Video Editing and Production: Final Project
Gan Pei Jane
0327622
Bachelor of Multimedia Design
Semester 2 (March 2018 ~ July 2018)
Video Editing and Production
Project 1
During week 2, we were asked to come up with an idea for a story. This is my first attempt on the story writing based on the theme:
What will happen if people on earth suddenly disappeared?
Characters:
Jake: Boy, student, loves playing video games, anxious, bored, has a girlfriend and lives with his housemate.
The only guy to survive after humans are suddenly wiped out of earth.
Jason: Boy, 20 years old, housemate of Jake, disappeared one day along with all the other humans on earth.
Alice: Girl, girlfriend of Jake, disappeared. One day reappearing in his apartment as a lifeless automated robot that only speaks limited sentences.
End: An ethereal being, visits Jake after 3 days of humans disappearing. Encourages Jake to end his life with the others because, why not? Everyone disappeared anyway.
Summary of story:
Jake is an ordinary uni student that has a few friends and a girlfriend that cares about him. He enjoys playing games and hanging out with his pals but he has a bad habit, he enjoys taking recreational drugs even when people around him had tried to stop him. He lead a fairly ordinary life until one day, while being bored and snorting powder, he found himself unconscious and in a blurry world full of weird incidents, many of the people around him started disappearing one by one, leaving him feeling totally confused and helpless but he mistakens it for real life. After 3 whole days of disappearance, his girlfriend came back and he was happy for a moment, but then, she disappears again.Afterwards, an entity visits Jake and tells him that "since all people who he care about are disappearing anyway, why don't you end your life too?" The entity promises Jake that it will end his misery.
Ending:
Jake fought hard and struggled to survive. He found that the entity is just all in his mind.
Slowly, one by one, people started coming back into his life and Jake quit drugs and started focusing on building his life right again.
Story:
[ Saturday, 3:30pm.]
Jake sits in his living room staring at the non-sensical programme playing on TV, bored out of his mind, he walks up and grabs another beer from the fridge. Heaving a sigh, he sits on the couch again, drinking the beer in huge gulps. With a hand fiddling the remote, he constantly switches the channel. Shaking his leg in boredom, he lets out a yawn. It is saturday and he has nothing going on. He looks at the ceiling, then to the right as he hears a door opens. Jason comes out holding a bag of dirty laundry.
Jason: "Hey, I'm gonna go to the cleaners downstairs as our washer has spoiled. Do you have anything you want to wash as well? Since I'm heading down, do you want to follow me? We can go grab some food afterwards."
Jake: "Yeah, okay, let me go get my clothes."
Jake walks into his room and picks up the pile of dirty laundry lying on his chair. He then walks out and hands Jason a couple of coins.
Jake: "Here, some coins and my clothes. I'm not going down. Thanks bruh."
Jason: "O...kay. Alright then. I'm gonna head down now. Do you really not want to come with me?"
Jake: "Nah."
Jason: "Okay. I mean, this has been like the 10th time this month that I'm going down by myself to get our laundry done. By myself."
Jake: "Thanks."
Jake nods and holds up his hand in a brushing gesture. Jason stares at Jake for a little moment and then heaves a sigh and proceeded to walk towards the door.
Jason: "Lock the door, alright."
Jake nods and then walks to the TV, picks up the remote control and switches the TV off as he hears the door opens at the distance. He then walks to the door and closes it as Jason walks off. *What do I do now?* Remembering that he just downloaded a new game last night, he walks towards his bedroom, switches on the aircond and sits in front of his desktop, lazily switching on his laptop and turn on his game. The screen flashes in front of his eyes, emitting neon pink and green light into the dark bedroom. A game starts playing, 8-bit music starts playing in the air as he press 'Play'. Entertaining himself, the air is filled with the sound of mouse-clicking. He swigs another shot of beer as minutes flew by. He wonders if he can ask his girlfriend out for the night. He reaches for the phone that was lying on top of his desk. Empty. No messages. No calls. No replies from the messages that he previously send. He heaves another sigh. *nevermind, it is expected.* He then scrolls to his girlfriend's number and calls.
Alice: "Hi, what's up?"
Jake: "Hey Alice, just gonna ask if you're free tonight? We can go for dinner and then maybe you can follow me to get more beer later? My fridge has been running low."
Alice: "Ohhh heyyy Jake, I'm sorry but I'm busy tonight. Gotta go out with Cecelia to pick out a birthday gift for her boyfriend."
Jake: "Oh, how about tomorrow? Ya free?"
Alice: "Well, it is Cecelia's boyfriend's birthday tomorrow and she asked me to attend and I already said yes... sorry bae I will see you on Monday."
Jake: "Ah... well then, it is fine. Have fun and see you on Monday then."
Alice: "And can you stop drinking so much alcohol everyday? It's bad for your health. And stop the pills and those freaking things at that too. Please?"
Jake: "Fine. Enjoy your time with Cecelia."
Alice: "Okay then babe! Ciaos."
Jake: "Ciaos."
The phone closes to a click. Jake was wondering if he was going to be home and bored again on a Saturday night. Well, nevermind, at least he could 'continue his game, and then he can meet Alice on Monday.' He thought. 'I can get the beer myself. No need for Alice.' He then places his phone down and stares at his desktop screen, the game is playing halfway, 8-bit music still playing. He sighs as he looks at his phone again. He then walks to his bed. He lies in his bed drifting in aimless thoughts and boredom. Feeling lonesome and bored, he stares at the pills sitting on top of his desk beside his pack of cigarettes. *Maybe if he took those pills, he can be drifting in relaxation and happiness? 'Well, at least it will be better than nothing.' He took two pills and popped them in his mouth and drowns it in with the leftover beer. He then props himself in bed, hands over head, staring at the ceiling. Music playing in the air as his thoughts slow to a very calming type of blur.
[[ ... ]]
It was all a blur.
Calmness.
It faded into black.
[ Sunday, 8:00am. ]
The sun shines brightly through the edges of the curtains, the desktop now shut down due to low battery, the fan whirling on top of him. Jake lays awake, rubbing the sleepiness off of his eyes. *Did I really slept for 17 hours?* Jake stares at the clock that was sitting at the nightstand beside his bed. He sits up, grabs his phone and checks for messages. No messages. "Ah", Jake says aloud. "The norm." He then places his phone down and got up to walk to his kitchen to get a cup of coffee. When he walks to the kitchen, he pours himself a cup of hot coffee and then leans against the pantry to sip his coffee. It was a bright and sunny day, he thinks that is it the perfect opportunity to get Jason to go down to have a jog with him. He then puts his coffee down and walks up to Jason's room.
Jake: "Jason, are you awake?" He knocks on the door with 2 loud thuds.
Jake: "Jasonnnnn?"
Jake: "Its 8am, would you like to go down to jog with me? Get the extra weight off of you." He knocks the door again with more thuds.
Jason did not reply. *He must be sleeping.* Jake assumes. He then goes to the drawer in his living room to get the keys to Jason's room.
Jake: "Aw, come on, we always jog on Sunday mornings. Don't be so lazy. I am going to come in if you do not wake up."
There's still no sound to be heard from the door. Jake then grabs the key and opens the door. Jason was not to be found on his room. Jake also knows that the bathroom door is open so Jason could not be in there. Jason's shoes are all in the apartment too so that means that Jason could still be in the apartment. He then went to his room to grab his phone to call Jason.
"The number you have dialed is not reachable. Please leave a message after the tune. *beep*"
Jake then places his phone down on the coffee table and sat on the living room couch. He then switches on the TV to watch some movies. *Jason must've gone somewhere with his shoes.*
Jake thought. *He will be back anyways, it is fine.*
[ Sunday, 12:00pm. ]
Hours passed by. Jason still isn't back yet. Jake decided that he was bored with TV now and wants to go back to his room to play more video games. He then walks to his room. As he pass Jason's room, all of a sudden, a faint ringing tune was heard from Jason's room. *What?* Jake went in. Jason's phone was hiding under his bedsheet. He picks up the phone and looks at the screen. [ Caller Unknown ] *How can Jason be so careless to leave his phone in his room and went out?* A flash of worry crosses Jake. Jake then picks up his phone to dial Jason's closest friend, Bryan. The phoneline immediately goes to unavailable. He then dials another one of Jason's friends. It goes to unavailable too. He stares at the phone screen. *It was impossible. How can a phoneline that is used be unavailable?* Jake then gives up calling any of Jason's friends and decided to walk downstairs to possibly find Jason, hanging out in the food stall he always goes to.
Jake opens the front door and closes it behind him. He then walks down the hallway and enters a lift. In the entire journey down to the lift and then the walk to the food stall, not a single soul was to be found. It occured to Jake that is was strange as the hallways and lifts are normally packed with people, or have either one of two people around. As Jake reaches the food stall, he scoured around for people. The food stall is open. The fans are running but there is not even a single person to be seen. It was strange. Jake then walks up to the counter to see if there may be anyone sitting behind the counter. But as he reaches there, there was no one too. He shouts to order food, but no one replies,
which is awkward as there should be people. He then walks around the entire area of the vincinity to look for anyone, but then again, there was no one to be found.
Not even at the road.
Nor the university.
Nor the shops.
Nor the lanes.
Nor the familiar classrooms.
Jake decided that it was really strange and he started calling his girlfriend, Alice. But it went straight to unavailable too.
This goes on for the entire day and it was starting to get uncomfortable. Jake stares at the empty roads and darkness of the night sky stretching as far as they can go.
