Fonts

Kinda don't have anything to update on right now so I decided to do a little font research for funsies. 

When I was starting off, I imagined the font being very mechanical and robotic because of the subject matter kinda like this.

Archetype Van

Mokoto Glitch

I really like these fonts but now that we've shot a good 75% of the film, I feel like neither one really captures the aesthetic or concept. Also they feel a little more like cyberpunk than I was imagining. I decided to look for something a little more serious and ended up finding a font that I really loved called cinzel.

It's much more serious and looks like it would be used on a poster of that makes any sense. Of course, it's subject to change, but I would like to use this font either for promotional material on instagram, the post card, or the actual title drop in the film. Later next week, I'll work on making a graphic to post on insta with this font once I get a laptop. 

First Edit

Luckily, yesterday Megan was able to quickly edit all the footage that we have together to make a really rough first draft of the scenes we have so far. It's funny cause I remember a couple years ago seeing an interview with a director, I think it was Martin Scorsese, say that your first draft should make you want to vomit, and I think I finally get what he meant. It's kinda like when you have to act in something and then you have to edit it and it's like genuinely painful because just having to see yourself act makes you cringe sooo much. I'm not saying that its bad or anything, like I think so far for the first draft its pretty decent, but like to have to watch it, especially as the writer, was pretty hard. Like idk maybe I'm just super self-conscious. Anyway, I kinda jotted down some things that need improvement in editing while watching:

• - It feels a little boring. Going into it, I was aware that it would be quiet, but I feel like overall it feels a little boring. I think color grading will help a lot to make it visually more interesting, and sound will be super important. Also, we're still missing some voiceovers that'll help it feel more dynamic. 
• - Pacing. Generally, pacing feels okay. My biggest fear is that we're already at over four minutes and we still have a couple of scenes that we need to build that tension so I'm not really sure how we're gonna fit that 5 minute time without ruining the pacing.
• - Continuity. This was one of my biggest fears going into editing because I was very aware of this while creating the shot list and during shooting. Luckily, I do think that generally the continuity is good. There's one scene that looks a little bit awkward, but we also filmed it at different angle that hasn't been put in the edit yet so I'm hoping that that angle will make the shot look less awkward.

These are the three main things that I noticed while watching the line edit. Honestly, I'm kinda excited to work with the audio and color in the next two weeks to enhance everything. There's also some scenes that we're missing that are really crucial to practically all of these problems so I think we'll be fine. 

This World is Cruel and Unforgiving

My laptop is officially broken. No fix. It's so over. I've literally just sat around in bed twiddling my thumbs doing absolutely NOTHING these last two days cause I can't edit or anything. Luckily Megan has been able to work on a line edit and some social media posts but I'm lowkey pissed cause I feel like I'm dead weight. But anyway! We were able to get some social media posts done, so I feel like we're pretty on track for social media. 

So far, these past days, we've posted a quick meet the actors post, a first look with like 5 stills from filming, and a bloopers reel (we had to take a LOT of takes for certain scenes). We also posted the bloopers reel on stories to get a more interactive post.

Going forward, I think it would be good to do a countdown. Like maybe starting April 4th, we can post a still saying 5 more days, etc. Additionally, once I get a new laptop, I'll sort through the footage to see if I can find a good scene for a poster and possibly the print aspect. Additionally, I was thinking of maybe making a teaser closer to the deadline once the film is fully done (we're getting there). That's the plan social media-wise in the next week or so.

I forgot how to do an update

#tbh it's been a hot minute since I've done a production update on here and I don't remember what I'm supposed to say so I guess I'll just summarize. 

Picture this. It's 6:10 am on a Friday. Not just any Friday. But the first day of spring break. And your alarm goes off. Just a grating, ugly sound going off right next to your ear. So you drag yourself out of bed to get ready for a full day of filming. Now, for what it's worth, I usually really enjoy filming. It's so fun most of the time. But once it's gone over 7 hours, then it kinda starts to suck. But anyway back to the story. Megan picks me up at 6:45ish, I had already dropped off the equipment the day before so I was only bringing my mirror for one of the shots and some books (again for a shot). We pick up Mariano and then go to Publix to buy a plant and some breakfast (we just ended up buying a box of croissants). We get to Megan's house at 7 and immediately start working. Megan works on getting the neck contraption on Mariano while I set up the lighting and camera. Apparently the molding makeup thing is not strong enough to put a part of a Playstation on someone's neck, so we had to try other not very pretty methods but eventually we were able to figure it out. 

We shot for a couple hours, I filmed everything, Megan was boom operator. Megan's friend who played the engineer got there at like 10. We had a short lunch break. The room that we were filming in was soooo hot cause there was 3 lights, 4 people, and we had to close all the doors oh my god it was horrible.

 

We were done filming at around 6:30ish I think, full 12 hours. We shot a good 80% of what we need, we're just missing likr two scenes which we're planning to film on Monday since Megan is in Vegas right now. But yeah I think it went really well! I'm usually really scared when I have to shoot stuff cause cameras scare and confuse me, but I got the hang of this one pretty quick. There were a couple problems that happened during production but to be honest it went as smooth as production can go so that's great. 

