Snow white/white snoW: Part 3

Hi all!  I know this was due out yesterday but due to an acute case of "I'm your yellow fever vaccine and I'd prefer you to not do ANYTHING today" I was unable to.  So here it is, one day late.  My apologies.

Part 1:  http://www.pspizza.net/2010/11/snow-whitewhite-snow.html
Part 2:  http://www.pspizza.net/2010/11/snow-whitewhite-snow-part-two.html

Part 3:

[We re-open on the office, now in normal speed.  Anton and Sara are sitting across from Sara’s desk where past-Sara is working.  The rest of the office is empty and she works alone.]

Sara:  It was for some kind of new sink, they said it was like reinventing how we would wash dishes or something.  They always said that, that X was the new Y and would revolutionize how we would think of Y forever.  My job was to help the small company in Tulsa or Bismark or wherever sell the garbage to everyone they could.

Anton:  Zombie.

Sara (punching him lightly in the arm):  No!  Well…maybe.  Alright, most of the time.  But you know, stepping-stones.

Anton:  To?

Sara:  I always wanted to have my own design studio, to work for the clients I chose not the ones they threw at me.  If one day I just wanted to make cute pictures of puppies I could, just…just freedom.

Anton (leaning close against the wall, looking down at his hands):  I understand.  I understand.

[Fade to black.]

[Anton and Sara sit in chairs at a deli, it is night outside and past-Sara is just finishing her dinner scrolling threw something on her tablet.  She notices something intriguing.]

Sara:  It was a job offer, a headhunter at another firm looking for someone.  They specialized in design and were looking for someone with my talents.  Eighty grand to start plus a signing bonus.  Three years, three years and I could afford my own studio.  Well, with a bank’s help.

Anton:  Could you have tolerated that?  It’s almost the same captivity as what you had before.

Sara:  They said I would have some say in the clients I handled, it’s better than being forced into all of them.

[Past-Sara gets up and begins to leave, dumping the refuse of her meal into the trash and walking out, waving goodbye to the old man behind the counter.]

Sara:  Mitch, he was nice, his wife died a few years ago.

Anton (getting up and following past-Sara out the door):  I thought that might have been the case…

[A transition as the bell of the door chimes.  It is a Parisian looking café, Anton now with a different hair color, black glasses and clothes most wealthy men of his age would envy. Though many in the room hold cigarettes in one hand he does not, instead it is a book of poetry written by Pablo Neruda.  He sees a beautiful woman across from him, she is wearing a bright dress, her hair flowing down to her shoulders.]

Anton (writing on a piece of paper):  Target arrives at café  at 9:15am, third straight day.

[She sees him watching her, he has not been as careful as usual, the poetry pulled him into the past.  She comes over to him.]

Woman:  You sit here almost every day alone, why is that?

Anton (smiling and speaking in a rather American accent, knowing he has likely won this dance with death):  I come here to read, to write, to relax.  It is my sanctuary.

Woman:  Sounds wonderful.

Anton (getting up to leave):  It truly is.  I trust I will see you again?

Woman:  Perhaps (she hands him a piece of paper with her phone number written on it) perhaps sooner.

Anton (a devilish grin on his face):  How does 7:30 sounds?

Woman:  Perfect.

[Anton leaves and the woman vacates the table but a scrap of paper is left laying there a message from Anton to the woman which she never recieves.  If suddenly / you forget me / do not look for me, / for I shall already have forgotten you.]

[Fade to black.]

[Sara and Anton are walking behind past-Sara, she nears a corner stopping at a cross walk.  A man is next to her wearing a long black coat a cellphone to his ear.]

Man:  Tell him to call it off, it’s a firesale and we both know that.  Yes.  No.  No, I’m not going to sell any of it for that price.

Anton (looking over at Sara):  Are…are you sure?

Sara:  Yes.

Anton:  You do realize you can’t come back.

Sara:  I know, and I’m sorry.

[She leans in to kiss him but Anton pulls back, a pained look on his face.  The light changes, past-Sara simply continues down the street ignoring the man.  Anton begins to walk, Sara follows.  Soon the man turns, headed off in a different direction]

Anton:  It’s not that I don’t…

Sara:  I know.

