LIFE IS A SCREAM

The script for the Motion Picture by Stephen Rennicks.

Copyright 2005 Ancient Films

FIRST DRAFT 4th May 2005

DRAFT LAST UPDATED 12th October 2007

INTRODUCTION

1. INT. BEDROOM. AFTERNOON 1.

Elderly man on death bed. It is the American home of RICHARD SHAVER. His wife at his side. Camera pans around room revealing clues to his identity, copies of books he wrote, typewriter, paintings etc. The room is very cluttered.

WIFE

Richard!

SHAVER

We are already dead.

He closes eyes and dies peacefully. His wife cries and looks out window.

Camera pans through window to the yard, cluttered with more junk, old car, comes towards a shed, inside is equally full of the debris of a life, rocks and paintings. Camera fixes on large portable welder. Zooms in and dissolves.

2. EXT. FOREST. DAY. 2.

Out of focus shot, gradually becoming clear. We hear low voices.

TITLE. 30 YEARS LATER.

Two twenty something men are standing and having a conversation. STEPHEN and BARRY. Stephen holds a camcorder, Barry is reading a script. They are about to start shooting the first scene of a short documentary style film about the stories of Richard Shaver.

Stephen:

Ok Richard, time to get in character. Have you got your first line worked out?

Barry:

Yes

Stephen

We’ll just walk along this path, keep it loose, if it works this way it works, we got 2 days.

Barry:

I’m ready, lets do it.

3. EXT. FOREST. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER. 3.

Begin walk.

Barry

So, 12,000 years ago the elders moved under the surface, into the cavern world, there were vast cities down there. But even that wasn’t good enough, they vainly thought they could survive there but the dis-radiation reached down there too. The elders then left the Earth but some remained, the abandondero’s. That’s in the ancient language man tong. Dero for short. These Dero’s degenerated more and more but they were immortals as well so they have been living down there for thousands of years. Now, we were once elders but we moved to the surface, so we are pathetic creatures really and we are slowly becoming dero’s ourselves.

Stephen

Are you disappointed that your warning wasn’t heeded?

Barry

Well you see the warning I had was that we should actually go under there and attack the dero because they are tampering with our lives, their beaming rays at us, they are damaging our brains. The reason we can’t hear them is because they have machines that are beaming rays into our heads to stop us from realising that their there. We have to just tunnel under the surface and we have to destroy them because there is a war going on.

Stephen

Have you any regrets about finding these people beneath the Earth?

Barry

Regrets? No, you can’t regret the truth. Its had an effect on my family of course because I’ve been a target of the Dero’s.

Stephen

Did you feel it was perhaps your destiny to discover the Dero and to tell the world?

Barry

Well, I’m practical really, that’s kind of a label, labelling me as a prophet, which I’m not. Although if somebody does something about this then I’m a prophet. You asked me earlier if I was disappointed. See, people are just living their lives, going to work, shopping, whatever they do, they don’t realise that life is a scream in the face of a bright madness.

4. EXT. LAKESIDE. DAY. 4.

Stephen:

I think that went really well

Barry:

Yeah I think so too.

Stephen:

I wouldn’t mind doing some stuff to camera now, we’ll do it more in the forest this time.

Walk toward forest from lakeside, find a felled tree and Stephen sets up tripod and camera and frames shot.

Barry:

You know, I can’t believe we’re doing this.

Stephen:

Best not to think about it. We’ve had a good start, we’ll just keep going as long as we can keep it up. You don’t have to be here for this part, I can use the remote. I’d actually prefer to do this alone.

Barry:

OK.

Barry walks back towards lake shoreline. Stephen sits down on felled tree.

5. EXT. FOREST. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER. 5.

Stephen:

Richard Shaver believed he had travelled to a world beneath our own, not a hollow earth but a world of huge caverns that people on the surface were completely blind and unaware.

6. EXT. LAKESIDE. DAY 6.

Barry sitting on a log at shoreline. Just staring out across lake. Stephen walks over with camera etc.

Stephen:

Did it.

Barry:

How was it

Stephen:

Weird, stopped the tape a few times before I got it right. We can get this in the editing, hopefully.

Barry:

Where next?

Stephen:

We can set up beside the lake and do more of the Shaver dialogue, I want the lake in the background. Hope find a good place close by.

Both walk back along path they have come. Soon find a good spot.

7. EXT. LAKESIDE. DAY 7.

Stephen:

Sit down there and I’ll set up a tripod shot. So what questions are they.

Barry:

There.

Barry shows him place in script.

Stephen:

So, just one after another.

