Over the last five years I've written some screenplays for short films. My film partner, Kubrick Jr., and I made two short films and we are talking about (but not yet doing) another one about insomnia. I think it's great but I wrote it.

What I've been thinking about lately is a longer screenplay I wrote. The film is about one day at a tech company--the day a bunch of people are laid off. I really like it--it's a funny tech comedy (except for the layoff part) with a lot of shots at tech management, HR, outsourcing, FPS games, and more. I wrote it a few years ago and put all my tech experience into it. I think it's good but it's too short and lacks drama.

Now I know what to do with it! I'll just set the film on the day after the tech company finishes working on the Olympics. Everyone has been stretched to their physical and mental limits after three weeks of odd shifts, long hours, and catering to the erractic demands of a national TV network whose programming isn't being watched. Instead of grateful exhaustion that it's over, everyone is worried about the next batch of poorly thought out projects that are hanging over their heads, as well as the last batch of problem projects that were never finished.

The film is about the tech people who work in the basement of a typical, suburban office park, nondescript building. It tells the story through the experiences of a young, guy programmer (a probationary hire) and a lower-middle manager. The programmer has tried to help out during the long crunch by doing things beyond his knowledge and experience. Unfortunately there were no requirements/rules/written descriptions for his projects and there was no one assigned to help manage the ambiguity, so he wound up doing and redoing the projects until his life was a blur of red eyes and Red Bull. The lower-middle manager has spent weeks scrambling to cover piles of tasks while being glared at by his manager. He is worried by the addled certainty of the company's decision makers but can do nothing to affect what they do, only be increasingly frustrated when he's told to somehow make everything happen.

In the new story management is making appreciative noises (because HR tells them they have to) and they are paying some bonuses out of the large pile of cash (large for the tech company anyway) that the network promised them. BUT in their hearts the top management is considering delivering more value to the shareholders (themselves mainly). They think "If we could do ALL of these projects AND the Olympics, we could get along with less "resources" after the Olympics and create some more value for the shareholders." That gets me to my original screenplay about the layoff.

This is, of course, not intended to describe past, present, or future events at any company, real or previously described in fiction. The layoff plot reflects pieces of my experiences at Not Big Blue and at some factory jobs.

I like it. I'm going to start revising the old screenplay tonight!