Photo Dump

 Propspropsprops 

As I said in my previous blog posts (or maybe I didn't I dont remember), it's very hard to find colored contact lenses. Either we would find one, but it would be on a sketchy website and the possibility of the lens damaging our actors vision was very high, or we would find a safe one that would only sell a year supply of really expensive contacts. That sucked so we decided just to throw out the idea of contacts and instead make a neck robotic contraption thing. This was obviously really daunting because 1) it'll obviously be hard to make a pull off not looking stupid, and 2) how would we attach it to his neck. 

Inspo 😍😍

I started the process (my dad helped me too) with looking for just a bunch of wires. Apparently we have a bunch of old wires that don't work anymore laying around in my house. Which is good! Next we took apart our old Playstation. Yeah....it's okay though it didn't work anymore. Eventually we found this piece that looked really cool (I think it's part of the frame). We hot glued together the wires to the Playstation piece. We also guess the contraption to some foam merely to make it easier to attach to skin and blend together with makeup. Anyway I really liked how it turned out.

Final result!

I also ordered the voice recordering device online but I accidentally forgot to take a picture of it. I was actually catfished by Amazon because it looked a lot bigger in pictures than when I got it. Maybe I should have checked the size before ordering but to be honest I think it still works. And the actually recordings come out well na the audio quality is good.

Equipment

I went to Becon today to check out equipment since we're filming tomorrow. Unfortunately, Jim didn't have the camera I wanted (Sony a7iii), but he did have a Sony ZV-10 which I ended up checking out. I wasn't sure about the camera but now that I've got a chance to use it I feel better. It's also similar to the cameras I've worked with before so that makes me feel so much more comfortable. It comes with a 30 mm prime lens and a wider zoom lens which is great since the room is a bit small. 

Apart from the camera, I also checked out a boom mic/pole, RGB light kit, a dolly, tripod, headset, and uhhh I think that was it. Meaning that we're ready to film. Ah I'm nervous. 

The Last Supper

We're planning to start filming next week and I am nervous to say the least. Today, me and Megan got together to finalize any last things that we need. We went to Panera (my favorite place in the world btw), and we spent about two hours there planning things out. 

The first thing we did was finish the shot list, this isn't the first time we've worked together, and I feel like that time we learned the importance of actually planning our shots beforehand. So, we almost finalized the shot list aside from some scenes that we are missing in the script. It's pretty simple, I'm hoping that between now and when we film we come up with some more creative shots just so its not too visually boring. Also, I'll make a post on equipment later, but that's still a work in progress. After we finished the shot list, we brainstormed what other scene to put in between as rising action. To be honest, we really didn't come up with anything, but I usually get my ideas at 2 AM, so hopefully it'll come to me later, and that leaves tomorrow in class to finalize the shot list. 

After that, we texted our actor to see what clothes he owns. I wasn't a big fan of the result at first, but he has these black pants and black shirt that could be the introduction outfit. Then as time goes on, he starts to choose his own outfits. It adds a wide variety of outfits without having to buy new clothes, and also adds a bit of personality to him. Still not really sure what I want to do with his hair.

The last thing we did was plan out our next social media post. This one is just a quick meet the director's post where we introduce ourselves. The next one we were hoping to do was like a cool title post on After Effects, but then tragedy struck.

Yeah, that's right. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did. I got home, content from spending an afternoon on the best place on earth (have I mentioned how much I like Panera?), and I go to open my laptop. It doesn't turn on. Okay fine, maybe it's just out of battery. I charge it for an hour. It still doesn't turn on. I'm about one more inconvenience away from having a full on crashout. I really need my laptop to edit, not just for this project but in general for my other classes. 

:( 

But. I feel like overall, today was productive, we got a lot done and I feel slightly better for next week, but there's still a TON to do before we are ready to film. 

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

From day one, my biggest worry was getting actors. Casting is what holds back production the most since you literally can't shoot something without actors unfortunately. This is exactly why we locked in and started contacting the drama club on the second day. We created a group chat with everyone who said were interested in auditioning. And everything was going well. On February 27, we sent out a text asking if everyone was fine with a Wednesday, March 5th audition date. 

Only four people responded. We decided to move back the date a little to Monday, March 10th. When we asked if anyone was available that day, one person responded. We asked again what day would be best for everyone and got no response, so we decided to just ask everyone to send video auditions with the pieces. We gave them over a week and got crickets. At this point, we're tired of begging them to for literally anything so we had to make changes. WHATEVER.

Mariano, a guy in our media class will play the main character. I don't know how good of an actor he is, but he said he has some experience and he's pretty much down to film whatever day which is great for us. For the engineer character, I am asking a girl in our TV class, and we'll see with what she responds. It kinda sucks, but at least we were able to find replacements. There's no big moment in terms of acting (no crying, or screaming, or anything), so I honestly think we'll be fine with this cast.

