Idea/Reference

Script_v01

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[SCENE 1: STREET]

(Black screen. A phone unlock sound is heard.)

(FIRST-PERSON POV)
I’m walking down the street, my eyes glued to my phone, scrolling through social media. The city is bustling—cars honking, people talking, the usual chaos of daily life. But I barely pay attention.

(Camera tilts up: the street comes into focus. Then tilts down: my hands are visible, holding the phone.)

[SCENE 2: VANISHING TRASH CAN]

I absentmindedly open a newly downloaded app. The interface is simple, almost too basic, with just one option: “VFX Effects.”

Curious, I tap on it. A list appears. One effect catches my eye—“Particle Dissolve.”

(PHONE SCREEN POV)

• I point the camera at an old trash can.
• A pop-up appears: “Apply Effect?”
• I casually tap “Yes.”

(REAL WORLD)

• The trash can starts dissolving into glowing particles, floating away like dust in the wind.
• Within seconds, it’s completely gone.
• I freeze, looking around. No one seems to notice.

I glance back at my phone. No error messages. Nothing unusual. As if this was just a simple video effect… but it was real.

[SCENE 3: IGNITING THE GROUND]

(Excitement replaces hesitation. I keep walking, eager to try more.)

(PHONE SCREEN POV)

• I select the “Fire” effect and tap the ground ahead of me.

(REAL WORLD)

• A small flame bursts to life on the pavement.
• The fire burns without smoke, without heat.
• I cautiously step on it—it phases through my foot, like a hologram.

(“This is insane…”)

[SCENE 4: FIRE TORNADO]

(Feeling bold, I scroll through the effects and find something bigger—“Fire Tornado.”)

(PHONE SCREEN POV)

• I aim at the empty space behind a tall building and tap “Generate.”

(REAL WORLD)

• A massive column of fire erupts from the ground, twisting violently into the sky.
• The heat distorts the air; glass windows shake from the force.
• The wind roars, whipping people’s clothes—yet no one seems to truly comprehend what’s happening.
• My heart races. My phone vibrates slightly, displaying: “Effect applied. Undo?”
• Panic sets in. I quickly turn off the screen and start running.

[SCENE 5: DELETING THE WORLD]

(Breathing heavily, I duck into a quiet alley, gripping my phone like a lifeline. I need to fix this.)

(PHONE SCREEN POV)

• There’s a “Reset World” button.
• Without thinking, I press it.

(REAL WORLD)

• For a brief moment, everything freezes.
• Then, the sky darkens.
• A strong wind kicks up dust from the ground.
• My phone screen glitches, showing a message:
  “Executing: Delete World… Target: London.”

(“What?! DELETE?! NO, NO, NO!”)

• A monstrous sandstorm forms on the horizon, consuming London in seconds.
• Skyscrapers vanish into the swirling void.
• I frantically tap “Undo,” but the screen only flashes:
  “This action cannot be undone.”

(The storm grows. The screen fades to white. The phone slips from my grasp. The last thing visible is an error message: “System Failure.”)

(END.)

My conversation with Klaus this week has been very enlightening for me. First of all, I have an idea for the opening of my script, but the opening is not attractive enough. Next, I will consider changing the opening from “I suddenly found a new app” to “I suddenly found a new special effect preset while watching a short video”. Second, Klaus also suggested that I condense the scene. In my mind, I would use different scenes to synthesize them, which would be too difficult, so I planned to change the scene of the story to one place, which would make it a lot easier.

Script_v02

Short film Script: Reality.exe Has Crashed

Style: First-person perspective/sci-fi/VFX experimentation
Format: portrait 1080*1920, 24F

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[Scene 1: The street]
(First person perspective)
I looked at my phone, swiping and scrolling through social media. The streets were filled with traffic and pedestrians, and I walked casually, my fingertips sliding on the screen.
(Clear street environment)

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[Scene 2: Fire on the ground]
I accidentally swiped to a new “Effects Camera” feature, which was bare-faced and had only an option for something like “Effects.” I swipe left from the “No effects” screen to a “flame” effect, and then point to an empty field ahead.
(Phone screen POV)

• The “Flame” effect appears when you swipe the screen, and a pool of flames appears in an open space.
  (Real world)
• An orange-red flame suddenly appeared on the road, burning.
• I froze and said, “Wow.
• I watched the flames carefully, watching the smoke from the flames.
  (” This is so cool…” )

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[Scene 3: The trash can disappears]
(Excitement rose, and I continued to try more features.)
I continued to swipe left to get a new “particle dissipation” effect, and then pointed ahead at an old trash can.
(Phone screen POV)

• I pointed the camera at the trash can and zoomed in to show the trash can, which turned into particles and disappeared.
  (Real world)
• The trash can, like being weathered, begins to crumble into countless tiny points of light, which drift away in the wind and disappear completely after a few seconds!
• I’m excited inside, it’s like a normal video effects software… But all this is real? !

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[Scene 4: Tornado]
(Take the plunge, I turned on the more dramatic effects option and checked “Tornado.”)
(Phone screen POV)

• I aimed behind a building on the far side of the street and continued to swipe left to select the new Tornado effect.
  (Real world)
• Suddenly, a gust of wind rises from the ground and spins into the sky, forming a huge tornado!
• Glass vibrates and the wind makes passersby’s clothes rattle.
• My heart was racing and I began to get scared, panicking and operating the phone in an attempt to withdraw the effect.

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[Scene 5: World Deletion]
(In a panic, I gasped and panicked to operate the phone, trying to restore the world.)
(Phone screen POV)

• I remember just swiping right to the original “No Effects” screen
• Without hesitation, I swiped the screen to the left and selected “Particle Dissipation”.
• The phone was pointed at the street, and the picture suddenly stuck, no matter how hard I swiped to the left.
  (Real world)
• Everything stood still for a moment, like a movie on pause.
• I suddenly realized something was wrong (” What? ! Wait, delete?? !!” )
• Zoom out and change to a cosmic view of Earth, and the entire Earth disappears like a trash can.
• “Uh-oh”
• The end of the world seemed to be a click away from my fingertips.
  (End of film)

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VFX Highlights:

1. Interaction effect between reality and mobile phone (garbage can particles dissipate, ground flame).
2. The disaster level is upgraded (tornado).
3. Mobile phone UI design (clear special effects selection interface, error message pop-up).
4. First-person perspective (highly immersive, with a “handheld camera” shake).

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Thematic discussion

• The dangers of technology: What if phones could manipulate reality?
• Unintentional disasters: The destruction of the world is often the result of a seemingly innocuous decision.

Real Shooting Session

During the actual shooting process, I first planned the shooting method. I tried the plan of first directly opening the phone camera and then holding the action camera in my mouth to shoot, but I eventually gave up, mainly because the camera tracking didn’t work well. Later, I decided to improve my workflow by placing the part of my hand holding the mobile phone on the green screen for shooting. This would be much more convenient and controllable. Similarly, when shooting hand movements and mobile phones on a green screen, I also need to set the mobile phone to a blue screen to facilitate post-processing of the images.

VFX Production Stage

This time, I innovatively didn’t use the pyro system in houdini to create the flame. Instead, I used the axiom plugin to make the appearance of the flame. The reason for doing this is also because I wanted to create a more realistic flame.