Gone
A teenage boy flees the family farm after suffering abuse from his alcoholic father.

The talented screenwriting team of Mary Goldman and Tim House bring us the touching short drama, Gone. As the script opens, teen Louie slinks into the family kitchen. Almost instantly, his Ma and younger brother Henry notice something’s… wrong.

When Louie asks where his Pa is, the tension in the air thickens. Ma herself is particularly keen to figure out the source of Louie’s discomfort before his father arrives home.

Louie’s lost the family dog, Lady. His confession is interrupted by the entrance of Pa – whose stern demeanour and drunken tendencies don’t help the situation or news.

Louie removes his jacket. Hangs it on a hook. His movements slow and deliberate. Ma knows her boy. She notices.

MA
What's eatin' you?

LOUIE
Aw...Lady run off agin.

HENRY
You're gonna git it now!

MA
You mind yer own business, Henry.
Fer Chrissakes, Louie. Didn't Pa tell ya to keep her chained?

LOUIE
Yeah, I know...but she saw a squirrel...she just got away.

MA
(sighs)
Now there's gonna be hell to—

PA (mid-30s, tall, weathered) enters with a stern expression. The family freezes.

PA
Where the hell is Lady?

Ma remains silent. Louie looks at the floor.

MA
Now, Earl...

PA
Jesus, Louie. I done told you that bitch is untrainable.
How stupid can you be?

Quickly, the family dynamics become all too clear.

Pa’s that all oppressing force upon the household. And when he has a drink in him, his temper and brooding grows. That’s a danger Louie and his family know very well.

Later that night, a fireside conversation with his father is the catalyst for Louie to finally question his position within the household. Still: it’s one thing to want to escape an abuser, and yet another to actually see it through.

Will Louie pluck up the courage and confidence to flee the farm he’s called home all his life?

Family dramas that revolve around alcohol and abuse can easily fall into common tropes. But when genuine relationships are weaved into a tale, stories that cover such tender topics have the power to strike emotional gold. Such is the case with Gone. In every page, the threat of Pa feels real and imminent. Thanks to the easily obtained and affordable settings, Gone’s an indie producer’s dream, too.

If you’re looking for a drama to showcase terrific directing and acting – this powerhouse little script makes all the right moves!

New Age Enema
A jealous friend gets her wish.

With a title that grabs attention, and a page count that hides a surprisingly deep theme, author J. Phillip Wilkins has created a great short screenplay in New Age Enema that’s sure to grab fans. Giggles, too.

Struggling actresses Stella and Josie stand at the entrance of a San Francisco cable car, discussing the latter’s recent success in acquiring a role in a high profile film. As the cable car drives onwards, tension rises between the two.

Stella finds her friend’s sudden success suspicious. Upon hearing some of Josie's questionable past film roles, most readers will too. As Josie defends her acting record, Stella spots her friend's possible source of good luck dangling around her neck.

STELLA
You’ve never even had a callback.
You suck at acting.

JOSIE
First of all, you’re a dumb whore for saying that,
and secondly, I am not bad at acting.

STELLA
I’ve seen “Terror Vixens In Heat”.

JOSIE
They didn’t give me time to create a backstory.

STELLA
Did you have the same problem
on the set of “Mega Snatch”?

JOSIE
Fuck you.

The cable car hits a bump. Josie takes her hand away from her chest to grab a strap to steady herself. Stella notices a beautiful, new-age crystal pendant hanging from a delicate silver chain around Josie’s neck. She reaches for it.

STELLA
Let me see your crystal.

Josie jerks away. Stepping back, her heel hangs off the edge of the exit steps.  Almost instantly, the situation escalates – with Josie hanging from the edge of the moving cable car, off balance - albeit within reach of her BFF.

What ultimately will Stella value more? Josie – or a mysterious crystal that could “maybe” grant her celebrity status and riches? Download New Age Enema to find out.

Size is rarely important, and not all short screenplays need a large page count to be a success. With its witty tone and a style of writing easy on the eye, Wilkins gives us a spiffy two page comedy/fantasy that explores a universal theme: friendship fractured by jealousy.

If you’re a producer with an eye for comedy in bite sized chunks, New Age Enema is a fast and fulfilling read!

Control
Filip, a young officer working as a Control Officer in a future dominated by Scientism,
must arrest those based on their emotions, but the toll of the job leads to unexpected consequences.

Author Alexander Taylor brings us Control, a futuristic script set in Bratislava that envisions an ever present police state where human emotion is suppressed due to the Scientism movement.

Part of the police force who enforce these draconian measures are two brothers, Filip and Havel.

