Episode 1 - Ernie's First Day

It's been a long time coming...but here are my episode ideas!

I have emailed the lecturers with the blog post address so they can look over them properly and give me a bit more advice on how to edit them...because at the moment I know most of them are way too long!

Episodes 2, 6 and 7 I wrote after talking to the lecturers so they are a better length and better synopsised. They still however need some tweaking for the final ones.


Episode 1 – Ernie’s First Day


Entering the diner; Maj, the Manager of the Quick Stop, greets the camera crew. She takes some time to explain the ins and outs of the diner, showing where the orders come in and where the food is prepared. We also get a quick glimpse of some of the employees there as the camera crew passes through. They set up in Maj’s office and she tells about her career so far, from her days as a teaching secretary and her ultimate aim of applying to be Quick Stop Regional Manager. Maj also explains how today is a great day to start filming as there is a new employee starting. His name is Ernie and it is his first ever job.
Ernie starts his first day at The Quick Stop, but unfortunately it doesn’t go quite to plan. He spends some time in almost every department of the restaurant, getting to know Harold and Heema in particular. Throughout the day, Ernie nearly blinds a child with cleaner fluid by spraying it into their eyes when cleaning the table. He spills a drink over a customer at the order point when working on the tills. Then somehow manages to set fire to a colleague whilst helping cleaning dishes in the kitchen. During which time he meets Harold, who keeps himself to himself, Ernie finds it difficult enough as it is to speak to new people so the two don’t have much to talk about. Even when interviewed by the camera crew Harold is very shy and doesn’t give anything away. Each time Ernie screws up Maj has to stop the interview and intervene; she eventually relegates Ernie to cleaning the car park, away from any direct contact with customers. Maj hasn’t fired anyone yet and she still has faith that she can find Ernie’s role within the restaurant’s hierarchy. Meanwhile Heema, the head checkout operator, tells us about her university course and plans for the future, whilst she has been given the task of training Ernie and juggling unhappy customers due to an unusually common complaint with uncooked chips. After having been informed, Maj goes straight to the source; and finds out that Harold has been using the fryer today.
In the car park, the camera crew has the chance to interview Ernie and he has time to reflect on what has happened throughout the day, whilst talking about his life at home and how his mum encouraged him to get this job.