Barry:

Yeah

Stephen:

Cool, the shot looks really good and its quiet here too, the stones on the beach might have fucked up the sound a bit before, should be ok here.

8. EXT. LAKESIDE. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER 8.

Stephen:

Since you left the caves have you ever felt the influence of the dero’s, do you suspect them of disrupting your life?

Barry

Yeah, they’ve got a lot of technology invented in ancient times. For instance, its just spiteful things, they make my cigarettes taste like garbage. And its not just me. I got a letter from a man, they torture him. The machines they used, he experienced the same year over and over again, he was trapped in one year of his life, had to live it 12 times or something. With their time ray or whatever they call it. I do know they have what they call a benn ray. The elders invented it to heal wounds but they use that to torture, so the victim doesn’t die, so physical torture can go on for years. In fact there’s one case where they dismembered a body but all the parts were still alive thanks to this benn ray. So its not just me. There’s things they haven’t done to me but that’s probably because I’m less susceptible to the rays.

9. EXT. LAKESIDE. DAY. 9.

Stephen:

That was really good.

Barry:

Yeah, we’re really getting through a lot of the Shaver stuff.

Stephen:

The locations so far have been so interesting as background, I can’t wait to get to the dry canal. Although it will be weird to have so many different places in the film, but I guess that will kind of suit it.

Barry:

Yeah, the whole thing is so weird.

Stephen:

These trees look amazing, so tall and skinny, must shoot it.

10. EXT. FOREST. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER. 10.

Stephen pans around tree tops.

11. EXT. FOREST. DAY. 11.

Stephen:

Alright lets go.

Barry:

I can’t believe how much we’ve done.

Stephen:

I don’t know, it might not be as much as we think, depends how it comes out, but it is going well I’ll say that. Its crazy really, us doing a film about Shaver. Weird the way things happen, if someone had told him that 2 guys in Ireland, 30 years after his death would be doing a film about him.

Barry:

30 years. You know, maybe its not such a big deal. Not to anyone other than us. I mean, we’d all like to think we will be remembered when we die. If you’re a writer or whatever then even more so. When it actually happens though, it shouldn’t be a surprise, maybe doing a film is an extreme reaction which Shaver would have been surprised by, but to be discussed and still read, I’m sure most authors expect it, to some degree.

Stephen:

Your right, whether famous or not, books and records, whatever, they exist a long time and will be used from time to time, come in and out of fashion.

Hey, you’ve seen the Quiet Man haven’t you?

Barry:

Yeah, on TV.

Stephen:

They shot some of it at this castle, its also strange that it was such a big deal the last time this place was used as a location and its kinda cool that the next time it happens no one knows about it. I mean, its so secret, lets not tell anyone what we’re doing while we’re here. They wouldn’t understand anyway, I don’t think I do either.

Barry:

Sure.

Stephen:

You know, this place is the centre of a lot of the modern myths of Ireland. The Quiet Man did not reflect a realistic picture of the country at that time, or any time. But a lot of people believe it, think that that is how we lived. I mean, some of it is kinda true, but its idealised. I don’t know, I’m sure LA or New York aren’t the way I’ve been led to believe by the movies either.

Barry:

Its not just the locations that aren’t true to life, it’s the whole thing, human life is rarely as it is portrayed in films.

Stephen:

It weird, what about this moment, this is real, but would it make a good movie. I mean, everything we just did since we began shooting.

Barry:

I suppose, but it’s a different kind of movie. I suppose if ordinary life is lead extraordinarily, as we have been doing, then it becomes what film presents life to be.

Stephen:

Film is inspirational in that way. Is there anyway we can get that into our movie.

Barry:

I don’t know, if we had a film crew following us we just would have.

Stephen:

Ha, yeah, lets do some more stuff. Want to do the death scene?

Barry:

Yeah ok.

12. EXT. FOREST. DAY. 12.

Stephen:

I’ve got the sauce here. Lie down over there and I’ll put it on and just shoot it.

Barry takes off coat and hangs it on a tree. He lies down and Stephen opens sauce sachet and puts it on his forehead.

Barry:

Oh God, that stinks. (Begins to laugh)

Stephen:

I know. This is the strangest feeling.

Barry:

Where’s that going, don’t let it get in my hair.

Stephen

It's kind of staying put in one big glob.

Barry:

What does it look like?

Stephen:

Eh, should look ok on film if I do a close up.

Barry:

Ok, lets get this done fast.

Stephen:

OK

Stephen walks around Barry a few times and does a close up. See from Camcorder perspective.

Stephen:

OK, that’s it. Cheers Barry.

