Canvas

References

• Waterworld
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• The Twilight Zone
• Twilight Zone: The Movie
• 3rd Rock from the Sun
  • 3rd Rock from Twilight Zone
• The Dungeonmaster
• James Bond
• Sean Connery
• The Thomas Crown Affair
• Entrapment
• Revenge of the Nerds
• Meatballs
• National Lampoon’s Animal House
• Blank Check
• Timothée Chalamet
• Will Ferrell
• Almost Plausible: Sunscreen
• White Collar
• Mary Sue
• Star Wars

Corrections

Emily said the films Meatballs and Animal House came out in the 1980s, but both were released in late 1970s (although the point she was making is still valid).

Transcript

[Intro music begins]

[Shep]
Everybody wins if they don’t betray each other, which I think maybe is why it always is in movies. Everyone double-crosses; everyone loses out. That’s the message: Crime doesn’t pay.

[Emily]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
Uh, excuse me, crime pays a lot. Like, it’s, there’s so much money in crime, you guys.

[Thomas]
Why are we doing this podcast, then?

[Intro music]

[Thomas]
Hey there, story fans. Welcome to Almost Plausible, the podcast where we take ordinary objects and turn them into movies. I’m Thomas J. Brown, and here with me are Emily-

[Emily]
Hey, guys.

[Thomas]
And F. Paul Shepard.

[Shep]
Happy to be here.

[Thomas]
Today’s ordinary object is Canvas. As a material, it’s found in all sorts of things, so I’m excited to see how it’s being used in our story pitches. After we take turns pitching, we’ll pick one that we all like the best and develop it into a movie plot all about a canvas. And Shep, you’re pitching first.

[Shep]
Oh, okay. A sailor with amnesia, that is a blank canvas-

[Thomas]
Ooh.

[Shep]
Covered in tattoos of his past, where his body is a canvas, on a ship whose main sail, which is canvas, depicts a painting of a shipwreck, which is, you know, paintings are on canvas.

[Thomas]
Sure, yeah.

[Shep]
So, that’s basically the idea. So, the painting of the shipwreck is not, like, a prediction of the future. It’s not like a bad luck sign for the ship. It’s a record of the past, one that the amnesiac sailor has forgotten. And the crew are all descendants of the survivors of that shipwreck, and they’re waiting for him to remember what he did.

[Emily]
That’s cool.

[Shep]
It was that, or he’s got a map on his body, and they’re following those coordinates, but he doesn’t remember what it goes to.

[Emily]
It goes to dry land.

[Shep]
Right, because it’s Waterworld.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Thomas]
Ah! Right.

[Shep]
That’s what I have. Emily, what do you have?

[Emily]
All right, I have a couple different ones. I have: someone poses as a political canvasser and uses the opportunity to stake out people’s homes and come back later and murder them.

[Shep]
I like that use of “canvas”.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
That’s very clever.

[Thomas]
I hadn’t thought of that one.

[Shep]
I also hadn’t thought of that one.

[Emily]
And my second one is a little more close to what we were all thinking when we came up with this idea: a team of high schoolers create a smart canvas for their science fair. It can be used to project detailed images, and can camouflage the personal wearing it so well they are nearly undetectable.

[Shep]
So, high schoolers with a Cloak of Invisibility.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I think, I think I might have seen this.

[Emily]
Probably. Okay, Thomas, what do you have?

[Thomas]
Well, along similar lines: every forger’s biggest problem isn’t the paint, it’s the canvas, since you can’t buy cloth from 1640 or whatever.

[Shep]
Well, you can’t.

[Thomas]
Roger has made a career of buying old paintings at estate sales, stripping the paint off the canvases, and selling the blanks to people who will paint something famous on it. Now he’s in his sixties and wants to retire, but before he does, he’d love to find the holy grail of his profession: A fabled bolt of period cloth that was never cut, never stretched, and never painted on. When Katerina, a young upstart trying to make a name for herself in Rogers’ industry, claims to know where that bolt is, an uneasy alliance is formed.

[Shep]
This reminds me of all the movies where they have, like, paper money printing plates, but they need the cloth to print on.

[Thomas]
Mhmm.

[Shep]
That would have been a good one, too. Except, of course, obviously that’s been done.

[Thomas]
All right, I have another pitch here: In World War I France, a mechanic whose job is patching the doped linen canvas that wraps the planes notices the bullet holes in one pilot’s plane don’t line up with his report about what happened. Upon investigating, he realizes the pilot himself is creating the holes from inside his own plane to justify turning back. The mechanic faces a moral quandary: Reporting the pilot means he’ll get the firing squad, but allowing him to continue lying about seeing action puts the rest of his squad at risk.

[Shep]
What you don’t realize is that there was a gremlin on the wing of his plane-

[Emily]
Mm-hmm. That’s what I was thinking.

[Thomas]
Right, yes.

[Shep]
And he was shooting at the gremlin.

[Emily]
Yep, that all makes sense.

[Thomas]
That’s funny, I like that. It’s the Gremlin origin story.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Shep]
Well, it’s also from Twilight Zone.

[Thomas]
Right. The show and the movie.

[Shep]
Yes. And 3rd Rock from the Sun.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I love that episode.

[Shep]
I died laughing.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
That was so funny.

[Shep]
“The same thing happened to me!” Oh my god. The writing on that show is so good.

[Thomas]
Yeah. All right, we got through all of our pitches pretty quickly. Which one of those do we like the best?

[Shep]
I love all of these. Can we just do all of them?

[Thomas]
It’ll be like the Twilight Zone movie where it’s just like a bunch of short-

[Shep]
Yes. Yep.

[Emily]
It’s just short vignettes.

[Thomas]
We could do that. That would be an interesting thing to try.

[Shep]
The theme, the overall theme is Canvas.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
You guys have seen Dungeonmaster–

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Where it’s, like, seven short films, all with different writers and directors, with a very loose framing device.

[Thomas]
All right, so I feel like we could tie mine together pretty well. So, the- there’s canvas being manufactured for the planes, and some of that gets set aside. So, it’s not canvas from the 1640s that Roger finds, but from the 1800s or whatever.

[Emily]
But how do you put mine in there?

[Thomas]
I’m working on it. Hold on. Well, I think we start with Shep’s.

[Emily]
Well, obviously. Well, that’s where the original canvas comes from.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
So, we start with Shep’s.

[Thomas]
Well, they’re delivering the canvas for World War I on the ship.

[Shep]
It’s very loose.

[Emily]
No, no, no, it’s the-

[Thomas]
Then we have the World War I and then we have the Forgery one. Or we could put the political canvasser one in the middle there. That one’s, like, maybe in the ’80s.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
And then the Forgery one is modern day, and then the High Schooler one is future. I don’t know how it ties in, but.

[Shep]
No.

[Emily]
Other than it’s all Canvas.

[Shep]
Yes. So, if we had to do, pick one-

[Emily]
I kind of like Thomas’s first one with the forger.

[Shep]
So, where is this cloth that was never cut, never stretched, never painted on? Why was it never used? Why is it still in pristine condition?

[Thomas]
I think there’s going to have to be a little bit of movie magic to keep it in pristine condition. Because if it’s truly, like, 400-year-old cloth, it would be in rough shape.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Especially if it’s just, like, sitting disused in someone’s attic, right? Maybe it, it’s being… Maybe it’s in a museum. So, it’s under, like, been under ideal conditions for a while. And so, they have to break into this museum.

[Shep]
Oh, it was- okay. So, back in the 1600s, these monks had collected whatever, books or scrolls or whatever, and they stored them in a cave because it had, like, the ideal conditions.

[Thomas]
Yep.

[Shep]
And this is, the monks were, like, brewing wine and keeping that in the cave. And so, they knew about this cave and the library burned down and people were destroying these works of literature. So, they collected them and put them in this cave. The canvas was just a canvas they used to cover up-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
This collection of scrolls and old books and whatnot. So, it’s in the cave, which is, again, the ideal preservation conditions. And it was never the purpose. It was never the goal. They weren’t trying to preserve the canvas. That’s a side effect.

[Thomas]
Now, is all the stuff still in there, or is it like, hey, when it was time to take all the things back out of the cave, they just wrapped up the canvas, folded it up, stuck it off on the shelf somewhere, left it in the cave, but took all the paintings and books and stuff back out.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
So, it’s long forgotten.

[Shep]
It’s forgotten, but it’s still in the cave.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that works.

[Shep]
Well, if it’s forgotten, why is it difficult to, oh, because there’s some operation, there’s something going on in this area. Maybe, like, a big brewery is taken over this-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Traditional wine cave. And so, you can’t just walk in. It’s not open to the public. You got a break in. And there’s all this security because the wine is valuable.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
They don’t care about the wine. They want the canvas, but it’s in that same location.

[Thomas]
It could be the case that the canvas was moved at some point. That’s how come people know that it exists. That’s why the legend of this bolt of canvas exists, it’s because it got pulled out of a cave at some point a hundred years ago and moved somewhere that is now secure. Vatican archives or something.

[Shep]
Okay, Dan Brown, hold on.

[Emily]
Are you accusing the Catholic Church of forging paintings?

[Thomas]
Among other things.

[Shep]
I wasn’t before, but now.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Like, I could see a regional museum talking about, “Oh, here are things that happened in this area.”

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Thomas]
Although I don’t know why they would have the canvas. Maybe they have it there for restorations.

[Emily]
Patchwork and whatnot.

[Thomas]
If they need to cut a little piece of it to do a restoration, why not use period material? So like, little bits of it have been cut off over the years, but it’s still yards of this fabric.

[Shep]
I mean, why not use period material? Because it’s crazy expensive.

[Emily]
Mm-hmm.

[Shep]
That’s why. It has value outside of the paintings it is restoring.

[Thomas]
It’s true.

[Shep]
Maybe they were originally using it for that when it was much newer and it wasn’t a big deal.

[Thomas]
Hmm. So, a hundred years ago when they were doing preservation-

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And they weren’t thinking in those terms, they were like, “Yeah, this makes the most sense.” And now they’re like, “It really doesn’t make any sense.” I have no idea how Katerina knows about it.

[Emily]
Yeah, how, what is her involvement with the winery? It feels like she has to be somehow involved in it. Like-

[Thomas]
Probably she grew up in Europe where this place was, and uncle worked there or something.

[Shep]
Right. She saw it as a child and didn’t realize what it was.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah, I like that idea that she saw it as a child and remembers it. And so, they go to wherever it was that she saw it. And it’s not there anymore. It’s been moved. That was twenty years ago.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And there’s a giant, like, Heineken owns a wine place there, you know.

[Emily]
So, are we going to go, like, you know, how it was 90s, and 80s? You know, what was the heist movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones and the old James Bond?

[Thomas]
The old James Bond!

[Shep]
Sean Connery.

[Thomas]
Sean Connery.

[Emily]
Sean Connery! You know, is there, like, sexual tension? And, are they gonna hook up at the end? Is it the Thomas Crown Affair where they have that really sweet sex scene on the stairs?

[Thomas]
I mean, The Thomas Crown Affair famously has canvases in it, so-

[Emily]
Yeah, I know, but I mean, are we gonna go with that dynamic or are we gonna try and be like “Hmm, that, that’s played out, and we know, now, is inappropriate.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, no, they’re definitely not-

[Emily]
Although, she has the power, though, in this relationship.

