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Thread: I Don't Do Drugs

  1. #1
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    I Don't Do Drugs

    An over caffeinated, speed-popping high school student pulling an all-nighter for tomorrow’s S.A.T. decides to drive to a party but while staring at a group of people standing by a parked car, he accidentally runs over someone. He gets out of the car; it seems to be a lifeless smashed mannequin under his car. Panic-stricken, he runs towards the party in search of his girlfriend, everyone’s a mannequin, all capable of moving when he is not looking, he hears the siren of a police car, what is he to do; is it a nightmare?

    here's the screenplay, I hope you like it.

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

    Jake, High School Junior, sitting at his desk studying. Camera pans the desk showing S.A.T. study books and a full cup of coffee and desk clock showing 6:30pm. He receives a text on his cell phone “HUGE KEG PARTY TONIGHT @ THE FIELD”. Jake replies “CAN’T GO PULLING ALL NIGHTER 4 TOMORROWS S.A.T.”.

    CLOSE UP OF STUDY BOOK & FADE OUT:

    Of Jake turning the page from 10 to 11

    FADE IN & CLOSE UP OF DESK CLOCK:

    Time 8pm. Camera pans the desk showing S.A.T. study books, half empty cup of coffee pause camera on study book showing page 30. Pan up to Jake’s face nodding and fighting sleep then camera pans down to study book.

    CLOSE UP OF STUDY BOOK & FADE OUT:

    Of Jake turning the page from 30 to 31

    FADE IN & CLOSE UP OF DESK CLOCK:

    Time 10pm. Camera pans the desk showing S.A.T. study books, an empty cup of coffee pause camera on study book showing page 36. Pan up to Jake’s face nodding and about to fall asleep. As Jake is about to fall asleep he quickly and frustrated stands up and walks to dresser. Opens sock drawer and pulls a pill bottle out of a pair of socks. Jake carries the pill bottle back to his desk and opens it. Camera pans down into the bottle showing two pills remaining.

    Jake
    (talking to himself, frustrated)
    The biggest test of my life and I can’t stay awake, and now I’m popping speed at my own house when my parents are downstairs.

    CUT TO:

    EXT. FIELD PARTY – NIGHT

    Jake’s friend Steve and another guy are standing by some parked cars, looking towards a bonfire where Jake’s girlfriend Alice is sitting with another guy’s arm around her. Steve pulls his cell phone out of his pocket to make a call.

    Steve
    Jake you need to get here ASAP John is hitting on your girlfriend.

    Jake
    What do you mean?

    Steve
    They’ve been drinking and talking all night and now they are at the bonfire with his arm around her.

    Jake
    (Pissed off)
    I’m going to kick his ass.

    Jake hangs up and looks at his desk clock and notices that it’s 10:30pm.


    Steve
    (With a mischievous smirk tells to his friend)
    This is going to be fun.

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

    Jake hangs up his cell phone, appears to be more awake and angry, throws on a jacket and sneaks out of his room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Parents are in the family room, dad asleep on the sofa and mom sitting on the chair watching TV. Jake grabs his car keys and sneaks out the front door.

    INT.JAKE’S CAR – NIGHT

    Jake is anxious, driving in a hurry to the field party. While driving he receives a text message, it’s a picture of his Alice sitting on a log with John’s arm around her. Jake is now extremely angry, slams his fist on the dash and speeds up.

