NAME: STUDENT NUMBER:

Title:

Golden

Logline:

Every-man Adam Smith, lost and alone, at the end of his days discovers a way to turn back the
clock. Great! There’s just one thing he never saw coming. Himself.

Synopsis:

Meet Adam Smith. Your generic old man living in a rundown apartment in the heart of bustling
New York. The land of opportunities or so his parents used to say.

One day while browsing the inter-webs, Joe stumbles upon a pop-up for Smile’s Happy-go-lucky
time gel. Not having any plans to do anything else and out of sheer curiosity (it was a very well-
designed pop-up) Joe clicks the link. After some necessary house-keeping, Joe finds himself in
possession of a tube of yellow, sparkling liquid. Suspect, he thinks, or else this stuff wouldn’t be so
cheap till he tries it.

After weeks of abusing this new power Adam Eureka! into an epiphany. This was how he could fix
things! Get back what’s important! Except he can’t, and the reason… Well, the reason might just
be him. No. Really. It’s him, like literally. “Future” Adam is here to do what he can to make sure
our Adam gets his life back together the right way. Adam doesn’t believe that his plan won’t work
and decides to prove him wrong only to end up in a worst situation than Future Adam. Together the
two Adams try to get things back to how they should be. In the movie both Adams deal with
thoughts of their entire endeavor being pointless but for very different reasons. They have a falling
out halfway through the movie and then a moment of self-realization before the climax.

I would like the sets used for Adams room be a mixture of bright and dull. The walls would have
shades of vivid colors with light beams streaming through blinders. This sets the tone of the world
and Adams lackluster response to this stimulus would serve at an indication of his mental state.
The furnishing would be old to the point of being unusable, all except a brand-new television and
gaming rig, assembled from various different parts – not new but in good working order.
These would symbolize what he cares for at the start of the film. Also, very important in conveying
the differences of the characters are their respective versions of New York. Adam’s version would
be quite similar to the New York we’re used to just a little more futuristic whereas old Adams
would be more desolate and visually grayer. I’m using these variants to show how the characters
see the world around them and not as how the world actually is.
His apartment would also be littered and covered in dust. Somewhat in opposition would be Future
Adams apartment which would be a lot cleaner but the walls would be duller than Adams with the
blind’s drawn to not let the sun in. My intention with this is to show the contrast between the two
Adams. The younger one doesn’t notice how good the day is, all he wants is dopamine and
escapism. The older Adam hates that the sun is out. I want to show that while young Adam is
somewhat in a state of depression, old Adam is constantly agitated. He’s also more disciplined
which would show that he has a clear goal in mind. Old Joe’s clothes would also be different than
young Adams. They would suit people his age, button-up shirts and jeans. While young Adam
would wear sweatshirts and trousers often with stains. The use of darkness to symbolize mood
changes is also something I’d like to do, with the scene shifting, getting slightly darker as the
mood shifts and overall scene design being darker for scenes with old Joe than with young Adam.
The color of the gel will also differ from timeline to timeline to show importance. For young Adam
it’ll be this bright magical serum but for older Adam it will be a lot duller.

The locations used in the film would be the two Adams apartments, the unnamed female lead’s
apartment, a multitude of non-consequential sets for when young Adam decides to fiddle with time
and parks with obvious signs of nature. The infinitely more imaginative sets for the alternate
timelines. Also included would be multiple on-location shots of New York edited differently for
the two main timelines. The story would begin in fall which we’ll see when young Adam time
travels for the first time and ends at the start of spring with the two Adams talking it for one final
time on the same bench as the start of the movie. When old Adam and young Adam have a falling
out and they return to their own respective places, would be around winter.

Most of young Adams time travel shenanigans would be in montage for comedic purposes. The
time travel itself would be instantaneous with a zoom in to the character’s face and then a zoom
out. The non-subtle camera movement as opposed to everywhere else is intended to make the time
travel special with limited special effects. The alternative timeline created would each have their
own hue to differentiate them from each other while the main timeline, that is the one with young
Adam, would be mostly devoid of special effects except for the slightly futuristic city of New
York. And also New York of old Adams timeline as a way to further distinguish the characters
from one another while again emphasizing the point, again, that whatever old Adam did messed up
his own view of the world. Something else very important to be mentioned in FX is the designs of
the people in the timelines. Since it’s my intention to show the world through the characters’ eyes,
I would like the people in these other timelines to be slightly more disfigured or uncanny looking
than the people in the regular timeline. And also, can’t forget the most important bit of special
effect in the entire film, the vibrating gradient of colors for the time travel gel, which would shift
with the scenes.

Jack Black would be my main pick for the lead due to how effortlessly energetic all his past
characters have been. There’s also that he’s at the ideal age currently at the moment but it’s his
motif to do projects that involve absurdities at face level but can also tell a fun and thoughtful
story. For the female lead, I’d like to try Ruth Connell, the star of CW’s Supernatural. She has an
interest in the Sci-Fi genre and I think she’s be able to match Jack’s energy. Another reason to get
Jack for this is the musical score. Jack Black’s career as an acclaimed musician would help with
the film’s musical theme. While not entirely in charge of the film’s music I would want Jack to
provide input on the film’s music as I think his work has the sort of joviality I would like for this
project. There is a female lead though most of the introspection will be done through Adam and
Future Adam’s dialogues as a way to symbolize thinking things through. The ending, where Adam
fixes things with his family and Future Adam dispersal as a result, will obviously show losing parts
of oneself as one goes through life. The epilogue for the film will be Adam being in a difficult
position in the near future but this time we see him to be a lot more up to the task than he was at
the start

Using Science Fiction to tell this story is so that the audience, who I’ll assume are readers of Sci-
Fi, is immediately put at ease because they have an image in their minds on what sort of movie
they are watching, the addition of Jack Black also serves to cultivate this image, and so with good
writing it would be easier to leave them impressed. I would like to stress here again that this is a
movie for adolescents and not adults. The purpose to make this movie is to impart a lesson using
futuristic technologies as a means to that end and I believe Science Fiction does this the best.
The sound design of the entire feature would be subtle. There wouldn’t be a need for the score of
the movie to be over elaborate. Low rhythm melodies for the astonishing scenes of the movie, for
example when Adam uses the time travel gel for the first time. Both the characters would have
their own theme: older Adam would have something a bit faster paced though not something too
adventurous as it wouldn’t fit his character whereas the younger Adam would have something
closer to what I’d like to call fantasy music. For the more emotional moments I’d like him to have
instrumental flute music. Also, I’d prefer if we could all fantastical and mechanical background
sounds to the alternate timelines depending on what sounds better on what. In the more serious and
conversation heavy I’d like for there to be no music at all to emphasize that what’s being said then
is worth listening to. The city would also have a steampunk-sequel theme.
The intended audience is adolescent males interested in Science Fiction, while the official rating is
PG-13. The intention here is to use humor to convey one of life’s most important lessons:
accepting what’s done and moving forward, and you can rebuild no matter how unlikely it seems.
This movie would do decently as a summer action/adventure release on Netflix.