"the primordium" 1 page 1 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan: This page is designed to show how far in the wilderness and desperate our character is. He is average height and decently dressed although his clothes look like he has slept in them for a few days. He is in his early to mid-thirties white male, very stressed. He is in good shape but not overly muscular. He wears sunglasses and has deep scaring on his face leading to them. The trees are mostly oak and elm. Forests have lots of trees but spaced with paths and limited overgrowth.
MOVE TO INSIDE FRONT COVER TOP OF PAGE CAPTION: "If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present; but if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past." -- Master Po
TOP OF PAGE CAPTION: Ryan Spencer’s life was on cruise control. A top secret government science job and a beautiful family he was living the American Dream. Then, a lab accident set off a chain of events his life was unprepared for. He quickly discovered that control is simply a delusion. Like an onion, his past begins to be peeled away pushing him on a journey to discover what he was becoming and more importantly what he came from. (LOGO TO LEFT)
Panel 1 – Man on cliff overlooks river, fall foliage in full bloom. Man is disheveled. Looks like he has been running away from something for a while. Distant shot showing how far he is in the wilderness. Also showing how alone he is. Caption – ten months, seventeen days and four hours ago my life ended… Caption – … I found out last night
Panel 2 – Close up of a man looking stressed. His clothes are wrinkled with some rips. There is some deep scaring on his face that leads to his sunglasses. Nothing too fancy on the glasses. These have not been modified for him like Cyclops. Just glasses to cover his eyes. RS (thought box): He said the bluff. Where is he?
Panel 3 - Looking at his hands as if there is something wrong. Nothing wrong is evident RS (thought box): I have to find him and tell him everything before they find me…
Panel 4 – Over the shoulder shot heading in to the woods RS (thought box): I need my side out. This was not the way it was supposed to go…
ABOVE TITLE: What if everything you believed in was an illusion created by someone else? TITLE: Coulomb’s Law
"the primordium" 1 page 2 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan: Basically a man walking quickly through the woods talking to himself. To make it more interesting, have him jumping over a log or something to showcase how well he moves. This will be more important later. The dialogue gives a flash of his history and then gets us to his first bit of action.
Panel 1 – See above RS (thought box): Is this really a good idea? What am I going to tell him…what can I tell him?
Panel 2 – See above RS: This history stuff is easy, graduate with honors at the top engineering school in the nation. RS: Government job out of college with a ridiculous grant supplying me with any technology I want.
Panel 3 – See above RS: My college sweetheart at home along with two beautiful kids and man’s best friend waiting for me to call it a day. RS: Everything but the white picket fence.
Panel 4 – Stopped. Sees man smoking a cigarette at the edge of a clearing RS: And just like that it was all gone. How do I tell him what I have done? Can he help find out why this is happening? Wait, is that him?
"the primordium" 1 page 3 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan: He creeps up on the man and threatens him to know for sure. He sees it is a reporter he had asked to meet him. The reporter, Cole Wilson is in his mid 50’s African-American male with slightly graying hair. Very good shape for his age.
Panel 1 – “Sneaks” up on the reporter. RS - You make one move and I will shoot you where you stand. Who are you and what are you doing here?
Panel 2 – Reporter turning towards him REPORTER: You watch too many movies Mr. Spencer. I’m Cole Wilson a reporter for the Cecil News. You called me. REPORTER: I am turning around slowly because I do not want your imaginary gun to go off.
Panel 3 – Talking face to face. Reporter has his notebook out. RS: Sorry about that. Things have been somewhat crazy…I am glad you could meet me. REPORTER: Look, you’ve got to give me more than what you did over phone, who is after you and why …
REPORTER: and what happened at your house? I couldn’t make out half of what you were saying between the static.
Panel 4 – Ryan is touching his head in mild pain. RS: Damn it, they have found me. I have no time. REPORTER: What do you mean? Who’s found you?
Panel 5 – A Blackhawk helicopter appears over the clearing. Low just above the trees. We need to see them as small and insignificant compared to this massive Blackhawk. Maybe we just she them and a shadow over them. Save the Blackhawk reveal until the next page. Your call. Whatever is more dramatic.REPORTER: Damn! What the hell are you involved in?
"the primordium" 1 page 4 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan - Inside the helicopter and the viewing from the field. This is a bad ass helicopter. Heavy armor lots of tech. Take a Blackhawk and put it on steroids. They are on the edge of the clearing. From the viewers’ perspective it goes woods, RS & reporter, clearing and then the helicopter at the other end of the clearing.
