Life unexpected Written by Sophie Crewe

FADE IN:

1. TITLE SCREEN

A white screen is shown. With black text in a standard font “Life Unexpected”. We hear the faint sound of Lu-dovico Einaudi’s Oltremare, (a moody piece for solo pi-anists) growing louder and louder.

2. INT. THE PIANO ROOM

The piano room is dark, yet surprisingly warm in ambi-ence. Placed in the centre of the room lays the Bösendor-fer, grand piano black in colour, with an early twenty-something year old woman sitting at the keyboard, she is wearing a white shirt and black trousers with a red lips, her eyes are closed as she is playing. Her face is lit up by the dim single overhead lighting, expressionless apart from her eyes, which are being held tightly shut.

We are given a 360-degree view of the woman as she is playing; her hands bare and pale in colour, with red nail varnish softly execute every note perfectly.

THE NARRATOR (V.O)

The narrator, male, speaks fluent English yet has a strong Austrian twang in his voice. His voice, monotonous and gruff, hints to us that he is a man of an older age.

Life unexpected, unforeseen, unanticipated, unlooked, un-hoped and unpredicted.

Most of us expect things, but what is it like to receive something rather unexpected? Could it come to us as a surprise, should this being an everyday expectation or merely do we realise how thankful we should be? Life is beautiful, so beautiful in fact; you wouldn’t want to miss it. ‘To define the unexpected’ in dictionary terms is “not expected” or “regarded as likely to happen”. For instance “his death was totally unexpected.” The truth

is, everyone dies, but the real question is does everyone live?

3. INT. THE PIANO ROOM

A series of images are drawn from the woman playing. We are presented with her thoughts, her facial expression remains neutral. Her long brunette hair is swaying with her every move, her hands still manipulating the keys, her confidence is imperative.

FADE OUT

4. EXT. (IN HER MIND)

First we have a man, he is dressed in smart black clothes, his hair, perfectly constructed of a mixture of products, is strategically positioned fitting to his head. His shoes yet to be tied, yet he is walking, pac-ing, moving around a bedroom. Loud muffled noises engulf the room, and the man’s pace begins to subside. His body becomes limp as he drags himself towards his two-toned red chesterfield reading chair. On it lays a piece of pa-per with the stamp “IMPORTANT” imprinted onto it, he picks it up and his facial expression changes slightly, and a slight and gentle smirk overcomes him.

5. INT. THE PIANO ROOM

We are returned to the Piano Room, the woman still play-ing is now lowering her head towards the keyboard, her face unchanged. Where again another thought is introduced to us. This thought is direct, it is of sheer exertion.

6. EXT. (IN HER MIND)

The corridor is vast. The walls covered in large paint-ings in bland clinical colours. The woman appears. She is walking analyzing each of the walls her hands running along them. She leaves marks on the crisp white paint-work. This trail of red is now being followed by the man from her previous thoughts. He is bewildered yet enticed at the fact he is practically chasing her. She is waiting for him at the end of the corridor. She has her back to him as his pace comes to an abrupt stop.

MAN

“Turn around and face me”

He says in a groaning tone, we hear a subtle hint of anger in his voice.

WOMAN

“I can’t, I’m not ready”

Her back still to him, almost pleading to him, her voice is penetratingly shaky yet remains strong.

The pair are dressed in elegant clothing, as if they were to attend an event of importance. She is dressed in a long red dress, with the back cut out to her behind. He is dressed in a white shirt buttoned up to the top and a sheer black bow tie and dinner jacket.

He leans into her, his hands lightly touch the middle of her back. A sense of ‘belonging’ takes over the woman. She still remains in the same position, her feet forward facing along with the rest of her body and does not turn to face him. She and he both walk away from one another, taking different paths along the corridor.

FADE OUT TO BLACK

7. INT. THE PIANO ROOM

She stops playing for a brief moment. The room plunges into silence, then the gentle sound of her hands gripping together to make two perfect fists. She releases a sharp emotional sigh and eventually continues from the start of the song once again (Ludovico Einaudi’s Oltremare)

The woman, her eyes still shut and her lips still a vi-brant red become once more engrossed into playing. The woman is playing from memory, no sheet music is seen, and as the momentum of the song begins to fasten once more we see her precision is impeccable.

9. EXT (IN HER MIND)

A library, its bookshelves are of a dark mahogany thick wood. Deep and texturised in history, with engravings of roman numerals in each of the arches. The books are placed in alphabetical order by a woman.

This woman is in formal attire, a black shirt with white jeans. The name badge “Evangeline” is written across it. Her hair is of an ash blonde colour, center parted and shoulder length. Her nails are matte black, as she ca-resses each of the spines of the books before placing them onto the correct shelves of the already full book-shelf.

Evangeline is shocked when she hears a soft and polite

WOMAN

“Excuse me”

From behind her.

It is the woman, her lips of a fatalistic red and her eyes hidden behind dark rounded sunglasses. She is wear-ing all black, a long skirt with a high neck jumper and thick-soled loafers.

WOMAN

“I’m looking for Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”

Evangeline guides the woman in the direction of the books, they walk side by side and she presents the woman the book. The book is in a deep green colour and on the front is a picture of a woman pale in colour, long dark hair and covered in a red cloth. The woman opens the book and traces her fingers along the spine, she brings the book towards her faces and breathes in the smell of the pages. They are ivory in colour and falling to pieces.

In opening the book, the story of “one-eye, two-eyes and three-eyes” the story of three sisters. The woman’s face ran along the pages and her hands reached up to her face, onto her glasses for a moment. Where she once again began to read.

WOMAN

“Little kid, bleat, my dear,Little table, disappear”

THE PIANO ROOM

The music finishes, she feels around the piano to find the lid, puts down the lid on the Bösendorfer. Reaches down onto the floor where she traces her hands to find a white stick.

EXT. (IN HER MIND)

A dark, dreary and unpleasantly damp room takes center stage in her thoughts. The woman appears, slightly younger than she is now, she looks dirty and beaten, her

clothes ripped and her hair unwashed and damaged. Her face facing the floor is unseen, we inch closer to the woman who is facing the wall, her body limp and almost lifeless as she is sat on the floor. There is complete silence, the windows are smashed and facing out onto an abandoned airfield.

The now to be called ‘Girl’ gets up, turns around and slowly lifts her head, her eyes briskly open wide in a panic. In opening her eyes, we see that her eyes are not what we would’ve hoped to see. They are of a murky blue, as if it were a film over her eye. Her mouth opens daunt-ingly.

Girl

“I can’t see”

NARRATOR (V.O)

“Blissfully and wonderfully unexpected.”

The woman from now on made, forced and uncontrollably blind. From this moment on, all of her thoughts are what she wanted to see or that she had seen.