No one was available.
Clutching Jason's phone in one hand and his own in another, he decided to go back to his apartment and hope that when he goes out again, everything will be fine as they were before he woke up on the fateful Sunday morning.
In what seemed like hours later, Jason's phone suddenly rings again. Jake quickly picks up the phone and stares at the screen hoping that it was someone familiar. The words [ Caller Unknown ] flashes across the screen. Jake hesitates a little, and then picks up the phone.
Jake: "Hello?"
Caller Unknown: "Hello. Is this Jake?"
A chilling unfamiliar voice answers.
Jake: "Hey, yes it is! Wait. Isn't this Jason's phone? How do you know... wait. Who is this?"
Caller Unknown: *zzt. zzzt.*
Jake: "Hello?? Who is this???"
Caller Unknown: "Do you find this world a little lonely, Jake?" *zzt. zzzt.*
Jake: "Who is this? Please answer??"
Caller Unknown: "It all ended." *zzzt.* "The ones you love." *zzzzt. zzt.* "All of humankind."
Jake: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WHO IS THIS??"
*Call ended.*
Jake stares at the phone. 'It should be a prank call.' '...' 'But why does he know my name?' Jake recalls the series of events that happened in the afternoon. The strange scenario where everyone was suddenly gone. A chill runs down his spine.
He tries calling the Unknown number again. But it reaches to unavailable.
Monday morning came.
The sun shines through his windows again promisingly. But as he walked out of his room to find Jason, Jason was no where to be found. Mondays were when his class starts. No one was there. Everything was unavailable, but everything is working, the fans, the air conds, the lights.
Mondays was when Alice promises to meet him too. There was no Alice, not a trace of her.
Also, there was not a single soul in restaurants, there was no one cafes, nor in convenient stores.
Tuesdays were frantically searching in apartments and classes too, but again, nothing was available and nothing was there.
Wednesday was the same.
What shocked Jake most was when he decided to call both of his parents, but it was unavailable too.
Wednesday afternoon Jake decided to drive in a carless highway down the road to visit his parents. But they were not there. It was the last straw.
This is the last straw.
On the Wednesday night, Jake sat in his living room saying aloud:
"I can't be deluded. It's weird that there was no one, not even the normal people walking about on streets or in class. It's like as if.... there was no one."
"I can't even buy shit from the convenient store and restaurants because there was no one. I went down on a traffic-less, car-less highway. To end up to my very own house.
And there was no one."
"Calls were unavailable."
"I am not crazy, am I?"
"Or I am."
"Cuz it's weird."
"..."
"Maybe I need a pill."
In a blurry and anxious state, Jake downs the pills in one go.
Jake went to take a nap shortly after that, hands holding his phone and the other holding the pill bottle.
[ Thursday, 10:00am. ]
Morning came.
Feeling tired, Jake opens his eyes a little and stares at the ceiling. A pang of worry crosses him as he remembered that he was still all alone.
Suddenly, he felt a shadow looming at his side. He wakes up immediately in shock.
He turned to look at the figure beside him and gasp in shock.
Alice: "It's just me. I came to hang out. How's your sleep?"
Jake: "ALICE?? IS THAT REALLY YOU? ALICE! I WAS LOOKING ALL OVER THE PLACE, EVERYWHERE, THERE WAS NO ONE, NO ONE!"
Alice: "Yeah, it's just me."
Alice was smiling sweetly at Jake.
Jake: "IS THIS REAL? OH GOD. YOU'RE THE FIRST ONE TO APPEAR IN 3 WHOLE DAYS!"
Alice: "Babe, are you out of your mind? What do you mean by no one. Jason is outside cooking breakfast. Wanna join us for breakfast?"
Jake: "Wait. Jason is here too? Oh my god. This is awesome!"
Alice: "Yeah, he is outside. Let's get breakfast."
Jake: "Alright!"
Jake was ecstatic was happiness. His feelings of worry evaporated and is replaced with relief and joy.
As he follows Alice out to the kitchen, Jason was not in sight. But a pan of Bacon is simmering on the pan. He turned to Alice.
Jake: "Where's Jason?"
Alice: "He's right there. Are you blind? Hahahha."
Alice pointed to the thin air where Jason is supposed to be. On an empty chair.
Alice: "I'm hungry. Alright. Let's eat."
Alice walks up to the stove and picks up a pair of chopsticks to transfer the bacon into three plates and walks up the the kitchen table and places the 3 plates on the table.
Alice then picks up a fork and knife and proceeds eating the bacon. Jake sits quietly, still in shock and stares at Alice.
Jake: "Alice...."
Alice: "Why didn't you come on Monday, Jake? There was a presentation in class. I was waiting for you. I called you but no one answered. Were you sick?"
Jake: "I came on Monday, Alice. No one was there. No one."
Alice: "Don't be stupid. Everyone was in class but you."
Jake: "Alice. Stop joking. Please, babe."
Jake stares at the third plate where the bacon sits, uneaten.
Jake: "Jason isn't here. No one is in class. Can't you see?"
Alice: "Stop it Jake. Look in front of you, Jason is there. You blind person."
Jake: "No. Alice. Jason is not there, wake up."
Alice: "Ugh. You're outta your mind hahaha."
Jake: "Alice."
Alice: "What?"
Jake: "Is this an imagination?"
Alice: "What imagination?"
Jake: "I can't see Jason. I can only see you."
Alice: "Stop with the pick up lines, they're always silly. Eat your food."
Jake: "I'm serious."
Jake starts getting a little frustrated, he felt extremely uncomfortable. He starts doubting the things he sees around him.
Jake: "Are you real?"
Alice: "Uh, yeah?"
Jake thinks about the weird exchange of conversations that were happening before him. The things he can and cannot see. He can't help but feel like the world is playing tricks on him.
He proceeded to touch Alice's hand. It was real. They were real. She IS real.
Alice: "Why? Do you miss me so much?"
Jake: "Yeah?"
Alice: "Aww. Okay. Then eat your food. They're gonna get cold."
Jake felt weird. It was weird. But at least Alice is real. At least he feels a real pang of relief now.
Jake: "Okay. But this is too much for me to put in. Can I... Nah. I WILL go get beer to calm myself down."
Jake proceeds to the fridge. But there was not a single can left in the frige. He then heads to his room to find something that can calm him down. As he walked in, he saw a can of pills sitting on his desk. Feeling nothing but the urge to calm down, he grabs the can to open it.
Alice: "Stop being stupid. It's only 11a.m."
Jake: "Nah."
Alice: "Really, stop. You're always taking that thing whenever you feel un-calm or whatever. There are other things out there you can do besides snorting freaking drugs you know."
Jake: "Yeah. Stop saying what I can or can't do. Jesus Christ. You always dictate what I can or can't do. Even after I don't meet you for 3 days, you come back being the same. I really need this, because of everything that has happened this morning, you can see Jason, I can't. You suddenly appear out of nowhere after 3 days of weird, stupid things happening where everyone, EVEN you, disappeared. Let me just do this shit for once without you stopping me."
Alice: "Well, if you really wanna calm down, we can talk okay? I will be here for you. Just talk. Just stop taking those things. Please. You're literally doing it everyday."
Jake slids a pill down his throat with no regards. An expression of sadness crossed Alice's face. She glanced at Jake.
Alice: "Fine. Do whatever."
It was a strange mood in the entire exchange between Alice and Jake for the remaining day, but Jake was feeling fine. They both were playing card games, watching their favorite series on TV and cuddling for the entire day. Despite the pill situation, everything was great. Jake had enjoyed it. He felt happy that Alice was back. At night, Alice mentioned that it was getting dark and she wanted to head home. Jake hesitated and wanted Alice to stay. To be honest, he wasn't feeling really safe about how things are. He was worried about Alice. But she insisted on going home.
Jake: "Are you really alright? At least stay a night?"
Alice: "Don't you worry. Let's meet again tomorrow. In uni. In class. I promise."
Jake then lets her head home. At least Alice is back. At least he still gets to meet her again tomorrow. That is for sure.
[ Friday, 8:00am. ]
The classroom is empty.
So are the streets, the hall, and everywhere he went.
And it was the usual.
Jake wanted to scream. But he also wanted to wait. So he waited. He sat in the classroom and checked on his phone. He decided not to call Alice anymore. It is either that she comes, or that she doesn't.
An entire day passed. Not a single soul entered the classroom. Feeling empty, he decided to head home. At this point of time, it is natural for anyone to even want to kill themselves. As he left the classroom, the empty halls and the university, he continued to walk in a slow pace with his head hung low. Reminiscing the times where there were still people. It was utter madness, 'Have I gone mad?' he repeatedly say to himself in a whisper.
As he turned to the empty road that led to his apartment, a dark figure clad in black stops in front him.
Jake: "Who are you?"
Jake don't even care anymore at this point. He didn't even properly look at the man standing in front of him.
End: "Do you need help? You seem sad."
Jake: "Well of course I'm sad. Everyone I know and don't know disappeared. Well, whatever I don't care anymore."
End: "Since everyone disappeared anyway, why don't you end your life too?"
Jake: "Maybe that's what I should do. Ain't it?"
He says quietly without looking up.
End: "Yeah. I mean, since the drug is ending your life anyway. Might as well."
Jake looks up suddenly. The man clad in black chuckled.
End: "Don't you see? The things you've done. You do not care about anyone. That is why they left you."
