This is a story about psychological-problem-solving. It is in tree parts, tree versions, with the same beginning, but different choices that the hero makes, different approaches on how to solve an internal-crack...
"DO IT
YOURSELF"
By
Leah
Lotous Michalopoulou
|
Lotous Michalopoulou |
8 pages/min 11th DRAFT |
|
Canterbury UK |
August 22, 2020 |
|
|
|
" DIY "
FADE IN:
SCENE 1 / Inside /
SINGLE ROOM STUDIO / night / BLACK & WHITE
A young man in his studio flat. The flat is
empty. The shutters are closed. We can’t tell if it is day or night.
The protagonist appears with painting tools, Charlie
Chaplin style music.
CUT TO
WE SEE THE FIRST TITLES
SCENE2 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night / BLACK & WHITE
He starts painting the walls green.
CUT TO
MORE TITLES
He is climbing on a ladder and painting the
edges of the wall.
CUT TO
MORE TITLES
SCENE 3 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night / BLACK & WHITE
WE SEE THE LAST TITLES
(QUICK EDITING, FAST FORWARD)
He puts the tools in a built-in closet [The closet
is "bigger in the inside", like the TARDIS (see
Doctor Who)]. He comes out dragging a large bed. He assembles it
and puts it in a corner.
He goes in again eventually reappearing with a
burgundy sofa, then a TV cabinet on which he places a television, an
armchair which he places opposite the sofa, a bedside table, carpets, curtains,
laying sheets, posters from movies, etc.
(SUBJECTIVE, SLOW)
He looks around the place satisfied.
FADE OUT
(End of Charlie Chaplin style music and black
& white)
SCENE 4 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
FADE IN:
He sits on the sofa and turns on the
television. It has a chocolate commercial. He gets bored, yawns, takes his
tobacco case from the night-stand next to him, in which there is a full
ashtray.
He rolls and lights up a cigarette. He
takes the first puff and looks around. He gets up abruptly. Ashes fall on
the floor (FOLLOWING SHOT IN ASHES).
He sees a crack in the wall, above the armchair
(INSERT)
The cigarette goes out in the
ashtray. We see the time on an analogue wall clock. It is 4:00.
SCENE 5 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
He walks up to the armchair. He climbs on
the armchair to reach and touches the crack. A small piece of plaster
falls from his touch.
He rubs his hands a little to remove the plaster
dust.
He exhales. He falls disappointed
into the armchair.
After a while he gets
up, exhales again and goes to the closet.
(ALTERNATING FAST / SLOW)
He comes out with a heavy framed abstract
painting, a nail and a hammer.
He throws the hammer in the armchair, puts the
nail in his mouth, while still holding the painting, stumbles up in the
armchair, and marks with the nail where he will put it.
He puts the painting down and hammers the nail.
Then he paces the painting up.
A little plaster falls again (INSERT,) but he
doesn’t pay attention to it.
He gets off the armchair and moves away a little
to see it from afar.
He seems sufficiently satisfied.
He takes the hammer and throws it in the closet
(without making a noise.) He closes the closet’s door, starts walking away,
pauses, goes back, opens the door again, and comes out with an x-box.
He goes and sets it up. Then he sits in the
armchair and starts playing with his x-box.
There is a strange squeak. The
painting is shaking.
He gets up, approaches the painting and the
scene stops with the painting falling, just before it hits his head.
CUT TO
SCENE 6 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
(REPEAT FROM SCENE 4)
He sits on the sofa and turns on the
television. It has a chocolate commercial and he gets bored, yawns, takes
his tobacco case from the night-stand next to him, in which there is a full
ashtray.
He rolls and lights up a cigarette. He
takes his first puff and looks around. He gets up abruptly. Ashes fall to
the floor (FOLLOWING SHOT IN ASHES).
He sees a crack in the wall, above the armchair.
(INSERT)
The cigarette goes out in the
ashtray. We see the time on an analogue wall clock. 4:00.
SCENE 7 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
He comes out of the closet with a bucket of wall
putty (the bucket never empties), and a spatula.