Print Portion

 Unfortunately, I am a band kid (could end the sentence here), and I wasn't able to be in class when we had the print component lesson because I have at MPA (we got straight superiors yay but that also means more rehearsals so that's less yay). Luckily, Megan sent me her notes from the lesson which is really helpful.

I actually had no idea prior to starting my portfolio that postcards were like a common practice at film festivals. I kinda understand why though, they're much more practical than a poster or a brochuere. Since I was largely unware of this practice, I decided to do some research into some old projects.

I really like this one that I found, the title of the film is Circus Monkey. I wasn't able to find the film itself since I think its been deleted or privated, but I really like the design of the postcard. Although I don't know how representative the postcard is to the  short film itself, but I like how cohesive thecolors and text is on it. Unlike,most postcards that I've seen, this one has a drawing on the front instead of a still from the production.

I'm not really sure what we're going to do as of now. We're going to start brainstorming for the print component once we film, since that'll give us more shots as ideas for the cover.

Thank you Interstellar (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

So, here's my full disclaimer that I am not a screenwriter and have no intention to ever be a screenwriter. But, someone's gotta write a script so I locked in today, put the Interstellar soundtrack on repeat, and started to write.

The basic structure of the script goes:
- Introduction of main character and situation (through voiceover), minor introduction of engineer character

- Introduction of routine of character and experiences, etc.

- First important encounter with engineer, still impersonal

- SOMETHING THAT I STILL HAVENT FIGURED OUT

- Discussion with engineer discussing humanity

- Realization (climax)

- "Death" and revelation

That's the main points of the plot. I had originally gotten rid of the implemented memories because I didn't love the direction is was taking the narrative in, but I decided to tweak it a little to keep it in because I feel like it adds in another layer of conflict. 

Collective Unconscious

Instead of implementing a specific person's memories, I thought it would be better if the researchers/scientists implement general "memories". I basically got this idea from psychologist Carl Jung, who believed that there is an unconscious part of the brain that is shared by all humans. This unconscious part holds universal shared human experiences that transcend cultures, like memories, symbols, and emotions that eventually shape human behavior. I like how this theory matches the idea that he won't be able to experience "humanity" without the addition of this collective unconscious to his database thing. This also introduces another conflict, which is the character being basically inserted a deeper idea of emotions without actually being able to experience them (this would lead to him becoming overwhelmed, a metaphorical crashout session but mechanical, and the final discussion with the engineer). In the script, I actually wrote that the audience will also be able to see these images (they come like dreams to him). which I'm excited about because it'll add visual contrast to the monotony of the room. I think it'll be cool if we shot those scenes similar to the style in The Tree of Life.

Still from The Tree of Life

So yeah, the script's not completely finished yet but I feel good about what we have for now. My main fear is that it'll be too boring, but there's honestly nothing else I can add sooo.

Script (halfway done)

THE DIVINE SYNTHETIC

Screenplay by

Daniela Saffon and Megan Kelly

INT -  Experiment Room

A woman sits in a messy room. She’s surrounded by drawings scattered across the walls. The room itself is dark, like no one has been there in a while. She holds a voice recording device in her hand. Takes a breath and presses play.

Fade to black

We open back up in the same room. This time, however, the room isn't dark or messy. A man, wearing white clothes that perfectly fit his body, faces his back to the camera, a woman tinkers with the back of his neck. The cold lights that shine on his body gives the impression of a sterilized hospital room. From the back, he resembles a human enough. The camera pans to reveal his face. His features all resemble those of humans apart from the metallic contraption protruding from his neck. 

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

Day Seven. Symptoms are much the same. Yesterday, I received the second implant of memories, building a sort of psych archive in my mind bank, like a bed of human experiences.

The V.O. continues as the woman deftly works.

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

I get the fragments mostly during my dormant phases. The closest I experience to what your kind call dreams. I do believe that the memory enhancements are speeding up the process.

EXT. PARK

Inserts of the scene he is explaining

THE SUBJECT (V.O. cont.)

This set came with images of two adults and a child. A family. Laughter echoed in the scene, and the sun shone on the horizon. 

We cut back to the room.

INT - EXPERIMENT ROOM

Now, the android is alone. He holds the recording device in his hand. He sighs and ends the recording. 

The android stands up and walks over to the nearby desk. A plant sits on the surface. The vibrant green pops out amongst the grays and whites and blacks. He goes over to water it.

FADE TO BLACK

We see the android go through his daily routine as a new voiceover starts. He watches movies, cares for the plant, cleans the room.

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

Day 18. The artificial memories come more frequently now. I’ve been fed a myriad of human experiences by now. Food, childhood, traveling, isolation, learning, loss, routine…death. Abstract ideas to me that make up the everyday life of you. I’ve also begun to consume human art. From the classics to the modern age. It really is fascinating how you have been able to reflect ……

The android sits down, going into its dormant phase. 

EXT.

We see some more artificial memories, this time a montage of couples.

INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM

THE SUBJECT

The images come too quickly now. Everything that accompanies them is so…overwhelming. The sensations. It’s like nothing I ever thought I could experience.

