"Dad: You’ve never been on a double decker have ya? Son: No! We are so high up! The people down below are tiny! Do people get to take the bus everyday? Dad: Oh yeh, I used to get a bus like this every morning. Son: That’s so cool! Dad: Do you want to play a secret game? It’s called ‘Eye Catch’. Look out the window at everyone walking along the pavement and sitting at that bus stop. Now focus on one of them Have a long, hard look at them Wait for it... see that! Son: What? Dad: You always seem to catch them looking back. L, L, L, Look... Just like that. That stranger, right?! They could’ve just slipped by, in that big crowd of people But they feel more familiar now don’t they?! Less distant and unknown. This is a connection. We all seem so detached from one another But with one exchange of energy However short and fleeting, this all changes You know that girl sat at the front of the bus?! Son: Yeah? Dad: Well she can’t see what you can see or hear what you can hear. Neither can that man in the red scarf Son: But they’re looking out the window too, Dad? They can see the person I was looking at? Dad: They can see the person But they’ll never be able to experience that moment you just shared That’s yours and no one else's Son: But, but... Is it magic? How does it work Dad? Dad: I don’t know, maybe you’ll figure it out one day."
The script for our voiceover - a dialogue between father and son, discussing a game called Eyecatch, where you catch strangers looking back from the top of a double decker bus. This script is inspired by an overheard conversation on the number 12 bus.
The conversation is playing out as a memory in the actor's head. The end of the film explains this by having him answer the phone to his father, years later. To convey the sense of it being a memory, we will use audio effects to create an analogue-sounding recording.
This script will also allow us to visualise imagery alongside the voiceover, using archived footage or our own shots once we have decided how we will represent each aspect. For example, Dad says 'but with one exchange of energy', here we could represent this with handing over flowers, or a handshake, or a chemical reaction. This will give our film a more suggestive, creative nature which we hope to convey a more interesting narrative.
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