Creating the “IT” Spot: The rise of the Crave Club

From the Supastar Collective screenplay archives by popular demand.... If this feels like it is 1,000 years old it could be because it is. As relevant today as the day it first sprung to life (in 2003) from the 'genius' minds of the Collective? You be the judge.

Creating the “IT” Spot: The rise of the Crave Club

SCENE I

Introduce the concept of "Glamour" and "Exclusivity"

(On screen)
Rotating shots of Sammy Davis Jr. / Rat Pack / Ocean's Eleven / Black tie elegance, velvet rope, Roaring 20s, Studio 54, 40/40 club, Carlu

Voice over What is glamour? Why do people crave it so much?

(PAUSE)

(Voice over continues)
Now, in the 21st century, exclusivity is no longer the sole preserve of the jetset elite, it has moved down the foodchain. Exclusivity and glamour can be achieved by a bar, restaurant or club, by not having a name, being hard to find or being hard to get in. The traditional concept of the velvet rope has pretty much evaporated in modern society. In response to this trend, an "IT" spot has arisen that defines glamour and exclusivity the way it was 80 years ago.

SCENE II

Interview with three partners at a downtown converted loft in West Queen West. Everything is painfully hip (e.g. instead of chairs there are very expensive wood blocks from LA Designs). Overall decorating theme of loft could be described as "all style, no substance". Three 30ish, nattily dressed men are gathered around a coffee table (with holes cut out of its top surface). Two sit on the wood blocks and the third on a barely functional but cool-looking couch.

Clark
Its got to be the shit. We want a Pavlovian response from people when its name is mentioned in conversation.

Chadsey Cairns (laughing)
Cutting edge... bleeding edge you could say. Yeah, so cool it hurts.

Clark
Think Jack Nicholson sitting courtside, wearing his shades at a Lakers game. Chadsey To cool for school.

Jenner
Whatever

(All three share a laugh)

Jenner (continuing)
Listen, sorry to interrupt. (Pause) Are we going way, WAY over the top here, trying to create a (using air quotes) 'supercool', 'restaurant at the end of the universe', uber exclusive loungey hangout, and (pause)... and, at the end of the day, are we even creating the sort of place we'd want to hang out?

Chadsey
What do you want to create then: Cheers?

Jenner
No! Fuck that shit. Who would want a bunch of deadbeat barfly losers to know your name anyway, much less hang out with them? (Pause) Its like Marx said, "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me." You know?

Clark
Karl Marx said he wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have him?

Chadsey That's weird. I thought he'd be all over club membership and that everyone would, you know, be invited.

Jenner
No, you idiots, GROUCHO MARX. Groucho, not Karl, Marx. Fuck.

Chadsey
Yeah, well fuck Groucho Marx

SCENE III

On screen City shots of famous and fabulous venues (internal and external) and the fabulous people who inhabit them. Words occasionally flash on the screen:
It
La dolce vita
More Fab than Fab
Crave
Hype is good

Voice over
The genesis for the Crave Club, the much hyped, much discussed, extremely exclusive private club where local arts, culture and business leaders rub elbows, collaborate, share amusing anecdotes and otherwise be fabulous, came about as a result of a chance encounter by Clark in search of a party.

Interview with Clark in the loft.
He is sitting in an ultra retro/modern chair sipping a glass of red wine. Interview scene is interspersed with shots of restaurants/bars without visible signs (e.g. Johnny K restaurant on Queen East, alleyway entrance to the Fifth, Communist's Daughter on Dundas West), and a reenactment of someone trying to figure out if they are at the right location.

Clark
Yeah, I was headed to some after-party for opening night of a play. I didn't really know where I was heading, but I had a vague sense. I'm not really one for details. I figured I'd find it eventually. (Pause) Anyway, I ended up on some back alley streets and came across what looked like a happening spot. There was no sign or name anywhere, and no real evidence this place was a club... so, I figured, this must be it. I pushed open the door and walked in.

(On screen -- reenactment while Clark is speaking)
Someone looking at an unsigned building (house), pushing open an unmarked door and entering party Clark describes below.

Clark
There was a DJ spinning pounding house music. Everyone was all styled-up and dressed in black. It was a scene. I cruised in, grabbed a Stella and made for a group of good-looking ladies on the dance floor. It ended up being quite a night (smiling and rubbing his chin as he finishes)

Interviewer
So you found the party?

Clark
No, that's the funny thing. I walked into an entirely different party. Hell, everyone was dressed in black like they would have been at the after-party! Who knew? (Laughing) (Pause) But the thing is, the reason this place didn't have a name was because... it was a HOUSE party. It wasn't a club at all (slapping his forehead).

(Pause)

A couple of days later, while having cocktails at Bymark -- or was it Lobby? Doesn’t matter -- I thought, 'wait a minute, that place would have made a really cool club'. Kind of like in Swingers when Mikey says these places don't have names and that it kind of means something if you know where to find them, or something like that.

(Pause)

Eh voila, the idea was born.

SCENE IV

Interview in a different loft with Chadsey and Jenner.
Chadsey is sitting in a Scandinavian chair and Jenner on a day-glo coloured couch-like piece of furniture, which is actually four cubes attached at jagged angles.

