Promotional screenplay

Wiki ▸ Outreach and promotion ▸ Promotional screenplay

An unpolished, unprofessional, braindump of a screenplay and script of a promo video for Buoy.

Buoy crowdfunding video script

[TENSE MUSIC PLAYS], [FADE FROM BLACK]

[A person is walking along a path (in a park? on a campus?). We can see a second person following them, but the camera focus shows them slightly blurred. The first person looks over their shoulder and the camera re-focuses to show the person behind them. The person looks straight ahead again and the camera re-focuses on them.]

NARRATOR: You're walking home and notice someone following you…maybe? Maybe they're just going the same direction? But it's still making you nervous.

[FADE TO BLACK]

[Close-up of a woman with her head in her hands sitting at a table. Behind her is a half-empty bottle of booze and an unfocused image of another person sitting across from her.]

NARRATOR: Imagine you're in a relationship with a partner who gets angry when he drinks. You're worried about how things are going tonight.

[FADE TO BLACK]

[We see a few people sitting in a room with various peace signs, political slogans, and other tell-tale activist materials strewn about them. They are writing new signs, making new materials.]

NARRATOR: Or you're going to political protest and may get harassed by cops.

[FADE TO BLACK]

[A close up of a young person's face looking right back into the camera.]

NARRATOR: Or you're young,

[CUT TO ANOTHER FACE]

NARRATOR: transgender,

[CUT TO ANOTHER FACE]

NARRATOR: homeless,

[CUT TO ANOTHER FACE]

NARRATOR: undocumented,

[CUT]

NARRATOR: a sex worker,

[CUT]

NARRATOR: a person of color,

[CUT]

NARRATOR: disabled,

[CUT]

NARRATOR: queer.

[FADE TO BLACK, MUSIC REACHES A CLIMACTIC POINT]

NARRATOR: and in trouble.

[SILENCE, still black]

NARRATOR: And you need a friend. Right. Now.

[FADE FROM BLACK; we see the narrator speaking]

NARRATOR: Everyone needs help sometimes. For many of us, 911 isn't the best or safest phone call to make in all or even most emergency situations, but there's no easy way to tell all our friends where we are and what we need.

[CUT TO CLOSE-UP OF PULSING ANIMATION OF Buoy's "Detecting your location and sending alert" screen]

NARRATOR: That's where Buoy comes in.

[HOPEFUL MUSIC BEGINS, FADE TO BLACK]

[We see the first scene of the person walking alone in the dark. Close up on the person's hands reach into their pocket, taking out their phone, where they press the Buoy icon on the home screen, launching the alert buttons screen. We see them press the alert screen showing the pulsing 'detect location' animation.]

NARRATOR: Buoy is a new software tool designed for people in crisis. In almost any emergency, Buoy users can augment or replace a 911 call with a Buoy Alert, instantly notifying their personally-selected network of friends, allies, and advocates of their location and situation.

[FADE TO Second scene; camera drops to the woman's other hand, which is holding a phone activated to the Buoy alert screen, she presses the "Custom alert" button and taps out, "he's drinking again"]

[CUT TO a totally new face, looks down; cut to phone in hand showing "review alert" screen of the first scene (or should it be the second), the screen says, "walking home; make sure I get there?," and we see a map of the area about it. the responder taps the "Respond" button, showing the incident map…]

NARRATOR: Most importantly, a shared Incident Map allows these trusted responders to coordinate with each other in real-time to best assist the victim.

[on the map, we see several icons begin to pop up and users get added to the chat room, beginning to coordinate]

NARRATOR: Buoy can be used for many emergency and non-emergency situations. It is a privacy-respecting, secure tool that can be used by groups and organizations of any size ranging from national organizations like the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) to local community groups, all without any cost. Buoy is free software and is fully customizable.

[…TK-show the uses cases of the other scenarios…]

NARRATOR: The first version of Buoy won 1st place at the Fall 2015 Tech For Justice-sponsored competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is currently being tested for implementation in several community settings, including domestic violence shelters, addiction recovery support groups, and volunteer medical response collectives in several US States.

[CUT TO third scene of the political activists preparing their rally; close up on one of them activate Buoy and use the "Scheduled Alert" feature, typing in "went to the rally, got detained/arrested, pls walk my dog tonight!"]

[CUT back to narrator's talking head image]

NARRATOR: We need your help to make Buoy better, so it can go from "1.0" to "2.0" and can be used by even more people. We’re asking folks to pitch in and make that happen. Will you help?