Adaptation – Adrienne Wilson

ADAPTATION of my novel “Where” to screenplay Day 2

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Adrienne in Uncategorized

Where I Laid Me Down To Sleep by Adrienne Wilson

You can find the characters Brittany and her therapist Tasha here in the novel: https://www.wattpad.com/30927602-where-i-laid-me-down-to-sleep-epilogue/page/3

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com

3. INT. LOBBY CLINIC. DAY.

Tasha meets BRITTANY 14 and her MOTHER 45 in the lobby. She leads them back to her office where they both sit down on the couch. Brittany’s eyes are hollow. She stares blankly into space. Her mother is deeply tanned and wrinkled before her time. She seems like an 80 year old. They have been referred by the school counselor to the clinic where Tasha works pro-bono.

TASHA

(eyes looking deeply at both of them, back and forth)

What brings you in?

MOTHER

I can’t help her. I can’t raise a grandchild at this time in my life.

BRITTANY

(sinking back into the pillows, slight tears beginning to well up)

TASHA

(eyes on Brittany)

I understand.

BRITTANY

(barely audible)

I love him.

TASHA

(looks at Brittany)

Can we bring the boy and his family into next session?

MOTHER

(harshly)

No way. I have already spoken to his father myself and he’s going to college. He doesn’t want anything to do with this baby.

TASHA

Have the children spoken about this?

MOTHER

No, I don’t want her to ever see him again. She is going to take care of this and that is final.

TASHA

Their are options for her.

MOTHER

No, there aren’t.

TASHA

I’d like to see Brittany alone for the rest of the session.

MOTHER

Why?

TASHA

Because I need to speak with her.

MOTHER

(exits, slamming door in a huff)

TASHA

Are you okay Brittany?

BRITTANY

No.

TASHA

There are lots of options for you to choose from, honey.

BRITTANY

I just want to be with him.

TASHA

I know.

BRITTANY

He doesn’t even care.

TASHA

I know it must feel like that.

BRITTANY

He told me he loved me.

TASHA

Have you seen him again?

BRITTANY

He doesn’t want to.

He said he never wanted to see me again, and that his father was really angry with him

TASHA

(tears start to well, up, close in on her eyes)

Honey, I’m so sorry.

BRITTANY

(in tears, reaches for Kleenex tissues)

I guess I’m going to have to do what my mom wants.

TASHA

I’d like it if you could bring he and his father in, Brittany.

BRITTANY

They won’t.

TASHA

I think that seeing them might be one of your options, and there are others.

BRITTANY

I don’t have any options.

TASHA

Yes you do, honey.

BRITTANY

I don’t feel like it.

TASHA

(gets brochures from her desk)

I’m going to refer you to a few places I know of.

BRITTANY

I just want to be with him.

TASHA

I know, honey.

I’m going to go get your Mom to come back in.

Tasha goes back to lobby where her next client is waiting, to retrieve Brittany’s mother who seems calmer. They walk down the hall and she hisses harshly.

MOTHER

I know why she wanted this. Her sister is having a baby.

TASHA

Is she?

Brittany looks at her mother as the two of them return, crumpled tissues all over the couch, she sweeps them into a pile.

BRITTANY

I want my family. I want my Dad back.

MOTHER

He’s not coming back, Brittany. You are going to have to get used to Justin, he is my boyfriend, and you are going to have to get used to the fact that your sister Mary is twenty one and responsible for herself.

TASHA

Adaptation of my Novel “Where I Laid Me Down To sleep” to screenplay

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Adrienne in Uncategorized

I wrote the novel during NaNoWriMo 2013, and just now looking back at it. In the way that we look back at pages, so, the rewrite is to film. Novel is always easiest for me in many ways, because scripts are like haiku poems in a way. Anyway this book is intact at 50,000, and I wrote it over in Wattpad that year. So it is set in 1981, in Los Angeles, much of it. It’s a love story that has a tragic end, and is a Greek Tragedy in true Aristotle’s Poetics style. Here goes!

xxoo!

Adrienne

You can see the novel here: https://www.wattpad.com/28740536-where-i-laid-me-down-to-sleep

Where I Laid Me Down To Sleep

1 EXT. CAROUSEL SANTA MONICA PIER. DAY.

The carousel, empty, spins in black and white, fast, then slowing to a stop. Music, poignant and soft. An adult woman stands on a pier, alone, she is 50ish. We hear this voiceover, in a male voice, character is Tim speaking.

