Sometime back in 2011 or 2012, my friend Mike came up with this idea for a trilogy of short films to examine how time, specifically the past, present and future affects our lives.
You see, as humans, we encounter things in our past and present that can impact us in such a way that we become almost frozen by the negative experience or fear or pain of what happened. This negative experience can sometimes prevent a person from new opportunities or to simply grow as an individual. Some people are afraid of change or the future, the unknown, which can lead to the same potentially negative outcomes.
This trilogy was a way to explore how people could confront that experience or fear from their past, present or potential future and either overcome or succumb to it.
We were both very much influenced by the Twilight Zone with regards to style and themes, so each short film focuses on one person and their experience. We manifested the experiences or fear or negativity of each persons past, present or future as some supernatural entity or event that they must confront.
We felt this played on the theme of how in our lives we can come up against adversity or a challenge of some kind. We can either rise to face that adversity or challenge or we can run from it. Perhaps even hide from it or even hid the experience itself in the hopes that we never have to confront it.
I feel that Mike’s idea is truly special and had an absolute blast working with him on these and writing them. Next up, we are going to review the first draft of the third story and refine it, but I wanted to take a moment and bask in the glow of a completed first draft.
The other two stories have been refined a lot and while yes, there may be some minor edits to those, they are very much completed.
What’s we do with them when we’re done remains to be seen. Perhaps we could get some people to back us making them into films. I also footed the idea of writing them as prose and publishing three as a collection of three stories. We could also submit them to a podcast or even make one.
Time will tell, but it’s so great to have all three written out and for our vision to be on the page in a comprehensive way. I’ll be sure to post an update if something develops with these story ideas.
Thanks for reading and take care.
Literally Jesse 