INT. YOUR HOME – NIGHT

You have just received a letter telling you have been invited to MELISSA ANN TAYLOR’s SS25 Fashion Runway Show:

“I TRIED TO TELL YOU”

You take time off on Thursday evening, October 17, 2024, to witness the show.

DIRECTION

EXT. MORRELL AVENUE – NIGHT

You remember seeing an address for where the runway show will be taking place. The location it brought you to was:

OAK CLIFF ASSEMBLY
919 MORRELL AVE
DALLAS, TX 75203

INTERCUT: EXT. OAK CLIFF ASSEMBLY – NIGHT

You enter the rust brown front door of the building that was once zoned for townhomes. As you walk through the vestibule flanked by two swirling stairwells you hear a voice coming from all directions.

OAK CLIFF ASSEMBLY

(to you)

Welcome! If you are here for MELISSA’s I TRIED TO TELL YOU, the show will be in the theatre and doors will open at 7:30pm. Upon entering you will sip drinks and eat treats while moody dance tunes ease your social anxiety. The runway will begin PROMPTLY at 8:30. If social batteries permit, guests will revel in the afterglow from 8:45 to 10:00 armed with background music and their favorite outfits as they gather up the courage to chat with the interesting strangers around them. Do please enjoy the show.

RUNWAY

INT. DARK GARDEN – NIGHT

You claim your spot, or seat if you’re bougie about it, to watch the show. Sheltering you is a vaulted ceiling extending into darkness above a softly lit stage. The raw wooden beams and dim orange glow remind you of nighttime walks under twisted trees and colors from a bad trip you once had.  

YOU

(to yourself)

This feels like a dream, but I can’t tell if it’s a good one…

Silence.

STAGE CENTER

[A solo musician begins playing a piece no one has ever heard before.]  

The audience observes marching figures wearing a confused hybrid of blue and white collar workwear, as if obsessively tailored blazers and thick skinned utility jackets merged DNA in one of Seth Brundle’s botched teleportation experiments.  Shadowy shapes overlap crisp pleats and stripes making it impossible to tell which dimension each layer belongs to.  A sickening sense of dread flows like a hidden riptide beneath the shimmering colors of sunset skies.  Dense patterns and chopped imagery allude to thick layers of wild urban overgrowth left to slowly eat the decaying body of a vacant house.  You can’t tell how you feel.  You feel both joyful and fearful, you feel both warmth and unease.  You feel like you’ve fallen in love and you’re not yet sure whether this will play out like a dream come true or haunt you for the rest of your life.  The collision of everyday silhouettes sliding into dreamlike textures seem to warn you that your sense of control is a fragile facade, and everything giving your life security can shatter in a moment.  Death is the great equalizer, life only continues by consuming itself.  

AFTERTHOUGHT

INT. YOUR HOME – MORNING

You wake up in your bed, the shadow of a harrowing but beautiful dream pulls at the edge of your mind.  You close your eyes and try to slide back into the half formed memory that you're not yet ready to forget…  

Roll credits

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MELISSA ANN TAYLOR

DESIGN TEAM & SUPPORT

CARL  FORKEL |

RAFAEL ROMERO |

JOSEPH HOLDER|

JAKOB A. DUNCAN |

KATHRYN KOHEN/STUDIO OF ONE |

IDA NEMATIPOUR-RAMIREZ |

MICHELLE BAILEY |

AMRA REDZIC |

DYKA TATSI |

HAIR & MAKEUP

BRYON LLOYD| LEAD HAIR

BELÉNE GARZA| LEAD MAKEUP

MUSIC

JONATHON WIEST | COMPOSER 

FADE OUT