Los Angeles, CA
EXT. BEVERLY HILLS - DAY
Lazy Sunday morning. Empty street in Beverly Hills.
Three twenty-something post-bohemian hipster (PBH)
types slowly pedal their bicycles. MAISY, 25,
Female PBH #2 on the far left is silent and heavily
medicated. The other two -- DAKOTA, 27, female
PBH #1 with Tina Fey glasses and DYLAN, 28,
unshaven male PBH -- were pontificating about nothing
for several blocks.
DAKOTA
I don’t know how many times I’ve
taken the same photo.
DYLAN
Imagine how many people took the
same photo before you?
DAKOTA
My mom said she used to work in a
Fotomat when she was in college.
DYLAN
What the hell is that?
DAKOTA
It was like a drive thru photo
store. But very tiny. Like the size
of a food truck. This was before
digital cameras. People dropped off
film things. I dunno what are they
call?
DYLAN
Umm... Film cartridges?
DAKOTA
Film reels? You know the film film?
Old school film, like tape. You see
that shit in old movies.
DYLAN
Yeah. Film tape.
DAKOTA
So people drove up to Fotomat and
dropped off their film tape. When
pictures were developed, they
picked them up
DYLAN
Where did they develop it?
DAKOTA
Dunno. Some darkroom somewhere.
Doesn’t matter. The thing is that
my mom said she looked at a lot of
the photos. She said when people
came back from their summer
vacations, if they went to Europe,
they always took pictures of the
same things. Like the Eiffel Tower.
Or Notre Dame.
DYLAN
Right were the Hunchback lives.
DAKOTA
Same photo. Different people. Same
photo.
DYLAN
Imagine how many people take the
same photo of the same Eiffel
Tower?
DAKOTA
Day after day. Thousands every day.
Tens of thousands. Over one hundred
thousand a week
DYLAN
No way. I saw more. Like a half a
million a week
DAKOTA
That’s like 26 million people a
year
DYLAN
Same picture. Same tower. Different
people. So what’s the point of
taking pictures?
DAKOTA
That’s what I’m wondering. I guess
as a personal memento
DYLAN
But you can just Google that shit.
You’d find a better one. No doubt.
By a real photographer. Or someone
who took a shot with better light.
I went to film school. It’s all
about light.
DAKOTA
I thought you dropped out?
DYLAN
Whatevs. Just Google pics. You
don’t need to take ’em.
DAKOTA
Selfies in front of the Eiffel
Tower is the new postcard. Except
you don’t actually have to go
through the trouble of sending an
actual overpriced card that will
take a month to get to where its
supposed to go, and by then you’re
already home and told everyone
about your trip
DYLAN
What’s the point of even going? You
can just Photoshop yourself into a
picture of you with the Hunchback
of Notre Dame, or hanging with
Beibs in Rome with 2 Chainz’s
entourage.
DAKOTA
Food is temporary. It’s unique and
something worth preserving
DYLAN
Now you see it. Then it’s gone
DAKOTA
Disappears. Digested. Shat out.
Flushed away. Into the bowels of
the city’s sewers
DYLAN
Then flushed out to the ocean, so
whales and dolphins will eventually
eat it. You shit out dolphin food.
That’s pretty rad. You can’t do
that with the Eiffel Tower... eat
it bit by bit and shit it out for
Euro-trash dolphins as dessert.
DAKOTA
You ever think that when you take a
picture of food, that you’re
capturing it’s last breath of life
before it gets consumed
DYLAN
And then turned into dolphin shit.
DAKOTA
Yeah. You capture the food at the
height of its essence. Someone
prepares that dish pulling in
different ingredients and it went
from nothing to something in a
short time. But once you get
served, that’s the beginning of the
end. The dish reaches its pinnacle
of existence as its being set down
in front of you. Once you start
eating, it’s over. Death. When you
take a photo of food, you capture
the moment before it dies.
DYLAN
That’s some really serious deep
thinking. Like Nobel Prize winning
philosophy and shit
DAKOTA
Thanks. And I didn’t have to get
thrown out of NYU film school to
learn that.
DYLAN
So how did you learn that? You
know, the essence of food and dying
and shit?
DAKOTA
Xanax. I take one but before I
drift off to dreamland, I look at
food photos on Instagram. It’s easy
to think about death when all you
think about all day is hiding from
real life. So I look at a couple
hundred of food pics every night.
Relaxes me. Meals by friends and
strangers alike
MAISY
That’s a lot of dolphin Shit.
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