Sometimes staying alive is the hardest thing that you will ever have to do. Love can kill a person. Too much love or the wrong kind of love, or not enough love. That’s what I know now. And that’s what almost happened to Natasha Evergreen. She almost died.

2. EXT. CAMERA OBSCURA SANTA MONICA. DAY

TASHA 50 stands inside the Camera and spins the giant plate like magic looking at the landscape. Suddenly she sees herself at 22, locked in a kiss with JOHN SANDMAN on the pier, arms around each other, deep in love. She spins it again and sees herself with her mother as a young girl about to go to college.

3 INT. TASHA/MOTHER APT. BARRINGTON. DAY

TASHA 22 and her MOTHER 50 argue in apartment on Barrington. Tasha is in her second semester at JC, studying Art. Her mother thinks college is a waste of time. Tasha has quit her job and moved home, broken up with first love to go to school. A dream she wants to fulfill, on her own.

MOTHER

What good is this education going to be, anyway?

TASHA

(sighs)

It’s what I want, Mom.

MOTHER

Life isn’t always going to be about what you want, Tasha. Mine hasn’t been.

TASHA

(sighing – very frustrated)

I know, Mother

Tasha makes for the rooftop balcony to get some air, thousands of birds cartwheel through the puffy Spring clouds and the massive towers glisten silvery. She can breathe. Her mother follows her to the balcony.

MOTHER

You have got to stop wearing your heart on your sleeve. You have got to stop being such a dreamer.

TASHA

(shakes her head, looks down at her wrist where a magic heart seems to float above it)

Okay, Mom. But, I’m so excited.

MOTHER

What good is school going to do for you, anyway?

TASHA

It’s going to be everything.

MOTHER

Where are you going to work?

TASHA

I’ll find something part time.

MOTHER

You have always done just what you wanted, Tasha.

TASHA

No, I haven’t.

MOTHER

Yes, you have.

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 23

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Heart of Clouds, Screenplay, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

*adaptation of my novel to FILM

(for Walter Halsey Davis, of the SB Writers Conference)

*note on sound for Christina, scene in bath with too many pills –

INT. CHRISTINA BATHROOM. TUB. Ghastly Brittle White Light

Christina slumps in the tub, she has swallowed so many pills, she is senseless. Memories of Jax and she, happy, at work, the absence of Jax. She does not know how to go on. She manages to get up, and stumbles to her bedroom. Looks at her wedding dress. Camera lingers on her hands smoothing the fabric, symbolism of the lace. She holds it up to the mirror, studies her face, fallen, all hope gone. Everything gone.

FLASHBACK

Christina and Jax eloping, her mother’s face a mask of cruelty.

CHRISTINA MOTHER

Don’t expect any help from us, Christina

You made your bed and now you have to lie in it

one of mine, an image of Christina, mood as she is at lowest ebb.

Christina manages to fold the wedding dress, replaces it in layers of tissue paper, before she collapses on the bed. She swallows the last of the pills.

TEENIE

Finds her mother passed out, in bed. Teenie is scared, when she cannot rouse her.

Mom wake up.

(in tears)

Mom

(whispers in her mother’s ear)

Mom wake up.

Takes her mother’s hand and notices a tiny freckle. Christina’s hand is ice cold.

Mom wake up, please

Please Mom

(close in on Teenie’s tears falling on her mother’s hand)

Please mommy don’t leave me alone

Teenie places on of her hands on her own heart, and another on her mother’s heart, barely beating under the thin bathrobe.

TEENIE

Heart I need you to speak to Mommy

I need your heart to talk to my heart, Mom

Please talk to my heart Mom

CHRISTINA

(eyes fluttering)

TEENIE

Mom I was so worried

CHRISTINA

(tears, seeing her daughter, blurred as through gauze)

Oh honey

TEENIE

I love you so much Mom

CHRISTINA

I love you too

You’re my little girl

You’ll always be my little girl Teenie

Always and forever

You mean everything in the world to me

TEENIE

(wraps her arms around her mother)

The two of them lie quietly in the brilliant white light, no longer garish, we pull back until two small figures, in the light

INT. GRANDPA/GRANDMA JESS. KITCHEN. WARM GOLDEN LIGHT.

