Orange, Snowdrops
Sun. Sunset. Forest in a blanket, cluster of snowdrops, poking through. A chill wind brushes the drops, they whisper as they move.
A scene that suggests that it is winter, why it is winter, where we are and why the film is beginning like this.
Why is it winter?
Its early February, and it has been a harsh winter, one of the harshest in recent years, in this fabled town in America.
Where are we?
A fabled town in America, named….
Why is it beginning like this?
To show that we are in winter, and that the protagonists live in/near the forests, rather than in the suburbs/city. This tells the viewer that the protagonists are solitary, and don’t engage in company in less it is each other.
Scene one
A wide shot of the landscape. The camera slowly pans horizontally, letting the audience take in the scene. The sky is misty, save for a sliver of orange sun shining through. The sun has almost set. We are in an expansive forest, covered with a thick blanket of snow. Many of the trees are bare, although the fir trees keep their coats. A small log cabin sits in the distance to the right of the shot , a gingerbread house, with smoke billowing from the top. It is set in a large clearing, as though the trees give it a wide berth. An old truck sits outside, with a couple of trees in the back, waiting to be chopped. It is deathly silent, save for the whisper of snowdrops blowing in the chill wind. It looks like the picture of Christmas, if Christmas had lost its cheer. There is a calm yet almost forbidding atmosphere to the scene, as though at any moment an incident could occur to break the silence, and that if it did, the makers of the noise would be sorely sorry that they had done it.
‘It was one of the worst winters the residents of ….. had ever seen in living memory.
Once upon a time... 