[The sounds of a couple fighting ring through the nearly empty street, the screaming only gets louder as the trio approaches.  Soon three shots ring out.  Past-Sara stops walking and looks down, a cherry blossom lies nearly crushed by her foot on the pavement.  She falls to the ground feeling death creep slowly over her.  She cries for help, slowly clawing her way towards the refuge of a nearby alley, towards the safety of not being in the street.]

Anton (transfixed by the scene):  I…[he steps forward, wanting to comfort past-Sara, pulls her close to him, feeling the warm blood seep into his clothing.]

[Fade back to the park, it is night and Anton is standing alone on a small footbridge, a revolver in his left hand, his right is writing in a notebook carefully balanced on the railing.]

Anton (narration):  My largest regret was putting this vengeance in front of you.  He offered freedom through you and I took it, but it wasn’t worth the cost.  Over fifteen years I sold my soul to Satan himself just so I could give them what they call freedom and in the end all I did was make myself a slave.  Tiffany, I’m sorry I did it but I also know that will never be enough.  I did love you.  I did.

[Anton lets go of the notebook, it splashes into the water below, and he raises the pistol to his temple.]

[Fade back to the city.  Past-Sara is in Anton’s arms as he cries knowing this is the price he has been forced to pay.  He looks down at her face but only sees his own hands.  He is back in the meadow, snow all around him.]

Anton (narration):  There was only ever two regrets in my life, one was never saying a proper goodbye to my father.  The other was not kissing her.

[Fade back to the park; Young Anton is with his father.]

Father:  One more time Anton, okay?  Just one more time.

[Young Anton repeats the words of the poem, it is heard softly behind Anton’s narration.]

Anton:  She hasn’t left me, all the time I see new people, but always there is a single cherry blossom to remind me of the truth.

[Credits roll] 


snow white/white snow by William Sowards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Snow white/white snoW: Part Two

Here is part two of the screenplay, to read part one go to:  http://www.pspizza.net/2010/11/snow-whitewhite-snow.html

[First person view of the inside of a cup of tea, the tea slowly changes into ice then returns to tea.  The view pans upward revealing Sara, as it does so we see the tea return to a frosty state.]

Anton [Narrating]:  I was nervous around her, I didn’t know why.  There was just…something about her…some kind of…aura.

[Camera shifts back to position one as Anton sits next to Sara looking vaguely uncomfortable and awkward.]

Sara:  What are you thinking?

Anton (taking a sip of his tea, obviously in a non-frozen state):  Hmm?

Sara:  You were just standing there, staring.

[Anton is silent for a moment, just thinking.  Sara looks at the snow, feeling as though she has asked the wrong question though perhaps at the right moment.]

Anton:  It’s just been a while since…since I’ve been with someone this long.

[He is silent for a moment, trying to decide whether he wants to ask his next question, mulling on it as a cow does with cud.]

Sara:  Is that bad?

Anton:  You being here, not moving on?  No, not entirely.  It’s not like I have some kind of schedule to keep.  Just different.

Sara:  But…I’ve only been here…maybe three days?

Anton:  Weeks.

Sara:  Three weeks!

Anton (he sits down next to her, the cup of tea is gone):  Time doesn’t really…well, it doesn’t exist here.  But there, in the world, it still slips on by…

[Anton drifts into silence, thinking about his past about his life before this moment (both on Earth and in this place.]

Anton:  Do you remember all of it?

Sara:  I remember some things clearer than before.  Like a trip to Disney Land with my parents when I was 5, horseback riding through my youth…every ride…It’s like…like I can see, sometimes almost live, my life but…but I can’t touch it.  I try to reach out to someone or something as I have this vivid dream and it just ends.  Is it the same way for you?

Anton (stands up and walks a few paces away from Sara, a grimace on his face):  That’s good, it’s good you remember the good times.  It wasn’t always that way for me…Do you remember how it ended?

Sara:  I always just, I guess wake up, here.

Anton (he turns back to face her, knowing that asking while looking away would just be somehow wrong):  No, I mean your life.  How you died.

Sara:  I…uh…

[Anton rises from the log a pained look on his face; he knows what is to come.  He’s seen it too many times to count and just this once he doesn’t want her to leave.]

Anton:  Come.

