Kthaahthikha
27 November, 2005
Strip Script
Episode #!
Panel 1/4:
Tableau [light source upper stage right corner]: A beautiful brunette in her mid twenties, Miss Lydia Kain, a silhouette of a man at a desk behind her, Mr Niven Tate. A Venetian blind forms the backdrop in silhouette between them.
The brunette stands at extreme stage right. She is facing with her body direct to the camera, her head turn at a three-quarter angle towards her right, her eyes turned to her left to look (or attempt to look) at the silhouette of a man behind her. She is of a slim build, with smallish breasts, an oval face and carefully-plucked arching eyebrows. Her mouth is lip-sticked in a cupid’s bow. Her eyes are large, grey, clear and almond-shaped. Her lower legs are cut-off by the frame just above the knee. She is dressed in a grey tunic with a double row of brass buttons and dark skirt, and wearing a robin hood hat with a truncated peacock plume (no eye). Her hair is worn in a Lauren Bacall comb-over, much like that worn by Miss Bacall in The Big Sleep, dropping down over her right ear from a gentle arc across the forehead, combed back behind the left ear to drop down into the elegant fan so iconic of the period. In her hands she holds a period clutch-purse decorated with fleurs-de-lis entwined in a symbol arabesque, situated at her groin in a relaxed yet self-aware fashion.
The silhouette of a man in the background is situated stage right. The man is seated in a wooden chair, pouring whisky from a decanter with his right hand into a small glass held with his left. His stage-right edge is faintly illuminated by the light from the backing Venetian blinds, but all that can be discerned is the rough outline of the sharp, aquiline nose and a thin mouth. The light from the blinds catches the rim of one of the whisky glass. The man is slender, with a high forehead and long, thin face. His sleeves are rolled up to just above the elbows.
Dialogue:
Miss
Tate: I must admit it is rather intriguing.
Panel 2:
Tableau [light source from the front and to stage left, from above]: An angle down on Tate (almost, but not quite a bird’s eye, say 50-70 degrees), sitting in his chair looking towards the camera and across it to stage right. He is illuminated now by the light from the Venetians, in alternating strips of dark and light. A bar of light falls across his eyes. Another bar of light catches the glass of whisky that he is holding near his mouth.
In appearance, Tate resembles something of an admixture of David Niven and Hoagy Carmichael. He is in his late thirties, with a lined but handsome face with a scar running down the left cheek. His hair is oiled and combed straight behind the ears, with a slight widow’s peak and a stray lock falling across his left brow. He is dressed in a white shirt with detachable collar (this is undone so that the two arms of the collar are hanging to either side of his face), and a dark vest with small pearl buttons. An untied bowtie hangs from around his neck. It is apparent that he was in the act of either dressing or undressing when Miss Kain arrived.
Tate is leaning his right arm on a number of indecipherable papers on the desk, his hand and forearm hanging off, and turned towards the off-screen position of Miss Kain. There is a friendly but business-like expression on his face.
Dialogue:
Miss Kain: How much do you charge?
Tate: $20 a day plus expenses. And 7c a mile for gas.
Panel 3:
Tableau [light source rear upper to middle stage right]: A chest-height slightly-upward-tilted rear angle on Tate seated at his desk at far stage right, at the back of the foreground, looking towards Miss Kain at stage left (with a small gap between herself and the edge of the panel), at middle-ground, who has turned to face him, only visible from above the waist over the desk, looking towards Tate’s face but otherwise in the same posture. In this shot a small lamp with a conical shade and hanging bead switch cord is visible on the desk, overlapping between Miss Kain’s abdomen and the gap between her body and the edge of the panel. The lamp is switched-off. Bars of light from the Venetians fall across everything, and form a band of light over Miss Kain’s eyes.
In the background at stage right a floor-to-ceiling filing cabinet is visible, overlapped by Tate and cut-off on three sides by the panel edges and the table. In the background behind Miss Kain (slightly to her right) a door is visible, with a small gap between the upper architrave and the ceiling, which is visible as a thin band from where the filing cabinet is positioned to the edge of the panel.
Dialogue:
Miss Kain: Well they’re hardly cut-throat, but those are reasonable rates.
Tate: Talk like that suggests having mingled with my kind before.
Panel 4:
Tableau [light source from stage left]: A close shot of Miss Kain’s face, showing the fall of her hair and the arch of her eyebrow into a wry, somewhat cynical expression. Her face is positioned to stage left, light falling over her face, and the background is in darkness. Her mouth is curled into a slight sneer at the right corner. The light and shadow is in heavy contrast.
Dialogue:
Miss Kain: My kind, Mr Tate, is the reason that your kind exists.
