The Blues

SCREENWRITING SHORT (SAMPLE): THE BLUES

Written by: C. S. Mack © 2009

FADE IN

EXT. BLUES FESTIVAL DAY 1, MONTEREY CA, 1992 - DAY

CARI MAXWELL 27, stands on grass among the lovers of music. Hair flowing in the light breeze, she hugs her denim jacket closer to keep the Monterey fog away. Her eyes are closed.

Foot tapping, face lifted to the stage, she is lost in the deep voice of John Lee Hooker. Her eyes open to his twanging guitar 15 feet in front or her, center stage. BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Cari looks down at her white manicured hands, unlined and soft. She notes the singer’s dark, aged hands strumming away. Cari looks to the right of the stage and finds SAM AUTRY, 38.

Cari stands agape at this tall, slim, good looking man. Dreadlocks push out from under a knit cap, brown skin glows as his intense eyes find hers. She is surprised and blushes. Their gaze becomes locked as if no one but the two of them is present. The music plays and the throngs of people fade away.

Tossing her hair, Cari lifts her hand in a shy wave. Sam smiles in greeting. Cari sees a wink but she is jostled by the crowd that carries her away as a new act takes the stage.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN

EXT. BLUES FESTIVAL DAY 2, MONTEREY CA, 1992 - DAY

CARI paces in front of a hot sun lighted stage. She excitedly searches for SAM. Her feet step in time with Edda James who thunders from the stage above. COME TO MAMA. Cari stops searching and gives her full attention to the coquettish drawl of Edda.

SAM sees Cari and eyes her bodily sway to Edda’s sultry sounds. Sam moves near Cari, waiting. Cari sees him and tenses but feigns a cool composure. Sam views her thinly veiled cover-up.

Dodging the crowd, Sam goes to her. Cari breathes heavily as he advances. He holds inches from her, overshadowing her body.

Aware of each other, Cari’s smile dazzles as Sam reaches out for to her. Their eyes meet with intense heat and knowing.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN

EXT. DAY AFTER THE BLUES FESTIVAL, MONTEREY CA, 1992 - DUSK

The incessant Monterey wind slips through CARI’S denim clothes and whips her hair as she watches cleanup crews gather the last bit of trash from the festival grounds. She sees the fog rolling in from the sea as she takes a note slowly from her pocket.

Cari reads: Lovely Cari, What a beautiful night we shared. Come and see me off tomorrow at the festival grounds. We won’t be leaving town until late in the evening. Sam.

A song plays from a slow passing car, Anne Peebles voice crackles out from the radio, I slipped, tripped fell love... Cari’s head drops looking to the ground. A gust of wind floats a flyer in front of her. She is shocked to see Sam’s face on the flyer.

Cari picks up the flyer reading: Sammy Autry and the Monterey Blues Boys. Now playing every Friday at the Cannery Row Bar.

Cari crumples the flyer, throws it to the ground giving it a few good foot stomps. She pulls her denim jacket in tight while wrapping her arms around herself. Tears streak her face as she bears against the wind walking away into the fog.

FADE TO BLACK.

Script writing is a unique genre of expression. It requires restraint by the writer so that the reader may impose their own illusion/reality within the structure of the writer's vision, a structure formulated by carefully chosen and sparsely applied words. The reader must supply a diligent imagination to unfurl their own meaning within the scant words that the writer formulates. The more endowed the imagination of a reader, the richer and more vibrant the creation of moving pictures within a reader's mind.

It's not a form of written expression loved by everyone, but unique none-the-less.

C.S. Mack Author