As I dive back in, there will inevitably be tangential ideas and inspiration. These I’ll write down for later review, deep storage…
edit (tools)
- image placeholder or describe what’s seen
- new script
- index cards
- image cards
qualities
- humor / backstory / sublime / detachment
story elements
- live action – audience rapport that’s me • dialogue, emotion, conflict, interaction
- radio voices – tell • eavesdrop / narration / exposition
- nature reclaims – show • catastrophe = beauty / voyeur / god view / HO scale train layout
- signage / graffiti • implied / givens / premise / assumptions / culture eg “we reget to inform you that your civilization is dead”
- spooks • surveillance / power / masters of the graveyard / fools / magic / mystic / traitors / liars / manipulation / pinnacle / death culture / awakening / hope
- distributed processing / distributed consciousness • future hinted at by Gerry
remote viewing concept final (written before tunnel version)
- I like, but it needs establishment that I like better – view out the window, bike, etc.
“three intros”
- dressing for date w/radio
- nature reclaim w/ music
- act I flashback (actual white flashes)
“exposition holo” (4, 3, 2)
- there are nice tie-ins here, it’s illustrative! Where does the radio come from?
- What about a rough an hard radio intro with diverse images then classic theme song?
The theme song and VFX flourishes
- There are close up, detail shots and wide shots. What about a slight zoom in at start of detail shots and slight pull back on start of wide shots?
- Could the classic intro with theme song be only about local boat shots (cu) with storytelling details?
boat VFX
- Signs on big boat – typhus quarantine do not enter. Flags and banners on ship hanging from lines, laundry
- “lord pity us” “plague ship” “no virgins on board” ← like the “baby on board” sign
- exit sign cover props – need a little touch up
gritty titles as suggested by rendering errors in FCP 7
- harsh shit – theme music – let the clear white titles slip into grit and cognitive warble
cutting the dialog, slicing it up
- important it’s slow
- some of the best parts need time.
“holodog 3:00 6”
- act 2 3:30 – 12:00 8:30 minutes!
- Establish Christina in cabin daydreaming, she might be listening to radio
- cut aways to radio and bad shit
- cut aways during joe scene – dream or no
- then she’s in the hallway knocking
- spent shells everywhere especially by her feet as she’s walking in
- “quality of my erections” add back in “hasn’t always been that way” √ tested, seems feasible
- you remind me of someone – uj. Early uncle joe scenes acting like Gerry. The plodding walk, what else?
- There have to be more connections between uncle joe and PKD. It’s a crucial reveal
- my uncle did, little longer
- grain up the rest of act 2 to match the CU’s on Christina
- cut away when Gerry’s almost closed bathroom door
Christina’s cabin, montage approached as an actual experience – rationale
- radio broadcast, she’s listening, daydreaming goes on and on, flashing images, her memories. Is she dreaming? Fast flurry her past, what she’s seen, heard, etc.
- the ring snaps her out, she’s coming out of her reverie reluctantly. “Hello?” and opening song.
- Christina bubbles establish : intense flashback/fast : ring : theme song: act 1 : hall : act 2 : end
- blip blip blip, popping bubbles… blip blip blip blip blip… popping bubbles
- premise, Christina is day dreaming. Maybe her singing is heard under the radio broadcast
- she has flashbacks, disturbing
- then it’s a joke, she makes it that way, slowing down, she sticks in a theme song…
- it’s a situation comedy maybe there’s brady bunch or partridge family rerun shots or shows from the 2010s since she is about 20 something and it’s probably around 2030 or so. Fake shows, no shows, she doesn’t remember TV ver well, TV and her child life blend because it went away before she got old enough to differentiate between TV and real.
- Two shots, young joe with Christina, bed time story PKD with Christina.
- could she add joe’s remote viewing app to the beginning, as if he is watching her?
- Joe’s death (hit by a truck?)he’s calling out to her “Christi” as he crosses road, in suit or no? Perhaps not. (Hat is missing)
- any other business to hook up joe’s game playing, “I am the resurrected John F Kennedy, mythological american president, and I have come back to show adorable young ladies a good time! Ask not what your country can do for you, Christina, but what you can do for me!”
variation
- starts with Gerry Answering door and Christina saying, I’ve been sent to fuck you. Cut to flashback… joe device
- G clomps to door : sent by god : theme song : in our last episode : remote view answers phone :
- (previously on dexter)
- reprise act 1 : act 2 : endings
ADR
- we can tweak the audio for the move consonants and vowels for better lip match.
Remembering the characters
- Joe is a clown, a troublemaker. He jokes around not to placate, entertain or distract aggressors, but from the place of having been through and seen indescribable horrors, battled for his life and emerged intact. He’s a fast talking charismatic badass with his own agenda. He makes folks feel that whatever he’s got going on, they’ll enjoy the ride if they go along.
- Christina’s been through some shit and is used to going alone, her relationship history has been idiosyncratic to say the least, there hasn’t been anyone like her uncle yet. She’s distrustful, but glad to toss common sense aside when her magic uncle shows up from the beyond the grave. It’s permission to do something wild, a shot of strong spirits, she no longer has to be a vulnerable refugee constantly careful.
- There’s a con game afoot but she’s willing to be the mark, it’s always worked out for her in the past to do what her uncle suggests and he is the only family she’s found in years.
Joe’s lair
- Tunnel far – mid – near. (Currently it’s far, mid, inside.) With each shot there’s more and more grisly warnings – mined, nuclear, biohazard, skeletons, burned tanks or humvee, spent shells everywhere. Skeletons on blue with uniforms, jumpsuits. Lightpost, this light powered by clean solar energy.
Christina’s cabin
- Add in radio, she turns it off.
- CU on bubble popping, each bubble popped is an explosion
- He gives her hat.
VFX
- mediatronic boxes – have animated logos, gently pulsing, like waves, organic rhythms
- dream flip vision edit