Never Wake Up

[Crash_GRAVITY]

PLOT:
Ryan Shaw, 20, begins a journal about 6 months after the disappearance of his girlfriend. He was seeing a therapist to deal with the incident and its emotional attack on him. Things are somewhat getting back to normal. He no longer wants to speak to his therapist so he begins writing entries in a journal. These entries will be narrated by him throughout the film. He wasn't the most social guy before her disappearance, but now he has distanced himself from most everybody.

The introduction starts 11 months after the first entry, its just a quick taste of where he will end up. Something along the lines of he has a recurring nightmare, where he wakes up with the most horrifying feeling he's ever felt. But in this dream he continuously wakes up before it's over. Cut back to the beginning where he is introducing himself. He's 20 years old, normal kid except for his mother's death when he was young and his drunken father who supports him.

I want him to work in a fairly casual, yet business-like/corporate-like type of job. I was thinking a secretary for something. I need some help with that.

I need some sort of a twist for the end as well. Twist will obviously have to do with his missing girlfriend. Was he the one to do it? Did he kill her? What else could I do? That seems to simple, I need more thought but then again I've got so little developed it's difficult to develop the end...I've been toying with this idea for years. I created one piece (my first real piece) but that's lost now. It wasn't detailed enough for my liking. It was loose, it was missing things. I want to make this solid. I know what I'm throwing out there isn't much. If I can find my old write ups I'll post it. The original title back then was Never Wake Up. Basically the nightmares will pull him in so deep that while in the dream he is going to kill himself.

Any advice, insight, comments, whatever are welcome. I'm new,

Side note: This is all just for fun. Something to keep the creativity flowing in my head.

 

[indietalk]

You have a good start. I like the title a lot.

 

[Crash_GRAVITY]

You have a good start. I like the title a lot.

Thanks I've gone many directions with this concept. The first wasn't given enough depth, so the character was never named. There was a scene where his teacher freaks out on him. He sees this mysterious watcher who ultimately attacks the narrator and whispers"Time's up" or something along those lines. After which, he awoke in his own yard with the moon shining. He looks up to see himself in the window, unaware of his presence in the yard. Then he sees a hooded figure approach himself. He screams in sheer terror and runs into the house only to find his own body, laying on the bed.

^that was the original one that I had actually filmed. It made nearly no sense, but the narration I think got the job done. The wording was great and if only I had made a copy of it and held onto it. It was just how all of a sudden something was completely wrong. It lacked a much needed detailed plot.

Then I came up with it starting with a car accident. His mother dying.

Then it was his mother dying because of his father.

Here is a free-thought entry to my own journal. I wrote this years ago. If you can stand to read it maybe you can jump into my head a little bit.

using skrapz' end piece from the song scream, the introduction will start with somebody pacing back and forth
a voiceover saying something about being crazy or every having the balls to kill somebody.
as the track builds up, at the climax he pulls the trigger
*edit-the gunshot sounds, maybe some crying from him or someone off screen (which could lead to some possibilities), umm body hitting the ground. but whatever, at that point, the title will appear. title still never wake up?? I think i should stick to that. because I have for so long.

skrapz' song, to my enemies, will fade in to the same kid walking down a street. he's trying to hitch a ride. nobody's letting him in. he killed someone the night before, put the body in his trunk, and crashed the car. he doesn't remember. how to tie it all together, no idea. the music fits perfectly.

while he's walking, nobody gives him a ride
the entire film basically consists of him walking (the road) and at the end when he finds out who he killed (?), he commits suicide.

who does he kill?
why?

the beginning of the track scream by skrapz would work well for the end. smooth transition into the credits.
its so much better to get ideas from music because it plays such a critical role, and if i was to just come up with ideas with no music to fit it, what the fuck would I do?

this has to be realistic...i cant pull that step father out to get the kid for the mother's death or something. that whole idea was wack. the car crash i like. i don't even know if you can call it a crash. the, off the road right headlight into a tree, thing. i want to incorporate halloween

maybe while he's walking...see kids in masks running around. slow motion? probably stealing that from something else but it would look good
maybe he'll get some flashbacks from it?

yeah forgot to say the main part. the whole time he's walking, he has flash backs. some longer than others. the entire thing will be related to dreams/nightmares, and will be voiceovered all throughout.

i need to figure out who the victim is...

maybe halloween prank went wrong? someone gets hurt? fuck i need to figure this out. Why halloween? Am I still going to incorporate the drunk father/step father? The dead mother?

god I wish I had been able to save my original never wake up. shit made no sense, but i think i did a hell of a job putting it together. I remember I showed it to Tom Bossone and he had nothing but good things to say, but did he really mean it? I don't know.

