Cause and Effect – Prologue

Today’s Music: The Sword – Arrows In The Dark
Note on Today’s Post: This has been taking up real estate in my head for too long, so I thought I’d let it out. Gonna need a better title though…

EXTERIOR
New Zealand
The camera dollies slowly through the FOREST. The lush landscape of the forest is alive in hues of green and brown, sun dappling through the leaves casting light on the forest floor. The dolly continues as the camera slowly pans right. The lens begins to zoom in, catching insects and birds moving along the trees and through the air.
As the dolly continues, the camera closes on a juncture of BRANCHES and zooms in

VOICEOVER
They say that everything is interconnected, that all events flow into each other, affect other events and are affected by them.

The camera zooms in tightly to the juncture where we see a COCOON, It is shaking on the branches, a small rift appearing at the front bulge. A pair of antennae, followed by a long body and bright WINGS appears.

VOICEOVER
That something as simple as the flap of the wings of a butterfly here can stir the winds of a hurricane there.

The BUTTERFLY emerges and flies off. It’s brightly colored WINGS sparkle in the flashes of sunlight. The camera follows its irregular flight, wavering between close and medium distance

VOICEOVER
It flaps its wings rapidly, enough thrust to lift its body through the air, pushing it against currents, pressure, eddies…

A powerful THRUST and we see the force of the small SWIRL OF AIR. The butterfly leaves the frame of the camera which continues onward, following the swirl of air.
Some LEAVES fall together, wafting in one direction. The SWIRL nudges one, pushing it in a different direction. The camera follows the swirl to the edge of the island and across the water.

VOICEOVER
Once it has begun, the stir from the wings of that butterfly take on a life of its own. It travels free, picking up momentum, affecting what it runs into…

We see WHITECAPS moving with the current. As the SWIRL intersects, one breaks off, moving away at a different angle, pushed by the swirl.

VOICEOVER
The force of nature, the inexorable, inevitable push and pull, back and forth of different forces competing, opposing, uniting drives on and grow in the strength of its cycle…

The WHITECAP and SWIRL are entwined, dancing around each other. They grow in strength and frenzy. Other SWIRLS join, other WHITECAPS come in. They push against each other, unite and break away. The camera pulls back to a longer shot so we can see the pattern, whipping around faster and faster, reaching up from the waves to the sky

VOICEOVER
They say the wings of a butterfly someplace can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.

The view zooms in to a tight shot. The WIND howls and the WAVES crash over and over on each other, stronger and stronger, more and more furiously until-

VOICEOVER
They’re full of shit. Butterflies don’t cause hurricanes…

The camera speeds back in a birds-eye shot as the WIND and WATER crash into a cliff and splash back to the surface. The camera continues up to the side of a cliff…and a MAN on a MOTORCYCLE looking down. The camera slows, still rising above him as he looks down at the settling water.
Camera changes to medium shot on his bald head. He lifts his head from watching the water and we see a SNEER on his lips beneath his SUNGLASSES. Zipping the BEAT UP LEATHER JACKET over his FADED JEANS and MOTORCYCLE BOOTS, he kicks the motorcycle to life, revs the engine and speeds away. The camera focuses on the SWIRL from his exhaust

VOICEOVER
Butterflies don’t cause hurricanes.
I do.

Upward angle shot of MAN riding away.