In the Arcade

By Sammy Ali and Adrianna Paniak

EXT. MARGATE, TURNER CONTEMPORARY, MORNING

Outside the arcade, there is drudgery, hardship of life but inside the arcade, life is but a dream,

DENNIS become a different man, a master of his fate, the time flies by as he is on the verge of

grasping his dream. Everyone is deceptive. They are not who they really are. They are characters in

the arcade. They wear masks over their faces.

Extreme wide shot, Turner Contemporary. Very wide shot, we start to see the detail of the scene; a

man.

DENNIS (thirty something dreamer who wants the toy, loner, peculiar, no information on his

background, no idea where he gets his income but spend it all on collectable toys, walks around with

a jar of 2p’s, friendly, nice, innocent)is walking towards the camera; he is becoming more central to

it.

Crabbing shot of the waking town, the sun is peeping out from the horizon, there is the cleaning van

on the beach, bar and cafes are just beginning to open. Long shot of an empty street, a single driving

car and the silence of the scene, it is becoming eerie because it is very unnatural. Arc shot of

DENNIS, he looks mysterious. Cut in to a jar he holds in his hand, which is full of 2 pence coins.

Digetic sound of seagulls, sea and the cleaning van on the beach.

Dutch tilt of DENNIS’s brown shoes on the pavement. POV, we see the scene through the eyes of the

protagonist, an empty street.

DENNIS walks towards a crossing. Close up of DENNIS pressing the button though the street is

empty, he waits until a green light starts flickering and only steps on the white stripes.

Only then we notice that he has a carrier bag in his other hand. He sits on bench nearby and takes a

thermos from it. He pours out the tea and looks up to the clock tower.

A close up of the clock tower, we see the time, 06:00 AM sharp.

Over the shoulder shot as he looks towards the street opposite him and waits for something but

nothing happens. He looks into the carrier bag again and takes out a roll; he eats it and starts feeding

seagulls. We notice his kind heart because the seagulls get more than he does. POV shot of a seagull.

DENNIS gets up from the bench, puts the thermos back in the carrier bag; same with the roll

wrapper. He walk s towards the next crossing and repeats the earlier routine on waiting for the light

to turn green but this time there is a single car waiting. Again he only walks on the white stripes.

A panning shot of the arcade windows. DENNIS walks on until he stands outside FUN SHINE

AMUSEMENTS. A reaction shot, an extreme close up of a 2 pence coin on the pavement, a close up

of DENNIS’s amazed at his luck. He picks the coin up and puts it in his jar. He shakes the jar and puts

it back in the carrier bag.

DENNIS looks at a man inside the arcade open the door. He recognises his and waves.

INT. MARAGTE, FUN SHIME AMUSEMENTS, MORNING

POV of the man inside, ANTONIO (Antony, flirts with everyone, old ladies, young women, a staff

member behind the prize counter, he doesn’t like his job, sleek hair, flowery shirt and shorts, he

impersonates a Spanish man, a fraud), a mid shot of DENNIS saying something to him, however to

ANTONIO it is inaudible. He walks away from the door and vanishes in the dark space.

DENNIS walks in.

A tracking shot of DENNIS as he walks between the colourful machines.

Overwhelming digetic sound of pop music, coins falling and machines. From his bag he takes out a

page ripped out from a vintage cars catalogue. An extreme close up of the model he wants, circled

with a red marker pen.

POV DENNIS , everything is moving very quickly. The camera zooms in on him as he looks full of

ecstasy. He points out that to the car on the ‘’PRIZE’’ shelf, looks again to the ripped page out of

catalogue as they match.

The camera tilts from the car to the page. A reaction shot of the BINGO station followed by a close

up of DENNIS’s face. An extreme close up of his eye takes us into the game.

DENNIS Imagines he is playing bingo, he goes to the pedestal and takes out his notebook from the

bag.

Close up of complicated numbers and equations. He grabs the microphone and starts shouting out

random number and colours. He’s acting like a child.

DENNIS:

23 RED…67 BLUE….99 HUNDERED BROWN…BINGO

ANTONIO:

“PERDONE SENOR” (EXGAGERATED SPANISH ACCENT)

DENNIS (MIMICKING ANTONIO):

HOLA BUENOS DIAS. COMO ESTA. ESTOY BIEN. GRACIAS. (STARTS LAUGHING IN BETWEEN

SENTENCES)

ANTONIO (QUIETLY WITHOUT THE SPANISH ACCENT):

THAT’S ENOUGH DENNIS. YOU ARE RUINING MY GAME.

DENNIS starts singing an operatic aria from La Traviata. ANTONIO’S POV.

DENNIS:

Libiamo, libiamo ne'lieti calici

Che la belleza infiora.

