12. a mutiny at the dinner table
We open on a young girl, about 12. She has a pink t-shirt and cheetah silk pajamas pants on. Her clothes from the day at school laying on her made bed. It’s a locked off shot from a shelf on the desk.
In the distance we can see her sister’s bed unmade with a piles of clothes laying on top of it, the result of not knowing what outfit you want to wear for school when you pick it out in the morning and not the night before.
We see a super that reads “THE MOOSH MONSTER” over our hero. She’s deep in thought working out a math problem on pencil and paper. She lets out a grunt. The equation doesn’t add up again. Ugh.
The camera tracks from this scene and into the bathroom where we see another young girl carelessly and horrendously painting her toenails purple glitter while sitting on the toilet. We see a close up of nail clippings on a light blue rug. A super appears “NICKTOGE” over our hero.
The camera exits backwards and travels down the stairs following the sounds coming from the kitchen.
Right before the camera is about to step into the kitchen we hear an “AW COME ON!!!” coming from the basement and we make a right turn to follow it. As we’re climbing down the stairs we see a young boy sitting two feet in front of a television playing Donkey Kong. Two couches and a lounge chair surround him but the controller cord from the Nintendo 64 plugged into the tv doesn’t stretch that long, plus he needs to be as close to the screen as possible. It clearly helps him play better.
We cut to a shot of just the video game, Donkey Kong is looking directly into camera as he lifts a barrel and chucks it at the screen. The camera backs up. The young boy pushes the camera out of the way. The camera falls to the ground and then regain’s focus on the young boy the super “WOOZ” appears on screen.
The camera runs up the stairs, stabilizing as we lock eyes on what’s going on in the kitchen. We see an older women at the kitchen sink, we don’t know what she’s doing. We turn to see the refrigerator open, which seems to be open by itself. The camera widens and we see feet at the bottom of the fridge as a young boy backs up holding a bag of carrots. We see him disappear behind the kitchen island. Only the top of his head makes it over the counter. The women turns around to accept the bag of carrots from the set of hands. The young boy keeps walking past as a medium sized goldendoodle enters the frame. The young boy bends down to give the dog a belly hug. A super appears that reads “BUT‘CEPT JOE.”
The camera pans up to catch the women now turned towards camera, dumping the bag of carrots into a pot of boiling water. A super appears “MOM” as we hear the women shout “CHARLES AND NICOLE!!! COME SET THE TABLE FOR DINNER!!”
The camera gets placed on the counter. Cut to black.
Now, in 4K footage we see our five characters putting various things on the table, utensils, plates, condiments, napkins. Mom is carrying the food to the table. The youngest, BUT’CEPT JOE is already sat at the table quietly playing with a dinosaur. The camera weaves in and out of the action.
We hear the double beep of a 1990 BMW being locked. Everyone looks to the door. THE MOOSH MONSTER shouts “DAD’S HERE!!” The camera quickly makes its way down the hallway perfectly timed to an older man opening the door and shouting “DAD’S HOME!!” We see a super “DAD” as THE MOOSH MONSTER and BUT’CEPT JOE run to give the older man a leg hug. He pats them both on the heads and puts his briefcase on the floor next to the door.
Cut to the family around the dinner table.
Title card “A mutiny at the dinner table” appears.