Snip;her

In 2016 I wrote a short film for a college project which was never used due to the complications that the story would entail in order to film it. I would then continue working on the script for a while after but eventually abandoning it.

In 2021 I was taking a screenwriting course in university and had to write something for it which led me to looking back at the short I had written and decided I wanted to explore the story I had written and expand it into a full film/tv series. So, after purchasing Final Draft I decided to start exploring the world and story I was telling.

After I had written a lot of the script I wanted to try and visualise the story in a rough pilot using animation, as a way to practice. With how rough it was, and the fact it was designed to be rough, I ended up getting very little practice as rather than improve my animations I would use the excuse that it was a rough draft as a reason to not spend hours working on the animations and improving myself. This realisation led me to abandoning the project in favour of a storyboard style using still frames rather than full animation.

This is the culmination of the week I spent working on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evY_d6XPaLk

The Story Simplified

The story takes place in a world ravaged by a virus that has wiped out most all of humanity and a huge portion of animal life. Christa has been surviving, alone, for a long time causing her a lot of mental anguish. (The story, as a whole, is an exploration of her mental health, mindset, decisions and her relationship to those around her and how her experiences and state of mind affect her decisions.)

One day, when exploring another abandoned house Christa stumbles upon a little girl, Tia, who has been living alone for several weeks after her carer had gone missing, though doesn't want to admit it. Christa has finally found someone to talk with and Tia is terrified she's now alone but still holds out hope for her carers return, leading the two to agree to live together and survive. The house they live in had been modified to be self-sustaining by Tia's carer.

The two live together for a while before Christa goes out, alone, to explore their surroundings for a few days only to learn on the other side of the village lives a monster of a resident. She ends up killing him and preforming an assisted suicide on his victim before looting the place and burning it all down. Lying to Tia about what happened she stumbles over things for a few days before Tia and her confront each other about everything and come to an agreement. Tia finds something in her notebook that makes her really happy but doesn't tell Christa.

A few weeks later they are approached by a group who knew the person Christa had killed wanting an explanation only for it to divulge into a fire fight between the groups, Christa killing two of them, Tia killing one and getting injured in the process. The group turns out to be part of a larger group with radios and frequencies to talk to each other over, leading Christa and Tia to go into hiding expecting another group to come looking for the three dead men, one of them having a family picture on them. Around a week later a group does show up, Christa and Tia hiding in the attic behind a wall, the group find some oddities which their leader, Nadia, dismisses due to her suspicions of two of the dead men due to other circumstances. Nadia searches Tia's room and finds her notebook with recent dates in along with scribbles and work but also a note. Nadia ends up suspecting Tia is still at the house and late that night she comes up to Tia's room and whispers aloud to Tia about her suspicions and saying she'll be back in a week to talk to her alone, to which Tia nor Christa respond leading Naida to write a note and leave it for them.

The group leave, Christa and Tia discuss what to do next. Continue to hide? Run? Due to the resources the house provides the two decide to wait for Nadia to return and talk. Nadia shows up a few days early leading to a standoff between her and Christa which leads to their distain towards each other. The three sit and talk about everything that happened and come up with a plan. One of the men Christa killed was the husband of an important group member who is determined to find him at all costs and, if found dead, seek revenge.

Nadia proposes to take Tia back to the camp as a victim of a manipulative woman called Maya (Christa) who the group would chase and be led up north. Christa would then circle round and turn up at the groups camp looking for refuge. It would mean Tia and Christa would have to leave each other for over two weeks in order to sell the story. Christa was vigorously opposed to this, but Tia was for it. They agree to it all, only Nadia didn't care about Christa and only wants to get Tia to a safe place which she believes Christa wouldn't be able to provide. Nadia and Tia also have a connection through someone else which Christa doesn't know.

A set up, fake shoot out, between Nadia and Christa set the stage for the week of running and hiding and subsequent week and a bit of travel Christa would have to endure to meet back up with Tia. Except, when escaping, one of Nadia's group see's Christa/a women run away and shouts at her before deciding to make sure Nadia was ok rather than chase her. Christa (Maya) and Tia would talk over the radio during the weeks or so in which Tia was tasked to get Maya (Christa) to reveal things about her location and plans so the group could find her and get their revenge for the "unprovoked" killing she did to part of their group. Nadia is in charge of the group searching for Maya (Christa) allowing her never to get caught.

Around a week in Christa is found by Nadia who confronts her alone and tells Christa to abandon the plan and just move on. Nadia explains that the risk of her being found out was too high and her presence would be a danger to the group as a whole so to leave Tia in her new home and find a new home for herself. Christa won't accept it. Tia has become a younger sister to her, a reason to live, the only reason to live, leading to an exchange of fire leaving Christa injured but overpowering Nadia. Christa warns Nadia that if she doesn't go through with the plan, she'll do whatever it takes, at all costs, to get Tia back. Christa runs before the group catches up to Nadia. In the following few days Christa leads the group to search up north then hinting at the danger that exists there before going dark and never responding to Tia over the radio again leading to the assumption Maya must have been killed. Christa, no longer having Tia to talk to, ends up returning to the time before their meeting, loneliness, sadness, terror, nightmares and so on further solidifying Christa's reliance on Tia and the attachment to escaping the feelings she's, once again, experiencing.

Finally, Christa arrives at the groups home and reaches out over the radio in search of refuge. The group eventually respond after Christa lights a house on fire to get their attention but again another standoff ensues when Christa explains her fake background story and the group respond with further caution and restrictive conditions after not believing it. Only when Nadia intervenes does Christa accept the conditions and calmly surrenders to them. Except, the man who saw Christa escape after their fake shoot out is standing as part of the group she's surrendering to. Panic washes over Christa but nothing comes of it, yet Christa keeps an eye on him. Christa is taken back to the groups home and is integrated by Nadia as the two sit down and talk about what to do next. (To be continued)

This is as far as I've gotten and to be honest, I'm not a fan of this summery as its missing important character development, and relationships that lead to decisions, along with important events. However, I want to keep it as short as I can, or think it can be, so I've left out a lot for the sake of making it shorter.

As of May 2023, its 450 pages long with ~100k words condensed to this ~1000 word summery. I believe I'm not even a quarter of the way through the story I want to tell and hopefully, one day, realise on screen. The title hasn't even been fully explored; it’s not integral to the story at the moment but will end up being.