Three Scene Samples from The Stock ( 2005 )

SC 25 THE HOUSE (EXTENSION) - INT - DAY 4

EM looks up from the pillow as LIAM comes round the door with the wailing BABY.
Her POV of his apologetic face.

There’s a moment of tender intimacy as EM’s concerned expression melts into indulgent reassurance and she holds out her arms. She’s not used to feeling empowered.

LIAM relaxes and gives her the BABY, then turns away from the bed, removing the sling.

The wailing stops. LIAM turns back with the mobile phone in his hand, planning to take a photo.

His POV of EM guiding her nipple into the BABY’s mouth. She looks up at him, on the edge of laughter, wanting him to share the moment.

Unused to breasts in broad daylight, LIAM doesn’t know where to look.

We see EM’s confused disappointment as the moment’s lost.

SC 42 THE BOG – EXT – DAY 6

LIAM tramps along the bog road with the sleeping BABY in the sling.

His POV of the long, wispy, black hair on the BABY’s head.

Delicately, he twirls the hair round his forefinger, so that it stands up like a crest. He’s admiring the effect when he hears a skylark.

Rotating on his heels, he scans the sky, looking for the bird.

His POV of it, a tossing speck, high above.

He looks down at the BABY’s head, spits on his fingers, divides the crest of hair, twirling it so that it stands up in two spikes, then blows on them. He’s having a lovely time.

SC 112 THE HOUSE (ROOM) – EXT – NIGHT 13

The red tip of a cigarette glows. LIAM’s lying bare-chested under the sleeping bag, the cigarette in his hand.

His POV of the BABY, lying naked on the hearthrug, lit by light from the banked-up fire.

Blank-faced, LIAM swings his feet to the floor, drags deeply on the cigarette, then studies the glowing tip.

Leaning forward, he holds the cigarette at arm’s length above the BABY’s face. Tears streaming down his face, he wills himself to lower it. He can’t do it.

CUT TO

LIAM curled tenderly round the BABY on the sofa, both wrapped in the sleeping bag.

LIAM
(Whispers)
Go away, please, please, please just go away.

Scene Sample from The Iroquois Gesture ( 2000 )

SC 39 UPPER EAST SIDE RESTAURANT – INT – DAY 13

JOE takes the beads from his wrist and dangles them in front of MIKE

JOE
	Wampum. Tribal art of the dumb Indian. But you know what it really is? Information. Colours in a sequence, encoding knowledge. And the guy who owns it controls it.

He tosses a computer printout on the table – lines of yellow, red and green, the colours alternating in groups. The effect like abstract, hi-tech wampum. MIKE reads the title.

MIKE
	The Human Genome Project?

JOE
	Each colour a coded piece of information. Strings of knowledge.

MIKE
	I’m a doctor, Joe, I know about gene research. What’s your point?

JOE
	You ringfence the rights to your genes. Then you get yourself a horse-trader. (SMUG GRIN) That’d be me. Cause I’m a dumb Indian.

MIKE
	What??

JOE
	Seventh son of a seventh son for seven generations, right? All healers. Helluva gene pool.

MIKE
	This is crap. I’m a Harvard graduate. You are a Harvard graduate, for Chrissake. I deal in facts. Hard, scientific facts.

JOE tosses another printout on the table

JOE
	Here’s a fact. Not one single – single – death from cancer. In your little ancestral parish. Since records began.

Eye contact. JOE’s impassive.

JOE
	Written into your body, Mike. Cure for cancer.

MIKE
	Are you out of your mind?

JOE
	Look, this isn’t science, it’s business. So fuck the evidence. It’s about acquisition, Mike. Hard, consumer-driven acquisition. We are about to get rich.