Story Circle

A story circle takes the linear idea of a plot going in one continuous line, and instead loops it back. It flows in a way where it starts from the beginning, goes through its sequence of events, and circles back towards the end. It connects every element back to the beginning, wrapping it all up in a neat bow.

I have created a story circle as a basis for my film idea. Rather than planning out a plot and base for the two minute film opening only, I chose to span out my idea and plan what would hypothetically be the entire film. 

The "You" section starts simple. It introduces the main character, Bandit Blue. I chose to Bandit Blue be an evil spirited protagonist, rather than having him be a lovable character. I also chose to have this character be sickly with disease that is affecting his health and strength. This sickness would provide further reason for his motive. Alongside the introduction to this character, I would like this section to introduce a general idea of the environment this story is surrounding by. A large part of this film will have to do with the world building, so I need to emphasize this from the beginning. The environment itself will be a stereotypical Wild West. However, the difference here that adds to the horror element of this movie is the presence of haunting spirits and horrifying entities. These spirits of the West provide more incentive towards Bandit Blues motives while also providing a conflict.

For the "Need" section, this motive will be revealed. Because of the bandits evil intent, as well as his deathly illness, he will gain the need to become an immortal, powerful spirit himself. I will have him discover this need by finding part of a map that reveals a path to "The Heart of the Desert", an area of some kind that could allegedly fulfill his goal. There will be a large emphasis on the fact that this map does not completely guarantee that his goal will succeed, given how I want this motive to end.

For the "Go" section, I want it to begin his journey and hardship. He will start by killing the sheriff in order to obtain part of the map to The Heart of The Desert. After this, he will rob a specific horse from the sheriffs stable. Once he starts riding the horse, I will place a large amount of emphasis on the horse through camera work since he will eventually be one of the most important parts of the story. 

For the "Search" section, I would like to show the gruesome journey to the area. A large part of the story relies on Bandit Blue going even further past his own evil intentions in order to obtain his goal. So, I will exhibit this by having him need to kill off numerous other characters for bits of the map; mainly bounty hunters, but also spirits who linger onto their parts. This will make him feel as though he's losing his humanity, resulting in him questioning his sanity.

For the "find" section, he will finally reach The Heart of the Desert, now able to fulfill his goal. The entire map he collected has a scripture on the back revealing how to summon this. However, the spell does not work as planned, and the horse absorbs the power he strived the achieve. This results in the horse becoming a powerful entity called the Blue Hen Mare. This entity is known as a powerful spirit in the west, and it has chosen the horse as a vessel. 

For the "take" section, I'll have a big final fight between the Blue Hen Mare and the Blue Bandit. The bandit will realize the weak spot of the entity is its head, while its legs grow back into extra limbs. After learning of this weak spot, hell deliver a fatal blow, killing the Blue Hen Mare.

For the "return" section, id like him to begin a journey forward, walking into the horizon. He has failed his goal, and no longer has a ride to anywhere by horse. He's pillaged towns, killed many, ruined lives; all this for nothing. In light of this, he is tormented by the spirits of the west, now feeling delusional as some of these spirits were of the people he killed.

Lastly, for the "change" section, I want the big change to be that the sheriff has finally begun to feel true remorse and guilt. In the middle of the desert, surrounded by these sprits, he uses his last bullet and takes his own life, succumbing to both his illness, his own evil intent, and the weapon he used to kill many; all for one selfish goal. 

Since the beginning, I did not want my film to be a whimsical story with a satisfying conclusion. I want the real horror to be that there is no happy ending, and that no one truly gets what they want; simply a story filled with horrible choices and even worse consequences. I think the beauty of this story is that comes from that lack of a happy section in the plot. 

Another factor I decided early on is that there should not be any sort of morally good character. I instead opted for there to be characters all with their own morally incorrect intentions, with some simply being better than others. I find that this would result in the audience becoming more drawn into the story since they now have to mentally debate how they feel about the characters. Stories with set roles and a satisfying conclusion often don't get talked about as much as they should due to them being a one-and-done mental process. Everything is already set in stone, so there is not much to leave the viewer with. That's what makes my idea different; its complex story and characters provide more for the viewer to interpret and consider.

The idea for all this itself was sort of a sudden choice in all honesty. As I was brainstorming ideas, I suddenly got the idea of the main monster of my film being a horse. After that, I went all in on the idea of this film being centered around cowboys and the Wild West.