12. One sentence

Okay, this one's easy.

We have character, lots of character. We even have some scenes- lots of things to "happen" to the characters. We know who the story is about and have ideas about what might happen. What this screenplay needs is one sentence.

Every movie we've ever seen started with one sentence, consisting of the BIG WHO and the BIG WHAT. For example, "Transamerica" can be summed up with: A tranny discovers she has a son. "Lord of the Rings" equals "A Hobbit and his posse have to destroy a powerful ring." "Harold and Maude" is the main idea: A depressed young man meets and falls in love with an amazing old woman. Boom. One sentence.

So, while I have many ideas about what this one sentence might be for this movie, I want to hear what you have to say. If you leave it up to me, I very well might go with: A posse of Geek Girls win the lottery. Is that what you want? Tell me what you want. There are no limits.

So... a posse of Geek Girls...  

11. A Main Character

Here she is, one of the main characters, in part. She is malleable and will be put into situations that have yet to come. She will change and lose and gain qualities. We will use some or all of what we've got. One thing is for sure: she is a geek. Ladies, she needs a name. What do you think?

Here is a quick idea for the first scene we ever see her in and then a stream-of-consciousness summary:

Apartment. Night.

A bowl full of melted chocolate.
An ashtray full of ashes and butts.
A stack of starlight mints, unwrapped.
A box of lightbulbs.

MAIN CHARACTER gingerly takes a light bulb out of a box and dips it into the bowl of chocolate, daintily dipping from above. She pulls the light bulb out by the metal tip, pauses, and then blow dries it on full blast.

(Close up)
She licks the chocolate light bulb by sticking her tongue out flat and rubbing the light bulb on it.

She removes the cigarette butts from the ashtray and pours the ashes over the light bulb, which stick to the moisture from the lick. She puts dots of hot glue from a glue gun on the chocolatey-ashy light bulb and gently adheres starlight mints.

CUT TO:

A shelf of light bulbs dressed with various things- plastic, stamps, hair, nacho chips, flowers, etc. Each light bulb has a name tag.

CUT TO:
An empty spot on the shelf, with a name tag: "Big Jim." MAIN CHARACTER gently places the newly- made light bulb on the shelf and adjusts it.

*************************

She makes light bulbs. Well, the light bulbs are already made. She makes people out of light bulbs. She makes light bulbs into what people would be if people were light bulbs. Melted orange plastic, jutting out from all sides, with soft blue fabric underneath- that's her boss, Clara. A light bulb dipped in chocolate with cigarette ashes and starlight mints, Big Jim across the street. Stamps, dog hair, and perfume is her Grandma who's not really her Grandma and whiskey with nacho cheese and flowers is Itty Bitty John in the wheelchair who got hit by a car last year. She makes the light bulbs alone at home after work at the grocery store most days. She doesn't screw them into shine. The glue will melt.

She had a boy over one time, a bagger who works third shift with greasy hair and a limp. He put Roxy the Bartender in the bedroom ceiling lamp to try to "set the mood." All the strings of red plastic melted, which was pretty at first and then started to stink. The hairspray started to smoke and one of the neighbors called the fire department. He never came back and now everybody knows she makes light bulbs. 34 total, not counting the first Roxy.

10. Your Second Challenge

We have come to the big pink cliff. It's time to jump off. Don't worry, the wind will carry us. We have a parachute of character and a whole lot of attitude. Plus, I will do the work. You just be you.

We are taking it all in. We are asking questions. We are doing research. We are wikipedia-ing. We are, you precious gems of hot dork-hood, making sense out of nonsense. As explorers, we don't know what's going to happen. I don't want to know what's going to happen in this screenplay.

Your next challenge is to think of the BEST thing that could ever happen to you and then, in the name of ying-yangy-ness, the WORST thing that could ever happen to you. Sounds simple, right? Take time to be as absolutely as honest as honest can be. Post it as a comment below. Be as short or as wordy as you want to be.

There are still no rules. And no requirements.

Here's mine:

The best thing that could happen to me is that I become a filmmaker while being in love. Of all the things in this wide, scary, mushy, slimy, weird, beautiful world, THAT is the best thing that could happen to me.

The worst thing that could happen to me is that I live scared: scared of people, scared of myself, scared of being wonderful, scared of silence, scared of fires, scared of giant flying cockroaches. Do you know why? Because scared people aren't funny. And I will die if I don't laugh.

Stay tuned for the next post...I will write what I have in mind for one of the main characters...

9. Are you ready my femme-geek friends?

I heard of a Geeky Girl who was not afraid to bring her 24-inch imac desktop into a coffeeshop when her wireless at home went down. She simply walked in and said, "I have a big laptop." And then hooked up her computer, which was bigger than the table, to work on her Girl Geek blog. Damn, that's Geeky.

8. A Different World for every G.G:

From Sara Hunt:

A few more for the road:

• Girl Geeks collate papers and do filing for fun.
  
• We enjoy the difference between DVD and BluRay.
  
