INT. FUNERAL CHAPEL - DAY
All sounds of the Funeral (sermon, eulogy, etc.) are muted
or muffled.
Moving down the isle, pews filled with mourners.
A young man in the front row.
Track around to a CLOSE UP of his face. Crying slightly.
MATCH CUT TO
CLOSE on the young man, eyes still closed.
EXT. CEMETERY - EVENING
PULL BACK to reveal the grave site and the people leaving.
He takes in a breath and puts in earbuds and begins walking
as the music rushes in.
He strides through the cemetery, out of it/disconnected, to
his car and gets in.
He goes to shut the door and the iPod gets crushed in the
door.
It's just one more drop in the ocean for him and everything
else he's been through recently.
He looks down at the broken iPod, sighs, and closes his
door.
He drives off.
INT. HOUSE - SAME
As the scene progresses, the walls close in on him slowly,
from time to time. Expressed mainly through top views.
He enters his apartment and sets his things down in a pile
on the floor.
He drops himself onto his couch and rubs his face, wiping
away tears and any traces of distress before taking a couple
of sleeping pills.
He swivels his playdeck, sitting on a stack of books by
Plato/Aristotle, on the end table to face him, and stops
when he remembers his broken iPod.
MAN
Right.
He grabs a book and begins to read. Time Lapse and more
books are stacked on the end table as he shifts restlessly
on the couch.
He takes another couple of pills.
There's a TAPPING at his door, faint, he ignores it.
TAPPING again. He ignores it, but obviously noticed it this
time.
TAPPING a third time. He gets up and opens the door.
MAN
What?
There's nothing there.
He stares for a moment, trying to pierce the darkness.
Close on his mouth as he speaks.
MAN
(whispered)
Lenore?
He waits a moment longer and then returns to his couch. He
looks at the bottle of pills, moves to take another, then
stops himself.
A loud RAPPING sounds as something strikes his window.
He sits up and throws it open, looking around as the wind
gusts. A black iPod, hanging by its earphones, dangles from
a tree branch outside. The wind blowing it around, it comes
free of the earphones and flies onto the end table next to
the playdeck.
He picks up the black iPod and examines it. The emblem of a
RAVEN is clearly visible, along with the words RAVEN beneath
on a sticker.
He sets it onto the playdeck and grabs the remote before
lying back down on the couch. He begins fiddling with the
buttons.
MAN
Someone'll be looking for you.
The iPod screen lights up, and plays a brief piece of
ALTERNATIVE MUSIC.
IPOD
Nevermore.
The man lies still, staring. The iPod is quiet and dark once
more, having played for only a moment. He continues to
fiddle with buttons.
MAN
People get things caught in that
tree all the time.
He looks down at the bottle of pills, relents and takes one
more, downing it with a gulp of water.
MAN (CONT.)
Someone'll be by for you tomorrow
and then you'll be gone.
The iPod lights up again, and plays another brief clip of
ALTERNATIVE MUSIC. Each time the iPod plays, it lights up
and the music gets darker and heavier.
IPOD
Nevermore.
The iPod goes dark once more and the man shifts, more amused
than bothered, and sits up.
MAN
Memory must be corrupted if that's
all you can play.
He continues to stare at the iPod on the playdeck.
POV, looking at the playdeck, shift focus to behind where a
photo of him and his wife.
PUSH IN to the photo, keeping the iPod in view but out of
focus.
A WOMAN'S VOICE, indistinct but audible speaks and laughs as
her image, larger than the photo, dances in his view.
Time passes in the night.
MAN O.S.
(crying)
Oh God, let me forget her if only
so I don't feel the pain.
IPOD
Nevermore.
On the man, shocked, angry. He cries out against the iPod.
MAN
The devil take you!
IPOD
Nevermore.
He struggles to ignore the iPod, fluffing cushions on the
couch and turning his back to the iPod. He tosses and turns,
stifling a few cries before giving up. He sits back up,
grabs a couple more pills.
He's out of water so he chews the pills instead.
MAN
So, tell me then, is there, as the
Bible says, balm in Gilead?
IPOD
Nevermore.
His cries grow stronger but he fights to hold them back. He
cradles his head in his hands.
MAN
Oh God, give her back to me. Let me
hold her again.
IPOD
Nevermore.
He grabs the remote to the playdeck and tries to shut it
off.
MAN
Throw you back out where you
belong.
IPOD
Nevermore.
He tries to pull it free from the playdeck but it's stuck
MAN
Get out of my playdeck.
IPOD
Nevermore.
The man hurles it across the room.
MAN
Leave me alone.
The iPod plays a long this time, holding out the word as
though it were the finale of the song.
IPOD
Nevermore.
The man, crying, goes for the bottle of pills, it's empty.
He looks back to the iPod, it's screen glowing, and he rests
his head back on the couch.
Lights begin to fade and his BREATHING gradually becomes the
only sound, slowing to a stop as the scene reaches full
black.
BLACK
* * *
I've been having fun with scripts lately, so I hope you enjoy this one. It's based off of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, in case you hadn't already guessed that. What do you think? Too literal/direct of a translation? Does the adaptation work for you?
That is really inventive. Not sure anyone would want to make it outside of indie filmmakers, but it's good.
ReplyDeleteYes, most short films are that way, and that's what makes them so much fun. As a writer I can do/try things in a short film that I wouldn't generally get to do in a feature.
Delete