22 April 2008

Pushing Daisies "Pielette" script

Received a happy package in the mail yesterday - two Dexter and two Pushing Daisies scripts. I read through "Pielette" and loved it as much as expected, though I'm glad a few things were changed by the time they shot, particularly the visible countdown clock every time Ned brought someone back to life. That would have really changed the overall tone

It was structured as six acts (which I'd heard, but seeing it on the page is a bit more definitive) with the first being ~18 pages and the other five being ~8 each. No teaser, no tag. For a non-shooting script, it had more shot descriptions than I'm used to seeing for TV, but they were used brilliantly, smoothing the segues between many of the scenes. I'm interested to see if that same style was used in "Dummy", particularly since Bryan Fuller didn't write that one (though who knows how much of a pass he gave it.)

The other interesting thing I took away from the script is that only a small bit of the humor comes directly from Ned and Chuck. I remember Chuck being funnier than she's reading here, and Ned getting more choice lines, but on the page they come off more cute than funny. Nice jobs from Anna Friel and Lee Pace to really flesh out their characters and give them obvious humor as part of their charms.

I'll read "Dummy" tonight, and then start breaking these bitches down. Scene counts, line counts per scene, types of act-outs, etc. I've got an interesting idea for an episode; now I just have to figure out how to make it come to life.

Oh, and because I thought of this a few minutes ago, here are short character descriptions that I think are apt:

  • Chuck is the sweet, juicy, ripe fruit brought back to life to fill the pie.
  • Ned is the bottom crust. Protected by a layer of caramelized sugar, he holds Chuck close, but never comes in contact. The browned sugar also adds a sweet bite to his plain nature.
  • Emerson is the top crust. He's crusty, ya know? Plus, the man knit himself gun cozies. He's a little flaky.
  • Olive is ice cream on the side. Sweet and rich, always yearning to be part *of* the pie.
  • Aunt Vivian is whipped cream. Airy, ephemeral, fragile.
  • Aunt Lily is a fork. Sharp, rigid, pointed.
  • The Narrator is the plate on which everything else rests. He is stability. He's also got a picture of a dog chasing its own tail and a big chip on the rim. He's one-of-a-kind and just a little bit off.

2 comments:

Michael Brownlee said...

Very cool! The character descriptions are awesome. Where did you get these?

R.A. Porter said...

The descriptions are original to me.

The first couple popped into my head unbidden and it wasn't hard to fill out the remainder. They are such clearly delineated characters that they lend themselves to that sort of breakdown.

As for the scripts, I ordered them from Script Fly.