In English, we started our World Building unit, in which we develop a unique world and eventually write a full story treatment after 3 months. I chose to participate in two projects, an individual one and a group one. I plan to pursue this story on my own time and eventually produce a full written story, poems, visuals, and a 2D animation.
This is my individual story, Close Your Eyes.
please note this is an original idea and still an active work in progress. and please do not copy my work ;-;.. this project is my baby.
Logline
When a mundane office worker suddenly can no longer sleep, he struggles to continue his normal life while resisting his deteriorating psychosis.
Macro/Micro World Building
The physical environment is a well-developed urban city. It is very similar to urban cities in our current society. It is centered around office life, and slightly homogenous in that sense. These characteristics are heavily inspired by Japan’s office life stigma and the idea of how people are treated as a commodity.
The Element X is the protagonist’s chronic insomnia. Over time he starts hallucinating, and eventually the line between his hallucinations and reality is blurred. These are the factors that differentiate it from our current world.
The Protagonist
Calvin is an office worker in his early 30s. Like most other people his age, he started working since he graduated from college, and has lived a dull daily life ever since. He has a few friends that he messages occasionally, and doesn’t mind engaging in mindless small talk with his coworkers.
The antagonizing force is Calvin’s deteriorating mind. It’s an erratic, eccentric, unstable, unexpecting imagination.
Overview
Calvin lives in a well-developed urban city. The outskirts of the city are mostly residential apartments, and the center of the city is filled with skyscrapers of numerous corporate offices. The city is very dull and smoggy, and because of the lack of nature, from afar, the city looks like a sea of grey, bleached coral reefs. There are elevated speed trains connecting residential areas to the main city. Most people of working age take this train to work, and generally have similar daily lives centered around routine, as a demonstration of responsibility and duty.
The story starts with an alarm ringing, and Calvin wakes up on the third ring of the alarm. He gets ready for another day at work, and goes through all steps of his daily schedule. After returning from work and finishing his nightly routine, it is time for him to turn in for the night, but he could not fall asleep. Every night for the next twelve days, he cannot fall asleep, and he struggles to continue his normal life. The breakage in routine forces him to think and make his own decisions instead of absent-mindedly doing what he has always done. During sleepless nights, he goes outside into the city. He not only physically becomes more observant of his surroundings, but also becomes more sensitive towards his own thoughts and emotions. His insomnia spirals out of control and hallucinations worsen until Calvin cannot distinguish the boundaries between reality and his imagination.
Act 1
The phone alarm starts ringing, once, twice, on the third ring Calvin wakes up, gets out of bed and rearranges the sheets he just unraveled. He walks over to his ringing phone on his desk and silences the alarm. Calvin walks a few steps to the bathroom. He turns on the sink and watches water fill in his hands, and splashes his face and slowly drags his fingers down his slumped cheeks. He walks to the TV to turn on the news. He makes a simple breakfast, and eats as he listens to the newscaster ramble on about the usual things: economy, local crime, and delays in train lines. After he finishes eating, he brushes his teeth, fixes his bed hair, and changes into a white button down, black slacks, and black socks. He looks at his pile of black ties and chooses a random one. He tosses it around his neck, wraps one end around another, lifts it through the top and tugs it down gently. He grabs his bag and black overcoat as he puts on shoes and heads out the door. He takes the elevator down and walks out to the sky rail station, he arrives right on time; not too early that he is wasting time, and not too late that a space on the train isn’t guaranteed. He boards the train, and starts moving at 8:05am. He watches the mirage of concrete apartments become a glass city as the train rolls into the corporate center. He arrives at the station right outside of work at 8:25, he scans his card, and heads up the elevator. He sets down his bag and coat at his desk, and heads to the office kitchen to make coffee, and sits back down at 8:30.
The day trudges by, just like it did the day before; emails, work, meeting, work, lunch, work, and a bit of overtime to seem diligent. Calvin packs up and heads home the same way he came. Once he walks through his apartment door, he takes off his shoes and coat, and sets down his bag. He takes off his tie and loosens his shirt. He goes to wash his face then turn on the news, cook food, eat, and answer a few more emails. His friends ask in their group chat if they saw the news that morning, and several dry responses reply, and he sends his own. He takes a shower and gets ready for bed.
Calvin lies in bed with his eyes closed, patiently waiting to drift off into his nightly unconscious rest. After a while, Calvin realizes that he is unable to sleep, he checks the time and an hour has passed. While confused, he calmly gets up and drinks water and closes his eyes again. More time passes and he begins to grow annoyed, then frustrated. He regrettably checks the time again and more hours have passed. His frustration grows into confusion, then quickly panic. He questions what is happening and is not sure what to do. Thoughts flood his mind as he retraces his day to try to find where he went wrong. The time is now 5:00am and he decides to just close his eyes, and try to rest. Thoughts run feral in his empty head and keep him awake.
Calvin’s alarm starts ringing and he groans as he turns it off. He splashes his face with water and turns off the sink, only to turn it back on and quickly toss water on his face multiple times. He turns on the news and immediately tunes it out, there is a new person in his mind talking, asking himself what he is going to do. He decides to just stick to his normal routine as much as possible and hope for a better night’s sleep. Just like that he returns home, he doesn’t have much of an appetite, but forces himself to eat.
Calvin feels like there is a hole in his body that is collapsing in on itself.
Lillian CASAZZA Portfolio 