Based on the author's own short story, "Crushed Fennel" is a romantic comedy about alternative universes, publishers, death and salvation, which also uses light; light pollution and the welcoming light of a simple paraluminescent lantern to highlight the differences between the England spoiled by vain and ignorant politicians, and England as it could be.
The opening few scenes are reproduced below.
This screenplay is Copyright (c) M.K. Spencer 1998, 2012 & 2022, the short story from which it was created is Copyright (c) M.K. Spencer 1996.
Interested producers and other relevant professionals can e-mail the
author for a .pdf of the complete (128pp) MS, but please provide some means of verifying your bona fides. Please don't be offended if Cypriot or Russian domains get no reply.
The screenplay has been redrafted to reflect improved understanding (not just on the part of the author) of the issues involved with light pollution since 1996. This continues to evolve and there is growing awareness of the problem at all levels except those at which national and international policy decisions are taken. See:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-sky-needs-its-silent-spring-moment/
Screenplay sample:
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 a
PROLOGUE
1 INT. POST-OP
INTENSIVE CARE WARD NIGHT
(Typical form is
four or six beds in bays and a central
nurse's station,
with repeat monitors etc.)
PATIENT 1, a black
woman in her thirties, is critically
ill after emergency
surgery for breast cancer. She's
semi-conscious and
connected to various monitor sensors,
a drip and a
metered medication feed. It is obvious
she's had a breast
removed.
PATIENTS 2 to 4 (or
6) are present, but they'd all be
post-operative and
pretty quiescent.
Also in the ward to
begin with are NURSE 1, NURSE 2,
STAFF NURSE, and a
WARD SISTER (or a male charge nurse.)
NURSE 2 needs to be
of credible Nordic appearance. This
can either be
blonde and statuesque, or smaller, darker
and elfin. The race
of the others is immaterial.
WARD SISTER is at
the nurse's station, drinking from a
plastic cup and
keeping an eye on the monitors. Not at
random:
methodically looking through the data for each
patient in turn.
Next to her, NURSE
1 is also drinking and reading a
book, "Boy
Without Notes" by ERIC WALLINGTON.
(Dust-jacket
illustration: Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP,
on a gilded
conveyor belt bearing him, in splendour,
from Eton &
Windsor to the Palace of Westminster.)
She giggles, which
earns her a glance from WARD SISTER.
STAFF NURSE and
NURSE 2 are each patrolling half of the
beds, just looking
to see that everything is connected
and really working,
although all the vital information
is repeated at the
nurse's station.
Satisfied, they
drift back to the nurse's station and
try to sneak a look
at "Boy Without Notes".
WARD
SISTER
You do
know that our Chief Executive
has
joined the Campaign For Decency in
Literature?
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 b
{1 continued}
STAFF
NURSE
Swims
with the tide, like a jellyfish.
STAFF NURSE
continues to read over NURSE 1's shoulder,
sniggers.
There's a single
electronic beep. WARD SISTER and her
team are instantly
alert and scanning the monitors.
STAFF
NURSE
The
unit's outer fire door!
In addition to all
the biomedical data presented at the
nurse's station,
there's a security board on the wall,
which shows the
status of all the doors, windows, etc.
STAFF NURSE heads
in that direction, NURSE 2 goes
towards their
patients. WARD SISTER stands.
NURSE 1 deftly
makes "Boy Without Notes" vanish under
the desk surface of
the nurse's station, producing a
Maya Angelou, which
she leaves on the surface by her
cup. She stays at
the nurse's station and checks ALL the
monitors. (S.O.P.)
STAFF
NURSE
(unseen,
from direction of outer fire door)
Nobody
there, must have been the wind!
NURSE
2
(returning
to nurse's station)
She means
a fylgja.
WARD SISTER and
NURSE 1 look puzzled. STAFF NURSE
returns to shot,
accompanied by ANN.
Neither WARD SISTER
nor NURSES 1 & 2 see ANN: they
appear to look
right through her.
ANN appears to be
the same age group as PATIENT 1.