[Fade to black.]

[We reopen on a cherry blossom in the sun, and slowly zoom out allowing the entire scene to come into focus.  We are in a garden, water features abound yet the area remains still and silent, quiet and reserved, like it is waiting for something important to happen.]

Anton (Narrating):  This is where I lived and died.  I played there, by the pond, with my brother and every evening under the cherry tree Father would have me practice verse.  He saw my talent, maybe too well.

Child Anton (Narrating):  May you live forever! / Cherish your life, / Only poets in bone / Are as in a lie.

Anton’s Father:  Good, good.  Again, this time with more emotion.  I want to feel your words!

[Slowly fade to black with “this time….”]

[We see an apartment, everything in pristine order.  The walls have photos of Sara and her friends:  in Paris, Rome, London, Chicago, a beach somewhere.  Each tells us a bit more about her, yet we only see them for an instant.  The camera pans to the door opening]

Anton:  Your apartment madam.  [He makes a bit of a flourish with his hands and allows Sara to enter before him.]

Sara (looking around):  Is this…real?

Anton:  In a way. [Anton steps inside as Sara walks toward the kitchen and its large windows]

Anton:  It’s like the field but created from your memories.  I wouldn’t suggest touching anything, it might break down the…I guess illusion.

Sara [reaching out a hand to touch a slightly wilted flower stops]:  Oh.

Anton:  What can you member of your last day?

[A time-lapse of the events Sara describe takes place around the two individuals]

Sara:  I woke up and turned on the TV, there was some story about a bank robbery or something…then I changed to go work out.  I was back maybe…an hour later?  I ate breakfast, showered, and got ready for work…I remember I had to change my blouse after I spilt some coffee on it.  Then I left.

[Fade to a teenage Anton in a hospital room, other than the beep of a heart monitor there is little to no sound.  Behind Anton is an x-ray showing lungs with significant damage from at least three gunshot wounds.]

Teen Anton (the camera shows Anton simply squeezing an old hand):  Since then 'tis centuries, / and yet each / Feels shorter than the day / I first surmised the horses' heads / Were toward eternity.

[A tear falls slowly down Anton’s cheek, he wipes it away with a hand and rises towards the door.]

Teen Anton:  [In Russian]  I am sorry father, it is not your time.  I am sorry.

[Fade to black.]

[We reopen with Sara and Anton standing in the corner of an office, a cube land, the office runs time-lapsed around them as they walk through it.]

Anton:  Not quite what I pictured for you.

Sara:  What did you expect?

Anton (he looks, a grimace on his face, at an orange haired troll on one worker’s desk):  Something a little less corporate drone.  I don’t know, maybe a painter or at the worst an architect.

Sara:  At worst?

Anton:  You don’t exactly ooze the vibe of a zombie.

Sara (they reach her desk and she smiles at the notebooks with half completed drawings littering the desk):  Graphic design.

Anton:  I stand corrected.  You Ms. Lawson are full of surprises.

Sara (looking up at him slightly seductively):  You have absolutely no idea.

[Fade to a shot of a bathroom mirror and the sound of a man vomiting.  Anton appears in the mirror looking pale, he speaks entirely in Russian (subtitled)]

Anton:  You can do this!  It is only five minutes and you are done, you are out.  [Anton looks down and the sound of the pistol’s slide can be heard putting a round in the chamber]  For Father, you can do this.

[He walks out of the bathroom, the camera remains on the mirror.  Muffled speaking can be heard followed by three gunshots.  Anton re-enters the bathroom, his face and chest are spackled with blood that is not his own.  Leans against the far wall of the bathroom then slides down, crying.]

[Fade to black.]

snow white/white snow by William Sowards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Snow white/white snoW

This is a project that started in about January and I've been slowly working on since then.  It still needs a bit of polishing.  I'll be posting it over the next three days and a PDF on the Wednesday.  It is under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial No-Derivatives 3.0 License so feel free to share it, shoot it, send it to Swedish pirates living on oil rigs, just don't change it or sell it.

Snow white/white snoW

Written by Will Sowards

[We open on a snowfield surrounded by trees, a view from the ground looking upward towards the darkened sky.  Moonlight illuminates the field.]

