So this post is here to prove that I'm not going to spend my entire summer thinking about thinking about working on my film. I am, in fact, going to actually do work.
First things first, some zombie designs. Please bear with me as I was too lazy to mess with my horrible scanner, so I took pictures.
Next, here is my film's new storyboard - in thumbnail form. My storyboarding teacher, Karl Gnass, said not to do preliminary boards big and elaborate because everything changes, basically, and I agree with that school of thought. I'll run though the plot with each page. It's changed a lot, but I think I'm finally in a really good, basically final place with it. I glossed over the portions of the film that are basically the same, and I've already changed the ending a little since I drew these.
The film starts with the damsel screaming on the tracks while a train fast approaches. The hero and villain are having a standoff on either side of the tracks while she screams. They stand still with their hands near their guns, and when they finally draw, the train hits the damsel before they can even shoot.
Then it's the usual train-derailing-and-killing-all-the-passengers bit. Shot of the town as the day fades into a stormy night. Cut to the saloon, where the hero is drinking his sorrows away and passes out. Back at the train tracks, lightning strikes and revives all the dead passengers. The shadowy figure of the damsel enters the saloon, and a nice man offers her a chair. She feasts upon his brains. His screams wake the cowboy and he watches in horror as she approaches him. He fires off a few shots and misses with each one. As she nears, he panics, sees a beer bottle, and throws it at her. There is a shattering noise. Cut to the zombie damsel, who has shards of glass coming from her head. She falls down.
The cowboy hears screams from outside and goes to check them out. He sees the town in chaos. The wind picks up and blows his hat away. He grasps at it, but watches as it is blown onto the head of a zombie. The hero runs after his hat, but is stopped when he hears screams. A family is trapped by a hoard of zombies under an awning. He tries to shoot the zombies, but shoots the support beams instead, and flaming wreckage falls on everyone. He gulps and looks around. Seeing his hat again, he runs after it. As he runs, he bumps into another terrified townsperson, knocking him into a group of zombies. Once again, the hero is embarrassed. Cut to a shot of the hat walking by a building on top of which stand several terrified burlesque dancers. The dancers look up, and see the hero on the taller building next to them holding a rope. They smile as he swings down towards them, but frown when he swings by them. The hero jumps off his rope and lands on top of the zombie that wears his hat. The hat flies off, and the hero picks it up and puts it on. He stands heroically for a moment and turns to look at the town. When he turns around, he sees it completely engulfed in flames and watches it burn to the ground.
Originally he got bit by the zombie that he landed on and the film cut off as he blacked out. Tell me if you like that better, or give me a better ending.
*I already realize that perhaps all the things he does while running after his hat should contribute to burning the town down. Just when I thought I had it...dang. Maybe the guy he bumps into could be swinging a flaming stick at the zombies he's running from, and as the hero bumps into him, the stick goes flying into a banner, and the guy is pushed into the zombies. Also, maybe he'll knock over some flammable liquids, or some hay, as he jumps and lands on the hat zombie. Sounds like a pretty good addition.
Whew. Sorry for all of that writing. I just needed to prove my worth. Now if only I could get over the idea of being alone in the lab. It just seems so...lonely.
