Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COMING UP FROM THE ASHES - Feature Documentary Screenplay
COMING UP FROM THE ASHES - Feature Documentary Screenplay
M
PS
" RISING FROM THE ASHES "
A Documentary Feature
ON
COPYRIGHT
SIMPSON & MCGOWAN STUDIOS
1 BLACK FRAME. 1
SI
Voice from the dark screen.
NARRATOR
You know the funny thing about
hurricanes? No one knows how
M
powerful they can be, until they
hit a town.
PS
But that’s where the humour ends.
The calm before the storm. Car window aspect as a car drives
along an interstate.
NARRATOR
You drive in your car, watching the
&
sunset, pondering your chances -
then all of a sudden, it hits.
M
3 ANIMATED GRAPHIC TYPOGRAPHY. 3
JOURNALIST’S VOICE
(Audio only)...hours away
from the worst phase that
Laura has to offer...
JOURNALIST’S VOICE
...it’s already starting,
we’re watching...
1.
6 CELLPHONE FOOTAGE. SEQUENCE TWO. NIGHT. 6
SI
Cellphone sequence from street level as the storm builds.
JOURNALIST’S VOICE
(virtually inaudible report with
distortion)...in Lake Charles.
VOICE OF JOURNALIST
And that is the wind whistling
CG
2.
13 EXT. STREET LEVEL DESTRUCTION. MORNING. 13
SI
Low level drone sequence travelling along a street with
devastation.
15 NEWSREEL MONTAGE. 15
ON
Morning after the storm, newsreel montage.
SHERIFF MANCUSO
OW
3.
SHERIFF MANCUSO (CONT'D)
We’re going to deal with that and
fix that issue when we can, our
SI
main concern right now is to try to
work our way out. The building’s
all damaged, there’s nothing we can
do about that. We’ll deal with that
whenever we can deal with it. We’re
M
OK. The men and women that work
here, they’re accounted for and OK.
I’ve talked to most of the Chiefs,
PS
Sherriff Johnson and his crew and
they’re OK. We’re just in the
infant stages of doing what we’re
going to start doing for recovery
and that’s just gonna take a long
time.
ON
18 CELLPHONE CHATLINE SEQUENCE. 18
TEXT CONVERSATION
You man! Are u alive?
Barely…lol
&
WHAT!?! What happened?
I stayed…
It’s bad…
M
MUSIC BED
STARTS.
NARRATOR
This is an important and timely
story and one that you all should
OW
hear.
(MORE)
4.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
But even by these towns’ standards,
Storm Laura was inconceivable.
SI
Laura was just the beginning of a
series of cataclysms that followed
in its wake because the list of
things that can still go wrong
M
after a storm like this, are
endless.
PS
Medical facilities are affected,
food provision is disrupted.
Important things drop from the
radar.
NWORA FAIRLY
Nice building. It looked like it
was just ripped apart. Like pixie
AN
5.
21 EXT. NWORA FAIRLY POV ASPECTS. DAY. 21
SI
As Nwora Fairly continues to drive we see the landscape from
his POV.
NARRATOR
You think you can understand a
M
storm but when Laura dissipated,
everyone said, ‘Holy Cow’ together.
PS
The single most glaring fact about
the landscape was the absence of an
upside.
NWORA FAIRLY
Still got blue tarps on a lot of
the houses.
&
It’s not that they necessarily have
insurance it’s just that some
insurance providers it’s not coming
M
through as fast.
NARRATOR
It was a jarring sight.
AN
6.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
NWORA FAIRLY
So, when you got people who want to
come home, what are they to do if
there’s nowhere to live?
ON
What’s the sad part of some of
these homes – the insurance company
has basically said that it’s still
habitable.
7.
NARRATOR
Managing a once in a lifetime storm
SI
is an act of the imagination and
yet community is always the first
real hope of providing a co-
ordinated response.
M
But who was going to clean up? Who
would put the towns back together
again?
PS
As everything lay on the ground,
something stirred in the rubble...
SEAN ARDION
We’re out serving here at SWLA
today because it’s just time to
serve and get back.
&
27 EXT. SWLA CENTRE. DAY. 27
MUSIC BED
STARTS.
NARRATOR
If you worry about everything, you
OW
Destruction is impossible to
AN
(MORE)
8.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
You start to invent your own
organising principles so what you
SI
end up with, is a community of
problem solvers.
NARRATOR
This is not a ceremonial role,
CG
commmunity activities.
9.
DIANNA ROSS
SWLA have set up their health
SI
services in partnership with Second
Harvest and the Cajun Commissary
and the Cajun Navy and we are doing
a food distribution today.
