Countermeasure is a feature-length film screenplay written by Camden Collins. In a future world, Niopolis is a city where perfect replicas of humans called “Simulants” are commonplace. An AI uprising begins, leading governments to eliminate all Simulants as a countermeasure, but not all Simulants agree with the uprising. Ray is an orphan adult that lives with his 12-year-old sister, June, and requires a Simulant named Andy to help take care of the little girl while he provides. Upon facing the police sent to eliminate Andy, the three must find a way out of Niopolis to find a safe home where they can live together.
There are many amazing films and stories through several mediums that show a futuristic world and have themes of humanity, society, existence, and what makes somebody human. Many of these, such as the Blade Runner Franchise, Akira, Ex Machina, or Cyberpunk 2077 portray these worlds in a very R-Rated way, taking away the accessibility of that great storytelling from certain people. With Countermeasure, I wanted to tell a fresh story in a world as fascinating as those examples that can be enjoyed by teenagers and adults alike.
From working on several short films in the past, I have found the most excitement in the writing of such films. Making a story that hits upon many themes, deep characters, and a fantastical setting isn’t possible without a script. Taking my writing experience and taking it to the next step has me very excited for the future and optimistic that I will one day get the opportunity to have a film I write produced.
Brainstorming
Countermeasure started as an idea to tell a science fiction story that takes the perspective of a unique family caught in the crossfire of an AI uprising. To brainstorm, I isolated myself with pencil and paper to leave myself to my thoughts and notes I take. Spending several hours doing this allowed my ideas to pour out and mold the bulk of the story together. This is where I came up with the general arc of the story and how the characters would move and be moved by that arc as the story progressed. I also considered the target audience I was aiming for and smaller elements like names and terms that would be used throughout the film.
What is technically the very first draft of the story would be written at this phase of the project, coming up with a treatment, or summary of each act of the story. The treatment would work the general foundation for the screenplay itself. I originally decided the film’s title would be “Simulant” but a direct-to-streaming film of that name released in 2023. I eventually decided that “Countermeasure” would be a different title that also fits the story well.
Outlining
Outlining the story is a much deeper dig into the story than the treatment provides. I made an outline with over 200 sticky-notes, lining up every scene and assigning a particular color to each character to consider what they are all thinking and feeling in each scene. Noting the feelings and actions of each character in a given scene is a great way to keep tabs on everyone to make sure that they are never just standing around in a scene or fade away in one scene to appear in the next without reason.
Using sticky-notes allowed me to easily rearrange scenes and visualize the role that every character plays in the story as it moves along. That ability served as a great way to flesh out the story as much as I wanted so that I would be very prepared to write efficiently when it came to the first draft of the screenplay itself.
First Draft
I wrote the first full draft of Countermeasure over a few weeks, mostly focused on getting all the scenes and interactions I outlined onto paper. Completing the first draft at 50 pages was very gratifying, but there was definitely much more to do as I moved forward to rewriting it through new drafts. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules a feature-length film as one that is more than 40 minutes long, so if it were filmed, this draft could qualify if one page equates to one minute, but there was much rewriting and iterating to do moving forward.
(The opening scenes contained some alcohol usage and sexual reference, which I removed in later drafts, so those are redacted on the draft below.)
Second Draft
Upon reading through the first draft and taking many notes, I wanted to focus on fleshing out the side characters and making several of the scenes more meaningful. The biggest change was fleshing out the character Royce, a driver that helps the three main characters out of the city then betrays them in the third act. In the first draft, he is essentially a stranger Ray finds online, but having Royce show up at Ray’s workplace seemed to be a much better way to introduce him.
The opening scene of the film is different, establishing that this is a world with androids and showing the police working to eliminate them. I also added a scene where police visit the apartment a second time to raise tension and give Ray greater reason to hastily trust Royce as they moved on with his plan to emigrate. I also added a few quick scenes to the ending to be more profound and life-spanning, digging deeper into Andy’s status as a Simulant and her experiencing life. Each of these changes extended the draft to 62 pages.
(Some content is redacted once again, as this draft was focused on expanding the previous draft rather than removing unnecessary elements.)
Third Draft
I shared the second draft with several people for feedback, and got a greater understanding of the screenplay from those thoughts I received. For the third draft, I focused on addressing some of the concerns they had, as well as looking deeper into the smaller details that provide information or progression to the plot or characters. There were certain lines and moments that caught readers off guard or confused them, and I improved on some of those things with the third draft. This is also where I removed some sexual reference and alcohol usage in the opening scenes, to make sure it is a safe film for teenagers and general academic standards for BYU-Idaho.
Dialogue Pass
It is standard to do a pass solely focused on the dialogue of the film to make sure it sounds natural throughout and is necessary. Saying many of the lines or conversations out loud gives a different perspective than the one the writer might imagine, so I read out every line and made changes where necessary, shaping up the film into something that I’m really falling in love with.
Film Poster
Apart from writing, I do have more experience in communications through film, photography, and graphic design that I would make for good practice and give me more to present than just the text itself.
I started by sketching out several different ideas for a poster that represent the themes of the story and give potential audiences an impression of what the film contains. I drew 8 different versions.
After sketching out the potential posters, I also drew out potential designs for the title, Countermeasure, before going into Adobe software to put elements together.
I eventually decided on just having the title written out across one line instead of separating the words “counter” and “measure.” I went into illustrator and modified the font I used to give it a metallic look using gradients and drawing.
Once I had a title logo made, I mocked up a few of the poster designs using stock photos and hasty sketching to visualize the posters.
I used a Canon EOSR with a close-up lens filter to photograph my own eye to use for the poster to create it with the close-up on a robotic eye idea. I went into the video game Cyberpunk 2077 and used the photography mode available in that game to get a photo of a police officer with some futuristic elements. If I were to produce the film, I would definitely photograph an actor to use in the poster to avoid copyright infringement if applicable. For the motherboard texture on the retina, I used Adobe Stock to obtain it. I used Adobe Photoshop to combine all of the elements and modify the original photo to give more of a gritty feel.
Moving Forward
A screenplay is rarely ever “finished,” it just gets translated to film. Going on, I intend to continue iterating on the screenplay for this film, adding some new ideas that I have gotten to further flesh out the characters, story, and world, such as introducing a friend of June’s to add more conflict for emigrating. I am satisfied with the current draft and would say I have met my personal goals for this project.
Eventually, I will enter screenwriting competitions and pitch the screenplay to studios for the opportunity to have it produced. One competition that I will definitely enter into is the Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, which is hosted by the Academy for new screenwriters looking to get into the business and get considered by a lot of very prestigious directors and producers.
Going through the process of writing a feature-length screenplay is quite different than writing the shorter film projects I have in the past. It requires a much closer attention to characters and how small details contribute to the greater work as a whole. I am enthusiastic about moving forward and hope to make film something for the big screen to be enjoyed by people all around the world.