LSGL BRAINSTORM
Fr 03.14.08

Premise:  Work at clarifying the ÒTower of BabelÓ version of Act II.

1.  Dream sequence set:  courtyard inside the Tower of Babel? 
OK, so IÕve got quite a bit of my Act II concept worked out.  Need to look for places where I can continue clarifying.  So, letÕs get the stream-of-consciousness flowing...  Prime the mental pump with some random questions which will lead to the questions I really need to be asking.

Do I want to have the human explorer (Carl) appear physically in Act II?  Probably not.  What would happen if I eliminated the first shot, where the elder is creating the shoggoth?  What if we started with the elder in control of the shoggoth, and itÕs creating the tower?  Would that mean starting with the elder standing in the middle of the towerÕs court?  What if we just have the Tower of Babylon -- before and after?  One of the advantages would be not having to make the tower emerge into existence -- it would simply exist.

2.  Setting off alarms in the dream
How do I want to indicate that the future elders are coming home?  Having a shot of elders falling from the sky toward the camera is one option.  Having some sort of lightning that falls from the sky and the hits the elders out in the peripheral darkness of the dream scene is another option.

If I have some sort of indication within the dream sequence that the elders are coming home, then that suggests that there needs to be some sort of moment where the dream feels that itÕs been disrupted.  The explorer gets to peek into the dream world of the elders -- but then something about his presence alerts the sleepers to his presence, and they send an alarm to their future selves.

What is it that the explorer does that triggers the alarm?  In the ÒRon MooreÓ version of the story, I had the explorer say something out loud.  In many ways that still makes sense to me.  We should hear a human voice -- and then all hell breaks loose.

If the human speaking is what triggers the alarm, then how do the elders respond?  ÒWhoÕs there?!Ó  I liked the idea of just one elder responding -- it cuts down on the amount of character animation I need to do.  But, if I have an elder responding, then how do I deal with the fact that tableau 2 has the elder apparently dead and beheaded?

3.  Intercutting creation of the shoggoth
What if I intercut tableau 1 & 2 with the god elder creating the first shoggoth?  That would mean using non-linear time, which IÕve said previously is a way to create a more dream-like flavor.  If Òcreating the shoggothÓ is intercut, then it seems like the human voice would say something in response to that action -- e.g. ÒdonÕt do it!Ó or ÒitÕs going to kill you!Ó

4.  The Tower of Babel version of Act II
It seems to me that at this point it would be useful to actually recap the ÒTower of BabelÓ version of Act II which IÕm analyzing.

Shot #1:  Infinitely large room, pitch black except for an area defined by a large, loose spotlight.  In the spot, the Ògod elderÓ is dripping blood from itÕs own arm...  Which falls horizontally, and coalesces into a smallish blob.  Move in from the dark peripheries of this scene...  Have an over-the-shoulder shot which shows the elder is doing something...  Close-up on the hand...  Close-up on the drips rippling into the shoggoth mass.  Have a shot that makes the relationship clear.

Shot #2:  Tableau 1...  The elder applies mental radio waves to the shoggoth, or is painting glowing lines in the air with its arms in slow-motion.  The shoggoth is much bigger now, and tentacles are writhing.  A holographic Tower of Babel seems to materialize.  Or rather, itÕs the Tower of Babel as if it were a cylinder, and weÕre standing on the inside.  We tilt our heads up to look at the sky...  An earth-like sky with one sun.  But there are pteranodons circling about.

Transition:  Close-up on a pteranodon up in the sepia clouds.

Shot #3:  Tableau 2...  The sky is full of smoke.  We tilt our view back down.  The Tower of Babel is in ruins...  Masonry cracked and crumbling...  Buildings on fire, billowing smoke into the sky...  And slime is creeping up the walls, like paint running down a wall -- but turned upside-down.  We return to the god elder and shoggoth...  The god elder has been decapitated.  The bloody lower torso remains standing.  The shoggoth is even bigger now -- maybe 5 times the size of an elder.  It continues to float in mid-air, but now it is covered with eyes, some of which are glowing.

Shot #4:  A human voice shouts something in alarm.  The god elder -- suddenly whole again, and dripping blood to the baby shoggoth -- turns its eyes to focus on the audience.  ÒWhoÕs there?!Ó

Shot #5:  We see elders falling out of the sky toward the camera.

Shot #6:  The Tower of Babel/Colliseum tableau evaporates.  Lighting comes from the sky, breaks into many strands, and shoots into the dark peripheries of the giant room.  We suddenly see that there have been hundreds of elders hidden there, and the lightning is striking them.  [Cut to Act III.]

Shot #1 is the intro, shots #4, 5, & 6, are the outro -- simply broken into smaller parts.

5.  Alternative alarm sequences
Instead of having lightning shooting out in lines, the god elder could send out a wave of light that illuminates the sleepers in the dark.  If there are hundreds of elders, then this would help create a less visually confusing shot than if I had lines going to all of them.

Having sort of lightning appear in the scene would create a visual tie to the amplifier sending off its distress beam.  Maybe thatÕs redundant.  Part of my concept here is that the vision that the explorer sees occurs in holographic time...  So he sees all this the in the instant before the machine shoots off its grand laser.

What if the god elder simply deflated, like a cloth balloon collapsing?

