Never Even There
Sc 1 EXT EMPTY SUBURBAN STREET NIGHT Sc 1
A dark street, a car drives past, illuminating a large VAN parked against the sidewalk. CLOSE-UP on number plate ‘QXT-68Z’, it is not apparent if it is the car’s or the van’s.
SOFT (STATIC) SOUND.
ZOOM IN to the streetlight, further to the right of the van, it flickers a few times, and the time between it lighting up grows further each blink until it begins to fade out.
The CAMERA shoots, looking up toward the fading light. Then darkness.
(BLACK SCREEN).
The BUZZING sound stops. SILENCE, a few dogs BARK.
MUFFLED SCREAMS.
CLOSE-UP the heels of a GIRL’S shoes dragging on and kicking the floor (travelling backward). PAN UP the attacker's arms and hand, holding the GIRL muffling her mouth, covered in scratches, blood slowly oozes out of the gash. The GIRL stifled, cries out but cannot. She holds out her arm and grabs at the air, longing for something.
PANNING SHOT follows the direction of the GIRL’S arm, past another streetlight.
CAMERA PANS to the ground, looking at the spotlight left by the streetlight. A WOMAN’S hand twitches and blood is wiped on the pavement from under the WOMAN’S fingernails. Her ring reflects light for a second, flashing the CAMERA, blinding it, then ZOOM-IN on the stone, a sapphire. The WOMAN slowly crawls into the spotlight, in pain, she cries.
WOMAN
Mia Bambi…
The van starts, and it drives away leaving the WOMAN’S body on the ground. She hyperventilates.
(BLACK SCREEN)
AUDIO FADES FROM THE WOMAN’S CRIES TO THE GIRL’S CRIES.
Sc 2 INT THE VAN NIGHT Sc 2
MAN
Shut your mouth, brat. Stop moving
and maybe I’ll let you live.
The GIRL lies face down in the van. CLOSE-UP on the GIRL’S eyes, dark brown, tears fall down her cheek but she doesn’t make a sound.
ZIPPER SOUND
She shuts her eyes.
Sc 3 EXT A PARK DAY Sc 3
PANNING SHOT follows the van, and it stops. A MAN gets out, the GIRL hauled over his shoulder. He takes her to a swing and places her on it, messily.
The MAN towers over her and then tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. He crouches down to her level.
MAN
Don’t even think about telling someone
what happened. You f*cking deserved this,
your mother was a wh*re, this is on the
both of you. Just sit there, don’t move.
The GIRL looks down at the ground, empty, eyes puffy, but she does not cry, she just nods her head.
THE VAN HONKS
The MAN looks around, waving his arm around frantically, telling his friends to be quiet. Then the MAN hurries away, leaving her there on the swing.
CLOSE-UP on the child’s eyes, hazel, she looks up as the van drives away, catching a glimpse of the number plate.
CLOSE-UP on the number plate ‘MR_-1_S’.
GIRL
MR…-1…S - MR…-1…S…- MR_1- … -No Mama…
(BLACK SCREEN)
Sc 4 INT APARTMENT DAY Sc 4
AMBER sits up in bed, hand rubbing the sweat off her forehead, eyes closed, cradling herself. She feels for her glasses on her bedside table, finding them and wiping them before putting them on. She looks to her left. PANNING SHOT follows where she looks. A framed photo of her and her mother from what seems to be decades ago. The mother in the photograph is the WOMAN we saw crawling in the previous sequence. The GIRL in the photograph is the GIRL we saw in the preceding scene. The implication is that AMBER is the GIRL, now grown up.
A detective ID sits next to the frame, and a larger photo with three eyes is displayed on the wall behind it. AMBER slowly gets out of bed, ensuring not to disturb the unconscious body on her right. She grabs a pen and her notepad and jots something down. She takes the pad and walks toward the door in the corner of the room and she leaves.
The blanket moves as ROSE wakes up reaching for the space left by her mother. She stretches, yawns and looks for the time on the clock above the three eyes.
PANNING SHOT toward the clock, then CLOSE-UP on time. 4:18.
ROSE gets out of bed and walks to the bathroom. She turns on the light and walks toward the mirror, rubbing and poking at her under-eye circles. The bracelet around her wrist is emphasised, a centred infinity symbol surrounded by a series of small sapphires intertwined in a silver chain. She looks herself in the eye, and a deep blue stares right back at her, piercing her soul, she cringes. She walks back into the bedroom and toward the cabinet, looking up at the three eyes, one of which is a familiar shade of blue. She looks down at the photo of her mother and her grandmother, she picks it up, wiping the layer of dust off of the top.
ROSE (whispers to herself)
Mamma says I have your eyes, I wish
I could have seen them in person.
She puts down the photo and looks at the ID. AMBER RUSSO.
ROSE (whispers)
You work too much.
She sighs and heads into the kitchen/living room.