• Girl Geeks know what DVD, USB, HDD, PC, FCC, CD, LP, mAh, NiMH, Li-Ion, NiCd, and all those other acronyms stand for.
  
• Girl geeks red online comics like Red vs. Blue, Penny Arcade, and +1.
  
• Girl geeks shop at Jinx, NorthernSun, RoosterTeeth, and sometimes ThinkGeek.
  
• Geeky chicks often use "..." way way too much.
  
• We are not afraid to fall asleep during a good book, with our glasses on and the book imprint on our face most of the next day.
  
• Girl Geeks sometimes go through many pairs of glasses a year because they forget to take them off. Even in the shower.
  
• We know the difference between Dorks and Geeks and that some of us are both.
  
• Girl geeks own computers on a ratio of 3:1 (3 computers to every one person in the house).
  
• Girl geeks love PowerPoints. But still resist all things Microsoft.
  
• We love to Google, Wikipedia, and IMdB things, people, places, music, and movies.
  

7. We're almost there...

To that big pink cliff, a parachute of Geeky Girl statements strapped to our back. Almost time for plot...

More from the front:

From Pamela Martin
1. Obvious: Geek girls feel perpetually alienated.

2. By our late teens, we stop feeling embarrassed about said alienation.

3. We tell anecdotes that are dismissed as irrelevant by non-geeks.

4. We know the names of directors, not actors.

5. We sometimes forget to put on clean clothes. This is truly forgetfulness, not an act of defiance or rebellion. Similarly, we accidentally sleep in our "good" clothes.

6. We can spend two days in a room writing or reading something.

7. We think about our records.

8. We frequently forget what year it is.

9. When we see grammatical errors on signs and documents, we fix them in our heads.

10. We think about the origin of phrasal verbs.

11. If we own makeup, it's expired.

12. We have a host of gross habits, e.g. picking scabs, pulling out strands of hair, etc.

13. We can immediately identify other geeks girls.

14. We love Risk and board games.

15. We love making lists.

16. Our nails are always fucked up and dirty.

17. We may have a chipped tooth or two.

18. We have gone to too many movies and concerts alone.

19. Geek girls usually love the Fall.

20. GG have accepted that awkwardness is forever.

6. Share your comments!

Ladies, we are certainly surging with truths. This is no trickle.

As more and more posts are added, please use the comments link below the posts to add your Geeky thoughts, praises, questions, and exclamations as they come to you. If you have a list of your own Geeky truths, please click on that sweet little comments link and tell us. If you want to add your websites, events, or project information to your comments, we want to see them.

5. Oh, it's going to be good.

Sweet truth-tellers and seers, more from you and yours:

(From Nickole, poet, geek, and the love of one geek girl's life. nickolebrown.com)

Girl Geeks get lonely sometimes, but they rarely can identify that loneliness until they've been alone so long that they're sleeping in their bed with two dogs and a cat. They wake up in the morning wearing scarves and hoodies and tube socks, and mostly they don't fix their hair. . . they simply wet it down and go.

Girl Geeks love their hoodies. They have one favorite one, but any will usually do.

Girl Geeks wear bite guards to save what's left of their canines.

Girl Geeks like the pop and scratch of a record, the scratches on old hardwood, scratches on leather satchels that they carry everywhere full of books. In short, they appreciate imperfection and old age, even though they may or may not tell you how old they are.

Girl Geeks obsess on different words at different times. A particular vocabulary word may stick with her for days, and she will roll that word around in her mouth again and again and again until it becomes completely foreign. She likes this: making things strange. Making things new.

Girl Geeks are researchers. Wikipedia has changed their lives forever. Sometimes they open books at random and read from whatever is there in front of them.

Girl Geeks have been known to fall desperately, hopelessly in love with other Girl Geeks. Sometimes it works and sometimes not, but they never regret any of it, not even for a second. Sometimes that refusal to regret makes it work at a later time. Either way, they almost always call to say goodnight and remind each other to notice the moon.

4. There's more, my lady friends...

Keep it comin'...

From Tracy Heightchew:

a girl geek is not afraid to ask questions. or answer them.
a girl geek with style pushes her glasses up from the side, not the middle.
a girl geek can cross reference film directors while nude with very little thought of herself.
a girl geek chooses to stay home on a friday night to arrange her books.

3. You are making Geeky Girl History.

Here is more Girl-Geeky discourse in-coming. We're on to something here. And you obviously know what I'm talking about.

From Hallie Jones:


geek girls....