Grandma Jess, bustles in her old fashioned kitchen cracking eggs for omlettes. She is making three different kinds, their favorites. She’s been so worried about Devlin, and so glad to see the pup and effect it has had on the boy.

GRANDMA JESS

He has such a sweet soul Jess. The dearest boy in all the world.

GRANDPA JESS

(reading the paper)

How’s that pup doing this morning, son?

DEVLIN

(smiling and laughing, cuddles pup)

He’s great. I think he’s going to chew up everything I own though. All my shirts.

GRANDPA JESS

(bursts out laughing at the antics of pup squiggling)

DEVLIN

Guess what I named him?

GRANDPA JESS

I knew you’d figure out a name pretty soon Dev

DEVLIN

Brownie

GRANDPA JESS

Well son, I don’t think I could have come up with a better one myself. He does resemble a brownie doesn’t he?

DEVLIN

(hands the pup to his grandfather)

GRANDPA JESS

(pup squiggling and licking his face, chews his shirt collar)

A pup is a pup is a pup. And this pup has all the energy in the world

DEVLIN

Today is going to be his first day at the beach. Grandpa

GRANDPA JESS

Guess you have to get him used to it, son

GRANDMA JESS

(brings out a little red collar and leash for Brownie)

I thought red would make a good contrast to his fur. Think he’ll like it?

DEVLIN

It looks great Grandma. Your first little collar Brownie

(Devlin tries it on him, while Grandma Jess finds two dishes for water and the pup’s food)

GRANDMA JESS

He’s such a little dear isn’t he?

GRANDMA JESS

All right my dears, what sort of omlette would you like this morning. We have spinach and cheese or mushrooms and cheese or just plain cheese, or nothing at all except egg. What shall it be?

DEVLIN

Cheese for me

GRANDPA JESS

Spinach and cheese

GRANDMA JESS

(secretly teaching Devlin how to cook)

Devlin will you help me with the spinach?

(uplift, happy music, as the two of them make the omlettes, a golden sizzle)

DEVLIN

(begins to tell his grandparents about Teenie)

I met a girl on the beach the other day

A really special girl

(hugs Brownie on his lap)

I can’t wait to show Brownie to her because I think she might love him too

GRANDMA JESS

Why Devlin, that’s wonderful

What is she like son?

DEVLIN

I think she might be an artist. Or a writer. She was crying the first day I saw her

GRANDMA JESS

Do you know why?

DEVLIN

Sort of. She sort of told me how sad she was since her dad had been gone

GRANDMA JESS

Where did he go?

DEVLIN

She said he had to leave the village to search for a job

He used to be a reporter for the paper, Grandpa

GRANDPA JESS

(loud sigh)

I’m surprised that industry is still in business in America, after what they have done to all those poor people. I’m sorry to hear that son.

(shakes his head back and forth)

Making a little girl cry because her father had to leave town to look for another job

GRANDMA JESS

I’m glad you met a new friend Devlin. What else have you found out about her?

DEVLIN

Not too many things so far, she has beautiful hair, though

You should see the way it looks when the sun shines on it

GRANDPA JESS

(smiling ear to ear looking at Grandma Jess, twinkling)

It sounds like the day I first saw your grandmother, Devlin. I had my harmonica with me that day, though. I thought she had the prettiest smile I had ever seen.

GRANDMA JESS

Oh Jess, let the boy finish his breakfast now

She sounds like a very nice girl, Devlin. I’d love to get the chance to meet her.

GRANDPA JESS

(winks at Devlin)

GRANDMA JESS

When you get to know her a little better maybe she’d like to come for dinner?

DEVLIN

Okay Grandma. One of these days maybe I’ll ask her. I want her to meet the two of you, too. But first I just want her to meet Brownie.

GRANDPA JESS

(smiling)

You go on then son

DEVLIN

(cradling the squiggling pup, pulling on Dev’s collar)

I’m not going to have any shirts left at all

(the three of them laughing)

We’re going to my castle. You’ll see Brownie.

