Screenplay Structure

Geometric shapes such as the the triangles play very well with the theme that the world runs in the eyes of a trinity. Every story has a third person account that watches everything from afar. Every duality can be censored and exploited at the same time. In the film, each scene runs in the power of three. There’s not one scene that doesn’t have a pair from the five main characters converse in a dialogue. The film is designed with the parallels of a person and its persona, playing  with the power between two people. Whether it is Easton and Alpi, Gemma and Patrick, or Easton and Paloma, there will always be a pair at the center of the scene with the third party lurking behind, going incognito. Colors play an important part in the art direction for the film. Each character represents a color that forever plays with the position they hold in the film.

Obscura holds the distinction that there’s no clue villain in the film. One can argue that Easton Caldwell is the film’s major antagonist and although he pushes through many of the egotistical boundaries in the film, the real villain is the mind. The mind fixes itself with the perception of how we view the world through the exterior view of our eyes. Thus the reality that we design is the true villain. When we open ourselves the truest depths of our own minds, we never know what we’ll find.

• A Fanfare to E. Maxwell Caldwell I- In the World He Financed: The film opens with the image of a vast and expansive blue walled film set on the Caldwell Studios sound stage. It is the last day of shooting the last Caldwell-Quinn-Valentine film. There is a dead calming silence that permeates through the room. At the epicenter of the frame, we see an illuminated wide staircase with a surrounding offbeat yellow orchestra pit. The silhouettes of an ensemble assemble at the sound stage, tweaking with their instruments. Moving ever so lightly, Easton Caldwell (the heir and head of Caldwell Studios) makes his way down the set. He sees his orchestra come alive in his head. There, we go inside his wildly successful benchmark film, Born Again. The film is directed by Patrick Quinn and stars Quinn’s wife, Hollywood powerhouse Gemma Valentine. At the Cinema Paradiso, Gemma is Olivia Holiday and she strips down to a sparkly number to perform “Cruel Madness,” the closing number for the film. She is sprite with life but behind the scenes, Hollywood power agent (Alpi Klein) notices Patrick wants more. This is so because in Patrick’s eyes, nobody is as magical as the spirit Gemma captures on the screen. And just like that, we are introduced to the world the Quinns’ quietly unraveling marriage, set in the backdrop of a Hollywood set. From the arousing performance to the praise of an audience, Easton premieres the film for Oscar glory. The world is at their feet. This leaves Easton to come back to reality. He stands before his empty set and watches the orchestra disperse. He views the world through his Caldwell monitors. With a devilish gleam in his visage, we enter the film of Obscura.

“The last tycoon stands before the empty sound stage. The Conductor enlivens his powerful orchestra. The symphony of colors clash with the cymbals. Silence fills the room.” — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 6

“Easton rummages through the walk-in vault looking through hundreds of thousands of papers and scripts. In the archives, he searches through inked scripts. Nothing catches his eye. Until he knocks down a box to the ground, spilling things on the floor. He reads The Descent to Madness by Billy Wilder. Picks up the manuscript and begins to read. The notes- telegrams from the man himself. Stories about Marilyn Monroe. James Dean. Frances Farmer. Heath Ledger. Brittany Murphy. Cory Monteith. All once attached. All died tragically. Opens the script.” — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 13

 

• Dynamic Duos: In In the World He Created, the scene ends with a numbed Patrick leaving his wife alone at the party after the onslaught of damage Lovitz caused for the main players of Caldwell Studios. It’s the morning after. Everything is grounded and serene. Gemma enters her master bedroom. She watches her husband spy on his neighbors with his binoculars. It is an ongoing event that his wife grows with annoyance. Her husband doesn’t notice her. He’s seems rather busy writing endlessly and people watching. She longs for a connection but Patrick wants none of it. She leaves him be and heads for the pool. Patrick continues on his people watching to even notice.

