The project we have been given, is to create a short fictional movie on the genre of our choice with complete creative control over all aspects of our movies. Before we can start to create our movies, we have to plan exactly how we want our movies to be which is our pre-production, we must also research into the genre(s) of our choice so we can understand what elements are needed to make our movies more effective on to our audience. For my short film, I have decided to do a Sci-Fi/Thriller to give myself more of a challenge creative wise, as I have to make sure I get the correct elements from both the Sci-Fi genre as well as the elements from the Thriller genre. We have to plan everything for our short film which includes story-boarding so we can decide how we want each scene to look as well as creating characters and writing the script so that the storyboard makes sense.
We have to plan, shoot, edit and evaluate everything we need to do for our film and what we did during filming (including behind the scenes) and how we edited our films together with a timeline of what we edited and when as well as what we filmed and when. During our evaluation we will have to over everything we did and in what order we did it all in, to prove we are organised and it also proves that we can plan an entire project and carry out the project including the Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production and the evaluation itself.
Logline
Mirror Image is a Sci-Fi, Thriller about a group of scientists who create a machine that potentially cures Schizophrenia but the leading scientist reveals he is the test subject to the rest of the team and unexpected results await them by the end of the experiment.
Screenplay Structure
Act 1: is the introduction of all of the team members and getting the basic idea of what Mirror Image will be about. We also discover that the team leader has been keeping some secrets from the rest of his team.
Act 2: is all about the first test experiment with an unexpected test subject. The experiment goes wrong and it leads to unexpected effects which is a massive surprise to the team.
Act 3: The team gets revealed a massive shock by the main result of the experiment which leaves everyone with more questions that the machine was meant to answer. The result is mentioned as a possibility during the first act of the movie.
Characters
- Scott McArthur: is the team leader who instructs the rest of the cast to build his machine for the project. Scott also has a PhD in Psychology which links in with the machines intended purpose, from the start of the film we get the impression that Scott is hiding something until he reveals what it is.
- Max Temple: is the alter-ego of Scott, he is linked with the secret that Scott is hiding until he reveals what he is hiding and then the machines gets involved and releases Max into his own identity.
- John Clarke: has been a close friend to Scott for many years and is probably more surprised about Scott's secret more than everybody else on the team as he felt like he knew Scott but this secret makes John feel uneasy about his friend.
- David Goodman: is a bit reserved but is still willing to help Scott make the world a better place and also agrees that the machine could lead to great things in the future but still has many issues with Scott being the first test subject for the experiment.
- Lucy Green: is like David in a way because she is very reserved and asks Scott more questions about the experiment because she gets the impression that he is hiding something and when Scott announces that he will be the test subject, Lucy decides she does not want to be a part of the experiment anymore and leaves.
- Claire Rochester: Claire is a caring character, she cares about everyone on the team especially Scott, more so when the team discovers that he has Schizophrenia, she decides that she wants to stay too make sure that the rest of the team are safe during the experiment.
Film Treatment
Scott McArthur is a world renowned Psychologist who has spent his entire life dedicated to helping those who suffer from the ailments of the human mind, specifically those who suffer from Schizophrenia and have a split personality.
His career leads him to meet some of his closest friends and associates named: John, David, Lucy and Claire; as they work together to create a machine that could change the world forever. However, the team discovers that Scott has not been 100% honest with them and has been keeping a massive secret from each and everyone of them and this quickly changes the team's opinion on their leader.
Everyone but Lucy, makes the decision to stay with Scott and help him complete their work and put this whole ordeal behind them and move on with their lives. Even though Scott doesn't say anything we get the slight impression that Scott is very grateful to his friends for helping him see his life's work through to the end by his side.
The team help Scott inside of the machine that they all worked on together and begin the first test run for this entire experiment to see if it is possible to cure Schizophrenia. The machine is activated and things almost instantly goes wrong as we hear Scott scream from within the machine leaving the team with nothing to do but panic and shut down the machine to check if Scott is alright.
Miraculously, Scott is alive and collapses to ground unconscious which is a relief to the team but, they still want to know if the experiment was a success and that is when both the team as well as the audience discover that the machine works but not the way it is supposed to. We then discover that instead of just curing Scott of his split personality, the machine also took Scott's DNA and has placed the other personality into a replica of Scott's body creating a "Temporal Duplicate" which is the exact opposite of Scott and leaves everybody on the team with more questions.
Target Audience/USP
I have tried to aim my short film to appeal to all branches of the demographic but for ages 12 and over as I feel that this age range would understand what is happening in my movie more than those below the age of 12 years old. the reason I have tried to appeal to every branch of the demographic, is because they are all different from each other but in some cases, they might share common interests which might take place in my film or could be a key element of my movie. For example, branch B is about creative people who could potentially use my film for inspiration on their own projects in the future. Whereas branch A includes Doctors who like all of the character's in my film except Max Temple, all have PhD's which some if not all Doctors could relate to these characters on a professional level.
My USP (Unique Selling Point) for my short film is how I created the machine and how it is supposed to work within the film's fictional world. In the film, Scott says that the machine is meant to "remove the other personality and transfer it into disposable energy" and there are many feature length films about Schizophrenia and being a cure but, I don't think they cure Schizophrenia the same way that my film was intended to cure it. I hope this USP is enough to make my short film stand out from other short/feature length films.