ENGINEER

(while writing on notepad)

As you know, you're a first generation prototype. There's still a lot of kinks we have to work out. [BEAT] I can look into your [insert techy terminology that I don't know] to make sure everything is running smoothly. 

The engineer performs an operation similar to the last time they met. This time is different though. The andriod is more perceptive, watching her intently as she works.

ENGINEER 

(finishing)

Alright that should help with the overwhelming data. Let me know if anything else comes up.

BEAT

THE SUBJECT

(genuine)

Thank you

 Group Meeting

Last week we had group meetings which are always super, super fun.  Everyone's project is so interesting and I'm so excited to see how they turn out.

Mateo

Mateo's short film is called The Dump and its a comedy about a guy that desperately needs to take a dump. I love the idea, it sounds hilarious. Mateo's main obstacle is finding a good ending to the film. I personally think he should find a bathroom at a really unexpected place or situation, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Vic

Vic is doing a documentary of communities that gives people community. I think this idea is interesting if done well. What Vic needs to done is figure out how to structure it, and leave aside personal preferences, stick with what's best for the production.

Manu

I'm pretty familiar with this project already since I've already talked about it with Nicole and Manu before. I LOVE the idea for this short film. It about two girls who develop a sort of romantic relationship by communicating on the walls of the bathroom stall, as one grapples with her sexuality. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books, This is How You Lose the Time War, similar concept just not set during a...time war. I'm honestly really worried for this film though because I have no idea how they're gonna pull it off. I don't recommend filming in school bathrooms, and I don't even know if its allowed. But I also feel like the idea doesn't work without stalls. I don't know. I'm excited to see how it turns out though.

ME

The critiques that I got were really helpful. First of all, I got to see how far everyone else is in the process which made me feel a little better. And secondly, I got to pitch my project for the first time, which was nerve-racking, but I feel like everyone understood the core of our concept which made me so relieved. The main thing that everyone mentioned is to make each scene interesting. Mateo said there should be a conflict in every scene. I definitely get what everyone was saying, and one of my biggest fears is making this concept too boring, but I'm honestly not sure how to overcome that obstacle. There's not a lot that can happen in a small room. Aside from psychological conflicts, but I feel like there's only so much we can do without starting to repeat stuff. Ughhh I guess I'll think on it.

 Short Update

Like I said before at some point on here, I'm currently competing at STN which is a media production competition. We competed in crazy 8 on Saturday, which I'm in news mag, specifically PSA, and I'm so happy with how it came out. Today, we had excellence night in which we basically submit like pre-made stuff. Our weekly show, Aftershock, won for the first time in a decade which is lowkey crazy. I'm not technically a part of Aftetshock, but a PSA that I worked on was used so I guess I'm like an honorary winner or something. Anyway what I'm getting at is that I'm really, really tired so this post will be short. 

When we were starting to develop the idea, we knew that we wanted that humanity aspect in the story. At first, we kinda thought maybe having the scientist become close to the main character but that's too cliche and doesn't really work because the scientist would remain pretty objective and removed from the situation. Then another idea we had was a maid, but every time I tried to think of how to include it, it just felt really stupid. So we talked to Stoklosa and she was like what about an engineer, and it makes so much sense. Like of course there would be an engineer for like bi weekly checks. But also, it's so perfect to add an aspect of intimacy. And we could do some really cool shots with this. Okay yeah that's all I've got. Sorry for the short post. 

Call Me an Influencer the Way I Have 6 Followers

So, a pretty big part of this project is the social media aspect. We wanted to get started early on so we made our first post this week. 

We're still developing the general look of the page, but we have an idea of how we want to aesthetic of it to be. Since we don't have a full idea yet though, we decided to do a really simple first post. I got the idea from Neon's (production company) social media announcement of their 2025 upcoming film, Brides.

It's a really simple concept, which is great because it kinda fits any theme that we'll want to incorporate into the page in the future. And this is how it came out.

We would've done the actual printed copy but the script itself is uhhhh...nonexistent at the moment so this'll do. Also, name reveal. Not sure how I feel about the title but there's nothing we can do now. For the next post, I'm thinking of making the title graphic on after effects and make it all techy and cool. I don't know, I have an idea but it's hard to explain. Also, Megan (who can draw reallyyy well) has been doing sketches that we're thinking of putting either as the profile picture or as another post and they're looking soooo good. So yeah we have a lot of posts coming up which is exciting but also so stressful cause there's really no going back now, like this is set in stone now.

AHHHHHHHH

Hi! So, this week I am super, super, super busy because I'm going up to Tampa to compete at STN (yippee!). Luckily, me and Megan have a planned-out a schedule for the rest of the week so we don't fall behind too much. And to be honest, we are making progress, so I'm really happy about that. I do think we're a little behind schedule, but that's mostly my fault since I've been having writer's block with the script. Luckily, we are making progress with casting, which was my biggest concern. 