 

“Her eyes stare at him for a long time. Watching the man she loves resume to his people watching.” — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 17

“I don’t like to sound too melodramatic. It’s not my style but… This script was first written in 1950. It was suppose to be the big follow-up to Sunset Boulevard. But nothing happened for the first few years. It was quite forgotten. Then in 56, Marilyn Monroe attached herself to the project through her new production company. Raymond Caldwell, Easton’s grandfather, bought the rights with her. Everything was good until… You’re grandfather suffered a heart attack. He almost died. Monroe was put in the nut house. Electroshock therapy, I hear. Any ways, when she got out, she opted to do Some Like It Hot instead. Fast forward a few years later, Monroe was dead in 62. You can think whatever you like but the facts are there. You read the notes. Paul Walker, Jayne Mansfield, River Phoenix, Judy Garland… the list goes on. They were all attached to this script. They all tragically died.”  (Alpi Klein) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 21

 

• Sunbathe: Alpi greets the Quinns whom he finds lounging poolside. Quinn sits in the cabanas while his wife swims in their ultra-posh Olympic size pool. On hand, Alpi carries the scripts and the invitation with him. Patrick presents his agent with a bottle of Macallan 1939 as a gift. With gratitude, the agent accepts.  After a series of carefully crafted compliments to the Quinns, the agent stuns them with their next project from Caldwell. Gemma wants nothing to do with the film but Patrick is on the edge. This can be it for him. Alpi manages to convince him that this would be his big great film. Patrick is sold and convinces his wife to agree to the picture. Disappointingly, Gemma does for the sake of her husband. The remainder of the film is now set in motion from this point on.

 

“Every legendary director had the mad film that cemented their status. Kubrick had The Shining. Fincher had Fight Club. Nolan had Inception. The list goes on… from Persona to Black Swan. Your time is now.”  (Alpi Klein) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 23

 

• The Accident: Patrick and Gemma (wearing their most spectacular lavish clothes) head to the secret set for the American Gothic. They discuss Patrick’s writing and the new film. The couple are in love and share high spirits with each other. There’s a lot of traffic here.in Bel-Air. Suddenly, they crash their car by the Eucalyptus tree. Delirious, they walk the streets of Bel-Air. They don’t look like they just got into an accident but their car is wrecked and glass is in their hair. Everything becomes a haze for them- like a disassociation from their matrices and into the realities of their true beings. They enter the Hellmouth of Obscura.

 

“They escape the musk of Bel-Air and enter hell.” — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 29

• The Rise of the Seven Veils: Outside the iron gates, the Quinns look forward to the edge of nowhere. In their evening’s best regalia, they stand before a Southern Gothic Manor, trapped in the splendor of the horror that is about to commence. The gates open and the couple walk hand in hand as they watch a couple dressed as Grant Wood’s art piece American Gothic. It’s not much of a greet. It’s more like an ominous exchange. They take the invitation out of Patrick’s hand. They enter the manor. The parlor is vastly different- Art-Deco even. The staunch hedonism is on full display. A group of black cloaked men evoke the spirits of the flame. A man in an emerald green cloak leads the way with Alpi, in gold garments, orating the Holy Scriptures of the illuminated way. There’s a bit of uncertainty. A little bit of chaos, some inner conflict within but we, like the Quinns here, we are being seduced by the dark side. In the Wilder script, the dark side is the prowess and sexuality of a defined strong woman. In reality, the script plays parallel to the lives of the characters set in present day Hollywood. They are being seduced by their real natures, their primal states, by the people they surround themselves with. They dance with all the sympathies of the Devil for he knows the very nature of his game and in turn he feeds into our ego. An ego that allows us to be who we really are, away from the rules and morals that binds us in everyday occurrences. It is here that we reveal our very nature and that is the hell we must enter. We must lose ourselves into our own madness to find a way to dominate and control. Without that, we don’t know what’s really bad without all the smoke and mirrors. From out of the beaded curtains, the female performer takes off her farmer’s mask. It’s Paloma Diamond in the flesh. She dances with Patrick in a heated tango. Gemma is left alone, watching the parasites come for her. The Man in Green comes to her rescue. The Man anoints her his high priestess of the night. He dances with her in the passionate tango round. His eyes look so familiar beneath all that darkness. At the end of the dance, Easton Caldwell reveals himself as the Green Cloaked Man amid the applause. The liveliness of his “charade” ease The Quinns but by then, they are trapped in his vicious manipulative circle.

