COLOR AID
by
Daniel Arsham
Scene 1 (int. studio)
The scene opens in Sinclair's
studio, Eva is talking to him about the robot being like a human,
how she is trying to make it feel like a human persona, all the
while he never turns around and keeps on painting.
Eva:
Demian is really coming along, he's really starting to have some
personality.
Sinclair: Really? (Sarcastic)
Eva: yeah, I have the
speech all working, and I can have conversations with him.
Sinclair: Yeah?, have
you asked him how it feels to be a robot?
Eva: No. (angry) pause.
Eva: Why can't you ever
take my work seriously.
Sinclair keeps panting.
Eva sits for a minute and then gets up and leaves, he doesn't notice
and keeps painting.
Scene 2a (ext. street)
Eval walks starting in
the street into the lab. Sits down at the desk, she is distraught.
Scene 2 (int. lab)
Eva: (to
robot) Why can't relationships with humans be a cease as it is with
you.
Demian: Is it easy with
me?
Eva:
Easier than it is with Sinclair (pause). He doesn't understand me,
he doesn't understand what you are to me.
Eva: He
just doesn't take it seriously. It gets me depressed that he is
so sarcastic about my work.
Demian: What is depressed?
(pause) shot of her face puzzled.
Eva:: Sad, I don't know
-- depressed.
Demian: Oh
Eva:
He thinks that his work and his ideas are the only valid ones. He's
. . . . . . so closed-minded. I love him but he's so selfish sometimes.
Demian:I don't know love?
(she looks at him and
walks over to him)
Demian: I don't understand
you Eva. (pause) I can't feel what you say. I hear love, I see it
in you, but I don't feel it.
Eva has put down what
she was doing and is now looking at Demian.
Demian: I don't have
the experiences that make words what they are for you.
Eva: I'm sorry you don't
feel words, I wish you did, but I don't know how else for you to
understand, maybe words just don't do it.
Scene 3 (int. studio)
Eva walks into Sinclair's
studio, and starts to look at his stuff. She picks up a few books
and looks through them (close up shots of the pages being turned
and her looking at certain things). She sits in there for a while
and looks at his paintings. Stares at the point where two colors
meet (moves her face close to the painting), then she moves some
photos from his desk and stumbles on a bunch of swatches of colors.
She flips through them and the shot is a close up of just the color
passing in front of the lens. She looks at the paintings for a moment
and then back at the color, as she moves from one to the next she
has flashbacks, associated with each color, of her with Sinclair,
kissing him, fighting with him. The flashes are really quick, almost
like photos. (As she is flipping the color, shine a hard light on
the swatches and catch the reflection on her face.)
The three flashbacks
are as follows:
Scene 4 (ext. street).
Her walking wth him on the street, happy couple.
Scene 5. (Int. apt.)
Them in the apartment, hanging out, maybe looking at something together,
intimate.
Scene 6. (int. studio)
The end of scene one where she is in Sinclair's studio and he ignores
her and just paints, she walks out.
Scene 7. (Int. studio)
Before she leave the studio she grabs a bunch of his stuff, some
books, color swatches, a painting.
Scene 8 (int. lab) This
is the point where her studio begins to become a mess. She accumilate
a load of books, she has color swatches everywhere. Demian watches
her walk through the glass door and put al this stuff down. She
sits down and time progresses as she is trying to figure this color
thing out.
The next shot is of the
cover of a color psychology book. She looks through that and stops
where it has the diagram of each color matched to an emotion.
Scene 9 (int. studio)
She goes into his studio, and is arranging the color swatches on
his desk. She settles on a few and then walks down the stairs and
out.
Scene 10 (int. lab) She
walks whtough the glass doors upset, sits down at the desk and begins
the dialogue with Demian.
Eva: How is a painter
unable to undestand color?
Demian: What do you mean?
Eva: (she pauses, fidgets
with parts on the table). Come here Demian so I can plug you in.
(pause) Why can't maintenance on humans be as easy as it is on you.
(pause) I have worked a system out. Color has a strong effect on
people, and sometimes it can make them feel a certain way (cut to
the shot of her flipping through the color swatches). I matched
each of these colors to an emotion (5 second pause). You will be
able to understand and describe emotion.
Demian: What do I do
with this program? It's really strange.
Eva: I'll show you how
it works, look at this color (she shows him a swatch). This one
should make you feel....
Demian: (he interjects
happy, ecstatic.
Eva: (laughs) - it works...
I knew it wold, so, why can't Sinclair understand this color?
