When planning the opening scene, I need to have a consciousness of the whole movie. That way I can more accurately direct my main actor as his motives (both current and future) will be more developed, place foreshadowing correctly (ex- the traumatic flashbacks), and consider possible motifs in my score. To this end, I have planned out the main scenes for the rest of the motion picture.
- Novikof Runs to Library to Retrieve Book, is Chased by Soviet Guards
Novikof moves through a crowd of bodies on his way to the library, walking quickly and nervously. On the way, he sees a flash of his traumatic past in a women walking her dog. He passes a guard at the entrance of the library and walks to the elevator. When he goes to hit the upper floor button, he gets another flash from his traumatic past (the swinging light of a torture room). When the doors open, he walks straight to two bookshelves close to each other and hits the button for them to move open. He walks to a book with a fake cover on it, opens it and reveals its true cover. It is an illegal, anti-soviet book. Before Novikof puts the book into his satchel, a guard catches a glance at it and runs at him. Novikof runs down the stairs, not able to wait for the elevator, and out the door just as the door closes on the guard. The guard calls for reinforcements and runs out of the door.
- Introduction to Spying
Parallel Editing between:
Novikof came back to the classroom that his teacher forgot to lock after the period and the school day was over and got a book, heard the officers coming down the hallway. Novikof stops after he picks up his book, listening and considering for a second.
Cut to Vetrov walking down the sidewalk and stops and turns to a large ballroom-like building. There is a gala inside for Soviet officers and their mistresses/wives. Vetrov stops, listening and considering for a second.
Novikof runs into the closet and waits, trying to absorb as much information as he can. Cut on action (closing door quietly).
Vetrov walks into the party smoothly (as character is) with a smug smile. He will try, in his own way, to absorb as much information as he can. Cut on action (closing door to ballroom).
Shots of Novikof determinedly listening and thinking about the officers' muffled (to the audience, but not him) speech. ECU on his eyes and furrowed brows.
Shots of Vetrov relaxed, but thinking and deep in spy-craft. ECU on his eyes.
After the officers leave, Novikof leaves the closet and exits through the window as quickly and quietly as he can.
After the party, Vetrov leaves through back doors.
Novikof walks through the snow.
Vetrov walks through the snow.
Novikof enters his house and then his room and sits at his desk.
This is exactly what Novikof's desk looks like.
Vetrov enters his house and his room and sits at his desk. (Now use panning side transitions to imply passage of time and move cohesively from Vetrov's room to Novikof's)
Novikof writes down in his journal his desk frantically, from his memory, the information he over heard some soviet officers discussing in his classroom. He stores this in one of his many permissible Russian book jackets under a floor board.
Vetrov copies down a few coded notes in his spy files and then scans them on a large machine, then burns them and lights a cigarette, leaning back on his desk chair deep in thought.
The camera moves back from behind Vetrov as his smokes, back through a window and into the snowy night.
(SFX: Coyote - Mako)
(Scene's editing style and placement [before the two characters meet], adds a sense of destiny to the two meeting.)
- Novikof Leads in the USSR Anthem in Class:
Novikof and about 20 other student are seated at desks in the classroom. The teacher stands up to start class. He clears his throat and announces that the government think it best that students lead in the daily singing of the USSR national anthem. He looks at Novikof with menacing excitement. He calls up Novikof to lead the class in the anthem and has him come to the front of the room. Novikof is immediately tense and the audience is made to believe that the teacher knows about Novikof's "spying" in the closet the previous day. When Novikof stands at the front of the class and looks at his fellow classmates, his teacher lays a hand on Novikof's shoulder and grips it firmly. Novikof flinches. He tensely sings and the audience can see the lessening fear and growing anger he has pent up inside him.
After school bell rings, Novikof walks out of the classroom trying to hide his anger. He circles around and goes back into the with new-found determination. He writes everything he hears, very quickly and attentively.
Novikof runs upstairs to his room, slams the door. He throws his satchel on his bed and opens his accordion desk. Throws down his journal and draws connecting lines across pages, making connections between the officers and what they said in the meeting.
(SFX: Fooling Yourself by STYX)
- Novikof's Uncle is Taken:
Novikof's Uncle sits at the breakfast table and complains about the action of the Soviet government to Novikof's mother and father. His father is quiet and his mother tries to silence him. She sees he will not relent and tries to ignore him. Novikof comes into the room, all dressed and ready with his satchel to go to school. His uncle slaps him on the shoulder (the same spot his teacher gripped him and gave him a bruise). He flinches but tries to smile for his uncle. His uncle makes a brash statement and congratulated Novikof on his progressive and Western ideas from his books. Suddenly, there is a bark and a siren. Novikov's mother drops a plate that she's been washing. His father turns white. Novikof looks outside. The tension rises in the silence and the door slams open. An attack dog jumps into the house, restricted by a leash. A Soviet officer is then revealed as he enters the doorway. The officer shouts in Russian and the dog bites into his leg and the uncle screams. Everyone is screaming and the mother is sobbing. The uncle is dragged out of the house, never to be seen by his family again.
