Joe Pavey

Joe Pavey (vctrshadow@hotmail.com)

Dan Sanderson (sanderson_daniel@hotmail.com)

"WITTGENSTEIN, OR, BRAVO DR. WITTGENSTEIN"

TREATMENT

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, mid-forties, with an intellectually broad goatee, appears in a black void under a spot light. He is dressed in a conservative suit in 1930s European fashion. He stands in front of a microphone, somewhat tense and nervous. The space is completely silent. As he looks out, he remembers something. He fumbles into his jacket pocket and pulls out a striped beanie with a propeller on top and puts it on his head. This is a film about the inherent contradiction of language and its inability to communicate absolute truth in subjectivity. It is composed of several parts, each stylistically distinct from another. In sequences of grainy black and white we observe Ludwig Wittgenstein, the early 20th century Austrian philosopher in a non-fiction hand-held aesthetic. In modern times he is a struggling comedian who's routine consists entirely of philosophical theory. His tragedy is misunderstanding why his material is not funny. Over and over we witness Wittgenstein's failure to communicate his ideas in both professional and social situations. Intercut with these sequences are visual interpretations of Wittgenstein's ironic comedy routine, intended to expand upon the ideals of his philosophy of contradiction and miscommunication. Contemporary techniques of glossy, hyper kinetic, pop-culture stylization shape these satirical commercial advertisements and parodies of television.

comedy/drama.

CAST LIST

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN - The early 20th century Austrian philosopher, mid-40s, is an aspiring present-day comedian.

RANDY - Wittgenstein's friend, encouraging him to stick with his passion.

SHARON - A woman in a bar whom Wittgenstein tries desperately to impress with his comedy routine.

EMCEE - Host in a comedy club.

WOMAN - Engaged in half of a dramatic domestic argument.

MAN - Engaged in other half of a dramatic domestic argument.

VARIOUS EXTRAS:

PHILOSOPHERS - famous caricatures of popular history

HOUSE WIFE - dreaming of a better bath

COMPUTER GEEK - saving the world one soda at a time

TEENIE-BOPPERS - mobbing their favorite band outside a nightclub

PRO ATHLETES - appearing in news clips criticizing "fake"

athletes

EXECUTIVES & - depicting womens' natural beauty in fashion

PHOTOGRAPHERS magazines

PORNOGRAPHER - delivering a Public Service Announcement from his business establishment

COMEDY CLUB - 10 - 20 average folks

AUDIENCE

SCREENPLAY

FADE IN:
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, mid-forties with an intellectually broad goatee, appears in a black void under a spot light. He is dressed in a conservative suit in 1930s European fashion. He stands in front of a microphone, somewhat tense and nervous. The space is completely silent. As he looks out, he remembers something. He fumbles into his jacket pocket and pulls out a striped beanie with a propeller on top and puts it on his head. Now, he is ready to begin. His spoken lines can be repeated, sometimes out of sequence, in various angles and distances as more of the room is revealed. At each clause, sometimes at each phrase or at each word, more information is revealed about his environment. We see the shadowed shapes of people collected in an audience. There are vague suggestions of a stage around him.
WITTGENSTEIN

The only things that we can say

REVEAL Wittgenstein in a comedy club. Clusters of couples stare at him in utter disbelief.

WITTGENSTEIN (CONT'D)

Are the things that are already said By existing actions-

CUT TO: A series of pseudo commercial clips, :30 - :60, mocking mainstream, pop culture, glamorous Hollywood/MTV style. Expanding the ideals of contradiction in language these characters are genuine and take themselves seriously, although unaware that their actions and words do not make them what they are not. "The only things that we can say (OF OURSELVES) are the things that are already said by existing actions". (Insert other brilliant depictions of cultural contradictions.)

HOUSE WIFE Ñ seen in a run-down, cluttered house, kids (or the material evidence of kids) are all about. Her posture, expression is of a life-long fatigue. As soon as she turns on the shower, a transformation begins that takes her into a fairy tale mansion. She emerges through elaborate French doors, curtains billowing in the wind, into a plush tropical garden. Flowering vegetation overflows everywhere, yet she is as plain and frumpy, tired and dirty as ever. There appears before her a hot springs pool, or elegant, clawfoot bathtub. Even in this paradise she continues her real-life routine as in her own bathroom of brushing her teeth, picking her toes, swabbing her ears, gargling mouthwash, etc.