The last scene in the original, where he wakes up in his yard. After he sees himself get killed, he says in the voiceover. "The only emotion that resided within me was fear" or terror or something. the whole piece consisted of well-worded voice overs, and that i have to stress. the quality of the dialogue and voice overs has to be very high. writing in free thought seems to work much better.

should the opening scene be voice overed or should the kid be yelling at whoever it is he kills? the yelling would seem more effective, but it strays from my main idea. maybe, he has these nightmares of being attacked. these kids in masks attack him, he freaks. they were his friends just messin around but he goes nuts and kills one. i dont know what he does to the other. hmmm. I dont think the name Adam Hart fits anymore...fuck this is difficult. maybe...hmm. well if I do this, it would make the story move more smoothly, but...idk. after the title shows, and the next scene fades in, have a 1 month previous, something like that. idk. I have to think on that one. That way, it starts and grabs attention...but then the issue of coming to that part again later in the film. maybe, hmm. he's pacing, wanting to kill the kid in front of him, the kid is saying no no dont do it. at the climax of the music, you hear the gunshot but it cuts to black. that way i can build up to that point, but in the end he kills himself? hmm.

a girl? girl somewhere? ...

what is going to cause this snap. im thinking, make it span a full 2 months where the nightmares have already started, he's having trouble sleeping...high school or graduated?

wait. Where the fuck does he get a gun? hmmm referring back to one of my ollddd ideas...drunk single father, kind of pullin' from the song Nothing by Q Strange.


hold on. he's still in high school, but something happens and he is taking the semester off. is this where his mom dies? she dies over the summer (before the film)

hmmm. that would explain the lack of sleep. do I want to bring a psychiatrist into this? no, that makes me think of andy chevalier's piece. lol. no.

as it comes into the song in the beginning. he's walking. fast. with a back pack? he overslept and is running late to school. fuck that contradicts the mother dying over the summer...


God, I can come up with beginnings and endings no problem, but its the bulk of the piece that needs a lot of thought. eff it.

I use music as a source of ideas. Generally it is copyrighted music. I plan on using it for the piece, because I only plan on doing this for recreation. It will be used solely for personal purposes.


Here is another direction I went with it. This is the most recent.

Never Wake Up (2008)
Basic Idea: Main character (?) is having dreams from his past, but in the dreams he is crossing paths with his past.

Who is he?
What's his story?

Ideas: He's a 20 year old college kid. Has always had vivid dreams. His mother and older/younger brother died in a car accident years previous. He lives with...his drunk father? He is self sufficient, going to school on a scholarship and has a job doing...?

What does he do with his time?

What ideas from the original Never Wake Up?

*the long road, dark, after a car accident?

*waking up in the pale moonlight (in his own yard)

*Gun?

*Running to save himself?

*mysterious watcher?

The mysterious watcher, he sees him everywhere. maybe space it out. Sees him in the beginning, notices him in the middle, gets afraid towards the end.
Mysterious watcher, himself?
how do we shoot that?
bumps into him and is assaulted.

He needs to look and act normal. Clothes? Music?

 

[Unknown Screenwriter]

PLOT:
Ryan Shaw, 20, begins a journal about 6 months after the disappearance of his girlfriend. He was seeing a therapist to deal with the incident and its emotional attack on him. Things are somewhat getting back to normal. He no longer wants to speak to his therapist so he begins writing entries in a journal. These entries will be narrated by him throughout the film. He wasn't the most social guy before her disappearance, but now he has distanced himself from most everybody.

The introduction starts 11 months after the first entry, its just a quick taste of where he will end up. Something along the lines of he has a recurring nightmare, where he wakes up with the most horrifying feeling he's ever felt. But in this dream he continuously wakes up before it's over. Cut back to the beginning where he is introducing himself. He's 20 years old, normal kid except for his mother's death when he was young and his drunken father who supports him.

I want him to work in a fairly casual, yet business-like/corporate-like type of job. I was thinking a secretary for something. I need some help with that.

I need some sort of a twist for the end as well. Twist will obviously have to do with his missing girlfriend. Was he the one to do it? Did he kill her? What else could I do? That seems to simple, I need more thought but then again I've got so little developed it's difficult to develop the end...I've been toying with this idea for years. I created one piece (my first real piece) but that's lost now. It wasn't detailed enough for my liking. It was loose, it was missing things. I want to make this solid. I know what I'm throwing out there isn't much. If I can find my old write ups I'll post it. The original title back then was Never Wake Up. Basically the nightmares will pull him in so deep that while in the dream he is going to kill himself.

Any advice, insight, comments, whatever are welcome. I'm new,

Side note: This is all just for fun. Something to keep the creativity flowing in my head.

I like the idea of making this character write about his girlfriend. Everything he's feeling. Everything he's missing about her. The walks they used to take... The television shows they used to watch... The games they played together.

You get the idea...

I think if you KEEP THAT UP. Get deep with it. Turn it INSIDE OUT so we REALLY FEEL for this character and then BAM!

You somehow let us know he killed her.

We never see remorse -- we just see a guy missing his dead girlfriend. He might even talk to others about it and of course they feel for him too which will make US feel for him even more.

That he actually killed her could easily be the twist.

How, why, where could show us his disconnection.

Just some thoughts...

filmy

 

[WideShot]

We're playing a film this year that roughly features a guy who is narrating as he writes in his journal about his girlfriend who was taken from him for a scientific experiment and how much he longs for her. It's pretty interesting just make sure to show really the emotion of their relationship in the flashbacks otherwise his recollections will seem hollow.

 

[Cleo]

I think this is interesting.

My idea would be to take the leading character and lead the story in the direction that he is writing in this journal about his girlfriend disappearing and through this diary entries we begin to learn about the girlfriend and who she was and what she did.
Then towards the end we realise that this guy is actually bitterly lonely and he has some mental disorder which leads him to live in a distorted reality and we find out that the girlfriend never existed and that he has just set up this entire idea in his head and that it relates to the death of his mother.

Just an idea .. I'm getting carried away