• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Single Room 3 People Script Idea

One of the big challenges I find is being able to write or find a good idea that is in one single location and only involves a handful of people. I've kicked around ideas for a couple of years and this is the best one I came up with. It's primarily one location, which is a laboratory, however there is a virtual world that acts as a second location but that really leaves the door pretty wide open to interpretation. I was also thinking about adding a Digital Assistant in the VR world that would act as a comedy relief. Anyways, thoughts, suggestions, criticism. Hit me!

VIRTUA Outline

First Act

Carter, a scientist, is being shown the ropes of the VR Construct by its creator Steven. Steven has recently made a potential breakthrough in Scientific Visualization and has brought Carter in to help him realize it. Steven is running out of money to keep paying the bills and is faced with shutting down the Construct for good or selling it if he doesn’t get financial backing. Carter is new to VR and does not trust any Artificial Intelligence and generally dislikes the direction technology is going. However he is mostly broke and this job offers quite a lucrative pay out.

Second Act

Carter starts to discover some strange things happening inside the VR Construct, upon further investigation he finds a rogue A.I. program titled Clark. While confronting Steven, he finds out that Clark is a digital clone of Steven’s now deceased father, the man who actually created the Construct. Clark created a program based on himself that follows a complex set of rules, this allows this program to be an emerging property that is wildly unpredictable. Carter and Steven argue over destroying Clark while time is running out to find financial backing.

Third Act

Clark is adversely affected by Carter being introduced into the Construct and becomes destructive. He threatens to destroy the Construct and all of the data that has been discovered, forcing Carter and Steven to shut him down. Steven doesn’t want to lose the digital version of his father, and Carter tells him about the death of his uncle and how he was finally able to move on after beating his record in his favorite video game. This convinces Steven that he can only properly mourn the loss of his father if he in fact shuts down Clark. Meanwhile the Company runs out of money and can’t pay the electric bill.

Fourth Act

Steven and Carter discover that shutting down Clark cannot be done from outside the Construct, because he is an emerging property he has infiltrated many separate lines of code, and therefore he can only be excised from within. Clark follows a complicated set of rules, so therefore the program can be terminated within the rules of the construct. However setting a rule that an Avatar can be deleted also puts Carter and Steven at risk of losing all of the data that is associated with their avatars. Steven calls the electric company to beg for more time only to find out that the bill has already been paid by Carter.

Fifth Act

Carter and Steven set up a trap and shut down Clark. Steven mourns the death of his father and Carter works hard to convince a venture capitalist to back their project, but he says no but offers to buy it.. Steven decides to sell the company and all of their intellectual property. The VR Construct was his father’s creation and dream, while Steven decides to go on his own path. He splits the money equally with Carter giving him quite a big bonus. Carter asks to join him on his next project, and Steven agrees.
 
For a full length feature limited to filming in one location it's an interesting premise but feels like it would need more to it to drive the narrative along. Correct me if I'm wrong but it appears the antagonist/antagonistic force are two items: $$$ and Clark. If so I'm not quite sure those are intriguing enough antagonistic forces to drive interest and narrative through 5 acts. They very well could be if setup correctly in a very dramatic fashion.

You may want to check out "The Thirteenth Floor" from 1999 as a film with a somewhat similar concept (vr vs. reality) and maybe see how they build confrontation and struggle and adversity while propelling the protagonists along their journeys.
 
Here is my update, I added a bit more conflict and gave Carter some more motivation

VIRTUA (Outline Update 2)

First Act

Carter, a scientist, is being shown the ropes of the VR Construct by its creator Steven. Steven has recently made a potential breakthrough in Scientific Visualization and has brought Carter in to help him realize it. Steven is running out of money to keep paying the bills and is faced with shutting down the Construct for good or selling it if he doesn’t get financial backing. Carter is new to VR but was the project lead on Winter Wolf, an extremely powerful Artificial Intelligence that became self-aware and caused a world-wide power outage and had to be shut down. The aftermath of Winter Wolf caused the passing of the Turing Laws banning the creation of any A.I. Carter took the failure personally and became disenchanted with the direction technology is going. Because of his connection to the Winter Wolf disaster he has been unable to find a job, his wife has left and taken his daughter and he is on the brink of being homeless. He has no choice but to accept the job offer from Steven.

Second Act

Carter starts to discover some strange things happening inside the VR Construct, upon further investigation he finds a rogue A.I. program titled Clark. While confronting Steven, he finds out that Clark is a digital clone of Steven’s now deceased father, the man who actually created the Construct. Clark created a program based on himself that follows a complex set of rules, this allows this program to be an emerging property that is wildly unpredictable. Carter and Steven argue over destroying Clark while time is running out to find financial backing. Carter considers leaving the position due to his fear of being connected to another A.I. meltdown and branded untouchable for any tech job. Carter finds out that if he misses one more child support payment then his wife will take his daughter and leave the country.

Third Act

Carter tries to undermine Clark and shut him down quietly, but Clark is adversely affected by this and becomes defensive and then destructive. Clark threatens to destroy the Construct and all of the data that has been discovered, forcing Carter and Steven to shut him down. Steven doesn’t want to lose the digital version of his father, and Carter tells him about the death of his uncle and only being able to move on after finally beating his high score in his favorite video game. This convinces Steven that he can only properly mourn the loss of his father if he in fact shuts down Clark. Meanwhile the Company runs out of money and can’t pay the electric bill. Carter receives his first paycheck and finds out Hunter, the only other person working for the company, has been let go to pay his salary.

Fourth Act

Steven and Carter discover that shutting down Clark cannot be done from outside the Construct, because he is an emerging property he has infiltrated many separate lines of code, and therefore he can only be excised from within. Clark follows a complicated set of rules, so therefore the program can be terminated within the rules of the construct. However setting a rule that an Avatar can be deleted also puts Carter and Steven at risk of losing all of the data that is associated with their avatars. Steven finds out that Carter is the cause of Clark going ballistic. Steven and Carter get into an argument about how Carter doesn’t care about the company or Clark and that maybe Carter should just be the one to go. Carter tries to explain why he attempted to stop Clark and that he does in fact believe in the work that they are doing there, but Steven is unconvinced. Frantic to keep the construct up and going Steven calls the electric company to beg for more time only to find out that the bill has already been paid by Carter.

Fifth Act

Carter and Steven reconcile after Steven finds out that Carters wife and daughter were able to leave the country after he missed his last Child Support payment. They set up a trap and shut down Clark. After Clark is destroyed Steven mourns the death of his father and Carter works hard to convince a venture capitalist to back their project, However the VC is only is interested in buying the VR Construct and all of its intellectual property. Steven decides to sell the company, The VR Construct was his father’s creation and dream, while Steven decides to go on his own path. He splits the money equally with Carter giving him quite a big bonus. Carter asks to join him on his next project, and Steven agrees.
 
Back
Top