Demian: You know exactly
how. The color that you are trying to communicate to him with, is
color that you made to communicate with me. I understand those colors
you show me because I have links in my memory to specific emotions.
I understand them because of this.
How do you think that
I chose those colors that you know so well? Those color that make
you feel distressed, or happy. They are all basEva:ed on how humans
react to the same colors. (she pauses) What I don't understand is
how a painter, of all people, doesn't have any reaction to the swatches
that I leave in his studio. It's almost like you are more human
than he is. I spent hours choosing those colors I left him you know.
I am tired of words, I am tired of letters (pause). I feel like
I am writing for myself when I use words. Color is so direct, it
is so perfect for this type of communcation, why can he not see
that?
Demian: Perhaps if yu
saw color as he did, you might know. Maybe he is color blind.
Eva: Funny, Demian.
Eva: The color in his
paintings is . . . I feel like he is using exactly what this color
system is based on. He knows color Demian.
Demian: Did yu try to
explain the color to him, as you use it?
Eva: Why should I explain
it to him, when you write something to someone and you use a certain
word, you don't go into an explanation of that word, you simply
use it, it is understood. He looks at the color and he just doesn't
take the tie to analyize it or does and doesn't arrive at anything.
Look at this color Demian (pause). You see that, don't you? You
feel it!
Demian: Yes, I do.
Eva: I want Sinclair
to feel that. I want him to undestand me through this color (she
shows (Demian again, and her voice is becoming unsteady). I don't
want to tell hm anything in wods. This language is so much more
beautfiful. (she pauses).
She begins to rummage
through the color set which was lying o the desk. She obvously knows
the colors by heart; understands the language. She comes up to a
certai color and then another. She stares at the two of them together
for a moment and then walks out.
Scene 11 (int. studio)
She walks into Sinclair's
studio and places the clolors on Sinclair's desk. She looks around
at the paintings for a mment, then turns around and walks out.
Scene 12 (int. Lab)
She is waiting for Sinclair
to cal her about the color.
Scene 13 (Int. studio)
Sinclair goes into his studio, sees the color, dismisses it and
walks out without caling her.
Scene 14 (int. Lab)
Eva is still waiting
for his call. (Shots of the phone, of her looking at it).
Scene 15 (int. apt.)
In the apartment she
works late on the dictionary project, she is at the computer, she
has books around, a dictionary on the desk, she lines up colors
to it, and i s developing a new color system.
Scene 16 (int. Lab)
Demian: How are you feeling
today, Eva?
She sits down and shows
him a swatch of color.
Demian: I was a little
worried about you. I wanted to do something for you, to show you
that I am here for you (pause). Did Sinclair see the swatches? Did
he respond to them?
Eva: Forget about that
for now Demian. I finished developing a new color system last night.
Demian:How is it different
from mine?
She gets a sheet of paper
and explains it to him.
Eva: This is your color
sytem (she draws it for him, having one color linked to an emotion)
for this new system I have two colors that stand for a word. I took
314 distincitly different colors and matched every word i the dictionary
to a piar of two colors. I wrote a program on the computer to do
it for me, it took all ight but it is done. I can input a chapter
from a book and play it in this color language. Do you want to see
it Demian?
Demian: Will I be programmed
with this color system Eva?
Eva: Later you wil be,
come here and look at this.
Demian walks over, just
in front of the computer as Eva brings up the program and it plays.
The colors flash in front of both of them. Eva stares at the scene
amazed and as it plays Demian begins to move around a little,. After
a while he turns around and goes and faces the wall. Eva turns off
the program and walks over to him.
Eva: Are you alright
Demian?
Demian: That was too
much for me Eva.
Eva: What was?
Demian: The color
Eva: What about the color?
Demian: Plug me in.
He plays her flashbacks
that he hada ssociated with the color.
(quick montage and stop)
Flashbacks:s
1. the first itme she
showed him the color swatch after he was given the system
2. Him watching her work.
Demian has started to
say the next line just after the flashbacks start.
Demian: I realized something,
Eva. I know why Sinclair does not understand you. I know why he
misinterprets you. Language is a very specific thing, language is
understood because words mean the same for everyone. They are connected
to life experience, and are powerlful for this reason. Yu are trying
to reinvent language, yet you are the only one who understands it.
I read that color differently than you intended just as Sinclair
did. A child learns language over a number of years, it is a while
before they connect workds to feelings, or for them to link words
to colors.
Scene 17 (int. apartment)
The last part of Demian's
talking is over Eva writing a letter to Sinclair explaining what
she realized through all of this, she closes the letter and writes
his name on the front.