M
We have about 1600 meals in boxes
all ready prepared, as well as 1600
gallons of milk going out to
PS
families. So there’s no limit.
NARRATOR
The most easily imagined problems -
M
are not the most probable.
10.
33 INT. INTERVIEW WITH DIANNA ROSS. SWLA CO-ORDINATOR. DAY. 33
SI
Interview with Dianna Ross, SWLA co-ordinator in the
distribution lot.
DIANNA ROSS
The Centre was involved from Day
M
One. We started maybe two or three
days after we came back from the
hurricane.
PS
We do food distribution and supply
distribution. Clothes and now at
the (inaudible) site, we are doing
guttering so the centre continues
to push through and offer services
ON
to the community that we normally
did not offer.
MUSIC BED
CG
STARTS.
NARRATOR
This is: ‘You have to see it to
believe it,’ stuff.
11.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Insurance companies are past
masters of that particular game.
CG
TERRA HILLMAN
(under her breath we can just
discern the words: ‘my life’s
collapsed, literally collapsed.’)
Delta accelerated it but Laura, she
shifted the foundation, the
pressure of the wind hit a peak,
AN
12.
TERRA HILLMAN (CONT'D)
Literally, not a square inch looks
like it used to.
SI
I mean I love this house and I put
all my blood, sweat and tears into
it. I put all my money into it.
Updated it, remodelled it. I was
M
working on getting it historic
preservation, I was applying for
that because it has historical
PS
value. I don’t know if it still
does, but it did.
VOICE (O.O.V)
AN
TERRA HILLMAN
Leave it at that. My insurance
company! They’re not honouring the
service that I paid for.
(MORE)
13.
TERRA HILLMAN (CONT'D)
They haven’t been there for me at
all.
SI
If I can’t do business with you
that I’m paying for a service,
they’re just ignoring me and
deny...
M
The adjustors came and said I
needed a structural engineer, I’m
not qualified to do that, yada yada
PS
yada, the report came back and
about 90% of what they told me was
cut out.
NARRATOR
CG
(MORE)
14.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Destruction is one thing on the
ground but it takes on a whole new
SI
dimension from a bird’s eye view.
STELLA WILLIAMS
CG
TYREE WILLIAMS
The first hurricane, I see. Wish I
AN
never did.
15.
TYREE WILLIAMS (CONT'D)
I shouldn’t have been paying for
insurance, shouldn’t take this
SI
loan. It is what it is.
FEMA.
MUSIC BED
STARTS.
16.
CHARLES MORROW
I was here from start to finish to
SI
now. I was here the day before when
the sun was shining. And then the
night came and the storm and I said
it’s coming.
M
Everything was blowing so hard you
could almost hear voices screaming
in the wind, brother. Yeah it was
PS
strong.
VOICE (O.O.V)
So how many houses have you torn
down since the storm?
CHARLES MORROW
&
About fifteen.
VOICE (O.O.V)
Wow.
M
MUSIC BED
STARTS.
NARRATOR
OW
your home.
(MORE)
17.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
You hope for change, but the storm
has blown it away.
SI
43 EXT. INTERVIEW WITH CAMERON RESIDENT. SCOTT TRAHAN. DAY 43
18.
SCOTT TRAHAN (CONT'D)
So if we have a home left, most
people don’t, we have homes all the
SI
way up and down the coast here and
between Rita, then Ike and now
Laura and Delta, ain’t much left,
we have a whole culture or way of
life that is pretty much gone. Some
M
of us won’t keep coming back.
EJ KEMPER
You know, south west Louisiana has
OW
like these.
19.
EJ KEMPER (CONT'D)
All of the footage, pictures, all
the images that you’ve seen.
SI
But what you don’t see are those
who are working behind the scenes.
All the people behind the stories
and the videos, the pictures and
M
they put them together to make this
documentary - and perhaps you don’t
understand what I’m saying so let
PS
me say it clearly.
NARRATOR
M
It if wasn’t for its communities,
south west Louisiana would be in a
very different place than it is.
CG
A song.
20.
48 INT. THREE WAY INTERVIEW. DAY. 48
SI
The three moving minds behind the music track ‘Shout it from
the Rooftops,’ review how the famous song was conceived.
KRISTY ARMAND
Well, we all went through the
M
storm. All of us who work here are
from south west Louisiana.
PS
So this is our home and most of us
have been through Rita, and we
thought that was the worst thing
we’d ever have to go through and
this was so much worse.
