I am currently writing a short film screenplay centered on a teenager and a mysterious house across the street. (Innovative, I know.) After learning that I have to trim the script down to 15 or so pages due to time constraints, I've altered the concept quite a bit, but now I am at a mental crossroads as a result. I'm used to telling longer, more ambitious stories, so short films are not my forte.
Here's what I've got: the film is a (slight) parable for social anxiety and is centered on a teenager who hears loud yells and metallic bangs come from the house across the street while working on a research project one night. As far as our protagonist knows, the house is uninhabited, and has been for some time.
Without going into specifics, after a lot of build-up, our hero eventually sees a mysterious white van enter the garage of the house and then exit a short time later. When he decides to do some investing on his own, he is stopped on the street by a roaming college kid (driving) who is attending one of the neighboring parties and is searching for a friend that wandered off. Our hero suspects that his friend's disappearance may be related to what is occurring within the house.
The gist of my original idea was that a cult had set up camp in the derelict house and was using it as a base to construct some sort of time-traveling device, and the friend of the partygoer was picked up off the street as a test subject. However, because of the amount of time allotted, I've had to ditch that idea and focus on one that requires less character establishment, which has had me mentally frozen. In other words: what can be going in within the house that can be established and wrapped up quickly?
If anyone has any ideas or starting points that could lead me in a workable direction, I would greatly appreciate. We're set for the first table read next weekend and I am calmly freaking out about it.
Here's what I've got: the film is a (slight) parable for social anxiety and is centered on a teenager who hears loud yells and metallic bangs come from the house across the street while working on a research project one night. As far as our protagonist knows, the house is uninhabited, and has been for some time.
Without going into specifics, after a lot of build-up, our hero eventually sees a mysterious white van enter the garage of the house and then exit a short time later. When he decides to do some investing on his own, he is stopped on the street by a roaming college kid (driving) who is attending one of the neighboring parties and is searching for a friend that wandered off. Our hero suspects that his friend's disappearance may be related to what is occurring within the house.
The gist of my original idea was that a cult had set up camp in the derelict house and was using it as a base to construct some sort of time-traveling device, and the friend of the partygoer was picked up off the street as a test subject. However, because of the amount of time allotted, I've had to ditch that idea and focus on one that requires less character establishment, which has had me mentally frozen. In other words: what can be going in within the house that can be established and wrapped up quickly?
If anyone has any ideas or starting points that could lead me in a workable direction, I would greatly appreciate. We're set for the first table read next weekend and I am calmly freaking out about it.
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