synopses & loglines

Fake Plastic Girl

in ,

 ACT 1  

One

 

Voice Over, the Robotgirl  is attacked by her enemies. Black and White, grainy with colour, super-8, step printed at times and rotoscoped animated. Snow falls. They nearly destroy the android girl, her arch nemesis setting her on fire after a savage beating. She lays in the snow, surrounded, dying...

 

Two

 

Home. A head bandaged. We can only tell it's a girl because of her robes. Her hands are also bandaged. She’s been heavily damaged. The family home is nice, but nothing special. Very little Asian influence what-so-ever.

 

Her name is Yuki. It means snow.

 

Her MOTHER and FATHER and LITTLE BROTHER are in the room, with two plain clothed POLICE DETECTIVES.

 

They ask her a series of questions. She answers none. The tell her they need her help. She says nothing. They show her photographs of some boys and girls, who, may or may not have taken part. We see them full screen. They all are young, and mostly Asian.

 

 

Her Father says that’s enough for today. He tells his wife, daughter and son to leave.

 

Her mother and brother take Yuki goes up stairs to her room.

 

The father is well off and mentions this to the detectives saying he will do anything for her. The detectives tell him to let them handle it.

 

In her room, Yuki tries to sleep.

 

Three

 

The Robotgirl lies in the snow. She is recovering, healing, a cat comes to her.

 

She follows the cat to safety. The cat talks to her and tells her its okay, he can help her if she follows him.

 

Four

 

X – Rays.

 

The doctor explains the procedure to her. Its radical, but the damage is extensive, he has to graft new “skin” on her face and rebuild the bones in her hands and face.

 

He has to rebuild her.

 

Fear and tears in the eyes of Yuki, he begins to unravel the mask (we see little, only a suggestion of the damage.)

 

Table, a light and silhouettes of the doctor and nurse.

 

Five

 

The cat leads the Robotgirl into the dark woods. He tells her, that a friend is here and she can have sanctuary. Indeed, the cat leads her to a cave.

 

They enter. Inside, a light reflects into a pool of water and she sees her face, damaged. She pulls off the skin...

 

 

Six

 

A week later.

 

Her father drives her home from the private clinic. She sleeps in the car, face still mostly in the shadows, her face is still covered.

Dinner.

 

Her parents eat at the table. Her father tries to eat normally. Her mother occasionally looks over fearful and tearful and looks back. Her little brother stares.

 

She tries to eat, sucking out of a straw. She struggles with her bandaged hands on the food. Her brother laughs, and is quickly scolded by his dad.

 

Yuki leaves the table.

 

In her room, she stares in the mirror and begins to remove the bandages.

 

Very slowly. Apprehensive.

 

And then we see her. She is beautiful, youthful, yet unnatural. Her face, is like wax, or plastic. She touches it and stretches her face.

 

Seven

 

In the cave, the Robotgirl sits down. She needs to do diagnostics on her systems. Her eye has a red signal that rotates like the start up icon on a Macintosh computer.

 

She speaks.

 

“ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE>

 

TWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO>

 

THHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE>

 

 

Deep, synthetic, unnatural sounds, yet feminine. The cat talks to her, tells her his name. He tells her that a friend will help her soon.

 

When the checks are over, the Robotgirl follows the cat deeper, and soon the deep sounds of breathing can be heard.

 

They are approaching an animal that sleeps deep in the cave.

 

It is a massive brown bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eight.

 

Weeks pass.

 

She’s in her room reading. Yuki has been a shut in since the “incident.”

 

Her father is concerned about her and wants to help. He thinks she’s too timid and after what happened to her, he thinks it would be a good idea to take martial arts.

 

She gets in an argument. She can barely walk and doesn’t see how she could do Karate.

 

The doorbell rings. Her brother opens the door to a large heavy set Asian/Pilipino boy with glasses. He is cheerful, slow moving, intelligent, self deprecating, and painfully intelligent.

 

Inside her room Yuki shuts herself out to her best friend (for lack of a better name – HERMAN). Herman talks really gentle and Yuki opens up the door. He is taken aback by her appearance. She tries to cry, but can’t and it frustrates her. He consoles her, all the while asking her elaborate seemingly random questions. Her cat, Soma, stays with her.

 

Nine

 

The bear awakes and talks to the cat while examining the Robotgirl. He begins ask her questions, but the Robot cannot answer. That is okay, the bear knows what to do. He is also a robot. But first, he tells her, that she needs rest and sleep and he would protect her. The cat cleans himself.

 

She recharges on him.