E la fuggevol ora s'inebrii

A volutt.

Libiamo ne'dolci fremiti

Che suscita l'amore,

Poich quell'ochio al core omnipotente va.

Libiamo, amore fra I calici

Pi caldi baci avr.

ANTONIO walks up to him. DENNIS tightly embraces ANTONIO and continues the operatic aria.

EXT. MARGATE, TURNER CONTEMPORARY, MIDDAY

A mid shot (low angle) from the outside of the arcade of the two men talking, sound is inaudible.

INT. MARAGTE, FUN SHIME AMUSEMENTS, MIDDAY

After some persuasion from ANTONIO he finally calms down and goes to a coin machine. A close up

of DENNIS taking out a £1 coin from his wallet. A Dutch tilt of the 2 pence coins falling out. A low

angle shot of DENNIS, showing his God like status in the arcade.

There is no one there except for the arcade employee, ANTONIO (he has a fake Spanish accent,

maybe he even doesn’t work there). DENNIS finds out a new game, PacMan, he puts money in, plays

and gets a flood tickets.

There is a zoom of the words on the screen WINNER. DENNIS exclaims in happiness.

There is a fast montage of DENNIS moving from one game to the other and winning tickets in each

one of them. A two shot of them both with ANTONIO observing his with amazement and suspicion.

DENNIS is drinking more and more from his thermos; there is coffee there or presumably alcohol.

Random strangers (extras: Sammy, Adrianna, Marissa, Umit) start cheering DENNIS on his quest to

win enough tickets to win the vintage toy car.

EXT. MARGATE, STREET, AFTERNNON

Again he is observed by someone outside. Long shot of a figure’s back.

INT. MARAGTE, FUN SHIME AMUSEMENTS, AFTERNOON

Eyeline match. DENNIS looks behind and sees LEO (a kid who hangs around the arcade, his

motivation is unknown, presumably hard situation at home, a pickpocket). LEO has a sour face, he

looks at DENNIS disapprovingly.

Deep focus on LEO’s mouth.

LEO (DISAPROVINGLY):

I told you not to show your face here again, blood. This is my ground. Move out.

DENNIS (TALKING WITH A WESTERN ACCENT):

This place is too small for both of us, amigo.

Two shot of the DENNIS and LEO standing opposite each other. They look like cowboys in the Wild

West.

LEO:

What do you suggest we do brov?

DENNIS (CONTINUING WITH THE ACCENT):

We do it the old way. ANTONIO?

ANTONIO intervenes, he stand between them. Three shot.

ANTONIO (PUTTING ON THE SPANISH ACCENT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE):

LEO, my friend, I told you I want no trouble from you. Go somewhere else and spread mayhem. Not

here.

DENNIS (HE PATS ANTONIO ON HIS BACK):

Don’t worry ANTHONY; we’ll end it once and for all. (Whispering in ANTONIO’s ear)

Are you sure you want to do this?

LEO (LOOKING AT DENNI’S JAR)

I was born to do this. I have nothing to lose.

They play a dancing game for all their tickets. Close up of DENNIS and LEO’s face. They start to

sweat. DENNIS does a complicated move. DENNIS wins. Digetic music of the game. Everyone cheers

DENNIS’s name.

Tracking shot of DENNIS going to the PRIZE counter. ANTONIO follows. DENNIS putts all his tickets in

the EXCHNAGE machine and receives a little receipt with the number of all his tickets.

Mid shot on the machine eating tickets. And extreme close up on the number 8500.

DENNIS takes the receipt and goes over to the counter.

Mid shot of his facial expression. Over the shoulder of LEO and the people in the arcade observing

him. Long shot of them all cheering ‘’DENNIS’’ while LEO’s face is sad.

DENNIS

Here you go ANTONIO. Can I please get the 1955 vintage car for 8500 tickets?

ANTONIO (WINKING)

Of course you can mate. It’s yours. I hope I won’t have to see your face again.

DENNIS nods and turns to the exit.

A panning shot of the whole arcade. DENNIS stops before the door. The order went back to normal.

He is anonymous again. A small fish in the big world.

EXT. MARGATE, STREET, AFTERNOON

He notices LEO across the road, looking out into the sea. He crosses it without the previous routine.

There is a visible change in his behaviour. It’s like he grown up. He stand next to LEO, shot of their

backs and hands over the toy car, in an attempt to change his future and show him that people can

be kind. Long shot of the two. Sound is inaudible.

DENNIS:

Here you go son, I’ll try to be a better father to you.

DENNIS walks in the other direction. A mid shot of his face, he seems happy. He throws away the

page out of the catalogue into the nearest bin as he walks into the sunset. Camera zooms to LEO.

Over the shoulder shot. Soft focus on DENNIS. LEO smiles.

THE END