“Stand Down” Week 17 – Don’t Stay Here

We open on a wide shot of Zain’s cell. Zain looks almost small, sat with his back on the far wall. Reaching up, he grips one of the crystal plates protecting his neck. It crumbles at his touch. He doesn’t react as a voice fills the room. ECHOING ALIEN: I sorely hope that you don’t

“Stand Down” Week 16 – If I Let Him In, Part 3

We begin in the hallway just outside of Jordan’s cell. Sitting in front of its closed, metal door on a wheel-bottomed armchair is Agent Samuel, the very same that had earlier interviewed Scott. At each far side of the hallway, positioned just behind the corners of where it turns out of view, are a total

“Stand Down” Week 15 – If I Let Him In, Part 2

Open to the wide-open vacuum of space; stars glimmer in the all-encompassing blackness and earth is silhouetted against the sun at the shot’s center. Scott can be heard speaking over the scene’s events as a massive cloaked figure can be seen to rise from behind the solar body. Few if any of its features can

“Stand Down” Week 14 – If I Let Him In, Part 1

In the hallway just outside the test observer’s room (which Zain is currently being held), we see a man in a blue, sleeveless shirt mopping the floor. He stops for a moment, putting his weight on the broom as he fails to restrain a fit of dry coughing. Moving into the test observation room just

“Stand Down” Week 13 – Holy Diver

The scene opens on Zain, still in his cell. Still, he is garbed in the same orange jumpsuit and head-wrappings. He is laid in the room’s bed, though his eyes hang open. In the scene’s bottom left, text fades in reading: “Three more days pass…” There is a sound of rushing air as the room’s

“Stand Down” Week 12 – Two Birds

A line of text at the screen’s bottom-left reads “four days later”. Jordan is sat on the floor of a gymnasium-sized room, its walls, floor and hangar-reminiscent ceiling all formed of a grey iron. He’s wearing a zip-up orange jumpsuit and looking towards a torso-height recession in the wall, next to a metal door labelled

“Stand Down” Week 11 – I Lost Something in the Hills

Change scenes to Angosin, standing next to the priest in the church’s foyer. His back is to the wall, where the priest is holding a measuring tape next to him, measuring his height. ANGOSIN: What’s this all for, father? The priest gives Angosin an optimistic smile. This, Angosin does not return.  PRIEST: It’s as I

“Stand Down” Week 10 – In This Cold Place

Jordan has returned to the pitch-black space, and is standing in the center of its arena. Everything has changed, however. The arena’s edges are melted, a minute amount of smoke rising from the dark-red liquid strewn about it. The crowd, their voices ever-present before, is now either silent or completely absent.  Jordan looks behind him,

“Stand Down” Week 9 – Take Me Home, Country Roads

Begin shot with a close-up on Zain’s left eye, the crystal masking it seemingly having been removed. In the background, the quiet rumbling of a running car can be heard. The minute sound of a switch being flipped is heard, and a small shaft of light is placed on Zain’s face, centered on the eye.

“Stand Down” Week 8 – Ajoura

Jordan removes his hand from over his mouth, fully unveiling the confusion on his face as he looks down at the broken, cooked figure, face-down in the sparking mass of metal and wires that was once half an electrical box. There is a long period of near-silence, where the only sounds were of the boys