🎥 Camera direction & framing (wide shots, close-ups, tracking, dolly moves, etc.) 🎚 Sound design cues (ambient tones, deep hums, glitch effects) ⏱ Timing markers so it paces for a 15-minute runtime 🎭 Performance notes for actors 🌌 Visual FX notes so a VFX supervisor could immediately start planning shots This will be the version you could hand directly to a director or storyboard artist and start pre-production. --- THE BOOK OF THE WORLD (15-Minute Short Film — Production Script) Written by: Charles York --- FADE IN: --- [0:00–0:45] INT. DIMLY LIT ARCHIVE – NIGHT CAMERA: Steadicam push-in through drifting dust motes. A faint metallic HUM vibrates in the air. Towering BOOKCASES stretch endlessly upward. CLOSE ON: A BLACK CRYSTAL embedded in a golden cover — THE BOOK OF THE WORLD. Symbols ripple across it, shifting like liquid code. NARRATOR (Dr. Sage) (calm, ancient) Before the first dawn, there was the Book. It did not tell the future... It wrote it. A SHADOWED HAND reaches toward the Book — stops, trembling, fingertips inches away. CUT TO BLACK. --- [0:45–2:00] INT. UNDERGROUND CITY – NIGHT CAMERA: Drone shot sweeping over a sprawling subterranean metropolis. Neon banners flicker between rusted steel beams. Vendors sell impossible goods — MEMORY VIALS, DREAM CRYSTALS, fragments of time glowing faintly. ORION (30s, sharp-eyed, haunted) pushes through the crowd. His COMM DEVICE buzzes. LYRA (20s, fierce) appears in flickering hologram. LYRA (urgent, quiet) They found it. Orion stops dead. ORION That’s impossible. The Book was lost before— LYRA It wasn’t lost. It was hidden. And someone’s rewriting it. SFX: A distant THUNDERCLAP that sounds half-electrical. --- [2:00–3:00] EXT. SURFACE – RUINED SKYLINE – NIGHT CAMERA: Crane shot rising to reveal Lyra on a shattered skyscraper rooftop. Above her — clouds spiral unnaturally, bending light into shimmering rings. ORION (V.O.) The Book doesn’t predict reality. It is reality. Change one line... change the world. A deep RUMBLE — the skyline shifts. Buildings vanish and are replaced instantly, as if copy-pasted from another timeline. Lyra meets Orion’s eyes. --- [3:00–4:30] INT. ARCHIVE – NIGHT CAMERA: Over-the-shoulder shot of THE SCRIBE, cloaked, before the Book. Glyphs reflect in his eyes. SCRIBE (soft, deliberate) Erase them. He writes in the air — glowing symbols burn into the Book’s pages. SFX: Crackling like paper burning in reverse. FAR AWAY — PEOPLE VANISH mid-step. --- [4:30–5:15] EXT. ALLEY – SAME TIME Lyra clutches a CHILD’S hand — the child flickers in and out of existence. LYRA (shaken) They’re rewriting now. Orion pulls a shard of crystal from his coat — glowing faintly. ORION This is the only thing he can’t touch. --- [5:15–7:00] INT. ARCHIVE CORRIDOR – NIGHT CAMERA: Tracking shot behind Orion and Lyra entering the Archive. Massive DOORS close behind them with a giant inhale sound. Walls shift like sliding puzzle pieces, corridors bending into dead ends. LYRA We’re running out of time. They split — Lyra toward the security hub, Orion toward the main chamber. --- [7:00–9:00] INT. MAIN CHAMBER – NIGHT The Scribe turns slowly as Orion enters. ORION You think you’re writing a better world, but all you’re doing is erasing choice. SCRIBE (cold) Choice is the disease. I’m curing it. He flips to a blank page. Orion begins to fade. --- [9:00–10:30] INT. SECURITY HUB – SAME TIME CAMERA: Close-up on Lyra’s hands flying across controls. Ancient symbols flood every screen. She SLAMS the crystal fragment into a slot. SFX: Deep resonance; screen glyphs invert colors and pulse. Orion’s fading halts. --- [10:30–12:00] INT. MAIN CHAMBER – NIGHT The Scribe glares at Lyra as she bursts in. SCRIBE (dark smile) You have no idea what’s coming. The Book’s pages FLIP violently. On the page: "The world ends in seven days." The ground QUAKES. --- [12:00–13:30] EXT. SURFACE – NIGHT VFX: The sky fractures like broken glass. Reality chunks rise upward into a swirling void. Orion grabs the Book — symbols leap from its cover into his skin, glowing hot. LYRA (horrified) Orion... what did you do? ORION (low, steady) I didn’t read it. I became it. --- [13:30–15:00] INT. ARCHIVE – CONTINUOUS The Scribe is ripped apart into glowing streams of code. The Book drops to the floor — EMPTY. CLOSE ON: Orion’s eyes glowing with shifting glyphs. ORION (V.O.) Now... the story writes itself. SMASH CUT TO BLACK TITLE CARD: TO BE CONTINUED... FADE OUT.