COMPUTER GEEK - Full frame of characters in LOW-RES VIDEO explain the urgency of their science-fiction video game warfare. We hear the popping sound of a soda can, then the glug-glug of someone drinking. We see they are speaking to a guy unshaven, unbathed, dressed in similar costume listening to his instructions deliberately chugging a soda-pop. In the same LOW-RES VIDEO we see him engage in battle, taking swigs of soda and winning the game. Then we see him sitting in the darkness of a cluttered room staring intently at his computer screen. There are soda cans and two-litre bottles, pizza and various microwavable dinner boxes strewn everywhere. Dirty laundry hangs from anything possible, giving the room a cave like appearance. Satisfied with his conquest he belches monstrously.

APPLE COMPUTER - Video images of marching protesters intercut with SWAT police firing tear gas. Defiant students at a sit in being sprayed with chemicals. "Independent" camera operators run back and forth through the crowds with digital cameras and palm-corders. VO: "With the power of digital video technology, now you can make your own news." Zoom out from protest to REVEAL Macintosh computer, editing software, digital camera. On the monitor we see/hear a crowd marching, chanting "peacefully assemble". VO: "Apple's new Power Macintosh G4 with video editing software. Defend your world."

Greasy, sleazy PORNO SHOP OWNER delivering a Public Service Announcement.

BUBBLE-GUM TEENIE-BOPPERS - 12-15 years-old kids dressed for a Spice Girls or 'Nsync concert clamoring outside a seedy nightclub, shouting, crying, screaming fanatically for a glimpse, a brush with the flavor-of-the-month band. A limousine pulls up and the fans go crazy. The door opens; as a head pops out, vomit is spewed all over the sidewalk. Out steps a band, early 40s, frightfully disgusting hard-core punk-goth-metal, all perversely delighted to see their fans.

PROFESSIONAL MAINSTREAM ATHLETES and sports media commentators criticizing pro wrestlers in news-package interview style. Shots of speakers inadvertently include anemic stadium crowds of bored, apathetic baseball/ basketball/football fans. VO:"How can those guys call themselves athletes? It's all fake, isn't it?" Under VO, clip shows a character taking a legitimately dangerous bump in the ring while fans go apeshit out of their seats. VO:"...continuing the degradation of civilization." Flashes of various sports athletes' mugshots.

EXECUTIVES & PHOTOGRAPHERS for fashion magazines preaching the divinity of broad-hipped, thick-thighed, small-breasted women as we see them in photo shoots and runway shows.

INT. COMEDY CLUB
Wittgenstein stands center stage miserably defeated by the silence of the crowd. The emcee runs out on stage to save the horribly failing Wittgenstein, trying to drum up applause at the end of the routine.
EMCEE

Alright! How 'bout it, ladies and gentlemen. Let's hear it for the unique wit of Dr. Wittgenstein!

Wittgenstein ignores what little smatter of applause comesfrom the audience.
CUT TO: Video/television image and canned sound of the comedy show broadcast. On TV we see Wittgenstein shuffling off stage right, yanking the beanie from his head.
INT. BAR

Wittgenstein sitting at a bar, drunk, staring at his total failure on TV. Down the bar, a woman, SHARON, guffaws out

loud at his television appearance.

WITTGENSTEIN

(desperately polite) Ah, you like comedy, eh? I do comedy, you know.

Not having noticed him sitting at the bar she is caught in mid-laugh.

SHARON

Really...? (taking pity) I've always thought a sense of humor was ...a very attractive quality in a man.

WITTGENSTEIN

Yeah. (momentarily encouraged) Except my material deals with abstract concepts of the failure of language to express absolute truth and subjectivism.

SHARON

(confused)

Sounds like a riot.

WITTGENSTEIN

Would you like to hear my routine?

SHARON

Um.... Alright.
CUT TO: Mid conversation, Sharon, her eyes glossy, is staring numbly off in the distance petrified with boredom. Her mouth has withered from a false smile to slack-jawed. Wittgenstein continues oblivious .
WITTGENSTEIN

For example: I am walking today. It cannot be said This walk is taking me forward Or, I am the subject, or the form, of this walk. Sharon falls off her stool.

INT. RESTAURANT - DAY

Wittgenstein is sitting alone highlighting a copy of "The Divine Comedy". He chuckles to himself. Randy enters, sits at the table.

