Dialogue – Adrienne Wilson

HEART OF CLOUDS

INT. GRANDPA AND GRANDMA JESS KITCHEN. EARLY EVENING, GOLDEN LIGHT

The kitchen, in the old brown shingled Craftsman exudes a glow. The warmth and beauty of GRANDPA JESS (70’s) and GRANDMA JESS (70’s) beams like light rays. They are an old fashioned California couple who grew up together and married early, in the 1960’s. The kitchen walls are hung with old cast iron pans and copper cooking pots, there is whimsy, and homey charm, houseplants. Dinnertime, and Grandma is cooking, Devlin’s favorite meal, in simple style. Though they are both worried for the boy, they don’t show it. He is enfolded in their loving arms. They are his father’s parents.

GRANDPA JESS

(lounging on a comfy overstuffed sofa, inhaling the scents of the dinner, as his wife cooks, he watches her, smiling eyes)

What did you do today son?

DEVLIN

Worked on the hut

GRANDPA JESS

How’s it coming along?

DEVLIN

Almost done

GRANDPA JESS

Your father called, he wondered how you were getting along

DEVLIN

Tell him I’m fine

GRANDPA JESS

Are you Devlin?

Devlin busies himself helping his grandmother set the table, and tasting the baked beans and cornbread.

DEVLIN

I miss my mom

GRANDPA JESS

I know you do, son

Grandpa Jess reaches behind the sofa and pulls out an old ukulele he had hidden, starts to strum, then hands it to Devlin

DEVLIN

You played this?

GRANDPA JESS

(eyes twinkling)

I think that’s how I won your grandmother’s heart. That or my old harmonica.

GRANDMA JESS

(rich sounds of her warm laughter fill the room)

I really don’t think you need to give that boy any ideas, Jess

DEVLIN

(practices playing both instruments, smiles)

GRANDMA JESS

(pulls out a special cake made just for Devlin)

Practice makes perfect, and we all know that – the two of you ought to come have supper now.

DEVLIN

Sighs, smiling as he looks at the cake

GRANDMA JESS

No reason every day can’t be a celebration, Devlin

Heart of Clouds was written during NanoWrimo 2009 and first published there under my nom de plume VB-Demoiselle.

I self published my book through PressBooks https://heartofclouds.pressbooks.com/ April 24, 2012

It is available at Kobo, here, if you would like to read the original draft https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/heart-of-clouds-1

As a member of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, I expected the book to go through traditional channels in publishing, for instance a Literary Agent, but since that did not happen, the rewrite as a screenplay is in the live web. If you are interested, leave me a comment here. The book was just over 50,000 words, and won in NanoWrimo that year. It was a first novel.

The cover is an image of mine, a scene of clouds from Summerland Beach.

HEART OF CLOUDS – SCREENPLAY

by Adrienne D. Wilson

for Walter Halsey Davis

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

————————— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

LOGLINE: “Love, it’s the only thing that really matters.”

CAST OF CHARACTERS

TEENIE ALEXANDER – a girl of thirteen (seen as a child, then as adult)

DEVLIN UNDERWOOD – a boy of fourteen (seen as a child, then as an adult)

MR. HONEYGARTEN – a very old man, perhaps 90

GRANDPA JESS – Devlin’s Grandfather – perhaps age 70’s

CHRISTINA ALEXANDER (Teenie’s mother) a woman of 40’s

JAX ALEXANDER (Teenie’s father) a man – late 40’s

GRANDMA – Devlin’s Grandmother – perhaps age 70’s

CLAIRE – Mr. Honeygarten’s first love, the love of his life – she is seen as a young girl, and again as a ghost in his old age.

DEVLIN UNDERWOOD’s FATHER – a man 40’s

DEVLIN UNDERWOOD’s MOTHER – a woman 30’s

DOGS

MELLOMAN – a Golden Retriever (about six years old)

BROWNIE – a Chocolate Lab (puppy)

GENRE – DRAMA – This is a FAMILY FILM, the ratings would be G along that scale. It’s the story of a young boy and girl who meet on a beach one summer, maybe the worst summer of their lives. It’s a story of memory, and the sea, and the very first crush one has, and so it is a story of great innocence, for all ages. It has a happy Hollywood ending.

LOCATION – I wrote the film to be shot in a small village along the Pacific Coast, such as Summerland and Carpinteria, which retain the images of “villages” from another time. They are still old-fashioned enough to be timeless.

FADE IN

OPENING SCENE ONE EXT. BEACH. EARLY MORNING

The camera pans across the vastness of the sea, on a crisp morning, in the clear light of the Pacific, blue skies, shimmering waves. We see TEENIE ALEXANDER (age 13) running away, as if running from home down the empty beach, in glimmering light. A dolphin’s fin emerges, and it leaps – to the sound of classical oceanic sweeping music. Pan to a structure ahead of her, a sea hut made of driftwood like the kind that surfers build along the beaches here. It’s early Autumn, in the magic light along the Pacific. She sees the structure off in the distance and makes for it, In her pocket she carries a small journal embossed with flowers and a Waterman pen, both gifts from her father.

SCENE TWO INTERIOR NIGHT TEENIE’S ROOM (flashback)

Teenie is sitting on her bed trying to block out her parents JAX (40’s) and CHRISTINA (40’s). Their voices are getting louder and louder as another fight over money begins.

SUDDEN KNOCK

JAX

(Speaking softly)

Honey can I come in? I have something for you.

TEENIE

(nods her head, as door opens)

Dad…

JAX

(holding embossed journal and pen, her gift, squats down to hand them to his daughter, cups her face)

I have to leave tomorrow, honey. I wanted you to have these.

(PAUSE, then)

You have a heart made of clouds, you know that?

TEENIE

I do?

JAX

(gruffly, hugs her)

Never forget that okay? Never lose that little twinkle in your eye.

Tag: Dialogue

Heart of Clouds – adaptation – novel to screenplay Grandpa Jess

Adaptation, novel to screenplay my book Heart of Clouds

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