Chan Cunningham – Assignment 7 – Routine Maintenance Outline

Status Quo
Norman is our protagonist. Norman follows a daily routine that never changes in the
slightest. He wakes up and goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth and what not, he
gets dressed, gets his class stuff together, and he makes strawberry banana smoothie.
He says goodbye to his girlfriend, he looks at the calendar which has all his activities
planned out and heads out for the day. He has one writing class and then a music
theory class, then he goes to subway for lunch and gets the same sub every time. He
gets to work and eats it before he starts. Then he goes home, he works on the piano,
he’s trying to write music. The he cooks him, and his girlfriend dinner and they go to
sleep. Repeat.
The establishment of the status quo will be all of this showed once and the it will be
followed with a montage of the same acts happening over and over and speeding up,
much like old German montages, specifically the factory ones.
The montage ends with a shot on the calendar, it saying Norman has a meeting after
his typical workday.
Catalyst
He’s at work and the boss lets them go for the day. He says the meeting has been
moved to a later date. His friend asks him if they’re still on for tonight and Norman says
yes.
He heads back to his apartment and unlocks the door. He hears his piano in the
bedroom. Excited because his girlfriend never liked the piano, he rushes in and finds his
girlfriend cheating with him. On the piano. She sees and screams. She puts her hand
out but it falls on the piano which plays a small melody.
Norman stares straight ahead, distraught.
Rising Action
His friend comes over and the two have some beers. Norman drinks a few too many as
he complains to his friend about how his girlfriend doesn’t know what she’s missing. He
opens his phone and see’s that she’s at a karaoke bar. He tells his friend that they’re
going to the karaoke bar. His friend is shocked that he wants to go to a bar. He then
tries to stop Norman and after some bickering, Norman tells him he can come if he
wants, but he’s going to tell off his ex.
Norman leaves and his friend comes after him. Norman, piss drunk, doesn’t want to
walk all the way downtown. He asks his friend if he drove and his friend points out he’s
been drinking. Norman then calls a campus escort but is denied as the service doesn’t
reach that far downtown. Angry, he yells about until he sees two scooters across the
street.
While in the middle of the street, his scooter dies, and he falls on the pavement. His
friend rushes to his side. Norman is swearing loudly as a car pulls up and holds its horn.
He gets up and starts yelling at the car. The car holding its horn. Lights and a siren are
heard as a cop pulls up across the street. Norman and his friend bolt down a side road
and take some odd ways. They take a breather and the he and the friend get in a fight
because his friend is angry about the cop situation. Norman pushes him and says he
doesn’t need him. Norman storms off.
He makes his way back to the street and sees the karaoke bar. He enters with gusto
and everyone turns and looks. He meets eyes with his ex. Her friends laughing at how
disheveled Norman looks. Norman keeps eye contact as he approaches the karaoke
stage. He takes the microphone from the person up there and kicks him off stage. He
sits at the keyboard and puts the mic in the holder. He addresses the crowd and goes to
play a tune. He freezes as soon as he looks at the keys. Cutaway to affair. He shakes it
off, apologizes and starts playing I’m Still Standing. He barely makes it through,
cutaways to the affair occurring. He starts shaking and crying. He gets up and storms
out. He screams in the air and rushes off screen.
Low Point
Norman walks on to the pier. He goes to the very end and stares into the darkness of
the lake. All is quiet. He looks down into the water. He starts to lean when his friend
starts talking. The two have an exchange in which Norman realizes how he damaged
his relationship and how his strict normalcy and routine negatively affect his He says he
needs to go back to the bar one more time.
Climax
Norman walks back into the bar. All eyes on him. He rushes the karaoke stage again
and kicks the same person off, this time saying sorry. He takes the mic. He calls out his
ex. He says knows he didn’t give her what she deserved, but no one deserves what he
got. He turns to his friend and apologizes to him.
Resolution
We now get a similar sequence to the beginning, yet things have changed. His ex has
officially moved out. He looks in the bedroom and sees the keyboard. He has flashes of
the affair and hears the melody that was played at the beginning. Something clicks.
While sitting at the keyboard in his living room, he gets a call from work. His boss is
wondering where he is. Norman says he quits, and he hangs up. He goes right back to
the keyboard, making a song out of the melody. END.