Objects in Mirror

Objects in Mirror is a story for the Covid-era, though it never name-drops the virus directly or even mentions the word pandemic. A limited cast of characters, and the seriously tight confines of their settings make this story both timely and potentially efficient to produce. Privileged, pill-popping, petty thief Andy, spends his days rummaging through his neighbor's medicine cabinets with a cheap disguise on. His pathetic existence is challenged, when he stumbles upon a chained up woman in one of his neighbor's apartments. Dealing with themes of justice, isolation, alienation and agency, this story is eerily relatable even in its most far-fetched moments.

Andy’s the twentysomething millennial version of Travis Bickle. He’s Holden Caulfeild ten years later, with a taste for opiates and a penchant for misappropriation. He’s an entitled narcissist with a hero-complex, and he’d be damned hard to root for if he wasn’t so dead set on springing Lily from her home-imprisonment - the first selfless act of his young adult life.

Lily works from home - the home she’s made with her fiance Steve, who seemed perfectly normal, perfectly lovable until an uncovered secret caused him to snap. She wakes one morning to a chain wrapped around her ankle and the other end secured to the radiator. Determined to free herself and start life anew, her budding friendship with Andy presents her with an opportunity for revenge.

The Filmmaking…
Designed to be executed on a micro-budget, the engine of Objects is the main character's unchecked inner monologue. Where Travis Bickle narrated his cab rides in Taxi Driver with nihilistic soliloquies, Andy’s stream of consciousness is delivered over montages of him raiding his neighbor’s medicine cabinets.

Between these montages, the story is largely made up of quiet, intimate two-person character moments. A series of easily producible tete-a-tetes that ground our characters in a sense of realism, in an otherwise surreal world. Propelling these darkly comic montages and quieter character moments, are action sequences grounded in the realities of a micro-budget production. Early on, we see Andy chased for several blocks by flashing blue and red lights, as a siren wails in the background all the while. The lack of an actual visualized cop car adds a sense of intensity and paranoia to a scene that capitalizes on low-budget thrills. When Andy finally decides to make good on his heroic dreams, it leads to a violent clash between two characters that takes place strictly within the confines of a bedroom.

The story ends by completely flipping the script. We spend the first two and a half acts within Andy’s demented mind - only for him to realize too late that this isn’t his story at all. But if Andy’s not the hero he thinks he is, is Steve still the villain? And what about Lily? Is she a classic Femme-fatale in the mold of 50’s Noirs, or something else entirely? Can anyone in this story be trusted? You’ll have to read Objects in Mirror to find out…

And please - watch the proof of concept short film here: https://www.mediumvibez.com/