[Thomas]
They’re definitely not having a relationship, a sexual relationship of any kind.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
It’s too much of an age gap. They’re like forty years different between them.

[Shep]
Have you not seen the Sean Connery-?

[Thomas]
I have. Entrapment.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yes! That’s name of it. Oh, it was driving me crazy. Clearly, based off movies made in the 80s and 90s, it’s okay to date a man who’s enough to be your father’s great uncle.

[Shep]
You can’t follow movies made in the 80s-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
For any moral guidance.

[Thomas]
It’s true.

[Emily]
What?!

[Shep]
That was back when they made-

[Emily]
What?

[Shep]
Revenge of the Nerds.

[Emily]
And Meatballs and Animal House–

[Thomas]
And the 90s is no good because that’s when they made Blank Check.

[Shep]
Yeah, let’s not get into Hollywood’s weirdness. Maybe that’s what it takes to have in a script-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
For a movie to be made.

[Emily]
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Okay, I just wanted to know if that was something we wanted to put in there because I kind of didn’t, but-

[Thomas]
I mean, I think that she’s definitely going to try to double-cross him.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
She thinks she’s going to make a big name for herself, so she’s going to try to get her hands on this stuff. And he is not a dummy. He knows that she’s going to double-cross him or gonna try.

[Emily]
So, is she then trying- because knows where the stuff is-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
So, she needs-

[Thomas]
Or she thinks she knows anyway.

[Emily]
Well yeah. She has an inkling. She has a better chance of finding it than he does. So, he definitely needs her to find it. She needs him for his client list? His-

[Thomas]
Yeah, I mean, he has fifty years of connections-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Forty years of connections.

[Shep]
I’m sorry, why does she have to double-cross him?

[Thomas]
She doesn’t have to. She wants to.

[Shep]
Why?

[Emily]
Because she’s a bad girl.

[Shep]
I think that that is the trope I want to avoid.

[Thomas]
Oh, okay.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Shep]
She’s in it for a payday. She just wants to get paid. She doesn’t care about double crossing. The canvas has no value to her. She’s not into art forgery. She doesn’t have fifty years of connections. Like, in her hands, it’s valueless. In his hands, it’s invaluable. So, that’s the deal. She’s like, “I have this knowledge. I will trade this knowledge for a big lump sum of money.” No betrayal. No betrayal’s necessary. And in fact, everyone always assumes there’s going to be a double-cross. (Pained groan) I’m sorry. I’m so tired of seeing dumb people in movies.

[Emily]
Okay. It’s okay. Deep breath.

[Shep]
Everybody wins if they don’t betray each other, which I think maybe is why it always is in movies. Everyone double-crosses; everyone loses out. That’s the message: Crime doesn’t pay.

[Emily]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
Uh, excuse me, crime pays a lot. Like, it’s, there’s so much money in crime, you guys.

[Thomas]
Why are we doing this podcast, then?

[Emily]
Because neither one of us have the skills and/or uh motivation to commit crimes?

[Thomas]
Wasn’t there a previous episode where Shep said I should be doing crimes?

[Emily]
Yes, yes, there is.

[Shep]
I think I said you would be good at crime.

[Thomas]
Okay. How does she know to contact him then?

[Emily]
Does she contact him? Do they meet somewhere?

[Thomas]
How would he know to contact her otherwise? Like, how do they get together if she’s not in this world at all?

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah. I’m just, I’m asking that question is if, is it she contacts him? They have a mutual acquaintance, tells him about her or tells her about him, but the acquaintance doesn’t know her knowledge?

[Thomas]
Like, I think she has to be exposed somehow to the world, to this world, so that she can make that connection of, like-

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
“Oh, wait, I know what that is. I know where that is.”

[Shep]
I think she would be the one to try and seek him out because she knows about the canvas.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, she’s the one that’s like, “Oh, this could be valuable in the right hands.”

[Thomas]
And she knows that she is not that person. She- It’s like, if I suddenly got my hands on a bunch of drugs, I’d have no idea who to sell them to. I’m not connected in that world in any way. Same sort of a thing here, right? Like, if she gets her hands on this very valuable thing, she’s like, “Well, then what do I do with it?”

[Shep]
Right. Oh, okay. Here’s where the betrayal comes in. It’s not between these two. She previously sought out another buyer-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
For the canvas. And that person is the one that betrays her and tries to get their hands on it. Like, wants the canvas, doesn’t want to pay any money for it. That’s their win-win scenario. So, she’s like, “Oh, this person can’t be trusted. And now I really need the money because I need to escape from this person who has all these connections and does crime.”

[Thomas]
Does she tell Roger about this other person at first, or is this a thing that when this other person shows up-?

[Shep]
Would you tell someone about this ahead of time?

[Thomas]
Probably not.

[Shep]
Probably not. You would hope that they wouldn’t show up.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
That you could get in and out and get the canvas and get away with your money and disappear before that other person ever shows up.

[Thomas]
So, is there a moment where we have the three of them together and Roger is like, says that person’s name and that person is like “Roger,” and then turns and goes “Katerina,” and he’s like, “Wha- wha??” And so, at first, he thinks, like, “Oh, you’ve orchestrated this to screw me over.”

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Thomas]
And it turns out, no, I’m also being screwed over by this third person.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Who needs a name.

[Shep]
Steve.

[Emily]
Steve.

[Shep]
Obviously, it’s Steve.

[Thomas]
Steve, that’s, yeah, clearly, I don’t know why.

[Emily]
Clearly, Steve.

[Thomas]
It turns out Steve is played by Timothée Chalamet

[Emily]
Oh, god. It would be perfect because he is-

[Shep]
No, no!

[Emily]
Sleazeball and a half.

[Thomas]
Yeah, he’s, he’s, like, hitting on Katerina and stuff.

