Original Treatment (unedited)

H@CKED - Written by Beth Kerry

When a young girl contacts a computer software company for help, Caleb realizes he took on a job more dangerous than he had imagined. Can he save himself and all of his secrets before time runs out?

Hacked is all about how our past always influences our future, we cannot escape or ignore our sins, and when it all comes down to it, are we willing to take away someone’s happiness to secure our own. The core concept is morality, or more specifically, how we balance our moral judgement with our self-preservation. Would we rather save ourselves from eternal damnation, or protect others and risk losing everything we have ever worked for?

Caleb is a 23-year-old well driven, successful software company owner from Manhattan who believes he has it all. A fiancé, a big house, all the friends he could ask for and a lot of hard earned cash; but something from his past has been haunting him for the past 4 years. In order for all of his problems to disappear and to become as successful as he is now, he was required to complete an illegal and dangerous job. 4 years ago, at the mere age of 19, there was a drive by that ended with 2 victims dead; a woman and her husband who owed a lot of money to Caleb’s older friend for unknown reasons. The prize was a lot of cash if Caleb could help complete this job. A year after the incident, Caleb’s software company is thriving, he is a very successful business owner, and he meets his Fiancé, Becca. Another 3 years later, everything in his life is going smoothly until a call is put out and there is a reported hack that only he has enough knowledge for. He meets a young girl, around the age of 18 called Arwen. She is a very wealthy and intelligent girl that goes to a prestigious school and lives with her aunt and uncle. She has an unknown addiction to class A drugs and if anyone were to find out then she can kiss her college fund and school goodbye, and face going to prison. She is very unsettled when Caleb arrives to the house and she makes it clear that no one can know that she called or find out she was hacked. There was never an explanation as to what was happening with the computer so Caleb just got to work. After 10 minutes and no luck, he noticed that the webcam light was glowing green so he tried to shut off the camera but it resisted. The screen starts pixelating and going static until the whole laptop goes silent and black. A chat box appears and typing begins, stating that they knew who Caleb was and all of his personal details like where he lives, where all of his family live and all of his bank details. He types back saying that he isn’t scared of whoever is behind the screen but soon finds out that this was a huge mistake. Videos and picture of the drive by start playing alongside a graph showing all of this money being drained from his bank account. Arwen apologises while crying hysterically and said she didn’t know what else to do but pass it on otherwise her life would have been sabotaged and all of her secrets would have be leaked. A timer starts at 3 minutes and slowly starts counting down, a voice emerges from the computer and says that he has 3 minutes to decide; save himself, his money and keep the secret away from his family, or have his secret told to the world and be hunted by the people that have wanted him dead since the drive by. To save himself, he needs to send this virus on to someone that will remain anonymous to him by pressing a simple virtual red button before the timer runs out. Caleb voices out a big sigh, tightly closes his eyes and everything goes black. (Fades to black and film ends)

I have recently started watching Black Mirror (2011 – present) which is now a very successful Netflix series, and one episode stuck out to me in particular. The episode called Shut Up and Dance is part of the third season and is all about balancing our morals with self-preservation. Another film I watched called The Box (2009) also plays with the same concept. I’ve took influence from both of these films to make this original idea for a five-minute short film. The Box is about taking the life of an anonymous person in order to gain money and happiness, but it all comes right back to haunt them and they caused themselves to live a sad and awful life they also unknowingly forced on another family. Same goes for Shut Up and dance, in order for the teenager to save his secrets, he has to follow instructions and put other people’s lives in danger in order to preserve his own, little does he know that other people are also playing the same game and are fully against him. Even after playing by the rules and finishing his last command, his secret becomes public, alongside everyone else’s. I want this film to follow a three act structure and be non-linear as it will include a flashback. I want it to feel very eerie and dark, and also create a lot of tension and want the viewers to think about what they would do if they were in the same situation. I want it to bring forward the issue of how money and morality can interfere with each other and take control of people’s lives, using close ups and low angle shots throughout to help the characters become more relatable and so the audience can sympathise with them. In the movie Taken (2008), all shots are kept at close range and low angle, for example, when the daughter is hiding under the bed, they use a close up, low angled shot so when she is dragged away, you can feel like you are in her position and about to be taken yourself. Non diegetic sound will play a big part in making this film and to also create tension and worry, such as voices on the opposite side of a phone call or the music that is being slowly played in the background. The setting of the film will take place in very enclosed and claustrophobic rooms with low key lighting and a possible wash of red tone to create a mood and feeling of danger, hatred and risk taking.

Looking back on writing this treatment, it has made me realise what kind of vision I usually have for when I am brainstorming my film ideas. I usually take more of psychological and dark turn rather than the typical linear structured film. It’s helped me also realise that I can grow small ideas into something I didn’t think I was possible to do and I now know that I can really impress myself with how much of a creative drive I have when I am doing something I am passionate about. I never would have thought that I could think of an impressive storyline to fit into a 5-minute film because I always go into a lot of detail, but I have managed to find a way around that which is to spend enough time on figuring out the plot and all the small details, but incorporating them into the film in more abstract way so the audience isn’t told directly, but can still figure it out by themselves, or even leave it up for interpretation. Characters and their traits are also a huge part of a plot and story and without a main protagonist or even multiple protagonists with strong attributes and a strong personality the audience would never connect with the film as much and wouldn’t get as much out of it. Upon learning all of this about character and story development from my own work on this treatment, I never would have had the tools and knowledge to directly go and create something I could be proud of that has as much detail as what I have gone through for this 5-minute film idea. From developing this project further, I could delve deeper into the characters that we don’t meet in great detail like Arwen. Part of my plan was that she lives with her aunt and uncle which is stated above, but I wouldn’t have enough screen time to explain that the reason for that is the protagonist, Caleb, murdered her parents in the drive by. I would want to go into greater detail about how all of the people in this story are somehow connected and whatever they choose do, it will come back to them eventually. All of this extra development on the storyline and characters would give me more experience for future projects. Overall, this is a pretty high budget film I imagine if I wanted it to be created the way I have envisioned it. I would need to find people that match the way I see the characters to look and act and I would need the right sets and imagery to create the right mood also. If I am able to find sets where I can already access, and find actors who would be willing to participate for just the experience without needing to spend money, then I think this project is very do-able with the right imagination and patience.

Written by Beth Kerry