Oregon Trail 2026 Storyboard -

SC 01

The Promise

Crater Lake · golden hour · 3200K · haze 20% · 54s

“Nearly 200 years ago, families risked everything on the trail to reach Oregon. Then Oregon elected Tina Kotek.”

1A84°12s

EWS · drone · kinetic

Wagon and white oxen roll the rim road; the arc reveals Wizard Island and the lake off their left.

Caldera sits on the wagon’s left — the geometry that lets 1F frame the lake through the broken spokes.

1B12°5s

ECU · static · low

White-oak felloe crushing red pumice grit; a blade of grass springs back up behind it.

Wooden tread, no iron tire — director’s ruling, holds for every wheel in the film.

1C63°10s

WS · travelling 3/4 · SETTLE

All four ride camera-right; the lake and island hold the back plane; wind presses the canvas.

Shot from the wagon’s right so the bench reads MOM·SON·DAUGHTER·DAD.

1D84°6s

WS · static · detail-on-wide

Hooves fill the bottom third; wagon and caldera recede into depth behind the ox’s shoulder.

First cut if the spot tightens to :30.

1E47°15s

WS 4-shot · THE ANCHOR · SETTLE

Riding forward → CRACK → the front-left wheel fails at frame-right under Dad; the corner drops 25cm and all four slide right into him.

Daughter’s left arm never unfolds. She pushes off with the right only — the spine holds to 6D.

1F12°6s

ECU · static · ground level

The collapsed wheel at rest — felloe split inward, two spokes sprung proud, the lake and island in the gaps between them.

Pressure fracture, not impact. Nothing strikes it or it renders as an explosion.

SC 02

The Toll

Columbia Gorge · noon · 5600K · dust 35% · 35s

“A five-billion-dollar gas tax. Eighty percent of voters said no.”

2A84°12s

EWS · rising jib · kinetic

Opens on the toll sign; the rise reveals a wedge of wagons fanning back to the valley wall, funnelling to single file at the ferry.

The steam plume stands at the far end — the visible reason the line exists.

2B63°15s

EWS→WS · physical retreat · kinetic

Holds on the sign as a wagon rolls under it onto the ferry, then retreats fast over the wagon tops, landing 3/4 rear-left on the family — Dad craning out to his left.

A retreat, not a zoom. Fallback split 2B-a / 2B-b is pre-designed and fires at 15 iterations.

2C29°8s

MCU · static · SETTLE

He settles back from the lean. Thumb works the leather once, jaw sets, shoulders drop 3cm on a slow exhale through the nose.

Cut out of 2B on the lean-back, into 2C on the lean-in — the halves match across the join.

SC 03

Money Snow

Portland riverfront · overcast · 8500K · haze 45% · 59s

“She declared a homelessness emergency. Spent 130 million dollars. Homelessness rose 35 percent.”

3A63°10s

MS · tracking · SETTLE

The wagon fords the river — water 30cm deep breaking white at the wheel rims, the team stepping high off the gravel bar. Six to ten notes hang in the air, one drifting over the son’s head.

Coverage rung 1 of 6: notes airborne, none landed.

3B18°8s

CU · static · SETTLE

A note settles flat into his open palm. The smile goes first, then the brows draw together as he registers it is not snow.

Frame for the numeral, not the engraving. Portrait soft under his thumb — the denomination is all we need.

3C47°15s

WS · static, locked

The fallen marker fills the foreground. Behind it the wagon comes up out of the water at frame-right, crosses camera-left past the beam and turns away up the trail into tent city.

The film’s one screen-direction reversal — deliberate, logged. 3E restores left-to-right.

3D63°8s

WS · water level · kinetic

Notes ride flat on the surface, edges curling as they wet, moving at the camera’s speed so they hold still in frame while the bank slides past.

30% surface coverage — the storm has only just started. Mill unpainted.

3E84°8s

EWS · static, mid-river · SETTLE

Money falls across the whole encampment; the trail runs half-covered in paper; the wagon is small, halfway down tent alley.

All figures distant, turned away, no identifiable faces. Photographed as weather, not spectacle.

