If you’ve opened this post, you’re one of about 40 people in the whole world who is following along as I work on the project of turning my work-in-progress, Journey to Kyron, into a 3-minute trailer to enter into the Future Vision XPrize competition. I thank you most humbly for being here.
I’m moving from stills into video this week so I just wanted to share the shot list as it stands. Some of these images are still not quite right but I’m interested to know if you can follow along:
Is there enough story but not too much plot?
Are the characters clear?
Does it make you feel anything? If so, what?
Anything you’d change?
*Working document for storyboard. Each shot gets: number, timestamp, description, camera.*
*Characters: Josinda ~30, Crya ~19, Vane ~35, Kaylah ~20, Jia Wei ~28, Iqbal ~50
---
### SHOT 001A | 0:00
**Scene**: FLASH — disc-shaped jet descending through cloud cover, rim-lit, silent. No context.
**Audio**: Whoosh sound effect
Camera: Looking up, establish orange light on Kyron surface.
---
### SHOT 001B | 0:01
**Scene**: FLASH — Josinda's face. First steps on the planet. Eyes wide.
**Audio**: Low music, almost inaudible.
**Camera**: Extreme close-up.
---
### SHOT 001C | 0:01
**Scene**: FLASH — children floating in zero-g playground. Pure weightless joy.
**Audio**: A half-second of their laughter, music still quiet and low underneath.
**Camera**: Wide — children in all orientations.
### SHOT 001D | 0:02
**Scene**: FLASH — awe-inspiring view of Kyron terminator zone (mountainous region that wraps around moon between planet-facing and other side). The aurora moves.
**Audio**: Music grows, a few strong beats
**Camera**: Wide
---
### SHOT 001E | 0:04
**Scene**: BLACK.
**Audio**: Silence. Then Igbal's voice (VO): *"We come from Planet Earth."*
**Camera**: —
---
### SHOT 002 | 0:05
**Scene**: Exterior of fleet in deep space. The Prow visible at front enters from right — dark, pocked, ancient. Moves towards left and camera pans back to take in the rest of the ship.
**Audio**: Igbal VO continues: *"For hundreds of years we’ve sailed through space."*
**Camera**: Wide. Slow drift. Cold, vast.
---
### SHOT 003 | 0:08
**Scene**: Exterior — closer on one vessel. Camera begins slow approach to hull.
**Audio**: Igbal VO: *"None of you will ever see where we came from. Nor where we are going."* Soft music begins.
**Camera**: Moving slowly toward the outer shell wall.
**Notes**: Establish O'Neill cylinder shape clearly.
---
### SHOT 004 | 0:12
**Scene**: Camera breaches the outer shell — tunnels, maintenance corridors, the interstitial space. Rotating inner cylinder visible through structure.
**Audio**: Igbal VO: *"But you carry the weight of our destiny."*
**Camera**: Moving through — not stopping. Continuous motion inward.
---
### SHOT 005 | 0:16
**Scene**: Inner cylinder opens up — the full interior of a vessel. Fluorescent light, bright colours, moving transports, houses, trees, birds, clouds curving overhead.
**Audio**: Music swells. Igbal VO: "This is all you'll ever know."
**Camera**: Wide reveal shot — camera still moving forward into the space. Audience lands inside the world.
---
### SHOT 006 | 0:20
**Scene**: FLASH Kyron's surface. A foot emerges from a door, touches ground.
**Audio**: Music. Crowd sounds building, jolt in music.
**Camera**: Close up.
---
### SHOT 007 | 0:25
**Scene**: Navigation Centre on Antipodes (based on Sydney Opera House).
**Audio**: Crowd sound blends into background city noises. Josinda (VO): *"This is so exciting. We are so close to the Planet Kyron!"*
AiLa: *"Kyron is a moon."*
**Camera**: Zooming in towards building to cross inside.
### SHOT 008 | 0:27
**Scene**: Inside Nav Centre. Pollux visible and large on the screen. Josinda is here, on her forcon, excited, filming.
**Audio**: Background noise like an office. Josinda: *"Ugh — yes. Moon. I mean moon. Thank you, AiLa."*
**Camera**: Medium. Josinda in foreground, screen behind her.
---
### SHOT 009 | 0:27
**Scene**: Same room. Josinda lifts her forcon toward her parents.
**Audio**: Josinda: *"Anyway, planet or not, we’re nearly there! Are you getting this?"* AiLa (voice): *"Yes, it's looking great!"*
**Camera**: POV spins to view from Josinda's forcon — what the camera sees: her parents, Yrwin and Alfa, bent over a console, talking urgently.
