. Kara types on her laptop beside him.
Harry stands.
HARRY: Alright. Thanks
everybody for being here. I know the page situation’s a little…
ZOEY: Humiliating.
HARRY: I was going to say
messy.
Harry sits.
HARRY: Let’s just read it
through once and figure out what works.
Zoey looks at him: what
works?
Aaron clears his throat dramatically.
AARON: I’m ready!.
Zoey closes her eyes briefly.
TABLE READ MONTAGE
·
Tegan reads well. Quietly focused.
·
Clay misses his cue because he’s eating a muffin.
·
Nick keeps trying alternate line readings nobody
asked for.
·
Aaron overcommits emotionally to every sentence.
·
Maxwell laughs at things that are not jokes.
·
Zoey slowly dies inside.
LATER
Aaron reads a scene.
AARON (reading): “You
think this house is haunted?” Beat. “No. I think it’s hungry.”
Aaron nods after the line like he just did theater.
Harry looks at Zoey. Zoey looks physically ill.
HARRY: That line is...
weird.
Maxwell leans forward.
MAXWELL: People really
liked silly jokes in testing.
ZOEY: Who got tested this?
Kids?
Maxwell ignores that.
MAXWELL: We just want the
film to be... for everyone!
ZOEY: This is a movie
where the killer wears people’s faces. It’s not meant for everybody!
MAXWELL: I’m sure we can
work something out.
Harry jumps in before this escalates.
HARRY: Maybe we keep
going.
Zoey stares at him.
Not angry. Disappointed.
INT. HALLWAY - LATER
Harry catches up to Zoey outside.
HARRY: Hey.
She keeps walking.
HARRY: Zoey?!
She stops.
ZOEY: You said nothing in
there.
HARRY: Because I’m trying
not to get fired on day two.
ZOEY: Great strategy. Let
me know how does it work out when you release one of the worst movies of the
decade.
Harry exhales.
HARRY: I’m not agreeing
with them.
ZOEY: You’re not trying to
stop them either.
HARRY: You think I don’t
hate the new pages?
ZOEY: I think you’re
trying very hard to be liked by everyone.
Harry doesn’t answer immediately. Cause he knows what she
said is true.
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - SAME TIME
The read continues without them.
NICK (reading): “Maybe the
real evil… is trauma.”
Long silence.
Clay slowly lowers his script.
CLAY: What does that even
mean?
Nobody answers.
INT. SOUNDSTAGE - AFTERNOON
Harry walks through set trying to think. Tegan approaches
carefully.
TEGAN: You okay?
HARRY: Yeah.
TEGAN: You have the same
face my dad makes when the Wi-Fi stops working.
Harry laughs despite himself.
HARRY: I just don’t know
what movie we’re making anymore.
TEGAN: Was the old version
better?
Harry looks at her.
HARRY: Yeah. Much better.
She nods like she expected that.
TEGAN: Then why’d they
change it?
Harry gestures vaguely around the studio.
HARRY: I have no clue.
INT. TALKING HEAD ROOM
HARRY - TALKING HEAD
HARRY: Everybody says they
want more original movies. Right until they know what it takes to make one
happen.
INT. CRAFT SERVICES - LATER
Nick films a video.
NICK: Day two of Red
Veil. Morale’s weird. Somebody cried during the table read.
Zoey walks into frame.
ZOEY: Delete that.
Nick lowers the phone.
NICK: You saw nothing.
INT. PRODUCTION OFFICE - AFTERNOON
Harry enters. Maxwell sits with Kara reviewing social media.
MAXWELL: Harry. Sit.
Harry doesn’t.
HARRY: The new pages don’t
work.
Maxwell nods calmly.
MAXWELL: I’m sure you can
work them out.
Harry blinks.
HARRY: No.
MAXWELL: Excuse me?
Kara keeps typing.
KARA: People online think
the reboot’s going to be “too serious.”
HARRY: I don’t give a damn
what the people online are saying. I care about making a good movie.
Maxwell stands.
MAXWELL: Harry, listen.
Fans say they want the original film back. But if we actually made the original
film today, they’d hate it.
HARRY: I don’t think
that’s true.
MAXWELL: That’s because
you don’t know anything about the makings of a movie.
Cruel. That throws Harry off.
MAXWELL: The internet
doesn’t experience films anymore. It experiences expectations. That’s the movie
business now.
Beat.
MAXWELL: Our job is
surviving those expectations.
Harry leaves unsettled.
INT. EMPTY SOUNDSTAGE - EVENING
Zoey sits alone rewriting scenes again. Harry enters
quietly. She doesn’t look up.
HARRY: I talked to
Maxwell.
ZOEY: I’m sorry for you.
Harry sits beside her.
HARRY: Some of the new
stuff’s bad.
ZOEY: Most of it is bad.
HARRY: But there’s still a
movie in there. We can’t give up.
Zoey finally looks at him.
ZOEY: You really believe
that?
HARRY: I kinda have to.
HARRY: What was the
original ending?
Zoey studies him for a second.
Then she hands him older pages from her bag.
ZOEY: Don’t show anybody.
Harry starts reading.
HARRY: Oh this is way
better.
Zoey almost smiles.
INT. SOUNDSTAGE - NIGHT
Harry has quietly gathered:
- Tegan,
- Aaron,
- Zoey.
No executives. No producers. Just them.
HARRY: I want to try one
scene.
Aaron looks around.
AARON: In secret?
HARRY: Not secretly. Just…
alone.
Zoey watches Harry carefully. This is new.
INT. RED VEIL HOUSE SET - NIGHT
Simple emotional scene.
No big horror
dialogue. No metaphors. No studio additions. Just atmosphere.
Tegan and Aaron perform it. And it works.
Harry watches the monitor. Zoey watches Harry again. He
finally looks like a director.
HARRY: Cut.
Quiet.
Aaron looks surprised.
AARON: That was...
incredible.
Zoey nods reluctantly.
ZOEY: Yeah.
Tegan smiles.
TEGAN: Can we do the whole
movie like this?
Everyone laughs a little.
Then… The lights suddenly turn on. Maxwell stands at the
back of the set. Nobody noticed him arrive.
MAXWELL: What are we
shooting?
Nobody answers immediately.
Harry stands. Tiny moment of fear.
HARRY: A better version of
the scene.
Maxwell studies him.
MAXWELL: Good.
Everyone relaxes slightly.
MAXWELL: Shoot both
versions. We’ll see what works in post.
And just like that, the relief dies again.
END OF EPISODE 2