Khalid Bell Step 4: MANufactured

Title: MANufactured

Writer: Khalid Bell

The goal of this film is to question what defines a human. There will be no exact answer given in the film, but suggestions that lead to one answer or another. For example, some suggest humans are conscious beings; does that make any being, such as a clone that has a conscience, is human? Or does being human have something to do with the experiences of life? In that case, how do we classify newborns?

The movie’s opening scene is of a coated man walking down a shadowy hallway and stopping at a cell containing an inmate. He turns to the inmate and asks “Which are you?” The inmate gives a smart remark about the coated man having “the eyes.” The coated man then scans the inmate using an implanted iris. After seeing the inmate has mechanical lungs, he replies “You’ve been recruited.”

Scene two begins with the new recruit suiting up for what seems like battle. Meanwhile, there will be a discussion going on about the current situation. It is in this scene the viewer learns of the cloned humans and how the clones have taken over a research facility. The objective will be to reclaim, or destroy the facility. Because of the resources made available by the facility, it is preferred they capture the area, but destruction will be the fallback plan as the clones cannot be allowed to keep control of the facility.

In the third scene, a team of modified, born humans will surround and infiltrate the base. The ensuing battle will result in the new recruit making his way into the facility. While inside he will come across a cloned individual (I have not determined if this clone will be injured or have the two of them in a stalemate). This is the moment when the viewer discovers the motives of the clones. The conversation between the two brings up the question of rights for clones. The clones are made solely for war purposes and are considered disposable. Clones, having inherently gained a conscience, do not agree with the logic of them being a commodity. The clone argues that he is more human than the man in front of him, a man that will never run out of breath.

I have not decided between the base being taken or destroyed.

Visual Treatment:

The overall look of this will be dark. Most, if not all, shots will be either indoors or at night. The goal is to have a steady flow of information given to the viewer instead of a narrative/text introduction explaining.

Coated man walks down hallway

Turns to the cell containing inmate and asks "Which are you?"

Inmate looks up, looks back down and replies "You have the eye don't you? See for yourself."

Coated man's eye turns red

An X-ray of the inmates lungs appears and the coated man says "You've been recruited."

Taylor Elliott-Treatment and Thumbnails

Media: Music Video

Song: Undecided

The goal of this film is to cause the audience to realize that we often become so caught up in technology and how we want to perceive things that we become naïve when it comes to the truth of how situations really are. 

The opening scene will consist of clips of different people with different environments projected around them.  Within these clips will be a boy and girl who are projecting the same scene of a sunset.  There will be a sudden glitch in the system and it will suddenly shut down. 

Scene two will be shown through a split screen view, showing a guy opening up his front door and looking over a desert landscape on one side, and a girl peeking out her window to see a blanket of light snow on the opposite side.

Going back into normal view, scene three will show the two running to find maps in different parts of their homes.  They will each slam them on the counter or desk and search for where it is they plan to run away. 

Next, will be a series of shots of the two traveling by different methods of transportation (bus, train, walking, etc.)

Traveling on separate paths the boy and girl clear the woods at the same time.  They stop and acknowledge one another with a smirk. 

Looking in disbelief, the two sit and stare over the destroyed landscape and terror that sits below, glancing at a postcard of the picture that had been projected around the two for as long as they could both remember.

Visual Treatment:

The beginning and ending scenes will be made up of dark colors, while the journey portion of the will be brighter, containing more neutral colors.  Filters will be applied. 

Trey Chavez - Step 4

The goal of this short is to cause the viewer to consider the extent to which plants are in tune with the happenings of the universe.

...

The short begins with our main character, Irwin, sitting on an examination table in a doctor's office. A doctor nonchalantly informs him that he has an advanced form of cancer. Irwin shows only mild discomfort at this news. The doctor tells Irwin to consider himself lucky - that a mere ten years ago his case would have been fatal. He then gives Irwin a prescription, telling him that he should make a full recovery within a few weeks.

The next scene takes place in the early evening at Irwin's apartment. Irwin enters the front door, removes his coat and greets his cat. Plants fill the apartment. Irwin opens a prescription bottle and examines one of the pills. It is small and dark, like an apple seed. He swallows it and then falls asleep watching television on the sofa.

