Rough script

A few things have changed, a few things have been cut. Added alternative ending. Still under revision.



OVERVIEW shot of a widespread desert landscape, with occasional slender rock spires jutting up. CAMERA moves towards one of the spires as a small plane flies into view. It flies over the camera and Cut to a FULL SHOT of the spire. At the centre of the spire lies a nest with a SINGLE LARGE EGG. It is beginning to crack and move slightly. CAMERA ZOOMs in on the egg. The egg tilts vigorously to several sides, cracking noises are heard and suddenly out pops a head, wearing an eggshell as a hat that obscures most of its face.

FULL SHOT of a MAN just finished having readied his backpack and putting it on. He takes a few steps towards the base of the mountain spire, and looks up towards the top, stroking his tremendous moustache.

MEDIUM SHOT further up the side of the mountain spire, where the man climbs laboriously into view. His moustache snags on a small bushy branch that’s growing out of a crack in the mountainside. He lets go with one hand to try and free his treacherous moustache. At this moment his other handhold gives out, and he frantically scrabbles to get a hold of the branch. His moustache comes loose with a snap, and he just manages to grab the branch with both hands. He dangles from the bent branch for a few moments, blowing out a relieved, exasperated sigh before continuing his climb.

FULL SHOT at the top of the spire, just as the man puts his arms over the top of the spire, sweating and breathing hard. He’s just starting to pull himself up, when he suddenly gapes in happy astonishment.

FULL SHOT of the DRAGON struggling with getting out of his egg. He tips over, landing with chin on the bottom of the nest, losing his eggshell hat that bounces away. Looking rather annoyed, his face hardens with resolve. He visibly pushes of with all he’s got, and bursts his wings free of the egg, breaking it in pieces. He sits up, shakes himself vigorously, and peers about looking slightly confused and curious. POV shot from the dragon’s position, of a shadow blotting out the sun. He looks up, just in time to see a large net falling over him.

The man produces a glass jar, which he stuffs the dragon into, popping a few holes in the lid. He holds the jar up, examining the dragon with a grin. The dragon presses its hands against the glass, looking uncertain and slightly scared.

Down to the bottom of the mountain again, the man is dropping into view, adjusting his backpack and walking over to the plane. He stuffs his backpack in the back, and jumps in starting the engines.

Shot from behind the “runway” where the plane takes off in a rather uncontrolled manner. Shot from the other side where the plane barely clears a jutting rock face in the foreground.

LONG SHOT in the air where the man is seemingly having trouble controlling the plane. It turns randomly this way and that, sometimes turning upside down. CUT to inside the back of the plane, where the dragon is floundering about inside. He’s apparently free of the jar, which lies in the background with its lid off. Being entangled in some wiring he begins to chew on surrounding wires, pulling things free. CLOSE UP of the tail rudder suddenly beginning to flap loosely in the wind. FULL SHOT of the plane shooting a grand gout of flame out of its back seat, before turning upside down falling out of view. A few seconds later the dragon comes back into view, carrying the man by his backpack, furiously flapping his wings.

Cut to where the dragon flies into a FULL shot of the top of a mountain spire (the same?), dropping the man with a crash to the top of the spire. FADE OUT. (This could be cut in favor of a fade out from the scene with the dragon flying and fading into the end shot.)

FADE IN to the backs of the man and the dragon sitting side by side, dangling their feet over the ledge of the spire. The man feeds the dragon a piece of his lunch, when a humongous dragon-shaped shadow falls over them both. The dragon looks up showing happiness, while the man goes very pale and looks afraid. Screen goes black to a loud, rumbling dragon roar.

ALT. ENDING: FADE IN to the backs of the man and the dragon sitting side by side, dangling their feet over the ledge of the spire. The man holds out a piece of his lunch to the dragon, the dragon opening its mouth to receive the food, but suddenly lets out a huge cone of flame. The man gets his fingers singed, falling backwards, scrambling. FADE OUT.

Dragon sized up and slightly shaded. Still test phase.

Preliminary flowchart

Looks a bit crap, used some program that watermarks the whole picture. Had to use a screengrab instead. Will do for now.

New dragon concepts

New treatment

INTRO

A PLANE flies high in the sky, intro text reveals on the clouds as it passes. It flies lower, revealing text on the mountains. We get a close-up of a MAN looking down on the landscape, he lifts his binoculars, and we get a POV shot through his binoculars showing text on the mountains.

MAIN
Back to a CLOSE UP of the man, he seems to spot something. We get a normal POV shot to a far below mountain spire. The binoculars come up, bringing us instantly closer to the spire. On top is a nest with a large egg. It starts cracking and tilts from side to side. CLOSE UP again of the man looking surprised and happy. He lifts the binoculars again, and we see a head popping out of the egg, partially covered by eggshell. The man starts steering the plane down to find a place to land.

LONG SHOT from the ground where he is coming in, the plane wiggling precariously trying to home in on the "landing strip." WIDE SHOT from the side of the plane when it's landing, bouncing several times before skittering to a halt. The man climbs out, shouldering a backpack. He walks over to the mountain spire, looking up its length.

