Well the OP already mentioned this so I went with it, it was simply a brainstorm as noted, not an actual finished script. 
One location short-film: SUPERMARKET! Looking for recommendations
- Thread starter glr90
- Start date
How about the security guard keeps telling a homeless man he can't hang around out front. He has a can for money but not many people give. He leaves, and comes back several times and keeps getting the boot. A shopper headed inside slips him a few bills, and the homeless man comes in to shop, sticking his tongue out at the security guard, who follows him. Inside, the homeless man only buys cat food which puzzles the security guard. Out back there are stray cats that eat garbage from the dumpsters, and he feeds them the cat food and pets them. He then returns to the front but keeps walking as to leave the premises. The security guard asks him why he didn't buy food for himself...
Blah blah just a stream of consciousnesses not sure what happens, maybe he gets a job there or something, just some more nonsense here trying to help.
Blah blah just a stream of consciousnesses not sure what happens, maybe he gets a job there or something, just some more nonsense here trying to help.
B movie style lol...
Oh Lord! So bad it's good.
Films like that would make the "Midnite Madness" rounds, something I haven't seen in years, and now with Covid....
For those who don't know, long before the internet a lot of second tier movie theaters would have midnight showings of "cult" films on Fridays and Saturdays. Led Zeppelins "The Song Remains The Same" was a staple. Another favorite was "Bambi Meets Godzilla," "Asparagus," and "Eraserhead" on the same bill. "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "Pink Flamingos," "Easy Rider," and lots of concert films. They would also show really, really bad "B" movies and the audience would go MST3k on them. It was a lot of fun.
Oh dear, this is absolutely brilliant. Looks to me like a Monty Python sketch directed by Guy Ritchie. I have read the plot and found this part on YT:
If you know where I can get the full episode, please advise!
How about the security guard keeps telling a homeless man he can't hang around out front. He has a can for money but not many people give. He leaves, and comes back several times and keeps getting the boot. A shopper headed inside slips him a few bills, and the homeless man comes in to shop, sticking his tongue out at the security guard, who follows him. Inside, the homeless man only buys cat food which puzzles the security guard. Out back there are stray cats that eat garbage from the dumpsters, and he feeds them the cat food and pets them. He then returns to the front but keeps walking as to leave the premises. The security guard asks him why he didn't buy food for himself...
Blah blah just a stream of consciousnesses not sure what happens, maybe he gets a job there or something, just some more nonsense here trying to help.
At the end of the episode, one of the thieves gets hired as a security guard of the store. Nice ideas holding together
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Should be easy enough to work around this - the fruit-and-veg section would be a (mostly) brand-free zone; camera angles at the tills could exclude sight of branded products; if a scene requires one of the characters to be actively handling a product, but not actually using it as a key element of the plot, a polite letter to a local producer should be sufficient to get the necessary clearance; if all else fails, a shallow depth of field would make most brands on the shelves invisible.
Do you mean the "after hours" lights? Most of the supermarkets I visit at night are as bright as day (other than on their "autism" days)!
From a production point of view, does it have to be a night-time scenario? I've watched many movies featuring a daytime supermarket scene that was filmed in the middle of the night. Admittedly, though, having the story take place outside of normal shopping hours would give it an interesting angle. If you were to set it in the early hours of the morning in a 24-hour store, you'd have a tight, well-balanced group of characters - a few lonely shoppers (why are they buying beans or bananas at 3am?), the guy/girl on the till, someone re-stocking the shelves, a cleaner ...
An elderly friend of mine, giving me dating advice, suggested I hang out around the tills in the local supermarket.(Yeah, right ... ) Her logic was that you can tell a lot about a person by what they're buying. If you chose the route of character development instead of action, there's potential for a good metaphor there - two people meet at the entrance, repeatedly cross paths at certain symbolic products, their relationship develops as they progress through the aisles, until the finally check out and ...
To give a little background, and I am massively simplifying here, we have two kinds of grocery stores over here in Europe:
1) The big supermarket chains, such as Carrefour, Lidl, or ALDI. These are typically big stores, mostly selling food and beverages, and are only open in daytime. Overnight, they keep their neon lights on but are closed to the public. After hours (generally after 8 PM), you can see from windows cleaning personnel working or employees refilling shelves.
2) The small night shops, we sometimes call them "Pakistani shops" - I know it sounds racist, but I have never seen any of these shops owned by a local really
These are quite small, mostly selling alcohol and cigs (but you can also find food), and are open mostly - if not exclusively - at night. A sample in this short film that we shot a couple of years ago:We have access to a first type kind of store. It's not really credible that a shop like that would be open at night, and I can't think right now of a credible reason that would lead someone to be stuck there at night.
Well the OP already mentioned this so I went with it, it was simply a brainstorm as noted, not an actual finished script.
And yes, you are right that I mentioned this in the OP. But in fact, the more I brainstorm about it (together with you, and this is brilliant!), the more I can't figure out how this would realistically happen (i.e. a customer stuck overnight). I feel more and more inclined to build something around an employee working late hours to make some cleaning or re-arrange food on the shelves.
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A horror where the breakfast cereal characters come alive. ☠☠☠
Or where a store employee brings his victims to the store at night, cuts them in pieces, and places them in the meat aisle?
Chopping Mall is amazing. I am a big fan of B Movies, and by the way, I think the concept of B Movies has started not as we know it today (poor quality films), but rather as films that would be included in theater tickets of so-called A Movies, e.g. you went to watch Casablanca and could stay in the theater for a second "B Movie" that would be played afterward, like supporting acts to main bands in concerts. Pretty much as you said @Alcove Audio. What would sometimes happen is that the B Movie was better than the A Movie. If I am not mistaken, even one of Kubrick's first pictures (must be The Killing or Path of Glory, can't remember now) opened in theatres as a B Movie.
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I know it's currently available on Amazon but you have to pay about 2 bucks. The episode is series 5 episode 3, "The Longest Night".Oh dear, this is absolutely brilliant. Looks to me like a Monty Python sketch directed by Guy Ritchie. I have read the plot and found this part on YT:
If you know where I can get the full episode, please advise!
At the end of the episode, one of the thieves gets hired as a security guard of the store. Nice ideas holding together
Surely you have major chain 24-hour stores in Brussels? Maybe not open during the current restrictions - but even here in France, where it's generally illegal to work after 9pm, there are some Carrefours open all night. Hmm - maybe there's a situation waiting to be exploited: the culture shock experienced by either (or both) worker or customer by doing daytime things in a store newly opened through the night? A variation on this theme, then
- Alternatively, mixing reality with weird fantasies:
"Cashback" trailer : (age restricted, probably because of nudity
)
"Cashback" trailer : (age restricted, probably because of nudity
)
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Never seen "Cashback," and have always wanted to.
Can't quite get a coherent logline together, but am thinking: political intrigue, maybe comedy - something about the clandestine meeting of a radical MEP and smuggler of British egg sandwiches, played out against a backdrop of coded messages in the vegetable display! 
I may have spent too long in the sun today ...
I may have spent too long in the sun today ...