This is followed by a dream sequence. Irwin awakes in the middle of the night to find a potted plant on the seat next to him. He is confused, and lifts it up to examine it. The TV is displaying footage of trees. He enters the kitchen for a midnight snack and faint whispering can be heard, which gets louder as he approaches the fridge. Opening the fridge, he finds that it is full of vibrating plant life.
Irwin suddenly wakes up. He is still on the couch, but his time he's not dreaming. There is no potted plant beside him and the TV is displaying a normal broadcast. He moves to the bedroom.

The next scene begins as Irwin flicks on the light in a flower shop. It is early morning, and he is preparing the shop for business. His cat accompanies him. As Irwin ties the straps of his apron, more whispering can be heard. Eventually sentences become discernible. The voices seem to be predicting the future, such as when Irwin is urged to move out of the way just before his cat knocks over a watering can above his head. Many similar events occur throughout the day, and Irwin is convinced his medication has given him psychic abilities.

Later, Irwin prepares to clip the stem of a potted flower to be added to a bouquet. As his scissors close in on the flower's stem, a small voice says "please don't." Irwin glances towards the door, expecting to see a customer. No one is present. Shrugging it off, he tries again. "I don't want to die," says the voice. At this Irwin leaps backward - he is visibly distressed. He brings his face very close to the flower and examines it. As he brushes its leaves with his hands, he hears a small sigh. Many whispering voices can be heard and the man looks all around the shop at the different plants. The whispering becomes louder until it comes to an abrupt stop when the door chimes and a customer enters.
The customer is a sleazy business man who asks for a bouquet of flowers. Irwin selects a bouquet and is about to hand it over, but the many voices return and advise against this. Irwin retracts his hand. The business man is briefly confused and then quickly grows impatient, demanding that Irwin relinquish the bouquet. Irwin refuses. Eventually the business man snatches the flowers from Irwin's hand and storms out of the shop. The camera lingers on a group of plants near the door as the businessman exits, and the sounds of a car crash are heard. After a moment's hesitation, Irwin exits his shop to see what has happened, and stares in shock, along with several passersby, at what has just occurred. Cellophane and flower petals flutter through the air. The camera zooms in on Irwin's face, who is trembling as realization sets in. As he turns around to face the shop, we see Irwin through the front window with the camera looking "over the shoulders" of the plants inside the store, as if to suggest they are also watching what has just happened. Sirens are heard in the distance. Cut to black.

...

Sam Owens - Treatment and Thumbnails

Format: Video Game

In a world filled with lightning storms, tall skyscrapers act as lightning rods to protect and harvest energy for the city.  One day, the towers start malfunctioning and lightning starts to destroy the city and threaten the lives of its inhabitants.  A team of skilled hover board riders are enlisted to find out what happened to the towers and fix it since they are the only ones capable of getting to the towers without getting hit by the lightning.

The time of the game would take place either in the middle of the night or at dusk.  The lightning storm and the sky should be in contrast with each other.  A dark sky, with purple hues would work well to create that contrast.  When the player wins the game, it will change to sunrise and clear skies.

The skyscrapers would be made of crystal like material.  There are many catwalks and bridges that connect different levels of the skyscrapers.  There will also be many landing pads sticking out of buildings.  The higher class lives at the top of the towers so higher you go the fancier the tower looks.  If you go low to the bottom then the buildings look more worn down and patched together.  Parts of the buildings will be damaged due to the storm and debris could act as obstacles to the player.

The team of hover board riders will be made up of three or four characters.  The different hover board riders will each have different personalities and styles.  One of them will act as a rival character to incite the character to do things faster or to take certain risks.  Another character could provide helpful hints/tips to the player and give a tutorial at the beginning of the game.

                The game should be fast paced with the character always in motion.  The player has to be quick to dodge lightning, skyscrapers, and debris.  During the gameplay, the camera will stay behind the player in a third person perspective.  There would need to be controls for moving up, down, left and right.  A break system could be added for the player to slow down temporarily and a boost as well to get out of a tight spot.  The buildings create a maze the player has to travel through to find certain checkpoints.  The checkpoints lead to the energy towers or other objectives, for example rescuing a teammate.  The player wins when he/she reaches all the energy towers.

                The game focuses on character vs. environment.  There could be some character development and history of the city added in.

