Screenwriting : Script Idea/Scene Idea Exercise – ROOFTOP BAR by Maurice Vaughan

Ah! New York meet-cute rooftop:)) Here’s my launch line for a romcom :)) I love all the stories we can build in a rooftop! Thanks Maurice Vaughan

Strangers gather at a rooftop bar getting drunk while waiting their turn in New York's favorite new game, "Leaps and Bounds" where participants dive 20 floors to the busy avenue below. The survivor wins. Points awarded to those who perish while landing on a pedestrian.

You're welcome, Sandra Isabel Correia. A rooftop bar is a great location for a Romcom story. The two characters could meet for different events at the bar and each time, their relationship could go through changes (ups and downs). A rooftop bar is a great location for just one scene in a Romcom too.

SQUID GAME vibes, E Langley. New York SQUID GAME.

You see Maurice Vaughan You outlined the RomCom :)) I love it!

Thanks, Sandra Isabel Correia.

Can only be the opening scene from the new Dirty Harry remake. The waiter is Scorpio and in 20 seconds these are all dead.

I want a new DIRTY HARRY remake, Wal Friman.

I'd like to see the guy fall back into the pool!

zombie outbreak, but found footage circa Cloverfield/Blair Witch

I'd watch that in a heartbeat, Jeffery Mack.

Off the top of my head. Use it for an opening scene by introducing some of the people there. The roof top bar comes under attack from explosive drones. The main target survives. Homicide cops try and find the killer before the target does and a war begins threatening more innocent lives. Twist; the main target was never the main target. It was someone else but fate has made this more dangerous then initially planned.

Sounds thrilling, Philip David Lee! I can see Jason Statham or Liam Neeson in the lead role.

A real estate agent who just moved to NYC attends a snazzy event to garner more connections. little does he know what’s about to happen. From the evening sky, a large portal opens, unleashing the superior alien race from thousands of years ago. Suddenly, his eyes glow GOLD, the hero Firefox has been reignited and he must save the day!

Great to meet you, Jay Barnes, and great script idea. What's Firefox's superpowers?

Maurice Vaughan great to meet you too! thanks!

ah! that’s a good question!

Maurice Vaughan It did get cut off haha sorry! I said Maybe it could be Firefox can create "Firestorms" but still working his way to control them and the ability to suck the oxygen from the fires, allowing him to make them vanish quickly! :D

You're welcome, Jay Barnes. I think your last comment got cut off.

rooftop

pool party run by J-date with women outnumbering men 10 -1. All the nerdy males are bum rushed by hungry women eager to connect with an eligible successful Jewish man since their biological clock is ticking. The women start fighting with each other & talking over each other to get the few non nerd males attention.

It's great to meet you, Terry Chodosh. I like that idea. I thought about REVENGE OF THE NERDS when I read your idea. A 2025 REVENGE OF THE NERDS movie?

“Any of you hear that? Sounds like a jet that’s pretty low.”

My best advice when coming up with a story idea is as follows: You need to find the best places that will surprise you as a writer.

There's a guy over there handing out parachutes!

Great advice, Jason Boyer!

Hey, Mike Clarke. Great to meet you. Parachute Party! They're not high enough for parachutes though, right? I don't know a lot about parachutes.

Hey back, Maurice Vaughan. Neither do I apparently, but I asked ChatGPT this question: "How many stories high would a building have to be to jump off the roof with a parachute (and live)". The answer is over 30 stories high, by a pro.

I don't think that building is over 30 stories, Mike Clarke, and I don't think everyone's a pro. No Parachute Party today. Haha

You'd have to be a party paratrooper!

The last survivors of the apocalypse planning their next move.

And having a fun time, John C. Bounds. :) I can see that working as an Apocalypse movie. The survivors could work together to fortify the building and use the rooftop bar as their place to talk and escape from the chaos.

Fun exercise. Last time I was on a rooftop party, in a Chicago hotel, some manic and drunk sales rep who blew his quota wide open decided to yell yahoo and throw his Jack Daniels on the rocks off the roof into the street to watch it explode. Luckily nobody was on the street. What if?...

Two scenarios:

Everyone is chatting, flirting, talking work stuff etc and then someone (maybe the barman) calls out “Sean Fitzgerald you’re up next!”. Sean finishes his flirtatious conversation with Viv and walks over to…(Scenario 1)…the pool which changes to an almost gold leaf colour as he approaches. He looks back at Viv and winks before saying: “I’d like to hear how that story ends…if you drop my way, look me up…it’s a small universe out there” Sean strips and jumps into the pool which flashes luminescent before as he disappears into the ‘water’ to the all-round applause of everyone on the rooftop.

