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Frozen Orchid
by Craig Harner (crharner@liberty.edu)

Rated: PG-13   Genre: Drama   User Review:
NOT YET
RATED

A short film discussing Humanism through a camera lens.


This screenplay is copyrighted to its author. All rights reserved. This screenplay may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of the author.



FADE IN:

EXT. OUTSIDE A COLLEGE MAIN BUILDING - DAY
                                                            
Late afternoon. Snow falling and white covered trees,
groubd abd steps of college. There is a frozen fountain
covered in snow and ice and a single white and purple orchid
rest lightly on top of the ice.
                                                            
Two college aged students, one guy and one girl exit
throught the huge front doors of their college's main
building. Snow is falling and adding to the already well
covered steps and ground. They walk together, yet far
enough apart to give the impression they dont know each that
well. The girl carries a small backpack on her back. The
guy carries a large camera bag slung on one of his shoulder.
                                                            
                                         CUT TO:
                                                            
 
EXT. WALKING DOWN DOWNTOWN STREETS - DAY
                                                            
The abandoned streets and sidewalks are covered in snow. The
snow is falling heavily now. The guy stops in front of a
large warehouse style building. The girl walks a few steps
in front of him and realizes he has stopped and stops too.
She turns to him and he gestures with his hand as if to say
this is our stop, right this way. He walks up the stairs
and opens the door. She hesitates for a brief second then
walks throught the open door. He follows her in.
                                                            
                                         CUT TO:
                                                            
 
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
                                                            
The room seems almost abandoned. There is a tainted old
mattress laying in a corner of the room with a stained
down-comforter and a few flat pillows scattered on top.
There is a old scratched up dresser near the bed with misc.
items scattered on top. A tripod sits in the middle of the
large room. A light screen is standing adjacent to the
tripod. The girl walks in first, looking around, studying
her surrounding. The guy enters and closes the door behind
him. The guys walks over to the tripod and unslings the
camera bag; keeping his back to the girl. The carefully
removes the camera and attaches it to the tripod. He walks
over to the light screen and turns on the light. The huy
turns around and sees that the girl has removed her clothes
and is lying on his mattress on her back while popped up on
her elbows. They make eye contact and his eyes wonder down
her body where he stops at a tattoothat is located in the

2.

crease of her hip. The tattoo is of a medieval dragon with
two arrows piercing it's eyes. He looks up at her they
again make eye contact.

The girl is smiling in a flirtacious sense and is looking
down at her tattoo.
                                                            
                       GIRL
Do you like my dragon?
                                                            
                       GUY
      (Turning his head
       away.)
Your dragon is blinded.
                                                            
                       GUY
      (The girl seems
       bored)
Yes. I found the pattern in a
book. A Psych major told me once
that dragons symbolized the
libido.
                                                            
                       GUY
In ancient times, dragons were the
guardians of chastity. They were
the guardians of all that is
sacred.
                                                            
                       GIRL
I guess I'll just have to look out
for myself then.
                                                            
                       GIRL (CONT'D)
      (giggling)
What made you think I would agree
to do this?
                                                            
                       GIRL (CONT'D)
      (giggling)
What made you think I would agree
to do this?
                                                            
                       GUY
      (Looking through
       the eye piece of
       the camera)
You looked like a girl whose
guardian has been blinded.
                                                            

3.

                       GUY
      (Looking through
       the eye piece of
       the camera)
You looked like a girl whose
guardian has been blinded.
                                                            
The girl seems somewhat confused; caught off guard by the
comment and yet interested by it.
                                                            
                       GIRL
And that makes me vulnerable?
                                                            
                       GUY
Vulnerable? Yes. It means you
will never be pierced by enduring
love.
                                                            
She is offended.
                                                            
                       GIRL
      (sarcastically)
Where did you get that? From some
kind of medieval horoscope?
                                                            
The guy turns his head to look out the window.
                                                            
                       GUY
It stands to reason. If the
guardian is blinded, then someone
has already stolen the golden
apples.
                                                            
                       GIRL
      (dry giggles)
My virginity, you mean. You are
right, those apples are long gone.
                                                            
                       GUY
But perhaps the sacred grove
remains.
                                                            
                       GIRL
What do you want?
                                                            
                       GUY
I want to capture the light from
the snow upon your body.
                                                            
                       GIRL
And that will reveal my scared
grove?
                                                            

4.

                       GUY
The dragon is blind. Perhaps
nothing of the sacred grove
remains at all.
                                                            
                       GUY (CONT'D)
      (pause)
I want to be pierced. I want to
be hollowed out and refilled. Have
you everwondered what it was like
in the elder times? To walk in a
forest sacred to the holy and
terrible gods, to emerge knowing
that you had stood in the very
presence of the Ancient Ones and
they let you live? Or better yet,
to be crushed shattered
like...like a vintage bottle of
wine that is cherished until it is
emptied dry and then discarded and
die knowing the weight of true
glory?
                                                            
                       GIRL
Have I ever wondered what it would
be like to live in primitive fear?
No! What would be the point?
                                                            
                       GUY
You would never feel alone again.
                                                            
                       GIRL
So find a forest then!
                                                            
                       GUY
I have searched the earth but the
older gods are gone.
                                                            
                       GIRL
How do you know?
                                                            
                       GUY
Because no one knows what beauty
is any longer.
                                                            
                       GIRL
What do the old blood thirsty gods
have to do with beauty?
                                                            
                       GUY
Fear begets beauty. I do not know
how it is, but where ever we find
the sacred, the haunting, the
beautiful...there we find a people
            (MORE)

5.

                       GUY (cont'd)
that have feared. Stonehedge,
Angkor Wat, Yogyakarta, Machu
Picchu...who other than the blood
thirsty gods have have motivated
such buildings, such expense! Even
the Romans and the Greeks
dedicated their art to the gods
that inspired them...but have you
noticed? We have nothing so
haunting, nothing so beautiful,
nothing so enduring for hundreds
of years. Our gods are too small,
too mean. The god of Function,
the god of Esthetics, the god of
Feng Shui.
                                                            
                       GIRL
It seems strange that such small
ugly gods could destroy the elder
ones.
                                                            
                       GUY
Yes, that does seem strange.
                                                            
                       GIRL
What else is left to us then? What
do you hope to see, here in the
snow falling light, on my skin?
                                                            
                       GUY
I think nothing can be beautiful,
unless the gods make it so. But
perhaps the echoes of beauty can
go on long after the thing itself
has perished. What else can
explain this longing? Somehow my
soul remembers those elder times
and looks for them still...some
remnant of what once was.
                                                            
                       GIRL
So, that is why you only
photograph people. We are all
that is left of the beauty.
                                                            
                       GUY
Yes. But look...the natural light
is already gone.
                                                            
The guy walks over to the light screen. The guy shuts off
the light.
                                                            


FADE OUT.


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