Anton [Narration, an American accent]:  You never appreciate life till you lose it, till it is taken away from you.  Five years ago I died and now I’m here.  It isn’t life, it isn’t death.  It just is.

[Enter Anton stage right he is wearing street clothes nothing special.  Jeans and a t-shirt, running shoes.  He walks a few feet forward and bends over. Cam switches to a first person of picking up a stick and examining it.]

Anton:  A new stick, a new life.  Perhaps a new friend, I never know what may come.  All I know is that a new stick means a change.

[The camera shifts back to position 1]

Sara [Narration]:  I always wondered what it would be like.  How it would feel when I went…

Sara:  Hello?

[She enters stage left in a bright colored dress, barefoot.  She is tall, but shorter than Anton, blonde hair.]

[Camera shifts back to Anton’s first person view looking at Sara as she walks toward him.  She stops a few feet away, a comfortable distance.  Move back to pos. 1]

Sara:  Where am I?  What…

Anton:  Welcome to the Grey.  Here we sit between life and death, between existence and the great beyond…Yes, that definitely needs some more work…

Sara:  You mean I’m…

Anton:  Dead, yes.

[Jump cut to a dark alley, silhouette of a body in the middle of the alley.]

Sara:  But…

Anton:  I’ll give you a moment.

[Anton walks off screen leaving Sara alone.  Fade to black.]

[Return to CP1.  Anton enters stage right, Sara is sitting on a log near the middle of the field.]

Anton:  That can’t mean anything good.

Sara (looking up at him):  What?

Anton:  The log.  Where did it come from?

Sara:  It was over there [points to an area of the woods].  I…willed…it over here.

Anton:  Figuring out our little world?

Sara:  Our?

Anton:  Sorry, so rude of me.  I’m Anton.

Sara:  Sara. [puts out her hand to shake and Anton subtly declines]  Why are you here Anton?

Anton:  Like you, I’m dead.  Just a little less dead, it’s complicated.

Sara:  Okay…Why am I here?

Anton (sips from a cup of tea not previously in his hand):  You have one purpose here, to accept your death.  Not realize that you are dead, but to accept it.

Sara:  And how do I do that?

Anton (walking away, slowly sipping his tea):  With time Ms. Lawson, with time.

[Fade to black.]

[We open on a dark alley, Anton stage right and Sara left.]

Sara:  This is new.

Anton:  For some of us anyway.  Do you recognize this place?

Sara:  No.

Anton:  And now?

[The view shifts, Anton and Sara keep their same positions in the frame but the background changes to the front of a building.]

Sara:  Just off 73^rd, I walked by here every day.

Anton:  But did you ever really pay attention?

Sara:  Pay attention to what?

Anton:  The people.  All of the people that walked by.  Did you ever stop to think that maybe you left some kind of impression on those who saw you?

[One individual walking by stares down the alley (toward Anton and Sara) he grimaces and moves on, it is barely noticeable yet there.  Fade to black.]


snow white/white snow by William Sowards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

within a lonely coffee house

After some thought, I decided to repost this today...at least I think I posted a draft of this before.

within a lonely coffee house

1967

I look out to the tables

from my place upon the stage.

One sits in the middle of the crowd,

empty

with a mug of coffee

and a stein of beer.

Odd.

The tables are a lustrous brown

a plastic like glaze

and a few chips here and there.

She sits in the corner

cup of tea in her hand.

A smile crosses that angelic face,

and I know

This is my muse.

The iPhone in my hand and I exchange a look.

“Paper is so cliché”

And I begin:

It wasn’t long ago that I was sitting on a train,

little black book in my hand

writing.

It wasn’t long ago that I looked up

up from that book

and saw it.

A pond, a blue pond

it was somewhere between Jackson

and 48^th.  In a place no one,

no one at all

would expect to find it.

Yet there it was.

Every day I would get a glimpse.

A puzzle,

A mosaic,

piece by precious piece it came together.

Finally, I understood.

Three years passed on that train.

Life

Death

Love

Loss

Hate

Apathy

All together.

All apart.

Yet that pond sat unchanged.

A man once asked,

How is this possible?

This isn’t how the world works.

I replied:

Correct, it isn’t.

If it is not possible,

then you change the world.

I looked up

to a filled table

with stein and mug in hand

and a single tear

flowing from

a blue pond.

How Castle Met Chuck at the Event in Hawaii

It seems to me that Mondays have become the new night for good television writing, or at least good geek television writing.  But, to be honest it isn’t all good.

How I Met Your Mother:

Now into it’s sixth season HIMYM is still one of the funniest shows on TV and it looks like we might finally meet the mother this season!  The way there are two plots playing out at the same time this season is a bit of a departure for the series away from an episodic format but it is definitely for the better.  If you like the show you are sure to love the new directions for the series and if you didn’t watch it before WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?  Three words:  Neil Patrick Harris

Chuck:

It’s a classic story geek works at electronics store, geek gets government computer downloaded into his head, geek meets girl, they get together….wait…one of these things is not like the others.  This season Chuck is searching for his mother, played by Linda Hamilton!  Sarah Connor is Chuck’s mom!  Like…dude!  And if a 54-year-old Sarah Connor sounds campy or inept wait till the last five minutes of this last episode then ask yourself if you would like to meet her wearing liquid metal or sporting an Austrian accent.

The Event:

Had this show come out three to four years ago it might actually be good but for the here and now it’s bad, really bad.  The writing occasionally has a high point where the watcher is left with an “I MUST WATCH!” feeling but it is quickly killed by very bad acting.  When Sarah Roemer, who is best known for either roles in “Fired Up” or “Disturbia”, is the highlight of the acting talent.  Enough said.  It’s like watching the third season of “Heroes” but with the addition of copious amounts of really bad “LOST” fan fiction.

Castle:

Nathan Fillion, smart writing, murder and mayhem.  What more could anyone ask for from a TV series sporting an all-star crew and some of the least known yet best acting talent to grace ABC’s surprisingly reality-light TV schedule.  The show has yet to become formulaic but it has been my worry since day one that it might take that turn and on occasion it has only to make a twist in the last half of the show that completely refreshes the algebraic formula that many crime shows suffer from (I’m looking at you CSI who’s idea of change is bringing in the Beibs for an episode).

Hawaii Five-0:

When FOX’s action behemoth “24” left the air I’m not going to lie, I cried a little.  Where was I to get amazing suspense, debatably good drama and verging on gratuitous violence?  I thought it might be from AMC’s “Rubicon” but it is more drama and artful diplomacy than the action adventure my inner Bauer required.  “Hawaii Five-0” fills the gaping whole in my heart.  Written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci who have been involved in practically every great thing to come from J.J. Abrams or Michael “EXPLOSIONS!!!” Bay, well there was “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” but they admit that was a mistake.  I can barely begin to describe how amazing this show is.  There are a few weak spots in this first episode but overall the show has some serious potential for greatness.  Think “The Shield” meets “24” with a hint of “The Unit” but all on network TV.  My only regret for the show is that Shawn Ryan of “The Shield,” “Lie to Me,” and my new favorite FX show “Terriers” is not involved in the program but perhaps give it a few years and some contract negotiations and “Hawaii Five-0” might find itself at the top of Emmy nominations.  I really can’t laud this show enough, as long as it can stay fresh and doesn’t suffer from the oh so terrible sophomore slump this will be a show to rival the popularity of shows like [shiver] “American Idol” or the now amazingly well rated [DOUBLE SHIVER] “Jersey Shore.”

This season of TV seems like it might be one of the best since the WGA strike, let's just hope there isn't another one any time soon.  I think most of us can agree that reality TV needs to go the way of game shows and every program created by Joss Whedon aired on FOX. 

"Halo: Reach," showing that Bungie still has it...sort of

I had been planning on making a better effort to post here, at least daily, but what was supposed to be a quick post of Tuesday kind of took over my spare time.  Two words:  “Halo: Reach.”

The gameplay is classic Halo, if it moves and isn’t you shoot it.  But, Bungie did add some changes that make the game infinitely better.  Now your SPARTAN has “abilities” as in cloaking, sprinting or (my personal favorite) the jetpack.  These all make campaign and online much more interesting and require a more intelligent level of play than simply running for the nearest rocket launcher and firing till all you hear is clicking.  Case in point:  on one mission in campaign were you are blessed with the use of a jetpack it suddenly becomes much easier just to jet above a ferocious alien with a giant blue sword running at you than emptying a half-loaded magazine into him and praying.