 

“The gang leave the hedonistic extras to their debauchery at the party. The music echoes in the distance. Leaves them in peace.” Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 36

• Gemma in Wonderland: Run away, run away from the pain! Gemma runs from the ghastly ghoulish Hellmouth she has submerged herself into. Wearing her beautiful blue dress, she is a gorgeous Disney Princess trapped inside her own horror-filled fairy tale. Chasing the beautiful actress down the streets is Patrick. The husband, her Prince Charming, holds a large butcher knife with an unnerving gleam in his face. Down in the dark alley ways, she dances in her own darkness. Shards of mirrors with her locked inside the reflections frighten her. The ticking of the clocks ring in her head. Alpi runs away from her. Patrick swoops her from off the ground and thrusts her inside the house of horrors. Inside the shell of the Gothic house, Patrick watches Gemma and Paloma fill his eyes with very bit of sexual fantasies that he has suppressed. But it’s Gemma that finds truth in his soul. She subconsciously knows he doesn’t love her anymore. It’s only a matter of time when the truth will set them all free. The true fairy tale Gemma runs to her husband, in an upheaval of panic. They are all stuck in a perpetual Wonderland. Gemma is the crown jewel, the Alice in Wonderland. She begs her Mad Hatter husband to take her home but there’s more sheer madness to unfold. After all, the trip is just getting started. Gemma and Patrick are chased down the labyrinth of the manor by Caldwell and Paloma. They are the Chesire Cat and the red with hate Queen of Hearts. The Quinns run down the spiraling staircase. The villains trap them at the end of the maze. Easton knows that they can run and they can hide but the truth will set them free. They are taken to another interval of the Inferno they cannot comprehend to the extent of their mad world. As they run, Easton reveals himself. He is camouflaged inside the wallpaper. He takes off his mask and enters Room 733, the only glowing green door. Inside the room, Easton wanders around the Quinns living room. Gemma gives birth to her baby boy. A bloody mad Patrick butchers and kills her. They both of them cannot exist anymore. Their son withers on the ground. Her death feels very real to Patrick. It’s a future that angers the producer. He grabs the knife and carves a Glasgow grin on his face. He puts a smile on it. He walks out of the door and sees the Quinns find their way out. Like a mad man wielding an ax, he captures his enemy and gives him some good whackings. If only for the temporary notion, it was a good dream. Gemma reaches out but she’s lost in vertigo. Through a one way mirror, Gemma sees her husband inside a red room. Patrick finds himself locked into the reverie inside the red light district. His wife lies on the floor naked. She tempts him to come for her. And so they make love in the feverish night. Her body morphs into the a time-lapse of ninth month pregnant gestating vessel. This takes her husband in a horrifying turn of events. She gives birth to their baby boy they both envision. Patrick runs away. As the walls move clockwork, Gemma continues her odyssey. She fights the White Rabbit in Alpi behind the glowing doors. The room is devoid of color, Old Hollywood glamour and gray. Geometric shapes. He multiplies himself towards her as his clocks tick. Easton, Alpi, Patrick, and Paloma torment the beauty. Shred her dress. She falls to the floor like a crying princess. The floor illuminates and leads her to a glowing purple door. She falls in a cave-like hole. In pure darkness, Gemma and Paloma mimic each others emotions. Paloma is lit under the purple light while Gemma is under the red hues. The gaping hole rips apart. Pebbles of stone and sand sprinkle above their heads. Gemma and Paloma escape Wonderland.

 

“Everyone goes a little mad once in while.”  (Easton Caldwell) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 48

• I Love You Like a Love Song:  The death of Paloma Diamond fades to obscurity as she disintegrates from the memories of her peers. As we leave the absurdist and surreal mayhem of The Lost Weekend, we say goodbye to the litany of nightmarish terrors. But the escape is only temporary. Gemma’s head emerges from out of the water. In a daze and confusion, she looks around. The movie star, still in the haze of all the pretty little things she has seen, is awakened in her bathtub. Her husband feverishly scrubs her body down. Everything feels so woozy, like a bad dream she wants to forget. The drugs forced them to witness something far too real. Patrick assures her that everything is going to be all right. But from out of the distance, the voices of various newscasters report the frightful events to be true. Paloma Diamond is dead.That wasn’t a nightmare after all. Gemma freaks out, body tweaks. Patrick, the man she loves, is not the same anymore. He is cold and distant. That twinkle in his eyes are gone. He submerges her head underwater, baptizing her. And in all this mayhem, the world loses any meaning without the wild party favor who was ready for anything. She paid the price for not fearing a god. Now, we are left with the vacant change that changes the course of this story.

 

“She sits there staring at me. She is nothing but a candid smile and a wink to all the silver screen goddesses that blaze through our memories. She’s a sad girl. Little sullen girl, only good for a peep show at Sunset Blvd. But she’s my enema. She’s my Beat poetry jacked up on methamphetamine and Ritalin. And I love her but she’s a drug that kills my soul. Oh for sure.”  (Patrick Quinn) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 59

He is fading away to an almost certain insanity. The problem is that this is the Patrick he truly was all along. He just lost his ability to lie. As he compartmentalizes his mind’s mirrored maze, Alpi multiplies himself. He becomes whatever you want him to be. Your friend, your conscious, your sole decision maker. He’s duplicitous and yet honest to a default and that’s what makes him the greatest fixer the world has ever known. It is this that helps Easton, the outsider of it all, to package this into his film. The more “method” these players go, the better a film he gets. He doesn’t care whether these souls live or die, as long as he gets what he wants out of it. He gambles his legacy and worth for a mere headline but in the end he knows he won’t lose.

 

• Sleepwalker: “Sleepwalker” opens with a duality of the marriage in the film. Patrick wakes up in his bedroom. He’s all alone in the darkness where he feels his body summoned. He sleepwalks in the heat of the night. Now in his office, he opens his laptop and feverishly types away. In the other side of Los Angeles, Gemma walks through the Fashion District’s Red Light section.  She watches as hookers and pimps moonlight the streets, looking for a john tonight. She seeks for a quiet anonymity that her husband seemed so perplexed to. She conquers him in that Gemma can blend in the fog, although her chic look (a chick tight dress, heels, and a coat) tells us otherwise. A mysterious red cruiser circles around the block, catcalling the well-groomed actress. As Patrick types at home, Gemma walks down the streets. As she’s ready to cross, the cruiser flashes his high beams towards her face. It almost hits the stunning Spanish looking actress. These gestures are in part by the telepathic correspondence of Patrick and Gemma. They live vicariously in the entrenched works of each other. The scenes quietly winds down, if ever so falsely. It reaches another arc. We find Mrs. Quinn home. Here she’s not an actress nor a star so there is no need to call her by Valentine which signifies her motive of independence and individuality because in the Quinns’ sprawling beachfront mansion, there’s no such thing as that. She serves as a constant reminder to us that she is forever linked to Patrick and his genius. She is his Eve, the apple of his eye and she derives from his rib to born the frustrations and languish of her handler. As Gemma relaxes, a shrieking scream emits. Far and away, the wife bolts up the stairs in terror that her husband commits an unthinkable act of violence.  She heads to the bedroom and watches her husband pace around the room. The polished handsome man from the previous two acts is gone. Here in his place is a clone of the man. Disheveled, ravaged by inner thoughts. He questions her as to why has she gone people watching, an act he believes can only be enjoyed by him. Her want to be independent from him is laughable to him. Soon she will get ideas and start thinking roams in his head. He warns about the dangers of the world— a cruel and dark force that shows little pity to those naive enough to resist those temptations. He tells her how their neighbor across the street is acting strange. He watches him frequently leave the house and bring back oddities like ropes, chains, whips, etc. Gemma dismisses this as ways of life, a fetish perhaps. But Patrick is not so sure. He brought a girl,  someone who looks cheap and displaced from their neighborhood. He tells her that the walls are freshly painted white. The furniture is almost all gone and the little left has been covered with plastic sheet coverings. Furthermore, he spied on this neighbor and found him getting sexual pleasure for old Shirley Temple movies.  The serious allegations frighten his spouse. There’s something strange, he tells her. Unconvinced by the wild tale her husband has just told her, Gemma runs to the office and looks for any little clue. She knocks down what looks like a newly written copy of The Descent to Madness. She peers through and in the madness, she reads over a very terrifying scene. The neighbor and the cheap little tart are characters in the movie. Everything he has told her was a rehash of the story. The gloom presides over her. She takes her husband’s binoculars and spies at her neighbor next door. And with that, Obscura kicks off the third act.