Barry takes out a tissue and wipes it off.

Barry:

Fuck, I’ll be smelling that for ever. Really odd feeling lying there, but that smell was the worst.

Stephen:

I actually felt quite nauseous putting it on you, I may never use sauce again.

Barry:

Hey, my coat looks amazing on that branch, we should film it.

Stephen:

Yeah, sort of a symbol of Shavers death.

Stephen films it. See from camcorder perspective.

Stephen:

OK, lets keep going.

Barry:

We’ll have those sandwiches at the castle right.

Stephen:

Yeah, I’m starved.

13. EXT. FOREST PATH. DAY. 13.

Stephen:

Imagine if someone had seen us, I mean, what we’re doing here is beyond the imagination. I mean if someone walked past and could hear voices in there, what would they think was going on. They would probably think it was kids playing or at worst some teenagers drinking some cans. Ok, someone like me might wonder if it was a black mass but even I would be shocked to discover some guy putting sauce on another guys forehead and that guy looked like he was dead! I mean, isn’t this what we spoke about earlier? Extraordinary. And we just did it without thinking about it, this film has been pretty spontaneous so far, I don’t think other people make them like this.

Barry:

Your right, if we could somehow sustain doing extraordinary , in the literal sense of that word, I guess it would mean a less boring life.

Stephen:

Or not boring at all.

Barry:

Yeah, that’s what I mean

Stephen:

Isn’t there some old cliché about living your life as if it were a movie?

Barry:

I know, no one can do it though.

Stephen:

I don’t know, the key thing is to lose yourself in the role, not to be self-conscious, not to analyse, like we are.

Barry:

But we seem to be doing it now.

Stephen:

I think its ok to analyse this, because that is a part of our life right now, tonight we will be unselfconsciously living another life, but right now we are examining it in a non self-conscious way. I know there is a major paradox here, but all I know is that I don’t know what I’m going to say next, life right now is improvisation. You’d be surprised how un-improvised life is for most people.

Barry:

I suppose, routine, patterns of behaviour, unchanging opinions.

Stephen:

You know how you go on holiday or anything that breaks your routine, people enjoy that feeling, that is where we are now. That’s not to say some people will revert to some other routine in a few days of a holiday or if say, familiarity becomes a factor, the experience does lose some of its power, they lose the knack of living in the moment.

Barry:

Wow, that’s really true. Is that what you meant earlier when you told me not to think about it.

Stephen:

Yes, we could have lost the moment. Its always best to keep going as long as you physically can. The best work is always done in that place.

They arrive at gate.

Barry:

Is this the castle area then?

Stephen:

Yeah, we’re in its grounds, the castle itself is down that road a bit.

14. EXT. LAKE-SIDE. DAY. 14.

Walk down road and emerge at front of castle’s outer wall. Lake is in front of them.

Stephen:

We might as well sit here and eat now.

Barry:

Yeah, I’m really getting hungry.

Stephen:

Hungry ghosts.

Stephen fishes two sandwich packets out of bag and two bottles of coke.

Stephen:

This brand of sandwich is the same as the ones on sale at my job.

Barry:

This is great here.

Stephen:

Yeah, the weather is amazing too, we’re lucky, it could have been anything. Another reason I suppose to do as much as we can today.

Continue eating.

Stephen:

You know all that stuff about the rays, its all very Victorian.

Barry:

Yeah, it is a bit, what do you really think about it.

Stephen:

About Shaver

Barry:

About what he said.

Stephen:

Well, when I was listening to you earlier, it struck me that these rays which control us, what we can see, our perception. Isn’t there a modern parallel with the media, don’t they similarly control us, even torture us, if we become its victims.

Barry:

I don’t know if its as simple as that. What about parents, peer pressure, the norms of a society, they also influence.

Stephen:

Well, wasn’t Shavers story called ’A Warning For Future Man’. Doesn’t that then imply something new to be feared, something that was then emerging. What else but the media. And those other pressure's you mentioned like parents our peers etc, they are also influenced by the media. And don't forget that if a few media influenced generations go by, then that becomes the norm of society.

Barry:

Wow, your right. I almost don't want to say what I'm about to say now, but I still think its a bit funny that he used the media to get his message across.

Stephen:

But it’s the only practical way. You know there’s still a lot of truth out there, there are still some honest and good people in the media. But its like the Unabomber said, and I'm not saying he was right about anything else, but he said that you have to shout very loudly to be heard.

Barry:

He just choose to use bombs, right.

Shaver seemed to reach a good amount of people at the time but he was certainly forgotten about just as quickly. He was quickly replaced by some other disposable story or concept.

