Characters
- Paranoid son
- Deceased mother (son’s projection)
Goal
Leave his room.
Overcome his fear of the outside world.
Obstacle
Idea 1 – Self-doubt stemming from his overbearing mother. She doesn’t want him to take risks, so she puts negative thoughts into his head. As a result, he is afraid to leave his room.
Idea 2 – The son his paranoid of leaving his room after his mother’s unsuspecting death. He’s haunted by her ghost.
Setting
Physically takes place in his room, but we will view his fears the mother has projected onto him. To visually show the fears as projections the environment will be distorted.
Projections
The projections will be found all around his room, for example, in his television screen and on all his walls.
- The Mother
- Fake scenarios
Overcoming obstacle
The son reflects on happy memories of his mother, realising life is worth living.
Questions
Q. What is he in denial of?
A. Death is lurking around the corner. Isolating himself keeps him safe.
Q. How is it a problem?
A. He can’t survive all his life in his room, for example, he will need a job to pay for bills.
Q. What is his age?
A. Young adult, so late teens or early twenties.
Story
Summary
Protagonist overcomes his fear of leaving his room after the traumatic death of his mother, who haunts him through projections.
Act 1
Start with a close up of a picture dating the mothers death. Son is making two cups of tea. When he opens the fridge, he realises he is out of milk. Calls out for his mum to tell her they need milk before realising he’s alone. The son prepares to go to the shop. As he is about to leave, he hears his mother whisper to him. The son looks around to see he’s still alone. When he opens the door to leave, we are greeted by his mother peering in through the crack. The son jumps back, tripping as he falls, transitioning to act 2.
Act 2
The son falls on to the sofa. He turns to the kitchen counter to see his mother making tea. The son, confused, looks around before standing up and confronting the mum. When she turns to pour the milk, blood spills out and she starts distorting. The walls start to crumble, revealing a cityscape. Now in the city, the son sees a projection of his mother’s death. She shatters in front of him like glass. The son looks down to see his mother’s shattered shards on the road, only now there are multiple versions of her broken in the road. The environment also shatters, leaving the son to fall, landing in the corridor where he first met the ghost in act 1.
Act 3
After picking himself up off of the floor, the son looks back at the kitchen counter. Noticing the photo of his mother, he pauses, before looking back at the still opened door with the distorted projection of his mother staring back at him. We get one final shot of the son contemplating his decision to leave before cutting to black. The film ends on two readymade cups of tea.