    He drives up to a field where the cars are parked, looking from side to side, as if he is looking for his girlfriend’s car. A group of three people catch his eye standing at a parked car as he is driving by. While driving he looks back over his shoulder because they appear to him as mannequins. While looking back he hears a thump and his car rides over a bump. Jake slams on his brakes and throws his car into park and steps out to see what he hit. Jake sees that he ran over and smashed a lifeless mannequin. In panic Jake looks to see if anyone saw what he did. He sees the mannequins who caught his attention the first time, but now only one, the girl, is standing at the car and the other two mannequins, both male, are halfway between where they were and his car as if they are moving towards him. Jake looks in another direction and sees another group of mannequins, one on her cell phone. Now he looks back and the two mannequins are now only 5 feet from him. Jake panics and runs towards the bonfire where he sees lifeless mannequins everywhere, he finds a mannequin that looks like his girlfriend, wearing his school letter jacket, kissing another mannequin. Jake pushes the guy mannequin into the bonfire and turns towards his girlfriend. Now a group of 6 guy mannequins, one holding a baseball bat, are all standing around him as if they were going after him. Jake grabs the baseball bat out of the mannequin’s hands and swings at him knocking his head off. Then he swings and beats all the other lifeless guy mannequins to the ground. When he finishes he sees a parked police car with lights on and siren blowing about 20 feet from him with two police mannequins in it. Jake now turns to face his girlfriend with baseball bat in hand when he gets tackled from behind and handcuffed by the two police officers (real people). When Jake comes to and opens his eye’s he sees the baseball bat is laying on the ground in front of his face with blood all over it. While the police are walking him to the police car Jake sees all the people who he thought were lifeless mannequins laying on the ground were actually his classmates with blood everywhere. As the police car is leaving Jake sees the EMS arriving.

    FADE TO BLACK:

    Title “Don’t do Drugs” appear on the scene like a police blotter then underneath it shows the following text.
    Jake was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders of 4 classmates and friends including his best friend Steve.
    FADE IN & CLOSE UP OF DESK CLOCK:

    Time 6:59am. Camera pans the desk showing Jake a sleep with head resting on S.A.T. study book, empty cup of coffee. pause camera on Jake sleeping with head on study book. Alarm rings and awakes Jake and when he lifts his head off the study book we see that he is on page 74. Pan up to desk clock showing the time as 7:00am. Pan to Jake’s face looking confused he checks his hands and clothes for blood. He sees the pill bottle on his desk and looks inside. Camera pans into the pill bottle showing the two pills still remaining. Jake gets up and goes to the bathroom and flushes the pills down the toilet.

    FADE TO BLACK:
    Movie credits roll.

    End

  2. #2
    Mentor BabaYaga's Avatar
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    Hi There,

    I like the idea of people being dehumanized in this guy's mind as mannequins, I think- visually- it would also be very striking to see him smashing them up, while the audience realizes that these are actual people.

    That said, I do think you could trim it down a whole lot. I don't know how long PSAs are on average in your country, but here, 30 seconds is about average. I would lose the set up at the beginning and just start at the party, where an otherwise good kid gets pressured into taking drugs (maybe his girlfriend convinces him?) You don't even need to use any dialogue to show this. From here it can get quite trippy with him reacting to mannequins like they are not even people until he sees blood on his hands/ hears sirens.

    From there you can bring in your anti-drug message and, this is just from advertising experience, give a compelling reason why people shouldn't do drugs. The lifeless mannequin image is so strong, I feel like you should tie it up with a title that speaks to how drugs make you forget how other people have feelings/ that other people exist.

    I would also lose the bit at the end, it feels a bit too much like all those horror movies from the 80s where the character would wake up from a terrible experience only to realise that it had all just been dream, which negates the impact of all your mutilated mannequins

    Just my thoughts, take em or leave em. Hope you produce this one!

  3. #3
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    I had to do a rewrite due to the cost of mannequins, so now we have zombies! Here it is, again i would love your feedback. Also, can you think of a title that will not give a way that this is a PSA? I want the audience to believe that Jake is a hero until the end. Thanks.


    FADE IN

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - EVENING

    A high school Junior, JAKE, sits studying at a desk in his room.

    The room is littered with SAT study guides and papers.

    A digital clock reading 6:30pm sits next to a full cup of coffee on the desk.

    As Jake turns the page, his phone rings.

    JAKE
    Steve-O, whats up buddy?

    STEVE (V.O)
    Dude! Andy’s having a killer party
    tonight at the field.

    JAKE
    Aggh. I can’t.

    CUT TO

    INT. STEVE’S HOUSE - EVENING

    STEVE
    What do you mean you can’t? This is
    going to be epic!

    JAKE (V.O)
    I have to study for tomorrows SAT’s

    STEVE
    Come on! You’ve been studying for
    the past three weeks straight.

    JAKE (V.O)
    And I haven’t slept in two days!

