1st Minute Script + Breakdown
on November 6th, 2009, by Colin LevyAlrighty!
Since before the Blender Conference we’ve been working to improve and condense the script– and we’ve ended up restructuring the film somewhat. So the first minute has changed dramatically!
Here I give you the script and temporary breakdown for the new First Minute of “Sintel.”
We’re gonna do a few tweaks and polishes today, and then the script will be locked!
–Colin
Edit: Here’s a PDF version of the breakdown, for those who requested it.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Love the script so far! There is some spelling errors though 😉
November 6th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I like this version much better! In the old one the fight with the butcher was very unprovoked.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Nice… I’ve written a few screenplays in my day. Mostly just for fun. The first page seems to me more like the first 15-30 seconds however.
I understand that most people equate a standard screen play format as a page a minute. Then again the animation will likely be vastly different from how I read it and way more detailed. Great start guys. I’m hooked.
@Markus Kothe: Spelling errors really doesn’t harm anything with an in house script. after all, It’s going to be made into a short at this point, there is no question about that. Being a spell check Nazi is only really useful for when you want to sell your screenplay to a third party.
I figure it’s good enough to get the main idea across, and in the end, that is all that really matters….
November 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Nice start on the script! 🙂
the open office spreadsheet file doesn’t want to open for me though i’m using 3.1.1
November 6th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
nevermind… it just got corrupted in transit… working now 🙂
November 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Now i´m even more glad i preordered this DVD. Great read..
November 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Now we just need to persuade Morgan Freeman to voice the shaman for free. :o)
November 6th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Looks good, guys 🙂
November 6th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Awesome job, this version is really better than the previous one!
I’ve just a question, What is the meaning of the ‘character anim column’ ?
Keep it up guys, you’re work is really great! 😀
November 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
What unit does the “Duration” column use? Seconds?
Looks very good, I have it playing in my head right now and it looks awesome. A good sign. 😛
November 6th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Hey guys! Thanks for the comments!
Uhh, spelling errors? Tell me what’s wrong, I don’t see it!
Yep, duration currently refers to seconds. Once we do our first pass at an animatic we’ll switch to frames, I think.
The Character Anim column refers to an estimate of character animation seconds. So if the shot lasts two seconds but there’s three characters in the frame that all need animation, it’s more work– we log it as six seconds of character animation!
–Colin
November 6th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Many STONG men…?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Ah! Thanks, I totally missed that. Eesh, I’m blind.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Much more mature and attractive. Much better! Excellent work
spelling error :
“Many STONG men have fallen…”
November 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
so the little dragon (the one above, with “blog” in his mouth ) become giant (the wallpaper one) heheh. look for professional doublelers for voices in other languages (spanish for me) contact with http://www.abaira.es/ or another companies and the may do it for free. maybe 😀
November 6th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Oh my God, the epicness emanating from the words on the screen…! Imagination going wild on what the shots look like…! Can’t… breathe…! How does she get up in shot 1W in just 2 seconds…? 😀
Thank you, Durian Dudes! Thank you, first minute! Life is good!
November 6th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Epic… that’s all
November 6th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Oh oh, I got an idea! – What if, the shaman was really Yoda, and Sintel was a Jedi knight!?!?!
Just kidding, it sounds great. I hope there will be a bit more dialog before the cut-to-black though.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Pure awesome! 😀
November 6th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Alright, very nice. The part were Sintel says that she’s looking for someone she loves sounds a bit cheesy. Might be better leaving that part out. Thanks for the updates, keep it up!
November 6th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
It’s perfect! Now I’m already seeing the scene with infinity definition and infinitum quality sound in my head 😀
I see that even the thumb rule of 1 minute by page applies.
So, this scene is all written by Esther Wouda with revisions by Colin Levy…
Humm! One curiosity if I may:
Regarding to the entire script, more or less, which percentage still is from Martin Lodewijk?