 

“In the heart of darkness, walking down the streets of LA. No name. Just cruising down the dirty pavements looking for a john tonight.”  — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 60

 

• No Exit: On a hot summer’s day, Easton gets the great gift of his life. Looking up through his dressing room window in his studio lot, he finds Gemma undressing. She never notices he lurks but she makes Caldwell a very good and happy boy. In the dressing room, Gemma rests. She’s alone and comfortable away from the chaos of her home life. A door knock. Easton and Gemma greet each other. They agree that three months is a long time but the drought seems to be over. Easton quickly notices that Gemma is not her luscious self anymore. She’s broken, trembling, self-aware, bitter, and and emotional. Easton, on the other hand, is cold, egotistical, and unwavering in his pursuit. This discuss the problem at hand, Patrick. Gemma hates him for losing his mind the way he is begs Easton to put him back to work. To her dismay, Easton will only put Patrick back to work if it it’s to complete The Descent to Madness. Gemma wants nothing to do with that project and has barred her husband from taking any part in the project. The events of Paloma death is not something she can forget. She is taken aback by Easton’s seemingly indifference towards it, especially when he was the one to blame for it. Easton won’t move a finger for the Quinns until they return to the set. This callous indifference angers Gemma. She refuses to work on that project and until now, she never realized her friend’s blistering hellbent selfishness. Although the conversation is not pleasurable for both parties, they are civil to each other. Deep down the bad man’s heart, lies a love for Gemma he wishes they can carry through. Gemma is stuck in reverse with a very vengeful and unloving Patrick.

 

“You’re right. Love isn’t enough. I thought as long as he’s doing what he loves, we’d be all right but I watch him fade away every day. I’m not the answer for him. I hate him for doing this to us. I hate him for telling me this will all be all right. I don’t want promises he can’t keep.” (Gemma Valentine) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 71

The scene ends with Gemma calling Easton from her home office and finally giving in to finishing the film. It is the moment where she feels like she truly has lost control of her own life.

 

“I wish life were a film. I can understand that. You map out your entire life into this 120 page manuscript. Every draft is a new wrinkle, a new curve, a new hope to get it right. All those stories in your heart just jump on the screen for you to watch over and over again. If I can just be the story that I write and direct, I could edit what I want in it.” (Gemma Valentine) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 74

 

• The Drive: Through various sightseeing landscapes, we see the Quinns’ travel through the beauty of Southern California. They head to the Caldwell Studios’ sound stage, three months after their last shoot. Today they resume the film. At the set, the couple share a very rare and short loving look. Patrick holds up  picture from his dream board and watches the set come alive through a time lapse.

 

“Patrick and Gemma look around the vast sound stage and breathes in the light. Quick smiles and glances over each other. Pacifying emotions… Patrick holds up a picture from his visual board. Closes his eyes. A time-lapse to Patrick’s visual set his eyes.” — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 79

• Speed: Driving to the beaches in California, Easton contemplates his decision to make this film happen. He knows his condemned soul is in a world of trouble. In his hand, he holds speed. He just wants to accelerate the chapters of this book as fast as he can. He can’t do this anymore. The speed gives him a mighty jolt. He runs through his lot like a spring king. As the speed catches up with him, Caldwell sees the apparition of Lovitz. Lovitz, whose words were the catalyst to this descend, appears before him. The brazen sharp-tongue man berates him,  reminding him he’s nothing and will die that way. He lost any reminisce for a solid legacy on account of his own selfishness. This sends Easton to the edge. He pours the gasoline in his office and lights it on fire. In Alpi’s office, his agency is across the street from the lot, Gemma and he discuss Patrick’s harsh future. She begs him to smooth things over with Caldwell. Alpi wishes he can do something about it but his hands are tied. Easton has every right to dismiss Patrick.  Easton is actually being benevolent in allowing him to finish the job, although unheard of and undeserved. Alpi is unaware of their pact. He finds this perplexing but never questions it. A phone call and a world of bad news emits. Alpi gets the news of the fire. Gemma and he run for the door to save him. Luckily, they reach for him in time. Easton is spared from any injuries.  Gemma saves his life while the agent extinguishes the fire. Easton straddles the fine line between guilt and self-loathing pity. Either way, this is not enough for him. It’s a minor setback if any.