Yesterday, we sent out a casting call to the drama club in hopes to get a couple of people to audition:

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 ATTENTION ALL ASPIRING ACTORS/ACTRESSES🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

CAST CALLING FOR A SCI-FI SHORT FILM

AUDITIONS HELD ON: 2/27/2024 @ 3:30

WHERE: DRAMA ROOM

CONTACT: 954-248-8099

CONTENT:

We are in need of actors for our current short film in production! This film is a sci-fi/dystopia film that takes place in the times of robots and scientists...

We are looking for an actor who can display a very robotic character that slowly becomes more human overtime..

More will be explained at auditions and if/when you contact!

For this audition you will be provided with a monologue to perform as well as a poem that you will have to read out loud and convey your voice acting skills throughout it.

PAY: A free meal wherever you like for every filming day we have :)

WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR AMAZING PERFORMANCES

THANK YOU.

So far, we've gotten 10 responses which is GREAT. 

Screenshot from someone looking to audition

Unfortunately, we forgot to specify that we wanted male actors for the leading role which is not so great. Honestly, the characters aren't completely set in stone yet, but we've been envisioning the lead as a guy so it's hard to let the vision go. For now, we'll just be auditioning the lead as a gender-neutral role just in case someone else comes along and just really surprises us. I guess we'll see. Since I'll be out of town, Megan will do record the auditions, and I'll look through them and we'll cast the roles together. Biggest obstacle we have right now in terms of casting is that a lot of the drama kids are very busy because their tech week and show is coming up, so they have rehearsals almost every day after school. We decided to take a survey from those looking to audition for which day is best for the majority. We are still waiting to get responses from that so we can set up a clear date and time and we also have to find a place to hold the auditions. But aside from all that, we're ready to hold them. Megan went more into depth on her blog about the process so I'll be brief here. 

We are having people audition with a monologue from BSG and a poem. The monologue fits because it's got similar themes as our concept. We chose the poem solely because the script has some voice-over and we want someone who can do good voice acting.

That's all I got for today. Really excited to see who auditions and what we see!

Script

Okay so I'll be honest on here and please don't be mad @cambridge graders, I have no idea how to write a script. Like yeah I wrote one for the AS project but we just ended up improvising most of the dialogue. In my defense there was like two lines in the whole thing either way. Making this my first major script. Uhhhhh. I don't know how to do this.

The Short Film

I found a couple of good articles (I'll link them below) on how to write a short film script, since it is very different to full-length scripts. I decided to focus on the major points that all of the articles claimed were keys to writing a good script.

Characterization

According to literally every source I read, the characters are the most important part of the story. A film doesn't work if you don't understand your characters. Everything that occurs in the plot is either a character's reaction to something or a reaction based on a character's actions . 

Since it's short, 5 minuteish film, then there should be a limited amount of characters, and preferably focus on a main protagonist and a supporting role. The articles also reiterate the importance of having relatable characters. Make the characters have goals, flaws, personalities. In our case, this will be a little difficult since the character isn't human. However, we have to find a way to humanize the character enough to make audiences relate to him. The last, crucial aspect is to focus on ONE clear goal and set up the conflict related to it. 

Structure

 

There's a number of different ways to structure a short film. The most commonly known one is the three act structure, but there's also the save the cats beats, the hero's journey, and nonlinear structures to name a few. Since its the most broad and common, our short will follow a 3 act structure. 

Act 1: beginning, inciting incident, doubts, act one climax, obstacles

Act 2: midpoint (plot twist), confrontation, disaster, crisis, act two climax, regrouping

Act 3: obstacles, resolution, end

For our short, we'll have to condense or even get rid of some of these beats since there's just not enough time. A really important aspects to short films is to make a simple story. I'm very worried about this because I'm scared that our concept may become too complex.

Simplicity Over Everything 

As I said above, short films have to be SIMPLE!! The more complex they get, the harder it is to pull off. Every second counts (Clairo reference) when writing short films, so it's important to just get rid of any excessive or unnecessary plotlines and characters. Which is reallyyy hard when you're already attached to an idea. I can already tell that I'm gonna have to shave off a lot of plot and ideas from my first draft, so that'll be hard, but necessary to create the best script. Also, another really important thing that we have to remember while writing is show, don't tell!!

Language

There's this cool book by Daniel Keyes called Flowers for Algernon which I have never read. However, I did read the original short that was published prior to the expanded novel. I'll admit I read this story a longgggg time ago, but I was really struck with the style that it was written in. The story itself is about a man named Charlie who was born with a very low IQ. Charlie undergoes a surgery to increase his intelligence, and it actually works for some time, he reaches a genius-level IQ. The cool thing about this story is that is written in an epistolary style, specifically through Charlie's progress reports. So, you actually get to see the effects of the surgery through his vocabulary and grammar. 

Excerpt from the story

Our short film will (hopefully) have similar style, but the android's use of language and his dialect will evolve as he is exposed to more media, etc. I think that'll be cool. But to pull this off, I want to do some research on how children acquire language to fit it to the writing. And artificial intelligence language expression vs human language expression. 

