Detailed Outline
Scene 1: Move-in Day 2013. Justin arrives at Emory for the first time. He steps out of his car, looks at his new dorm, and smiles contently as the orientation leaders ambush his car to help him unload. “I think I’m going to like it here,” he says. He then proceeds to unpacking whatever remains from the car.
Scene 2: The next shot is Justin stepping out of the elevator, arms filled with his things, and walking to the hall to his new room. All of his luggage and personal belongings are stacked up outside of his room, courtesy of the OLs. Justin opens the door to his room and sees the student he has been chatting with all summer - his new roommate Keywan. They met because they are both students who previously lived in Germany before coming to Emory, so they begin to chat about their old lives in Germany as they organize their room. Keywan’s parents are originally from Iran, but emigrated to Germany after the situation with the government went sour.
Scene 3: Next shot is of Callie and Natalia (the Sophomore Advisors) knocking on everyone’s door for a hall meeting. Justin and Keywan emerge from their room and proceed to the main lounge. Callie and Natalia begin by laying down the law with all of the rules and policies of dorm life. Afterwards, they lead in playing an icebreaker. Everyone stands in a big circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle says “I like people who….” and if that trait that the person stated is one of yours, you run through the middle to an opposite side of the circle. If you are caught in the middle, you must lead in the next round. Justin and Keywan like this game at first, but eventually find that their hall mates are VERY different from them.
Scene 4: Justin and Keywan are in their room watching TV… as usual. But this time they decide to be friendly and leave the door open. “Hey, let’s be friendly and leave the door open,” suggests Justin. So the door to their already messy room is left ajar, held in place by nothing other than a dirty sock. After just a short bit, someone invites themselves in to watch TV with Justin and Keywan. They make conversation about different things - very different things. The roommates are shocked at how different everything is in the United States. The informal language, the comfort around strangers, and… wait, nobody watches soccer in the States?! What a nightmare for them. They think that for sure they must have made a mistake in deciding what school is best for them. How are they going to excel and make connections if they have no way to relate to their peers?!
Scene 5: While Justin and Keywan had fun watching TV and goofing around, they do have a biology quiz in two days. So, they decide that they need to get down to business. They both move into the main lounge to be able to focus more, as they cannot concentrate in their room. After about 15 minutes of work, a hall mate comes up in the elevator. They introduce themselves, and he sits down to talk to Justin and Keywan. At first, they are uneasy about having a conversation with him - in part because of their last encounter with a hall mate, and in part because they have work to do. But alas, they continue the conversation with him. After having a very long conversation with him, they begin to realize that maybe coming to this country to study wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Everyone is so friendly, and the customs may be a bit different, but that’s the way things are. They begin to think that maybe they could get used to the States. The only problem with their change of heart is that they are now inviting everyone that passes by the main lounge to sit down and talk with them. Pretty soon, the main lounge table is filled with students sitting and standing around it, engaging in friendly conversation. This goes on for awhile… a long while. But hey, at least they’re having fun.
Scene 6: By the time everyone leaves, it’s one o’clock in the morning. ONE O’CLOCK?! They need to get to work! They’re quiz is only a day and a half away and they’ve done absolutely nothing to prepare for it!! But there’s one problem… they’re hungry. They can’t study on an empty stomach, right? But what would be open for delivery at this time? That’s when they see another hall mate on a website called “GrubHub.” Upon closer inspection, Keywan realizes that this person is ordering food, and he asks what he is ordering. The floor mate responds, “Wingnuts!” Confused, Keywan asks what that is. The floor mate responds by saying, “I don’t know, but it’s up there on the delivery options paper on the wall.” Justin and Keywan had never seen that, why? This was a gateway to as much food as they could handle whenever they wanted! Why were they not informed of this?! They order Wingnuts and discover they’ve found love for the first time.
Scene 7: Justin and Keywan wake up at 10:55 and realize that they are going to be late to class. Not even bothering to change, they grab their bags and sandals and run out of the room. They arrive in class 10 minutes late to find that there was an assignment due today. An assignment that they would have done had it not been for the previous night’s ordeal.
Scene 8: Justin and Keywan are sitting in the main lounge. They are talking about how they cannot let this happen again - what happened last night. They must be disciplined, and leave play time until after work is done. They both agree. Keywan says, “Hey, wanna order Wingnuts? I’m hungry.” Justin agrees.
Scene 9: The food arrives, and the same thing as last night repeats. They sing, dance, eat, laugh, and goof off until 4am.
Scene 10: This scene consists solely of a chronological sequence of days. Each day, Justin and Keywan will be doing something (anything) other than homework. For each “day”, text at the bottom of the screen will indicate the time passing. there will be a heading specifying the day of the week, and a larger heading counting down the days until their biology exam. The penultimate clip will show Justin turning off the music playing and saying, “Ok, this really needs to stop. We have gotten no work done at all and our exam is tomorrow. Let’s get down to business.” Keywan responds, “Tomorrow.” Justin shrugs in agreement and resumes playing music.
Scene 11: Justin and Keywan arrive at their Biology exam. They are both panicking, as they are not prepared for this exam. At all. They receive the test, look at each other with heartbroken faces, and put their heads down to cry. After a couple of hours, they receive an e-mail from the Office of Undergraduate Education informing them of their failure status in Biology, and that they must schedule an appointment to meet with an academic advisor.
Scene 12: The boys receive counseling from academic advisors for two consecutive days. Following the counseling, they both talk about how they have a new outlook on school and their life and are ready to get back on track.