*to page 158 in novel, Chapter “Chances”

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 22

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Heart of Clouds, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

*adaptation my novel to film

(for Walter Halsey Davis, of the SB Writers Conference)

INT. DEVLIN DREAMING. NIGHT

Devlin cuddles his new puppy, sleeping peacefully, not fitfully as other nights. A quiet and beautiful dream of Tut and Teenie on the beach, montage clear blue sky, hawk circling, exquisite ocean waves, clean beauty of the sea

GRANDMA JESS

Stands watching him at the door to his bedroom, her face soft, she has been concerned, tonight different, she is grateful for the pup calming his sleep, no nightmares

INT. CHRISTINA BEDROOM. DIM BLUE LIGHT

CHRISTINA

(to the ceiling)

Jax why did you have to leave me?

(runs a bath, swallows the first of what will be many pills)

(looks at self in mirror, as if she can’t recognize herself, close in, pasty white face, lost eyes)

Why is life so hard?

Jax, why did you leave?

FLASHBACK

Christina in her male Doctors Office, he sits listening to her.

CHRISTINA

My nerves are like glass

DOCTOR

(pulling out many random samples, writing prescriptions, no care to take a proper history)

Let me give you some of these, and these

(close in on pill bottle after pill bottle)

CHRISTINA

Sometimes I feel like a window that has shattered into a million tiny pieces and no one will ever be able to put me back together again.

DOCTOR

Take these, you’ll feel better in a day or two

INT. PRESENT. BATH. GHASTLY WHITE LIGHT

CHRISTINA

(in the bath, memories)

Montage of Jax asking her to marry him, slipping ring on her finger, her wedding dress

JAX

Christina, I will love you forever and ever

CHRISTINA

(effects of pills taking hold, she slips under the water several times)

If something happens to me who will take care of Teenie?

Who will take care of my little girl?

(she swallows more pills)

INT. DEVLIN BEDROOM. MORNING. HAPPY LIGHT

GRANDMA JESS

Wake up sleepyhead

DEVLIN

(smiling, to puppy, cuddling him, laughing)

Hey little guy are you okay?

(puppy licking his chin, pulling collar of his pajamas)

Hey quit that

Hey cut that out

(puppy barking and lunging, full of life)

What am I going to do with you?

You nut

GRANDMA JESS

(smiling at the antics)

Come on downstairs, Devlin. I’ll get breakfast ready. Have you decided what to name him yet?

DEVLIN

I’m working on it, Grandma.

You little monster

Brownie. i think I’ll name you after my favorite dessert because that’s what you look like that to me.

DEVLIN

(yelling and happy)

He’s Brownie, Grandma!

(Devlin hugging puppy, heads downstairs to breakfast)

I’m taking you to the beach right after breakfast

*chapter is Sleepytime to page 146 in the novel

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 19

Posted on June 5, 2022June 5, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Heart of Clouds, Screenplay, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

*screenplay adaptation of my novel, Heart of Clouds for kids

*Chapter “Lost Worlds” p. 119

EXT. BEACH. MORNING.

Devlin makes his way down the beach crying at all the plastic waste, while Tut watches.

INT. TEENIES APT. BLUE DIM LIGHT.

Christina lies on the couch in a ball surrounded by her prescriptions, watching the news of The Wave. Newscasters show images of all the plastic inside the stomachs of birds and fish eating microplastics. She cries feeling powerless, looks at all her bottles.

CHRISTINA

(whispers to ceiling)

I don’t want to really be on all of these pills

EXT. BEACH. MORNING.

Devlin kicks at the mound of plastic bottles.

Why is everyone so lost? Why is everyone taking all of these pills anyway?

FLASHBACK

Devlin and his father at the doctor’s office, as the doctor wants to prescribe something for him after his mother’s death.

DEVLIN

I don’t need those. I can get through this alone Dad

(Devlin skateboarding, wipes away tears)

TEENIE

(watching Devlin through the cracks in the driftwood hut)

Devlin parts the seaweed curtain, and stands in doorway

It’s you isn’t it?

DEVLIN

It’s me.

TEENIE

DEVLIN

(grinning)

So do want to go for a walk?

TEENIE

Okay

DEVLIN

(they step out into the sun)

Wow.

TEENIE

What?

DEVLIN

Your hair

TEENIE

Is it okay?

DEVLIN

It’s so beautiful

TEENIE

It is?

