2. EXT. SNOWY FIELD - MID DAY (OVERCAST)
EXTREME LONG SHOT
Of a field, framed on three sides by skeletal trees. The wind
howls and whips up snow-devils. The bare branches knock
together, sounding a staccato dirge which intensifies slowly
as...
Two men cross the field, fifty feet apart side to side. The
men are dressed in all white snow-clothes, including parkas
with white fur collars and white balaclavas, as well as thick
mittens, and they are wearing snowshoes. Rifle cases are
slung across their backs.
CUT TO:
XLS/CRANESHOT
Of the same field from behind the men as they run towards the
tree-line.
CUT TO:
EXT. SNOWY FOREST - CONTINUOUS
LONG SHOT
We follow the two men slowly converge and narrow the lateral
gap between them.
CUT TO:
LS TO MEDIUM CLOSE UP
We face the forest. The trees have begun to thin and the two
men converge in front of the camera and stare in to the
distance.
CUT TO:
3. XLS/PAN LEFT-RIGHT
Of a desolate frozen bay. The far edges of the lake disappear
in the falling snow, and a small peninsula juts out from the
right edge of the screen. The ice its self is swept clean by
the moaning wind.
CUT TO:
MEDIUM SHOT/TWO-SHOT/LOCKED DOWN SHOT
The men glance at each other. They peel down their
Balaclavas. In rapid sequence, one removes a tin from his
pocket and opens it, dipping his hand in and smearing an
ointment across his face and eyelids. The other Removes a
block of what looks like suet and take a large bite.
They exchange items and repeat the processes. Then the items
are pocketed and the balaclavas pulled up. The two men bend
down out of frame and we hear the unbuckling of snowshoes and
the rasp of clothing on snow.
CUT TO:
MS TO LS/GROUNDSHOT
The two men begin to belly out across the icy bay toward a
distant peninsula. Their snowshoes have been left behind.
CUT TO:
EXT. PENINSULA - CONTINUOUS
LS
NOTE - A “quinzee” is a dome-shaped form of shelter made by
hollowing out a pile of settled snow.
Three QUINZEES are loosely arranged in a kind of camp,
surrounded by a thicket of trees. Pine boughs have been
placed in front of the small entrance holes.
CUT TO:
2.
4. MCU
A thin plume of heat haze rises from the small opening in the
top of a quinzee.
CUT TO:
INT. QUINZEE - CONTINUOUS
TOP SHOT/SHIMMERING (LIKE A MIRAGE IN THE DESERT)
Three men fill the quinzee, the interior of which is lit by a
small electric lamp. Throughout the film we never see any
faces except for those of the two men at the beginning. They
may be shown very incidentally but they are never framed.
Two of the men hold cards, a small cribbage board is set out
in front of them. One man is slightly off to the side, and he
watches as the two play. The players are calling out their
game in subdued voices.
A small rocket stove burns beside the man who watches, atop
it is a small pot wherein water bubbles. A thin stick lies
beside the stove.
PLAYER 1
... And fifteen thee ways for six.
He moves his peg six spaces along the board. He turns to
regard the pot before fixing his attention back on the board.
PLAYER 1 (CONT’D)
Water’s ready.
The man watching the game reluctantly turns his attention to
the pot. He pulls off his mittens and rummages in his coat,
removing two paper packs of instant coffee. He tears them
open and mixes them in with the water, stirring it with the
stick.
PLAYER 2
Reckon it must be about time to go.
PLAYER 1
You’re just sayin’ that on account
of how I’m about to win.
PLAYER 2
No sir. I just got a feelin’.
Player 1 turns to watcher.
3.
5. PLAYER 1
Get that coffee made and take a
peek outside, tell me if it’s
snowing yet.
Watcher finishes the coffee, pouring it into three small
cups, before turning to the entrance and crawling out.
CUT TO:
EXT. PENINSULA - CONTINUOUS
LOCKED DOWN SHOT
Sound is obscured by the wind and the deadening effect of the
snow.
Same LS as before. The pine boughs are shoved out of the
entrance of one of the quinzees, and watcher crawls out. He
replaces the pine boughs then stands and stretches. He looks
up at the sky and regards the light snow before turning and
walking out of frame.
A few moments later he returns to the entrance of the
quinzee. He bends down and puts his face to the entrance,
saying something, he pauses to listen, then the pine bough is
flattened slightly and he reaches through the entrance, his
hand emerging clutching the cup of coffee. He straightens and
walks over to the other two quinzees, repeating the process
as players 1 and 2 emerge from the quinzee and stretch.
The pine boughs are sequentially ejected from the entrances
of the other two quinzees as watcher walks over to stand with
players 1 and 2 in a group.
CUT TO:
EXT. FROZEN LAKE - CONTINUOUS
MCU/TWO-SHOT
The two scouts lie side by side on the ice, facing the
camera. Scout 1 is peering through a pair of binoculars.
SCOUT 1
Seven... and Eight.
He lowers the binoculars and stares at the peninsula. Scout 2
nudges him and nods toward his rifle case?
4.
6. Scout 1 shakes his head.
SCOUT 1 (CONT’D)
Trees.
Scout 2 puts his hand up as if to ask “so?” And scout 1
shakes his head again, gesturing with his thumb toward the
shoreline from whence they came.
Scout 1 turns and begins to belly back across the ice. Scout
2 regards the peninsula for a moment longer before turning
and following scout 1’s trail.
CUT TO:
XLS/BRIDGING SHOT
The distant treeline as the snow slowly intensifies.
FADE OUT.
EXT. FROZEN LAKE - AFTERNOON
MCU/LOW-ANGLE SHOT
The horizon is becoming indistinct in the snow. We dwell on
this visual for a moment before a pair of legs move through
the frame, followed by seven others.
CUT TO:
MS/HAND-HELD COWBOY TRACKING SHOT
The camera moves as though it has fallen in step with the
men, and slightly off to the side. One man’s hips dominate
the shot but the backs of others are visible.
CUT TO:
XLS/LOCKED DOWN LOW-ANGLE SHOT
The sounds is continuous throughout, it does not break.
Of the lake, the camera faces the column of men who are
approaching from a distance.
JUMP CUT TO:
5.
7. “”
The men have halved their distance to the camera.
JUMP CUT TO:
“”
The last few men pass the camera.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST - CONTINUOUS
MCU/SLOW ZOOM
A pine bough laden with snow. It slowly sinks lower and lower
until it sinks out of frame. We hear the hiss of snow as the
clump of it that was balanced on the pine bough slides off,
and the bough snaps back up in to frame. As it does so, we
hear a rapid series of gun shots, followed by several spurts
of return automatic fire.
All this as the pine bough sways up and down from its
residual momentum.
CUT TO:
EXT. FROZEN LAKE
XLS
The shoreline takes up 1/5th of the frame, the rest is lake.
The column of men lie scattered, about fifty feet from the
shoreline. Their blood spreads slowly onto the ice. Two men
are prone behind corpses. They are staggered, and as such are
simultaneously visible. After a long while, one of the men
turns back to the shore from whence he came; he begins
bellying across the ice but quickly starts to crawl and then
to run. After he has run for a few moments we hear another
shot and he tumbles forward. His body is now isolated in the
frame, apart from the main group.
CUT TO:
6.
8. CU/DEEPFOCUS
Of the last remaining man’s face; he had turned on to his
back to watch the other man’s flight and now lies, open-
mouthed, behind his corpse-shield. After a few moments, He
whips his head around to survey the treeline.
CUT TO:
LS/ZOOM SHOT
7.
