RILEY’S FARM PROJECTS
RAGTIME
Images show possible color palettes, color grade, use of background talent, and props
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IMAGES FROM LOCATION SCOUT WITH ACTORS ADDED.
Coverage: Wide shots medium shots and tracking shots.
Coverage: Wide shots 2 shots, and OTS. Transition to scene tracking with kids playing with 1800s toy.
Woman hangs clothing on line as chickens feed on the porch and ground.
Coverage: Wide shots 2 shots, and OTS.
Coverage: Men pass camera one on each side, as camera tilts down from sky. Wide shots 2 shots(reverse angle from sign low), and OTS. Sign and sign hand held POV from men. CU’s.
Hand held and gimbal. Location by road to do gimbal long lens fast tracking on run, need safe trail for actor to run fast between pine trees and trees/brush.
Scene ends with a fake bear claw coming into frame and swiping lens very fast, covering lens into black.
Thibodeaux falls dead into frame on ground pad with blood splattered.
Slow moving shots of both actors at fork in the road for this VO section.
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This room will be darker, with lighting on table and background with kerosene lanterns, the loggers sit with their beer, and talk. We see a few patrons and a bar maid in background.
Coverage: Moving shots around men, wide, med, CU.
Coverage men run past camera into the forest.
Heroic low angle, loggers walk into the tavern with smiles, as patrons turn to look.
Bearskin, bear head, or bear claw with fur slams into frame onto table.
Low dynamic angle of leader with deer taxidermy above fireplace directly behind him, camera pushes in dynamically.
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Slow motion battle shot, low angle with smoke and fire in foreground.
The loggers are all on the ground in a row, we slowly pull back to reveal they are on the battle field as the sound of the battle slowly fades in. The Loggers in a row in uniform holding guns, they are soiled and sweaty, seated leaning back on the long stone wall by Riley’s Tavern, heavy smoke in background, dramatically backlit by a hazy sun. Coverage wide, medium and CUS. Som elf this dialog may need a tweak:”we cannot fight..”
Low angle all the loggers run as camera follows, we see some fall out of frame onto hidden pads. Smoke billows, background talent fill frame if available.
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Coverage continues at sign.
Late afternoon/dusk. They cross bridge as camera moves with them.
They pass a blacksmith fueling the fire.
Joe stops as Marcus exits frame leaving Joe standing.
Tracking shot as Joe runs up to Marcus infront of the tavern.
Coverage continues in front of the tavern as background talent used earlier cross in foreground and background. We hear Ragtime music coming from inside the tavern.
Scene shot from inside the tavern as the piano music plays,we see Marcus and Joe beautifully framed through the window, Joe says lets go.. as camera tracks back and pans to reveal a man at the piano playing music, as scene fades to black.
RAGTIME
ON THE ROAD TO CHICAGO
SCENE 101
Wide Shot – two men walk down dusty road, heat haze, tumbleweed roll past.
Medium shot tracking the gentlemen’s conversation.
MARCUS GRANT
I still can't believe it, Joe.
JOE CARLYLE
You've been saying that since we left St. Louis.
MARCUS GRANT
This is serious! I think I might be losing my touch.
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SCENE 102
JOE CARLYLE
Here we go!
Both men remove their hats. Joe smiles big. As a man walks by on the road.
JOE CARLYLE
Spare some change for the train?
The man walks by without a word.
MARCUS GRANT
Maybe I'm not alone. That smile used to seduce nations.
JOE CARLYLE
I'm out of practice. And I lackmotivation.
MARCUS GRANT
Is that so?
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SCENE 103
JOE CARLYLE
Mark my words. A good-looking dame comes walking down this street, we'll be swimming in pocket change.
MARCUS GRANT
A shame such confidence was not present in St. Louis!
JOE CARLYLE
Woah woah woah! It was not I that wastrying to sell worthless cotton futures.
MARCUS GRANT
No one knew they were worthless!
JOE CARLYLE
Well they do now. And we're both penniless. I say, such a measly rewardfor having every banker in Cincinnati out for blood.
MARCUS GRANT
I know.
(He stops in his tracks)
Tell you what, Joe, I am just going to curl up over here and die.
Marcus Grant sits on the ground
JOE CARLYLE
Ah, come on, Grant! Don't be like that! You've just had a tough break.
MARCUS GRANT
Breaks. Plural. Remember Memphis?
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SCENE 104
JOE CARLYLE
Oh yeah... Alright, tell you what. I take full responsibility for Memphis.
MARCUS GRANT
Knock it off.
JOE CARLYLE
No, I mean it! And besides, Grant, our luck is going to change...Hey look!
Joe walks up to a welcome sign just out of town.
JOE CARLYLE
(Reading the sign)
Welcome to Pineville Illinois, the land of the Pine.
MARCUS GRANT
Nothing like a little redundancy. JOE CARLYLE reads The Founding of Pineville.
JOE CARLYLE
In 1832, Frances Jean Thibodeaux...
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SCENE 105
Medium tracking shot - Flashback to THIBODEAUX nervously walking through a moonlit (changed to moody) forest. As JOE CARLYLE narrates
JOE CARLYLE
Left his Missourian home, and travelling on his own --
THIBODEAUX
Through the forest I shall roam!
JOE CARLYLE
Now legend says that as he leaned, against the trunk of a great pine tree, forgetting his troubles and unaware...he was clawed to death by a ferocious bear.
