The ending

I like the Australia idea, as Magnulus said people who have fled there search for loved ones or anybody on-line, this is where vlogs can come in, people leaving messages trying to find anyone still out there, Australian citzens themselves post stuff, messages of hope.

Though the ending may hint at a sequel that's just something we can't avoid it will bring an more upbeat tone to the bleak scenes that precede it, showing there is life still in a world of the dead.

Iain

Okay, I just sent off a suggestion to Shyara for the ending scene, but I thought I might as well post it here. Dunno if that's like a forum faux pas, but I guess I'll know after I've posted it. ^_^

I didn't write everything out as a script, as I'm not sure about the locations or what has led the characters to where they are, but the basic gist is there.

----------

Ben and Ethan are fighting again about what to do next. (Though we know, of course, that the real fight is over Abi, as it always is) Testosterone is being showered all over the place. The "New Girl" is lying dead on the ground, killed by zombies earlier, and Abigail is standing beside the two guys, her frustration mounting until she finally explodes.

ABIGAIL
Will the two of you just SHUT UP?!

Ben and Ethan immediately shut it and look over to Abi.

ABIGAIL
We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, the walking dead are surrounding us as we speak, and you guys are squabbling over left versus right! Jeez, could you BE any more hormonal?

Beat

BEN
Uhm... We're not...

ETHAN
What the hell are you talking about, hormonal?

ABIGAIL
Please, we'll drown in your testosterone before we're eaten at this rate! Ethan, I know you're afraid of Ben -

ETHAN (interrupts)
Psh, as if!

ABIGAIL
- I know you're afraid of Ben "stealing" me, but I'm not a possession to be stolen! If anything happened, it'd be that I chose to leave you for him. Get over yourself!

ETHAN looks dejected while BEN straightens triumphantly.

BEN
Yeah, that's right!

ABIGAIL turns on BEN now.

ABIGAIL
And YOU! You're no better than Ethan!

BEN
What?!

ABIGAIL
You keep acting all innocent and vulnerable, but all the way through this... this situation, you've been more concerned with getting me than getting away from the zombies.

BEN's turn to look down-trodden while ETHAN looks scandalised after having his suspicions confirmed.

ABIGAIL
You're like children, the pair of you! And I won't take one step from here until you guys have shook hands and agreed to keep the peace until we're out of this!

BEN and ETHAN look at eachother. As they mumble apologies to eachother, NEW GIRL gets up behind ABIGAIL, unnoticed and zombiefied. BEN and ETHAN finally shake on it.

ABIGAIL
There, was that so difficult?!

BEN and ETHAN both look at ABIGAIL and see the NEW GIRL ZOMBIE standing right behind ABIGAIL. They shout at the same time to get her to move, but too late. NEW GIRL ZOMBIE sinks her teeth into one of ABIGAIL'S outstretched arms and BEN AND ETHAN are left standing there looking as ABIGAIL goes down, being torn to shreds by NGZ. They look at eachother once and ETHAN runs over and kicks NGZ in the face so hard her head jerks upwards. As NGZ's head comes to rest facing ETHAN, BEN runs forward and smacks her head in with his WEAPON (whatever that may be).

BEN and ETHAN stand, shell-shocked, looking down on ABIGAIL'S mauled body. They're both panting after the sudden exertion. BEN falls to his knees beside ABIGAIL and wails. ETHAN, ever the "tough guy", blinks and tries to hold back the tears, but fails. He turns to wipe them off his face. When he turns he sees a mass of zombies converging on them slowly, eyes fixed on the two survivors. ETHAN steps backwards to BEN and taps him nervously on the shoulder. When BEN only shakes his hand off, ETHAN punches him. BEN gets up. Looks around. BEN and ETHAN's faces go from grief to fear and then finally arrives at determination. They look at each other and nod.

BEN and ETHAN both let out a primal scream and, putting forth all their rage and misery, they launch themselves at the zombies, hacking and kicking and bludgeoning. As he CAMERA tracks backwards away from the scene, you see that the twenty or thirty zombies surrounding them are just the initial wave. From all sides, the zombies are slowly advancing on the two.