In later scenes,
ANN may look any age from nineteen to
forty-odd, as
required.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 c
{1 continued}
Gracefully
attractive, ANN has a trim figure and dark
hair. (A later
effect depends on dark or black hair.)
ANN is wearing a
knee-length linen skirt and a linen
tunic, the neckline
of which drops just low enough to
reveal a cross.
This is a cross and not a crucifix.
Saxon or Celtic
design; any style that might have been
found in Britain
before the Norman Conquest.
ANN's shoes are
handstitched leather, sort of Saxon
moccasin type -and
she's wearing calf-length
light-coloured
socks. She NEVER wears a wristwatch.
She has a leather
satchel slung over one shoulder.
WARD
SISTER
(imperfect
pronunciation)
What's a
fylgja?
Everyone, including
ANN, looks curiously at NURSE 2.
NURSE
2
A fylgja.
A spirit,
which comes ahead of a friend:
to
announce their arrival.
STAFF
NURSE
So we're
not due a visit from the Chief
Executive,
then.
ANN walks, still
unnoticed, over to PATIENT 1.
WARD SISTER resumes
her seat and responsibility for the
monitors from NURSE
1, who swaps the books back and
starts to read
again. NURSE 2 and STAFF NURSE crowd up
behind her and
resume their reading over her shoulder.
ANN gently touches
PATIENT 1'S forehead, PATIENT 1 opens
her eyes; for a
moment she looks very frightened but ANN
smiles reassuringly
and PATIENT 1 smiles back, although
she's obviously in
physical distress.
WARD SISTER notices
a disturbance in the rhythm of vital
data from PATIENT 1
and looks in that direction.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 d
{1 continued}
SHOT-WARD SISTER'S
POINT OF VIEW
PATIENT 1 is
stirring a bit, but ANN cannot be seen.
WARD SISTER looks
again at the monitors.
ANN can be seen
again once the shot is no longer through
WARD SISTER's eyes.
WARD
SISTER
I don't
want to jump the gun,
Staff,
but take the trolley over
to one,
please.
This time, NURSE 1
doesn't swap the books, simply laying
"Boy Without
Notes" on the desk.
NURSE 2 is quickly
by PATIENT 1's side.
STAFF NURSE calmly
takes the crash trolley to PATIENT 1.
ANN touches PATIENT
1 one last time and moves away from
the bed, going
behind the nurse's station, where NURSE 2
and STAFF NURSE had
been standing.
NURSE 2 looks up
briefly as ANN leaves, as if she's felt
a presence, but
doesn't appear to actually see ANN.
WARD SISTER picks
up phone and punches a short code.
WARD
SISTER
This is
post-op ICU 1.
Bleep the
house officer for me, please,
and
advise Mr Michaels that his emergency
mastectomy
may be having trouble.
NURSE
1
They
won't like it if there's nothing wrong.
WARD
SISTER
They can
sue me.
Watch the
board?
WARD SISTER gets up
and joins STAFF NURSE and NURSE 2 by
PATIENT 1's side.
STAFF NURSE is already busy, of
course, doing
whatever checks an expert might suggest.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 e
{1 continued}
The security board
bleeps and shows a light by the
internal door to
the rest of the hospital.
HOUSE OFFICER (a
junior physician) enters the ward.
He/she is tired.
HOUSE
OFFICER
What's
up, Sis'?
STAFF NURSE has, by
this time, got a hard copy of recent
vital data. She
hands this to HOUSE OFFICER as WARD
SISTER tries to
justify the call out.
While WARD SISTER
is speaking to HOUSE OFFICER, ANN
takes an interest
in "Boy Without Notes", picking it up
and examining the
cartoon front of the dust jacket,
before reading the
jacket notes.
WARD
SISTER
I think
there's a clot rattling
around in
her chest.
HOUSE OFFICER looks
profoundly sceptical and pissed-off.
The vital data
rhythms become seriously perturbed, HOUSE
OFFICER starts to
react.
PATIENT 1 arrests.
HOUSE OFFICER, WARD
SISTER, STAFF NURSE and NURSE 2
commence the usual
response, without any success and
with increasing
desperation.
