EXT - HOTEL - DAY
We hear sounds of traffic,
and we see slowly PAN L across the exterior of a hotel.
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The camera stops on a
partially-opened hotel room window.
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MS of the window.
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INT - HOTEL - DAY
BACKGROUND HUM OF TRAFFIC CONTINUES
THROUGHOUT THE FOLLOWING.
5 We see the same partially-opened
window from inside a hotel room, covered by sheer curtains. The camera,
mounted up high as if a surveillance camera, slowly PANS L through the hotel
room and stops at the bathroom. PERSONA, a character of
indeterminate gender, is taking a bath.
(We return to this "surveillance camera" view, from time to
time, as the following action unfolds.)
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BEGIN SLOW DRIPPING SOUND (from
faucet into bath water) THAT CONTINUES THROUGHOUT THE FOLLOWING.
6 CUs of PERSONA's body in
the water. PERSONA moves slightly and we hear swishing sounds of the water. We
linger here in the bath for a few moments. Suddenly there is a knock
on the door. PERSONA stops, pauses
a moment, then gets out of the tub.
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7 CU of hand grabbing a towel.
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8 CU of feet stepping onto
bathroom floor, dripping water. Sound of
water dripping on floor.
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9 CU of towel being wrapped
around body.
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10 MS of PERSONA stopping to look
into mirror.
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11 CU of PERSONA briefly looking
in the mirror, with reflection.
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12 ECU of eye reflected in mirror.
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13 DOLLY MS/LS of PERSONA walking to
hall door.
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Wide angle "surveillance
camera" view of PERSONA walking to answer the door.
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15 MS of PERSONA answering the door.
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16 MS of curtains beginning
to billow (due to the wind channel established by the open door). The
warm breeze animates the room. (When the wind channel is open, the
billowing curtains make a soft, undulating, rustling sound, perhaps with a
soft rustling of curtain against wall.)
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17 A WAITER stands in the
corridor, with a breakfast cart. PERSONA,
still glistening and dripping with water (with sounds of water dripping on
floor), stands aside and allows the waiter to enter. The WAITER slowly
pushes the cart through the door. We hear the dishes rattling as the
cart moves.
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18 MS of door closing (with sound).
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19 MS of curtains, no longer
billowing (the wind channel has closed).
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20 DOLLY MS FROM BEHIND as
the WAITER pushes the cart into the center of the room. (We see part
of PERSONA's shoulder as s/he follows him.)
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21 The WAITER uncovers the dish, and
fusses with the plate and setting.
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22 PERSONA stands next to the cart.
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23 The WAITER continues the
service as PERSONA waits.
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24 The WAITER bows slightly and
exits to leave.
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25 The WAITER's eye reflected in the
hall mirror, glancing at PERSONA, as he approaches the hall door.
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26 The WAITER opens the door to
leave.
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27 MS of curtains beginning to
billow (the wind channel has opened).
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28 The WAITER closes the door
very slowly. As he does so, he watches
PERSONA through a reflection in the hallway mirror. We see him through
this reflection: his gaze meets ours.
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29 We see PERSONA, at the breakfast
cart, with back to door, from the POV of the WAITER.
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30 PERSONA, with back to the
door, pours milk in coffee.
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31 CU of face as PERSONA glances at
the window.
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32 From PERSONA's POV, we see that
the curtains are still billowing (the wind channel is still open).
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33 CU of PERSONA's face. PERSONA
takes a slight sidelong glance, indicating awareness of the presence of the
WAITER. PERSONA does not move, so as not to reveal this
awareness. We see the sway of the
curtains/light reflected in his/her eye.
PERSONA wants to understand the terms of the man's address: in him,
PERSONA will pursue the secret of PERSONA's own desirability -- the formula
of that which sexualizes him/her.
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34 The door remains open a
few inches, and we see the reflection of the WAITER's eye in hallway mirror. The
eye, isolated, radiates intensity of desire. (The desire is
intensified because of this framing -- architectural, cinematic, and
institutional.)
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35 CU of PERSONA, who senses the
intensity of the WAITER's desire.
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36 From view in the hallway
just outside the room (a high angle, as if a surveillance camera), we see
the WAITER peering in through the cracked door.
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37 MS to CU of WAITER as he
glances back, as if he were aware of the "surveillance camera" watching
him. We sense his anxiety, which is
also ridden with pleasure (to be is to be perceived). He
experiences repression and anguish -- he wants to see, but does not want to
be seen seeing. He doesn't want to be
"discovered" -- but also, since he himself does not know the nature
of the desire he is experiencing, he does not want it "misread."
