Thursday, September 15, 2005

SPANISH TRAIN script

The folks over on the ENGINE were talking about scripts without words that went along to songs. Well, I didn't want to write an epic, but here's my little six page, 955 word script to go along to Chris de Burgh's "Spanish Train".

SPANISH TRAIN

PAGE 1

Five horizontal panels.

Panel 1

A desolate train yard in twilight. The moon is shrouded by clouds. There is only a single train in the station, an old European coach. Maybe three or four cars long, with an old train lantern on the end of the last car. The station itself is three stories, and all the windows are dark.

Panel 2

Close on the train, smoke coming out of the stack on the engine. The conductor can be seen through a window, a gaunt man with a cap pulled low over his face. Thin lips, sunken eyes, and a sharp nose. His skin color is indeterminate and washed out by the light of the engine’s furnace.

Panel 3

Same distance as panel 2. The train, pulling out of the station. Its about halfway out of the panel, moving off to the right. The station is still dark.

Panel 4

The lantern on the end of the train is a little speck on the right hand side. The station is still dark.

Panel 5

The train is gone. A single light appears in a third story window. There is a sign that the train was previously covered up. White and dirty, old, with block letters reading “OLD SEVILLE”.

PAGE 2

Four panels. One row of two, with a pair of horizontals under it.

Panel 1

GOD. He’s in his mid twenties, with slicked back black hair and a curling black mustache (like the villains in Western movies), wearing an old, worn white linen suit that’s a little too baggy for him, like he lost a lot of weight since buying it. A few beads of sweat sit on his brow, and his green eyes are blood shot. He’s holding a hand of four playing cards (all with some absurdly simple pattern on the back). His thin lips are set in a clench of nervous desperation.

Panel 2

DEVIL. In his late 30s, starting to go bald, with a faint crown of blond hair and a five o’clock shadow. He wears a nice black tuxedo. His jaw is square, his nose slightly hooked, with dull blue eyes and a faint ragged scar across one cheek. His mouth is set in a perpetual sneer, showing off a gold capped front tooth. His eyes are on his cards, which he holds with great ease.

Panel 3

Horizontal view of GOD’S cards, with DEVIL’S black silhouette blurred in the background. GOD’S holding queen, jack, nine, and the ten of spades. It is notable that there don’t appear to be any chips on the table. There is, however, a revolver and a gas lamp sitting beside it providing most of the light.

Panel 4

DEVIL’S cards. He has three aces and a king. GOD’S white silhouette is in the background.

PAGE 3

Six panels. A long horizontal, a row of two, and then a row of three.

Panel 1

Wide shot, from the side, of the table. Its small and square, with DEVIL on the left and GOD on the right. There’s a pearl handled revolver sitting on the table with a brass gas lamp sitting beside it. Sitting at a chair in the middle of the table facing the reader is the DEALER, an old man in old, worn bed clothes and a bushy white beard. He looks sleepy, and rather bewildered. There’s a deck of cards in front of him.

Panel 2

DEALER, sliding a card to GOD.

Panel 3

DEALER, sliding a card to DEVIL.

Panel 4

GOD lifts the edge of his card to look at it. We cannot see it.

Panel 5

GOD’S face. There’s a glint in his eye. One side of his mouth quirks. His teeth are gritted.

Panel 6

GOD’S hand: the new card is an eight of diamonds. He has a straight, but not a straight flush.

PAGE 4

Seven panels. Two rows of three, with a horizontal on the bottom.

Panel 1

DEVIL accepts his card.

Panel 2

DEVIL lifts the edge of his card.

Panel 3

DEVIL places the card in his hand.

Panel 4

Outside the train station, the light on in the window.

Panel 5

Same as last.

1 SFX: “BANG”

Panel 6

Same as last.

1 SFX: “BANG”

Panel 7

The table, back in the room. GOD and the DEALER are face down on the table, blood pooling around them. DEVIL’S hand of cards is laid out on the table.

PAGE 5

Nine panels.

Panel 1

The train station.

Panel 2

Close on the station platform, on an old wooden door. Wan moonlight paints it as a faint outline.

Panel 3

Light spills around the edges of the door.

Panel 4

The door opens.

Panel 5

DEVIL stands in the doorway, holding the pearl handled revolver.

Panel 6

DEVIL closes the door behind him.

Panel 7

From behind DEVIL looking across the tracks into the moors. The engine of the train is starting to come from the left of the panel.

Panel 8

The train passes in front of DEVIL in a blur of speed.

Panel 9

The train stops. There’s a single lantern set beside a door to the darkened interior of the train.

PAGE 6

Five horizontal panels, like page 1.

Panel 1

Long shot of the train from the station perspective, as DEVIL steps up to the door of the train.

Panel 2

DEVIL closes the door of the train behind him.

Panel 3

The train begins to pull away from the station, showing the moors behind it.

Panel 4

The train, receding off to the panel’s left.

Panel 5

From the back of the train, a sign on the back lit by the train’s back lamp: SOMERSET.

END

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