-Story Development with Howard (September 2005 – December 2005)

“Silk Winter” was a short film script I wrote from September of 2005 to May of 2006, with a quick revival in the first quarter of 2007. It was based on a poem written by Howard Change (Sabbat in Throne of Mortality) of the same name. We had become very close friends during the summer of 2005, and spent almost every day together, talking about poetry and music. His poem went as such:

Silk Winter

I tread the ebb tide
of this silk winter river;
down her cheeks, her hair it flows
and I, scarcely breathing, touch the eyes
that shudder at the dawn.

She has now emerged, as if
from a cave of hidden memories –
she is still embraced
by the dampness
and the clamminess
of the light.

She gestures, as if to speak, – yet –
the rush of stillness fills the woods.
Flowers of bone burst in the blossom.

Jagged.
White in the night.

The last two stanzas really impressed me and left a permanent impression on me. The same day he brought me this poem, we started discussing a script. To begin with, our influences were most definitely Alfred Hitchcock, both of us being huge fans at the time, and he was and still is my all time favorite director. I was also watching a great deal of Dracula films, an obsession which had started in the early spring of 2005, and was still going strong during that time. I had plans to watch every Dracula film and all related ones. I was also watching a few Igmar Bergman movies then, and Howie had gotten me into Dario Argento, especially “Suspiria”. I had also been watching “River’s Edge” quite a bit. But we wanted to make a more recent, artsy type of film, our goal was to make something “better than Darren Aronofsky”, as at the time we were totally against “Requiem for a Dream”, claiming it was bullshit. But, in my mind, it was that sort of paranoid idea we were going for. And I actually think it was a great movie and love all his work.

We wrote the plot outline together that same evening on some notepad paper. Following this I started reading online on how to properly format scripts. I also read up on scenes and editing additions in the script, something that is usually not recommended, but as I had planned to direct it myself, it would help me keep the ideas together. I think that right from the start Howie and I had the intention of my sister Marie-Helene to play the role of the little girl. The name of the little girl’s friend who comes to visit, Rebecca, was taken from the Hitchcock movie of the same name. And another direct reference to Hitchcock was also included in that dialogue, where today is spelled “to-day”, the same as Hitchcock spelled it when he used to design intertitles.

Of course the music was going to be composed by Howie and I. In the beginning, we were going to have some sort of experimental side project to make music for it. Then when Howie left Throne of Mortality to focus on Funeral Junkie, I think that I had some sort of idea to use his music for part of it, but this is all blurry to me after all this time.

As I continued to develop the script on my own, because Howie was in Rutgers University for his first year, I incorporated more personal influences. The sound of children playing outside was a reference to Harmonium’s first album where two songs (“Aujourd’hui je dis bonjour à la vie” and “Veilles courroies”) feature school kids screaming around during recess. That album and band have been greatly influential to me through out my entire life. Following this, the wood furnished room was a direct reference to my own room, which had dark tainted wood furniture. Finally the “perfectly tucked bed” in the hospital is due to the “hospital corners” type of bed tucking I had to make my bed in during military school. So is the “freshly swept room”, which of course had to be done every morning.

I had spent many months in hospitalization exactly a year prior to this script starting, and this was a perfect place for me to evoke the emotions I felt. The paranoia that comes with being interned. The fact that some can be so naturally fucked up to feel like everything is okay, others are so drugged up that they are unable to feel anything else but okay, and finally the staff which is convinced that what they are doing to the patients is okay. It was really a feeling that I had hoped to add to the later versions of the script, and were always in my head during the making. It was incredibly discomforting, and I wanted people to feel uneasy when they would watch it.

-A Rutgers University Project (January 2006 – May 2006)

it seems the photoshoot was done in late January/early February of 2006, according to tags found in images.

On January 5th 2006 I purchased a new battery on Amazon for the JVC GR-DVM90 camcorder, which would seem awkward if I wasn’t using it already. Although it could be that the original battery was so old that it wasn’t staying charged long enough to do anything productive and that I bought a new one to be ready for when filming would start).

I continued working on the script during the winter, and finally in early March of 2006 (date could be wrong) I was given Roger Sheng’s contact, with whom I had gone to high school, but who was now attending Rutgers University with one of my best friends Tom Nunziata. Roger and I had met during theater meeting at J. P. Stevens High School and he was now in the film program at Rutgers and I was told that they could possibly help me out to get this film made. I printed out whatever version I was at at the time and brought it to the school. I remember someone driving me over to the school during what seemed to be late at night because it was dark. I recall being uneasy about having to drive through South Edison to get to New Brunswick because it was going right by where Brandy Hoke lived. I used to get depressed whenever I had to go near there. I hung out with Howie when he went to get dinner and Tom that night, so it must have been early evening during winter time. I think that it was Tom who accompanied me to the building where the film club was meeting. I later went to a meeting of the Film Club. They approved of my script, and given that Roger was going to be part of this project, I was allowed to use any of their equipment I wanted as well as their editing room, and a limited budget which was not set yet. Everything was looking up at this point, and it looked as if this film was going to get made. It was also during this time that my psychologist, Paul, told me about Project Greenlight, and that I should submit my script to them.

