Under Water By Lucas Paz
Final draft May 13th 2015
(PRE)FORMA-SE Artistic Productions
facebook.com/preformase lucasfppaz@gmail.com +1 (213) 361 5226
EXT. BEACH - DAY BEGIN MONTAGE 1)WAVES sound SII (V.O. OVER MONTAGE) (singing) A glance does not say anything And at the same time it says everything Like rain on your face Or an old treasure map A truth does not say anything And at the same time it hides everything (2x) 2)Sii’s fingers touching a BRAILLE LETTER 3)Waves hitting rocks 4)INT. APARTMENT - DAY Hands cover Sii’s eyes and touch her neck repeatedly finding where to put a SHELL NECKLACE on it. WHITE LILIES on the foreground 5)Sii stirs and drinks RED WINE 6)BEACH A body dragged by waves 7)APARTMENT Food boiling over in PRESSURE COOKER & PANS(boil and pot whistle sound) 8)BEACH A BOTTLE dragged by waves 9)APARTMENT Sii prays by CANDLES of all sizes, SAINTS’ IMAGES, WHITE LILIES and PICTURES of her and her son when he was a kid, them at the beach, him kissing her on the cheek holding white lilies. His eyes are vague in all the pictures. He is blind. While she prays she holds tight and kisses the SHELL NECKLACE PRAYERS sound. 10)BEACH Sii’s son dragged by waves 11)BEACH Waves hitting rocks 12)BEACH Seals scream
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13)BEACH WHITE LILIES drowning 14)BEACH Seagulls cross the sky shouting 15)APARTMENT Sii cries holding trembling hand on mouth 16)APARTMENT Sii burns LETTERS SII (V.O.) The most important thing life has ever taught me was to dive deep 17)Sea advancing, top view 18)Sea advancing, side view from the shore 19)APARTMENT Mouth blows out CANDLE. The smoke rises AMBULANCE sound fuses with-ALARM CLOCK sound 20)Eyes open Strong METRO RAILS sound Sound of SIRENS, JACKHAMMER, HORNS, HELICOPTER. 21)EXT. CITY - DAY Sii on a DARK BLOOD TRANSLUCENT DRESS, a DARKER BLOOD NET JACKET, RED SHOES, tied hair, walks on busy streets. Her body and mind oppressed by the city surroundings of Downtown LA, high buildings with led panels, busy traffic, dirty graffiti walls, signs everywhere. The BLIND RAT, a blind homeless man with RAT-TAIL, DREADLOCKS, wearing SUNGLASSES lots of LAYERS of CLOTHES, with OBJECTS like WATER BOTTLES and DOLLS attached to them as if in a BIG FISHING NET. He is in all of those landscapes staring at nothing, facing us. Sii walks from foreground to background till she disappears on landscape. The BLIND RAT goes on an opposite logic: in a game of perspective. SII (V.O.) From this daily sea of confusion and fury of sounds, the most disturbing noise banging in my head for all these years is the sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks by the shore and the seagulls warning me that he will never come back.
3. Sii gradually gets more disturbed and dizzier. She is small and fragile among big skyscrapers. She kneels, trying to find a place to hold on to. SII (V.O.) Where on track did I ever loose my strength to just be? It is not about Loneliness. I feel my mind trapped, my body just being dragged by the days. Thing is: when he left me without a warning, without saying goodbye, I just lost the best part of me. Sound of VITAL SIGNS MACHINE. 22)BEACH Sii kneels staring at the sea, short breaths. SII (V.O.) What brought me to life also became my curse. Feet back and forth hesitate to enter the ocean. Waves come over feet. Decisive feet lead straight inside the ocean. AMBULANCE Siren. Sii is inside the sea, water on her knees. On her knees, she leans forward on the shore, almost as a reverence. 23)She dips her face in. BUBBLES sound. Uniform sound of VITAL SIGNS MACHINE. 24)Her body is dragged by the waves. She is "cleaning", freeing herself. END MONTAGE EXT. BEACH - DAY Sii comes out of the sea, BLUE TRANSLUCENT DRESS, GREEN NET JACKET, hair down, smiles. She looks to her right hand. It holds a GREEN BOTTLE with a LETTER inside. She opens the BOTTLE with her TEETH. She tries to read the LETTER but is in BRAILLE. She touches the letter avidly and rubs it onto her face. Sii looks around. Nobody. Till she sees-Far on her right side a BALD MAESTRO on his BLACK TUXEDO orchestrates the waves with a BATON on his right hand while holding a SIGN with his left hand. He does the same with his left hand. Silence. (CONTINUED)
