This is a screenplay, intended to read as prose.
Katzenellenbogen
Episode 1: "Time"
All is silent.
On the screen in the center there is text, shimmering, glimmering, rococo in pink,
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings to search things out.
-Proverbs 25:2
An extreme close-up of King Leopold's mouth, and his fancy mustache. Out of focus on the edges of the frame is unspecified foliage beyond him. He is frozen. A ladybug, red with black spots, lands on his mustache. It steps once. It steps twice. It flies off. He responds late, with a pucker of the mouth, and speaks,
King Leopold
Time is movement
We cut to a full screen YouTube video. It is a flat grey background upon which is one black sphere and one white sphere, each about one third the height of the screen, equidistant from the center, and parallel to one another. The spheres glow. The spheres grow, in scale, slowly filling the space and budging up against each other. In competition, they fight to overwhelm the grey background.
The play bar is visible. The video is titled, “The Light vs. The Darkness”.
Sarah (OS)
Wait.
Cut to Sarah, very close-up, her shoulders and face are centered in screen and looking right at us. Her brown, shoulder length hair is down and parted center. She wears a pink tank dress and an emotionless expression.
Her chin is slightly down, her eyes squint a tad or twitch. She is weighing and considering something she looks at.
A mid-shot of King Leopold, waiting. His crown is inset with rubies, amethyst, and lapuz lazuli stones. It is of pewter and gold arches, caging a garnet toned velvet rest, topped with an imperial token of unspecified iconic origin. His eyes are saturated ice blue. His robe is saturated red with white rabbit fur spots, and a badger-fur lining. He sits in a high-backed, hand-carved, teek wood throne. We truck right to reveal Sandro. He is chewing a beastly piece of gum standing in front of, and nearly inside of, wildish tropical shrubbery, dressed to impress but dressed to serve, wearing clothes simultaneously more modern and more trendy than King Leopold’s flaunt.
Sandro
What is it?
He responds to Sarah. He smacks his gum.
Cut back to King Leopold, sitting in his royal chair. He raises his eyebrows, about to speak, and,
Cut to Sarah, same shot as before, very close. She squints, shakes her head negatively, quickly, and in small movements. She is matter-of-fact.
King Leopold, close-up. He squints his eyes and makes one affirmative nod, understanding Sarah's instructions and proud of this understanding. He takes a long, slow, deep breath in and,
Cut to YouTube video.
King Leopold (OS)
Time is awakened by movement.
"The Light Vs. The Darkness" is paused. The play bar is visible. The palm trees near King Leopold and Sandro are heard, as the wind rustles their fronds. 3, 2, 1, and the video begins playing. The light and the dark circles grow bigger and bigger and almost take up the whole screen.
Sandro (OS)
What do you mean?
Cut to Sandro facing forward, mid shot. He turns his head stage right towards King Leopold, and we pan left to reveal King Leopold, still enthroned, reclining slightly to his right,
King Leopold
Time is not steady
He says nonchalantly, more relaxed than his context permits.
Cut to a simple animation, full screen. An illustrated clock slowly rolls from left to right across a single, straight line,
King Leopold (OS)
It is malleable. It changes shape. Depending on how you stretch it out, or more commonly, clutter and crinkle and crumple it up.
More clocks fall from the top and weigh down the line across which the first clock rolled. They weigh it down, down, down and the line crinkles and wraps around them like a piece of crumpled paper. An illustrated hand comes from off screen, picks up the crinkled paper, and tosses it away.
Full shot, head on, of both King Leopold and Sandro in their assumed positions. They begin speaking at the same time,
Close up of King Leopold. He turns his head stage left to face Sandro.
Close up of Sandro, eyes wide. He turns his head stage left to face King Leopold.
Medium shot of King Leopold, looking at the camera, he repeats,
King Leopold
Moving on now, time is labile.
It is entangled with movement.
And movement is tangled with action.
King Leopold freezes. A line of ladybugs fly a dancing line from left to right through the space which King Leopold’s breath just occupied.
