A Thousand Little Portraits of Mother: Preproduction

Overview: 

This next film is an Surrealist comedy about a town completely written in chalk. The film addresses  various problems, notably psychoanalysis, class, and existentialism; however the core concern of the film is the role symbols in art. A chalked in town is no more artificial than a set of that town. Within this artificiality we question the symbols we use to represent abstract ideas. Should a pet shop represent kind animal loving people? Beyond being artificial, symbols only work as a reflection of an artists inner insecurities. The figure of the mother in this film is used to represent the primal desires of an artist. an artist's symbolic usage is based on their own inner insecurities 

Inspiration:

When I was thinking of ideas for my next film I kept on having cool ideas and then thinking there was no possible way to make the idea with the sets available to me, this gave me the idea of making a film with no sets at all. Then I was hanging out with some actor friends who improved a version of the first fast food scene in the film. This idea merged with my desire to rip off my favorite movie, Synecdoche New York. Particularly a scene where Caiden decides to wall up his sets, and the death of the person playing him. 

Script: 

(When I copied this from the google doc it formatted strange, a link to the google doc version is attached bellow)

Link To Script

EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY

We open with a man slowly driving at sunrise towards an unspecified location. We see him drive past various backgrounds-rural, city, suburban..ect. When he gets out of the car he is a tall fat man, he wears a flannel and jeans with paint on them. His hands are white from chalk, there are chalk stains on his black t-shirt. As he gets out of the car his back is permanently bent over. He walks like an old man despite being young. He has very poor posture. After getting out of the car he puts a rolled up blueprint on the front of the car. Every time he tries to unroll the print it rolls back in on itself, so the man needs to hold it open on the front of the car. We see the title “a thousand little portraits of mother” Handwritten over the blueprints. After studying the blueprint he theatrically cracks his neck and walks towards the sunrise. He begins to draw lines on the ground in chalk, after drawing the first box he writes the word hospital in it with a plus sign underneath. He is the DRAWER. We then see an aerial shot of a complex grid of different boxes resembling that of a town. As the sun raises, more people come into the fake town and act as though it were real. We see a box with “fast food restaurant” written in it and a man walks in and orders. The man who orders is the CUSTOMER and the person behind the counter is the EMPLOYEE. 

CUSTOMER 

Ok, let me get a chicken sandwich, um, and 

then, ahh, does that come with fries?

EMPLOYEE

No sir fries are not included with the chicken

sandwich

CUSTOMER

Ok, so I’ll have a chicken sandwich, fries, 

and a coke.

EMPLOYEE

Is pepsi ok?

CUSTOMER 

Sure.. oh and honey mustard 

EMPLOYEE

Ok, anything else for you today sir?

CUSTOMER

No

EMPLOYEE

Ok

Clicks computer screen a few times (that's not there) 

Your total is gonna be $6.19. Are you 

paying in cash or credit?

CUSTOMER

Credit 

CUSTOMER inserts a fake card into a non-existent card reader. A few seconds go by and a card accepted noise is heard. EMPLOYEE prints out a receipt and hands it to CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER walks to the side. DRAWER can be seen behind CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER sees EMPLOYEE have a conversation with a non-existent person behind the chalk line. After a few moments EMPLOYEE walks back out to the spot where the line breaks.  

 EMPLOYEE

Number 85

CUSTOMER checks the non-existing receipt and gets the food. CUSTOMER squats down into a sitting position with no chair then lowers their mask to eat. They fake eating and drinking. Once they are done they stand back up and ball up some fake trash. The trash is then dropped into a little box of chalk with “trashcan” written in. CUSTOMER then leaves the restaurant and walks past various other boxes. Until he walks up to a box DRAWER is currently finishing. Once the box has been made he walks in, the new box has the same EMPLOYEE as the last store in a different shirt. 

