I know I was supposed to publish my second Modern Family spec at some point. So here it is:
The characters on the show have always been a bit two-dimensional so I tried my best to make them a bit more believable in this script. Whether I succeeded is of course another story.
When it comes to the script, the Mitchell & Cam storyline is pretty straightforward. So is the one with Jay & Phil going to the charity auction. The Haley & Alex storyline, however, was a lot trickier to write.
Story A: Mitchell's big day in court. Since we hadn't seen Mitchell doing any lawyering before, I thought it was about time. So I gave him a big case, and made him afraid of the whole thing. Closing arguments, huh..
I guess this one was somewhat tricky too, because I couldn't discuss the specifics of the case. I also brought Cameron with him, which I thought wasn't necessarily that plausible, but since Mitchell's car didn't start, maybe it was okay that I kept them together.
I think the storyline is about emotions and not about the actual case or the details. That's why when Mitchell gives his speech, we can't really get to hear what he's actually saying. We simply don't know enough about the case so music and gestures it is.
Story B: Jay & Phil go to a charity. I can't remember where I got this idea from, but since Jay is so rich, I thought it would be fun if he'd do something with that money.. and be a bit childlike. Maybe he was really missing that one card when he was a kid. Besides it's a charity (to soften the motivation).
I thought it would be best if I'd let Phil join with Jay. The trick is that Claire calls Jay and asks him to look after her husband, because Phil wants to go too and we know Phil. Once they get together and no women are around, Jay tells Phil what's going on. (to get the story straight)
When they get to the auctioning event, there are two 'wants' going on. Jay wants that card and the audience probably wants to see Phil make bids. So I achieved this by creating an obstacle when a business acquaintance of Jay's shows up. For business reasons Jay told that person he's almost broke..
So, we have an obstacle, which is a good thing. Next we get an observation from Phil, who says that he can do the bidding for Jay. He sees the opportunity too, so Phil does the bidding. Therefore Jay gets what he wants and so does the audience. Obstacle, observation, opportunity.
Story C: is the most difficult one to write. It starts on page six and ends on page twenty. So it's the last that gets going and the first that finishes (if the tag doesn't count). It's basically about Haley being a bit depressed and wanting to spend time with her sister.
Haley joins Alex who's acting like a good girl once again. She is doing her 'pick one piece of litter a day' stuff. Haley is sad and says that nothing goes her way in life. Everyone is against her, the whole world. So Alex suggests that Haley could make the world a bit better place, one piece of litter at a time.
The really tricky part here is that there's not that much time for Haley to feel somewhat happier about herself and to believe in what Alex is doing. It wasn't easy to write stuff that culminated in Alex going against her good girl image and fake smoking a cigarrette on purpose.
Anyway, Claire sees this and there's the confrontation based on a misunderstanding. At least the idea is pretty funny. Claire thinking that they smoke and Haley reinforcing the belief and saying that, ahem, 'what they do' is awesome.
This is the first draft, not polished and not really spell-checked, but I guess I can do those things later.