DEVLIN

I wish you could see it the way I can, backlit against the sun like that

TEENIE

(smiles shyly)

DEVLIN

(reaches to hold her hand, close in on fingers curling)

Come on. I want to show yout he place i found the abalone. All the best shells wash up there.

OCEAN CREATURES

(a cacophony as they say)

He found her Tut!

DOLPHINS

He found her Tut!

VOICEOVER BLUE WHALE

(whale sounding, tail flapping)

The whales began to sound all over the world and all the penguins were dancing too, they spread the message to the polar bears, who spread the message to the eagles, who spread the message to the wolves, who carried the message to the deer, who carried the message to the cattle, who carried the message across the prairies, who sent it to the swallows, who flew it to the tadpoles, who carried it to a trout, who told the butterflies.

(we see all the animals resound with happiness that Devlin and Teenie have met)

FLYING FISH

(lands on Tut’s shell)

He found her Tut. He’ll save us.

TUT

And so will she, for she carries the language of the heart, and the whole world would go dark without it

FLYING FISH

The world almost forgot that language, didn’t it?

BLUE WHALE

(near to Tut, eye to eye, Tut brushes him with his flipper)

It almost did, my friend

TUT

They speak our language now

Tut and the oceanic squadron watch Teenie and Devlin running down the beach hand in hand

*to page 125, in the novel of mine – adaptation is for FILM

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 18

Posted on June 3, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Heart of Clouds, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

*novel adaptation to FILM

*page 113 – Chapter “Seachange”

EXT. OCEAN WAVES. VOICEOVER. BLUE WHALE

BLUE WHALE

As Teenie Alexander made her way to the sea hut, she had no idea that she was part of something much much larger. How could she have known that eons ago an ancient turtle had foretold her birth. That she would be the last girl on the planet who could speak the Language of the Heart. The thing of it is, we just never know what we are going to grow up into, do we?

EXT. BEACH. MORNING. SUNNY

Teenie walks down the beach to the sea hut as the ocean brims with sea creatures dipping and diving, alive. She stops to collect shells along the way, marvelling at the sea glass.

Teenie parts the seaweed curtain, climbs in and sees that Devlin has left her a red rose on top of the abalone shell.

TEENIE

(opens Dev’s note)

He wrote the word LOVE, just like I did

(presses the rose to her heart)

Close in on her hand writing these words:

If I thought of something that could show the language of the heart what would it look like?

Teenie begins to draw in her journal, and decides to write Devlin a special poem

TUT

(floating offshore watching)

(Close in on his ancient eye and flippers moving, as he watches Devlin walking down the beach)

They are the last two humans who know the secrets of the heart

MONARCH BUTTERFLY

(flies near Tut)

Tut, he’s getting closer

DEVLIN

(walking down the beach skipping stones)

I wonder what she will say?

TUT

Grandfather, I kept my promise, as I told you I would

DEVLIN

(notices all the plastic bottles on the sand)

This is just like my dream. It’s so ugly I can’t stand it.

TUT

(ancient eyes fill with tears at the sight of Devlin)

TEENIE

(watches Devlin skipping stones as he pauses on the beach)

Out to sea, the ocean is alive with dolphins swimming toward the two of them, and flying fish, and sparrows watching to see the two of them meet

*to page 119 in book Heart of Clouds

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 13

Posted on May 27, 2022May 27, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Art Direction, Heart of Clouds, novelist, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

(for Walter Halsey Davis, of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference)

*chapter FIRST KISS p. 89 in my novel

EXT. DEVLIN’S CASTLES. LOON POINT. SUNNY

Devlin watches Teenie walking by the sea, she is the first girl he has ever thought of as pretty.

*establishing first feelings for a girl

Shakes his head, to and fro. He runs down the beach like a race horse to get back to the driftwood hut, finds her note hidden in the abalone shell.

FLASHBACK

Teenie kissing her note to him with an invisible kiss. Then pocketing his note to her.

*establishing first feelings for a boy

Devlin has paper and pen in his uke case. Scribbles a next note, in all CAPS.

MEET ME HERE TOMORROW AT TEN O’CLOCK

Love, Devlin

EXT. HONEYGARTEN HOUSE. GARDEN GATE. MELLOWMAN

Teenie rides her bike to Mr. Honeygartens, and Melloman has been waiting for her at the gate. Her feelings for Devlin make her want to ask Mr. Honeygarten about Claire. She stops to inhale one of his exquisite old red rambler roses along the picket fence.

old house in Carp, with look for Honeygarten house

image for look of Honeygarten fence, this is next door to the yellow house above in Carp.

