Rough draft of story 3

I decided to change a bit the ending, focusing more on Gary's personal journey, rather than how he applies that to his relationship with his child. I also want to put more emphasis on the painting as that is kind of what symbolises his relationship with his masculinity and how he expresses it.

1. Gary is coming home from school, looking at a piece of artwork that got an F with tears in his eyes, his father scolds him disappointedly and telling him to “suck it up” and that “be a man” 

2. Blink cut 

3. Cuts to the older him being in a room where his name is called, he’s sitting on a chair outside an office, holding a piece reminiscent of the artwork from previously as if to pitch this piece to a client, he looks at the artwork before being called into the office 

4. He enters the office excited and energetic, then coming out with a deflated expression, looking way more haggard, sighing deeply as he holds back his tears, whispering to himself that “boys don’t cry”  

5. He throws the artwork into a rejected box when he gets home (living room), it’s dark and grey and gloomy, the shot is in between a doorway, and he walks out of frame to the left 

6. Then from the right, the lighting has changed in his home (living room, a revised version of the rejected artwork hung on the walls) into something warmer and we see him carrying his newly wed bride into the home, they’re giggling, it’s happy  

7. It cuts to a shot of them slightly older, in the living room. Gary takes off his tie, looking disheartened and solemn, not necessarily sad, just detached. Taking out the white flower from his suit pocket and places it in front of a family photo (close up) (implying a funeral) 

8. His wife comes up behind him and comforts him by saying “he was a good man...” and after a beat he says, "you know he always used to tell me toughen up..." and he lets out a dry emotionless chuckle. she adds, “you know you can feel sad with me hun... crying doesn’t make you weak...” (then fade out) 

9. Then the lighting of the home fades into something else (purple/pink maybe?) and we see Gary packing up the house as if the couple were moving 

10. He sees the painting he did before in the rejected box and chuckles, caressing it 

11. He then looks over to the side to see scissors he was using to pack the boxes, picking them up he tears and destroys the painting, laughing and crying in the moment as he feels the catharsis (mixed media comes in here) 

12. As he finishes, we hear a soft crying sound in the background (implying the second generation)