1. Revision

2. BLACK SCREEN.
TITLE CARD - REVISION
A crack of light appears and a quiet scratching noise can
be heard. The sound gets louder and the light increases
until a blinding light fills the screen.
FADE IN TO:
ECU CLOWN’S face. CLOWN is laughing.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. STUDENT’S BEDROOM. DAY.
The walls of the bedroom are covered with posters for
plays, postcards and pictures of theatre actors, images of
communist figures and clowns, stills from the theatre, etc.
On the bed are numerous books, papers, notes etc.
BEV of STUDENT lying on the bed amongst the mess.
VO (verse from Macbeth)
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.
STUDENT suddenly sits up and scrabbles around looking for
something. She pulls out a Dictaphone and speaks into it.
STUDENT
Macbeth is a play about the collapse of man and
his recovery from that collapse. In Shakespeare’s
plot of events the welfare of a country is at the
mercy of the well-being of the ruler.
A scream is heard off-screen. STUDENT drops the Dictaphone
and rushes to the door.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL. DAY
POV of CLOWN At the bottom of the stairs looking up at
STUDENT at the top. STUDENT begins to run down the stairs.
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3. POV STUDENT running down stairs. There s no longer a CLOWN
at the bottom. STUDENT looks down. CU of WOODLOUSE on
bottom step.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM. DAY
STUDENT is on the bed. CU of box. Inside is the WOODLOUSE.
She is trying to do some revision but is clearly having
difficulty and stares blankly at the papers in front of
her. CU of notes pages. Ink beings to dip down onto the
paper until it makes out a vague clown’s face.
CU STUDENT’S face. There is ink all around her mouth. She
looks faint and falls off the bed. There is a knock at the
door. STUDENT raises her head from the floor, looks at the
box. The WOODLOUSE is gone.
CUT TO:
INT. LANDING. DAY
STUDENT walks across the landing. Distant laughing is
heard.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM DAY.
STUDENT enters. CLOWN is sat on the end of the bed with its
back to the camera. The Dictaphone is on the bed and
laughing is coming from it. The laughing gets increasingly
loud as CLOWN slowly turns around. STUDENT looks horrified.
We see the CLOWN’S face for the first time. It is identical
to the STUDENT’S. There is a knock at the door and STUDENT
rushes to open it. Outside is the WOODLOUSE on the floor.
STUDENT turns back to the room and CLOWN has disappeared.
Off-screen laughing can be heard. STUDENT runs out of the
room.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL. DAY
LOW ANGLE of STUDENT running down the stairs.
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4. CUT TO:
INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY
CU of a chessboard. BEV of STUDENT and CLOWN sat either
side of the board. We now see they have swapped clothes.
CLOWN still has the clown make up on but wears STUDENT’S
clothes. STUDENT is dressed in the clown outfit. CLOWN
moves a chess piece and after a lengthy pause for thought,
STUDENT makes her move. CU of her fingers as she picks up
the WOODLOUSE and moves that to a new space of the board.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY
Voice over and music over the action. STUDENT and CLWON are
sat opposite each other. STUDENT is cleaning the make up
off CLOWN’S face.
STUDENT (VO)
The soliloquy is Macbeth’s ultimate preparation
of himself before the murder. What do we expect
him to contemplate? Does her think about the
plan? Is he filled with fear of being exposed?
What does he need to do as soon as he performs
the murder?
As more make up comes off the picture and music fades out.
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