THIBODEAUX
I say, did you say bear?
Close-up on THIBODEAUX’S face - Frances Jean Thibodeaux looks in terror, as a bear tackles him.
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SCENE 106
JOE CARLYLE
In 1848, the loggers were quite irate.
Medium Shot circling – 3 men sit around a (changed to table at a tavern) campfire as the men talk
JOE CARLYLE
The legend through the years had spread, how Thibodeaux lost his head.
Camera holds steady on the leader of the loggers
LEADER OF THE LOGGERS
We will not sleep till that bear is dead!
All four men raise their axes and pitchforks, and run screaming into the dark forest behind them
JOE CARLYLE
And this is how that fateful day, this very town got its name. For those working boys from a lumber mill...
The four men walk back through the forest with bloody axes and a bearskin.
JOE CARLYLE
Feeling victory from the kill.
LEADER OF THE LOGGERS
I say we call it Pineville!
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SCENE 107
JOE CARLYLE
Now it was 1862, and a nation split in two. These good ol' boys...
SCENE 108
Medium shot - The three men dawn soldiers accoutrements and pick up guns
JOE CARLYLE
From south Illinois --
LEADER OF THE LOGGERS
I think it's time we made some noise!
LOGGER
But sir, we cannot fight northern might.
LEADER OF THE LOGGERS
Son, we can't lie down while they take our rights! Those northern boys better run. Because though we may never see tomorrow's sun, we'll teach them rotten Yankee scum!
SCENE 109
Medium shot pan tracking the men’s movements - All four men charge into the distance As a cannon and muskets are fired at them, they fall.
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SCENE 104 (CONTINUED)
Medium shot – Joe and Marcus still standing at the sign
JOE CARLYLE
Now the wind blows quickly in Pineville, sweeping folks over the hill. But you'll never deprive, our spirit and pride. Population 305.
MARCUS GRANT
Yep, nothing to see here.
He starts walking away. Joe stops him.
JOE CARLYLE
Now wait, we haven't seen anything.
MARCUS GRANT
Believe me, I have seen enough.
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Scene 110
JOE CARLYLE
We've been walking for two days. I could use a moment to shake the dust out of my shoes.
MARCUS GRANT
Kiddo, I spent my whole life in a tank town. And I'm STILL shaking dust off my shoes.
Scene 111
JOE CARLYLE
Look. I'm beat, and if you want these feet to ever operate a piano pedalagain, you'll let them simmer over awarm fire and buy me an ale!
MARCUS GRANT
...No.
Scene 112
JOE CARLYLE
Come on, Grant! Look, I even got my smile back.
JOE CARLYLE smiles a big goofy open-mouthed smile. Marcus Grant looks away.
MARCUS GRANT
Stop it.
JOE CARLYLE
Please, Grant! Look at my face, Grant!Come on, Grant, look at my face.
MARCUS GRANT
ALRIGHT FINE!
JOE CARLYLE
I knew you'd see things my way.
MARCUS GRANT
...I swear, mark my words, one day I'll knock a tooth out of that smile!
JOE CARLYLE
That would only make it more effectual. Let's go...
RAGTIME FILMING SCHEDULE
Day 1: June 19
7:00 AM – Crew Call / Set-Up
• Load gear, prep props.
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM – Fork in the Road Scene 104
• Props: Roadside sign (period appropriate)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Loggers Inside Tavern Scene 106
• Props: Mounted deer head, 12 kerosene lanterns, candles, tables & chairs, period-authentic beer mugs/beer, firewood, lighter fluid, haze machine
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – Lunch Break
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Set-Up: Scene 102
• Background Talent: 2 children, woman hanging laundry, passing man
• Props: Clothesline with miners’ garments/undergarments, children’s toy (e.g., wooden hoop & stick), chickens/chicken feed or substitute farm animals (goat, etc.), smoke machine
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM – Film Scene 103
4:00 PM – 4:30 PM – Set-Up for Opening Walk Scene
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM – Film Opening Walk Scene 101
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Return to Tavern / Dinner Break
6:30-7:00 PM- Scene 105
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Film Final Scenes 110,111,112
• Talent: Blacksmith, supporting and background talent
• Props: Anvil, hammer, horseshoe, practical fire setup (safety checked), smoke machine
Day 2: June 20 – War Pickup Shots
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM – Loggers at Battle Scene 108, 109
• Talent: Background actors in period uniforms
• Props: Cannon, firearms (props), smoke machines, firewood in metal fire-safe container, lighter fluid
Production costs beyond talent, wardrobe.
PROPS
Pineville sign
Bear claw/and bear head/skin (prop rentals?)
Smoke machines
Crew/talent meals, light craft service (cold waters, etc)
CREW
Camera assistant (Gabes friend?)
Make up and effect make up
Sound mixer and sound boom operator
Art department (2 minimum)
Gaffer and grip TBD? Cost $1K
Production assistants (2) prep meals, handle craft service.
CIVIL WAR REENACTMENT
If possible, stage photography early morning and late afternoon before and after actual event
8am-9:30 / 4:30-5:30 staged shots
10-4 event filmed
Will need ways to create smoke and haze
Examples of staged shots below
Props: Flag on pole to wave, field glasses (periscope), tavern scene with candles and a military map