Chadsey
Yeah, Clark brought up this idea. We were clubbing pretty hard in those days, and it was always about finding the next hotspot before anybody else.... It was necessary to move on before the wannabes and, god forbid, the 905ers, found out about it.

Jenner
The trend went from hard to find to unmarked buildings to ironic to unnamed places and now is at a combination of all these things. We feel the true "in" crowd is ready to take things to the next level.

Chadsey
Yeah, when we kept seeing the same people at all these new places we knew there was a viable market for something. You'd also see these people at Queen West shops, gallery openings, secret rock concerts by the current big thing or the next big thing.

Jenner
So we thought why not hook these like-minded people up?

Chadsey
And how do we keep an IT spot from being diluted by so-called undesirables... make it a private club where you can join by invite only.

(On screen)
Shot of Crave Club membership invitation

SCENE V

Interview with Clark, Chadsey and Jenner Later that year after Crave has opened. Interview at an undisclosed location (very hip). Clark, Chadsey and Jenner sip champagne cocktails and are stylishly dressed.

Interviewer
Why the name 'Crave'? How did you come up with that?

Chadsey
Well, our working title was actually 'Exclusif'.

Jenner (interjecting)
But that seemed too obvious

Chadsey (nodding)
We wanted to reflect how desirable membership in this club would be. How much people would want to be a part of it.

Jenner (finishing) How much they would crave to be part of something so cool and exclusive.

Interviewer
The club was pretty much an instant, runaway success. How, why, or to what do you attribute your massive initial success?

Clark
The dilemma, of course, was how we could take things up a notch. And I think we stumbled upon a brilliant idea that will keep Crave exclusive and exciting for the foreseeable future. We've taken the cool, urban, New York-ish hotspot concept to, what I like to say, its most innovative incarnation.

Chadsey
With the introduction of our club, Toronto is now, truly, a world-class city.

Interviewer
Can you tell me where the club is located?

Clark
Sorry, Crave's location is a members-only secret. In fact, the location is so secret the employees don't even know where it is.

Jenner (laughing)
Sort of like the Bat Cave.

Interviewer
I heard it was west of Bathurst on King Street West?

(On screen)
Shots of stylishly dressed people either looking for the club on King or trying to look inconspicuous as they walk along King Street West

Chadsey (dismissively)
That's just a rumour.

Interviewer (Pulling out a file and flipping through some pages, settling on one)
We did some digging around and couldn't find any property in downtown Toronto under your names, Crave, or under the company's official name, 'The Jackboot Collective'. In fact, Crave's sole asset, outside of its membership, is a Cayman Island's bank account.

(Pause)

(Taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes)
The club doesn't actually, physically exist, does it?

Jenner
Our members appreciate not having to actually go to the club to enjoy its exclusivity.

SCENE VI

Fly on the wall interaction with Crave Club members

A. Scene: 40ish couple at home in trendy/posh surroundings

Wife (From other room, she is only partially visible -- e.g. legs -- but can be heard)
Honey, the Donovans will be here for dinner any minute, are you ready?

Husband (Unfolding newspaper and holding it up, blocking his face as the camera turns to him. He leans back in his chair and puts his feet up on a footstool)
I'm sorry love, I can't make it. I'm at the club.

(A few minutes later, wife invites the Donovans in -- no identifiable faces are shown)

Wife
Glad you could make it, but I have some bad news.

(She seats them in the living room. Husband is there with his feet up reading the newspaper.)

Holden (name bleeped out or otherwise obviously edited out) can't make it. He's at the club.

B. Scene: interview with Crave member, his face blurred out like in witness protection court proceedings. The member is seated in a nice leather chair in a fancy home library.

Member
Crave changed my life. I'm regularly challenged and stimulated mentally in a way I haven't been in years. And with the contacts I've made at the club, my career has taken off in new and exciting directions.

(Wife enters; face also blurred out, and sits on arm of chair)

Member (Squeezes wife's leg)
But best of all, I met my wife at Crave.

Fade to black

SCENE VII

Interviewer (on camera)
So there you have it, the latest, and self-styled greatest, members-only club in downtown Toronto. Private clubs have proven popular in London and New York, so we'll be keeping a close eye on Crave to see if it has legs or if its just the flavour of the month.

(Pause)

It does seem to be maintaining its exclusiveness. It was recently reported in the Society pages that Chadsey was denied access to the club recently because he wasn't sufficiently accomplished. The club declined to comment on that situation and its resolution.

(Pause)

Requests to film inside the club were politely refused by a club spokesperson, citing Crave's exclusivity and non-disclosure clause in its charter. So, unfortunately, we can't show you what ultra exclusive looks like. Instead, we will leave you with the media running on Crave's website.

Fade to black

Club logo motto up on black screen

Fade into

CRAVE SOMETHING NEW
CRAVE SOMETHING EXCITING

Fade out and into

CRAVE EXCLUSIVITY
CRAVE GLAMOUR

Fade out and into

CRAVE (Club logo reappears under word after three seconds)

END