ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL ANTHOLOGY   

IF YOU WERE TO SUSPEND GRAVITY FOR A MOMENT THE MOON WOULD TRAVEL AT A

T      A      N      G      E      N      T

The opening titles roll with their respective and recognisable fanfares and symphonic tunes that note their prestige in movie making magic. Thereafter remains a long pause to disconnect the animated logos and their accompanying compositions from the story of the movie.

 

In white letters upon the screen the following epigraph emerges; fading in and exiting in absolute silence as if the words themselves hold enough power alone.

Epigraphs

“In this I am not a man; I am a nation”

-T’Challa/Black Panther, New Avengers (2013-2015), Issue 3

Fades out.

Scene 1: Time to Land

The screen is still inhabited by a black void, vacated by the now absent epigraph. The tick, tick, tick of a clock can be heard. On the 7th tick of the cloak, the first real image of the film snaps onto the screen in the same sudden snap of a whip[1] and a watch face[2] appears dominating the entirety of the screen. However, rather than the watch staying stationary and the hands ticking around the face, the second hand remains stationary pointing north and behind it the face rotates anticlockwise. The ticking begins to speed up and the watch face turns faster until it becomes a screaming blur of colour.[3]

The theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey[4] drowns out the ticking of the watch as its face spins faster.

The shot cuts to a black screen as faint pinhole lights twinkle into existence to unveil the deep depths of space with the theme still playing. Growing in its glorious strength, the grand orchestration accompanies a lone space shuttle streaking across the cosmos beginning to burn as it enters some atmosphere. If, you dear reader, are the camera man, imagine standing in the outdoors beneath the spectacular array of stars that compose the night sky and looking skyward through the narrow lens of your camera. You spot a flaming shuttle entering your atmosphere. You begin following it through the lens and its trajectory in such a way that as the ship approaches the horizon of the earth, the very earth you stand upon enters the frames of the film sideways and fills the left hand side of the shot. The shuttle is now flying over a vast, red desert and streaks over the horizon into the rising dawn. The theme ends.

Scene 2: The Infinite Puzzle

The camera pauses, the frame still tilted 90° to the left in a rather disorientating fashion and watches the sun rise. The camera begins to zoom across the red dirt towards a large city with many green roof[5] buildings that is surrounded by a large, tall wall. A huge pair of gates with a large “X” embedded into them is the only entrance or exit to this place; a city called Commune X[6]. A generic drum beat begins as, you the camera man, zooms towards the city.

The camera continues to zoom towards the top of the wall, where it zooms into a small shelter atop of the wall. Within this shelter a wise, old, grey-bearded and bald headed African-American stands peering out through a telescope. Behind him is a clock. The camera comes to a stop as the second hand on the cloak reaches the 45 second mark and over 15 ticks the camera rotates with the second hand so that is correctly orientated and wise, old, grey-bearded and bald headed African America appears upright rather than lying down.

 The man begins to whistle and the camera turns to the right running atop of the wall, which is five metres wide, with a clear walkway. The camera zooms along this wall and comes across another two African American sentries walking slowly towards the shelter. The camera decides to follow them as they converse and gaze into the city on your left (their right) and the expanse of red desert on your right (their left). The two men are described in the follow table.    

Anthony

Benjamin

• Wears a floral Hawaiian T-Shirt and board shorts to match.
• He has a huge frizzy afro.
• On his hip is a big laser pistol. 
• He has a big clunky watch.

• Wears a white t-shirt with a band called “Blue Maggots are Yum” logo on it.
• He has very little hair.
• Over his shoulder he has slung a larger laser gun.
• He, too, has a clunky watch.

  

 These two men are watchmen of Commune X and gaze out across the expanse of desert to see if anything is amiss. They are talking about a gift Anthony purchased for his daughter.

Anthony

-got her one of those new thingys. One of those Infinite Puzzles.

 

Benjamin

(Genuinely alarmed by the mystery of the Infinite Puzzle)

What the heck’s an Infinite Puzzle?

Anthony

(He finds it difficult to explain)

It’s like an ordinary puzzle except it don’t have any edge pieces. So it keeps goin’ forever.

Benjamin

(real quick, in a way that encourages Anthony on)

Yeah..

Anthony

(Not really a hundred percent sure what he’s on about)

An’ you can also zoom in and out, so you can get like more detail in the picture or a more vague…aagghh… depiction, I guess.

Benjamin

(His curiosity is somewhat aroused by the Infinite Puzzle)

 A puzzle that never ends, huh? What happens when you run out of pieces, brother? Then I reckon ya stuffed.

Anthony

(He’s a little delighted by this question because he knows the answer and answers without pause) Ahhh! You see, that’s the cool bit. You can’t run out of pieces.

Benjamin

(Legitimately baffled)

She-it!

The two friends have been walking for a while now and continue in a comfortable friendly silence before they come to the whistling, wise, old, grey-bearded and bald-headed man who is now reading a newspaper who is in the shelter behind his desk.

Benjamin and Anthony together like two synchronised divers.

Morning Frank!

Frank is the manager for Commune X’s sentries and is friends with everyone. It often joked that he older than Commune X itself, which it true, he just doesn’t admit it. He looks up and the camera adjusts to capture Frank at his desk in his shelter gazing out a windowless opening to Anthony and on the far right Frank. All the while, the dawning sun illuminates the coming day.

Frank

Morning Fellas! How are we today?

Anthony looks at Benjamin, who pause, shrugs, then the former turns back to Frank to give their answer.

Anthony

(Very enthusiastically, animated and loud) We are mighty fine, this morning, Frank!

Frank:

Here fellas! I got a little nugget for ya. The mantis is the only insect that can rotate its head 180°. How’s that for size?

Both Anthony and Benjamin look at each other, weighing up what they have just hears.

Benjamin:

(Nice and slowly, with a distant yet distinct emphasis on the words “piece” and “knowledge”)

What a strange piece of knowledge…

There is a long pause.

Anthony:

(Very slowly and profoundly) I wonder if that’d fit in an Infinite Puzzle…

Frank returns to reading the paper on some strange computer and the other two look at each other for a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] The motion of some whips allow a small loop to coil at their end which creates a sonic boom faster than the speed of sound. The speed of sound at sea level is 304.29 metres per second. This is very fast. For comparison, Usain Bolt runs 10 metres per second and he is the fastest man alive.

 

[2] The word “Watch” comes from the old English word “woecce” which means Watchman. The word on the street has it that watchmen were the first to carry watches to identify when their duty was over.

 

[3] The only way for time to speed up is with consideration of Albert Einstein’s Theories of Relativity. Scientists only consider Relativity and its properties when approaching speeds greater than 10% the speed of light which is 2.99. However, a watch would not normally appear to its wearer sped up because the wearer sits within the same frame of reference as the observer.

 

[4] The theme from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, so often referred to the “2001: Space Odyssey Theme” is actually called “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and for this segment of the film the opening “Introduction” called “Sunrise” would be utilised. It is the same part immortalised by Popular Culture from the film about space travel. 

 

[5] Green-Roofs: Such as the one’s installed atop of buildings in cities in an attempt to decrease carbon emissions.

 

[6] Commune X is named after its founding father, the liberator Malcolm X. Malcolm’s changed his title to “X” from “Little” to reflect the name given to slaves when taken. Malcolm created Commune X following the United Nation’s inaction to address civil rights in America. Thus, he advocated the establishment of an independent and intelligent society that was established in 1965. His decision divided America and the discoveries and thoughts emerging from the new place divided America. So influential was the work produced that many people found the governing of Malcom X in Commune X to be far more sophisticated and functional than the American Republic that at the time was under the leadership of John F. Kennedy.