I had a project I quickly put together for someone that had a budget and six weeks free. It was not very good.
I was looking through my list of dead and dying screenplays and saw it. It was set in the 1940’s, two criminals sitting in a car awaiting for another car to come and take some cash off them. A thriller, cat and mouse type story. Like I said, not great.
But as I read, it struck me. Make it modern. The problem most limited locations stuff has is mobile (cell) phones. People can just call the cops. If they have phones, the phones are now a problem. The outside world can track them. Third parties can threaten them.
Why am I saying this? Well I am going to rewrite it. Plus later this year, time permitting and location and cast availability, I may shoot it. Yes, the one thing you should never do, use your own money.
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When it is a contained (in the truest sense) script, it is challenging, especially if set pre-mobile phone and internet. Somewhere on YouTube there is a video montage of clips from lots of (mainly horror) films solely with the bit where characters say there is no reception, no battery etc. It's one of those things that has to be addressed in a script. Apart from the fact it was nostalgic for me, I set one of my horror scripts in the early 80s, I liked not having to factor in mobile phones. Though, some people get around that by having walkie-talkies. However, with other horror scripts I have had to tick that box - isolated small town in the USA, dense forest in France, field in the UK countryside. That said, it can work in our favour if we want to make a feature of the script, I have an idea for a horror where characters having a mobile phone is central to everything that happens.
I watched a French film called 'Oxygen', which I enjoyed, technology was a feature of how it played out. About a third of the way through 'Buried' and taking notes, (should have done that with 'Oxygen') and of course the character has a mobile phone.
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Can't wait to see the movie if you decide to make it, Craig D Griffiths. When I outline a Contained Horror or Contained Thriller script, I think of ways to get rid of the devices like cell phones, tablets, and smartwatches (like the phone breaks). Or I'll have a character leave their tablet way across the house (maybe plugged up to a charger), but they can't get to the tablet because the attacker is blocking their way.
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Following on what Mark Giacomin said, it's an interesting tension... on one hand, the availability of smart phones can shut a certain kind of story down instantly, but on the other... it can invite the "well, what if they DID have a smartphone?" question. What would have to happen for the smartphone NOT to trivialize the story? Other than just resorting to the "oops no juice" dodge (which is actually perfectly reasonable on its own, as phones run out of power all the time).
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Burner phones so they can't be tracked. Disable the GPS in the car if it's a modern automobile. Criminals still find ways to dodge prying eyes. I don't see a problem.
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Exactly. I have thought this through. They have their phones taken from them and they are given a burner by their boss. They are told to only answer the phone and don’t use it for anything else. This is not what triggers the story, but of course they have to use it.
They start as colleges and end up at each other’s throats. One will have a phone on him, we don’t know while immediately. The car is a junker, so no GPS.
The beauty is that they don’t have power within the organisation. Think of them as “mailroom” crooks. There is a conflict way above them, which of course one thinks eh can leverage. Well crap goes bad they cannot call the cops.
There are competing threats.
The idea is to remove their obvious forms of escape. Then bring all their suspicions about each other to a point. This will force one to take. Which of course triggers actions and reactions. This builds out the story that we didn’t see coming.
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@Craig People are now getting micro chips planted in tattoos or their flesh with all sorts of secret info or even just a way of paying for things. There’s a guy my friend knows who just shows his wrist at the store cash till. Phones are obviously obsolete in your script now so why not make it these guys communicate by code & the cash is invisible as Bitcoin? Just my two cents.