3F47°10s

WS 4-shot · THE ANCHOR · SETTLE

Tent alley slides past behind them. Mom’s hand comes flat across the son’s chest and draws him in; Dad’s jaw sets; the daughter’s arms stay crossed, tighter and higher.

Second of three anchor appearances. Same geometry as 1E — only the weather has changed.

SC 04

The Hunt

Willamette NF · fog morning · 5600K · fog 30% · 29s · GATE CLEAR

“The second-highest taxes in America. Forty-sixth out of fifty states for business.”

4A63°8s

MS OTS · static, low · SETTLE

Dad kneels in the moss, brings the rifle up and settles it; his breath steams and drifts camera-left.

Harshest face light in the film — 5:1 shafted canopy. The stress test for the character set.

4B8°6s

WS · static, anchored far · tele

The elk at 40m through the fog, compressed into a wall of haze; it lifts its head, one ear flicks back.

Full four-mechanism consistency stack required at 8°.

4C12°5s

ECU · static · macro

Trigger finger tightens — click — the hammer falls on a bare nipple with no cap seated.

Period-exact for an 1840s percussion lock, and the sound sells itself.

4D47°10s

MS · static, 3/4 front · SETTLE

A cream canvas flag unrolls from the barrel on a spring roller and hangs limp; behind him the elk turns and walks off; his head tips back.

A practical object, not a cartoon. Real canvas behaving absurdly beats a 2D overlay — and it keeps the world intact.

SC 05

Someday

Alvord Desert · sunset · 3200K · dust 25% · 28s

“She promised 36,000 new homes a year. Last year, Oregon built 11,000.”

5A84°10s

EWS · slow push · 0.4m off the playa

Wagon crosses the lakebed at distance; skeletal wall frames scattered to the horizon in silhouette; playa cracks converging as leading lines.

Frames stand on one course of cinder block — no floor, the desert runs straight through.

5B47°10s

WS · static, locked · split frame

Billboard fills the camera-right half near-flat to lens; the wagon sits stopped camera-left, all four turned away looking up and to the right at it. Neither moves.

Heaviest glyph load in the film. Blank-board backup plate is mandatory here even if skipped everywhere else.

5C63°8s

WS POV · handheld 1cm · kinetic

Through a rough opening in a 2×4 wall frame: for one second the doorway contains the dry lakebed where a living room should be. A tumbleweed rolls through the threshold.

No door, no jamb — a rough opening with a doubled header. Openings to nowhere.

SC 06

The Coast

Cannon Beach · noon · 5600K · marine haze 40% · 55s

“And climate orders that made everything — gas, energy, Oregon itself — cost more.”

6A63°8s

WS · static, behind, low · SETTLE

Backs of four heads as the wagon crests the last dune and the ocean opens ahead; all four lean forward together, squinting.

Bench order reverses from behind — DAD·DAUGHTER·SON·MOM. Continuity, not an error.

6B8°15s

EWS · locked, static · THE REVEAL

Haystack Rock stacked enormous and compressed in the back plane; near plane, the closure sign staked at an angle in front of the tape running edge to edge.

The shot the commercial is built to arrive at. 8° puts the dream arm’s length away and ropes it off.

6C47°12s

WS 4-shot · THE ANCHOR · SETTLE

Three faces fall in sequence — Dad’s brow at 1.5s, Mom’s lips part at 3.0s, the son looks up at his mother at 5.0s. The daughter’s arms stay crossed.

Third and last anchor. Open in Scene 1, huddled in Scene 3, breaking here.

6D18°10s

CU · static · SETTLE

Her arms uncross for the first time in the film, hands rise, her head goes down into them. Wind takes her hair across her knuckles.

The payoff the whole spine was built for. Score thins to nothing under this.

6E63°10s

EWS · static, behind, low · SETTLE

The four small on the bench, tape across the foreground, Haystack Rock beyond. Nobody moves. Score gone, gulls and surf only.

The only shot in the film with room for type. Without it the spot hard-cuts to black off a crying kid.

Oregon Trail 2026 Storyboard

The Oregon Trail 2026

Marks on the frames

The Promise

The Toll

Money Snow

The Hunt

Someday

The Coast