Sit Down Danny | 10:53 | English

Sit Down Danny - A One Man Short from David F. Sandberg on Vimeo.

Made a film while my wife worked the night shift and made it really hard for myself:

- One long take.
- Acting against myself (Voice of the bad guy was pre-recorded and played back by pressing strategically placed keyboards with my feet).
- Acting in a foreign language (I'm swedish) and trying to do two different accents.

Synopsis
Danny is home alone when he hears glass breaking. He thinks it's his girlfriend Jennifer. He calls out to her. She doesn't answer. Danny goes into the living room. Instead of Jennifer, Danny sees Simon. Danny asks him why he's there. Simon says this is his house. He's also known about Danny and Jennifer for a while. Danny becomes worried and demands to know where she is. Simon explains she's sleeping, but she's ultimately fine.

He asks Simon to explain what he wants. However, Simon refuses to tell him anything until he sits down and talks to him about Jennifer. Danny finally sits on the couch. When he does, there's a clicking noise. Simon warns against getting up or shifting around too much. Simon tells him to use the laptop on the coffee table. There's a video on it Danny needs to watch. It's titled couch.mp4.

Couch.mp4 shows a couch outside. A crash test dummy sits on it. Suddenly, the crash blows up. Danny asks if there's a bomb inside the couch he's sitting on. Simon says he shouldn't stand up anytime soon. Danny doesn't believe him, so Simon dares him to stand up. Danny still doesn't believe him. Simon implies he could because of the type of job he has. Danny refuses to believe Simon's crazy enough to put a bomb under the couch.

He threatens to call the police on his cellphone. Simon calls his bluff. He knows Danny wouldn't bring his cell phone inside the house. That way, if Danny's wife calls, he wouldn't feel so bad about cheating on her with Simon's wife, Jennifer.

Simon denies doing anything to Danny's wife. He thinks she's innocent. Danny explains he understands why Simon wants to punish him. However, he doesn't think Simon should since it's not Danny's fault Simon's wife love him anymore. Simon was the one who drove Jennifer to cheat on him. Danny says she's told him everything, including what a horrible person Simon is.

Simon reminds him he has no idea where she is, so trying to make him mad at her wouldn't be a good idea. There's no way for Danny to protect her. If Jennifer really told Danny everything, then he knows what Simon's capable of, which means Danny shouldn't try to make him mad at Jennifer.

Danny asks if he stands up, would Simon free her. Simon says no. He wants to talk and get to know Danny better. It's only fair since Danny got to know his wife so well. Simon asks him to explain his life philosophy. Danny gets mad and says it's Hakuna Matata from The Lion King. Danny explains his philosophy is actually based on the Eastland. The Eastland sank three years after the Titanic. In the three years between the sinking of both ships, a law was passed that said all ships must have enough lifeboats in order to save everyone on board. The Eastland sank because it was too top heavy from all the lifeboats. 800 people died. Danny said when he heard about the sinking of both ships he realized that no matter what anyone does, everyone is always fucked in the end. As a result, he believes everyone should do what they want.

Simon says their not done yet; he wants to play a game first. He tells Danny to look under one of the pillows. Danny finds an X-ACTO knife under it. He looks Simon in the eye as he throws the X-ACTO knife across the room. Simon is disappointed in him. Danny says he's done. If he's going to die right now, he wants Simon to remember his last words: "Go fuck yourself." As he prepares himself to die in an explosion, Simon warns him not to do it.

Danny stands up. Nothing happens. Danny walks behind the couch and takes a deep breath. He's angry Simon lied about the bomb. Simon says he never explicitly stated there was a bomb. Its existence was simply implied. Danny curses him out. Danny asks about Jennifer's location. Simon said he told the truth when he said Jennifer was sleeping. He reminds Danny of the clicking sound that came from the couch when he sat down. Danny quickly crouches behind the couch to look underneath it. Simon says he did tell him not to stand up. The screen fades to black as Danny screams Jennifer's name.

My Thoughts
David F. Sandberg created Sit Down Danny as a one-man movie done in one, long shot.

David did the voices for both characters. He recorded Simon's dialogue before recording Sit Down Danny in one shot. David (who's Swedish) said he was trying to speak in English with two different accents. He did a good job. I do think Simon sounds too much like Tim Curry. That's not a bad thing, but it was a bit distracting at first. My first reaction was, "Whoa, you sound like Tim Curry; that's pretty cool," crossed with, "Oh my God, Tim Curry broke into your house, and he's going to kill you."

At first, I wondered why Danny would play along with Simon? But, I realized he didn't know where Jennifer was, so he probably played along so he could save her life. At first, when Simon gave him the X-ACTO knife, I thought it was a way to save himself from dying. Now, I wonder if the X-ACTO knife was the way to save Jennifer? Maybe Jennifer didn't die when Danny sat down, but when he stood up. That could be why Simon told him not to stand up. When Danny got tricked into killing Jennifer, it might have been Simon's plan the entire time. Making him feel guilty for something he didn't mean to do would have been a better revenge instead of simply killing him.

When I first watched Sit Down Danny, I thought it was weird David would have the characters sit around and talk for so long. The movie is a little over ten minutes. The majority of the movie is Danny talking to Simon, who's off-screen the whole time. But, I think the ending was more effective after Danny and Simon sat around and talked. After the two characters were talking for a while, I was thinking, "Okay, what's going to happen? … Okay, is it going to happen now?" When Danny realized Jennifer was dead, I thought, "Wait? What?" Simon got to punish both of them with one stone.

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