Shadows of Visionwald:
Proto Film Script
Journey to the mind of Vane Marter,
famed author of Visionwald notes
Space closes, tarmac and distance,
sunlight cuts through screen grime,
fan-shaped spectrum on silver disc,
momentum paced near a gearshift,
music over air noise and engine,
a vehicle is tracing easy curves.
Readings arrive in digitals on dash,
numeric consumption, values on dials,
a slipstream skyline, lane, junctions;
Style Driver prone, guiding
the wheel,
he recalls research, tutorial sessions,
Visionwald notes revealing Vane Marter …
112.7 Visionwald foundation notes
studied by Style Driver and Rider
5
Vane Marter, some distance from power,
his rule of Risen First starts to weaken;
Lanetta takes over as supreme leader,
a tactician, decorated in recovery wars;
so Vane Marter founds The Golden-Far,
brutality preached to crowded party halls,
a dogma of emblem, mantra and magic,
in stages, building a mania of support,
he recites messages, coded repetitions:
“the unknowns doubt our strength,
intruders are the disease, lash out at them,
heretics tamed by our finest Skinnerguns”.
Road movie, dead bikers
in the slipstream of Marter
Rider 5 sits at Style Driver’s
side;
look of apathy, he blanks his partner;
eyes downward from view ahead,
he concentrates, lowers his voice:
“just intelligence — atypical thinking,
individuals swallowed by a nation,
tempered sadist, shaping the human”.
Electronic displays, brake fluid, oil,
bronze oval hangs on the rear view,
a worn out symbol, creed that failed;
bikers stream past, making for town;
their deaths marked on lush verges,
tributes of flowers tied to fencing,
on a road followed by Vane Marter.
114.23 revelation notes:
revolt, lessons of defeat
Reasoning, blueprint beginnings,
for notes to edge into versions;
Vane Marter, groomed anarchist,
luminary of the mind evolving;
he can work his malevolence,
a chameleon who absorbs power,
submerges his flow of bloodlust;
Marter will upstage who we are,
guide us with a measured rage.
In place as master of the opportune:
June 14, new semester, Storren rising;
night of rioting… procession of voters,
speaker fires pistol into opposing faction,
mass insurrection — guards engage rebels,
arson in the senate rooms, return to order;
lead spokesman identified as Vane
Marter,
storming of government, quelled by force,
escape to San Gallay, in disarray, defeat.
Shared miles of groundwork,
disciples reveal their doubts
Driver in transition, steady;
his focus copied in rear view,
a reflection for his portrait,
bone structure, expression,
face pointing at instruments,
he gauges Rider, person image,
shaped and fluid, likeness settles;
Rider’s short hair, bruised cheek,
even features, tall, muscular thin,
clean jaw-line — his eyes scan;
Driver in sleeveless, assessing,
runs over plan, remains of smile,
bottom lip shields irregular teeth.
Vehicle picks up speed, right fork,
scroll of storefronts, unlit buildings;
Rider slides hand into travel bag,
he pulls out the folded papers,
re-orders sheets, addresses Driver:
“Listen Driver — this is our brief,
the insurgent they call Vane Marter …
we have to unearth more notes;
it’s about nerve, breaking the code,
his spellbinding way with a mob”.
Driver pauses, recites under breath…
“an orator who intoxicated crowds,
seductive phrases of hatred and fear,
he sourced control, craving the risk”.
116.4 notes — mythology
incubates in a voice
2,000 in the Fennermont
Hall,
raised fists into haze of smoke,
a sense of union, release from self,
crowd drawn to an honoured soldier,
a tall frame, gloves, military coat,
polished boots on makeshift stage,
a manipulator in awe of himself;
emotive message sent from platform,
he feeds and draws on the mass,
seductive words in guttural drawl:
"go outwards to newfound soil,
disperse those tainting our blood".
His hands slice their movements,
signals, a display of patterns,
belief set in smouldering eyes.
Honour in the school of weapons,
training complex — munitions game
Driver tightens grip on machine gun, levels
aim,
tension in face, Rider sweeps camcorder on arc,
panning angles of Driver, a fixed expression;
they switch over, Driver swings lens at Rider.
Rider at simulator, fires on tide of automatons,
weapon in full extension, steady balanced arm;
a concert of assaults, score confirming skill.
Aggressors move in passageways,
his hand shudders, jerks to gunfire,
falling marauders stream from haze;
Rider plants feet, hips in adjusted range,
with veiled reverence, Driver watches,
laser is locked, an arm whips forward,
slider on gun barrel clacks and reloads.
156.6 notes — hypnosis spell, an
orator hones a ferment of passion
His eight month rise to complete power…
riots spread at the Salmassa elections,
Vane Marter freed from detention cell,
17,000 rally in Cassellon Square,
military police, arms raised on podium,
wild surety, addressing his parade:
"towards triumph, the weak infect us,
they debase our names — seed themselves
to stain achievements, lessen our fate;
history dares us to renew our race".
Making of the Visionwald emblem, key
letters hijacked from global corporation
11.05, basement of 6 Exenfield,
the two kneel on black linoleum,
measures, location tags, timer,
divided carefully between them;
Rider guides a scalpel round shape,
halves the logo of a fast-food chain,
piecing letters into a new symbol,
twin shapes for next emerging cult;
he centres them on a small table,
their coding radiates in the room.
A line of candles surround the symbol,
they spell its purpose in flickering lights,
in the foreground, a thin digital display,
’skinnerguns’ scrolls, red dots repeat
line,
rules and vision, work of Vane Marter,
Driver focuses, speaks methodically:
“they were amazing, his created police;
skinnerguns, the wrath of skinnerguns”,
he tries to invoke spirit of Vane
Marter,
repeats the mantras, seeking an essence,
sustained by veneration of Marter;
willing Marter to appear in a guise,
still tyrannical, a fairer messiah,
humane laws for lowest elements,
less zeal to please his younger tribe.
