plot video competition plot

[dlevanchuk]

So october new competition is out on filmfights.com
For those who unfamiliar, the basic idea is sort of 48hr project, only instead of 48 hrs u get like a month or something.
Octobers topic is this : character finds a time capsule, and something happens. It could be dramatic, sci fi, funny, etc.. 3.5 mins long.

So I brainstormed for a bit and came up with basic short plot:
A guy wakes up in the desert, all beaten up, covered in blood, torn clothes, etc. He has memory loss, and had no idea what's going in. He starts wondering around, and finds a capsule sticking from the ground. he is thirsty, and sick from concusion. Some liquid drips from it. He manages to break it open, thinking there might be water in it, but it is bone dry inside. He is hallucinating. Instead, there is a news article in there from 1938, talking about alien attack (war of the world broadcast reference). He slowly starts loosign it, imagining there is real alien invasion, and he is only human left in the world..

What do u guys think?

 

[Zensteve]

What do u guys think?

It could be the opening scene from a Twilight Zone episode.

That's all you've got so far, though. Just an opening.

 

[dlevanchuk]

Lol well kind off. Its only 3.5 mins long. So he finds a bullet with initials on it, and newspaper cut out. He thinks that there was real invasion attack, hallucinates through the experience, and in the end puts a bullet on the rock, facing his head, and about to blow his bains out... fade out

 

[Ccolebrook]

I don't know about him blowing his brains out. I think you could do better with some brainstorming. I feel like if that's how it ends, it'll be an unsatisfying finish. What does this character overcome? What does he accomplish? What does he learn that he didn't know before? If that's just an alien invasion and then he kills himself----you know? Who's gonna care.

What about a man who's car breaks down in the desert, but he isn't that bothered by it. He has nowhere to be, nowhere to call home. He can't even remember where he was supposed to be going. He's been walking for miles in the sand. Finds a time capsule, where he reads about how where he is used to be a lake, and the injustice that dried it up (Rich guys dams the river on his property or something) He comes across the people who still live there, and they save him from a thirsty death, he finds something to fight for?

 

[harpsichoid]

At some point you're going to have to explain why he's in the middle of a desert in torn clothes..

 

[dlevanchuk]

Thanks for the inputs everyone!

I think I forgot to mention my limitations. Im shooting alone, i'm the only one who is acting, no crew, with a simple consumer $190 dollar camera.. . The only day I can shoot is saturday (project is due on wednesday, and i work the rest of the days).

@ccolebrook
As far as finishing it up on suicidal note - I kind of wanted to have the paranoia and hallucinations getting to the mans head that causes him to take his life.

@harpsichoid
I was thinking about that as well, but don't know where to implement that. Maybe I should just finish it up? One idea that I had was to have a black screen, with audio track of several fast foot steps, opening a door, dropping the body off in the desert with one saying "You got his wallet, right?", them getting back in the car and peeling off. But I think thats kind of ruins my ending shot idea of showing how close he was to the freeway.

I'm still brainstorming on some details, but here is my first draft that I wrote out. Its kind of screenplay/shoot script-ish..

first daft

 

[harpsichoid]

I read it, I like the settings. Seems like a story of someone just going completely fucking insane, which can be very exciting if you can get an actor who can pull this off. And I do like the idea of ending by showing how close he was to getting back to civilisation.