1-20-17
INT. APARTMENT- Early Morning We open on a ceiling shot of an apartment. A man in his early 30s is seen just beginning to wake up by the sound of an alarm. He moves from side to side, pulling at the messy bedsheets which provide the primary focus of the shot. You can see a few slivers of sunlight coming in to the room at the same moment. Cut to a side shot a couple of seconds later. The young man shifts to his side and reaches out to slap the alarm button shot. A quick glance at the clock at the moment the alarm stops reads the time and the date- "7:30 A.M., 1/20/17." Widen-out to a full shot of the apartment over the course of a few moments as the young man of average build and looks emerges from the bedsheets, takes off his ratty shirt that he uses as pajamas, and (after walking through the empty junk food containers on the floor) puts on a nicer shirt and pants that he pulls from the closet. After getting dressed, the man turns around and walks over to the end table that's on the opposite side of the bed. On top of it, next to the lamp, lies a single light brown urn over 12 inches tall. There's a framed photo of a beautiful woman who's the same age as the man with light brown hair and green eyes. He grabs the urn with both hands and looks on it mournfully as he speaks.
MAN
(sighs, with a solemn smile)
It's time...
INT. HALLWAY OF APARTMENT MORNING- Minute Later
Cut to a tracking shot of the young man as he steps out of his apartment first, holding the urn underneath his right arm into the hallway. He walks up in the direction of the emergency staircase located at the end of it, passing a maid who works in the apartment building and giving a simple civil nod to one another. INT. EMERGENCY STAIRCASE- Continuous
Soon, the mourning man opens up the door and makes his ascent upward toward the top of the building. With each step he makes on the concrete staircase, you can see his eyes start to grow progressively red. After a couple of floors fade on by, it becomes too much and he stops at a railing in order to give a quick wipe to his eyes.
MAN
(vocalizing the opening chords to "Can't Take My Eyes Off You")
Bahh...Bahh...Bahhh Bahh...
He stops vocalizing after the "Bahhh Bahh..." and starts his upward ascent toward the top of the building. His eyes clear of tears, though still with a hint of red as he takes each step with a sense of renewed purpose. The remaining floors melt away in his mind compared to the destination and what he's set to do.
EXT. ROOFTOP, APARTMENT BUILDING- 10 Minutes Later
Cut to an exterior shot of the top of the building at the very end of the man's journey. He steps through the metal door, which creaks open as he makes his way toward the ledge, humming the last remnants of the opening chords to the song as he walks. The area around him is silent, save for the sounds of traffic down below. You can see the patches of early morning sunlight illuminating the sea of gray and black that make up the top of the building.
The young man finally reaches the ledge a minute later, setting the urn down in front of him. With the focus squarely on his face and the upper half of his body, the eyes beginning to turn a darker shade of red as tears well up inside, he begins.
MAN
(looking down to the urn)
Hope you like it...
(singing with solemn melancholy)
"You're just too good to be true
I can't take my eyes off you
You'd be like..heaven to touch
I wanna hold you...so much..."
He stops suddenly and closes his eyes tightly, waiting for the large rock forming in his throat to pass by. A few seconds pass by before he returns to singing.
MAN
(singing solemnly)
"At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes...off you
Pardon the way that I stare
There's nothing else...to compare
The sight of you...leaves me...weak
There are no words left to speak..."
Before he continues on, the hard rock in his throat returns and he stops. He places both hands on his eyes, doing everything that he can to keep from collapsing into a ball of tears. Although he hasn't fully gotten over it compared to the first time, the young man still finds enough composure to carry on. Even as the tears become too much to contain.
MAN
(singing solemnly)
"Pardon the way that I stare
There's nothing else to compare
The sight of you leaves me weak
There are no words left to speak
(increasingly hoarse and crackle-y)
But if you feel...like I...feel
Please let me...know...that is real
You're just...too good...to be true
I can't...take...my eyes...off...you"
The layout widens to his whole body a second later. With the pressure welling up too much inside, the young man stops singing and breaks down on his knees in a pool of tears. The sounds of sobbing breaking the stillness of the early January morning at that moment.
INT. RECEPTION HALL- 8 Years Ago
We cut to a shot of a reception hall, filled with a considerable amount of life to it. You can see over a hundred people dressed in lovely suits and dresses watching the stage as the young man in his mid-20s, dressed in a tuxedo, on one knee singing to a younger version of the woman from the photograph, dressed in a beautiful wedding dress. She's visibly embarrassed by the scene, but is also clearly touched by her newlywed husband as he pulls her up on-stage by the end of the verse.
MAN
(singing with a great deal of spirit and love, to the Woman)
"I need you baby
And if it's quite all right
I need you baby..."
WOMAN (interjecting, shaking her head with some embarrassment)
Oh God!
MAN
(a second after the Woman's split, smiling ever wider)
"To warm the lonely nights
I love you baby
Trust in me when I say okay"
In this next verse, you can see the two newlyweds move toward the center of the stage and begin to slow dance with one another as he sings. The microphone firmly placed back on its stand by the verse's second line.
MAN
(Cont. singing with great love and happiness)
"Oh pretty baby
Don't let me down I pray
Oh pretty baby
Now that I've found you stay
And let me love you, oh baby
Let me love you"
The next verse, we move to a close-up of the man's face, looking lovingly into the eyes of his new bride as he sings. You can see the glint of a tear start to form in his eyes as he sings, though it's born more of pride and love than we saw earlier.
MAN
(Cont. singing with great love)
"You're just too good to be true
I can't take my eyes off you
You'd be like heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much
At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off of you"
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING ROOFTOP- Present Day In this last verse (of this tale anyhow), we see the young man slowly emerging from the ground and take a seat on the ledge next to the urn. His eyes still red with the many tears that he shed earlier, showing a mixture of sadness and any scrap of hope as to what may come next.
MAN
(singing solemnly, scraping for any sign of hope)
"I need you baby
For the rest of my life
I love you baby
In these hard days and nights
I need you baby
Tell me it will be okay."
(speaking, looking up to the sky)
Please tell me I'll be alright.
Cut to a single shot of the young man's back, sitting on the ledge alongside the urn in silence as he looks on at the concrete towers being illuminated one-by-one by the rising sun.
THE END