THE BANG BANG by Harsh Karthik
BLACK SUPER: At the office of the American Gun Control Society INT. OFFICE DAY. A man (late 20 s) is sitting alone in his office, despondent and lifeless. A sign on his desk reads COLT President, Treasurer, Head of Marketing. Another young man, (21, looks like a college student) enters the office, with a hat, a sign-up sheet on a board, and an old metal box. This person is. I got about... uh... Dave opens the box on Jim s table, putting his sign-up sheet next to it. As he counts the money, Jim gives a tired and disinterested stare. Let s see, thirty, uh, thirty five... How many sign-ups? 30. (lightens up, leans forward) 30? That s not too bad! Oh, 30 dollars. 11 sign-ups. Jim s modicum of excitement disappears, as he slumps back into his seat. For... half a day on the streets.
I mean, that s our highest yet. Last Thursday we got just 3. Sign-ups? Dollars. FUCK! Dave looks at Jim, startled. I m sorry. I m just pretty pissed, I- we need a better marketing strategy. Dave looks down, at Jim s sign. Jim notices his look. I KNOW IT S MY JOB! Sorry, I didn t mean to- (beat) Have you tried marketing on social media? We ve got a Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram accounts, but none of them got much traction. I had this friend at this website called GuzzFeed who- You can say BuzzFeed. You won t get sued.
Alright, BuzzFeed. Anyway, he said that an... interesting way to get some attention is making viral YouTube videos. Like the Gangna- -like the Old Spice ads. And the Harlem- -or those Dollar Shave Club ads, correct. Alright, what ve you got? Dave stops in his tracks. He ponders for a few moments. Well, I was thinking of making a catchy dance move maybe? How will that help? Jim now puts on a big smile. If it s catchy enough, it ll spread fast and give us attention. How s that going to give our cause any awareness? I don t know, but maybe we could use that attention to raise money.
Dave, if this succeeds, you re getting promoted to Deputy Head of Marketing. A disinterested Dave raises his eyebrows and shrugs. Jim puts on a sheepish expression. INT. OFFICE LATER. So what kind of a dance is this? Well I was thinking since we re about guns... Dave takes a few steps back and postures himself as if he s riding a really tall bike. He takes out a pair of sunglasses and wears them. Jim looks at him, intrigued. So I do a pelvic thrust here, while shifting my arms back and forth. I call it the Bang Bang. Dave does the dance for about ten seconds. Jim is utterly confused. It looks like you re humping a wall. I just thought of something that would look really catchy and simple. So what s your plan? I guess you could upload a video of you doing it for like, 10 seconds, and if you
don t want to, you donate $10 to us. Good thinking. I d rather pay the $10. (beat) Don t we need a PayPal account? Yeah. If I could access the Gmail account, I could upload the YouTube video and add the PayPal info. Sure, what the hell. Got a pair of shades? Dave uploads a YouTube video, and renames it from BANGBANG.mp4 to The Bang Bang! CUT TO: MONTAGE OF THE VIDEO S GROWTH 1) SUPER: ONE DAY LATER Jim rests his head on his hand and looks at the view count: 6 views. 2) SUPER: TWO DAYS LATER Did you share the video around? The view count reads 190 views. Dave enters the office. Someone shared our video yesterday night! Some Facebook page called Videos that make you LOL
Jim sees the post - it s titled respect! and has thirty likes so far. 3) SUPER: THREE DAYS LATER The view count reads 1,210 views. The original post has been shared three times. We got about $100 today! WHAT?! That makes our total balance... $300! 4) SUPER: FOUR DAYS LATER The view count reads 5,210 views. The original post has been shared 15 times. Jim shrugs. I got a call from a nearby news station, they said they want to do a bit with us on the day after tomorrow. But we re just over five thousand views, that s it. I ve seen videos of people throwing Frisbees that get more views. Over here, that s news. 5) SUPER: FIVE DAYS LATER INT. NEWSROOM DAY Jim and Dave are all dressed up, sitting in the couches beside the interviewer Jim in between Dave and the interviewer.
INTERVIEWER The gun control ad you made is making rounds around town, and a number of people have already accepted the challenge and made their own version of it. Congratulations! Thank you! INTERVIEWER What is your inspiration behind this? Well our mark- Dave looks at Jim, puzzled. 6) SUPER: 1 WEEK LATER We wanted to make a performance art video that illustrated the cause of our organization, but we wanted something that was also accessible, so we decided to create this dance move. The view count reads 93,241 views. The post has been shared 115 times. A girl records a video of her doing the dance, ending with a detailed verbal description of AGCS and plenty of text following it up. 7) SUPER: 10 DAYS LATER The view count reads 143,334 views. The post has been shared 201 times. A man records a video of his doing the dance, ending with a fairly concise verbal description of AGCS.
