Sign Up Senpai [PG - LV]

[Wondershot]

"Gee, I hope this turns out well." The figure in the massive ergonomic black swivel chair twisted around nervously and caught a ray of the early-morning sunlight right in his eye. Seeing spots, he unequivocally rotated the swivel chair in the opposite direction, only to bang his knee on the side of the heavy wood. He inhaled deeply though his teeth and gripped his knee, rubbing it gently with three fingers. "Ok...maybe this isn't going to turn out so well." The figure rose steadily from the chair, gripping both arm rests heavily to make sure his leg wasn't hurt at all, and a few more rays from the five a.m. sunrise caught his eyes. He didn't mind this time, though, as he thought the place looked a whole lot better with a little yellow light washing everything out. "Just like a movie." He decided to spin around and check out the computers on the far tables, and absently picked up a camera from the desk. He slowly unfolded the LCD screen from the side, and removed the lenscap...agonizingly slowly. He began looking through the manual viewfinder. He looked at the table on the side with all the computers...then at the door to the room...then to the massive window into the sunlight, watching it glint eerily across the lens. "So cool..." He put the camera back down and took inventory of all the goods strewn around the premises and tacked to the wall. Posters of films and live performances of days gone by, class schedules, a few dust-caked pictures and notices from the head office. All the more recent and important memos were either stacked on the desk or scattered about, filed in with the scripts and lying on top of the boxes in the corners. "...I thought he was more organized than this." He began walking back towards the desk, his hands running quickly over the innumerable notices and class schedules...even a few lost items that clearly belonged to the students (unless his teacher had developed a thing for cartoon-painted pencil cases in his absence). He took another glace out the window, before collapsing into the chair and a loud rumbling issued from under it. "...I'm hungry." Within a few moments, the senior student, now the teacher, in his beige-toned suit and black tie, fell asleep in his ex-teacher's chair. An hour passed...then two, then three, and the piercing shrill of the morning bell barely managed to rouse him from his sleep. "Where am I...oh yeah, I've got a meeting to get to." The senior student tucked his tie back into his suit, and slipped his shoes on just as he walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him. "I hope this turns out well."

Welcome to "Senpai", where you can finally prove to our poor, inexperienced senior student that as a film class, you guys can make movies that will blow your fellow student's minds (and hopefully your teacher's, as he will be grading it).

This is a movie-making RPG, and if you've read some of the instructions in the related Underground Thread, (see link) then you should have a pretty good idea of what this is about.

In this RPG, you will be writing scripts for a high school film class so that you can produce a movie for your final exam. The senior student enters our class in mid April, meaning that it's almost time for exams, so our substitute will be struggling to get his class in shape for actual film production and shooting.

This is not to say that his students can be completely lax about their finals (they took film for a reason, you know). They will be working hard under the watchful eye of their sub so that they can have a good script within the first week or two, and start shooting as soon as possible.

The structure of the RPG goes as follows:

[list]
[*]Introduction (class meets "Senpai" for the first time, and we get to know a bit about the characters in the first class)
[*]Script Classes (Senpai does almost nothing here. It is up to the students to develop a workable script for a movie.)
[*]Production (Senpai helps the kids turn their classes best scripts into film. The class is divided up depending on how many scripts there are, and they get to work. Shooting is done, and planning can be done among students on their own time (shooting does not have to be in chronological order, as the editors can put all the clips on tape into chronological order after all the production is complete).)
[*]Editing (The work is edited so that all the shooting is put into order and the film is essentially complete. Editing includes, but is not limited to: cutting and constructing clips, sound design, adding of digital effects, voice overs, etc.)
[*]Final (Students can finally present their creations to their "real" teacher for grading.)
[/list]

For the script classes, each student will have to submit a synopsis or, if they choose, a full working (rough) script to "Senpai" for their grading. Every student must submit a script, but not all scripts will be made into movies. After "Senpai" chooses the best scripts, the class will be divided up so that the other students whose scripts were not selected will be the cast and crew for the other characters' productions. Students may put suggestions for teams or people they would like to work with in their scripts, but they will not always be heeded. The chosen scripts must be then made into full scripts before production starts.

During production, the students will mostly describe the events in day-to-day shooting of their film, and talk about their time making the movies amongst themselves. This gives the students a little time to grow in terms of their own personalities, and the personalities of the people whom they are pretending to be. Have fun with this one.

During editing, not everyone is doing something all the time, but the students, for the most part, have time to relax and those doing the editing can describe their point of view on the films. "Senpai" will often talk with the class on their experiences during production, and editing is often his favourite step, and is always there to lend his assistance. During this part, "Senpai"'s personality comes into play a little more as he interacts with his students. This stage is just for some fun, and can be as short or as long as you (the characters) want it to be.