Stephen:

Your right of course, fashion is the nature of the media, the beast.

If we could finish this and it got some kind of audience, at best all we are is a another link in the chain of memory, a more modern interpretation of the Shaver story or myth. Anything more and it's a miracle, because this is just a short film after all.

Barry:

Sounds like a responsibility. Why do you think it appeals to us.

Stephen:

I don’t think it appeals anymore than say, Jack Parsons story or Aleister Crowley or I don’t know, Rosa Luxemburg. I think its just something creative to do, something potentially extra-ordinary. Conrad said in Heart of Darkness, ‘I don’t like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work, - the chance to find yourself.’ If you lose your resentment at any job, even a menial job, in fact especially a menial job, and just lose yourself in it, live in the moment of it, do the work for the sake of it, there’s something pure in that and you do find yourself in it. And hell Barry, this is fun, something new , if we ended up doing nothing we would have enjoyed each other's company at the very least.

Barry:

Your right.

Life is not about the destination but the journey itself.

Stephen:

This is just part of our journey and it may seem like a blind alley now, but we are becoming something more by the experience. We could be living our lives at home now, enjoyable and challenging to some degree in itself yes, but why not really test ourselves from time to time. Its like, what I liked about debating at school was that you had to think objectively, find a way to argue a point you didn’t even agree with. This is like that, how can we pull this off, bringing this subject which we both doubt to an audience that will see it in a film context, with no budget, in two days. (laughs) I am starting to understand Shaver and if I can master my understanding of such a difficult subject, can’t I then come to terms with whole swaths of more ordinary people.

Barry:

Understanding extremes can certainly bring you to the widest insight.

Stephen:

Exactly. But I will admit that because Shaver was so specific, I don’t know if he would have shared our interpretation. So maybe he was insane, but even that is not too hard for us to overcome. An insane person, like a dreamer, they still live in the same world as us, but they decipher it differently. Maybe they see information transmitted by the media appear as rays. They wonder where it comes from, this stuff that influences man so much, that he will spend so much time in thrall of. Even I can notice something dangerous to the soul of man in his passive response to television, sitting for hours in the one position, no longer taking an active part in the world. Some people really are less susceptible to the rays, and I am one of them. And maybe it's my duty to those that are not, to, to tell them, to help them.

Barry:

But what would have been Shavers problem with the media’s message?

Stephen:

Well, lets look at exactly what he said. The evil stupid Dero are in control, emphasis on the stupid. They are in control and they dominate the minority of good Tero. Right. The Dero therefore have control of the media and the message. I think he saw humans divided into Dero and Tero.

Barry:

But are they? Is the president of the US Dero or Tero.

Stephen:

Dero, because he pursues the agenda of the Dero, of the media, which is keeping the status quo, to deepen it. So in keeping the status quo, he is Dero.

Barry:

And your sure this agenda is evil.

Stephen:

The way things are now is wrong, evil, such an uneven split in the wealth of the world, so many millions still in third world conditions, I’d say we live in an unfair world, where opportunity for real change is never allowed to occur because it threatens the dominant players.

Barry:

Won’t there always be a dominant player though. Would they not do it to us?

Stephen:

Right now I think they would, but if the dominant power decided to equalise things they could. But whether they would then do it to us, take the initiative and the advantage, I don't know, I do know that we would again. It might be a false hope.

Barry:

Its like the Dero and Tero change with circumstance.

Stephen:

They do and even within a Dero or Tero state. We are dual personalities, we always have the potential to follow either extreme.

Barry:

Have we maybe gone beyond Shaver at this point.

Stephen:

Maybe we have, as I said, he may not have seen it as we do. Everything is very upside down with Shaver, like the Sun being harmful. This is primal stuff he’s dealing with, cosmic order, natural law, he might be saying we need to follow the opposite path. Life is a Scream.

Barry:

Life is a sham, madness.

Stephen:

A pathetic insane game, whose players are all too soon no more. Nature will kill us long before we kill it anyway. And one day even the earth will be no more but the cosmos will go on.

Barry:

Now we have gone beyond Shaver

Stephen:

Yes, I don’t feel like making this film anymore either. See what happens when we over-analyse

Barry:

But this is still real life. We must continue on the downs as well as the ups. But what if the agenda was removed, what would replace it?

Stephen

Well, what I think should replace it. You know, nature is cruel, in human terms. It is not a civilised place. The weakest antelope is killed but that makes their species stronger. I suppose I would like some sort of balance between letting nature take its course and allowing man to live within that with an equality.

Barry

But equality doesn’t work, your talking about communism.