Panel 1 – View from outside again this time with the view from behind the helicopter (slanted) looking at the small people below. COPTER PILOT: Subject acquired. Correction, two subjects, one target, one unidentified. Please advise.
Panel 2 – View from inside the helicopter. We have a pilot and co-pilot in assault gear RADIO VOICE: No adjustment. Keep collateral damage to a minimum but secure the prize at all costs. COPTER PILOT: Employ dampening net … prepare for acquisition
Panel 3 – Characters talking and RS is tensing up. Flexing fingers and he looks like he is about to pounce. REPORTER: That’s no ordinary Blackhawk. It didn’t make a sound … wait, how did you know it was there? RS: Move into the woods.
Panel 4 – Characters talking and RS is tensing up. Flexing fingers and he looks like he is about to pounce. Reporter: What is happening? Why are they …? RS: NOW! Get out of here.
Panel 5 – Reporter runs to a safe spot in the woods. Helicopter moves closer. A net type object looks like it is about to be fired from the front. We see Spencer straining. RS: God forgive me.
"the primordium" 1 page 5 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan – First shot of him using his powers. Quick battle. Definitely David vs. Goliath with the reporter somewhat in shock through it all. This is the first view of his powers outside of his body. We need to be consistent with this.
Panel 1 – Distant shot of amoeba shaped electrical trails emanating from Spencer and surrounding the chopper. They are not lightning based but more static electricity based. We need to really see how impossible one man defeating this high tech copter could be.
Panel 2 – Inside the copter COPTER PILOT: Base we are experiencing heightened electrical interference from target. RADIO VOICE: Deploy the net! Your insulation will protect … COPTER PILOT: Negative base we are off scale we must break off… RADIO VOICE: Deploy the NET NOW.”
Panel 3 – Multiple shots of the helicopter spinning out and crashing. I am thinking about some panels on top of panels here showing the blades hitting the trees and then the ground. No explosion because they were so low. Just above the trees. They survive the crash. Sound effects however.
Panel 4? – Spencer drops to the ground exhausted. RS: (Voice of exhaustion) forgive meeee …
Panel 5 – As he is blacking out the panel is as well. His viewpoint on the ground looking up with the reporter yelling at him concerned. REPORTER: Spencer, Spencer.
"the primordium" 1 page 6 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan - Next to a stream. Still in the woods. The reporter is tending to Spencer as best he can without a medical pack. We are starting to establish that this reporter may have some additional non-writing training.
Panel 2 – Same viewpoint as from the previous page. This time he is opening his eyes as the panel fades in from black. REPORTER: Good, you’re awake. Wasn’t sure you were gonna make it.
Panel 3 – He is sitting up rubbing his head. RS: How did I, ohhh my head is killing me. Oh God, the copter, were there survivors? REPORTER: I grabbed you and hauled you out of there. Nothing blew up and they were pretty low so they should make it out ok.
Panel 4 – Ryan is still a little confused and unsure of how he got there. RS: But how did I get here? REPORTER: I carried you…learned a long time ago you never leave a man behind. REPORTER: We should have some time, but not much. I don’t know how you did what you did but after saving your ass you owe me an explanation.
Panel 5 – See above RS: You want to know what side you helped by saving me. REPORTER: Not about sides it’s about facts. I only follow the truth now. REPORTER: For three months you avoided my questions its time I get some answers.
Panel 6 – Resigned, head low. Reporter despite wanting answers no longer has his notebook. RS: Where do you want me to begin? REPORTER: I don’t think we have time for the beginning so why don’t we start at the explosion in your lab.
"the primordium" 1 page 7 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan (WATSON): Very high tech. There are lots of Van Der Graff generators and other modern looking electrical devices. Knock yourself out with the design. I will send some references for ideas but this is all you. Modern looking Frankenstein lab. The only thing we need is that focal point of the experiment can be easily viewed by a large viewing window where RS’s workstation is located.
Panel 1 – VO is off screen. We see the lab with RS, a female in her late twenties and a short Russian scientist Pavel Federov. The woman is Riya Singh an attractive Indian woman in a lab coat. Normal sized body. The guy is your stereotypical comic book Russian scientist. He should be older than both of them. All are at their stations working except for the woman who is talking to RS, flirting. RS: (VO) How do these stories always start? Oh yea, it was a normal day at the dam, getting closer on a project that occupied my life for over a decade. Caption: ten months, seventeen days, four hours and twenty-two minutes ago Caption: Conowingo Dam, Maryland RS: (VO) Not that that wasn’t something out of the ordinary, every day we were getting closer.
