Lunchroom Conversations

Cut to:  4 Years later.

At this point, Leonard had long since returned from his Texan Odyssey, and his family now had 3 additions. I myself had now adjusted into family life as well. Dreams of filmmaking, were just dreams now. We talked about it now and then. But nothing ever really came of it.

The Lunchroom was part of one of those typical discussions, when it first entered my life.

The following are a series of IM and SMS messages centered around the Lunchroom short. They show the evolution of the script and the project to what it became today. 

4/21/09

L: You have Final draft installed?

J: I have a copy of it. Why what’s up?

L: I need you to look over a script of mine. I want to enter that contest that Twan sent me. So I’m putting something together. 

( I have no idea what contest he originally planned to enter. But it’s not the same one we are shooting for now)

L: But there is only a 20 minute time frame. So I'm trying to crush everything in that time frame.

(Our current goal is to edit the Lunchroom down to 4 Minutes!)

You have successfully received lunchroom.fdr!

J: I don’t know what this script is about but i got to say Lunchroom is a rad name for a teen comedy. The name alone has my head spinning with possibilities. Lunchroom can be like a PG13 Superbad!

(I think this is the very first time that the name was even discussed to be ‘Lunchroom’. I think Leonard always planned on changing it later)

L: Its an office setting. About a straight girl trying to get a gay guy. The point is that they are acting Like they are in Junior High.

J: oh okay.

L. I only got three pages. I'm trying to tighten the dialogue

J: So do you have another draft or is it filed in your head.

L: in my head. I'm putting down a few sections at a time. There are 3 incidents. The Lunch room. The car ride home. and the Obscene Phone calls

(Interestingly enough, the obscene phone calls never made it to either the final draft or shooting scripts and In fact I had forgotten all about it)

L: I'm off to work. I'm going to punch a few more pages out today. I’ll send them.

4/22/09

L: Should Victors voice be used in the Flashbacks? Even when a female speaks?

J: in flashback you can always just do the intro voiceover. and then have people use their regular voice. Or he can do the voices for everyone. Which are good for shorter flashbacks.

(It should be noted that the flashback scenes contain no dialogue now, except voice over.)

6/7/09

J: Eric moved back.

L. back where? Home?

J: Yeah right back in with his mom and dad.

(This information is irrelevant for now. I only included this because Eric would eventually rejoin our team)

7/1/09

J; You finished that Gay script you were writing?

L: Yup. But the co-writer bailed on me. You ready to jump behind a lens?

J: I been ready, You’re the one dawdling all the time. But seriously all these years and we never made even 1 short? That’s hard to believe.

L: Well at this point I can’t really do anything with the gay script. It’s sort of in limbo.

J: What about ‘Family Ties”

L. I was just looking for that script. You got the stomach to try and rez that…….

And just like that The Lunchroom was destined to be another forgotten project. Many months would pass before I’d hear about it again.