PANNING SHOT of the living room area, it is still dark beside the little light from the balcony, and only the sound of a breeze through the open door can be heard. ROSE heads toward the balcony, rubbing her arms, pulling two blankets off the couch and wrapping herself in one. She pulls open the curtains discreetly, not wanting her mother to notice her wakefulness.
WIDE SHOT of the balcony, facing her mother who sits at the balcony table, a laptop on the table, next to a glass of red wine.
ROSE
Ma, are you okay? Did you have
another nightmare?
AMBER turns her head, and her daughter slowly steps out, holding the remaining blanket out to her mother. AMBER takes it.
AMBER
Thank you, Rose. Sorry, I tried not
to wake you…it’s nothing, you should
go back inside and get some sleep.
ROSE
It doesn’t seem like nothing. Did
you see something?
AMBER
Yeah, I think so, some letters and
numbers from that plate, but it’s all
jumbled up.
ROSE
What do you mean?
AMBER
I just saw it in my dream, the plate.
But I don’t know if my brain was making
it up. I’m searching for it now, for
anything. I need to find them. I need
closure. She needs justice.
ROSE flinches. She’s visibly uncomfortable, but her mother is too distracted to notice.
ROSE
Who are you talking about?
AMBER
I need to catch them, for your Nonna.
ROSE
Mum, please come back inside. It’s cold.
THE LAPTOP BEEPS.
They both look at each other.
ROSE
What is it? Did you get something?
AMBER spams the laptop, and her sapphire ring is shown as she types. ROSE heads toward her mother, looking over her shoulder.
AMBER GULPS.
AMBER
No… I have nothing. F*cking nothing.
ROSE
It’s going to be okay. There’s still time.
Just come inside. Let’s go back to bed.
AMBER
Go away. Please, stop talking, mum. I mean…
I’m so sorry, Rose.
ROSE takes a step back. Coming to the realisation that her mum is too far gone. That she was never even there.
My opening scene screenplay ‘Never Even There’, derives ideas and concepts from the opening scenes of Steven Moffat and Mark Gattiss’ Sherlock: ‘A Study in Pink’, and from the film Lantana, directed by Ray Lawrence, allowing me to explore the depth of the main character, Amber, in a detective fiction subgenre. Much like ‘A Study in Pink’, my screenplay starts as a flashback that introduces one of the main characters, Amber, who is implied to be the little girl from the first three scenes; this uses a trope of crime fiction - connecting the protagonists’ past to their current behaviour - in order to highlight the key themes. The fourth scene in this screenplay showcases how Amber’s trauma has affected her: both her obsession with justice and neglectful parenting. These are the themes that my screenplay would explore. The victim-turned-hardbitten-detective is a modern iteration of the conventional archetypal detective, but one which supports the exploration of the impacts of trauma.
‘Never Even There’ explores the theme of justice through the convention ‘Whodunnit?’, where Amber buries herself in her work trying to search for the men who murdered her mother. The ‘nullifying injustice’ moral of the protagonist feeds into the overarching subgenre of detective fiction, which Sweeney, 2016 describes as “a ravelling and unravelling [of a crime]”. Like any crime fiction, Amber will undoubtedly catch the killer, but this opening sequence aims to question: at what cost?
“A detective ID sits next to the frame…AMBER slowly gets out of bed…She grabs a pen and her notepad and jots something down. She takes the pad and…leaves…[ROSE: ’You work too much.’]...’[Amber dreamt of] some letters and numbers from that plate…I’m searching for it now, for anything. I need to find them. I need closure. She needs justice…I need to catch them, for your Nonna.’” (Makrides, 2024, p.5-8).
Amber acts on behalf of many people, including her mother, who have experienced tyranny, trying to seek closure for herself as well as justice against those who have wronged her. Amber worked hard to become a detective, to give her lawful power over criminals who have done similar things to innocent people. But this obsession with justice created a barrier between her and her child, paving the way for Amber’s redemption. In this way, my screenplay reflects the modern trend in crime fiction, of having the crime become more of a vehicle for exploring interpersonal relationships.
My screenplay also evaluates the theme: the impact of trauma, and how it causes Amber to become a neglectful parent as she brings the perpetrators of her rape and her mother’s murder to justice. This abuse is ironic as she’s a detective, and it is especially prevalent in the fourth scene where Rose gets out of bed to go check on her mother, bringing her a blanket and then overall, supporting her struggles with PTSD. It is never explicitly stated how old Rose is, but making your child take on parental responsibilities can have a heavy toll and be traumatic (Charlie Health, 2023). This motherly role is especially reflected when her mother tells her to “Go away. Please, stop talking, mum.” (Makrides, 2024, p.9). Amber is obsessed with getting justice for her mother, so much so that she cannot properly function as one. Amber neglected the parental responsibilities of her child by “work[ing] too much.” (Makrides, 2024, p.6), and she effectively continued a cycle of trauma that she experienced as a child, through the parentification of Rose. In Lantana, we see how the detective’s personal life and his work life impact each other, through the central character of Leon Zat. Like Leon, Amber cannot separate her feelings about work and home, and because of her trauma, these are even more intertwined, affecting her ability to connect to others, and her judgement: she is not objective.
