Cinematic Production - Scripts 01

Week 1 - Day 4

For this particular paper, we are put into groups to work with. I'll be working with Adrian, Hamish, Oscar and Tea~ Huzzah! Although, this is not confirmed and won't be finalized until Monday. This may or may not change.

Anyway, so I've come up with a few ideas that'll combined 2D/3D and live-action together to make a SHORT 30-40 second clip.

• A father-turned-zombie does his best to protect his little girl from the rest of the horde. (Phoenix and Taylor both think this reminds them of Warm Bodies. I ought to watch this movie soon...)
• It's a post-apocalyptic world where 2 people from 2 different groups stumble upon each other while scavenging for supplies and they both fall in love. (It's very Romeo and Juliet-esque but I've yet to figure out what the 3D aspect is going to be...)
• Dragons and humans have always been at war but 1 dragon strives out to prove to his brethren that not all humans are thieves for their gold or their heads for trophies. (It's a kind of mix between "How to train your dragon" and "Dragonheart" put together.)
• A hermit crab wakes up in the middle of a scorching hot day to realize his family is gone, and they stole his shell!! (Curses, Tea!!!) He now travels in search of them with a substitute made out of a half coconut shell and seaweed. (The human aspect will mostly be in the background while the hermit crab is 3D. I've yet to figure out the 2D aspect of this...
• A pair of old shoes are hanging by their laces along an electrical wire. One is afraid of heights and the other is left making promises to the other it can't keep. (Live-action is definitely a neighborhood with cars and pedestrians walking about. The 3D will come from the shoes with their mouths and laces animated to act as mouths and eyes. The 2D will most likely be the rain or other natural weather changes.)

Out of all of these ideas, I'm more interested in the first one with the father-daughter zombie story. It's a mixture of family and horror but the little girl can add a cute aspect to it. Here are some variations of the same idea but hashed out differently.

• We start off with the father bent over the arm, horrified at the zombie bite festering away. In mere hours, he's a changed man but he's able to retain sense memory of protecting his daughter so he fights off the horse. At the end of the day, both the father and daughter sit on the rooftop to continue their ritual of watching the sunset. The little girl kisses his cheek and her father leans down to return it. (This can go two ways: either the father kisses the top of her head as he usually does, or his zombie nature wins out and he bites her. Of course, we don't actually see the bite - the camera catches him leaning down, groaning, and with his mouth wide open.) DUN-DUN-DUNNNN...
• There's a little girl cowering in the corner of a dilapidated room. A zombie enters the scene and lunges in attack but another zombie intercepts and fights it off. The first zombie is defeated and the little girl makes a run for it, holding the hand of the other zombie who turns out to be her father, trying his best to hold off his zombie-nature.
• A little girl is running and there's a zombie in the distance. It looks like she's running away, pumping her arms and legs to get the best distance as possible while the zombie lumbers along. The little girl is reaching out and she slows to a skip, holding onto the zombie's hand who kisses the top of her head. (This is a horror-esque scenario that turns into something cute. It's family-oriented and shows that, even in death, one can triumph.)

I think I might go for the third scenario because it's different. I can easily imagine what my script will turn out to be, although I'm not sure how many seconds it'll span across. As long as it's over 30 seconds and less than 40, then we're all good. By Monday, we'll be able to get a good enough idea of which of our original scripts will be turn into a live-action/animation! MUCH EXCITE!

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The story goes like this:

VERSION 1

EXT. SUNSET SKY, BLOOD-RED AND OMINOUS. EXTREME WIDE SHOT(?)

PANS DOWN TO A GRASSY FIELD LITTERED WITH RUBBISH AND A DILAPIDATED FENCE.

PANS TO THE RIGHT AND WE SEE A SHADOWED FIGURE RUNNING THROUGH A PATH.

CLOSE UP SIDE/PROFILE VIEW: RUNNING FEET OF A LITTLE GIRL.

SCENE CHANGE TO: ANOTHER SHADOWED FIGURED, LOOKING SINISTER, SLOW AND LUMBERING.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP UNTIL WE SEE HER ARMS PUMPING HER FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO ZOMBIE FIGURE: WE HEAR HIM GROANING AS HE MOVES FORWARD.

CUT BACK TO LITTLE GIRL: CAMERA PANS UP TO HER SHOULDER AND THE BOTTOM HALF OF HER FACE.

OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT: WE SEE HER SLOW TO A SKIP AND REACHING OUT WITH ONE HAND.

CLOSE UP OF A GNARLED HAND, OPENING SLIGHTLY TO ACCEPT THE LITTLE GIRL'S HAND.

CLOSE UP OF DAUGHTER'S FACE FROM FATHER'S POV.

TWO SHOT: THE FATHER KISSES THE TOP OF HER HEAD AND, TOGETHER, THEY WALK OFF INTO THE SUNSET. 

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There's a horrible lack of dialogue in this first version. I might change it to include something from the daughter's end, but the zombie's going to mostly be moaning and groaning so we're fine on that front.

I might go through a couple of script changes tomorrow once I get the others to have a read-through of it and see what can be added or taken away.

HOW TO DIALOGUE?

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VERSION 2, after some consultation with Tea, will involve a slight camera change. Originally, I wanted to show a side view of the little girl running because it looks better visually, but then there'd be confusion with when the zombie is also included. As in, if she's running towards the left, and the zombie is ALSO coming from the left, then it'll look like she's being chased, but if I keep the scene with the girl still running towards the left but flip the zombie until he's facing the right, then it'll look like she's running towards him and I DON'T WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE THIS UNTIL MUCH LATER IN THE SCENE. Anyway, as Tea suggested, we'll change the camera shot until it looks like she's running towards the camera so it's not obvious which way she's going. It's less visually appealing (FOR ME, maybe less so for others?). The father-zombie can come from either side and it wouldn't matter. WE DON'T WANT TO CONFUSE THE AUDIENCE or give away information until it's necessary.

THANK YOU, TEA!! <3

I've also added a single line of dialogue from the daughter shortly after we see a close-up of her face, which will be:

DAUGHTER: Thanks for waiting for me, dad.

I'm hoping this will add something of an "aww" moment within the script because who doesn't like "aww" moments? (Don't answer that.)

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This concludes the main changes within the current script.

More iterations may appear in the future...