---
### SHOT 010 | 0:30
**Scene**: Parents notice Josinda filming. Yrwin looks up.
**Audio**: Yrwin: *"Josinda! Now's not the time."*
**Camera**: Medium on Yrwin — straight to camera (since Josinda is pointing the forcon at him).
### SHOT 011 | 0:32
**Scene**: Josinda, slightly defensive.
**Audio**: Josinda: *"What? It's a historic moment! I'm filming for posterity."*
**Camera**: Medium — Josinda. Slight smile, half-joking.
---
### SHOT 012 | 0:33
**Scene**: Yrwin — looks from her to Alfa and back. A beat.
**Audio**: Yrwin: *"Out please."*
**Camera**: Close-up. He's not angry — he's scared.
---
### SHOT 013 | 0:35
**Scene**: Back to Josinda
**Audio**: Josinda: *"AiLa, what's going on?"*
**Camera**: Medium on her.
---
### SHOT 014 | 0:36
**Scene**: AiLa appears on screen behind parents
**Audio**: AiLa: *"The deceleration protocol is not initiating as intended."*
**Camera**: Close-up on Aila’s face as she processes this. Calm.
---
### SHOT 015 | 0:38
**Scene**: Same.
**Audio**: Josinda: *"What? Why?"*
— pause —
**Camera**: Hold on Josinda's face during the pause.
---
### SHOT 016 | 0:40
**Scene**: Back to parents
**Audio**: Alfa: *"AiLa, how likely is it that we sail right past Kyron and crash into that giant star there?"* AiLa: *"If we continue on the current trajectory, the probability of collision with the star Pollux is ... "*
**Camera**: Crossing between Alfa and AiLa on the screen.
---
### SHOT 021 | 0:45
**Scene**: AiLa on screen. Hair different color again.
**Audio**: AiLa: “100%.”
**Camera**: Close up. Image flickers.
---
### SHOT 022 | 0:47
**Scene**: Exterior of the fleet. The sun (Pollux) is visibly too large — and closer than it should be from this distance.
**Audio**: Music. Strong downbeat. Story starts now.
**Camera**: Wide — fleet in frame, Pollux looming behind.
---
### SHOT 023 | 0:48
**Scene**: Nav room. Josinda turns and runs away.
**Audio**: Yrwin: “Josinda!
**Camera**: Pans back as she leaves the room.
---
---
### SHOT 024 | 0:50
**Scene**: Habitation. Josinda finds Crya. Crya looks up
**Audio**: Music. Crya: “Josinda? What’s going on?”
**Camera**: Medium.
---
### SHOT 025 | 0:55
**Scene**: Ships shown over Earth in orbit half built. Cranes and diggers visible on them.
**Audio**: Igbal VO: *"The ships were built by the regions of Earth..."*
**Camera**: Wide — historic
---
### SHOT 026 | 0:58
**Scene**: FLASH — interior of a different vessel. Latin American flavour — architecture, plants, colour palette distinct from Antipodes.
**Audio**: Igbal VO continues. “...each putting their cultural signature on the vessel they designed.”
**Camera**: Wide — brief.
—
### SHOT 027 | 0:59
**Scene**: FLASH — interior of another vessel. Asian flavour.
**Audio**: Strong music through here.
**Camera**: Wide — brief.
### SHOT 028 | 1:00
**Scene**: Jia Wei inside the hub.
**Audio**: Igbal VO continues: *"The mission is guided by a powerful AI that inhabits a data centre in our central hub — what we all know as AiLa."* Echoey voice of AiLa saying “I need your help”, overlapping with final words from Iqbal.