TEENIE

(calls up to his upper windows)

Mr. Honeygarten are you home?

HONEYGARTEN

(his face appears smiling down at her, from the high window)

Hello, my dear

Would you like some tea?

TEENIE

Yes I would Mr. Honeygarten

HONEYGARTEN

Why don’t you go and get the shears and bring some of those roses in, my dear. Take Mellowman along with you.

(Mellowman leaping and clowning around, tail wagging, garden scenes, tangled English garden look)

(Teenie moving along the fence picking the lush red roses)

INT. HONEYGARTEN HOUSE. PARLOR

Mr. Honeygarten has made tea and is arranging his delicate cups and saucers for the two of them, as well as petits fours.

HONEYGARTEN

Aren’t they the loveliest?

TEENIE

(arranging roses in a vase)

They are, Mr. Honeygarten

HONEYGARTEN

Sit down my dear. Tell me how you have been?

TEENIE

Fine

HONEYGARTEN

Any wild adventures?

TEENIE

(looks away shyly thinking of Devlin)

Well….

Mr. Honeygarten?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes my dear

TEENIE

Who was Claire?

HONEYGARTEN

Ah, Claire. Why Claire was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen

TEENIE

She was?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes my dear. She was.

TEENIE

When did you know her?

HONEYGARTEN

When I was fifteen

TEENIE

Really?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes my dear, and I have never, ever forgotten her. Not once in all these years.

*image of Mary Pickford in Stella Maris — Mr. Honeygarten’s “Claire”

HONEYGARTEN

(eyes, dreamily remembering Claire, he takes a sip of tea and reaches for a petits four)

TEENIE

She must have been very special Mr. Honeygarten

HONEYGARTEN

She was my dear. In fact she stole my heart.

TEENIE

(puzzling over what Mr. Honeygarten has just said)

HONEYGARTEN

(sighs deeply)

Claire was the love of my life, my dear

TEENIE

She was?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes, Teenie she was

TEENIE

Well how did she. I mean

HONEYGARTEN

How did I fall in love with her?

TEENIE

(smiling at Mr. Honeygarten, while secretly thinking of Devlin)

HONEYGARTEN

Oh my dear, where shall I begin?

(pauses, close in on kind eyes smiling at Teenie)

I suppose my dear, she was a bit like you

TEENIE

She was?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes, she was. I suppose I shall just have to tell you that story, won’t I?

I don’t suppose you might bake another apple pie for me once I finish?

TEENIE

Mr. Honeygarten if you tell me about Claire, I’ll make you an entire pie. Just for you.

(Fire crackling in the hearth, Mr. Honeygarten and Teenie savor the petits fours and cakes, while sipping tea, as Teenie pours, watching the little elf on the teaspoon, it seems to smile at her)

Where did you get these little teaspoons, Mr. Honeygarten

HONEYGARTEN

Claire gave them to me, my dear. I’ve had them all these years.

TEENIE

She did?

HONEYGARTEN

Yes, in fact we had tea together almost every day as children

TEENIE

You did?

HONEYGARTEN

(nods, solemnly)

All these little spoons were given to me by her. I have four. For the four birthdays we shared together.

TEENIE

You saved them all these years?

HONEYGARTEN

Nothing in the world would ever make me part from these spoons

TEENIE

You must have loved her very much Mr. Honeygarten

HONEYGARTEN

I did my dear. More than anything in the whole world.

*to page 94 in my novel, Heart of Clouds

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 12

Posted on May 26, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Art Direction, FILM, Heart of Clouds, Screenwriter

Heart of Clouds

by Adrienne Wilson

(for Walter Halsey Davis, of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference)

*chapter “Seadreams” p. 81

EXT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. MORNING. SUNNY.

Teenie is amazed to see that there is a seaweed curtain like a door. She parts the curtains and enters, captivated. Finds Devlin’s note in the abalone shell after shaking it to and fro. She hugs the note to her heart, rocking back and forth, listening to the sounds of the ocean.

