Bare-Root Tree

Written by Sydnee Jiggetts

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- NIGHT

Strong winds blow through the dark and cloudy neighborhoods of New York, picking up fallen tree branches and throwing them around. Heavy rain circles and falls to the ground flooding the streets and taking debris along with it.

Trees lean over and sway in the wind with branches crashing to the ground and falling on trash cans and benches down below. The swings sway back and forth getting wrapped and intertwined around their chains as lightning strikes through the sky.

In the front of the neighborhood, a very tall tree with its wide trunk gets pushed to the right along with the heavy winds sweeping through. Suddenly, the ground cracks and splits open as the trunk of the tree tugs on the ground surrounding it pulling it up. The roots from under the tree reveal themselves and are pulled from the ground as the tree crashes.

INT. BEDROOM- NIGHT

ELLE, a 20 year old African American girl, looks out her window to watch the storm in her dark room lit by a single flashlight. Tears form in her eyes as she watches her tree fall and rain hit her window. She stares out the window in a daze, a tear falls down her face and onto her sketchbook taped together at the spine with duct tape. She shakes her head and looks down at her paper and uses a flashlight to see the tear on her drawing. Elle wipes it off with her palm as the graphite on her page smears. Holding her head in her palms looking down at the desk, she begins to cry, unable to finish her drawing.

EXT. PARK- DAY

Two days later, Elle wanders through evaluating the hurricanes destruction. Elle and the residents in the neighborhood gather in the center of the park having conversation then disperse into different directions, repeatedly bending over and squatting, picking up and gathering tree limbs from around the park, filling trash bags with debris. Carpenters arrive and load tree limbs and trunks onto their truck and drive off.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- MORNING

A week later, Elle’s friends drive up to the front entrance of the park, opening the back seat and trunk, they begin unloading boxes of supplies. They run around the park taking sheets of paper from the stack holding them up against the tree trunks as they press a staple into them. They take a skinny metal tool and place it under the paint can tops and proceed to press downward to pop open the lids and place them in designated areas. Elle’s friends run frantically around the park tying balloons strings onto tree branches.

Elle smiles and lets out a sigh of relief as MYA, 20 years old girl, blond hair, and Elle’s best friend, walks over to her. Mya grabs her hand, and nods at Elle with reassurance and a smile on her face.

They both jump in surprise at the sound of a truck honking its horn as it pulls up behind them. Turning around, they make their way over to the truck as construction workers start unloading the new benches they made using the trees that have fallen during the storm. In teams of two, they walk around with two hands underneath both sides of the bench as they gently set them down in spots around the park surrounded by paint cans.

Flashback

INT. CHURCH- DAY

Elle, 3 years old, sits next to Mya at a table exchanging papers and crayons to color together. They shyly glance at each other nervously looking back down at their papers once making eye contact. Mya picks up her sheet of paper and slides it across the table to Elle. Elle looks up and smiles as she brings the drawing closer to her.

ELLE (Shyly)

Thank you.

Mya nods and continues to draw on another page.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- DAY

With the sun shining in the sky, Elle and her best friend Mya, now 5, visit the tree in the park. Looking at each other from over the tree as it’s the same height as them with tutus on their waist and fairy wings on their back laughing as they chase each other.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- DAY

Elle and her friends, 8, circle around the now known apple tree, gathering fallen apples placing them into the basket holding each other up on their shoulders to reach the branches that are now towering over their heads.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- EVENING

Elle’s father takes a rope and ties a knot around the apple tree branch. He connects a tire to the end of the rope creating a tire swing.

Elle and Mya, 10, swing back and forth on the swing losing and regaining their momentum repeatedly. They sit under the tree laughing and eating sandwiches.

INT.

Elle, 13 years old, sits at her desk placed in front of her bedroom window finishing up her drawing for the day. She puts down her pencil and alternates from glancing up out the window then back down at her paper. She taps her pencil repeatedly on the table and shakes her leg waiting for a car to pull up.

A silver sedan pulls up next door. Mya opens the door from the back seat and gets out of the car immediately looking up to find Elle’s bedroom window. She waves, gesturing for her to come down with a smile across her face.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- AFTERNOON

Elle runs to Mya who is already swinging on the tire swing attached to the tree. Elle climbs up the trunk and sits on a branch above Mya. She opens her sketchbook as the front cover of her book rips off and falls below. They glance at it then back up to each other and let out a laugh.

Elle, 17 years old, walks down the sidewalk with an umbrella in her hand to keep the rain off her. She stops at her mailbox and reaches inside grabbing the pile of envelopes.

