an example of a screenplay

BLAIR WITCH II


By

Dick Beebe


Original Story By

Joe Berlinger & Dick Beebe







FIRST DRAFT (Revised)

January 10, 2000













BLACK SCREEN

And in that darkness, white words silently FADE UP:

The following is based on actual events. Some
dramatic re-creation was necessary for reasons
that will become obvious.

Beat. And then slowly swelling up is the sound of panicked
hyperventilation--spasms of words and weeping:

VOICE (HEATHER DONAHUE)
I'm...scared...to close my eyes--

SMASH UP ON

the teary and terrified EYES of HEATHER DONAHUE (the now ubiquitous
scene from "Blair Witch Project" of her confessing to the camera):

HEATHER DONAHUE
--I'm scared to open them.
(beat)
We're going to die out here--

--then, suddenly, this image of Heather FREEZE FRAMES. And we hear
the incongruously perky Voice of ABC's DEBORAH ROBERTS:

DEBORAH ROBERTS (V.O.)
--she'd be a much happier camper
if she'd lived to see this weekend's
grosses--

--abruptly, the freeze-framed image of Heather goes squeeze-boxing
up into the upper left corner of the screen, revealing:

That we're watching ABC WORLD NEWS SUNDAY--the date bannered at the
bottom of the screen: August 1, 1999. Reporter Deborah Roberts sits
behind the Anchor Desk reading TelePrompTer copy:

DEBORAH ROBERTS
In only its first week of wide
release, "The Blair Witch Project"
has taken in a whopping 36 million
at the nation's box office. Not too
bad for an independent film that was
reportedly made for less than the
cost of your average Buick--

CUT TO:

News Video - Day. The Angelika Theatre, New York City. Big and bold
on the marquee: "Blair Witch Project." Tracking shot away from the
theatre and down the street, to see: