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Addict
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Hey guys, thanks a lot for your ideas and reference insight! I skimmed through it and have been crafting a rough script. Here's what I have come up with to this point, and would love any feedback you might have.
If you do read through it and have any modifications in mind that would make it more compelling, I'm all ears! Also keep in mind that this is being written for a 3D animation.
Quote:
Germany, July 1370
It's just before dusk and the skies are clear. A beautiful woman is seen loitering along the upper wall of a massive castle. She does not appear to be of noble descent, but is healthy and dressed well. She folds up a small piece of paper and stuffs it into a bottle. She corks the bottle and tosses it over the wall into a river. A guard appears, startling her enough to make her stumble to the ground. He demands to know what her business is up on the wall. "Nothing" she mumbles. The guard angerly asks what she tossed over the wall as he peeks over to investigate. She doesn't respond. "Well what was it!?" he yells as she recoils. "N-nothing...It was nothing. Just garbage." she replies. The guard grunts, and with one swift motion knocks her unconscious with the butt of his crossbow.
Two years later, England.
The bottle is seen washing up on the shore, half buried in sand. A man in armor picks up the bottle and sees there is something within. He removes the paper and unfolds it with the contents out of view.
A knight and cloaked figure stand alone in a well lit room surrounded by tapestries and other royal decor. The knight hands over a freshly rolled scroll, sealed with the letter of the lord. Upon unrolling it, the man reads his mission will be to infiltrate an enemy castle to secure sensitive strategic documents. A small folded piece of paper is also tucked within the scroll.
Germany
It's 4:00 in the morning in May of 1372. Thick fog and heavy rain limit visibility to a mere feet, with thunder and lightning distracting the guards on watch. A spy floats down a stream in a small covered boat preparing for his mission of espionage. The river wraps around the castle forming a moat, and is harvested as kinetic energy by a waterwheel protruding from the side of a wall. These thick walls tower nearly 100 feet above, and are lined with a hollow wooden structure used by archers. Slits in the walls and hatches in the floor of this hoarding allow them to defend from all angles of attack.
The spy makes landfall at the base of the castle just feet from the waterwheel and steps out onto shore. He readies his crossbow and harpoon, and prepares a system that will hoist him up the wall. A custom arrow is fitted with a pulley to feed a rope, which has a handle on one end and a grappling hook on the other. Timing his shot with a flash of lightning, he fires the harpoon straight up into the hoarding, masking the sound of impact with a crack of thunder. He latches the grappling hook onto the waterwheel, and holds onto the handle as he is hoisted up using the wheel as a winch.
As the spy reaches the top of the wall, he hangs silently beneath the floorboards of the hoarding. He listens for activity, and waits as footsteps pass overhead. He uses his dagger to pry open the hatch, and swiftly heaves himself up. Now inside the castle, he creeps down the hall and ducks into a corner stairwell where a single candle hangs from the wall. He unfolds a piece of paper revealing a hand drawn map, and briefly studies it under the light. It shows that he must travel through the courtyard and gain access to the treasury through a window. Several guard posts and other critical information is marked on the map, clearly the work of an insider who knows the castle well.
The spy slides to the end of the hall, and uses his dagger as a mirror to peek around the corner. He waits for a guard to pass, and makes a run for a set of stairs going down into the courtyard. He slides down into the darkness and slips behind a building.
His access to the treasury is through a window positioned above a private garden. Approaching a guard on patrol, the spy pulls out a veil of poison. He removes the cork and applies some liquid to a rag. Hiding in a dark crevis, he swiftly reaches out behind the guard as he passes and firmly applies the rag to his face. The guard goes limp without a sound, and the spy pulls his body into the shadows.
He sneaks past a snoozing guard and enters the walled garden. It's filled with a variety of herbs and littered with tools and equipment. Quickly fashioning a ladder by embedding trowels into a tall wooden plank, the spy leans it against the wall and climbs up to the window. He pulls out a metal device reminiscent of an engineers compass. This one is tipped with diamond blades and is used to cut a circular hole in the stained glass window. He reaches through the hole, unlocks the window, and slips inside.
Finally inside the treasury, he is surrounded by gold and riches. After a quick once-over of the room, his map leads him to a locked chest. He kneels down and picks the lock with ease. Inside he finds the documents he is looking for and secures the paper in his satchel. As he begins to exit, he pauses suddenly as something catches his eye. A large pile of gold coins is sitting exposed on a table, gleaming in the candle light. The spy walks over and stuffs a handful into his pocket before leaving the room through a wooden door.
The rain has eased, and early morning light casts a blue gloom over the courtyard. A guard is rounding the corner just as the spy exits, and the clank of the door latch catches his attention. As the guard walks to investigate, the spy darts into the kitchen and scrambles up into the storage rafters, just barely out of plain sight. The guard wanders in and looks around curiously, standing directly below the spy. Just as the guard turns to leave, a single coin falls from the spys pocket. It hits the wooden floor and bounces at the guards feet. By the time the guard looks up, the spy is already jumping down wielding his dagger. The kill is messy, with no time for elegant precision, both the guard and spy topple over a table of pans and dishes. The commotion alerts other guards, who rush in as the spy exits through the opposite door. They see the body and run after the culprit.
The spy darts back up a set of stairs to the wall, but his planned exit is cut off by a herd of guards running towards him. He turns and cuts down a hallway, and spots a stash of spears. He grabs one and slips around a corner just out of sight. As the guards approach, he leaps out and stabs the leading guard with full force, pushing him out a window and over the edge of the castle wall. He manages to save the spear and uses it to fend off a following guard.
The spy continues along the wall until he finds himself surrounded. He has no option but to jump off the interior side of the wall, crashing through a thatch roof and landing in a pile of hay.
At the opposite end of the castle, the front gate is opening as traders and water collectors exit for the morning.
He stands up and gets his bearings, realizing he is in the stables. As he grabs a settle and throws it over a horse, a frail voice calls out from the shadows. He grabs his dagger and stands guard as a woman withdraws from the shadows. She's wearing tattered clothes and is shackled to a stone. "I beg of you to take me from these savages" she whimpers, "my allegiance to your lord is true, I can show you the way out!" Guards are heard shouting just outside, and the spy moves to mount the horse. "Please!" the woman pleads as she falls to her knees and grabs his wrist, "...I will die here." After a few moments hesitation, the spy grabs an axe and cuts the shackled chain. He lifts her onto the horse, and they lurch forward out of the stable.
She points to the right as guards rush from the left. The horse's trot is powerful as they dart through the inner workings of the castle. A watchman at the front hears yelling and signals to close the gate, and the gatekeeper slams the trigger with a hammer. The couple duck low as they just barely squeeze through as the gate slams shut, trapping the guards inside.
Dawn breaks as the horse leaps from the drawbridge and rides off into the mist.
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Did you understand that the woman at the end is the same woman who delivered the note in the bottle two years eariler? She will of course have a physical resemblance in the animation. Her dialogue is still pretty rough, I'm hoping to come up with something a bit stronger.
Thanks guys! |