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38 The WAITER turns forward
again to watch PERSONA in the room. We hear
his breath, as if we were inside him.
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39 We see PERSONA, from behind,
standing at the breakfast cart, from the WAITER's POV. PERSONA pours
milk into coffee and picks up spoon with one hand and cup and saucer with other. (We
don't see these items yet).
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40 CU of coffee cup being
stirred with spoon. We hear the clinking
of spoon against porcelain.
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41 MS/CU of WAITER as he glances
back again (in a combination of anxiety and pleasure, fascination and fear),
as if he were again aware of the camera watching him. How long can
he remain before he is discovered -- by PERSONA, by another hotel guest,
or by his employer? The clinking sound of spoon against cup beats time
like a clock ticking, generating a heightened awareness of time. A
vein on his neck (or temple) pulses.
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42 The WAITER turns forward
again to watch PERSONA in the room. We hear
his breath. He has sweat on his
brow.
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43 We see PERSONA, from behind,
standing at the cart, from the WAITER's POV. The coffee cup is down and
PERSONA is picking up a plate and fork (which we don't yet see).
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44 CU of plate of scrambled
eggs being picked up by PERSONA. A fork
pierces the eggs.
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The curtains billow.
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45 CU of forkful of eggs put
into mouth.
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46 MS of PERSONA holding plate,
standing, eating, still with back to door.
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47 CU of towel loosening (jarred by
the motions of eating).
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48 The reflection of the WAITER's
eye in hallway mirror, radiating intensity of desire.
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49 CU of PERSONA's face as the towel
loosening is realized.
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50 MS of body as the towel drops
onto floor.
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51 CU of PERSONA's face. There
is no move to pick up the towel. Standing, plate in hand,
with back to the door, PERSONA feels the gaze of the waiter.
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52 Sunshine from the window beaming
against PERSONA's skin (parallel between beam of light / beam of waiter's gaze)
as the breeze animates the curtains and the curtains modulate (flicker) the
light.
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53 MS of PERSONA who is comforted,
reaffirmed, yet at the same time dispossessed: at the crux of the gaze,
the light, and the circulating breeze, there is centeredness and dispersal,
life and death, as part of the same circuit.
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54 CU of the reflection of the
WAITER's eye in hallway mirror, radiating intensity of desire.
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55 MS of the "surveillance
camera" view as PERSONA turns to make eye contact with the camera. PERSONA
wants to understand the terms of the "surveillant" address, and the address the we (as
viewers) take: these agencies of viewing (which include, and constitute,
"us") are suddenly interpolated into the scene. In "us," PERSONA
continues to pursue the secret of PERSONA's own desirability: the formula
of that which sexualizes him/her. At the same time: the desire is
to further the intensity of exposure, generating a heightened sense of vulnerability
and surrender. Yet this is not a complete surrender to
the controlling gaze (which wants to measure, claim, make accountable, in
ever-greater degrees of granularity): it is a way of appropriating, modulating,
the terms of exchange, thus transforming the technology of control into a technology
of self. It is a site of invention.
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56 CU of wet towel bunched
at feet.
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57 MS of PERSONA from behind,
exposed, continuing to eat.
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58 CU of PERSONA's eyes; combination
of pleasure and anxiety, fascination and fear. Extreme vulnerability
and exposure. Surrender. This is unknown territory; shaky ground. PERSONA is at a
crossroads, while also sensing the struggle in which the WAITER is engaged.
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As PERSONA continues to eat, we
CUT
BETWEEN the repertoire of viewpoints,
to the beats provided by the
fork hitting the porcelain plate, which beats time like a metronome. In
one of these shots, we see a full view of PERSONA, back to camera.
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59 The WAITER stands in the place of
PERSONA, nude, his back to the camera, from his own POV outside the door.
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CONTINUE
CUTTING BETWEEN the repertoire of viewpoints (the
actors resume their normal positions).
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60 Hallway view, with WAITER
still outside the door, peering in. ZOOM
from MS to ECU. Awareness of time
continues to intensify. We sense his anxiety, the struggle in which he is
engaged -- how long can he remain, peering through a gap in the door, before
he is discovered, whether by PERSONA, another hotel guest, or his boss? He
drips sweat. Embodying the struggle, he monitors
himself. A space of tension has opened up, like the gap in the door: a
gap that only assumes its potency through the impending threat of its closure,
and of its subject's exposure. His body seems to take
shape through the contouring properties of this space (which includes the wind
channel, as long as it remains open).