The title of my screenplay ‘Never Even There’, suggests an absence, and in this case, it happened to be both physical and emotional; Amber lost her mother, and she continued the cycle unintentionally. In the opening scene, unbeknownst to Amber, the mother calls out “Mia Bambi” (Makrides, 2024, p.3), which is the shortened version of “mia babina” which translates to “my baby” in Italian. Amber is of European descent, hence the name and the pet name from her mother, but I chose to use the term “Bambi” as that is a well-known Disney movie with themes including the impacts of loss and trauma. I believe this film resonates with my creative as the mother of both protagonists is murdered and they have to fight to survive in a world where everything is different. Although my screenplay may be a more gruesome depiction of the fairytale, I believe that this small reference may create a sense of nostalgia in the audience, and that it highlights the vulnerability of the child. The opening sequence is envisaged to have the dark, sinister qualities of the Lantana movie opening sequence, and by showing both child and mother in the opening scene I set up not only the plot, but also the key thematic focus of the parent/child relationship.
The concept of immortality is a recurring feature throughout this creative; I derived both Amber's and Rose’s names from the Greek origin male name: ‘Ambrose’ meaning immortal (McNamara, 2024). One of the principal symbols throughout this screenplay is the sapphire, worn in each generation of Amber’s family. Greek mythology suggests that the stone will ward off evil and grant its wearers honour and immortality (Ceylons Munich, 2023). Rose wears a bracelet with “a centred infinity symbol surrounded by a series of small sapphires” (Makrides, 2024, p.6), the infinity symbol representing forever, further enforcing the meaning of the stone and centering attention onto her character to figuratively reincarnate Amber’s mother into Rose. The infinity loop also evokes how the cycle is never really closed, but perpetually being reinvented and passed on. I created a similarity, not only through the sapphires but through Rose’s eye colour as well:
“...[A] photo with three eyes is displayed on the wall… She[Rose] looks herself in the eye, and a deep blue stares right back at her… [Rose] looking up at the three eyes, one of which is a familiar shade of blue… ‘Mamma says I have your eyes, I wish I could have seen them in person.’” (Makrides,2024, p.5&6).
Visual perspective is a large part of this story, where Amber watched her mother die, and proceeded to shut her eyes so she would not have to visualise the event in the van. As her trauma resides from what she saw, mainly her mother’s murder, she has tried to get justice, aimed at redeeming her mother’s image in her eyes. Amber openly displays a photo with three eyes, hers, Rose’s, and Rose’s biological father, although it was not stated in the screenplay. This photo shows how important of a feature eyes are to Amber, and she constantly reminds Rose of that, and the similarities between her and her Grandmother. This contradicts ‘A Study in Pink’s John Watson, where his walking cane and gun symbolise change, but similarly exudes the sense of ‘a new life’ or being ‘reborn’. In a sense, the sapphires and Rose’s eyes are some of the last ties Amber has to her mother, losing her at such a young age, causing her to consider her own daughter a mother figure at times. These features contribute to the visual aspect of this film, creating a more colourful atmosphere to contrast the monotonous tone it has, which make it more entertaining and symbolic.
‘Never Even There’ explores the ideas of justice, and the impact and cycles of trauma through parentrircation and unethical prioritisation. Throughout Rose’s childhood, she was neglected as Amber prioritised her search for justice, forcing Rose to step up and take care of herself and her mother. As many symbols throughout the screenplay created similarities between Rose and her grandmother, the audience is given the notion that how Amber is treated her child is justifiable, which it is not. This screenplay was created for a more mature audience, dabbling in concepts such as rape, violence, murder and child abuse; conditioning its readers to think about the impacts of childhood trauma on adulthood and how to find ways to manage and end the cycle of trauma.
Charlie Health Editorial Team. (2023, October 27). Parentification Trauma: What it is and How to Heal. Charlie Health. https://www.charliehealth.com/post/parentification-trauma-what-it-is-and-how-to-heal#:~:text=Parentification%20trauma%20refers%20to%20the,resources%20to%20do%20so%20effectively.
Effects of Sapphires, meaning and beliefs | Ceylons Munich. (2023). https://www.ceylons.de/blog-en/sapphire-effects#:~:text=Sapphires%20are%20said%20to%20confer,by%20the%20Romans%20and%20Greeks.
McNamara. (2024). Ambrose. The Bump. https://www.thebump.com/b/ambrose-baby-name
Sweeney, E.S. “Locked Rooms : Detective Fiction, Narrative Theory, and SelfReflexivity”. The Cunning Craft: Original Essays on Detective Fiction and Contemporary Literary Theory. Eds. Ron Walker and June Frazer. Illinois: Western Illinois University, 1990. Web. 1 May 2016.