LiveJournal Entry: The Twentieth
An excerpt from my script. I give it to you "as is", sophomoric warts and all. Caveat Reador.
JAKE (V.O.)
More often than not, life is a slow, steady blur of happening, with very little demarcation.
But sometimes, an entire chapter, hell an entire ACT of your life can be traced back to a single solitary event. Something so simple, yet with such density that it becomes one of two brackets encompassing a whole section of your life. A bookend holding up the start of story.
(LONGER SHOT - JAKE'S ENTIRE BODY)
We see that the pen Jake was holding in his fist is now sticking out of his thigh, a dark patch of blood is seeping through his pants leg. He looks down at the pen.
JAKE (V.O.)
Here's where this story begins.
JAKE
(cradling his forehead in his hand)
Fuck.
INT. OFFICE HALLWAY
We see Jake limping down a dark hallway towards a door with the word "SHOP". There is a lit "EXIT" sign above the door.
INT. OFFICE SHOP
Jake steps through the door to the shop. This is the production area of the company. There are a few older-looking printing machines, but the majority appear to be more modern. There are reams of paper everywhere, boxes of supplies, and paper handling equipment. Jake walks past all of this towards another door with an "EXIT" sign over it. As he is walking he staggers a bit and bumps into the side of a clean-looking laser copier/printer with his damaged leg and leaves a smear of blood.
JAKE
(hissing)
Fuck!
CUT TO Jake rummaging through supplies on a workbench, looking at bottles, finding a plastic jug labeled "n-Heptane".
CUT TO Jake pouring some of the contents of the jug onto a wad a paper towels over a sink.
JAKE (VO)
Industrial environments have their advantages. Industrial chemicals and solvents, for one.
CUT TO Jake wiping down the side of the copier/printer, cleaning off the blood smear.
CUT TO Jake pouring more n-Heptane onto another wad of paper towels.
JAKE (VO)
And solvents make handy disinfectants, in a pinch.
He unbuckles his belt and unzips his pants, then, after some hesitation, reaches down inside the leg of his pants to wipe the wound on his leg.
JAKE
Ahhh! God, son-of-a...
EXT. PRINTING COMPANY BACK LOADING DOCK
Jake limps out of the exit door onto the loading dock of his company. He closes and locks the door behind him, then limps over to some stairs down to a small parking area. He makes his way to the only car left and gets in. The car starts up.
JAKE (VO)
Thank god I don't drive stick.
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING
We see Jake limping through the entranceway of his apartment complex.
INT. JAKE'S APARTMENT
Jake enters and shuts the door. He makes his way through the apartment to the bathroom.
INT. BATHROOM
The bathroom is very clean in comparison to the state of the rest of the bachelor pad. Jake puts the lid down on the toilet and gingerly sits down, still favoring his injured leg. He carefully strips his pants off, exposing the wound for the first time. It is dark brown with drying blood, and there is a hint of black-and-blue bruising underneath. The skin is puffy, and a dark black spot marks where the pen actually entered.
Jake puts a folded towel on the edge of the tub and shifts over to sit on it, straddling the edge such that his injured leg is in the tub. He gets clean washcloth, runs the water in the tub, and begins to gingerly wash the wound. After he has washed away the dried blood, he reaches over to the medicine cabinet and grabs two bottles - Isopropal alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide - and a cup.
First, he fills the cup with hot water, and pours a tall stream of it onto his leg, trying to direct the stream onto the wound. We see steam drifting up off his skin, and we see Jake gritting his teeth and hissing.
Next, Jake holds the bottle of peroxide up and pours a tall stream into the wound. We see white foam bubble up and out, down the skin of his thigh.
Last, Jake does the same thing with the bottle of alcohol, and again we see him wince. When he is done he leans back against the wall and closes his eyes.
JAKE (VO)
This isn't the first time I've done this. Just the first time in a long, long while.
Jake gets another clean washcloth and wipes away the liquid around the wound, gingerly patting it dry. We see a short montage of standard home first-aid: Applying ointment, applying a gauze bandage, wrapping his thigh with tape, swallowing some Ibuprofin.
JAKE (VO)
Like I said before, life is rarely episodic, it all blends together as time passes, and if you're not careful you can lose track of everything.
Jake stands in front of his vanity mirror. He grabs the tail of his shirt and pulls it up to take it off.
JAKE (VO)
Your life is a story...
We see Jake take off his shirt, revealing a massive ugly scar across his chest.
