FADE IN By Supernun

EXT. STREET - NIGHT We see a barely lit apartment window. INT. APARTMENT ROOM WRITER, female in her mid-twenties, is sitting at her DESK typing on her LAPTOP. COMPUTER SCREEN "FADE" Three more clicks ... "FADE IN" She's concentrated on the screen not blinking. INT. PRODUCER'S OFFICE - DAY - IMAGINING Writer nervously sitting in an office room with artsy paintings on the walls. PRODUCER reads the SCRIPT in his hand. He joyfully bursts into laughter. Writer smiles hopefully. The room begins to tremble. BACK TO SCENE INT. APARTMENT ROOM The room shakes and Writer snaps out of her daydreaming. She lifts the WINE GLASS beside her. The rumbling intensifies and the whole apartment shakes. For a brief moment, the room is bathed with a blinding white light that fades away leaving Writer with her LAMP, now flickering. She takes a sip from her edge and grabs the lamp. it, shakes the lamp, and out of options she bangs the flickering. glass, places it down far from the She taps the bulb, twists it, turns turns it on and off. Frustrtared and it on the desk which finally stops

She looks at the screen and as she's about to write another streetcar drives by. The lamp flickers again. Writer snaps, her eye twitches. She grabs the lamp and with all her might throws it at the wall. She pulls out the lamp out of the wall - still flickering and examines the hole it left behind.

EXT. STREET A streetcar approaches. INT. APARTMENT ROOM Sitting at her desk - hair, a mess - Writer lifts a WINE BOTTLE this time in anticipation of the quake. The rumbling intensifies and a CALENDAR, now hanging over the hole in the wall, rattles. CALENDAR Two days until the day with the note saying "$$$ - Script Due 8 am" - $$$ is circled The room is flooded with the blinding white light and then fades. She turns to her script and puts on her "LET'S DO THIS!" face. COMPUTER SCREEN "FADE IN" She gets dopey faced again and hopelessly falls back to daydreaming. INT. PRODUCER'S OFFICE - DAY - IMAGINING Producer is in tears. He puts the script down and hands her a CHEQUE with a large sum of money. We hear a LOUD ALARM CLOCK. INT. APARTMENT ROOM - DAY Writer, asleep, opens her eyes slowly at first then suddenly jumps out of her chair fully alert. She snatches a HAT from the closet and holds it underneath her arm. She shuffles through her closet, checks underneath the desk, in the drawers... finally on her bed she sees her APRON with the same logo as the one embroidered on her hat. She grabs it and bursts out of her apartment leaving the alarm clock ringing. The calendar shakes slightly with the door slamming behind her. EXT. STREET - DAY Writer rushes out of the building. Sitting a few feet from her doorstep with a SIGN by his side is HOMELESS MAN.

She delibirately avoids him as she runs past him. In doing so, she accidentally drops her hat by his side. EXT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY Writer slows down as she approaches the entrance and dons her apron. She looks for her hat to no avail. She takes a deep breath and carefully cracks open the door. A streetcar drives by... MOMENTS LATER Writer is outside arguing with BOSS who is standing in the doorway. Cars drown out their arguing but their hand gestures say it all: Writer's apron is taken away, she's handed some money, and pushed hard away from the door. EXT. STREET Writer walks back to her apartment with her hands in her pockets, kicking a small rock. She passes by Homeless Man. He sees her walking in his direction and hastily turns his back to hide his prized possesion, the hat full of money. She walks right past him and goes straight for her door, grabs her MAIL and goes in. INT. APARTMENT ROOM - AFTERNOON Writer is sitting at her desk staring at the laptop, her eye is twitching. COMPUTER SCREEN "FADE IN" Flashes of the Producer's cheque come to her mind until she's dopey faced again. The alarm clock snaps her out of it. Eye twitching, she calmly grabs it and chucks it out the window. EXT. STREET The clock lands in the TRASHCAN. Homeless Man saunters over to it. INT. APARTMENT ROOM Getting back to her desk, she notices an ENVELOPE. Written on it in bright red letters: "NOTICE OF RENT PAST DUE"