    CUT TO

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - EVENING

    JAKE
    Yeah, and if I don’t pass, my
    parents are going to kill me.

    STEVE (V.O)
    Alright man. I’ll talk to you
    later.

    JAKE
    Later.

    Jake hangs up and immediately goes back to studying.

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

    The clock, which reads 10:00pm, is now surrounded by empty bottles of 5 hour energy drinks.

    Jake takes a sip of the coffee, rubs his eyes, stretches,
    and continues studying.

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

    As the clock strikes 2:00am, more bottles of energy drink litter the desk.

    Jake attempts to study, but continues to nod off.

    Frustrated, Jake opens the desk drawer and pulls out a box of "Stay Awake" caffeine pills.

    He pulls out the bubble packs and begins to panic as he
    realizes there are only six left.

    JAKE
    Great! I guess these will have to
    do.

    Jake takes all the pills at one time, swallowing them with his coffee.

    JAKE

    Ahhh. Much better!

    EXT. FIELD PARTY - NIGHT

    STEVE and other friends stand by a group of cars while a
    bonfire burns in the background.

    Music blares in the background as kids dance around talk
    with each other around the bonfire.

    One guy hits golf balls out into the field.

    In the parking area, a girl too drunk to drive locks herself in her car while her friends try to get her out.

    FRIEND1
    Isn’t that Alice?

    STEVE
    Where?

    The three look over and see Jake’s girlfriend Alice laying on a blanket making out with another guy.

    FRIEND2
    Ohhhh. Yes it is!

    FRIEND1
    Who is she with?

    FRIEND2
    I think it’s Chris

    STEVE
    Jake’s gonna be pissed!

    CUT TO

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

    Jake is now flipping through the pages, wide awake when his phone rings.

    JAKE
    Please don’t tell me how awesome
    the party is.

    STEVE (V.O)
    So apparently I’m not the only one
    who thinks it’s awesome.

    EXT. BONFIRE – NIGHT

    STEVE
    Alice sure is enjoying herself.

    JAKE (V.O)
    Alice? What’s she doing there?

    Steve looks over his shoulder to see Alice still kissing
    Chris.

    STEVE
    She’s sticking her tongue down
    Chris’s throat!

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

    JAKE
    (Pissed off)
    I’m going to kick his ass!

    Jake slides the phone in his pocket and creeps downstairs to the kitchen.

    As he passes the living room, he sees his father asleep on the couch and his mother watching TV.

    Jake grabs his keys and sneaks out the back door.

    INT. JAKE’S CAR - NIGHT

    As Jake drives down the road, he receives a picture on his cell phone.

    The picture is of Alice and Chris kissing.

    Jake grits is teeth and drives faster towards the party.

    EXT. BONFIRE - NIGHT

    Steve laughs as he snaps another picture

    STEVE
    (To his friends)
    This is going to be epic

    INT. JAKE’S CAR - NIGHT

    Jake speeds into the field parking lot, looking from side to side as he drives past the rows of cars.

    Three people catch his eye standing at a parked car as he is driving by.
    They appear to him as zombies feeding from a person on the ground and at that moment he hears THUMP as his car runs over something. rides over a BUMP. Jake slams on his brakes.

    JAKE
    Oh No!

    Jake gets out and walks around the car and finds a body underneath.

    Jake looks around to see if anyone has noticed.

    He turns back to see the body moving.

    From underneath the car, a zombie emerges.

    Jake falls back scared and scrambles to his feet.

    As he turns to run, he sees a group of zombies moving towards him.

    Panicking, Jake runs towards the bonfire and away from the crowd of perusing zombies.

    He sees zombies and dead bodies on blankets everywhere, he sees his girlfriend on a blanket, wearing his school letter jacket, fighting off a zombie on top of her.

    Jake struggles to get a golf club away from a zombie.

    He smashes the club into the zombies skull and runs to help his girlfriend.

    With the golf club, Jake hits the zombie on the back of the head and fights the zombie off his girlfriend.

    While struggling with the zombie his girlfriend runs away.

    JAKE
    Alice! It’s me!

    Four zombies approach Jake from behind.

    He sees the zombies just as they were right behind him.