• go off on tangents about being oppressed by men to men who aren't oppressing them.... but they'll listen because the girls are intelligent and sassy and they think that's super hot
• fantasize about being productive
• maintain websites
• spend a lot of time being immersed in adobe products
• have a major sweet toof (yeah, i said toof)
• wear thongs
• hate the mall (or as I like to refer to it.... the zombie park)
• wear buttons and sew on patches
• geek out with other geek girls
• quickly befriend geek guys who'll be their computer fixin' bitches
• can talk some serious shit about microsoft
• work at non-profits making a fraction of what they could because they prefer to have their freedom, come in late, work late, and have a voice
• daydream about possibilities and "how to"
• like sage, the tarot, and energy that is unseen
• frequent message boards
• are smarter then their men on the computer and can track down everything they do
• do weird, artsy things to bugs
• shave their legs about twice a year and their armpits even less
• don't eat meat
• get really excited about things like taxidermy, tanning hides, and meth mouth
• know the secrets of other geek girls and can communicate non-verbally
• love summer nights in humid ol' kentucky when you can feel the dampness on your skin
• riding bikes at 2 in the morning past the stock yards and despise hearing the pigs scream because it makes them feel horrible inside
  

http://www.halliejones.com/
http://www.myspace.com/halliedj

2. This just in: It has begun, and there's no stopping it now. Here's what some Girl Geeks World Wide have had to say:

From Cecil Belle:

Girl Geeks could be crazy enough to randomly move halfway around the world and think that it is a perfectly sane thing to do.... and are surprised when people tell them they are brave.

Girl Geeks go by a plethora of names...just because you know one of their names doesn't mean you know all of them.

Girl Geeks rarely look their age.

From Sara Hunt:
Some of us know the difference between Marvel and DC comics.

Many of us love to take weekend trips to Comic-Cons,
Trek-Cons, Game Cons, and other such Cons.

We also enjoy history and a great Renaissance Festival.

Some of us know the meanings and symbolism behind flowers, stones, the weather, and wood types.

Some of sit down and "code" databases and new programs just to take our mind off the world.

From Jessica Woolard:
Girl Geeks can patiently observe while others make mistakes, and learn from them.

1. What is Girl Geeks World Wide?

This is it. Girl Geeks around the globe wish for you to feel very honored and lucky. You have been chosen to participate in an on-going exploration of a very important uprising. This is a challenge and a promise. Your input will catapult with certainty stories to last a lifetime.

Girl Geeks World Wide is a web-based project designed to help create a screenplay consisting of a posse of "Girl Geek" characters. What are Girl Geeks? They are we, ladies. Girl Geeks are the heroes. I know that, personally, I would have next to nothing without them. I am looking to tell the truth about Girl Geeks, from a Girl Geek point of view. I am not looking to rescue the Girl Geek from her Geekiness, or to find a way for her to belong, or to get her to the prom. I am looking to tell a story of the sweet truth of what it is to be a Girl Geek. I will use the words "Girl Geek" a lot. A whole lot. "Girl Geek" has a number of definitions- that's where you come in. The plot of this screenplay is a very structured, somewhat mechanical animal that will grow its limbs and staircases as we move along with it. At the start, we are focusing on character.

To get rolling, I am going to give you sentences of what it is to be a Girl Geek, from Girl Geeks across the globe and from other universes. Your challenge is to give me your own sentences of what it is to be a Geeky Girl. Your input will not only help with character development for a very important screenplay, but also feed your Girl Geek with the food she wants.

There are no rules.

There are all sorts of Girl Geeks. Not all Geeky Girl statements will apply to every Girl, but every Geeky Girl will have a statement. That's part of what makes us Girls that are Geeks. If this is totally confusing you, that's okay. Read on and see if it stirs anything within you.

Here we go:

Girl Geeks are different and they know it. They do not think this is cool.

Girl geeks are extremely intelligent.

Girl Geeks find solace in the quiet times when they find the perfect color of Sharpie.

Girl Geeks find connections between words, numbers, thoughts, feelings, images, and sounds.

Girl Geeks are beautiful, with soft hips, beautiful breasts, bright eyes, wet lips, and strong hands- and they don't have to trade it for anything.

Girl Geeks really, truly love words.

Some Girl Geeks know the difference between elves and dwarfs.

Some Girl Geeks light candles and stare at them.

A Girl Geek believe there is a power that tells her she should belong, so that her Geekiness gets angry and comes out in her art.

Girl Geeks understand this.

Girl Geeks talk in funny voices and say, "Yes!" with squinched eyes and an elbowed fist to the hip.

Girl Geeks sometimes have a hard time softening their words.

Some Girl Geeks have a hard time getting their words out.

Girl Geeks sometimes let their Geekiness flow and then look at you to see if you've noticed.

Girl Geeks need other Girl Geeks to stay alive.

Girl Geeks love intensely, with passion and fear.

Girl Geeks are really sexy.

Some Girl Geeks think electronics are really sexy.

When a Girl Geek gets excited she sometimes speaks with a lisp.

Girl Geeks email facts to each other.

Girl Geeks rely on the beauty of worldly and wordly things.

Girl Geeks are nice to strangers.

Girl Geeks are threatened by normalcy.

Girl Geeks find their power from within.

Girl Geeks think colors have meanings.

Girl Geeks make love to movies and books.

Girl Geeks revert back to childhood when they are at their Geekiest.

Girl Geeks like to do things their way.