JUMP CUT TO:

WITTGENSTEIN

I just don't know, Randy. Sometimes I think I'm just not cut out to be a comedian.

RANDY

Don't say that, Wit! You're humor is just too... (pause) ...sophisticated for certain audiences.

WITTGENSTEIN

Do you really think so, Randy?

RANDY

Sure. Look at Lenny Bruce. Nobody really understood his comedy at the time.

WITTGENSTEIN

Yes. You are probably right. Thank you.

EXT. SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE
Wittgenstein is delivering another stand-up routine, with microphone, to a sparse audience of LAWN STATUES; to animals at a PETTING ZOO; to stacks of salmon at a FISH MARKET.
WITTGENSTEIN

Then, proscriptively, The only things that we should say Are those that we can say. I am taking a walk.

What cannot be said with clarity Should not - and cannot - be said...

INT. KITCHEN

A MAN and a WOMAN are in the middle of a raging, almost over dramatic argument.

WOMAN

All I am asking is that you...

MAN

But you're not asking, you're making a pretty ridiculous demand!

WOMAN

This is not ridiculous.

MAN

You're being very demanding.

WOMAN

Why can't you just respect my wishes and do this for me?

MAN

Why can't you do the same in return for me?

WOMAN

Because I'm not the one who has to...

MAN

Oh! Because you don't have to? You don't have to respect my wishes or do nice

things for me?

WOMAN

I always do nice things for you. But what I was about to say is that I'm not

the one who has to lift the damn seat when I go.

MAN

So that leaves me to lift the seat and put it back down for you? Why can't your

job be to put it down as you need to and my job to put it up as I need to?

WOMAN

Because you've never fallen into the goddamned bowl at four o'clock in the

morning after someone left it up!

The Man is silent. Audio of their tension continues over:

INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
Sleepily, Man drops his drawers in preparation to sit on the pot. In his groggy haze, he does not realize that the seat is up. He crouches, leans back and falls into the open bowl.
CUT back to

INT. KITCHEN

MAN

Yes I have!

CUT TO:
Wittgenstein in a flashy modern suit and tie. The background is dazzling with blinking colored lights. He speaks in the boisterous tone of a game show host.
WITTGENSTEIN

Thus I must conclude That the unsayable Has no further chance of being said...

INT. TELEVISION STUDIO

We see various pop-history philosophers lined up as contestants. Their heads hang sorrowfully in defeat.

WITTGENSTEIN

And, this being so, Our old philosopher's dream is unattainable And can never come

true. So long, everybody. See you next time!

As the end credits roll in the style of game show, a bunch of brightly colored balloons with large printed words on them GOD, GOOD, EVIL, MAN, NATURE, ESSENCE, MATTER, SUBSTANCE, FORM - burst free and are blown offscreen.

THE END

CONTINUITY SCRIPT

FADE IN:

1. MS: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, mid-forties with an intellectually broad goatee, appears in a black void under a spot light. He is dressed in a conservative suit in 1930s European fashion. He stands in front of a microphone, somewhat tense and nervous. The space is completely silent. As he looks out, he remembers something. He fumbles into his jacket pocket and pulls out a striped beanie with a propeller on top and puts it on his head. Now, he is ready to begin. His spoken lines can be repeated, sometimes out of sequence, in various angles and distances as more of the room is revealed. At each clause, sometimes at each phrase or at each word, more information is revealed about his environment.

2. MS zoom out LS: We see the shadowed shapes of people collected in an audience. There are vague suggestions of a stage around him.

3. zoom to LS, wide angle:

WITTGENSTEIN-The only things that we can say

REVEAL Wittgenstein in a comedy club.

WITTGENSTEIN (CONT'D)-Are the things that are already said By existing actions-

4. MS: Clusters of couples stare at him in utter disbelief.

CUT TO: A series of pseudo commercial clips, :30 - :60, mocking mainstream, pop culture, glamorous Hollywood/MTV style. Expanding the ideals of contradiction in language these characters are genuine and take themselves seriously, although unaware that their actions and words do not make them what they are not. "The only things that we can say (OF OURSELVES) are the things that are already said by existing actions". (Insert other brilliant depictions of cultural contradictions.)