[Emily]
Oh!

[Thomas]
And stuff.

[Shep]
Steve has connections. It’s got to be a much older guy.

[Emily]
I can just picture it so well, though.

[Thomas]
Yeah, Steve has to be as well connected.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
As Roger.

[Thomas]
It’s true. But he doesn’t have to be as old. It could be-

[Emily]
No, no, he doesn’t have to be old, just as connected.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Oh, well, now you put it in my head that he’s young. His father had a bunch of connections-

[Thomas]
Mm.

[Shep]
And he’s sort of taking over the business-

[Thomas]
There we go.

[Shep]
And thinks that he could run with the big cats because he has all these connections.

[Emily]
So, Timothée Chalamet.

[Shep]
So, yeah, we’re back to Timothée Chalamet.

[Thomas]
Okay, okay.

[Emily]
Okay, so Steve double-crosses them.

[Thomas]
Yeah, he’s presumably been spying on her. He’s got henchmen who’ve been-

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Following her around, because he knows she’ll lead him to the fabric, to the canvas.

[Shep]
Right. That’s the goal. He wants the canvas and doesn’t want to pay any money for it.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Well, yeah, obviously.

[Thomas]
And if you can get a date with Katerina as well, more so the better.

[Shep]
Right. And she’ll date him, because of the implication.

[Thomas]
I brought up before that the idea that where she saw the cloth as a child is not where it is now.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
So, if we keep that idea, then perhaps that’s when Steve shows up.

[Shep]
At the place where it isn’t?

[Thomas]
Yeah, so like they go to get, they go to where she thinks it’s going to be to get it, and Steve is waiting for them as they leave, because he assumes, “Ah, that’s where it is. That makes sense.” And they come out empty-handed and he’s like, “Haha! Wait, where is it?” And then that’s when they have to be like, “Well, it wasn’t in there.” Or does he wait until he has eyes on it?

[Shep]
Ah, no, you’re right. He would capture them at that point because he thinks that that’s, that’s the time, right?

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
In his plan, everything works out and nothing goes wrong.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Correct.

[Shep]
So, he would not hesitate, even if they came out empty handed. Like, oh, they must have put it somewhere or whatever.

[Thomas]
They brought a bag because they thought they going to get it.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And so, he’s opened the bag and there’s nothing in it. And he’s like, “What did you do with it? Where is it?” Like, “It wasn’t in there.” And he’s not believing them.

[Shep]
All right. They brought some other cheaper canvas. They’re going to swap them out.

[Thomas]
Oh yeah.

[Shep]
Even if people find it later, they won’t suspect anything.

[Thomas]
Actually, I like that idea that Roger has had an “aged” canvas made so they could swap it out. And they use that to fool Steve. They’re like, “Oh, man, no, don’t take that.”

[Emily]
Oh!

[Thomas]
That’s how they get rid of him initially.

[Emily]
So, why does he come back?

[Thomas]
Because he has it tested and it’s not the right thing.

[Emily]
Okay.

[Thomas]
He tries to sell it. Oh, yeah. It totally, like, tanks a relationship with somebody.

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Thomas]
He tries to sell it on to someone who is, like, a big forger.

[Shep]
Oh!

[Thomas]
And that guy tests it and is like, “Well, I’m not an idiot. What do you think- what do you take me for? This is modern canvas.”

[Shep]
Yes. That’s perfect because that buyer, with the ruined relationship with Steve, shows up at the end-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Because he has a good relationship with Roger as well, and likes dealing with adults.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Shep]
Yes. So, it sours his relationship with Steve and Steve’s whole family.

[Thomas]
Yeah, he had a good relationship with Steve’s dad-

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
And so, that’s why he was willing to take the meeting with Steve-

[Shep]
Yep.

[Thomas]
But Steve burned him immediately.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, this is where you can get your Deus Ex Machina, except it’s not really a Deus Ex Machina because you set it up earlier.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, this is your Knight in Shining Armor rescue at the end-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Is this other character, who also needs a name.

[Thomas]
Armando!

[Shep]
Armando. I think with Armando, you’re kind of narrowing the character possibilities.

[Thomas]
Uhuh. So?

[Shep]
All right. Armando.

[Thomas]
It’s Will Ferrell doing a character.

[Shep]
Oh, no! See, the thing about that is Will Ferrell can do really good dramatic characters.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yes, he can.

[Shep]
All right, I’m back on board.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
Will Ferrell doing Armando? Is he doing an accent? Because then-

[Thomas]
Has to, I think.

[Shep]
I’m not on board. No, I’m out.

[Thomas]
Yeah. Or, Katerina hears “Armando” and she expecting some like Spanish dude-

[Emily]
Mm-hmm.

[Thomas]
And it’s Will Ferrell. And he’s just, got he’s wearing, like, shorts and a T-shirt. And he’s like, “Hey, guys, what do you got for me?” She’s like, “This is Armando?” He’s like, “Yeah, I’ve known him for years.”

[Shep]
“Armando. Your name is Armando.” “Yes, my dad’s name, my grandfather’s name.”

[Thomas]
Yeah, it’s a family name.

[Shep]
It’s a family name.

[Thomas]
That would be funny.

[Shep]
You, we’re not going for comedy, but for one scene…

[Emily]
But levity-

[Thomas]
But like moments of levity, yeah.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Levity is useful. You don’t want it to be all serious all the time.

[Shep]
Without whimsy, what do we have?

[Emily]
That’s right.

[Thomas]
So, where are we in the story then when this happens? Is this the mid-second act turning point? Or is this in-

[Shep]
Where what happens?

[Thomas]
Where Steve pounces on them the first time?

[Shep]
Yes.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Okay. Because now, so that’s the turning point is that, oh, this is a dangerous situation. This guy is following us.