King Leopold
After all, if a person thinks too much without acting, he'll grow sick!
Cut to Sandro, full body, who is texting while parroting his line,
Sandro
What if a person acts too much, without thinking?
Cut back to King Leopold, same width, who says quite seriously,
King Leopold
[beat]
He'll make other people sick!
Cut to closeup of Sarah silently grinning and laughing at this. She relaxes, goes straight faced,
Sarah
Let's do that one more time.
Cut back to King Leopold and Sandro, full shot, both are in view. In sync, they both take a deep breath, and as soon as King Leopold begins speaking,
King Leopold
Time is relative to movement...
we pan to the left, looping around to face the opposite direction, nearer to Sarah, revealing an SD monitor with King Leopold and Sandro's scripts scrolling across the screen. Sarah stands next to the monitors, facing the boys a few yards off, with a moderately scaled modernist home in the background complimented by a suit of well-tasted landscaping and gardenry. A small fountain can be seen a ways off with a fishing net leaning against it and a small case of Franziskaner hefe-weisbier cooling inside the fountain’s pool.
Marjory (OS)
Sarah?
Closeup of Marjory's face. She is friendly and patient, framed by a patio door, halfway between the interior and exterior of the white plastered house.
Cut to full shot of Sarah (from behind, facing Leopold and Sandro), the TV monitor, Leopold, and Sandro (facing us). Tropical greenery fills the background. Sarah turns her head all the way around to face, presumably, Marjory, who is not in view.
Cut to mid shot of Marjory. She sits in a wheelchair, still in the doorway.
Marjory
Are you able to help me with something?
Cut back to full shot. All three are now looking past the camera towards Marjory. In sync, Leopold and Sandro roll their eyes towards Sarah. Sarah turns and faces them.
Full shot, profile, Sarah and the boys are facing each other. They exchange no words. Sarah pivots around, back to Marjory. The shot expands wide, and Marjory enters our view. Sarah gives a small, genuine smile, and says positively,
Sarah
I can help you, Marjory.
Sandro blows a big bubble with his gum. It almost pops, it almost pops…
----
Cut to car interior. Sarah is in the driver's seat, preparing to leave. The driver's door is open, and Marjory sits just outside of it, holding a paper bag, with a folded top, and a small note taped on the outside. She hands Sarah the bag,
Marjory
Drop it off at The Pavilion.
Closeup on Marjory’s eyebrows. She raises them. She insinuates a secret.
Marjory (cont.)
These are two… exercise jackets.
Sarah takes the bag and places it in the passenger's seat. It reads, “Stay warm, Netty”.
She turns back towards Marjory,
Sarah
Where's The Pavilion?
Marjory
At University Hospital.
Sarah looks forward, briefly introspecting.
Sarah
I don't know anything about University Hospital.
Sarah turns back to Marjory. Cut to closeup on Marjory. She nods. Calculates.
Marjory
Ok.
Cut to mental map, overhead, white background, roads show up as colored lines while Marjory explains,
Marjory (OS)
If you're coming from Stoneman, driving East, you can take the turn before Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., going North. It'll be a right turn into the hospital from there- you're entering from the back. Drive forward and The Pavilion will be the second building.
Otherwise, you'll be taking the main hospital entrance from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., in which case you need to drive all the way to the back of the complex, where you'll find The Pavilion is the second to last building, on the right.
Otherwise, you can take the B55 bus directly to the front entrance, but you’re already in the car, so that should be useless to you.
Cut to car interior. Same shot of Sarah and Marjory.
They nod once, in sync, affirmatively.
Cut to closeup, Sarah facing Marjory.
Sarah
I think I've got the map in my mind.
Close on Marjory’s eyes, which open wide as she thanks Sarah. She slams the door and begins rolling up the driveway as Sarah faces forward, looking just past the camera.
She turns on the engine,
Sarah (thinking)
I need to buy tissues.
Sarah shifts gears into reverse.