Andrew Jacobson Assignment 1 Step 4

Title: Existence                                                                              Length: 10-15 min
Writer: Andrew Jacobson                                                             Date: 1/26/2014

Goal

The goal of Existence is to tell the story of a man who lets his emotions decide his actions and is forced to figure out how to escape his mistake and live with his regret. The movie will probably be roughly 15 minutes at max. It will draw on technology of today's society and extrapolate it 15 years into the future.

The use of CGI will be used to create the sense of a futuristic society and to help emulate the idea of dreaming.

Story

In the first scene, Henry Coleman, the protagonist, is stuck in traffic on his way to work watching television on his windshield as he waits to drive forward. A commercial for iRemember, a chip that is implanted in your brain that uploads your real memories to a cloud service, comes on the screen, but is interrupted by a call from his significant other, Jennifer. The scene ends after the short call.

The second scene begins with Henry walking into work, meeting his clients that are already waiting for him. He walks them into a room with a lot of places to sleep and a machine in the middle of the room. It then cuts to a shot where Henry is by the machine and the people are all in there respective beds and he is walking them through what is going to occur. This is where his job is explained and another character, Joe, is introduced. Joe has sleep apnea and he hasn't lucid dreamt in some time. Henry gives him a mask to help him breathe and reassures him that everything will be fine.

The next segment focuses on what Henry does while they are sleeping. His job is to monitor them while they sleep, in order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, but Henry has difficulty passing the time. Cuts to shots looking at his smart watch or watching a video on his smart contacts, but then show him walking around making sure people are alright still. While he is walking around, however, you see him begin to watch peoples' dreams. Henry not only watches their dreams for entertainment purposes, but also as way to better understand his clients. This will be evident when he watches his first dream.

He then chooses to watch Joe's dream, and discovers that Joe is having an affair with Jennifer. Henry in a fit of anger, strangles Joe and puts his body in the trunk of his car. Then, knowing he'll get caught if the rest of his clients wake up, Henry decides to delete the recent memories of his clients. The next sequence shows the clients waking up, leaving, followed by Henry driving home and getting in bed thinking about what he's done.

The next scene shows a detective arriving at where Henry dumped the body talking to another detective about the victim. They then mention that they talked to his roommates and they said that he went dreaming the night before. One of them mentions that they have to track down dream stations near his apartment.

The next scene shows Henry at work with more clients, when someone comes and says that detectives are here to ask him some questions. Henry goes and talks to the detectives about the previous night and gives them a list of his clients from that night. They leave and discuss calling them in for questioning.

The detectives are interviewing a client and hooks up some lie detecting equipment to her. She answers all the questions truthfully, but detectives find it strange that she has no recollection of the previous day. It then cuts to them outside wondering how none of the clients have any recollection of the day before. They decide to go back to Henry's workplace.

This segment is short, but involves Henry at work again. The detectives show up and walk in this time. They say they have a warrant and need him to come in for questioning. Henry in the last few seconds he has is panicking. He decides he has to delete his own memory to escape his guilt, however the detectives are walking over to him to arrest him. He accidentally deletes 2 years of his memory, rather than 2 days.

The last part at the station, Henry is being questioned. He is passing all of the questions. The last three questions are, “Do you have a significant other?” (No), “Are you a certified dream monitor?” (Yes), “Are you responsible for the murder of Joseph Cox?” (No). All of them pass.

Style

I like the visual style of the movie Looper (2012, Rian Johnson) or Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan) That is stylistically similar to what I am aiming for.

Thumbnails of Henry being bored at work.

Similar visually to when he is at work.

Shelby Jones - Treatment & Thumbnail

Media: Live Action Film with Green Screen

The goal of this film is to show how even though people are very different from one another, we are still all humans and should not treat anyone less equally because of their background or the environment they were raised in. 

This short opens up with Eleanor sitting at dinner with her husband Frank (The point of this scene is to show how upper class the society they live in actually is). They gracefully get up and return to their sophisticated mansion.

END SCENE

The next scene is her tossing and turning, having a repeated dream of an alternate society. A society she has no recollection of. 

In the dream, two people are standing together by a serene pond where they fall in love for the first time.

Eleanor wakes up in a panic and looks around terrifyingly confused. END SCENE

FLASHBACK

A man gives a woman a flower and holds her in his arms

END FLASHBACK

She goes to her best friend the following day and explains to her the situation she is in. Her friend laughs at her and says “Darling, you need to not eat such disgusting food before you go to bed! Keep those weird dreams out of your head!” and then changes the topic of conversation, leaving Eleanor more curious about the dream than before. Taking her to the place that she saw at the end of her dream, a quaint little abandoned pond.

