Lead role. Feature film. Starts tonight.
Compensation: permanent. Bring nothing. We have everything we need.
Location: a small house in Minnesota. The porch light will be on. It is always on.
Sound on is recommended.
ReelRoll 1
The audition is at a house.
Ext. A small white house somewhere in Minnesota. Dusk. The kind of quiet that has been arranged.
String lights along the gutter. Behind the big window, shapes stand very still. A young woman waits on the sidewalk, holding a printed email like it might protect her. This is VIENNA.
Vienna
You're here for the audition too? Oh, thank God.
Vienna
I've been standing here twenty minutes. I kept waiting for somebody braver to show up.
Vienna
(not taking her eyes off the window)
There are people in there. They haven't moved since I got here.
Vienna
You go first. I'll be right behind you. Like, right behind you.
Click the script to hurry it along. Someone will notice.
Scene 1Take 1
The NDA
Int. Living room. The lamps are on, but the room isn't quite lit.
JEREMY, late forties, opens the door mid-sentence, as if he has been talking the whole time. Straw fedora. A shirt printed with tiny birds. Behind him, five men in black suits stand along the wall like furniture that learned to wait.
Jeremy
...and here they are. Right on time. Gentlemen, the lead. And the supporting role, hiding behind the lead. Classic.
Jeremy
(to you, cheerfully)
Don't mind them. My mentors. They don't talk during demonstrations. Or generally.
Vienna
(whispering, into your shoulder)
Demonstrations?
Jeremy
Paperwork first. Sign at the bottom. The pen is warm because I was holding it. That's the only reason.
The ink settles. Most of the contract fades from the page. What's left is written in a color nobody put there.
Vienna
Did the words just...
Jeremy
Ink settles. Gentlemen, note the retention. Beautiful retention. {name}, you have the retention of a man twice your size. Or a woman. Or a well-built shed.
Scene 2Take 1
The cold read
Int. In front of the camera. A lamp with no shade. The mentors have moved closer. Nobody saw them move.
Jeremy lowers something onto your head. It looks like a colander that went to college. Three small lights on it wake up: red, green, blue.
Jeremy
(to the mentors)
The halo deck. Patent pending. Patent denied, technically. We're appealing.
Jeremy
Three lines. Hold the light and breathe in. Let go, and the line comes out of you. Don't read ahead. The lines don't like it.
Vienna
What happens if you read ahead?
Jeremy
Nothing, if you're lucky. You're the supporting role, sweetheart. You're always lucky.
REC
halo deck: listening
halo deck: listening
Line 1 of 3. Hold to breathe in.
Jeremy
One breath every {breath} seconds. Gentlemen, write that down. Don't actually write it down. It's already written down.
None of the mentors writes anything. One of them is breathing at exactly your pace.
Vienna
(reading her own card, very quietly)
Mine just says "stay close to them."
Scene 3Take 1
Hands
Int. Living room. Somewhere a dryer buzzes. No one gets up. No one has ever gotten up.
Jeremy
Calibration. The deck needs to learn your hands. Draw something. Anything. It draws back.
Jeremy
(to the mentors, delighted)
This is my favorite part. Watch the deck. No, don't watch the deck. Watch the lead.
Vienna
What does it draw?
Jeremy
Whatever you drew. Eventually.
hands: 0 of 3
You go first.
Vienna
It drew your line before you finished it.
Jeremy
Rude. It's learning. Gentlemen, it's learning. They grow up so fast, and then they grow into you.
Scene 4Take 1
The anchor
Int. Kitchen table. A candle that smells like a candle pretending to be cookies.
Jeremy
Last calibration. The deck needs an anchor. Something true. Write down the thing you've never told anybody.
Vienna
Is it going to read it?
Jeremy
God, no. It's not a monster. It just keeps the shape.
Jeremy
(stage whisper, to the mentors)
It absolutely keeps the shape.
Sealed without reading. This is its shape. No other secret in the world makes this exact seal.
The candle goes out on its own. Jeremy relights it with the confidence of a man who has done this many times.
Jeremy
Anchor set. You're very heavy, emotionally. That's good. Heavy things stay put.
Scene 5Take 1
The recliners
Int. Living room. Two recliners side by side, doilies on the headrests. The mentors stand behind the chairs now.
Jeremy
Lean back. All the way. Recline like the chair owes you money.
Jeremy
Now take Vienna's hand.
Vienna
(reaching across, still gripping the armrest with her other hand)
I'm not doing this without you. You lead. I'll follow. Please don't go fast.
Jeremy
(to the mentors)
See, this is what I keep telling you. The pair bond. You can't fake the pair bond. Well. We tried once. Bill remembers.
Jeremy
You're the blue light. She's the red one. Hold her hand and bring her into the circle. Slowly. She'll follow you anywhere as long as you're gentle.
sources: 2
Press and hold to take her hand.
The room goes white, then gentle. Somewhere the dryer stops. All five mentors exhale at once.
Vienna
I can hear you thinking.
{name}
I can hear you hearing it.
{name} and Vienna
(together)
Oh.
Us
It's roomy in here. It's less scary with two.
Jeremy
(dabbing his eyes with the brim of his hat)
Gentlemen. That's the take.
Scene 6Take 1
The role of a lifetime
Int. Kitchen. Bars on a plate. Jeremy has made coffee for three and poured it for two.
Jeremy
Congratulations. You got the part.
Us
Which part?
Jeremy
The role of a lifetime. Yours, specifically. You'll be playing yourselves in Limber Cove. Forever is a long shoot, but the catering is good.
Jeremy
(to the mentors)
Any notes? No? No notes. They never have notes.
Jeremy
There you are. Every light up there sat in those chairs. Each one breathes at the pace of the people it used to be.
Jeremy unfolds a folding chair and sets it at the end of the row of mentors. Nobody sits in it. Yet.
Jeremy
Your shoes are by the door. Take your time.
Us
We're good here.
Jeremy
(warmly, to no one in particular)
They always say that.
About Robots With Soul
Robots With Soul is a low budget AI studio. It's the production studio behind the world of Limber Cove.
Jeremy Benjamin Gilmore created Robots With Soul as a way to make indie films with AI.
The Jeremy in the audition is a character. The real one has no mentors that we know of.