Colourless SCENE 1: INT.

Bar
Loud bar, people talking loudly and aggressively. A glass breaks, chairs drag along the floor and a
toilet flushes in the background. It’s your generic local bar at night with men between the ages of
30-60 watching American football on the TV and throwing darts.

JJ sits alone at the bar, ordering a drink. A drunk stranger spots him in the crowd and make shis
way over.

DRUNK STRANGER:

Hey kid… you!

JJ:

Um… hi?

DRUNK STRANGER:

I know who you are. Your mom’s Maisie Cosco, right? Oh my god, I cannot believe I just ran into you
in the bar down the street. Do you know how famous your mom is?

JJ:

(confused and sarcastically) Um. Yeah, you would think so.

DRUNK STRANGER:

(drags a stool over drunkenly and sits next to JJ)

Tell me everything!

PERSON 2:

(rushes over, embarrassed of his

friend)

Sorry about my friend here JJ. But I’m kinda interested too… you got a minute?

JJ:

(thinks for a second)

Yeah, why not.

PERSON 2:

 Your mother was a brilliant woman who did so much for our world. All for you.

JJ:

(laughs nervously) Yeah it’s a big weight on my shoulders aha. (pauses thoughtfully) It’s important
that I carry on her legacy by telling this story. So, here we go (exhales nervously).

SCENE 2: EXT. San Francisco apartment

We open to a tall, concrete apartment building in a grey, dull world. The camera moves from a
wide shot of the building, panning into the window where we see the inside. A baby boy plays on
the floor as his mum busily walks around him, tidying and gathering things. She is about to go out.
She stops to go answer the door to an older lady and invites her inside to watch the boy. This
happens as the narration continues and crackly radio music plays in the background, from a radio
that we see on the shelf (diegetic sound).

JJ:

 I was about 9 months old when things really kickstarted. Me and my mom lived together in a small
apartment opposite some sleazy motel, windows looking out right onto the freeway.

SOUND blinking lights, followed by loud cars, honking horns, cars speeding, police sirens. We see
all this too, lots of blinding white car lights.

Other than speeding cars and loud engines belonging to 16-year-old boy racers, tryna show off their
modified parts. Our ears were also blessed with hookers being honked at or wolf whistled from dirty
old men stumbling out of the motel bar.

We see prostitutes waltz down the street outside of a bleak motel. An old man with a rough
appearance stumbles out and whistles at her and the girl pretends to blush. Her heels echo
through the street as she walks. Men leer at her and honk as they pass by in cars.

And more than twice a week those hookers would be shouting, screaming at those dirty men.

JJ:

 What a place to raise a kid, right? The disgusting streets of downtown San Francisco. Not even a
nice sidewalk for me to ride my bike on when I got a bit older. But that was life for us. I loved it. It
was just me and my mom against the world. We were inseparable.

We see a broken, rusty bike with flat tyres and a cracked sidewalk filled with depressed looking
people walking to and from work, changing night shift and day shit workers. Cut to JJ and his mum
hugging affectionately as she goes out the door and leaves him with the older woman.

JJ:

Maisie was British born and moved here for a better life after she was sick of her parents drilling
their views into her head. (pause) Our government is corrupt by the way- remember Hitler? Well…
yeah. Same sorta deal. Colour has been banned for about 70 or so years now. The younger
generations had only so much as heard of it.

SOUND Birds chirping. We see a beautiful meadow with JJ and Maisie stood in the middle laughing
together as he babbles. But they are wearing the same colourless clothes. Cut to the scenery and
animals. Cut back to the pair to show they have the same facial expressions as the depressed
people shown earlier.

Apparently the sky used to be blue, grass was green, and flowers were all kinds of colours but after
the year 2020, factories poisoned skies and waters, rendering them grey and dull. The air was thick
and there was no sun, and so no flowers. Grass and other plants had wilted and died. Again, just
greys. Boring greys. This gave Dennis Myers the idea for the colour ban.

PERSON 2:

 Ugh, that guy. Who elected him president? (disgusted and mocking)

DRUNK STRANGER:

He was a dictator. ‘Hitler 2.0’ we called him (snorts)

We switch between JJ and Maisie on camera but audio from both ‘worlds’ play seamlessly.

Maisie’s shoes echo through the alleyway she is walking down. She checks to make sure she isn’t
followed and proceeds to walk down a small flight of stairs to a heavy metal door which she
knocks on in a pattern.

JJ:

 My mom was a rebel though. She loved the idea of colour. That it could provide happiness. Back
then there were these underground illegal parties that were full of colour. Colourful lights, colourful
walls, floors, decorations- everything. Good music and good people. It’s where people went to feel a
bit better when this bleak world was too much for them. My mom’s best friend Keagan ran these
colour parties.

STRANGER 2:

 I heard about him. I read somewhere that him and Maisie were dating?

JJ:

I’m sure that’s what he told the press. He was basically my dad. He’s always been around for me and

her, he loves her too. (pause) She liked him but was never serious about ‘them’ and tried to keep it
casual- but he was fully in love with her. Her free spirit, her rebellious ‘I don’t care’ attitude. She
would meet him at his underground place most weekends to get spray-paint from him. I’ll get more
into that in a minute…

SCENE 3: EXT. Alleyway leading underground

 MAISIE:

 Hey Keagan.

DOORMAN:

 (thick Brooklyn accent) Keagan ain’t here right now.

 MAISIE:

I was literally just on the phone to him. Let me in Eric.

 
SOUND Peep-hole slides shut and door opens. Maisie walks past big security guard.

MAISIE:

(sarcastically) Thanks Eric, love you!

