I've Got an Idea...

Here’s some kind of premise I came up with:

With a close friend, the main character stumbles upon a mysterious (it’s more like misplaced, I’m aiming for a setting like an abandoned area or forest-y area) object which sets them into a curious little investigation. They eventually piece together certain horrific crimes, but something doesn’t seem quite right. The close friend gets caught in a risky situation (or disappears) which the main character tries to tend to, all while trying to fend for themself, alone.

Ending of this idea goes something like this:

• The main character finds out that the close friend set this up to get the main character killed

• The close friend also risked their own life setting this up, with no particular escape plan of their own from when the murder is complete (not that they forgot, they just didn’t care, just wanted the main character gone)

• Motives for the close friend probably won’t get revealed (based on the maximum length of the short film) but: the close friend has resented the main character for ‘betraying’ them once before. This is rooted mostly through jealousy. The friend was aiming for the one (specific) thing that they were nearly able to obtain (as a necessity to continue to live, something like a hefty scholarship that would help them lift a lot of financial burden. Like a competition with that scholarship as a reward. The close friend and the main character both share the same interest, but the main character is known to be “better” and has won many similar awards, while the friend character, though desperate, was turned down to most of them. But the skill level wasn’t too different. The close friend just thinks the main character is lucky. So does the main character. The close friend, in this competition, finally has a chance to win, and it’s the only one that they really need. But the main character never informed this close friend that they were participating. Of course, our main character won this award, which set off the close friend. The close friend won’t be able to afford going to college at all. It’s really too late for anything else. With other financial burdens to tend to, the close friend really cannot have the weight of academic burden on them, but it’s all they ever wanted. To go to school for a higher education, obtain a career that will improve their family’s life at home.

I might be developing the close friend character a bit too much while not developing the main character at all, but motives are important. To me, at least, I need to know how to write the character by understanding what kind of situation they are going through to develop their personality and the sort of micro-actions they take.

I haven’t been able to really conjure up a story idea until now, which honestly came to me in a dream just now (from my evening nap), which I thought was super interesting. Well I don’t remember a lot of it, but I remember a couple points of what was happening. My POV was the close friend, but I don’t remember setting everything up, just experiencing the investigation. It wasn’t really ‘me’ in the dream.

This is just a little idea of course, I will tweak whatever I need to by Tuesday. 

The overall vibe of the film: 

May change, may not change later, not sure yet but it's pretty decent for the feeling I was going for.