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Remember Me by Anonymouse 05 - YA, Short, Drama - A woman afraid of being forgotten visits her husband in the hospital, who suffers from Alzheimer's. 6 pages - pdf, format
Athazagoraphobia - Fear of being forgotten or ignored and fear of forgetting.
"middle aged man" - How old is he? Only you know...tell us.
oK, I read it all, but it doesn't work at all for this challenge. Carrol with 2 "r's" does not have any phobia. Her hubby has Alz, he forgets stuff. Who wouldn't be upset?
Writing and story is "OK", but overall this goes nowhere and is a bore, sorry to say.
I like the way you did not spurt out the phobia in dialogue...that you showed it instead. Thank you!
I truly care about these characters. We can all relate to this type thing because we all have heard of it or had friends or family members come down with something like this...
You do a very good job at escalating the tension and conflict in the room. I think you can trim back Laura's dialogue in there a bit.
Love the moment when she was about to walk out and he says her name...
I think you should end it there... I think the Hallway scene you put at the end does not serve purpose. Everything else I love about this story. Touching.
Need a comma when addressing someone in dialogue. Sorry, misses Summers.
Some passive writing.
Quoted Text
LAURA (O.S) Next one? EVAN (O.S) Have I done good? LAURA (O.S) Yes, you did just fine. Now do you recognize this one? A long pause. EVAN (O.S) It’s a woman.
I'm a bit confused about what we are seeing at this point as all the dialogue is (O.S.).
This seems less like a phobia and more like a completely rational human reaction to a terrible disease, so I'm afraid it doesn't meet the criteria for me.
I think the decision to match a fear of being forgotten with Alzheimers is an inspired one.
Unfortunately, I don't think the story went far enough to make it interesting. Without knowing about the phobia, I wouldn't have been able to guess that's what it was and as such, it all felt like a little scene, a very standard scene about Alzheimers, rather than a fully developed story.
I think there is probably a much bigger, bolder story to tell based on the superb conflict you've created. A woman clinically terrified of being forgotten, on the verge of being forgotten by the one who loves her the most. What wouldn't she do to be remembered?
I think it would’ve been better if you had started inside the room and the wife does the test as opposed to the nurse. Then it’s revealed she shouldn’t be there by the nurse stumbling in on them. The focus is on those two and not the nurse.
Hope this helps,
Gabe
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I'd suggest reworking to shift the focus onto Carrol’s phobia. If I were watching this I’d be looking at it from the perspective of Evan’s alzheimer’s and not her Athazagoraphobia.
Is Carrol’s fear of being forgotten really so irrational when weighed against Evan’s alzheimer’s? For me it didn’t work as intended. I have to say, I think it's a hard sell to make us feel something for Carrol when Evan's condition is so much worse. It would take some skill to pull that off.
I could see this working with a darkly comic touch perhaps?
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Phobia - It's quite a stretch to call her fear of being forgotten a phobia. Her fear is just if one person forgets her. But you did get the RIP in so kudos.
Hmmm...I thought too that Evan might be faking? And didn't Carroll have a name badge on?
Ramp up the phobia, maybe have her talk about her mother getting Alzheimers and that she had already been forgotten. IDK.
There were a few little errors littered here and there.
I think for the challenged, Carrol's phobia really didn't come to light. She seemed more afraid of the Alzheimer's than of being forgotten. The whole story itself seemed about the Alzheimer's more than anything else. It's sweet and sad, but that's about it.
I don't think there is any thing more I can say that hasn't already been said. Good luck.
A great setup, just imagine being afraid of being forgotten and your partner has Alzheimer's? That's an inspired piece of thinking there.
What these OWC's seems to have lots touch with a bit is the utlra-low budget aspect which drew producers/directors to these forums, looking for work they can afford. Here's a perfect example of that! It's powerful, evocative and cheap! I can see this easily being produced.
You've got some genuine human drama going on there. And it's different, we haven't really seen anything like this. I've seen short films dealing with Alzheimer's in film festivals, but not with this angle. Sure it needs work, I think you can do more, research this fear in more depth for a start. But this is a fine beginning and I like how you got the RIP in.
Top marks, my favorite so far.
-Mark
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While the story was very short, simple and to the point, there needed to be more. I would have appreciated some research into what Alzheimer's disease actually is, and flesh that out a bit more. From what's written, it seems like Carrol is ignorant to what her husband is going through and is made that he simply doesn't remember her. In reality, there would be warning signs and any spouse would look into what's happening to their loved one.
I'm probably thinking a bit too much into it.
Lastly, a couple people here are mentioning that the phobia doesn't belong to Carrol. I remember in the main OWC thread it was mentioned that the MC didn't have to be the one with the phobia, but it had to directly effect them somehow, which this case, it does.
IMO, it didn't fulfil the requirements. The RIP was great. The Phobia, was not. She wasn't afraid of being forgotten, just of being forgotten by one person.
You know who has a phobia of being forgotten? Lex Luthor. When I see that phobia, I want that level of fear. A person who will go to any lengths to not be forgotten by humanity. What we had was one person who loved someone greatly and couldn't handle being forgotten by that person.
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My grandpa was diagnosed with Altzheimers. I stayed with him, when he got old. He'd come up to me and ask who I was and what I was doing in his house. I was twenty years old, so... I would just pinch him hard at that. And he would scream right away "Khamanna, stop it!" I never knew if he managed to fool us all with his disease.
Anyway, this woman doesn't want to be forgotten by her husband. I wish she was a bit more violent. She was but I want to see her bent the rules even further. Maybe even start a sex talk or something for him to remember her. It would make the piece edgier and more memorable. And I wish to see her have a problem with Laura. I mean - she already does but I want her mean side to really shine.
Nice short as is though still. Thanks for entering.
Your "working" title is not striking. You may want to stand out more and give us a more specific experience (perhaps a more interesting wording) before we even start reading/watching. Title is one of the, probably the most important hook there is in this industry. Raise expectations, show the "specific" personality of your story…
Here's the link for Remember Me exact title matches on imdb
bottom p4 Although I see where it goes later Carrol's behavior here, her accusation feels unreasoned and off-putting within the "live" - experience, which is all that counts.
Not sure why Evan "lives" in a hospital. As far as I know, these "patients" live in specific facilities…
The message (RE: last dialogue) isn't touching me. I get the point of a woman who does not accept her husband's hard fate, fears to be forgotten - but the execution then, how you approach it, should better be deep and complex.
Maybe her phobia of being forgotten by him is not properly established here. When you have no explanation for her behavior, it looks your characters are unreasoned and, in this specific field, where so many families on earth are confronted with this topic, it may feel insensible.
Writing is good and clean throughout. The concept has a lot of potential but imo the story must be completely rethought if you want to act around such a complicated and painful topic. Her phobia must be clear so that the viewer don't "wrongly" sense it as an unauthentic or rude worldview toward the whole subject (bottom p4). In a sense, there are no second chances; once the viewer thinks Carrol's aggressive accusations toward him are not justified, they simply turn off, no matter what you do later. A too hard topic for experiments… imo