Screenplay - Draft #2

Lost

Dominic Griffiths

FADE UP:

A series of shots begin panning across an array of family photographs with each set of eyes being blocked out by a black rectangle or blur.

Cuts to an establishing shot of a plain hall introducing the voice of Laura talking distantly from another room of mundane realities.

Cuts to a close up on the side of a man’s face with. Becoming more and more blurry as the volume of Laura’s dialogue increases along with the introduction of a ringing ear sound effect and static. Cutting suddenly and returning to the clear shot with normal audio.

Laura: Are you listening to me?

Man:Continuing to stare forward. Yes, yes. Party at 19:00.

Laura continues to talk as the Man continues to look out.                      

Man: -Coffee?

Laura: Please, you know how I feel about interrupting. 

Cuts to daughter on the other side of the kitchen in the front of the shot, with wife in the back of the shot on the same side, lost in talking. With complete focus on the daughter and her line you can only see a blurred silhouette of the wife in the back.

Daughter: For me please.

Centred shot of just mugs with the Man’s hand reaching in to take two. Back to the first shot as he begins to make the coffees. 

Laura: Did you find the photos of them because we’ve got to frame them by tonight.

Man: What photos?

Laura: I asked you last week, you better go look for them we haven’t got long. And you also need to go get the frames.

A shot tracking the Man’s hands across the kitchen with a mug in his hand.

Man: Yes sir.

He winks at daughter as he hands it over to the daughter.

Daughter (smiling): Cheers Dad.

The camera follows the Man at a midshot level out of the kitchen and onto the stairs. As he walks up the stairs the camera, perfectly smooth and level at his head, passing by a set of 3 family photos on the stairwell behind him. Once the camera approaches the top of the stairs the camera movement slows down and he walks out of the shot, coming to rest on the final picture of an old man with his daughter.

Cut to a shot of his full body, from behind, pulling stairs down from a hatch in the ceiling.

Daughter (slightly shouting from downstairs): I’m off now, you gonna be ok?

Man (continuing to open the attic and in a jokey tone): Don’t worry about me, I’ve got Laura to protect me.

Laura (slightly shouting from downstairs): Careful

Daughter: Ok dad, be safe.

Sound of front door closing as he begins to step up the ladder.

A shot level with the ground in the dark attic, as the Man’s hands come into shot, wrapped around the side of the hatch as to pull himself up. 

A completely black shot at first, followed by a lid being lifted of the top of the camera – realising that the camera is inside of a cardboard box. As his hand reaches in towards the camera it cuts to an over the shoulder picture of the Man kneeling and pulling out a photo album. 

As he flips through looking for a picture a montage of perfectly framed developed cameras with the faces blurred or scratched out. He finds the picture he needs and takes it out of the film of the album. 

A shot of his face suddenly look up as a bus horn is played. He begins to squint his eyes as a warm light, turning white, increases in brightness more and more, along with the sound of the horn and driving getting louder and louder.

As the noise reaches climax it cuts to a wide shot of a bus passing by a bus stop perfectly centred, with the man standing in it. After a few seconds of silence another bus passes.

Before the bus has finished passing by it cuts to a slow panning shot between the isles of a supermarket, with the man walking along the isles in the distance, as it gets to the isle with frames. The camera rests as the man walks down the aisle towards the camera and the camera does the same, smoothly going down the aisle towards the man. The camera curves round to his hand as he pulls a frame from the shelf. It falls to rest on the side of his body at a midshot, looking down at the frame. In the distance behind him you see a blurred figure walk towards him. The similar sound sequence to the beginning starts however less intense and cut short sooner. 

Friend: ----------- (muffled due to sound)

The Man sees the woman and the growing noise comes to an end. Switch to close up of Man’s face.

Man: Oh, sorry away with the fairies.

Return to shot of woman.

Friend: Don’t be silly, how are you doing?

Switch to close up of Man’s face.

Man: Good, just picking up a photo frame.

Return to shot of woman.

Friend: It’s so nice to see you out and about.

Switch to close up of Man’s face.

Man (laughing awkwardly): I try

Return to shot of woman, as she reaches to rub his arm. A point of view shot is shown as he looks down at where she is rubbing her arm, and then back up to her smiling face.

Friend: How are you getting on at home?

Man (laughing): Laura’s not that bad.

The woman’s face drops and she looks down for a moment and then back up.

Woman: Yes of course. 

In the background, on the supermarket announcement speaker, static plays mixed with a tiny portion of barely recognizable music, followed by a normal staff announcement ‘Please can – come to check out 3’. The woman continues to talk about something. The focus switches from the woman to her background, and begins to zoom in past her onto the items, as the items on the shelves start to vibrate more and more aggressively. In the background you hear the woman muffled ‘Are you alright?’. 

As the item are falling off the shelves, getting closer and closer to the Man, he looks down at the frame in his hand beginning to shake and he drops it on the ground, as it falls the camera quickly pans down with it. When it hits the ground, it switches to him outside his front door.

Man: Shit-

A long shot is shown, with him perfectly in the centre of the screen, in the arch of his front door. He rings the door bell, gets down on his knees and looks through his letterbox.

It cuts to a hot from inside the house, metres away from the front door, but you can see him peering through the letterbox. With a complete loss of the ambient sound of the outside, we cut to several internal shots of the empty rooms.

We return to a midshot of him brushing the glass into one pile, then going through his pockets and taking his keys out, and opening the door. We cut to the same interior shot as before as he opens the door.

Man (Calling out): Laura

Beat

Man: Laura??

The man walks out of the shot, which is held on the door, and the pile of glass from the frame is no longer there. 

We cut to the kitchen doorway as the Man walks in and Laura is not there.