Film 196A Script
Last updated 2-11-07
Dreams
Screenplay by Bret Malley
EXT: House in the countryside.
INT: Spacious house.
Close up: A nicely framed family picture of a mother and father playing with their son. The picture sits on a table. A women's hand picks it up and wraps it in tissue paper and exits the frame. Suddenly, a box drops into view and sits where the picture was on the table. Zoom out to medium shot as the father picks up the box and begins walking to the front door with it. The frame follows the dad with the box as he walks past his son, Joseph. The frame comes to rest on Joseph, a nine year old boy who is sitting in front of hand written music, and struggling to play the recorder through the mayhem of his parents packing. The house is in total disarray, a mêlée of boxes and unpacked possessions. The boy is desperately intent on his music as his parents toss disagreements back and forth at one another. Joseph is playing a distinct melody. The father heavily puts down the box and turns towards Joseph.
Father: “Joe! Go play outside, please, we’re trying to pack. Maybe go hiking before we leave, it’s a long drive to the city.”
The boy knocks the music stand over violently and runs outside, music falls to the floor in a flutter while in the distance, Joseph leaves the house with little fists clenched around his instrument.
EXT: The country hills are dry and roll for miles without another house in sight. The boy climbs a gentle slope and at the top walks beneath the branches of a gigantic oak tree. As the boy sits on the ground, he begins to cry, talking to nothing in particular.
Joseph: “I don’t want to go.”
After a moment his tears subside and are replaced with occasional sniffs as he blankly studies the ground. He suddenly sees a corner of what looks like a piece of paper sticking out of the ground beneath his feet. The boy wipes the remaining tears from his red eyes and slowly unburies a scrolled sheet of ancient looking parchment. It is crumpled and has many stains and tares, but still mostly intact. His eyes widen as he flattens the parchment out against his knee and sees what looks to be something written on it. Joseph looks around as he begins to hear faint music. He gasps and drops the parchment suddenly as the symbols begin moving and shifting faintly in and out of one another. Some of the symbols solidify for a moment to become what clearly looks like musical notes before they fade and change again. At the top of the page in flourishing bold calligraphy reads the word “Dreams” which remains solid and unchanging. The boy dashes recklessly through the field back to the house, parchment clutched tightly to chest.
INT: The boy runs inside the house.
Joseph: “Mom! Dad! Look! Look what I found! Here, hold this- can you hear it? Do you see?”
His parents look at the parchment. It has no writing or symbols on it, there is no sound of music. The boy’s face reddens as he despairingly turns to go back outside with the parchment tightly gripped in his little fist, his jaws now clenched. He reburies the parchment beneath the tree with quick jerking movements, muttering about it making him look stupid in front of his parents. Fade to black.
INT: “13 years later,” Joseph is in a college music class and is approached by his professor when the class ends.
Professor: “Unless anyone has any further questions..? Don’t forget! Turn in your orchestration this Friday! Joseph, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something, is now a good time?”
Joseph: “Yeah, of course, what’s up?”
Professor: “First of all, how is your father doing?”
Joseph: “He’s doing… alright”
Professor: “and how are you holding up? Your class work has been excellent.”
Joseph: “yeah, I’m doing pretty well, overall.”
Professor: “That’s good to hear. I’m asking because I have a serious proposition for you, only if you think you’re up for it.”
Joseph: “Of course, what is it?”
Professor: “There is a submission deadline in ten weeks for the national competition of college music students. Most colleges in the US are commissioning one of their students to compose an original piece that will be judged and played at the national music festival in the fall... Are you interested?
Joseph: “Are you serious? Oh my god, yes! That sounds amazing! This is exactly what I want to do.”
The professor smiles and shakes Joseph’s hand in a binding way.
Professor: “It pays $2000 upon submission and will instantly get you recognized on a national level if you do well.”
The professor sobers and holds out a finger in warning.
Professor: “Also know though, that not only your own reputation is riding on this prestigious competition. This is how schools attract support from patrons, this is how we get endowments.”
The young man’s smile fades, replaced by seriousness and a single nod. Fade to black.
INT: “Week 9,” the young man watches traffic drive by with bloodshot eyes out of his bedroom window and sighs, in the background are sheets of music scattered over his bed and room. With heavy shoulders he slumps over to his bed and clears off the music. Fully clothed he then falls asleep on the bed. The room fades as he begins to have dreams of his professor’s menacing finger pointing at him accusingly, sentencing a stark future. His professor changes into his father pointing to him as a young boy. Slowly the nightmares change to childhood adventures, of climbing trees, hiking through endless fields of dry grassy hills, finding caves and special rocks, bugs and animals. After these wistful visions, he dreams of finding a place that appears to visibly shake with vibrations, with music coming from all directions as he looks around. It is the place of his childhood, the large oak tree and fence stand as an island on a golden sea of brittle grass. With a jolt, he wakes up, sunshine on his face. He whispers the word “dreams” and goes to his desk filled with crumpled paper, he moves the mess aside to pull out his cell phone. The Picture frame from his childhood sits face down on this desk.
Joseph: “Mom? Do you have the address of our old place in the foothills?”
