Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Sci-Fi Original Movie Notes

CGI opening. Intro. Where we are. (Bulk of the budget)
Monster/Adventure.
Charatcer driven vs effects driven
Expand on the worlds created
Follow established genre beats
Mix and match
Change archetypes destiny

Smugglers protect innocents
Soldiers are hunted

Captain loses his mind.
Mal to River.
Second takes lead.
Validating the underdog.
Badass sacrifices himself.
Samurai suicide.

Captain who ventures too far out and comes back. Too close to the sun? Sunshine. Goes mad in enlightenment.

Second who always slacked off, took sidekick position, hidden behind Captain. Jokester and unsung hero. Hidden talents emerge.

Badass. Old friend. Guy to turn to when shit is bad. He transcends reality through meditation, so half is on the Captain's side. Second has to keep them grounded.

Supernova? Aliens? Disaster or monster?
Voyage home?

End is coming for Earth. They inadvertantly bring it there. Time/Space collapse.

Second has to kill the badass and captain.

Quantum Force
Captain lost in space. Space Madness. Trip over and around the Sun. Reverse orbit. Sets off chain reaction.

He returns to Space Station. Equivalent of Earth city with different sections. Second, retired, enjoying a simple life. Mad Friend returns with doomsday prophecy. Old fashioned guy drinking away, selling himself short, unable to kill himself or anyone else.

Disaster comes and whipes out station over Mercury. Maybe Mercury destroys it. They run to Venus settling, church, monk like badguy. Assassin. Evil. Even older friend. Childhood. They pick him up, fight church. Venus rips itself apart.

Space ship downtime. Characterization.

Earth crash landing, chaos has begun to spread as natural disasters erupt. The reveal that the captain is the singularity and it's in his wake that everything is destroyed. Second must fight badass, and then kill captain.

Old friends settling scores.

Quantum Force 2
Second is now supercharged with Quantum energy, but has fled to Mars to be in isolation as Earth is post-apocalyptic and still alive, not consumed by energy.

Ghost of badass is still lingering, can inhabit bodies.

Captain's dying words, prophesy. All planets pulled into Jupiter, then sucked into the sun. If Second can pilot the planet into Jupiter, he can settle the singularity with his own energy. Save what's left of Earth.

Quantum Force 3
Jupiter. Earth. God-like status. Fix or end it? Acceptance of death.

Start with Captain's Trip fade to dream to suicide attempt. Old revolver.

Page 1
Panel 1
The lower half of the sun, planets just dipping into frame in the background. From underneath comes a speeding ship. It's pointy and sort of shaped like an inverted cross with rotating wings.

N: Today marks the anniversary of when Captain Stan Jenkins, the original Star Pioneer, left for his solitary circumnavigation of our sun, Sol.

Panel 2
Jimmy Hale sits at a wooden bar alone, there's all types of oddly dressed humans and mutants in the place, clashing with the old fashioned decor, behind him. He drinks a whiskey on the rocks, has patches of stubble, and a hawaiian shirt on. A beat up fedora low over his eyes, head down low. Hovering above the crowd's heads is a hologram, floating above a ceramic panel on the wall. A small Bluetooth like symbol is projected next to his ear and just above the hologram. Like a small TV atennae sigil.

N: After 64 revolutions around the sun, he is due to return just in time for the New Years Celebration next week!

Panel 3:
Jimmy turns away from the bar and we see the other half of the bar in the background. He's pressing right by his ear and the symbol changes to a Musical Note, which corresponds with the symbol floating above the flashing lights of the jukebox.

N: The Star Pioneers will welcome their old Captain back with a special performance in the Station's Center, displaying their piloting skills in their original...

JH: I can't listen to the TV anymore, so I flip to whatever it is these kids are listening to on the Juke.

N: <screeching code of musical notes all scrambling simultaneously>

Panel 4: From behind shot of Jimmy walking out the sliding door showing a glimpse of a brightly lit space station, rather than the gloomy dark city that seems to be beyond the windows of the bar. On the hologram we can just make out a team posing in uniforms.

JH: It's so much worse than I thought, so I head back to my quarters.

Panel 5: Close up of the Hologram, it shows a team of uniformed space cowboys posing as small space fighter ships of a more outdated clunky kind than in panel 1, all soar above their heads. A young kid of about 17 stands besides the square jawed Captain, he wears a fedora that's a bit too big for him.

JH: Gotta prepare for the Good Captain's return anyways.

Page 2
Panel 1: An old revolver lies in Jimmy Hales' hand. It seems kind of small despite his hands not being all that big and manly.

JH: What would Dad do? That's what I ask myself every day.

Panel 2: The gun is in his grip and against his head.

JH: He wouldn't be weak.

Panel 3: He falls back on his bed. Arial shot down on him, arm with gun thrown wide to his side.

JH: He'd be strong enough to do something about it.

Panel 4: Painting with actual paint, rather than projected digital images, of the Earth on the ceiling. It's crude yet beautiful. Simple and effective design.

JH: Just a body in the dirt back home now. Guess his advice isn't worth much anyways.

Page 3
Panel 1: Captain is sweating, tears of blood from his eyes, and nose, his fists grip the controls. He looks insanely determined.