Stephen

I know, its funny that its human nature that is what’s stopping us from gaining entry to paradise.

Barry:

Maybe we’ll never reach it?

Stephen

We can just be less selfish and greedy, that would be a start.

Small steps might just get us there, but I can’t help feeling this is a cop out, even though we’re being honest about it. You know, maybe Shaver was right, maybe we are just doomed. We will eventually end up either destroying out own environment or each other.

Barry

We are already dead in some respects.

Stephen

No going back and no way to change our nature. Why is it that individuals are quite capable of seeing sense, like we are, but as a group we don’t act like it, or even as time goes on, as an individual we sort of give up and go with the flow. Buy our petrol from polluters or rent a video from arms manufacturers.

Barry

It’s a lowest common denominator thing.

I’ve also been stuck how reasonable people are on their own or in small groups. I suppose it’s a struggle to be decent all the time. Difficult too, there’s only so many corporations now, chances are we can’t avoid sponsoring things we don’t agree with. There’s a powerlessness, that is promoted by the media I believe, that takes the form of an apathy that infects peoples conscience, like a drug almost.

Stephen

The rays again.(laughs) But there is a shutting down of responsibility, a narrowing of perception.

Barry

A very welcome shutting down, one less thing to concern ourselves with and the fact of the matter is that democracy is not a good system when people are beaten down like that. There’s a blandness, a conservative attitude I suppose. Statutory change becomes increasingly slower, even to the point of reversal as this bland consensus takes a deeper hold.

Stephen

There’s a feedback loop.

Barry

Yeah, the politicians gradually have to respond to this conservatism if they want to stay in power. Then that is all that’s on offer from the main parties. An increasing lunatic fringe would be symptomatic of that but they would remain as just that.

Stephen

A benevolent dictator would be a solution.

Barry

Of course, but how’s that gonna happen? Only in the event of a natural disaster, might some leader emerge and gain acceptance in that time of crisis, but usually that eventuality attracts a military person. While they would be ideal for rebuilding a country they are hardly likely to be the sort of person to bring about meaningful change.

Stephen

Yeah, because of their training they would be the most brain-washed of all.

Barry

What you said about things starting to go wrong for man, evolution wise, when peace broke out, actually reminds me of one of the central characters in Faust. Mephistopheles represents evil, the function of which is to stop humans from falling asleep.

Stephen

That's fantastic, I had forgotten that. You know that Gurdjieff also saw that as the central problem of Man, our tendency to become bored and drift. Take away challenge, whether fighting the evils of the world or the day to day essential struggles and I mean the essential ones, of life from Man and you rob him of the very something which gives him his greatness. Purpose, worthwhile, essential purpose, to do the things which we know need to be done, that are not just for our own immediate and selfish ends. To do ‘the one thing needful’ I think it goes. That is what is missing and Shaver could see it was missing but more importantly what had replaced it, illusion.

Barry

Faith in concepts as reality, words like democracy. Lies, the bigger the better, the deeper the sleep.

Stephen

Rudolf Steiner called man a plucked cockerel. And now he slowly degenerates to the Dero state.

Barry

We are certainly on our way there.

Stephen

Would you say there is hope?

Barry

No, I wouldn’t. As a species we are going to continue on in the same manner as we are now. Sooner or later we will have another war on a mass scale. Only with the stakes far higher this time, with total destruction almost a given. Man is his own worst enemy. In the same way that he is the only animal smart enough to take his own life, he is also capable of destroying his fellow man, his culture, even his environment.

Stephen

As a species we are already dead. There might be a realisation in reading Shaver, the way we are interpreting him at any rate, that as a species we are already dead. We are currently experiencing the death throws of life coming to an end, meaningful life. That might be what he meant by Life being a scream, the end of something traumatic, what is left being the bright madness, death. Or an un-acceptance of death.

Barry

But is it as certain as that. I mean, isn’t there still time to make new discoveries and break-trough’s. Our time may be finite but its yet to play out. That scream will come but not yet.

Stephen

Maybe it has started. That’s what he was saying, that Life is a scream. it’s a scream now. Life is madness. You talked about new discoveries. What discoveries or break-throughs do you imagine us making. When was the last time we used science to add something meaningful to life. We might come up with a new ring tone, or a way to sell something online more securely. Which speaks volumes about where we are on its own. Or do you mean in the field of medicine, well, excuse me if I don’t believe prolonging life in a world like this is meaningful. That’s only prolonging the agony, the scream. The body twitching longer, ideally until they’ve paid off all their debts and before they start costing the state money. Life at best, is to exist as a passive observer, part of the herd, in this hellish reality.