A streetcar goes by. She looks at the rattling calendar, now slightly tilted. She shakes her head and looks at the computer. She sneaks another peak at the envelope then straight back to the screen. And again, this time to the calendar. A bead of sweat trickles down her face. Her gaze doesn't settle. Envelope. Calendar. Screen. Calendar. Eye twitching. Envelope. Eye twitching. Envelope. Envelope. Envelope! Without a second to waste, she pulls out the money from her pocket and puts it on the table. She rummages through her other clothes, not finding much. She breaks open her PIGGY BANK and collects all the money by the envelope. She pouts and shakes her head as she counts the last couple of coins. She looks at the laptop... EXT. PAWN SHOP - AFTERNOON Writer briskly walks out counting the bills in her hand. EXT. STREET Writer walks back to her apartment and notices another envelope in the mail box. Confused, she takes it. INT. APARTMENT ROOM She puts the cash near the rest of the money on the desk. She smiles cheerfully for a second but a tinge of pain makes her furrow her brow. Her eyes shift to look at the spot her laptop used to sit. Her gaze shifts to the new envelope. She opens it. Inside is a five dollar bill and a note. NOTE "THANX FOR THE HAT!" EXT. STREET - EVENING Homeless Man bangs the alarm clock against the ground. INT. APARTMENT ROOM She smiles. Flashes of the cheque come to her mind again but she shakes them off.

She pulls out a STACK OF PAPER from her DESK DRAWER and takes a seat. She puts on her "LET'S DO THIS!" face. A streetcar shakes the apartment. The shaking rattles the calendar and the lamp. The lamp stops flickering. Her eyes are calm, she starts writing. EXT. STREET - EARLY EVENING The sun sets. INT. APARTMENT ROOM - DAY Writer, barely keeping herself up, grabs a piece of paper and puts it on top of the stack. She writes "THE MAN & THE HAT" "WRITTEN BY" As she finishes writing her name, her eyes close shut and she passes out on her desk. A loud KNOCKING startles her. She twists her head looking around in confusion then settles on the money by the envelope. OUTSIDE APARTMENT A large RING OF KEYS is lifted up to the door lock. APARTMENT ROOM Writer grabs the pile of money and starts for the door. The deadbolt clicks and the door swings open. As the angry LANDLORD takes a step in, Writer throws her hands up to his face. He's frightened by her physical appearance. He then notices the money and envelope, and smiles. The rumbling sound of an approaching streetcar is heard in the distance. She grabs her pen and tries to sign the papers but realizes the pen is dry. She notices the rattling calendar then looks back at Landlord. The apartment shakes violently. Writer forcing a smile, sneaks a look at the rattling calendar and back at Landlord. As soon as the rumbling settles, the calendar drops to the ground. Landlord turns his head and notices the hole in the wall. He glares at Writer. Her eye twitches but she keeps forcing her smile.

He snags the money out of Writer's hands. EXT. STREET - DAY Writer walks out of the apartment slowly with a large TRAVELLING BAG in one hand and the calendar and script in the other. The alarm clock starts ringing waking Homeless Man up. She sees the time CLOCK 7:45 She drops everything and runs with the script. EXT. COFFEE SHOP Writer runs past her ex-Boss opening the shop. EXT. TORONTO SIDEWALKS Writer runs straight down the sidewalk avoiding people as best as she can. INT. PRODUCER'S OFFICE Producer sips on his coffee in an office full of bland paintings of corporate buildings. Writer bursts in, panting, with her script held out. LATER Producer is reading the script. Writer holds her hands together in anticipation Producer turns the first page over and sees THE MAN & THE HAT WRITTEN BY He scans the page for the missing name, then puts on a voracious, greedy smile. Composing himself, he shakes his head at Writer and tosses the script in the GARABGE CAN. EXT. STREET Writer waddles over to her bag.

A few people walk by whom she's reluctant to look in the face. Her stomach rumbles... she looks over at Homeless Man, sees him holding up a cup. She emulates him with her hands held out, elbows bent. No one pays any attention. As more people ignore her she extends her hands further. She looks over at Homeless Man again, sees he's getting lots of attention. She tries to copy his posture and demeamnor, then she notices the sign he has by his side. "NEED $$$ FOR FOOD" - food is circled Her eyes widen and she grins. Without a second to waste, she grabs her calendar. Sits down, flips it over and grabs her pen. She puts on her "LET'S DO THIS!" face. IMAGINGING Passersby read her sign and laugh extravagantly at its brilliance. They shower her with money and coins. INT. PRODUCERS OFFICE The Producer, dopey faced, looks at the script in his hand. BACK TO SCENE EXT. STREET Dopey faced, she stares into the distance. Homeless Man looks over to her and shakes his head in disappointment. BLACK CREDITS