**Camera**: Medium. Pan over to one GPU as she speaks.
---
### SHOT 029 | 1:03
**Scene**: Exterior — wide shot. All vessels beginning to peel away from the central hub. Slow, massive, inevitable.
**Audio**: Music swells. Jia Wei: “I can’t do this.” AiLa: “You must.”
**Camera**: Wide. The hub at centre, vessels pulling away in all directions.
---
### SHOT 030 | 1:08
**Scene**: AiLa's face on a screen — blinking. Hair a different colour again.
**Audio**: Yrwin: "What about you?" AiLa: “There is no mechanism to steer the hub alone.”
**Camera**: Zoom into her.
---
### SHOT 031 | 1:10
**Scene**: Close-up — Josinda’s eyes filling with tears in bedroom with Crya.
**Audio**: Music softens. Crya: “How will we survive without her?”
**Camera**: Extreme close-up.
### SHOT 032 | 1:12
**Scene**: Exterior — the hub drifting away from the vessels. Toward Pollux. Already lost.
**Audio**: Music.
**Camera**: Wide — hub small and getting smaller.
**Notes**: —
### SHOT 033 | 1:15
**Scene**: On a vessel — Josinda faces Vane. He's physically larger, clearly trained for this.
**Audio**: Josinda: *"Don’t you think I should be the one to go to the surface?"*
**Camera**: Medium two-shot.
---
### SHOT 034 | 1:16
**Scene**: Same. Vane looks at her — assessing, not unkind.
**Audio**: Vane: *"Gravity down there is not what we're used to. You should stay up here where it's light. And safe."*
**Camera**: Close on Vane.
---
### SHOT 035 | 1:18
**Scene**: Josinda's reaction — uncertain. Camera pans to Crya watching, encouraging, slightly sinister.
**Audio**: Music. Josinda: “I can handle it.”
**Camera**: Close on Josinda, then pan to Crya.
---
### SHOT 036 | 1:20
**Scene**: POV from inside a pod — flying low over Kyron's surface. Alien landscape below. Gas giant Xenon fixed in the sky.
**Audio**: Vane VO: *"And we won't be alone down there."* Music resumes.
**Camera**: Wide, looking forward and down. Speed implied.
### SHOT 037 | 1:23
**Scene**: A group of sentients. Could be around a carcass or maybe playing in some water, filaments outstretched and moving. (not this)
**Audio**: Active music with weird crunching or hooting noises.
**Camera**: Medium
---
### SHOT 038 | 1:25
**Scene**: Crya and Josinda.
**Audio**: Crya: "Go. Bring back footage for the rest of us."
**Camera**: Close two-shot — faces.
---
### SHOT 039 | 1:26
**Scene**: Exterior — wide shot of surface of Kyron. The gas giant behind them.
**Audio**: Music.
**Camera**: Wide. Majestic.
---
### SHOT 040 | 1:30
**Scene**: A triplet formation enters the scene, orbiting Kyron. Hub conspicuously absent. A child's voice. (VO previous scene)
**Audio**: Child (Hari): *"But why did we leave our home?"*
**Camera**: Wide, steady
---
### SHOT 041 | 1:31
**Scene**: Classroom. Children in a circle, looking up at him. Igbal's face.
**Audio**: Igbal: *"Because we could."* ban na na na ba na na na ba na na na ba na na anba na na [insertion by my 9yo daughter]
**Camera**: Close — his face.
---
### SHOT 042 | 1:33
**Scene**: Classroom — Kids are restless, wriggling.
**Audio**: Igbal: *"OK, enough stories! — let's go out to play."*
**Camera**: Medium — Igbal standing, kids scrambling up.
---
### SHOT 043 | 1:36
**Scene**: A lift toward the centre of the ship — the zero-g zone. Igbal leads, they step in and it moves up.
**Audio**: Children beginning to giggle.
**Camera**: Medium. Pan up as the lift moves away.
---
### SHOT 044 | 1:38
**Scene**: Zero-gravity playground at the axis of the ship. Children tumbling, floating, pushing off each other and the structure. Pure weightless joy.
**Audio**: Children squealing with delight. Music warm underneath.
**Camera**: Wide — the full playground, children in all orientations, no up or down.
---
TEXT SCREEN 1:
### SHOT 045 | 1:40
**Scene**: Sky — a disc-shaped jet descending through cloud cover. Rim-lit. Silent.
**Audio**: Music
**Camera**: Looking up — the disc framed against clouds and the fixed gas giant above.
### SHOT 046 | 1:42
**Scene**: Kyron's surface. A foot emerges from a door, touches ground.
**Audio**: Music. Crowd sounds building.
**Camera**: Close up.
---
### SHOT 047 | 1:45
**Scene**: Kyron's surface. Humans emerging from the lander.
**Audio**: Music. Crowd sounds. Cheering.
**Camera**: Wide — people in suits jumping up and down and cuddling one another.
–
### SHOT 048 | 1:50
**Scene**: Josinda turns to face up.
**Audio**: Music. Crowd cheering fades to conversation and feet walking on gravel.
**Camera**: Close on Josinda with activity in background.
TEXT SCREEN 2:
---
### SHOT 049 | 1:53
**Scene**: Inside a transport. Kaylah sits close to a captive sentient — it's restrained but not harmed. She's still. Curious. The sentient's filaments are moving slightly.