Viv looks at her friend Sabine and smiles wistfully. Sabine smiles back “Maybe?”, Viv stares back at the pool that Sean had just disappeared into and shrugs before replying “Yeah, Maybe! If they ever call my name here”.

(Scenario 1: Sean Jumps into the pool, Scenario 2: Sean jumps off the building into a glowing orb)

Thanks, Mike Clarke. That sounds like a movie scene. I'm glad nobody was on the street.

Great to meet you, Hugh Phelan. I like both Scenarios, but Scenario 2 is intriguing!

Title Twelve Minutes to One

The Set Up: A group of strangers meet to play a game that is part speed dating / part scavenger hunt.

Rules: : Upon entry, the participants are given an item to guard for dear life. All night, the participants collect items that correspond with items that appear on a giant video screen. The participants can’t ask for the items by name. Flirting to get someone to give up the item or guessing if the person has the item is how you win.

Grand Prize: An all expense paid trip for two anywhere outside the USA

The Players: : A cop, a psychiatrist, a hooker, a college student , a pregnant house wife, a drug dealer, politician etc.

Plot: The USA is a dystopian nightmare. Passports are hard to get. For some, this game is the only way to leave and start a new life somewhere else .

Survival scavenger hunt. Unique concept, Stephen Thompson!

"The sky darkens, the clouds crackle with intense electrical charges. En masse the GROUP looks up at the disconcerting aerial phenomena."

"They pull their hands away from their ears and sport ear-to-ear grins, unnatural rictuses."

Sounds like a Sci-Fi SMILE, Mike Childress.

The rooftop was crowded with people, with the bright lights of the bar shining in the sky. The man stood at the edge of the rooftop, staring down at the city below. He seemed to be searching for something, or waiting for someone.

The people were laughing and enjoying the night, but the man seemed to be in a different world. He seemed to be thinking about something, or trying to solve a complex problem.

Suddenly, a woman appeared from among the people, and looked at the man with a warning gaze. He seemed to know her, but didn't seem to trust her.

The woman approached the man, and began to speak with him slowly. He seemed to be watching her with caution, but didn't seem to be afraid of her.

Hi, Sabreen Ahmed. Welcome to the community. I like your idea. I think it could be a Drama, Dramedy, Romantic, or even a Thriller movie/show.

Did you name your TV series after yourself, Greg Zawaski?

"No one paid it much attention." I can see that as a Sci-Fi Comedy. The partygoers don't notice the alien invasion going on until the city is nearly destroyed, then they have to figure out how to survive.

What a fun exercise. I'm intrigued by how it is interpreted by different genres.

Eager-for-love New Yorkers gather for a speed dating mixer hosted by "Guess What's In My Shoe Singles." Hopeful, Gubbins, gray-blue shirt, center foreground, scans the crowd for his soulmate; a pretty woman who will correctly guess "a tablespoon of Vegemite."

This is a speed dating event where the coordinator drops truth serum in all of the attendees drinks.

Haha E Langley. Is Comedy your favorite genre? You're good at it.

Hey, Jess White. It's great to meet you. Oh no. Truth serum. That would be funny. Or tragic.

I love comedy and all other genres, well rounded.

It would be funny to see people start off putting on their best face and then as the serum kicks in, it all goes to pot...or it matches people perfectly. LOL

Haha That would be so funny, Jess White! I picture it as a HITCH type movie. I wanna see that movie!

I love Comedy too. Writing it and watching it. It's in my top three genres to watch.

I found the rooftop bar online. I like to look at location photos and come up with script ideas and scene ideas. Picking a unique location is a great way to make a script or scene stand out.

My take: "Secrets at Sunset" - Everyone has something that they hide and turns out these people are all connected (Think Six Degree of Kevin Bacon" Maurice Vaughan

Ironically, no, Maurice Vaughan, but thank you. Heart attack serious drama due to a tragic childhood. :)

I really like that, Dennis Manning! Could be a Whodunit Mystery too.

You're welcome, E Langley. Sorry to hear that. I write about tragic experiences too. Sometimes I don't realize it until I rewrite or reread a script.

I like Firefox's superpowers, @Jay Barnes! I looked up the Fire Fox animal and saw it has orange and black fur. What if Firefox also has really durable black steel body that represents the black fur? And maybe super strength or super agility.