November 6th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Hmm… miss being introduced to the world through the eyes of the small dragon! I thought that was way more original…
And careful, the dialog is different in the .pdf and in the .ods:
“SHAMAN
A sibling, perhaps? A lover?”
“SHAMAN
A member of kin, perhaps? A lover?”
November 6th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Much more satisfying than the fight with the butcher, looking forward to seeing this animated!
November 6th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Looking good guys, like this one a lot better than the previous one. Mountain scenes always inspire more epicness.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
This is really nice.
Is it safe to assume the story is going to have a unique and interesting theme? Possibly a little more sophisticated than with Big Buck Bunny (revenge) but less obscure than Elephants Dream.
I just have one crit. You should really plan to have a shot just showing Sintel’s face before the fight to introduce her. Just like a 2 second shot of her with some kind of expression that shows she’s desperate but persevering, worried but committed, and scared but unabated. And maybe just like one quick shiver (cause its cold).
I think its important to portray all those things even if she is tough-action-hero to show that she’s alive and a human being it’ll really help the audience relate to her really quickly to see her in dire straights -and then they’ll be hooked when she doesnt let the circumstances bring her down and suddenly starts kicking butt.
-First introductions are really important. (Or first entrance really since this whole first page is sort of her introduction)
November 6th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
@Colin: Uhh, spelling errors? Tell me what’s wrong, I don’t see it!
…well, it seems that between the “SLAM CUT to BLACK” and “.” there is like 4 pages missing… we want that! 😀 ehehe
Keep up the good work guys, I also think this is more promising that the initial beginning. Also some teller in the background gives a nice touch of mystery to the whole thing (and you don’t even have to render the guy 😉 )
November 6th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Epic!! 🙂
@billy Right click-> Save As and open with you favorite office program a.k.a Open Office 🙂
November 6th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I like how this blog has become somewhat of a film school, and is not just about Blender. I want to say ‘don’t leave anything out’, because I want to hear it all (the production process, how you guys come to decide things, etc.)
—Raf
November 6th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Please PDF the break down! I want to be able to see it on my work computer.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
yearh, like s0ndeb0k said. I managed to open the breakdown in Excel. (:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Hey guys, thanks for the comments and suggestions! Just uploaded a PDF of the breakdown as well to make things easier.
November 7th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Violence is fine, just keep it tasteful. You know how a lot of people die in star wars, and chronicles of narnia? But you never see someones intestines flying across the screen? (Though now that I think about it, that could be used for comic relief.) Hide actual wounding with clever cuts and poses. I specifically don’t want my parents to forbid me from watching this movie.
November 7th, 2009 at 1:31 am
4K. Mountains in 4096×2160. Just epic. Much better than the basar theme. And the story seams to get more epic too (…many have fallen to the gatekeepers…). Makes the story more interesting and the viewer curious. Gatekeepers of what? Great. It’s so important to impress and to keep the viewer curious and excited.
I write some ideas here (even nobody is interested in, but I can leave them and don’t need to carry them around anymore;)
[ ] Would be nice to have a color concept for the bad guys and for sintel, so the viewer will realize during the short movie who belongs to whom e.g. good guys white, bad guys black. You know what I mean
[ ] Sintel needs a coat – it’s cold guys. Don’t let her freeze 😉
[ ] Create great 4K places/situations: sunrise, sunset, riding a dragon in full speed through narrow gaps, etc…
[ ] Let the heroine have secrets, that will not be unwield in this short movie. This will keep the community later on talk a lot about it 😉
[ ] When she collapses you could give her during the fall into the snow a few flash-backs (2-5 sec) so the viewer gets an idea why she went up on this mountain, or how she made it to get up on the mountain, or anything that helps to make sense that she made it on top of this mountain
[ ] Please don’t forget the snail !
I’m sure everyone has it’s own ideas, but why not share I think.
