Greetings Spaghetti Western fans, I’m Matt Palmer. As none of you may know, I’m working on a Spaghetti Western-style independent film that will run the course of only thirty minutes. Sadly, I must admit that the plot isn’t as sticky as the standard Spaghetti Western, but I’m doing this for a final in my film production class, so it has to be tolerable to a more general audience than the usual SW. I’m posting this topic to occasionally ask little particulars of you guys, since my knowledge of the great Spaghetti Westerns is a tad broad.
To summarize the plot line: Our story revolves around the cursed treasure of the Confederate war hero, Ronald Bloomer. Our heroes, a young treasure hunter and his accomplice, a beautiful half-Mexican girl, stumble upon this fortune by chance. Meanwhile, the dead Confederate’s son is out on the hunt for his father’s lost fortune- and as a business man who always gets his prize, he will stop at nothing to take his rightful wealth back. Everything goes to Hell when our young hero starts to be haunted by the old Rebel’s ghost- who is trying to see to it that the boy spends his money the Christian-like way and not on painted ladies and Faro. With a twist or two, it’s a horseless western bound to be enjoyed by anybody.
…By horseless, I mean we don’t have any horses in the movie. Couldn’t rent them, can’t borrow them. Besides, some of our actors can’t ride them.
Good Luck to your project Palmer, I hope you a get a good grade, starting with a SW, you cant loose
Comes to mind that about the horses you could go like Monty Phyton’s Style, or maybe better a Rio Bravo approach, the acction occuring in small spaces.
[quote=“El Topo, post:2, topic:2275”]Good Luck to your project Palmer, I hope you a get a good grade, starting with a SW, you cant loose
Comes to mind that about the horses you could go like Monty Phyton’s Style, or maybe better a Rio Bravo approach, the action occurring in small spaces.[/quote]
Well, most of the story takes place out in the open country with our main characters just sitting around and camping. We also see them refilling canteens by a creek and we also see the bad guys on their tales. We end it with the shootout, which also takes place over an open area. Since we never really show them on the move, I don’t really feel obligated to show horses. Besides, I wrote in a little piece on the subject into the script. Here’s a chunk of the screenplay:
BLOOMER
But how could we know where they’ve gone? Clearly they’re long gone by now.
PONCHO
Not far.
BLOOMER
What makes you say that?
Poncho squats over, lowering his mask to let his nose sniff the air twice. He squints around, or is that just his face? He scans the area and stands up.
PONCHO
They’re on foot.
BLOOMER
You found footprints?
PONCHO
No.
BLOOMER
Then how do you know?
PONCHO
No horse tracks.
Now, I’d like to add a note here- the guy I have playing “Poncho” is a Mexican guy, a friend of mine. But once you see his eyes, you’ll see why I picked him. He looks JUST like a Mexicanized Lee Van Cleef.
Well, bullocks. The guy who I had playing my main villain (who, mind you, I WROTE the character for) dropped out on me. I have nobody to replace him. Looks like I’m going to have to get creative.
or maybe better a Rio Bravo approach, the acction occuring in small spaces.