SCRIPT

This project has been a quite ambitious one, in which we started with a clear idea but not a lot of goals nor paths to develop this idea. As the days passed and the investigation continued, we were able to establish characteristics of the western genre we wanted to preserve, and some we would like to give a twist, mainly the main character.

Writing a script can be hard sometimes, as you may have an idea for the end but not the beginning, or vice versa. This gets even worse for just a film opening as we don't have a real beginning, middle, and end to develop. So we just started writing random ideas that came to mind, shots, lines, etc.

This was one of the first ideas that came to our minds. It just follows the stereotypical lines of a western, that are kind of theatrical, but there wasn't a real context behind these lines so we completely got rid of those, but we kept the idea of the symmetrical shot with the main character's legs. Later, one of our teammates came with an idea for a monologue, which to some extent is a pretty obvious line which may sound stupid, but it is effective. And with the right cinematography, the tone would feel really serious.

We really liked the line so to make it sound serious, we decided we needed a slow pacing. Long shots and a respectable time between cuts will help with this. Here is a little try we made just to hear the line with some video behind and see how the ideas for pacing worked.

I was the writer and with the pacing in mind, the first half of the script came out really easily. I decided to write a kind of narrative and descriptive script as we will later develop a shot list. The shot list is important as we'll shoot outside where we can't control the light, and we want to get the best outcome possible.

Script (first half)

Black screen 

Fade

Longshot

 Of a hill whose magnitude is shown by leaving the sky a narrow space to be seen. Emi slowly walks into frame, as she slowly goes up the hill carrying a bag on her right hand and a shovel on her left hand. 

Cut to another long shot, 

from the front Emi’s face is seen, as well as how tired she is. As she continues her way up she wipes the sweat out of her face with her left arm. 

A final long shot from this sequence 

From a lower back angle finalices her way to the top, in which accomplished she dropped the bag and as she grabs the shovel with both hands she whispers to her own soul

EMI: “Lately….I’ve started to realize that.. the longest thing I’ll do in life… is live.

Medium shot of emi in the right third digging

As she digs a crucifix comes out of her clothes to continue with the echoes of her thoughts. 

Close up of the crucifix bouncing as she digs. 

Back to the medium shot of emi in the right third digging

EMI: “And the shortest thing I’ll do…. is die”

Hard cut to a long shot of her back as the word die still echoes. 

A pile of dirt can be seen to her left. And to her right as the finalization of  the digging, she nails the shovel to the ground, as she takes a picture out of her pocket and looks at it. 

Close up of the picture. 

EMI: Through my hands your old man’s last breath escaped. 

Close up her looking at the picture, from the side. 

As she gets the picture down and raises her head determinedly.

EMI: Through your hands my final breath shall escape. 

As her thought finishes she’ll turn and grab the bag.

Wide shot from the side 

The bag is dumped in the hole and as the sounds of her shoveling is heard, fade to the title screen.

The second half took a little bit longer to write. Our first half had a really slow pacing so I didn't want to break this pattern, but I did want to speed things up a little bit. The plot in the first half is exposed mainly through visual elements and two lines of dialogue. This is good as it isn't completely developed, but it opens some paths to what may happen in the future.

Second half. 

Really wide shot of a building 

As a building is seen in the distance, emi walks into frame but only her legs are seen before she starts walking towards the building. The long shot follows her, before her upper body is seen. 

Medium Shot

Reveals a change in her image: she is hiding his face and her hair. But her taking out the same picture from her pocket, confirms her identity 

As she reaches the building, a guy standing next to it starts to approach her. 

Cross cut between both medium shots, cut faster as they get closer. 

Close up of a gun against Emis body 

Man: Hey there pal…. Im looking for this woman

As he pulls reward sign

Man: Between cowboys I don’t mean to offend you but you kinda look like her. 

Close up emi: Remain silent 

Man: Would you mind letting me see your face 

Cut to black. 

So for the second half, I sought a way of showing consequences to what is established in the first half of the opening without making it a huge deal. I decided to establish problematic situations as the main character's new normal, by also showing she had earned herself a bounty.

Another important thing to highlight for this second part is establishing the conflict of being a woman, which will have more importance in the future, but it is important to establish.

I really liked the job I did with the script. It is perfectly doable and we'll work hard on a shot list and storyboards so we can translate this into a more visual language.