Short Scripts
This is a collection of short scripts - some old and some new.
"Wolfilocks" by Lobotomous Monk
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"Ersatz"Precis: This was a short script that I designed for a talent search contest sponsored by Jameson Whisky and boasting the talent of Kevin Spacey and Adrian Brody. This story is drawn from a feature script that I wrote based in the science fiction genre. I had to change the ages of the kids and their dialogue as per Jameson’s requirement that all characters depicted be over the age of 24 – a legal requirement as it were. The full length script involves the start and ending of this scene having a whole sci-fi story set between them. For the contest, the requirements were a short script under 7 pages and a theme that highlights how everyday humans meet with challenges that we all could face. I thought that the car accident was a logical choice.
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"Leeway" |
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Precis: This short script was designed for the USC MFA Screenwriting application. The only instructions were to write a script under 7 pages that reveals a dilemma between two people – one wants to leave where they are while the other wants to stay. I decided to go with something that I thought was novel and original – the experience of conjoined twins. I suppose in fact I know nothing of their mentality, but that is why writers have to have an active imagination.
"Told You So"
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Precis: This was a short script designed for the USC MFA Screenwriting application. They requested a script under seven pages that was set at New Year’s Eve where someone is finding it a challenge to get to the celebration. Those were the only instructions. I decided to avoid anything hackneyed or predictable and I went with a religious and historical theme. This story is meant to be amusing through its irony of fate.
"Conspiracy" |
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Precis: This was a short script designed for the Final Term project at Toronto Film School Video Game Design and Development program. For the last twelve months of the program the cohort works together on a game. The director of the program asked me to contribute a script and "Conspiracy" was what I came up with. It is a strange script because it was written with a game already in mind. In fact, I believe that writing in such a way would work well in the comic script format as opposed to screenplay format. The story is tongue-in-cheek and focuses on a situation where all of human conspiracies familiar from tabloids and internet forums would converge. In this case, Grey Aliens and Reptilians are battling to construct a WMD on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
"Conspiracy" - collage work by Lobotomous Monk
"Fusionpunks" |
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Precis: If you note the short script above this, entitled, "Conspiracy" was written for the Term 6 game at the Toronto Film School's Video Game Design and Development program. The cohort had a very difficult time marrying a wide variety of interests in games in order to progress with a consolidated and coherent project concept. It has finally begun to gel and the students asked that I re-write the Conspiracy script into a new story that would relate to the game that they have agreed to make as a team. "Fusionpunks" is actually right up my alley because my father is a pioneer in fusion energy research. It was fun to write this and I was certainly influenced by Herbert's Dune as well as Top Cow's Aphrodite IX series. My story posits that a human race much like our own has been sundered into two factions - Dieselpunks who are run by an authoritarian bureaucracy that ration the fleeting supplies of fossil fuels and the Cyberpunks who had a spiritual pilgrimage to create a new civilization built on renewable resources, such as solar energy. An engineer of great repute worked hard to foster fusion energy and succeeded but felt that the aggressive punk cultures would abuse the power source and destroy each other and their planet, Vertumnus. He entrusted the knowledge to a high-powered computer he built called Engine Nero. However, the engineer disappeared and Engine Nero has been degrading for lack of maintenance. Both punk factions have seized the opportunity to strike at Engine Nero and steal the coveted knowledge of fusion power.
Worth noting, is that I consider this a "speed script" because after some mental planning, the actual script was written in under an hour. My other speed script was "Ode".
Worth noting, is that I consider this a "speed script" because after some mental planning, the actual script was written in under an hour. My other speed script was "Ode".
FusionPunks - collage work by Lobotomous Monk
Although, the group that worked on FusionPunks went in their own direction, I was quite proud of the story that I developed. One of the hindrances is that most of the team are young and not big readers. They game and that is pretty much it. I feel like good storytelling comes from exposure to good stories and talented authors. I continued to develop the narrative for FusionPunks despite not continuing to work on the project. Here is a narrative overview that was prepared for the project's GDD.