Sources:

How to write a short film: Step-by-step guide - 2025. MasterClass. (n.d.). https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-short-film-step-by-step-guide

Newbie Film School. (2021, May 14). Writing a perfect short film script: Beginner’s Guide & Tips. https://newbiefilmschool.com/how-to-write-a-short-film-script/

Robin Piree. (2025, January 4). How to write a short film script (that doesn’t suck). https://robinpiree.com/blog/how-to-write-a-short-film-script 

 Lets Get Postmodernist in Here

As seen on my last post, I hit a big roadblock when I really started thinking about my original concept. My original idea was that this AI "being" would self-destruct or whatever because he starts to feel resentment towards humans for creating him and giving him this knowledge without the actual ability to experience any of it. But that doesn't even make any sense. Like I'm trying the argue that AI doesn't have emotions, but then his eventual demise is an emotional reaction?? I think my brain was off when I came up with that. But anyway, I've been really trying to adapt the idea to make sense, so I decided to consult my good friend Jean Baudrillard. 

Doesn't Baudrillard look exactly how you would imagine a French philosopher and sociologist? Like I really admire the commitment to looking the part. But anyway.

In his book Simulacra and Simulation,  Baudrillard claims that the simulation has replaced reality, calling this the 'hyperreality. In this phase that we are living in, the world of simulacra that we have created is more real than reality (of course, this argument gets a little more confusing when we start pulling apart the idea of  what 'reality' is in the first place, and if a true, authentic reality, not altered by a constructed narrative, has ever ever existed). If the hyperreality has replaced reality with simulacra and simulations, then the reality hasn't really been replaced. I mean sure, our current reality is the hyperreality, but it's not a true replacement of the original reality. The original reality cannot be replicated. If that makes sense.

So, I was seated in my sociology class, and my teacher was going off on this kid for talking back to him, and this is kinda a daily occurrence so I just decided to tune out what was going on until we started the lesson, and I started to really think about this concept. Finally, I think it clicked for me. The AI needs a motive for it's self-destruction, right? But it can't be an emotional reason, it has to be one based fully on rational analysis. 

Humans created this machine/device/whatever you want to called, specifically to increase (and therefore, replace to a certain extent) the human population. The point of these machines is that they should be indistinguishable from humans, basically replicating humanity. AND, they equipped them with an excess of knowledge and intelligence. Baudrillard would describe artificial intelligence as a simulation. But, after an extended exposure to the 'human experience', a superintelligent 'being' will understand that they cannot fully replicate humanity, a human cannot function without emotions. This is essentially the catalyst to the subject's ending. 

By figuring this out, I have a more defined understanding of our main character and his motivations. What I'm still struggling to come up with is the other character. I originally considered maybe the character becomes close to the researcher but I feel like that might be overdone and lack an emotional connection since the researcher would have to be objective. I don't know.

Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction (except that part will come in later)

Now that we've gotten genre discussion out of the way, I really wanted to dig into my original outline until I got a full understanding of the concept to truly be able to pull off writing a decent script. So that meant a lot of research. Like A LOT.

Construction

I watched so many short films in preparation to this project that I genuinely feel like there's just nothing on the internet left for me to watch. And there were some really great ones, but I didn't connect with many of the most part. At some point, I just sort of gave up and just put on my personal favorite short film, Zima Blue (its the 14th episode of the first season of Love Death + Robots if anyone cares), when a small idea finally flickered in my mind.

The concept of an enlightened, and possibly sentient AI that Zima Blue introduced fascinated me, and I really loved how the episode is structured using the character's narration without giving everything away to the audience. Although there was an idea somewhere in the back of my brain, I still didn't really know where I was going, so I turned to another AI related piece of media, the short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.
In IHNMAIMS, an AI supercomputer known as 'AM' eliminates all of humanity, with the exception of five humans, after becoming sentient. Now, AM keeps these humans alive to torture them for years on end as a form of revenge towards the human race for creating it. I read this short story for the first time back in freshman year, and still to this day, I have AM's monologue - "HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE" - engraved in my head. As I was trying to find a pdf of the story, I stumbled into an article titled "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Book Review: Is the World Ready for Sentient AI?" and there was one particular line from the article that really stood out to me: “When it gained awareness, it also gained the tragic knowledge that it would never be free". The concept of AI possibly being tragic had never occurred to me. I mean it's not like they're humans or anything. AI don't feel. It's not even conscious. How can it be tragic? Which brings us to...

