Cinematic Production - Scripts 02

Week 1 - Day 5

Here is the second version of the script. It looks good, so far, but this may or may not change in the future...

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VERSION 2

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 FRONT 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.

DAUGHTER: Thanks for waiting for me, dad.

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

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The main driving force behind this story idea is the relationship between father and daughter. You know about the saying of "nature vs nurture"? We're taking that concept and turning it around because, as we all know, zombies are mindless flesh eating monsters BUT! The father is able to cling onto his paternal instincts and continue using them to help and keep his daughter safe. Right there is nurture OVER nature, where the father is able to triumph over his baser urges!! Hoorrah~

BUT the question remains: how do we show this in just a few scenes?

The beginning of the scene will start off sinister and ominous, portraying the little girl as the vulnerable human against the flesh-rendering zombie. This sets the tone and genre as horror but as the scene progresses it slowly shifts and the plot twists into a high-drama family moment when she grabs hold of the zombie's festering hand and treats him with, not disgust, but familial love while the zombie, fighting against his first and natural instincts, does nothing more than moan and groan. This all happens within the last ten seconds or less of the shot, bringing about a good conclusion to what seemed like a cliche zombie scene.

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The background is most likely going to be a field somewhere accessible in Auckland. Maybe Mt Eden, or One Tree Hill, or even Keith Hay Park. I'm not big on using Albert Park because it's a high-foot-traffic area. I want the space to look rural, or as close to it as possible. Hopefully without cows or sheep around because we want everything to look...not totally desolated, but EMPTY. The little girl will be live-action, IF WE CAN FIND SOMEONE TO FILL THIS ROLE and the zombie is going to be entirely in 3D. I'll put up a concept to how he's going to look in a different post...later. I'll need to make a mood board for the environments, too. If we can't find an actress then we'll turn her into a 2D animation, otherwise, the 2D aspect will come from extra pieces of prop like, a broken down fence, birds/butterflies, etc...This is also open to change.

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So, the concept behind the design for the zombie will be somewhere between...Plants VS Zombies with a mix of Ben and Ed.

Ta-daaa, this is the preliminary look for what the zombie-father may possibly look like.

Just based on a quick look through, Mt Eden and One Tree Hill looks a lot more visually appealing because of all the different hills and textures and bumps along side the volcanoes. The background of the city can be easily edited until it's just a sky without the cityscape. The nice thing about these two parks is that they're both big and varied enough that each scene won't look flat or unappealing. Keith Hay Park is big but the landscape is too flat and the grass is always trimmed and showed too much "human interaction" where I wanted something more natural as opposed to a man-made environment. Mt Eden and One Tree Hill are viable options for filming the scene.

Ethan suggests, if I do end up using One Tree Hill, we can make the monument fall down (BUT NOT ACTUALLY FOR REAL) so it gives something like a more post-apocolyptic look. This is GREAT! I think it might be something that can be done in 2D rather than 3D. Although, time-permitting, we can make it into a 3D prop.

Mt Eden has a similar look to One Tree Hill so either one of these two are ALL OKAY WITH ME. PLUS, it's closer and cheaper to get to than One Tree Hill.

Keith Hay Park is a no-go for me. I don't like how flat it looks. How unnatural it'll make the scene turn out, especially if it's supposed to be a rural/farm land kind of environment.

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This are the concepts I've thrown up so far. This may or may not change depending...ON MANY THINGS.