[Shep]
Now, does Steve let them go?

[Thomas]
Ooh, good question.

[Shep]
Because he is young and stupid.

[Thomas]
So, he could, because he’s stupid, or he could do something stupid, like try to kill people.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
He would not want to kill Katerina because he wants to date her. And maybe he views Roger as not a threat. He’s got that hubris of youth.

[Shep]
Because if he captures them, then we need to figure out how they escape.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
But if he lets them go, I don’t think it’s consistent with his character.

[Thomas]
Yeah. It does seem like he would probably have them tied up somewhere.

[Shep]
Yes. This also gives Roger and Katerina more time to bond, because it was a transactional relationship to begin with-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
But now they’re going on this adventure together. Not romantically, because there’s a huge age gap.

[Thomas]
Right. It’s not enemies to lovers. It’s strangers to buddies.

[Shep]
Strangers to friends.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Yeah, maybe there’s more of like a father-daughter vibe.

[Emily]
Yeah. Uncle-Niece kind of-

[Thomas]
So, she she’s like, “Oh, I’m just in it for the payday.” And then that’s when, over the course of the film, she’s like, “Huh, maybe I could make a career out of this.” Because Steve gets eliminated and he, and Roger points out, “Hey, there’s like a gap in this industry now. There’s only, like, four people in the world doing this.”

[Shep]
Or Roger’s like, “You don’t want to be part of this industry.”

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
“Take the payday and-“

[Shep]
“Take the payday and get out.”

[Emily]
Yep.

[Shep]
Maybe her plan is to get into the industry.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Shep]
And he’s like, “That’s a bad idea.” And she’s like, you know, “You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my dad.”

[Emily]
Yep.

[Thomas]
Yeah, I like that.

[Shep]
So, Steve takes them captive. How do they escape?

[Emily]
Where are they held captive? Are they in a leaky basement of a factory?

[Shep]
They’re- Wherever they are, Steve isn’t there because Steve is off-

[Emily]
Right.

[Shep]
Meeting Armando-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Yes.

[Shep]
With the canvas, he thinks. So, it’s just Steve’s henchmen.

[Thomas]
Is Steve’s plan to have them be caught by the police? So, he ties them up in wherever the canvas was? And he thinks, “Ah, they’ll be discovered and arrested because the canvas is missing”? Or-

[Shep]
That is a terrible plan-

[Emily]
No, because they’re tied up-

[Shep]
Because if the police show up and they’re tied up, clearly, they were taken hostage. So, whoever they are, they can’t be the perpetrators of the crime.

[Thomas]
I was thinking he would call the police and say, “I caught these people. I have tied them up. They were robbing the place.”

[Shep]
Yeah, I don’t think that that’s, like, admissible in court. You know what I mean? Like, that’s not enough evidence-

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Shep]
To get a conviction. What he wants to do is leave traces of clues behind of them-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Keep them captive until he sells the canvas and gets his money, and then arrange for them to be captured later. So, he’s keeping them in a box on a shelf-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Until he can use them. Because if the police never come after him, then he doesn’t need to dispose of them in that way.

[Thomas]
Hmm. So, they’re insurance, basically.

[Shep]
Right. They’re insurance, in case the police discover this theft and put the pieces together and come after him, he’s got these as his get out of jail free cards.

[Thomas]
Sure.

[Shep]
But if he doesn’t have to use that, then maybe he can convince Katerina to become his.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Just so that everybody knows, Shep made a face of disgust when he said that.

[Shep]
It’s, the character is so slimy. Just me picturing how slimy he was-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Put a slimy taste in my mouth as I describe his actions.

[Thomas]
Well, I don’t think he’ll be hard for the audience to dislike.

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
All right, well, let’s take a break here. And when we come back, we’ll figure out the next step for our characters in our Canvas episode.

[Break]

[Thomas]
All right, we are back from our break. We have our two main characters tied up probably in some dank basement somewhere. Steve has the fake canvas, the one that he thinks is the old virgin canvas. He’s off trying to sell it to Armando. So, while he is off, we need our characters to escape. So, Katerina and Roger, they’re tied up. How do they get out of there?

[Shep]
Well, they have to argue-

[Emily]
Of course.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Because Katerina doesn’t trust Roger.

[Thomas]
And Roger’s upset that she didn’t tell him about Steve.

[Shep]
Yes. This is as close as they come to betrayal-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Because she kept a secret that has endangered him. But he does also understand. I mean, he’s mature. He’s like, “I get it.”

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
You know, “You were afraid that if I knew, I wouldn’t have taken part, which I absolutely fucking wouldn’t have. So, you were 100% right. If you had told me, I would have backed out and then I would be safe.” So, it’s a legitimate fight. She’s in the wrong. But of course, she doesn’t also trust Roger because everyone’s betraying her.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
So.

[Thomas]
So, I feel like then Roger needs to escape from his ropes or manacles or whatever it is first.

[Shep]
Right. He is experienced. He’s got-

[Thomas]
It’s not his first time being tied up in a basement somewhere.

[Emily]
“It’s not my first time in a leaky basement, sweetheart.”

[Shep]
He’s got a handcuff key in the back of his jeans. You know, the label.

[Thomas]
Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
You can cut some of the stitching and turn it into a little pocket. He’s got a little-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Handcuff key. Handcuff keys are universal.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
So, they’re handcuffed to a chair. And it’s in his back so he can easily get the key out, take his handcuffs off. So, while they’re arguing, and she’s like, “There’s no way to get out of this, and I don’t trust you. So, shut up.” He just takes his handcuffs off.

[Emily]
Does he walk away like he’s leave her, to mess with her for a little bit?

[Shep]
No, because he’s not that guy.

[Emily]
Ah.

