Falling Feathers
'Falling Feathers'
A conceptual design of a short film production.
A vignette or dream sequence.
Story, art, design/concept and music by Chadwick St. John.
Click on thumbnail images to halt slideshow.
Story
It is night. In a dark, swampy place where fog hovers gently on the ground,
the light of the full moon shines through a small area between two dying, hollowed trees. The light is low but glowing, misty and dream-like.
A haze casts strange shadows around.
Leaves cover the ground with occasional fungi poking up catching the light.
On each side of the trees mildew and mold thrive.
Vines wrap around ancient trees...insects are crawling all over.
Strange noises of nature give a cringing texture to the odd atmosphere.
A rustling is heard above in the trees.
Leaves trickle down like ashes and snow.
Soon, feathers began to gently glide down, as if little beings were
controlling the safe landing with their elemental vessels of nature.
Suddenly, something falls to the ground.
A ball of something furry and feathered falls from above,
splashing the leaves and debris of nature as it hits earth.
Feathers and leaves slowly float back down to the ground as something slowly...slowly...rises up from the clutter of earth.
Slowly rising up and out, spreading its strange body...
shaking out its arms...or something like arms.
It is a pair of wings, and lifting its head, it reveals a long beaked face.
It is a creature resembling something of a bird, and a man.
It moves around on its feathers trying to rise, but cannot climb or walk.
It glides on its wings trying to stay up, bending its feathers in the process, balancing on its tail wings. It slowly gains control over its body and wings...feathers moving in discordant rhythms, feathers popping out of the clutter to an erratic tempo.
Each large feather as if a finger, pointing out in striking motions,
individually in all directions... preparing to extend its wings....opening its arms and extending itself outward, before finally lifting off the ground.
It glides through a few trees as it raced upward, bursting into the night sky
before the light of the full moon, which now surrounded the creature as a spotlight from the heavens. Its every movement now illuminated as it performs its haunting, otherworldly sky dance.
The creature moves in strange and beautiful patterns, circular motions of feathers and forms, becoming a silhouette in the moonlight.
It glides down, slowly back into the cradled nest from which it fell.
END