 

Ten

 

Yuki lays her head on Herman. She tries to talk, but it hurts and is awkward. She falls asleep.

 

Eleven

 

Daylight. Time has past. The Robotgirl is still weak but must venture outside. The bear and cat follow her out. The cat parts with her but tells her they will meet again.

 

Twelve.

 

Herman and Yuki walk outside and talk. Yuki has crutches This is the first time she’s been outside in a while. The air on her “skin” feels odd.

 

They walk and they see a group of girls, and Yuki immediately seizes.

 

Who’s the new girlfriend, Fatty?

 

Insults.

 

Herman doesn’t let him faze him. Yuki glares and the girls go quiet.

 

They make her so mad. She clenches her fists tight and destroys the crutch.

 

She realizes something unusual has happened. After this, she is tired. She asks Herman to take her home.

 

THIRTEEN

 

 

 

Her dad drives her from Pysiotherapy. She decides she would like to try Karate.

 

Karate Class.

 

She stands in the back row with the other students and begins excercises. She has trouble.

 

Fake Plastic Girl No.1

in ,

TEASER. (4-5 min.) Winter. An empty schoolyard. Snow on the ground. FOUR JAPANESE GIRLS, all 18 years-old, walk one by one into frame. They are: Kim, the leader; Lucy, the fashionista, Jen, the whore; and Lizzy, the shy one. All smoke and talk about boys. They look very pretty and sweet. A couple of them have faux-fur hoods.

They see SUKI (18) sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. Suki is homely, skinny, wears glasses. Hides her face behind her long hair. Dresses very plainly. Has a pink iPod. Her knapsack has goofy sci-fi/fantasy-themed buttons on it. We never really get a good look at her face. Kim approaches her and asks her her name. Suki is afraid. She does not answer. This enrages Kim. Lucy and Lizzy suggest she is the girl who stole Kim’s boyfriend. Suki tries to leave. They allow her to walk away, but begin to follow. Suki’s pace quickens, then becomes a run. They give chase. In one wide shot, They corner her and beat her. It is savage and unrelenting (shot in real time). They finally leave, although Kim returns for one last kick in the face (and to steal Suki’s pink iPod). Finally, camera pushes in, stopping as Suki’s unmoving form fills frame. There is blood everywhere.

ACT 1. (15-20 min.) Suki lies in a hospital bed. Her mother and little brother visit. Her little brother is bored. He is too young to really understand what has happened. He does not recognize his sister. Her mother cries. A lot. In fact, whenever we see her, she is crying. Suki’s father is away on business, and is unable to visit. However, he sends money and presents, including some of her favorite science-fiction movies, and a player to watch them on. (As the months go by we notice they remain unopened.) A police officer makes repeated visits, although Suki is unable to speak. Series of x-rays are shown. An offscreen doctor discusses with the mother the extent of the injuries: broken jaw, broken nose, compound wrist fracture, three cracked ribs, broken ankle, broken collarbone, four broken fingers; also, three cracked teeth, five facial lacerations, two dozen cuts and abrasions, internal bleeding, and some uterine and kidney damage.

Suki’s father sends money for extra surgeries and operations. It is never specified how long she is in hospital. Suki awakens from surgery. Her bandages are removed and we see her face for the first time. Her skin is healed, smooth, almost plastic-like. She tries to smile. Something about it looks unnatural.

She eventually is well enough to return home and continue her recovery there. When she is well enough, she tells her mother that she will return to school and continue her studies; try to pick up where she left off. Suki leaves home, ostensibly to return to her studies. But really, she intends to train herself to be a cold, ruthless killer.

ACT 2 (45-50 min.) Suki gets a day job and spends all of her free time training to get her revenge; at first she tries to do what people like her would do in the movies: read a lot of zen and samurai texts; however, she is mainly fueled by her science fiction and fantasy obsessions, and from this she develops her imagined persona as an android killing machine.

Suki spends a great deal of time searching for the four girls, but with little luck. The only person she can remember clearly is Kim. She focuses solely on finding her.

Er… um… time passes.

At a Laundromat Suki frequents – which, oddly, is quite out of her way – she meets Nao. She’s accidentally left a red sock in the washer he is using, and his clothes come out pink. (This is meant to be an idiotically meet-cute moment, and should be played up accordingly.) She invites him over for dinner. They have another meet-cute moment when her cooking goes awry, and he takes her out instead. (Or something. Hell, I don’t know. We need to have some sort of sweet courtship sequence or something.)