If they could keep me alive fair enough or anyone who really appreciates life and meets it head on, great, but no, they’ll just keep their own kind alive longer. Come on Barry. This film has merit, if we could hold up this mirror people might finally see themselves. I’d rather lose myself in the act of living again, really living.

The thought just occurred to me that at some point in the past man divulged from the path of his own nature.

Barry

When would you say that happened.

Stephen

Perhaps when peace broke out. That might be the first time we truly rebelled against our nature. We lived very successfully for millions of years as hunter gatherers.

Barry

Are you saying we should return to that.

Stephen

I don’t think we ever can. I’m just pointing that out, when we evolved beyond that level we did great things for sure, but also caused more problems than we had before. I can see a parallel here with the ‘From Hell’ thing. You know that sole letter that is attributed to Jack the Ripper. Lets say for a moment that he was not taking revenge on prostitutes after being infected with syphilis. Was he giving birth to the 20^th century? In recognising that man had left the correct path and was moving towards certain death, in the throes of madness. But only he knew life was madness, so why not take revenge, do what you most desire. Maybe he thought the coming century would be an age where everyone else recognised this truth and join in the slaughter, in the craziness that knowledge would bring.

Barry

Now that’s a grim thought. At least Shaver was more positive than Jack the Ripper. If they were indeed expressing the same intuition. And an intuition is the closest thing we could say for sure in either case. This is certainly extreme speculation and interpretation on your part.(laughs).

I’d like to ask you if you think we’re stuck with one nature? Aren’t we smart enough to develop a new one, a better one.

Stephen

Are we?, I don’t know, I would like to believe so, but just look at the world right now, do we even have time left to?

Barry

We won’t see it anyway. But I know that as an individual I do not have that nature.

Stephen

Its how we act as a collective species that matters, you can take all the great examples of good individuals but as long as they are the exception it doesn’t really matter. I want to just say one more thing on this whole true nature of man, because we’ve got to get going on this film again. Maybe the meaning of life boils down to two choices, to survive as a species or to dominate as a species, even dominate our own kind. Which is good and which is evil, I don’t know, I don’t think they even come into it. So which choice works better? Again, it’s not that simple. But what I do know is that life is just a cosmic accident and all we have to do is exist. These are massive subjects that really turns everything on its head right, just like Shaver.

Look, as I said, lets get on with it, next location.

15. EXT. BANK OF STONES. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER. 15.

Stephen

When did you first become aware of the Dero’s?

Barry

I was working in an automobile factory, my job was to work a welding gun and by some freak accident, something to do with the actunement of the welder I began to hear thoughts of my co-workers. And then I began to hear voices but they didn’t seem to be from anyone around and then I realised they were coming from under the ground. That’s when I became aware of the Dero’s. Now their using rays to stop people hearing them normally, but by an accident I became immune to those rays.

Stephen

What evidence have you to support your claim of a lost civilisation?

Barry

The evidence is all around us. What do you think these are?

Stephen

Rocks.

Barry

These are silica books. The elders of the original civilisation of surface dwellers, before the sun became harmful 20,000, this is their art and literature, 3D books. We’re sitting in a library here and people just walk by, they don’t realise how beautiful these are, they don’t realise every piece is a beautiful piece of art. If we can get these Dero’s and their rays out of our lives we will see the treasure that lies all around us.

Stephen

What do you think the future holds for mankind.

Barry

Look, unless we go into the cavern world and seriously wage war on the Dero then mankind has no future. Eventually the Dero will make slaves of all of us. What people think life is it isn’t, the way people live their life, their experience of joy, whatever, its just brain damage that makes people think that’s life. Life is a silly sound like a death rattle from a dying clown in the night.

16. EXT. BANK OF STONES. DAY. 16.

Stephen:

That went good. I really like that stuff about the silica books. I’ve often thought about if our own civilisation was destroyed and a computer was discovered by an alien explorer or even our descendants, what would they make of it. While they would recognise it as a man made object they would probably have no conception that we used it to store so much information. How to power it up and retrieve it would be an impossibility. I think the pyramid builders understood this, as any disaster victim would, that life as they knew it was over, and that stone was the most practical medium to preserve knowledge or mark your existence.

Barry:

Your right, our civilisation is too dependant on electricity, we don’t even know the basics of survival, we’ve probably never been so vulnerable to permanent extinction.

Stephen:

We have become so complacent. Its very telling how survivalists are a figure of fun in our society, they might be the ones we have to turn to in the future. And even they have become with time untrustworthy simply because they are so marginalized. We’re really fucked.