Panel 2 – Maybe this shot is from RS workstation looking into the contact area. Woman is leaving going to her area which is outside of the main room. Reporter: (VO) I have to assume the cover story of a freak fuel line explosion was a lie. What were you working on? RS: (VO) I am not going to go into specific details about the project.
Panel 3 – Russian is frustrated by something as it looks like another failed test. Reporter: (VO) Fair enough, but you have to give me something to work with. RS: (VO) Suffice to say that the project was electrical in nature and too unstable.
"the primordium" 1 page 8 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan (WATSON): Control room. With a view wall separating RS & Federov from the experiments. Lots of electrical balls being funneled into a singular point. The view window covers that singular point. All characters appear to be frustrated with their progress. Ryan is our main character, Pavel is a Russian scientific immigrant who came over in the early 70’s so he breaks in to Russian on occasion and his English is marginal. Both Pavel and Riya look exhausted by Ryan does not he looks like he just got to work. High energy. All have goggles.
Panel 1 – RS is speaking to the Russian via a communications link. The Russians station appears to be almost inside the experiment area. Protected but inside. Both are aggressive towards each other. Federov looks exhausted. RS: Damn it, it’s still unstable. I thought that you had the dampener aligned? PAVEL: It was aligned. RS: Too much external contamination. Something is not aligned properly and we need to find it. RS: Riya print out the results, we’ll meet in the design room in thirty.
Panel 2 – Federov is not working later under any circumstances. It is already late enough for him. (Clock on the wall showing past 9pm?). He is taking off his goggles. PAVEL: Nyet, we done enough today. It is late and I going home.
Panel 3 – Pavel exits. Ryan looks pissed and is going to go after him. Riya is the peace maker. Could there be something here? Unsure, nothing more than an arm touch is evident but you never know. RS: No, we are not done here. We are so close. Pavel: Always close, always pushing for what? Alana is about to leave because I never home. Pavel: Now I going home.
Panel 4 – --------------------------------- Riya: Let it go. Let’s grab dinner and recalibrate the converters afterwards. We can at least know tonight if the sample is actually contaminated. RS: But we are sooo close.
Panel 5 – --------------------------------- Riya: Yes, and we will be sooo close Monday, and the next day and the next …” RS: Alright, I need to make a quick call to my wife letting her know I’ll be late and then we can go.
"the primordium" 1 page 9 written by Christopher Hill * penciled by John Watson * Colored by Tim Lai ____________________________________________________________
Image Plan (WATSON): The control room has a clear viewing window near Spencer’s control panel. The window overlooks the main experiment focal point in front. We need to see their facial expressions change from excitement when it starts to work, to frustration when it fails and then grave concern when they can not shut it down.
Panel 1 – He is goading her into working more and running a test instead of going home. CAPTION: After dinner we calibrated the converters, made the corrections and prepared to test again … RIYA: With the new software upgrades I can operate computer control. RS: Even Pavel’s station? So the two of us could test the converters tonight. Riya: Oh no you don’t. We can wait until …
Panel 2 – He is almost like an excited kid convincing the girl he has a crush on to take a walk with him. RS: Come on, just a low level test to confirm the variances I detected came from those converters. RIYA: Yea, and then you’ll want to do a high impact test. RS: We’ll never know until we try the low. (Smiling) RIYA: You are incorrigible; alright one LOW level test and then we are both going home.
Panel 3 – Both are at their stations. Monitors galore. Lots of glowing things RIYA: Initiating low level test. RS (ENTERCOM): No variance so far. Everything is stable. Increasing the bio-electric stream. RIYA: LOW level only! We’ll run it by Pavel on Monday and then try a full spectrum test then.
Panel 4 – He is excited to continue but she remains the voice of reason. She will play the game but is strong enough to put her foot down when she needs to. RS: Look! It’s staying stable. Increasing bio-electric stream… Riya: NYET! We did what we said and now it is time to go home. Initiating shut down procedures.
Panel 5 – She either pulls a switch or types into a computer. She is shutting it down RS: But we need to see if the stream contaminates the converters at a higher level. RIYA: Monday, Ryan. This will all be here on Monday. Initiating shut down procedures. (Lettering note) How are we on space w ith this panel? If need be we can eliminate the dialogue in this panel)
Panel 6 – RS station. Ryan is surprised to see a power meter starting to spike. We see the experiment glowing brighter in the background. RS: Riya, I thought you were shutting down the stream. Riya (ENTERCOM): I did, the computer just booted me off-line. What’s happening up there?
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