Spitting in his hands, and rubbing them together, he leaps up to grab a hold of the closest ledge, and continues to climb.

Goes to FULL SHOT of the man climbing vertically. One of his handholds gives out, and he’s left hanging by one hand. He uses the momentum to swing around and grab a crack on the opposite side, now hanging with his back to the wall. He lets go of the first hand, grabs onto his other hand and pulls on upwards.

MEDIUM SHOT at the top of the spire, just as the man climbs over the top, sweating and breathing hard. He stands up with his hands on his knees, trying to recover his breath, when he suddenly gapes in astonishment.

FULL SHOT of the dragon bursting free of the egg, sitting up and peering about confused. Suddenly a shadow looms over it, and it looks up, just in time to see a large net falling over it.

Out to the man holding the net up by its handle, grinning and examining the dragon. He produces a glass jar, which he stuffs the dragon into, popping a few holes in the lid. He happily stuffs the jar in his backpack, taking a final look around. Satisfied, he drops himself over the ledge, climbing down.

Down to the bottom of the mountain again, the man is dropping into view, adjusting his backpack and walking over to the plane. He stuffs his backpack in the back, and jumps in and starts the engines.

Shot from behind, where the plane takes off in a highly uncontrolled manner. Shot from the other side where the plane barely clears a jutting rock face.

Well into the air, the man is flying along. Shot from the back where the jar is popping out of the backpack, rolling into the seat. The dragon is floundering about inside, trying to free itself from confinement. The jar rolls onto the floor, shattering. In the process the dragon is entangled in some wiring. Struggling it begins to chew on the wires, suddenly getting electrocuted. It gets angry and blows out a gout of flame. This breaks the tail rudder controls, and the man loses control of the plane.

Shot where the plane is waving about, moving generally moving back where it took off. The man yanks on the joystick in desperation, and yanks it off. The plane drops straight out of shot. CAMERA pans further in the direction it was originally moving, and after a short while the dragon is flying into shot, carrying the man by his backpack.

The dragon is vigorously flapping its wings, barely making it atop the spire with the nest. The man is dropped onto the top of the spire in a heap. FADE OUT.

FADE IN to the man and the dragon sitting side by side, dangling their feet over the ledge of the spire. The man feeds the dragon a piece of his lunch, when a humongous shadow falls over them both. The dragon looks up showing happiness, while the man goes very pale and looks afraid. Screen goes black to a loud, rumbling dragon roar.

Group picture

Members of our group.

Early treatment

This is the first treatment, written down by me. We chose to dump this in favour of something the others felt would be more exciting and less "standard."



An EGG bounces down a cliffside, hitting a branch, and is launched off into the air. It lands in a nest. Soon after, it starts cracking, wiggling and bouncing. Finally a head pops up, partially hidden by an eggshell (pretty much like a hat). The creature in the egg further struggles to free itself, and manages to fall out of the nest. It falls over flat, its “hat” falling off, revealing the head/face. It’s a DRAGON.

The fall has further cracked the egg, so that the dragon manages to burst free with its wings. It shakes off the eggshell, looking around. CAMERA switches to a close up of an OSTRICH, that’s blinking and tilting its head from side to side, looking curious. It looks none too bright.

The dragon looks up, making a questioning sound. The ostrich blinks a bit more, before turning around and motions with its head for the dragon to follow. The ostrich moves off, and the dragon looks after it for a bit before following, not yet sure of how its feet work. It sees that the ostrich is getting distant, and starts to hurry along, looking quite clumsy. After nearly catching up it stumbles on a rock, falling flat on its belly, making it blow out a ball of flame, that hits the ostrich directly in the behind. The ostrich howls, and leaps into the air. It gets very angry, and points the dragon off back to the nest with its wing, squawking. The dragon looks confused but gets the point after getting another admonishment.

The dragon sits and sulks outside the nest while the ostrich wanders off foraging for food. The Ostrich wanders into a dark valley, oblivious to its surroundings. A PREDATOR stalks the shadows, closing in on the ostrich. It pounces, the ostrich barely avoiding its claws, losing a few of its scorched tail feathers in the process. The predator chases it around, the ostrich running around squawking in a big circle. The predator corners it, getting ready to move in for the kill. Suddenly it yanks to a stop, a confused look on its face. CAMERA shifts to focus on the dragon biting the predators tail, trying to pull it off. Predator yanks its tail, tossing the dragon into a nearby wall. It starts bouncing and sliding down the wall, while the predator closes in on the ostrich again. Dragon flaps its wings to get clear of the wall, but they aren’t strong enough to support it, so it falls to the ground, landing on it's behind. The predator turns to look with a growl, just as the dragon lands, the landing making it burst out humongous gout of flame, scorching the predator and turning it black. It crumbles to ashes.

The ostrich forgives the dragon for its previous scorching, inviting it to follow along again. They start trudging along, with the dragon walking behind, when again it stumbles in a rock, falling flat. Screen goes black to the sound of the ostrich screaming.

Concept art

Rough concept tests. Mostly dragon design.

Story

We now have a preliminary story put together at a group meeting. We had already written a treatment, but chose to dump it. It will be posted later.