Title: LEVEL3 sample
Course: RITA MC - VIDEO GAME DESIGN HYBRID > Section: Resources

NARRATIVE CUT-SCENES: SETUPS This is a sample Setup cut scene from our script for the video game Constantine. It is the opening narrative of the game:

FADE IN:
CLOSE ON an amber liquid. Whiskey. No ice. Short glass. It moves ever so slightly, then is lifted up … out of FRAME. Beneath it, a couple of face-down Tarot Cards are being used as a coaster.

A moment, then the glass returns, much lighter.

On its edge, a trickle of BLOOD.

JOHN (V.O.) I was hoping for a quiet night.

The blood runs down the glass until it fuses with the liquor.

EXT. RAMSHACKLE HOLLYWOOD APARTMENT BUILDING-

NIGHT The places reeks of desperation. Older. Probably built by a studio mogul back in the ’30s as a henhouse for his starlets. Then, it was something to behold. A nice place to live. But not anymore. And especially not tonight. Now, it is a bad place to die.

From one of the floors above, a LOUD CRASHING SOUND.

CAMERA shoots up from the street, past an old PHONE BOOTH, through the “X” of a couple CROSSED PALM TREES … the tall, Los Angeles ones, with balls of fronds on the top …

… and into …

Sample Narrative Cut Scene Setup:

Dille, Flint; Zuur Platten, John (2010-11-03). The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design.  Random House, Inc.