Architecture

Example Script

Let’s break down the 1938 Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” broadcast incident into a film-style structure using:

• Sequences (broad chunks of action),

• Scenes (specific settings/events),

• Shots (camera perspectives or key narrative moments).

🎬 Title: "The Night America Panicked"

• Sequence 1: The Calm Before the Storm

  • Scene 1.1: CBS Radio Studio, New York – October 30, 1938, 8:00 PM
    • Shot 1.1.1: Wide shot of a bustling studio. Welles adjusts his script, sound engineers prep.
    • Shot 1.1.2: Close-up of the radio dial: “Columbia Broadcasting System” crackles to life.
    • Shot 1.1.3: Cut to Orson Welles smirking slightly — he knows the gravity of the performance.

• Sequence 2: The Broadcast Begins

  • Scene 2.1: CBS Radio Airwaves (Diegetic Space – within the fiction of the play)
    • Shot 2.1.1: Radio plays soothing ballroom music. All is calm.
    • Shot 2.1.2: Abrupt interruption — “We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin.”
    • Shot 2.1.3: A reporter at Grover’s Mill: “A meteor has landed on a farm…”
    • Shot 2.1.4: Panic in the reporter’s voice: “Something’s emerging… It’s a machine… It’s firing!”

• Sequence 3: National Confusion and Panic

  • Scene 3.1: American Living Rooms Across the Country
    • Shot 3.1.1: Close-up of a woman clutching her children near a radio.
    • Shot 3.1.2: A man dials the police: “The Martians! Are they near New Jersey yet?”
    • Shot 3.1.3: Street shots — people running, crying, even praying.
    • Shot 3.1.4: A car screeches to a halt; passengers argue whether to flee the city.

• Sequence 4: Media and Official Response

  • Scene 4.1: CBS Studio, Post-Broadcast
    • Shot 4.1.1: Welles steps out of the booth — looks confused by the flood of calls and urgent messages.
    • Shot 4.1.2: Producer enters, pale-faced: “Orson… people thought it was real.”
    • Shot 4.1.3: Newspapers spinning on presses — “Radio Play Sparks Mass Panic!”

• Sequence 5: Fallout and Legacy

  • Scene 5.1: Press Conference – The Next Morning
    • Shot 5.1.1: Orson Welles at the microphone: “We had no idea…”
    • Shot 5.1.2: Cut to headlines: “Welles Apologizes,” “Martian Invasion a Hoax!”
    • Shot 5.1.3: Fade to: Modern scholars debating media ethics and mass hysteria.
    • Shot 5.1.4: Final image: Welles, older now, reflecting in a documentary interview — “We learned how powerful radio really is.”

visual storyboard or diagram of this structure

Output

• Different type of video production to be done for the sample script specified above as proven benchmarks.