SHAMELESS
FADE IN:
EXT. CHICAGO UPTOWN - NIGHT
Blazing fire. Public bonfire. POPS and BANGS of fireworks. A
MALE VOICE begins over luminous faces - adults and kids -
that the CAMERA picks out of the crowd in the bonding glow.
FRANK (V.O.)
Nobody's saying this neighborhood's
the Garden of Eden, hell some
people say God avoids this place
altogether, but it's been a good
home to us, to me and my kids, who
I'm proud of; 'cause every single
one of them reminds me a little bit
of me. Fiona, my rock, a huge help.
FIONA, attractive, but not gorgeous, eighteen, laughing.
FRANK (CONT'D)
Has all the best qualities of her
mother -- except she’s not a raging
psycho bitch.
QUICK-CUT to Fiona with two Kleenexs and two kids, put’s a
tissue to each kid’s nose and orders “Blow!”. They do.
FRANK (CONT'D)
Lip, smart as a whip. Straight A’s
and the honor roll. And people
thought when I dropped him on his
head it was a bad thing.
LIP, sixteen, handsome, athletic, drinking a brown-bagged
Pabst tallboy, no doubt lifted from some 7-11.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Boy’s definitely going somewhere --
QUICK-CUT of Lip, charging STRAIGHT AT and over us, followed
by two Chicago cops, in heated, sweaty pursuit.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Ian, industrious, conscientious,
ambitious,
incredible work ethic.
IAN, fifteen, smiling, a little goofy, instantly likeable.
2.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Don’t have a
clue where he got that
from. I’m no biologist, but he
looks a bit like my brother, he and
the ex were close. Wants to be a
paratrooper.
QUICK-CUT of Ian in ROTC uniform, seriously working a wooden
rifle in close-order drills on a weedy playground.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Girls are going to love this guy.
Carl... Carl...
CARL, eleven. Shaved head, also drinking from a brown bag --
here’s hoping there’s a Fanta Orange hiding in there.
FRANK (CONT’D)
I don’t really know that much about
Carl... Oh, he’s got
beautiful
hair, fetches top dollar at the wig
shop. We don’t tell the wig lady
he’s a magnet for lice. Debbie!
Sent by God, a total angel, don’t
know what we’d do without her.
DEBBIE, ten. Hooting and hollering at the fire, holding her
toddler brother, LIAM, in her arms.
FRANK (CONT'D)
Raises money for UNICEF year-round,
some of which she turns in.
QUICK-CUT of Debbie, sitting on her bed, shaking change out
of an upside down, much-used, orange UNICEF box.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Liam, gonna be a
star --
QUICK-CUT to the toddler Liam, wearing a diaper and nothing
else, coming straight at us down a hallway, in the midst of a
SCREAMING, head-banging TANTRUM.
FRANK (CONT’D)
-- once Medicade agrees to cover
the Ritalin.
(and)
Kev and Veronica,
fantastic
neighbors!
KEV, thirty, handsome, none too bright, arms wrapped tightly
around VERONICA. Thirty-four, black, sexy, vivacious, tank
top at least two sizes too small.
3.
FRANK (CONT'D)
There’s nothing they won’t do for
each other...or too each other.
QUICK-CUT to Kev pulling a red ball out of his mouth,
Veronica behind him in leather Catwoman mask. He grins.
KEV
Didn’t hurt half as much as I
thought it would... Your turn.
FRANK (VO)
Love
to fuck. I never realized how
little sex I was having ‘til V and
Kev moved in next door. And me...
Finally, a face to go with the voice. Forties, glassy-eyed.
Long, unkempt hair, Army surplus jacket, tattered Van Halen
World Tour ‘84
T-shirt. Hoisting his sixth or seventh 40 of
the night as SIRENS build in the distance.
FRANK (CONT’D)
Frank Gallagher, father, teacher,
mentor. Captain of our ship. We may
not have much, but the kids can all
think for ourselves, for which they
have me to thank, and all of us, to
a man, know first and foremost the
most vital necessity in this life --
we know how to party!
The SIRENS are closer now. The crowd finally begins to
disperse, Frank among the last to go. As the CAMERA pulls
away from him, we SLOWLY REVEAL - not a bonfire - but a
burning abandoned car! And they weren't fireworks but
exploding spray cans kids have been tossing into the blaze.
Fire engines and Chicago PD cars speed onto the scene as the
local community scatters to avoid arrest leave, flipping the
finger and yelling obscenities at the killjoy cops as we --
CUT TO:
INT. GALLAGHER HOUSE - MORNING
In this script which is the pilot for the UK drama Shameless. The script tells you when the show fades in the location of where the script is taking place is in bold before the dialogue takes place. What is happening in the scene is left aligned and anything that is loud and to cause excitement is in capital letters. All the dialogue is aligned in the centre of the page with the characters name in capitals above the text. There is the use of "QUICK-CUT" which shows what the camera is cutting to in the scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment