INT. BEDROOM - DAY

We slowly zoom in on DAVE, 20, asleep in bed.

A beat. Dave’s eyes snap open. We stop zooming in.

We are in complete darkness. Then Dave opens the drawer.

ANGLE ON: Dave, at the chest of drawers.

He hesitates, looking in at his neatly-rolled underwear.

A beat. Dave pulls out a pair of check boxer shorts and holds them up.

Dave puts them back, then pulls out a pair of plain black boxers and holds them up too.

Dave glances from side to side.

DAVE #2 holding up the check boxers.

DAVE #3 holding up the black boxers.

ANGLE ON: Dave, still glancing from side to side, holding both pairs of boxers in his hands now.

He glances round. On his bedside table there is a glass with about an inch of Coca Cola in the bottom.

We zoom in on that glass. Hey, it’s important!

Dave puts the underwear down and goes to the glass, but he doesn’t drink it, he reaches into the Coke.

Dave retrieves a TWO POUND COIN from the bottom of the glass and shakes the Coke off it.

Then he holds it up between thumb and forefinger. Cue an ultra fast Paul WS Anderson style uber-zoom in on the coin. It is indeed shiny and new-looking.

Dave flips the coin in the air, catches it on the back of his hand and slaps the other palm on top of it.

He lifts his palm off the coin slowly.

It’s come up tails.

He picks up the black boxers and kisses the coin.

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

It is a fastidiously tidy kitchen, very un-student-like.

Dave comes in, now fully dressed.

He opens one of the cupboards. There are several packets of breakfast cereal in there. He takes out CHEERIOS, but then hesitates.

Dave glances from side to side.

Dave #2 sits at the table, and looks up from a bowl of cereal. He holds up a nearby packet of FROSTIES.

Dave #3 sits at the table, and looks up from a bowl of cereal. He holds up a nearby packet of Cheerios.

ANGLE ON: Dave, with the packets of Frosties and Cheerios on the counter in front of him.

He flips the coin and catches it under his palm again.

He removes his palm. The coin’s come up tails. He puts the Frosties back in the cupboard.

INT. BATHROOM - DAY

Like the kitchen, the bathroom is spotlessly clean.

There is a cup on the sink that holds a toothpaste tube and TWO TOOTHBRUSHES, different colours.

As Dave speaks, he goes through the ritual of picking up one toothbrush, hesitating with doubts, flipping the coin to pick the right one, then brushing his teeth:

Dave spits toothpaste into the basin and rinses.

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

Dave comes in and plonks himself in front of the X-Box.

As he speaks, he picks up one game, hesitates, picks up another, goes through the ritual of flipping the coin yet again, then starts to play:

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

Dave comes in and takes a glass out of the cupboard. There are two bottles on the counter, COKE and SPRITE.

As Dave speaks, he picks up the Sprite, then goes through the ritual of flipping the coin yet again, and ends up pouring a Coke instead:

As Dave drinks slowly, the phone rings. Dave turns his head in the direction of the hall.

Fast zoom in on the back of Dave #2, standing with the phone to his ear. He turns round.

Fast zoom in on the back of Dave #3, standing with the phone to his ear. He turns round.

ANGLE ON: Dave putting down the glass and heading into the hallway to answer the phone.

Of course, when he reaches it, he hesitates.

Dave flips the coin. Slaps his palm down on top.

It comes up heads. He quickly, eagerly snatches up the phone. He listens, starts smiling straight away.

He listens, nodding, and plays with the phone lead.

Dave tries to pin the phone between his shoulder and ear so he can flip the coin. Instead he drops it.

He quickly stamps his foot on top of it.

He lifts his foot off the coin.

He smiles.

INT. HALLWAY - DAY

Dave comes out of the living room.

He heads toward the stairs.

He reaches the bottom of the stairs.

The doorbell rings when Dave is right next to the door.

Dave looks directly into the camera.

Dave quickly flips the coin. It tells him to open the door, which he does.

Standing on the doorstep is ROB, 20, smiling. He is holding a collection tin. He holds up an identity card.

Dave folds one arm across his waist defensively, rests the other elbow on his wrist and holds the coin up to his lips.

He trails off, grinning, and points at the coin Dave’s holding with a stabbing finger motion.

Dave lowers the coin far enough to look at it.

Dave glances from side to side.

ANGLE ON: Dave #2, pushing the door to, but not closing it, then glancing back over his shoulder.

ANGLE ON: Dave #3, standing with his arms crossed halfway down the hall.

Dave flips the coin again, catches it on the back of his hand and slaps the other palm down on top.

Rob looks on, perplexed and wary.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he lifts his hand away.

The coin’s come up tails.

Dave looks at Rob like the guy was his doppelganger.

Rob smiles invitingly and holds out the tin.

INT. BEDROOM - DAY

Dave bursts in, all in a fluster. He staggers in the doorway, driving a hand through his hair, looking about.

We zoom in on Dave’s wallet as he spots it sitting on the beside table.

He rushes over, grabs it, fumbles as he tears it open. He pulls out a couple of fivers, lets them fall to the ground, then unzips the coin pouch. He sticks his fingers in, gropes around.

Then he tips the wallet upside down and shakes it.

Nothing falls out.

Dave tosses the wallet aside and yanks open the top drawer of his cabinet. He rummages through the junk.

There is a six-sided dice in the drawer. Dave ignores it as he looks for coins. He finds none.

He stops, looking completely lost. Then slowly his eyes pan down to the drawer again. His brow furrows.

We are in complete darkness.

Then Dave clears the mess that was obscuring our view.

ANGLE ON: the dice, a space cleared all around it, framed by Dave’s motionless fingers.

After a moment, he snatches it.

Dave opens the wardrobe and surveys all his clothes.

And Dave has a lot of clothes.

Looking at them, he bites his lip. He opens his clenched fist, looks at the dice and grins.

Then he glances from side to side.

ANGLE ON: Dave #2, wearing the first outfit.

ANGLE ON: Dave #3, wearing the second outfit.

ANGLE ON: DAVE #4, wearing the third outfit.

ANGLE ON: the back of DAVE #5’s head in close up.

He’s peering into the wardrobe. As he turns, he smiles. He has a camp voice, and camp mannerisms.

Then we pan slowly down from his face. He appears to be topless. We keep on going down his torso.

We get to his navel - and keep going. This is about to get rather pornographic.

And then we cut to black. Just in time. Roll credits. Perhaps fade in on an artistic macro-lens shot of a dice lying on the carpet.

On the number four, of course.

NOTES:
Dan's remit was a ten-page film script with as few characters as possible, preferably just one. I pointed out that it's difficult to generate drama without anyone to conflict with, and sarcastically asked if he wanted me to write a script about somebody who talks to himself. Dan said, quite seriously, yes. I was thinking of something along the lines of Gollum in the "Lord Of The Rings" films, but that night, as I was brushing my teeth (always the way), I remembered this short story I wrote several years ago about a guy who has two invisible "dudes" sitting on his shoulders, giving him conflicting advice all the time. So now I had multiple characters, and they'd all be played by the same person. As I thought around the concept, I came up with the idea that my main character, Dave, would decide between the opposing "dudes" by flipping a coin. Then I worked back from this, working out why he does this, how he got to this stage. Some may notice a similarity to "The Dice Men" by Luke Rheinhart, but I haven't read that, so any apparent plagiarism is committed entirely innocently. Originally this was going to be called "A Date With Fate", which I knew was dodgy from the start. Dan came up with "Flipside" pretty quickly.

On a technical note, I am well aware that this is pretty badly laid-out. The very second line of the script is a reference to what we as an audience are seeing on screen, which is the cardinal sin of screenwriting, apparently (you're supposed to guide the director's imagination, not his camera). It's one I go on to commit about a dozen times every page, with all those ANGLE ON:s and shots from inside drawers. As I explained to Dan, who would be filming the thing, I wanted to make it precisely clear to him what I was seeing in my head, because then as long as he understood what I was envisaging, when he inevitably deviated from my vision, at least he would be singing from the same hymn-sheet, even if he wasn't singing it in the same key.