[Shep]
He’s not a kid playing games.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
He is a mature adult. And so, he’s like, whatever she says, she’s saying this because she’s scared.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
And she has reason to be scared. Like, he gets everyone’s motivation because he’s experienced.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, he doesn’t take it personally.

[Thomas]
Is there some guard they have to incapacitate?

[Shep]
Yes, there must be.

[Thomas]
Right. But they managed to escape. And then Steve has shown himself to them. And so, that’s a pressure for them. So, they’ve got to be aware the rest of the movie, “Hey, we’re being followed” or “We have been being followed. This guy is kind of unhinged. He took us hostage.” He probably stole the canvas at gunpoint. He has people working for him. So, this is, like, a genuine threat. So, they’re looking over their shoulder the whole time.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
And he’s about to find out, probably, that this canvas is not real. And he’s going to come after them again.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
The canvas is not real. And they’ve escaped.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
So, he’ll be real unhappy.

[Shep]
Right, and so, because Roger has connections, he’s like, “Okay, this guy is rich and connected.”

[Thomas]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
“So, I need, like, a new identity and I need to escape.” So, now they really need the canvas to get that money-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
To get away from Steve. So, now they have to continue working together because otherwise they wouldn’t.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Roger wouldn’t want to continue staying in Steve’s crosshairs-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
But he is in a position where he doesn’t have a choice.

[Thomas]
Do they have a plan for- are they- is the plan just to run forever from Steve, hide from Steve? Or do they need to figure out how to get him caught somehow?

[Emily]
I don’t feel like running from him forever is a good plan. Even though he’s kind of an idiot and will just fail anyway.

[Thomas]
Especially for Katerina’s sake.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Roger, he could probably do it, but Katerina’s got her whole life ahead of her.

[Emily]
I think they should try and get him caught either with the authorities or someone else in the industry who’s going to make sure he is persona non grata, like, never welcome back.

[Shep]
So, I think the goal must be to get him caught by the authorities. The problem is that he is rich and connected.

[Emily]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
So, even if he’s caught by the authorities-

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
It might not stick.

[Emily]
Yeah, at worst, he’ll get house arrest, right?

[Shep]
Right. But it’s also a movie. So, in a movie, you can fantasize that rich people have to face consequences for their actions.

[Emily]
True.

[Shep]
So, this was Roger’s, like, final plan, right? This is his big Going Out of Business heist.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, he is already planning to run away somewhere and retire forever.

[Thomas]
So, he probably has some cabin in the woods where he’s just gonna chill out.

[Shep]
It’s got to be like a beach or, you know, movie fantasy retirement.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
You can show him at the end at the beach, whatever.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
He’s gonna move to that tropical island that Sunscreen takes place on.

[Thomas]
That’s right.

[Shep]
Oh, yes.

[Thomas]
Become a nudist.

[Emily]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
Yep. He’s done with canvas and all cloth, actually.

[Thomas]
Katerina’s like, “I could come with you.” And he’s like, “You, no, you really can’t.”

[Emily]
No, not okay. Not okay with that. Thank you.

[Thomas]
I’m wondering if they can try to get Steve busted. If they can frame him for something. Haha, “Frame him”, Canvas. If they can frame him as a forger. So, they could get Armando. Armando is probably a famous forger who the, you know, Interpol’s been looking for him forever. And so, if they can get Armando to paint a forgery for them that they put in Steve’s mansion and then call the police, I don’t know. Or have it like half done.

[Shep]
Or, because Armando is a forger, and also they will have this canvas that is age-appropriate, they can have Armando make a forgery so good it exactly matches a famous painting that has been stolen and is missing.

[Emily]
Hmm.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
So, he’s not caught for forgery. He’s caught for stealing this famous painting. And they tested it and it seems like it’s the legitimate one.

[Emily]
I like that.

[Thomas]
Yeah, that’s good.

[Shep]
Use their skills.

[Thomas]
Do we reveal that Armando actually owns the painting? And they’re like, you know, “Can you like reproduce it out of a book?” And he’s like, “Why would I do it out of a book? It’s in the other room.”

[Emily]
Absolutely.

[Shep]
Now, you don’t say that. You don’t, no, no, no. You say, “Can you reproduce it?” He’s like, “I can.” And then later, when you see Armando at his house, the painting is, like, on his wall.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Shep]
You don’t say anything.

[Thomas]
Right. He says, he makes some comment. “I’m very familiar with that painting.”

[Shep]
Right. But you don’t, like, pan the camera up to him looking at the…

[Thomas]
Right, right, right.

[Shep]
No, more subtle. More subtle, less obvious. The people watching this on their phones, they’re going to miss it. That’s my goal.

[Emily]
Yep.

[Shep]
People watching on the phone should miss all the details.

[Thomas]
Yes, I agree. 100%.

[Emily]
Are a lot of people watching movies on their phones still?

[Thomas]
No, no-

[Emily]
Is that still-

[Shep]
No, no.

[Thomas]
They have a movie on.

[Shep]
They’re watching and they’re on their phone.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Emily]
Oh, okay. Third-screening it.

[Thomas]
Yes.

[Emily]
I got it.

[Shep]
Yes. Second… second screening. What’s the third screen?

[Emily]
I don’t know. I’ve heard it called third-scr- er, I think, yeah, second screen. I don’t know. I heard somebody say third screen once and that stuck in my brain for some reason.

[Thomas]
That person has got way too much going on then.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Their work is on their computer. They’re texting on their phone. There’s a movie on TV.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah. They’re watching a movie while working from home and texting.

[Thomas]
Yeah, there we go. We solved it. So, they must meet with Armando pretty quickly then.

[Shep]
Uh, hmm. Hmm. I wanted Armando to come back at the end when you had time to forget about him. So, if they meet him again right away…

[Thomas]
Well, Armando needs time to make that painting.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Oh, but they need the canvas. Hmm, yeah.