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An audience of four members in their grey suits: a PIG, two ZEBRAS and a LEOPARD. Instrumental non-diegetic soundtrack "É doce morrer no mar" plays. Bald Maestro continues orchestrating with right hand and raises SIGN in which is written APPLAUSE. All of them applaud. Pig is on left side facing the sea; Zebras in the middle look at each other (sound of LOUD LAUGHS) then they migrate to the other side of pig far from leopard. Leopard comes closer to pig and rubs his hand on pig’s shoulder. Maestro orchestrates audience to "drink" SAND,what they all do. Sii stares at that absurd spectacle. Leopard takes mask away and bites pig’s ass. LATER A little person on his OLD BURGUNDY SUIT, too big for him, rotten YELLOW GLOVES with holes, as well as the VEST and the BOOTS with loose shoelaces, approaches her from the opposite side, a street magician, on his TOP HAT. He has RABBIT’S EARS, he pursues his life by tricking people’s attention to what he wants, making magic, that’s how he becomes ’taller’ than the others, in "wisdom". On top of a ROCK he waves his CANE as if asking Sii to help him down as he says LIL’BIG ME (Playful and sarcastic) Come closer, come closer,"Lil’Big Me" is the tallest one around! And I can prove it!-He gets rid of his CANE and handles 2 RED FOAM BALLS --Whoever balls, is meanwhile so I keep
LIL’BIG ME (CONT’D) figures the mystery of my sure taller than me, but nobody was ever able to, being the tallest one--
He points to his brain LIL’BIG ME (CONT’D) --around. Sii is distracted by her only goal: decipher the mysterious message on the letter.
(CONTINUED)
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SII Can you tell me what is here? Lil’Big Me keeps moving the red foam balls from one hand to another making them appear and disappear LIL’BIG ME Sure, sure, but first you ’gotta’ figure where is the ball and prove that you are in fact taller-He points to his brain LIL’BIG ME (CONT’D) --than me. SII Sir Mysteries player, or Lil’Big Me, whichever you prefer, please tell me what is here? I believe this comes from my son. He was eaten by the waves.(Beat) Aren’t you a smart mind who deciphers in a blink of an eye whatever is in front of our eyes? Come on, show me how tall you really are. LIL’BIG ME This wouldn’t be very wise! For me to prove you I know something, I’ve got to learn it first. After all I’m not a prophet! No, No! I just know how to make things appear and disappear. You were talking about your son.-He leads her to sit on the sand LIL’BIG ME (CONT’D) -- Once I took care of a little worm, smaller, much smaller than me. And then another day... I swear, I swear I put it in a box and, and I just poked a LITTLE hole. But when I opened it, it wasn’t there anymore. I swear, I swear it couldn’t go through the hole. All I could find was this weird thing with, with wings and, and it was gone (Eloquent) So magical. In a beautiful flight out from my sight. And my worm wasn’t there anymore so, so I got (MORE) (CONTINUED)
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6. LIL’BIG ME (CONT’D) (cont’d) a bit confused. From that day on I learned that I could make thing appear and disappear. YES! Not only that, but bring new things to life.
Sii stands up SII What? Bring my son back! LIL’BIG ME I wish-Lil’Big Me sits her again --but at this moment I can just give him a pair of wings. And for that to happen first you need to figure where is the ball! Then? Where is he? I can put him inside that same box. (Mysterious, eloquent and transcending) And I promise, after some days he will disappear and a lot of worms will appear instead. Then we keep those worms into the same box and after some days, they will also disappear and a lot of those weird things with wings will appear instead. What do you think? It will be fun! Tell me where is the ball? Sii scans the horizon from left to right impatiently looking for something, with a little and odd smile drawn on her mouth. It’s a smile that resembles more to a cry. EXT BEACH - DAY FLASHBACK - MONTAGE 1)Hand coming out of the sea and drowning underwater. 2)CANDLE being lit. WHITE LILIES on background. 3) Mouth kissing SHELL NECKLACE 4)Mouth screaming. HORN sounds. END OF FLASHBACK A drunk beautiful angelical transvestite all covered in GOLDEN JEWELRY on her PURPLE DRESS with YELLOW and BLUE BUTTERFLY WINGS crosses them. One of her HIGH HEELS breaks, she stumbles and Lil’Big Me catches her.
(CONTINUED)
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7. LIL’BIG ME Careful?! The taller you are the bigger the fall. Yeah, mumma always used to tell me that. So wise that woman. Look what she did?