    Jake smashes the first zombie in the head with the golf club.

    Once the first zombie goes down, Jake smashes the other three zombies, one at a time.

    As he begins to walk away, he notices one of the zombies continues to squirm around on the ground.
    Jake goes back and finishes off the zombie, leaving the golf club on the ground next to the now lifeless zombie.

    JAKE
    Alice! Alice!

    Jake hears a scream. He turns to see his girlfriend surrounded by zombies. One of the zombies is Steve.

    JAKE
    Oh no, not you too.

    Jake walks back and picks up the golf club and turns back to rescue his girlfriend.

    As he approaches Alice, he sees a police car pull up behind him.

    JAKE
    (Yelling back towards the police officers)
    Help, zombies are everywhere.

    As Jake turns back towards his girlfriend, he is tackled to the ground, hitting his head going unconscious.

    FADE OUT

    FADE IN

    INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM –MORNING

    The clock on the desk reads 6:59am.

    Jake asleep with his head resting on his S.A.T. study book, an empty cup of coffee and two empty bottles of energy drinks.

    As the clock strikes 7:00am, the alarm sounds and Jake lifts his head off the study guide.
    Jake looks around confused as he wipes the drool from the side of his mouth.

    Looking down, Jake sees the box of pills laying on the floor, the six pills he had taken previously were still in their package.

    Jake laughs to himself as he gets up from the desk and walks to the bathroom with the pills in hand.

    Jake pops the pills from the packaging and flushes them down the toilet.

    As he turns away, he knocks a glass from the counter.

    The glass falls to the floor in slow motion.

    Jake turns away and closes his eyes, preparing for the crash of the breaking glass.

    CUT TO

    INT. MENTAL HOSPITAL - MORNING

    Jake opens his eyes and struggles to adjust his vision.

    He is laying on a hospital bed, handcuffed to the bed.

    A police officer sits outside the door as a nurse enters the room carrying a syringe.

    JAKE
    Where. Where am I? What happened?

    NURSE
    Shhh. Now this is going to make you
    rest.

    JAKE
    (Struggling)
    NO! I don’t need rest, I need to
    get out of here.

    NURSE
    Honey, I don’t think your going to
    be going anywhere for a very long
    time after what you’ve done.

    JAKE
    What? No! I was protecting
    everyone. I saved them, I...I

    Jake closes his eyes tight, trying to remember the night before.

    JAKE
    There were zombies. I tried.

    NURSE
    No honey, they were your friends.

    CUT TO

    EXT. FIELD PARTY - NIGHT

    Jake drives through the parking lot, he is distracted and glances over his shoulder.

    As he is looking, he runs over a partygoer.

    Jake gets out of the car and looks around.

    The person he ran over squirms on the ground in pain.

    A group of kids begin running over to the car.

    Jake runs towards the bonfire wildly.

    He grabs a golf club from a partygoer and smashes the club over his head, blood splatters everywhere.

    Kids scream and begin running towards him.

    Jake runs towards Alice, grabbing Chris by the back of the shirt, he smashes the golf club into his head.

    Alice jumps up and starts running and screaming.

    Jake is approached by a group of kids.

    He hits the first one in the face with the golf club and proceeds to hit the others as they try to get away.

    Jake sees one kid squirming on the ground. He smashes the club into the kids skull numerous times.

    The police arrive on the scene.

    Alice screams in the back ground; she is met by four friends.

    As Jake runs towards them, he is tackled by a police officer.

    CUT TO

    INT. MENTAL HOSPITAL - MORNING

    Jake begins screaming hysterically.

    The nurse plunges the needle into his arm.

    Jake quickly begins relaxing and begins falling asleep.

    JAKE
    (Sleepily)
    But I’m supposed to take S.A.T’s
    today.

    As Jake falls asleep, the nurse walks out of the room.

    INT. MENTAL HOSPITAL HALLWAY - MORNING

    NURSE
    He’s out. He won’t be waking up for
    quite a while. Poor kid doesn’t
    even know what he did.

    POLICE1
    Well, you use, you lose.

    INT. MENTAL HOSPITAL - MORNING

    Jake lays in the bed, tears stream down his face as he falls back asleep.