ON
49 EXT. AERIAL ASPECTS OF DESTRUCTION. DAY. 49
KRISTY ARMAND
It affected our business, almost
all of our homes, all of our
&
clients and their businesses, so it
had a huge impact both on us
personally and on our community.
M
It was at a staff meeting one day
and I think I just said: ‘what can
we do to change the message, we
should do a video,’ because we know
CG
here.
(MORE)
21.
KRISTY ARMAND (CONT'D)
We really just brainstormed a list
of phrases that ended up in the
SI
song about ‘coming back stronger
than before, ‘better than before,’
‘more resilient,’ ‘this is our
home,’ ‘making a comeback,’ it took
off from there.
M
Everyone we asked to help were so
supportive.
PS
BARBARA VAN GOSSEN
I think, tossing around ideas and
everything, we kind of wanted to do
the more upbeat, the more positive,
we also wanted to do something
ON
different than standard videos.
Just make a music video, catchy,
everyone’s going to recognise it,
it also represents that you know,
things are getting better because
they’re starting to disappear, that
was the start of the thought
process.
&
How to show how we are going to do
this, we’re gonna rip this tarp off
and how cool it would be to have
musicians on roofs. Shouting their
M
music, that would be the healing
thing that’s going on, we wanted to
give it that choir feel, the choir
was a big thing, because it’s such
CG
KRISTY ARMAND
The main message we wanted to get
across - because we know that this
is how the people here are.
OW
22.
50 EXT. GENERAL ASEPCTS. DAY. 50
SI
Montage of community life beginning to flourish in towns like
St. Charles and Cameron.
NARRATOR
Pause a moment to consider the
M
audacity of that moment.
VICTOR DIGIOVANNI
We got Micky Smith Junior, he’s a
teacher here who’s won a Grammy
teaching Middle School and he’s a
saxophone player.
KRISTY ARMAND
OW
23.
KRISTY ARMAND (CONT'D)
We have some footage of the Cameron
water tower, but then we had to
SI
think about DeRidder and I believe
you suggested Guy, we were
brainstorming an area of musicians
who could get involved, to fit the
sound, and he was on board right
M
away in fact he was out of town and
came back to help us do this.
PS
52 EXT. POWERFUL TREE. DAY 52
NARRATOR
People like Kristy, Barbara and
Victor are inspired by the golden
luminance of their communities.
MUSIC BED
STARTS.
24.
NARRATOR
...And they don’t take their own
SI
societies for granted. It’s a place
where people will pull you up and
say: ‘...it was done for me, why
wouldn’t I do the same for someone
else?’
M
It’s a community that understands
itself.
PS
54 EXT. PARKLAND CLEARING. LAKE CHARLES. DAY 54
VOICE (O.O.V)
Did you get a lot of damage at your
CG
GARY MOSS
Not much. I lost my porch but I
didn’t lose my roof. I have a metal
roof where my roofs came together,
they had caukin in there, the storm
OW
VOICE (O.O.V)
So this is what a kite van looks
like!
GARY MOSS
AN
You bet!
VOICE (O.O.V)
What inspired you to do this?
25.
GARY MOSS
Mardi Gras. You see the tails?
SI
They’re called drogues (sp?). You
see they’re spinning? They kind of
look like jester heads don’t they?
VOICE (O.O.V)
M
YEAH!
GARY MOSS
PS
Yeah! That’s what I thought too!
VOICE (O.O.V)
You build most of these?
GARY MOSS
ON
Yeah, most of these. Some of them I
bought.
VOICE (O.O.V)
To me that says a lot about Lake
Charles and resiliency. You have a
storm and now we’re flying kites.
GARY MOSS
&
Two storms and an ice storm. Three
storms.
VOICE (O.O.V)
M
Trifecta.
NARRATOR
The astounding and terrifying storm
had passed.
OW
General aspects of the river life with bridges and boats and
an overall sense of life returning back to normal.
MUSIC BED
26.
STARTS.
SI
Step forward Lake Charles, Cameron,
Calcasieu, DeRidder, Jennings -
with a civics lesson worth taking
and a message of hope that is
M
powerful: reminding us why
community matters and why people
who care, matter.
PS
What remains is a hymn to the
communities of south west Louisiana
who responded with ambition and
pride, proving them to be a
heroically independent-minded
ON
people.
POET
The wind whistles like a freight
AN
(MORE)
27.
POET (CONT'D)
Ripping open the soul of South West
Louisiana from Lake Charles to
SI
Cameron to Jennings even stretching
to Alexandria.
Evacuation, devastation,
frustration, this is still God’s
creation, a hill of Louisiana,
CG
28.
AN
OW
CG
M
END TITLES.
29.
&
ON
PS
M
SI