----
Exterior, The Pavilion parking lot.
Full shot, Sarah drives by from left to right passing an old green sign reading, "The Pavilion". From left to right again we see Sarah drive down a parking aisle with no free spots.
Closeup of Sarah's face, she looks left and right.
Her car passes from right to left, down another full aisle. Two more aisles, back and forth, until she parks on grass under a tree. Cut to a wide shot, a Ralphs grocery store is across the street, and Sarah walks across the midground on the sidewalk. She cuts through a bank parking lot, and then approaches the Pavilion entrance.
Cut to interior, The Pavilion entrance. Sarah, still outside, approaches the automatic sliding glass doors. They do not open automatically, she looks up, and over, sees a button to her left, pushes it. Nothing happens, she looks up, over, pushes the button again, the door opens, she walks forward, and pauses.
Reverse, wide shot, a waiting room is to the left where a few people sit reading, waiting, and looking at phones. Straight ahead are double doors, very institution-like, with small glass windows and tan colored paint. To the right is a security desk with double-pane security glass from top to bottom and a guard with a speakerphone sitting behind it. Sarah, standing in the middle, acknowledges a man between herself and the guard's desk. She looks at him. He gestures for her to go ahead and looks back at his phone. She proceeds to the desk.
Mid shot of Sarah from behind. She is visually blocking the security guard.
Sarah
I have two jackets for Netanya Katzenellenbogen. She’s in unit 1.
The guard presses a button, fuzzy speaker noise is heard, he learns forward and says,
Security Guard
Alrighty.
The guard releases the button and rolls in his chair to his left (screen-right).
He gives a big cheesy grin to Sarah, releases his grin as if he's aware of the awkward nature of it, and turns his eyes towards the clipboard in front of him.
We zoom in and slightly right following the guard while he does this.
He scribbles a few things.
She keeps waiting and watching.
He rolls back to his right (screen-left), and we zoom back out. He places something, clunk, on the desk through the small window hole in front of Sarah.
Cut to close-up, angled down on the window's little pass-through. A pink, sparkly cell phone sits between the security guard and Sarah.
Camera tilts up to the security guard's face, he says,
Security Guard
[inaudible]
He laughs heartily (though silently), presses the button, the fuzz begins, he leans in, and says,
Security Guard
That's hers.
While nodding to his left. The camera tilts down quickly, revealing a hand from off screen reaching over and grabbing the phone. The camera swings right, following the hand, revealing a young woman already absorbed in her text messages.
Full-shot, Sarah is looking at this woman to her right. Sarah turns back to the guard.
Cut to close-up on the guard, straight forward (almost from Sarah's point of view), he takes a bag from a drawer and writes on it,
Netanya Katzenellenbogen
Unit 1
Partition A
777213
folds it in half, folds it again, and passes it through the small hole.
He presses the button, leans in,
Security Guard
Take the jackets out of your bag, place them into this bag, discard your bag and your note in the blue bin in front the big doors, put the bag on the cart and push the cart through the doors.
He releases the button.
Closeup of Sarah's face. She is blank.
Cut back to guard, closeup. He presses the button again, suddenly he remembers,
Security Guard
Please.
Wide shot, profile view of Sarah and the security guard. Sarah smiles at this gesture. The security glass is perfectly perpendicular to the frame and is seen as a line cutting down the center of the scene. She looks left, and back again.
Sarah
Am I supposed to take the cart in?
Security Guard
Yes, ma'am. Right through those doors there.
Sarah
Thank you.
We pan slowly left, following Sarah as she turns around and steps to the cart adjacent to the guard’s desk, in front of the big doors.
She opens her bag, unpacks the jackets, opens the new bag, packs the jackets, closes the bag, picks up the old bag, turns around, disposes the old bag and old note in the blue rubbish bin, returns to the cart, grabs the push handle, and centers herself in front of the big doors.
Beat.
Interior, Screening Room, The Pavilion, reverse shot of the big doors.