Date for pictures is February 3rd 2006. Could be wrong though since this was recovered from a failed hard drive.

Right away I started taking pre-production stills in my backyard of leaves, trees, rusted material that was in the forest. Pretty much trying to get an idea of how this would look on film. I took about thirty pictures using my parent’s digital JVC GR-DVM90 camcorder for this. The quality was limited and so were the results. It didn’t look great, but at the time it was my vision of things. Later that week Roger came over with his camera, as he was going to be the cameraman on this project. We filmed some more footage in my backyard, and this time when we lifted a trunk or rock there was a worm or a salamander getting overtaken by ants. It was exactly what I wanted in the movie! When we checked out the footage on my TV after that, Roger had completely missed the entire event. His framing was horrible and he was moving all over the place. We hardly saw the insects at all. So we stopped working together.

In the end of March of 2006 I went up to Scugog, Ontario to stay with my girlfriend Dylan Seymour. I had planned to work on the script while over there as she lived in a pretty secluded area. I emailed myself the script, but when I got there she didn’t have internet access. It took a few weeks before I was invited to spend Easter in Montreal with my best friend Jeremy Roux and he printed it for me, reusing paper from his work at IATA. Easter was April 16th that year, and I must have spent a week there. When I brought it back to Ontario, Dylan and I worked on the script together; I came up with new ideas, she would proofread and tell me if it was good or not. I was really happy about this because that’s how Hitchcock worked with his wife. In mid-May of 2006 I returned to New Jersey for mother’s day and the next day Dylan broke up with me. I got too depressed to work on the film script after that, since I felt like it would just remind me of her.

-Canadian Revival (October 2006 – November 2006)

And I didn’t work on it for about five months, until maybe in October 2006 when I decided to bring it back. I was living in Montreal again by then. This motivation was brought on when I found out that my cousins Francois Bourdon and his brother Pierre Bourdon had both worked on films in the 90s. I was getting really close to Francois, doing awnings with him, and he used to tell me stories about the making of Subconscious Cruelty. This made me want to start up this script again, with his help. I showed him the script I had (which was only five pages long, including the cover page) and the pictures I had taken earlier that year. He was director of photography on Subconscious, so he went into details about what was wrong with my pictures. Then he said that for a ten minute film, the script needs to be at least ten pages. And finally the budget for a movie of this sort would be ten thousand dollars. A real indie production. All this made me realize that maybe this movie wasn’t going to happen after all.

-American Revival (Spring 2007)

It was in February 2007 that I last went back to the script idea. By this time I was living back in New Jersey, and after making the music video for “Love Within Narcosis”, also with the JVC GR-DVM90 camcorder, I thought that this project could be filmed the same way for a first shooting. I was even going to use music by Vision Éternel for the film. Maybe some Soufferance stuff too, and I’m vaguely remembering wanting some Black Albatross music in there too because Howard was at the time recording the full length “The Green Walls”. My sister Marie was going to play the role of the little girl, but I needed someone to play the nurse, and the doctor that walks by. I believe that I asked Tom to play the doctor, and for the older nurse, I asked my neighbor Peggyann Tuma, who was a secretary in her husbands office, who was himself a doctor. I didn’t ask her directly, but instead asked what Victor (her husband) thought about the idea of her playing the role. He said that she was camera shy and that I would have to make the role look younger for her to accept it (because she didn’t want anything that would remind her that she was old). So we both went in the house and I asked her straight up if she would play this part of a nurse in this movie that I wanted to make. And she said no. That was it for me, and I gave up the entire project and never tried it again.

-The Script

The script went like this:

EXT. FOREST MORNING

Looking at a blue sky with few clouds. It is an average morning and the sun has not been up for long.

MOVING DOWN TOWARDS GROUND IN ANGLE

You can see by the movement in the leafless branches that it is lightly windy. The trees are dark and a bit damp from the light mist from the warm night that has just past.

STOP TO ANGLE OF FUNGUS

Different angles and shots of fungi can be seen as a mans voice can be heard speaking a light and calm, yet shocking poem.

MAN’S VOICE
She gestures, as if to speak, yet
The rush of stillness fills the woods.
Flowers of bone burst in the blossom.
Jagged.
White in the night.