- Novikof's Father is Tortured Flashback (all his POV):
Novikof's father is in front of a mirror that takes up a full wall. In a warehouse. A KGB officer punches Novikof's father and his glasses fly off and blood trickles down. Child Novikof sees himself in the mirror. He is seated in a chair next to the torture chair to which is father is strapped. The KBG officer yells some Russian in his father's face. His father cries and pleads not guilty to any of the crimes accused of him (like speaking against the government, reading treasonous texts, worshipping God instead of the state...etc.). The officer looks at Novikof and asks if he knows why his father is being hit. Novikof doesn't say a word and the officer eventually turns back to his father and keeps hitting him. There is a light swinging back and forth with every slap hanging over his father attached to the ceiling.
- Novikof Contacts Vetrov:
These three previous scenes get Novikof to his breaking point. Per his usual practice, Novikof goes through his school day, but now his writing furiously in his journal in encoded, scribbled notes. He is trying to form connections between the different officers he spies on, trying to get their names and piece together the bits of information he's gathered. A teacher asks him a question. He answers easily without looking up.
VFX - The school day (teacher and students) rushes by (literally, like time lapse blurring movement until the school bell stops the fast-motion and everything is normal speed again). The teacher gets his things, students leave. Novikof looks up, a bit startled. He leaves the room with the others. Circles back like he does and enters the closet. He was writing so feverishly all day that a few pages in his journal become loose.
He's a bit less careful than he was before, used to his routine and enthralled in his journal, still writing his matrix. KGB officers enter the classroom, talking and taking seats. One KGB officer Novikof hasn't seen before (Vetrov) is at the meeting this time. Novikof cranes his head to get a better look and double-checks his roster in his journal, lining up all the officers that he already has names for (or nicknames he has made up to identify them). Vetrov, sure enough, is not on his list. Vetrov seems to make jokes during the meeting, making some officers uncomfortable, but giving others a much-needed opportunity to loosen up. Novikof is intrigued and finds him an odd character.
During the meeting, Vetrov gets up to go get drinks to celebrate something the men had accomplished (audience's impression of Vetrov is that he is careless and arrogant, irreverent, never takes anything seriously) and passes by the closet door to the garbage, but he stops abruptly when he sees an encoded page from Novikof's journal. Novikof had dropped it on his way into the closet. Vetrov looks over the sheet, understands enough of its meaning and immediately steps on it, sliding it under the closet door. He
Vetrov agrees to meet with Novikof after reading Novikof's bit of intelligence taken from the Soviet's conversations in the classroom after school. Novikof does not know how
- The First Meeting of Vetrov and Novikof:
Vetrov sits at a park bench, sipping a bottle of alcohol in the frigid air. The ground is covered in snow and there is a forest of leafless trees growing thicker behind him. A lanky shape in brown winter-wear edges around the perimeter and Vetrov sees it. He is amused. He now knows that he is not dealing with a professional spy. Novikof walks slowly up to a tree about 15 yards from the bench and then walks quickly past it dropping his notebook with the Soviet book jacket onto the ground right next to Vetrov. Novikof walks slowly and then quickly, slowly, then quickly around the park and out of sight. Vetrov discretely places the journal in his bag and pulls out its copy (the actual book that the jacket describes with the same jacket) from his bag. He begins to pretend to read the actual book just as a Soviet officer walks by. ECU on Vetrov's smile as the Soviet officer passes.
- Call with President Reagan and Vetrov:
Vetrov tells Reagan the intelligence he gathered at the party (which isn't what the audience heard from the classroom, so they know that was Vetrov's). He then explains like, "But this time, I have something special... a little more useful than your usual load..." This is the information from the classroom, but reformulated in more official and CIA-grade intelligence
use actual audio clips from Reagan on the untraceable call (find out where he needs to be in order to make those, or research Vetrov he actually contacted Reagan).
Vetrov doesn't mention Novikof at all in the correspondence in order to help protect Novikof and his identity. Novikof doesn't get any credit.
- Vetrov and Novikof Meet and Vetrov Teaches Novikof Spy-craft:
Here Vetrov mentions the emergency signal that he uses later when he knew he was going to be caught and teaches Novikof his special way of getting information specific to him (getting intelligence while partying). Novikof rejects this at first, but then molds his teachings to his own style.
Montages of spy craft learning over time.