The security board
bleeps again and the indication is
once more for the
internal door.
MR MICHAELS
(consultant surgeon) enters the ward. Seeing
that HOUSE OFFICER
is fully engaged, he goes to the
nurse's station and
gets a sit-rep. from NURSE 1.
ANN gets out of MR
MICHAELS' way, but he shows no sign
that he's seen her.
MR MICHAELS joins
the fray and takes charge, to no
avail.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 f
{1 continued}
CLOSE SHOT-ANN'S
FACE
She's raising an
eyebrow at a risque handwritten flyleaf
dedication (by ERIC
WALLINGTON himself!) in NURSE 1's
copy of "Boy
Without Notes."
PATIENT
1
I think
I'm ready to go now.
CLOSE SHOT-PATIENT
1'S FACE
She is standing
(close to ANN) and fully conscious.
(In patient's
surgical gown.)
SHOT-DOCTORS AND
NURSES WORKING TO REVIVE PATIENT 1'S
BODY ON THE BED.
ANN takes PATIENT
1's arm and guides her out of the
ward.
NURSE 1 starts and
suddenly looks down at her book.
The Maya Angelou is
innocuously displayed on the
desk surface of the
nurse's station.
The vital data from
PATIENT 1 is completely flatlined.
The security board
shows that someone has opened the
outer fire door.
CUT
TO:
TITLE
SEQUENCE
Scenes with TS
above scene number can be used with
titles and opening
credits.
TS
2 EXT. NINETEEN
SEVENTIES PETROL STATION MORNING
Summer. A small
independent petrol station by
a
single-carriageway A-road or B-road, that is,
one NOT meeting the
"major trunk road" standard
with wide verges
etc.
COMMUTER 1 (in his
twenties) is having his small
car topped up with
3 or 4-star leaded petrol.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 g
{2 continued}
There is light
(seventies period) passing traffic
and the ATTENDANT
starts grooving to whatever
seventies pop-song
is playing on the car radio.
(only one song can
be heard at this point.)
The radio volume is
not excessive. COMMUTER 1 is
relaxed and quite
happy to pay for his £5 worth
of petrol with the
correct vintage of banknote.
As he pulls away,
there is some engine/gear noise
but nothing too
much. He has no trouble finding
a slot in the
traffic and the road is not crowded.
He drives down the
road for as long as required
for title/credit,
without incident. Everyone else
is driving as
considerately as he is.
CUT
TO:
TS
3 EXT. NINETIES
SERVICE STATION MORNING
Summer. A larger
service station by a
single carriageway
major trunk road.
It has a shop,
stacks of BBQ Charcoal
bags, potting
compost etc.
COMMUTER 1 (in his
forties) is filling
his
relatively-expensive nineties car
with unleaded
petrol. The road is busy
and there are
several other cars being
filled, two of
which are playing loud
and different
nineties dance music on
their in-car
entertainment systems with
windows down.
COMMUTER 1 goes to
pay, then gets in his
car and has to
queue to get out of the
filling area and
again to get out into
the fast and
inconsiderate traffic.
He begins to look
stressed.
(The greener fuel
is negated by an
exponential rise in
traffic and in noise
pollution. This
process continues...)
CUT
TO:
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 h
TS
4 EXT. TWENTY-TENS
SERVICE STATION MORNING
Large (and crowded)
service station by
a modern dual
carriageway.
COMMUTER 1 (in his
sixties) is filling
his nineties car
with unleaded fuel,
whilst all around
much bigger and newer
cars are being
filled with DERV and one
petrol hybrid is
being filled, along
with a few other
older petrol cars.
All of the bigger
"Chelsea tractors" are
playing loud
contemporary music, each a
different tune. A
cacophony!
COMMUTER 1 pays at
the pump, gets in his car
and looks stressed
before he even tries to
leave the filling
area. There is heavy traffic.
CUT
TO:
TS
5 EXT. NINETEEN
SEVENTIES HOUSING ESTATE MORNING
IN THE
TWENTY-TWENTIES.