What if the burst of light that comes from the elder is related to its glowing star eyes?

IÕm thinking that seeing elders falling from the sky will only confuse people.  Showing some sort of connection between the collective dream and the dreamers feels like it makes sense, though.

6.  Simplifying the elements of Act II
Having lightning coming from the sky feels like it adds an additional element to act II, which unnecessarily complicates things.  Increasingly IÕm trying to make sure that this act remains simple!

Right now, the Òbig revealÓ elements are the tower and the pteranodons.  TheyÕre completely new, and unique to this act.  The ÒactorsÓ for this scene are (1) the god elder, (2) the shoggoth, (3) the dreamers in the dark.  Perhaps this is a useful way to conceive of the drama of act II...  Three actors, and a new set.

How does my knowing that the dreamers are surrounding the spotlight, just out of sight, influence how I tell this part of the story?

7.  Intercut script
Shot #1:  Intercut A...  God elder with newborn shoggoth, fairly far shot.  Camera is walking toward them.

Shot #2:  Tableau 1...  The god elder is standing in the Babel Coliseum, manipulating the shoggoth.  We slowly look upward to the sky, where we are able to recognize pteranodons flying amongst the clouds.

Shot #3:  Intercut B...  Focus on God elder dripping blood, and it collecting into the baby shoggoth.

Shot #4:  Tableau 2...  The tower in flames, smoke billowing into the sky, slime crawling up the shattered walls.  The god elder is dead, the shoggoth is huge.

Shot #5:  Intercut C...  The god elder standing in darkness again, feeding the shoggoth itÕs own blood.  The human says something.

Shot #6:  The god elderÕs star eyes flash bright, and a wave of light bursts outward into the shadows -- revealing the crowds of sleepers...  Perhaps standing on coliseum-style tiers?  Their eyes shine bright.

Cut to black.

8.  Other ways to develop Act II
IÕm wondering how much farther I can go with doing story development via writing.  It feels like IÕm going to reach a point where the limitations of what IÕm able to fabricate will begin to influence how I tell the story.  At what point do I start work on experimental fabrication?

I have the stopmo puppet version of the elder that I previously created...  What if I made a stand-in for the shoggoth, and then began figuring out possible camera angles using a digital still camera?  What if instead of doing hand-drawn storyboards, I worked out enough shots for a story reel using rough-hewn models?

Terminology note:  IÕm using the term Òstory reelÓ to mean hand-drawn storyboards which have been imported into AfterEffects, and strung together to give a sense of timing for the story.  IÕm using the term ÒanimaticÓ to mean a mock-up of a filmÕs action that is created using simple CG models.  ...I donÕt know if thereÕs a word in the Hollywood lexicon that specifically refers to what IÕve been doing with digital still cameras.  A Òphoto mock-up story reel?Ó  A Òphoto animatic?Ó

9.  What does the human say that wakes up the dreamers?

10.  What does the elder bleeding into the shoggoth contribute to the story?
It supposedly shows that the elders created the shoggoths from their own blood...  Although IÕm not sure that will really ÒreadÓ...

It gives three moments in time to the growth of the shoggoth.  Rather than just having a medium-sized and a huge shoggoth, we get to see a tiny shoggoth, too.  ThatÕs a plus.

Bleeding is probably not an easy effect to accomplish...  Could I accomplish the same goals simply by having the elder standing with a very small shoggoth?

What if I reversed the time-sequence of the intercut shots, so that we start with the elder manipulating a small shoggoth...  And at the very end, we get the elder cutting itself to start the blood flowing -- and this is what alarms the human?

I had more or less decided that I was just going to have the elder dripping -- not have it cut itself on screen.  If I reversed that decision, though, perhaps I need to revisit how the cutting occurs...  For instance, the elder might peel back itÕs own chest skin, to reveal glowing green blood inside?  (Or that it is full of eyeballs -- again touching on the idea that the shoggoth is a transmutation of the blood from within the elders.)

11.  Questioning the environment of the dream sequence
What if for the Òcreation of the shoggothÓ tableau, we have this occurring not in the big dark room, but instead with a backdrop of prehistoric mountains?  ...As if the Babel Coliseum had not yet been built?

What if when the human speaks, this is the first time we see the god shoggoth standing in the big dark room...  And all we get is one quick head shot of the star eyes flaring -- and then a wide-angle shot of the god elder deflating and the sleepers in the dark lighting up?  The sleepers maybe need not be standing around in a disorderly arrangement like they do in the hive...  Maybe theyÕre all standing up, hands at sides, arranged in military-style rows, tiered...  Although, it would be slightly challenging to modify the stance of each just slightly, so that it didnÕt look impossibly mechanistic.

12.  The dreamers as audience to theater-in-the-round
It seems like IÕm increasingly relating to the area of the big dark room thatÕs under lights as if it is a theatrical stage...  Theatre in the round.  The sleepers are like the playÕs audience -- and theyÕre also the ones projecting the play onto the stage from their minds.  There might also be a hint of operating theater to this space -- as if the elders are dissecting their own memories, replaying in poetic form that great atrocity (the shoggothsÕ genocide) which they were witness to.

If I were turning act II into a pulp sci fi book cover, I can just imagine the human standing alone on a circular stage, and tiers of elders above him looking down, like spectators at the opera.