Skip to main content

The Dollar

This is something I thought I'd toss on here while I'm finishing up another short story.

This is a script that I actually filmed twice, once as a mostly silent film and again as a completely silent film. Sadly, neither version exists. Hard drives crashing can be a bitch, since I was really happy with the second one.

INT - UNKNOWN LOCATION

CLOSE ON a desk.

Two hands slap a wrinkled dollar bill on the desk.

They ably tape the two pieces together, flip the bill over and tape the other side.

CLOSE ON the hands putting a stack of cash and the "dollar" in a deposit envelope.

I/E. CAR - NIGHT

CLOSE ON the hands driving--steering--with the deposit envelope in one hand.

EXT. BANK NIGHT DEPOSIT - NIGHT

CLOSE ON the hands depositing the envelope in the night deposit slot.

Track back to see a HOBO sleeping outside the bank.

LONG SHOT of the hobo sleeping on his bench.

The depositor gets back in his car and pulls out of the bank driveway, driving away.

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

The car speeds away, waking the hobo.

He gets up and walks.

EXT - CENTER STREET - NIGHT

The hobo walks down the downtown street in the fog...

FADE OUT:

EXT. PARK - MORNING

The hobo sleeps on a park bench.

A bird chirps, once again waking him.

EXT. BANK - MORNING

An SUV pulls up to the bank drive-thru. The DRIVER is rich, a jocular swine sort of fellow.

He's making a withdraw.

DRIVER
My account number is 188409.
I need to withdraw...

INSERT a computer screen with a web page advertising the SUPER BASS-O-MATIC TK-421 bass car stereo system at the local S-Mart. It costs $354.

DRIVER (Cont'd)
...Three Hundred and fifty four dollars.

I/E. SUV - CONTINUOUS

He waits patiently...

We hear the tube going...

He gets his money...

TELLER
(filtered)
Thank you for banking with us,
have a nice day.

On the top of the stack of cash he gets is the wrinkled, filthy dollar.

The driver pays no mind yet...

He drives away from the bank and plays his bass-filled music far too loud.

He counts his money, finally taking noticing the dollar.

His face recoils in disgust and he lets out an annoyed sigh.

In an act of sheer hatred for this torn dollar, he tosses the bill away, out the window of his SUV.

EXT. CITY STREET - MORNING

The HOBO is walking as the SUV whizzes past him.

The dollar bill floats out of the window, hits the street and blows into the gutter.

It creeps up over the curb and rolls over the hobo's feet. He looks down at it and his face brightens.

He picks it up and continues his walk.

INT. COFFEE SHOP

The hobo uses the dollar to buy himself a warm cup of coffee.

He sits in the window and enjoys the warmth while drinking it.

EXT. CITY STREET

The hobo walks toward the horizon, hands in his pockets, starting another day...

FADE TO BLACK

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, this is amazing! It sounds like it could totally be in an independent film festival or something. It would definitely be good as a silent movie; try filming it again and back it up on a reliable computer.

Popular posts from this blog

The Way It Is

            The whistle signaling quitting time was always his favorite time.  It was the high water mark for the rest of the day, representing that first moment of freedom matched with the highest level of energy he’d have for the rest of the night.  He turned his dirty earth-moving machine off, ceasing the rumble in his seat and in the engine.  Quietly, he pulled the earplugs from his ears, and collected his gloves and cooler.  The cooler held remnants of his lunch which had consisted of two ham and cheese sandwiches, a dill pickle, a bag of chips, and an apple.             Each step back to his truck, parked four blocks away, ached down into his core.  Shifting his weight right, he could feel the burn on his ankle and knee.  Shifting his weight left provided the same effect on the other side.         ...

The Hope of Humanity

This is but a sample of this story.  The complete version is available in my print collection  Man Against the Future.   From there, you can order signed copies, or buy it for the Kindle or the Nook. The year was 2081 and so many of the social problems humans had faced over the last hundred years were still a pretty big problem. Most people were still poor, corporations still ran the government, and politicians were constantly caught with prostitutes of both sexes, living and dead. When politicians weren't blowing each other's personal lives completely out of proportion for political gain, they were starting wars with other countries. Sometimes, they would even start wars with people inside their own country, but those were usually ideological. Perhaps the biggest and worst change was that the polar ice caps had melted and much of the Mojave Desert was now prime beachfront property, and the air across the globe tasted like you were sucking on a tailpipe. As pressi...

The Scoop

So, I've decided to save the below "About Me" in amber, trapped in time, as it were and sort of start over from scratch since the mission of the site is a little different now. I'm making a go of earning money for all of my writing. I'm working to convert my body of work here into something that will provide me some means of income that will justify how much time I spend writing in a day. I would really appreciate if you'd consider buying some of my stories and spreading the word. So, enjoy the slightly outdated bio about myself below, I'll start a new one up in its entirety soon. 03/2010 Me, circa February 2009. I'm posting short stories up on this blog. At least once a month I'll do so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I used to write short stories quite often, but my prose petered out after I became a screenwriter. This is my way of relearning prose. If I didn't publish it here I probably wouldn't publish it anywhere. If I didn't p...