So, as some of you may know – if you’ve been hanging with me long enough – I come to novel writing via screenwriting and filmmaking. So, while I do have a rather large backlist, it’s all in screenplay format that I can’t simply throw at an editor, and then get it up and published.
My novella Love Lies Bleeding was originally a screenplay, and I just had a fun idea of sharing some of my other screenplays on the blog – scene by scene – for Throwback Thursday posts.
I’d like to start with my second favourite screenplay of all time, Sunshine’s Night of Darkness. The draft that I’m sharing comes from 2013, but it looks like I’ve got files dating back to 2006. I’d love to bring Sunshine (Etc) to readers in comic book form, but I haven’t even spent a single moment looking into how to do that exactly.
Reading a screenplay is much different than reading novel but I hope you will find it entertaining. The emphasis is on the dialogue, then action, not the description of the scene. I call Sunshine (Etc) one of my bloody comedies, but the literary world would refer to it as an urban fantasy.
Without further ado, scene one of Sunshine’s Night of Darkness.
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SUNSHINE’S NIGHT OF DARKNESS
Synopsis: It’s Sunshine’s first day of work in security at the P.U.R.E Corporation and all she wants to do is make it through orientation, but first she’s got to fill out a name tag requisition form, fit her uniform, meet a cute computer geek … oh, and save her fellow employees from genetically-mutated, blood-lusting vampires.
Notes: (O.S) means off-screen. All work is registered with the WGC & the WGA.
– Scene One –
INT. CHANGE ROOM, P.U.R.E CORPORATION HEADQUARTERS – DAY
A credit card size gold name-tag on a navy uniform shirt reads SUNSHINE in etched black block letters.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
I don’t actually use Sunshine. I go by Jones.
IRMA (O.S.)
Sunshine was listed on your application.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
Yes, but I circled Jones to indicate –
IRMA (O.S.)
A circle, to illustrate name preference, is not officially recognized within the protocols and procedures of the P.U.R.E Corporation.
A thumb jabs at the name-tag.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
(getting testy)
I don’t go by Sunshine.
IRMA (O.S.)
You may request a name-tag requisition form and file it with Human Resources.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
I get the form, where?
IRMA (O.S.)
From me.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
(grumbling)
Mentioning that might have been an idea.
A hand reaches up to remove the magnetic name-tag.
IRMA (O.S.)
I, and Human Resources, are here to assist the employees of P.U.R.E, not anticipate … You must wear the identification badge at all times while in the building.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
You just said –
IRMA (O.S.)
From the time you submit the request, it will take ten working days to requisition a new ID, so you must be Sunshine until then.
The hand falters.
SUNSHINE (O.S.)
Whatever.
IRMA (O.S.)
We read, English, from left to right.
Irma pauses, but Sunshine doesn’t reply.
IRMA (O.S.) (CONT’D)
The ID belongs on your right.
SUNSHINE, 21, her gold coiled hair pulled back in a low bun, grabs the tag and repositions it on the right. She glances over her shoulder to watch IRMA, 27, cross to the exit with a flick of her cascading blonde tresses and a turn of her high heel enhanced, well-toned calf.
IRMA (CONT’D)
Orientation, ten minutes, main foyer.
SUNSHINE
Thanks.
Irma leaves.
SUNSHINE (CONT’D)
For nothing.
Sunshine tightens the laces on her leather-soled, uniform-issued shoes. The remainder of her uniform; a pocketed dress shirt and navy cotton dress pants fit her lithe body like a lycra glove.
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SUNSHINE’S NIGHT OF DARKNESS
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