Outlaw Country.
A lot of the moral questions in Burial Ground revolve around the question of where does one draw the line between bad an good? Exactly how bad does a person have to be before they become the villain? Strictly speaking, Elijah Kane, the protagonist, is a lawful man. He hunts down bounties for the law, and only kills when necessary. But there's a stigma around bounty hunting, even back then, and the presence of an altruistic religious character will bring Elijah to question whether or not he's a good man. Elijah hunts down and hurts people, sometimes even bringing them to their hanging, purely for his own financial gain. The antagonist, a witch, controls people using voodoo, purely for her own financial gain. So the question arises; is Elijah any better than Necrosa is? Where does one draw the line between who can be hurt before decided that the person hurting them is a villain?
The Good, the Bad, and the Holy Spirit.
Elijah Kane.
Elijah Kane is a prolific professional bounty hunter, travelling all the deserts in the West in pursuit of bringing no-good crooks to justice. I often have a lot of difficulty deciding whether I prefer an active or passive protagonist. Often times I find that an active protagonist can make for a more engaging and less contrived story, but a passive protagonist can make for a more engaging and sympathetic character, as they usually have some motivation for being passive, namely some kind of hangup related to the crisis of the plot.
As much as I would like Elijah to be passive, because I think it better suits the archetype and the role of the bounty hunter to have a more cynical character, I feel that I would like him to be active - partially just because it benefits the pacing of the plot, especially in a shorter film, which is what this will be - but mostly because I think that it, in this case, might actually make Elijah, who works a job that's somewhat morally objectionable, be more likable if he's a character that decides to act and actually make an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery and help resolve the conflict of the plot.
Luna Necrosa.
I had to tweak the character of Necrosa a little bit after I learned that Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption II features a similar storyline to what hers would have been, with a Native American working for a coal corporation tricking some townsfolk into signing over their land. Instead I've decided, as much as I would like to make that statement about 'Big Coal', as it were, that Necrosa should be self-motivated, and have her own reasons for her evil, rather than being the proxy through which a corporation is hurting people.
I'm undecided yet as to whether I'd rather have her be a genuine magical witch and include supernatural elements in the film, or if I'd rather only imply at some supernatural elements, while in reality making it clear that Necrosa is only employing trickery and illusion, and isn't actually doing anything impossible.
Father Tobias Pendleton.
I needed a character with a more morally founded profession to provide Elijah with some kind of counter to his own cynical philosophy, which will also help to motivate Elijah in his decision to become active in the progression of the plot. Ultimately, the plot comes down to Elijah's motivation to save an entire populous of people in a poor town, something that isn't usually associated with more cynical Western characters, especially a bounty hunter, somebody whose profession is indicative of their inherently selfish motivations.
Pendleton should exude wisdom, and be absolutely unquestionable in his trustworthiness, and unshakable in his faith. I'm not religious personally, but a lot of the motivations in Western movies come from a place of Christian faith, as it was a very commonly held belief back in those days. It's common for characters, usually ones fitting the archetype of the lead, to have lost their faith, as this is a symbolic way, especially in such a religious time setting, of implying some difficulty of faith-shaking event in the character's path, which adds intrigue to their character, and leads the audience to become more invested in finding out the character's origins.
Colby Anderson.
Colby Anderson is more of a background character; a means to an end rather than a fleshed-out individual, said end being introducing Elijah to the town of Brimstone Ridge, and to the plights of the townsfolk there. Colby is the bounty that Elijah is pursuing in Brimstone Ridge, he's wanted for railway robbery.
Barkeep.
I've an idea for a scene where Elijah visits the saloon, and finds the barkeep vacantly wiping the side, completely oblivious to anything. It's just another bit of world building establishing the influence Necrosa has over the town.
Location Tests.
The problem with setting a film in an American mining town in the desert in the mid 1800's is that I will not be able to shoot it in America, in a mining town, in the desert, or in the 1800's. Finding a location that would be able to simulate the exterior of a decrepit shanty town in suburban England isn't easy, but I have managed to find a few locations in Maidstone that fit the bill. Unfortunately they're all very cramped and generally quite dark and, if I were to shoot there, I would need to cut out the backgrounds and replace them with digitally composed settings, and it's likely the street would often be visible.
The unfortunate thing about a lot of these locations is that they would mostly be best as small set-pieces, especially the two that are roofed, rather than as parts of a whole street. The location in the top left, which I believe is the back-side of the Source Bar, is a really good location for a shanty town, and I've had my eye on it for a while, but it only works to represent one building, and making it clear to the audience that the location is a small town in an expansive desert will require considerably more than a single structure.
Religious Iconography.
I'm not a religious person, but I do appreciate the scope and meaning of the stories in various culture's scripture, and I've used religious iconography and allegory in previous projects, both in subtle and obvious ways.
In my year one FMP, Dead Ringer, the character Enoch Caesar considers himself to be the saviour of the souls he harvests, leading their lives to a greater purpose. As a result his introductory scene and the storyboards for many of his appearances throughout the screenplay feature lighting and lens flares used to represent a halo above his head, as in the screenshot pictured left. There's also a shot in the storyboard of Enoch holding out his arms to two people in a crucifix pose. That one's a little more on-the-nose than the halos, but I feel that adding stylistic visual nuances that bring the personality and meaning of a character and how they're perceived into the film is a reliable tool, and few things are as resonant with people, whether in a good or bad way, as religion and faith.
My music video for the War revolved entirely around a singular character who was, in effect, a god. As such the video is rife with religious iconography, but in less of a symbolic way. In the War, the god is in awe of the monuments that his creations build to him. Whereas the religious symbolism in Dead Ringer is about establishing the literal holier-than-thou attitude of Enoch, the iconography in the War is about humbling the god.
There will be a lot of dialogue in Burial Ground between the characters Elijah Kane and Father Pendleton. Having Kane, a non-religious man, confront a preacher and discuss how a religious authority perceives Kane's profession; bounty hunting, is a way to explore the character deeply that isn't contrived, and that can be rife with unique visuals.
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The portrayal of Kane and Pendleton in such scenes depends on an intimate understanding of exactly how their characters relate to religious figures. Kane finds himself saving the entire town of Brimstone Ridge from enthrallment by a witch, but Kane isn't an active protagonist. He becomes the saviour, but out of guilt rather than good intentions, becoming the messiah to an entire populous reluctantly, and against what he considers to be his better judgement. The question, then, is how to portray the heroic nature of Kane visually while still obviously maintaining just how conflicted he is with this aspect of himself. As a bounty hunter he's faced with a choice in his motivations: money or justice. The way Kane sees it, being paid for all the trouble he goes to rounding up criminals is justice enough.
Pendleton's role is to guide Kane down that righteous path. I haven't decided yet whether the film will need to explain exactly why Pendleton is so motivated to mentor Kane, or if it's even relevant. The benefit of Pendleton being both a religious character and a 'Wise Man' archetype is that all the motivation he needs is simply his faith and his good nature. That's not to say that religious characters are one-dimensional in their motivation; lots of religiously motivated characters in films and TV have incredible rich backstory as to how exactly they acquired their faith, and exactly how deep and unique their connection to it is, and this is something I'd really like to explore with Pendleton, but the simple benefit is that it can be fit into a shorter run-time much easier and more subtly than many other characterizations and instances of exposition.