FADE TO BLACK

CUT to INT. ROOM DAY.
The Australians are still alive. No infection there. They've made an online video to find survivors in oher countries so they can be moved to Australia via boats. One such survivor is Eric, who is watching the video on his computer, still not having left his house. He yells out in joy at the prospect of finally being saved, but in mid-yell, his computer screen and everything else goes completely black and silent. As his computer fan lumbers to a halt, sounds echo in the darkness... Voices. Moaning, dead voices.

THE END.

I like it, as this film is a collaborative effort i must admit this scene mirrors one that i wrote but i am sure there are a few other people that wrote scenes for the near end of the film. more the merrier gives the script writers more to chose from as to plot & such.

I had thought about the NGZ attacking Abi myself so good to see it pop up in one of the scripts, I've been speaking with another writer about fleshing the NGZ character whose name is Kelly in my draft so that her death isn't an empty thing, she had meaning.

I had a idea in my head for the Australia bit , an Australian flag blows in the breeze we push past the the flag to show planes landing or boats arriving, cut to someone talking about its safe to come to Australia, cut to Eric watching this video, i love the ending for his bit, the safety of his flat isn't so safe after all, can see him shinning a torch into the dark only to reveal the face of a zombie but your ending Magnulus is better undead moans in the darkness.

Iain

Iain

Thanks a lot, Iain. ^_^

I was thinking about Kelly and thought she might be a source of some more antipaty towards Ethan as he might be flirting with her. I say I've been thinking about Kelly, but I've really mostly been thinking about Ethan, to be honest. ^_^ There's something about that asshole that attracts me to him. I think that while he wants and needs Abi in his life as a source of stability, he IS prone to unfaithfulness. He's a bit of a dick, but it's mostly a defense mechanism, as is usually the case with dicks.

Anger. Fear. Physicality. Those are the three words I would probably use to describe Ethan. If he was a colour, I think he'd be maroon.

I think that in order to write a movie script that is based on character interaction (which IZM seems to at least partly be) it's important to map out just what TYPES our characters are in order to see how they'd react to each other. I learned a system for describing real-world personalities and their dynamics a few years back. This system is also useful for fiction, and I'll see if I can make a video where I explain it some time very soon.

I do think about the characters when i write them, doesn't help i now think of them with people i've seen on You Tube auditioning for the roles well saves me thinking who would be good in these roles.

Ethan does seem a bit of a muppet, it seems that he is scared of losing Abigail to the likes of Ben who he know's fancys her but then Ethan isn't that clever as he is clearly eyeing up other girls, even be it ones who are friends with his girlfriend, ( just re-read your last post & i've just said what you did, sorry).

The Kelly character i was unsure of to begin with, even though i think i am the writer who created & first used her in a script, (not that i get a gold star for that), she was always just Abigail's friend who was coming along for the ride, unable to stay in the flat she ends up trying to get out of the City only to meet her end by a zombie attack which leaves her lying dead on a cold London street, kind of why me & another writer shall flesh her out a bit more, least i hope we can, give her more meaning & a better role in the script.

It had been said in other posts as you have said that IZM would be a character driven piece, yes we have the undead but we need strong characters to push the story forward, make the viewer care about what's happening to them, so that when things do go bad we feel for them not wait for the next character to die by zombie attack.

Iain

Ah, oh! I just realised that what I was saying about figuring out character types could be misconstrued as being directed towards you specifically, which was not my intention. I meant as a general rule for the film, a kind of character manifesto beyond what's on the audition scripts should maybe have been put together a while ago so it would have been easier to flesh them out.

Then again, the way it is now makes it freer, though also a little more daunting, which is not necessarily a bad thing either. ^_^

I kind of like the general idea of Kelly you're talking of. I don't think she needs MUCH more, but she could be fleshed out as a symbol of the innocent lives lost in such cataclysmic events. Maybe she has a bright future ahead of her in some kind of job or perhaps she got married recently and her husband was killed by a zombie. You probably see where I'm going with her. A casualty to show just how terrible those zombies are type of thing. But those are just my initial thoughts. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, as we seem to be thinking alike on a lot of things.

Magnulus wrote:
Ah, oh! I just realised that what I was saying about figuring out character types could be misconstrued as being directed towards you specifically, which was not my intention.

No its ok i know you weren't asking me to give a character break down i was just doing one as i saw them, thinking aloud.