JAKE (VO)
And sometimes you leave bookmarks.
Jake looks at himself in the mirror, shakes his head with what might be disgust, and leaves the bathroom, turning off the light.
JAKE (VO)
Just another dog-eared page.
FADE TO BLACK
INT - DORMITORY ROOM - NIGHT
This is a flashback, everything is sepia-toned. We see a younger version of Jake sitting at a desk in a dormitory room.
The soundtrack at this point is "Iris" by the Goo-Goo Dolls.
JAKE (VO)
Like a lot of things, it started small.
Jake is stressing over something school-related. The clock reads 2:13am. Piled around him on the desk are glasses and dishes. He grabs a fork suddenly and holds it in his fist - much like we saw him hold the pen he stuck in his leg. He stabs the fork down several times into his book of notes, leaving deep sets of holes through the ruled paper. The last stab knocks over a glass of soda onto his desk.
JAKE
FUCK! God dammit!!
Jake quickly picks up his notebook to rescue it from the pool of soda, making noises of angry disgust. He throws the notebook down onto the floor and grabs a dirty t-shirt to stem the puddle of soda. He is furious at the mess.
JAKE
(bringing the fork down into his arm)
STUPID FUCK!
Jake yells at the pain and drops the fork. He looks at his arm, and watches as slow trickles of blood pool and flow out of the four small holes in his arm.
At this point, the soundtrack should be at the lyric "AND YOU BLEED JUST TO KNOW YOU'RE ALIVE" in the song "Iris"
They are very shallow cuts. He watches the blood slowly flow, and he seems strangely calm - a stark difference to how he was a few moments before. He holds his arm up to watch the blood run down. He seems mesmerized. He seems reluctant to do anything to stop the flow, or mess it up in any way.
CUT TO Jake cleaning the papers and junk off his desk and organizing them on the floor. He washes and wipes off the surface of the desk, then sets his work up on the desk again. He sits down and begins studying, and he seems calm, content.
JAKE (V.O.)
It was always small things - a nick with a pen-knife, a shallow cut with a razor, that kind of thing. Sometimes it was the only thing that would fix me, but it always did. Never fail.
Focus on Jake's arm, at the now dark-red/brownish trail of blood running down his arm, moving a rippling slightly as Jake's arm moves.
JAKE (V.O.)
But these things always leave marks.
JAKE (V.O.)
More often than not, life is a slow, steady blur of happening, with very little demarcation.
But sometimes, an entire chapter, hell an entire ACT of your life can be traced back to a single solitary event. Something so simple, yet with such density that it becomes one of two brackets encompassing a whole section of your life. A bookend holding up the start of story.
(LONGER SHOT - JAKE'S ENTIRE BODY)
We see that the pen Jake was holding in his fist is now sticking out of his thigh, a dark patch of blood is seeping through his pants leg. He looks down at the pen.
JAKE (V.O.)
Here's where this story begins.
JAKE
(cradling his forehead in his hand)
Fuck.
INT. OFFICE HALLWAY
We see Jake limping down a dark hallway towards a door with the word "SHOP". There is a lit "EXIT" sign above the door.
INT. OFFICE SHOP
Jake steps through the door to the shop. This is the production area of the company. There are a few older-looking printing machines, but the majority appear to be more modern. There are reams of paper everywhere, boxes of supplies, and paper handling equipment. Jake walks past all of this towards another door with an "EXIT" sign over it. As he is walking he staggers a bit and bumps into the side of a clean-looking laser copier/printer with his damaged leg and leaves a smear of blood.
JAKE
(hissing)
Fuck!
CUT TO Jake rummaging through supplies on a workbench, looking at bottles, finding a plastic jug labeled "n-Heptane".
CUT TO Jake pouring some of the contents of the jug onto a wad a paper towels over a sink.
JAKE (VO)
Industrial environments have their advantages. Industrial chemicals and solvents, for one.
CUT TO Jake wiping down the side of the copier/printer, cleaning off the blood smear.
CUT TO Jake pouring more n-Heptane onto another wad of paper towels.
JAKE (VO)
And solvents make handy disinfectants, in a pinch.
He unbuckles his belt and unzips his pants, then, after some hesitation, reaches down inside the leg of his pants to wipe the wound on his leg.
JAKE
Ahhh! God, son-of-a...
EXT. PRINTING COMPANY BACK LOADING DOCK
Jake limps out of the exit door onto the loading dock of his company. He closes and locks the door behind him, then limps over to some stairs down to a small parking area. He makes his way to the only car left and gets in. The car starts up.
