Treatment

Finally. Inspiration strikes. Here is the idea (albeit a rough one) that I have started to develop for structuring the film. I'll upload the "conceptual animatic" soon hereafter.


A room with a man sitting at a desk in a cluttered, antique studio, with his back faced towards the camera. At no point is his face visible. On a windowsill near where he is sitting is a crystal ball on a stand. The camera slowly pushes in towards it, eventually cutting to a closeup of the crystal ball. Like a Magritte painting, nothing is outside the window but a clear blue sky.

The camera slowly pushes in further, into the crystal ball and through it.

With no point of reference to sense motion, we see nothing but the sky until a bird flies into the frame. Seen from the distance, it is flying upside down, as if the screen were flipped vertically.

The camera tilts down to reveal the first environment, which is right side up despite their not being an edit indicating any sort of flip after seeing the bird.

_

The following images will be shown sequentially, with the following themes governing the order that they are shown.
- clear > obscured
- colorful > monochromatic
- contrast > little contrast
- open air > dense atmosphere


-Environment 1: A river flowing through giant rocky outcroppings the jut out of rolling mossy hills. Void of any tall plant life. The water seems to glow from the presence of minerals. Light punches through the mountainside, raking diagonally across and slightly towards the screen. Deep space, possible farmland. Shepherd with herd up in the hills somewhere. Morning light. Vibrant, fresh colors – yellows, blues, greens, warm earthtones.

-Environment 2: A hilly mountainside covered with houses, reminiscent of those of San Francisco. Clouds are billowing over the hill like a tidal wave, encroaching on the clear blue sky. Slightly futuristic structures. Interesting foreground elements blocking parts of the frame.

-Environment 3: A view of the Amazon. Huge trees. View of forest canopy from the outskirts of an elevated place. Large twisted branches. Vaporous mist rising from the hillside. Jungle. Vines. Pan down through vines and cliffs. Mayan temples scattered through the distance.

-Environment 4: rain lifting from city streets after a sun shower. A massive cityscape seen from street level. Buildings disappear into the bright grayish yellow sunlight. Purples scattered in.

-Environment 5: near the entrance of a cave with snow blowing in and from cracks above. remnants of fallen temples are seen semi-buried by sheets of ice. Trees growing inside of the cave. No leaves. Surreal huts, like those etched into the mountain side in center, raised to the middle of the space. Blue light glowing from beneath the cracks that run down into the earth’s crust.

-Environment 6: Factory plant with lots of smokestacks releasing huge billows of black smoke. Looking up at huge skyscrapers that disappear into the afternoon sky. Futuristic, tangled city.

-Environment 7: Dust storm. Ancient Egyptian ruins can be made out. Glowing orange light from light bouncing off of sand particles. Sweeping wind. Only parts of building visible.

-Environment 8: Hazy sunset upon a city. Think santa monica at dusk. Can barely make out silhouettes of buildings near and far. Pale orange and yellows.

-environment 9: can barely make out the silhouettes of mountains by the shoreline. Like image posted on blog with seagull.

-environment 10: fog pasing in front of lens, with light barely able to penetrate through.
-crystal ball, at first barely visible, hovers towards us from deep within the fog.