Scene
one: Interior – an unidentifiable office cubicle in artificial
light
A
rear view of a man sat at a computer terminal. He is typing away at
an unseen keyboard. He is of unidentifiable age. He is wearing a
suit. He has short hair.
Narrator
James had a
problem.
James
stops typing. He sighs and holds his head in his left hand.
Narrator
He had no
face.
Scene two:
Interior – a bathroom in artificial light.
Rear
view: James is stood, shirtless, in front of a large mirror. He
gently and slowly touches his face with his hands.
Narrator
Actually he had a
face and he knew he had a face. He could see it in the mirror. Eyes,
nose and mouth were there where they were supposed to be, on the
front of his head. He could see it.
His
hands fall to his side.
Narrator
It’s just nobody
else could.
Scene three:
Exterior – a busy city street – daylight.
James
walks away from the camera. He is dressed in the same suit as in
scene one. People pass by, uncomprehending.
Narrator
They saw through his
face, around his face and everything but his face. There was nothing
there except visual ambience.
Scene four:
Return to scene two – pause.
Scene five:
Interior – a living room – daylight.
A
woman sits on a sofa. She is cuddling a small baby, swaying it gently
and trying to make reassuring cooing noises. She gives up. She looks
confused and slightly distressed.
Narrator
Even from the
beginning his mother was puzzled and standoffish.
Scene six:
Interior – the same living room – artificial light indicating
that it is late.
A
small prepubescent boy is playing with toys on the floor, alone, with
his back to the camera. A Man enters the room. Cut to POV of the boy.
Boy
(happy)
Hello Dad.
The
Man looks at the boy. He initially looks shocked but suppresses the
emotion, smiles and extends his arms toward the Boy.
Narrator
His father came
home from work every day and was surprised each time little James
spoke. Who they talking to? They weren’t sure.
Scene seven:
Return to scene two.
Narrator
He had no face.
Scene eight:
Montage – a football game on a grass pitch – a class room – a
busy hallway in a school.
Narrator
Despite this James
grew up otherwise normal. He could kick a ball, count to 100 and find
Africa on a map. Nobody noticed, however. Why would they?
Scene nine:
Return to scene one.
Narrator
He had no face.
James takes up
typing again.
Scene Ten:
Montage – James POV
James approaches
three different young women – one in a college lecture room – one
in a nightclub – one in an office. They each talk (dialogue is
inaudible), listen, interact, laugh and eventually exchange details
then part.
Narrator
James came of age.
He found he liked girls. He was completely uncomplicated in this. If
he liked a girl he’d go up to her, talk to her, try to find things
in common, impress her, make her laugh.
Cut to the three
young women each receiving a phone call from James. They answer the
phone, speak (speech is inaudible) but warily, confused and anxious
before hanging up.
Narrator
But every time he
spoke to her again he’d have to start over. Why? She could barely
remember him.
Scene eleven:
Return to scene one.
Narrator
He had no face.
[Pause] James had to find a way round this.
James stops
typing and stands up. He walks through the office. We follow him from
behind. We can now see natural light. The office is large, open plan
and on a high-up floor of an office block. People pass by. James is
unacknowledged however.
Narrator
His solution was to
listen and look and remember. He would hang on every word, every
expression and every inflection of the people around him, reminding
them of themselves. It wasn’t all bad, mind you. If people
remembered him they often liked him. A blank canvas, people projected
onto James what they wanted to be themselves. He could be...
Scene
twelve: Montage – film
tropes.
A black car with
a siren on top pulls up at speed in front of a camera. A man in a
working suit emerges from the driver door. We see him from the neck
down. He is a police officer. He is in a hurry but stops, holding the
door. He sees something off camera in the middle distance, points for
a moment, then closes the door.
Narrator
handsome...
The same man is
now in an interrogation room. He is strutting around the room,
talking (not audible), not looking at the person he interrogating.
The shot is low. The suspect is facing the camera. We see the
suspect's but not that of the interrogator. Suddenly the interrogator
lurches up to the suspect, talking loudly, pointing, adamant about
something.
Narrator
tough...
The same man
though dressed differently, in jeans and a band t-shirt. He is with a
similar looking man in what looks like a backstage area of a music
venue. They are facing each other around a table, the man away from
the camera, the friend toward it, with a piece of paper on it which
they both look at while each strumming an acoustic guitar and
singing.
Narrator
friendly...
The same man
though dressed differently, in a fashionable, loose shirt. We see him
frim behind at a slight angle. He is sat around a table with a woman,
they are on a dinner date. They smile at each other then lean in for
a kiss.
Narrator
attractive....
Scene
thirteen: Return to scene
eleven.
We continue to
follow James through the office until he reaches a vending machine
and stops.
Narrator
anything
they wanted. The one thing he couldn’t be though was a person. He
wished he had a face.
James lightly
pounds in the vending machine in frustration.
Scene
fourteen: Alternating
between James sitting at the terminal, standing in the bathroom and
at the vending machine.
Narrator
As
this began to weigh on his mind someone came into James’s life, not
a person, but a film star, a face, a famous
face. Known all over as “Brad” (even though his real name was
Charlie) his was the most famous face in the world, his was a
wonderful face.
Scene
fifteen: A new montage –
more film tropes.
A man, short
haired, clean shaven and handsome in a strangely familiar suit jumps
from a bridge onto a moving train. He lands with uncanny ease and
grace, dusts off his jacket and smiles into the camera.
Narrator
It could grace
action movies...