Jake stares at the man. Sudden thoughts of Jason and Alice crossed his mind. The words they say. The way Jason disappeared after he went to do Jake's laundry. The way his girlfriend constantly reminds him to not do drugs or take alcohol every day. He brushes all of them off. And he never gave anything in return. He is left with nothing now. He looks down to the ground again, in defiance, he shook his head. 'I'm not gonna run. I'm not gonna end it just like that.'
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After the first attempt on the story, sir says that I should find a storyline with less dialogue to work with so it'll be easier to film and it will be a lot shorter. We discussed the storyline and settled with a shorter story. This time, the story is about a boy that have behavioural issues and also drug issues and is slowly losing everyone he loves around him. At the end, he ends up dying alone, which Mr Martin says is the best way to end the story for him. This is the second attempt on the story:
Characters:
Jake - Main character. The boy with the bad personality. He uses his girlfriend as a plaything and
mostly disrespects and ignores the people around him that only wants him to do good in life. He abuses drugs and drinks often in order to get the 'high' feeling that he always craves for.
Alice - Jason's girlfriend.
---
Jason - Jason's friend. He is a nice guy that helps encourage Jake. Jake dislikes him.
Jess - Jason's friend. Another friend of Jake that only stays for drinking and playing. Not as bad as Jake in terms of personality but equal.
Han - Jason's friend. Same as Jess.
---
Hanna - Jake's sister. She is older than Jake and worries about Jake a lot.
Faye - Alice's friend. She comes finding Jake and asked where has Alice disappeared to.
Scenes:
Scene 1: They're partying in Jason's house. Jake is being an asshole smoking and drinking. Hug his girlfriend and blew smoke into her face. She is upset. His friend jokes about him being an asshole. He jokes too. She accepts it despite him not saying sorry. He left.
Scene 2: Jake wakes up in his room preparing to go to uni, he sense his sister's disappearance. He goes to class to find his friend disappeared. He does not care. Alice went to Jake's house and talks to him about Jason's disappearance and convince him to find
Jason. Jake scolds Alice and makes her feel bad. She argues back. He asks her to disappear. She left.
Scene 3: Next morning he went to class. Faye, Alice roommate came to ask Jake where did Alice go. Jake finds out Alice disappeared. At first, he is still mad about the day before, but slowly he feels more and more uneasy about the case. He went home to take drugs to soothe his feelings.
Scene 4: Jake wakes up the next morning feeling totally helpless and dazed. He took more drugs. He then goes to uni and sits there till sunrise. Nobody came. Everyone disappeared. He calls anyone he can reached but everyone's phone just says "line unavailable". He breaks down and rushes home to take more drugs in large amounts to soothe himself.
Scene 5: Alice comes back. He feels happy and hugs her. They spend the day together almost forgetting that the disappearance existed. Alice then wanted to take a selfie to remember this day of happiness. They then end the day sleeping together due to Jake's requests.
Scene 6: He wakes up without Alice beside him. He checked his phone and there are no selfies and evidences that they were together the day before. Feeling totally helpless he took drugs again. But he could not feel the effects anymore. He then got even more frustrated and downs the entire bottle and overdoses and dies.
Storyline:
#1: Party scene with lots of close friends.
Scene 1 - Party scene in Jason's apartment. It is around midnight, Jake's close friends and his girlfriend is there too. They are playing card games and drinking and smoking.
Scene 2 -Jake's girlfriend decided to bring up a topic about going to an island for the semester holidays. Jake's friends all agreed and waited for Jake's answer.
Scene 3 - He agrees too. Jake then hugs his girlfriend and blew cigarette smokes into his girlfriend's face. She did not like it.
Scene 4 - He laughed. She grimaced in disgust and expects an apology. But he did not give and laughed loudly into her face.
Scene 5 - Jason joked about Jake and told him to stop being an asshole.
Scene 6 - Jake just laughed and ignores it as he receives a text from his sister asking him to come home as it is already very late. Jake then asks if anyone wanted to play blackjack.
Scene 7 - Nobody wanted to. Everyone wanted to go home. Jason didn't want to either.
Scene 8 - Jake looked at his girlfriend and asks her if she wanted to go home. She is still upset, but she lightened up a bit.
Scene 9 - Jake then joked about his girlfriend being nice and good and then leaves the apartment without a word. Leaving her behind to go home alone.
#2: The first disappearance.
Scene 10 - Jake went home. He played some games, looked at the time, to him, it is still early. He feels bored and popped a pill to feel better. He then goes to sleep.
Scene 11 - Jake wakes up to the morning alarm. He looks at the timetable and rolls back to bed and sigh. He continues to lie in bed and wait for his sister to come to knock on his door. But it is just silence for a while.
Scene 12 - He went out to check on his sister because he finds it odd that she didn't call him. She isn't in the apartment. He then ignores it thinking that she went out and ate breakfast, prepares to go to uni.
Scene 13 - He goes to uni, as usual, he goes to class, sits down and look around. It is weird that Jason isn't there. He ignores it and just hung around in class as usual.
Scene 14 - 3 days past, Jason still isn't in class. He feels a bit odd but ignores the feeling. But the entire class is already curious about where Jason may be. They called him but he did not answer. A few said that they went to his apartment to find him too but he isn't there.
Scene 15 - Jake feels a bit weirded out about Jason's disappearance but also secretly happy that he isn't there to interrupt his fun anymore.
Scene 16 - Jake's friends ask Jake if he is worried and to find Jason together, but Jake brushes it off. That night he went home in peace and sleeps peacefully, continuously taking drugs and also alcohol to keep his 'fun' alive.
Scene 17 - Alice went to find Jake that night and lectured him about not caring about anyone. Even his alleged 'best friend', Jason. She argues with Jake but Jake shouts back at her saying that she shouldn't care too much about the disappearance. Alice feels upset about Jake's lack of care.
Scene 18 - Jake tried hugging Alice and told her to stay that night. He is still being playful despite his friend's disappearance. She feels upset and talked about how much she dislikes his lack of care. Jake then shouts at Alice and asked her to disappear too.
Scene 19 - Alice left his apartment crying.
#3: The second disappearance.
Scene 20 - It's morning. Feeling dazed, Jake drugged himself out of misery in his room. He then prepares to go to class.
Scene 21 - In class, Alice's friend and roommate, Faye, rushed to Jake's class to ask Jake where has Alice gone. Jake then finds out Alice did not return home that night.
Scene 22 - Still angry at Alice, Jake shrugs his shoulder and says that he does not know. He does not care either. But Jake secretly feels the wallowing fear that is slowly burning in him. He has flashbacks to Jason's disappearance and now, Alice's.
Scene 23 - He continues to concentrate in class but sounds around him are slowly fading away, leaving him feeling as lonely as he could be. His wild thoughts are drowning away the sound in the classroom.
Scene 24 - When class ends, he rushes back to his apartment, the surrounding environment feels like a total silence around him.
Scene 25 - Slowly, he is feeling more and more disturbed about the disappearance of Jason and Alice.
Scene 26 - As he reached home, feeling a bit more and more uneasy, he went to reach for the bottle of drugs that he has always taken whenever he feels upset, he took those drugs and feels better after a while.
Scene 27 - He lies in bed and feels the uneasiness slowly fading away as he drifted to sleep.
#4: The increase in loneliness.
Scene 28 - Jake wakes up in total darkness feeling increasingly worried and upset. It is only 4am in the morning but he is determined to get out of bed to go to uni.
Scene 29 - He reaches uni and sits alone in class there until sunrise. Hours pass by but nobody came to class. He is shocked and looked at the time. It is already 11am. There is supposed to be an 8am class.
Scene 30 - He walked out of the classroom. He walked to the halls, the restaurants, and all the other classes but nobody is there. He checked his phone and tried to call anyone, but nobody picks up and it is "line unavailable".
Scene 31 - Shocked, he breaks down a bit and shouted loudly, clutching his head. He then thinks about Jason and Alice and he thinks about how he told Alice to "disappear" too.
Scene 32 - He then rushes home and rest. Mind endlessly thinking about the disappearance and about losing his mind.
Scene 33 - He reached for a large amount of drugs and swigs of alcohol again. Hoping for a miracle cure to his mind losing.
#5: The comeback.
Scene 34 - 2 days of endless struggle of mind losing versus reality passed.
Scene 35 - Jake wakes up in his sofa, staring at the familiar face looking down at him. He feels estatic with shock and immediately hugs Alice.
Scene 36 - Alice turned up in his home. Evidence of alcohol abuse and drug abuse scattered on the floor of Jake's apartment.
Scene 37 - Jake was happy with Alice's return. He hugged Alice and talked about how he was losing his mind about the disappearance of her.
Scene 38 - Alice reassures Jake that she is there for him and that she is here now so everything is alright.
Scene 39 - They spend the rest of the day together just playing and forgetting the disappearance ever happened. Alice then takes a selfie together with him using his phone and left his phone on the table.
Scene 40 - They end the day with Alice in bed with him.
#6: The last bit.
Scene 40 - Jake wakes up to him laying on his bed without Alice next to him.
Scene 41 - Jake then looks at his phone for the pictures they took together. But there was none.
Scene 42 - Feeling nothing, he puts the phone down and walks towards his house's balcony to look out. No one but rain and clouds.
Scene 43 - He sighs and messed up his hair a bit and then walks to his bedroom.
Scene 44 - While walking pass he accidentally knocks over the bottle of pills left on the coffee table in his living room.