Several dates later, Nao brings her to his place (he lives at home), where they watch one of his favorite sci-fi movies – also one of hers. It turns into a PG-13 make-out session, but they are interrupted when his sister enters the house, jabbering on her cell phone. Nao awkwardly introduces them. Kim, the leader of the gang that beat Suki, is Nao’s sister. She doesn’t recognize Suki, and Suki doesn’t tip her hand.

Er… um… Kim’s boyfriend gets a little rough with her when she confronts him about his philandering. Suki intervenes and beats him up. Kim is surprised and grateful. They becomes closer friends.

Suki becomes good friends with the girls.

Lizzy, the shy one, has a crush on a boy. Suki suggests they all go away for a weekend where they can set him up with her..

ACT 3. (20-25 min.) They go to the cabin. Once there, Suki kills everyone.

Strip poker. (But playful-like). Suki turns out to be very lucky, and has a very good poker face. Jen and Lizzy retire with their boyfriends when things heat up a little. Kim and Lucy stay in the game, with an amused Nao cheering on Suki. But she starts losing. She takes off her shirt, and the others notice the scars on her body. She gets Nao to leave the room. (I can’t think of a reason, but I’m sure something will come up.) Suki considers a story about an abusive boyfriend. But then she tells Kim and Lucy exactly what happened: that she was beaten within an inch of her life by four girls. They suddenly realize who she is, and are simultaneously horrified and saddened. Suki begins sobbing. The two girls are unsure how to comfort her, but they try. Suki seems intent on leaving; she is too upset to stay with them. She asks Lucy to explain to the others why. Kim opts to go; Suki is insistent that Lucy go, but Kim leaves. Suki tells Lucy that she remembers Kim was the strongest of them, that it was her idea. The others went along with it but didn’t really want to. Suki seems strangely calm as she explains the notion of “kill the head, the body will die”. She suddenly and brutally kills Lucy, furious she couldn’t kill Kim first.

Kim, Jen, Lizzy and Nao subdue Suki and lock her in the trunk of the car.

Suki gets out of the car and kills Jen. She fights Kim and Nao. Lizzy runs away.

Suki gets into the car and drives it blindly towards Lizzy. It pins her against a tree, horribly injuring her. She kills her (as an act of mercy, perhaps).

Suki walks home, possibly mortally wounded.

Suicide By Cop

in

James is a young man full of pain and torment and finds he can no longer live in a cruel and unjust world, so he sets out to kill himself. First though he finds that no one is willing to give him a gun, and he really can't wait for seven days for a background check. He's never been good at tying knots, and even if he was, he can't find any beams that would do the job right (he's just strangle himself to death, and the thought of that bothers him). He's tried drowning but he can't quite come to holding himself underwater long enough. Electrocution seems a bit too risky, as does pills. The train is a good idea, its free but the thought of getting all mangled up and crushed and dragged for a kilometre (and what of the poor chap who'd have to clean him up), turns him right off-he's tried to jump in front of one several times. Pills, well, what if he didn't get the right mix and was just knocked unconscious or worse, he could have a stroke and be in the hospital and care wards for the rest of his life. No. Instead, James has bought a pellet gun that looks like a nine millemetre, and called the cops telling them he's going to kill himself and everyone in his building. So after a tense stand-off James is face to face with two cops, just regular kind of guys, and you know what? They're the closest thing to a conversation he's had in years. Actually they're great guys, smart and funny, and ordinary, but interesting, and caring. Maybe James should be a cop, and join the force, he'd like that. Patrick Flanagan and Pete Kowalski are probably the best friends he's ever had..., course he knows if he puts the gun down, they'll just arrest him and throw him in prison, or the looney bin, or psyche ward - probably the jail, then psyche ward, then the looney bin, that is if they don't shoot him first. Yes, all he has to do is put the gun down. But doing that will separate him from his new buddies, and he's not about to let that happen anytime soon.

Remote Island

in

“Reality based” horror television series.

Synopsis:

A group of reality TV show contestants are misled into thinking that they are their to win a million dollars buy eliminating the other players through the usual dating, survivor type scenarios. It becomes apparent though after food and fresh water run that they are part of a bigger game. Each night the contestants are systematically hunted for sport by unknown forces, and are selected for elimination by the audience of the reality based television show. The island is wired as one big remote television studio, with hidden cameras and microphones everywhere and the contestants must survive each night using there wits and each other to survive until dawn.

The Series:

Thirty contestants (fifteen male, fifteen female) have been selected to play on a new reality based TV show for a million dollars and a new car. They have each filled out personality quizzes and submitted their own home video describing their life, career and why they need the million dollars and why they think they can survive to win.