8) SUPER: 11 DAYS LATER The view count reads 216,334 views. The post has been shared 355 times. A man records a video of his doing the dance topless, with two friends, ending with a brief verbal endorsement of AGCS. 9) SUPER: 12 DAYS LATER The view count reads 324,564 views. The post has been shared 607 times. Another girl records a video of her doing the dance with a few friends, ending with- 10) SUPER: 13 DAYS LATER GIRL #2 SUPPORT AGCS AND DONATE! The view count reads 513,304 views. The post has been shared 935 times. Another girl records a video of his doing the dance with a lot more friends, ending with- GIRL #3 DONATE FOR THE GUN CAUSE! WOOHOO! 11) SUPER: TWO WEEKS LATER The view count reads 778,342 views. The original post has been shared about 2,300 times. Some folks from a news station in another city want to do the dance with us in two days, to telecast on their network. Sure, what the hell.
12) SUPER: TWO WEEKS AND TWO DAYS LATER The view count reads 1,193,320 views, and the post has been shared 6,835 times. INT. PARK DAY. Dave and Jim get prepped up to do the dance, with about seven of the news crew standing behind them. They are about to record, but- CAMERA MAN Just a moment! ANCHOR What s the issue? CAMERA MAN Someone behind is filming something. The anchor looks behind, and sees a pale skinny man holding a bucket over someone else s head. READY? PALE SKINNY MAN ICE BUCKET MAN START FILMING IN 3...2... CAMERA MAN (shouts to Ice Bucket Man) EXCUSE ME? WHAT? ICE BUCKET MAN (to camera man) You could shift the angle, so- WOOOOOO! ICE BUCKET MAN
INT. APARTMENT EVENING. (frustrated, shouting to Ice Bucket Man) IT S BEEN DONE! Two people in their 30 s are watching the news, when the dance comes up. TV WATCHER #1 I don t get it. Get what? TV WATCHER #2 TV WATCHER #1 What s the point of this whole dance thing, half the people who do it will forget what it s for anyway. TV WATCHER #2 Eh, who cares? It s harmless, it looks fun and it raises money for them anyway. TV watcher #1 shrugs, and goes back to watching the news. 13) SUPER: ONE MONTH LATER The view count reads 18,234,452 views, and the original post has been shared 105,324 times. A view of the PayPal account shows a balance of $2,325,524. END OF MONTAGE INT. OFFICE DAY. Jim sits at an extremely polished table, with a swiveling chair, and a bunch of dollars in his left hand. Dave walks in, with a smart casual outfit on. Jim briefly notices Dave, while swiveling around quickly in his chair. Hey Jim, uh, thanks again for lending me your new shirt for tonight.
No big deal, man! Just don t dirty it. Where are you taking her out? There s this place remember the one near which Seth Rogen did the Bang Bang video? Jim begins holding the dollar bills in his hand high, and dropping them on himself, looking up dreamily. Oh yeah! Planning anything else tonight? Gonna dirty the pants instead? (idly looking down) Nope, just dinner. Come on. Dave notices Jim playing around with the notes. So, what are you doing later today? (preoccupied with notes) I, uh, I haven t really planned anything. Dave briefly checks his smartphone. I haven t seen a new video in a week or two, and the last one was from some naked high school teens, and it looked more like an amateur porno. Meh, they re having fun, it s had a good run.
The video s title says GO GUNS! Can t argue with $4 million in two months. But that goes against- (pause) yeah, I guess you re right. Jim begins swiveling the chair faster. God DAMN, this chair is heaven! Makes that last one look like some prop in an elementary school play. Is that the money that- Well- not really. Operational expenses again? Kinda, yeah. You know, we ve really got to be contacting the organizations on that list we- -yep, getting around to that, no problem. Dave raises his eyebrows, looking down in disappointed fashion.
EXT. RESTAURANT EVENING. Dave is dressed in smart casual, on a date. GIRL ON DATE So where do you work? I head marketing at the American Gun Control Society. The what? The AGCS? GIRL ON DATE The girl has no idea what he is talking about. The one with that weird dance with the hands and hips? Oh. GIRL ON DATE CUT TO BLACK. TITLE: THE BANG BANG! FADE OUT.