# beam.skin-neon · THE SIGN YARD · DEATH REALM · choreography doc (E, 27 Oct; approved)

**Story.** Fayiz is a gunfighter, and a good one: he fights Faris's neon cannon from behind gold cover and nearly wins. The
neon line takes his gun arm. When he runs, the next line doesn't end: it hangs in the air as a glass tube, bends and coils
round him, and drags him into THE SIGN YARD, a scrapyard of dead neon where the dead hang as human-shaped signs, still buzzing.
There, in an empty sign frame shaped like him, the last line opens him from inside and his outline lights up. The tube
shatters; he lies opened on the real floor.
**Style:** DEATH REALM. **Skin:** neon (the pink-white neon line, buzzing, flickering).
**New realm (to register):** THE SIGN YARD. Look: an endless night scrapyard of dead neon (heaps of tube glass, rusted sign
frames stacked like gravestones, hanging transformers); the dead hang from gantries as human-shaped NEON SIGNS: glass tubes
bent into their outlines, their gas still buzzing a weak pink, the open mouths drawn in glass. Crossing: the line stays lit,
becomes a glass tube, coils round him (the arena lights short out with a flicker). Return: the tube round him shatters; the
real lights slam back. Core dread: to be bent into glass and left buzzing forever.
**Casts:** V · THE CRATE (cover, 'slam'), V · THE LADDER (up a stack of sign frames, 'snap'); F · THE STEP (to follow him up,
'snap'). **Limbs:** the gun arm at the elbow (in the arena), the leg at the knee (mid-jump, in the realm).
**Opening:** the last line traced down through his torso from inside: torn cooked edges, pink gas leaking out of the wound.

## BEAT SHEET (scene seconds; A = FARIS, V = FAYIZ; F = 590; A starts x 620, V x 900)

### PHASE 0 · THE EXCHANGE (0.0-6.2) · SHOTS 1-3: a low wide; handheld over V's shoulder; a close on the gun hand.
| t | V | A | FX / CAMERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0-0.6 | Pistol up, side-on, firing two shots; steps right. | Shoulders the neon cannon; a round sparks off it. | Muzzle flashes; neon buzz. |
| 0.8 | Slaps the floor (CAST: THE CRATE, 'slam'); a gold crate inks up at x 940; he drops behind it. | Charge (glow). | |
| 1.3 | | Line at 1.3 into the crate's edge: gold chips, molten drips. | Flash. |
| 1.5-3.0 | Pops up, fires three more, ducks; pops up the other side. | Steps left, tracking; the second round grazes his shoulder (a hit spring). | Cut on action. |
| 3.2-4.6 | Rolls out from cover firing, gaining ground (x 940 → 880). | Core swap (1.7 s): he side-steps a shot, slides the new core in. | Whip pan with the roll. |
| 4.8 | Aims for the head. | Charge; the line at 5.3 takes his gun arm at the elbow mid-shot (**EXPLODING LIMB 1**). | **SLOW-MO 1** (5.2-5.5): the forearm and pistol spinning, the shot going wide, cooked blood hanging. Snap. |
| 5.5-6.2 | Screams, turns, runs. | | |

### PHASE 1 · THE CROSSING (6.2-8.2) · SHOT 4: wide; the lights die.
| t | V | A | FX / CAMERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | Running away (x 960 → 1040). | Line at 6.5 past him (a near miss), and the line STAYS LIT. | The line hangs in the air, flickering, turning into glass (tube highlights). |
| 6.8-7.6 | The tube bends round and coils round him; he struggles in it. | Lowers the cannon, watching. | Every arena light shorts out (flicker cut, black, buzz). |
| 7.6-8.2 | | | Fade up: THE SIGN YARD. |

### PHASE 2 · THE SIGN YARD (8.2-16.0) · SHOTS 5-8: a slow crane through the hanging signs; tracking the run; low on the climb.
| t | V | A | FX / CAMERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.2-9.4 | Gets up, horrified: the dead hang all round him as neon signs, buzzing. | Walks in out of the dark, the cannon glowing. | The signs flicker as he passes them. |
| 9.4-11.6 | Runs between the hanging signs, clutching the elbow stump. | Walks after him (never runs). | Track; the signs swing. |
| 11.8 | Reaches a stack of rusted sign frames; slaps it (CAST: THE LADDER, 'snap'); a gold ladder inks up its face. | | |
| 12.0-13.2 | Climbs one-handed, desperate. | Flicks (CAST: THE STEP) and steps up onto it to keep the line of sight. | Low angle on the climb. |
| 13.4 | Jumps the gap to the next stack. | The line at 13.5 takes his leg at the knee mid-jump (**EXPLODING LIMB 2**). | **SLOW-MO 2** (13.4-13.7): the leg and glass dust hanging. Snap. |
| 13.7-14.4 | Falls between the stacks, onto the yard floor. | | Glass breaks under him. |

### PHASE 3 · THE FRAME (14.4-17.6) · SHOT 9: a close on the empty frame; a medium; letterbox and grain.
| t | V | A | FX / CAMERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.4-15.6 | Crawls; finds an empty sign frame lying on the ground, shaped like a man: his own outline. Recoils. | Walks up to stand over him. | |
| 15.6-16.2 | Tries to crawl away; his body slides into the outline. | Charge (slow glow). | |
| 16.3 | | The last line traced down through his torso from the throat to the belly (raked, 0.3 s). | **SLOW-MO 3** (16.25-16.7): his torso opening from inside along the line, pink gas leaking out of the torn cooked wound, the empty frame's tubes lighting up round him, buzzing. Snap. |
| 16.8-17.6 | Dead in the lit frame. | | The sign buzzes. |

### PHASE 4 · THE RETURN (17.6-21.0) · SHOT 10: wide; then the final low close.
| t | V | A | FX / CAMERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17.8 | | | The tube round him shatters: glass bursts; the real arena lights slam back. |
| 18.0-21.0 | On the real floor: the opened torso, the elbow stump, the knee stump, the face upright, the neon line cooling on the floor. | Shoulders the cannon. | Glass dust settles; blood v2.1 pool. |

**XT (frame f):** the face upright, the torso opened along the line (torn cooked edges, char fading, a faint pink glow from
inside), the two stumps, glass dust, the neon line fading on the floor. **Slow-mo beats:** 3.