image borrowed from bing
Blackthorne
Cinemagenic Two
The Long Death
“One out of four hides were usable, the rest ruined through
clumsy skinning, and spoilage through poor drying and insect
damage.”--Ralph Andrist
1(extreme wide shot) large buffalo herd grazing.
2(sound cues) birdsong over soft violins.
3(medium wide shot) the quiet grazing herd, covering the hills,
waves of bobbing heads, humps, horns, & swishing tails.
4(freeze frame on previous shot)
5(sound cue) the violins become strident, throbbing, screeching.
6a red wash starts at the top center, & upper corners, seeping
into a rapid stream of blood--soon covering the frame.
7(cut back to former medium wide shot) the grazing herd.
8(medium tight shot) a pair of buffalo calves frolicking, an old
scarred up bull stamping his foot and snorting in annoyance.
9(sound cue) Indian branch flute trilling, deep reedy line.
10(another freeze frame of previous herd shot)
11(silence for a two count)
12(camera roaming the still frame)
13(sound cues) dozens of rifle hammers clicking back, followed by
popping sounds in the distance, then louder multiple cracking, then
the lethal roar of several rifle squads firing Creedmoor & Sharps
big-bore rifles.
14(jump cut between close-ups & medium shots) of buffalo being hit
by bullets & thudding to the ground,
15(using some CGI, but mostly real stock footage) of the Montana
sports kill shots, and game warden tranquilizer dart shots; real bison,
real blood, snorting blood spittle as they go down hard.
16(sound cues) beginning with hundreds of pounding hooves, reducing,
fading into mere dozens, finishing with the sound of one buffalo running
through the kill cloud of alkali.
17(cut to medium close-up) thousands of buffalo skulls piled high, &
bleached white in the sun, shot against an electric blue sky.
18(Loman crane shot pulling back) to reveal huge hillocks, many a
hundred feet high, of buffalo ribs, broken spines, & leg bones,
foothills of bone pyramids,
19(crane shot continuing to pull back & back further) revealing hordes
of hunters scraping & staking the buffalo hides to dry,
20(overhead helicopter shot traveling over the hunters) and we see a
railroad siding, with two large water tanks, coal & wood bins, and on
sidetracks there are flat cars with fresh-cut tree stakes sprouting out
of the edges, being loaded with the buffalo pelts.
21(sound cues) trumpets fading to the sound of one pair of large hooves
galloping across the hard ground.
22(medium wide shot) the white spirit bison bull charging through the
hunters & staked hides, running right to left across the frame.
23(sound cues) Spanish flamenco chords over breaking of wooden stakes,
hunters cursing, yelling, some screaming, a few random rifle shots.
24(cut to medium wide shot) the white buffalo running flat out up
a grassy hillside.
25(sound cue) harmonica, guitar, violin riffs.
26(medium one shot) the albino bison comes to a halt near the
crest of a hill.
27(cut to tracking shot moving toward the bison)
28(jump-cut close-ups) blinking pink eyes, ivory horns, frothing nostrils,
heaving shoulders adorned with two broken arrows, & a broken lance
imbedded in his hump, an eagle feather still tethered to it, fluttering
in the soft breeze.
29(reverse tracking shot) pulling back until we see on the green flats
below the brute the town of Blackthorne standing blue in the shimmering
distance.
30(sound cue) a pair of saloon pianos playing counterpoint tunes.
Glenn Buttkus
August 2013
Posted over at dVerse Poets OLN
Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?
13 comments:
vivid...the killing of all those buffalo...and its real too...and sad....and in the end hurt the first nation much...love the close on the saloon pianos too....
nice.
Thanks, Glenn, for these fascinating poems. You're one of the most creative and prolific poets around, and I admire and value your kind beneficence.
George
I love your 'scripts.' I once did a shooting script for 'As I lay Dying." It was way too artsy-fartsy--or maybe I was young--or both.>KB
A harrowing image of dying buffaloes.. so vivid.. I liked the introduction of music in commentary. Creative and crafty.
Your unique form really describes a part of history that is not something to be proud of.. How these animals was so close to extinct, the spritual part with the white albino buffalo taking revenge is very interesting...
very cool... again so visibly painted scenes.. love all the details but most of all the close with the counterpoint tunes...cool to close with sound
ah, i already read this g....i want a new one! smiles...look at me being greedy...smiles.
Oh, Glenn, this is so vivid. I can just picture the scene, and I don't want to. All those buffalo killed senselessly really bothers me.
I'm sorry, Glenn, but your writing was too graphic for me to read. I tried though.
I love the wild wild west scenery.. it is sad that HOllywood has left those days as there was so much real passion of life included in the portrayals..the Buffalo is a symbol of America to me..when they left so did most of what was real of the rest of it..as far as most settlers go...
Yikes on the gore & violence ~ But good job on the music & background details ~ You are creating little gems here Glenn ~
Wow. What else is there to say?
Whoa! This is strong, Glenn. My stomach turns when I read of or see what was done to the plains: its people and the bison. I wish we could have learned, like the Native Americans, to kill only for necessity--and to ask the animal's forgiveness and thank them for their gifts.
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