Barry:

Mankind has no idea how close to the wall he is, its real Roman empire stuff right now.

Stephen:

It will happen fast, like everything these days

Barry:

We’ll probably get to see it live before it comes into our front room.

Stephen:

It strikes me that Shaver may turn out to be a prophet of destruction. Humanity the victim of its own confidence and complacency.

Barry:

I don’t think they will remember him. But he will be our prophet at any rate.

Stephen:

True. There’s something I want to say to camera now.

17. EXT. BANK OF STONES. DAY. VIEW FROM CAMCORDER. 17.

Stephen

Shaver’s idea’s are really bleak, but also really beautiful. The fact that we could be surrounded by the remnants of a library from an ancient civilisation is a wonderful thought and maybe we are blinded by rays directed at us from beneath the earth. Richard Shaver told the truth as he saw it and who’s to say he’s wrong, he got to tell his story. Most people never get to tell their stories. But if you say it quietly but consistently it will be heard in time and that story will outlive you, it will give you an immortality. But only the stories that are worth the telling will be remembered. So, if anything we should remember Richard Shaver as a great example of someone who was finally listened to, maybe not believed but people did pay attention to him.

18. EXT. BANK OF STONES. DAY. 18.

Barry:

So what now.

Stephen:

Lets get something to eat in town.

19. EXT. STREET. DAY. 19.

Both walking along street in Cong,

Stephen:

More Quiet Man stuff, that pub front was in film for sure. Lets go in here.

20. INT. BAR. DAY. 20.

Pub pretty empty, few people drinking at bar. Order food at bar.

Sit down at table near window. TV is on.

Stephen

You know there’s a parallel between The Quiet man and the K Foundations burning of a million pound?

Barry

Is there?

Stephen

In fact it’s from the original Maurice Walsh short story that the film is based on. The latter half of the story is about the non-payment of a dowry and how, in the movie, the John Wayne character can’t understand how important this payment is to his new wife. He’s all for the modern world, coming from America, but here in Ireland this is still a place of tradition. Eventually he gets his wife’s brother to pay and he immediately flings the cash in the fire.

Barry

I see.

Stephen

There’s also a quote in the book that came out about the K Foundations act that goes something like, “ We don’t spend money as much as it buys us.”  It’s like the John Wayne character, an emerging modern man, he recognises this fact, that in certain circumstances, the circumstance in this case cloaked in tradition, money itself, the physical stuff, the cash, has a power over him and in this case it’s not even his own money, yet. But once he does have this darned, hard earned stuff he destroys it, at the first opportunity. The genius of the story is that his wife, who up to that point has been fighting against him, is now in total agreement with this latest act.

Barry

It paints a positive picture all right. I’m sure that their burning of a million pound will be remembered as one of great art statements of the 20^th century.

Stephen

Because it’s a foretaste of things to come, I really believe that. Even now cash money, the reality of it, is dieing, certainly the need for having it in such large quantities. 

Barry

Unless you’re doing something illegal with it and that itself is quite interesting. Cash is gradually becoming a bad thing. Seen as inconvenient at the very least. Would you say we will see the end of money itself.

Stephen

Well even if we did move to a completely virtual system, which we are kind of using anyway. I won’t bore you with the gold standard details. What I’m saying is, virtual or not, it’s the concept of money itself which has the power over us, it very much has the upper hand of man.

Barry

But money has always been about power and that won’t change, People will still be fucked over by the strongest. Maybe money is a fairer system.

Stephen

Creating fairnest was never a motive behind money, lets get that straight first. The invention of a money system was about the convenient transport of riches, of power. Virtual money just fitted the need as globalisation and the needs of the world took off. If Marx was right capitalism has to inevitably collapse. Where this leaves money I don’t know, would it not re-emerge? I would say it probably would, ultimately, but not before a period without it. How successful that period was in human development would dictate how soon we would return, but a return, I am sad to say, would be a certainty.

Barry

To go back to your interpretation of an emerging modern man, do you think he has emerged?

Stephen

No, the world is still Ireland, still locked into the old traditional money system. I doubt Maurice Walsh saw this when he was writing his story but like we have been discussing with Shaver, it’s there to those who can see it. Like Kafka, the history of art is full of precognition.

Barry

I see.

Stephen:

Wonder who slashed the seat?

Barry:

This is real back to reality stuff.

Stephen:

Your right there. Wonder how we can make it extraordinary?

Barry:

Maybe we shouldn’t, wouldn’t we fall into the trap of wanting to experience more extremes,

Stephen:

Yes, how to keep a healthy appetite for it. Now there’s a paradox.