CUSTOMER 

(casually)

So I have a smoker back at home and 

My inlaws are in town and they are 

Expecting me to use the thing. The 

Thing is, I’ve just bought the thing

And don't know how to use it. Can you 

Suggest a meat or animal or something

That would be hard to mess up?

EMPLOYEE looks at him in shock. 

CUSTOMER

(jokingly)

Like a thing that walks on four legs

You know something good for BBQ. 

EMPLOYEE starts crying. 

EMPLOYEE 

Wha wha What is wrong with you? 

DRAWER in a dress shirt pops in. 

DRAWER  

(in a distinctly Karen voice)

Sir. What is wrong with you? What 

Makes you think you can say such 

Horrible things. 

Customer 

I don’t know what you're talking about?

DRAWER

You know perfectly well laborer 465’s

Ex husband recently broke into her 

House and killed and ate her cat in

Front of her. You are one sick person.

It’s people like you that ruined this 

Country. I’m sure you didn't even come

Here the right way, hunh. No people 

Like you never do. You just come in and 

Have anchor babies and start hippie communes

And go against our brave police officers. 

(Starts speaking unintelligible fake German).

Reaction shot from CUSTOMER. DRAWER goes back and comforts the EMPLOYEE who points wildly in the wrong direction, DRAWER movies their body to point towards the camera. CUSTOMER looks very confused. Flanneled DRAWLER finishes the last letter in “pet store” in the center of the box, stands up, and claps the chalk from his hands. 

DRAWER

(monotone and licking his lips)

I’m sorry about her, shes... new    

DRAWER pats still confused CUSTOMER on the shoulder twice leaving a chalk mark. We follow DRAWER as he walks past various other CUSTOMERS and EMPLOYEES. He ends at the last piece of asphalt next to the grass. He then pulls out a  printed, black and white, low resolution picture of a woman. The picture has been obviously folded and unfolded over and over again, with the edges well worn. She is smiling in the picture. DRAWER then begins to draw many small replications of the mother character. Cross cut back to the main town show DRAWER with dress shirt fake shotgunning various differently dressed CUSTOMERS and EMPLOYEES. For each failed attempt at the picture show another shooting. After three or failed pictures we cut back to the printed photo with the women now angry. DRAWER tries one more time, and then starts to cry. Rain starts to pour down on the main chalk town. We see the lines being washed away. Two of the previously shot CUSTOMERS and EMPLOYEES get up and tackle the dress shirt DRAWER. we see the main town wash away and the DRAWER crying in rain that is just going down on him (sectioned effect), yet he is not getting wet. With this imagery narration begins.

NARRATOR 

Reportedly, It was after he made the 

thousandth Attempt of bringing his 

once living Mother back through the 

sheer power Of symbolic realism, the

Drawer realized the true power of symbols 

We come into the world without meaning,

We cling on for as long as we can,

And then we go out quietly and without 

applause. Symbols are a way for us to make

Ourselves feel better about a world we 

Are thrown into. A fastfood exchange,

A pet store in a meat eating culture,

A thousand little portraits of mother. 

All distractions. It was with this realization

The drawer starting to die in a dramatic way

We could never decide exactly what way would 

Be the best symbol in the context of what 

We are trying to do. We considered a heart 

Attack but that felt a little too cliche. 

Anyway, in those last dying moments

The drawer said “signifying nothing”

And laughed a dry sort of laugh.

He remembered his sophomore English teacher,

A decrepit old British man, explaining the 

Blood imagery in Macbeth. And in that last

Moment of delirious realization between 

Life and death, all he could think about

Was the irony of the whole thing. 

Credits roll over the dead corpse of the drawer, as leaves slowly fall onto his body. 

Story Board:  

Production Plans:

So this project is ambitious to say the least. My plan is to get all the shots for the very opening scene and the last scene that is just the drawer one day. and get the other three scenes with the customer and employee another day.  I still need to cast the movie and make the props. additionally, I need to see if someone who knows after effects is willing to do the rain effect for me, if not I will be learning after effects.