MovieScenes

Nemo has occassional scene ideas for a movie. Not any specific movie, or any type of movie. Just the imagery for a scene. Probably not even all for hte same movie... they go something like this:

An Opening Scene

Starting with a black screen, we first see a match flare. It moves and lights an otherwise unseen object. This is a poi or firestaff. It burns as a larger flame for a moment, and then begins to move in a gracefull circle. (perhaps swinging a few pendulum-like arcs first?). The flame spins slowly at first - maybe as slow as 2seconds per revolution, but it slowly speeds up. While this occurs, it's movements begin to follow more complex patterns than a simple circle. We are watching a firetwirler, (even though we don't know it yet), so the moves should be appropriate. As the spinning flame speeds up, we sense that the camera angle is shifting and pulling back. As we pull out, we see other flames spinning to the side. Some of the other flames are different, but some would be identical to our first pattern, though apparently viewed from a slightly different angle. The reason for this becomes obvious in a moment. We're probably aiming for about 5 spinning flames on screen, all going pretty flat out by the time we fade in the surroundings. Up till now, we've only seen flame on a black screen. What we've been watching is a group of firetwirlers, but we've been watching their reflections in a curved wall of glass - that is why we have been seeing the same spinning pattern twice on screen at a different angle. We could be anywhere - a supermarket, a skyscraper, or a cluster of shops. The camera pulls back through the firetwirlers now - they're just street performers, part of a larger festival. Crowds gather and mingle and everyone's having a good time. Pulling back from the twirlers, the camera pans... (and we start the movie proper from about here)

Opening credits would be simple white (or light grey?) text alongside these scenes... or possibly in the following story-establishing shots.

A Closing Scene

The closing scene of the movie would mirror the opening scene in reverse... we zoom in through a group of twirlers, zoom into the reflection... zoom into a single flame. This flame spins in complex patterns at first, but slows down and moves into simpler patterns... finally just spinning a circle. The flame weakens and starts to leave a smoke trail which dissipates behind it... finally, the flame extinguishes, trailing alot more smoke now... the object is still obviously spinning, from the source of the smoke... but it doesn't smoke for long, and the smoke dissipates. (expect maybe only 5seconds most from the flame extinguished to all the smoke dissipated and the screen is black. Roll credits.

The Opening could be used to show us just a crowded, or maybe popular area... do FireTwirlers Twirl before dawn? because that would be a great way to film this... --Gaz

Yes, twirling before dawn would not be innappropriate, though late evening twirling is more the culture. --Nemo 14:34, 26 September 2008 (EST)

Thriller in a computer lab

University computer lab. Someone working late at night in the far corner. Scheduled reboot of all unused machines occurs in early morning, and when they reboot (each at different speeds, the startup sounds are haunting... each from a different computer in turn, getting closer along the row...

1. "Hello there"
2. "Getting closer"
3. "One step at a time"
4. FX: multiple footsteps, each step from a computer closer in turn
5. "I can see you" (from a close computer that doesn't follow the 'getting closer' pattern)

Perhaps end it there, ending unfinished. A prank, or ghosts in the machine?

Group introduction

I imagine this scene as being very Resevoir Dogs or Oceans 11 styled. That is, a crowd of savvy charismatic anti-heroes. They are all walking in a group - perhaps half a dozen or so, everyone talking to everyone else about anything. Some of the talk is important to the upcoming plot, some is trivia day to day minutae. But to the viewer, it is all a babble over the top of itself. To introduce characters we do the following...

Matrix-style (Woman in red dress scene) freeze all characters but one, who continues to talk his part of the conversation. We hear only him, and get an introduction to his thoughts/style/etc. Then we freeze them and 'unfreeze' another character. Continue till all characters are caught up, and unfreeze them all to continue.

This is visually similar to the Matrix red-dress scene, but it is not within the movie, it is purely a storytelling device - ie, we're freezing the visuals, not the ACTUAL CHARACTERS.

More complex series of freeze/unfreeze could occur too, for example, if A and B are talking, freeze all and introduce A unfrozen. Freeze A and unfreeze B. When B catches up to A, unfreeze A and learn their interaction before freezing them both and continuing to C, D, etc. More complex: we have all characters frozen in stages, and the LAST character introduced is the 'leader' type, who as we follow him we learn his style, and as he catches up to each other character, he addresses them by name to get their attention (and visually they 'unfreeze'), till finally we have all characters frozen and conversation halted - making it time to get on with the plot...

Directors Cut and others...

• Directors Cut. The stuff the studio didn't want you to see, and/or (un?)nescessary additional character/plot/action developments.
• Surrealists Cut. Thanks to Nerissa
  • Extra scenes of noisy flying bats on fire
  • Credits crawling through the entire movie like worms.
• Memento Cut. In reverse chronological order...

Zombie

zombies high five!

An idea for a scene and running gag in a zombie flick...

Scene: two zombies who, for some reason give each other high five (perhaps pre-zombie buddies and this is still instinctive for them, even post-zombification?) Now these zombies are of the 'flesh seriously starting to rot variety' - and their hands are rotting - so their handbones get mangled and caught up with each other. They are locked together! (think people-with-braces kissing).

Hilarity ensues as they are now (post-mortem) conjoined zombies - with all the 'staying attached to each other' comedy you'd expect. If this joke wears thin, then further development could involve one zombie ending up with the limb of the other attached (after a failed elbow incident?)... the other zombie being then the butt of a bunch of 'armless' jokes

This scene has also been posted to: http://www.aarghbrainz.com/articles/view.php/221