Black-and-white 1920s newsreel footage - 35mm silver-nitrate

Black-and-white 1920s newsreel footage - 35mm silver-nitrate contrast, film grain, scratches and flicker, a camera that shakes when the ground does. A grand European boulevard of the 1920s: tall ornate stone buildings, cafe tables and chairs on the pavements, awnings, lampposts, a tram line down the middle of the street, and crowds in suits, hats and long dresses. THE LAYOUT: the boulevard runs straight and long. A TRAM is running along the rails in the middle of it, full of passengers with their faces at the windows. THE DOG is behind the tram, chasing it along the rails. The crowd is on both pavements, running away from the dog. STANDING CONDITIONS, true from the first frame to the last: THE DOG CARRIES THROUGH FROM THE REFERENCE - a giant, fluffy white dog with an open mouth and visible teeth, running. IT IS AS TALL AS THE SECOND-FLOOR WINDOWS OF THE BUILDINGS and it is exactly that size in its first frame and its last. THE REFERENCE SUPPLIES THE DOG ONLY, not a background. Every shot is this real boulevard with real depth, real crowds and real stone, and every framing is fresh. THE DOG WANTS THE TRAM AND NOTHING ELSE. To the dog the tram is a stick to be fetched. Its paws land on the road and on parked cars, never on a person, and it touches nobody. FROM THE VERY FIRST FRAME THE CHASE IS AT FULL SPEED. Lampposts and cafe awnings strobe past one after another; the camera is barely keeping up and judders with every stride. NOBODY SPEAKS. There is screaming and shouting but no intelligible words. Real-time, no slow motion. The dog runs like a real dog at a full bounding gallop, its whole weight slamming down on each stride and shaking the ground - no gliding or skating, never stiff, robotic or video-game-like. Shot 1 (0-3s): CAMERA at pavement level among the cafe tables, facing along the boulevard toward the oncoming tram. The tram comes straight at us along the rails, bell clanging, and behind it, filling the street from wall to wall, the giant dog comes bounding after it, paws slamming down. Cafe chairs and tables go over as people run past the lens in every direction, hats flying. HARD CUT. Shot 2 (3-6.5s): CAMERA low and travelling fast alongside the tram, facing forward the way the tram is going, juddering. Lampposts and awnings strobe past one after another. Just behind the tram the dog's huge front paws come down either side of the rails one stride after another, cracking the cobbles, tongue out, ears flying, gaining a full stride every second. HARD CUT. Shot 3 (6.5-10s): CAMERA high on a balcony looking down on the boulevard, facing along the street, the tram passing beneath us. The driver hauls on the brake: the tram screeches and slides to a stop at the tram stop directly below us, sparks spraying from its wheels. The dog skids after it, all four paws locked, ploughing a wave of cobbles and chairs ahead of it, and stops with its nose against the back of the tram. It drops its chest to the ground with its rear in the air, tail wagging: a play bow. HARD CUT. Shot 4 (10-15s): CAMERA back at street level ahead of the tram, facing the tram and the dog head-on, people streaming past the lens. The dog closes its jaws around the tram's roof, lifts the whole tram off the rails like a stick, turns, and trots away from us down the boulevard with it, tail going, cables snapping and sparking behind it. The shot ends with the dog still trotting away, the tram swinging in its jaws. Diegetic sound only, thin and crackling like a 1920s optical soundtrack: a tram bell clanging; steel wheels screaming on rails; the huge dog panting; paws hitting cobbles like falling masonry; cafe chairs and glass going over; a crowd screaming and shouting with no intelligible words; a whole tram lifted off its rails with a groan of steel; cables snapping; the panting fading away down the boulevard. NO MUSIC. NO BGM. NO SOUNDTRACK. Absolutely zero music throughout. No subtitles, captions or on-screen text.