Wild Card Script

Premise: A young girl has found herself in a different place and must protect a box that carries all her hopes and desires from the people in gas masks that wish to put her in one as well.  Black and White. A French New Wave look.  Natural lighting for outdoor shots. Music A-Tisket, A-Tasket, and Danse Macabre.

Locations: Ft. Fisher, and a dilapidated bedroom for the final scene.

(Title comes up on a black screen with radio static)

(Scene fade into the back up of a young girl.)

(The camera shifts to the girls side and we follow her with handheld camera)

A young girl is walking along the road at Fort Fisher. The day is sunny.  She is trying to find a place to be alone. We can’t see her full profile. The only sound we can hear is the steps of her shoes on the gravel.  She lifts her head up and we finally see her full profile in a medium shot.  She places her hand over her face to block the sunlight.

(Camera shifts to eye line match low angle) 

(We Jump cut to the top of the hill and see her emerging from the side. We then jumpcut into a medium shot to get her fully into the shot on the hill. She looks into the distance to see the construction ships on the other side. We cut back to see her lightly smiling. She slides the backpack off.

(We go into a high angle close up of her arm opening the bag and see her rummaging.)

She picks up a box and holds it for a few seconds. She moves her finger along the side, like she is contemplating opening it.  She puts it back and then finds what she is looking for a radio. She fiddles with the dials and a song comes on.

(Play a-tisket, a-tasket by Ella Fitzgerald)

A-Tisket, A-tasket

A green and yellow Basket

I wrote a letter to my love

And on the way I dropped it

I dropped it

I dropped it

And on the way I dropped it

A little boy picked it up and put it in his pocket

The song continues and the girl lays down. She turns her head towards the camera and closes her eyes. The music fades into the Danse Macabre which starts out slow.

She moves her head and the camera is facing her in a slightly high angle and she opens her eye to see a giant eye. The giant eye stares at her and shuts and dissolves into the moon.  She wakes up.

(The background is darker with a more sepia-tone)

(She looks around the camera  in her view point. We circle the camera)

She picks her bag up. She coughs almost unnoticeably. The radio has disappeared. She moves the sand away, trying to find it, and spots something poking out. She removes the sand and pulls it out to reveal a gas mask. She stands up on and the camera follows her. She inspects it and turns around to put it in her backpack.

(Cut to a person wearing a gas mask on the hill staring at her)

She gasps and drops the mask and the begins to run down the other side. The images become blurred. We have still photograph of her running through the trees much like La Jette. The Danse Macabre plays again. 

We go back into regular film and follow her towards a door. She bangs on it. The bangs reverberate. She looks over her shoulder. A different person with a gas mask on is walking towards her. She coughs again and finally heaves her full weight on the door and opens it. She shuts it closed and looks around the room.

(The camera is in full pov ) Everything is covered in sheets. Abandoned . The people in gas masks are outside. Seemingly not willing to come inside.

She takes her box out and puts it on the sheet covered table in the center and stares at it. The camera shifts past the 180 degree rule, like time has passed. Like a dream.  She stands up and looks under the covers and finds a radio. She turns it on, and A-Tisket, A-Tasket starts playing. She holds the box close to her side, but a bang from the door startles her and it drops. The top falls off revealing…nothing. She kneels down and looks into the box.  The box contained her self-worth and not it was gone.

(The camera zooms into the darkness until the screen goes black.)

Fades in to the girl in a medium close-up as the light brightens on her, her eyes slowly open. A-Tisket, A-Tasket is still playing. She raises herself from the couch and walks towards the door and opens it

The two people in gas mask are there waiting.  An extreme close-up one of the gas mask’s eyes. She walks backward. The films becomes still photography again and the music keeps playing. A low angle is given to the people in gas masks as they lift up the gas mask they wanted to put on her face. Two still photographs. The first one is her looking up in fear. Second one is closing her eyes in acceptance. The last shot is of the inside of the mask and the screen goes black on the lyric.

My little Yellow Basket

And if she doesn’t bring it back, I think that I will die

End Credits