Production title: The Arlingtonian
Union / Non-Union: Non-Union
Production Type: Independent
Project length: Short Film (15 minutes)
Production location: Arlington, VA/Washington DC
Shooting Location: Arlington, VA
CONTACT: Skinny Corleone, 49thparallelfilms@gmail.com
http://www.49thparallelfilms.com
Dates: August 17-21, 2020
“Pilot”
Arlington, Virginia circa the 2008 financial crisis: When Wilson loses his job, it triggers a special 2008 recession clause he willingly signed as part of his apartment lease, student loan and auto loan contracts leaving him facing the possibility of eviction and losing his car unless he shows a new form of employment. Through a life-changing moment at a local bar, he unknowingly meets his new boss; whose business is recession-proof.
Setting: Arlington, VA
Dramatic Crisis: When Wilson loses his job, he immediately receives a visit from his landlord notifying him he has 30 days to show employment or face eviction, his auto loan company threatens to take his car within 15 days if he doesn’t show employment and his student loan company says his remaining dues for the year are immediately due now that he’s lost his job. In the span of one hour, his life is financially ruined.
Turning Point: Wilson meet a local wealthy real estate executive who is secretly one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the Washington DC metropolitan region.
Climax: Wilson’s new friend ironically offers him a new job, while keeping his underworld power a secret.
CHARACTERS
Wilson: Lead, Male, Half Black/Other, Slender, 25.
Wilson is an unemployed 25-year-old college graduate circa 2008, the start of a so-called economic recession that he does not really understand the details of. No one can really figure out what ethnicity he is because of his mixed-race background and fair skin color but he certainly knows he’s not white.
Don: Support, Male, Black, Medium Build, 26.
Don is a 26-year-old medical graduate student at Howard University in 2008. He feels insulated from the financial crisis that seems to be changing the lives of everyone around him, including his best friend Wilson. With a knack for educating drunks while drunk, occasionally snorting cocaine and generally introducing extremes into normal social situations, Don is the most unpredictable partier of his group. To save on rent, he lives in Arlington, a mile away from The Arlingtonian, which he frequents due to his best friend, Wilson, having a new occupation there.
Dominico: Support, Male, Dominican, Slender, 26.
Dominico is a 26-year old Washington Heights native who relocates to Arlington to escape a criminal situation in his native New York City. One thing that links his past and his present is his financial street success with what he calls the “ski slalom” of Arlington. Selling coke, hiring illegal immigrants for labor and mingling with corporate elites becomes his main focus in his new location. He finds that the millennial aged sons and daughters of senators and other federal government elitist positions have the highest appetites for cocaine, Adderall, pizza and beer.
Huff-Lander: Lead, Male, Greek/Middle Eastern, Medium Build, 37.
Huff-Lander is a 37-year-old successful venture capitalist entrepreneur and apartment building manager with investments and business interests in different states and countries. His jet setting lifestyle has already begun to create complications even for the god-like status he’s achieved in Arlington, a place much too small to entertain his thirst for extravagant females and a 1 percent lifestyle. Insulated from the recession that surrounds and complicates the lives of his friends in Arlington, he starts to become enamored by opportunities outside of the United States.
Tasha: Support, Female, African American, Medium Complexion, 25-30.
Tasha is the friend of Don’s cousin. She sometimes pre games and hangs out with Don and Wilson.
Jose: Extra, Male, El Salvadorian, Medium Build, 30-35.
Jose is Dominico’s 31-year old cousin, capable of repairing just about anything, who Wilson hires to provide cheap labor repair work at his new gig.
Jose #2: Extra, Male, El Salvadorian, shorter, 30-35.
The other Jose is in the parking lot near the Jose that Dominico is looking for, competing for the job.