Twilight Zone: Scriptwriting

Requirements for the Script

• Challenge what’s real and what’s imagination 
• 3 portals, don’t do “waking up and it’s a dream”
• When the character first gets introduced, name has to be in CAPS, and put age and gender 
• 5-7 page
• Twilight Zone — Usually a social critique
• Three Act Structure - Setup, Confrontation (Chase Scene), Resolution

Brainstorm 

After watching an episode of Twilight Zone - "To Serve Man", some student films, and reading some information about the series, I came up with many different ideas for my script. I learnt that science fiction films often comment on human nature, so many of my ideas revolve around themes like good vs. evil and loss of personal individuality.

Inspiration: Flash, Dr. Who, Real Life Stories about Portals 

Portals: Elevator, Convenience Store, Beach

1. Man striving for perfection, running to become a better version of himself / become someone he finds perfect. In the end he finds someone chasing after him. 

2. Man falls into portal and meets different versions of himself. Concept of Rabbit Hole. Man has a tough / sad / happier life than the other versions of himself, finding out how lucky he is / feels happy that there is a happy version of him out there in the universe. 

3. Man tries to retrieve fragments of his past. 

4. Man trapped in wall and breaks fourth wall in the end. Man coming from another dimension entering our world. 

5. Man chased by bad memories. 

6. Victim turns into villain / villain is actually protagonist. 

7. Device malfunction because of excessive use. 

8. Parallel Universe: Jumping to different worlds, same character but different personalities. Personality / emotions differ according to circumstances / happy, sad, angry version 

9. The Flash - using a device and running from the “Time Wrath” idea 

10. Finding out that third character is evil. Recurring name as a motif. 

11. Running away from consequences / responsibilities —> facing all your responsibilities (360 degree shot of the same person representing the different responsibilities)

12. Wearing masks / holding umbrellas 

13. Incorporate comedy / irony 

14. Competing at a race, running so fast that you go into a portal and discover something new 

15. Spoiled kid meets something bad / entering dystopia world 

16. Fear: 1 - Confronting fear, chased by fear; 2 - running is the only way to escape from reality; 3 - confronting your fears, future self chasing oneself to improve past self 

17. Person holding something - significant motif / sound - protagonist chasing for it 

18. Rod Serling intro / outro

19. Controlled by computer / all inside a computer game; dolls controlled by humans

20. Propaganda / Brainwashing 

21. Man in front becomes man in the back 

22. One person split into too - Good vs. Evil - Good side tries to control dark side. Hell vs. Heaven 

23. Mental Disorder: Depression - sees happy version of himself 

24. Character controlled by another person “The Author”

In the end, I decided that I will use Idea 23 as the basis for my story. In our recent CHOICES session, we were discussing stress management and learnt about the two types of stress - eustress (positive stress) and distress (negative stress). I know that a lot of students, including myself, are feeling very stressed out about school, therefore, I decided to use "distress" as the theme of my story, and wrote the plot according to the three act structure:

Setup | Boy is sad, lectured by teacher / mom, having trouble at school and with relationships. Extremely stressed out, releasing anger, negative & violent thoughts piling up in his head. Goes to wash his face. 

Confrontation | Evil (stressed out) side of him unleashes (comes out from a mirror), good side of him tries to catch him to control him. This is all happening in his head. Evil side escapes and tries to do bad things (hurting people, throwing things around, do stupid things, stealing, committing crimes, alcohol, takes drugs, smoking), boy goes to catch him and control him. 

Resolution | He returns to the same place and washes his face again. Confuse audience on whether it is reality of imagination. 

Through my story, the audience would enter the mind of a teen and experience how teenagers struggle to manage their stress (control their "evil" side). I think many students would resonate with the character in the story.