Late Autumn.
Outside most houses, electric
cars are parked and
plugged into chargers.
Three of these
E-cars bear bumper stickers
for the Motorway
Network Completion Group,
one even has a
sticker for the Campaign for
Decency in
Literature.
One house, with no
charger and no car,
has a skip outside
and a for-sale sign.
The skip is full of
various seventies to
twenty-ten
furniture items. On top is a
framed photograph
of COMMUTER 1, in his
twenties, happily
posing by his new
nineteen-seventies
car.
COMMUTERS 2 to 10
(or so), ages late twenties
to late thirties
emerge from their houses,
unplug their cars,
get in and drive away.
A strident
cacophony of popular music fades
into the distance.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 i
{5 continued}
There are some
houses with older petrol
or hybrid cars, but
no-one emerges to
drive these to work
as they belong to
retired
householders of COMMUTER 1's
generation.
CUT
TO:
TS
6 INT. BEDROOM IN
LADY FARMER'S HOUSE MORNING
This is in the
"Alter England".
The essential is
that the room contains no objects
specifically of our
version of the early 21st century.
No PVC window
frames and, especially, no light fittings.
(The local
alternative features strongly, later.)
There's nothing
identifiably electrical in sight, but
the room doesn't
look old and faded like a set from a
period drama. Just
clean and simple, maybe Shakerish.
The only sound from
outside is birdsong and (not
overdone) livestock
noises.
PATIENT 1 is lying
in bed, restfully asleep. She is
wearing a linen
nightdress. This conceals, for the
moment, the fact
that nothing is missing anymore.
The door opens and
LADY FARMER (fair, forty-odd) enters,
carrying a wooden
breakfast tray.
She's dressed in a
similar spirit to ANN, but not a copy
of the style.
She sets the tray
down and goes to draw the curtains.
PATIENT 1 wakes up,
stretches and yawns.
She smiles at LADY
FARMER and joins her at the window.
Looking out, they
see ANN (fresh clothes in her style),
leading two horses
along a lane (packed clay or gravel
surface). ANN sees
them and waves, they wave back.
In the view from
the window, there are no electricity
pylons, telephone
wires, cellphone masts or anything of
our version of the
early 21st century to be seen.
Not too corny: a
quietly-stated arcadia.
CUT
TO:
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 j
TS
7 EXT. "CHASM"
(TWYFORD DOWN MOTORWAY CUTTING) MORNING
Late Autumn. NB; a
later scene has a highly symbolic
bridge across this.
The bridge isn't visible here.
The motorway is
very crowded, but it shouldn't
be totally jammed
for this scene.
There's a musical
cacophony and even a few engines.
The E-cars from the
housing estate are jostling for
position as they
proceed towards London.
It is pertinent
that this hasn't got them out of
contact with the
people they started off with!
There should be
some smokey exhaust shots here from
older petrol and
diesel cars. The "CHASM" is already
beginning to
resemble Hell. In later scenes, the
resemblance to Hell
gets more and more marked.
CUT
TO:
TS
8 INT. DRESSING ROOM
IN LADY FARMER'S HOUSE DAY
The Alter England's
answer to an en-suite bathroom.
Small room,
adjoining the bedroom.
There's a
washstand, with large inset bowl of hot water,
in front of a large
mirror. The mirror's at right angles
to the window. (The
artificial light's off duty.)
PATIENT 1 enters
the dressing room from the bedroom and
removes her
nightgown, wraps (unbleached cotton) towel
around her waist.
Standing in front
of the mirror on the washstand, she
examines her
reflection and laughs with delight to see
she has BOTH
breasts. She bends to splash hot water on
her face.
With quiet joy, she
wets her breasts with a sponge from
the bowl of hot
water and then lathers them, (longer,
thinner soap bar
than is usual in our world) giving the
miraculously
restored breast an incredulous squeeze or
two in the process,
before lathering the rest of her
upper body.
CUT
TO:
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 k
TS
9 INT. SHARED ROOM IN
NURSE'S ACCOMMODATION BLOCK DAY
The curtains are
closed and the room is lit only by
sunlight filtering
through them.
