The Story

After Nate's inital pitch, we all agreed that the general story is great, and visually, we have a unique angle to explore, but some things were missing - we still did not have a clear grasp on our characters, for once - who are they, how do they look, and what do they do? Consequentially, our story was somewhat unfinished too. We all agreed to go home, try to write a rough version of how we see the story, and then try to take elements from each verison. The following is mine:

Red Rock
A film about two men
A beautiful ray of light is shining on a house under a tree. Then all of a sudden that light disappears with the sound of a big ‘thumb’.
We cut into the man inside the house, as we hear another ‘thumb’ (so loud that the man and his bed jump a little).

The camera follows the man as he goes to see what is happening. He has noticed that his neighbour, a man in a giant house on a very long tree, has installed yet another gizmo, located just on top of his house.

There is a long pipe meant for communication, and we see the poorer man trying to shout through it to get the attention of rich man. Rich man picks up the ‘phone’ and pretends to not understand what the other guy is saying, using the old ‘sorry reception is bad here’ by faking static, until he hangs up on him.

I realize that we need something to add tension to this story.
When a tree dies, its roots no longer have any grounding in the soil, and so the ground is no longer held in place. As rain starts pouring, the ground would then wash away, resulting in floods and mudslides. This could be our ticking time bomb. Something the poor farmer notices and tries to warn the rich one about. Something that would come back to hurt them both, but the poor guy would survive due to his tree. I realize visually it doesn’t quite work yet, but it’s an idea.

The second day, the rich man has set up four fishing rods, coming directly from the now even more hurt tree. We can see the tree gradually becoming more yellow and unhealthy. The man looks around worried, as whatever chain reaction will happen at the end, we see it becoming worse. On second thought, we don’t want to reveal what is happening exactly, but just that the tree is dying or something similar (Probably would be good to establish this and give visual clues at the beginning. Maybe they both live next to a volcano?) When the man comes trying to talk to rich guy, the rich man this time presses a button and a big fence comes up. When the poor guy tries crossing over, a bucket of water is thrown at him, and he walks away angrily.

The next night, it rains again (if this is the natural disaster we are going for. Also, need to think about a good way to cut between the scenes/end each scene and mix it up, this repetition is not to my liking) and poor guy wakes up to find that now his part of the lake Is empty of fish, as the rich guy set a whole line of fishing rods. He looks up, angrily. This time quiet anger, more resolve – he has made up his mind.

Night time, it is pouring again. Close up on the poor man, standing in the rain. Camera stays fixed as he leaves the frame. As he is leaving the frame we see he is now wielding an axe.
Poor man comes to chop down rich man’s tree. After a few cuts, rich man wakes up. Rich man is now panicking, trying to shout at poor man, but with the sound of the rain, and his tree so high up, his voice does not reach. He is manically pressing on buttons, until he finds a function that will stop poor man. Maybe even a small arrow. Poor man is hit by an arrow, falls down and stands up again. This goes on with two or 3 more arrows, and each time poor man is standing up again. Eventually the chaos leads to that natural disaster. They both come running for their houses.A flood comes and sweeps the big tree, while the small tree remains intact. Cut to the two of them sitting together and fishing.