3. The Script

One of the strongest influences in my work has to be my childhood. I wrote the story with a fairy tale like structure. Genre-wise it is a buddy movie, a quest and a dark comedy. I liked the idea of the 'magic three' characters with different personalities, travelling and working together to achieve a common goal. The acorn is like the Golden Fleece, or The Holy Grail. It is the materialization of all their longings and needs. Therefore I made it physically giant to visually represent how much it means to them when they find it. As you can see, originally I included a title sequence at the beginning of the film. But Random Acts films go out without a title, so I cut that sequence, eventually replacing it with the table scene.

O.A.K (working title)

Script

Dir. Rebecca Manley

Ch4 Random Acts

Ext. woods daytime

We see three characters moving through the wood. Squirrel, pig and bear. They see something ahead on the ground, partly obscured by leaves. They approach it and we see from their pov that it is the word O.A.K (or the title of the film). Squirrel reaches out and picks up a letter, which he then nibbles on tentatively. Blurrgh! It is horrid, he recoils and tosses the letter away. The trio looks disappointed.

Music kicks in (it has a beat to march to).

The trio starts walking.

They walk through the woods traversing logs and negotiating undergrowth, sniffing around as if to find something.

Suddenly in the distance, at the edge of the wood, we see an over-sized fast food container on the ground. The squirrel approaches it and opens the lid. Inside is a giant half eaten hamburger. Flies gather around it, buzzing and clamoring. Squirrel turns his nose up and rejoins the group. When he gets back to the others he shakes his head. They sigh and continue on their way.

They move into a field, and walk down a dirt path. Alongside a fence they spy a large set of tools, paint tin and brushes, next to which is a plate of biscuits and a flask of tea. Bear breaks away from the group and approaches the plate. But just as he reaches out a paw to grab a biscuit some trainers step into shot and the bear runs away

A man’s voice mutters, “Bleedin’ bear, paws off my Bourbons!”

The bear rejoins the group puffing and out of breath. They shake their heads.

The trio continues on their way but by now they are visibly tired and hungry. Sniffing about for food, Bear momentarily sniffs at Pig’s leg. Pig, unaware of this, sees something and runs towards it, his sudden movement bringing Bear sharply back to reality.

Pig approaches a dog food bowl on the ground next to a brick wall (farm in the countryside or at least an isolated building surrounded by parkland). The bowl is full, pig approaches, but just as he is about to put snout in bowl a dog’s head lurches into shot and sends him running. They all run, scared out of their wits. They run into a patch of dark shadow, but panting and exhausted it takes them a moment to realize and look up at the cause…

There before them is a giant acorn hanging on an Oak tree. Squirrel and Pig are overjoyed. But Bear is looking at Pig nervously. In his eyes, pig transforms into a pork chop on legs. Squirrel runs towards the tree. But when he looks back for his friends, only Bear is left…slowly, contentedly, he licks a paw...(cut to black).

(Music - 'Guilty')

THE END