Finally, during the final presentation of the film, the creator(s) can describe the flow of the movie in novel form if he so chooses, and the other characters can add their own commentaries as they like. "Senpai" basically remains invisible during the stage, except when he steps in on behalf of his students for how they worked during production and editing.

And that's it...sounds easy, eh?

Despite the short length of this RPG, (the length, for the most part, depends on the participants) I will expect a lot of writing from the script creators, so if you're confident you want to do the most writing in this RPG, then convince me ("Senpai") that you can do so well by showing me your awesome scripts and ideas, so that we may make your movie.

As far as actual sign-ups go, here you are.
(All this is to be solely grounded in real life, no fantastic races or people with special powers allowed)

Name:
Country of Origin:
Appearance: (This only goes as far as specific facial features and height, all the students are in uniform.)
Biographical Description: (Simply write about an event from your character's point of view so that I can get some of the fundementals of their personality and know a bit about their past as well. The event can be humourous, tragic, just an everyday occurence, or anything as long as it tells me something about the person.)

As you can tell, the signups are not what will make you or break you in this story, it's your actual participation in the RPG that will tell me if I really want you to continue. I'll be somewhat critical about the signups, but remember that only the best scripts will end up being published, and if you have some kind of problem with working on another's project, too bad.

For information on writing in script form and such, please refer to the Underground thread linked above.

If you feel like being creative with HTML for your signups and work too, then go nuts. I'll soon be putting up some HTML work for your usage in this RPG, if so you choose. Eventually, though, all final drafts of scripts will be written using an HTML setup I am working on right now. If anyone here is experienced in HTML I could probably use your help and would greatly appreciate it if you could PM me.

Thank you, and enjoy film class, young actors.

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New][b]Name:[/b] Myrtle Ground

[b]Country of Origin:[/b] Canada, but I attended school in Japan until this year, so I might as well be Japanese. I've got an accent and everything, though it's mild and my English is fine.

[b]Appearance:[/b] Brown hair, always worn in high pigtails, adorned with a multitude of ribbons.
I wear a Hello Kitty watch that holds a gig. of space, and tells the time in five countries, if you press the buttons in the right order.
Since I was considered so tall in Japan, I wear very flat shoes most of the time, even though I'm only 5'6" or so.

[b]Auto-Biographical Description:[/b]

My bangs brushed my face in the mild wind as I breathed in my best friend's cigarette smoke. His eyes were far away from here, paying no attention to me or the park bench we were sitting on at ten o'clock at night. My parents knew his parents, didn't mind me hanging out with him, even though he was five or six years older than me. He'd never made a move on me or anything; I hadn't even caught him looking down my shirt during the summer while I was wearing a tank top, or paying particularly close attention to any part of me not covered by the bathing suit I wore when we went to the pool together, every week.
A woman walked past us and stopped. Her hair was greying and her face partially wrinkled, but her eyes were on fire. She looked at Kizuna, then at me, in the school uniform I still hadn't changed out of. I was wearing a jacket, but it wasn't zipped , and my skirt barely came halfway down my thighs. We were sitting not two inches apart from each other, Kizuna and I, and I could tell what she was thinking, exactly. What was I doing out so late with a grown man, who was smoking away his youth of eyeshadow and peroxide?
She looked at us and Kizuna asked if she was lost. She shook her head, angrily, then looked back at me with an understandable ferocity: she probably had her own daughter at home. That daughter of hers most likely never thought of [i]boys[/i] or [i]sex[/i], as far as she knew. She went looking on, straight at me. Then, finally, to Kizuna, "You stay away from dirty foreigners. You hear me?"
Suddenly, I felt cold.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[JJ]

[Color=DarkSlateGrey][size=1]Name: Jason Firmd

Country of Origin: I come from the great 'ole USA.

Appearance: Standing at about 6'0, I'm considered short in my family. Most of the men of my family play basketball, becuase they are all at least 6'3.

My eyes are brown, almost like mud. I really don't like my eyes, because they remind me of my mother.

My hair is brown also. I like to keep down to my neck. Usually, I put my hair into a pony tail.

Biographical Description:

The wind was blowing. The rain was also raining, and it was exactly as she would have wanted. Mom had always said, "The rain and wind keep everyone sane. They remind everyone that the Earth can still effect your decisions."

As I stood in the front row, my father, brother, uncle, and grandfather brought out her casket. It was oak wood, painted a dark brown. It was decorated with flowers and a silk white cover. My mom had woven it for my grandmother, but she did not want it.

They slowly made their way down the aisle. I held back my tears, my face already damp. I had done enough crying, now was not the time.