NURSE 1 and NURSE 2
are sleeping, in two single beds
on either side of
the room.
On a table between
the two beds there are various
(English and
Icelandic) books; nursing manuals etc.
One is open on a
section about breast examinations.
Holding it open at
that page is a brand-new copy
of "The Vril
of Blair" by ERIC WALLINGTON.
The dust-jacket of
"The Vril of Blair" is big on
Rosicrucian
background symbols, including a
caricature of the
late JOHN SMITH MP clutching a
cut-glass whisky
tumbler with a black rose growing
out of it. With
blue Blairite eyes staring out
from amidst the
symbols.
Uniforms and
underwear are slung in and around
chairs. The room is
definitively untidy.
The door opens
(letting more light in) and ANN
enters. She looks
to be the same age as NURSE 1.
She approaches the
table between the beds and
removes NURSE 1's
personally-inscribed copy of
"Boy Without
Notes" from her satchel and places
it with the other
books.
NURSE 1 stirs, ANN
strokes her cheek and NURSE 1
settles back to
sleep.
ANN smiles and
leaves, closing the door behind her.
CUT
TO:
TS
10 EXT. TWYFORD DOWN
NIGHT
Flying shot over
Twyford Down approaching
a miasma of bright
flickering light rising
from the CHASM.
(Motorway cutting.)
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 l
{10 continued}
NB: The essential of
light pollution is that it rises
from the ground or
from beyond the horizon and
illuminates both
any low level haze and the sky. Over a
motorway the source
is lamp-posts, headlights, red
rear-lights &
brake-lights (flashing on/off) and amber
indicators.
Lamp-posts can still be orange sodium lights
as well as cold
blueish-white LEDS. Headlights can be
bright LEDs and
halogens, or even (less bright) tungsten
filaments. Urban
areas produce more of the same, with
warmer
house-lights, coloured illuminated signs and even
sweeping lasers
producing light curtains in the haze.
Probably the most
damaging aspect of light pollution
for wildlife is the
50 Hz strobe effect from sodium and
mercury vapour
lamps and LEDs. We don't see this; small
animals probably do
and it will affect them, but the
author cannot think
how best to portray this.
CUT
TO:
TS
11 EXT. NINETEEN
SEVENTIES HOUSING ESTATE NIGHT
IN THE
TWENTY-TWENTIES.
Late Autumn.
ELDERLY GENTLEMAN and ELDERLY
LADY are making
their way to a local shop
on foot.
As they do so, they
are repeatedly blinded
by E-cars whose
headlights are all in auto
high-beam mode,
flicking very bright LED
headlights up and
down in response to other
cars and
streetlighting.
ELDERLY
LADY
(shielding
her eyes)
That
light hurts! It hurts!
ELDERLY GENTLEMAN
takes her arm, but is
otherwise powerless
to help.
An E-car blares its
horn at the elderly couple,
the other E-cars
all have loud music going.
CUT
TO:
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 m
12 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE
AND LANE TO ERIC'S COTTAGE MORNING
Travelling camera
or steadycam sequence, as if through
the eyes of someone
riding a bicycle along the lane to
ERIC'S cottage. The
lane has a typical "unclassified
road" tarmac
and chippings surface. With the other
sounds you'd
expect, there is a clicking. (Someone
touch-typing on a
word processor in short bursts). The
camera travels
under a set of power lines crossing the
lane and passes a
big signboard advertising the auction
of a "former
farm" as a "rural development opportunity."
The signboard is
set at the edge of the meadow next to
ERIC'S cottage. The
cottage's front garden is unkempt.
On reaching the
gate of ERIC'S cottage, the camera
dismounts and dips
to show a signed-for letter being
removed from the
postbag on the rack by a (married)
female left hand.
The camera approaches the front porch
and the right hand
rings the bell. The typing stops.
CUT
TO:
13 INT. HALLWAY OF
ERIC'S COTTAGE MORNING
VIEWPOINT: FROM
KITCHEN DOOR
A figure is visible
through the bullseye glass panes of
the front door.