Scene 45 - He picks up the bottle amidst the floor of alcohol bottles and rubbish.
Scene 46 - He then sighed deeply in frustration and opens the bottle to swallow the pill in hopes to make himself feel better. But this time, there is no feeling.
Scene 47 - Feeling even more frustrated, he opens the bottle again and downs the entire bottle of pills. He then sits on the floor feeling utterly hopeless.
The end.
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Mr Martin says that the second attempt of the story has too many characters in it, so he decided to cut down the character count to about 2 main characters, which is Alice and Jake and also a few of their other friends as a background character. This is the third attempt for the story:
Characters:
Jake - Main character. The boy with the bad personality. He uses his girlfriend as a plaything and
mostly disrespects and ignores the people around him that only wants him to do good in life. He abuses drugs and drinks often in order to get the 'high' feeling that he always craves for.
Alice - Jason's girlfriend.
Jason - Jason's friend. He is a nice guy that helps encourage Jake. Jake dislikes him.
Jess - Jason's friend. Another friend of Jake that only stays for drinking and playing. Not as bad as Jake in terms of personality but equal.
Han - Jason's friend. Same as Jess.
Story:
Scene 1- Alice, Jake's girlfriend looks annoyed while playing with her phone at the dining table, she feels bored. Jake is in a party with Alice, Jason, Jess and Han. They are playing poker and whoever loses needs to take drugs. Jake lost. He threw his cards on the table violently and loudly cursed. But seemed unfaltered by the fact he needed to take those drugs, he is just upset that he lost. When prompted to take drugs, he took them willingly. Then laughed and shouted loudly at his girlfriend to get him a beer. He looked at her and she looked back angrily. He gave her an annoyed glance. She then walked back into her room without acknowledging Jake. Jake gets increasingly angry and stomped into the room. Upon reaching, Jason stopped him. Seeing the situation worsen, Jess and Han requested to leave. Jason then coax Jake to feel better and told him not to be angry at his girlfriend. Jake told Jason to 'fuck off'. Jason disappeared.
Scene 2- Alice is at her dressing table putting on makeup preparing to go somewhere. Jake tries to hug Alice from the back, trying to smooch Alice. She isn't having it as she was angry from the night before. She pushes him away and stood up and prepares to leave. He shouted at her saying 'so you're gonna leave then? I'm forgiving you for yesterday and now you're gonna act like some bitch?' She looks back at him angrily. 'go then!' he smashes the makeup on the table until it fell to the floor and then kicks the chair. 'disappear!' Alice is gone.
Scene 3- Gaining pride, Jake becomes more of an asshole. After Alice left, he went to the fridge and opens food, pills and beer cans and after consuming, throwing onto the ground for Alice to pick when she comes back. Then he proceeds into her cupboard to purposefully mess up her clothes and makeup, destroying her make up by throwing them all over her dresser and clothes and just having fun and laughing.
Scene 4- He reaches to uni to consult his lecturer regarding his assignment and the lecturer then dislikes his work and he walked out of the consultation room, crumpled his notes and threw them at the corner outside the classroom. He then fishes a bottle of beer from his bag and drinks then receives a text from Jess and Han to smoke.
Scene 5- He went to meet Jess and Han to smoke. While smoking Han made a joke about Jake and Jess laughed but Jake isn't having it. Jake then losses it and was about to hold up his arm to punch Han but when he looked at Han, everyone around him disappeared. His vision blurs a bit as he clutches his head and shakes his head. He turned to look around him but there was no one. Walking around, he has a weird feeling that everyone disappeared. He turned to call Alice but the number
is unavailable. He then walks around the campus and around him home but there was no one.
Scene 6- Feeling a bit dazed, he goes home while clutching his head and grunts. Reaching his house, he goes to the fridge and opens more beer cans and throws them on the floor after consuming. He looked at the pill bottle blurrily on the table and consumes a few. Feeling kinda heavy headed he shouted 'Alice, get me a beer..' but then realized Alice isn't there anymore.
He then took more drugs and is knocked out on the sofa.
Scene 7- He opens his eyes to see Alice staring down at him. Alice comes back. He feels relieved and hugs her. They spend the day together almost forgetting that the disappearance happened. Alice then wanted to take a selfie to remember this day of happiness. They then end the day sleeping together due to Jake's requests.
Scene 8- He wakes up without Alice beside him. He checked his phone and there are no selfies and evidence that they were together the day before. Feeling totally helpless he took drugs again. But he could not feel the effects anymore. He then got even more frustrated and downs the entire bottle and overdoses and dies.
Story breakdown:
Scene 1:(Jake, Jason, Jess, Han and Alice)
1. Alice playing phone on the dining table feeling annoyed and bored.
2. Jake and Han and Jess playing poker loudly in the living room.
3. Han and Jess laughed and joke about whoever loses need to take drugs.
4. Jake lost and threw the cards violently on the table and cursed.
5. Jake then demands the drug.
6. Jake takes the drug.
7. Jake laughs loudly and asked Alice to hand him a beer.
8. Jake looks at Alice.
9. Alice looks back at Jake angrily.
10. Jake gives Alice an annoyed glance.
11. Alice ignores Jake and walks into her room.
12. Jake gets up angrily and stomp into her room.
13. Almost reaching, Jason stops Jake.
14. Jess and Han leaves the house.
15. Jason told Jake not to be angry at Alice.
16. Jake asked Jason to "f off".
17. Jason disappeared.
Scene 2:(Alice and Jake)
1. Alice at the dressing table putting on make up.
2. Jake attempts to hug Alice.
3. Alice gets angry and pushes Jake away.
4. Alice got up and took her bag.
5. Jake says to Alice "So you're gonna leave then? I'm forgiving you for ystd and now you're going to act like an asshole?"
6. Alice looks back at Jake angrily.
7. Jake says to Alice "Go then!"
8. Jake smashes the make up off the table and kicks the chair.
9. Jake shouts to Alice "Disappear!"
10. Alice disappeared.
Scene 3:(Jake)
1. Jake opens the fridge and eats some food, drinks some beer and throw them on the floor. He then took a pill and places it on the table.
2. Jake goes into Alice room and into her cupboard to mess up her clothes and make up.
3. Jake laughs.
Scene 4:(Jake)
1. Jake goes to uni to consult lecturer.
2. Jake walks out of consultation room.
3. Jake crumpled his notes and throws them.
4. Jake fishes a beer from his bag and drinks.
5. Jake receives a text from Jess and Han to smoke.
Scene 5:(Jess, Han and Jake)
1. Jake walks to smoking area to meet Jess and Han.
2. They are all smoking.
3. Han made a joke about Jake and Jess laugh.
4. Jake losses it and holds up his arm about to punch Han.
5. Jake looks up at Han.
6. Everyone disappeared.
7. Jake blurs and clutches his head.
8. Jake looks around.
9. Jake turns to call Alice but unavailable.
10. Jake walks around campus.
11. Jake goes home.
Scene 6:(Jake)
1. Jake clutches his head and shakes it and grunts.
2. Jake goes to the fridge to open a can of beer.
3. Jake throws the can on the floor after a few gulps.
4. Jake looks at the pill bottle on the table.
5. Jake took a pill.
6. Jake feels heavy headed.
7. Jake calls out for Alice to hand him the beer.
8. Jake realizes Alice isn't there anymore.
9. Jake took more pills and is knocked out on the sofa.
Scene 7:(Alice and Jake)
1. Jake opens his eyes.
2. Alice stares down at him.
3. Jake feels relieved.
4. Alice and Jake spends the day together.
5. Alice takes a selfie.
6. Alice says she is sleepy and they then took a nap together.
Scene 8:(Jake)
1. Jake wakes up without Alice beside him.
2. Jake checks his phone to find no selfies with him.
3. Jake feels helpless.
4. Jake went and took more drugs.
5. Jake does not feel the effects.
6. Jake feels frustrated.
7. Jake takes more drugs.
8. Jake overdoses and dies.
Storyboard
After writing the story, we then have to draw the storyboard based on the breakdown of the story that Mr Martin approves. The storyboard Scene 1 to Scene 7 is as below:
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Final Project
After finalizing the story, I am required to find a place to film the video. The location are as below:
I-Sovo Condominium at I-City, Shah Alam:
- Bedroom and Balcony
- Living room
- Kitchen
For the actors and actresses, I've decided to ask a few friends of mine to help me. The actors and actresses that are helping me in my film are as below:
Main Characters:
Jake: Edric Cheah
Alice: Jing Ying
Side Characters:
Jason: Billy Tan
Jess: Deepa Mohandass
Han: Bryan Cheah
For the final project, I decided to go with a blue filter colour scheme because blue can represent isolation, coldness, melancholy, passivity and calmness. In my story, the main character is a very passive and cold person, and after his girlfriend left him, he is isolated and feels the need to kill himself.
Colour Grading Reference:
When all went well, we decided to proceed with the shoot. After the first shooting, Mr Martin says that I have a jumpcut on one of my scenes but he asked me not to reshoot the scene as I have shot the scene at an Air BnB and I could not book it again to reshoot. But there is a scene that he have asked me to reshoot, such as the death scene, as he says that my death scene is too confusing and he did not know if the main character died. We also decided to change the storyline a little and cut off a few scenes that includes the side characters as it does not work well with the entire film.
After the second shooting, Mr Martin asked me to edit the video and show him the final outcome, in which he decided to show me how to edit the audio and trim a few more scenes to get it to work. After that, I editted the video and then Mr Martin asked me to finalize it for submission.