Society, now dominated by Scientism and a belief in computerised machinery, has been enveloped by technology - and it is this that the police use to spy upon the public.

Our central protagonist, Filip, understands the ills of what he’s employed to enforce: a sentiment that lies directly counter to those of Havel, who enacts his job with unrelenting brutality.

The two brothers conduct raids on houses where the unsuspecting residents have let their emotions be shown: these unfortunate members of society are beaten down by the movement both brothers represent.

Havel checks the information on a tablet. A blue, hazy light fills the damp and dark room.
He waves to two of his men, who move forward and open a briefcase.

HAVEL
We have received numerous reports concerning suspicious activity
conducted on these premises. Section 102 District Code states any report
with regards to emotional fluctuation must be investigated.
Do you understand why we are here today, sir?

JONAS KOSTROVA
(Unconvincingly)
No.

HAVEL
Emotional fluctuation may include laughter, temper, lachrymation...

Iva lets out a sob. This alarms the room.

HAVEL
A.k.a. Crying.

She covers her mouth with one hand whilst bowing her head. It is not enough, and has caught the attention of the room.

JONAS KOSTROVA
My wife. She is sick. Iva. She is not well. For days...

The talking continues, but becomes background noise.

Our focus returns to Filip, whose forehead now bleeds sweat. His eyes dart back from the sad couple to the commanding officer, Havel.

From there, we follow Filip’s journey as he questions his actions and the motivations of those around him. Will he fight against a system he does not ultimately believe in, and his brother - sworn to enforce it no matter what?

Many readers will find Control’s message and relevance painfully current. We now live in a time where personal surveillance of our own behavioural patterns are studied by governments and companies through social media and beyond. With overtones of both 1984 and Minority Report, Taylor brings us a script that depicts a dystopian future: one that comments profoundly on society now.

If you're a producer or director looking to bring to life a short screenplay that will hit audiences hard, making them question even their own surroundings… then Control is a must read. "Control" this story - by bringing it to life!

Clear Win
A young man and a young woman battle over the last bottle of vodka.
Pride is at stake on both sides, but is there a greater win to be had?

Not all romantic stories about opposites attracting can be ‘When Harry Met Sally’ or ‘Pretty Woman’. You don’t always have New York in the fall as a wonderful backdrop or get a knight in shining armor to sweep you off the streets of LA into a new life of lavish gifts and polo matches.

Occasionally, you might just happen to meet someone while you’re off running a mundane errand, such as buying some booze. Even then, your initial chitchat may not be laced with crackling innuendo. Instead, it might be riddled with acerbic aspersions.

But then the unexpected happens; you stumble upon a commonality, a shared belief, an empathetic moment… and everything changes. Love is in the air and the erstwhile adversaries become a future twosome.

Such is the way with Fiona Faith Ross’ lighthearted and romantic tale; ‘Clear Win’. In this instance a  ‘her’ and a ‘him’ find themselves at odds in a convenience store as they aggressively fight for control over the store’s last bottle of cheap vodka.

HER
I saw it first.

HIM
Bollocks.

HER
Don’t you swear at me. I’ll have you arrested.

HIM
For not giving you your own way?

Both dig in their heels. Neither willing to give an inch to the other in an epic battle of ‘who gets to go home and get shitfaced on cheap-ass vodka’.

They each make a rather lame attempt to justify why one of them deserves the bottle over the other. Failing this, ‘Her’ uses her feminine charms to subtly disarm ‘Him’ to the extent he loosens his grip on the bottle. Using the moment to Her advantage, the woman successfully snatches the bottle away from ‘Him’.

But he won’t go that easily into the night. The young man clamps his hand around the bottle again. At this point, the young woman decides she has had enough of the games.

HER
Have it then, jerk.

Instead of wallowing in his victory, ‘Him’ stumbles over ‘Her’s’ shopping basket and lands on the floor with a thud. But not before smashing the prized bottle of vodka. Which inevitably leads to additional bickering over who should now cover the cost of the shattered bottle.

However, as they make their way to the check out, their squabbling segues into a fleeting détente as the truth about why they are at the store, and what they had intended to use the vodka for emerges… eliciting a brief moment of empathy and mutual curiosity between the young ‘Him’ and ‘Her’.

Love often seems to find us in the strangest of places. And not every first exchange will inspire an enchanting Shakespearean sonnet. Sometimes the first words we say to someone is the anthesis of how we’ll eventually feel about them.

Which is why this delightful short screenplay by Fiona Faith Ross is such a playful morsel of flirtatious whimsy. An excellent opportunity for a new filmmaker looking for a simple, yet captivating project in which to showcase their budding creative dexterity.