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Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
The Offspring
Director: McG
FLY REVISIONS
Intro: This opening shot is all done by way of Steadicam -- the first cut does not happen until the
first verse (30 seconds into the track -- think "Goodfellas.") Open on a traditional looking father
saying goodbye to his little red-headed son (Seth), who is dressed in ultra Hip-Hop gear --
goggles on his head, ENYCE jeans, MECCA jersey, etc. The father says, "Oonter, gleeben,
bobben, bloben," as though saying, "so long son, have fun today" -- the kid gives him a Hip-Hop
hug and exits the front door out into the world...
The drum fill happens, the camera begins tracking backwards looking at the kid as he walks out
toward the driveway. In time with the first, "Give it to me baby," we see 2 black girls in tight
little shirts that read, "OFFSPRING" ont he front, enter the frame from behind the kid. They
sing, "Give it to me baby," our hero kid responds, "Uh-huh, uh-huh." He reaches his '64 Impala
parked out in the street, gets in, looks at the camera and says, "And all the girlies say I'm pretty
fly for a white guy," the car pulls out of frame to reveal...
Noodles (who was concealed by the car before it pulled out of frame), playing the riff. He is
walking toward the neighboring house, the garage door begins to lift, we see the remaining
members of The Offspring inside performing the song. The interior of the garage is dressed out
with mirrored Plexiglass and flashing lights -- like the elements you would see in a Hip-Hop
video. The camera moves in tight on Dexter's face, as he sings the opening lines. We begin to
pull out from Dexter's face to reveal a now much larger version of what we established as the
interior of the garage -- it is clearly a soundstage. The lights are bigger and flashier. It looks like
something right out of a Missy Elliot video. Cut back to...
1st Verse and Chorus: Seth now driving down the boulevard. He is banging his head to the
temp of the track like the little white rock and roller he really is at heart. He sees Mack 10
standing on the sidewalk and immediately sits way back in the seat and throws a Westwide "W"
handsign at Mack. Mack looks at him like, "What the...?" Seth gives a look at the camera like,
"He loves me, I'm so down," and continues down the road. We see a group of Latin kids on low
rider bicycles that look twice as cool as our hero. They are amused by how lame this white kid
is, trying to be everything he is not.
He pulls up to the stoplight and is serenaded by the same black girls (really 4 black girls, a Latin
girl and a white girl), who are at the bus stop playing double dutch and provocatively eating their
ice cream bars and cooing at our hero, "Give it to me baby." Again, Seth looks at the camera
cluelessly like, "They love me," and he drives away...
It is important to note that throughout the piece we intermittently cut back to band performance.
2nd Verse and Chorus: Further down the road he spots a bunch of kids breakdancing on the
corner. Cut to Seth jumping out of the Impala and walking right into the breakdance circle --
disrupting the current breaker's backspin. Threatening looks ensue, but Seth calms the crowd
like, "Wait a minute, watch me work." At this section the scene is shot two ways: 1. Seth starts
doing the ultimate Molly Ringwald/white dance, then is confronted on the dance floor by two
thugs who you would think are about to kick his ass, but ultimately start doing the Molly
Ringwald right along with him. After a moment they stop, chuckle and diss, but Seth doesn't
even notice. We also shoot, 2, Seth does the white dance, then a real breakdancer clears him out
of the way and disses him through his state of the art break moves. Either way, at the end of the
scene, Seth is grabbed by the black girls we've seen earlier, lifted overhead, and carried out of the
frame...
3rd Verse and Chorus: Cut to Seth being carried in above the heads of our narrator/dancers into
the consummate LL Cool J style pool party. We see Seth being brought through the crowd and
seeing things he has never seen before: people of all different races and creeds having a great
time just being themselves. The narrator girls drop Seth in the middle of tattooed Black Flys
type guys. In an effort to fit in with this clique, our hero removes his Hip-Hop shirt to reveal a
giant tattoo across his shoulder blades that reads PUNKER. In time with the final chorus, Seth is
tossed into the water by the Black Flys. The song releases into its most energetic section, people
are dancing and partying now harder than ever. Soul Train/"Been Caught Stealin'" dance line
ups are happening -- we see some of it from Seth's underwater point of view. Our dancer girls go
into their classic R&B dance number -- everything is off the hook...
Outro: Seth drags his now finally defeated spirit ("Hey, maybe I should stop the charade.") out
of the water and begins the long walk home -- the party continues on without him. Cut to him re-
entering the same cookie cutter suburban neighborhood from the opening of the piece (once
again, Steadicam). We see water dripping from his shoes and socks as he walks up on the
driveway past his ballerina sister pirouetting on the front lawn. He enters the house and closes
the door behind him, the camera pans over to the neighboring house, in time with the final cow
bells, the garage begins to close on The Offspring. Fade to black...
In some capacity I would like to introduce a Latin character, either a fat guy in a giant sombrero
or a cool looking trim guy with prison style Virgin Mary tattoos on his forearms, to do the "Uno,
dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis." However, I think the best idea is to get a Chihuahua to
conspicuously appear each time that part happens and deliver the lines.
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