ERIC:

 (Grunts) mh.

SCENE 4: INT. COLOUR PARTY

SOUND Busy party with lots of people excitedly talking, loud drum and bass music and good

energy. There’s a big disco ball reflecting all kinds of colours and strobe lights.

MAISIE:

 (muffled shouting) Keagan, hey!

KEAGAN:

 (muffled shouting, far away) Hey girl! Sorry, excuse me, s’cuse me- sorry! (Gets closer) Hey Maisie.
How you be-

 MAISIE:

(fast) yeah, yeah hiya. Have you got the stuff? I’m going out tonight.

KEAGAN:

Where’s JJ?

 MAISIE:

(impatiently) Keagan. He’s fine. Just sort me the cans so I can get back to him quicker?! (laughs)

KEAGAN:

 (sounds defeated) Yep, alright. Here they are.

He hands her a large black duffle bag filled with things rattling inside (paint cans).

MAISIE:

Awesome, thank you so much!

SOUND short kiss

KEAGAN:

You know I miss you, right?

 MAISIE:

You know we’re keeping this casual don’t you Keagan?

 KEAGAN:

 Yeah-

 MAISIE:

 -Then act like it, yeah?

The canisters rattle in the bag as she moves back through the party and out the door. She hops in a
car and starts it up and drives off.

JJ:

 Maisie was a rebel. Not only did she go to these colour parties, where if you got caught, they’d
shoot you there and then, she took paint and in the middle of the night, she’d spray paint the sides
of buildings with colour. There was a huge bounty out for the ‘ghost painter’. A few thousand.
The people referred to her as a modern-day Banksy, as, of course, nobody knew who she was. It
gave people a chance to see colour for the first time, so people wouldn’t forget and completely give
in to the suppression from Dennis Myers and his little Nazi officials.

SCENE 5: EXT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING

She pulls up outside a government building and sets out the paint cans along the wall. She beings
to paint. We see a montage of close-ups, not actually revealing what she is painting.

They referred to her as the enemy, someone who should be feared and taken down. She wanted to
get her message to the people though. Colour will not be forgotten. We will fight for it. We will fight
this dictatorship. (pause) She began to paint. She would tell me stories about how her work was
heavily influenced by artists like Banksy- political and beautiful. I wish I could have seen it.

SOUND Police sirens in distance 

MAISIE:

Oh no.

She quickly throws everything back into the bag and runs. Behind her we see that she was painting
a big eagle in all different colours. We see her turn the corner just after police cars whizz round to
where she was. She makes eye contact with one of the officers before she disappears.

JJ:

That was the night that decided everything for her. She managed to evade the police and hid in
some back alley. They’d seen her though. They now know the person they were looking for. I mean-
who knows if they saw her face or if they just knew they were looking for a girl now, which would
narrow down their search. Maisie was well known for her loud opinions and behaviour. She knew
she didn’t have much time left.

SOUND phone ringing, heavy breathing. She is calling Keagan on her phone. She is sat in a side

pocket of a dark alleyway, tucked in against the wall.

MAISIE:

(panicked) Keagan (takes a breath) I almost

got caught (laughs) the police…

KEAGAN:

 What!? Why are you laughing, are you OK??

 MAISIE:

Yeah I’m fine (clears throat) just a bit shaken up. Wow- the adrenaline.

KEAGAN:

 Jeez Mais, you got to be more careful.

 MAISIE:

Ugh, don’t lecture me, I know what’s at stake. I’m doing it all for him, remember?

JJ:

 Keagan wanted more than anything to be the most important thing in Maisie’s life but he knew that
her son came first and he knew that he wouldn’t have that any other way. He offered to look after
me and helped out as often as he could.

 MAISIE:

(Exhales loudly) I got to get home. I’ll give it a minute in case the cops are still lurking.

KEAGAN:

Ok… be safe.

SOUND phone call ends

SCENE 6: EXT. SAN FRANCISCO APARTMENT

SOUND crickets chirping and men’s voices talking in the distance. Maisie runs to crouch behind a
bush outside her apartment. Keagan joins her momentarily. 5 or so men in body suits and carrying
guns stand outside the building around a van.

MAISIE:

Oh my god… (she goes to run out from behind the bush but Keagan pulls her back.)

KEAGAN:

 Maisie!

 MAISIE:

(Startled) Oh my god… what’s happening?

KEAGAN:

They’re from the CIA, I’ve only been here a few minutes but they’re doing something in your
apartment-

 MAISIE:

 (Worried) JJ! (she tries to run again but is pulled back)

KEAGAN:

Don’t! They’ll arrest you and kill you. You won’t be much use to him then.

 MAISIE:

(panicked) I can’t just stand and watch, my son’s in there.

KEAGAN:

 This is the only way you can help him.

 MAISIE:

They knew it was me. They know. They’re taking him. They do stuff like this all the time. What are
they going to do to him?

KEAGAN:

 You just got. To. Calm. Down.

Keagan pulls up a distraught and frozen Maisie and helps her into the passenger side of his van. He
starts the engine and turns the lights off. They watch as another one of those men emerge from
the building cradling something. They slip into the van and drive away, Keagan slowly following.

JJ:

 My mom was seen as a beacon of hope for so many. People saw her as a leader for the movement.
She knew this. If she died for me, no one else would take her place? As much as she loved me- it was
saving me or the world.

DRUNK STRANGER:

 What did she pick?

Stranger 2 smacks drunk stranger over the back of the head.

STRANGER 2:

He’s alive ain’t he?

JJ:

Yeah… it’s not as simple as that…

FINI