I let out a strangled cry as they set the casket down. Everyone turned towards me, but I just looked forward. If everyone knew what I was thinking inside, they would laugh. Not one man at this funeral had even the slightest hint of any emotion. Aside form being incredible at basketball, most also kept their emotions to themselves.

As the priest began to talk, I began to think. "Mom wouldn't have liked all this stuff. She would have just preferred to be buried in the dead of night. She never liked funerals, and now, she's probably looking down and shaking her fist."

I then, out of impulse, walked up to the priest and closed the book he was holding.

"Mom wouldn't have liked this." I said, gesturing towards my relatives. No one moved.[/size][/color]

[Kitty]

[COLOR=Blue][SIZE=1][B]Name:[/B] Rebecca Linne

[B]Country of Origin:[/B] I was born in the US, moved to the UK for about six years, then moved back. I've been living here ever since.

[B]Appearance:[/B] My eyes, I think, are a teal color. Others think they're grey or blue, or some even think they're purple. But me, I stick with teal. I never thought of myself as tall, but that's because my best friend is really tall, and I'm almost always hanging out with her. But I guess I am tall. 5'9" and a half. My hair's a golden brown color. Except I dyed my bangs blue a long time ago, and they usually drape across my face.

[B]Biographical Description:[/B]

"That was stupid," Tina muttered, shoving the shoplifted cigarettes into my pockets. "What the hell?" I protested, pulling them out faster than she could put them back in. My large overcoat hid almost my entire body. Except my feet. And my head. "You almost got us caught!" "But we don't need these!!"

"Look.. If we're gonna get through the weekend [i]sane[/i], I suggest we just get something to calm us down. This family trip is going to be hell without 'em," she tried to reassure me. A blew my bangs off my face, just for them to come rushing back down. I just did it to give me a moment to think. "I told you: I don't smoke. And you said you'd quit." "Aww come ON Rebecca! Live a little!"

"That's what you said when we got banned from the downtown mall." "But you said it was fun--" "I was running around in a CHICKEN suit! You think that was fun?!" "Hey! I was the cow! And you said--" "Forget what I said!" I interrupted. "It was embarrassing, and I still get hit on by the class clowns for that stupid thing. And.. I also got.."

We were quiet. Some lady with her four year old in a cart were staring at us from the corner while waiting for the light to change. "I told you I was sorry for that! I didn't know your dad would go all insane on you. And it's not like my Grandma was very forgiving that night." Tina muttered, breaking our silence. "Yeah.. I know." We were silent again.

The light changed and we walked across the street. Then we were hit.

I don't remember what it felt like. I just remember laying crumpled on the ground next to Tina, scared that she might die. I was amazed that I didn't care about my own life. It was weird. I guess that happens to you when you hate yourself. I wanted to kill whoever it was that hit us. I just wanted to make him pay for nearly killing us. People were gathering around us, whispering as if they dreaded us hearing them. I heard several people shouting at others to call an ambulence.

I looked over at my best friend and smiled. "Guess.. they won't be to.. angry at us this.. time.." I managed to spit out. She smiled back, but couldn't laugh. I watched her cough up a little blood before closing her eyes. Then I passed out, not to wake up for a month and a half.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Wondershot]

I didn't forget about this, don't worry.

I'm glad to see that there is some level of interest in this story, but I believe we can start after...one or two more signups. The class doesn't have to be very large, but we need a group of enough people to actually make a film, which would normally be at least four people in a film class.

Oh, and a note to those afraid that I didn't add enough detail about our situation (you know who you are):

This takes place in an arts school in Canada, which is why I may be using a system that you guys aren't completely familliar with. As I am unsure how the U.S. school system works, the idea is that these characters are in their senior year, which is Grade 11 up north. Meaning that each of these characters are in the area of 15-17 years of age. I think the work I've seen is open-ended enough to apply to people of this age, so keep the work coming!

I really appreciate the work, though, so just one or two more signups and we can start our "film project".

[Sara]