The big doors swing open and Sarah walks through, towards the camera, pushing the cart. She takes two steps, and an attendant wearing full hospital coverage, almost HAZMAT like, comes in screen-left,
Attendant
I'll take that
Takes Sarah's cart, departs screen-right, and we hear
Screening Person (OS)
This way please!
We cut to reverse, a wide shot of the screening room.
There are large scanners, screeners, x-ray vision checkers and security modules.
Another attendant appears and silently pushes Sarah through a full body scanner, such as might be seen at the airport. A graphic of a man with arms raised above his heads is directly in front of Sarah. She imitates his pose. A bright green light flashes, the attendant summons her out, she walks forward, looks over, notices her cart going through a large scanning machine at a parallel security line to the left.
She is ushered onto a 10 foot moving walkway which scans her feet.
She steps off, and is quickly harnessed, both feet and both hands, into a large flipping machine which rotates her one time upside down and right-side up again, before placing her carefully back on the linoleum flooring.
An attendant guides her forward to the end of the room. Wide shot, from behind, we see Sarah, now wearing light green scrubs, facing floor-to-ceiling curtains of the same color. The attendant is out of site. We hear three beeps, and Sarah looks to the left, but we stay focused on her and the curtains, which begin humming and automatically rolling open from a split in the center. Sarah walks through.
She enters a large barren space. Three desks sit, in line, with three matching Screening Person's, each with an empty chair in front fit for a guest.
Sarah quickly evaluates the three desks and approaches the desked attendant in the middle.
Closeup, the screening person's face,
Screening Person
Are you a male, a female, or neither?
Closeup, Sarah,
Sarah
A female!
She is slightly surprised.
Mid-shot, profile, the screener marks this down.
Beat.
Closeup, the screening person's face,
Screening Person
Righty or lefty?
Closeup, Sarah's face,
Sarah
Righty.
She says matter-of-factly.
Cut to screener,
Screening Person
Are you the top breadwinner in your household?
He looks up to her, lips puckered, one brow raised,
Beat.
Cut to wide shot, profile,
Sarah
There really is no way of me knowing that information.
Closeup, Sarah blinks.
Closeup, he assesses her closely with his gaze.
Closeup of the desk, he stamps three papers, signs two envelopes, lick-seals two of the envelopes, and places it all in a clear plastic shipment tube.
Wide shot, profile,
Screening Person
Sarah, it's been great speaking to you. We're all finished here so you're free to go. I hope you have an enjoyable lunch.
Sarah looks down at her watch.
Closeup, watch, it reads 4:00 PM.
----
Exterior, The Pavilion, facing the building.
Wide shot, Sarah walks out, wearing her pink dress and carrying the empty brown paper bag, now wrinkled and torn. Halfway down the path, she pauses,
Midshot, Sarah. She is struck by a sudden recollection.
She takes out a small paper from her pocket, and looks to the ground.
Closeup, the ground next to Sarah. There is a pencil, we see Sarah's barefeet enter the frame and her hand as she squats to pick it up.
Closeup, the grocery list in Sarah's hand. It reads,
Grocery List
Nori
Avocadoes
Cafe Bustelo
She adds to it, 'grapes'.
Mid shot, Sarah looks up from the list,
Sarah (thinking)
But now I’ve forgotten the other thing.
----
Cut to exterior, garden, somewhere back at stucco house.
Full shot, three-quarter angle of Sarah and King Leopold seated at a bench surrounded by floral plants and shrubbery. They wear the same outfits as before. In the far background is a car, jacked up, being worked on by a few guys.
Sarah drops her head into her hands, exhausted.
Closeup straight on, Sarah,
King Leopold (OS)
What's wrong?
Closeup straight on, King Leopold is looking at Sarah,
Sarah (OS)
My mind is really so rococo.
Cut to a still image of a rococo painting or architectural interior, for about 5 seconds (completely still and silent).
Cowboy shot, both on the bench, Sarah turns towards King Leopold,
Sarah
My mind is floating through so many fields. I can't possibly get through all of them.