TEENIE

(speaking softly to horizon, out to sea, to islands)

Dad I think you would like this boy

FLASHBACK

(Jax and Teenie the day he told her about writers and hats and they had shopped for one)

JAX

Every writer needs a hat Teenie

PRESENT

Teenie pulls the hat down, smiling and remembering her father. Unfolds Devlin’s note carefully, sees his signature, marvels at how much he said on paper. Close in on her face, reading intently, absorbing each word.

TEENIE

Pulls her journal and pen from pocket and begins to write back to him

*establishing EMPATHY

Teenie answers each line he has written we close in on his words, then hers.

Hi, Teenie

I’m really glad you left me this letter, because I really wanted to meet you

Hi Devlin,

thank you for writing this really long letter back to me. I really wanted to meet you too from the minute I saw you that day on the dunes, but it was like you ran away before I could say hi.

That day I saw you on the beach you were crying and so I didn’t want to bother you, even though you were in my secret driftwood castle.

I totally wondered if you built this sea hut, ever since I saw you. Nobody here ever built one of those like you did. I didn’t realize it was a castle though, until today when you added the door!

I’ve been really missing my old friends and that’s how come I wanted to be friends with you. I’ve only been here about two months and school is going to start pretty soon. I’m going to be in eighth.

I’m going to be in eighth, too! Maybe we’ll be in the same classes and stuff. I’m sorry that you miss your friends from back home. Do you like living with your grandparents? It must have been really hard at first, Devlin. It must have been really hard to move here and then have to start all over and make new friends. Right before school starts too.

I was like thinking you were my age too – but I wasn’t sure. It looks like you really miss your Dad a lot.

I do really miss my Dad, Devlin. He’s been gone for a really long time now and that day you saw me crying it was about him. I just missed him so much and it seems like nothing is any fun without him. He and my mom lost their jobs and he used to be a reporter for the newspaper in the Village. He worked there my whole life. He’s gone because he had to go south and try and find a new job. We had to sell our house too, and move. Sometimes I look up at my old house and I just get so sad walking by it. It’s that big white one on the hill. That pretty house.

Your mom sounds kind of cool – like she cares about the ocean a lot. It’s my favorite place too.

My Mom totally cares about the ocean, Devlin. She keeps on watching the news though and she is so worried about The Wave coming that she just sits there most of the time all day long in front of the TV. The doctor told me she had something called a “depression” and they gave her a whole bunch of pills to take. She doesn’t even seem like my Mom anymore, sometimes.

I hope we can meet again sometime

I hope we can really meet each other, too.

Sometimes it’s really hard to talk to anyone about how I really feel. Do you ever feel like that?

Devlin Underwood

Sometimes I do feel like it is pretty hard to explain my feelings to people, Devlin. It was like this summer when it got the hardest. My Dad was the one I talked to most. I could tell him anything and it was like he just understood me. It’s totally easy to talk to you though in a letter and I don’t know why, even. It just is.

Love, Teenie Alexander

TEENIE

(sits looking at what she has written to Devlin for a long time, exhales softly)

Dad you told me writers were always outsiders. Remember when you got me this hat?

EXT. DEVLIN’S CASTLES. LOON POINT. SUNNY.

*Images from location at Loon in magic hour light

EXT. DEVLINS CASTLES. GOLDEN LIGHT. ATOP BLUFFS AT LOON.

Devlin has been watching Teenie from above, sitting crosslegged atop the bluffs, in his castle, unbeknownst to her, watching. He has his uke and harmonica with him.

*core musical theme plays, sweeping sound

Devlin watches Teenie leave the driftwood hut, and walk in the waves with her pant legs rolled, until she rounds the bend out of sight.

DEVLIN

(softly out to sea)

Maybe we can really meet each other soon, Teenie

Close in on his hand drawing a heart in the sandy blufftop. He draws the letter T inside it.

(picks up his uke and plays a song his grandfather taught him)

(hawks circling, images of dolphins out to sea, seals)

*to page 87 in novel.

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY – 11

Posted on May 24, 2022May 24, 2022 by Adrienne in Adaptation, Novel, Heart of Clouds, Screenplay, Screenwriter

*adapting my novel Heart of Clouds – p.72 Chapter is EMOTIONS

HEART OF CLOUDS

by Adrienne Wilson

(for Walter Halsey Davis of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference)

INT. DEVLIN BEDROOM. EARLY MORNING

Devlin awakes from a strange dream about a giant’s hand rearranging his seahut)

DEVLIN

(tosses and turns, sits up bolt awake)

Oh no!

