BSA325 W7 : Script Development

The story starts with the death of a worker in a factory. This scene can be noir and mysterious. (Something that also plays to Marcus' strengths as a director). Establish some vague line about the AI:

The creator of the AI is depressed and has spent his life trying to create the perfect system that would prevent any death at the factory, the one thing it could never do though is understand emotions.

The next scene will be her arriving at the factory, being talked down to by the AI, she feels controlled here and we sense a sinister nature about the machine.

The scene with the workers is similar but a bit different - where they converse among themselves about the death and are interrupted by MUM's antics.



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A man walks into a dark room, he doesn't turn on the light. He walks towards the window overlooking a neon city.

Mechanical creaking comes up behind him, he looks around.

Tells whatever sits in the dark to go away.

It hesitates, it' silhouette making him look small.

MUM says that its dangerous to be in the room without light, it starts listing reasons why.

He ignores it. he is shaky though.

It says that its only concerned with his safety. It says he is there past his check out time.

The light turn on, blinding.

Exterior - the man is thrown out the window and plummets to his death three stories below.

CUT TO:

A line of employees waiting. They murmur and gossip about the death. Apparently the man was important, apparently he died by leaning on some weak glass.

Each are checked by MUM and given safety tips. Inside they get a small talk by the factory owner/manager. He tells them it was an avoidable tragedy, that it won't happen again and even as he speaks MUM is being upgraded to do better and notice structural flaws. He tells them MUM is there to protect everyone and stresses the importance of safety in the workplace.

Sophie tries to talk to him as he leaves but he shakes her off, he makes it obvious that she was close with the man and that it was a tragedy that now they can't do anything about.

She talks to the other employees, who have just been somewhat abused by MUM, she asks them if they don't think any of this is fishy. They have their reasons for keeping their heads down, they come across kind but like mindless sheep.

She is furious and goes to the control room, she says its ridiculous how alert she's been set and that things need to be tuned down, the guards disagree, safety at the moment is much more important than usual. Sophie asks to look inside and do something, they don't allow her, with the way things have turned out security has been tightened. This is ridiculous, she is higher up than the ground workers, she has clearance. They say things changed - she is very suspicious.

She storms to gregorie's office and demands to see him, MUM tries and prevent her saying that he is busy and not to be disturbed, she shrugs this off. When she tries and goes in Mum starts freaking and grabs her hard by the arms, this hurts and they struggle a bit. Gregory hears the commotion and comes out.

Sophie is furious, MUM is out of control, it needs to be stopped. Gregory tells her he can't do anything about it now, its the way it should be, she asks him what happened to David, all the while MUM is present - watching. She tells him David had his concerns, that he believed mum had trouble differentiating. Gregory asks what she's suggesting. She tells him maybe it wasn't an accident. He tells her that's impossible, the system can't kill a human being. She tells him that they also can't harm a human being and then shows the bruises on her wrist.

He tells her he can't shut down shop, it would be too much of a loss in profit.

Disgusted she leaves again and the guards stare after her. She plants something on one of the workers, something that could be dangerous, alert mode is entered for the second time in the day and everyone makes their way over in a panic.

She sneaks into the control room and hack into her database.




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Mum is an artificial intelligence designed to keep everyone safe, after David's death her alert status goes up and goes to extremes to try and prevent any further deaths. The system doesn't understand what happened when David killed himself, and the action doesn't compute as any possible scenario. Because of this confusion MUM is desperately trying to correct this. Unfortunately they can't really control her because David was her creator, Sophie worked under him and was a close friend, he had in the past expressed concerns regarding MUM's ability to differentiate.

She believes he was going to shut her down and she killed him to prevent this.

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The theme could be about mothers and the dangers of being overprotective, there is two old ideals of what a mother can be - the good one is the mother that let's their children go and live their own lives. The evil one is one that prevents their children from going off on their own and keeps them for her own selfish desires.

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First Scene (Not Formatted annoyingly enough):

INT. DARK OFFICE BUILDING - NIGHT A man's shadow darkens the doorway of an office floor. His hand reaches for the light switch, it stops. Lingers, leaves without flicking it. Solemnly he passes through the cubicles. Coloured light splays across the face of a middle aged man, the lines that mark his face make him appear older than he is. Sweat drips down his forehead. Breathing heavily. The scraping sound of . mechanical moving He stares out the window at a neon cityscape; a shadow moves up behind him. MUM (VOICE) David. It is dark. Do you want me to. Turn on. A light? David stares out the window, his breathing catches in his throat. DAVID No. No mum it's fine. MUM hovers across the room, passing above the tables and chairs. MUM (VOICE) (CONT.) It is dangerous. To work in the. Dark. It is dangerous. To walk in the. Dark. There are approximately. 532. Possible Hazards. Would you like me to list them? David. David? MUM hovers ominously over David's shoulder. He turns. The light blasts on; blinding. EXT. FACTORY BUILDING - NIGHT A light in a window on the third floor turns on. The window smashes. 2. David plummets to his death. FADE TO BLACK. INT. FACTORY FOYER - DAY A loud buzzing. A group of workers stand in a row. SOPHIE walks through the sliding doors. The two people last in line look around. Sophie nods. They look back around. She moves up behind the man at the back of the line and waits. At the front workers are being inspected by MUM.

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I don't have time to write it but whatevs it was kinda fun.