Standing in front of her house, she stops sifting and skimming through the mail when she comes across a bright orange flyer and begins reading the words typed on it. In bold black letters are the words announcing that construction is to happen across the street in two months.

Elle’s face goes blank and she drops her umbrella letting the rain falling from the grey sky hit her face. She crumbles up the paper and runs up her front porch. She stands still, processing the moment before opening the front door.

INT. BEDROOM- AFTERNOON

Elle sits curled up in her desk chair looking out the window contemplating what she can do with a blank stare on her face. She hears the sound of screeching tires as she jumps in surprise and looks out her bedroom window.

Elle watches Mya’s silver car pull up next door into her driveway. She waits for Mya to get out of the car then bangs on her bedroom window to get her attention.

INT. BEDROOM- AFTERNOON

Elle sits on her bedroom floor with poster boards and a stack of art supplies surrounding her as she hand writes messages on the posters to create signs. Mya enters her room and sits next to Elle on the floor. Elle sighs and smacks her head into the palms of her hands in frustration as Mya wraps her arms around her.

MYA

Don’t worry Elle. We’ll figure out a way to stop them from tearing down our tree. I know how important it is to you.

ELLE (Frustrated)

Well, we are going to need a lot more help then.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- DAY

The next week, Elle stands by her tree with a few others from her neighborhood. A clip board with a petition sheet on it gets passed from one person to the next as they sign their names.

Elle, holding the sign she made in her hands, looks up towards the top of the hill.

She squints to see what’s coming towards her. Mya, followed by a large sum of teenagers from her school come walking towards her holding signs and chanting.

Elle feels the nerves and tenseness of her muscles leave her body. Mya finally reaches Elle and they embrace in a hug. She peeks over Mya’s shoulder and mouths “thank you” to a few other friends as they smile and nod.

MYA

(Still hugging Elle) See, I told you we’ll figure something out.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- EVENING

After a day of protesting, Elle looks down at her phone as a social media alert pops up.

ELLE (Shouting)

Guys, we did it! The county cancelled the construction!

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- NIGHT

Elle and her friends cheer and celebrate with their arms wrapped around each other, jumping up and down. The entire neighborhood celebrates their win by grilling with music playing in the background and people interacting and talking all around. Elle and Mya end the night by sitting under the tree with the moon light shining through the giant branches above them.

End Flashback

EXT.

As the event begins, children, teens, and adults enter the park and look around in amazement as the neighborhood kids group up and run to the benches that have been placed around the park. They take their brushes from the bucket and dip them in the paint cans brushing over the benches with multicolored paint.

EXT.

Evening

Elle walks through the crowd of people over to her fallen tree and pulls out a pocketknife.

On the tree stump, Elle squats down and begins carving away at the bark, engraving her initials and the life span of her childhood apple tree into the wood. She smiles and brushes over the new carving to clean it up with a towel and climbs on the stump watching the kids play in the new park.

Flashback

EXT. FARMERS MARKET- DAY

At 1 years old, Elle’s parents drive her to a farmer’s market and allow her to roam around freely. Elle wobbles straight to the plant section as her eyes get big and lets out a laugh. She immediately walks over to this bare-root tree that looks almost dead. Elle’s parents stop and turn to look at each other with a confused look on their faces and then look back at Elle. Elle looks up at her parents and smiles.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK- AFTERNOON

Elle’s parents walk to the park across the street from their house. They reach out their arms and shake the hands of the gardener. The gardener uses his shovel to dig a hole into the ground while taking his bag of fertilizer and pouring it into the hole. Together, they pick up the bare tree and place it into the hole as Elle sits nearby on her blanket coloring in a sketchbook. Elle walks over to the tree as her mom guides her hand over the dirt to pour the water on the tree’s roots.

End Flashback FADE OUT

Jessilee Pollet

Major: Film and Video Studies

Concentration: Directing

Minor: Journalism

Graduating in: 2023

Screenplay(s): A Night to Remember

Logline: Robyn is suspicious of her roommate after she starts making strange phone calls.

Why do you feel this publication is important? “This publication is important to me because this script was very fun to write, and I want to share with others my love for short horror films. Collaboration is a major part of filmmaking and scripts should be shared to make movies a reality. I would love to see students who’d be interested in directing one of the scripts within this publication.”

What are the inspirations/motivations behind your screenplay? “I love making short horror films and I decided this script was a good way to practice writing one. I was inspired by the Scream film series because I like how the killer is always a fun mystery for the horror/slasher series. I wanted to write this screenplay about a character who became paranoid while having a story that would put the audience in disbelief.”