Vetrov specifically tells Novikof NOT to follow Vetrov on his missions. Novikof agrees, but doesn't seem genuine. He thinks he is ready and wanted to make a difference. Vetrov thinks Novikof has agreed not to go.
- Vetrov at a Party:
Vetrov takes his girlfriend to this one. Vetrov is gaining intelligence and it his methods can be observed here. The party is pumping and Vetrov is on his game.
Novikof comes in secret. He tries to interact with the same officers he has been tracking before, so he knows what kinds of conversations to have with the men. He has done his homework, be he looks 17, so there is suspicion on who this guy is around the party. Vetrov hears some spies whispering about it in his circle at a different area of the party and knows immediately what happened. He stays in character, but navigates through the party to Novikof and signals to him to GTFO. Novikof, in character, insists he stays (like "The party's only begun Mr. Vetrov! You wouldn't make a man leave early would you? I heard you were like a dog last week. Let's see it.")
Vetrov is not having it. He forces Novikof out behind the building. Yells at Novikof (like "What the hell do you think your doing? You think is fun and games? You might take notes on these men, memorize their every word, but you know nothing of what they are capable of. You look ridiculous. Go home.")
Novikof goes home.
(SFX: Протон 4 – Опережая Время)
(SFX: Артек Электроника – Шагая Сквозь Эпоху)
(Silent Running - Mike and the Mechanics)
- Ludmilla Suspects Vetrov is Always Telling Her Lies
(SFX: Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac)
- Call with President Reagan and Vetrov:
Montage of Vetrov giving intelligence to Reagan, at the same time as Vetrov's girlfriend suspects.
- Vetrov with Ludmilla at a Party:
Vetrov and his girlfriend avoid eye contact with each other and the party is tense between them. Vetrov is clearly angry and his girlfriend is obviously and openly annoyed with him. He tries to drink away his fears (all of the paranoid feelings he's getting from taking on a teenager and his own self being a turncoat from the KGB among Soviet officers at their parties). Things get blurry and Vetrov's girlfriend chastises him for drinking so much. She pulls him outside.
(SFX: Гербарий – Синхронность Волн )
- Vetrov Stabs Ludmilla:
Ludmilla resolved to confront him outside the building about the lies between them and that they were done with the party and needed to get home. They argue until she gets in the driver's seat of the car. Vetrov gets in the passenger's seat and grabs her and tries to make out with her. She yells and tries to get away from him. He takes out a knife and stabs her many times. He exits the car and slams the door and walks off, shaking with passionate rage and over-flowing emotion.
- Vetrov Gives Novikof an Untraceable Phone:
(SFX - Send Me an Angel - Real Life)
As Vetrov walks with passion down the street, he passed by a drop point between him and Novikof, remembering him. You see him lean down and do something covertly, but you don't see what. (He put the emergency signal at the drop point) Vetrov contacts Novikof to meet. They do and Vetrov gives Novikof his own untraceable phone. It is clear that Vetrov is acting a bit erratically, but Novikof, in his excitement doesn't notice. Novikof thinks this means Vetrov really trusts him and that this is the start of a new chapter in their progress against the USSR together. Vetrov actually knew he was going to kill himself, but gave Novikof an untraceable phone so he could continue the work with America that he had started when he was gone. CONTINUE
- Vetrov is Followed, Taken to and Moscow's Lefortovo Prison, and Shot:
Vetrov exits their meeting place and walks to his apartment. As he walks, a Soviet official, who had clearly come from the murder scene (witnesses might have seen Vetrov get in the car where she was stabbed; it isn't clear where she actually died, but probable). In a rage and certainty he will be found, he burns all of his files and books. The door slams open behind him and the same (basically) attack dog from earlier hurls himself at Vetrov. The official moves into the room and grabs Vetrov (slow motion), pulling him out of the apartment. Vetrov is shoved into a car and driven to Moscow's Lefortovo Prison. He is shot.
- Novikof Calls Vetrov on the Untraceable Phone but Vetrov is Gone (Dead, but Novikof Doesn't Know That):
Novikof went to the last place Vetrov had made a drop for Novikof and he wasn't there. Novikof starts to get a bit worried because he hasn't heard from Vetrov for a bit too long. He remembers that he has the untraceable phone Vetrov gave him and calls. Long shot behind him of the cold park. ECU of Novikof holding the phone up to his mouth and breathing, the fog coming from his lips in puffs while he's still with anticipation. As the phone rings, Novikof notices the emergency signal at the drop point Vetrov showed him early in their partnership. He goes white with fear. The camera pans out and cuts back and forth from Vetrov's dead body on the floor of the prison cell and it being dragged away to Novikof at the drop point, holding the phone that's beeping, unanswered.
(SFX: Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra, only certain parts)