Hope the Durian Team has a lot of fun as a team. Never forget – life is short, enjoy the ride 🙂
November 7th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Personally I don’t understand what all the hubub is about; I love the first “minute”. Upon reading the script and breakdown I saw nothing that implied any sort of guts flying or RAMBO style violence. Sure there seemed like quite a bit of slashing and cutting resulting in quite a few gashes, but from the looks of things it’s beautifully choreographed which in my opinion makes it absolutely acceptable if not fantastic.
Loving all of the great work.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:20 am
is this not vying to the predicable and overdone territory
November 7th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Sounds great, blog more often (like, once an hour)
November 7th, 2009 at 5:13 am
jk, keep up the great work guys!
November 7th, 2009 at 5:38 am
Number of movies that start with a fight in snowy mountains: > 200
Number of movies that start with you realizing you are a baby dragon: < 5
I have to say that the original intro was creative and…original, while the new is really not.
Please make this more than a tech demo. Fight choreography is fun, but you are presenting Sintel as “the standard hero”, whereas before you presented her as someone who could sympathize with a baby dragon and was willing to fight for a defenseless creature.
Well, I do not know the rest of the script, so things may come later, but it is more important to give her feelings than super fighting skills, I think.
November 7th, 2009 at 5:52 am
“The lovely lady sang so sweet, upon her harp she plucked.
The dragon’s love grew great and strong, his heart thundered and bucked.
When she was through, he took her home, and all night long they…
(Those of you with dirty minds are gonna be working overtime…)”
[White Plectrum – The Dragon and the Lady, plectrum.net ]
Script looks awesome, very epic, very visual. Keep it up! 😀
November 7th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I concur with Consideringthepickle about making the first shot of Sintel’s face being a good introductory one. But I can imagine this being satisfied without even needing to change the breakdown.
Assuming that 1G is the first shot where we get a first proper look at Sintel (all the earlier ones being wider or reverse shots with her) all that needs to happen is have it a couple of frames longer than necessary than for just a reaction shot. That one second duration sounds adequate, I think. Naturally, the shot can be sold even better if the attack at 1F is very scary beat! 😀
I think you guys know what you’re doing. 😉
November 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Where can i find the meanings for all of these “OTS”, “ELS” “3/4 CU” and other spells?
November 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Sounds like this could be epic! Keep up the good work guys. Love keeping up with Durian. It’s so cool!
November 7th, 2009 at 11:49 am
@Jack-Jack,
ELS – Extreme long shot
MCU – Medium close up
MS – Medium shot
OTS – Over the shoulder
CU – Close up
MW – Medium wide
POV – Point-of-view
3/4 – Three quarter, between front and profile view
High angle – Seeing from higher up
Low angle – Seeing from lower down
Dolly – Moving on a track
Pivot – Background moves while subject stays on frame
I don’t know where on the internet you can find this info, though…
November 7th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
D, thank you!
November 8th, 2009 at 1:55 am
If there’s one thing that bugs me about the script it is the line: “Before long all five bandits lie motionless at her feet.” ….Before long?? A vague statement like that has no right being in a script.
How about:
A Bandit slashes at her leg. Sintel twists in pain, roaring. In a flash, she lashes out – a flurry of precise, powerful blows, felling each Bandit in one continuous move. She spins to a stop, elegantly balanced. Their bodies lying at her feet.
Obviously you need to write the action you have in mind, but ‘Before long’ ain’t it.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Film making resources:
http://filmmakeriq.com/
http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/index.html
There are lots more, but those are the most recent ones I’ve stumbled on.
Greydesk (aka Statik)
November 9th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I second rogpers question: How much of Martins original story is still in the script?
I realize compromises must be made, and please understand that I still predict that you will do a fantastic job 🙂
November 10th, 2009 at 3:27 am
That would make an awesome trailer!
“I’m looking for someone I love”
“A sibling? A lover?”
“A dragon.”
COMING SOON!
November 10th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
awsome!
will it be the young sintel odr the older sintel in those first seconds?
November 25th, 2009 at 4:45 am
An easier question, maybe: Will all the versions of the script be on the dvds?