Brianna Fletcher

ON FIRE
Its 1977. In a montage of shots, we see an overview visual of the south Bronx in
New York City, left devastated, destroyed and filled with vacant homes, trash, burnt
buildings, and schools. The city is a war zone.
We see a slow reveal of a row of houses on fire, engulfed in flames as a man named
Ace, a young African American male frantically wakes up in one of the smoke and
fire filled houses. Ace furiously coughs and looks around for a way out. From a low
angled shot we see Ace crawl out of the bed and onto the floor as he makes his way
to the door to check if the door handle is hot. Ace screams and quickly pulls his
hand back. From an eye view camera perspective, we see Ace rush to the painted
shut window look from left to right, grab a lamp off of the dresser and punch it
through the window. A Slow pan down shows that he is on the tenth story cold
rusted metal fire escape. He gets to the bottom of the fire escape which is missing
from the 3rd story down. We see Ace looks up and with a panoramic wide shot view
the entire block is engulfed in flames. Footage is frantic, with a close up of Aces
face, heavily sweating, with fear across his face, he closes his eyes, takes a deep
breath and jumps. Fade to black.
A flash back to 1 day earlier between Vince, a middle aged bald white man who is
the land lord of the building ace lives in, talks to a filthy hunched over man who
appears to be on drugs in a dimly lit hall way. Roaches crawling on the floor and
black scuff marks on the floor. Vince hands off a crisp 20 dollar bill and tells the man
who appears to be on drugs to take care of the building. Vince tells the man that he
no longer wants to own a building that has no value because he is unable to sell it.
You can hear his thoughts saying he plans to get the insurance money from it.

Flash forward: A medium close shot follows Ace as he runs two blocks away. Ace
frantically looks around and digs through his pockets for change. We hear the
jingling of the change as the change falls to the floor. Through a close up of his
hand, Ace picks up the quarter and makes a phone call. We hear him talk to an
unknown person on the telephone. He tells the person on the phone that his
building is on fire and has nowhere to go. With a disappointed look in his eye he
rubs his head, slams down the phone and angrily walks away.
Lost and upset, Ace slowly heads to an apartment complex. Walking up to the 2 nd
floor of a high rise slum owned by Hector, a 40 year old middle aged fat bald man
who is the biggest slum lord in the south Bronx. Ace hesitates as he knocks on the
door. The door creeks opens and there stands his mother patty who is an n older
women in her early 60s. Ace greets his mom, kisses her tenderly on the cheek and
closes the door behind him with a bang. When Ace gets in he tells his mother what
happened with his apartment and desperately begs his mom to allow him to stay
with her. They talk and she tells him that in order to stay there he has to contribute
to the bills and stay out of the street. He agrees and thanks his mom.
Candy man, one of Aces best friends tells Ace about an underground party in the
basement of an abandoned building and how they need a Dj. Ace screams in
excitement and thanks Candy for the hook up. Ace lets Candy know he doesnt have
his turn tables yet but Candy says the pawn shop has a new turn table in that Ace
wants. Unknown whether this is a good idea he goes with his friend to check it out.
We see a group of kids stands outside of the shop of the corner having
conversations and looking Ace up and down as he walks into the store.

Mr. Pollard, an old light skinned black man who owns the neighborhood pawn shop is
wiping down his counter. Mr. Pollard tells Ace that the Turn tables that he is dying to
get his hands on is for sell in the store. Ace deliberates with Candy for a bit and
buys them with the last bit of money. As Ace hands the money over, we see Ace
look into his empty wallet that now only has a piece of gum, two one dollar dills and
an old condom inside. He smiles then gives Candy a hand shake as he laughs and
celebrate and walk out the door.
We now see a variety of flashing lights, close ups of people dance, socialize, and
drink. Ace is on a small makeshift stage in the front of the room. We hear loud funk
music of the late 70s playing as he goes from one song to the next. There is a loud
boom and the Brooklyn police barge in a knocks over a table. They yell and
demands everyone leave. Ace see them and brushes them off and continues to play
the music. The police then throw his speaker to the ground as it breaks and the
music stops. Ace, heated with anger complies, backs up from the turn tables and
puts his hands up. The police cuff him and refuse to tell Ace why he is being
arrested.
Kim, Aces Girlfriend who is black with curly hair slicked up into a pony tail, walks
into the jail with a drenched coat as she shakes off her umbrella. We hear phones
ring and see a police officer at the desk. Kim tells the police officer she is there to
bail out Ace. We now see Ace behind the bars sit on the bench with a busted lip. Kim
looks worried and Ace walks out the cell.
Rain pours down. We see cars drive down the street and broken street lights. Ace
and Kim sprint to the car and get in. Kim has a long conversation with Ace tell him
he needs to make better choices and reveals that she is pregnant with his child. Ace

smiles but then turns his head to look at his empty wallet; his smile disappears of
his face.
Patty, disappointed with Ace allows him to come into the house but warns him that
this is his chance to mess up and then he has to leave. She discourages him from
DJ-ing and he deeply thinks about if his dream can be a reality. Ace goes into his
room and sulks.
The next day Candy and Low sit in the basement at Candy's house. Low tells Candy
that he has a week to get him his money and Candy brushes it off and tells him not
to worry. Kim enters the basement. She walks past Candy and low and opens the
dryer and begins to put clothes into her laundry basket. Kim attempts to pick up the
basket when candy offers to take it up instead. He tells Low that he is helping Kim
because she is pregnant with Aces Baby.
Low tells Candy to take a ride with him. As LOW drives with one hand, he takes a sip
of liquor from a bottle covered in a brown paper bag and passes the bottle to
CANDY.
Low pulls the car over and takes back the liquor bottle in the brown paper bag from
Candy. Low exits the car and has a quick with a man standing on the curb next to
Low's car. The man is Vince. We hear their muffled voices arguing. Candy leans in
and tries to listen in closely. Low starts moving his arms sporadically as he talks in
an aggressive manor then cracks the man in the head with the liquor bottle and
proceeds to stomp the man by the side of the car. Candy's eyes open wide and
quickly sits back and turns his head once he sees low run back to the car. Low reenters the car.

Later that day Candy tells Ace what happens to the guy outside the care and ace is
furious.
We flash forward to one week later. Ace and Low sit at the Kitchen table. The room
is dark, lit only by the moonlight peeking through the rusted window silhouetting
their faces. Low is smoking a cigarette and blowing the smoke out of the adjacent
window next to him. The Phone Rings. Ace walks over to the phone and picks up.
Low tells Candy that he has his sister and if he wants to see her again, he needs to
give him his money.
The phone clicks and the dial tone sounds. Candy's face is frozen with the phone
still glued to his ear and looks at Ace. Ace looks back at Candy in confusion.