Oh and then there is the plot.  To sum it up in one sentence it is good, really good, but has a few problems.  There are some plot holes a Covenant super-carrier could fly through and some previously released Halo canon was simply ignored (like the fact that only three SPARTAN-3’s are alive in the Universe and some items that are major spoilers).  It’s just that, and feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t feel like reading some Geek-Rage™, it isn’t that hard to make sure that everything fits correctly.  They could have all been SPARTAN-2’s and had the armor abilities, it is a military planet with major amounts of tech, and it wouldn’t be inconceivable.  It just leaves me disappointed in the abilities of the Bungie staff having smart story telling, and frankly has me worried about what their next game is going to be, being as that this is the final Halo coming from the dream team.

Online is amazing, simply the best experience I have had with or without friends on my Xbox since Halo:  Combat Evolved was released.  The balance system has been fixed since “Halo 3” and the $60 price tag has, so far, kept the airwaves clean of whining seven-year-olds that swear more than Rahm Emmanuel when he sees the presidential approval ratings.  There is also a new feature for customizing what type of people you would like to play with, which may also be why I have yet to come in contact with the main reason why I hated playing Halo 3 online.

On the achievement front the game is fairly easy.  Beat it on normal and legendary and play probably about 20-hours worth of online and you will have your 1000G.  With that said, the inevitable DLC achievements that will come with map packs are probably going to be just as annoying as some of the “Halo 3” and “Gears of War 2” do X number of Y on Z map(s) achievements that devs seem to be so fond of.

In summary, this game is a definite buy if you own a 360, which you should (like really if you don’t have one go to Best Buy right now and fix it, it’s a moral and ethical imperative).  It’s an instant classic that shows just how far gaming has come since you first stepped out of a cyrotube and shot Captain Keyes just to see how long you could last.

Gameplay- 9.0

Graphics- 8.5

Plot- 7.5

Online- 10

Replay value- 10

Final Grade- 9.0

Thoughts and Memories

Metal burnt

Earth melted

Spirit reigned supreme

Through fire flame and destruction

They gave their all

Sacrificed life, the ultimate freedom

That others may live

Nine years ago today an attack that I think few are able to fully comprehend occurred on American soil.  It was not a nation-state that assaulted our shores but a radical group, one bent on the destruction of Western civilization as it has been known for the past 500 plus years.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare through the play’s title character speaks, “For some must watch, while some must sleep / So runs the world away.”  On September 11, 2001 many were watching over those who were victims, both in body and spirit.  The heroes of the tragedy will little be remembered as the years pass.  The firemen, police officers, and civilians that laid down their lives to save all they could will, inevitably, one day be forgotten.  Their names lost to history, their service but some half-remembered dream.  Nine years ago passengers on a jetliner, people who at any other time may have been nothing more than a name and social security number when their lives were done stood up against evil men and sacrificed their own lives to save others.

These heroes all waved goodbye to their family that day not knowing it would be the last time they would see, hear or speak to them.  But, in the end I have no doubt that they knew that at some point they would be reunited in a better place.

In my mind September 11^th will not be remembered as a day that America showed herself to be vulnerable to other, that we suffered a great loss that we may never fully recover from as a nation, rather I see it as a constructive force.  It brought us together like nothing save possibly Pearl Harbor or the American Revolution was able to do.  I remember members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican, singing “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capital after the events took place.  It didn’t matter that two weeks before these men and women may have been close to hating each other for their difference in ideology, it only mattered now that they were American and all felt the same need to help a nation in mourning.

The simple truth is, the terrorists didn’t win then and they haven’t won now.  We are still standing, still that shining beacon of freedom and liberty that our Founding Fathers saw this country as being.  And so long as we remember the sacrifice which has been made to keep this country secure and its people safe we will remain as such.

Unexpected Consequences

Still working on the site, trying to get a few widgets and different views working.  In the meantime enjoy this comic!

Links:
Invisible Hairsuit

WARNING: Under Construction

Should have a new post within the next few days, I'm working on the site so it may be wonky.  You have been warned.

Quick, back to the code monkeys!