AICE Media Film Opening - 'Doppelganger' - Rough Screenplay Writeup

 After breaking free from a serious case of writer's block, I finally sat down to lay everything out into a screenplay format. I think that the stresses of figuring out how to restrict everything into a two-minute time frame was a big reason I was being blocked from making progress creatively, but upon discovering that I could potentially push the film opening to just under two and a half minutes, I allowed myself the much needed room to establish the opening as a feasible written film rather than keeping it as the idea it was.

My current draft of  𝕕𝕠𝕡𝕡𝕖𝕝𝕘𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 plays out as follows:

 

The scene opens on a mirror, in the reflection is a  hand turning off a bath faucet, the last of its water still dripping. Imagery, continuing the pattern of mirrors, continues to change, corresponding with an opening credits sequence. [maybe include a brief shot to a baseball uniform and bat hanging on the wall] As the credits come to an end, and the camera cuts into a dark, unlit room, a bright red alarm clock shines through the black. 3:15 AM.  

 

• try to aim for this to take no longer than 15-20 seconds.  

 

[character name to be determined] is laying in her bed, staring at her phone as the bright white light illuminates her face through the black. Her eyes are nearly swollen shut from fatigue, but in her mind she can't let her awake state end, not yet. 

 

[potentially include an echoey non-diegetic voiceover: 'keep your eyes open, can't fall asleep... not yet'] 

 

Yet she seems to overestimate or maybe even fail to understand her own body's capabilities, and in her sleepless attempts she falls asleep for just a fraction of second. In her brief loss of consciousness she drops her  phone from her face. "Ow.. shit.." 

 

• this scene should also be twenty-ish seconds 

 

She finally decides to put her phone aside [the camera should pan to her hand shakily reaching for her nightstand but the phone falls out of its loose grasp] It makes no sound. Puzzled, she reaches for the phone along the floor as a wet squelching sound faintly plays and the music swells. She peaks over the bed and screams, flinching her hand back with her face clearly terrified.  

 

"What the hell what the hell what the hell." she mutters, horrified, she looks to the door and the camera pans, the door is shut. She tosses her covers over her head, breathing heavily and shakily. "If I can't see it it can't see me..." she holds her breath, the gasp is heard. 

 

The scene goes quiet. Even the music ceases to play, leaving only the ticking of a slow, non-diegetic clock. The camera shoots from a distance the dark image of what is clearly [character name to be determined] under the covers. After it has been quiet for a while, she emerges, rubbing her eyes and trying to calm herself. "Idiot.. idiot. Tired tired idiot.." [in her  

head, an echoey non-diegetic voiceover: 'it was probably just a hallucination, probably just a-']  

 

Synchronising with the ticking of the clock,  

there comes a shaky breathing the flicking of a blinding white light that together seep through the lines of the closet in the corner. After another tick of the clock, there is a cut to black. 

 

 

Following another clock tick, the camera cuts from the black to the baseball equipment hanging on the wall, a static shot that goes unmoving, and [character name to be determined]'s hands break into frame, dismantling the baseball bat from the wall. 

 

With a final breath, she opens the closet. On seeing what she sees, she drops the baseball bat, and so too does she drop her jaw. We finally see it, something that looks just like her is crouched on the ground in fear in front of her. It's holding the phone, which illuminates its face. 

 

The camera once again cuts to black, synchronous with a final clock tick. There is only silence, neither music nor ticking are present. 

 

Through the black screen, accompanied by no imagery, the thing in the closet starts to cry. "Please don't hurt me, please don't kill me. I'm so sorry.. please, please, please, please. All I wanted to do was call for help... Please don't kill me. Please don't... I won't say anything to anyone." 

 

"Did you have to ruin the fun so soon?" [character name to be determined] says through a sound bridge, which starts on the "creature's" still terrified face and cuts to a low angle of [character name to be determined] "At least for just a moment, I felt like a human being.. well you know what.. I'm not letting a selfish little brat ruin my fun." 

 

The camera cuts from black to a shot of [character name to be determined], as she lifts the baseball bat and places it onto her shoulder. She starts to speak as she motions the bat violently towards the camera "I'm done being a-"  

 

The scene cuts to black, the white text reading.. 

 

𝕕𝕠𝕡𝕡𝕖𝕝𝕘𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