Before you read click here to listen to the song that inspired this story.
INT: CHILD’S BEDROOM – LATE NIGHT
A father cradles a crying baby boy in his arms. The father makes small shushing noises as he bounces the baby. The father is in his thirties and wearing black glasses. The boy has startling blue eyes. A small lamp sits on a bedside table casting warm light onto the room. The room is sparsely furnished with a cradle, rocking chair, and a small throw rug, all in different shades of blue.
FATHER (to baby)
Hush my child. Hush now and I will tell you a story.
FATHER
This is the story of the very first rainbow
As the father says this the scene dissolves into gray mist, when the camera comes back into focus the father and son are part of a world of sculpted clouds.
ANIMATION SEQUENCE: STOP-MOTION/CLAYMATION
The world is full of clouds in numerous shades of pastel pink and blue. Two pure white clouds one with distinctive black glasses, the other with brilliant blue eyes are floating close together. The blue eyed cloud stops crying suddenly and giggles as he squishes a nearby cloud, one marbled with shades of lavender. The only other cloud with any distinction is small and gray, with mournful black eyes.
FATHER
Once upon a time there was a little cloud. This cloud was very sad. So sad that he cried and cried and cried unto the world below.
As the father speaks, the gray cloud sniffles, and then wails as rain falls out of him.
FATHER
And as is the way of the cloud children, once one starts to cry, the others are sure to follow.
Sure enough, the other clouds slowly shift colors changing to gray before growing big sad cartoon eyes and joining in a cacophony of tears.
The baby boy cloud babbles a little before joining the other clouds in their rainstorm.
FATHER
Ah yes, all the little clouds cried and cried together till the world below was was flooded with the little cloud’s despair.
The father gathers the blue eyed cloud close to him. The father cloud changes his forms to mimic how he held the child in the real world.
FATHER
Once the sun saw what was happening she could not bear to see the cloud children’s sorrow. So she thought and thought and thought some more, until she came up with a beautiful plan.
The sun emerges from behind a cloud. Her broad face falls when she sees all the anguished cloud children. She is a collage of orange and gold and yellow all swirled together in tight curls and braids in a sophisticated pattern, contrasting greatly with the simpler design of the weeping clouds.
FATHER
The sun decided to give the cloud children a gift to brighten their day. She sent forth a sunbeam to shine through the rain drops and become a lovely ribbon of color for the cloud children to play with.
A coil of the sun unfurls and stretches downwards till it collides with a water droplet and refracts into a shimmering rainbow. The cloud child who instigated the weeping suddenly stops crying and stares in awe at the rainbow, hiccuping occasionally. The other clouds fade back to their original pastel colors. The rain ceases. The blue eyed cloud giggles as he waves a cloud limb through the rainbow. Then, yawning, he snuggles into his father’s lap and falls asleep as the scene swirls into rainbow mist.
INT: BEDROOM – SAME NIGHT
The father kisses the top of the baby boy’s head and lays him tenderly back into bed.
FATHER (whispering)
Goodnight my sweet child.
END SCENE
our life as birds 