A disaster occurs like an earthquake and these people are stranded on the rooftop bar with no way out. The building is collapsing, they are panicking, some jump to their deaths, others cry hysterically, others make out, others raid the liquor bar. A helicopter arrives to rescue them, but only one at a time. Will any of them let the other one go first or will a stampede get them all killed?

Hi, María Elena González. Great to meet you. Talk about stakes, suspense, and a ticking clock! I think that would be a hit disaster movie.

I can see the pool as a portal to infinite dimensions and everyone there is from a different one and has to work together to go home again--basically Project X Zone lol

POOL-VERSE :D That's a really cool idea, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh!

Life experiences are great for script ideas and scene ideas, Greg Zawaski. Your main character winning the Olympic marathon is an interesting way to begin a series. Start big. I like it!

You're welcome, Greg Zawaski. That's a powerful theme. Man vs. himself.

That pool looks like some kind of portal -- if the water accepts you, you surface in another version of New York City.

Different NYCs, and only if the water accepts you. I like it, Joo Lee. One of the NYCs has the Ninja Turtles, right?

A rooftop networking event that's stuck in a time loop since 2012.

Guess we're not using the Dihydrogen Monoxide Portal, Mike Childress.

Time loop. I'm sold, Kae Roshun! What genre is the movie/show?

Looks like the scene from one of my old scripts.

I had the "bad guy" take the "main character" to a rooftop bar to introduce him to a couple of his associates to get him to join their "technically illegal" business venture.

Mike Childress

PARTYGOER #1: TED!

PARTYGOER #2: Who's Ted?

Did he join the "technically illegal" business venture, Anthony Moore?

Maurice Vaughan - Yes, but unknown to all the members of the business the boss was using their remote accesses to perform corporate espionage electronically on various high end entities, eventually gaining enough data to manipulate the very stock market itself when the time was right.

Sounds interesting, Anthony Moore. I'm guessing it's a Crime/Thriller. You said it's one of your old scripts. Did you pitch the script, and are you gonna pitch it again?

I'm watching SILO, Mike Childress. I'm on Season 1. I haven't watched FALLOUT yet, but I know about the games. The show's on my watch list. There's a lot in your comment you could run with story wise and scene wise.

Had a lightbulb moment about this scene: Not a big fan of crowds I'm enduring the folk singer in the corner. A guy in the blueprint blue corporate shirt, obviously apres office and perched precariously on the pool edge receives a drink. The server, dressed in oddly goth black leggings and boots, quickly reaches down and pokes him on the forehead with her index finger. In a blink, he falls backward into the pool and instantly bounces back in reverse, ending up as dry as when he started. He meets the server's gaze with dark unblinking eyes, smiles and continues to watch the folk singer. What did I just see? Nobody else reacts. Breathe.

I like that idea, Mike Clarke! And that's a great way to come up with script ideas and scene ideas. Focus on one character in a picture/video/etc.

Hey, I just came up with another one. A bunch of pompous movie execs are having an elites' only party on a roof talking about how they aren't going to change anything about how they do business. They continue to overspend on talent, never understand the basic principles of a sequel, how they can't tell the difference between a movie about the invisible man of which you don't have to show him BECAUSE HE'S INVISIBLE as opposed to a movie about the Wolf Man where audiences go to actually SEE A WOLF MAN, and not talking about a movie until it's too late, but any news that might suggest the movie's in trouble like press releases of reshoots and actors that think their opinions are more important than anyone else's are free to flap their lips until they have alienated most of the country from seeing the movie in the first place are fine. I'm going to call it, "Don't Shoot Me In The Foot. I've Got This All On My Own."

Hi Maurice, how about, someone put an unknown drug into the pool, making everyone that was in the pool thinking they can fly. Some are jumping off the roof, the ones that wasn't in the pool are trying to save the others unfortunate

An alien invasion starts as people party on the roof.

Title - "The 7 Hour War: A Half-Life Story"

Regular people find themselves hopeless in an all-encompassing terror… until they learn about a hero who has inspired people, Gordon Freeman, so they must traverse Hell on Earth to link up with his movement.

Think: "Cloverfield" meets "Independence Day"

Why this Story Now? To get Gabe Newell to finally make "Half-Life 2: Episode Three"

Hey, Billy Kwack. That'd be messed up. I can see that scene working in a Crime, Action, or Thriller movie.

I like it, Michael Dzurak. I thought about INDEPENDENCE DAY and CLOVERFIELD when I made this post. And where's the HALF-LIFE movie, Hollywood???