Sarah sits up, they both look forward.
Full shot, three-quarter angle with car in background. Mayhem seems to be ensuing back there, but it is inaudible from where these two sit.
King Leopold waits a moment, then says to Sarah,
King Leopold
Well, either way, we love you.
Sarah
Thanks.
She sighs, and adds earnestly,
Sarah
I love you, too.
Sarah appears slightly relieved.
Sachie (shouting OS)
Take it easy!
Sarah and King Leopold look over, camera begins to pivot, then,
Cut to the side door of a house, Sachie is on her way out, slams the door behind.
She has a bag and grabs a surfboard leaning on the wall outside. She's off.
Cut back to full shot, three-quarters, King Leopold and Sarah.
Sachie walks across the screen, left to right, bows slightly to the two,
Sachie
Love you guys!
King Leopold and Sarah
Love you!
Just before leaving screen-right, Sachie flips around,
Sachie
Benny!
She hurries off, and is trailed by Benny, a young boy. He stops midway, distracted by King Leopold and Sarah.
Benny is wearing swim trunks, dress shoes with socks, and a SpaceX t-shirt. He carries a t-square and a 90 degree angle tool.
Full body shot, nearly profile, Benny runs up and kisses King Leopold and Sarah on the cheek.
Benny
I love you,
I love you!
King Leopold
We love you too, Benny!
Sarah
Now,
Cut to extreme close-up on Sarah, as she says,
Sarah
Let's see that style-
Full body shot of Benny, head on
He drops into a radical pose, flips his hair, and signals "hang loose". Golden shimmers spark out of his hands.
Beat.
Cut back to full shot.
Sachie (OS)
The ship is sailing, kid!
Benny runs across the screen following Sachie's trail.
Cut to black.
----
A simple animation is full screen, done in white with black lines. It is an overhead shot of a ship slowly sailing across the screen.
King Leopold (OS)
In fact, time is not linear.
It can move about any which way it likes.
The ship makes a few sharp turns in various directions, and then quantum jumps to a few locations around the screen.
Cut to SD monitor, upon which King Leopold's lines can be read,
Cut to medium-shot of King Leopold, weeding out the yard. He turns to the camera,
King Leopold
Entirely absurd, I tell you!
Cut to full body shot of Sandro, in the same tropical greenery as before,
Sandro
Why?
Beat.
Cut to medium-shot, King Leopold seated in his chair,
King Leopold
Well, Sandro, it is much more reasonable to consider
going back in action.
But this too, is absurd!
Cut to animation of lines (or plateaus) of additive actions, like ladders multiplying into more and more ladders.
King Leopold (OS)
For actions, also, do not move forward or backwards in a linear manner.
Action, by nature, is additive. An action cannot be undone,
but can only be altered by the effect of a new action.
Cut back to King Leopold in his chair. He stands up and walks over to the flower bed where he continues weeding. Sandro joins him.
King Leopold
The closest thing to undoing an action is performing another action,
one that counteracts the function of the first.
But even then we know it does not succeed in undoing, for its
additive nature is archived in the history of reactions.
Sandro
If I sit still, and don't move, and don't act, will time freeze?
King Leopold
Yes, but only for you. Be careful not to get stuck that way.
Cut to close-up of King Leopold's face, as he gets very serious,
King Leopold
If it freezes for you, the rest of the world remains in action.
Cut to close-up of Sandro's face. He looks alarmed.
Sandro
What happens if I get stuck there?
Cut to full shot of them both, with the garden and the SD monitor in shot.
King Leopold
[beat]
You'll die!
Cut to wide shot, including Sarah standing by.
They stand still, 3, 2, 1,
Cut to medium-shot, Sarah.
Her eyes are steady, chin slightly down. In one strong, swift gesture she raises both hands and gives the symbol, "OK".
Cut to YouTube video, "The Light Vs. The Darkness". The white, glowing sphere grows, and grows, and almost takes over the dark sphere, when
Cut to black.
END.