(rushes to dress, checks to see if Teenies notes are in his wizard box, sighs with relief, races down the stairs)

EXT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. BEACH. MORNING

example of the driftwood and stone stacks – these at Butterfly Beach

INT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. MORNING

Devlin scans the rafters for a note hoping she left one for him, when a gull lands on the peak of the shelter and screeches at him, cocking its head.

DEVLIN

(glances and sees she put a shell near the feathers he left, frantic to find her note)

Oh no. Maybe I’m too late or maybe she didn’t write anything, or?

(shakes head back and forth, defeated)

GULL

(cocking head and looking him right in the eye, shrieks and flapping its wings)

DEVLIN

Well gull what happened

GULL

(brazenly walks inside hut and riffles through the sand in the abalone shell, and extracts Teenies note)

DEVLIN

Hey wait a minute, that’s mine

Hey come back here

(a giant flock of gulls arrives)

DEVLIN

Hey come back here, you

Give that back

GULL

(cockily teases him by running down the beach carrying note in its beak)

Two red tails arrive and scare the gulls away. Devlin reaches to grab it before the wave washes in

INT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. MORNING. SUNNY.

Devlin carefully unfolds her note and marvels at her handwriting.

DEVLIN

I know her name now. Teenie.

Teenie Alexander. Wow.

(he cannot believe how much attention she put into her note back to him, begins to read in her handwriting)

Dear Devlin,

I think you have a really cool name. I don’t think I’ve met anyone with that name before.

You said I was a sad girl, but I’m not all the time. You know how you said your Mom died? Well that day you saw me crying it was because of my Dad. He’s gone away and I really really miss him. So, I guess like, I can understand a bit about how you feel. Sometimes I just feel really alone since he has been gone and most of the time it is really hard to talk to my Mom.

She is just always watching TV and she always talks about the Wave and the extinctions and about the tuna fish sandwiches she used to eat when she was little and stuff and about how people have ruined the planet and there aren’t going to be any more fish in the sea and stuff like that.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you for that feather and for this beautiful shell because that was a totally bad day for me. Remember that day I saw you running up the beach dunes? I wanted to say Hi but then you were just gone.

Bye,

Teenie Alexander

DEVLIN

Wow, she said she liked my name, and it was a cool name, and she wanted to talk to me too, that day she saw me on the dunes.

Devlin races back home, while a giant flock of gulls watch him.

INT. DEVLINS HOUSE. GOLDEN LIGHT, FIRE CRACKLING

GRANDPA JESS

(sitting with Grandma Jess before a crackling warm fire full of the pine cones they had collected)

You look you are in quite a hurry, son

(Devlin nods, and takes the stairs two at a time, to his room)

INT. DEVLINS ROOM. GOLDEN LIGHT.

*establishing first feelings for a girl

Devlin locks his door, and puts all her notes on the floor before him. He feels like he can say anything to Teenie, and takes pen and paper to compose an answer. He practices signing his name, over and over and over, until he feels it looks perfect.

He begins to write back to Teenie.

Hi Teenie,

I’m really glad you left me this letter because I really wanted to meet you. That day I saw you on the beach you were crying and so I didn’t want to bother you even though you were in my secret driftwood castle. I’ve been really missing my old friends and that’s how come I wanted to be friends with you. I’ve only been here about two months and school is going to start soon. I’m going to be in 8th grade. I was thinking you were my age too, but I wasn’t sure. It looks like you really miss your Dad a lot. Your Mom sounds kind of cool, like she cares about the ocean a lot. It’s my favorite place too. I hope we can meet again sometime. Sometimes it’s really hard to talk to anyone about how I really feel. Do you ever feel like that?

Devlin Underwood

Devlin signs his note with his signature in a fantastic flourish, then carries the note back down to the beach to the driftwood hut.

EXT. BEACH. DRIFTWOOD HUT. SUNNY, GOLDEN LIGHT

Devlin scans the beach, and decides to make a seaweed curtain for the hut, just in case that gull might come back and steal his note to Teenie.

*to page 79 in novel Heart of Clouds

*establishing how two teens can be friends, in letters

*establishing first crush between teens

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