AKRON, OH—Saying that he's had a few movie ideas kicking around for a while now, local resident and very depressing man Scott Norgren purchased screenwriting software Tuesday.
"I'm excited," said the 36-year-old sad sack, who bought the popular program Final Draft 8 at Best Buy during his work lunch break. "I figured that if I'm going to give screenwriting a try, I should have the right software."
"It's supposed to make the whole process easier," the poor sonofabitch added. "Like the outlining, for example."
Norgren, who spent several weeks making careful notes on the screenwriting programs currently on the market, finally settled on Final Draft not just because of its formatting capabilities, but also because the software came highly recommended by some of Hollywood's top screenwriters.
"The website says James Cameron uses Final Draft," Norgren said. "He wrote Avatar with this."
According to sources close to the HR administrator, the sad man was further impressed by the number of positive quotes and testimonials found on the back of the Final Draft box, including one from critically acclaimed actor and director Tom Hanks, which read, "Final Draft makes it possible to simply imagine the movie in script form."
"This is what the pros use," said Norgren, his enthusiasm almost painful in its earnestness. "And it formats for things other than movies, too, like television sitcoms, British sitcoms, one-hour dramas, and stage plays. I'll probably only use it for movies, but you never know when you'll have a great idea for something else."
"It writes out the names of your characters for you," Norgren continued. "If you type the first letter of the name of a character it automatically knows which one you want to talk."
The heartbreaking man added that the software does interiors and exteriors, too.
Norgren told increasingly depressed reporters that he's been thinking about giving screenwriting a try for months. He purchased Syd Field's Screenplay: The Foundations Of Screenwriting and recently became a two-year subscriber to Creative Screenwriting magazine. Last Thursday, Norgren moved the card table from his garage to a spot near his living room window that he said would be "perfect for getting some work done."
After mentioning that he has posted several movie reviews in the comments section of IMDb, the sad man continued his run of half-smile-half-wince-inducing statements by sharing his plans to install the screenwriting software on his laptop, so that he can spend Saturday afternoons working at a nearby Starbucks.
"I don't know if they'll let me, but maybe I can also put it on my work computer," Norgren added. "Then I can work on my movies during breaks. I don't get to be too creative at work."
Norgren, whose script ideas were literally too sad to print here, said he likes films with smart dialogue and characters who overcome obstacles, such as Finding Forrester, A Beautiful Mind, and Juno.
"I want to write movies like that," he said, crushing—just absolutely crushing—the group of assembled reporters. "And with this software I don't have to worry about all the little technical stuff and can just focus on the story. I think my one idea about a guy who [approx. 30 words omitted because, really, it would ruin your day] could be pretty good."