Barry:

No, I think you can live a life in balance, it might be tricky but it can be done without lying to yourself.

Stephen:

I suppose, it is nice just to relax and chill out, be passive for awhile. I must say though, I’m quite depressed after that high. I don’t fancy the idea of reality in the long term. Back to work and my own routine and all that. As pleasant as that routine cab be, it is a routine nonetheless.

Barry:

Remember a few years ago we were driving along the Ring of Kerry and you said that we always had the power to change our lives quite drastically, you gave the example of turning the wheel ever so slightly and crashing into the next oncoming car. We wouldn’t have been killed at that speed but certainly injured and our lives would have begun to take a different path.

Stephen:

I’m surprised you remember that, what are you getting at?

Barry:

Just that you can change, we can change our reality very easily still. I could decide to live in that hostel for the foreseeable future, they’d probably give me a job there, if not I could have my dole sent here and do nothing but write my novel. You could probably afford to quit your job and buy that cottage you always talk about retiring to and live off the land.

Stephen:

But neither of us will, why is that? Why do we keep succumbing to realities we aren’t 100% happy with.

Barry:

Well, there’s some fear, that we may not like our fantasy as much as we imagine. Hope only exists as long as we don’t act on it. It also goes back to that thing about life being a journey, not the destination.

Stephen:

When you stop growing you die. But what you said about hope only existing as long as we don’t act. Would’nt another hope emerge?

Barry:

Maybe, I don’t know.

Stephen:

It would, you would be growing as a person by doing your writing and I would find new challenges in my imagined paradise. It would not be as I imagined I’m quite sure, but I would be able to see clearer what I actually wanted.

Barry:

Sure, but is that any different than now.

Stephen:

I’m not as close now. I must follow that dream, take action. We don’t act

Because of fear that we might be better off now and don’t realise it.

Barry:

Some people would kill to have our lives, we are free to make those momentous decisions at the very least.

Stephen:

The only advantage we have over most people is that insight. I’m certainly learning more than I ever imagined. Shaver in this context is more of a gateway to the possibilities of human life. You know, most people don't know their asleep. My problem is that I know I'm asleep but can't wake up.

Barry

How do you mean?

Stephen

I mean this is deep. Deeper than anything else. It's been with us since we were born. It is me.

Barry

If it's become you then the only way is to change.

Stephen

Your right. Something like Gurdjieff's ‘new alarm clocks’ are only techniques to awaken you temporarily, I need a shock that will leave me in a permanent state of awareness.

Barry

Must it be a shock.

Stephen

I think so. Because the truth is out there, we are drowning in truth but there are far more lies which beckon us towards dreaming. Drag us further into the material, sense driven world. No, more truth to balance out lies is not the answer, not the way we currently receive information at any rate. Why, even if we managed to get this into our film or a script, if it ever made it to the screen it would be buried in miles of bullshit. Truth is out, no one can recognise ‘the truth’ anymore.

Barry

So the shock must be discovered.

Stephen

It must or we continue on this downward spiral, where we are going is not a good place, it is only towards the death of our soul. If there is even anything of it left, perhaps a spark, a glow, a glimmer.

Barry

How then?

Stephen

A slow flash of illumination, I don’t know. I wish I did, someday perhaps I will find it and tell others, but it may be just meant for me, no one else would understand. We all fight our own demons, conquer our fears, climb our own mountains, I’ve no doubt that this problem is of the same nature.

Barry

But it can be done.

Stephen

Yes, I’m sure of it, I know what I want and that, that knowing your goal, is the beginning of the process. The when is not so easy, but if you don’t stop believing in it you will eventually get there. You make it out alive, if only to die in its pursuit is a victory for your soul. It has to make you stronger for your next attempt, all conscious actions are never wasted.

Barry:

The most important thing is to remember these things, some people spend their whole life discovering and forgetting them.

Stephen:

Your right. We need to take a stand at this point.

Barry:

Everything is clear from this simple revelation. There is no need to be depressed, we live the life we decide to. All we need is to understand this concept and we will be immune to any negative outside influence. Any rays that affect us will be the rays of the sun. We just need to remember that in the face of all that life throws at us. And that might be the greatest challenge of all.

Stephen:

You know I think there’s been at least 90 minutes of extraordinary lived life since we began this morning, and we haven’t even finished our own movie which will be nowhere near that length. If this was a movie I’d roll the credits on this scene now.

Barry:

The rest of our film would probably fit the time it took to run those credits.

Stephen:

Now that’s a thought.

21. REMAINDER OF CAMCORDER FILM RUNS. 21.

Credits roll.

THE END