Final Scene: Justin and Keywan dancing in the main lounge at 4am, with their homework not finished. They have clearly not been rehabilitated.
Scene 2: The next shot is Justin stepping out of the elevator, arms filled with his things, and walking to the hall to his new room. All of his luggage and personal belongings are stacked up outside of his room, courtesy of the OLs. Justin opens the door to his room and sees the student he has been chatting with all summer - his new roommate Keywan. They met because they are both students who previously lived in Germany before coming to Emory, so they begin to chat about their old lives in Germany as they organize their room. Keywan’s parents are originally from Iran, but emigrated to Germany after the situation with the government went sour.
Scene 3: Next shot is of Callie and Natalia (the Sophomore Advisors) knocking on everyone’s door for a hall meeting. Justin and Keywan emerge from their room and proceed to the main lounge. Callie and Natalia begin by laying down the law with all of the rules and policies of dorm life. Afterwards, they lead in playing an icebreaker. Everyone stands in a big circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle says “I like people who….” and if that trait that the person stated is one of yours, you run through the middle to an opposite side of the circle. If you are caught in the middle, you must lead in the next round. Justin and Keywan like this game at first, but eventually find that their hall mates are VERY different from them.
Scene 4: Justin and Keywan are in their room watching TV… as usual. But this time they decide to be friendly and leave the door open. “Hey, let’s be friendly and leave the door open,” suggests Justin. So the door to their already messy room is left ajar, held in place by nothing other than a dirty sock. After just a short bit, someone invites themselves in to watch TV with Justin and Keywan. They make conversation about different things - very different things. The roommates are shocked at how different everything is in the United States. The informal language, the comfort around strangers, and… wait, nobody watches soccer in the States?! What a nightmare for them. They think that for sure they must have made a mistake in deciding what school is best for them. How are they going to excel and make connections if they have no way to relate to their peers?!
Scene 5: While Justin and Keywan had fun watching TV and goofing around, they do have a biology quiz in two days. So, they decide that they need to get down to business. They both move into the main lounge to be able to focus more, as they cannot concentrate in their room. After about 15 minutes of work, a hall mate comes up in the elevator. They introduce themselves, and he sits down to talk to Justin and Keywan. At first, they are uneasy about having a conversation with him - in part because of their last encounter with a hall mate, and in part because they have work to do. But alas, they continue the conversation with him. After having a very long conversation with him, they begin to realize that maybe coming to this country to study wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Everyone is so friendly, and the customs may be a bit different, but that’s the way things are. They begin to think that maybe they could get used to the States. The only problem with their change of heart is that they are now inviting everyone that passes by the main lounge to sit down and talk with them. Pretty soon, the main lounge table is filled with students sitting and standing around it, engaging in friendly conversation. This goes on for awhile… a long while. But hey, at least they’re having fun.
Scene 6: By the time everyone leaves, it’s one o’clock in the morning. ONE O’CLOCK?! They need to get to work! They’re quiz is only a day and a half away and they’ve done absolutely nothing to prepare for it!! But there’s one problem… they’re hungry. They can’t study on an empty stomach, right? But what would be open for delivery at this time? That’s when they see another hall mate on a website called “GrubHub.” Upon closer inspection, Keywan realizes that this person is ordering food, and he asks what he is ordering. The floor mate responds, “Wingnuts!” Confused, Keywan asks what that is. The floor mate responds by saying, “I don’t know, but it’s up there on the delivery options paper on the wall.” Justin and Keywan had never seen that, why? This was a gateway to as much food as they could handle whenever they wanted! Why were they not informed of this?! They order Wingnuts and discover they’ve found love for the first time.
Scene 7: Justin and Keywan wake up at 10:55 and realize that they are going to be late to class. Not even bothering to change, they grab their bags and sandals and run out of the room. They arrive in class 10 minutes late to find that there was an assignment due today. An assignment that they would have done had it not been for the previous night’s ordeal.
Scene 8: Justin and Keywan are sitting in the main lounge. They are talking about how they cannot let this happen again - what happened last night. They must be disciplined, and leave play time until after work is done. They both agree. Keywan says, “Hey, wanna order Wingnuts? I’m hungry.” Justin agrees.
Scene 9: The food arrives, and the same thing as last night repeats. They sing, dance, eat, laugh, and goof off until 4am.
Scene 10: This scene consists solely of a chronological sequence of days. Each day, Justin and Keywan will be doing something (anything) other than homework. For each “day”, text at the bottom of the screen will indicate the time passing. there will be a heading specifying the day of the week, and a larger heading counting down the days until their biology exam. The penultimate clip will show Justin turning off the music playing and saying, “Ok, this really needs to stop. We have gotten no work done at all and our exam is tomorrow. Let’s get down to business.” Keywan responds, “Tomorrow.” Justin shrugs in agreement and resumes playing music.
Scene 11: Justin and Keywan arrive at their Biology exam. They are both panicking, as they are not prepared for this exam. At all. They receive the test, look at each other with heartbroken faces, and put their heads down to cry. After a couple of hours, they receive an e-mail from the Office of Undergraduate Education informing them of their failure status in Biology, and that they must schedule an appointment to meet with an academic advisor.
Scene 12: The boys receive counseling from academic advisors for two consecutive days. Following the counseling, they both talk about how they have a new outlook on school and their life and are ready to get back on track.
Final Scene: Justin and Keywan dancing in the main lounge at 4am, with their homework not finished. They have clearly not been rehabilitated.