INT. HALLWAY — CONTINUOUS
Moving fast. The camera is the DIRECTOR — we never see him. SAM, first AD, is a step ahead and pulling, close to dragging him.
The MANAGER hustles behind, eyes down, thumbs going on his phone. He is doing other work. He will be doing other work all night.
A door at the end of the hall. Sam stops short at it. Through it: muffled noise. Voices raised. Something heavy moving.
Sam
Okay. Little heads up.
(beat)
Our art department is a little underfunded and a little stressed out right now.
(beat)
Just wanted to give you that before we go in.
The camera turns to the MANAGER. He looks up from the phone. Thumbs up. Big, confident, meaningless. Straight back down to the phone.
Sam opens the door.
INT. ART DEPARTMENT — CONTINUOUS
Maggie (O.S.)
WHERE IS THE STEAMER.
The room is coming apart. Two people carry a flat past the lens and nearly take somebody's head off. A table saw screams somewhere and stops. Foam scraps ankle deep. A hot glue gun abandoned and still on, cooking a hole in a work surface nobody is looking at. Somebody on the floor, on the phone, one finger jammed in their ear. Paint drying on things that will not be dry in time.
MAGGIE, art director. The eyes of someone who has not sat down since Tuesday.
Sam
This is our wonderful, overworked art director. Maggie — our director.
Maggie
(beat)
So this is him.
Sam
The one and only.
Maggie
Yeah. I don't get it.
(to Sam)
Can I talk to you for a second?
Maggie pulls Sam away. They go three steps and start talking low and fast.
The camera drifts. Takes the room in. It does not get calmer the longer you look at it.
The MANAGER appears in frame. Close. Warm. Phone still in his hand.
Manager
Hey. Hey. You doing all right?
(no answer needed)
Huh? Who's my superstar.
(beat)
You are.
A hand on the lens's shoulder, or where the shoulder would be. The other hand still typing.
Manager (cont'd)
Don't let this get in your head. All right? Just make the calls. That's why we hired you.
(beat)
What do you always say. This is why you get paid the big bucks.
(beat, quieter)
Why we get paid the big bucks.
(beat)
Don't forget about my twenty percent.
(already looking back down)
I got you, buddy.
Maggie (O.S.)
MASCOT?!
The camera whips over. Sam and Maggie are mid-argument and clearly have been the entire time.
Maggie (cont'd)
Tiffany. Do we have anything in the truck we could consider a mascot?
Tiffany (O.S.)
Define mascot.
Maggie
I'm not a dictionary, Tiffany. A costume. Do we have a costume of any kind.
A pause. Something heavy gets dragged, off screen.
Tiffany (O.S.)
We've got the thirty-foot snake from Anaconda On Ice.
(beat)
And my personal two-person horse.
(beat)
It's missing a leg.
Nobody asks about either of those things. There is no time.
Maggie
(to the director)
That's it. That's what you get.
(beat)
This is what happens when I find out about a mascot three hours before we shoot it.