The final short film is as below:
0327622
Bachelor of Multimedia Design
Semester 2 (March 2018 ~ July 2018)
Video Editing and Production
Project 1
During week 2, we were asked to come up with an idea for a story. This is my first attempt on the story writing based on the theme:
What will happen if people on earth suddenly disappeared?
Characters:
Jake: Boy, student, loves playing video games, anxious, bored, has a girlfriend and lives with his housemate.
The only guy to survive after humans are suddenly wiped out of earth.
Jason: Boy, 20 years old, housemate of Jake, disappeared one day along with all the other humans on earth.
Alice: Girl, girlfriend of Jake, disappeared. One day reappearing in his apartment as a lifeless automated robot that only speaks limited sentences.
End: An ethereal being, visits Jake after 3 days of humans disappearing. Encourages Jake to end his life with the others because, why not? Everyone disappeared anyway.
Summary of story:
Jake is an ordinary uni student that has a few friends and a girlfriend that cares about him. He enjoys playing games and hanging out with his pals but he has a bad habit, he enjoys taking recreational drugs even when people around him had tried to stop him. He lead a fairly ordinary life until one day, while being bored and snorting powder, he found himself unconscious and in a blurry world full of weird incidents, many of the people around him started disappearing one by one, leaving him feeling totally confused and helpless but he mistakens it for real life. After 3 whole days of disappearance, his girlfriend came back and he was happy for a moment, but then, she disappears again.Afterwards, an entity visits Jake and tells him that "since all people who he care about are disappearing anyway, why don't you end your life too?" The entity promises Jake that it will end his misery.
Ending:
Jake fought hard and struggled to survive. He found that the entity is just all in his mind.
Slowly, one by one, people started coming back into his life and Jake quit drugs and started focusing on building his life right again.
Story:
[ Saturday, 3:30pm.]
Jake sits in his living room staring at the non-sensical programme playing on TV, bored out of his mind, he walks up and grabs another beer from the fridge. Heaving a sigh, he sits on the couch again, drinking the beer in huge gulps. With a hand fiddling the remote, he constantly switches the channel. Shaking his leg in boredom, he lets out a yawn. It is saturday and he has nothing going on. He looks at the ceiling, then to the right as he hears a door opens. Jason comes out holding a bag of dirty laundry.
Jason: "Hey, I'm gonna go to the cleaners downstairs as our washer has spoiled. Do you have anything you want to wash as well? Since I'm heading down, do you want to follow me? We can go grab some food afterwards."
Jake: "Yeah, okay, let me go get my clothes."
Jake walks into his room and picks up the pile of dirty laundry lying on his chair. He then walks out and hands Jason a couple of coins.
Jake: "Here, some coins and my clothes. I'm not going down. Thanks bruh."
Jason: "O...kay. Alright then. I'm gonna head down now. Do you really not want to come with me?"
Jake: "Nah."
Jason: "Okay. I mean, this has been like the 10th time this month that I'm going down by myself to get our laundry done. By myself."
Jake: "Thanks."
Jake nods and holds up his hand in a brushing gesture. Jason stares at Jake for a little moment and then heaves a sigh and proceeded to walk towards the door.
Jason: "Lock the door, alright."
Jake nods and then walks to the TV, picks up the remote control and switches the TV off as he hears the door opens at the distance. He then walks to the door and closes it as Jason walks off. *What do I do now?* Remembering that he just downloaded a new game last night, he walks towards his bedroom, switches on the aircond and sits in front of his desktop, lazily switching on his laptop and turn on his game. The screen flashes in front of his eyes, emitting neon pink and green light into the dark bedroom. A game starts playing, 8-bit music starts playing in the air as he press 'Play'. Entertaining himself, the air is filled with the sound of mouse-clicking. He swigs another shot of beer as minutes flew by. He wonders if he can ask his girlfriend out for the night. He reaches for the phone that was lying on top of his desk. Empty. No messages. No calls. No replies from the messages that he previously send. He heaves another sigh. *nevermind, it is expected.* He then scrolls to his girlfriend's number and calls.
Alice: "Hi, what's up?"
Jake: "Hey Alice, just gonna ask if you're free tonight? We can go for dinner and then maybe you can follow me to get more beer later? My fridge has been running low."
Alice: "Ohhh heyyy Jake, I'm sorry but I'm busy tonight. Gotta go out with Cecelia to pick out a birthday gift for her boyfriend."
Jake: "Oh, how about tomorrow? Ya free?"
Alice: "Well, it is Cecelia's boyfriend's birthday tomorrow and she asked me to attend and I already said yes... sorry bae I will see you on Monday."
Jake: "Ah... well then, it is fine. Have fun and see you on Monday then."
Alice: "And can you stop drinking so much alcohol everyday? It's bad for your health. And stop the pills and those freaking things at that too. Please?"
Jake: "Fine. Enjoy your time with Cecelia."
Alice: "Okay then babe! Ciaos."
Jake: "Ciaos."
The phone closes to a click. Jake was wondering if he was going to be home and bored again on a Saturday night. Well, nevermind, at least he could 'continue his game, and then he can meet Alice on Monday.' He thought. 'I can get the beer myself. No need for Alice.' He then places his phone down and stares at his desktop screen, the game is playing halfway, 8-bit music still playing. He sighs as he looks at his phone again. He then walks to his bed. He lies in his bed drifting in aimless thoughts and boredom. Feeling lonesome and bored, he stares at the pills sitting on top of his desk beside his pack of cigarettes. *Maybe if he took those pills, he can be drifting in relaxation and happiness? 'Well, at least it will be better than nothing.' He took two pills and popped them in his mouth and drowns it in with the leftover beer. He then props himself in bed, hands over head, staring at the ceiling. Music playing in the air as his thoughts slow to a very calming type of blur.
[[ ... ]]
It was all a blur.
Calmness.
It faded into black.
[ Sunday, 8:00am. ]
The sun shines brightly through the edges of the curtains, the desktop now shut down due to low battery, the fan whirling on top of him. Jake lays awake, rubbing the sleepiness off of his eyes. *Did I really slept for 17 hours?* Jake stares at the clock that was sitting at the nightstand beside his bed. He sits up, grabs his phone and checks for messages. No messages. "Ah", Jake says aloud. "The norm." He then places his phone down and got up to walk to his kitchen to get a cup of coffee. When he walks to the kitchen, he pours himself a cup of hot coffee and then leans against the pantry to sip his coffee. It was a bright and sunny day, he thinks that is it the perfect opportunity to get Jason to go down to have a jog with him. He then puts his coffee down and walks up to Jason's room.
Jake: "Jason, are you awake?" He knocks on the door with 2 loud thuds.
Jake: "Jasonnnnn?"
Jake: "Its 8am, would you like to go down to jog with me? Get the extra weight off of you." He knocks the door again with more thuds.
Jason did not reply. *He must be sleeping.* Jake assumes. He then goes to the drawer in his living room to get the keys to Jason's room.
Jake: "Aw, come on, we always jog on Sunday mornings. Don't be so lazy. I am going to come in if you do not wake up."
There's still no sound to be heard from the door. Jake then grabs the key and opens the door. Jason was not to be found on his room. Jake also knows that the bathroom door is open so Jason could not be in there. Jason's shoes are all in the apartment too so that means that Jason could still be in the apartment. He then went to his room to grab his phone to call Jason.
"The number you have dialed is not reachable. Please leave a message after the tune. *beep*"
Jake then places his phone down on the coffee table and sat on the living room couch. He then switches on the TV to watch some movies. *Jason must've gone somewhere with his shoes.*
Jake thought. *He will be back anyways, it is fine.*
[ Sunday, 12:00pm. ]
Hours passed by. Jason still isn't back yet. Jake decided that he was bored with TV now and wants to go back to his room to play more video games. He then walks to his room. As he pass Jason's room, all of a sudden, a faint ringing tune was heard from Jason's room. *What?* Jake went in. Jason's phone was hiding under his bedsheet. He picks up the phone and looks at the screen. [ Caller Unknown ] *How can Jason be so careless to leave his phone in his room and went out?* A flash of worry crosses Jake. Jake then picks up his phone to dial Jason's closest friend, Bryan. The phoneline immediately goes to unavailable. He then dials another one of Jason's friends. It goes to unavailable too. He stares at the phone screen. *It was impossible. How can a phoneline that is used be unavailable?* Jake then gives up calling any of Jason's friends and decided to walk downstairs to possibly find Jason, hanging out in the food stall he always goes to.
Jake opens the front door and closes it behind him. He then walks down the hallway and enters a lift. In the entire journey down to the lift and then the walk to the food stall, not a single soul was to be found. It occured to Jake that is was strange as the hallways and lifts are normally packed with people, or have either one of two people around. As Jake reaches the food stall, he scoured around for people. The food stall is open. The fans are running but there is not even a single person to be seen. It was strange. Jake then walks up to the counter to see if there may be anyone sitting behind the counter. But as he reaches there, there was no one too. He shouts to order food, but no one replies,
which is awkward as there should be people. He then walks around the entire area of the vincinity to look for anyone, but then again, there was no one to be found.
Not even at the road.
Nor the university.
Nor the shops.
Nor the lanes.
Nor the familiar classrooms.
Jake decided that it was really strange and he started calling his girlfriend, Alice. But it went straight to unavailable too.
