This film was a labor of love that lasted over 4 months and involved every stage of the filmmaking process. Through the blood, sweat, tears, and quite a bit of rain my partner Amanda Chan and I have produced something we can be proud of.
ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal modeNarrative Synopsis
Much changed between the initial concept and the final film, but this is where it all started.
A bottle of medicine lies among a pile of discarded, clothes. Our main character, an older, grizzled, man, stares greedily at the bottle. Before he goes to get the bottle, however, he sees movement and another person runs out towards the bottle. Out of nowhere, people burst from around the bottle, all trying to get whatever is inside. The old man tries his best to fight for it, but is driven away by the ferocity of the others, and he stumbles into one of the nearby houses.
After catching his breath, the old man looks around him in the house and sees a little girl standing in front of him. The girl seems to be excited that an intruder has just broken into her house. She asks him if her parents sent him; if he was there to take her to them. At first he denies this, says he’s just a random joe trying to find ways to survive, but after seeing the stockpile of food, water and (gasp) the same type of pills that he was fighting for outside, he starts to play along with her narrative.
After an awkward dinner, the girl, named Sara, reveals that her parents had left for a mythical place named Eden where you didn’t need to take the medicine to survive. They had left her with stuff and said they would come back or send someone to get her once they found Eden.
Eager to get the medicine she has but unwilling to kill/steal it from the girl (he needs more motivation but hey its just a synopsis), he grudgingly agrees to take her with him if she brings her supplies. He knows, however, her parents are likely long dead and Eden is just a myth. The man plays along and pretends he knows how to get to Eden, but the girl has a set of basic landmarks to go through to get to Eden, and says she knows how to get there.
After starting their journey, however, he realizes that she has hardly gone outside at all since the world “ended.” As they are travelling, he eventually warms to her and shows her some of the techniques used to survive in the real world. As they are travelling they (as well as the audience) find out more about each others pasts.
Eventually, however, the truth is revealed that the old man is not who he says he is. After the little girl catches him trying to take some medicine, she confronts him, and tries to run away but is either hurt or confronted by scavengers. After hearing her distress he rescues her, and he comes to terms with the fact this girl needs his help while she deals with the fact that her parents are most likely gone.
After this incident they continue their journey and get very close to Eden. While the old man is still skeptical of Eden, he continues to follow the girl. Eventually they get close to a special place where the air feels clearer and has little to no virus presence (maybe the old man has some sort of indicator). Just before entering, however, the pair is attacked and the little girl and her supplies are taken while the old man is left. He is forced to decide whether or not he should continue on to Eden or rescue the girl, and he decides to go save her. In the process he is mortally wounded but rescues her, and together they cross into Eden before he sends her off with his best wishes before dying cinematically.
Screenplay
The screenplay is where any film starts, and Amanda and I spent over a month writing, revising, and perfecting our story before we started production.
Example Shot List
Once we did start production, we created a shot list that we used to plan out how long each shoot would take. Compiling every shot of our film into one spreadsheet proved a challenge, but in the end we pulled it off.
Trailer
ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal modeThe Cast and Crew
