Screenplay No. 5 (For Your Consideration)

"Adoring Angels"

This should be shot on the stage of a well-funded middle school (though this need not be obvious upon visual inspection of the film). An intense yellow spotlight should fade in at a sleepy pace on a pair of actors in their late 20s, with the long-nosed and square-lipped look beloved in 19th century European popular culture. They are wearing togas of gold lame (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), and have their profiles set to the left (they are on the right side of the screen). As they become discernable, they start making cooing noises and putting on delighted faces (think of a campier Bill Viola—if that’s possible). After 20 seconds of this, natural white light should start to illuminate (a quicker pace than the yellow) the scene about them—bare floorboards, a backdrop of white dots (no patterns or constellations) on black, and an 8’ radius crescent moon hanging approximately 7' off the ground, slightly left of center. The golden spotlight, after 30 seconds of this combined tableau, fades away at the same place it faded in, leaving the actors under the white light. This completed, a 10 second pause—then the white light exits at the same pace it came in at. When the actors cease to be discernable, they stop cooing. This film begins and ends with 10 seconds of dark stage. Standard cinematography. Oh, and the bounds of the stage should be bounds of the camera (perhaps a bit more visible along the bottom?).