This goes on for the entire day and it was starting to get uncomfortable. Jake stares at the empty roads and darkness of the night sky stretching as far as they can go.
No one was available.
Clutching Jason's phone in one hand and his own in another, he decided to go back to his apartment and hope that when he goes out again, everything will be fine as they were before he woke up on the fateful Sunday morning.
In what seemed like hours later, Jason's phone suddenly rings again. Jake quickly picks up the phone and stares at the screen hoping that it was someone familiar. The words [ Caller Unknown ] flashes across the screen. Jake hesitates a little, and then picks up the phone.
Jake: "Hello?"
Caller Unknown: "Hello. Is this Jake?"
A chilling unfamiliar voice answers.
Jake: "Hey, yes it is! Wait. Isn't this Jason's phone? How do you know... wait. Who is this?"
Caller Unknown: *zzt. zzzt.*
Jake: "Hello?? Who is this???"
Caller Unknown: "Do you find this world a little lonely, Jake?" *zzt. zzzt.*
Jake: "Who is this? Please answer??"
Caller Unknown: "It all ended." *zzzt.* "The ones you love." *zzzzt. zzt.* "All of humankind."
Jake: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WHO IS THIS??"
*Call ended.*
Jake stares at the phone. 'It should be a prank call.' '...' 'But why does he know my name?' Jake recalls the series of events that happened in the afternoon. The strange scenario where everyone was suddenly gone. A chill runs down his spine.
He tries calling the Unknown number again. But it reaches to unavailable.
Monday morning came.
The sun shines through his windows again promisingly. But as he walked out of his room to find Jason, Jason was no where to be found. Mondays were when his class starts. No one was there. Everything was unavailable, but everything is working, the fans, the air conds, the lights.
Mondays was when Alice promises to meet him too. There was no Alice, not a trace of her.
Also, there was not a single soul in restaurants, there was no one cafes, nor in convenient stores.
Tuesdays were frantically searching in apartments and classes too, but again, nothing was available and nothing was there.
Wednesday was the same.
What shocked Jake most was when he decided to call both of his parents, but it was unavailable too.
Wednesday afternoon Jake decided to drive in a carless highway down the road to visit his parents. But they were not there. It was the last straw.
This is the last straw.
On the Wednesday night, Jake sat in his living room saying aloud:
"I can't be deluded. It's weird that there was no one, not even the normal people walking about on streets or in class. It's like as if.... there was no one."
"I can't even buy shit from the convenient store and restaurants because there was no one. I went down on a traffic-less, car-less highway. To end up to my very own house.
And there was no one."
"Calls were unavailable."
"I am not crazy, am I?"
"Or I am."
"Cuz it's weird."
"..."
"Maybe I need a pill."
In a blurry and anxious state, Jake downs the pills in one go.
Jake went to take a nap shortly after that, hands holding his phone and the other holding the pill bottle.
[ Thursday, 10:00am. ]
Morning came.
Feeling tired, Jake opens his eyes a little and stares at the ceiling. A pang of worry crosses him as he remembered that he was still all alone.
Suddenly, he felt a shadow looming at his side. He wakes up immediately in shock.
He turned to look at the figure beside him and gasp in shock.
Alice: "It's just me. I came to hang out. How's your sleep?"
Jake: "ALICE?? IS THAT REALLY YOU? ALICE! I WAS LOOKING ALL OVER THE PLACE, EVERYWHERE, THERE WAS NO ONE, NO ONE!"
Alice: "Yeah, it's just me."
Alice was smiling sweetly at Jake.
Jake: "IS THIS REAL? OH GOD. YOU'RE THE FIRST ONE TO APPEAR IN 3 WHOLE DAYS!"
Alice: "Babe, are you out of your mind? What do you mean by no one. Jason is outside cooking breakfast. Wanna join us for breakfast?"
Jake: "Wait. Jason is here too? Oh my god. This is awesome!"
Alice: "Yeah, he is outside. Let's get breakfast."
Jake: "Alright!"
Jake was ecstatic was happiness. His feelings of worry evaporated and is replaced with relief and joy.
As he follows Alice out to the kitchen, Jason was not in sight. But a pan of Bacon is simmering on the pan. He turned to Alice.
Jake: "Where's Jason?"
Alice: "He's right there. Are you blind? Hahahha."
Alice pointed to the thin air where Jason is supposed to be. On an empty chair.
Alice: "I'm hungry. Alright. Let's eat."
Alice walks up to the stove and picks up a pair of chopsticks to transfer the bacon into three plates and walks up the the kitchen table and places the 3 plates on the table.
Alice then picks up a fork and knife and proceeds eating the bacon. Jake sits quietly, still in shock and stares at Alice.
Jake: "Alice...."
Alice: "Why didn't you come on Monday, Jake? There was a presentation in class. I was waiting for you. I called you but no one answered. Were you sick?"
Jake: "I came on Monday, Alice. No one was there. No one."
Alice: "Don't be stupid. Everyone was in class but you."
Jake: "Alice. Stop joking. Please, babe."
Jake stares at the third plate where the bacon sits, uneaten.
Jake: "Jason isn't here. No one is in class. Can't you see?"
Alice: "Stop it Jake. Look in front of you, Jason is there. You blind person."
Jake: "No. Alice. Jason is not there, wake up."
Alice: "Ugh. You're outta your mind hahaha."
Jake: "Alice."
Alice: "What?"
Jake: "Is this an imagination?"
Alice: "What imagination?"
Jake: "I can't see Jason. I can only see you."
Alice: "Stop with the pick up lines, they're always silly. Eat your food."
Jake: "I'm serious."
Jake starts getting a little frustrated, he felt extremely uncomfortable. He starts doubting the things he sees around him.
Jake: "Are you real?"
Alice: "Uh, yeah?"
Jake thinks about the weird exchange of conversations that were happening before him. The things he can and cannot see. He can't help but feel like the world is playing tricks on him.
He proceeded to touch Alice's hand. It was real. They were real. She IS real.
Alice: "Why? Do you miss me so much?"
Jake: "Yeah?"
Alice: "Aww. Okay. Then eat your food. They're gonna get cold."
Jake felt weird. It was weird. But at least Alice is real. At least he feels a real pang of relief now.
Jake: "Okay. But this is too much for me to put in. Can I... Nah. I WILL go get beer to calm myself down."
Jake proceeds to the fridge. But there was not a single can left in the frige. He then heads to his room to find something that can calm him down. As he walked in, he saw a can of pills sitting on his desk. Feeling nothing but the urge to calm down, he grabs the can to open it.
Alice: "Stop being stupid. It's only 11a.m."
Jake: "Nah."
Alice: "Really, stop. You're always taking that thing whenever you feel un-calm or whatever. There are other things out there you can do besides snorting freaking drugs you know."
Jake: "Yeah. Stop saying what I can or can't do. Jesus Christ. You always dictate what I can or can't do. Even after I don't meet you for 3 days, you come back being the same. I really need this, because of everything that has happened this morning, you can see Jason, I can't. You suddenly appear out of nowhere after 3 days of weird, stupid things happening where everyone, EVEN you, disappeared. Let me just do this shit for once without you stopping me."
Alice: "Well, if you really wanna calm down, we can talk okay? I will be here for you. Just talk. Just stop taking those things. Please. You're literally doing it everyday."
Jake slids a pill down his throat with no regards. An expression of sadness crossed Alice's face. She glanced at Jake.
Alice: "Fine. Do whatever."
It was a strange mood in the entire exchange between Alice and Jake for the remaining day, but Jake was feeling fine. They both were playing card games, watching their favorite series on TV and cuddling for the entire day. Despite the pill situation, everything was great. Jake had enjoyed it. He felt happy that Alice was back. At night, Alice mentioned that it was getting dark and she wanted to head home. Jake hesitated and wanted Alice to stay. To be honest, he wasn't feeling really safe about how things are. He was worried about Alice. But she insisted on going home.
Jake: "Are you really alright? At least stay a night?"
Alice: "Don't you worry. Let's meet again tomorrow. In uni. In class. I promise."
Jake then lets her head home. At least Alice is back. At least he still gets to meet her again tomorrow. That is for sure.
[ Friday, 8:00am. ]
The classroom is empty.
So are the streets, the hall, and everywhere he went.
And it was the usual.
Jake wanted to scream. But he also wanted to wait. So he waited. He sat in the classroom and checked on his phone. He decided not to call Alice anymore. It is either that she comes, or that she doesn't.
An entire day passed. Not a single soul entered the classroom. Feeling empty, he decided to head home. At this point of time, it is natural for anyone to even want to kill themselves. As he left the classroom, the empty halls and the university, he continued to walk in a slow pace with his head hung low. Reminiscing the times where there were still people. It was utter madness, 'Have I gone mad?' he repeatedly say to himself in a whisper.
As he turned to the empty road that led to his apartment, a dark figure clad in black stops in front him.
Jake: "Who are you?"
Jake don't even care anymore at this point. He didn't even properly look at the man standing in front of him.
End: "Do you need help? You seem sad."
Jake: "Well of course I'm sad. Everyone I know and don't know disappeared. Well, whatever I don't care anymore."
End: "Since everyone disappeared anyway, why don't you end your life too?"
Jake: "Maybe that's what I should do. Ain't it?"
He says quietly without looking up.
End: "Yeah. I mean, since the drug is ending your life anyway. Might as well."
Jake looks up suddenly. The man clad in black chuckled.
End: "Don't you see? The things you've done. You do not care about anyone. That is why they left you."