A man
long-haired, with stubble dressed similarly in jeans and a band
t-shirt runs down a partially lit back alley, hollering and flailing
and occasionally smiling at the camera, being chased by a mixed group
similarly dressed young men, teenage girls, a TV crew, inaccurately
uniformed police officers and someone in an ostrich onesie.
Narrator
light up madcap
comedies...
A man in a loose
shirt and flared jeans clutches a woman mid-swoon. Before kissing her
he smiles at the camera.
Narrator
carry romantic
leads...
Scene
sixteen: Series of
illustrative pictures.
Quick recap of
previous featured trope/scenes.
Narrator
Brad’s face was
everywhere; in films and on TV...
Slow scan across
a series of film posters featuring Brad.
Narrator
on posters...
Sample clips of
Brad endorsing mostly mid to high end consumer products, aftershaves,
filter coffee, mobile phones, cars and so on.
Narrator
in adverts...
Longer montage of
a variety of news paper and magazine articles featuring Brad in some
way.
Narrator
in newspapers and
magazines... Everyone wanted to know Brad. Stories of his life were
everywhere. Everyone wanted to know him yet they knew almost nothing
real and true. Brad's public persona, his image was very closely
guarded. It was key. He could be anyone to anyone. With such a lack
of personal detail people filled in with rumour and there was so much
rumour it may have seemed that behind the face was a very ordinary
man; fragile, vain and fearful.
Headlines:
Separation! Rumour! Denial! Divorce!
Narrator
Behind the face was
a divorcee (huge alimony)
Footage: a man
looking a lot like Brad is led by a police officer into a the back of
a car, cuffed, head held down.
Narrator
and a reputed drunk
driver (convictions paid off with money).
More footage: a
short recap of the earlier film tropes and adverts.
Narrator
There were
suspicions of gambling debts and drug abuse (his career alternated
between art-house movies, cash cows and coffee adverts). On
discovering Brad, James now knew what to do.
Scene seventeen:
James studies Brad from all these angles.
Rear view,
silhouette of James sitting alone in a cinema.
Narrator
He went to see
Brad’s films,
Rear view, Brad
watching television from a couch.
Narrator
Watched his TV
interviews,
POV of James
flicking through the same newspaper and magazine articles as before.
Narrator
Read all about him
in books and magazines. He studied Brad, everything about him, in
particular his face. He ended up knowing pretty much all there was to
know about Brad, the official and unofficial stories.
Scene eighteen:
Exterior, travel scenes.
James POV, in a
black cab. Arriving at an airport. Rear view James in a queue. POV,
James finds his seat. POV, James hails another taxi. The taxi
progresses through Los Angeles. The taxi arrives at the gates of a
hillside mansion.
Narrator
James had saved up a
lot of money over the years and now he figured he'd spend it. He quit
his job. The morning after he left work he took a flight to America,
to Los Angeles. Getting off the plane he immediately booked a cab, up
the hills to the great mansions, to one mansion in particular, Brad’s
stately abode.
Scene nineteen:
Exterior day and dusk outside the gates of Brad's home.
James stands
unnoticed amid various street scenes, people come and go, cars,
joggers, a tour bus, trucks make deliveries, a police prowl car
glides by.
Narrator
Every day, and some
nights, James would go up to the gates of Brad’s palace and watch
what went on. He did this for several weeks. Normally someone doing
this would be spotted quickly and arrested. No one spotted James. No
one ever remembered him. He had no face. James would watch
people come and go, cleaners, builders, executives; he watched and
waited.
A black sports
car with tinted windows appears at the gates of Brad's home and
stops.
Narrator
Then late one
afternoon he saw a blacked out sports car pull up into the drive. The
occupant didn’t get out and speak into the little box, asking to be
allowed in like all the others did. The gates just parted. It was
Brad. It had to be.
Scene twenty:
Exterior night.
We follow James
up a ladder by a wall. He cuts through a set of wires. He climbs over
and jumps down the other side of the wall. We follow James tiptoeing
through a garden toward Brad's house.
James waited until
it was dark before springing into action. He broke into the compound
with a ladder and some wire cutters. Clambering over the wall he then
crept up the long garden to the foot of Brad’s house.
POV of James
looking at Brad's house. There is a light on at the first floor; at
the window there was a silhouette of a man.
Narrator
Brad was alone.
James crept into the house.
Scene twenty-one:
Interior, night, the living area of Brad's home.
Brad
is roaming randomly around the room, mumbling something, holding a
piece of paper and glancing at it every now and then until he spots
James standing, a shadow in the shadow of the doorway.
Brad
[Optimistically
– after a pause]
Hey,
are you here about the pool?
James
[Calm and
unemotional throughout]
No…
Brad
Brad
Who are you?
James
My name is James.
Brad.
My name is James.
Brad.
[Backing away from
the shadow in the doorway]
What do you want?
[A quiver in his
voice]
I have money.
James
I don’t want money
I don’t want money
Brad
[Begins to
babble]
Why can’t I see you? Come into the… I’m not afraid. What do you want? I have a car...? A TV, widescreen…? Drugs…? I have drugs…?
Why can’t I see you? Come into the… I’m not afraid. What do you want? I have a car...? A TV, widescreen…? Drugs…? I have drugs…?
James
I don’t want those things.
I don’t want those things.
Brad
[Looking around for
something to arm himself with]
Why can’t I see you...? What do you want?
Why can’t I see you...? What do you want?
James walks forward, into the light, his face begins to appear in focus then cut to POV of James looking at Brad, who is aghast.
James
It’s quite simple... I want your face.
It’s quite simple... I want your face.
Brad opens his
mouth to scream.
Ends.
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