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In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking’. When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialog only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in a cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between.
It seems unfortunate, that with the arrival of sound, the motion picture, overnight, assumed a theatrical form. The mobility of the camera doesn’t alter this fact. Even though the camera may move along the sidewalk, it’s still theatre.
One result of this is the loss of cinematic style, and another is the loss of fantasy. In writing a screenplay, it is essential to separate clearly the dialog from the visual elements and, whenever possible, to rely more on the visual than on the dialog. Whichever way you choose to stage the action, your main concern is to hold the audience’s full attention.
It seems unfortunate, that with the arrival of sound, the motion picture, overnight, assumed a theatrical form. The mobility of the camera doesn’t alter this fact. Even though the camera may move along the sidewalk, it’s still theatre.
One result of this is the loss of cinematic style, and another is the loss of fantasy. In writing a screenplay, it is essential to separate clearly the dialog from the visual elements and, whenever possible, to rely more on the visual than on the dialog. Whichever way you choose to stage the action, your main concern is to hold the audience’s full attention.
Alfred Hitchcock (quoted in Hitchcock by François Truffaut)
Freed from an ant farm in the local pet store, the Ants were more than keen to become the administrators, monitoring supplies, maintaining the warehouse, and assisting Protowilson in some of the more detailed actions of the group. Their hive-mind allows them to operate as an organic computer, and what one drone knows, the others do also. Apart from their larger hive-queen, the Ants are seemingly identical to each other, and only Frankenchicken can tell them apart – no mean feat considering their numbers are in the tens of thousands!
Relaxed, practical, and clear-headed; the others are content to relinquish the more mundane matters to them in total trust.
One of the more ghastly experiments conducted by C.A.C. in their produce development centre, the Chimera is an organic trine-splice of a rat, a chicken, and a rabbit. It lives in the warehouse in a semi-somnolent paramnesia, and speaks with a chorus of voices. The boundaries of its consciousness are fluid, and it has a tendency to borrow the awareness of others.
Recondite, distressed and despairing, the Chimera is viewed by the others as a being with almost telepathic knowledge, and a powerful talisman against opposing forces.
This loud-mouthed bunch operates under the illusion of the control of Roah in the Surveillance team. Having access to most areas of the city, they have a comprehensive idea of the day-to-day operations in Cinis. Led by Big Bib, with his off-siders Half Bib and Quarter Bib, the boys all believe they’re the ones in charge, when really it’s the ladies who call the shots, and sometimes it takes a good old-fashioned knock-down, drag-out fight to make that clear.
Doughty, excitable, and convivial, they can be too boisterous for most of the others, and a pain in the cloaca for Roah.
The rambunctious sparrows.
The Rat Queen. She’ll mess you up.