Episode One:

After being dropped off by boat the contestants settle in to there new environment. The island is really pristine and beautiful, and for most this is their first time in a place like this. The contestants find a thin clear monolithic sculpture with a 16X9 monitor and a high quality camera and speaker, encased in plastic in a clearing (The Tribal Booth). This is how instructions are being fed to the contestants. Dominance for group leader is already occurring with TK (TO COME) a strong athletic female taking control to the chagrin of the male contestants.

The Girl Who Worked For The Spies

in

MIRA’s (19) father has always been in counter-intelligence, and now she’s expected to follow the family trade, so she just got a job as a file clerk in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Working in CSIS though, can be dreadfully uninspiring. All she does is type out terribly long Arabic names and file papers, all day. She’s conveniently close to Holt’s though, so at least she can shop on her lunch breaks. Being in the spy service has some perks though, there is always weekend parties during the debutante season. Agent dossiers always give her a kick; a great way to meet men. The thing is she can’t tell anyone about it, and its killing her, specially since her new man is attractive and is oh so interested in her new job.

The Foot Soldier

in

War Drama

At the age of 17 Camden Thompson is conscripted into the Great War. The story starts in 1915 in Winnipeg, and follows him from the moment he gets the letter of conscription to; convincing a girl to sleep with him, training in pristine trenches in Winnipeg, to the train east to Halifax. He crosses the Atlantic, landing in Plymouth, only to train and drill again in Salisbury. He crosses the English Channel from Avonmouth to St. Nazaire, France, is filled into a cattle car to Hazebrouck near Belgium and then sent to the trenches at Flanders. After sitting around in the trench for the next offensive, fighting off rats and trench foot, he gets his first taste of battle. When the offensive starts he's wounded almost immediately, past out from blood loss, shipped to triage, where he meets the prettiest girl he's ever seen, a nurse. She fixes him right up and he's sent back to a horrific war, fighting offensive after offensive, dodging artillery, machine gun fire, air craft fire (he's positioned in a reconnaissance balloon), he fights through the Somme, Mons, Paschendale and even Dieppe, gradually being promoted along the way (as every one else is killed off) until he is brutally wounded two and looses his foot. Out of the war he travels down through Spain before coming home, and when he does, he finds that that he no longer belongs or relates to the life he once had. Bringing Spanish Influenza with him, Camden finds the only thing he can do to stop the death around him, is to dig his own trench in a farmers field and fight anyone who dare comes near him.

The Executive (or All The Little People Down Below)

in

Satire

RICHARD BOTTOMLY has worked all his life to get to where he is; the very top of a multi-million dollar organization, literally. his office is on the 60th floor, and Richard likes his view. After some financial calamities some weasel bastards on the board want to take it all away from him. He can't trust his top man. Richard knows everything the man says is a carefully orchestrated manipulative tactic to get the position for himself. He knows, he taught him. And now he's got another problem, a woman who's twenty years younger than he was when he became the top man, is also vying for his job as well. Since everyone is out to get him, Richard fortifies the office and makes his last stand. He evacuates the floor, leaving only his most loyal subjects. There is no way anyone is going to take him alive, and is he has to, he'll burn the building to the ground.

The Last Good Man

in

Drama

Fearing the end of the world around him, John, a deeply religious man in his sixties leaves his wife, in search of the one good man. He travels through the heartland of America, looking for this man. He talks to believers, in the Church but only finds their lack of faith. He looks on the streets, in cities and towns. He feels he is doing the work of Jesus. As he travels he becomes more and more convinced, that this man doesn't exist. He begins to drink heavy. He cheats on his wife with prostitutes, lives in a strip club from noon to night. He breaks every commandment, not counting murder. With the end nearing, he contemplates suicide. One night he crashes his pick-up truck on the highway while driving drunk, bursting into a fiery ball. While the flames creep up around him, a man pulls him out to safety. He ends up in the hospital, but the man, his SAVIOR visits him. His name is Noah. He is a single father (wife died in childbirth) of a son of six. He's religious, kind, calming. He is the one good man. Noah's generosity is such that he allows John to stay with him. Despite his help, John begins to dislike Noah. He can't stand his principles, his unending faith in people, and a naive trust. John actually begins to despise him. He's everything he isn't. Kind, honest. Self sacrificing. Caring. Noah makes him sick, he revolts him. He knows now why he was put on earth. To kill the one good man.

Police & Thieves

in

Police Thriller

“The parallel lives of two people involved in a bloody robbery in a small city; the getaway driver who was recently released from prison and the police detective methodically tracking the crime.”