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61 ECU gap in door.
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62 MS of PERSONA's backside
next to billowing curtains: undulating
forms bound up in the same circuit. The sun gleams against the surfaces. The
forms seems to intertwine. PERSONA's body seems to take shape through
the contouring properties of this space (which includes the wind channel, as
long as it remains open).
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or CUT TO:
63 ECU.
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64 ECU gap in window.
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65-75 INCREASING ECUs of PERSONA/WAITER. Attention
to detail (texture, movement, sound) continues to increase as we move in
ever closer. We
move between
different viewpoints, with increasing degrees of intimacy. This is a
gaze that has no specific support: it is no longer a cinematic gaze (too clinical);
no longer a human gaze (we can't see so closely, with such detail, with the
naked eye). It is no longer attached to any
particular agency, whether character-based or surveillant. Views become so
close that boundaries between bodies begin to dissolve. We no longer know who
is who. It becomes apparent that these shots no longer reveal anything since
they are too close: they blur distinctions more than they sharpen them.
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76 XECU of eggs being chewed inside
mouth.
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77-87 INCREASING ECUs of
PERSONA/WAITER. The
erotic dance has now become uni-directional -- a vector aimed at the body
substrate, probing the very limits of the flesh. These extreme ECUs manifest
the erotic impulse to get
closer (closer to each other, but also closer to one's own self), but also
the technological impulse to see better: to zoom into the body
substrate with increased intimacy, detail, and accuracy. They manifest the
drive for an extreme intimacy that is also about the revealing of the self.
They also manifest surveillant orientations turned inward, willingly or not. Here
we reach the limits of the erotic gaze: desire, which requires distance,
evaporates when it gets too close to its object. We also reach the limits
of the optical apparatus and its regimes of identification. The
technology attempts a capture, a consolidation of identity, according to its
terms and conditions; it struggles to harness and tame energies, to transform
phenomena into objects. But in
this ambiguous space of extreme intimacy, there is no longer any coherent
identity to be captured.
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88 XECU two drips of water onto
floor (sweat or moisture from bath?), with sound.
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89 - 94 INCREASING XECUs of
PERSONA/WAITER. The
breathing sounds become animalistic. The actor's bodies are revealed
in all their animality: distinctions have not only blurred
between gender and identity, but now, between human and animal. (Deleuze: Animality as pure
presence: something which is incapable of symbolization and hence which is in
presence always. Animal accepts what has presence and that which is not debated
for being absent.) There is no longer difference but sameness.
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95 XECU surface of tub water
with slight ripples (due to the constant slow drip), with soap residue.
(Diffraction, as opposed to reflection; horizontality, extension.) Slowly
the drip of water is replaced with a drip of blood. The camera
slowly PANS across the surface of the water in several directions. [X-AXIS
OF EXTENSIONS]
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96-102 INCREASING XECUs of
PERSONA/WAITER.
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103 XECU surface of sweaty/moist
skin.
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104
XECU of ambiguous surface of body as the camera moves "through" it,
as if breaking through the surface, eradicating difference between inside
and outside. [Y-AXIS OF DEPTH/INTENSIONS]
105
The camera, having metaphorically entered the body, rests on a dark red,
wet, viscous, murky, throbbing setting. The camera does
not move. The view is unsettling;
we sense a living thing, but we don't know what it is -- and whether we are
inside it or before it. There is no where to go except "inside" the
body: the surveillant apparatus moves from surface to interior, as if to begin
to colonize the interior. As it is bound up with the erotic impulse,
it meets its other: horror. Death/"repugnant
animality"/emergence of the sacred. A SACRED HORROR that is analogous
to eroticism itself.]
Surrender. There
are barely perceptible throbbing movements and flows, but it is necessary
to focus on the setting for awhile in order to detect any movement. A sense
of timelessness. Rather than continuing to pan across a
coherent field of view, zooming in for greater detail, or zooming out for
context (as it has earlier), the camera remains stationary as, enabled by the
extremely high resolution, we begin to focus on details. There is a viscous
fluid that flows in, mixes, and flows out: a combination and circulation
of fluids.
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106 The camera, echoing the
opening "surveillance" pan, begins to PAN L inside the mouth.
BEGIN NEW CYCLE.