 

“Look what you’ve done! All this hell because you thought you could conquer the world. All this so they can love you. All this for the girl of your dreams. And you lost everything. You’re alone. You’re going to die alone. Let the crows gather at your body like a feast at your funeral. You don’t have a claim to this world.” (Lovitz) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 85-86

 

• Dare You to Move:  Gemma reaches home. As she gets settled in,  the actress notices that most of the furniture are gone. The remaining few is covered in plastic sheet coverings. The walls are impeccably white. Everything is reminiscent to the parable Patrick told her not long ago. She follows the rose petals on the red carpet. Crushed shards of glass linger on the floor. It leads her to the kitchen where her husband waits for her. He asks her where she was. He boils with unbridled anger when she recounts the events of the prior scene to him. Gemma reasons with the madman. She was doing her job as his wife. She knows very well he was wrong and yet she begged their agent on his behalf to appease Easton’s anger.  That Easton decided to burn down his studio was an unexpected wrench in the game. Patrick doesn’t listen. He doesn’t care for Easton. In fact, he blames him for everything that’s happening to them. Gemma doesn’t excuse him. In her eyes, the old Patrick would never humiliate her the way he did. This brings Patrick to remind her of what today is. Their anniversary. All this mayhem on the day of their wedding anniversary. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It brings forth how much of a wretched humiliation she has had to endure. But no more. Gemma painfully takes off her wedding rings. She wants to divorce him. If freedom from her is what he wants, then she is ready to give it to him. Gemma needs to get away from this handler at any cost. Patrick cannot and will not let this happen. All he hears is Alpi’s voice telling him to put her in her place. He chases his wife down the stairs with a leather riding crop in hand. In the Florida Room, Gemma is horrified. The white walls have the word “Piggy” scrawled all over with fresh red paint. Her husband violates her. He lost all his senses completely and in the process, lost her too. She imagines that scene they shot on set. Santana and Baby Anne traveling on the Dancetronauts 25 ft high strip ship, cruising the streets of LA in a wild party. The girls smoke weed and escape. While Anne wildly dances with her peers, Santana and Thomas make love on the ship. It’s a beautiful ecstasy to an ugly conclusion that dared us to move and think.

 

“I want a divorce Patrick. It’s not that I don’t love you anymore. It’s just that I can’t be with you anymore. We’ve grown apart. I realized nobody will save you and I don’t want to see you when you fall apart.” (Gemma Valentine) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 91

“The life of the manic pixie girl is that she really doesn’t exist. She is a fable like Marilyn. She is the female fixation from the heaps of tabloid trash I piss on.”  (Patrick Quinn) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 93

• The Descent to Madness: Easton calmly watches the footage of the film he has, specifically that of Gemma and Paloma. He is in shambles. Nothing amuses him anymore. There was always a search for that something that was always missing. There’s got to be more to life. But this temporary high led him to this debacle. Alpi watches his young friend wallow in pity. He wants to wipe that pity off his pretty face. He’s got a movie to complete. Up in the gallows, Patrick tampers with the film on the silver screen. He plays an unfinished copy of Madness. The soaring title sequence with a singing and dancing Gemma plays over the screen. Patrick has finally broken bad. His madness has finally boiled over and the little humanity he had is completely gone now. He’s ready to throw this masterpiece in Easton’s face. Gemma enters the room, bring the four main characters in the room together. Patrick is snide and repulsive. He has no regard for the wife that loves him. Instead, he presents a film despicably vile that it’s a tour-de-force in achievement. Gemma is the principle player he humiliates through his art medium. Horrified and disgusted at the same time, Gemma begs Easton to stop the film but he will not. It’s quite the film, a brutal beautiful violence rarely seen in today’s cinema. The images reflect off them, dancing with the colors of their auras.  As the film ends, Easton cannot turn away from his plan any longer. This charade of a perfect marriage, of a perfect set, of a perfect friendship needs to end. Patrick blames Easton for his descend. It’s not Easton’s responsibility. He tells him a stinging truth, “Don’t worry. You don’t ever cross my mind.” And with that, everything in Patrick’s life unravels. He’s going to slowly burn along. All he sees and hears are Alpi’s words, “You have the power. Use it.” His wife is gone. His decency and an unwavering sanity are both gone as well. The only thing he has left is a morsel of a career he can muster and this monster of a film he cannot seem to quit. It has a life of its own.

