A scene from Feel The Drop (the TV pilot)

INT. JACK’S BEDROOM – EVENING
Jack is in his room at his turn tables, headphones on. He’s jamming out, scratching, switching out records. He freezes. He slides off his headphones, we hear EDM(Electronic Dance Music) in the headphones. He listens for something in the real world… there it is again! LAUGHTER! He heads into the living room.
INT. JACK’S LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS
Jack’s dad, LEONARD, is laughing loudly from his Laz-E-Boy chair. Tiger is on the couch talking a mile a minute.
TIGER
Yeah, I swear to God! On my mother’s life! Hundred percent true!
Leonard laughs.
LEONARD
This Tiger tells me you two are going to be in a band together and play for money. I guess that learning problem don’t mess up your music like it does school.
Jack and Tiger share the briefest of glances.
JACK
Yeah, dad, a band, that’s right. (To Tiger) You want to go hang in my room?
TIGER
Yup.
LEONARD
I’m going to get another sixer round the corner. Don’t burn the place down, Jack.
Leonard laughs showing Jack may have done something like that before. Jack nods and waits for his dad to leave then he turns on Tiger.
JACK
We friends now?
TIGER
I don’t know, maybe, but you’re a DJ, right? I can book us some shows if you teach me.
Jack considers.
JACK
Why? It’s a lot of work. For not much reward. I’ll help if you tell me why.
TIGER
A girl.
Jack GROANS.
TIGER
I know! I know! But common! Your eyes lit up just now when I mentioned doing a gig.
Jack laughs self consciously as he walks into his bedroom. Tiger follows.
INT. JACK’S BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
Jack walks to the turntables and turns them on, gets the left record spinning. Tiger follows him in. He looks around but it’s pretty bland. Nothing special but the turntables and the three crates of records.
Jack starts SCRATCHING on the turn tables casually. He’s a-fucking-mazing. He stops.
JACK
Survey says: that’s a lie. Anywho, first lesson’s free. Let’s start with BPM, beats per minute.
TIGER
So you’re in?
JACK
Maybe. Let’s start with BPM. It means–
TIGER
I know what BPM means, jackass.
JACK
What is it then?
Tiger grabs a pencil off of Jack’s desk and taps it on the edge of Jack’s turn tables in rhythm.
TIGER
I don’t know. Psyche! It’s the beat, bro! Come on! Look, you time it: uh, uh, uh and then you write it on the cover of the record for each song.
JACK
Write it on the cover?
TIGER
So you can match the beats on the current song and the new one. That’s what being a DJ is. If it’s an 80 beats per minute song, you got to lay another 80, 85 at the most so they’ll mix.
Jack smiles approvingly.
JACK
Writing it on the cover, that’s a good idea. So you can just go through the crate and match the numbers to the one playing.
TIGER
We can do that with yours. I don’t see the BPM written on any of them. It’s a lot of work, I helped my brother do it.
Tiger points to the crate of records below the turn tables. He grabs the first one and slides it halfway out.
TIGER
Pretty sure everyone owns this one just for track five, I think that one is eighty-five per minute, too. Beat Master Mike.
Jack laughs.
TIGER
What?
JACK
It’s eighty-one. Until two-oh-five and then it jumps to ninety-six for like thirty seconds.
Tiger hides the surprise.
TIGER
You know that cause it’s your favorite, huh?
JACK
Your brother, your secret hero, doesn’t know the BPM of every song he owns so I shouldn’t either. But I do.
Tiger pints at the crate of records.
TIGER
So all these then? There’s, what, thirty records in here, maybe ten or twelve songs each? Memorizing them all must have taken awhile.
Jack laughs and shakes his head.
JACK
I have three hundred twenty seven records. And I memorized every single song. Even the shitty ones.
TIGER
That’s so sexy! And your dad left me in here alone with you? Come here and kiss me you big stud!
Jack laughs. He grabs the record that Tiger had half pulled out — Beat Master Mike, places it on turn table one and drops the needle on it.
A BEAT hits the speakers. Eighty one beats per minute to be exact. It has a smooth baseline. Jack lightly rests his fingers on the record.
JACK
Let’s match this one by Beat Master Mike with… oh, a party favorite of my mom’s… Pull out You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin, The Righteous Brothers. Should be eleventh. You know that album, poser?
Jack does a little scratch on the current record, just a taste. Tiger shuffles through counting to eleven and pulls out You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. He doesn’t hand it to Jack, he places it on the 2nd turntable to show he knows how.
Jack starts it spinning, then grabs the needle and drops it halfway through the first song. It’s still just Beat Master Mike on turntable one in the speakers.
JACK
We just have turn table one going out to the speakers, but in the headphones I got table two coming in. One: audience, two: just me
He points to the headphones.
TIGER
Sounds simple.
JACK
It is. The concept is simple. Blend two things so it sounds good. But it’s so much more than that.

Out there, (points to speakers) that’s the energy of the crowd, Beat Master Mike in this case, hard beat, recorded in his garage, you can hear the rage, the crowd gets to be that rage but also listen to that underlining symbol action from the drums, that part is Mike’s grace, by the way, a DJ knows that. The crowd gets to feel it, but they don’t know it. DJ has to know it and feel it.
Jack puts one side of the headphones against his ear and holds it with his shoulder.
JACK
It’s eighty-one beats per minute. But this (points to headphones) is all mine, just for a few moments and I gotta keep feeling Mike over there, but then also hold the longing and loneliness of Lovin Feelin and I have to hold them both in my mind, which is hard all by itself, like watching two movies at the same time, but they both gotta make sense to me by themselves AND somehow make sense together. That, THAT is what being a DJ is. I have to know Lovin Feelin is ninety-six beats per minute. And Beat Master Mike is eighty-one. You can’t blend them, not clean anyway. You could scratch it in, or speed Mike up or slow down Lovin Feelin. But fifteen BPM is too far. Even four or five is too far. Listen, I’ll blend it so you can hear how bad it is.
He brings in the second song on top of the first. It’s not clean, the beats don’t align. He lets them play over each other so it’s obvious it doesn’t work then he fades Lovin Feelin back out.
JACK
But if you’re a DJ, a real DJ, you know the music better than anyone cause you love it with your whole soul, it speaks to you. If you love it like that then you listen to music day and night. If you love it like that then you ARE the music. If you’re that kind of DJ you know…
Jack looks at Tiger dead serious.
JACK
…that Beat Master Mike speeds up to ninety-seven… RIGHT THERE! Clean mix!
He pushes up the volume on Lovin Feelin again and this time they match!
TIGER
Clean as shit! We’re gonna get so many girls!!! I love this shit! I wanna make sweet, sweet love to that music!
Tiger dry humps Jack’s turntables at 96 BPM. Jack shakes his head, a bit embarrassed. But he laughs as well. Tiger is growing on him.
JACK
I just wanna perform. Get us the gigs and I’ll make you one with the Force, young jedi.
Jack fades the volume on two and then grabs the table one needle and moves it back just a bit to a point where it’s eighty-one BPM.
JACK
Now, you do it.
Jack moves over to give Tiger room in front of the tables.
TIGER
Hey, you want to be blood brothers?
JACK
What? No. No, I don’t. Get on the turn tables.
Tiger jumps in. Tiger bobs his head to the beat. It’s still too slow to mix. Then it jumps to 96 BPM…
JACK
Now!
Jack slides the fader which brings Lovin Feelin in so they are both going. Then as the fader passes halfway it begins to fade out one. The blend is pretty good. Tiger belts out the chorus with the music loud and proud.
TIGER
You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling! Now it’s gone… gone… gone… Baby, baby…