[Shep]
Right. It’s a dilemma. There’s so many things that need to happen.

[Thomas]
I mean, you could have him come back and they give him the canvas and you get like a “Nine Months Later” art card, right? And then it’s Steve being arrested for the theft of, or possession or whatever, of that famous painting. And you see a news report and it’s like, oh, authorities tested whatever. They tested the canvas. It’s period canvas. It’s period paint. Everything’s correct.

[Shep]
Okay, so you have a time gap, but it’s not directly to the end. They have gotten the canvas, however, and they’ve sold it to whomever, Armando or similar.

[Thomas]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
And then they’ve used that money and made their escape. Then it’s, you know, nine months later, and Steve catches up to them and he’s like, “Where’s the canvas?” And they’re like, “Of course, we don’t have it anymore. It’s long gone.” He’s like, “I know it’s gone. You need to tell me who you sold it to because I’m going to steal it from them.” So, this is them being captured again. But by this time, they have had the reproduction produced and have set Steve up with it somehow. Maybe he even buys it as a reproduction or whatever.

[Thomas]
I was going to say maybe them getting captured by Steve is an intentional thing-

[Shep]
Oh-

[Thomas]
To lure Steve out so that he’s away from his house-

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
So, that Armando can put it in his house-

[Shep]
Yep.

[Thomas]
And then call Interpol.

[Shep]
Right. That makes more sense. It’s an intentional thing. They’ve let themselves be discovered so that Steve will come out and do his cocky thing that he does-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Which they’ve previously experienced.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
They know that he shows up himself. What are we missing?

[Thomas]
Basically, the second half of the movie.

[Shep]
Right. The wherever the canvas was and how they actually get it.

[Thomas]
Yeah. So, it was in the cave originally. That’s where she saw it. That’s where they go. It’s not there. Where has it been moved to?

[Emily]
Is it seen as an artifact at this point, or is it still just like, you know, an old piece of canvas?

[Thomas]
It must be seen as an artifact because we need it preserved. If it’s being removed from the cave, it needs to go somewhere climate controlled where it’ll be protected. If it’s in Europe, then there could be a museum, an artistic museum. And if the history of this cave is known, it could be part of a local museum display or at a university.

[Emily]
I think, like, at a university or like some kind of archives would probably be-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
More realistic or more interesting, I guess. Maybe not realistic.

[Thomas]
Forensic Materials Lab. I don’t know if that’s a thing.

[Emily]
It is in everything that’s not reality.

[Thomas]
I mean, this is a movie-

[Emily]
Yep.

[Thomas]
So, we make up whatever. Nobody knows anything. If it’s in a big national museum, there’s no way they’re going to be able to get it.

[Emily]
No.

[Thomas]
Too much security.

[Emily]
I don’t think it should be in a big national museum.

[Thomas]
No.

[Emily]
I think it should be in like an archives for a university.

[Thomas]
Yeah, it definitely needs to be somewhere where they are appreciating what it is-

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Or its fragility at any rate. I like a university. I think that’s a good idea.

[Shep]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Think university is a really good idea. And then, that still has a layer of security, at least for that kind of thing.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
It would still be locked up.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
It would still be, yeah.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
There’d still be people around they have to get past, but it’s not like armed guards.

[Emily]
Yeah, yeah.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Emily]
They would just have to forge like a student pass and some other things.

[Shep]
Roger’s old. He could pose as a professor. Or-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
I could see a very funny scene with the two of them on a campus.

[Thomas]
There’s got to be a scene where they’re arguing about, “No, no, you just go in as a student.” She’s like, “No, you go in as a visiting professor.”

[Shep]
So, whatever professor Roger is pretending to be-

[Thomas]
Mm hmm.

[Shep]
Gets caught by some administrator or something and they’re asking him or students and they’re asking him about stuff, and he has to just be the Neil Caffrey of that situation and know all the stuff that they’re asking. So, you as the audience think, “Oh, he’s screwed now.”

[Emily]
Mm-hmm.

[Shep]
You know, but no, he’s in his sixties. He has a well- he has a life of experience in this field.

[Emily]
And he’s very well read because the field he chose, you have to be.

[Shep]
He’s very well read. Yep.

[Thomas]
Is there a moment where there’s some question he doesn’t know the answer to? And he’s kind of like, “Uh, uh…” And Katerina walks in and is like, “Oh my gosh, it’s him.” And sort of distracts people from the fact that he hasn’t answered that question. And then it’s like, “Oh, well, this other person who hasn’t been part of this conversation says that that’s the guy.”

[Emily]
I mean, that is a common way they do things movies.

[Thomas]
Yeah, but they also write movies badly. So, I want to make sure we’re not doing that.

[Shep]
I don’t like that.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
Because that’s kind of a Mary Sue. This young woman comes in, and she knows all the stuff. And this old fuddy duddy man, he’s incompetent. I don’t like that.

[Thomas]
That’s not what I’m suggesting at all. I’m just suggesting that he does know all this stuff and there’s one thing he’s not sure about and she comes in and provides another piece of another credibility indicator.

[Shep]
My question is, why are the two of them together? If this is a heist, one of them is distracting whomever and the other is doing the heist.

[Thomas]
Oh, well, then whoever’s doing the distracting has fucking failed if he’s being grilled.

[Shep]
Yes.

[Thomas]
Unless he’s the distractor.

[Shep]
No, she was supposed to be the distraction, and he was supposed to go in. But something got messed up because plans never work in movies.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
At least not how they’re intended. So, now he has to pretend to be the professor and she has to go-

[Thomas]
And she’s gonna go steal the canvas.

[Shep]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yeah, yeah.