5. LS: HOUSE WIFE - seen in a run-down, cluttered house, kids (or the material evidence of kids) are all about.

6. CU: Her posture, expression is of a life-long fatigue.

7. CU-LS: As soon as she turns on the shower, a trans-formation begins that takes her into a fairy tale mansion.

8. LS: She emerges through elaborate French doors, curtains billowing in the wind, into a plush tropical garden. Flowering vegetation overflows everywhere, yet she is as plain and frumpy, tired and dirty as ever.

9. LS: There appears before her a hot springs pool, or elegant, clawfoot bathtub.

10. MS/CU: Even in this paradise she continues her real-life routine as in her own bathroom of brushing her teeth, picking her toes, swabbing her ears, gargling mouthwash, etc.

11. CU: COMPUTER GEEK - Full frame of science-fiction characters in LOW-RES VIDEO explain the urgency of their video game warfare. We hear the popping sound of a soda can, then the glug-glug of someone drinking.

12. CU: We see they are speaking to a guy unshaven, unbathed, dressed in similar costume listening to his instructions deliberately chugging a soda-pop.

13. LS/CU: In the same LOW-RES VIDEO we see him engage in the game world of battle, taking swigs of soda and winning the game.

14. LS, pan 180 degrees: Then we see him sitting in the darkness of a cluttered room staring intently at his computer screen. There are soda cans and two-litre bottles, pizza and various microwavable dinner boxes strewn everywhere. Dirty laundry hangs from anything possible, giving the room a cave like appearance.

15. CU: Satisfied with his conquest he belches monstrously.

16. LS: APPLE COMPUTER - Video images of marching protesters intercut with SWAT police firing tear gas.

17. LS/MS: Defiant students at a sit in being sprayed with chemicals.

18. LS: "Independent" camera operators run back and forth through the crowds with digital cameras and palm-corders. VO: "With the power of digital video technology, now you can make your own news."

19. CU: Zoom out from protest to REVEAL Macintosh computer, editing software, digital camera. On the monitor we see/hear a crowd marching, chanting "peacefully assemble". VO: "Apple's new Power Macintosh G4 with video editing software. Defend your world."

20. MS: Greasy, sleazy PORNO SHOP OWNER delivering a Public Service Announcement.

21. LS: BUBBLE-GUM TEENIE-BOPPERS - 12-15 years-old kids dressed for a Spice Girls or 'Nsync concert

22. CU: clamoring outside a seedy nightclub, shouting, crying, screaming fanatically for a glimpse, a brush with the flavor-of-the-month band.

23. MS: A limousine pulls up and the fans go crazy.

24. MS: The door opens; as a head pops out,

25. CU: vomit is spewed all over the sidewalk.

26. LS: Out steps a band, early 40s, frightfully disgusting hard-core punk-goth-metal, all perversely delighted to see their fans.

27. MS: PROFESSIONAL MAINSTREAM ATHLETES and sports media commentators criticizing pro wrestlers in news-package
interview style. Shots of speakers inadvertently include anemic stadium crowds of bored, apathetic baseball/ basketball/football fans.
28. MS: VO:"How can those guys call themselves athletes? It's all fake, isn't it?"

29. CU: Under VO, clip shows a character taking a legitimately dangerous bump in the ring while fans go apeshit out of their seats.

30. MS: VO:"...continuing the degradation of civilization."

31. CU: Flashes of various sports athletes' mugshots.

32. MS: EXECUTIVES & PHOTOGRAPHERS for fashion magazines preaching the divinity of

33. MS: broad-hipped,

34. LS: thick-thighed,

35. CU: small-breasted women as we see them in photo shoots and runway shows.

INT. COMEDY CLUB

36. LS: Wittgenstein stands center stage miserably defeated by the silence of the crowd.

37. LS: The emcee runs out on stage to save the horribly failing Wittgenstein, trying to drum up applause at the end of the routine.

38. CU:

EMCEE-Alright! How 'bout it, ladies and gentlemen. Let's hear it for the unique wit of Dr. Wittgenstein!

39. LS: Wittgenstein ignores what little smatter of applause comes from the audience.

CUT TO:

40. CU: Video/television image and canned sound of the comedy show broadcast. On TV we see Wittgenstein shuffling off stage right, yanking the beanie from his head.

INT. BAR

41. MS, dutch angle, fisheye: Wittgenstein sitting at a bar, drunk, staring at his total failure on TV.

42. LS: Down the bar, a woman, SHARON, guffaws out loud at his television appearance.

43. MS, dutch angle, fisheye:

WITTGENSTEIN-(desperately polite) Ah, you like comedy, eh? I do comedy, you know.