Leo Fibonacci Canada Short, curly brown hair. Hazel eyes. Five foot eight or so...that pretty much wraps it up for physical description, heh. Leo sat comfortably in the armchair backstage of the set. The thing had been ancient when it had been brought in, second (or maybe third) hand for a prop, years ago. It collected dust like little kids collected Pokémon cards--actually, the kids he worked with after school didn't collect Pokémon cards anymore, now that he thought of it. He didn't remember when that had stopped...Oh well, it was a good attempt at an analogy. Even when sitting, Leo gave the impression he was [i]sprawling[/i]--just something about his stance. He was a good kid; volunteered at an elementary after school program, got decent grades...a good kid. Everyone agreed. He was a bit of a class clown, really, but that came from his real passion--acting. He had joined Theatre his freshman year and had made some of his best friends through the productions they had done together. Everyone from those first two years was gone now, though--heck, he was a senior! How did that [i]happen?[/i] A senior who still hadn't finished his English Literature theme, due tomorrow morning, as it happened. He frowned and looked at the notebook before him. A few sparse notes sat lonesomely on the upper third of the page. [i]Life Lessons I Have Learned in High School[/i]. Lame, lame topic. How did they think these things [i]up[/i]? [i]This is going to be fun. Come on, Leo, think of something to write[/i]. Out of habit, he moved the pen to his lips and sucked on the tip. It was an absent-minded gesture of his, part of his "thoughtful" look. Or so he imagined. He blinked with surprise--an unpleasant taste flooded his mouth. [i]What the--[/i] He looked at the pen in his hand, and groaned--the tip had broken, and was now covered with ink. [i]Most[/i] of the ink was in his mouth. Biting his lip, he ran to the nearest bubbler, spat, rinsed, spat, rinsed...until the liquid swirling down the drain was clear. "Oh, yuck." He walked nonchalantly to the nearest boy's room and flashed a grin at the mirrror. His teeth, lips, and tongue were stained grey and black. "Well." He rubbed his finger across his teeth, frowning at it as it failed to remove any more of the ink. "That's something, anyway." Grinning broadly at everyone he passed in the hall, he made his way back to the stage to write his paper. [size=1]I'm actually not familiar with script/screenplay directions, so you'd have to bear with me on that front. However, an rpg actually written in such a way is something I've been interested in for a while. Props to Godel for pointing this out to me.[/size]

[Wondershot]

Well, the first post in Senpai is up, but I have decided that I can accept signups for just a little while longer. At this point, if anyone cares to join a little late, I'm sure we can work them into Film class without any trouble.

That having been said, I can only accept another two people at most, because if too many jump in then it probably won't be very interesting for the people that don't have their movie produced.

Again, if up to two more people want to join, then they are welcome to for a while longer.

And, lastly, if anyone wants more help with understanding the script form, I'll be sending you a PM sometime soon.

[Katana]

[size=1][color=royalblue]*salutes* Glad to see you again, Reena. ^_~

[b]Name:[/b] Jordan Thommes

[b]Country of Origin:[/b] Ireland, but then I moved to the U.S. roughly seven years ago. Sometimes my accent shows through, but usually not.

[b]Appearance:[/b] I'm almost the true definition of "Irish". My eyes resemble the waves as they break against the rocky shore, and even though my cinnanom hair is cut right at the tops of my ears, I am a girl. And even though being tall runs in the family, I'm...not. Okay, about 5'5''.

[b]A Moment:[/b]

"And [b]THAT[/b] is why Newton's first law is important to science!"

[i]Beep beep. Beep...beep.[/i]

"Alright, go to lunch!"

"Gah, freaky science teacher..." I snatched up my trapper and sketchbook and escaped the torture
known as Mr. Zippe's science class. The main thought swirling in my head wasn't of fear, but of concern.
Here I was, a straight-A student, practiclly failing science class, a class I had done so well in last year.

So it was lunch time, and my growling stomach gave eveidence of that. Hastily opening my locker and
dumping my things in, I ran down the hallway, turning sharp corners at the whim of my heel.

"Run Jordan run!" a random girl shouted at me as I sped towards the cafeteria, hoping I wasn't going
to be the last one in the lunchline, like I usually was.

I was.

Sprinting comrised much of my day, as I had to hurry to various classes and try not to be late.

Grabbing a lunch tray, bidding thanks, and handing the cashier my lunch card (with one final punch on it),
I plopped down at my lunch table, awaiting the festivities that was about to fall upon us.

We were weird, different, and, most of all, unique; me and my friends. We were having a Thanksgiving feast,
just for the hell of it, because of the giving of thanks day tomorrow. Opened trays revealing cookies,
a single bag of chips, a dish of ramen and plastic bowls beside it, and my Jell-O cups.

Lunchtime is probably one of my favorite times of the day. Not just for the food, but because all of my friends
are here, and together, we can cheer up the most depressed person on the planet.

"So...who gets the science assignment?" one of my friends, Liz, asked. We all shook our heads, with the exception
of Meghan, our resident genius.

"Oh come on, it's not hard!"

"YES IT IS!!!" we all bellowed at her.

I sighed. I was smart. I am smart. But why is it this year, science was so hard for me?

"And in the end...as long as I bet a B...I'll get on the gold honor roll," I murmured to myself
before accepting the bowl of ramen offered to me.

----------------------------
Of course it makes no sense! T_T;;[/color][/size]