FADE TO WHITE

INT. MENTAL INSTITUTION, ROOM MORNING

FROM TOP FRONT CORNER OF ROOM, LOOKING IN

As the brightness clears, it can be seen that it is a silk white room, and that it is not empty, but yet not filled. A brown, wood rocking chair can now be made out in the middle left of the room, with someone occupying it. It is a young girl of about eleven years old. She has dark brown hair, but it is all we can see from this angle. She is wearing a bleach white bath robe which matches with her pale face and hands, as well as the pair of socks warming her feet. The entire room is extremely clean, and the bed in the corner is made and tucked perfectly. The floors have been swept and the little desk in the back left corner of the room has been cleared. The whole room is spot free.

The sound of a door being unlocked by a strong key can be heard. The girl does not move. She is in a trance of relaxation, and seems to be enjoying the look of the window looking outside.

CUT TO:

MIDDLE OF THE ROOM, LOOKING TO DOOR

From the middle of the room, nothing else can be seen but the door opening from a plain wall. It is a big white metal door, with a stainless steel L-shaped knob with no keyhole from the inside.

A middle aged nurse comes in. She is wearing all white, and her hair is short and cleanly cut. She is carrying a tray that seems to be containing food, as she is very careful not to move it around too much as she walks into the room.

The nurse comes closer to the screen, and to the right and we see a man doctor walking by holding a small medicine bag. He is of a good height and walks straight and at a half-rushed pace.

CUT TO:

TOP CORNER OF ROOM

The food tray contains a white plate with some scrambled eggs and one sausage. To the top right of the plate is a white tea cup, which is quite warm as it deducts heat. There are, on a napkin, a plastic knife and fork perfectly placed next to each other. A spoon is also placed on the napkin, but this last is upside down, in order to fit.

The nurse stops behind the chair and looks to the girl. She addresses her in a calm way as to not disturb her daydream.

NURSE
I brought you some food dear.
It’s nice out today. You should
go play outside with the other
children. I’m sure you will have
fun.

The nurse takes a cup of yogurt from her pocket, which she snuck out of the cafeteria, and puts it onto the tray, above the plate.

ZOOM TO TEA CUP

The heat from the tea is giving off a light steam. Coming closer to it, the sound of boiling water starts to be heard. Coming closer again until the steam has filled the screen.

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST – MID-MORNING

The steam from the tea has now become fog outside, and it is now dissipated. The sound of the boiling water has faded out simultaneously.

FROM SEMI-CLOSE LOOK TO OBJECTS

The forest is dead. Dead trees and leaves are everywhere. The flowers are decomposing, and everything is depressing. The few colors left of plants are struggling to not fade out to the dull entourage.

CUT TO:

INT. MENTAL INSTITUTION, ROOM CONTINUOUS

CLOSE UP ON NURSES LOWER FACE

NURSE
Your friend Rebecca will be here
to-day. She wants to come play
with you.

CAMERA LIFTS AND MOVES TO WINDOW

ZOOM TO WINDOW

The sound of children playing starts to fade in, but does not get louder.

The window now fills the screen as the camera zooms to it. It blurs out for a quick second but refocuses back to notice that we are now looking at some more dead vegetation.

EXT. FOREST – MORNING

ZOOM TO FLOWER

Some insect are crawling around. Ants, millipedes, ect. As we see the crickets, the sounds of many of them can be heard and overcomes the sound of children, that has up to now been heard. The insects are eating what is left of the healthy vegetation. It is scarce, and they start to go after each other. A salamander is now overtaken by insects. It finally gives in, and lets itself die to the hands of smaller power. The sound of the crickets is now getting louder, and crisp.

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST

OUT OF FOCUS SALAMANDER

The dead salamander is in close-up. An insect struggling not to die is seen. In the background is a long fallen tree trunk.

LIFT TO FALLEN TREE TRUNK

A fallen tree trunk is rotting. The camera gets closer. It is very dark, and lurid. It slowly gets closer and closer until it fills the screen. The screen is very dark brown. The color of the tree trunk.

INT. MENTAL INSTITUTION, ROOM LATE MORNING

ZOOM OUT FROM GIRLS HAIR

The dark tree bark has now become the girls hair. As the camera zooms back from the girls head, we can make out that the nurse is still in the room. She is talking, but no sound is heard, as the sound of crickets is still getting louder. Louder and louder slowly, as to not notice until it is actually unbearable. The nurse keeps talking.

We can finally see the girls face. She is young and cute. her pale face makes her dark brown eyes stand out, and her lips pink. She looks happy. Nothing else matters to her, as she is, all that is left of her mind.

Fade sound of crickets along with screen.

FADE TO WHITE

As the brightness slightly fades, we can make out the sun, at its high point of the day. It is warm, yet comforting. Nothing can be heard. It is quiet and peaceful, just like the girl.

FADE TO BLACK

The screen is slowly fading to black. The credit music starts to play as soon as the screen is all black.