THE DOOR
“The Door,” another fantastic script that I think benefits from the same approach.
I just love the opening, it totally speaks to why grounding the spot in a cinematic visual language works so well. The image of a character solemnly looking through a rained out window is exactly the type of scene we have seen before, yet it survives cliché if approached with seriousness.
It’s the familiarity of this cinematic language that sets up the comedy, even down to the content of the scene (I mean look at my sick reference board)...
Combine that and some amazing opportunities to accentuate it even more through props and casting and we have a plan for success.
The key moments and shots at the beginning speak for themselves. The rain, the look through the glass, the drawing of the happy face, followed by the punch in of the tear.
But that sandwich, what does that look like? Perhaps the shot is placing the last piece of bread on an almost too perfect turkey sandwich. Using that shot as our first bread crumb (heh) that we might be in store for a change from the initial drama.
And that kid... that damn kid... I picture the exact opposite of type that would be able to open that door on their own. Scrawny, a head they haven’t grown into yet, perhaps they themselves miss the first bite of the sandwich in their hand— mustard dribbling down the side of their mouth.
All opportunities for making the script memorable before we hammer it home with the amazing wide of our Anytime Fitness gym.
I say we give the end a similar treatment to our “Baggage” script. We start on a closeup of our characters face. Changed, brightened, and hopeful— a far cry to where he was at the beginning of the spot. We then pull out fast to to reveal the space in all its glory, the perfect bookend to see the inviting gym and flash our supers centre frame.