ERIC (a writer in his early forties, but
looking a little
older -and a bit vulnerable- at this
stage) emerges from
the study and answers the door.
POSTLADY (roughly
ERIC'S age, attractive) is standing in
the porch. She has
the signed-for letter in one hand,
with her signature
tablet and stylus in the other.
POSTLADY
Good
morning, Mr Wallington.
One to
sign for, if you'd be so kind.
ERIC accepts the
letter and signs the signature tablet.
CLOSE
SHOT-POSTLADY's FACE
She looks
concerned.
POSTLADY
Mr
Wallington, are you sure you're alright?
CLOSE SHOT-ERIC'S
FACE
He looks pale;
stubbly-chinned; red-eyed and exhausted.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 n
{13 continued}
ERIC
I think
so; just tired. Thank you, my dear.
POSTLADY
You need
someone to look after you.
ERIC
It's a
very kind offer, but don't your
husband
and children rather depend on you?
POSTLADY beats ERIC
playfully around the head with her
signature tablet.
POSTLADY
(sternly,
turning to leave)
You know
quite well what I mean.
CUT
TO:
14 EXT. FRONT PORCH AND
DRIVE OF ERIC'S COTTAGE MORNING
POSTLADY puts a
flounce into her walk as she goes back
to her bicycle. She
checks the remaining mail before
remounting and
riding off with a parting wave to ERIC.
CLOSE SHOT-ERIC'S
FACE
He smiles and waves
back as she goes, then looks down at
the letter in his
hand and becomes anxious. He closes
the front door.
CUT
TO:
15 INT. STUDY IN
ERIC'S COTTAGE MORNING
Cluttered. Shelves
with boxfiles and old typing-paper
boxes with
manuscripts in; empty & full disk boxes and
old printer-ink
cartridges on the top shelves.
A computer (un-PC,
eg: PC hardware running QPC2 rather
than Windows,) sits
on a wooden desk, situated so that
ERIC can easily
glance out of the window while he works.
The computer is
running a WP. The study window looks out
onto the kitchen
garden (unkempt at this stage) and
orchard.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 o
{15 continued}
There's a wood and
leather chair in front of the desk. A
battered ex-drawing
office "planning desk" is also
crammed into the
room and this overflows with notepads
and papers,
including an A2 sheet of dust-jacket artwork
for "Bestride
the Globe" by ERIC WALLINGTON.
(The dust jacket of
"Bestride the Globe" has Tony Blair,
garbed like Apollo,
his head garlanded with Khat rather
than laurel, left
hand holding a copy of "Mein Fahrt"
and his right hand
offering a scroll of "Windrush Ltd
Partnership
Unaudited Accounts" to beholders. The
sandalled right
foot of this noble giant is planted near
Durham Cathedral
while his left is on the Mount of
Olives in
Jerusalem. On his right shoulder, General
Secretary Xi
Jingping is sitting, dangling his feet,
while on Blair's
left shoulder sits Jiang Zemin,
whispering in his
ear. The upper background is mostly
clouds of glory
parting to reveal this wonder, but in
the desert near
Jerusalem and Blair's foot, angels are
struggling to seal
a woman into a barrel with a heavy
lead disc: only her
left arm is clearly visible, bare
except for three or
four expensive wrist watches. Above
Blair's head is a
halo of thirty half-crowns.)
These dust jackets
have to convey complex ideas straight
to the audience's
subconscious at a glance, because
hammering the
points home in dialogue and narrative
would be both
tedious and ineffective. Perhaps it'll
alert the audience
to the ease with which such ideas can
be fired straight
at their subconscious, too!
The study also
contains a bookcase, around which are
stacked several
remaindered copies of "Somersaulting
Towards Brixton to
be Born" by ERIC WALLINGTON (an
appropriate John
Major caricature on the dust jacket!)
A dozen new ARCs of
"The Vril of Blair" are piled on top
of a wooden filing
cabinet by the door.
The study door is
propped open by a well-filled
wastepaper basket.