He removes the surrounding furniture.
He uses some putty on the crack, but he cannot
manage to make it look smooth.
He does not give up and keeps trying. When
he goes to fix it a bit, wanting to make it perfect, he makes it worse again.
(VARIOUS CORNERS, QUICK EDITING)
(Begins to be anxious) He removes the furniture
a little more, uses more and more putty. He panics and stops, panting.
Once he calms down a bit he starts again.
His anxiety intensifies more and more. To make
it smooth and even with the rest of the wall, he puts more putty on the edges.
He then pushes the furniture farther and farther away, soils the
curtain by mistake. He cannot clean it, so he goes crazy, forcibly taking
the curtain down and putting everything in the closet.
(SUBJECTIVE, CLOSE-UPS)
He ends up plastering the whole room. He has
painted over all of his previous paint job. He keeps trying to smooth out the
putty but he is still not happy. He is absorbed in every detail, without paying
attention to the whole.
(AT FAST FORWARD)
He becomes furious, leaves the spatula and
starts plastering with his hands.
(SLOW MOTION)
In the end he, has covered everything, doors,
windows, even the putty bucket and the spatula he has thrown away. There is
left just enough space for him to fit, but he has managed to make it all even
and he enjoys his work (INSERT IN HIS SATISFIED LOOK)
CUT TO
SCENE 8 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
(REPEAT FROM SCENE 4)
He sits on the sofa and turns on the television.
There is a chocolate commercial on, and he gets bored. He yawns, takes his
tobacco case from the night-stand next to him, in which there is a full
ashtray.
He rolls and lights up a cigarette. He
takes the first puff and looks around. He gets up abruptly. Ashes fall to
the floor (FOLLOWING SHOT IN ASHES).
He sees a crack in the wall, above the armchair.
(INSERT)
The cigarette goes out in the
ashtray. We see the time on an analogue wall clock. It's 4:00.
SCENE 9 / INSIDE / SINGLE ROOM
STUDIO / night
(ALTERNATIVE FAST / SLOW, VARIOUS
CORNERS, QUICK EDITING)
He comes out of the closet with a scraper tool.
He gets up on the armchair and
starts scratching. Bits of the wall plaster fall off more and more.
He pulls the armchair out of his way because a
lot of dust and plaster has fallen on it and then he continues.
He gets distracted by the task and, at first, he
does not seem to understand the extent of the
damage. The wall dissolves more and more. The protagonist pauses
shocked when he realises what’s happening, but soon he starts again
Without even putting in much force, the crack
begins to turn into a hole.
The hole grows in the wall, enough to fit a
human. (INSERT ON HIS TILTED HEAD AND PERPLEXED EYES)
He passes through the opening.
CUT TO
SCENE 10 / OUTSIDE / STREET / NIGHT
He goes out on the street. A girl falls on
him and curses him while continuing on her way in a hurry. He looks
around very confused.
He turns to see his house and notices the wall
that is with street posters and discovers that there is no real door,
only one door poster. (SUBJECTIVE)
SCENE 11 / OUTSIDE-INSIDE / STREET-STUDIO / NIGHT
(VARIOUS CORNERS, QUICK EDITING)
Shots are taken of the door and of the hero, of
him inside the house trying to open the inside side of what looks like a door,
and outside his tearing the poster, only to find the wall underneath.
SCENE 12 / OUTSIDE / STREE / NIGHT
More and more people pass in front of
him.
He goes in the opposite direction from most
people. (WIDER CORNER)
FADE OUT
END TITLES FALL
SCENE 13 / OUTSIDE-INSIDE / STREET-STUDIO / NIGHT
FADE IN:
13 A Stops abruptly (thoughtful). He goes back.
He steps in through the wall hole, arriving
again in his flat.
13 B He enters the closet.
SCENE 14 / OUTSIDE / STREE / NIGHT
He comes out of the hole with a motorcycle,
rides on it and goes away. (smiling)
FADE OUT
No comments:
Post a Comment