(The following represents the first 15 minutes of the documentary film “2×2”. The following script has been shot and awaiting editing. The rest of the film will be determined by the one-on-one dialogs generated in response to the release of the video content below.)
FADE IN:
TITLES: “An idea put into action is more important than the idea itself.”
MIKE (v.o): There are only two of us here.
TITLE: “The Karmic Margin Call Project presents”
MIKE (v.o.): You – currently playing the role of observer. Perhaps the critic.
FADE UP:
EXT. IMPROVERISHED URBAN STREET – DAY
(“MIKE 1” is sitting alone, leaning up against a graffitied building. He is disheveled, having the appearance of being homeless for quite some time. He looks at the camera: )
MIKE 1: And I – reenacting the role of participant: I am the storyteller, the actor.
BLACKOUT
TITLE: “In association with Not on My Watch Productions.”
MIKE (v.o.): At the end of this film all that really matters is whether or not you choose to understand the relationship between participant and observer.
TITLE: “and the Collaborative Innovation Institute”
CUT TO:
EXT: IMPOVERISHED URBAN STREET – DAY
MIKE 1: (v.o.) But that might mean giving up your safe position as the critic. (MIKE 1 emerges from his sleep on the dilapidated street, takes out a laptop, and opens up the video editing program for this film. He breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the camera again.) This is a film about you. About the role you are creating for yourself in every moment within the story of life.
BLACKOUT:
MIKE (v.o.): At the end of this film, the choice will be yours, and yours alone: Is this your time or not?
FADE UP:
EXT. IMPOVERISHED URBAN STREET – DAY
(MIKE 1 is busy editing this film and once again addresses the viewer.)
MIKE 1: This is a difficult concept to convey over a medium like this. Let me try describing it this way: So, imagine I have a doppelganger with all of the powers of the universe at his disposal. Yet, he has none of my experiences. Therefore, he has neither my discernment nor sense of morality. Kind of like an all-powerful genie but with none of the subtle nuances that make me “me”.
CUT TO:
EXT: UNDEFINED OUTER SPACE – DAY/NIGHT
(We see what is on MIKE 1’s computer screen as “MIKE 2” fades into existence MIKE 2 is clean-cut, wearing a neatly pressed suit. He has a confident naivety about him.)
MIKE 2: What? Who is that speaking in my head?
MIKE 1: Yes, so, he may be a little dense.
(For this moment, MIKE 1 and MIKE 2 are having this dialog through the computer screen.)
MIKE 1: Hey buddy. I have a job for you. I want you to create a film that ends poverty and war. Then, I want you to make bank which creates economic stability and psychological freedom for all.
MIKE 2: (confused and overwhelmed) Huh?
MIKE 1: (to the audience) You see, he can do it. Just like you can create anything you want. In fact, creating a reality free of poverty and war depends on you creating what is in your heart. But before we can get into any of that, we first we have to go back to basics. Just a moment while I become a little more personally accessible to my dim counterpart. (MIKE 1 disappears from the urban street and appears on screen with MIKE 2.)
CUT TO:
EXT: UNDEFINED SPACE – NIGHT/DAY?
MIKE 1: Hey there!
MIKE 2: Hey.
MIKE 1 : So…
MIKE 2: So…?
MIKE 1: Conjure a star.
MIKE 2: Conjure a what?
MIKE 1: A star. (Half to the audience and half to MIKE 2) We are currently in the illusion of being in a film. We are even being played by the same actor. But the deeper reality is that we are just empty space moving through empty space. We are the imagination of ourselves. So, since we are in an imaginary “universe”, conjure a star out of nothing.
MIKE 2: I wouldn’t even begin to know how to do that.
MIKE 1: You don’t have to know how. Just do this without thinking (MIKE 1 waives his hand in a circle. MIKE 2 does the same, he struggles at first…) Stop thinking. (…then literally conjures a star.)
MIKE 2: Whoa!
MIKE 1: Yes, that is what I call unconscious competence. That is what you are providing. I am providing the conscious competence. Just don’t think about it too hard. Now, within that star let’s imagine a glimpse of the future…
MIKE 2: Okay, I don’t know what you are talking about, but words like “unconscious”, “imagine”, and “future” are completely foreign concepts to me…even a “foreign concept” is a foreign concept, because I don’t even know what a ‘foreign concept’ is. Wait a minute…am I a foreign concept? (He stops spinning his hand and the star starts to fade. MIKE 1 encourages him to keep spinning and star reestablishes its brightness.)
MIKE 1: Back to basics. Do you remember as far back as your first word?
MIKE 2: Yes, it was “What?” You said, “Kind of like an all-powerful genie but with none of the subtle nuances that make me ‘me’” Then I said “What? Who is that speaking inside my head?”
MIKE 1: Yes. From a spatial sense of “Time”, that past is behind us. (MIKE 1 refers to the back where another MIKE 1 and MIKE 2 replay the scene from a few seconds ago. MIKE 1: Just do it without thinking. MIKE 2: Whoa!) The “future” would be in front of us, but you cannot see it yet. It is something I know is going to happen because I am writing this screenplay. But it is something you are going to discover before I am finished this sentence…
MIKE 2: (The star shows glimpses of a woman speaking and taking pictures. We will later find out this is MARTA.) Look! The star is changing! I have no idea what I am looking at but that just happened out of nowhere.
MIKE 1: (Imitating Yoda.) Yes, the future you see! (MIKE 2 looks at MIKE 1, puzzled) Yoda. Empire Strikes Back. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…(more to himself) Right. None of my personal experiences…
MIKE 2: (back to conjuring the star) Wow! I am really doing this, aren’t I?
MIKE 1: We are doing it together. It’s a partnership; a collaboration. I think you did a good job establishing what is to come. You can stop conjuring now…
(MIKE 2 stops waiving the hand and the vision of the future maintains itself within the star.)
MIKE 2: I want to do that again!
MIKE 1: Was that fun?
MIKE 2: (befuddled) I don’t know what the word “fun” means.
MIKE 1: (to the audience) As you can see, I have a lot to learn before we make this film which will liberate the human spirit.
MIKE 2: So, you are saying I can “conjure” the future anytime I want?
MIKE 1: Sure. If I wrote it the screenplay, then yes.
MIKE 2: Did you write in the screenplay that I can conjure a star that shows another future right at this moment? (He starts spinning his left hand vigorously…) HA!
MIKE 1: (After watching MIKE 2 conjure to no avail…) No. (MIKE 2 looks disappointed.) But now I did…
(MIKE 2 excitedly conjures again and this time we see a star emerge and then shows images of another woman acting in a stage play similar to the Wizard of Oz. We will later find out this is NEFERTITI.)
MIKE 1: Economic stability. Personal liberation. These are very simple concepts. Just not easy. We need only imitate nature. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
(MIKE 2 conjures a connection between the two stars. For a brief moment the “stars” change into regenerative cells and back into stars again.)
MIKE 1: Let’s step away from the world of imagination and get back to reality for moment…
Rogue Counselor 
One thought on “2×2: Shooting Script”