    FADE OUT

    FADE IN

    Words on screen read "Don’t use drugs"

    FADE OUT

    END

  4. #4
    Mentor BabaYaga's Avatar
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    Hello,

    How long are you anticipating the PSA being overall? I still feel like there are a few extra scenes than you really need... also, and I feel like I've been talking a LOT about drug use today- I hope that doesn't make people think I'm secretly selling crack out of my basement to school children, but it seems like a really extreme reaction to caffeine and sleep deprivation. Are over the counter meds your ultimate target?

    I just want to make sure I'm understanding everything you want to achieve with this.

    Finally, while no one loves a zombie like I do, I kind of miss the mannequins. I understand they would be expensive props to smash to pieces, but some of the make-up effects required by this draft would probably also be really costly to do well as well as being a little gory for a PSA. If your heart is set on zombies, that's cool, but if you're only compromising on a good idea for a poor budget, then hold out! Where there's a will, there's a way to smash mannequins to pieces.

  5. #5
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    Again thanks for the time and input. Maybe I should change this from a PSA to a short film with a good message. I too really like the mannequins story line better, but since I’m new to moviemaking using zombies can be a learning project with hopes of still developing the mannequin story for an actual PSA when I have more filmmaking experience. I will keep my eye out for cheap/free mannequins, but I found it was difficult to find full body mannequins.

    About the hallucination, I’m basing this on the combination of being sleep deprived (no sleep for two days), all the caffeine he has taken (5-hr energy drinks + pills) and he is a big zombie fan. I have 3 zombie posters that we will decorate his room with. Also a friend has written and produced a song for the script. Search MikeInDominica on youtube and listen to Devil’s Mountain “Dead Alive” which will be playing in his room while he is studing.

  6. #6
    Mentor BabaYaga's Avatar
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    That's great! (I also love the title, Dead Alive- was that an intentional Peter Jackson reference?) Perhaps to get the project started, you should do a music video to your friend's song? I can see your story working without dialogue... and shooting without worrying about dialogue or getting your final mix perfect will save big on time and money...

  7. #7
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    Interesting, I love the idea of shooting a music video for the song to use as a teaser/trailer for the movie.

  8. #8
    Mentor BabaYaga's Avatar
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    That's a great idea, you can use it to get sponsorship for a future project- and I'm sure your friend wont mind the exposure! Best of luck with it

  9. #9
    Prolific Writer Trides's Avatar
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    Yeah, personally I prefer the mannequins too.
    Hmm, I'm just a little confused about when he flushes the pills down the toilet. Does that actually happen?
    High school = much work = procrastination = mother shouting = shouting back at mother

  10. #10
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    No, that scene takes place while he is unconscious from the fall (it will be shot over exposed a little), but I want the audience to believe that he just woke up from falling a sleep the night before while studying. Then when he watches the glass falling to the floor in slow motion and closes his eyes, when he reopens his eyes again he is in a mental hospital, now he and I hope the audience will now know the truth. That it wasn't a dream. That he did kill many of his friends.

  11. #11
    Prolific Writer Trides's Avatar
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    Oh, I see. You'll find ways to make it a little less misleading, then. xD
    High school = much work = procrastination = mother shouting = shouting back at mother

  12. #12
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    The plan is have two cuts of this film; a short film for festivals (~16-20 minutes) and a 2-3 minute PSA. We start shooting the weekend of July 29th in Metro Atlanta area. I have an incredibly talented cast and a great crew.

  13. #13
    Mentor BabaYaga's Avatar
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    Awesome! Well done and enjoy the shoot

  14. #14
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    The filming went great! The cast was fantastic! And the make-up artist were, see for yourself, below.
    Name:  100_4625_0045.jpg
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    When he gets run over and dragged from car

    Name:  mile-29-films-dont-do-drugs-psa-facebook-pics-005.jpg
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    As a zombie (POV of person on drugs)
    Name:  100_4669_0004.jpg
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    Setting up a shot in the mental hospital

  15. #15
    Prolific Writer Trides's Avatar
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    High school = much work = procrastination = mother shouting = shouting back at mother

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