END SCENE

FLASHBACK

A war torn society tears the two people in love a part leaving one in high society and the other in low society. Then a powerful looking man stands on a podium and brainwashes them to forget the other society that is separate from them now.

END FLASHBACK

When she steps closer to the water at the pond, she is sucked into it and lands hard on unfamiliar ground. She looks around confused and tries to get the attention of the closest person, but no one is answering her. Eleanor realizes she is invisible, so she starts to wander around and figure out where she is. After a while she comes to the conclusion this was the place in her dream so she takes off back to her world. 

END SCENE

When she returns to the other world, she is walking around and she experiences a glitch in her invisibility. At first she doesn’t realize she is visible to the human eye, then a homeless looking man named Stan walks straight up to her and pinches her to see if what he just saw was real life. They begin to talk and understand what is going on. Eleanor decides to try and figure out why they had no idea the other existed.

END SCENE

She goes back to her society and ends up on the news saying “Let’s make a difference, a change in the way things have been” The final scene is Stan walking up to Frank (hesitantly) and then Frank stretches out his hand and Stan shakes it.

END SCENE

Visual Treatment: the present parts of the film will be warm colors mixed with some dark shadows, while the flashbacks and dream will have a sepia filter to represent the past.

***Alex Bartlett - Step 4

TITLE: Clumsy                 WRITER: Alex Bartlett               LENGTH: 5-7 min           

“Clumsy” is a story focused on the natural connection people have to other people. This short presents a comical outlook on how physical interactions between people could become a lost art, and that the imperfection of real communication is a beautiful thing. The short will be a blend of real video and cg added elements that interact with the characters and scenes. The style will feel realistic, as if this short could happen to me (well light, bright, fun, mostly positive colors).

In the first scene, we see a “bully looking” guy as he steps out of the car pulling up in front of the school (a wide shot getting all of the school and the car in front of it). He will then walk inside and as he walks by Tyler (main character) he’ll bump into Tyler’s shoulder where Tyler will then drop his papers clumsily. The camera focus suddenly shifts from following the bully to following him. He will walk into a classroom and sit somewhat near the back towards the middle column of seats.

We will then be introduced to the brain-chip called a Telenano and the students interact with it, such as sending pranks to each other’s paper, playing games, or throwing notes to each other (think of the paper as a literal paper thin iPad). You’ll get a shot of behind Tyler’s ear where it sits, right after a shot of Tyler sitting at his desk. Tyler will flick a digital paper football to his friend and miss, and the camera will follow to a girl and she will get annoyed and get up, ready to move on the boy, when she will suddenly bump into Becca who is walking past her. This is when the camera focuses on her face in slow motion, signifying her beauty and gorgeousness. The camera will immediately shoot to Tyler’s face, which will look as if He has just seen an angel. The girl will promptly sit down directly a desk away to the right of him, one desk forward. The teacher will then walk in and promptly begin class.

Tyler will be so distracted with this girl that he will almost instinctively try to send her a note through the digital paper, using the Telenano. The camera will focus on the paper which will show the note he tries to flick to her being rejected, which will anger him and he will attempt to send the note many more times (quick comically). The camera will then shoot to him looking at the back of Becca’s head, where he’ll realize that she doesn’t have a Telenano like everyone else has, and he will realize that all of the ways he knows how to talk to girls is through the chip, he is now literally on his own.

The shots will then transition through 5 or 6 different scenes of Tyler trying different ways to get her attention during class, such as throwing his pen at her head (and missing, hitting the girl from before), trying to move his desk closer to hers (only to fall over still stuck in his seat), and so on. All the while he will think that she doesn’t notice any of these attempts, when she actually does.

The ending of the film will see Tyler so frustrated with failing to get Becca’s attention through a non-digital way that he seems to be giving up. When all of the sudden he sees a girl next to Becca lean over and whisper to her, and Tyler remembers that He could always try actually talking to her. Class ends and he runs up to her (music will capture this as the seeming epic moment of victory), taps her on the shoulder, and, trying to say “Hey, I’m Tyler” will just speak gibberish. Naturally, she will look confused. He’ll then blush and awkwardly stick out his hand saying “Hi.” She’ll pause, smile, and take the handshake, saying “Hi.” Camera zooms out and movie fades to black.