Lil’Big Me touches his hat and disappears, the hat falls on the ground. Trans Me jams apparently disconnected thoughts. TRANS ME I’m just too big. Too big for myself, it doesn’t fit. I’m overflowing, darling, excuse me, but I’m overflowing. Where is the restroom? Tell me where is the restroom? Give me nothing, but my restroom. I can’t pee in the sea. I am a...(lady) since my first constituted cell, since my first grown hair. Why all the swords? Why all the spears and swords and stones and knives and guns pointed at me? Give me my restroom now! Get me out of this cage! Why do you eat me in your dreams and beat me awaken? Still holding the GREEN BOTTLE Sii hands out the LETTER SII Excuse me can you tell me what is here? Trans Me overlaps Sii’s question TRANS ME What is that fear of yourself that imprisons him, sorry, me in your cage? I was born called cage. I was born in a different body, in a different body than my head ever thought of. I wanna peeeeeeeee... I wanna be SII I just need someone to listen to me. Nothing else, but listen to this. No magic, no trick, no traps, no fear, please, please help me? Trans Me adresses Sii but actually says it for herself
(CONTINUED)
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TRANS ME Wake up woman! This is not a Fairy Tale or a Sci-Fi. Here animals speak and we know all of them by Address, Name and Last name! So excuse me did you figure where is my restroom? Really get me out of here I only need my own restroom, a restroom that I can call MINE! You, what do you want? What are you dying for? SII I’m waiting for my son. He’s there swimming, I’ve called him already, but he won’t listen to me. TRANS ME I’m not an animal; I’m a human being. I released him long time ago. He’s gone. Trans Me snaps her fingers He’s there, but let him go. Give her a bit of space for herself now. Breathe (said to herself). Breathe (said to Sii; Beat). Sorry but I’m literally peeing, I’m flying out of here. Trans Me takes flight out till she disappears on the sky. Sii follows it with her eyes. The Blind Rat is far on the horizon on top of a HILL. Sii looks down and finds a big SEASHELL. Approaches it, but hesitates before touching it. Sii builds SAND CASTLES around the SEASHELL. The BOTTLE with the LETTER back again inside is out of the fortress. A shadow appears towards the shell. Sii is already slightly sad and desperate when she sees the Blind Rat from the beginning of the story just standing. Staring at nothing. Sii suddenly stands up holding the BOTTLE. SII You! You! Of course! I’ve been seeing you for so long. Everywhere I go you are there. Well actually I guess I’ve been looking for nobody else but you. Sii cries of joy and desperation altogether. (CONTINUED)
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Sii instinctively approaches him for a hug but stops in the middle. SII (Excited) I think you can help me, look at this! Do you know what is here? I mean (sigh) you are my last hope. Muffled sounds of Sii speaking. He doesn’t move. He is not only blind, he is actually deaf too, although he feels her presence. He suddenly grabs her face very firmly, at first, and then touches it gently. Touches her shaky shoulders, her trembling hands as scanning her figure. There is fear, aggressiveness, kindness and sensuality in these moves. Blind Rat grabs the BOTTLE. Takes the LETTER out. Smells it, like a rat. He moves his SUNGLASSES up; his eyes are dead fix on her. As if staring at her. She is extremely uncomfortable. He slowly puts the SUNGLASSES back. He covers her eyes with his hands. She closes her eyes calmly. His hands examine her NECKLACE. All in a sudden he hugs her, she is shocked, static and disgusted with his smell. It turns into a long hug, till she hugs him back, finally disarmed, finding shelter on him. He covers his SUNGLASSES with his right hand, and lifts the hand up keeping it on the forehead as if envisioning something on the horizon. He drops the BOTTLE, tears the LETTER and leaves it to be blown by the wind. Then he makes a HAND SIGN of legs walking steps. She is frozen, horrified, he just torn her last piece of hope apart. She runs towards the PIECES in vain, they are gone. She is about to hit him, fist up in the air, shaking, he gently reaches her eyes again. EXT BEACH - DAY Sii uncovers her eyes letting her hands drop to her sides. Waves dance on the ocean. A BURIED BODY. A YELLOW SNORKEL on his mouth. WHITE LILIES on his left hand. We only see Sii’s mouth
(CONTINUED)
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SII (sings) If one day you need me, I will be nothing And at the same time I will be everything Because in your eyes are my wings-Sii’s hands take the NECKLACE off and attach it to the BOTTLE. SII (CONT’D) --And the shore where I drown Because in your eyes are my wings And the shore where I drown... Sii writes a LETTER with a FOUNTAIN PEN on a WOOD TABLE by the sea. There is a GREEN BOTTLE on top of the TABLE with a NECKLACE attached to it, and the SEASHELL that she found. SII (V.O.) It’s always time to learn and it seems that, after all, it took me so long to realize that Life is just like the ocean: you can sail or you can be dragged by the waves till you drown, it is not a matter of how fearless you are, deep losses seem to be important part of the path. He won’t come back. He is here. It’s your ability to build your Wisdom, your Freedom and your Courage to keep sailing after allFlashback of each one of the characters: hat falling, stumble wearing broken heel, blind rat lifting his sunglasses. - The most important thing life has ever taught me was to dive deep.