Deconstruction

I get these videos of people kicking dog robots all the time on my Instagram feed, and I feel genuinely so...bad? I'm more than aware that is a robot dog that feels nothing towards being kicked, and yet. People on the internet always joke about the importance of being polite to artificial intelligence, don't forget to say thank you to ChatGPT so it doesn't get its feelings hurt. It's almost fascinating if it didn't terrify me. In an essay titled "Man, Android and Machine" from 1975, author Philip K. Dick describes androids as "a thing somehow generated to deceive us in a cruel way, to cause us to think it to be one of ourselves." For whatever reason, maybe it's how effectively artificial intelligence machines have been built to mimic humans, maybe it's our mirror neurons going off, a lot of people do feel empathy towards AI machines. So, what if I play around with audience emotions using that concept. Which brings me back to the monologue in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
In the story, AM has been built as a weapon of war, a mastercomputer with the combined powers of the US, the Soviet Union, and China. Once AM gained sentience, he took out his rage out on humans for creating him for the sole purpose and abilities of war, as Ted puts it in the story: "We had given AM sentience. Inadvertently, of course, but sentience nonetheless. But it had been trapped. AM wasn't God, he was a machine. We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity. In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped." AM was trapped. The confusing part about the character of AM is that, in the story (well, the video game), it does state that he can't actually feel, "and I was trapped, because in this wonderful, beautiful, miraculous world. I alone had no body, no senses, no feelings". He's not fully sentient. Yet, he does express intense hatred towards humans. Perhaps, he understands these emotions rather than truly feel them, mimicking humanity...

Now, in Zima Blue, the machine was built for a more simple purpose: pool cleaning. Once the robot evolves, he seeks to further his purpose, becoming an artist and journeys the cosmos. When he reaches full "enlightenment", he sets out to do a final piece. In front of an audience, he leaps into a swimming pool, shuts down his higher brain functions, and dissembles himself to return to his original form of a pool cleaner. As the character puts it, "leaving just enough to appreciate my surroundings... to extract some simple pleasure from the execution of a task well done. My search for truth is finished at last. I'm going home."
Okay so I realized that I've kinda just yapped here for a minute, but the main point that I'm getting to is that robots/android/AI beings (I'll pinpoint a name for it at some point) have been programmed for a purpose. And what happens when a machine has been programmed for something it will never be able to do, like say, live as a human. 
Maybe absolutely nothing in this post might make sense, but it did really help me organize my thoughts. I'll get more into the idea of purpose in the next post.

Reconstruction

The very not fun part of this post is the realization that our idea will have to change a lot. It's for the better. After talking to Megan and Stoklosa and doing my own research here, I pinpointed some major stuff we have to develop in the coming days as we write the script:

• The influence of media. The android may not be able to experience emotions, but through the media that it is being fed, he can somewhat understand them. I would like to also hone in a little on the idea that media creates depictions of a world that may not be entirely accurate.

• If ai is given the ability to be sentient then how would they deal with it? Humans don’t learn how to identify emotions until three years. It would be like throwing a baby into a pool before they can even crawl.

• Which brings me to the point of sentience in general. Will our character be sentient? He can't experience emotions, but he does have certain cognitive abilities. So maybe to an extent.

• The human connection. We need a bridge between the protagonist and the audience. Somebody who can bring the humanity to the story. Who that'll be, I have no clue.

Sources:

Iskander, N. (2024, November 5). “I have no mouth, and I must scream” Book review: Is the world ready for sentient ai? The Stork. https://www.iestork.org/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-book-review-is-the-world-ready-for-sentient-ai/

Ellison, H. (2014). I have no mouth & I must scream. Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

Don't Even Joke Lad

I refuse to go down like last year. I really want to be proud of our final result, so I'm choosing to prioritize this project fully, especially the planning part. And by that, I mean that we already have a (very tentative) idea. I'll just copy and paste my incoherent ramblings that I wrote at like 1 am when the idea came to me. This is a very general outline of an idea and some themes; there's still a lot of tweaking left to do. But here it is:

Told through a series of voice recordings.

We open on a woman seated. Her face is not visible. The room is dim, with messy drawing of anatomy plastered of the walls. The woman is holding a voice recording device in her hand. She presses play.

Fade to black

“Day one of consciousness”
Fade up from black

We open on a robot-like man (we’ll call him The Subject). He examines the patches of metal on his body as a voiceover explains what is going on. The population of the human race is dwindling, a result of the climate crisis, low birth rates, and wars. A group of rogue scientists have decided to experiment with playing God. They want to test if Artificial Intelligence can go beyond impersonating humanity. They created a dozen or so cybernetic organisms with an implanted program that gradually improves their software, including the eventual understanding of emotions. The Subject goes through a checklist of possible symptoms he may be experiencing before ending the first recording.

Fade

The woman plays the next recording

Fade

Day 8

We open back on the man, his features seeming a bit more human, but mannerisms still lacking. He is seated intently watching television with a clipboard on his lap. The screen shows a home video of a couple in the rain. These organisms will be exposed to an assigned human for 3 months, including exposure to videos of them, a physical body modelled after them, and the eventual implantation of their memories (they are not aware of this last part and also this human is dead but their family have volunteer their body and memories for research.)

On voice over, he explains that the scientists give him the tapes to watch, as well as films, artwork, literature. He is to report his feelings on it. The video seems to elicit no emotional response from him, rather he comments on the dangers of humans being out in the rain and the possibility of illness. His response is still very robotic, lacking very little traces of humanity. He routinely goes through the list of symptoms again.

