THE SETTING: AN OTHERWORDLY EXPERIMENT

COGNIZANT unfolds in a world not unlike our own, but a little... odd. As if a creature with little understanding of humanity had created an experiment modeled on a limited diet of 1940's Noir films.

This reality is more abstract than our own, and heavily influenced by Expressionist aesthetics. Cellphones exist, but they've evolved with an art deco aesthetic. Media travels on chunky videotapes. Baseball is still the national pastime.

Each room, each setting is meant to be explored, with details expanding upon the world and characters in every corner.

HOW TO READ THIS SCRIPT

I tried to adhere to basic screenplay formatting principles while adding elements specific to this project.

  • Read Top-to-Bottom, jumping between the four walls - just as your eyes will do in the experience room.
  • Each column represents one of the four walls that define the room. Thus if an action line or character's dialogue is in the "North Wall" column that event would be seen on the north wall (or screen). In this example BILLY and GRETA can be seen watching the sunrise on the east wall of the experience.
    		•

    North Wall

    East Wall

    South Wall

    West Wall
     

    A young couple stands by the window, wrapped in each other's arms while watching the sunrise: BILLY and GRETA.

    		    

    If a description crosses columns this action unfolds across multiple walls. If a line crosses all four columns it's either:

    • A universal description for the scene,
    • An omnidirectional Voice Over,
    • Or an optional Player interaction in the room (not on screen)

    ITEMS LISTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

    These are physical objects in the room that can be manipulated to influence the outcome of the story.

    EXPLORE

    This is all about discovery - mouse over any text, click on anything that seems interesting - you might uncover an unexpected part of the plot...

    CAST OF CHARACTERS

    GRETA a cocktail waitress and wannabe movie star. Despite her "girl-next-door" facade, Greta will do whatever it takes to grab fame or fortune.

    BILLY a disgraced baseball pitcher indebted to the scurrilous Fred. He's on path of self-destruction.

    JACK Police detective, part-time fixer for Fred, and Ava's lover. Jack thought he was in control, but he's trapped by his own web.

    AVA B-Movie Starlet. She married Fred under duress. Fame is passing her by and she's not too happy about it.

    FRED Entrepreneur, scumbag. He's accumulated power, money, and a resentful entourage.

    GUSTO THE SCIENTIST Rarely seen, he's maneuvering behind the scenes. What's his agenda?

    WE NEED YOUR HELP!

    This is not the finished product - this is a Work-In-Progress.

    I need to know what pages you visited and in which order. When you're done exploring, click the SHOW PATH link in the top right corner. PRINT the report and email a pdf of the report to ben@341.am.

    And please send any notes/comments/feedback to me at ben@341.am.