For the Final Year Major project of my Bachelor Of Arts degree in Media Production, I always planned to make a narrative film of some kind. Despite the fact that I am also fond of documentaries and that there are a vast number of social issues that can, and in some cases need to be, explored in a huge amount of depth, I felt that drama was a field that suited me more. Not only because it arguably allows more creative freedom than making a documentary but also because scriptwriting and storytelling has been a passion of mine for a long time and making a drama film would allow me to bring a story from its initial conception to full realisation onscreen.

 

After several ideas for short dramas which I ultimately deemed unworkable, I settled on the concept that has now entered pre-production. Paradox is a short sci-fi drama about a 25-year-old physicist named Jeff Barrett whose research into quantum theory and the possibilities of time travel is slowly consuming his life.

 

At some point during Jeff's research, ​a second version of himself arrives from five years into the future. This Future Jeff has perfected the theories that Jeff is currently slaving over and used them to build a wrist-mounted time machine called a Time Vault. Future Jeff has journeyed into his past in an attempt to get Jeff to help him alter their personal timeline and avoid events that he has seen happen ten years into his own future. But can you really rewrite your own future after you've seen it laid out in front of you?

 

Despite it being science fiction and far beyond the realms of what anybody can realistically experience, I aim to use Paradox to take a deep look at the human condition and at what drives us, particularly our fear of our own mortality and refusal to accept what some would call destiny. Despite the plot being about time travel, Butterfly will delve into the all too human tendency to fight tooth and nail for control over own lives.

 

Over the next six months, this website will be continually updated with new material as production on Paradox progresses; with behind the scenes photos, concept art, preview clips and much more being made available so that you can get an in-depth look at just what goes into the making of a short sci-fi film.

 

James T. Cornish. September 2013.