Jake stares at the man. Sudden thoughts of Jason and Alice crossed his mind. The words they say. The way Jason disappeared after he went to do Jake's laundry. The way his girlfriend constantly reminds him to not do drugs or take alcohol every day. He brushes all of them off. And he never gave anything in return. He is left with nothing now. He looks down to the ground again, in defiance, he shook his head. 'I'm not gonna run. I'm not gonna end it just like that.'
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After the first attempt on the story, sir says that I should find a storyline with less dialogue to work with so it'll be easier to film and it will be a lot shorter. We discussed the storyline and settled with a shorter story. This time, the story is about a boy that have behavioural issues and also drug issues and is slowly losing everyone he loves around him. At the end, he ends up dying alone, which Mr Martin says is the best way to end the story for him. This is the second attempt on the story:
Characters:
Jake - Main character. The boy with the bad personality. He uses his girlfriend as a plaything and
mostly disrespects and ignores the people around him that only wants him to do good in life. He abuses drugs and drinks often in order to get the 'high' feeling that he always craves for.
Alice - Jason's girlfriend.
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Jason - Jason's friend. He is a nice guy that helps encourage Jake. Jake dislikes him.
Jess - Jason's friend. Another friend of Jake that only stays for drinking and playing. Not as bad as Jake in terms of personality but equal.
Han - Jason's friend. Same as Jess.
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Hanna - Jake's sister. She is older than Jake and worries about Jake a lot.
Faye - Alice's friend. She comes finding Jake and asked where has Alice disappeared to.
Scenes:
Scene 1: They're partying in Jason's house. Jake is being an asshole smoking and drinking. Hug his girlfriend and blew smoke into her face. She is upset. His friend jokes about him being an asshole. He jokes too. She accepts it despite him not saying sorry. He left.
Scene 2: Jake wakes up in his room preparing to go to uni, he sense his sister's disappearance. He goes to class to find his friend disappeared. He does not care. Alice went to Jake's house and talks to him about Jason's disappearance and convince him to find
Jason. Jake scolds Alice and makes her feel bad. She argues back. He asks her to disappear. She left.
Scene 3: Next morning he went to class. Faye, Alice roommate came to ask Jake where did Alice go. Jake finds out Alice disappeared. At first, he is still mad about the day before, but slowly he feels more and more uneasy about the case. He went home to take drugs to soothe his feelings.
Scene 4: Jake wakes up the next morning feeling totally helpless and dazed. He took more drugs. He then goes to uni and sits there till sunrise. Nobody came. Everyone disappeared. He calls anyone he can reached but everyone's phone just says "line unavailable". He breaks down and rushes home to take more drugs in large amounts to soothe himself.
Scene 5: Alice comes back. He feels happy and hugs her. They spend the day together almost forgetting that the disappearance existed. Alice then wanted to take a selfie to remember this day of happiness. They then end the day sleeping together due to Jake's requests.
Scene 6: He wakes up without Alice beside him. He checked his phone and there are no selfies and evidences that they were together the day before. Feeling totally helpless he took drugs again. But he could not feel the effects anymore. He then got even more frustrated and downs the entire bottle and overdoses and dies.
Storyline:
#1: Party scene with lots of close friends.
Scene 1 - Party scene in Jason's apartment. It is around midnight, Jake's close friends and his girlfriend is there too. They are playing card games and drinking and smoking.
Scene 2 -Jake's girlfriend decided to bring up a topic about going to an island for the semester holidays. Jake's friends all agreed and waited for Jake's answer.
Scene 3 - He agrees too. Jake then hugs his girlfriend and blew cigarette smokes into his girlfriend's face. She did not like it.
Scene 4 - He laughed. She grimaced in disgust and expects an apology. But he did not give and laughed loudly into her face.
Scene 5 - Jason joked about Jake and told him to stop being an asshole.
Scene 6 - Jake just laughed and ignores it as he receives a text from his sister asking him to come home as it is already very late. Jake then asks if anyone wanted to play blackjack.
Scene 7 - Nobody wanted to. Everyone wanted to go home. Jason didn't want to either.
Scene 8 - Jake looked at his girlfriend and asks her if she wanted to go home. She is still upset, but she lightened up a bit.
Scene 9 - Jake then joked about his girlfriend being nice and good and then leaves the apartment without a word. Leaving her behind to go home alone.
#2: The first disappearance.
Scene 10 - Jake went home. He played some games, looked at the time, to him, it is still early. He feels bored and popped a pill to feel better. He then goes to sleep.
Scene 11 - Jake wakes up to the morning alarm. He looks at the timetable and rolls back to bed and sigh. He continues to lie in bed and wait for his sister to come to knock on his door. But it is just silence for a while.
Scene 12 - He went out to check on his sister because he finds it odd that she didn't call him. She isn't in the apartment. He then ignores it thinking that she went out and ate breakfast, prepares to go to uni.
Scene 13 - He goes to uni, as usual, he goes to class, sits down and look around. It is weird that Jason isn't there. He ignores it and just hung around in class as usual.
Scene 14 - 3 days past, Jason still isn't in class. He feels a bit odd but ignores the feeling. But the entire class is already curious about where Jason may be. They called him but he did not answer. A few said that they went to his apartment to find him too but he isn't there.
Scene 15 - Jake feels a bit weirded out about Jason's disappearance but also secretly happy that he isn't there to interrupt his fun anymore.
Scene 16 - Jake's friends ask Jake if he is worried and to find Jason together, but Jake brushes it off. That night he went home in peace and sleeps peacefully, continuously taking drugs and also alcohol to keep his 'fun' alive.
Scene 17 - Alice went to find Jake that night and lectured him about not caring about anyone. Even his alleged 'best friend', Jason. She argues with Jake but Jake shouts back at her saying that she shouldn't care too much about the disappearance. Alice feels upset about Jake's lack of care.
Scene 18 - Jake tried hugging Alice and told her to stay that night. He is still being playful despite his friend's disappearance. She feels upset and talked about how much she dislikes his lack of care. Jake then shouts at Alice and asked her to disappear too.
Scene 19 - Alice left his apartment crying.
#3: The second disappearance.
Scene 20 - It's morning. Feeling dazed, Jake drugged himself out of misery in his room. He then prepares to go to class.
Scene 21 - In class, Alice's friend and roommate, Faye, rushed to Jake's class to ask Jake where has Alice gone. Jake then finds out Alice did not return home that night.
Scene 22 - Still angry at Alice, Jake shrugs his shoulder and says that he does not know. He does not care either. But Jake secretly feels the wallowing fear that is slowly burning in him. He has flashbacks to Jason's disappearance and now, Alice's.
Scene 23 - He continues to concentrate in class but sounds around him are slowly fading away, leaving him feeling as lonely as he could be. His wild thoughts are drowning away the sound in the classroom.
Scene 24 - When class ends, he rushes back to his apartment, the surrounding environment feels like a total silence around him.
Scene 25 - Slowly, he is feeling more and more disturbed about the disappearance of Jason and Alice.
Scene 26 - As he reached home, feeling a bit more and more uneasy, he went to reach for the bottle of drugs that he has always taken whenever he feels upset, he took those drugs and feels better after a while.
Scene 27 - He lies in bed and feels the uneasiness slowly fading away as he drifted to sleep.
#4: The increase in loneliness.
Scene 28 - Jake wakes up in total darkness feeling increasingly worried and upset. It is only 4am in the morning but he is determined to get out of bed to go to uni.
Scene 29 - He reaches uni and sits alone in class there until sunrise. Hours pass by but nobody came to class. He is shocked and looked at the time. It is already 11am. There is supposed to be an 8am class.
Scene 30 - He walked out of the classroom. He walked to the halls, the restaurants, and all the other classes but nobody is there. He checked his phone and tried to call anyone, but nobody picks up and it is "line unavailable".
Scene 31 - Shocked, he breaks down a bit and shouted loudly, clutching his head. He then thinks about Jason and Alice and he thinks about how he told Alice to "disappear" too.
Scene 32 - He then rushes home and rest. Mind endlessly thinking about the disappearance and about losing his mind.
Scene 33 - He reached for a large amount of drugs and swigs of alcohol again. Hoping for a miracle cure to his mind losing.
#5: The comeback.
Scene 34 - 2 days of endless struggle of mind losing versus reality passed.
Scene 35 - Jake wakes up in his sofa, staring at the familiar face looking down at him. He feels estatic with shock and immediately hugs Alice.
Scene 36 - Alice turned up in his home. Evidence of alcohol abuse and drug abuse scattered on the floor of Jake's apartment.
Scene 37 - Jake was happy with Alice's return. He hugged Alice and talked about how he was losing his mind about the disappearance of her.
Scene 38 - Alice reassures Jake that she is there for him and that she is here now so everything is alright.
Scene 39 - They spend the rest of the day together just playing and forgetting the disappearance ever happened. Alice then takes a selfie together with him using his phone and left his phone on the table.
Scene 40 - They end the day with Alice in bed with him.
#6: The last bit.
Scene 40 - Jake wakes up to him laying on his bed without Alice next to him.
Scene 41 - Jake then looks at his phone for the pictures they took together. But there was none.
Scene 42 - Feeling nothing, he puts the phone down and walks towards his house's balcony to look out. No one but rain and clouds.
Scene 43 - He sighs and messed up his hair a bit and then walks to his bedroom.
