Cinematography - Poisonwood

In class, for our literature 8 discussions, I play the role of devil's advocate. However, I find that a bit difficult to do on my blog, since I do not have opinions to argue against (unless my classmates post their ideas). Therefore, for our blogging purposes, I am a cinematographer.

I think one of the pivotal scenes in the Poisonwood Bible is the moment when the Price family touches down on the airstrip at Kilanga, where they will be spending the rest of their time. If I made a movie out of this, the first scene would be this. There would be no music, only the sound of the wind blowing the red dirt (assuming the dirt is red - that's what I imagained).

The camera would be a wide angle shot, showing the family emerging on one side and the African villagers on the other side. I believe in the book that Rachel states that the Africans soon surrounded them, or something like that. This pause would show the incredulity on the faces of the Prices and the curiosity of the Africans, cutting back to a wide shot to symbolize the disassotiated attitude the family has at that moment. I would start the movie with this shot because I believe that it would be a unique and engrossing scene - a bunch of white people stepping out of a plane, overstuffed with personal belongings and wearing layers and layers of clothing (since they could not legally put it in their luggage).

At this point I would use a dolly, along with a crane, to suspend the camera 2 inches or so off the ground, and do a close-up shot of the feet of the family and the African villagers as they approach each other. I like this shot because of the fact that it agains shows the differences between the villagers and the family - the villagers are wearing worn out slippers or are barefoot while the family is wearing their proper shoes. It would cut between these two shots until they meet. At this moment, I would make the screenplay so that an African man, assumably a leader, greets them jovially as the expression on the Prices stays the exact same.

Written in a screenplay and marked up for camera work this would appear as

EXT Airfield in Killanga, noon (External scene, location, time of day)

We see the Price family emerge from the airplane, exhausted and wearing all the implements and neccesities that they could not carry via luggage.

wide shot, pan l-r

The africans are excited to see the newcomers and start the approach the Prices. We see the Prices approaching them as well.

close up, following footsteps

AFRICAN MAN

Hello! We are pleased to have you in our village!

(or something adapted from the novel).

FADE TO BLACK.

After the fade I would probably cut to the beginning of the story, as they prepare in America. Although the introduction to the actual book is fine (the picnic), I believe it's almost too detatched from the sequential order of things. I would add this somewhere later in the movie, since I do think it would make a good shot (camera floating high, top-down shot in the jungle?).

I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, so I really love movies that start off in the middle-ish.