I like your idea that Kelly does have a future beyond the reality that she faces now, the sad thing is that she will never get to live it as she dies, though alot of zombie movies aren't all flowers & daisys, though a ray of hope is there its always snuffed out before said character can get to freedom or a new life, the end of the original Night of the Living Dead is such an example, just as the character gets to freedom they are cut down.

Iain

I think that during this Abby-death scene we should try and make it seem as dream-like as possible, you know? Put it in Ben's perspective to make it seem as though this isnt real, make the audience think the same thing too. So I spose, yeah, make it fast, make it brutal, make it slightly blurry, make it almost abstract - anything to make the audience go: "woah, wait a minute - is this really real or is this just a dream sequence?"
Play with the audience.

Not literally.

Sickos.

We doing the Matrix zombie movie, kidding, some of that i was wondering is this the real world bit or in the computer.

The dream aspect is new twist on the end but if it is a dream then when does the dream end & reality start, was the whole film or what happened to Ben & his friends just a bad dream, does Ben wake up in bed with a zombie next to him.

I like your idea but we're already playing with the audiences view of the real world by having some of the film take place through vlogs & internet related media before cutting back to reality.

And how are we sickos your the one who said play with the audience, gone are the days of the B movie when a monster from the screen would so called jump off screen & into the theatre to scare the pants of the people in there.

Iain

Yeah, a lot of films where many people die tend to have one tiny character which has a future but is killed, but those are usually just five-minute roles. Among the major roles, the assholes and irredeemables are the ones who tend to die and the ones with an actual, proper future are the ones who survive. I like the idea that Kelly is a good girl with a future who's useful when she's around but is then cut down. As I'm writing this, I'm realising that a good example of Kelly's character the way I see her is Wash in Firefly, or Kaylee for that matter. If you haven't seen Serenity but intend to, I won't say much more about that, but they are the kind of characters you just don't want to see even get hurt. Not because they're too cute, but because they're just too full of life.

Not so sure if you'd need it to be dream-like, really. The fast and brutal way she dies in my draft would be enough to make the audience kind of go "What the hell, did that just happen?!" and I think one should be careful not to overdo things in such cases. If there's one thing I don't like about Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, it's that Haldir's death is so overdone with so much slow-motion and silliness that it's almost without impact.

The way I see it, when she is attacked, the camera cuts to a shot from behind her looking on to the two guys as she is brought down. Actually, when I think of it, that would make HER out of focus and just barely visible, so it would probably have some of that dream-like quality to it, but not quite in the way you suggested.

EDIT: By the way, I love that this forum engine gives me a chance to answer posts made while I was writing my post before I actually submit it.

I dont mean make it so dream like its matrix, I meant make the scene where Abby dies almost peculiar.

Example: The scene in saving private ryan where tom spanks is on the beach and everything goes silent and stuff.

It should be something like that, but a bit more blurry and taken from Ben's perspective - lots of shots of his blank face - he cant believe it is happening. He's shaking his head and trying to focus, he sees Ethan trying to save her, he's calling to Ben for help - but Ben is still drunk with fatigue (I love that phrase) and he falls over, stunned and shocked, saying to himself: "This aint real... Its a dream... Oh man..." Like that.

I dont intend Morpheous to jump in at the end and shout out: "spank my shiny head."

Fuzileer wrote:tom spanks

What is this, fifth grade? ^_^

The scenario as you describe it seems like something I've seen a few too many times before. I mean no disrespect, but I can see it in my head and it feels very familiar to other things I've seen. You can still do the dazed look and all, but I would personally go for something faster and more brutal and physical rather than emotional. There's a chance for emotion after they've taken out Zombie Kelly as it is.

Magnulus wrote:

Fuzileer wrote:tom spanks

What is this, fifth grade? ^_^

Nothing wrong with a bit of spanking

Iain wrote: ( various things about Kelly and stuff )

Magnulus wrote: ( various other things about Kelly and stuff )

I thought it'd be a good idea to take this conversation into another thread.
http://zombiemovie.gooboards.com/plot-script-f1/kelly-and-the-fleeing-across-london-sequence-t663.htm#5365

That's a bit difficult for me, because I don't have "special access".