[Shep]
Each one is playing against their strengths. And that’s why the audience is on the edge of their seat because they know everything can go wrong because they’re in this awkward situation. So, she somehow gets in and gets the canvas and he somehow, or maybe whatever painting they’re, the tour, the students are going by is seeing is a forgery. And Roger recognizes that it’s a forgery-

[Thomas]
Hm.

[Shep]
And can talk about how you can tell that it’s a forgery, which shows his, you know, professorial persona where he knows all this stuff. Stuff that the other people at this university don’t even recognize. But that’s enough of a distraction to get all of them to come over to see this thing. And so, Katerina can get in and get the canvas and get out.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
So, each one is competent. I like competence in movies.

[Thomas]
And then, is Steve a problem for them during the third act? They have to escape somehow. It feels like they would.

[Shep]
Right. He shows up later, right?

[Thomas]
But not, like, what is the climax of the film?

[Shep]
The climax of the film is Steve getting arrested for art theft. Roger going to the beach that he had talked about earlier.

[Thomas]
That feels like the denouement.

[Shep]
Yeah. Well, then the climax is Steve getting arrested. That’s where Armando swoops in and has arranged this thing, because you think Steve showing up is like, “Oh no, they’ve been caught.” But it’s like, no, this was all part of the plan.

[Emily]
Mhmm.

[Shep]
And in fact, Armando’s not there for that because he’s, he had put the forgery in Steve’s house. So, you just have a phone call so that you don’t have to film them on the same day because-

[Thomas]
Right.

[Shep]
Armando is our expensive actor.

[Emily]
Yeah.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
So, it’s just a cameo.

[Thomas]
Yeah, they just get a text from Armando. It says, like, it’s, it says “It’s done.”

[Shep]
Yeah! You have him do a phone call so that he can see it because film is a visual medium.

[Thomas]
I can see a text message.

[Shep]
I’m not reading during a movie.

[Thomas]
All right, all right.

[Shep]
Whatever you put on the screen, I have no idea.

[Thomas]
You’re too busy looking at your own phone.

[Shep]
The beginning of the Star Wars crawls, I’ve never read. I have no idea what the backstory is for those movies.

[Thomas]
Shep watches lots of anime, but only dubs.

[Shep]
How dare you!

[Emily]
Well, you said you don’t want to read, so-

[Shep]
I learned Japanese so that I could watch anime and not do any reading.

[Thomas]
I guess my concern with that being the climax is that how do you build tension? Like, if you’re building tension and then you all of a sudden, you’re like, “Oh, by the way, it’s nine months later.” That feels like that really dissipates that tension. Like, “Oh, well, then they got away for nine months?” There’s no closing in.

[Shep]
Right. Okay. How do you do the closing in?

[Thomas]
Yeah, I don’t know.

[Shep]
Yeah, that’s the hard question. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.

[Thomas]
Yeah. I could see a situation where Steve is closing in, and they have to get away from him somehow. And they do, just barely. And so, you think, “Ah, they’ve done it.” Although, if they’ve got away from him once and he’s caught up with them, then I guess that tension can’t be relieved fully until Steve is caught. So.

[Shep]
Oh, this is where they go their separate ways.

[Thomas]
Hmm.

[Shep]
Because now it’s, again, not a romance movie.

[Emily]
Right.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
But they are bonding during this time. And so, it’s like, oh, maybe they will have a relationship, not a romantic relationship-

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
But something after this. But they can’t, because they have to separate, because Steve is closing in. And he’s worried that she’s not going to be okay. And she’s worried that he’s not going to be okay. But they go their separate ways. That’s how they get away from Steve because he can’t chase both. So, later, the “them getting caught” is she shows up where Roger is. Right? She thinks, “Okay, I got away. Everything’s fine. I’m not being followed.” Of course, she is being followed. And, you know, Steve swaggers like, “I knew if I watched you long enough, you would eventually show me where Roger is. I know Roger took the canvas. So, this is how I’m gonna get it.” He can’t get it from her. She doesn’t have it.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Shep]
She, she wouldn’t have the connections for it. So-

[Thomas]
Right, that makes sense.

[Shep]
Capturing her would be worthless. So, this is where the twist is that Steve has just been waiting for her to lead him to Roger. And of course, they both anticipated that was the case.

[Thomas]
Do we see Roger selling the canvas to Armando and setting up the painting thing? Or is that a thing we discover after the fact? After Steve’s arrested by Interpol.

[Shep]
That’s got to be after then.

[Thomas]
Okay.

[Shep]
So, maybe he’s leaving with the canvas, and his plan is to sell it.

[Thomas]
There’s a, there’s a canvas, there’s, like, a bolt of canvas there, and he’s trying to take it. And Roger’s like, “That’s not the canvas.” He’s like, “You’re not going to play me again.” It’s like, “Again, all right, man, whatever.”

[Shep]
All right, so now what are we missing?

[Thomas]
I think there’s probably a bunch of details that kind of go in the middle of everything, but I can’t think specifically what those things are.

[Shep]
Yeah, I think we have logical beats.

[Thomas]
Yeah.

[Emily]
Do we have enough of a story that people think this is a plausible movie?

[Shep]
It’s almost plausible.

[Thomas]
I mean, the only way to find out is for people to tell us what they think.

[Emily]
And they can do that where?

[Thomas]
Well, we’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode about a Canvas. Did it put wind in your sails? Or was it a real stretch? I didn’t even have to look up idioms for this one. I was very pleased. Let us know by leaving a comment on our website, reaching out on social media or sending us an email. Links to all of those can be found at AlmostPlausible.com. If you have an idea for an object you’d like us to turn into a movie, no matter how ordinary it is, we want to hear about it. Send it to us on our socials or via the contact form on the website. Emily, Shep, and I will be here when you come back for the next episode of Almost Plausible.

[Outro music]