Rain
About Geoff Ryman
Geoff Ryman is a Canadian living in the United Kingdom. His first book based on events in Cambodia was published in 1985, the award-winning The Unconquered Country. The King's Last Song was inspired by a visit to an Australian archaeological dig at Angkor Wat in 2000. He has been a regular visitor since, teaching writing workshops in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap twice, and publishing three further novellas set in Cambodia. In Britain he produced documentaries for Resonance FM, London, on Cambodian Arts. He has published nine other books and won fourteen awards. He teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester.
Script
Rain by Geoff Ryman
RAIN
Geoff Ryman
The ‘camera’ doesn’t move left or right. It just keeps pulling back further and further away at increasing speed. It is fleeing. There is no dialogue.
Panel one
A human eye with a tear flowing from it.
Panel two
We see the person whole. An older man in lumpy black sweatsuit, glaring at a piece of paper in his hand. It’s pouring with rain. Steam seems to be coming off him. One side of the road there is a barber shop pole, all of its cand-cane stripes outlined in bright red and blue LED lights.
Panel three
The camera is further away now, and the barber shop pole glows through the curtain of rain. The man’s whole body doubled over as if in pain. There is no doubt now that he is steaming. The piece of paper has fluttered out of his hand towards the camera and we can see that is coveried in type, but we can’t read it.
Panel four
He is really quite far away now. The barber shop is quite distant. Speed lines indicate that the camera is actually moving away at high speed. The man is on all fours. We see shreds of his track suit fly away from him.
Panel five
He quite distant. Is he swelling? He is wreathed in steam, a silhoutte in the rain and steam. The camera is still moving.
Panel six
The barber shop is tiny, far away, and he is looming much larger than the building housing it—and he has spread huge wings wide, spreading the mist. He has become a dragon.
Panel seven
The camera is fleeing fast, a corona of speed lines. The dragon is chasing the PoV, his body level, the huge wings beating, feet off the ground, the hot yellow eyes glowing with hatred.
Panel eight
All we seee is that enraged yellow dragon eye. No tears, just steam.
Artists Note
This script screamed NINE PANEL GRID at me, and so it became a nine panel grid.