134.3 notes — removal phase,
inventing industrial Galtasse
400,000 men, the Visionwald toll-
Galtasse is likely to exceed this,
the template founded by Marter;
his separation plans, pure ideals,
extractor teams sent to social units,
Senior Grender’s clinical orders:
"transport 5,000 under twelves,
relocate to drainshaft complex,
single women to wear blindfolds,
issue disposable protective gowns;
take name cards, land documents,
tabulate all artworks of merit;
healthy males to sodium barracks,
identify sick, enforce blood tests,
points system to reward the few".
Urban refuge, pilgrimage north
drawn to refuse truck
Side street, walls worn to clay bricks;
Driver and Rider take the alleyway,
a rusting skip at building’s rear door,
broken boards, shells of grey computers.
The pair pull top layer to the ground,
their pen lasers dart for words of Marter;
a fortress Marter had made his haven
his succession notes stored in airshaft;
diesel sounds grow to furious, they turn,
truck reverses, metal struts block the sky.
moving against the march
Downhill, random route into town,
drumming builds from the distance,
relentless march of vicious hundreds,
lead by standard-bearer, green uniform,
legs driven in trained formal steps,
empty eyes of glazed resentment,
maroon flag, sectarian version of Marter,
Rider and Driver walk against them,
Driver buttons jacket, hides his insignia,
aviator shades mask their judging eyes.
art gallery — nightclub and kissable
freaks
An urban sculpture, steel locking rings,
“yankie, puppa, delta,” — paint on
fuselage,
early aircraft stats, fighter plane collage;
blowtorch, monkey face and propeller,
human body with its refuelling tank;
later, Driver and Rider in nightclub;
giant leans, tongues tiny wheelchair girl,
her drunken smile is lit by the strobe;
outside a blond bends over, guy pumps,
she lolls, her mouth gapes — spits out sick.
identities change and dissolve,
Vox and Tone — clones in lift
Empty hotel lift — enter Driver and Rider,
mirrored cubicle drops through floors;
Driver’s image is flashed onto himself,
Rider in double, both in parallel dimension;
surface cut healed on Driver’s right hand,
they warp into waxwork semblances,
doors open, in walk Vox and Tone,
Othertime versions of Driver and Rider;
Tone speaks, “M for breakfast, mezzanine”,
they exit, the corridor swallows them whole.
machine glides to a breakdown,
carriageway flat — Driver swaps wheel
Driver and Rider in back of car, eyes
clouded and intense, talk of night’s events;
at cruising speed the car shakes, pulls over,
offside front tyre is down, drone of cars,
the cabby swears, bends over torn rubber,
Driver takes jack from boot, sets it up;
winds clockwise, chassis rises off ground.
The engine guns, races on carriageway,
to recover time, steering wheel judders,
on escape lanes for the notes of Marter.
141.4 anticipated notes,
to a future, unity within time
Evidence of 400 BC Asiatic storytellers,
deeds of Marter in spoken legend.
Examples survive for the future of time;
key tenets taped by satellite workers,
patterned vibration, pulses spell words,
Marter flows through timeframe divides;
humankind impaired and restricted,
a race evolves with diminished function,
Marter frees the higher thinking of man,
notes show how to exceed and ascend,
above physical, moral and mind parameters,
the growth: man, Robotoid, Marter-man;
notes that filter to family and generation,
as one truth system collapses and fades,
notes emerge in the spine of a culture,
seeded in history before his Visionwald,
an actuality saved for Visionwald future;
notes as the model for understanding,
words that enrich the values of Marter,
system to redeem the fragility of man.
Seduced by a hologram —
her factors of attraction
Vodka room — Rider slumps in alcove;
silver lounger, high perspex bar stools,
wall widescreen, girls time their dance;
Rider admires the steps of Creneth,
her movements glide into view…
beamed in layers — a duplication,
Creneth edges forward, filling screen;
crimson four-inch heels, PVC skirt,
her face slips into a crude smile,
a shaped thigh, airbrush enhanced,
priced up — you pay for each sway,
for this option, select 1 femininity,
a performance metered, slim belly,
toe stud, rent her warm projection,
hologram moves to the sung words,
repeated lyric, “die by skinnerguns”,
remote controlled, cash the royalties,
selling sensual flirts of virtual self,
lover simulation, grope of a doll.
“skinnerguns” sinks in Rider’s mind,
renewed memory, trace of latent fear;
in training, he’d learnt all the chants —
and so much is still forgotten,
erased words that lead to Marter,
stories passed of his perfection.
Driver fast processes, almost random;
“your name says it, you’re the Rider,
Vane Marter would approve your rank,
reserve a place in his military corps;
you have to stay in narrow limits,
you value notes, but your mind’s flawed”.
Rider flinches, glares at the moment in time,
he stabs a fist, punches into Driver’s
side;
Driver is motionless, neutral and resigned,
takes the pain without anger, no retaliation.
Driver drifts into daze — slumped on
seating,
remembers earlier journeys with Rider;
he fills with flashbacks of old locations,
linked events, searches for an emblem,
a totem to apply to the cult of Marter.
In first sleep, he enters disordered dream,
airport lounge, flights numbered as notes,
seven-lane highway, it points to Marter;
he wakes as their plane hits the runway,
rail shuttle shoots them to the next city …
THE END
© 2008
Salt Publishing Limited 
