Skip to main content

Screen play

 OPEN ON – 

INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

Bright natural lighting. Diegetic sound of chopping. No music. Extreme close up of knife chopping an onion on wooden chopping board. 

 

Mid shot of GIRL placing it in frying pan and frying it. Wearing an apron, hair tied up messily. Diegetic sound of frying. 

 

Close up of the frying pan (ominous) 

 

Introducing SCARLET

 

CUT TO - EXT. DAY. STREET

 

Wide shot. Sunny day, bright lighting. Upbeat music. Ambient Sound of cars going by and people talking. BOY walking as listening to music. 

 

Pan to follow his movement. 

 

Introducing DANIEL

 

 

CUT TO – BLACK SCREEN. TITLE PAGE

 

Upbeat music continues. ‘SPAG’

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. HALLWAY

 

Wide shot. High angle. Music fades. Softer lighting. 

 

(DOORBELL)

 

SCARLET walks into the frame. No apron, hair done nicely. Walks up to the door, opens it.

 

DANIEL is stood outside the door. 

 

SCARLET (ENTHUSIASTICLY) 

DANIEL!

DANIEL and SCARLET hug

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

Medium shot. Soft lighting. Diegetic sound of eating

 

DANIEL and SCARLET sat opposite each other round a table with plates of spaghetti Bolognese in front of them eating.

 

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

Close up of DANIEL'S face eating.

 

DANIEL

Grace this is so good oh my God! 

 

How did you make it??

 

SCARLET

Well…(pause)

 

SCARLET takes another mouthful of food. 

 

I got all the ingredients out and started making the sauce.

 

 

CUT TO – INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

Bright natural lighting, medium shot, grace is stood by the stove in an apron and hair tied up messily. Camera moves to a high angle close up of sauce cooking in the pan. 

 

SCARLET moves away from the pan and reaches up to open the cupboard.

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

Medium shot, soft lighting, SCARLET, and DANIEL eating. 

 

SCARLET

Then I realised…

 

CUT TO – INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

Close up of the cupboard, filled with pasta except an empty spot, SCARLET’S hand reaches for that spot. 

 

 

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

SCARLET (dramatically)

I forgot the spaghetti!

 

DANIEL (still eating, but smiling)

Of course, you did

 

CUT TO - EXT. DAY. STREET

 

Music, SCARLET walking down the street casually, listening to music.

 

SCARLET (voice over)

So, I left to go to the shop.

 

I thought everything was completely fine… 

 

CUT TO – INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

The kitchen is left tidy, with just the pan of sauce cooking on the hob. Close up of the sauce bubbling. Next to the sauce is a bottle without a lid. (close up of it). Pan around the kitchen.

 

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

SCARLET and DANIEL still sat round the table.

DANIEL

So, what happened? 

 

SCARLETT

Well while I was gone things went really wrong. I could have sworn I left the sauce on a low heat… 

 

DANIEL (amused)

Oh no.

 

CUT TO – INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

the bottle near the sauce has spilt over and is pouring slowly onto the hob. Close up of the hob gradually turning up the temperature. Then a close up of the sauce bubbling more. 

 

CUT TO - INT. DAY. SHOP

 

SCARLETT walks down an isle of food in the shop and gets to the pasta section. She picks up the spaghetti.

 

SCARLETT (voice over)

I had no idea though; I was just in Sainsbury’s buying the spaghetti.

 

 

CUT TO - INT. DAY. KITCHEN

 

The sauce is bubbling more violently now. More dramatic music playing, as well as diegetic sounds. 

 

Close up of a dog and then cut to a close up of garlic bread on a tray. The dog jumps up and grabs the garlic bread while also knocking over tinned tomatoes spilling all over the floor. 

 

 

CUT TO - EXT. DAY. STREET

 

 Music changes back from dramatic. SCARLETT is walking back down the street again carrying a packet of spaghetti.

 

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

SCARLETT

by the time I got home…

 

pause. SCARLETT puts her hand up to her mouth. 

 

 

CUT TO - EXT. DAY. STREET

 

SCARLETT walks up to the front door of her house. There is a faint sound of a fire alarm. She opens the door and walks into her house. Music still playing from her headphones, 

 

CUT TO - INT. DAY. HALLWAY/ KITCHEN

 

SCARLETT takes off her shoes casually and walks through the hallway into the kitchen. Wide shot of the kitchen filled with smoke; the fire alarm is loud now. Close up of the burnt sauce, dirty surfaces, tomatoes spilt all over the wall and floor being licked up by the dog, garlic bread on the floor etc. 

 

SCARLETT stands there in shock in the doorway. Close up of her face and reaction of shock and close up of the food.

 

CUT TO – INT. EVENING. KITCHEN

 

DANIEL and SCARLETT are still sat round the table DANIEL has finished eating and is now laughing.

 

SCARLETT

Yeah, it was awful. 

 

Probably the last time I’ll ever cook spaghetti.

 

DANIEL

I can’t believe you pulled it off in the end though this was so good!

 

(Pause)

 

SCARLETT (looking pleased with herself)

Yeah, I was amazed with myself as well.

 

DANIEL gets up from the table and grabs his and SCARLETT’S plates and brings them up to the bin. When he opens the bin, he sees an empty bag of takeaway and has a moment of realisation.

 

 

CUT TO - INT. DAY. HALLWAY


High angle, door bell rings



CUT TO - EXT. DAY. DOORSTEP


Delivery bag waiting on the door step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Ellington Kid

It begins with an extreme close up of the Kebab guy chopping the meat , which is later shown to foreshadow the rest of the story. This paired with the diegetic sound emphasises the use of the knife.  As he stumbles forwards he is placed in the centre of the shot, looking past the camera giving us a sense of his panic and need for a way to escape. The bright lights are symmetrical on either side of the Ellington Kid drawing the viewer's attention to him.  The pace slows in this close up shot, building the suspense. The smooth pan between the two characters shows their power and ease, the man has a slight smile showing his confidence. His red shirt stands out against he white associates them with blood and power and contrasts with the all black outfits of the stabbers showing two separate sides.  The low angle makes them seem more threatening

The Arrival

The arrival is a minimalistic short film that uses mine en scene and a voice over to show Anna contemplating over her pregnancy. The film has a sense of a play using the cafe as a small stage and putting Anna in the spotlight. The director used a photo of a young woman sitting in a cafe as visual inspiration for the film capturing the photos mystery.  The use of diegetic sound in the background acts as prompts for her thoughts, for example the trivial question of whether or not to have decaf, which would usual be non consequential but emphasises the fact that she has to make a difficult decision. As well as this a baby's cry acts as a turning point for her line of thought.  Throughout the film, the camera stays in the same position but slowly gets closer to her face until she is fully spotlighted, showing the dramatic nature of her thought process and the decision she has to make.