EXT: “Day of Deadline.” Joseph pulls into the driveway of his childhood house and parks near the “for sale” sign in the front. No other cars are in the driveway and the house looks just as vacant. He gets out and begins hiking with a small pack. He travels along the old fence and up the gentle slope to his favorite tree, the large oak at the corner of the property. He ducks under the branches and stands still, staring at the grass around the roots. It is the exact picture from his dream, but without the vibrations of music coming from everything. He listens and only hears the breeze through dying grass and oak branches. Near the base of the tree he bends and starts pulling up some of the grass, revealing a corner of the arcane parchment. Staring at it, he remembers himself as a little boy hiking back to this spot with the parchment and reburying it with more tears, covering the word “Dreams” last. Joseph holds his breath and reaches and pulls it the rest of the way out and lays it gently on the ground. He slowly releases his breath as if crushed, his brows furrow. The parchment is in the exact same condition as long ago, with the same calligraphy title of “Dreams,” but there are no shifting symbols of musical notes, no sounds of music either, the page is blank. Joseph closes his eyes slowly and barks a small uneasy laugh after a short time.
Joseph: “What kind of desperate idiot am I?”
He leans against the oak’s trunk and stares at the blank parchment. The afternoon begins to fade to evening as Joseph sits at the base of the tree, alone on the grassy hill. After the sky is noticeably darker, Joseph pulls out his cell phone from his pocket. Joseph hesitates, then slowly dials.
Joseph: “Hi this is Joseph. No. That’s because I haven’t sent it yet. (pause) And I’ve decided that I am not going to either. (Pause) I’m sorry. I know. (Pause) I understand. yes. I know what this means, and I am … I’m sorry.
Joseph hangs up and leans his head back against the oak tree, eyes squeezing shut.
Joseph: “I’m sorry. Dad, I couldn’t...”
A tear rolls down his cheek and is quickly wiped.
FLASHBACK: Joseph wipes a tear, he’s on the phone at his desk back in his bedroom. The room is orderly with fresh sheet music stacked neatly at the corner. Joseph squeezes his eyes and releases.
Joseph: “What time… what time did he… go?”
FADE TO PRESENT: When the tears and sobbing subside, Joseph begins to look around and notices the things around him. After a time, he sees himself when he was young and slowly smiles. Young Joseph is climbing on the tree and swinging from a rope swing that is now tattered and old. He watches himself finding the parchment for the first time. Close up of the boys face showing interest and excitement, the boy’s hands rest on the word dreams.
Joseph reaches to pick up the parchment as his older self. His hand touches the bold title and immediately he hears the music from his dreams and childhood, the world spins around him in a blur and he collapses to the ground.
Joseph’s eyes flutter while closed. Evening passes to night, filled with night sounds. Early morning light touches Joseph’s face. Joseph stirs from his long sleep, eyes flutter open from the REM state. Slowly, he sits up and looks at the parchment. Music can be heard and there are the faint shifting symbols. Joseph looks around at his surroundings.
Montage of images from his life, building up in speed and rhythm. Joseph laughing as a child running through a field. He Climbs trees, exploring. Music can be heard louder.
Present Joseph grabs a pencil from his pack and begins quickly writing music shorthand onto the parchment.
A series of dissolves as he is writing: Joseph kissing a girl, getting an A on a music assignment. Joseph continues to write down what he hears, smiling with pauses to listen and think. Young Joseph is tickled by his father. As he is writing on the parchment, he chuckles and continues to write down more music. Joseph sees himself as a boy again, but this time moving away from the old house. Key change to minor. A knee is scraped, he cries as a boy, his mother pats his back, He has a thermometer in his mouth, his father sits down next to him on his bed. Joseph pauses from his notation, music continues. Older Joseph cries at his desk with cell phone on the table, the room is orderly with the stack of paper at the corner, a continuation of when he found out about his dad.
Joseph continues to write again, Jaws clenched, fighting back tears. Pan outward until the entire tree can be seen alone on the hill. Slow fade to black.
EXT: “Exactly 40 years later,” it is early evening and Joseph’s old family house now has several cars in the driveway and the windows flood with warm light, the “for sale” sign gone.
INT: Documents from major production companies and studios are spread over a nice desk, surrounding the same framed family picture lit by lamplight. Music awards and plaques fill up one entire wall. At the top of the wall is hanging the first place award for the national music festival. Joseph is sitting at his desk, he wears a wedding band and thick glasses. Sitting, he smiles and stares at the old parchment, now encased in glass and hanging on the wall.
FLASHBACK: fading in on audience members reacting to music with his childhood and dreams theme. Tears fill their eyes, then laughter, surprise and hope. Hands clap. The roaring sound of the audience can heard. He is swarmed after the show, Men in nice suits give him their cards. He shakes hands with hundreds of people.
INT: PRESENT: Joseph reaches and takes the parchment out of the case and holds it in his hands; he whispers and touches the word “dreams” one last time. He gets up and hikes to the old tree, and lays the parchment to rest beneath the grass and oak tree. With one last smile and farewell glance, he turns and walks away from the parchment and into the growing darkness. Darkness fades to light and back to dark, again and again in rapid succession, covering countless days; the written markings on the parchment begin to shift and vanish one symbol at a time, except for the word “dreams.”
Darkness lightens to day, and another young boy climbs over the fence to the old tree. He spots the parchment and runs to pick it up. Eyes suddenly open wide as a quick gasp leaps out of the young boy.
The end.
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