JAKE (VO)
Thank god I don't drive stick.
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING
We see Jake limping through the entranceway of his apartment complex.
INT. JAKE'S APARTMENT
Jake enters and shuts the door. He makes his way through the apartment to the bathroom.
INT. BATHROOM
The bathroom is very clean in comparison to the state of the rest of the bachelor pad. Jake puts the lid down on the toilet and gingerly sits down, still favoring his injured leg. He carefully strips his pants off, exposing the wound for the first time. It is dark brown with drying blood, and there is a hint of black-and-blue bruising underneath. The skin is puffy, and a dark black spot marks where the pen actually entered.
Jake puts a folded towel on the edge of the tub and shifts over to sit on it, straddling the edge such that his injured leg is in the tub. He gets clean washcloth, runs the water in the tub, and begins to gingerly wash the wound. After he has washed away the dried blood, he reaches over to the medicine cabinet and grabs two bottles - Isopropal alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide - and a cup.
First, he fills the cup with hot water, and pours a tall stream of it onto his leg, trying to direct the stream onto the wound. We see steam drifting up off his skin, and we see Jake gritting his teeth and hissing.
Next, Jake holds the bottle of peroxide up and pours a tall stream into the wound. We see white foam bubble up and out, down the skin of his thigh.
Last, Jake does the same thing with the bottle of alcohol, and again we see him wince. When he is done he leans back against the wall and closes his eyes.
JAKE (VO)
This isn't the first time I've done this. Just the first time in a long, long while.
Jake gets another clean washcloth and wipes away the liquid around the wound, gingerly patting it dry. We see a short montage of standard home first-aid: Applying ointment, applying a gauze bandage, wrapping his thigh with tape, swallowing some Ibuprofin.
JAKE (VO)
Like I said before, life is rarely episodic, it all blends together as time passes, and if you're not careful you can lose track of everything.
Jake stands in front of his vanity mirror. He grabs the tail of his shirt and pulls it up to take it off.
JAKE (VO)
Your life is a story...
We see Jake take off his shirt, revealing a massive ugly scar across his chest.
JAKE (VO)
And sometimes you leave bookmarks.
Jake looks at himself in the mirror, shakes his head with what might be disgust, and leaves the bathroom, turning off the light.
JAKE (VO)
Just another dog-eared page.
FADE TO BLACK
INT - DORMITORY ROOM - NIGHT
This is a flashback, everything is sepia-toned. We see a younger version of Jake sitting at a desk in a dormitory room.
The soundtrack at this point is "Iris" by the Goo-Goo Dolls.
JAKE (VO)
Like a lot of things, it started small.
Jake is stressing over something school-related. The clock reads 2:13am. Piled around him on the desk are glasses and dishes. He grabs a fork suddenly and holds it in his fist - much like we saw him hold the pen he stuck in his leg. He stabs the fork down several times into his book of notes, leaving deep sets of holes through the ruled paper. The last stab knocks over a glass of soda onto his desk.
JAKE
FUCK! God dammit!!
Jake quickly picks up his notebook to rescue it from the pool of soda, making noises of angry disgust. He throws the notebook down onto the floor and grabs a dirty t-shirt to stem the puddle of soda. He is furious at the mess.
JAKE
(bringing the fork down into his arm)
STUPID FUCK!
Jake yells at the pain and drops the fork. He looks at his arm, and watches as slow trickles of blood pool and flow out of the four small holes in his arm.
At this point, the soundtrack should be at the lyric "AND YOU BLEED JUST TO KNOW YOU'RE ALIVE" in the song "Iris"
They are very shallow cuts. He watches the blood slowly flow, and he seems strangely calm - a stark difference to how he was a few moments before. He holds his arm up to watch the blood run down. He seems mesmerized. He seems reluctant to do anything to stop the flow, or mess it up in any way.
CUT TO Jake cleaning the papers and junk off his desk and organizing them on the floor. He washes and wipes off the surface of the desk, then sets his work up on the desk again. He sits down and begins studying, and he seems calm, content.
JAKE (V.O.)
It was always small things - a nick with a pen-knife, a shallow cut with a razor, that kind of thing. Sometimes it was the only thing that would fix me, but it always did. Never fail.
Focus on Jake's arm, at the now dark-red/brownish trail of blood running down his arm, moving a rippling slightly as Jake's arm moves.
JAKE (V.O.)
But these things always leave marks.