Oh my - you've committed the 'and it was all a dream' sin!!! The only film that got away with this is The Wizard Of Oz! ;)
I don't think you need this ending at all - I think it's much better if the pirate is turned into a cactus and ends up with all the other cactuses outside the temple - because we suddenly realise that every person who tries to take the treasure from the temple is punished the same way - a bit like this place from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe:
I also think you may need three pirates, so the film feels like a race between three rivals as they seek to get their hands on the treasure - so you have a short fat round pirate, a middle sized pirate with big muscular arms, and a tall thin pirate with skinny arms... (for reasons that will become clear).
So, you have your 3 pirates arrive on a desert island and the desert island is absolutely covered in cacti - the kind with 'arms' and 'heads' etc.
These pirates are obviously comedy villains - greedy buggers - you don't want your audience to like them. We see them look at the map of the island in the tall, skinny pirate's hand - x marking the spot of the temple etc - and we see them look up, and we see the temple in the middle of the island surrounded by cacti. We cut to a kind of 'internal image' in each of their imaginations wherein we see them holding aloft the golden statue inside the temple, as each pirate imagines his victory.
A glance moves between them, and then suddenly they're off racing each other to the temple through the cacti forest. In this 'Act 2' section, we seem them in a sort of comedy 'Tom & Jerry' style rivalry, as they seek to outdo each other and stop one another from reaching the temple - it's a race: maybe one of them has a parrot on their shoulder, and the parrot attacks the other two - and so on.
Anyway - Act 3, all three of them arrive at the temple and all of them rush to the shrine - where the golden statue or whatever it is resides - all three of them get their hands on it at the same time - triumphant! - BUT, wait, something is happening - the three pirates look at each other - their faces, they're turning green - and suddenly poof! There is a cloud of smoke - and now we're looking at the empty temple, the camera tracking back out of the temple... to reveal 3 new cacti outside the temple - a short, fat round one, a middle-sized one with big arms, and a tall skinny one, with a smaller lump on its 'shoulder'... the camera continues to track back and just before the film ends, we see another pirate arrive on the beach with another map, who looks towards the temple with greed in his eyes...
I think the idea of being turned into a cactus is cool, and just gives such significance to this temple being surrounded by them. The reason why I think more than one pirate is required is a) it gives your middle act tension (the race and the rivalry) and b) if you use very conspicuous body-types for them, the audience will understand immediately that the temple is cursed and that ALL the cacti around it were once men who desired its riches...
OGR 23/01/2016
ReplyDeleteHey Jess,
Oh my - you've committed the 'and it was all a dream' sin!!! The only film that got away with this is The Wizard Of Oz! ;)
I don't think you need this ending at all - I think it's much better if the pirate is turned into a cactus and ends up with all the other cactuses outside the temple - because we suddenly realise that every person who tries to take the treasure from the temple is punished the same way - a bit like this place from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe:
http://www.thesecrethill.com/images/medialibrary/Edmund_Courtyard_jpg.jpg
I also think you may need three pirates, so the film feels like a race between three rivals as they seek to get their hands on the treasure - so you have a short fat round pirate, a middle sized pirate with big muscular arms, and a tall thin pirate with skinny arms... (for reasons that will become clear).
So, you have your 3 pirates arrive on a desert island and the desert island is absolutely covered in cacti - the kind with 'arms' and 'heads' etc.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/cd/bf/47/cdbf4738fffe6c81c405d73a487e38ab.jpg
These pirates are obviously comedy villains - greedy buggers - you don't want your audience to like them. We see them look at the map of the island in the tall, skinny pirate's hand - x marking the spot of the temple etc - and we see them look up, and we see the temple in the middle of the island surrounded by cacti. We cut to a kind of 'internal image' in each of their imaginations wherein we see them holding aloft the golden statue inside the temple, as each pirate imagines his victory.
A glance moves between them, and then suddenly they're off racing each other to the temple through the cacti forest. In this 'Act 2' section, we seem them in a sort of comedy 'Tom & Jerry' style rivalry, as they seek to outdo each other and stop one another from reaching the temple - it's a race: maybe one of them has a parrot on their shoulder, and the parrot attacks the other two - and so on.
Anyway - Act 3, all three of them arrive at the temple and all of them rush to the shrine - where the golden statue or whatever it is resides - all three of them get their hands on it at the same time - triumphant! - BUT, wait, something is happening - the three pirates look at each other - their faces, they're turning green - and suddenly poof! There is a cloud of smoke - and now we're looking at the empty temple, the camera tracking back out of the temple... to reveal 3 new cacti outside the temple - a short, fat round one, a middle-sized one with big arms, and a tall skinny one, with a smaller lump on its 'shoulder'... the camera continues to track back and just before the film ends, we see another pirate arrive on the beach with another map, who looks towards the temple with greed in his eyes...
I think the idea of being turned into a cactus is cool, and just gives such significance to this temple being surrounded by them. The reason why I think more than one pirate is required is a) it gives your middle act tension (the race and the rivalry) and b) if you use very conspicuous body-types for them, the audience will understand immediately that the temple is cursed and that ALL the cacti around it were once men who desired its riches...