The Dreamer TREATMENT

We see a close up of a young man’s face. He is looking down and concentrating on bouncing a basketball. This is Tommy. He is wearing an ORANGE HEADBAND.

The sound of the bouncing stops and Tommy’s vision focuses sheepishly on something out of the frame.

We see that Tommy’s girlfriend Annie is standing and staring at him with her arms crossed. Tommy is fully decked out in a casual basketball outfit. Tommy’s ball bounces and rolls near his girlfriend’s feet. She holds out a folded newspaper to Tommy. He grabs is excitedly and turns to sit and read on the steps of the house that they are standing in front of. He whips open the paper and buries his head in the SPORTS SECTION. His girlfriend turns and snatches the paper out of Tommy’s hands, quickly turns to the JOBS SECTION and then returns the paper to Tommy with a glare in her eyes. She leaves quickly.

Tommy puts the paper down, stands from the steps and once again picks up the basketball and dribbles it a couple of times. We cut to the close up of his face again and now hear the SOUND EFFECTS of a large crowd cheering enthusiastically. As he dribbles his vision moves off to the distance and he smiles dreamily.

The rhythm of the dribbling basketball stops with a dull thump as the ball bounces clumsily off Tommy’s foot and rolls out of frame. The cheering crowd SFX also stops abruptly with this bumble. As Tommy’s eyes follow the ball bouncing away he notices something off frame. He reacts and runs out of the opposite side of the frame. An older gentleman walks quickly up the stairs of Tommy’s house and tapes a YELLOW ENVELOPE to the door.

Tommy returns to the frame and walks to the foot of steps, looking toward the yellow envelope on the door. His attention is broken by a football landing near him. He picks it up and holds it for a moment. He daydreams. The crowd SFX ramps in again. He throws the football back but his technique is pathetic and his pass is a “dead duck.” The ball barely makes it off frame and the crowd SFX cuts off abruptly.

Tommy is un-phased by his lack of athleticism and walks up the stairs and pulls the envelope off of the door. We see that it says, “LATE BILL. PAY NOW.”

Tommy moves to sit on the stairs and looks at the letter in his hand. He glances at the newspaper next to him. He grabs a bag of SHELLED PEANUTS that have been sitting on the steps. He starts cracking them and throwing the nuts into the air, trying to catch them in his mouth. He is pathetically bad at this. One peanut that he misses lands on the open newspaper next to a large ADVERTISEMENT that says “CITY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT. WIN BIG CASH PRIZES.” Tommy’s attention is deeply absorbed by the ad.

His vision again goes to the horizon as he daydreams. The crowd SFX again rises.

We see a pair of fancy basketball shoes walk into frame and Tommy’s hands adjust the laces and tongues. The crowd SFX continues. Tommy is on an outdoor basketball court. He is alone. He stretches and then checks to see if his basketball is inflated to his liking. He dribbles a few times and attempts to do a few fancy but unimpressive foot moves. He turns to shoot and misses the hoop and the backboard completely. The crowd SFX cuts off. He recomposes himself and then shoots again. This time he hits only the far side of the backboard and misses the rim. After many tosses at the basket and attempts at layups we see that Tommy is absolutely terrible at basketball. He stands at the free throw line one last time and concentrates on the basket. The ball bounces harshly off the front of the rim. Tommy is dejected by his lack of skill.

Tommy walks through crowds of busy downtown sidewalks and looks like he has no purpose.

He walks back to the front steps of his house and we see a PINK ENVELOPE taped to the door. He pulls it down and we see that it says. “FINAL RENT NOTICE!!!”

Tommy slumps on to the steps and looks at the bill. He has lost motivation and has given up. He doesn’t know what to do so he crumples the envelope into a ball and throws it off the stairs. We do not see what has happened but Tommy’s face changes as he notices some significance to his throw. His eyes become wide and his smile broadens as he looks around for something to throw again. He takes the YELLOW ENVELOPE from earlier out of his pocket and slowly crumples it with his vision focused on the trash can. He methodically raises his hands, holding the paper like a basketball and throws a beautiful shot into a trash can sitting below the steps. Tommy is excited and scrambles to find more paper to throw. He finds the JOBS section of the paper and crumbles up a page. He stands for a moment envisioning what it will mean if he makes another shot and then tosses the crumpled paper toward the trash. He drills a shot and the crowd SFX explodes. Tommy runs about the yard and sinks many shots. Some of them are almost unbelievably tough but he makes every single attempt. He has amazing talent at crumpled paper basketball. Tommy is overjoyed with his new found skill.

We see a CLOSE UP of a crumpled piece of paper sitting on the asphalt of an ALLEY. Tommy’s feet come into frame. We see him notice the paper. He picks it up and smiles. He is wearing a pair of coveralls with the top hanging down around his waist and his orange headband. He is also wearing a bright orange t-shirt that says “DEPARTMENT OF SANITATION” and he holds a TRASH PICKING STICK and pushes a GARBAGE CAN ON WHEELS. Tommy runs, makes a few basketball moves and throws the paper he has picked up into the can from a distance. The crowd noise erupts as he makes the shot and he smiles broadly. He is happy.