Scene 44 - While walking pass he accidentally knocks over the bottle of pills left on the coffee table in his living room.
Scene 45 - He picks up the bottle amidst the floor of alcohol bottles and rubbish.
Scene 46 - He then sighed deeply in frustration and opens the bottle to swallow the pill in hopes to make himself feel better. But this time, there is no feeling.
Scene 47 - Feeling even more frustrated, he opens the bottle again and downs the entire bottle of pills. He then sits on the floor feeling utterly hopeless.
The end.
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Mr Martin says that the second attempt of the story has too many characters in it, so he decided to cut down the character count to about 2 main characters, which is Alice and Jake and also a few of their other friends as a background character. This is the third attempt for the story:
Characters:
Jake - Main character. The boy with the bad personality. He uses his girlfriend as a plaything and
mostly disrespects and ignores the people around him that only wants him to do good in life. He abuses drugs and drinks often in order to get the 'high' feeling that he always craves for.
Alice - Jason's girlfriend.
Jason - Jason's friend. He is a nice guy that helps encourage Jake. Jake dislikes him.
Jess - Jason's friend. Another friend of Jake that only stays for drinking and playing. Not as bad as Jake in terms of personality but equal.
Han - Jason's friend. Same as Jess.
Story:
Scene 1- Alice, Jake's girlfriend looks annoyed while playing with her phone at the dining table, she feels bored. Jake is in a party with Alice, Jason, Jess and Han. They are playing poker and whoever loses needs to take drugs. Jake lost. He threw his cards on the table violently and loudly cursed. But seemed unfaltered by the fact he needed to take those drugs, he is just upset that he lost. When prompted to take drugs, he took them willingly. Then laughed and shouted loudly at his girlfriend to get him a beer. He looked at her and she looked back angrily. He gave her an annoyed glance. She then walked back into her room without acknowledging Jake. Jake gets increasingly angry and stomped into the room. Upon reaching, Jason stopped him. Seeing the situation worsen, Jess and Han requested to leave. Jason then coax Jake to feel better and told him not to be angry at his girlfriend. Jake told Jason to 'fuck off'. Jason disappeared.
Scene 2- Alice is at her dressing table putting on makeup preparing to go somewhere. Jake tries to hug Alice from the back, trying to smooch Alice. She isn't having it as she was angry from the night before. She pushes him away and stood up and prepares to leave. He shouted at her saying 'so you're gonna leave then? I'm forgiving you for yesterday and now you're gonna act like some bitch?' She looks back at him angrily. 'go then!' he smashes the makeup on the table until it fell to the floor and then kicks the chair. 'disappear!' Alice is gone.
Scene 3- Gaining pride, Jake becomes more of an asshole. After Alice left, he went to the fridge and opens food, pills and beer cans and after consuming, throwing onto the ground for Alice to pick when she comes back. Then he proceeds into her cupboard to purposefully mess up her clothes and makeup, destroying her make up by throwing them all over her dresser and clothes and just having fun and laughing.
Scene 4- He reaches to uni to consult his lecturer regarding his assignment and the lecturer then dislikes his work and he walked out of the consultation room, crumpled his notes and threw them at the corner outside the classroom. He then fishes a bottle of beer from his bag and drinks then receives a text from Jess and Han to smoke.
Scene 5- He went to meet Jess and Han to smoke. While smoking Han made a joke about Jake and Jess laughed but Jake isn't having it. Jake then losses it and was about to hold up his arm to punch Han but when he looked at Han, everyone around him disappeared. His vision blurs a bit as he clutches his head and shakes his head. He turned to look around him but there was no one. Walking around, he has a weird feeling that everyone disappeared. He turned to call Alice but the number
is unavailable. He then walks around the campus and around him home but there was no one.
Scene 6- Feeling a bit dazed, he goes home while clutching his head and grunts. Reaching his house, he goes to the fridge and opens more beer cans and throws them on the floor after consuming. He looked at the pill bottle blurrily on the table and consumes a few. Feeling kinda heavy headed he shouted 'Alice, get me a beer..' but then realized Alice isn't there anymore.
He then took more drugs and is knocked out on the sofa.
Scene 7- He opens his eyes to see Alice staring down at him. Alice comes back. He feels relieved and hugs her. They spend the day together almost forgetting that the disappearance happened. Alice then wanted to take a selfie to remember this day of happiness. They then end the day sleeping together due to Jake's requests.
Scene 8- He wakes up without Alice beside him. He checked his phone and there are no selfies and evidence that they were together the day before. Feeling totally helpless he took drugs again. But he could not feel the effects anymore. He then got even more frustrated and downs the entire bottle and overdoses and dies.
Story breakdown:
Scene 1:(Jake, Jason, Jess, Han and Alice)
1. Alice playing phone on the dining table feeling annoyed and bored.
2. Jake and Han and Jess playing poker loudly in the living room.
3. Han and Jess laughed and joke about whoever loses need to take drugs.
4. Jake lost and threw the cards violently on the table and cursed.
5. Jake then demands the drug.
6. Jake takes the drug.
7. Jake laughs loudly and asked Alice to hand him a beer.
8. Jake looks at Alice.
9. Alice looks back at Jake angrily.
10. Jake gives Alice an annoyed glance.
11. Alice ignores Jake and walks into her room.
12. Jake gets up angrily and stomp into her room.
13. Almost reaching, Jason stops Jake.
14. Jess and Han leaves the house.
15. Jason told Jake not to be angry at Alice.
16. Jake asked Jason to "f off".
17. Jason disappeared.
Scene 2:(Alice and Jake)
1. Alice at the dressing table putting on make up.
2. Jake attempts to hug Alice.
3. Alice gets angry and pushes Jake away.
4. Alice got up and took her bag.
5. Jake says to Alice "So you're gonna leave then? I'm forgiving you for ystd and now you're going to act like an asshole?"
6. Alice looks back at Jake angrily.
7. Jake says to Alice "Go then!"
8. Jake smashes the make up off the table and kicks the chair.
9. Jake shouts to Alice "Disappear!"
10. Alice disappeared.
Scene 3:(Jake)
1. Jake opens the fridge and eats some food, drinks some beer and throw them on the floor. He then took a pill and places it on the table.
2. Jake goes into Alice room and into her cupboard to mess up her clothes and make up.
3. Jake laughs.
Scene 4:(Jake)
1. Jake goes to uni to consult lecturer.
2. Jake walks out of consultation room.
3. Jake crumpled his notes and throws them.
4. Jake fishes a beer from his bag and drinks.
5. Jake receives a text from Jess and Han to smoke.
Scene 5:(Jess, Han and Jake)
1. Jake walks to smoking area to meet Jess and Han.
2. They are all smoking.
3. Han made a joke about Jake and Jess laugh.
4. Jake losses it and holds up his arm about to punch Han.
5. Jake looks up at Han.
6. Everyone disappeared.
7. Jake blurs and clutches his head.
8. Jake looks around.
9. Jake turns to call Alice but unavailable.
10. Jake walks around campus.
11. Jake goes home.
Scene 6:(Jake)
1. Jake clutches his head and shakes it and grunts.
2. Jake goes to the fridge to open a can of beer.
3. Jake throws the can on the floor after a few gulps.
4. Jake looks at the pill bottle on the table.
5. Jake took a pill.
6. Jake feels heavy headed.
7. Jake calls out for Alice to hand him the beer.
8. Jake realizes Alice isn't there anymore.
9. Jake took more pills and is knocked out on the sofa.
Scene 7:(Alice and Jake)
1. Jake opens his eyes.
2. Alice stares down at him.
3. Jake feels relieved.
4. Alice and Jake spends the day together.
5. Alice takes a selfie.
6. Alice says she is sleepy and they then took a nap together.
Scene 8:(Jake)
1. Jake wakes up without Alice beside him.
2. Jake checks his phone to find no selfies with him.
3. Jake feels helpless.
4. Jake went and took more drugs.
5. Jake does not feel the effects.
6. Jake feels frustrated.
7. Jake takes more drugs.
8. Jake overdoses and dies.
Storyboard
After writing the story, we then have to draw the storyboard based on the breakdown of the story that Mr Martin approves. The storyboard Scene 1 to Scene 7 is as below:
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Final Project
After finalizing the story, I am required to find a place to film the video. The location are as below:
I-Sovo Condominium at I-City, Shah Alam:
- Bedroom and Balcony
Fig. 1: Bedroom and balcony.
- Living room
Fig. 2: Living room table.
Fig. 3: Living room sofa and coffee table.
Fig. 4: Pantry.
For the actors and actresses, I've decided to ask a few friends of mine to help me. The actors and actresses that are helping me in my film are as below:
Main Characters:
Jake: Edric Cheah
Alice: Jing Ying
Side Characters:
Jason: Billy Tan
Jess: Deepa Mohandass
Han: Bryan Cheah
For the final project, I decided to go with a blue filter colour scheme because blue can represent isolation, coldness, melancholy, passivity and calmness. In my story, the main character is a very passive and cold person, and after his girlfriend left him, he is isolated and feels the need to kill himself.
Colour Grading Reference:
Fig. 5: Needle in the hay.
Fig. 6: The Martian.
Fig. 7: Fight Club.
After the second shooting, Mr Martin asked me to edit the video and show him the final outcome, in which he decided to show me how to edit the audio and trim a few more scenes to get it to work. After that, I editted the video and then Mr Martin asked me to finalize it for submission.
The final short film is as below:
Fig. 8: Final film: Illusory.
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