The Manifest

Timothy, tired of listening to his parents chatter with their friends over lunch in a chic South Beach restaurant, decides to slip away. His parents are none the wiser and continue their conversation. The eight year old boy passes the pool and soon finds the beach nearby. He sits down to build a sandcastle near the ocean although he doesn’t build an ordinary sandcastle. Instead, he just makes a small cube out of sand and then stops. A moment passes and nothing happens. Then, as if through a burst of magic, a small crane springs up from the sand. The crane immediately starts constructing a skyscraper from the beach a couple feet below. Timothy smiles and starts on a second and third cube. Before long, the beginnings of an entire city 3 feet high is unfolding with more buildings going up. Seaweed trees start sprouting from the beach to line the small streets in between the towers.  Timothy scoops a handful of sand and carves out a lake and river fed by the ocean. He constructs bridge and shapes islands. From inside the city we peer up at Timothy who looks like a huge god overseeing the construction of this world.

All of a sudden everything stops. Timothy’s parents show up. His mother worried sick and screaming. His father looks down at him with disappointment. He is sitting next to a small, very plain sand castle with a moat and several small sand mounds next to it. His father grabs him by the arm and pulls him away. Timothy gets one last glance back at his empire as he is dragged off. It is nearly sunset and tiny lights start to appear within the small structures and the camera zooms in to reveal that the skyline matches the buildings of Miami Beach perfectly.

This is a short little piece that I wrote a treatment for a music video / short film.