Pre-Production Unit- Creating key "Moments."

As I showed in a previous blog post, I recently had the opportunity to speak with a BAFTA award nominated screenwriter, Steve Coombes, who gave me some very useful advice when writing screenplays.
The most useful piece of advice he gave me was to spend time developing key "moments" in my story, especially my ending. He told me that in screenwriting, people may forget lines of dialogue or even entire characters, but viewers never really forget the key "moments".
I was advised that as long as there are sufficient "moments" in my screenplay that can capture the viewers imagination and keep them emotionally invested in my creation, then the story I am trying to tell will be remembered purely for these moments.

With this in mind, I decided to outline the key moments in my film before beginning to write my actual script. This way I will be able to tell beforehand if there are any massive gaps in plot that will need to be filled in with other key storytelling moments. This will also allow me to roughly gauge how long each moments will be, and how long into the short film these moments will occur, giving me a rough outline of how long my film will be.

All the rough film moments are here.

1. The key characters and setting are introduced. 0:00- 1:00
2. The problem is introduced (Abigail is ill). 1:00- 2:00
3. Abigail is taken to the doctors and the problem is (sort of) diagnosed. Abigail is referred to a specialist clinical trial. 2:00- 4:00
4. The family visit the specialist clinic and the drug is prescribed. The illness is described. 4:00- 6:00
5. Abigail shows signs of getting better, but there are also some vague signs that she is absorbing the living cells of things around her. (small animals and plants dying around her slowly, including Abigail's pet goldfish) 6:00- 7:00
6. The people around her begin to get ill, developing skin rashes. 7:00- 8:00
7. The research lab that gave Abigail the drugs discover that her cells are taking cells from other living things. 8:00- 9:00
8. The fact Abigail is responsible for people becoming ill is made public by the research laboratory. 9:00-10:00
9. Whilst Douglas is at work, and Delaney and Abigail are at home, a group of people mob the house, yelling abuse and throwing stones at the house. 10:00-12:00
10. While Douglas is driving home, he notices a person collapse on the street due Abigail's effects. 12:00-12:20
11. Douglas returns home and finds some of the property outside broken. He rushes inside and finds Delaney and Abigail terrified. News reports show that people have begun dying. 12:20-14:00
12. Douglas takes Abigail back to the experimental drug facility to try and get some answers. The scientists there explain that they are working on a way to reverse the effects the drug has had on Abigail. 14:00- 16:00
13. When they return home, they find Delaney extremely stressed, as the house has been raided by thugs and they have left a note demanding that Abigail be killed or they will be back. Delaney begins to grow ill. 16:00- 17:30
14. Delaney begins to grow delirious, having vivid hallucinations and developing horrible sores on her body. She even suggests that they do as the mob demanded. This makes Douglas extremely angry. 17:30-20:00
15. The next day Douglas goes to work leaving Abigail and Delaney, and when he returns home he finds blood on the kitchen floor. He begins to panic, and finds Delaney. He becomes violent demanding to know what she has done with their daughter, believing she has hurt Abigail. However, Abigail is fine, and it turns out the blood on the kitchen floor was from where Delaney cut herself carving meat. She leaves Douglas. 20:00-21:30
16. Douglas receives a phone call from the science facility informing him that there is absolutely nothing they can do to stop the process Abigail's body is going through. The scientists suggest that Abigail be terminated. 21:30- 22:30
17. After spending all night debating what to do, Douglas enters Abigail's room with a pillow, and just as it looks as if he is about to smother her, the scene abruptly goes to black. 22:30-23:20
18. Douglas walks through a local park and sits down at a bench, miserable. His eyes suddenly begin bleeding. End. 23:20- 24:30

From this process, I have learnt that the story I want to tell in "inoculum" is definitely possible in the time-frame I have suggested. My next step will be to begin actually scripting the film around these moments, and editing these moments if necessary.