Final Script 

The Pole
                    Screenplay by

                   Andrew Espley

 An idea developed by Isabel Wells, Amy Silk, Tyreece
Thomas, Andrew Espley, Callum Petit and Leanne Perry

INT. BUS. EARLY EVENING

A girl, LUCY (19), is sitting on a bus, looking a bit
miserable. She looks out of the rain-streaked window. The
sounds of the bus and the city fade a little, and we hear,
like it’s being said in a documentary interview:

                    LUCY (V.O)
          Erm, I don’t really know what to

say really. It’s been my life for... wow, I don’t know. Along time now. I don’t know how to describe it. 

We see flashes over her voice:
INT. STUDIO. EVENING.
A HAND TOUCHING A POLE, CLOSE UP.
INT. LIVING ROOM. EVENING.
LUCY ARGUING WITH SOMEONE, SILENT.
EXT. CITY STREET. EARLY EVENING

Lucy gets off the bus, lights up a cigaretter and starts
walking. She knows where she’s going, and she still looks
down.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I guess it started for me at

school. I’d never get any interest from guys, or anything like that. Being constantly overlooked was horrible - and I know it may seem shallow to say it, but all I wanted was for some guys to look at me. In that way, you know. 

We see more flashes throughout:
MORE ARGUING, WITH BOYFRIEND?
CLOSE UPS OF LEGS/ARMS MOVING ABOUT A POLE

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I’d sit in class watching them

          all stare at all the plastic
          girls with their fake tans and
          shit. Made me hate ’em. Still do
          hate girls like that.

Lucy approaches a building, walks through the doors and
into it.

We see more flashes of the above.

(CONTINUED) 

CONTINUED: 

2. 

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          But it was jealousy more than

          anything else. If I could look
          like them - look like them and
          get guys looking at me... Well
          you get me. My life hasn’t been
          some dead hard sad case though. I
          haven’t got a sob story I can
          tell you. We weren’t exactly well
          off but we were alright - my
          family, I mean. I had friends.
          They were alright.

INT. STUDIO. EVENING.

Lucy walks into a room and we see a pole - the studio. She
approaches the pole and we see the same shot from the
first flash - the HAND TOUCHING A POLE.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I can’t remember exactly when it
          was that I started wanting to do

          this - get on stage, and
          everything. I think I was 17 when
          I started having classes. I saw
          classes, and then I saw some
          girls on Facebook that did it, so
          I went along. It was alright. I
          felt good. The better I got, the
          more, you know, confident I felt.
          I felt comfortable looking the
          way I did.

Lucy prepares - getting dressed/ready to practice.
We see more flashes of the argument.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          Then I went some club with some

          lads- a strip club, you know.
          Some dirty scrotty little club
          where if you payed ’em £40 they’d
          take you to some room backstage.
          It was horrible, the way the guys
          were acting, you know. But I
          loved it. It reminded me of
          school - the girls who all the
          guys would stare at all day, but
          they were doing something I could
          do. I could get like that, I
          thought. So I asked some girl
          when she came off stage, and she
          got the manager who gave me his
          card.

          I started at that shitty club the
          next week.

(CONTINUED) 

CONTINUED: 3. 

We see Lucy on the pole - elegant, skilled - moving about
it with ease. In flashes over this, we see the argument
again, but this time it seems to have escalated to a full
on shouting match.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          My friends didn’t like it - the

ones who knew. My boyfriend didn’t like it either. Well...(her voice falters slightly) my ex. 

We see the argument ending - the boyfriend slapping Lucy.
He storms out, Lucy screaming angrily after him, and Lucy
sitting on the sofa, sobbing. Then we see a flashback to
Lucy on the bus, upset. (Has she come straight from the
argument?)

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          They thought like you do,

probably. That I’m a slag. That I don’t have any respect for myself. You’re wrong though. I’d be there, and... I can’t put it into words, how I felt- on the pole, with the guys all staring and cheering and- and... wanting me. I felt better than I ever have. 

Lucy is off the pole now, looking like she did on the bus.
Deep in thought.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          It’s alright this. I know

          there’ll be people looking at me
          thinking, "Look at that mess" or
          "Look what she’s done to her
          life", you know. But I don’t give
          a shit.

               (laughs again)

Lucy is getting ready - evidently for a night on the pole
- she puts on her shiny high heels.

                    LUCY (V.O CONT)
          I really don’t. I love what I

          do. I’m happy.
INT. BUS. EARLY EVENING

We see Lucy on the bus again - the same shot as earlier.
But this time, she smiles. A reluctant, but genuine,
smile.