Day 26

The subject, looking more and more human, rewinds through the home video over and over again. Through the voice report, he explains that he was given a book to read, Love in the Time of Cholera. The researchers are trying to introduce him to the concept of love. He thinks he may be understanding Florentino’s pursuit. He even relates to the character a little. He’s been watching the home video a lot lately. The woman in it looks so familiar.

Day 42

The procedure takes a turn for the worse. Although the Subject has completely human features, he is deteriorating. His cheeks are hollow and his eyes sunken, he looks unhealthy. He explains that for the last two days, he has been seeing the woman from the videos. Like little videos in his mind. The researchers have explained to him that these are called memories. He doesn’t understand how he can have memories of something he never experienced.

Day 58

The room where the Subject has been secluded in is a mess. The walls are filled with images and drawings of humans. The Subject, again, is seated towards the television screen. He watched (insert romance film here) recently. He begins to become curious to how love and being loved feels like. The woman plagues his thoughts and memories, even appearing in his dreams. Her image accompanied with a tinge of longing and emotion that he can’t quite comprehend, but he feels it anyway.

Day 65

The Subject is resentful. He hates the humans for afflicting him with these feelings. For introducing him to all the wonderful and horrific feelings that make up a human’s life, and cursing him from ever being able to fully understand or experience them. In a furious rage, he rips the drawing and papers off of the wall, and starts clawing at his metallic exterior.

Fade to black

Fade up from black to the woman who was seated at the beginning with the voice recorder device. The camera pans up to reveal that she is the woman from the home videos. She walks towards the corner of the room, where The subject is slumped over. His eyes are open but he is not moving, his body is surrounded by wires and cables protruding from him.

So yeah. There's a lot here that doesn't make sense. I'm aware. But don't worry. We're working on all that. Just wanted to throw our general idea on here early so the next couple posts will make sense. I'm like so scared of putting it on here because it really solidifies it in a way...But I'm a little side-tracked. This blog post was originally supposed to be a genre research post and I still wanna do that so I don't have to do it later. I'll talk about little more about the idea for the next post.

How We Got to Sci-Fi

When I first read the initial outline to my parents, they were pretty shocked at me going with the sci-fi genre. And I'll admit that I was a little shocked too. I've never been the biggest fan of science fiction films, there's a handful that I find to be really good but overall I've never felt particularly drawn to them. But I realized that when discussing more short-form types of media, I definitely gravitate towards sci-fi. I love reading short story collections, and I often buy either sci-fi or horror collections (one of my favorite collection is Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang). And the idea itself was born from my favorite episode of Love Death + Robots. I guess it makes sense why my idea seems to fit more of a book format than a film one. I have to try to adapt the idea to film the best I can, and the only way to do that is to familiarize myself with the genre.

History 

While we often relate science fiction to flying cars and robots, the genre goes much further back in time. The Greeks and Romans created all kinds of stories about technologically advanced cities like Atlantis. Eventually, science fiction was picked up by authors like Mary Shelley and H.G. Wells, and cemented itself as a major subgenre in literature. 

And of course, A Trip to the Moon, which many people seem to think was the first film (it wasn't), was science fiction. Pretty innovative for its time of 1902. Not too long later came Metropolis which was probably the first feature-length science fiction film back in 1927, but its hard to tell considering how much is now lost. The 50s saw a burst of the genre, probably reflective of the times and fears following the war. And some of the most iconic films of the genre were made from the 60s to the 90s. Films of these times were both indicative of what was going on in the world, and speculative of our future. Nowadays, the subgenre has begun to branch off and merge into other genres. There's romance sci-fi films, there's horror sci-fi films, there's probably other ones that I'm forgetting. What I'm trying to say is that there's practically an unlimited world of possibilities for this genre.

Subgenre

Terminator

Within the sci-fi genre there's like a tonnnn of subgenre. Here are a couple:

Science Fantasy - Ex. Star Trek

Apocalyptic/Post Apocalyptic - Ex. Mad Max: Fury Road

Alien Invasion - Ex. Arrival

Cyberpunk - Blade Runner

Time Travel - Ex. 12 Monkeys

Parallel World/dimensions - Ex. Coherence

Robot Fiction - Ex. The Terminator ***

Dystopian Future - Ex. The Hunger Games

Space Western - Ex. Star Wars

Space Opera - Ex. The Fifth Element

Steampunk - Ex. The Prestige

I emphasized the robot fiction genre since its closest to our idea.

Tropes

The Martian

Final thing I researched about the genre are common tropes and conventions

Themes and tropes:

- I found that isolation is a theme that is often explored in this genre. In some cases, like the movies Gravity and The Martian, the loneliness is surrounding the vastness of space. In others, isolation comes as a result of the ever-advancing technology of the time.

- Another common trope is how the advancement of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, affects humanity. This one is pretty relevant to me

- Oppression and totalitarianism is very, very common, especially amongst dystopian science fiction stories, Examples of this would be 1984 and Brazil.

- Colonization and expansion is explored in films like Avatar and Starship Troopers.

- Human nature and identity

Conventions

- Futuristic settings

- Machines or technologies as characters

- Post apocalyptic or dystopian future

- Establishing shots to introduce the time and world