Excerpt from Production Script
page 2 of the Painter:
SFX:
CRASHING AND CRUNCHING OF EQUIPMENT APPROACHES
ANNABEL: Now, what's that man with the
beret doing with that easel?
ED: I
don't know but I'm not gonna give up my seat for all that stuff.
KATHY: Somebody oughta ask
him what he's doing.
ANNABEL: Not me.
OLD MAN: I don't think it's my place
to get involved, you know.
KATHY: Why don't you ask
him, Ed.
ED: Me?
Why me?
KATHY: I don't know.
I just thought maybe you wouldn't mind doing me
a little. It's no big deal.
WIMPY: I'll be glad to ask
for you, ma'am.
ED: Oh,
all right, all right. I'll ask him. Hey, you, with the beret?
ARTIST: Yes?
ED:
What's with the easel?
ARTIST: I am Henri Formage.
I am a painter.
ANNABEL: Well, that explains the
beret.
ARTIST: I will paint the scene
at this bus stop. I want to capture real
life on the canvas.
OLD MAN: Hey! We're going to get
painted.
KATHY: Wow.
(GENERAL OOHS AND AHHS IN BACKGROUND)
ANNABEL: I'd better turn around so
he'll catch my good side.
ARTIST: No, no, no. I want
to capture real life on the canvas. I
want everyone to look natural.
ANNABEL: Are you implying that my good
side doesn't look natural?
ED:
Well, what are we supposed to do?
DOUG: Yeah.
ARTIST: Oh, please, just go
about your everyday business. Just
pretend that I am not here.
ANNABEL: Well, what if you don't have
any everyday business?
DOUG: Yeah.
ED:
(BEAT) Maybe I oughta go over and have a peek just to see
how he's doing.
KATHY: Oh, don't, Ed.
Artist's are very sensitive. You might
ruin his concentration.
ED: Ah,
no I won't.
KATHY: Well, if you move,
you might ruin his composition. You
might be standing right
where he wants you.
ED: Ahh,
I doubt it.
KATHY: Well, you'd better
ask permission before you step out of
the painting.
ED: Oh,
ok. (SHOUTS) Hey artist, are you painting me right now?
ARTIST: No.
ED:
(CROSS OVER TO ARTIST SIDE) Great. I'll just step over
here and see.
Mmmmmm.
KATHY: What, Ed?
What? How is it?
ED: Not
bad.
ANNABEL: Am I in it?
WIMPY: How do I look?
OLD MAN: Is that smudge me?
ANNABEL: Don't look over his shoulder.
It's not polite.
OLD MAN: I've got a right to know if
I'm a smudge or not.
ARTIST: Please. Please,
just act natural.
KATHY: I wonder if he
means natural as in "everyday, ho hum" or
natural as in 19th-century romanticism.
ED: You
know, this bus stop is kind of a cruddy backdrop for a
painting.
DOUG: Yeah.
ARTIST: That's the whole
concept. I want to capture real life on
the canvas.
ED:
Yeah, but does it have to be such a cruddy life?
KATHY: Perhaps a little
neo-realism?
WIMPY: Yeah.
ED:
Well, I don't know about that, but let's get those trash
cans out of the way. You guys, give me a hand.
ANNABEL: Where do you want to go with
them?
KATHY: Let's see.
Why don't you try over by the curb.
SFX
TRASH CANS MOVE LOUDLY - DROPPED
ARTIST: No, no, no. Now
they are blocking the bus stop sign. That
is an integral element in
my work's composition.
ED: Ok,
ok. Hey, you guys. Just push them over there.
SFX
CANS MOVED, GRUNTS FROM MOVERS
ED:
Good, good.
OLD MAN: I never knew getting painted
could be such hard work. I
think I strained something.
KATHY: Oh, there's
something wrong. I think what we need is a
little symetry. If
we have some trash cans over there, then we
should have some garbage over here to balance the
picture out.
ED:
Brilliant, Kathy. Simply, brilliant. Let's do it, guys.
SFX
MORE CANS MOVING - SOME FALLING OVER
ANNABEL: I don't know. This
doesn't look like much of a painting to
my eye.
ED:
That's because we don't have everybody posed yet.
WIMPY: I thought I was
posed.
ED: Naw,
you were just loitering.
ARTIST: But all I want to do is
capture real life on the canvas.
ED:
(WITH ARTIST) ...on the canvas. Yeah, right. Hey. You.
OLD MAN: Me?
ED: And
you.
ANNABEL: Oh, this is exciting.
ED: Ok,
stand here. Now hold this pitchfork. And, ma'am, you
stand right there beside him. And stop smiling!!!!
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