Sing Street Page #13

BRENDAN:

They’re happy/sad.

A Gothic, pop/love song starts up on the turn table and

Brendan smiles.

BRENDAN:

Close the door.

Conor pushes the door closed, transfixed by the sound.

Brendan takes his seat. Conor, his.

It’s going to be a long night.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. SYNGE STREET SCHOOL GATES - ANOTHER DAY

As the song continues, Conor walks through the school gates.

He is with Eamon and Darren. Conor is now dressed in a long,

black overcoat.

(CONTINUED)

70.

(Possibly his Mum’s), an endless scarf, and has dyed his hair

black, and back combed. A junior Sherlock Holmes/Cure-head.

EAMON:

How do you mean, you’re

“Happy/Sad”?

DARREN:

Yeah. How am I supposed to market

that?

CONOR:

It means that we’re not pop

anymore.

EAMON:

Were we pop? I’m happy being any

type of band. I just want to play.

CONOR:

That’s fine. Be who you are, Eamon.

EAMON:

I don’t know who I am. Maybe I’m

Happy/Sad too? I don’t know.

DARREN:

(shouting)

What does Happy/Sad mean??! How can

you be both bleedin things?? It

makes no sense.

CONOR:

(stopping)

It means that I’m stuck in this

shithole, full of morons and

rapists and bullies, and I’m going

to deal with it. Okay? It’s just

how life is now. And I’m going to

try and accept that and get on with

it, and make some art!

DARREN:

Right.

EAMON:

How does it affect our music?

CONOR:

Positively.

INT. THE DART TRAIN - DAY

Song continues over.

The whole band, with Darren and Raphina, ride the dart train

out of the city.

(CONTINUED)

71.

They are carrying the camera, and a few props- picture frames

and paint brushes. The band are all Cure Heads now, and look

quite good. But it’s low-budget Cure Heads. Conor and Raphina

sit across the aisle from them. Music plays over, as they

ride out towards the sea. A welcome break from the city.

Conor watches the sun burst behind Raphina’s profile. He

smiles, taking out the camera and filming her.

Conor describes to the gang what this video will be about,

reading from his journal...

CONOR:

So the idea of this video is about

a guy standing halfway down a pier.

And a beautiful woman walks past

him. Towards the lighthouse. Half

an hour later, she hasn’t come

back. So he investigates. But she’s

gone.

DARREN:

Wha?

CONOR:

There’s nowhere to go. And yet

she’s not there?

DARREN:

She’s vanished?

EAMON:

She’s jumped in. She’s killed

herself.

CONOR:

Correct. She’s really sad.

RAPHINA:

No she’s not. She’s a mermaid.

She’s jumped back into the sea. You

see, she got washed up in a fishing

net. And she’s been in the city.

But she’s been dying to return to

the water. To her friends. Where

she belongs.

Conor likes this. He smiles. He starts writing this into his

journal.

CONOR:

Yeah. That’s better.

EXT. THE PIER - DAY

The band have set up their gear at the end of the pier,

looking out to the Irish sea. Conor is framing up the camera.

(CONTINUED)

72.

The wind threatens to blow it over on its tiny, lightweight

tripod.

CONOR:

Okay, so we’re playing here, and

Raphina walks past. Then I’ll show

you where you can jump off. From

here it will look like you’ve gone

into the sea.

He shows Raphina and the others a little ledge behind the

wall, where it will appear as though she’s dropped into the

sea, but is in fact just on the other side.

RAPHINA:

It’s not far enough down. You’ll

see the top of my head.

CONOR:

You’ll have to dip your head down

to make it look real.

The others look doubtful, including Raphina.

CONOR:

Trust me.

EXT. THE PIER - LATER

They are halfway through another song, miming to playback.

Darren is operating the camera. They all look very gloomy and

introspective; ala The Cure, staring down at the ground, and

barely playing their instruments.

But the song is brilliant. Darren holds up the picture frames

in front of the musicians in separate shots.

Conor stands with his hands in his pockets. Now Raphina

enters frame, walking towards the end of the pier.

She pauses for a moment, and NGIG holds up a picture frame in

front of her as she walks. She is mouthing the lyrics. As she

gets to the end of the pier, she stares out to sea

dramatically. Conor is watching her in the background,

singing.

Then she jumps. But NOT onto the ledge. In fact, she jumps

way past it and into the sea.

For a moment, Conor hasn’t seen what’s happened. He goes on

singing. But Darren looks up from the viewfinder.

DARREN:

(shouting over the music)

Em, I think she went into the sea.

Seriously.

(CONTINUED)

73.

Conor looks over towards the wall. No sign of Raphina.

CONOR:

Sh*t!

He breaks away from the group and runs over, jumping up onto

the wall.

Down below, Raphina is struggling in the choppy water.

CONOR:

What the hell??

RAPHINA:

KEEP-BLOODY-FILMING!

CONOR:

What?

Behind him, Darren runs with the camera and tripod. He has

heard her, and is rolling. Now the camera is on Conor.

CONOR:

What’ll I do?

DARREN:

Stop looking in the camera.

RAPHINA:

Save me!

CONOR:

What?

RAPHINA:

Jump in. It’ll look great!

CONOR:

But my clothes??

RAPHINA:

I can’t swim!

CONOR:

You mean the character or actual

you?

RAPHINA:

ACTUAL ME!

She is thrashing around in the water, starting to get pulled

under. Conor throws off his coat and looks towards Darren.

Darren steadies the shot. Gives the thumbs up. Raphina is

shouting for help, off.

Conor dives into the sea. Darren tilts down as he hits the

water. A perfect shot.

(CONTINUED)

74.

DARREN:

YES!

Conor swims over to Raphina who is genuinely starting to

drown, and pulls her towards the ledge. The camera follows.

The rest of the band have gathered on the edge of the pier,

looking down and cheering.

EXT. ON THE WATER - CONTINUOUS

Down below, Conor pulls her onto the safety of the ledge as

she spits mouth fulls of water.

CONOR:

Jesus Christ! What were you

thinking?

RAPHINA:

(up to Darren)

Did you get it??!!

Darren gives a thumbs up, as he scans back over the shot.

RAPHINA:

Fantastic!!

The band laughs.

CONOR:

Can you really not swim?

RAPHINA:

Nope.

CONOR:

Then why did you do that?

RAPHINA:

For our art! You can’t do things by

half, Cosmo.

He shakes his head, searching her. They are both shivering

and wet. Suddenly, he reaches in, and steals a kiss. She is

silenced by it. Amazed.

CONOR:

Sorry... I... I’m sorry. That

was...

RAPHINA:

Great. Is what it was. Fair play.

CONOR:

(happy)

Was it?

What about Evan?

(CONTINUED)

75.

RAPHINA:

Evan’s just a means to an end.

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