Paradise is a State of Mind (Short Movie)

This seems long but there are just a lot of spaces. It's actually shorter than you think. Please read it and tell me what you think or how you felt after. Constructive comments and suggestions are very welcome. This is another short movie. (It's the product of unstable beach plans and watching Thirteen.)

(And when you read this, imagine it's coming up on a screen or something. I usually jump from one thing to another because I'm talking about the camera shots at the same time.)

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Fade enter a shot of a beach. White sand, palm trees, bancas, 2 little local girls playing on shallow waters and a 13 year old sitting on the sand, her back to the camera.

She's alone but happy, still. A blissful smile is on her face. A smile of ethereal quality. But something is not complete, you can just feel it.

A turtle makes its way to shore from the shallow waters.

You can hear the waves rush by, you can feel the sunshine's warmth just by looking at it. The motor of a banca can be heard in the distance. It grows louder, and louder.

The girl stands up, suddenly complete as if she found the missing part of herself in the sounds of a motorized banca. A man wearing a lose polo untucked from white canvas pants. But you don't see his face, only from the shoulders down.

And then he takes the hand of a woman stepping off the boat, so as to help her get down. The woman is in a pretty tie dyed sundress. They walk alongside each other toward's the girl. You only see from the lower part of their faces and the rest down. And then, with the couple's backs to the camera, the girl hugs the both of them.

A seagull is soaring up in the sky and then parrot joins it. And they fly to the setting sun. The setting sun is golden and beautiful. Beautiful.

Fade out scene.

A lady is on the phone, waiting for someone to pick up the other line. She looks somewhat like the 13 year old girl you'd think they're sisters. She's not smiling but not frowning either.

"Yes, good afternoon, si *insert generic female name here*?"

Cut to a close up of a doorknob on a white door. It twists and the door opens.

Let's call the person who opened the door Person.

From Person's point of view you see a girl lying down on a bed but you couldn't see her face. The rest of the room is white, just like the door. There's something clinical about the room.

"*insert generic name here*, phonecall, si ate mo." The person says. Her voice is warm and kind.

Cut to a low angle (same level as the bed) shot. You see the girl but her face is not included in the shot. She rises from the bed. Now you see her sitting on it from the same angle.

Cut to her hand making its way towards the telephone. She takes hold of the receiver and the camera follows her hand on the receiver towards her ears.

Finally, you see her face. It's the same girl from the first scene.

"Hi ate, kelan ba talaga ako aalis dito?"

She listens to the voice on the other line but we don't know what her sister is saying.

"Wala naman akong problema diba? Bakit kailangan kong tumira dito? Hindi naman ako Uto-uto eh, puro baliw nandito."

She listens to the voice on the other line but we don't know what her sister is saying still.

And then she looks down to the night table where the telephone is.

Cut to a closeup of a black and white photograph of a couple. A standard picture from the family archives.

Cut to a close up of the girl speaking again.

"Si daddy at mommy, bumalik na ba?"

Cut to a semi-close up (shoulder up) of her sister. Her expression suddenly turns ashen and she bows down her head. She blinks and takes in another breath, not deep, not shallow... just normal.

"Hindi pa eh. Tatawag nalang yun kung pauwi na sila."

Cut to a face of the 13 year old girl. She smiles a bit, just a bit. But it's still of the same ethereal quality.

"Sige, sabihan mo rin ako agad ah? Tapos uuwi narin ako, pwede? Naku ate, baka mabaliw din ako dito."

She listens to her older sister.

"Okay, bye-bye. Kelan nga pala tayo pupunta sa beach?"

She listens to her older sister.

"Okay, bye bye. Thank you tinawagan mo ko. I love you, bye bye."

It cuts to a semi-close up of her (from bed level, up). You hear the phone click and then the camera cuts to the telephone. It pans to the left, where there's a framed newspaper clipping.

CAR CAUGHT BETWEEN A BUS AND A TRUCK.

Below the headline is a picture of a couple. A standard picture from the family archives.

After 5 seconds the girl's hand appears, putting down a post card on the night table. There are healing scars and raw bite marks on her wrist and along the inner portion of the rest of her lower arm. The post card, by the way, is a postcard of a beautiful white sand beach with palm trees and bancas.

Fade in a shot of the beach.

The setting sun is golden and beautiful. Beautiful beyond words. And the beach is empty except for the white sand, palm trees, and bancas.

Fade to black.