44. CU: Not having noticed him sitting at the bar she is caught in mid-laugh.

SHARON-Really...? (taking pity) I've always thought a sense of humor was...a very attractive quality in a man.

45. CU, dutch angle, fisheye:

WITTGENSTEIN-Yeah. (momentarily encouraged) Except my material deals with abstract concepts of the failure of language to express absolute truth and subjectivism.

46. MS (SHARON):

SHARON-(confused) Sounds like a riot.

WITTGENSTEIN-Would you like to hear my routine?

47. CU (WITTGENSTEIN), dutch angle, fisheye:

SHARON-Um.... Alright.

CUT TO:

48. CU: Mid conversation, Sharon, her eyes glossy, is staring numbly off in the distance petrified with boredom. Her mouth has withered from a false smile to slack-jawed. Wittgenstein continues oblivious .

WITTGENSTEIN- For example: I am walking today. It cannot be said This walk is taking me forward Or, I am the subject, or the form, of this walk.

49. LS: Sharon falls off her stool.

INT. RESTAURANT - DAY

50. LS: Wittgenstein is sitting alone highlighting a copy of "The Divine Comedy". He chuckles to himself. Randy enters, sits at the table.

JUMP CUT TO:

51. MS two-shot:

WITTGENSTEIN-I just don't know, Randy. Sometimes I think I'm just not cut out to be a comedian.

RANDY-Don't say that, Wit! You're humor is just too... (pause) ...sophisticated for certain audiences.

WITTGENSTEIN-Do you really think so, Randy?

52. CU:

RANDY-Sure. Look at Lenny Bruce. Nobody really understood his comedy at the time.

53. CU:

WITTGENSTEIN-Yes. You are probably right. Thank you.

EXT. SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE

Wittgenstein is delivering another stand-up routine, withmicrophone,

54. MS/LS: to a sparse audience of LAWN STATUES;

55. MS/LS: to animals at a PETTING ZOO;

56. MS/LS: to stacks of salmon at a FISH MARKET.

WITTGENSTEIN--Then, proscriptively, The only things that we should say Are those that we can say. I am taking a walk. What cannot be said with clarity Should not - and cannot - be said...

INT. KITCHEN

A MAN and a WOMAN are in the middle of a raging, almost over dramatic argument

57.-65. CU (alternating on dialogue):

WOMAN-All I am asking is that you...

MAN-But you're not asking, you're making a pretty ridiculous demand!

WOMAN-This is not ridiculous.

MAN-You're being very demanding.

WOMAN-Why can't you just respect my wishes and do this for me?

MAN-Why can't you do the same in return for me?

WOMAN-Because I'm not the one who has to...

MAN-Oh! Because you don't have to? You don't have to respect my wishes or do nice things for me?

WOMAN-I always do nice things for you. But what I was about to say is that I'm not the one who has to lift the damn seat when I go. (pause)

66. MS:

MAN-So that leaves me to lift the seat and put it back down for you? Why can't your job be to put it down as you need to and my job to put it up as I need to?

67. MS:

WOMAN-Because you've never fallen into the goddamned bowl at four o'clock in the morning after someone left it up! The Man is silent. Audio of their tension continues over:

INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT

68. LS: Sleepily, Man drops his drawers in preparation to sit on the pot. In his groggy haze, he does not realize that the seat is up. He crouches, leans back and falls into the open bowl.

CUT back to:

INT. KITCHEN

69. LS:

MAN-Yes I have!

CUT TO:

70. CU: Wittgenstein in a flashy modern suit and tie. The background is dazzling with blinking colored lights. He speaks in the boisterous tone of a game show host.

WITTGENSTEIN-Thus I must conclude That the unsayable Has no further chance of being said...

INT. TELEVISION STUDIO

71. LS: We see various pop-history philosophers lined up as contestants. Their heads hang sorrowfully in defeat.

WITTGENSTEIN-And, this being so, Our old philosopher's dream is unattainable And can never come true.

72. MS-LS:

So long, everybody. See you next time!

73. LS: As the end credits roll in the style of game show, a bunch of brightly colored balloons with large printed words on them GOD, GOOD, EVIL, MAN, NATURE, ESSENCE, MATTER, SUBSTANCE,

FORM - burst free and are blown offscreen.

THE END