Panel 2: Flames from the sun line the bottom of the panel as his ships tears off into the distance towards a ringed space station. Mercury is in orbit just off to the side.

Panel 3: The starfighter glistens in the sunlight showing off it's pristine exterior, like liquid silver. It's tiny next to the massive space station, it's skimming along its side, following the curve.

Panel 4: The ship collides into the side of the station and explodes into a momentary burst of oxygen and flame and fuel but then implodes.

Panel 5: Jimmy wakes up, shoots straight up in bed, sweating and screaming.

JH: CAPTAIN!

Page 4
Panel 1: Jimmy is throwing on his clothes as he runs out the sliding door to his chambers. His hat loosely hanging from his head, hawaiian shirt being pulled up over his wifebeater tank top, pants being tugged on over shoes.

JH: I haven't dreamt since the Captain left, and now I dream of his dying, crashing into the station?

Panel 2: Jimmy is running down the halls, we get a sense of the odd life living on a space station. A carpeted mall that's completely personally modifiable. Very sleek but individual touches. People are as varied as the chamber decorations. The walls and clothes are screens that have images projected from within. Imagine a Japanese traditional home with movie screens all over playing projected scenes from inside.

JH: Not a coincidence. The Captain never believed in coicidences.

JH: Everything was a sign.

Panel 3: Pull back more and we get a scope of how many levels there are, thousands, all spiralling upwards and downwards.

JH: Every moment was a map of our destiny.

JH: Corny catchphrases, soundbites for the masses, it made me want to sign up. Brought me here.

Panel 4: We're looking up through the spiral which looks straight out towards the sun. A starfighter can just be seen heading towards us. But barely.

JH: The Captain said he knew his fate. Dreamt of it every damn day.

Panel 5: Jimmy turns the corner in a fast dash, but his face seems overwhelmed, as if taken aback at the last second.

JH: Hopefully I didn't dream his fate.

Page 5
Panel 1: Jimmy stands before the Star Pioneer museum, with a large statue of the Captain, fists on his hips, sqaure heroic jaw. Beyond him is the entrance with Star Pioneers projected over the archway. Inside can be seen various oversized gizmos from their adventures.

JH: I haven't been back in here in years. Not since I was a kid.

Panel 2: Jimmy walks past the statue and looks up at the memoriabilia like a little kid. We see him a bit more like he was in the hologram.

JH: Was my dream just my subconcious drawing me to my past?

Panel 3: Overhead shot of Jimmy walking under the shadow of an older starfighter.

JH: Everyone I know, used to know, tells me that I've been unbearable since the good old days ended.

Panel 4: Jimmy's POV looking at an old Starfighter shining in the luminesent spotlight, it gleams with old glory, beat up surface telling you it's real.

JH: I'll never let go, they say. Is it time to forget? Let the memories die?

Panel 5: An explosion tears through the floor throwing Jimmy through the air backwards.

JH: FUCK!

Page 6
Panel 1: Jimmy braces backwards, flat against his butt, as the air is sucked out the chamber trashing everything in the museum and imploding the flame. Wreckage from Captain's sleek starfighter can be seen sticking up from the ground.

JH: The feeling of relief watching everything being destroyed around me makes me feel ashamed.

JH: No! It's his ship...

Panel 2: Jimmy stands and goes to call out to the Captain only to have the air sucked out of his lungs. He's pulled forward by the suction, the vacuum of space sucking everything through the hole in the floor.

JH: CAPTA-

Panel 3: Jimmy holds his throat with one hand and hangs from the wreck of the museum as he's sucked towards us. His fedora is whipped off and flies towards us.

JH: I was dreaming of my fate. And the Captain's.

Panel 4: Jimmy is sucked towards the hole away from us right towards the shiny point of the starfighter.

JH: I guess that's why he always kept me around. He knew we'd die together.

Panel 5: Jimmy hurtles towards the point about to be impaled, his hat sucked down through the hole.

JH: Accident of fate. Death by following dreams.

Page 7
Panel 1: An arm with a spacey military tattoo grabs a hold of Jimmy's arm and catches him.

Panel 2: Jimmy looks up shocked as a shut off shield cuts the debris behind him in half finally being able to seal the atmosphere.

JH: He stands firm and grabs hold of me as the blast shields are finally able to slam shut below me.

Panel 3: Jimmy hits the ground before the boots of the Captain. We just see the lower half of him and Jimmy, sans hat looking down at the floor catching his breath.

JH: There's barely any air left in the room...

Panel 4: Jimmy looks up at us from the ground as he stumbles to standing. Looks like a kid again and without his hat he kind of shows his age though.

JH: So I don't hear him call me kid.

Panel 5: The Captain, backlit by a still functioning spotlight, hands Jimmy his fedora, with the hat being the main focus in the panel.

JH: But I know he does.

Page 8
Panel 1: Jimmy slips on the fedora as he stands and fixes his outfit. Captain stands off to the side.

JH: Suddenly, I am a kid again. And all my doubts and fears subside.

Panel 2: The Captain, gleaming with power is finally revealed.

JH: All that matters is the call to action.

Panel 3: Captain places his hand on Jimmy's shoulder as they inadvertantly pose like they did on page 1, except now there's wreckage and ships smashed all about them.

JH: I know he needs my help.

No comments: