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Current Talk '24 I / Re: And Now The Return of Another New Slideshow (Sort of), Part 2 [**Now featuring alternate versions of scenes - see replies #18,#21,#23,#49,#64,#69,#76,#88,#90,#100,#105,#107,#115**]
« on: January 07, 2017, 09:22:05 PM » FADE IN: 1 EXT: COLLINWOOD - NIGHT 1 LONG LENS SHOT of the somber, EEIRE CASTLE as the rain pours down. Lights show from the lower windows. FADE IN EEIRE THEME MUSIC. The house is suddenly illuminated by a violent flash of lightning. At the same time we hear LOUD MENACING THUNDER. The CAMERA STARTS TO MOVE IN on the great house heading for one lit room on the second floor. There is a second flash of lightning and we up MAIN TITLES. DARK SHADOWS Credits continue over the following: When the CAMERA is TIGHT on the window, we see a bedroom, and though one light burns, it is deserted. 2 INT: MAGGIE'S ROOM - NIGHT 2 The CAMERA MOVES THROUGH the window into the pleasantly furnished bedroom. The room is not lavish, but a cut above the cook's or the maid's room. On the bed lies a note. We ZOOM IN on the note and see the red inked childish scrawl: "It's all your fault. You'll be sorry." O.S. we hear the sound of a DOOR OPENING. The CAMERA PANS UP to MAGGIE EVANS in the doorway. She is young, pretty, plainly dressed, as befits a governess. She looks around the room, angry, concerned. MAGGIE David? She frowns, then sees the note on the bed. She rushes to it, picks it up, reads it. There is a LOUD CLAP OF THUNDER, A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. The light in the room goes out. Maggie moves to a table, lights a candelabra, and turns, the note in one hand, the candles in the other. She runs from the room. 3 INT: SECOND FLOOR CORRIDOR - NIGHT 3 LOW ANGLE Maggie closes the door to her room, starts down the long 3 CONTD CONTD 3 hall. CAMERA, TRUCKING BACK in front of her. In the flickering candlelight, we can see the disapproving faces of the Collins' family portraits. She passes four doors, opens the fifth. MAGGIE David? 4 INT: SECOND FLOOR CORRIDOR - NIGHT 4 CAMERA FRAMES the bed in the f.g. as Maggie looks into the dark room. A flash of lightning illuminates her. She hesitates, walks into the room. It is a boy's room--a boy of about twelve. There are pennants, posters, a bow and arrow, records, etc. Maggie goes to the closet, opens the door, looks in. No one is there. She goes to the door, leans against the closet, thinking. CUT to BLACK. Actually this in int. dark storage room. 5 INT: STORAGE ROOM - NIGHT - BLACKNESS 5 Flash of lightning illuminates the room. We see it crammed with trunks, statuary, dress form, old furniture. There is another flash of lightning. Then it is black again. There is the SOUND OF A DOOR OPENING as the light from Maggie's candelabra illuminates the room. Maggie ENTERS THE SHOT. MAGGIE Please, David! If you're hiding here-- There is a LOUD CLASP OF THUNDER. 6 INT: UNUSED PARLOR - NIGHT 6 The formal Victorian parlor in the unused West Wing. The furniture is all covered with sheets. The chandelier is wrapped in sheeting, The effect is of a ghost room. Heavy draperies hang at the windows. The lightning flashes. Maggie enters through the great oak doors. A little frightened now, she looks around the room. 7 MAGGIE'S POV - THE ROOM 7 CAMERA PANS THE ROOM, STOPS SUDDENLY, when one of the heavy drapes moves. ZOOM IN. 8 MAGGIE - EXTREME CLOSEUP 8 MAGGIE David Collins, I have had enough of this! CAMERA TRUCKS BACK AND PANS HER to the drapery, she pulls it back. No one is there. But there is a flash of lightning, and we see that one of the glass panes is missing. She stares down at the broken pane. Her anger has turned to a kind of desperate concern: Where is the child? |
And that's it for now because that brings us up to the same point we currently are in DC's script.
And isn't it interesting how some of the descriptions and directions were originally much more detailed. I love how originally the zoom in to the window in the opening shot of the film was supposed to be a zoom in to Maggie's bedroom window and the camera was supposed to have moved through the window and into the bedroom. Though of course, the window the camera focuses on in the actual opening of the film -
- is not even the window to Maggie's actual bedroom - nor is it the window in the stairwell where Maggie and Daphne meet (in fact, in the zoom the window on that landing doesn't even show light coming from it) - but of course we're not suppose to realize any of that! And speaking of Maggie's bedroom, as I'm sure we're also all aware by now, her bedroom in the film is actually Lyndhurst's Master Bedroom, so its description in the first draft as "a cut above the cook's or the maid's room" is an understatement. But most likely when the first draft was written, they weren't even aware they would be shooting at Lyndhurst, which is also probably why the rewrites tailored the scenes to Lyndhurst's actual rooms. Though I have to say it's too bad they scraped the scene in the old Victorian parlor because scenes in the unused West Wing were always such a staple of the daytime DS. And I'm also kind of disappointed that they dropped all the thunder and lightning, not to mention Maggie exploring with a candelabra because those were staples of the daytime DS, too, not to mention the Gothic genre in general. Though, of course, DC was hardly going for mere Gothic - he wanted blood and gore - and more blood and gore - and then more blood and gore - and then even more blood and gore...
But be all that as it may, coming up later today we'll get back to DC's script and a couple of scenes leading up to tomorrow's scene in the slideshow...