**Audio**: Music — quieter.
**Camera**: Medium two-shot — Kaylah and the sentient. Their faces level.
---
### SHOT 050 | 1:56
**Scene**: Lab on a vessel. A sentient laid out, unconscious or dead. A scientist stands over it. Josinda is here too, watching.
**Audio**: Scientist: *"Their language, their technology — it's very primitive. Like Earth gorillas. Or chimpanzees maybe."*
**Camera**: Medium — the lab.
---
### SHOT 051 | 1:58
**Scene**: Same lab. Josinda.
**Audio**: Josinda: *"They're smarter than we think."*
**Camera**: Close — her face.
---
### SHOT 052 | 2:00
**Scene**: Kyron's surface base. Wella and Vane — a heated moment between them.
**Audio**: One of them: "We're not here to take over this planet. We're exploring, that's all!"
**Camera**: Wide two-shot — both bodies visible. Scenery behind.
TEXT SCREEN 3:
### SHOT 053 | 2:03
**Scene**: Kyron's surface — chaos. A disc drops fast through low cloud, ramp opening as it descends toward Vane who is running across open ground.
**Audio**: Josinda (VO or radio): *"Come on! Run!"* Music.
**Camera**: Wide — the disc descending, Vane small below it.
---
### SHOT 054 | 2:05
**Scene**: Josinda in Nav Centre directing Vane to the pod.
**Audio**: Music remains intense
**Camera**: Close on her, with others looking on.
TEXT SCREEN 4:
### SHOT 055 | 2:10
**Scene**: FLASH Kyron's surface — open, bright, a beautiful day. Vane and Wella (young) — Kiss
**Audio**: Music remains intense. Cuts into the intensity of previous scene.
**Camera**: Medium — the two of them.
### SHOT 056 | 2:12
**Scene**: FLASH Bedroom, Crya and Josinda — Kiss
**Audio**: Music remains intense
**Camera**: Medium — the two of them.
### SHOT 057 | 2:13
**Scene**: Ceremonial hall. Dark. Drumming — loud, rhythmic. The filaments of the gathered sentients are all moving chaotically. One sentient lays prone on a table, with three restrained humans watching on.
**Audio**: Drumming. Chanting. Weird noises.
**Camera**: Wide — the hall, sentients gathered, chanting.
---
### SHOT 058 | 2:16
**Scene**: Kaylah laid out on a table at the centre. Sentients around her, hands in her hair and ripping at her clothes.
**Audio**: Drumming continues.
**Camera**: Closing in on Kaylah's face.
---
### SHOT 059 | 2:20
**Scene**: Sentients close in on Kaylah and grab her hair. She screams.
**Audio**: Her scream cuts through the drumming.
**Camera**: Extreme close-up — mouth open, eyes shut.
TEXT SCREEN 5:
### SHOT 060 | 2:25
**Scene**: Kyron's surface. Vane running - almost at lander now.
**Audio**: Music remains intense
—
### SHOT 061 | 2:27
**Scene**: Josinda in Nav centre directing Vane. She stands and rushes out.
**Audio**: Music remains intense
**Camera**: Close on her, with others looking on.
### SHOT 062 | 2:30
**Scene**: Shadows at the edge of the group. An old woman watching — scarred, weathered. This is Wella. Kaylah looks to her and she nods discreetly.
**Audio**: Screaming, strong music.
**Camera**: Medium — enough to see she is human, clearly aged, clearly belongs here. Zoom over to her.
TEXT SCREEN 6:
---
### SHOT 063 | 2:40
**Scene**: Hangar inside vessel - Vane has returned from escaping. Josinda meets him and they run into each other’s arms
**Audio**: Music remains intense
**Camera**: Medium
TEXT SCREEN 7 (TITLE SCREEN):
TEXT SCREEN 8 (TAG LINE):
TEXT SCREEN 9:
Button: Pyramids being built in background, Kaylah hands a hard hat to a sentient who looks down at it. Kaylah laughs and says to put it on your head, then says “Oh right, your brain’s not up there. I forgot.”
CREDITS SCREEN
It’s not too late to get your name on this screen. Put your hand up to help out if you feel like it, or just give some feedback on what you think of the storyboard so far.

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