 

“You should be so lucky that I took a notice in you. Before me, you were begging studios to make your squalor of films. I gave you the budgets, I gave you the girl, and I gave you the power.” (Easton Caldwell) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 99

 

• The Conversation: Alpi finds Easton contemplating the steps he has taken to get this project off the ground. As Alpi pacifies his disturbing thoughts, Caldwell comes clean to the agent. Not because he feels guilty but because he needs this man to fix a crime for him. He reveals the pact he made with Patrick on the night of the Born Again premiere. He tells the agent that Patrick wanted out because everywhere he goes, Gemma’s face and name is always attached with his. Easton manipulated Patrick into selling himself, in turn Patrick will get what he wants which is to become the greatest director of his generation. In Easton’s mind, nobody ever specified that meant he couldn’t be the greatest deceased director of his time. Alpi, dearly fond of Patrick, refuses to help Easton murder Patrick on the set but it’s done. All Easton ever wanted was to build his legacy. He created this empire of dirt and now all that is left of it is to burn all the old, sacrifice Patrick, get the girl back, and start back at one. The mind cannot be created nor destroyed.

 

“Every action I’ve taken was to watch myself build my dirt pile. That was my empire of dirt. Maybe it’s time that I sit and watch my world burn and see the ashes fly away.”  (Easton Caldwell) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 105

My cast and crew, I am sorry that my pride got us this far. I come to you, humbled by the tragedies we have faced over my decision to film this monster. The truth is, it wasn’t about you. It was about me. It was my challenge and I used you all. And for that I’m sorry. I am sorry that I didn’t let you grief for a friend and colleague. I am sorry that you had to witness our director’s death. And I am sorry that I gambled just about everyone’s sanity for my need to be right. I won’t shame you if you mourn them. Hell, just cry because the madness won over. I’m sorry that as your producer, I failed to protect each and every one of you. Nobody deserves to come to work and see an act like this. If one of you decides not to return when we resume to finish the feature, I will understand. But for those special few that wish to join us, you will not only finish what you have started but you will help both Patrick and Paloma finish their last project. We owe it to them to do just that. Thank you.” (Easton Caldwell) — Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 112

• Far Away From the Maddening Crowd: To Easton’s amusement, all the cast and crew are present for the last day of shooting. Curious and chasing the money they signed up for, they watch as Easton glows with his emerald green light. Gemma emerges from her dressing room and stands tall at the apex of the staircase. The live orchestra and its conductor are now present by the offbeat yellow pit. The music comes alive as Easton directs Gemma’s performance of closing number “Far Away from the Maddening Crowd.” Alpi watches away in the curtains. It’s all Valentine. She’s the true crowning jewel of Caldwell Studios and Hollywood altogether. The goddess, the transcendent Complex Muse, feels the energy of Patrick within her as she sings the rousing piece. Inspired by a James Bond theme song, specifically Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger,” the closing lyrics are “This world is not good enough, To coexist for the both of us.” She’s right. In order for her to conquer Patrick, she had to kill the beast. And she stands there, paralyzed in all her glory, Easton rewrites history for he knows, no matter how he spins this, he will come up on top.

“Indistinct black silhouettes watch Quinn’s last masterpiece- Caldwell killed the beast and rewrites history.”  Obscura by Jennifer Brigitte, page 120