B-Side 06: "Dark" – The Sheridan Tapes
Support Season Three: seedandspark.com/fund/sheridantapes3
CONTENT WARNING: Apocalyptic imagery, mentions of warfare, and some loud noises.
B-Side 06: A quiet moment at home with Maria Sol and Anna Sheridan.
Starring Amitola Lomas as Maria Sol and Airen Neeley Chaconas as Anna Sheridan, with original music by Jesse Haugen. Written by Trevor Van Winkle and produced by Virginia Spotts and Trevor Van Winkle, with dialogue editing by Robin Gabrielli. Directed by Trevor Van Winkle and made possible by our supporters at Patreon.com/homesteadcorner and ko-fi.com/homesteadcorner
For more information, additional content, and episode transcript, visit homesteadonthecorner.com/tstB05
Script
Transcript
CONTENT WARNING: Apocalyptic imagery, mentions of warfare, and some loud noises.
Recording Begins
[Cassette player begins playback]
[Click]
[Sounds of a playful struggle]
Maria Sol
Come on Anna, you don’t need to record it — I told you you could just watch it…
Anna Sheridan
And I know that if I don’t record this, you’ll just destroy the last copy in existence as soon as I’m out the door.
[Maria jumps for something as she talks]
Maria Sol
No, I — I won’t, I just don’t want another recording out there.
Anna Sheridan
Tough luck! Besides, I never get to see your work, and you’ve read how many of my books?
[Maria begins jumping again]
Maria Sol
I told you, I can’t show you my projects — there are contracts and NDA’s and—
Anna Sheridan
And did they make you sign one for your senior project?
Maria Sol
Well… No, but —
Anna Sheridan
Then I’m going to record it. So there.
Maria Sol
Come on Anna, just give me the…
[The sound of movement]
[The recorder is placed on a hard, flat surface]
Anna Sheridan
Oh dear. It seems I’ve left it on top of the cabinet. How clumsy of me. Do you want me to get a ladder?
Maria Sol
Oh, why don’t you pick on someone your own size?
Anna Sheridan
Now where’s the fun in that?
Maria Sol
Fun for you, maybe…
Anna Sheridan
Come on Maria, you’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Give me one good reason why we can’t just sit down and watch this?
Maria Sol
I… It’s not… I’d really…
[Anna laughs softly]
Anna Sheridan
Miss Maria Sol… Are you embarrassed?
Maria Sol
What? No, of course not, it’s just… It’s not my best work, is all. I could show you some other stuff I’ve done, maybe that would be—
Anna Sheridan
Why are you so ashamed of this one? It’s not like you to hand in bad work.
[Maria sighs]
Maria Sol
Just look at the back… It still has the professor’s note on it.
[Anna turns over the DVD]
Anna Sheridan (reading)
“Pretentious, disjointed, amateurish… See me after class.”
[She lowers it, looking back at Maria]
What the hell, Maria? That really doesn’t sound like you.
Maria Sol
Yeah, that’s… that’s why he wrote it. Told you it wasn’t my best.
Anna Sheridan
What happened?
[Maria laughs ruefully]
Maria Sol
I met you.
Anna Sheridan
I don’t understand.
[Maria sighs]
Maria Sol
Just… Play it.
[Anna places the DVD in the player, it closes with a mechanical whir and beep]
[A faint sound of whistling wind and darkness]
[Maria’s voice filters through the cassette recorder, then jumps forward with clarity and resonance as she speaks]
Maria Sol (V.O.)
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
[Music]
[The sudden rush of a passing train, wheels clacking over a crossing]
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
[As she speaks, the train fades away to the faint sounds of a city street at night — traffic, distant sirens]
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light:
[Sounds of the interior of a catholic church — low voices praying indistinctly, rendition of “Ave Maria” on violin]
And they did live by watchfires—and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings—the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum’d,
And men were gather’d round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other’s face;
[The inside of a campus coffee shop at peak hours: jostling movement, laughter, and loud conversation turning to a drone alongside the rising music]
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain- torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain’d;
Forests were set on fire—but hour by hour
They fell and faded—and the crackling trunks extinguish’d with a crash—and all was black.
[The sound of crackling fire rises against the shouting voices — then cuts to the silence of midnight, with only crickets, faint footsteps, and the sounds of a passing bike to fill it]
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil’d;
[Hard cut to heavy LA traffic — engines, honking, construction, and general cacophony]
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look’d up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash’d their teeth and howl’d:
[Cut to a series of re-purposed documentary shots — birds in flight, cobras, and the sounds of war — gunshots, artillery, tanks]
The wild birds shriek’d
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl’d
And twin’d themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless—they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
[Hard cut to the interior of an office — clicking keyboards, muffled conversation]
All earth was but one thought—and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails—men died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
[The sound of a gas fireplace being started at night]
The crowd was famish’d by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap’d a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage;
[Fades to the sound of a louder, more violent fire and crackling paper — Maria burning a set of papers and mementos from college]
They rak’d up,
And shivering scrap’d with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other’s aspects.
[The sound of fire fades out, replaced by the sound of an empty beach late at night — distant traffic, crashing waves, and a gentle insect chirp]
The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless—
A lump of death—a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr’d within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp’d
They slept on the abyss without a surge—
[The sound of waves fades — only to be replaced by the sound of an engine and a clicking turn signal]
[In-video: Anna notices Maria filming]
Anna Sheridan (In-Video)
What are you looking at?
Maria Sol (In-Video)
You.
[In-video: Anna scoffs bashfully]
[The sound drops out again, only Maria’s echoing voice and music]
Maria Sol (V.O.)
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before;
The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them…
She was the Universe.
[The music resolves for several seconds into silence]
[The video ends, and Maria and Anna sit in silence for a long moment]
Anna Sheridan
Maria—
Maria Sol
Look, I know it’s a mess, but with everything going on with you and Voxel and my parents, I didn’t have a lot of time to work on it, and it seemed like a good idea… Plus my professor said I couldn’t use the Sheridan Cut for my final project, so I had to… to…
[Anna places a hand on Maria’s shoulder]
Anna Sheridan
I love it, Maria.
Maria Sol
You’d better… I made it mostly for you.
Anna Sheridan
Gothic poetry and found footage? You shouldn’t have.
Maria Sol
According to my professor, I really shouldn’t have.
[They both laugh]
Anna Sheridan
So you didn’t show me because… what, he gave you a bad grade on it?
Maria Sol
Not… exactly. It was right before we started dating, and I wasn’t sure if you’d think it was creepy or not, so I just thought that—
Anna Sheridan
“I had a dream, which was not all a dream…”
Maria Sol
Huh?
Anna Sheridan
Nothing, just — just thought I’d forgotten something.
Bet you’re glad you didn’t destroy your last copy now, aren’t you?
Maria Sol
Don’t tempt me… You have the audio, but I can still snap the disc in half.
Anna Sheridan
Oh right, I’m still recording this —
[Anna gets back up and grabs the recorder off the cabinet]
[Clack]
Homestead on the Corner 