The Script..

I worked closely with Karen today so that we could pin down the story and get a finished script so that I could go away and do our storyboards. Because we are using Karens characters as well as the story to some extent, it's important that she feels happy with the story and the way in which the characters interact with each other and the environment to help keep everything grounded in Karens original vision.  The main challenge we faced was figuring out how many shots was needed to tell our story, figuring out what was important and what could be discarded was difficult as we both had certain ideas that we wanted to include but in the end had to sacrifice due to the complexity of them in our scene as well as the time limit of 30-60 seconds. We managed to get our first draft of the script finished which turned out pretty solid and flows very well in my opinion, it's definitely a good starting point for us and I can now start the storyboards and animatic which will give us a much better Idea of how it all flows together while in motion. Below is the first draft of our script:

SCRIPT

EXTERIOR TREEHOUSE. NIGHT TIME

Long Shot establishing the scene, shows a tree and a treehouse which is illuminated when lightning flashes.

Close-Up shot of the treehouse, outside window looking in. A small girl is sitting inside on the floor with a torch.

INTERIOR TREEHOUSE

Medium shot of girl from the front whilst she’s holding the torch. She looks scared and worried due to the storm going on outside. Her torch starts to flicker, the batteries are running low! The torch completely dies.

Close-Up of girls face. A loud of crash of thunder makes her jump.  Wide Shot of her quickly scurrying into a corner next to a set of draws. She huddles her knees into her chest to try and hide herself.

Mid Shot of her trying to hide herself away.

Birds-eye view, wide shot. Lightning flashes reveal a creepy shadow of someone standing in the doorway, it casts across the floor in the direction towards the girl.

Wide Shot. Creepy silhouette of the figure standing in the doorway of the treehouse. Figure is only visible when the lightning flashes. Object falls off of the shelf and rolls in front of the figure.

Mid Shot of the girl. She has her hands over her eyes so she can’t see anything scary that’s happening.

Point Of View shot. Girls perspective. She opens her fingers so she can see what’s going on. She sees the silhouette of the figure standing in the treehouse now.

Close Up on the girls face, she is scared and worried about everything.

Extreme Close Up on the figure. Shot of one of it’s eyes which has a very evil/dangerous look to it.

Mid Shot of the girl. She’s trying her best to curl up and hide herself away.

Extreme Close Up of the figure’s hand. From the side. The figure’s hand slowly raises up, it has a torch in it’s hand but it’s not turned on.

Close Up of the girls face, she is starting to get very distressed.

Low Angle Mid Shot from the girls POV looking up at the figure. The figure is almost towering over her.

Close Up of the girl, wide shot. Side angle. She is gradually reaching breaking point.

Extreme Close Up on the figure. Side shot of the mouth doing a scary grin/smile.

Extreme Close Up on the girl. Side shot showing her eye and nose, She is very scared.

Medium Close Up of the figure. The figure has turned the torch on and is pulling an extremely scary face! The figure turns out to be some sort of panda teddy bear.

Close Up of the girls face. She is screaming in fear.

Close Up. Sound of the storm has disappeared. Girl suddenly sits up very quickly, she looks very distressed. She has just woken up from what appears to have been a nightmare.

Medium Close Up. Side angle. The girl turns her head and looks down towards something.

Close up. Of the girls hand reaching and grabbing a nearby torch.

Mid Shot. Front angle. The girl turns on the torch and quickly shines it to see what is next to her.

Close Up of a teddy bear laying on its back. It turns out to be the same scary teddy bear from her nightmare.

Medium Close Up. A look of relief calms her face….A crack of thunder is heard way off in the distance. The girl jumps with fright and drops the torch.

Close up on torch as it lands on the floor. It rolls in a half circle shining light at the camera before rolling away from the screen illuminating the title ‘Summers Treehouse’ before fading to black.