Several crumpled HMRC and "Campaign
for Decency in
Literature" letters, which missed, lie
next to it. A
"Motorway Network Completion Group"
pamphlet has been
ripped in two and lies on top of the
other litter in the
wastepaper basket.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 p
{15 continued}
There are sounds
off (from the kitchen) and then ERIC
enters. He has a
mug of tea in one hand, a plate with a
slice of toast and
marmalade in the other. He's holding
the signed-for
letter by one corner between his teeth.
He puts the mug
down before using the hand thus freed to
make space for the
plate.
Positioning the
chair and sitting down, ERIC removes the
letter from his
mouth, feels around for a paper-knife.
He opens and
unfolds the letter, (putting envelope on
the desk) then
takes a sip of tea and a bite of toast
before replacing
the toast on the plate and starting to
read the letter.
The letter is one sheet of expensive
paper bearing an
embossed publisher's letterhead.
CLOSE SHOT-ERIC'S
FACE
He turns ashen. As
the letter is narrated, ERIC'S
expression turns
from shock to confusion, then pain.
LETTER
(narration,
trace Italian accent.)
Dear
Eric.
It has
been decided not to proceed with any
further
print runs of your novel: "The Vril of
Blair".
Furthermore, retailers will be asked
to
withdraw any unsold copies from their
shelves.
Neither can we go any further with
"Bestride
The Globe". This decision has been
taken
entirely on commercial grounds, and
shouldn't
be interpreted as censorship.
The
contract you signed with us a few years
ago,
committed you to providing us with six
published
books. You seem to have misread
this as
"first refusal" but, in fact, only
works we
are able to publish count towards
your
contractual obligations. We published
"The
Vril of Blair" -before we were made aware
of its
commercial shortcomings- so this counts
as a
partial discharge of your contract, as
do your
much more commercial works:
"Somersaulting
Towards Brixton to be Born"
and "Boy
Without Notes".
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 q
{15 continued}
LETTER
(narration,
trace Italian accent)
Our
contract sets no time limit on your
obligation,
but isn't binding on your estate
after
your death. Doubtless, you will wish to
find an
alternative publisher before then. To
free
yourself in order to do this, I suggest
you apply
yourself to writing material, of a
kind that
we can successfully publish.
Our
current reading of the market is for
erotica
in a horror/fantasy landscape.
Yours
Faithfully-
ERIC
-Illiterate
toadying sodding bastard!
ERIC turns red in
the face, appears to be struggling for
breath, then sinks
in the chair and, turning pale again,
becomes quite
still. He is still clutching the letter.
CUT
TO:
16 EXT. LANE LEADING
TO ERIC'S COTTAGE MIDDAY
Travelling camera
or steadicam sequence, as if through
the eyes of
somebody riding a horse (sidesaddle?) along
the lane to ERIC'S
cottage. The lane's surface now
appears to be
packed clay or sand & gravel.
There's the sound
of cantering hooves on this kind of
surface. It should
sound as if there are two horses, one
being ridden, the
other being led by a hitch of its
reins to the saddle
of the ridden horse.
The signboard and
power lines are not seen at this
stage.
As they near the
cottage, the horses slow to a walk.
{cont-}
"Crushed
Fennel" Copyright (c) Matthew K Spencer 2022 r
{16 continued}
With the horses a
few yards from the gate, the lane
"transforms"
back to the tarmac and chippings surface.
As it does so, the
sound of the horse's hooves is as if
they were slowing
to a halt on that kind of tarmac
surface. On
stopping at the gate, the camera dismounts.
Simultaneously with
this there's the sound of a car
handbrake being
applied, engine ticking over and being
switched off, car
door opening, someone alighting and
the door then being
clicked shut. (These sounds must be
consistent with a
Citroen 2CV, although the car isn't
actually seen in
this shot.)
The camera proceeds
unhurriedly on foot up the drive;
there is the sound
of a young woman's footsteps. The
camera pauses by
the front porch, then carries on around
the cottage into
the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden
is unkempt, as is
the cottage's front garden.
CUT
TO:
