Creativity: A Screenplay
Scene 1 Setting:
“Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin plays
Fade into a wide-angle exterior shot of Arizona dessert. Slow pan.
The music volume lowers as the Narrator begins to speak.
?Narrator: Morgan Freeman (Voiceover):
Creativity. An elusive element that can revolutionize art, industry, and even life.
Join us as we observe an epiphany of creativity that forever changed the field of architecture.
The year is 1936. Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright is walking along the foothills of Mount McKesson outside of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Wright has just accepted a commission to design a new Headquarters building for the SC Johnson company and he is struggling with how to make his vision a reality…
Camera pans right across the desert, zooming in on a solitary man walking among the large Saguaro cacti.
Camera follows Wright as he walks…an inner monologue begins…
Frank Lloyd Wright?(Voiceover of inner monologue):
How can I do it?
I can see it…the open space…thin fluted columns…
But it’s impossible.
Wright's face grows sterner with concentration as the questions run through his head. He continues then stops among the cacti, turning to a group of them and addressing them as an audience
Frank Lloyd Wright (talking aloud):
Tell me what you think...
A large open office…a quarter acre…no, no…a HALF acre
Workers free to move about, talk, and engage.
Thin fluted columns supporting the ceiling. Concealed Pyrex tubes bring in the sun and give indirect light…the entire space a hidden forest glen.
Wright pauses. A breeze comes through and slightly shakes the giant cacti.
Yes, I see you agree! Yes, yes, it is a harmony of humanity and nature.
But it cannot be.
The slender reed columns cannot be made. They could never support the weight. Instead, they’d have to be thick monstrosities like some ancient Greek temple.
We’ve come so far in so many things…and yet the laws of physics and engineering constrain us to the crude structures we’ve built for millennia.
If there was only a way…
Wright stops, head droops slightly. After a pause, he makes his way to the group of Saguaro cacti. The plants, 20 to 30 feet tall, towering over him. As he carefully makes his way through, he finds himself in front of a dead and decaying Saguaro cactus.
The spines and the green flesh of the cactus have rotted away. Thick brown woody ribs are all that remain.
Wright pauses. Looking over the Saguaro Skeleton. As he stares, we see enlightenment on his face.
Wright sits down and fishes out a notebook. We see him furiously scribbling in the book as the camera fades to black.
Scene 2 Setting:
Opening shot of a workshop. Large sketches of cactus frames line the walls. On the workbenches and tables throughout the room are models of pillars in various stages of construction.
In the middle of the workshop is Wright; intently working on one of the larger models. Bending thick wires in a spiral; making the framework for a column.
Frank Lloyd Wright (talking aloud to himself):
Yes…that’s looking quite nice.
Just a bit more.
I think I’ve got it…
Wright’s voice fades off as music begins. “Build Me Up Buttercup” by The Foundations plays in the background.
Transition to a series of montages of Wright working. Finishing a column’s framework. Pouring plaster of paris into a mold around frame. Unveiling it. Placing a weight on the thin column, only to have it break apart. Repeat the sequence.?Building, testing, and failure.
Frustration mounts on Wright’s face with each column collapsing.
Finally, Wright places a large weight upon a 4-foot-tall model column. After he gingerly places the weight, he cautiously withdraws his hands.
The columns sway slightly…then steadies.?It holds! The camera zooms into Wright's beaming face as it then fades to black.
Scene 3 Setting:
A midwestern field: prairie-like setting.
In the middle of the field is a 20-foot-tall column. It is only 9 inches in diameter at the bottom, but the top blossoms to an 18-foot pad.
Next to the column is a crane. Next to the crane is a small mountain of sandbags.
In front of the column is a small podium.
The camera zooms in as Wright walks onto the podium.
Title card appears “Racine, Wisconsin. June 4, 1937.”
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Ladies and Gentlemen. Honored Guests. Thank you for being here today.
The Wisconsin Industrial Commission has refused to certify my plans for the SC Johnson building. They do not believe this thin column can support the required weight to keep the structure safe and sound.
The plans show each of these columns would be required to bear a load of 6 tons each.
We are here today to bear witness that these marvels of engineering can indeed hold 6 tons each…and more!
Wright waves his right hand at the crane operator. The crane begins to lift and dump sandbags onto the top of the column.
As the sandbags pile onto the column, title cards appear on the bottom of the screen counting off the weight…
“1 Ton”
“2 Tons”
“3 Tons”
“4 Tons”
“5 Tons”
“6 Tons- Required Load”
Camera zooms out from the column and then pans to show the crowd erupting in applause.
Camera moves to Wright on the podium accepting congratulations from various dignitaries. After shaking many hands, Wright moves up to the front of the podium and holds his hands high.
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Wait...wait…I am not one to be satisfied with meeting the minimum. Let us test this marvel of engineering to its utmost limits.
Wright turns to crane operator
Continue the load!
Camera pulls back to show the crane continuing to load sandbags onto the column. The title cards continue:
“7 tons”
“8 tons”
“9 tons”
“10 tons”
Film has series of dissolves as pile of sandbags grow with each shot, each time, the pile noticeably bigger…title cards continue:
“20 tons”
“30 tons”
“40 tons”
“50 tons”
“60 tons”
The shot of the column with 60 tons card lingers. The camera then zooms and pans back onto Wright on the podium…
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Ladies and Gentlemen…we have reached 60 tons…yes..Six Zeros tons.?That is ten times of the load-bearing requirement for this glorious building.
Now, to celebrate, as we are in Wisconsin, please join me for some beer and pretzels under the shade of this engineering marvel.
Camera pulls back to show the crowd moving forward to celebrate under the fluted column.
Film dissolves from the celebration to a montage of photos of the completed SC Johnson Building. Interior shots of the columns and the half-acre workspace continue as the narrator speaks…
Narrator: Morgan Freeman (Voiceover):
Frank Lloyd Wright completes the SC Johnson Headquarters building in 1939 and it instantly receives numerous accolades. Life Magazine touted the building as the wave of the future. In 1976 it was recognized as a National Historical Landmark.
All of this from a walk among the cacti in the Arizona desert.
So where do you get inspiration?
?Shot fades from the montage of photographs to black screen.
Title card of white font fades into center of screen “Inspiration”
Pause for 5 seconds. Then title card fades, and screen is total black.